Basic eBay Selling Ideas
By Art Stanley
One of the most famous names in advertising history is Claude Hopkins. It was he who labeled direct-response advertising as Salesmanship in print. That’’s certainly true about magazine ads, newspaper ads, direct mail sales letters and any kind of marketing material that attempts to influence and persuade with words. Though we are living in the golden age of technology where virtually all we could ever want is only a click or two away, Hopkins label is just as applicable today, online and on eBay. It’’s salesmanship in pixels. In other words, we sell on eBay with words read on a monitor, rather than in print.
The key concept to remember is this: as a seller, you”re in the business of making sales and the best way to make more sales and make more money is to use proven techniques of salesmanship. In fact, most of what Hopkins and many other great advertising geniuses, past and present discovered can be applied to your eBay listings with tremendous effectiveness.
Let’’s take a look at some of these selling ideas and how you might apply them to your eBay listings.
Use simple, everyday language. A conversational tone that’’s descriptive and to the point keeps readers actively involved in your message. Confuse them with fancy words and you lose them.
Same thing happens when you try to write rather than simply communicate in a down to earth way. The reason is that most people were taught to write in a stilted way, rather than to write the way they”d speak over coffee. Talk to a friend about your wonderful item, rather than attempting prose. It works. And it’’s much easier.
You want prospects to read your entire listing, even though most will not. If you”re conversational in your approach, at least you”ve got a fighting chance. You want them to be able to understand what you”re offering and the terms, to agree with your sales points, to ultimately decide to bid or buy, and to know exactly what they need to do next, to get what they want.
Be prospect-centered rather than product-centered. Most sellers get this reversed. They tell others only about the item up for auction. But the wise seller communicates from the prospects point of view. What this means is that your description is centered on what the item can do or what it means to the lucky buyer, rather than simply what it is. Keep the interest of the customer in mind at all times.
About The Author
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