Innovative Ideas for a Commodity?

Discussion in 'General Marketing' started by jrbiz, Mar 5, 2008.

  1. #1
    Hi,

    I would like to tap the collective creativity of the DP world for help with my online business.

    I am a discount distributor of network and PC cables and have been doing so for years. I would, of course, like to increase my revenues (what business would not?) Here are the various revenue enhancers that I have tried or am currently doing:

    1. Direct Mail
    2. Telemarketing
    3. Print Advertising (Electronics Directories)
    4. Pay Per Click (Google, etc.)
    5. Some SEO (not a whole lot, though I rank in Top 10 in organic Google for 'network cables" which is a good keyword for me)
    6. Banner ads on related websites
    7. Public Relations (press releases, etc.)
    8. Squidoo lenses
    9. Local networking and trade show events
    10. Email newsletter to customers
    11. Direct Sales Efforts
    12. Selling on eBay, Amazon and Shopzilla
    13. Minority Business Promotion to government and corporations (my company is a certified minority business)

    The trouble with selling cables is that they are the tail on the dog. Nobody just buys cables for the heck of it. They buy a piece of electronic equipment and then remember that they need a cable. So it is hard to drive business to my website with many of the above marketing techniques because my products are usually afterthoughts.

    I am thinking that my best option right now might be to spend time and effort on better SEO, but that is pretty obvious (IT guys tend to go to search engines when they need cables fast). I was wondering if anyone had some additonal, innovative ideas about a new marketing approach that I could try?

    JR
     
    jrbiz, Mar 5, 2008 IP