Forum Moderators: buckworks
Any help would be appreciated.
if your site is any good and looks professional then a Press Release is the way to go.
This can work wonders if you get someone good to write the copy, and submit it to the right newswires.
Shak
Sticky me with your industry and ill post some generic marketing ideas (dont worry mods - non related, no specifics! :))
JOAT
how about sending a cdrom to possible clients with our range of services featured? like an ebrochure. does anyone think that they would take the time to actually load a cd from an unknown company?
This type of campaign can produce a very positive ROI if you send only to *very* targeted prospects.
One way to significantly boost conversions is to pre-qualify your prospects by driving traffic to a pre-sell page and only send the CDRoms to those that opt-in and complete a questionnaire.
Sorry about the delay in reponse - actually being doing some work this week! ;)
BACKGROUND:
From Troi's sticky it seems he offers a selction of different widgets (products) and sprockets (services) that could be easily all targetted to one market, or individually to different niche markets.
Although some of these will require a revenue stream before hand to make sales possible.
ANSWER:
Troi, as you have a range of products, you want to take each one as an individual, and sit down and write a list of who would possibly buy these.
As most of your customers would be businesses, list by industry and type.
When you have done this for every product, you can use this list to target markets for each and work out if it may be worthwhile targetting more than one product or service at a time.
Also, try to consider possible alternative uses for the products. You can do this and promote your product at the same time.
For example, say you identified company x as a consumer of your type of product. Call them up and offer a free trail in exchange for some feedback (tell them youll quote them on your website with a link back).
Dont call it a free trail though. "Free" scares people. Too many strings attached.
Personally, I would send them a quick email and say something along the lines of:
"Hi,
I am webmaster of www.mydomain.com, a widget service for the sprocket industry.
As we are newly established, we are keen to establish business relationships with the leading companies in this sector and gain some feedback on our product / service.
If we provided you with <one months trial / 50 courtesy widgets / blah blah> would it be possible for you give us some feedback on it that we could publish on our website? Naturually, we will add a link and some company background on our site as will, should you wish this.
I would appreciate your feedback on this.
blah blah"
You are getting several things from this:
>Raising awareness of your company brand and services offered.
>Reinforcing your brand on your site with a company referal.
>Market research on your product.
>Content for your site.
>Potential new customer.
Some points to note:
>Any content they provide for your site should be useful for your users as well as promote you.
>Ask them to answer a few questions about your products (not too many, just a few - ie what would you use this service for?)
>Anything free you give them must not be just promotional material. It will lie around their office for a month and you will get inaccurate feedback. Try to offer something that would be of actual benefit to them.
The benefits of this are that you can do it on as large or as small a scale as you please. I would suggest picking companies personally and contacting them one by one.
NEXT TIP:
Its been said over and over again - more content!:)
For your products, you should be looking to continualy add suggestions for alternate uses.
CD BROCHURE
Back to my point above - sent tools and decent information - not marketing material.
RELATED SERVICES
Find businesses that are compatible with yours and arrange an exchange or referrals.
IE, if you are offering a car valeting service, find a garage that doesnt offer this service and offer to provide it. Its added value for them at no cost and no competition.
FINAL WORD
Basically, you want to get a good idea of people who will buy your product.
Note, this may differ from the people you think will buy your product!
Then an idea of where they will buy it and how. Get your products there. Offer them to retailers of similar products for resales.
Offer good support and useful info on your website (havent looked at it BTW, so you may have that already).
Take the time to contact other businesses personally. Get to know the contacts and let them get to know you. The best marketing opportunities arise from informal conversations and networking.
As you build your brand and reputation (and your website) over time, your sales with grow as well.
Go get em tiger! ;)
JOAT :)
Im knackered now....
actually been doing some work this week!...
;)
Craig
Ill let you know how it pans out.
JOAT ;)
lol actually ive working on my own sites! 9 new articles added yesterday - ive been busy...
