New business - Best way to advertise my products?

E

ericad

Guest
Hi there,

I'm starting a new business from home and I'm unsure of the best way to advertise my products. I'm aiming for the consumer market, low value sales but (hopefully!) high volume.

Am I better to advertise in the local papers or the Irish Times? Should I consider doing flyers? I've been told that I should have a website but I've checked a few firms and for what I asked they are quoting anything from €800 to €2,000 plus VAT!! Thats way beyond my means at the moment.

Can anyone give me some advice on the most cost effective way to get started.
All help welcome.
 
Hi,

Without giving too much confidential info away I feel it would be best if you give an indication of what type of business and that way you might get more advice here.
 
there are lots of other ways eg golden pages, sponsorship, signs, word of mouth etc. I am not an expert on marketing but I would think a lot would depend on the type of product in question. For example, I have found a web site to be a waste of money but done correctly it can work for some businesses.
 
If you think 800-2000 is too much for a website, you should probably forget about most other forms of advertising! Advertising costs €€€€s

What exactly is your advertising budget, and what are you selling?

Consider reading marketing books. There are relationships between cost of product and marketing campaigns etc. Coca-cola spends millions on avertising something that costs cents. Low volume niche market stuff might require less of an outlay.
 
Erica,
I was getting huge (in my opinion) quotes from a number of Webdesign Companies to design a site for my business. Over €1000 for a five page site. I sell small traditional products and its important to let the customer view the product. The more images I wanted to show the higher the price was going.
Luckily my nephew told me of a friend of his at University who is doing a webdesign course (And who worked with one of the companies who gave me the quote for work experience). He offerred to do the same site for me for €350 !! He gets the cash to help with his 'extra curricular' activities as he puts it, and I get my site designed as I want for 1/3 of the price. A good deal for everyone. Its not finished yet but he came round with his laptop on Sunday to show me the homepage and it looks great. I'm looking forward to getting on the web and hopefully getting some more sales. If you want I can forward on his contact details ? It might be a help to getting started in business.
 
That sounds great.

My business is selling beauty products directly to the public, so I need to display images on the site or brochures.

Is that price a once off or is it an annual fee?
 
Why limit yourself to the Irish Market? Consider doing Internet advertising, and sell your products online, globally. Ireland has about 4 million potential customers, sell online and target hundreds of millions.

Many online credit card processing companies cater for all VAT scenarios and it's reasonably easy to set up.

We sell fitness software, and the majority of our customers are American.

(The main drawback at the moment is the weak dollar.)
 
Hi Ksose and Erica Dee4, as you are both aiming at advertising products and possibbly prices, consider the dynamics of your product list and any future changes.

If you get a website without some form of a user-friendly content management system (CMS) you may be left with spiralling design costs as you add or change products.
 
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