Hi All:
I run artjini.com, etailer of art products. I want advise on the components of a marketing plan and advise on a estimating a marketing budget for a startup ecommerce site. Some of the specific queries that I have are:
1. what is the typical value of online purchase in India? if any info is avbl category wise, pls share esp for gifts and home decor.
2. what should be the components of a promotion plan and how much percentage of promotion budget and effort should be given to each, for an startup etailer: PR; link exchange: how to build relevant links with other Indian sites?; paid advertisement; google adwords; social networking
3. Is it helpful to stretch resources and advertise in niche magazines that cater to ones target segment? any comment or experiences?
4. Does anybody have any inputs on affiliate marketing in India?
Vijaya
- Marketing Plan & Budget - March 23, 2008
- Artjini.com - March 22, 2008
1. No accurate numbers , but I dont think it goes much past a few dollars,
2. I am a fan of PR as opposed to advertising, marketing or whatever you want to call it, in fact I would much rather lump all these into one and call them “external methods”, PR is cheaper and if done correct will get your message out, advertising whether link exchange, other banner ads, virals etc, is hit and miss, in India the problem is that there is way too much advertising not just online, BUT everywhere.
Your website is about art, you need to look at who will buy this, homeowners, first time buyers, young couples, interior designers etc, and then see how to reach them, lets take the homeowner, they search property websites, so obviously that is a good place…..NOT, why do I say NOT, simple when you goto 99acres.com you want to buy a house, NOT a Picture, however after you have purchased the house you want a picture.
A easy way to get traction maybe a post via local newspaper, with a leaflet in a closed community, to see the reaction.
Interior design mags may also work.
3. e -commerce spend to really make it work $2 million in a year, just look at how much yatra has spent on just buying keywords, I think its 10Cr.
Hence it could all be a big waste, why not save some money and give pictures away for free, initially, Also why not reach out to art students and get them to put their pictures on your website for free, once they list their pictures they will tell all their friends to go and have a look.
4. Look for art groups, on yahoo, orkut etc.
5. Sponsor a few art showrooms/galleries/events, i.e show them 10 pictures, and get them to come to ur website to see more
6. Speak to local art vendors, get them to intro your website, they can only hold so much stock in store, with your website they have access to lots more.
7. There is alot of art on your website, and personally I would get really tired if I had to search through all those pics to find one, look at searchme.com, I know this is a search engine, sign up to it, and then search, look at how they have displayed multiple images, which you can scroll through really fast, imagine that kind of display on your website, and as you move your mouseover it shows price etc. I know right now you possibly don’t want advice on redesigning your website though 🙂
8. Speak to companies and offer to supply them with pictures for their offices, i.e send a picture to every CEO in India for free courtesy of artjini, maybe do this on Diwali.
9. Get some calendars printed , or a diary showing pics from artjini, or even print the pics on a t-shirts, with artjini scribbled across them
10. Get in touch with the people who do the sample flats in properties, or the people who do interior design for offices
The way I see it is that assume you have 10lacs, you can use that to get people to your website, OR use that to get your pictures out to the people. If you do the former people will/amy come and then not come again, if you send your picture out, 10 people may see it, and 5 may just talk about it, and ask where it came from, art is like wine, you have to try before you buy.
Iqbal
PS good luck, and dont believe all I say, its 4am in the UK, and no matter how much trance music I listen to, my mind is saying it time to sleep 🙂
I dont have numbers but online experience.
I was gifted a cell phone by a friend thru timesonline.
Along with the phone came a DVD player. When they were delivered I was asked to pay Octroi which I did. Neither the phone nor the DVD works! With great reluctance I told my friend my experience….He is still apologetic..it was 2006 christmas gift! I still have the faulty equipments and waiting for that Courier Pickup which my friend calls me up and assures ‘ll happen this time. He must have spent more on calls than the actual gift value.
So
1. Make sure your equipments are in order
2. You have a trusted delivery mechanism
3. You have some verification strategy in place!
4. What extras like octroi the receiver has to pay
5. The more you pay …you want the person nearby to hold the collar
Hello Vijay,
For your questions 2 and 3:
Do you have a written down, three to four sentence, description of a typical buyer of your goods? If not, then you have not segmented market well enough in my view. The reason this is important is because only then you would be able to determine how much you need to spend (as well as what promotional campaign is best suited) to make your target customers aware of your product and buy them.
Hi
Free data on Indian surfing habits is actually scattered here and there. I have some reports on world wide ecommerce usage which might help you. I don’t have ur email. Catch me on smartarpit [at] gmail.com
Do we have a Google Group or similar facility for Venturewoods ??
As a beginner I would carefully track my direct and indirect competitors and see how they are promoting their business. This should be your first priority.
Marketing Budget – Bigger – the better. First go for internet marketing, track the results and then go for offline media, then again internet marketing. Come up with something creative and save money.
1. Indian Internet retailing is still not mature enough though its catching up fast. Some NRIs may want to purchase the things and want you to deliver the items to their people in India. Indian customers do a lot of research online but conversion rates are not optimistic.
2. search google.
3. Yes this may give you a good start.
4. I am not sure enough of affiliate marketing. Others pls contribute.
Again do we have a place where we can exchange files and reports?? How about starting a Google group?
Hi,
If you get some get good info…plz do not forget to publish the same in the blog…