As marketers, we need to allow ourselves to be both leaders and followers. It’s important to innovate and move forward, if you’re always playing catch-up, how can you get ahead? At the same time, we can’t disregard something just because it’s been done before; necessity demands that we embrace the successful to survive. The trick is finding a healthy balance with your digital marketing, implementing one proven strategy even while honing a unique new method. In this spirit, today I want to go over a couple methods you should investigate from one of our favorite online retailers: Think Geek.

First off, I should explain what Think Geek is. It’s an online retailer that sells everything from candy to books to construction supplies. The trick is that everything can be related back to their overarching theme of Geek-dom. The traditional definition of geek is “an unfashionable or socially inept person.” This isn’t the kind of geek that Think Geek is talking about. No, they use the new, much more positive definition, “A person with an eccentric devotion to a particular interest.”

Going through their site, we here at Wikimotive found a bunch of items we all loved, but the one that seemed most appropriate for here is the Social Media Shower Curtain.

Now that we have our product, let’s look at why Think Geek is so good at selling it. There are a few reasons why. The first is that their site is excellently designed. Everything is organized into the proper categories and efficiently labeled, making their on-site search function very useful. The second is that they employ excellent writers who know their audience. People get tired of stale copy, and no copy gets stale faster than ad-copy. Eventually, all the products begin to run together or fall prey to hyperbole. This isn’t true on Think Geek. Check out this selection from their shower curtain description for proof:

“To some, the bathroom is a room for taking care of business; to others, it’s a room full of fun. For us, it’s totally fun. You can play in the bathtub, you can draw on the fogged up mirror, and you make beautiful music (we mean singing . . . ok, we mean something else, too). And now you can add one more thing to your bathroom. That’s right: social media! Just hang up a Social Media Shower Curtain, and suddenly the shower is your new wall.”
It’s conversational, it’s funny, and it’s just a touch risqué without being at all crude.  The writing is one of Think Geek’s main selling points, and it shows that you should think twice before you have Jimmy in the mailroom do the write-up for your inventory.

The final thing I want to point out is Think Geek’s social media integration. At the bottom of every product page is a section for customer reviews. It sounds pretty standard until you notice that their entire review system is linked to Facebook. So when Jil MacMenamin says, “I have so many friends & family that could use this as a Christmas Gift!” that same review is also posted to her Facebook wall (along with the product picture and short description) for everyone in her network to see. Using Think Geek’s one-two punch of clever copy and inherent sharing, you’re sure to improve any stale sales page.

Need help coming up with, or implementing a new sales or marketing strategy? Contact Wikimotive for a free evaluation and advice on how you can improve your plans.