Marketing Dilemma - What Would YOU Do?

Hi Wiz,

In a situation like yours, we recommend to our clients:-

Facebook ads & solo ads

Tori

If you know that your landing page convert well, it is best to spend that money on Facebook ads. When you buy a list of people who did not opt to receive emails from you directly, they may not interested in your business at all.

When your testing you are going to throw away money most likely... I advertise on FB and you can lose money super quick, but it's not about how much you lost more about what you learned... Advertising is not predictable until you can test and know your numbers.

Most times people don't make money upfront most make on the backend... Sometimes with OTO's and with a list.

You say niche is not IM or MMO but a popular one? Is this a niche you have passion for?

I have found over the many years of my failures that it's all about gathering an audience and providing value, that is the Secret...

I would focus on getting an audience that have passion for your niche and building a relationship with them and promote related stuff that would help them...

If you have a passion for this niche you would care about them as well and it will build a better relationship which is what I have found creates money online.

It sounds like you are asking where you should advertise & actually get a guarantee that you will receive some kind of return on your investment.

I couldn't give you an answer on this because I don't know what you are trying to sell or where it would convert best. That's why we have to 'test' the waters so to speak.

All three of those things you mentioned above convert well but will they convert with your deal? I wouldn't know.

The only way to know is to start testing each method of your choice with [small] amounts of dollars. It costs money even to learn paid ads.

Other marketers can give you suggestions on where to advertise and get a return but it will be based on their business and experiences.

This one.

Are there any similar (but non-competitive) websites in your niche that you can advertise on? Look for high traffic sites in your niche that offer ad slots on their site.

Can't pass up Adwords and Bing Ads.

You should also consider some mobile marketing also. Run ads for people specifically looking for info using their mobile device.

Hey Wiz-

Option A is a possibility but it also really makes me nervous. Finding a "reputable" list within your niche does not necessarily equal quality, and I guarantee you that for the price of the list, you can develop your own online funnel to capture hot leads. That's why I almost never recommend buying lists except in very specific circumstances.

Option B is tough to answer because I don't know your industry, your ideal customers, or the price point of your sales. While Facebook marketing works fantastic in some industries, it is a poor choice in others. So for this one, I'll say I don't know...but there is really no way to know without knowing your business model.

The same goes with Option C...anything from organic SEO to video marketing to local optimization or snail mail could be the best option, but I can't answer that without seeing your business model. Anyone who tells you any different is simply guessing, and that's definitely not how you protect your shoestring marketing budget.

HI Wizardofwisdom.

Without knowing what your budget is, it is a little difficult to say. Small could mean 100.00 or small could mean 1,000.00. You see my point?

Depending on what you are selling, I would create a squeeze page of some sort to collect emails. This should be your first priority.

Next I would give the small but reputable mailing list a test run.

You are probably going to have to trade your time for money if your budget is small. This means creating a face book page, youtube videos, or even forum posting. You should also create a blog.

The truth is, making a profit online requires time, dedication and patients.

This is the best advice I can give you based on what you posted. I hope this helps you out.

Given your specific set of parameters and a certain popular niche-need like "data recovery software" for example, I'd choose this:

B2B Marketing -- What I'd do is use my budget to form a team of German-speaking live chat and email sales / tech support agents. Because you said it's a small budget, then I won't be able to set up a German telesales and tech support team. Next:

I'd then find data recovery software merchants with lots of free trial and paid licenced users for their data recovery software products in Germany and other German-speaking countries. Then:

I'd approach the key decision makers in their companies. I'd negotiate this 100% purely performance-based arrangement with them:

They get 100% free live chat and email pre / post sales and tech support services for their German users. We operate their live chat and email support portals. We successfully resolve the pre / post sales concerns and tech support issues of their German users. We upsell their other relevant premium products and paid support plans. For each annual license / paid support plan sale and subscription renewal, we earn 60%, while they get 40%. That's it...

Hello Wizardofwisdom;

1. Forget cold market - you know you will lose money in spite of the volume of the mailing list.

2. Driving traffic to your optin from ANYWHERE depends on how targeted that traffic is and how well your optin converts.

Your responsibility is to maximize your optin and if you do not yet have one - create a sales funnel offering three to five related products.

With such a sales funnel 50% of customers who buy one product would generally buy a second related product. That contributes to making a profit on the cost of driving that traffic.

If one of the related products is a recurring income product you can hit the jackpot of passive income over time.

You should set an income goal and create a budget for paid advertising. For example if your income goal is $1,000 a month, your monthly ad budget should not be more than $500 if you can afford it. That $500 however should get you the amount of new customers you need to make $1,000 in sales.

3. If your paid ad budget do not get you the amount of new customers you need, you will have to make up the rest by using blog traffic strategies to generate targeted traffic. Such strategies do not generally cost money but you have to put in time to make them work.

Hope that helps.

LB.

Thank you, folks, for all your input - I'm blown away!

(Also, apologies for the long delay in replying to this thread - I'm in the UK so sleeping when many of you are awake!)

Just to be clear:

I'm deeply passionate about my market. I already have a website, books published on the subject, products created and a moderate sized mailing list - so I'm by no means a beginner.

On balance, reading through the replies, I think "putting all my eggs in one basket" is the worst option whatever I do, so I'm going to approach blog owners. I will, thanks to the suggestions in this thread, also investigate Bing Ads, Adwords and POF.

Very grateful for all the input - this is a great forum and I appreciate the time and care all who've replied have taken on behalf of a fellow marketer.