Marketing tips to obtain new Clients

[hammonds]

I am currently building an ecommerce website, with products an services for british citizens who intend to move to France.
I tried to advertise our services through emails, posting leaflets, contacting potential clients.
Has anyone got any cheap way of advertising and obtaining new clients.
Thanx.

 

[sparklyscotty]

Hi there. SOunds like an interesting site. Maybe you could look into which UK companies have offices in France? Or maybe law offices that specialise in international law? Perhaps you could contact travel agents and/ or estate agents to ask about how to find out who might be selling up and moving. Online forums are usually good to drum up a bit of business if you are willing to give to get back. For example, do a search for forums on 'living abroad' or 'moving to France'; then join up and post advice to people that you can help. NB: Be careful not to spam or solicit. You would ONLY be doing this for PR value, and would probably have to say 'for further information and assistance, e-mail me for my e-commerce site.' or something.
Do a search for 'property in France' or the like, and the top sites that come up will be the ones that you should try to advertise on, or pair up with, since you will have the same clientelle.
Can't think of anything else at the mo.
Hope some of this is useful.
-Angel-

 

[Anonymous]

Google Adwords is pretty good as you can target your advertising to a specifc market and its cheap !

 

[clickprofits]

I agree that Google Adwords may potentially be one of your most effective marketing options. Use your keywords in the headline and text of your ads and ensure that you use partial and exact matching for your keyword phrases as these will increase your clickthrough rate (CTR) and lower your costs. [exact keyword] "partial match keyword".

You can use negative keywords to exclude any words and qualify your prospects (put a minus sign before the word you want to exclude). Try and be as specific as possible in your keyword phrases, focusing on phrases of 3 or more words, rather than very general 1 and 2 word phrases. These will have fewer searches, but should generate far superior returns/conversion. Adwords also has the option of targetting specific countries, so make sure you target UK only or UK and France only - every day I see ads showing on google.co.uk from US advertisers who don't deliver outside the US! You may also wish to set a daily budget to control costs. If you don't yet have an Adwords account, PM me and I will send you a link for a free £20 voucher so you can open one and have a test run at no cost.

As for the forums idea mentioned above, I know that French Entree is popular and an excellent site which also has a discusssion forum - http://www.frenchentree.com/ - but as was pointed out be very, very careful not to advertise blatantly (spamming) - post useful advice and perhaps only mention your site in your signature or profile.

French Entree also offer various advertising and sponsorship opportunities which you may want to consider:
http://www.frenchentree.com/fe-advertising/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=1593

There is also a magazine called a Place in the Sun (they have a general 'buying property overseas' magazine and a France specific magazine) - display advertising may be costly, but there are probably good opportunities via PR for getting mentioned/featured in the magazine at no cost. They also list and advertise overseas property exhibitions held around the UK - these may represent a good marketing opportunity for you?

Best of luck - it sounds like an interesting site and the market is certainly there, perhaps you will post a link when it is ready? Also, if you can elaborate on what product/s or service/s you offer, I can provide more specific online marketing advice.

 

[top-click]

Have to agree with Ian and clickprofits - PPC would be a great starter for 10, it will also allow you to test and learn which creative/copy works for your business - which can then be dragged over and replicated in other media.

Don't be disheartened if you don't get great results straight away, it can be a roller coaster ride to start with, as always if you need a hand let me know

Rob

 

[Rob Holmes]

I am currently building an ecommerce website, with products an services for british citizens who intend to move to France.
I tried to advertise our services through emails, posting leaflets, contacting potential clients.
Has anyone got any cheap way of advertising and obtaining new clients.
Thanx.

Create a survey for Expats already living in France, get them to reveal the top 10 best and worst things about living abroad. Tap into that market, get as many answers as you can. Offer them a free pdf of the results that should be enough for them - or something they love but can't get in France (like jelly).

This will give you a mailing list of expats already living in France and one market.

Then offer the results of the survey to people considering moving to France in return for them signing up for your newsletter.

Thats your second market.

Sound good?

Rob

 

[Essence]

Hi Hammonds,

Read the article "What's next? - A Guide to Marketing your New Business", on my website. It puts together 6 essential tips for marketing a new and expanding business, without needing a huge budget.

I hope it helps.

Regards...
Essence.