So you have a store full of fabulous products, your family is supporting the cause, and your fan base is growing by the day. What next? How can you take it to the next level and start thinking about your store as a real business?
One aspect of free and effective marketing is your merchandising approach. In other words, how are you making your products available to the Zazzle buyers and the general public?
In a traditional retail space, presentation is key – and online, those who dominate SEO (search engine optimization) are the real winners of the game.
So let’s start with basics – how to name your products and utilize your description field so buyers everywhere know what you sell – and most importantly, can find their way to the shopping cart, full of your goodies!
Product Titles: The importance of the name game
1. Consider SEO: keep in mind popular search terms when naming your product. Do some research on what keywords/phrases to use. Google Zeitgeist is a great place to start: http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist/index.html
Eg. “Obama Supporter Heart Mug”
2. Relevance: Pick words or phrases that speak to your niche and audience. If you are designing for a certain audience, use familiar words in the title.
Eg. “Green Bliss Yoga Hoodie”
3. Be descriptive: Use elements from your design, or the actual name of the design to specify your product’s name.
Eg. “Burnt Out Skull and Crossbones Tie”
4. Be specific, but not too specific: “Vintage red and green Santa Alarm Clock T-Shirt” might be a little too much (ya think?!) Save this much detail for the description. Instead use something like “Vintage Santa Alarm Clock T-Shirt”.
5. Multiple products with the same image: if you’re creating a few basketball themed t-shirts, instead of naming them all “basketball t-shirt”, consider variations like:
Eg. -basketball tshirt, basketball t shirt, basketball tee, basketball tee shirt
Product sub-titles
Make this a longer version of the product title. Be a little bit more descriptive, but try to keep it in one sentence.
Utilize the Description Section: Picking up longtail traffic from search engines
1. Give a background story to your design filled with phrases you want to target
2. Add your website URL
3. Use key words that describe your product, including the product type, like ‘mug’ or ‘poster’
4. Cross merchandise by adding links to your other products. This works especially well if you’re selling stamps, for example – you could also link over to cards or postcards you sell. If the product is a gift, you might consider cross-merchandising a gift for the recipient’s boyfriend or girlfriend. If the product supports a cause or message, cross-merchandise a shirt with a poster: “Don’t just wear your message, drink from it, display it, and send it in the mail!”
5. Multiple spellings: If you are making a tshirt, add as many of these phrases to the product description as possible … in a readable paragraph, if at all possible 
):
o t-shirt
o t-shirts
o shirt
o shirts
o t shirts
o t shirt
o tshirt
o tshirts
o tee shirt
o tee shirts
o tee
An example of a great description field:
LibertyManiacs.com supports Tibetan liberty, just as it supports liberty for all people. We hope that China allows the Dalai Lama to return, ceases Han immigration, and that nonviolent pressure from within and without causes China to allow Tibetaninternal autonomy .
We made this shirt to show support for the Dalai Lama’s quest to return to a free Tibet. Place this design on any shirt, or go into the customization engine to reorganize the elements or add your own!
We’ll have more merchandising tips for you in upcoming blogs – any more ideas on the product titles and description field? Feel free to post a comment here!
