Ecommerce Experiment » advertising

Offline Marketing for your eCommerce Site

Alex — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:20:17 +0000

Up to now, we have talked solely about online marketing, however it is important to include some traditional offline marketing in your campaign to drive traffic to your website and improve presence in the market place. Research shows that the majority of people visit a website after reading it in a newspaper or magazine or hearing it from a friend, someone at a meeting or on TV, hence why offline marketing is important for your online business.

Advertise

There are so many adverts on the internet that people have learnt to tune them out and so placing ads on TV, print and radio can be extremely effective despite the claim that print media is declining. Also, offline advertising usually has something physical attached to it meaning people are more likely to remember it.

If you can afford it, advertising in national media will obviously have the largest reach however if you are running a small business, start with local media whilst building your brand and then move on to the national media once you are more established and making more money. There are plenty of local media stations that need advertising slots filled and won’t charge the earth.

Placing adverts in local or national print media can be highly targeted as there are now so many different publications out there. Choosing particular magazines which you expect your target demographic to read will almost guarantee traffic to your site providing your web address is clear. Often writing only the URL of your business in an advert is effective as it gains curiosity. This doesn’t require much space and the cost will be reduced.

Event programmes are an effective way to directly reach you target market. Search for relevant industry events for your field and advertise in their programmes.

The Yellow Pages and other directories can bring traffic to your site as more often than not people will check out your website before, or instead of, phoning.

Network

Talk about your business at any opportunity you get. You will meet potential customers wherever you go so anyone who asks you anything related to your business tell them your web address and always carry your business cards with the URL and email address on it. Attend Industry events and join networking associations and societies. Choose carefully which events to attend – those where you expect your target demographic will be and announce your website address to all those you speak with.

Also, donating one of your products for a raffle at an industry event will act as extra publicity for your brand. The price of the product will be little in comparison to the exposure it will bring you.

Get articles published

If you can get an article published in a newspaper or magazine, you will get noticed by thousands and it likely won’t cost u much. Whatever your area of expertise, there will be an appropriate publication whose readers are in your target demographic. Make sure you include your web address with your name in the byline – not only will your article raise interest in you and your brand, but will also advertise your URL to every reader. The same applies for press releases, always include your web address.

Also, most local chapters of business associations have printed newsletters that are sent to all members. If you can commit to contributing an article regularly, it is a good way to get your web address circulating around your target demographic. Search all the associations in your area and choose the most relevant to your industry.

Put your URL on everything

Finally, put your URL on everything! Having your web address on things such as your vehicle and your uniform means everywhere you go people will see it. Also, it’s surprising how few companies have their web address on their company signs. Every person who walks or drives past your sign is a potential customer.

Social Media Advertising

Alex — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:07:05 +0000

Social media is expanding at an alarming rate and it would be foolish for businesses not to embrace this.

Advertising online on social media sites not only allows you to target your product directly to the people who will be interested in it but also measure your success through tracking clicks and sales. We are particularly interested in advertising on fashion blogs, where we expect our target demographic would congregate. This is the main advantage of social media marketing as adverts can be targeted to a very specific audience. Also, online advertising is interactive, it is not a one-way medium as potential customers can click on your add and be directed straight to your website where, if they wish, can find out more information about you.

Advertising space is mostly sold on a CMP (cost per mille) basis which means you pay so much for every thousand impressions. Unlike affiliate marketing, which usually functions on CPC (Cost per click) model, you are paying for an advert regardless of whether it produces any conversions. However, for the amount of visitors social media websites receive, it would be a missed opportunity not to advertise here.

There are many successful fashion blogs with significant traffic numbers reaching hundreds of thousands of people worldwide so to reach this kind of audience can only be beneficial to us.

Buysellads.com is an advertising marketplace making it easier for advertisers to work with website publishers and vice versa. There is no need to deal with several different publishers and your ads can go live the same day. They have a database of over 1000 websites available to advertise on and I have identified a few fashion blogs which would be suitable for Eliot turner. One of them is http://www.myfashionlife.com/ which is updated daily with fashion news, shopping and product reviews. My Fashion Life generates over 250,000 page views per month and has a traffic rank of 64,145. We will consider using an advertising marketplace such as this rather than going directly to individual websites as it may save time.

When it comes to the advert itself, it is important that it connects with the audience and is specific to that particular audience, if the message is generic you will not have the same impact. Also, the advert needs to be catchy and entertaining without talking at them. The headline should ignite the reader’s interest convincing them you have what they need whilst being short and simple. The design should correspond with your branding and it is a good idea to include company logos and product images.

Here are the potential influential fashion blogs we would consider for advertising from all over the world:

The Prize Draw is Alive!

Justin — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:04:22 +0000

This was going to be a video post but time didn’t allow! I’ll be going into more detail about running prize draws and where to submit them later this week.

We now have our domain name online and a prize draw running. Head over to http://www.eliotturner.com to enter and try and win a Handmade Swarovski Silver and Pearl Jewelery Set (Necklace, Bracelet and Ear-ring Set). The prize draw is a world wide prize draw so please pass it around and give it some link love. The only restriction is that it is one entry per person.

Don’t overload on Twitter

Justin — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:20:22 +0000

Little bit of background behind today’s first video blog post. Last night I decided to put together a short video on something that has been bugging me about Twitter lately, and it links very well to marketing the eCommerce experiment and Eliot Turner. I chat a little about the auto-follow feature in Twitter and how it can be violated so that people can have a 0-10000 follower race in hours. It’s not marketing at the end of the day, follow people for a reason, engage in conversation for a reason and win those customers that LIKE you!

An addition to the team

Justin — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 11:49:23 +0000

We’re moving on with the eCommerce experiment and currently putting the design together for the new store. The sneak previews will be shown in the coming week. We just wanted to let everyone know that a new name will be popping up on the blog in the next few weeks.

I had the opportunity to interview a few candidates as part of the ‘Shell Step Programme‘. The Shell Step Programme brings together students and graduates who want to gain valuable experience on real work placements with companies who want an injection of fresh ideas, talent and enthusiasm to inspire and build their business.

The last interview took place last week, and we offered an 8 week placement to ‘Alexandra’ an extremely enthusiastic student from a North East University.

Alexandra will be doing some competitor analysis, social media work, marketing, advertising and generally giving me a hand with the promotion of Eliot Turner.

We will be setting some goals for Alexandra to complete before she leaves and we can’t wait to get her on board.