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How would you allocate these funds, for this product?

by akwit
6 replies
Thanks in advance for reading:

I am launching a new vitamin-based, retail product this summer that will target the 21-45 age demos.

We have set aside roughly $250k for Internet marketing.

I realize this cannot be simply answered without having more extensive knowledge of the product but-
What would you advise to be our allocation breakdown, amongst the following verticals?:

1. Social media
2. Affiliate Marketing
3. SEO
4. SEM
5. EMail Marketing
6. other?

Interested in hearing what people might think would give the best ROI at the outset, as opposed to down the line (when the strategy will likely shift/change).
#allocate #funds #product
  • Profile picture of the author Kurt
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  • Profile picture of the author jasondinner
    You should ask someone who owns a successful and thriving supplement business who markets heavily on the internet.

    Probably would be worth paying whatever their asking price is for consulting.

    A couple guys that come to mind are

    1. Ryan Lee
    2. Whoever owns BioTrust

    You might get real lucky and someone who's qualified in your specific market will chime in here, but don't stop with whatever feedback you get here.

    Seek out the successful people in your space and pick their brain.

    Even more, get some advertising intelligence software like Adbeat and use it to see where your competition gets their web traffic from.

    Best of Luck To You

    Originally Posted by akwit View Post

    Thanks in advance for reading:

    I am launching a new vitamin-based, retail product this summer that will target the 21-45 age demos.

    We have set aside roughly $250k for Internet marketing.

    I realize this cannot be simply answered without having more extensive knowledge of the product but-
    What would you advise to be our allocation breakdown, amongst the following verticals?:

    1. Social media
    2. Affiliate Marketing
    3. SEO
    4. SEM
    5. EMail Marketing
    6. other?

    Interested in hearing what people might think would give the best ROI at the outset, as opposed to down the line (when the strategy will likely shift/change).
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  • Profile picture of the author BryRobinson
    The best thing to do would be to find your top 3 competitors in your niche and find out where they're getting the bulk of their traffic and start there.

    You can use SimilarWeb, Quantcast, and some competitive analysis software to find out where they're getting the bulk of their traffic. SimilarWeb will give you a percentage breakdown of where the traffic is coming from and I'd allocate my funds according to that.
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  • Profile picture of the author Skystar
    Is your product unusual or newsworthy in any way? Unique results? Packaging? Testimonials (celebrity etc)? if so - PR should definitely be included in your marketing mix. If you do decide on publicity of this type be sure and hire an established PR firm - not to write the releases - you can do that - but to make sure they get read, and more importantly, receive the credibility editors and publishers demand.
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    • Profile picture of the author akwit
      Originally Posted by BryRobinson View Post

      The best thing to do would be to find your top 3 competitors in your niche and find out where they're getting the bulk of their traffic and start there.

      You can use SimilarWeb, Quantcast, and some competitive analysis software to find out where they're getting the bulk of their traffic. SimilarWeb will give you a percentage breakdown of where the traffic is coming from and I'd allocate my funds according to that.
      Thank you Bry.
      Have I covered all of the internet marketing verticals above or am I missing any?

      Originally Posted by Skystar View Post

      Is your product unusual or newsworthy in any way? Unique results? Packaging? Testimonials (celebrity etc)? if so - PR should definitely be included in your marketing mix. If you do decide on publicity of this type be sure and hire an established PR firm - not to write the releases - you can do that - but to make sure they get read, and more importantly, receive the credibility editors and publishers demand.
      Great questions.
      Its very unusual; we will actually be creating a brand new consumer market once its released. This will make things quite a bit more difficult for us as it will require a substantial amount of educating.
      That said, we will likely have some FDA related issues so we need to be careful about making any claims.

      As for packaging, we have a very solid firm doing all of our design work for us, including the packaging. It has yet to be completed.

      What would be great is if I could hire a consultant who could help us navigate all of these marketing verticals and advise on how we allocate to each.

      Does this person exist?
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve B
    Originally Posted by akwit View Post

    What would you advise to be our allocation breakdown, amongst the following verticals?

    akwit,

    I hope you understand that you're asking a question that should be very apparent to anyone that has done market research on the buyer demand for their product. People here on a public forum can only guess what is most appropriate since they haven't analyzed where the demand lies and paying attention to their "guesses" could be marketing suicide ... especially since it seems the majority of people posting on this forum are newbies without a clue about budgets and marketing verticals.

    The allocation you come up with should be a product of your initial testing of the market at the places which show the greatest demand and the best ROI given your marketing strategy and goals. You can't assume that because you have a supplement that "everyone" is your targeted prospect. I would think that lists of supplement buyers would give you a far higher ROI than social media in general - but you would need to test that to know for sure.

    Marketing supplements still requires that you follow the tried and proven strategy of letting your market show you its demand. Go where your targeted prospects are found. Test your product, your sales copy, your offer, price points, call to action, guarantee, social proof, etc and then track results on a small scale. Tweak your variables until you find the ultimate combination then ramp up your marketing budget accordingly.

    Don't let public opinion here at the WF sway your marketing decisions. Do online marketing as it should be done and has been done for decades.

    Good luck in your campaign,

    Steve
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    • Profile picture of the author akwit
      Originally Posted by Steve B View Post

      akwit,

      I hope you understand that you're asking a question that should be very apparent to anyone that has done market research on the buyer demand for their product. People here on a public forum can only guess what is most appropriate since they haven't analyzed where the demand lies and paying attention to their "guesses" could be marketing suicide ... especially since it seems the majority of people posting on this forum are newbies without a clue about budgets and marketing verticals.

      The allocation you come up with should be a product of your initial testing of the market at the places which show the greatest demand and the best ROI given your marketing strategy and goals. You can't assume that because you have a supplement that "everyone" is your targeted prospect. I would think that lists of supplement buyers would give you a far higher ROI than social media in general - but you would need to test that to know for sure.

      Marketing supplements still requires that you follow the tried and proven strategy of letting your market show you its demand. Go where your targeted prospects are found. Test your product, your sales copy, your offer, price points, call to action, guarantee, social proof, etc and then track results on a small scale. Tweak your variables until you find the ultimate combination then ramp up your marketing budget accordingly.

      Don't let public opinion here at the WF sway your marketing decisions. Do online marketing as it should be done and has been done for decades.

      Good luck in your campaign,

      Steve
      Thank you Steve; understood.
      Would you happen to know of any good books that can help educate me on your above points?
      I have a good understanding on all of the above from a macro perspective but not on a micro one. Its all a bit overwhelming.
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