[Question] Honestly I have no idea how to market this

[Inprogress]

Hello there.

My website is finally online, ready for action, and an improved site is already in planning. The idea behind the site came from me needing a vacuum cleaner, and my reservations of ordering online based on possible warranty claims, as I am comically experiencing now with a flash drive I bought online from Johannesburg (found the model I was looking for there), yet the thing is faulty. Do I send back a R180 flash drive at R30 postage? Suppose so

Back to my site. That is where the idea came from, and i proceeded to develop it to the best of my acquired skills the past year. I thoroughly believe in the service based on the mere fact that its bluddy practical and I wish a service like this existed.

Yet, I honestly have no clue how to market it It will only work for the consumer if they think its practical and then, if they think its practical, the suppliers/businesses think its practical. In other words, to show consumers what it offers them it needs businesses, and to show businesses about traffic, it needs consumers (maybe I'm over thinking this)

Hence, how do I market this?

What is it you ask? The three word description I can best come up with is "Product-Business Directory". YES! Another business directory...like there ain't enough of those around. The problem I found with business indexes and the internet is that they don't save me time or help me find what I am looking for, not virtually anyway.

Firstly there is a ton of business directories and some local businesses might be listed on indexes you only find on page 10 of the Google results page. Also, like another prominent one that gives you a book, they don't list hardly the number of businesses online as in their book, albeit their strength is in the book which will be around for the next 100 years at least I suspect.

My service saves you the time by turning the searching process around. Traditional business indexes lets you find the business, then the products - you visit the business to find the product. My website (as primitive and badly designed as it might be) lets you find the product, the then business - you find the product that is sold by the business, the visit the business to buy the product.

In other words, you are looking for a 32 inch LCD TV, you go to my website, you go to TV Sets, filter the listing to a price range, LCD, and your town/city. You are presented with a list of all the LCD TV Sets available in your town. You can also see how the businesses are rated by other users on service, see comments. You can compare up to three different models.

And once you decided which TV set, or have a short list, you can see which businesses sells that specific model - a product is uploaded by a business. By the way, you can even see if they have stock or not. You can see their profile with location and contact details. You can contact them if you like just to ensure they do have stock, hell, even make an EFT payment so you basically just pick up the TV set during lunch. Its like kalahari or Take2, only its not online shopping, its in your town.

So how do I market something where the main service it supplies its users is based on the participation of other businesses, and the participation of the businesses is based on the usage of consumers?

To date my two marketing schemes are: Direct marketing pilot project, i.e. Market in my town of Port Elizabeth. And social networks.

Any ideas and advice is greatly appreciated.

[Dave A]

At the risk of sounding silly - What sort of budget do you have for marketing?

[Inprogress]

No idea. Honestly. I still struggle to explain what this service is. As for marketing it, I don't have a budget for this, I am really flying by the seat of my pants, gun-ho with idiocy.

And I can't really think about a budget since I can't figure out an approach to advertise it. Do I tell the consumer about the platform available to them, yet their is no content, or do I tell the business owner about the platform for them and their customer, yet there is site traffic.

In my young inexperienced mind, word-of-mouth is about my best option. If I can get 10 businesses to register and upload their products in PE, then at least the advantages of the service can be clearly seen by the consumer, then they can spread the word.

I'm clueless.

[Dave A]

So a TV advertising campaign is out, then

There isn't much sense in trying to get consumers to an empty site. What you need to target at the moment is businesses to list. Once you've got a few onboard it'll get easier, but those first ones are probably going to take a lot of hard, focused, frustrating and massively inefficient work.

If I can get 10 businesses to register and upload their products in PE...

I'd suggest that would be a good start.

I still struggle to explain what this service is.

In my opinion (for what it's worth) this is where you should be heading:
For businesses it's online advertising for Rx per month with a 3 month free trial.
For the consumer, it's an online comparison shopping service.

[G Robin]

Do you have a plan?

Hi
I don't understand what you mean about your product and seem to doubt about it...

You have a idea,but now the idea don't have efficient structure...set yourself up a plan and see where you can improve....

Thanks Gino

[Minipreneur]

Hi

How do you intent on generating revenues from your site?

[Inprogress]

hey minipreneur. The initial idea of revenue was by subscriptions of businesses. A business must be registered and subscribed in order to upload their products (I have a 3 month free trial for businesses). And recently I thought about advertising that might come into play. If...when I have a lot of traffic, then advertising can come into play. The monthly or yearly subscription rates was mainly intended to firstly pay for hosting (I suspect if the site gets big, I will have to move over to a dedicated server or maybe cloud hosting), and obviously cover other overheads, one of which is me

At the moment I am offering it to businesses for free for a year (those I speak to personally) however am spending time trying to incorporate a new menu system (on the left) since I need to add more product categories and the current menu will only annoy visitors.

You have any ideas? It seems I might not have placed enough emphasis on the business owners if you ask me about revenue generation. I do have a menu item about subscription rates. The trial badge also links to the subscription rates....no wait, just checked, it doesn't...jeapers. Need to go and change that quickly.

But honestly, any ideas?

Thanks for the interest

[adrianh]

To throw a spanner in the works:

My first choice for local online shopping is Bid Or Buy and Ebay for international shopping. I can buy and sell, use my credit card, EFT, Paypal and all sorts of other mechanisms. I rate my buyers & sellers and they rate me. I can ban buyers, make personal offers and even ask them questions. I can auction products, sell them at a specific price, starting on a specific date, ending on another date and automatically re-list.

Now the question is this:
How are you going to get me to use your site to do something that I can do very efficiently already?

I am not attacking you - all I am saying is that there are already very sophisticated websites that do what you are planning to do.

[Inprogress]

My website isn't about online shopping. My website is about finding products that are sold offline, online...if you will. Aisle five is a business directory that takes it a step further and turns the process around. Usually when you are looking for product you find the businesses and go look for the product, the type of products that you don't really want to buy online or that don't lend themselves to being sold online, and you are looking for that product right there in your town.

When you look for a product at the moment you have two choices: Online shopping, or a business directory (either online or offline). With a business directory you are left with business names and numbers and addresses. Its up to you to either phone them, email them, or visit them to establish product availability, price ranges and service quality.

However, with Aisle five you will find the products that are supplied by the shops in your town listed online. Not for sale online (online shopping cart I mean), merely businesses showing you what they have in stock at what price. You can then narrow down that list to a price range, a brand, you name it. You the business owner of Port Elizabeth is allowing your customers to roam your shop floor (referring to your actual physical business premises), without them being in your shop.

Lets say you are looking for a motorcycle tyre. Or a solar geyser. Or a water tank. Or a new ladder. How bout some roof insulation. On Aisle five you can see exactly who stocks it, what brands they stock, how their prices compare, and what people are saying about their service, and in cities like Johannesburg and Cape Town, which of those shops are the closest to you.

That is what Aisle five is. I too buy online, have before, but I don't feel comfortable buying a 40 inch LED tv online, or a new door for my house, or a wheel barrow, or a washing machine. Nor am I interested in buying a solar geyser from an website that has its premises in Bloemfontein and me living in Mosselbay.

Aisle five is the go between of offline shopping, and online shopping. Aisle five is location based, physical location.

Man, me and my many words. I sometimes get carried away when explaining something. Well adrainh, there you are, that is what Aisle five is, I really hope you understand the concept (not because of you, but because of my explanation skills ). Its won't be for everyone, especially someone like you who sell their products online all ready, which might be due to the products lending themselves to be sold online.

All the best mate.

To throw a spanner in the works:

My first choice for local online shopping is Bid Or Buy and Ebay for international shopping. I can buy and sell, use my credit card, EFT, Paypal and all sorts of other mechanisms. I rate my buyers & sellers and they rate me. I can ban buyers, make personal offers and even ask them questions. I can auction products, sell them at a specific price, starting on a specific date, ending on another date and automatically re-list.

Now the question is this:
How are you going to get me to use your site to do something that I can do very efficiently already?

I am not attacking you - all I am saying is that there are already very sophisticated websites that do what you are planning to do.

[adrianh]

I get what you are trying to do. The main aim of any retail business is to increase sales. Why would any company go to the trouble of placing their items online in a catalog that put them in direct competition with similar local companies.

Look, if I were running a retail shop I wouldn't put my products into a directory such as what you are proposing because I wouldn't want customers to do direct product comparisons between my products the products of other while sitting at home. I would want them to come into the shop and browse around - this way I have an oppertunity to talk them into buying my product, even up sell and cross sell.

Another problem is that managing the correctness of information is very labour intensive. I am a teeny weeny business but my product portfolio is huge. The portfolio changes rapidly so I run the risk of looking like a tit if I put items on your ste and they become unavailable shortly thereafter.

[Inprogress]

(Sjoe, just saw my post in preview, sorry for the long windedness, I suppose from this you can at least see I do believe in the concept )Isn't putting your products on Bid or Buy putting them in directo comparison with similar products? Or putting your products on a website like Pricecheck, you are placing your products in direct comparison with others. So what makes you different than any other online business, or what makes your auction products any different than the next guy auctioning the same product? Service. You provide a better service than the next guy and it is seen by the rating you receive. For that matter, what makes your business different when you place them in direct comparison with others who offer the same products, when you list in the Yellowpages? The size of your ad? Or what your friends are saying about your service? Or the fact that you are carrying the item that I am looking for.

Businesses in SA should get the message: The consumer isn't here to be milked. If you are part of the Dual Sport motorcycle groups, you will hear the outcry for service delivery.

The way of the future is the web, and you either get with the program, or you are left behind. And to my understanding you have embraced the internet to your success. Aisle five isn't for everyone. If you sell antiques for example, Aisle five isn't for you. However if you sell solar geysers, that is easy to list. Plus, if I am looking for a Samsung Ultra Plano LCD TV, what makes you different than Makro, or the little guy on a side street you never heard off? Service delivery. And with these kind of products you wont have just one ever in your store. You stock TV sets.

The SA market is changing, and people want service delivery. They can find out everything they want from the net. However, they still need to go to a shop and listed to a sales rep who can tell them nothing more about the product than what is written on the box. And they charge a higher price for the same products, which when you look around, is obviously spent on making the shop look nice, and keeping 15 sales reps to annoy you with useless info.

Aisle five is about find the the product, sold by the business that is rated to be the best in service delivery by others. However I am suspecting that most businesses these days don't care about making a customer, they would rather make a sale. Only problem with that is that eventually everyone will hear about your bad service delivery, and you wont have repeat business.

But like I said, Aisle five wont be for everyone. There are some products that just wont work on the site for they are unique and once off. And many businesses wont want to list themselves on an online business directory in this way because they are more expensive but offer nothing extra compared to the bloke selling the products from his garage, but deliver and install the product free of charge. Its about finding the product with the best service delivery attached. Plus its about saving time for the consumer who has less time to spend looking for a product. If online shopping websites can do it, there is no reason why "offline" shops can do it online with selling online because the main concept is not to sell online.

Anyway, the service is there for the consumer. The service is aimed at providing the consumer a convient service. Serving the customer. And with the listing you can add your service to that product listing by including extra info on the product and its application and what extra service you provide not just for that product, but related. You can see each product placing as an advertisement. Like Google SEO and tag linking. You are not just advertising that you sell a solar geyser online, within that product article you are telling the visitor that you also install this product free of charge, and if you want, you can include your other services. And on your profile page, you list all the services that you offer. You can also link back to all the product categories that you supply.

I am in the process of filling my categories today with product listings from an imaginary business to properly display how Aisle five is serving the consumer.

Look, it might be a bad idea, it might even be premature for our SA market, however, I paid for hosting a year in advance and I will promote this business, if it fails, I'm one step closer to a successful business. However, I am looking at this website from a consumer viewpoint in full personal honesty, and I would love it if it works cause it will save me a ton of time in trying locate the products I have searched for in the past.

Thanks for your input Adrian, I appreciate it. Because of your initial post I am now including those demo products in order to help explain the concept behind Aisle five to the visitor.

I get what you are trying to do. The main aim of any retail business is to increase sales. Why would any company go to the trouble of placing their items online in a catalog that put them in direct competition with similar local companies.

Look, if I were running a retail shop I wouldn't put my products into a directory such as what you are proposing because I wouldn't want customers to do direct product comparisons between my products the products of other while sitting at home. I would want them to come into the shop and browse around - this way I have an opportunity to talk them into buying my product, even up sell and cross sell.

Another problem is that managing the correctness of information is very labour intensive. I am a teeny weeny business but my product portfolio is huge. The portfolio changes rapidly so I run the risk of looking like a tit if I put items on your ste and they become unavailable shortly thereafter.

[adrianh]

(Sjoe, just saw my post in preview, sorry for the long windedness, I suppose from this you can at least see I do believe in the concept )Isn't putting your products on Bid or Buy putting them in directo comparison with similar products? Or putting your products on a website like Pricecheck, you are placing your products in direct comparison with others. So what makes you different than any other online business, or what makes your auction products any different than the next guy auctioning the same product? Service. You provide a better service than the next guy and it is seen by the rating you receive. For that matter, what makes your business different when you place them in direct comparison with others who offer the same products, when you list in the Yellowpages? The size of your ad? Or what your friends are saying about your service? Or the fact that you are carrying the item that I am looking for.

Yes, but I can sell them on Bid Or Buy but not on your site. I do not provide a service on BoB, I sell a niche product.

When I list in the Yellowpages the customer is forced to speak to me. I am then in a position to get a picture of his needs and to sell to him.

The question is this: who pays for the service?

If it is the customer, then who will load the supplier product data?
If it is the retailer, then why would he put his products up or direct comparison if he can't sell them online.

These are hard questions to answer, what makes it even more difficult is that franchise stores will probably not go for it because there is large chance that they have their own websites already.

Anyway, just some thoughts to ponder.

[Inprogress]

The feature to sell online isn't part of the website yet. However, since you can see that a retail outlet has the item is stock, you can make an EFT payment (this option lies with the retail outlet to consider). Also, some products can't be sold online, only purchased...if that makes sense. And the other goal of Aisle five is to find the outlets in your area. It is cheaper to buy a solar geyser from a local store than one in another town. However, how do you find the local guy? Word of mounth? Driving to them? These are the things I want to eliminate. However, that function is in the works, however it does require some hacking or a move to a new software package.

Nope, I don't see franchise stores signing up. They have a reputation as it is, one I loath as no-one knows anything anymore about the products. I'm more inclined to find the stores who are not well situated in my town, but who offer me great service. Stores that don't look at you blankly for a few seconds when you asked them a question about a product. This knowledge can be conveyed on the product page, as it is allowed for. A store rating is also part of every product page, including a comments page. Its interacting with your customers on a different media. But yes, the online purchase function is in the works, saving more time of the consumer. Plus, the consumer will have to pick up the product unless you offer to deliver as part of your service. If they pick up, you get them in your store on a face to face basis, more communication.

The retail outlet/store/business pays for the service. No directory is free, unless you refer to EZdex. Only one I know off, however they cater for industry.

Look, its a great idea from a consumer point of view, that why I created it and why I am tweaking it. However, it might be that the business community in general is so use to providing bad service to the consumer who merely accepts it do to ignorance, that they see Aisle five is only a platform for price competition. It might never take off, but I wont stop now. Rather take into account comments like these you made and others made, and improve the service. Aisle five is about finding the best service related to a product, and added to that, near you.

Thanks for the interest and comments, much appreciated. Be well.

[TrudyVan]

Hello there InProgress Congrats on getting your site up and running. Now you have just asked the most asked question on the internet. How do I market my site.

You build a blog and post to your blog on a regular basis with a link back to your site. You can build a free blogger blog.

I have made a power point presentation that might help you build your blog. If you require further help please let me know. I will gladly help you.

[Inprogress]

Hello there InProgress Congrats on getting your site up and running. Now you have just asked the most asked question on the internet. How do I market my site.

You build a blog and post to your blog on a regular basis with a link back to your site. You can build a free blogger blog.

I have made a power point presentation that might help you build your blog. If you require further help please let me know. I will gladly help you.

Newcastle! HAHAHA, grew up there for 11 years of my life, on a farm. Well, my site has changed. My domain has changed. But I will be online soon with the new site. Thanks for the help, its just that I'm not sure what I will write in the blog. Honestly, there isn't much to write about the site, unless I just start my own blod about me, my life, my weird thoughts and crazy ideas, and link back to my other site

But there is a second site on the way as well, will also be online soon.

Thanks for the offer to help, I will be in touch.