Marketing Strategy Experts Required

[AlexPallex]

Hi all

Im just reaching out to see if anyone can recommend any companies or freelancers who are experts in all aspects of online marketing?

We're a 3 year old e-commerce business going strong but we've never marketed in any form. The website is up and running well but we mainly trade on marketplaces. It looks great but received little traffic and is effectively a blank marketing canvas ready to go. We've never invested in any on/off SEO, email marketing (have an unused list of 20k customers!), social media, regen, content creation etc. We have a decent knowledge in the area but up until now have had no need for it and still have no time to handle it in house (despite thinking we would!).

We're interested in a long term working relationship to increase direct sales through our site, brand recognition, decreasing marketplace dependency etc. We've also developed and are developing our own products which will need similar treatment as well as creating a bricks and mortar offering within the next month.

Any suggestions welcome!

 

[Amy@ Filplastic- Racking]

Firstly, well done for being a e-commerce business that has not just survived, but thrived for 3 years without any marketing. You're certainly doing something right!

I'm in the same position as you, I run all the online (and offline) marketing for our company (storage equipment). My advice would be that for a few aspects of what you're looking for, you should set these up and at least gain a little knowledge on them yourself before getting a consultant involved. I set everything up from scratch and have excellent returns.

Email Marketing - you've got the list, all you need is an html email and to send them out. Mailchimp would be ideal for this. You can use their templates to make your own decent looking mailer. You can buy credits to send the email, and easily drop your list of contacts into there via excel. It's so easy. If you wanted a better email designing, try something like pay per hour initially.

Google Adwords - again you should set this up yourself so that you have all the log in details (should anything go wrong between you and your consultant). I've always done this myself and found building it up slowly the best way.

Social Media - It's easy to set up a Facebook or Linkedin business page, and a twitter account. I don't know what your business sells, but would a person with no expert knowledge be able to post about your products, staff, charity work etc. I don't think this is anything a person outside the business could do. There's probably someone there that would enjoy doing it.

I know you're short of time, but it really is worth gaining a little knowledge of what's involved, before you start negotiating a contract with an outside agency.

 

[magdev]

Here is an interesting post on ecommerce SEO and marketing,
fmeextensions.com ../..blog../.. advance-magento-seo

 

[positivesparks]

Hi Alex
As a web marketing consultant myself, I would agree with what Amy suggests - the more you know about the different channels of web marketing, the better you'll be able to take a truly active role in working with a web marketing partner. That word "partnership" is so important, all of the best projects I have worked on have been true partnerships. As the client, you always know your product/services and audience better than we, as external consultants, can. Where we can work with you most effectively is in helping you find that market in new places online and accelerating what is working for you already. I'll send you a quick PM, just to say Hi, a chat is always free and I'm always open, I'd hope at the very least to leave you with a few ideas and focus points in mind.
Amy, I'd love to say hello to you too sometime too? I'd love to hear what you have learnt about your business online in your web marketing adventures?

 

[webgeek]

Email Marketing - you've got the list, all you need is an html email and to send them out. .

While you CAN just take a list and blast away, there's a lot more to it that can go into email marketing which can mean the difference between success and failure.

The choice of an email service provider vs hosted software. One costs monthly, has staff dedicated to keeping you off the blacklists and a lot of whistles and bells to make life easier. The other is more economical, doesn't charge based on number of emails sent or list size. Which is right?

20,000 clients on the list likely means a number of unsold prospects, a number of regular customers who have bought multiple times, too many who have bought once and have gone cold, etc, etc. Segmenting the list and sending targeted mailings is a leap forward. This 'lead scoring' is the same approach marketing automation software uses to drip feed those nurturing emails which help move someone from cold but open to communication all the way into becoming sales ready leads.

The right frequency of contact makes a big difference. 2x a month has worked well for a number of clients, with one being a very salesy email and the other being more content/editorial. Less frequent and you get higher unsubscribe rates since you have fallen out of the 'front of mind' slot. More frequent and you get higher unsubscribe rates since your too frequent contact is found to be annoying.

Designing a good looking emailer that looks good on mobile phones and desktops alike is no small feat. Get it right and you look like professionals. Get it wrong and you've alienated your top line sales aka clients.

Entire books are written on crafting the subject line, the opening paragraph and the calls to action. The wrong subject line and you go into spam without so much as a glance. The right one and your clickthrough rate is wickedly good.

Knowing the time of day and day of week to send, how to tag your links so they show up in Google Analytics as part of the goal tracking, and 100+ other items of knowledge are what you should expect from the email campaigners at whatever agency you choose to work with.

Content marketing - publishing on domain for organic search traffic
Referral marketing - publishing on someone elses domain for referral traffic and SEO boost
Channel partners - affiliate style relationships where any referrals from them, who buy, result in compensation for the partners
Email - above
PPC - with clicks running £10 to £15, you either need to be selling something with more than £500 or £750 profit per sale, or be prepared to sell as a loss leader - or get crafty with the campaigning to get that CPC down (2% conversion rate = 50 clicks to make a sale, hence 50x10 or 50x15... or 50 x ____ cost per click = ppc cost per sale as a very very rough guideline).
Social - great for SEO validation, a bit of brand awareness, but the ROI is shaky compared to the rest

I'd be thinking medium term about on/off domain publishing as bringing in 60%, ppc another 20% and partners + email responsible for the last 20%. Social would breakeven, barely, but a small %, compared to the rest.

Simple recipe really, but it just works day in and day out.

Food for thought...

 

[SabriM]

Happy to help Alex. Drop me a PM when you have time and we can have a chat.

 

[LowPrices.uk]

Look at the speaker lists for web marketing conferences. One I know of is Search Engine Strategies London.

Look for people that have written books on the subject.

Look for people that blog a lot and help other people out.

Rgds

 

[neils3]

Really depends on your budget? I would stay away from anyone offering you search engine ranking services for less than £500 per month. If budget is tight, then you really need a mentor/coach who can advise and support your marketing activities.

I would suggest before doing any of that, get stuck in to the things that you can involved in immediately, 3 things I'd say you have a look at are:

1. Twitter - take a look at what your competitors are doing and try it out, see what works, see what doesn't (have fun). Very likely not to bring any immediate customers but will help you get a feel of what businesses are doing to get customers online and give you more confidence.

2. Google Adwords - bit complicated at first to be honest, perhaps get someone to guide you first time, there's also loads of youtube videos (this should at least bring in people who are seeking to buy your product).

3. Email Marketing - don't worry about putting together a pretty email. One idea is to create a xmas offer for one or few of your products and email it out. And monitor the results. You can get a free email account (mailchimp, aweber, get response) and doesn't take long.

Cheers
Neil

 

[amac]

Check out inbound or warrior forum. There are many experts in both online marketing and the various niches within that can help you. (for free in many cases)

 

[kingblinguk]

When you are have planned for going for ON/OFF SEO, and having a running business, its best for you to either outsource SEO to some reputed company or hire some specialist in your company for this job. The second option is better since he/she will be dedicated for this job.

 

[antropy]

have an unused list of 20k customers!

Wow this is gold dust! I'm pretty sure it would be easy to do as well. What sort of data do you have about the customers on the list? You can easily filter by what they bought and when etc.?