Hi, I am embarrassed to say that I am a marketing professional but now that I have started my own business I have been very challenged with coming up with creative marketing strategy (website omitted).

I am really interested in word of mouth marketing and shoe string marketing for my beaded handbag business. I believe the competitive advantage of my products are that they are beaded by hand, very unique, and affordable. Do you have any creative marketing ideas on a start-up budget?

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Jay’s Answer: A few of comments about your website:

1. Your website is classy looking, but your pictures don’t allow me to see the bags. A close-up of the bag with better contrast between the background and it would be great.
2. I would prefer to see fewer pictures on the home page and better crafted copy. I don’t want to check back often – let me sign up and you email ME. I want to know about the materials, the exclusivity, the quality, how beautiful having the bag will make me feel.
3. Your catalog should provide dimensions of the bags as well as let me see if there are pockets, etc. There should be a PayPal button next to each purchase to allow me to buy it NOW.

For a start-up budget, you have a lot of choices.

• The social networking (Facebook, etc.) environment would be a natural.
• Write to various purse blogs (ex: http://www.purseblog.com/) about your new styles.
• If you have a friend who can shoot digital video, a 30 second piece showing a pretty woman holding & using a pretty bag. Place the videos on the various video sharing sites (Google Videos, YouTube, etc.).
• Advertise your bag on Craigslist.