{Image from Ramberg Media Images on flickr}
I believe in the value of helping others. I started off my adult life as a social worker, so it should come as no surprise that I think it’s important to help others when they’re in need. Each day, I try to spend some time on the Etsy forums helping other sellers, not because I want something in return, but because it gives me pleasure.
I never really thought about the power of reciprocity when it comes to business success until I started reading, Success Secrets of the Social Media Marketing Superstars by Mitch Meyerson {which I highly recommend}. In chapter two, Brian Clark, the founder of Copyblogger delves into the importance of reciprocity saying, “You should give, give, give and your profits will explode.”
It’s only natural that people who give get good things in return. Should you start giving just because you want to make tons of money? Absolutely not. If you only give to others for that reason, it won’t be fun and you’ll expect too much in return. You should give, because you want to or it’ll seem forced. If you’re stuck on ideas for how to put this into action, I’ve got 8 ideas for you:
1. Spend 20 minutes in a forum helping other creative women who’re looking for guidance.
2. Write a blog post giving away some of your best selling and marketing tips.
3. Link to other blog posts that you think will benefit your readers.
4. Retweet tweets that will benefit your followers.
5. Promote another creative woman’s art on your blog, and send her an email letting her know about it. But don’t ask for anything in return.
6. Send a freebie with your next 10 orders.
7. Offer free shipping to repeat customers.
8. Offer a free tutorial on your blog on basic techniques that you’ve mastered. For instance, if you’re a mixed media artist, you could put up tutorials on how to make different mixed media backgrounds.
Pick one of the things from the list above, and try it out. Got other ideas? Leave a comment. Let’s help each other out!
Hey, thanks for the great post. Honestly, about three months ago I started using the internet and there is so much junk out there. I appreciate that you put excellent content out that is clear and well-written. Good luck and thanks for the great tips.
What I do, is refund any shipping funds that are more than one dollar more than I actually need to ship the item(s) and I happily combine shipping as well.
That’s definitely a good way to build trust with your customers, because they know that if the shipping doesn’t cost that much, you’re not just pocketing the extra money. It shows that you care and are trying to give your customers exactly what they pay for.