Did you know that selling knives is a controversial topic? Google and Facebook both prohibit buying advertising for most stores selling knives. This makes it difficult for ecommerce stores who sell these products to increase sales.
I know that many city dwellers may consider knives and axes scary. They may not know why anyone would have one. Where I live, I could use that axe shown above to chop the weeds to get to the barn – that is how tall and thick they are.
Receiving your first pocket watch was once a right of passage for a young boy. I would argue that even young girls – indeed, people of all ages, should have good knives on hand.
Today, many states are working to ban knife ownership, so if you have always wanted to own a better quality knife now is a good time to buy one.
When I worked at IBM, I opened boxes of parts every day. I had a tiny folding pocket knife on my keychain so it was always handy for that purpose. Today, I keep a pocket knife where I unpack boxes.
I suppose none of those people trying to get rid of knives works on a ranch. Carrying a folding knife to cut baling string and open sacks of grain and shavings is an essential part of life for people who own horses or livestock.
How do they expect us to cut the hay twine without a knife? I keep a large, sharp knife near any cross-tie to cut a horse loose if it gets hung up in the ropes.
And even if you don’t have hay, horses, or livestock, I would hope you have kitchen knives at home. Outlawing knives is just plain silly.
Learning to whittle, forge a path, or carve a custom handle for one of these blade blanks is a worthwhile project for any young person (or the young at heart) interested in learning outdoor skills.
But lawmakers are very serious about banning knives. I suppose they’re from the city and don’t have gardens, either. Some states have made carrying any knife a felony and a group has risen up to fight for Knife Rights.
I once had to go all the way out to my car to remove that tiny folding pocket knife from my keyring to enter a government building. And that was years ago. It was too small and dull to do any person’s body any damage, but that didn’t matter.
So what can a business like BucknBear Knives do to market themselves if Google and Facebook are selectively prohibiting small businesses that sell knives from advertising while allowing big brands to advertise?
Here are some tips for them that will work just as well for any small business.
Marketing Advice for BucknBear Knives
The easiest way to grow your business is to get visibility where your potential customers are already active. Just because you can’t advertise does not mean you can’t reach people via Google and Facebook.
Look for groups or individuals who have a relevant following. Read on to find out how.
How to Promote Using YouTube
First, you need to have your own YouTube channel. Although the BucknBear Knives YouTube channel exists, it does not have a vanity name to make it easy to get back to it. Definitely claim your vanity name – before someone else does!
You can get around the requirements of having a specific number of subscribers this way:
You can also qualify for a custom URL that aligns with your web domain by linking and verifying your official webpage with your connected Google+ page
Next, seek out related YouTube channels with large numbers of subscribers who are specifically interested in what you offer. Look on their “about” tab for information about how to contact them.
For example, the WeAllJuggleKnives channel is the perfect place for BucknBear Knives to get exposure. WeAllJuggleKnives has 81,896 subscribers who are all interested in knives. What could be better?
Unlike most channels you will find, they actually invite inquiries. On their YouTube “about” tab they write:
If you are an established knife company, knife maker, or knife store, and you want me to review a product, message me ON HERE.
Here is an example of the type of videos WeAllJuggleKnives produces that can increase sales for a business like BucknBear Knives:
Forums
Research online to find forums likely to be interested in knives. While there may be some specifically about knives, look for related groups likely to need a knife. For example:
- Survivalists
- Hunting
- Fishing
- Ranching
- Horse owners
What I do is create a Trello card for each group and then drag and drop the cards in order of relevance and size. (More on Trello shortly.) You don’t want to try to be active in all of them and you never want to be a “drive-by” link dropper.
Research and then choose a group or two and become a regularly active member. Once you make that a part of your routine, you can expand to other groups.
Facebook Groups
Even though you can’t sell guns or knives on Facebook, there are far more groups there than you can imagine. Some of them are just plain huge.
I once did research for a gun related client and found enormously large Facebook groups and YouTube channels. While not directly related, people who own guns are likely your target audience as they typically buy knives, too.
Blog Outreach
The most important part of blog outreach is to first research and identify the blogs that are most likely to be interested and whose readers want what you sell.
There are tools for doing blog outreach and research. I personally use the premium blog outreach solution Inkybee as one way to keep track of which blogs to contact.
For those who don’t need a paid tool, I recommend using Trello for this, too. This is a simple example. Not how large the followings were on Facebook for these blogs back when I did this research:
I can provide template boards already set up for research and blog outreach for free to anyone who asks for them. Just message me in the comments here or contact me on Skype (username GrowMap).
I verified that Facebook was still allowing these gun groups and see that GunsAmerica now has 46,550 followers on their Facebook page.
Keyword Research
While Google favors big brands, it might be possible for small business owners to find keyword phrases they can rank for in organic search. The first step is keyword research.
Determine what phrases you think you might be able to rank for and then create one page or post targeting each phrase. These pages must have substantial amounts of content on them and not be just product pages.
Prioritize Your Marketing
This is not a comprehensive list of strategies for any small business. Subscribe to my autoresponder mailing to get other ideas or look at my services page.
The main thing to understand is this doesn’t happen overnight (unless you get very lucky). Think of marketing like gardening. You keep planting seed after seed and eventually you harvest a crop.
If you have someone in your life who is a challenge to buy for, a high quality knife might be just what they’ve always wanted and something for a Dad or Mom to pass down to his or her son or daughter.
Gail Gardner
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Really informative for a small business start up. I would like to try them for my business.
Thank you so much for your kind information, I think your blog is one of the best informative and helpful on reviews and guide on the knife. Specially thanks for show me video. Actually I went to find out like this site. Many people are looking to buy a useful knife for a relaxed cooking, but They can’t decide what knife is best and then, they are feel some hesitation. But I think any people are easily can decide after see this content. I hope I will get also some most informative article from your site. Thanks a lot for providing the wonderful solution.
BucknBear Knives is really famous one, you can easily pick it but you can’t find it local market easily.
For survival tips, those who are travelers, these knives are the most important thing. I would hope you have kitchen knives at home. Outlawing knives is just plain silly.
thanks for sharing such nice article.Please share a more outdoor article in this regard. I always welcome outdoor business related articles.
Great post !Thank for sharing about good business marketing.I agree with you.Small Business Marketing Advice for Knife Sellers .
Hello Gail, great marketing advice for knife sellers. Marketing and advertising play a big role in the success of any type of business. When you have small business, you have many marketing and advertising options to promote your business and make it successful.
Hi Ema,
Yes, and I sometimes think they have too many options. That makes it hard for them to decide what to do and they end up doing nothing. But the key is to decide and act and keep adding options. It takes many to grow a small business well.
Gail Gardner would love you to read ..5 Brazen Ways to Take Your Online Business to the Next Level
This article is very useful this is just what I’ve been searching for long days.
Thanks for sharing useful info.
This article is very useful this is just what I’ve been searching for. Thanks for sharing useful info. Here’s a link to help you grow your business
lyn would love you to read ..How To Double Your Small Business Ideas Sales, Profits and Free Time
This is really solid advice Gail!
And I love your analogy, comparing proven marketing
practices and principles, to planting and growing a garden,.
You definitely have to keep planting your seeds, and like you
pointed out, eventually you can harvest a crop!
That’s great and very realistic advice!Thanks for sharing it!
Mark would love you to read ..Three Incredibly Simple Ways To Increase Retail Sales Without Spending More Money!Part Two
Hi Mark,
Yes, it is definitely like gardening because there are so many seeds we have to plant in order to really get things moving. Persistence pays off.
Gail Gardner would love you to read ..Simplilearn Digital Marketing Training: Get Qualified Now for High Paying In-Demand Jobs
Hi Ketan,
It used to be easier to get a lower Alexa rank if you’re in the marketing niche and know many people who install the Alexa toolbar. Alexa was purchased by Amazon and hired a new marketing manager. As far as I know, they no longer have ranking visible to non-paying users.
Most likely, Alexa rank is still affected by incoming links, toolbar users, and traffic to your site. Increasing links and traffic and getting more of your regulars to be willing to let Alexa track them will likely improve your Alexa rank.
Gail Gardner would love you to read ..BOOKKEEPING… SMOOKKEEPING: What’s the point of worrying about it?
Hi Golam,
There is much more that can be done than what I wrote about in this post. Hopefully, more small businesses will ask for marketing tips specific to what they offer and give me the opportunity to explain how they can research where their audiences are and what to do to reach them.
Gail Gardner would love you to read ..Twitter Best Practices: How to Use Twitter Effectively ~ Make Twitter Work for YOU
Hi Sumit,
Good to hear. If you would like strategies on how to market a particular kind of business and would like to be featured in a post like this, just let me know.
Gail Gardner would love you to read ..Why Your Small Business Needs a Mobile App
Great source of new marketing strategies and tactics. A small thing is targeted here that is really cool- Knife.
🙂 Thanks for the post.
Hi OnYer,
Google competes unfairly by allowing big box stores that sell knives they prohibit to advertise while throwing out small knife sellers who try to advertise knives they do permit.
All small businesses need to focus on growing their visibility and audience beyond just search engines. You never know when Google will decide to take all or most of your traffic away.
Gail Gardner would love you to read ..GetResponse Reveals Powerful New Online Marketing Tool Any SMB Can Afford
This is amazing to see here about marketing techniques for small things – Knifes. Thank you for sharing this wonderful blog information here with us.
Hi Taufeeq,
Every seller of any kind needs to find new marketing methods. I would love to make this a regular series where I feature a particular business and offer some tips on how to promote it.
Gail Gardner would love you to read ..5 Ways to Grow Your Facebook Fan Page