How to "How To" and Sell More on eBay

If you have frequent to semi-frequent contact with customers - either via newsletters, a blog or inserts in packaging - you should be thinking about adding some value and offering them something beyond product promos and discount announcements.

One way to do this is to offer "how to" articles that show them how to do new, different, more advantageous/productive/efficient things with your product.

If you sell vintage post cards, for example, you might show customers how to mount them on poster board and display them in the home. If you sell toner or ink cartridges, you might show customers how to keep the heads clean or so other such maintenance program. If you sell motorcycles, you might show customers how to plan a fantastic weekend bike tour.

The key to "how to" is to develop a problem or need then offer a solution. Show them how it would be great to do something extra or solve a common problem with the product. Then offer the solution.

You can create dreams around the problem/solution structure, as well. Let's say you sell art poster prints. Maybe your prospects and customers dream of designing a themed room that showcases old movie titles and produces a sense of nostalgia. That's a dream, and you can help them connect with it by suggesting movie titles and specific prints, and offering mounting and framing advice (or even pointing to links and sites that do this well already). You could even show them some quick tips about how to light a piece of framed art correctly.

Anything that adds value shows customers that you’re pulling for them, and you're interested in more than the quick buck. In many ways, the information you offer is a gift. And we already know that gifts produce increases in sales.

Test out some "how to" articles and watch your business grow organically with increased interest and reciprocal buying behavior.