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Lobby Marketing Mix topic #866

Subject: "How to market an online business" Previous topic | Next topic
urban08Tue Feb-19-08 11:48 PM
 
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"How to market an online business"


          

Hi,
I have an online store which sells overstocks in Childrenswear. I have heard this is big in US, but I live in Australia, and online stores have not taken off as well here.
I need advice on clever ideas to market the company and get new customers. I currently advertise in a Magazine for Mums of preschoolers (very expensive), and do letterbox drops.
I would love to hear some new and clever ways to advertise this type of business.

Thanks

  

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Replies to this topic
Subject Author Message Date ID
RE: How to market an online business
Feb 23rd 2008
1
RE: How to market an online business
Feb 25th 2008
2
RE: How to market an online business
Feb 25th 2008
3
RE: How to market an online business
Feb 27th 2008
4
RE: How to market an online business
Mar 04th 2008
5
RE: How to market an online business
Mar 09th 2008
6
RE: How to market an online business
May 11th 2008
7

rajSat Feb-23-08 08:57 AM
 
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#1. "RE: How to market an online business"
In response to Reply # 0


          

get a sign made for your door on your car....

get t-shirts made........

wear them around.

rajesh rungta

  

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saltedMon Feb-25-08 10:55 AM
 
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#2. "RE: How to market an online business"
In response to Reply # 1


          

I would recommend finding a popular children's/mom website out there and advertising on their site with a banner ad as opposed to a magazine ad. Make sure you find one that is a "pay-per-click" method, though. Also, ensure your ad is very specific and clear on what you are/what you sell so you only get people clicking on your ad that will actually have a chance of purchasing your product.

Mindy Lepp
http://www.saltedwebsites.com/
$50 off your website if you mention Idea Cafe!!

  

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juliarusso11Mon Feb-25-08 03:53 PM
 
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#3. "RE: How to market an online business"
In response to Reply # 0


          

Wow, what an opportunity! You say that online selling has not caught on--you are on the ground floor of something destined to be something big. You have little competition so this is your chance to be the first to corner the market with your products.
Study the US sites that are similar to yours. Learn what they do to market their products. Study what they have studied. Believe me, if you think Autralians are not on the internet, I can tell you are quite wrong. A great deal of traffic and sites in the children's area of interest pops up whenever I am looking for information.
Just be there when your community is looking for you.
Good luck and let us know how you are doing.
Julia
http://www.StorkandVeil.com
"Making life's greatest events
even more special."

http://www.StorkandVeil.com
Celebrating life's greatest events

  

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PepperfireWed Feb-27-08 09:04 AM
 
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#4. "RE: How to market an online business"
In response to Reply # 0


          

>Hi,
>I have an online store which sells overstocks in
>Childrenswear. I have heard this is big in US, but I live in
>Australia, and online stores have not taken off as well here.
>I need advice on clever ideas to market the company and get
>new customers. I currently advertise in a Magazine for Mums
>of preschoolers (very expensive), and do letterbox drops.
>I would love to hear some new and clever ways to advertise
>this type of business.
>
>Thanks

Whereas it is important to advertise your website offline, ie drive traffic to the site. Your customers, chances are, are going to be online...

Some suggestions for web marketing...

Press releases

Bulletin Boards and community groups, join boards where moms shop and talk about stuff that interests them, you should know about things that moms want to hear, like fire retardents in pyjamas and stuff like that. If the Moms know that you add value to their neighbourhood they're going to be more likely to want to see what it is that you do and shop from you, especially if your product is something they are interested in.

Blog, write about what people might be interested in knowing about children, children's clothes, toys, things that go with what your shop is offering. Treat it like an online magazine, if you will.

Optimize your website. Verify that people are finding your website via your keywords and that the keywords are effective. Find out why your existing visitors aren't buying and find out why the ones who are buying are doing so, find out where they came from and optimize that. DO NOT use what are known as Black Hat methods to advertise your site... by that I mean, blog-padding or anything that Google could downgrade your site for... you can get rules about such things from SEO experts (real ones not the ones who say they can make you number one on search engines but don't offer to do anything to your site to make that happen). Make sure that your site is user friendly and actually works. Test, test, test and retest your shopping card. Make sure it works!

Get other people to write about your shop in their blogs, their websites.

Cross-link with suitable websites that cross-link back.

Offer gift certificates to local fund-raisers, schools and churches.

Make sure your local newspapers know who you are and what you are up to at all times... Local newspapers love publishing articles about local people.

As for online stores not having taken off in Australia, I'm not sure that's true, but regardless, you should be aware that although it may seem that everyone and their dog in North America is buying and selling everything on the internet, they aren't really, the average website has a less than 1% conversion rate. If your rate is currently higher than that, you're rocking.

Good luck with it.

Tina Brooks, VP Marketing
Brooks Pepperfire Foods, Inc.
Makers of Peppermaster Hot Sauces
http://www.peppermaster.com

Eat more peppers!

  

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urban08Tue Mar-04-08 02:13 PM
 
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#5. "RE: How to market an online business"
In response to Reply # 4


          

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone for their great ideas.
I have started working on many of them, and will let you know how I go

  

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jswank02Sun Mar-09-08 12:52 PM
 
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#6. "RE: How to market an online business"
In response to Reply # 0


          

I would be happy to see what ideas I could come up with but I have a few questions.

1) Could you provide the website address? It helps me in analyzing the best avenues.
2) Do or would you be willing to sell internationally? Depending on what type of Children's Wear you have you may be able to appeal to an international market.

As a side not I analyze businesses for a living for Marketing improvements so to speak. I have yet to dove into businesses outside the US so I find this to be a unique opportunity for me to also understand your commerce market better.

Thanks

Joanna Swank

JSwank Marketable Concepts
www.jswank.com
info@jswank.com

  

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elle-cieSun May-11-08 06:19 AM
 
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#7. "RE: How to market an online business"
In response to Reply # 0


          

Write and distribute press releases that are newsworthy - don't just distribute them to editors of publications - distribute them online. By distributing them online it can drive traffic to your website - since press releases, if written well, will show up in the news sectios of major search engines (like google), listings in the natural results and possibly get picked up by publications.

sign up for my free newsletter and you'll receive "24 Reasons to Send a News Release" and elle-cie's "List of 44 Free Press Release Distribution Sites" sign up

http://www.elle-cie.com/newsletter.html

  

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