marketing advice for online conference call business

[brsdja]

Hi, would love your advice on how best to market my online business:

www.ConferenceGenie.co.uk

The business provides free conference calls in the UK. It beats the competition face down (no fee, local telephone call rate, no booking etc etc).

Also your immediate impression of the web site.

The business is not high margin so needs low cost ways of adverting. Also ideas around allowing others to badge and re-sell the service.

Thanks

Jon Appleton

[Sarah-Ink Promotions]

A client of mine who provides telephone and video conference facilities always uses plastic cards (like credit cards) which she sends to the companies with her details and service details on as well as the web address, think it must work quite well as she orders quite a few on a regular basis.

Hope that has been of some help!!

Sarah :)

[directmarketingadvice]

Hi, would love your advice on how best to market my online business:

Are we expected to do our own market research or are you going to tell us who you'd like to market to? :)

Also your immediate impression of the web site

From the picture (also because of the font of the heading), it looks like it's a service aimed at teenage girls.

Which may or may not be true.

Also, if I were you, I'd explain why it is free.

Most people know that businesses don't offer services for nothing.

There's always going to be someone who makes money from it and someone who pays for it. And, if you don't say who, why and how, it makes some people uneasy (like me).

Steve

[Janebert]

I agree with Steve's comments. I would also add that the site looks somewhat under-designed - a bit "bare bones" if you will, and as such, doesn't inspire me with confidence to use your services. What it does highlight is that such services exist (because I would not want to put on a teleclass/teleconference using an 0870 number), and so you may just have advertised your competition.

I'd also be asking questions about your gearing. If you're operating on low margins, then presumably you need high numbers of customers to make any significant amount of money. But if you're markeing budget is low or non-existent, then how are you going to reach the numbers of people you need to reach in order to make profit or enough money to live on? Isn't it usually the case that high margin businesses (eg. one person consulting businesses) need to spend less on marketing because they might only need 5 or 10 projects per year? Whereas volume/low margin businesses like Dixons or Easijet need to spend huge amounts on marketing and advertising.

I'm just wondering if this business model works, and if so, how. Is it time to go back to the business plan? I just find it slightly odd that you're asking people on a forum to help you create your marketing plan!

Jane :)