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Reviving a company through IM

by BLeeber
8 replies
I am new here and this is my first post. I am not experienced at all with any form of marketing on the internet. However, I feel my company could prosper with the right information.

Firstly, I own a nutritional supplement company that I started in 2004. I formulate the products myself and have them made at various nutriceutical manufacturing facilities. During the first 3 years, sales increased almost 100% each year through direct response advertising in National magazines. In year 4, I started another business (a retail, nutritional smoothie franchise) to form a relationship between my company and the Franchisor. I was going to formulate a line of supplements for all 200 stores nationwide and manufacture them. This was great, in theory. But, the economy took a turn for the worse and the company couldn't afford this project. Well, I was working 80 hours a week in my 2 stores and lost complete focus on my supplement business. Now, 3 years later with no marketing done, I have a company that is only producing about $1,500 a month in internet sales.

I would like to re-focus on my supplement company and bring it back to where it was and grow it from there. However, I am not sure print advertising is what it used to be and I don't have that kind of budget anymore. I would like to rely on the internet and some cost effective ways to product sales again. I am what I consider inventory rich and cash poor. I have a lot of inventory but no cash flow to produce sales. I know my website needs some work but really need cash flow before spending money on re-designs, etc.

What are everyone's thoughts and suggestions?

Thank you!!
#company #reviving
  • Profile picture of the author Fast Web
    What you want to achieve is certainly possible and I would be looking at the following strategies.

    * Ensure your product line is simple and not duplicated within itself
    * Use a social media strategy as part of your marketing effort.
    * Create feeder blogs with high quality content to link into your main website
    * Encourage a dialog with your market, use social media plugins on your main site.
    * Use a service like aWeber to build a mailing list of customers and leads.
    * Use advertising as a way to kick start the process


    With a well defined strategy, you will be able to raise awareness about your product and have a conversation with your customers and intended customers. This will improve the visibility of your products and the social conversation will increase the faith that people have in the products when making a purchasing decision.
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  • Profile picture of the author David Keith
    first, i think your business has some promise to it. but lets be realistic, you are in a very competitive market.

    one thing thats hurts you is that online, all these supplement companies are essentially right next door to you. in the offline world, you may be the only supplement company within say a 10 minute drive. but online, thousands of competitors are literally just 3 seconds away.

    now for some more positive things. the first thing i would do is create a simple free report or ebook explaining in detail why your products are the best and why they work. focus on the benefits not the features of your supplements.

    without a huge direct marketing budget, you are going to need to rely on turning visitors into leads and use followup marketing to make more sales.

    another idea is this...you say your inventory rich cash poor. what about some samples of some sort. is that an option? meaning giving out samples for lead generating purposes.

    another great idea is to start an affiliate program so you can give others a percentage of your profits for bringing in new business. there are a lot of things to consider with this method, but it is a very solid way of bringing in new customers.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tmill
    My first suggestion is to start learning SEO and try getting ranked in target keywords for your products. By doings this you will be getting free traffic to your site and it is target traffic, so the chances they purchase are much higher.

    Along with SEO, I would suggest you make a facebook fan page, and all that other good stuff. Also get Aweber to collect peoples email addresses. There is alot of stuff you can do to help promote and they all don't cost much, but it will also take time.

    Since you are new, it is going to take a long time to learn all of these tactics and then put them to use. Dont give up and eventually you will start seeing results
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  • Profile picture of the author Alastair McDermott
    I think you're in a great position - you have a successful business in a good sector, with one beautiful thing going for it - your product is consumable, which leads to re-orders. You have a strong offline company history which you can use in your online marketing.

    I strongly recommend reading Tim Ferriss's "The Four Hour Work Week", he started in the same business as you - I don't suggest you duplicate everything he's done, but there are great suggestions in there.

    The above posters have posted some good ideas. One thing that I'd really suggest you look at is the lifetime value of your typical customer - that will have a significant impact on how you approach marketing.
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  • Profile picture of the author lfire
    It sounds great . I did seo for my friends restraunt and thripilled his sells
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  • Profile picture of the author ShawnSells
    Just an idea: the first thing I would focus on is what strategies are working to generate the $1500 a month? That will give you direction as to what you need to do more of. Even internet promotions will cost some money, so i would still try to find funds for a budget.
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  • Profile picture of the author tpw
    Online marketing sounds awesome on paper, but it is hyper-competitive in your market.

    Print media works as well as it has historically, but in some publications, the audience is smaller and the cost of advertising reflects that.

    If you are cash poor, then Direct Mail pieces may not be your best approach.

    I wonder why you are stepping outside of proven channels to get this job done.

    While you may not have the cash-strength or the inventory-strength to put your product into the national chains like GNC, there are local-independent health food stores in most major cities in America.

    You have three options if you pursue this direction:
    • Wholesale some units to local stores;
    • Agree to put the product in the store on consignment;
    • Or request to put print flyers in the store, with a tracking code, so that the local store can profit from the transaction, even if they are not keeping the product in stock.

    This kind of goes with a marketing concept that has served businesses well for all of human history... Put your products where your target market is most likely to find it.

    Independent grocery stores and drug stores may be equally receptive to one of the three options listed above as well.
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    • Profile picture of the author BLeeber
      Great posts everyone! There is a lot of information here to absorb. I think I can start planning.

      Someone asked where the $1,500 a month is coming from now. Those are old customers who are still ordering products.

      I will post with some updates of my plan.

      Thank you!!
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