You may think spying on your competition sounds a little dirty, but if you’re a savvy marketer, it’s something you’ll want to do. While I don’t advocate copying your competitors’ products, marketing tactics or copy, you can still learn a lot from your competitors and be inspired by them to come up with ideas of your own. So here are 5 places you can easily keep an eye on them:

1. Newsletter
Sign up for your competitors’ mailing lists. Things to take note of:

• newsletter frequency (weekly, monthly, daily)
• subject lines (Do they focus on what’s new in store? Do they pitch special offers?)
• newsletter content (Is it entertaining? How long is the newsletter? Is it informative? Is it just full of promotions?)
• newsletter format (Is it colorful? Is it bulleted? Does it use a lot of images? How did they design their calls to action?)
• special offers and promotions (What promotions are they running? BOGOs? A percentage based discount? Free shipping?)

If the competitors are running a certain kind of promotion over and over, that could indicate that it’s been successful. If they’re doing subject lines that lead with discounts, that could indicate that those types of subjects are getting a better open rate for them.

2. Social Media
Follow the competition on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc. Pay attention to the content they generate and how fans of their brands interact with them. Are people complaining about the competition on Twitter? If so it might be a good opportunity to woo their customers away.

Is the competition making hilarious Youtube videos and scoring truckloads of views? Maybe it’s time to produce a funny video of your own.

How does the competition use social media? Do they entertain? Do they inform? Do they delve into behind the scenes? How do their customers react to their posts? Do their customers seem engaged by their content? Do their follow/fan counts go up or down?

3. Google’s Link Search
See who’s giving your competitors links. Plug link:competitorurl.com into Google and search away. (You would enter your competitor’s url of course.) This should give you some ideas on how to get links to your own website. Are they in certain directories? Are they linked by coupon websites? Are they linked on Squidoo lenses or blogs? Take note of where they’ve received links and then try to get those types of links for your own site.

4. Press page
If the competition has a press page, take note of where they’ve received press. Chances are the same publications will give you press, so you may as well add them to your press list. Make sure you check out each press outlet to see if it’s truly a match for your brand. For example, if you and the competition both sell jewelry but your competitor got into Cat Fancy because she has a cat necklace in her collection, that doesn’t mean you’ll get into Cat Fancy too, unless you also have cat themed jewelry.

Take note of which items your competitor got press for. This might tell you what’s hot right now, but it will also give you insight into the particular taste of the publications that gave the competition press.

5. Website
Notice what’s new on your competitors’ websites. What new products are they pushing? Do they have any promotional specials or sales going on? Notice what they have on clearance that they’re trying to get rid of, this could be an indicator of an item that didn’t sell well.

Some sites will flat-out say what items are their best sellers, and you can use this information to look for clues about pricing, product design or sales copy. Some sites won’t tell you what their best sellers are by may feature their best sellers in a splash image on their home page.

Bonus spy tactic: You can put the names of your competitors into Google Alerts and get an alert every time they’re mentioned online. Doing this may result in an overwhelming amount of information so you may want to do this sparingly.

A final word of warning: Don’t assume your competitors have it all figured out. While it’s fine to see what they’re up to, don’t base major business decisions solely on the competition’s playbook. The competition isn’t always right. Thus, they should be A source of ideas, not THE source of ideas.

Every day I check out the 100s of subscriptions in my RSS feed about marketing, PR, advertising, branding, social media, and a host of other topics of interest to small businesses that sell online. Most of what gets posted isn’t earth shattering but I reserve Fridays for the best reads of the week. So here you have it, the most valuable things I read in the business blogosphere this week:

• One Online Merchant Discusses His Success with Google TV Ads
  
• Self-Service Critique Tips for Your Etsy Shop
• 6 Pointers for Formatting Your Ecommerce Emails
• Strategic Spending to Boost Your Profits (or, you gotta spend money to make money)
• Top 10 Small Biz Mistakes

Summer is craft show season, and I know a lot of my readers are gearing up to apply and attend various shows around the country. Before you fill out those applications, make sure the show is going to be profitable. While some of you are thinking “of course it will, it’ll be a huge show”, I’m wondering; have you done the math?

Let’s imagine you sell handmade bags and you’re going to Renegade, a fairly large show. Your booth is going to cost $325.00. Now let’s take 2 scenarios:

Pre-Show Expenses:
Scenario 1: You are doing a show for the first time; you need to buy a tent, signage, booth decor, display equipment, etc. This can easily set you back $300.00. You are also from out of town and have to spend 2 nights on a hotel plus meals. With a budget hotel in a major city and inexpensive meals, you’ll still spend at least $300.00. Let’s say you live 5 hours drive from the show and spend $50 on gas and tolls. (I’m assuming there are 2 people going to the show since doing a large show alone is pretty difficult.) Since you are spending 10 hours in your car round trip and there are 2 workers, there goes 10 hours in labor. If you even want to make $25 per hour you’ve spent another $500. (10 hours x $25 for 2 people.)  At this point your expenses are $1,475.00 and you haven’t been to the show yet.

Scenario 2: You’ve done shows before and have all the equipment and you live near the show so you don’t have to pay extra for hotels and eating at restaurants. You are only out $325.00 so far.

Now let’s look at labor:
We’re still looking at 2 workers, and let’s say you spend a total of 24 hours on labor. (2 workers x 8 hours at the show = 16. 2 workers x 4 hours of packing up product, driving to the show, setting up pre-show, tearing down post-show, driving home.) If you’re sticking to the $25 per hour model, you are spending $600 on labor here.

So far:

Scenario 1: $2075.00 has been spent
Scenario 2: $925.00 has been spent

Profit Potential:
Let’s say our show goers sell bags for $50.00. The bags take 1 hour of labor to make and cost $10.00 in materials. The total cost of a bag is $35.00 so each bag sold makes $15.00 profit for the business.

Scenario 1: You need to sell over 138 bags in 8 hours to break even ($2075/$15)

Scenario 2: You need to sell over 61 bags in 8 hours to break even ($925/$15)

Can you sell 8-18 bags per hour? I can’t answer that for you, but it’s something you have to consider. If you want your business to earn a profit you need to sell a lot more than that. The math above is just about breaking even.

If you say the show is about getting exposure, consider this: can you get more “exposure” by going to a trade show, or advertising online? How many people will see your products at this show and how many of them are important to be seen by? (Meaning are they buyers for stores you’re trying to sell in, etc. And if so, is there a more cost effective way to target that audience?)

I can’t tell you definitively that you should advertise online or where, nor can I tell you whether you should do craft shows. I personally prefer to spend my money advertising online because it’s what has proven effective for me, but every business is different. With any business expenditure it’s important to do a cost benefits analysis and make some projections on cost and profit potential. To help you out, I’ve put together a profit and expense worksheet for craft shows. You can download it from the link below:

Download my FREE Craft Show Profit and Expense Worksheet

Last month I interviewed different entrepreneurs and asked them about the best thing they did for their business. One of the entrepreneurs I spoke to said self-promotion was his number one tactic and mentioned appearing on reality shows. There’s no doubt that getting your face on TV can make you, and by extension your company, more famous. But how do you get those gigs? Reality Wanted posts casting calls for a variety of reality show opportunities. If this promotional tactic appeals to you, check ‘em out.

If you sell online, especially if you’re an artisan, there are a few questions you’ll probably hear over and over. They don’t get less annoying, but having a stock response to these queries helps a little.

1. Can I have it cheaper?
You’ll get people asking if they can have a discount or asking why you’re charging so much money for X. Don’t feel compelled to lower your price or justify your price. A few acceptable replies:

• We sometimes offer discounts through our mailing list, please feel free to sign up to find out about our next sale or discount.
• We offer 10% off for orders over $100, here is the coupon code.
• I’m sorry but we simply can’t offer our products at a lower price at this time.

2. Can I have it for free?
Some people will claim they’re dying of scarlet fever and your free product is their dying wish. Other people will say they just started a blog and want to review your products. It all amounts to virtual panhandling and there’s no reason to give into it. A few acceptable replies:

To members of the public who just want freebies:
I’m sorry, but we’re unable to provide you with a free product at this time. Please feel free to join our mailing list and follow our blog. We announce fan sweepstakes events in both places.

To “bloggers” with little to no readership:
I’m sorry but we’re unable to provide free samples for review at this time.

(Note: Legitimate press are another story, if you get a sample request from a large publication it may be well worth it to provide a sample. Just make sure you find out what the requester’s readership is like before you part with your product.)

3. Can I just make it myself?
Some people will ask how you made something, where you got supplies to make something, etc. This information should be proprietary. You worked long and hard to learn your craft and find the best suppliers, that information is private.

A few acceptable replies:

• I’m sorry, we unfortunately can’t give away our trade secrets
• Learning to make X took me several years and it would just be too complicated to explain my process.
• We work with overseas suppliers who require a 10,000 unit minimum purchase, so they probably wouldn’t be suitable for small projects. If you want to work with overseas suppliers you can try a site like alibaba.com for sources.

I always thank people for taking the time to write, even if I am not going to fulfill their somewhat offensive request. Most people don’t realize they’re being annoying with these types of requests, so it’s best to still keep up the appearance of charm and stick to calling them a moron in private.

Have a favorite stock response to these questions? Share in the comments below.

I just had the WORST experience with returning products to overstock.com. I was in complete awe of how painful they made the process. I’ll never shop there again as a result. As an ecommerce business owner, this also inspired me to make my own website’s return process even easier for my own customers.

First, let me tell you what overstock.com does wrong:
1. I have to log into my account to initiate a return. This means I have to remember my username/password or retrieve it. As I’ve discussed on this blog before, having to create/use accounts with ecommerce websites is a common peeve with online shoppers. That said, this hassle is a common one so it wasn’t high on the list of reasons for my disgust.

2. Once logged in, I had to click the “returns” link. Then I had to select the order I wanted to do a return for.

3. I got a screen where I had to select the item I wanted to return. This was the first major problem. I wanted to return more than one item and the form they’d created only allowed me to select ONE. I selected one of the items and clicked submit.

4. I got a screen asking the reason for the return and several radio buttons to choose from. I chose an option and clicked submit.

5. I got another screen asking for a more specific reason for my return and more radio buttons! I chose one and clicked submit.

6. I got another screen asking me to write out, in a text area box, why I wanted to return the items!!! (I’ve now been asked 3 different times why I’m returning merchandise, and it’s been on 3 different pages! If I had a dial up modem I’d probably have lost it by now.) I wrote a note and clicked submit.

7. I got a screen asking me if I wanted to print a pre-paid return label for $6.00. (My credit card would be charged for this label.) This, of course, won’t work for me, because as I said before, I had several items to return and this pre-paid label would only take postage into account for the ONE item. So I selected “no pre-paid label” and clicked submit. I then got another screen asking if I’m sure I don’t want a pre-paid label. The page went on to tell me why pre-paid labels are awesome. I already know I don’t want the damn pre-paid label, so I say no.

8. I finally got a screen with instructions on where to mail my return.

That’s an awful lot of steps to return something! Not only that, I have to repeat steps 2-8 for each item I want to return!!! I had 6 items to return. Needless to say, I never want to look at overstock.com again. I am sure the thinking over at overstock.com is that if you make returns really miserable people won’t want to make returns. I am sure they also think a lot of people are unsavvy enough to pay for a pre-paid label for each item they want to return when they have more than one item to return. No doubt that return postage is a profit-center for overstock.com. This short-sighted thinking turns off customers though. I spend thousands of dollars online every year at ecommerce sites and buy nearly everything I own online. Turning away customers like myself is probably costing overstock.com more than they’re making from their nickel and dime return postage scam.

Now, the good news is that this nightmare of a returns process encouraged me to improve my own return process for my ecommerce website. Being a small online business I’d been doing things pretty informally. If customers wanted to return something they just had to drop me a line for details on where to send the return. My online business has more than tripled in the last year though, and it’s high time I made things a little more streamlined. This overstock.com debacle was just the kick in the ass I needed.

Here’s what I now do for returns:
1. I set up an easy-to-type URL for my returns page on my website. (I used myurl.com/returns.)

2. I made my returns page easy to find. I’ve linked my returns page on the footer of my site, added the URL to our invoices that go out in our orders, and linked it on the “returns” portion of our FAQ page.

3. My returns page simply asks customers for 4 pieces of information (all on one screen). I request:
- Order ID
- Whether this will be a return or exchange
- A quick note on reason for return/exchange
- How the customer would like their refund issued (I allow customers to select gift card, credit back to the purchasing account or refund to an alternate Paypal account. The first and last option are to accommodate people who received their order as a gift.)

4. Once the customer clicks submit they get a page with our returns address and instructions.

This process is quick and easy for my customers, and it gives me all the information I truly need to handle returns. Making returns easy for my customers makes it much more likely that they’ll order from my website again in the future.

If you sell on a site like Etsy or ArtFire you can still set up something like this for your customers. I truly believe that anyone selling online should have their own website, even if it’s just to house your portfolio, contact information and a link to your hosted web shop. You can set up a returns form on your website and include a link to it on your packaging invoice.

Every day I check out the 100s of subscriptions in my RSS feed about marketing, PR, advertising, branding, social media, and a host of other topics of interest to small businesses that sell online. Most of what gets posted isn’t earth shattering but I reserve Fridays for the best reads of the week. So here you have it, the most valuable things I read in the business blogosphere this week:

• Get SEO Savvy: How to Pick the Right Keywords
• 8 Must Haves for Your Twitter Contest
• Tips on Responding to Brand Reviews
• How To Get 8379 New Twitter Followers By Christmas
• Want More Actions? Leverage the Point of Action
• Shopping cart abandonment emails: issues and resources
• Ge the Biggest SEO Bang for Your Content Buck
• Why Conversion Rate is a Horrible Metric to Focus on
• Etsy vs Big Cartel

I was perusing my feed reader the other day and this article really caught my attention. In short, a bakery had the following tagline: “So Good It Makes Fat People Cry.” Predictably, someone complained. The bakery owner called the complaining customer a “fat cunt” and later issued a public apology. Of course all hell broke loose, sort of. Basically, the story blew up all over the web.

While a lot of you might say the company was wrong to have that slogan in the first place, my take on this is that the company’s #1 mistake was getting defensive about it. You can be a dick and still be successful, even admired, but there are some rules to follow.

1. Embrace it
There are brands that are famous for their trouble-making founders; they succeed in part because they’re unapologetic. Look no further than American Apparel. It’s got haters galore, but there are also throngs of people who adore their sleazy ads. While sites like Jezebel and their reader’s bristled at the brand’s “Best Butt” contest, over 1,000 brand loyalists submitted entries and all the haters inadvertently contributed to American Apparel’s fame (or infamy if you prefer) by writing about their controversial publicity stunt.

American Apparel made no apologies to anyone who felt offended by their contest. This sort of thing is what makes them who they are.

2. Be authentic
Being an unapologetic dick takes balls. If that’s not your personality, don’t even bother with trying this tactic to boost your brand’s visibility. On the other hand, if this IS your personality be true to it. There are people who will be drawn to your “who cares what they think” attitude and it can help you stand out in a world full of brands that want to be everyone’s best friend.

3. Be prepared for the blowback and ready to spin it
The good and bad part of being a dick is that eventually people are going to notice and they’re going to talk about it. The good news is that this can mean a ton of press. The bad news is that this can mean a ton of haters and you’ll need to be ready for them. Be prepared for how you’ll handle them and consider how it will affect your brand image.

If you make yourself out to be an opinionated brand that hurts a few feelings and makes no apologies, the last thing you want to do is start making apologies. Stick to your guns and let the chips fall where the may. Apologizing probably won’t win over the people you’ve scandalized, but it will make you less appealing to fans who appreciate your image as is.

Just a Few Successful and Famous Dicks:
Joe Francis, of Girls Gone Wild fame, certainly ruffles nearly every feminist’s feathers but since he’s peddling softcore porn, they’re really not his target market any way. Every time someone complains about his antics, his brand gets more publicity.

Anna Wintour has been called “Darth Vader in a frock” and famously made the Rodarte sisters go on a diet for an upcoming issue of Vogue. She’s known for hating on the plus sizes and generally being an ice queen. She’s still probably the most admired and revered woman in fashion.

Howard Stern’s list of scandals is too long to count, offending everyone from women to the disabled. His shameless antics got him ranked in Forbes’ 2006 list of World’s Most Powerful Celebrities and has earned him hundreds of millions of dollars, not to mention millions of fans.

Mike Jeffries of Abercombie and Fitch (a 5 billion dollar company) said on record to a reporter “In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids. Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don’t alienate anybody, but you don’t excite anybody, either.” Abercrombie regularly gets fame and infamy from its habit of only employing perfect-looking people and hocking tees that say “Who Needs a Brain When You Have These?” “Gentlemen Prefer Tig Ol’ Bitties” and “Do I Make You Look Fat?” When called out for it, Jeffries said “Listen, do we go too far sometimes? Absolutely. But we push the envelope, and we try to be funny, and we try to stay authentic and relevant to our target customer. I really don’t care what anyone other than our target customer thinks.”