Marketing my website

[jali]

Hello

We have just launched our website - thefurnitureseller.co.uk and now we need to market it, i am taking out two ads, one in the mag section of the sunday times and one in the back of living etc.

I am very wary of adwords.

Any tips or advise would be more than welcome

mandy

[Subbynet]

Hi Mandy,

If you wish to trade links, or even to list your products on a furniture website which I own feel free contact me and I'll send you details.

By swapping links with linkminded sites you will improve your Search Engine position and hopefully drive more people to your website.

[kimmrunner]

You need to capture the names and at least email addresses of everyone who comes to your site: you should use the site as a front end for a direct marketing business - contacting your customers every couple of weeks with another offer.

You are unlikely to get national advertising to pay for itself in immediate sales: the benefit is in lifetime value of customer sign ups.

So offer something like a 20% off first purchase voucher to anyone who comes to the site and registers on their first visit - and use a slide in sign up autoresponder panel

The site isnt bad but it could still do with your USP in bigger lettering - and putting a smiling face next to a support telephone number will help your conversion

And put a massive deal for a small item right there on the first fold: even if you only breakeven, once you have names you can contact them with a newsletter and future offers.

Finally consider selling on ebay - at breakeven just to get customers into your pipeline - then put a good offer in the box you send out with your site url for the offer.

[kimmrunner]

Hah!

Just noticed the competition! It is a good idea, but make it the first thing people see. I missed it first time round.

[jali]

Thanx everyone for the tips - much appreciated.

Mandy

[jali]

Thanx Kimmrunner for all that info - it will take me a while to get my head round it but when i do i shall be having a word with my designer.

[Chelltune]

I've added your comp to Loquax as I couldn't see it listed on there, that should get some traffic to your site.

www.acpr.co.uk (http://www.acpr.co.uk) and www.prbasics.co.uk (http://www.prbasics.co.uk) has some tips for marketing sites.

Have you thought of putting something on the back window of your car? I have my link on there. I was stopped in the park today and asked for info about my site after someone saw my car. I just have plain white lettering, nothing fancy. These cost about £10.

[jali]

Chelltune

Thanx for adding our comp.

mandy

[Chelltune]

No problem, you could also adding it to the forums on moneysavingexpert.com, ggfree, ukwins, theprizefinder, etc.

[natureday]

You need to make your customers trust you!
And Make them comfortable.

[Simon First Angel Film]

Hi Mandy

I think you're right to be wary of adwords - they do increase traffic for sure, but their actual value? Well I'm still finding out so I'll let you know when I get my results! As yet though, traffic to my site is up, but the enquiry rate THROUGH my pay per click is still very low.

As you've already heard, linking with relevant sites combined with regular new/revised content is key.

Good luck!

[SteveGibson]

I think you're right to be wary of adwords - they do increase traffic for sure, but their actual value?

The value is that you can target people who are looking for your product/services and bring them to your site.

I'm not saying everyone should use Adwords, it's not a magic bullet, but it's one of the best - and quickest - ways to get people to a site.

traffic to my site is up, but the enquiry rate THROUGH my pay per click is still very low.

"Still very low", does that mean it was low before?

Adwords can bring people to a site, but it can't make that site convert.

I've said this before and I'll say it again: whether adwords can make you a profit is based on whether your income per visitor is greater than your cost per click.

And, if a website doesn't convert well, that's a marketing problem that exists whether or not you use Adwords.

And whatever marketing you do to bring traffic to that site is likely to produce a low return.

Steve

[Words of Magic]

I can understand why people are wary of adwords especially if they've had their fingers burnt in the past. Your right to be wary, it is an easy way of losing a lot of money fast if you dont know what your doing.

Like steve mentioned its all about doing your maths. What you need to do is sit down and work out your value per visitor and then calculate your cost per click when buying relevant phases related to your business. Then your in a position to determine what you need to break even and make a profit. Without the right landing page or website it doesnt matter if you use adwords or any other marketing vehicle, it will deliver very little results.

Wishing you all the succcess in the world,

[jali]

Hi Mandy,

If you wish to trade links, or even to list your products on a furniture website which I own feel free contact me and I'll send you details.

By swapping links with linkminded sites you will improve your Search Engine position and hopefully drive more people to your website.


Do you want to send me some info

mandy

[jali]

You are unlikely to get national advertising to pay for itself in immediate sales: the benefit is in lifetime value of customer sign ups.

So offer something like a 20% off first purchase voucher to anyone who comes to the site and registers on their first visit - and use a slide in sign up autoresponder panel

The site isnt bad but it could still do with your USP in bigger lettering - and putting a smiling face next to a support telephone number will help your conversion

And put a massive deal for a small item right there on the first fold: even if you only breakeven, once you have names you can contact them with a newsletter and future offers.

Finally consider selling on ebay - at breakeven just to get customers into your pipeline - then put a good offer in the box you send out with your site url for the offer.

Hi Kimmrunner

Can you pls answer the following:

What is a slide in?

Are you saying (usp) that we should make sure everyone sees the following first?

Free delivery - competition - great products - unbeatable prices -

I thought that at least the great products = great prices stood out, can you p[ls take another look and advise.

regarding the massive deal and breaking even - surely we would only get the names of those that went for the deal and that would possibly be very few.

What do you mean by getting people into your pipeline? i assume this means a few products on ebay that lead to our website - do we have to have an ebay shop for this or not?

Finally you'll be glad to hear we have put our competion on a comp site and have gained a few emails that way - your advice is much appreciated!!!!

Mandy

[jali]

I have added my competion to a few competition websites - can anyone tell me if this is not a good idea i.e a third party having my mailing list.

It seems to be working though ive recieved nearly 200 addresses in three days - thanx Chelltune

mandy

[elliotj@searchlogic.com]

Hi Jali,

All these comments relating to adwords are very true, though you should bear in mind the time frames you're looking at before passing judgement - Quality Score in adwords is a vital and often overlooked component of any campaign - and you really need to be running an account for several weeks before you can even begin to gauge the effectiveness of it.

The most important factor has to be, for someone with limited budget, to target the longer tailed key phrases - you'll get less traffic, but it will be highly targeted and your CPC will be substantially lower than for a broad matching generic keyphrase.

In an ideal world you could hope to have an entire campaign built around exact match keyphrases, bu as mentioned earlier it can prove an expensive practice getting it right through trial and error.

If you have the time and inclination (!) try haing a read through Google Adwords Learning Centre - it's weighty but very helpful.

But certainly do not be fearful of Adwords - if done correctly it can prove to be the most bespoke, targeted and trackable form of advertising available.

I'd be more than happy to give you a few pointers on it...

Best

Elliot

[jali]

Hi Elliott:redface:

Thanx for you advice it is much appreciated but can you please explain what you mean by 'target the longer tailed key phrases' do you mean its better/cheaper to put - 'white painted chateau french furniture' instead of 'french furniture' - 'white painted furniture' and 'chateau furniture'

and also 'broad matching generic keyphrase' is this say 'furniture' and loads will click on it because its so broad and therefore cost me loads

mandy

[Decalz]

I do alot of website addresses for back windows, it does make a difference. Saying that my whole car is a working advert really as people can see the sort of work I do.

Anyhow, if you want a vinyl decal made up for your window, give us a shout.

[elliotj@searchlogic.com]

Hi Mandy,

you're spot on with the definition of 'longer tailed keyphrases' - ie. 'white painted chateau french furniture' will have substantially fewer enquiries than 'Furniture' - but if you supply 'white painted chateau french furniture' that enquiry will be FAR more likely to convert into a sale than someone who typed in 'furniture' and was presented with your result - but was actually looking for a sofa...

Broad match is a term used in Paid Search - where your ad will appear when that keyword/phrase is typed anywhere in the search term - so you might have a broad match generic keyphrase 'furniture' and as a result your ad will show if someone types 'furniture' but will also appear if someone types 'white painted chateau french furniture' as furniture is in that search term.

On the other side of the coin, exact match is where your ad wont appear unless exactly what you have chosen is typed - with no deviation - so a user would need to type 'white painted chateau french furniture' to see your ad - you could also integrate misspells to maximise your coverage.

In summary - you'll find it is cheaper and potentially more effective to structure your campaign around longer tailed keywords rather than shorter more generic ones, as the quality of enquiries will be much higher - maning a greater chance of converting into customers.


Hope that helps...

[jali]

Thanx Elliott

Its starting to sink in but i'm still not sure about one thing.

Ok lets face it , its very unlikely that anyone is going to search for 'white painted chateau french furniture' in that order etc, so should i put different search terms in around that sentence i.e 1. white furniture 2. french furniture, 3. chateau furniture 4. painted furniture 5. white painted furniture etc. Is this the best way for us to do it if we are on a very tight budget ?

Your input is much appreciated

Mandy

[elliotj@searchlogic.com]

Hi MAndy,

The best bet would be to have more keywords (for adwords a good campaing would have thousands) covering all eventualities - so you would keep you 'white painted chateau french furniture' because you'd be paying next to nothing for it if someone were to key it in - and, unlikely as you would think -0 people type odd stuff in to the search box!

If you're looking at SEO, starting with a longer tailed keyword will mean you're already working on the shorter ones: 'white painted chateau french furniture' contains the word 'furniture' -your short tailed keyword... which the search engines will recognise...

I would suggest that with a small budget you want to make sure that every hit to your website counts - so go for keywords that advertise your specific products - so if you sell 'louis XIV furniture' have that as a keyword but also have it as 'louis the fourteenth furniture' - also have specific keywords for specific products - so if you have a 'white french antique chair' have that as a keyword and make sure the adwords ad links directly to that chair (known as landing page optimisation) - but also have 'French antique furniture' etc. to cover peripheral traffic and enquiries. Also it's always good to include your USP (unique selling point) if you can - so if your chairs are exclusive - add that! if they're cheaper than the competition, again let potential customers know - you'll get enquiries coming for 'cheap french furniture' and 'affordable french furniture' - this could be valable traffic and potentially convert if you supply what they are after - so remember to cover all eventualities - loads of specific keywords will be much better than a few broad ones!

Hope that's a reasonable starting block for you?

[Blue Skies]

I run a local magazine in SW London - Im running a free page listing websites (free for the next couple of months). Give me a ring and I'll add your website - 079 060 94316

[Trikke Uk]

My website is www.trikkeuk.com (http://www.trikkeuk.com) if you need any jpeg files pics etc I can email you this. We have sold quite a few in the SW area!!