Need fresh ideas.

[khalid]

Hi all, this is my first post so I'll try to fill you in as best as possible.

My name is Khalid and I'm a student in Edinburgh Scotland. For the past two years I've been working part time as a nightclub doorman. I began buying two way radio headsets from the net and selling them to my colleagues. I didn't make a profit, I just did it to help them out as I could get them cheap.

Realising this could be a potential business I setup Earphones Direct Limited - [/url]www.earphonesdirect.com[/url] and sold a range of headphones (sony, jvc, philips etc) and radio headsets. Realising the headphone market was too saturated I concentrated wholely on the radio headsets. I sourced a manufacturer in Hong Kong and began importing them.

The business is only 4 months old and at present I am promoting in the following areas...

1. Google Adwords
2. Nightclub Security Forum Sponsorship
3. Mailshot letters to 14 security companies
4. Business card attached to every receipt
5. Word of mouth
6. Ebay shop

I am getting sales, my problem is...not enough. Adwords is not performing well because security earpieces are not widely searched for on the internet. The forum sponsorship is new and will take a while to get established. The mailshot letters were sent out last week. The ebay shop is doing well enough but ebay fees kill profit margins.

I understand things take time however I can't help but feel like I'm not doing enough. Right now I'm offering FREE delivery on all orders from the site and 6 month warranty on all headsets. My prices undercut all other competitors too. I accept Credit/Debit card payments, Paypal and Cheque - i.e. the customer has a wide choice of payment methods.

I realise that I cannot earn a full time living from selling only earpieces however I want to sell around 10 headsets a week so I can expand and stock other security products in the future. I know that the variety on the website is not huge however I am growing slowly and the choices available are the most commonly used.

I need fresh ideas to help me increase my customer base and sales. Any thoughts would be much appreciated. Thanks for reading this post, I look forward to your responses.

[khalid]

can anyone help?

[affiliate]

-do some search about your niche market : niche bot is one of the way to take
- pick an expiring domain name related to your niche
- promote this website
- you can promote your business with myspace marketing

[Eagle]

Have you tried a mail drop to every nightclub in the UK?...

I'd also suggest: bin Adwords. If it' not working, stop throwing money at it and invest it elsewhere.

Mark

[affiliate]

I didn't understand this forum.
I can give you fresh ideas if you tell how to send fresh messages in this forum.

we are in business friend: give to get

[TWD-Tony]

Originally Posted by affiliate

I didn't understand this forum.
I can give you fresh ideas if you tell how to send fresh messages in this forum.

we are in business friend: give to get

Because you are a new member your post was put in a moderation queue until a moderator approved it... Which I have now done

[JamesS]

Before you bin adwords make sure you have tracking in place so you know if any sales do actually come in via it.

Put a few adverts in your local paper. The town where I live has a few nightclubs and the towns nearby do also.

[jonny74]

the best idea i have seen here is to mail all nightclubs, i am sure they would be interested, have you thought about football clubs as well, they do have a lot of stewards spread around the whole ground, but maybe they already are up to date on communications?

[Blossom]

Is there some sort of trade body for security guards? Or for night clubs? Or for hotels (they all have concierge whom I presume may use radios these days). or is there any other business where these headsets may be applicable?

I would imagine they all have magazines, you could try a press release with the information + photograph (free if you get in), and/or perhaps offering a special discount to members> a cost but you'd get business, make sure you have a 'place your order by x date to get the discount' otherwise it'll rumble on forever. Failing that you could (pay to) advertise in their magazine.

[Edward Green]

Hi khalid

Firstly, it isn't enough to do what you are doing, you can see that. The old adage "Build and They Will Come" is nonsense in our New Sophisticated world.

You need Positioning.

First:
Find forums that relate to subjects your product might have a use for. Search the forums using terms such as "help" "problem" "Please" anything where someone might have a problem. List the questions and look for a pattern. Use the problem solving answer you decide upon to use as your USP and other the solution.

Write articles about the products you sell, how do they help the buyer? Why should they buy from for you? Any new must have features your products have. Write in terms of tips and secrets,

7 must have tips to consider before buying a ????
3 Secrets the manufacturers wouldn't want you to know

Use these types of solution offering articles to position yourself as a expert in your field. Write at least 3 articles a week and submit them to the article databases.

Write press releases and submit them to Google and Yahoo news.

You need to recognised as an expert in your field once you have done that you can approach other people to joint venture with.

I hope this helps.