We’ve all been there. You list a whole batch of 7 day auctions and, exhausted from all that work, you hit the pillow totally beat. You tell yourself that you’re going to write up several fantastic blog posts to market those new listings as you blissfully drift off into slumber.
Then you wake up and discover that those listings all ended the night before and you never posted anything about them.
OK, it doesn’t work exactly like that but it can sure feel like it. Rather than give yourself another thing to remember in an already busy week, do yourself a favor and schedule your marketing blog posts ahead of time.
I recommend sitting down that very same day that you prep your listings and scheduling all your marketing tweets (for Twitter) and blog posts at the same time. Note: If you have your blog set-up to automatically post to your Twitter account, those marketing posts will tweet automatically but if you do want to schedule tweets separately you can use a service such as Social Oomph. If you aren’t sure how to schedule a post in your blogging program, for most services, you simply need to pre-date the post the post will wait to appear until the date and time you set.
Setting up all of these tweets and blog posts on the very same day that you set up the listings ensures that you are getting all the info in (as it is fresh in your head) and also helps you to write diverse marketing messages. If you write them all on the same day, you are less likely to repeat yourself. It also forces you to think of three different takes on marketing the same items which can be very helpful. If one method doesn’t resonate, a different tact might so you are increasing your chances of a sale with each one.
Money Making Tip: For an extra bonus, link to your items through the eBay Partner Network Affiliate program. You’ll be able to track how effective your marketing blog posts are and also will make a little cash back on every sale. It always feels good to get a little of those eBay fees back.
Here’s how I like to do it when I have a really big batch of listings:
The day that the items are listed:
- I post a very simple, new items listed blog post. This is usually just a quick post with a list of links and a useful title. (Example: Hess Trucks just listed in our eBay store) I usually post this the second I am finished listing the items so it is often at a random hour of the evening. If you are scheduling your listings to start at a future date, be sure to schedule this post accordingly.
- This automatically imports to Twitter so I don’t do anything else with it.
Two days into the auctions:
- This is the blog post where I go all out. I schedule it to start two days into the auction and early in the day where it is likely to get more hits. Then I content and keyword the heck out of it. Going back to that Hess Truck example, my post might be something like “A brief history of the Hess Truck” or “Hess Truck trivia.” It would be a post that is factual and informative by itself but ends with a plug for our listings for sale. This post takes a bit more time to write because you may have to research the content.
- This would automatically post to Twitter.
Four days into the auction:
- No new blog post but I would retweet the content heavy blog post from two days ago on Twitter.
Six days into the auction (aka about 48 hours before listings end):
- This is my “Last chance, don’t let these deals slip away!” kind of blog post. I usually point out what great deals are left and how you don’t want to miss not bidding on these items. Time is running out so get those bids in soon.
- Again, automatically posts to Twitter.
A few hours before the listing ends:
- I tweet out a link to the listings, reminding people there are only x hours left.
Have suggestions? Want to share your strategies? Please share them below.
