Boosting Online Exposure with Off-line marketing

[Ashanti Brazil]

Hello All

What are your thoughts on the importance of boosting online exposure with off-line marketing techniques?
Should this be done by partnering up with local businesses? Sponsoring events? Any suggestions?

Or is online marketing a far more effective form of advertising an online business?

 

[AllUpHere]

What sort of budget do you have for all of your marketing activities on a monthly basis?

 

[Ashanti Brazil]

What sort of budget do you have for all of your marketing activities on a monthly basis?

So far we've managed with mainly word of mouth and free advertising. The monthly advertising budget is not very high as we are a new company.

 

[Manpreet]

Hey Ashanti,

I would like to suggest you a method of online marketing. With on-line marketing you can boost your online exposure easily. Here you can advertiste about your business, let your customers know about upcoming events and many more. As there are various ways like social sites posting, blog commenting, forum discussion etc. which helps you to generate your business.

Thanks
Manpreet

 

[Ashanti Brazil]

Thanks Manpreet!
Do you think that with log commenting it can be viewed as spam if I include my web link? Or that's acceptable ?

Hey Ashanti,

I would like to suggest you a method of online marketing. With on-line marketing you can boost your online exposure easily. Here you can advertiste about your business, let your customers know about upcoming events and many more. As there are various ways like social sites posting, blog commenting, forum discussion etc. which helps you to generate your business.

Thanks
Manpreet

 

[mixtureofmarket]

Hello! I think if you wanted to boost in your online exposure you should set up first a site or a blog to publish and market your products. You can set up for free in wordpress.com and if you have a budget enough, you can buy the domain and publish your own business sites. SEO can also help you in ranking your website. A major plus in online exposure will be the social media, so aside from site building you also have to create social media accounts as well. In this way your customers can reach you easier.

 

[Ashanti Brazil]

Thanks for this.
I actually already have a well established website ...Google Ashanti Brazil (not sure if I'm allowed to post the link).
I also have a good social media following : 7k on Facebook and more than 20k on Instagram and 1k in twitter.

I'm interested in how to grow
even more daily visitors to my website .

Hello! I think if you wanted to boost in your online exposure you should set up first a site or a blog to publish and market your products. You can set up for free in wordpress.com and if you have a budget enough, you can buy the domain and publish your own business sites. SEO can also help you in ranking your website. A major plus in online exposure will be the social media, so aside from site building you also have to create social media accounts as well. In this way your customers can reach you easier.

 

[fallschirmjaeger]

Thanks for this.
I actually already have a well established website ...Google Ashanti Brazil (not sure if I'm allowed to post the link).
I also have a good social media following : 7k on Facebook and more than 20k on Instagram and 1k in twitter.

I'm interested in how to grow
even more daily visitors to my website .

You have a great looking site IMO! and seem to have all the social media connections covered!

One think that you may want to consider is to always send out advertising flyers with each order. Possibly two. This way if the customer likes the product they can pass a flyer onto a friend and have one for their own reference. You can also consider discount coupons to help entice the customers back. I use this and if you have a reference/discount number you can track the success of the offline marketing. Thats my two pence worth!

 

[fisicx]

I'm interested in how to grow
even more daily visitors to my website .

Do you want more visitors or do you want to sell more products?

 

[Ashanti Brazil]

You have a great looking site IMO! and seem to have all the social media connections covered!

One think that you may want to consider is to always send out advertising flyers with each order. Possibly two. This way if the customer likes the product they can pass a flyer onto a friend and have one for their own reference. You can also consider discount coupons to help entice the customers back. I use this and if you have a reference/discount number you can track the success of the offline marketing. Thats my two pence worth!

Really great advice regarding the flyers! Will definitely look into that.

 

[Ashanti Brazil]

Really great advice regarding the flyers! Will definitely look into that.

Both ideally. But predominately sell more products. Sometime a social media following is not enough to draw visitors and more specifically, buyers to the website, as they usually have to leave the current social media page they are on.
I am currently onto my web designers to increase the size of the thumbnails to give people better visibility of products when they are scrolling on the mobile and tablet format.
Any other advice or tips?

 

[fisicx]

THere are loads of things you can do to improve conversions - but site reviews are only for full members.

Do not focus on social media. Unless all those twitter followers actually visit the site and buy stuff they have little value. Your USP seems to be connections with fashion bloggers. Are you advertising on their sites?

 

[Manpreet]

Hey Ashanti,

Blog commenting is an essential procedure for interaction between blogs, bloggers and blog readers. May be you have noticed, the blog commenting system of blogging i.e WP have all the options like Name, Email and also URL field. Here you can include URL of you website,from where traffic comes to your site.
So, no need to worry you can put your web link, firstly create your strong profile after then start posting link's there. It will be helpful to you.

Thanks

 

[fisicx]

Blog commenting is an essential procedure for interaction between blogs, bloggers and blog readers.

I hope you aren't suggesting that blog commenting will bring in visitors. If this is the case then you are 100% wrong.

 

[AllUpHere]

I hope you aren't suggesting that blog commenting will bring in visitors. If this is the case then you are 100% wrong.

Let's not be negative. He's 99% wrong.

 

[fallschirmjaeger]

Have you considered adverts in Fashion magazines? I guess these could be expensive but again they can be trackable and ROI can be determined if you use discount coupons. I have not tried this but have been tempted.

 

[Ashanti Brazil]

THere are loads of things you can do to improve conversions - but site reviews are only for full members.

Do not focus on social media. Unless all those twitter followers actually visit the site and buy stuff they have little value. Your USP seems to be connections with fashion bloggers. Are you advertising on their sites?

Yes the fashion bloggers post direct links on their sites to my website and to the specific item they are wearing from Ashanti Brazil. This brings in excellent traffic and sales, but the continued momentum is what is really needed.

 

[AllUpHere]

Yes the fashion bloggers post direct links on their sites to my website and to the specific item they are wearing from Ashanti Brazil. This brings in excellent traffic and sales, but the continued momentum is what is really needed.

I think this will probably be the first and only time I will give this particular advice on this forum (as usually I'm a fan of direct response advertising, and techniques which simply and directly bring in the cash) but what you need is a marketing strategy based around PR and exposure of your 'brand' to those with influence in the industry you are in.

The problem you have, is that with the budget you have, you are not going to be able to pay a PR professional with relevant contacts to sort it out for you. What you need is to find some kind of advantage, and use that to develop a way of increasing the influence you have over the bloggers who send you traffic. You should also look to use this advantage (or better still advantages) to increase the circle of bloggers sending you traffic.

I'd love to be able to tell you what these advantages could be, but without having a decent profile of your target market, we're a bit blinkered.

 

[Ashanti Brazil]

My target market is 18-26 year old females. These females find new brands predominately through fashion bloggers. They are interested in following the style of their favourite celebrity actress, singer or reality star. They share content through social media and use it as a way to communicate. They love trendy, cool online fashion finds at reasonable prices. Hope that info helps at bit.

Have you considered adverts in Fashion magazines? I guess these could be expensive but again they can be trackable and ROI can be determined if you use discount coupons. I have not tried this but have been tempted.

I'm not certain just how useful and widely read fashion magazines are for my target market. I personally discover new brands predominately online, and feel that the 18-26 yr old target market also do. Magazines are read mainly when there is no wifi (like on the aeroplane

I think this will probably be the first and only time I will give this particular advice on this forum (as usually I'm a fan of direct response advertising, and techniques which simply and directly bring in the cash) but what you need is a marketing strategy based around PR and exposure of your 'brand' to those with influence in the industry you are in.

The problem you have, is that with the budget you have, you are not going to be able to pay a PR professional with relevant contacts to sort it out for you. What you need is to find some kind of advantage, and use that to develop a way of increasing the influence you have over the bloggers who send you traffic. You should also look to use this advantage (or better still advantages) to increase the circle of bloggers sending you traffic.

I'd love to be able to tell you what these advantages could be, but without having a decent profile of your target market, we're a bit blinkered.

 

[fisicx]

Magazines are read mainly when there is no wifi (like on the aeroplane

Have you visited a hair salon recently? There are magazines everywhere. All of the lifestyle magazines are read by your traget customers.

There are loads of things you can do to increase sales through the site, join as a full member and you can get a full review

 

[Jasmine_analyst]

I hope that you must have heard about "INBOUND" and "OUTBOUND" marketing.

I often read that Outbound marketing is no more beneficial for business leads and the all emphasis is now on Inbound marketing.

I agree to it but till some extent. I always say, every business has different marketing approach. From baby products to Body building supplements.

So, I would suggest you to analyze what is your target market or audience. Just use your insights to see if you would at their place selling similar product to yours what medium would suit you.

Eg... I am pretty sure that marketing for new Baby/ Kids products can work brilliantly on television as it will do on Social Media (Facebook)

In this you are covering two types of customers... via TV commercial the kids (depending on age and product) and other mothers or parents on Facebook

So, it all depends on your product and its prospective audience.

/// As you are low on budget... after analyzing the most effective medium of marketing for your product.... make it a priority and keep other inbound techniques handy like part of your daily routine to cover up the cost of Outbound Marketing (in case, you opted for it)

 

[Ashanti Brazil]

Have you visited a hair salon recently? There are magazines everywhere. All of the lifestyle magazines are read by your traget customers.

There are loads of things you can do to increase sales through the site, join as a full member and you can get a full review

Very true. Hair salons are another place that magazines are read. However I am a little older than my target and never see young females reading magazines at the salons, they are always on their phones...myself included. I do think digital marketing is more powerful.
I love magazines for advertising but feel that I won't get the correct ROI for my target market.

 

[fallschirmjaeger]

Very true. Hair salons are another place that magazines are read. However I am a little older than my target and never see young females reading magazines at the salons, they are always on their phones...myself included. I do think digital marketing is more powerful.
I love magazines for advertising but feel that I won't get the correct ROI for my target market.

Maybe just try it in the most likely magazine for say 3 months. Make sure your advert is trackable. Assuming you get the right magazine and its trackable advert then you can see if you are getting ROI. Sometimes you have to test! Having said this, I've not done magazine marketing yet so cannot fully endorse it, but i am thinking about it. I have had a product review in a magazine thats another way to go and its free advertising assuming the product is given a positive review!

 

[Ashanti Brazil]

Yes could be a good idea.
Will look into it and compare it to advertising on an online magazine. I will see which one suits the budget better.

Maybe just try it in the most likely magazine for say 3 months. Make sure your advert is trackable. Assuming you get the right magazine and its trackable advert then you can see if you are getting ROI. Sometimes you have to test! Having said this, I've not done magazine marketing yet so cannot fully endorse it, but i am thinking about it. I have had a product review in a magazine thats another way to go and its free advertising assuming the product is given a positive review!

 

[mixtureofmarket]

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[mixtureofmarket]

Thanks for this.
I actually already have a well established website ...Google Ashanti Brazil (not sure if I'm allowed to post the link).
I also have a good social media following : 7k on Facebook and more than 20k on Instagram and 1k in twitter.

I'm interested in how to grow
even more daily visitors to my website .

Sorry for the previous post. I made a mistake on quoting and had to delete the previous post. Wow you had an awesome connection with your clients! I think then since you've garnered a lot of clients already the next step you should do is to maintain your connection with them. Update your page regularly by posting image, quotes, facts, trivia and communicate with them. If you reached out in your clients or audience they will visit your page regularly.