I have 4 online business/websites/products and not sure where to start

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First off I have been a lurker here for a while, always reading and studying and now I finally posting something. I really value the advice in here so I am ready to receive some (if you please)

So these are my four things. I have never paid for any ads or marketing for any of them and I am ready to now (I just wasn't invested in them and now I have heaps of free time so I am ready to roll) and I have some cash to spend on ads etc (a couple K at the moment but can get more soon but want to limit what I spend to begin with)

I will warn you it is a bit long - each one is broken down to explain what it is.

1st: Website - clothing label that has no stock (this is my main focus - I have two factories overseas who make all the clothing as they are ordered - so it kinda drop shipping. I have a huge market for this (basically any woman who shops - we have no size limitations or age) as we have a special concept so only a handful of competition which is great. We are about to launch a huge campaign in 3-4 weeks and also now we have built up the mailing list to about 5k we want to start doing flash sales every day. I am revamping the website because it runs slow at the moment. The photos are too big in size. I only want to sell from the website. I have no facebook for it and a very small insta account.

2nd - Apart from an upcoming photoshoot next week, this product is ready to go. It will have its own website. Only sold through there and maybe Etsy and Amazon. It is just one product - a piece of clothing (pants to be exact) that I have a very unique design for(kinda comfy at home pants that stretch but look nice). I have been planning to do this for years, I made tens of samples and tested them out with friends and had amazing feedback, just never had the time. The person making them and dropshipping them is doing it exclusively. Really high turn over each one I sell.Super easy to market - they are going to be very affordable ($25) and easy to buy (sizing really simple) and it needs to be marketed at targeted woman.

3rd - Childrens book - we have the stock ready to go - my daughter and I self published a children's book (link removed) just for fun last year and now that the family and friends sales have died down and we have 400+ books just sitting around I really want to start pushing it and getting them out. We have a website and it for sale on Amazon, Etsy and Print on Demand. We do offline marketing with it, like she goes and reads at schools and libraries but that is about it. Never done any advertising for it, just some Instagram posting thats it. We have small publishers contacting us to pay them a set amount and they will promote it and distribute it but I would rather spend the money and do it ourselves if I can.

4th - another clothing label that I run exclusively through Etsy that has been running for 5-6 years. Again no stock and everything is made to order. I do have a website but never used it, just have it there for google search. This label is more focused on custom halloween outfits and comic con but I do get 10-20 normal non halloween/costume sales a week too. I want to be pushing this during summer in preparation for Halloween and Comic Con. I do use their google ads within Etsy and spend a couple dollars a day and I push this up to $10 during Halloween.

sorry again for it being so long. I am feeling anxious about breaking these all down and working out theses best way to spend my money on advertisting them

Basically 3 of the 4 are targeted at woman
and the last one is targeted at moms with kids?

I am undecided whether I use instagram marketing or facebook, adsense all of that. I have never had to do it before! I am glad I have everything set up now I just feel a bit lost on what to do.

Thanks for reading too!
#online #start
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  • Profile picture of the author jmosticc22
    You could look into instagram and pintrest influencing, with your products and niches it could work well.
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    • Profile picture of the author fakeplastictrees
      Originally Posted by jmosticc22 View Post

      You could look into instagram and pintrest influencing, with your products and niches it could work well.
      Thanks! I actually have a really big pinterest following - I just never use it (for the last business the one I have had for a few years) I only ever use it during Halloween time briefly.

      I need to do some research with how the influencing works exactly and the best way to approach it. I will do some more studying on here.
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  • Profile picture of the author techwizard
    I would recommend starting with fb ads at first till you understand netter your audience and niche. That could help you identify a beta customer base which can help you market better your products.

    Good luck
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    • Profile picture of the author fakeplastictrees
      [DELETED]
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      • Profile picture of the author techwizard
        Originally Posted by fakeplastictrees View Post

        Also Andy saw your PM but can't reply because I am under the 5 post threshold.

        Did you mean Print on Demand? (just wanted to check because POD is the term I use for Proof of Delivery to my customers)

        Cheers

        That's what I asked about exactly. Is it a print on demand type store?
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        • Profile picture of the author fakeplastictrees
          Originally Posted by techwizard View Post

          That's what I asked about exactly. Is it a print on demand type store?
          Yes for the book POD. Though we have physical copies as well - I got an awesome deal from a printer and it was almost the same price as paying for good flyers - (plus they messed up the first time really non obvious print error and printed us another 500 for free so we have a few hundred lying around that we hand them out as a marketing promo seeing they are unsellable) the kids loving getting books handed to them as a present - we do it all around NYC esp the tourist areas.
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    • Profile picture of the author fakeplastictrees
      Originally Posted by techwizard View Post

      I would recommend starting with fb ads at first till you understand netter your audience and niche. That could help you identify a beta customer base which can help you market better your products.

      Good luck
      Good idea. I have somewhat of an understanding though

      The clothing companies - very specific on age (20-60) in major cities in USA and UK. Major retail online shoppers

      Childrens Book - 30-45 year old moms USA main cities and some populated family towns.

      But I will keep researching
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  • Profile picture of the author arnerog1953
    Start by getting a few good baclinks to put your website in position to rank high on google search engines.
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    • Profile picture of the author fakeplastictrees
      Originally Posted by arnerog1953 View Post

      Start by getting a few good baclinks to put your website in position to rank high on google search engines.
      I am on to this today I always also trying to learn the ropes with a wordpress site (woocommerce) and squarespace (two are run on SS and two are on WP) on all the little keywords and filling out the keyphrases as I have never done any of this
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  • Profile picture of the author palmtreelife
    You can market very effectively on both Facebook and Instagram. Don't limit yourself on social media marketing. All forms of social media count if you look at the daily usage data for all social platforms....even if you don't use them yourself.

    You can attract a passionate following in each platform for free, but of course you can do paid advertising as well if you wish. Some of my favorite influencers in this area are: Gary Vaynerchuk, Tai Lopez, and Jesse and Kong at Jumpcut Academy. They are all very good at explaining how to build a following and monetizing it.

    In your case, you already know how to monetize, you just need the traffic and conversions, which they are experts at as well.

    With 4 websites, you may want to consider outsourcing your social media marketing as it can be quite time consuming for you even if it's free. Instead of spending your money on paid ads, you could spend it on virtual assistant who specializes in social media marketing.
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    • Profile picture of the author fakeplastictrees
      Originally Posted by palmtreelife View Post

      You can market very effectively on both Facebook and Instagram. Don't limit yourself on social media marketing. All forms of social media count if you look at the daily usage data for all social platforms....even if you don't use them yourself.

      You can attract a passionate following in each platform for free, but of course you can do paid advertising as well if you wish. Some of my favorite influencers in this area are: Gary Vaynerchuk, Tai Lopez, and Jesse and Kong at Jumpcut Academy. They are all very good at explaining how to build a following and monetizing it.

      In your case, you already know how to monetize, you just need the traffic and conversions, which they are experts at as well.

      With 4 websites, you may want to consider outsourcing your social media marketing as it can be quite time consuming for you even if it's free. Instead of spending your money on paid ads, you could spend it on virtual assistant who specializes in social media marketing.
      Thanks!!

      Do you have any reqs for virtual assistants. I don't really know much about them.

      I will look into the influencers as well. I have started using a company for $30 a month they basically follow/unfollow/engage with my targeted audience for one of the social media accounts for one of the clothing company. it has tripled my followings already and I seem to be getting some sales from it and definitely some traffic to the site. I just wanted to do it as a trial as it was a new concept to me
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      • Profile picture of the author palmtreelife
        I use a virtual assistant in real estate. She's from the Philippines and she's great! I don't have any social media VA's to recommend, but a quick Google search will get you what you want pretty quick. Once you start using one, you'll never go back to doing everything on your own, and you'll have so much more time to focus on things that ONLY you can do.

        There are also social media marketing agencies, but they tend to require a larger budget. They provide great value, but you get what you pay for. You can get a virtual assistance with social media advertising experience to do what you want for less of an investment.

        I don't like the follow/unfollow/engage "programs". It's easy to spot a BS social media account that used this strategy. For example....10 posts about nothing, 20,000 followers and they're only following 5 users. Comments include "wow, so inspiring!" on selfie photos.

        There are no shortcuts to creating true value and acquiring passionate fans willing to pay for whatever you produce. Aim for 1000 die hard fans rather than 50,000 bot followers that a handful of people will be convinced are real and assume you are worthy.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kay King
    fakeplastictrees -

    LEARN to use the quote function or use quotes rather than posting mutliple posts in a thread to answer mutliple people.

    If you are using the 'modern' view - you may want to switch to 'classic view' (drop down menu on your 'name' in black toolbar). The quote function STILL doesn't seem to work in the 'modern view'.

    When you make multiple posts one after another - no one knows who you are talking to.

    Thanks

    kay
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    • Profile picture of the author fakeplastictrees
      Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

      fakeplastictrees -

      LEARN to use the quote function or use quotes rather than posting mutliple posts in a thread to answer mutliple people.

      If you are using the 'modern' view - you may want to switch to 'classic view' (drop down menu on your 'name' in black toolbar). The quote function STILL doesn't seem to work in the 'modern view'.

      When you make multiple posts one after another - no one knows who you are talking to.

      Thanks

      kay

      AH THANKYOU!!! had no idea!
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  • Profile picture of the author brucey666
    Bro! the best way for you to promote this in my opinion is through instagram, just create accounts based on the products or niche above and start driving traffic through hashtags and paid promotion from instagram influencer, trust me i tested them and it cost way less than facebook ads.
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    • Profile picture of the author fakeplastictrees
      Originally Posted by brucey666 View Post

      Bro! the best way for you to promote this in my opinion is through instagram, just create accounts based on the products or niche above and start driving traffic through hashtags and paid promotion from instagram influencer, trust me i tested them and it cost way less than facebook ads.

      It is funny I was about to write an update today

      So far I have trialled Google Ads (I have yet to try shopping)
      Instragram Ads, Facebook Ads and trying out ONE influencer (who isn't even one she just likes my stuff and asked to have one in exchange for a post)

      Do you know where I have got movement from? the influencer. It is is crazy. It is such a new world for me. I also ran a giveway on one the IG accounts and that brought me two sales. (it was a small 3 day giveaway it only got over 500 likes but it was a start to try it out)

      so far ive spent $150-200 on your traditional advertising and I have one only one sale out of it and spent $60 on the influencer and she has got me sales.

      So I am putting at least 60-70% of my budget for the 3 businesses are going to be IG and influencers I think especially the two clothing labels. (the fourth one - the childrens book I am more focused on sending that out to IG book reviewers)

      also it is crazy but I have noticed now my IG feed which I don't go on regually is 3 posts 1 ad. So every 4th post is sponsored!!
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  • Profile picture of the author mswebsitemaster
    Hope the following advice will help you:

    1. Make well design and UX specific online store(clothing) with Shopify
    2. Use Facebook store,Instagram Shop and Google Shopping Ads to earn

    Why Shopify:
    Easy To Setup And Use. Shopify is a no-fuss platform, which is easy to setup and use.
    1. Visually Appealing Online Store.
    2. App Integrations
    3. Security and Reliability.
    4. Excellent Loading Speed.
    5. Powerful Marketing Tools.
    6. Mobile Responsiveness.
    7. Outstanding Customer Support and more
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