O/T Marketing Advice

[Fretters]

Hi all,

I recently took the plunge of quitting my full time job to go into a business with a friend. Based in Darwen. we make and sell wood stain, varnish etc. and we're looking to expand. People seem to love the product (we have a 6% conversion rate online which is actually very high) so it's just a case of getting it in front of more and more people as we know it will sell.

We currently supply 26 shops around the North West and we're looking to grow this to around 100. I've just managed to acquire a list of around 5k email addresses of builders & timber merchants, DIY stores hardware shops etc. around the UK and, having never worked in marketing before, I'm wondering how best to use these without prompting folk to hit delete straight away.

Instead of Google and Youtube, I thought I'd harness the power UTC as there's a hell of a lot of knowledge on here. Any tips for getting our products out there?

[MarkGreen]

Email marketing is still very powerful, especially when you have a database of email addresses.

I work full time doing this for a company, I design and send promotional emails out around to 30,000 people a month with very good results.

I'd certainly look into that if I was you.

[Fretters]

Email marketing is still very powerful, especially when you have a database of email addresses.

I work full time doing this for a company, I design and send promotional emails out around to 30,000 people a month with very good results.

I'd certainly look into that if I was you.

Thanks, I did think about using a company for the email. What kind of conversion rate do you get on 30k people?

[MarkGreen]

Thanks, I did think about using a company for the email. What kind of conversion rate do you get on 30k people?

I don't think that is information I am allowed to discuss

We are a very large company however and we don't just employ anybody We sell high end Coffee Machines, less known in the UK (massive outside of the UK) but we a growing significantly with the marketing we do.

Check us out if you are interested
https://uk.jura.com/en/homeproducts/aut ... e-machines

[Fretters]

I don't think that is information I am allowed to discuss

We are a very large company however and we don't just employ anybody We sell high end Coffee Machines, less known in the UK (massive outside of the UK) but we a growing significantly with the marketing we do.

Check us out if you are interested
https://uk.jura.com/en/homeproducts/aut ... e-machines

Sorry, I thought you worked for a marketing company so you'd be happy to show off your results!! Thanks for the advice I want a brew now.

[Lancasterclaret]

Not a bad idea (if you haven't already) to get a presence on social media.

[MarkGreen]

Sorry, I thought you worked for a marketing company so you'd be happy to show off your results!! Thanks for the advice I want a brew now.

Haha, No sorry If you can afford to pay someone some cash that may be far more effective for you, as you can taylor it to your customers/your needs. Agencies tend to charge large amounts of money for their services because they know the marketing industry, when in reality they do not understand your customers.

[Sidney1st]

My boss uses - https://mailchimp.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

He can see how many people open the emails etc

[MarkGreen]

My boss uses - https://mailchimp.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

He can see how many people open the emails etc

This is the tool we use, it allows you to see who has clicked on what part of the email also.

[IAmAClaret]

Yep, another user of MailChimp here.

[ClaretAndJew]

Fretters, a social media account for sure with maybe offers/discounts, this is always a good way to drum up a bit of business.

Have you ever considered good old fashioned business to business calling? And not the whole dodgy cold calling (although I understand it would be) but maybe just be less pushy and more open, after all it's a win win for both yourselves and those you sell too, providing they sell the products.

E-mail marketing does work, but depending on their spam filters etc you could get a lot of your emails going into the junk folders, plus, for a smaller business, are people going to sit down and read it when they don't really know who you are etc?

I believe (and I may be very, very wrong) but engaging with people live, so on a Facebook or Twitter account would yield better results, especially if you can get the information of people you want to target, such as the higher ups or bosses/decision makers.

Also, last but not least, good old fashion leaflet distribution.

[CombatClaret]

Can recommend a friend who does freelance marketing for a living and could handle email mail outs, press releases, social media.
Writer by professional and have done everything from speeches for UAE princes to manage a gym chain's marketing.

Good subject headers, content, info-graphics, personable instagram/facebook interaction etc.

[rishtonclaret]

I work in marketing so hope this helps. If you've acquired a database of 5k then definitely recommend email marketing as a minimum for your marketing. There's lots of targeted marketing you can do too via google and facebook for example, but you will need to put a bit of budget into it and spend time adding content and copy, so if you can it's always worth getting a marketing specialist to help. Make sure you have permission to use the email addresses you have acquired though and if you register an account with say, MailChimp, then you'll need to make it clear you have permission otherwise they will block your account. If you've purchased the database they won't accept and will try and block you for Data Protection reasons so tread carefully when creating and setting up an email account. There are cheaper and equally good alternatives such as sendinblue.com who are virtually the same as MailChimp but half the price. Hope that helps.

[Sidney1st]

We've had some brilliant responses from our mailchimps, literally telling us to EFF off

[Claret-On-A-T-Rex]

I work in marketing so hope this helps. If you've acquired a database of 5k then definitely recommend email marketing as a minimum for your marketing. There's lots of targeted marketing you can do too via google and facebook for example, but you will need to put a bit of budget into it and spend time adding content and copy, so if you can it's always worth getting a marketing specialist to help. Make sure you have permission to use the email addresses you have acquired though and if you register an account with say, MailChimp, then you'll need to make it clear you have permission otherwise they will block your account. If you've purchased the database they won't accept and will try and block you for Data Protection reasons so tread carefully when creating and setting up an email account. There are cheaper and equally good alternatives such as sendinblue.com who are virtually the same as MailChimp but half the price. Hope that helps.

It certainly does help, thank you very much for the heads up on sendinblue, I've got about 3k in my mailing list and need a fortnightly email so the 9k free emails per month will cover that nicely.

[Fretters]

I work in marketing so hope this helps. If you've acquired a database of 5k then definitely recommend email marketing as a minimum for your marketing. There's lots of targeted marketing you can do too via google and facebook for example, but you will need to put a bit of budget into it and spend time adding content and copy, so if you can it's always worth getting a marketing specialist to help. Make sure you have permission to use the email addresses you have acquired though and if you register an account with say, MailChimp, then you'll need to make it clear you have permission otherwise they will block your account. If you've purchased the database they won't accept and will try and block you for Data Protection reasons so tread carefully when creating and setting up an email account. There are cheaper and equally good alternatives such as sendinblue.com who are virtually the same as MailChimp but half the price. Hope that helps.

Thanks for this, very helpful indeed. I did pay for the mailing list but I hadn't thought about permissions. It was only £4 on fiver.com so it isn't much of a waste. I've no idea how I'll get so many natural subscribers. Out website has been live since October and we've only have 23 email subscribers since then (we'd purely been selling on Amazon and eBay until we got the website).

[Fretters]

Can recommend a friend who does freelance marketing for a living and could handle email mail outs, press releases, social media.
Writer by professional and have done everything from speeches for UAE princes to manage a gym chain's marketing.

Good subject headers, content, info-graphics, personable instagram/facebook interaction etc.

I might be interested in employing a freelancer, does he have a website?

[FactualFrank]

Email marketing isn't as good as it used to be. Not surprisingly due to every man and his dog receiving a shed load of spam each day. Also, a lot of email providers (Hotmail being one), are over sensitive. If you are sending out emails, be sure to use a smtp server that isn't blacklisted and also make sure you split test.

Split testing is when you send email A and email B and see which gets the most emails open, emails read, links clicked etc. 5000 emails is a very small number, unless they are very highly targeted (for instance I sent 2 million last year), but what you'd do is send 2 different emails.. A to 2500, B to 2500. You then monitor and see basically which one converts the best.

[CombatClaret]

I might be interested in employing a freelancer, does he have a website?

http://www.rarespacemedia.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Email Jess, she will be happy to discuss things with you

[Fretters]

http://www.rarespacemedia.com/

Email Jess, she will be happy to discuss things with you

Whoops, how very sexist of me, apologies!

[MRG]

Fretters, did you get the growth that you was hoping for? I am looking to potentially go it alone at some point

[SalisburyClaret]

Regardless of the merits or otherwise of email marketing, the defining factor initially will be how upto date your database is

Best bet is to call each record, confirm the contact details and start a conversation about your products. Then if possible get a face to face meeting or worst case you now have an accurate record to e-market to in the future

[aggi]

Thanks for this, very helpful indeed. I did pay for the mailing list but I hadn't thought about permissions. It was only £4 on fiver.com so it isn't much of a waste. I've no idea how I'll get so many natural subscribers. Out website has been live since October and we've only have 23 email subscribers since then (we'd purely been selling on Amazon and eBay until we got the website).

Realistically this would almost certainly fall afoul of GDPR. There's no consent been granted by those people for you to contact them.

[lesxdp]

Have a look at this. http://www.nextlevelbd.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Worth a chat to a Claret

[Fretters]

Realistically this would almost certainly fall afoul of GDPR. There's no consent been granted by those people for you to contact them.

Yeah, I knew nothing of GDPR when I paid for the list (See the original date of this thread). I didn't use the list and soon got rid of it.

I ended up using Mailchimp which is great and gives customers the option to unsubscribe.

[Fretters]

Fretters, did you get the growth that you was hoping for? I am looking to potentially go it alone at some point

We've grown quickly, yes, but through knowing how to sell effectively on Amazon mainly. What are you looking to do?