Advertising and marketing for online business

[George76]

I run a business selling commissioned artwork and need to get a bit more business than I am atm, most of my work is word of mouth at the moment and I am worried about sustainability.

Can you offer any advice on how to get my name out there? I've tried ppc but it didn't go well!

Offline:
Flyering local homes (worried about this one as orders are taken online not locally, do people really go online from a flyer?)
Local advert in the paper
Local posters


Online:
My blog
forum posting
directories

Do you have any suggestions? I suppose it will be trial and error but would love some advice please!

 

[arfurd]

Hi George,

Have a look at the following post:

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=175754

This could probably work the same for you also.

Regards

 

[danielmeade]

Hi George,

You mentioned you had a blog, is it possible for consumers to purchase your products from the site?

If so you may want to look at using facebook to generate a few leads, set up a fan page which will show case your work but will also act as a place for you to communicate with, and engage with people interested in your artwork. Facebook has a fantastic advertising platform that will work brilliant for your business, you'll be able to target people within your area, of a certain age etc

It's definitely worth a trial, you decide how much you are willing to spend each day, once you have reached that limit that's it, you wont be charged any more.

 

[Mike W]

As Daniel Meade says, the social media networks would be a great place to gain exposure. Don't agree it matters if you sell or not via your blog though .... although selling online it would obviously help.

Regards

Mike

 

[4little1s]

Email marketing can be very cost effective.

 

[CraigieDD]

I run a business selling commissioned artwork and need to get a bit more business than I am atm, most of my work is word of mouth at the moment and I am worried about sustainability.
!

Ok, so you need to know where the people who are interested in your product stay and hang out.

I've tried ppc but it didn't go well!

Really? I'd have thought this is a niche market so should have worked well. Was it that you were not getting traffic or not converting? Just started a campaign for a large client and saved them £7,500 and increased their traffic at the same time, so I'm in a good position to advise.


Offline:
Flyering local homes (worried about this one as orders are taken online not locally, do people really go online from a flyer?)

How are you selecting the homes? What message are you putting out there, what call to action are you putting out?

Local advert in the paper
Again, research your audience. Most local advertising simply doesn't work. If you find a publication that has and audience that matches your target market, then give them a story to write about you and get some editorial.

Local posters
Same as local media. Does it really work? Have you got a time barred STRONG call to action? Test and measure, spend what you can afford to lose.


Online:
My blog
Try and post it once a day, keep the language natural and post genuinely interesting stuff, with links to content in your website. Allow comments, and put in social media linking - we can help you with this.

forum posting
Obviously, this works, we're talking to you right now. ;-) Why not start your own forum at the same time? We can help you with this.

directories
Make sure their relevant and don't pay for any inclusion unless the page rank you're going to be on is high. Make the keywords the same in the link text the same as the keywords that your targetting - see google's keyword tool for examples.

 

[Olliver]

Hey,

If I was you I would first get a custom Facebook Fan Page made. The best is when on this Fanpage you don't just show pictures of some of your current art pieces but if you would actually put all art pieces including their prices on there. With the FBML's you can create great picture slides and other effects that keep your potential clients on your Facebook site.

That will increase your word of mouth marketing in a way that people can be referred over Facebook and through all the pictures they actually stay on the Facebook site and don't just have a quick glance at it. These days its not enough to just show a few pictures, you will need a custom FBML.

You said PPC did not work. Have you tried Facebook PPC? I have had great returns for my customers through my Facebook ads.

Also what are your search engine rankings? You might want to look at improving them. I have a lot of customers who have been ranking on position 10 / 9 on google and believed it would be enough but truth be told it is not. Under position 5 you only get 2% of the actual traffic.

 

[denwy8]

I run a business selling commissioned artwork and need to get a bit more business than I am atm, most of my work is word of mouth at the moment and I am worried about sustainability.

Can you offer any advice on how to get my name out there? I've tried ppc but it didn't go well!

Offline:
Flyering local homes (worried about this one as orders are taken online not locally, do people really go online from a flyer?)
Local advert in the paper
Local posters


Online:
My blog
forum posting
directories

Do you have any suggestions? I suppose it will be trial and error but would love some advice please!

Actually, offline marketing can help you a lot. Continue with your fliers. Contact your friends and their friends. Don't belittle the power of word of mouth. It will help your business grow whether it's online or offline.

 

[George76]

Thanks everyone for all the help! I really appreciate it.

I've got a blog but I will post every day now rather than a few times a week.

I do have a facebook set up for it but its a little lethargic to say the least, again I think its got to be kept alive every day and get people talking. Also I'll sort out getting a nice custom look and a focal point!

Flyers I've not done yet, I kept toying with the idea but have now ordered them. My main focus is on families and pet owners so I'm targetting houses around the school areas and pet shops and vets. There has to be a strong reason to get people to bother coming online and ordering so I'm thinking of the best way to do that

Facebook ads I've not tried but I will do now, do you advertise your facebook page and then drive traffic from there, or do you put the ad up for your actual website?

This is a side project after my main e-commerce site. My main site is very different so I am struggling a little. After a long period of illness where there wan't much I could do, both have suffered and so I'm making up for lost time.

What rankings I did have before are worse obviously now and I really want to get into the top 3 at least for my main keywords. At the moment, after not working and having no financial support during this time, I don't have the money to pay for help. I know I need it and will find the help once I can get the money together.

Writing back and reading all of your suggestions has made me realise a few things! I've thought about doing a lot of different things but ended up so unsure of where to focus my energy that I've not made a good contribution to any. I'll forge out a plan and stick to it and see how it goes.

Once again, thanks for the support it has helped me get a clearer idea of where to go from here!

 

[Ian Feingold]

have you tried www.myebook.com to show examples of the work? really easy to use...

 

[SearchBlogger]

My suggestion would be to get yourself known locally as much as you can. Is there any way you could rent space in a local shopping centre for example to show off your work and get to speak to people?

I know some business owners who've done this in conjunction with running a competition and it's a good way to get email addresses (make sure you have permission of course) for future campaigns.