$10,000 marketing campaign

[Elkka_Nland]

I'm considering acquiring a home equity loan to do some advertising. I remember a formula being posted on here that stated marketing costs should equal 5% of what you would like to make. I also realize that a great deal of what is speant on marketing is wasted.

With all thi sin mind I decided I would take a relatively small loan of $10,000 and spend it as wisely as possible. So far I've come up with direct mail (3 mailings of postcards), search engine advertising, and small ads in the Sunday paper for the next 4 months. Any thoughts, advice or opinions about my little scrap of a marketing plan?

P.S. Thanks all for letting bend your ear this Sunday, I have really been going at it.

[moongems]

Hi:

My background is in Marketing. Here are some questions for you:

Who is your market (potential customers)? Where do they shop?

How do you expect to reach them (internet, print, radio, etc)? Is
your business new or established?

I can go on, but this should get you started.

Rhona

[tim1]

Don't do anything until you check out this guy named Jim Ackerman. I
have his CD's and I find them very interesting. You will find him at
jim@ascendmarketing.com

[E_Luther]

With all thi sin mind I decided I would take a relatively small
loan of $10,000 and spend it as wisely as possible. So far I've
come up with direct mail (3 mailings of postcards), search engine
advertising, and small ads in the Sunday paper for the next 4
months.

I would encourage you to have a written marketing plan. There is good
on this at the Small Business Administration website.

Who is your target? You don't say in this who your market is. Do you
have a good sense of it? Search engine advertising can be pretty
expensive.

Who will the postcards go to? Do you have a customer list?

Elaine

Elaine Luther
Metalsmith, Certified PMC Instructor
http://www.CreativeTextureTools.com (TM)
Hard to Find Tools for Metal Clay

[Beth_Taylor1]

Hi,

You might want to check and see if your state has any small business
centers that help entrepreneurs get started. In PA, we have centers
like this and they offer free workshops, inlcuding workshops on
writing your business and marketing plan. And they provide one free
appointment with an accountant and offer free one-one-one
mentoring/counseling and can help you determine your target markets,
list sources, etc. Make that $10,000 really work for you and get
everything you can out it!

Regards,
Beth

Beth Taylor
A Quirk of Art: Mixed Media Jewelry by Beth Taylor
http://www.aquirkofart.com

[dgeller]

A couple of suggestions

1. A great book on figuring how to lay out the marketing budget and
   where: "33 ruthless rules of local advertising" by Michael Corbett.
   You can get this at most book stores, if not, I carry it at my
   website $14.95
   http://www.jewelerprofit.com/catalog/item/1753739/1285975.htm

2. Plan to spend 8% off sales on advertising

3. Divide your budget per month this way:

Take your budget and divide it into 16 parts. So if your budget is
$100,000, spend $16,000 per PART. then spend that part each month,
divded up this way:

Month Parts of Budget When

January 1.00 evenly
February 1.50 1st 2 weeks
March 1.00 evenly
April 1.00 evenly
May 1.50 1st 2 weeks
June 1.00 evenly
July 1.00 evenly
August 1.00 evenly
September 1.00 evenly
October 1.00 evenly
November 1.50 last 2 weeks
December 3.50 1st - 24th

People who do usually experince increasing sales.

Read the book I mentioned plsu go read

"The end of advertising as we know it" by Sergio Zyman. You can get
that at a book store alos, I don't carry that one.

david Geller

[Ateh_Modus_Vivendi]

Ekka,

I'm not an expert on Marketing at all, in fact, I will heed the
advice of other people who recommended the books to read on the
subject.

I have been trying to rev up my jewelry business as well and have
been talking to PR companies few times. One thing that all of them
feel very strongly about is that you should have a good name for your
company/brand - the easier the name to remember the faster your
customers will remember you. Also, once you sink the money into
advertising and decide that your name is not that great, all that
money will be waisted as you will have to start almost from scratch.
I am actually doing just that right now. Turns out my present company
name "Ateh" is very hard to remember ( which I've discovered after 10
years of using it!) so I am changing it to "Ruslana", which at least
has the advantage of being my own name.

Another good advice - if you have any country clubs in your area -
do lunch talks, choose a topic that is related to your jewelry, it
could be anything historical, technical, etc. You basically sell the
set lunch to the interested people (the catering service gets the
money) and you provide free entertainment in a form of lecture. But
can also bring your jewelry along and collect the name cards from the
people, thus building up your customer base. I will try that too when
I have the time. The advantage is that it doesn't cost you anything
but your time.

I wish you luck in your marketing!

cheers,
Ruslana
http://www.atehmodus.com

[Jim_Sprague_Jr]

Hi Elkka,

I don't think it has been addressed yet, surprisingly, but a WELL-DONE website is a MUST HAVE. I don't know if you have a website or not, but either way, if you don't have the skills to create a nice presentation online, set aside funds to hire someone. If you do have skills for that, GREAT (and disregard the rest of this post, but it may help someone else)!

Do some research on websites you like, the styles and themes you prefer, and hire a freelancer to do it. In general, I would not use "web design firms" unless you need really technically difficult features, and they will cost you an arm and a leg even for simple designs.

A poorly designed website is detrimental to business, and can negate much of the tangible marketing you do. I've seen many fabulous artists struggle due to poor online presentations, and strangely many "ok" artists succeed with great websites. Fascinating.

Unfortunately most of the public (in general) quite often associate the quality of the product, based on the quality of the presentation of the product-- and it all happens subconsciously. If you already have a website and it can use some fresh curtains, do not hesitate to do so. A redesign is much cheaper than losing potential clients.

If it costs you more than $3,000 for a small to medium sized website, you are probably getting ripped off. A good deal would be around $1,500 - $1,800. Also make sure the one you hire KNOWS what they're doing and has a great track record.

I would highly suggest NOT doing Search Engine Marketing in the beginning, as that can strip your marketing budget down in a hurry. Wait until you have a very refined website and identity, and firstly rely on your business cards, postcards, and word of mouth. Only do Search Engine Marketing when you are hurting or ready to expand. But, if you have the extra funds do to it, it can't hurt too much.

Another tip is to keep track of the cost, time, and response for each marketing method. Quarterly you can then see what methods are working, worth keeping, adjusting, or dumping altogether. Holidays are tricky. Some methods may fail in one quarter but work great in another quarter. Keeping good records will ensure it doesn't turn into a crapshoot gamble.

If you want I'll address your website needs and offer some tips and suggestions at no charge. I'm on hiatus, so please don't take this as solicitation, as I'm getting involved in jewelry ;)

Looking forward to your feedback.
Jim Sprague Jr.