Where to advertise?

[gemd89]

Hey Guys, I just want to know when you started your business how did you get your first customers? How did you know where to advertise? Did you go mad advertising everywhere and realise something specific that worked?

I want to advertise however I dont have a huge budget and I really need a guaranteed return on my investment of advertising. I want to target party people or parents planning kids parties

Advice required

Gemma

 

[S-Marketing]

What kind of budget are we talking about here?

Are we talking a 'not huge budget' of a few thousand, or a few hundred?

 

[tony84]

I go on yahoo answers.

You have to invest the time answering questions properly otherwise you get reported. But eventually you will get the odd sale.

It might be different for your business, with mine if i make 1 sale its worth quite a large amount. You would probably sell more items but lower value...its worth putting in 20 minutes a day though for a week or 2 to see how it goes maybe? It wont make you rich but it gives you more customers potentially.

Also have you thought about teaming up with nightclubs? Getting some flyers put up in student halls maybe? Maybe set up a commission deal with some students, they get dressed up all the bloody time round here...not that im complaining, i quite like seeing superman and cat woman protecting my neighbourhood

You could also register on sites like netmums?

Im all out now but if i think of anything else ill let you know.

 

[gemd89]

Not sure how I would be able to team up with nightclubs, cant say i have ever picked a flyer up in a nightclub, im either dancing or gossiping in the loos! hehe

I am on netmums and have a free listing there but It doesnt generate much.

Stretchy - About £150 per month minimum at the moment.

Gemma

 

[liongroup]

Hey Guys, I just want to know when you started your business how did you get your first customers? How did you know where to advertise? Did you go mad advertising everywhere and realise something specific that worked?

Nothing beats word of mouth recommendations so I'd try to maximise these.

You don't have to spend much to achieve this either, but guaranteed you will have to work hard not only to do it but also to maintain it.

 

[gemd89]

Word of mouth is fine in trade businesses, I need a quicker boost of sales.

Gemma

 

[gemd89]

I sell party supplies and fancy dress at gdpartysupplies in case people arent aware - Might help people to recommend me some more specific advice
Gemma

 

[Vending Siting Services]

Have you tried Google ad-words campaign. You can set a daily budget to ensure you don't overspend.

E-bay is a cheap option.

Good luck.

Barbara

 

[Vending Siting Services]

Just noticed that you do fancy dress - are the costumes to hire or to sell. If to hire then you need awareness in your local area. If to sell then E-bay and Google ad-words will be fine.

 

[gemd89]

Yes ebay i do sell on currently - wanting visitors to my website though really. Adwords I tried but not successfully - may have been my wording of the ads. I am on facebook - 5 months got 600 fans, page 2 for some important keywords. So trying to push those to page 1, always engaging on facebook and trying to promote on there.

Gemma

 

[gemd89]

Vending - I only offer costumes for sale not hire

Gemma

 

[S-Marketing]

If you give adwords a go, be very careful and do plenty of research. You will burn your budget in no time if you bid on the wrong phrases. Also make sure you accurately calculate your cost of conversion, when compared to the profit you make on the product.

 

[eventdomain]

I couldnt find a 'Recommend Us' form on your site. Suggest you get one of those, then people can pass the word about your site.

I dont think a bunch of free general-purpose listings will give you loads of new business, maybe if its targeted..... Basically, most free stuff is very bad, the best website spots WILL cost a fair bit and £150 wont go far eg: maybe 2 or 3 website links at most and decent web space is going to cost from £500 upwards. There's one event site that charges £6'000 a year!

I can give you a link for free for 2 months, and you can track the page visits on the site. If your satisfied with the results, you can always register an account later on, which is £50 for an entire year, including free logo and video. I can supply stats in abundance......

 

[gemd89]

Event domain that would be lovely - Thanks. Its always great to try before you buy.

Any other ideas?

Gemma

 

[gemd89]

The product pages each have social media share buttons and also email this item to a friend so I thought I had covered recommending specific products I have. The main issue is traffic if there isnt the traffic there - no one is going to recommend.

Gemma

 

[Salt&Pepper]

Well you are not doing too bad.

Sure word-of-mouth is the best, but people need to know about you in the first place!

I use adwords to advertise and although it's quite expensive I always consider the benefit of getting one client: possible repeat business, word-of-mouth, possible testimonial, good exposure as most of the guests attending the event will see us at work and might consider hiring us.

Maybe you could start with some very targeted long tails keywords and see how it goes.

I was checking my stats yesterday and in 2 months I have increased my click thru rate by 20% and reduce the avg cost per click by 10%, and I am no expert and I had never used adword before.

As well register in as many free directories as possible, follow people on twitter, and if you have anything different write to a few event magazines.

 

[Tombd_signs]

Hi

I work for a sign company we may be able to help you, we design and print leaflets witch would be a great way to start to advertise your company. You cancontact me on 01773761791 and ask for Tom or if you send me your contact details then i can call you.

Regards

Tom

 

[gemd89]

I follow quite a few people on twitter and have listed in thousands of directories. The adwords is quite expensive. My average order is £25 so would need adwords to convert quite a lot, I guess with catering most is per head for a big event so you would generate alot of money from 1 customer with me I have to rely on repeat business every month or so.

Im abit stuck
Any other advice appreciated
Gemma

 

[BoBo_184]

what kind of products are you selling?

 

[gemd89]

I sell kids and adults fancy dress, celeb face masks, stag and hen night party stuff, kids themed party supplies, adults themed party supplies, 1st birthday party supplies, birthday party supplies.

Gemma

 

[tony84]

What about speaking with places like wacky warehouse etc? Maybe look for smaller companies.

Tell them they can have x commission for each order?

I still think speaking with some club promoters to run a night would be good. valentines night or a superhero night best dressed gets £10 bar tab or something which you pay for? Flyers and things can be sponsored by you?

So the venue sells £10 worth of beer and makes money on any orders, you get more clients to promote to in the future plus any orders everyone is happy? Call the venues or look online for the promotors number theyre usually plastered everywhere.
I reckon students are the way to go but you need to promote it close to when the student loan gets paid out.

Maybe get a big sign for your car and park it close to schools.

Speak to some local pubs, we held a kids part one day in a function room, it had a little bouncy castle, music and a few other bits - we earnt a fortune selling fruit shoots, you and the pub promoting it - sell tickets for say 50p per kid the venue makes money on the drinks, you make some money that way and you can promote the fancy dress bit ?

Have you thought about doing a market stall? Maybe 2 weekends before the run up to big events? Paddys day, halloween im sure you know the dates better than me - it will cost you say £20-30 for a stall, petrol and some food for the day.

 

[gemd89]

Thanks tony, Market stalls would be a good idea and something I am looking into. I am actually looking at a local shop at the minute thats come empty - Its £80 per week - However don't know if getting a shop/retail unit would be a good idea in the middle of a recession!

Gemma

 

[gemd89]

Tony - I go upto school and local area toddler groups and do chat about what I do so get alot of orders through the local village from parents which is great.

Gemma

 

[tony84]

What about those RMU things in shopping centres? Not sure if you have anything like the trafford centre or sheffields meadowhall but they have them little market stall type shops in the middle on the walking bit. We went to look at those and while they can be quite expensive you can sually get the prices down - but theyre not keen on you only having them say friday to sunday, they usually want you to take the whole week.

Send your kid into school as superman...all the kids will want one then

If i think of anything else ill keep posting.

 

[gemd89]

Hey Tony, Meadowhall and white rose and both around half an hour away. A shop rental in my local area near motorway slip road is £400 per month, those RMUs are £800 a month and also im not available full time due to being 28 weeks pregnant and having a 2 year old and then my son is only at school afternoons.

I will be supplying the school parents when they have non-uniform days.

Gemma

 

[leyton]

Hi Gemma. there are many ways you can advertise but if you want more visitors to your site. Then target SEO find out how you can improve your site with search engines also write some articles on your niche get a blog can be like a sub domain post some articles and link it back to your site.

SEO does take a little time but if you can write some good articles on your subject. Also google do content network with text ads and image ads.

A USP is where you can offer something more that will benefit your customers from what your competitors can offer. Take a look at what they offer and see where you can improve or find something unique to what you can do.

Google do have some good training on PPC advertising worth taking some time to go through some of their training.

If you want some more help i will write some ideas up for you and send them on

 

[gemd89]

Hey Leyton, Ive been building links, buying links, swapping links, finding links with anchor text, article distributing, I have a blog on the website - i post content at least 5 times a week with some hyperlinks in to my website pages, i have also done some PReleases and sent them to PR companies. I do have some keywords on page 1 but not enough. The SEO I found was too expensive for me at the moment. I think I need a tailor made 1 keyword at a time thing for me at the moment and no one I found was willing to offer that so I am rather stuck!

Gemma

 

[Websitehandyman]

I've just found this place ImFaceplate

I think it's like facebook only more business and at least it's a free backlink

 

[gemd89]

Thanks, any other advice?

Gemma

 

[Websitehandyman]

Thanks, any other advice?

Gemma

Loads but can't post them all as I'm on a freebie account and the mods will take me out the back and give me a kicking......................again

 

[leyton]

Hi Gemma

Well you seem to have a lot already sorted i do have a couple of ideas and a site for SEO that i would recommend based on feedback it is not expensive and no it is not an affiliate link. i will send you the site privately as i have a suggestion regarding this too.

I will post it out tomorrow i am in Thailand so the time difference is about 7 hours

Cheers Martin

 

[gemd89]

That would be great thanks Leyton. So basically people are advising that SEO is the answering and not advertising?

Gemma

 

[leyton]

Hi Gemma have just sent you a private message.

Cheers

martin

 

[S-Marketing]

That would be great thanks Leyton. So basically people are advising that SEO is the answering and not advertising?

Gemma

I would say SEO is the answer if you are much brighter or savvy than your competition, or have much more money than them.

In an industry where margins are tiny and you are competing with both some big players, as well as thousands of back bedroom operations, i'd say you need to concentrate on a strategy for differentiation if your research has suggested this may be possible. Otherwise i'd be planning for strategic alliance marketing and pretty much forgetting about both seo and advertising.

 

[jamesrenrut]

search engine optimization would help to build your site more popular... this will make your business website easy to see with your viewer and aspiring clients... try to check about SEO over the internet and search also for high PR sites for your advertisements...

 

[gemd89]

Anymore ideas?

Thanks
Gemma

 

[Websitehandyman]

Anymore ideas?

Thanks
Gemma

http://likes2click.com/visit-455.html

 

[PeaceJN]

Stretchy, i am currently looking to agree a pay on results marketing/sales package. Would be good to have a chat

 

[proofpositive]

Hi Gemma,

Not sure if it's the same in your area, but my daughters (primary) school will usually have once a term some sort of "event" where they invite stallholders. For instance, the Christmas Fayre. They are usually very cheap (think about £10 per table) and might be a way to drum up awareness or even sales on the day?

Perhaps offer a prize draw for a choice of boy/girl (depending on the winners sex!) popular/current outfit, and collect their email addresses and create a mailing list (remember to ask if you can contact them).

Most schools are really friendly, so you could try giving a couple a ring, and see if they have anything you could go to?

I know this won't help your long distance sales but might get you well known locally. Also just thought - how about posters in community halls etc. after all, this is where a lot of the kids parties are held, or even try advertising in the primary times?

Hope that helps

 

[Andy Thorne]

Gemma, offline advertising for your site can also be cost effective, branded pens are inexpensive but have a huge ROI, the same for a bag for life (cotton shopper) both these items are regularly used and passed to others. Here is some research our trade association did on ROI of promotional products.

The other way could be a direct mail campaign based around the famous people masks, buy some data for your local area, mail the mask with a call to action. So for instance its the queens jubilee soon so send out X amount of queens face masks with information on buying all there Jubilee party products from you with your URL?

Online SEO etc is important, However offline can be just as succesful and more targeted