Question

Topic: Strategy

Social Media Strategy For Ecommerce Packaging Stor

Posted by Anonymous on 2/4/2009 at 9:19 AM ET 302 Points
Hi,

My company sells packaging (gift bags, boxes, ribbon, tissue, etc.) to small retailers, home businesses and consumers via an ecommerce store (retailpackaging(dot)com), paper catalog and call center.

OBJECTIVES:

We'd like to get involved with social media.

This is what we'd like to achieve through our social media efforts:

- More internal links (both to content we create, and deep links to products).

- Increase the perception among potential retail/home businesses that we're a company that cares about them.

- Build loyalty with existing small retail customers. Getting them to return to our website for the content and potentially make repeat purchases.

WHERE WE'RE AT:

We've been mostly listening, reading industry and customer blogs while sporadically commenting on a few blogs and posting in related forums.

The next step from here is content creation. We're hesitant to jump right into starting a blog without a content strategy, although I'm sure we'd learn as we go.

Some alternative ideas we've floated are:

- Interviewing, writing stories about our existing customers and promoting this content.

- We don't heavily promote the fact that we donate a portion of sales of green products to Conservation International. Perhaps with each green sale an account earns green credits, when they reach a threshold they're offered to display a green credibility badge/widget on their website.

That where we're at. I thought I'd post our situation to gather additional ideas, guidance or words of encouragement.

Cheers,

Jesse
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Harry Hallman on 2/4/2009 at 10:44 AM Accepted
    I think you are on the right track. Social media networking is all about being a valuable part of the community and you get that by being helpful.

    There are two aspects of social media marketing:

    1- Gathering friends, fans, etc.
    2- Engaging and building relationships.

    I suggest you read some of the white papers at www.octanecorp.com/whitepapers . You should find them helpful.

    With retailers, anything you can do to help them (especially now) to increase margins and decrease costs will be very effective. My daughter, an apparel buyer who sells to boutiques, recently added a blog to her web site. She provides information from one of the leading retail-consulting firms. This is an example. You might want to take a look www.nancyhallman.com.
  • Posted by Mikee on 2/4/2009 at 6:32 PM Accepted
    Create a system that allows people to review products. This gets people involved and demonstrates that you care. People like to see their opinions in print. Who knows, perhaps you will glean some useful information about your products.

    The nice part about this kind involvement is that it is mostly generated by the customers. Of course you will want to make sure your products are top quality and your customer service is excellent. I guess if this is not the case you have a differenet set of problems.

    Hope this helps,
    Mike
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 2/4/2009 at 11:50 PM Accepted
    Right now your website is all about selling your products. So if someone comes to your website looking for supplies, you have a "match". However, if someone is looking for packaging ideas or how to improve the presentation of their products, you have a "mismatch". Perhaps that's what your blog can be about: tips for presenting products (case studies, photos, etc.) in attractive ways that boost the sales (and potentially increases margins) of products. In other words, help your customers make more money and they'll be coming back to you.
  • Posted on 2/5/2009 at 10:26 AM Author
    @Harry Hallman - Thanks for the resources Harry, I'm looking forward to scouring over them when I have the time.

    @Mikee - We have been considering adding a product review feature with a solution like Bazaarvoice. I'm not sure there's much impetus for people to review paper bags, but we won't know unless we try.

    @Jay - You're right, the content we write has to be about helping our customers improve their sales. We've actually experimented with this in email format (the last email I sent to jewelers with steps they could take to improve Valentines sales).

    Keep the ideas rolling everyone!
  • Posted on 2/5/2009 at 11:55 AM Accepted
    Hi Jesse:
    Funny you should ask this question because I just wrote a post for my blog Packaging News You Can Use entitled "Packaging Blog Basics" @https://packaginguniversity.com/blog
    Its all about getting started and crafting the right message to keep your readers coming back. I get so many blog pitches that are nothing more than glorified sales pitches and that is an immediate customer turn off.

    Ive been social networking for about a year and two resources that you must interface with are LinkedIn and Twitter.

    LinkedIn has at least 10 packaging communities where you can hold a discussion thread, answer a question and generally point people in the right direction as a resource.

    Twitter has your ideal consumer base. Lots of small businesses, WAHMS, crafters and so on. The opportunity to connect with these potential customers is unlimited.

    I have built a considerable following though creating my own packaging "persona" and providing insights and help.
    Thats what you need to do and find your own "voice" not mimic someone else.

    If you would like to follow me I'm PackagingDiva on both Twitter and LinkedIn.

    Happy Packaging!
    Packaging Diva

  • Posted on 2/10/2009 at 12:53 PM Author
    @Packwm

    We've submitted a proposal to begin using Twitter, and look forward to being a valuable resource to the community.
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