Help, this one question I can't seem to figure out the answer

Long Question but short answer maybe have you tried using youtube?

You might try trade shows to get your mural service in front of your local market. Also try approaching paint stores, or decorating stores and see if they would let you put up flyers, or better yet, hand out your flyer with some of their own marketing materials. You may have to pay them... I'm brainstorming for you.

Otherwise, for your own site and the affiliate sites, do guest blogging and forum posting. Relevant dental or health blogs and forums might bring you more and targeted traffic for the tooth soap, for instance.

Consider installing an extension called SEO Site Tools. (I use it in Chrome, I don't know if they make it for any other browser or not.) There is a section called Suggestions. I like it because it tells you what is good, what is okay, and makes suggestions for what it considers bad.

I roamed around your site and inspected several of the pages. You should do the same, you may be surprised.

I don't want to seem harsh but I honestly think
you're in a very low volume market. I just can't
see there ever being a big market of people who
want star-scapes painted on their ceilings.

Have you tried working with local interior decorators
and related professionals?

Tsnyder

I think some things are more suited to internet marketing than others. My first thought when I was getting into your post was that this doesn't sound like the kind of thing people would be shopping online for.

I think Tsnyder has the right idea. I'd say you should go for more of a networking approach to promoting your murals.

Have you tried Google Places yet? Sorry no link, I don't have enough post yet.

It's free btw.

Hi, Your ceiling starscapes sound lovely and I love the idea of your car decorated with glowing stars!
I think your target market is parents of young children, so I suggest targetting local schools and nurseries. If they have spring /Christmas fundraising fairs etc where you can book a stall, attend as many as you can. Network with parent groups often if you can get one sale in such a group others will follow.
Encourage satisfied customers to show all their friends their new ceilings and make sure they have a supply of your business cards or brochures to hand out.
County or country fairs and craft fairs and local markets would be good too - especially if you can take your decorated car. Take names and addresses if people are interested and make sure you follow up.
This is definitely a business where you have to get out and demonstrate your product and talk to people about it.
Good luck.

Susan

There is a fierce competition online in all fiends. Of course, there is always something else you could do to improve your business and get more traffic. However, the truth is that you have to be patient, build confidence, become known, and mainly, beat all the competition in order to really make money online.

Don’t feel frustrated because you are not having the positive results you desire. Everything is hard in the beginning, and the beginning can be quite long.

I have contracted with numerous companies over 3 decades in developing compelling marketing campaigns for them. I recall two clients who have similar interests. One painted murals for thoroughbred arabian horses and the other marketed fish and giant aquariums. Both used postcards with illustrations that were so compelling, takers would keep them around for months or even years in some instances and the cards consistently drew business. Most were distributed at malls handed out by a couple of students.

As you are following all the SEO rules and still not getting enough results because your keyword does not have enough search volume. In these cases, social media marketing can you help you the most. The use of facebook will be fantastic. Build a page of Mural painting. Invite people to like the page. Post attractive paints regularly. All in all, try to build a community. It will help you to make your product popular.

Help bump the thread and leart something useful at the same time

Hi ideallife,

Sorry, this will be a long reply, but I hope there are some interesting and helpful ideas in here for you and for others reading this.

As you and others have mentioned you have a unique product with an extremely small potential customer base.

The people who have hired you to paint Starscapes® would know others who would want the same. I know it can sound like begging, but you must ask again and again for referrals.

Susanrh is right on target with her suggestion to go to places where parents of young children are.

Fortuantely you have tried some other advertising venues, but did you do them over and over?

It is difficult to take rejection, but sometimes that is what "selling" is all about - reaching enough people over and over and over and over.

Depending upon to whom you listen, it takes anywhere from 7 to 15 contacts with people to get a sale. Dan Kennedy says it takes 11 times.

People are not instantly ready to buy the first time they hear about a product or service. It might take a year or more before they realize they want what you sell.

You have unique product. Do you have a unique way to describe it, a way that makes people want it?

You have tried to create joint ventures with interior designers, but did you go back to talk with them every two weeks to remind them to sell your service? How much commission did you offer them for "selling" your service to clients?

Selling, both face to face, and by using written copy is a developable skill. No one is born knowing how to sell. There are excellent books written about it. Read Tm Hopkins.

What other "art" skills can you develop to add to your Starscapes®. BTW, I see you have registered a trademark of the name. Good for you. I know it's expensive. I heard a patent and trademark attorney explain that it is "not proper" to use a ® without having actually registered it. I'm not a lawyer and haven't a clue.

Oh wait, I see Starscapes® is a franchise out of Arizona. Do you have photos of any ceilings you have painted? Can you add them to your website?

Joe Girard is listed in the Guinness Book Of World Records as being the best salesman of all times. What he did to keep his customers referring others to him was to contact every customer every month by mailing a postcard saying he liked working with them, and asking for referrals.

Read the "Ultimate Sales Letter" book by Dan Kennedy, then rewrite your review site about tooth soap. That book will teach you how to write effective letters, web pages, postcards, hand-outs, and even your wording to use when you approach other business about recommending your services.

People are not buying products or services (tooth soap or Starscapes). They are buying whatever emotional benefit they feel they get from making that purchase.

Obviously not everyone is in want of a star covered ceiling, but they might buy faux painting - everything from a marble look to scumbling paint.

Have you tested pricing? Pricing too low makes people not trust the quality, pricing way too high narrows the market. I had not seen Ralph's post when I wrote this. I'll go look at your prices.

Your local media - radio, TV, newspapers, local entertainment tabloid - are all, always on the lookout for something different and interesting to write about. Send press releases to all of them and to media in any near-by cities or towns. Send releases repeatedly. Remember it takes 11 "touches" to get through.

BTW, you don't need to answer my questions. They are for you to answer for yourself.

:-Don

Edit - I just looked at your pricing, and I think your prices are quite reasonable for the area of the country where you are located. People spend more than that on granite kitchen counter tops. However, you are selling to an upscale market. Those are the people you need to reach. Babys R Us, and Toys R Us sell to the wrong market for you. You need to reach the "hoity-toity" moms.

How about approaching merchants who sell upscale baby and childrens' clothing, toys, funiture - anything trendy?

Also make regular, helpful idea posts on any local "mom" forums you can find.

Remember - multiple contacts - every two weeks. I know that sounds like a lot, but it is what will work.

Sorrry, I keep editing as I get more ideas. You can soften local merchants by sending full color postcards week after week to help introduce your service before going to talk to them. You do need to reach the owners. A postcard company I have used for the past 10 years is clubflyers dot com. I am not an affiliate.

If you are going to do repeated mailings to 30merchants (sending to surrounding cities too), and you mail to them 15 times over the next 6 month, that's 450 postcards you will need. Larger cards get more attention.

You need to figure out who your customers are and where they come from and why they want/need your product.

Any way to get your toothsoap in the hands of a celeb that might tweet about it?

As for youtube, I think you could take photos or video or you working on a painting. Things like before and after shots with a description that says: imagine how good this looks at night. Etc.

Just a few quick ideas, specifically about the ceiling murals site...

Target your locality in terms of keywords, using it in page names or even get a new domain with your locality in it. Eg. SomeplaceStarCeilingMurals.com or YourSite.com/SomeplaceStarCeilingMurals ... (just off the top of my head)

I get a lot of traffic to location-specific pages and they are much easier to rank for when it comes to a specific service or product (you don't really need the traffic from half way across the country anyways, do you?)

Make sure you DON'T have the off-topic teeth stuff etc on your mural site

Yes, do consider doing a short YouTube video demonstrating you painting -- make sure you use keywords that are relevant. All you need is a digital camera that takes video, trying out different lighting to get a good result, and a cheapy tripod to make it hands free. Embed that on your site AND link to your site from your dedicated YouTube channel.

Have a way for people to contact you from your website or sign up for an email list to collect leads...

Target slightly more general keywords that people are actually searching for. I suspect more along the line of "ceiling murals" or "decorative ceiling painting." It's actually not too hard to find good 'craftsy' keywords that do have some traffic. Also the children's room decorating niche, etc. Start thinking like someone who is actually searching for something ALONG the line of what you offer, not necessarily exact. Often they are looking for ideas... and what you offer seems to be something that could be an inspiration... And THAT is the exact type of thing they post to PinTrest, so do something for that too... but always throw in your location key phrases!

Good luck.