Which marketing method

[doorfurnituredirect]

Hi there,

I am trying to think of marketing ideas to boost sales for an ironmongery company ( doorfurnituredirect.co.uk ) and trying to further my limited marketing knowledge - but struggling!

I have looked into the competition and have discovered a spectrum of different methods of increasing sales, such as "fixed percentage discount", "loyalty points" , "recommend a friend for money"....
I think it is clear we need to add some sort of offer to our site.

How do you determine what method is right for your market, is it simply trial and error? It just seems a little crude to say 5% off everything - is this effective in peoples experiences? My instinct tells me an offer must be simple to understand and look for tempting. We already offer free delivery for orders over a set value and have found this to be very successful.

Thanks,
Simon
Door Furniture Direct

[Jack Hackett]

Marketing takes so many forms that it may well be a case of trial and error until you you find which is the most effective, but as you've already discovered, your free delivery on orders over a certain price seems to be paying off, so it would be wise to continue with that.

One form of marketing worth investigating is email marketing - customers like to be kept informed, and email is perfect for this. If you have a permanent customer base, sending regular emails with offers of discounts, clearance sales, loyalty bonuses, free gifts, or just trade news will stimulate interest, but more importantly, it will let them know you're there. There are various email marketing programmes available, and it's a case of choosing which one is right for you.

Good luck.

[doorfurnituredirect]

Thanks for your reply Jack

How does email marketing work? You say there are various email marketing programmes, is it best to buy software then?

I guess one way is to build up a database of customers email addresses and add them to a mailing list.
Is this truely effective? Do you think that this is a better way of encouraging repeat sales than vouchers or coupons delivered with their order?


Thanks
Simon

[OldWelshGuy]

Hi Simon,

Do you have an existing client base? If not then incentives are not the answer.

Are you looking to attract new customers, or are you looking to exploit exisisting? The two are poles apart.

I recently refurbed a Victorian house back to originial features,. and MAN was it a long hard road to find suppliers of materials!


You said

"I think it is clear we need to add some sort of offer to our site."

Why are you saying that? What is it that you think you need to achieve? Go way back to basics here and say what your train of thought is.

[Jack Hackett]

Originally Posted by doorfurnituredirect

Thanks for your reply Jack

How does email marketing work? You say there are various email marketing programmes, is it best to buy software then?

I guess one way is to build up a database of customers email addresses and add them to a mailing list.
Is this truely effective? Do you think that this is a better way of encouraging repeat sales than vouchers or coupons delivered with their order?


Thanks
Simon

You can buy software but I believe there are some browser-based programmes around that do the same job. Search for 'email marketing programmes'. You would need a database of customers who would have to agree to opt-in to receiving your emails. Your idea of delivering vouchers or coupons with their orders also sounds good.

[PeterCarruthers]

I can't remember when last I had a real day job that did not involve sitting behind a PC screen (mostly Apple in my case). All my income has come from email marketing since 2002, and I must be doing something right because it paid for a move from South Africa to the sunny (usually) south coast!

Firstly, group the folk who are currently buying from you so that they share some common facets. I would imagine you have:

• some tradesfolk buying for their own installation needs,
• maybe some interior designers and architects specifying your products,
• possibly a few stores buying for resale,
• and then some DIY folk?

Each of these groups is looking to get something different from their purchase. If you're going to be emailing folk, it sure helps to understand what they're buying from you. (You're selling neatly shaped iron and brass, but they're not buying the metal.)

For example, the tradespeople are looking to either make more money or save more money - so your focus would be on showing them how brass is easier to sell, how your designs make it easier to install, how your finishes make it easier to sell to discerning clients, how your delivery saves them time, how your invoicing process is hassle free, ...

The DIY folk are far more concerning about the intrinsic aspects, why brass is so much better for harsh environments, why the initial expense is hugely offset by the long, tarnish free and hassle free life they can expect, why your designs make even the least accomplished carpenter look like Michelangelo, ...

The retail folk are not so much interested in the intrinsics as they are in how profitable your range is for them, how easy your credit terms make it to carry your line, how much discount they can get for volume purchases, ...

Once you know why each 'community' is buying a specific product, you write (or you get somebody to write for you) a few guides detailing the kinds of things that can go wrong when buying ironmongery. This is because people read stories more willingly and understand them much better than plain sales guff.

Your gaol is to build a relationship with your customers (and prospects) so that they keep coming back.

OK, so we've identified the groups, and we've written some stories. But we don't yet have anyone to send them to. That's easy enough to solve.

Set up an account with somebody like www.aweber.com (There are a whole wad of similar sites, but I use Aweber for a list of 6000 subscribers and they've been a great resource so I recommend them without hesitation.) They're also very easy to use.

They have a solid set of tutorials that will guide you through the set up process, and will guide you to getting some code to place on your Web site - so that any visitor will be able to subscribe to your free fortnightly snippets on why brass is not nearly as simple as it looks.

Although it seems like a lot of work, ultimately your business exists to create clients. They're the only solid source of funds you have, and you don't have to give the money back once they've bought, unlike borrowing from a bank.

[Scott-scd]

Are you sure you're looking at the right area of the selling process to improve sales? You could slap on the website as many offers as you want but if you don't have enough targeted traffic to see these offers, you'll be wasting your time.

Check out this page here which might help you get to grasps with the whole concept a bit better.

Personally I'd look more towards off-line marketing methods as I don't think this kind of product fairs well in an on-line marketplace. I wouldn't neglect it though. The possible lack of competition may mean you have an advantage when it comes to marketing such as SEO. With some work you could gain good results for localized/UK based keyphrases for your products and this will drive targeted traffic to your site. As will PPC/adwords.

This does not mean instant sales though. You must also make sure your website has effective selling capability to turn your visitors into customers.

Hope this helps.

[janebush08]

e mail marketing will give you 3 percent success if you try for new customers

[janebush08]

i think seo is best way of marketing your business.... enjoy unlimited traffic once you get rankings

[TWD-Tony]

No No No... Seo will not get you a geat ranking and massive traffic on it's own.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is just the process of making a website easily crawable by the search engine spiders, it's "dotting the I's and crossing the T's if you like) but that on it's own will NOT get you anywhere in the SERPs

Ranking is calculated using a complex algorythm and SEO is only a small part of this, for the most part quality inbound links outweigh SEO and this falls into the category of SEM (Search Engine Marketing).

Making you site visible on the SE radar and convincing the SE's that your site is worthy of a high ranking is the hard part. You do this by gaining good quality inbound links, writting good (unique) page copy and updating your website on a regular basis.

Whilst a site is fairly new or has a low ranking in the SERP's then even this is not good enough - you need to be pro-active in marketing your website online, from banner advertising to directory listing - anything that will make visitors visit your website and not rely on getting the top of Google (or whatever).

SEO has an important part to play - but it's not the holy grail of getting a good ranking