# Marketing



## YungTurner24WA (Oct 29, 2006)

My friend and I have decided to try to start a small side business selling pens.  Any advice or suggestions for good marketing strategies?


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## clewless (Oct 29, 2006)

My advice is to start by reading through the posts in the marketing forum, then searching the archives for other relevant threads.  

Once you have some background knowledge, you'll be able to ask specific questions.


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## gerryr (Oct 30, 2006)

I'll be blunt.  How many pens have you made so far and how good are they?  Depending on where you live, you could have some very stiff competition from some excellent penturners.


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## Rudy Vey (Oct 30, 2006)

First suggestion would be to post this in the Marketing section and not under the Polls!!


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## johneaton (Nov 3, 2006)

Quality is critical.  Every pen you put in someone's hand is an advertisement.  It would be cheaper to bust a pen apart and pirate the parts, or even drop it in the trash, than to put a poor quality pen out.  It has your name on it.
I have been doing this for over two years.  I have sold to local realtors for home closings, I have sold on e Bay, I have sold wholesale by the dozen to east coast gift shops, another good venue is Yahoo classifieds, and that's a free one, but be very careful of scammers who want to send you a high-dollar check and want you to refund the change.  And, of course, the check is no good.
Marketing is a bigger challenge by far than turning pens.  Go to your local realtors weekly meetings.  You'll have to make an appt to be on their schedule.  This is free marketing to a group who will use your product and you hit a bunch of them at one time.  They will use your product if you show it; they will use it as the pen that the homebuyer signs the contract with.  The pen, or better, the wood box, will have to be personalized w/ the home buyer's name.  Realtors are accustomed to buying their home buyers a thank you gift, so this is not out of line at all; and I guarantee, you will make sales in this venue.  
But it only works locally as it must be timely to the closing.  That's why I don't mind telling everyone about this mkt.  It won't affect my local market.
Good luck and best regards, John K. Eaton


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## Skye (Nov 3, 2006)

> _Originally posted by johneaton_
> <br />Quality is critical.



Bump to that. Before you go to sell anything, it would be a good idea to to post some high qualitly pics here. While the average buyer may not notice things, we may.


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## bob393 (Nov 19, 2006)

This is a greater challenge than you think. But a journy worth taking. 
Read all the posts in the marketing section is the first step. 
It's my first stop on the forum.


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