The New York Times’ Small Business column had an article about how to get products on retailers’ shelves. This caught my attention, insofar as I covered a simlar topic in my post Marketing with Social Media on a Shoestring recently.
The column offered a number of tips, ranging from suggestions to start small and local, to engage buyers, go to trade shows, consider a broker etc. In the realm of social media, writer Eilene Zimmerman suggests tapping into the blogosphere so that buyers call you:
The best way to get your product onto a store’s shelves is to have the buyer call you because customers are asking for it. Those customers have usually read about it — or have heard about it from someone who has read about it.
Send your product to bloggers and ask for feedback to start building a relationship. If they get to know your product, they may write about it.
She goes on to cite a success story in the food products arena.
