Shel Horowitz, author of five marketing books including Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First

It’s great that they are challenged mentally and the game has the student use her brain, but be careful of the unintended “negative” that appears in the description.

Check with you local Parks & Recreation office or Community Education office to see if they have groups organized for ‘tween girls this summer. Perhaps they would like to have some cards for the girls on those days when it rains or an activity is cancelled.

Also, a general marketing note: There are two parts that need to be addressed when selling a product-features (what it is) and benefits (why do I want it, what does it do for me?).

From what I saw, your site gives examples, has some activity areas, but you’re leaving it to the viewer to infer the benefits. You don’t have to hit them over the head, but don’t assume they know just because the boys do. You said these are a first for girls, so explain why they want to buy them (over other choices they have), and why parents want them to have them.

One way to do this is to add some testimonials, get photos (with permission) of girls playing with the cards or doing the activities (if I missed them I apologize).

I think you should also add a “for parents/teachers” page and include testimonials, stats and facts, and FAQ.

One last thought-approach home school groups as they are always looking for learning/teaching tools.

I wish you the best.

Cheryl Pickett
publishinganswers.com

These are almost an exact duplicate of the goals of the Girl Scouts (and probably other similar organizations). Maybe explore tie-ins to them.
Try to get your poducts placed beside Scouting items in hobby shops, sports stores, camping/outdoor stores and other places that sell Scouting gear. I can also see your product as a give-away at events and conferences that promote development of girls’ interest in challenging careers. After-school care programs (often run by YMCAs) might be interested too. What about product placements on those preteen shows?
Good luck.

Women are the most profilic bloggers online and I am sure they all want to make their girls even happier, I would start chatting about being mompreneurs, and you could even see how some of these ladies would like to invest in your cards, I think it’s a truly wonderful idea and much needed!

Create your own culture and I would find some girls of your target audience to start a little group in return for something they love, and then get them to blog, facebook and put stuff on Myspace for you! With a bit of supervision where necessary. I mean given that they are your target audience, you could even part with a bit of the company to them, which I am sure they would love as would their parents.

So, I’d get the Secret, or ‘Ask and It’s Given,’ to understand the Laws of attraction and get really clear on the situations and the finances etc that you ideally want.

Get blogging to other mums, and consider asking for them to invest in your company, this could even be short-term as long as they see the ROI, I am sure it would work!

Get contacting some of the girls and get them involved, as a kind of support / creative group, to blog, facebook etc. they are your target so are your best possible voice!!

The beauty with the net is that the old style of anything is being blown out of the water. It’s interactive now, it’s peer-voted, so blogs and social media are soooooooooo important as it’s now a two-way conversation online between you and your target market:)

Wonderfully cool idea:)

Namaste,

Carrie Eddins
brainyblondbusiness@gmail.com

Cute idea. I have a few ’shoestring’ and guerilla marketing ideas for you:

(1) Try partnering with a company that sells a self-esteem based game, software program or book geared toward your target group. See if they would be willing to offer some kind of coupon and maybe build your trading cards into their price. So every time one of their products is sold, you get a sale as well. You can pay them their reseller commission and keep the difference.

(2) Contact some camps and conferences geared towards girls/women/parents or even socialization, quality of life well-being and other related themes. See if one- they would be interested in purchasing the cards and giving them away in a thank you bag and/or two- if you could speak there or host a workshop on tween and self-esteem (you will have to get creative with your speaking topics).

(3) Mom’s groups, community centers and after-school programs in your county/state may be a good way to put up a little stand where people can take a flyer or card.

(4) Don’t be afraid to contact schools. See if the schools might want to send home a note to parents. Or contact the school system and see if they would be willing to send out the notification on your behalf.

(5) Child Therapists/Children’s doctor offices- See if you can find a directory and ask them if they might be willing to do some distribution for you.

Hope this is enough to get you started and trigger some more ideas.

Good luck.

Shonika

my question to you is why are you afraid of taking on more risk? at some point (I presume) your goal is to sell a whole mess of cards, which means a whole mess of orders and inventory, etc.

throw away the idea of shoestring budgets forever. who needs ‘em?

to solve 1)
find a factoring company. take your orders from wal-mart or target, etc., to the company and once they see you have a large order, they give you the capital you need to fill it (technically they buy your receivables, not loan it to you), and out comes a percentage for their troubles.

or

rewrite the business plan and figure out how much money you need to fill these orders for the next year, and ask someone rich for it. there is more money looking for great ideas/companies/products like yours, than there are great entrepreneurs like yourself making it happen. there is a private world of money looking for that 30% ROC. If you don’t know what ROC means, look it up on wikipedia! it’ll make you rich.

2) find a partner, a huge company whose products complement yours, and ride their coattails. again, they are looking for the next big thing, and you just may have it.

3) web is only one channel of sales. open others.