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Looking for marketing advice for a new B2B/B2C consumer electronics site

Discussion in 'General Marketing' started by freeagentsmith, Jun 1, 2011.

  1. #1
    Hi everybody,

    I suspect this type of question is posted a lot and I am sorry if I am repeating... please feel free to point me in the right direction of threads where these questions have been answered before and I will go a-looking.

    A group of friends and I are involved in setting up a B2B/B2C website for specialized consumer electronics items.

    We see our audience as being retailers and smaller sellers first and end customers and tech geeks second.

    As a result I'm after customers first (especially business customers) traffic second and search rankings third.

    I'm looking at starting out by following three avenues

    1) Doing forum marketing on other forums
    2) Using PPC avenues on Google Adwords and places like Digital Point
    3) Email marketing

    Regarding forums:

    a) Have forums bought you high value customers in your experience?
    b) Is it better to focus on webmaster forums such as this one, ecommerce forums like dropshipforum [dot] co [dot] uk, coupon sites like slickdeals [dot] com or specialist technology forums like xda-developers?
    c) Is it better to build up profiles with a high reputation level on a few forums or build up lots of medium reputation profiles?
    d) Is it worth getting a/multiple freelancers to build up profiles, is 20c per post a fair amount to pay them?

    Regarding PPC
    A) is it possible to make any headway with Google Adwords with just say 100-200 USD a month (or perhaps less) given that keywords are likely to be things like phones, tablets, accessories and the like?
    B) How worthwhile is the digitalpoint advertising program at bringing in customers

    Regarding other forms of marketing
    Is freetrafficsystem [dot] com worth anything at all or is it the usual hooplah?

    I really appreciate it if you take the time to read this and I really really appreciate it if you answer one or two of the questions. I am incredibly sorry to be posting such a long post with so many questions but these are just some of the questions that are rattling around in my head at the moment.
     
    freeagentsmith, Jun 1, 2011 IP
  2. mohamedsafiq

    mohamedsafiq Active Member

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    #2
    The avenues you choosen are good,

    At very first it hard to rank in google, so the forums are the best source derives you the real traffic,in the mean time you can use PPC like google adwords.you can also try facebook ads and ads spot in internet marketing forums like DP.

    For email marketing,you should have a great list,you have to grab that list by providing some give aways.

    You can introduce affiliate program.that will derive some good targeted traffic.

    The free traffic programs and traffic exchange are useless don't waste your time and money.
     
    mohamedsafiq, Jun 2, 2011 IP
    freeagentsmith likes this.
  3. JerrickYeoh

    JerrickYeoh Active Member

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    #3
    u been asking too much question in one thread.
    a) Have forums bought you high value customers in your experience?
    Yes, it is a good place to get interact with customer by sharing each other opinion and provide them solution. You may meet up big customer one a while.

    b) Is it better to focus on webmaster forums such as this one, ecommerce forums like dropshipforum [dot] co [dot] uk, coupon sites like slickdeals [dot] com or specialist technology forums like xda-developers?
    While it depend where your target market is, it will not work if you simply post anything around and bring non quality traffic. You need to know your target market always in which kind of forum and topic and this is the place where you find them.

    c) Is it better to build up profiles with a high reputation level on a few forums or build up lots of medium reputation profiles?
    Ofcourse, this is what peopl interest to know more about you and build trust.

    d) Is it worth getting a/multiple freelancers to build up profiles, is 20c per post a fair amount to pay them?
    i do not think that a need unless you found it really work for you.


    Regarding PPC
    A) is it possible to make any headway with Google Adwords with just say 100-200 USD a month (or perhaps less) given that keywords are likely to be things like phones, tablets, accessories and the like?
    100 to 200 USD maybe too less while i can all of it within one day. But i do agree that Google may help in bringing traffic and search probability bring the highest quality traffic.

    B) How worthwhile is the digitalpoint advertising program at bringing in customers
    If digital point bring you good traffic then go for it. ^^

    DO not be so rush to make marketing plan. You need to understand your target market.
     
    JerrickYeoh, Jun 2, 2011 IP
    freeagentsmith likes this.
  4. freeagentsmith

    freeagentsmith Peon

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    #4
    Are there any affiliate networks out there suitable for ecommerce merchants that are just starting out. The one or two big ones that I know of (shareasale) requires that your sales are at a certain level and that you've been open for a certain amount of time (two years)
     
    freeagentsmith, Jun 3, 2011 IP
  5. freeagentsmith

    freeagentsmith Peon

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    #5
    Firstly thank you very much for your thoughtful answers Jerrick and mohamed I've given you both some rep.


    Agreed but it sums up my life at the moment, trying to achieve a lot in a short time.


    What would be the lowest adwords budget you think could be gotten away with. If we're putting together a 'grand opening' style promotion would adwords help build momentum we could later work on?

    To be honest, it's not such of a marketing plan as a marketing outline. It's only something for the next 3 - 6 months then we will revise. I have a very rough idea about the target market I'm selling to because I've sold to them before while working for someone else.
     
    freeagentsmith, Jun 3, 2011 IP