Would appreciate any suggestions/advice for my small business...
My e-commerce site sells gift certificates that can be used at spas and B&Bs across the country. We launched about 10 months ago, but sales have been slow largely due to the fact that we are "unknown" and don't show up high in the search rankings. Currently we have 250+ partners...quite a few in New England, and fairly well represented in PA, AZ, and FL.
As I see it, there are basically 2 sales channels:
1. individual online sales - this would be a sale of 1 or 2 certificates at a time and would come largely as a result of people finding us through the search engines. I understand a little bit about SEO and the main thing we need here are relevant inbound links. We did some Google Adwords last year, but the price per click was too high for our business model. The sales we did make were mostly Christmas gifts from one individual to another.
2. Corporate sales - this would entail getting the word out to potential corporate customers that might want to buy our gift certificates for employees or clients. In this case, a corporate client might buy 10, 20, or 50 certificates at one time. Obviously more bang for the buck. We do have a couple of leads with large corporations that could probably quite easily buy 100+ gift certificates per year, but nothing has happened...yet.
The site itself works well and is "professional" looking. The actual process of buying a gift certificate, using it, and redeeming it all works very smoothly. So, the main "problem", if you will, is that we simply need more customers (which will come through the two channels mentioned above).
So, the question(s):
Any marketing suggestions so that our business becomes more well-known?
Some things I have though of:
Part of the problem is that my "talent" is NOT in picking up the phone and making cold calls to potential corporate customers. Therefore, I have even thought of giving away a percentage of the business (10%-20%) to some young whipper-snapper who can drive the sales/marketing effort and doesn't mind contacting 100 companies per day to find 1 or 2 that will buy.
I know the concept can work if we just get our name out there as there are similar businesses that sell gift certificates for just spas and one of them had $4+ million in sales a few years back. In our model, just 100 companies buying 50 certificates per year would provide a respectable income. So, certainly the numbers are not huge...it's just a matter of finding those 100 companies in the proverbial "haystack".
Any other suggestions?
Thanks!
My e-commerce site sells gift certificates that can be used at spas and B&Bs across the country. We launched about 10 months ago, but sales have been slow largely due to the fact that we are "unknown" and don't show up high in the search rankings. Currently we have 250+ partners...quite a few in New England, and fairly well represented in PA, AZ, and FL.
As I see it, there are basically 2 sales channels:
1. individual online sales - this would be a sale of 1 or 2 certificates at a time and would come largely as a result of people finding us through the search engines. I understand a little bit about SEO and the main thing we need here are relevant inbound links. We did some Google Adwords last year, but the price per click was too high for our business model. The sales we did make were mostly Christmas gifts from one individual to another.
2. Corporate sales - this would entail getting the word out to potential corporate customers that might want to buy our gift certificates for employees or clients. In this case, a corporate client might buy 10, 20, or 50 certificates at one time. Obviously more bang for the buck. We do have a couple of leads with large corporations that could probably quite easily buy 100+ gift certificates per year, but nothing has happened...yet.
The site itself works well and is "professional" looking. The actual process of buying a gift certificate, using it, and redeeming it all works very smoothly. So, the main "problem", if you will, is that we simply need more customers (which will come through the two channels mentioned above).
So, the question(s):
Any marketing suggestions so that our business becomes more well-known?
Some things I have though of:
- Telemarketing to potential corporate customers. Find the person in charge of incentives at a particular corporation (e.g. sales manager), send a sample gift certificate, and then just keep following up. Over time, I figure if we can get 500-1,000 potential buyers in our database, some will start buying.
- Press Releases
- Trade Show - There is an Incentive Trade Show in Chicago (September, I think). This would be a great target audience, but would probably cost $8,000 when all is said and done...more than is in the marketing budget at the moment.
Part of the problem is that my "talent" is NOT in picking up the phone and making cold calls to potential corporate customers. Therefore, I have even thought of giving away a percentage of the business (10%-20%) to some young whipper-snapper who can drive the sales/marketing effort and doesn't mind contacting 100 companies per day to find 1 or 2 that will buy.
I know the concept can work if we just get our name out there as there are similar businesses that sell gift certificates for just spas and one of them had $4+ million in sales a few years back. In our model, just 100 companies buying 50 certificates per year would provide a respectable income. So, certainly the numbers are not huge...it's just a matter of finding those 100 companies in the proverbial "haystack".
Any other suggestions?
Thanks!
