How Do You Advertise a Very Normal Product?

[Forza]

Say you have an antiaging skincare product that sells from your website. Nothing too special about your product. It's simple, works well, and goes for a reasonable price. A similar product sells well in another country, but your country is way smaller and internet sales would probably be very small. You have very limited capital. Would running ads once per week in a major local newspaper be inefficient use of money? What are better ways for such a product?

 

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[PaulRobert]

If I were you I would give away samples with the newspapers, your website should be on the packaging somewhere.Have people test out your product. If they like it and it works, maybe they will want to order some more.
I have seen little cereal boxes given with newspapers and chances are people eat them in the morning. Remember, people will always be willing to try out your product if they don't have to pay at first.

 

[EastWind]

build brand, if it works very well, find forums for people into that, send em samples, let them spread the word!

 

[Red]

Forza-

You're ahead of much of the game out there if you have an honest product that does what it claims, does it well & is reasonably priced. We've all seen a variety of crappy services/products that make their owner's millions due to creative marketing or positioning... and nothing to do with their quality.

Who can you team up with and cross-market? People who buy your product also buy what else? Maybe get your product into a welcome basket of some kind -the regular man's swag, of sorts. Who's already doing marketing to reach your target audience and how can you tap into their research/endeavors? Partnership or team up?

Potentially package the same product differently for different markets, ie: Try selling it for $199.00 a bottle and see how that flies (it's funny what people will place value in once you do) and then if that goes well, be your own generic rip-off! (I've always wanted to do that...)

I'm not a pro at this & I don't do this for a living, but this is something you could really have fun with while testing out what works... even if it's just you walking around your city's busiest streets, cold creme on your face, handing out free samples to the ladies that walk by with semi-freaked out looks on their faces. I'd stop and talk to that guy, just for ambition & creativity's sake

 

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[australianinvestor]

You need to take quite a few steps back... you are not ready to advertise it yet. If you are asking how to invest money to get the product to market, it indicates to me that you have missed many steps, including the definition of the target market. If you are desperate for sales now, you need to apply elbow grease to make sales. If instead you want to make this a big earner, you need to go way back to the beginning and start with the fundamentals that build into a comprehensive marketing campaign... and don't worry about cost when I mention "comprehensive." The actual advertising methods come way down the track once you've figured out other stuff, and you may find that your market doesn't read the newspaper, rendering your advertising money useless.

There's too much you need to know to get to the stage of being able to advertise. I'd be inclined to invest in a marketing planning book and spend a week or more reading and planning. In the meantime, how much stock do you have to move? Design a separate plan, powered by elbow grease and determination, which gets the stock moved. Use that money to help fund better marketing.

Oh, and the marketing plan that gives you the best ROI ever: sell it before you even buy it from your suppliers... if you can work out a way.

 

[Russ H]

Say you have an antiaging skincare product that sells from your website. Nothing too special about your product. It's simple, works well, and goes for a reasonable price. A similar product sells well in another country, but your country is way smaller and internet sales would probably be very small. You have very limited capital. Would running ads once per week in a major local newspaper be inefficient use of money? What are better ways for such a product?

-Define your market.

-Consider other markets that no one else has thought of.

-Why not international sales? Are you bricks and mortar, or can you ship worldwide?

-If international, figure out how to do it cheaply/efficiently.

-Start assembling a list of buyers. Make them repeat customers. Make it impossible for them NOT to be repeat customers (you have to figure out how to do this).

-If you haven't already, read EMyth Revisited (to develop systems as you go), 4 hour Work Week (to figure out how to outsource everything), and Crush It (to tap into your passion, and leverage social networking).

-Russ H.