A Great Product Deserves a Back-End Complement

You’ve been doing steady business. But how to make it grow? A solo entrepreneur gets some advice on improving her line of personalized products.

Hi, Lynda,

My small business, Your Personal Poster, has developed a line of personalized posters

that make great gifts (or so I’ve been told). What we do is we take some biographical information and a photo of your loved one, and craft it into a custom poster that features them with about 12 other famous people from throughout history and contemporary media.

So, for instance, if you wanted to have a poster for your mom created, we would take some info about her (What is the best dish she cooks? Do you remember the time she took you kite-flying and ended up chasing after the kite that blew away? Where does she volunteer? What kinds of hobbies does she pursue?) and, along with her picture, we put her on a poster of her own that would also feature other famous moms, such as Hilary Rodham Clinton, Marie Curie, Lucille Ball and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Thus, she too, is famous by association.

These posters make excellent turn-key gifts, and really make your mom feel extra special with just a little effort on your part. In addition to MomPosters, we also have DadPosters, YouGoGirlPosters, PridePosters, AlumniPosters, ProfessionalPosters, PassionPosters, PostersInUniform, PoliticalPosters, and SurvivorPosters.

I have my “elevator speech” all polished and practiced.
I blog, I Facebook, I email newsletters — for heaven’s sake, I even Twitter!
I attend business mixers 2-3 times a month (enough with the rubber chickens already!).
I attend business classes through SCORE and the local SBA.
I offer up discounts to new and return customers.
I donate in-kind product to local and national charities.
I re-vamped the website and sought out what marketing services I could afford.
I pitch consistently to writers and bloggers.
I’ve held some focus groups (in-person and online) to get product feedback.
I’ve come up with several clever taglines (e.g., for MomPosters and DadPosters: “Just say ‘no’ to perfume and neckties this year”).
And still, my sales are lackluster at best.

What’s a lonely and exhausted solopreneur to do? I’m about out of ideas and not sure where to go next. HELP!

Thanks,
Angela Watson

Dear Angela,

Thank you for your email regarding Your Personal Poster. From what little I can see of the posters on your website, it looks as if you have a rather unique product, one that definitely appeals to a specific demographic. Your challenge, however, seems to be in that you may be limiting that demographic by offering only one possibility of a personalized poster — that of the recipient surrounded by famous people. I think you should consider other design options as well. Why?

The posters you currently offer do not show up very well online. The images are very busy. A simpler design might appeal to a new range of customers, or even customers who loved the first version but now are looking for a follow-up.

I recommend trying one where the recipient is more the focus and is not detracted from by other people on the page. Make the recipient stand out. After all, the whole point of the gift is to make the person seem special, so make them the sole focus of the poster.

Consider, if you will, the following:

Say the recipient loves chocolate: You could surround them with their favorite yummy treats (everything from gourmet chocolates to chocolate donuts, kisses, M&M’s, Hershey bars, etc.). What about a basketball fan surrounded by his favorite players on the court, or a teenager in a setting with her favorite star (maybe appearing with Hannah Montana on the stage)? Say a person is a gardener: You could surround their picture with flowers. Or if they’re a dad (no one ever knows what to buy them), you could surround them with the cars of his dreams, such as Corvettes.

You need a back-end. That means that after the customer buys the poster, what then? What else do you have to offer them? How about mugs or t-shirts? Or album covers? Many businesses thrive not off the one-time sell but by attracting repeat customers. Your customers may go away very satisfied, but what you need is a “back-end” of products that will entice them to return. You can only buy a poster for someone once.

Best of luck. If you decide to use any of my advice, I’d love to hear how it works out for you.

Sincerely,
Lynda