Monday, March 27, 2006

Creative thinking for eBay


Are you creative ? Do you use the creative part of your brain ? Scientists tell us that the average man or woman fails to utilise their inbuilt creative potential.

Our world , they say, would be a much more enthralling place to live if we would only tap into our potential . How many Rembrandts and Mozarts have lived and died without ever realising their creative potential? Men and women who have never been encouraged to hold a paint brush or play a few notes on an instrument . Or how much more technologically advanced would we have been if only we had fully realised our creative potential ?

When it comes to eBay then , how do we utilise the creative element of our brains . How will our sales be influenced by our creativity ?

I came across this group of ladies the other day , whose creativity in marketing their product has led to a rapid growth in their business . It may not be an eBay business but we can still learn much from them .

They are in the Taxi business .Nothing unusual about that you might say but the element that sets them apart is that they only have women taxi drivers and only offer taxi rides to women .They offer women a sense of security. Women driving women late at night, free from the concerns about a male driver dropping off an often vulnerable female passenger .

The creative element of this business is their marketing strategy .They are called " Pink Ladies" and they drive around in strikingly pink cabs with pink leather upholstery .They have taken a simple idea and made sure that their brand appeals to their market ...women

For eBay we have a product to sell , we have a targetted customer to sell it to and if we are to reach that customer then we need to spend time thinking creatively about the kind of copy that will attract the buyer .

What is special about my product ?
Why should the customer buy from me and not somebody else ?
How will my product enhance my customers life ?


The answers to those three questions will help you to write creatively targetted copy(listings) that will appeal to your customers desires.

The Pink Ladies have done that with their taxi business and I believe by spending a few more moments thinking creatively about our listing then we too can increase our chances of selling our listings for much higher returns .

For help with tapping into your creative marketing potential ..then take a look at the wikipedia article on creativity and try out a few of the links at the end of the article ..here is an example of one of the links ..

Go on be creative ...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rob, I just got this e-mail from Lisa Suttora of eBay...it seems to fit in nicely with this blog. You're so good at doing these blogs, and you seem to have so many interests, I'll bet this could work for you!

"
Today we are going to talk about a product you can sell on eBay that requires no inventory and no shipping!

Digital products such as an ebook are a great way to start generating a stream of income on eBay.

For those of you who are not familiar with eBooks, an eBook is a book that is created in a Word Processor such as Microsoft Word, and then turned into "book"
format using either an eBook creation program or Adobe Acrobat.

An eBook requires a one time investment of your time to create it and since it is a file on your computer, can be delivered immediately to your customers over the internet.

After your initial creation there is no overhead and no shipping costs.

New York Times best selling author Robert G. Allen says that we all have at least one Best Selling Book in us.

Most people have several potential eBooks in them!

The key to having a hot selling eBook on eBay is all in your subject matter.

The narrower the niche of your subject, the better you will do with the book.

Right now there are hundreds of "make money fast" or "loose 95 pounds in 10 days" ebooks selling for under $1 on eBay.

This is NOT the market that you want to get into!

Books on a specific narrow subject, for example,
101 Golf Techniques or How to Keep Your 1965 VW Running Smoothly attract an audience of specific committed buyers who are willing to pay for information on their hobby!

If you have a career or an interest in which you have years of experience or expertise, that is all the better when creating your digital product to sell on eBay.

The tax accountant that specializes in home based business taxes will do very well with a book titled "10 Ways for New Home Based Business to Organize Their Taxes".

The person who has spent years perfecting Organic gardening techniques for growing fruits and veggies in the city could write a hugely successful eBook!

There is an eBook on CD that has been selling for
$17 about How to Make Great Money with Bagpipes.

Now you may be intrigued by the idea of an eBook, but feel that you don't know how to write.
No problem! The best eBooks are written in a conversational manner, just as if you were talking to a friend.

Remember the last time you explained to your friend how you grew this new type of organic squash? Take those words and write them down!

eBooks that are easy to read, easy to understand and with strategies that people can quickly implement are what people are looking for.

The thing people love most about eBooks is that they can access them immediately. However, eBooks sold in CD format (which requires minimal shipping costs) sell very well too.

The best part about this idea is that you can give it a try with little or no money invested, and only a short amount of time!"

Rob. said...

Thanks Linda

My problem is the 24 hour clock ..not enough hours in the day

But I must admit ...you have made me think about the opportunity ..

Thanks

Rob