Dear Sellers,

We are happy to say we snagged an interview with esteemed marketing man, Seth Godin. As part of our series, A Dude's Perspective, we're exploring ways to connect with that mysterious creature — the male shopper. Seth offers advice about your indie businesses, how "thinking small is the new big" and Etsy in general in a thought-provoking and, dare I say, revolutionary manner.

Seth, can you please introduce yourself and tell us a little about what you're working on these days?
I'm Seth Godin. I write one of the most popular blogs in the world. I've written 11 bestsellers about marketing, how ideas spread and treating people with respect. I used to run an internet marketing and sweepstakes company that became part of Yahoo! years ago and now I run squidoo.com, the second best website in the world (after Etsy, of course).

If you want to check out Squidoo, you can see my page there: www.squidoo.com/seth. I hope you'll build a page about your Etsy stuff. Here's a great example: www.squidoo.com/polkadotsandpaisley

What do you see as advantages for indie artists and designers (vs. large companies) when it comes to marketing their products? What do you see as the drawbacks?
Here's something I wrote a little while ago that I hope will make it clear what a huge advantage you have right now:

Big used to matter. Big meant economies of scale. (You never hear about “economies of tiny,” do you?) People, usually guys, often ex-Marines, wanted to be CEO of a big company. The Fortune 500 is where people went to make… a fortune.

There was a good reason for this. Value was added in ways that big organizations were good at. Value was added with efficient manufacturing, widespread distribution and very large R&D staffs. Value came from hundreds of operators standing by and from nine-figure TV ad budgets. Value came from a huge sales force.

Of course, it’s not just big organizations that added value. Big planes were better than small ones, because they were faster and more efficient. Big buildings were better than small ones because they facilitated communications and used downtown land quite efficiently. Bigger computers could handle more simultaneous users, as well.

Get Big Fast was the motto for startups, because big companies can go public and get more access to capital and use that capital to get even bigger. Big accounting firms were the place to go to get audited if you were a big company, because a big accounting firm could be trusted. Big law firms were the place to find the right lawyer, because big law firms were a one-stop shop.

And then small happened.

Enron (big) got audited by Andersen (big) and failed (big.) The World Trade Center was a target. TV advertising is collapsing so fast you can hear it. American Airlines (big) is getting creamed by Jet Blue (think small). BoingBoing (four people) has a readership growing a hundred times faster than the New Yorker (hundreds of people).

Big computers are silly. They use lots of power and are not nearly as efficient as properly networked Dell boxes (at least that’s the way it works at Yahoo and Google). Big boom boxes are replaced by tiny ipod shuffles. (Yeah, I know big-screen tvs are the big thing. Can’t be right all the time.)

I’m writing this on a laptop at a skateboard park… that added wifi for parents. Because they wanted to. It took them a few minutes and $50. No big meetings, corporate policies or feasibility studies. They just did it.

Today, little companies often make more money than big companies. Little churches grow faster than worldwide ones. Little jets are way faster (door to door) than big ones.

Today, Craigslist (18 employees) is the fourth most visited site according to some measures. They are partly owned by eBay (more than 4,000 employees) which hopes to stay in the same league, traffic-wise. They’re certainly not growing nearly as fast.

Small means the founder makes a far greater percentage of the customer interactions. Small means the founder is close to the decisions that matter and can make them, quickly.

Small is the new big because small gives you the flexibility to change the business model when your competition changes theirs.

Small means you can tell the truth on your blog.

Small means that you can answer email from your customers.

Small means that you will outsource the boring, low-impact stuff like manufacturing and shipping and billing and packing to others, while you keep the power because you invent the remarkable and tell stories to people who want to hear them.

A small law firm or accounting firm or ad agency is succeeding because they’re good, not because they’re big. So smart small companies are happy to hire them.

A small restaurant has an owner who greets you by name.

A small venture fund doesn’t have to fund big bad ideas in order to get capital doing work. They can make small investments in tiny companies with good (big) ideas.

A small church has a minister with the time to visit you in the hospital when you’re sick.

Is it better to be the head of Craigslist or the head of UPS?

Small is the new big only when the person running the small thinks big.

Don’t wait. Get small. Think big.

Do you think that there is a gender difference in shopping behavior online?  If so, why?
Not so much a gender difference but a gender likelihood. Some women shop as sport. They get as much satisfaction from the hunt as from the catch. Of course, there are men who find the same satisfaction. Your goal, if you're selling to this group, is to make the story and the process just as satisfying as what you're selling.

Can you do a character sketch of the type of man you think would be a customer on Etsy?
"Gee, that's a nice tie."

"Thanks! Let me tell you where I got it..."

That's the guy you want to sell to. The guy who wants to tell a story about the artist or the materials or the process or the fact that he had to make contact to get the thing in the first place.

Have you noticed any particular traits in looking at men's behaviors online and their shopping patterns, especially men who would support the handmade lifestyle?
Treat different customers differently. That's hard to do. It's hard to say, "It's fine with me if some people leave immediately because they don't have patience for my story." Here's an example: www.decware.com.

Considering that making things by hand is not an activity just by women for women, how and why do you think Etsy has evolved to be 96% women?
I think Etsy has grown from person to person recommendation, and many people are likely to recommend to people just like them. Instead of fretting about reaching men, I'd tell you to go reach more women (or the men who think as they do)!

Is there something about the look and feel of the site, you think, that is gendered? Do you think that branding, look and feel, colors, item descriptions play a role in men's decision to purchase?
It's great! I love it. It works. Don't mess with it.

What about marketing to men shopping for themselves vs women shopping for men? Do you have any ideas for which is most effective with which products?
This is a different question. The idea here is that (typical) men want to buy something that makes women think they spent a lot of time and effort, because, after all, they've finally gotten clued in to the fact that the process does matter.

So Etsy needs to offer men a shortcut to the story. They need to offer amazing wrapping. They need to make the story easy to repeat.

What marketing tips would you give sellers who want to orient themselves to non-gender-specific or unisex buyers? Do you see key common points of interest or other major intersections between genders (green/eco-friendly perhaps)?
Grow with your strength. Really.

Big thanks to Seth! We're seeing lots of Etsians using Squidoo — here's a link to see some of the action.  For other Storque marketing posts, click here.