Lessons
Introduction to Workshop
05:21 2Hear First Hand From a Retailer w/ Julie O'Brien
26:22 3Where To Start With Your Mailing List
05:55 4How to Capture And Organize Your Contacts
09:53 5Mailing List Resources
06:18 6How to Reach Retailers
06:33 7When to Reach Retailers
12:58 8Make it Easy For a Buyer to Buy
08:23Lesson Info
How to Reach Retailers
I really want to encourage you, teo. This sounds like a military attack, but I want you to attack it from all sides like you want, tio julie mentioned, and I'm a firm believer that snail mail is a really great option for your initial outreach. E mails, another great option, a personalized email that you sent directly to them. Email blasts are another form of outreach. Social media is a great place to connect and have a more like informal relationship there. Although you again, you never want to use that as a platform for pitching in person appointments on ly if they're approved ahead of time, and only if you've discussed that with them, but in person appointments and cold calling their, they're generally not recommended, but I do include them because some people do include them in their outreach, but I wanted tio. We're going to go into more email stuff in a few minutes, so I wanted to show you a few direct mail pieces the people have sent and point out a few excuse me, the benefits of...
them so. On the screen in a minute, you'll see one of my mailers that I use this is actually a treasure related piece. I was announcing thirty new patterns and some of my more masculine new products that I was launching at this trade show, and so this piece it was just a postcard p well, this one actually fit into an envelope, and I sent it out ahead of time, but I also had a similar one that was a postcard size that was glassy and included a lot of photos. Now, as julie mentioned, photos go a really long way and showcasing your product when you're doing dealings. So if you can find a way to put them on postcards or just to capture other images that you, you're going to articulate the value and the benefits to your product. Um, so this is just one example of the front of it on the back, it had some basic information again, this was specific to a trade show, mailer, but it talked about, you know, the types of products that I offer, um, you know, they're for girls and guys, I was really pushing my masculine line because there was a little bit of a little bit of a lack of products on the market aimed towards men, and so my masculine cards were really selling well. My cards one hundred percent recite gold and I was telling them where they can look at him they can check him out on my website and I made my contact information really prevalent so they could contact me to place an order or to get more information now you know you could also in this case what I should have included here is maybe a link to my catalogue at the bottom or a um a quick link like a bit ling link a shortened linked oh thank you so that was one way I could improve it but what I really wanted to point out on this mailer was the photos using product photos is a really great way to make your mailer stand out so if I were to do this again I probably went abuses many images as I did hear maybe have one the hero but again it's it's a good way to show that I've got patterns and I've got these different products so that's when I wanted to show you there um and really that's applicable to anybody at any time it doesn't have to be sure related if you're if you've just taken you product images you know include that on a postcard or something so this is another one that show related but I think this could be a really great introductory piece is well this is from sam kramer from near modern disaster she is one of my test see alums and this again could be applied to any product category is just a simple folded card it's very on brand for her you could have a really fun message on the front andi if you depending on when you're going to send this meal or you could really taylor um what you were going tio I get it you could tailor your message on the front to be whatever the occasions were trying to pitch or whatever new products you know really tailor a message on the front but what I wanted to show you was inside here and this is she included two samples because she is an industry in a place where samples are relatively inexpensive to share but if you to pull these off and you don't have samples attached that's a really great place to put some product photos on the inside too so that you can really articulate what you're selling king and people can see it if you are able if you're in like an industry where you can't attach some samples awesome but these my point with these are that these air smaller pieces but they make a big impact these into a regular size envelope but the postage is pretty minimal especially for the postcard style this might be a little more hefty just because she has samples in it but you know again they spin to a regular mailer they're not very expensive to produce and they can really go a long way now if you are including with other direct mail pieces I always recommend you send your catalog typically along with one of these types of mailers or include a handwritten note that just kind of goes to the introductory text that explains who you are and wire target you know why you're reaching out and what kind of products you sell kind of focusing on again, adding value and providing them with the information they need to purchase. Okay, so again, you want to keep notes on your mailing list about what you said to retailers and whether or not you receive a response. So if I sent this just talking about direct mail pieces if I sent this out and I got an email back or they called in place in order, I would want to note that in my mailing list just because then I could kind of see some of the response ary and whether there was a return on my investment. This is also particularly helpful with glass where you can see the click throughs and the open raids in your male chimp or a weber one of those systems that you using but even your personal e mails when you reach out to them just for your initial introduction, if they respond or if they don't respond or whatever feedback you get, keep in mind any little bit of information is going to help you in the features who capture that and make sure it's on your mailing list. Okay, so we've talked about email blasts and email service providers. I wanted to tell you a few that most people are using, so you've got some hard core resources to go investigate later. Male chimp is really great there's, low cost it's, actually free up to certain number of contacts. So a lot of people are using that a weber constant contact. Those are a little more corporate on dh convert kit is, ah, higher level. If you're starting to do more, you know, landing pages for projects instead, I don't think convert kids is much of a necessity for product based industries, but it is an option to that offers a blast services.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with RSVP
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Tracy Clarke
Before watching this class, I had been trying to compose emails to reach out to some retailers. I'm glad I held off and watched this first. It was so great to hear the inside scoop on how retailers want to be approached, seeing a sample letter and learning the etiquette on following up after the initial reach out. Now I feel confident about taking my business into this next stage.
Samantha Venator
This was such an awesome course, I watched the whole thing in one sitting. Katie answered all the questions I had and even answered some I didn't know I had when I started the course. It's super affordable and definitely worth the money. Plus the little workbook you get sums everything up nicely.
Katy Casey
This class was amazing and Katie shares so many great insights and actionable, specific tips. It was great to also get to hear directly from a retailer as well!