Advice Needed Facebook or Forums or Expo?

[kjd]

Hi Everyone,

I own a news and reviews website called www.huntandshoot.com.au.

I am trying to work out which is the best way to spend my marketing money over the next few months.

I have the opportunity to sponsor a forum and can post whatever I like on it in addition to a banner and my own dedicated area on the forum.
The forum has over 5000 members on it and it is $500 for a years worth of advertising. It receives about 125,000 visits per month on average.

My other opportunity is to advertise my facebook page which is my main referrer. I currently have 1325 likes to my FB page and have worked out my last ads cost me $0.37c per new user.
So I am wondering if I will get more value from FB if I can get 600-1000 new likes on my page for around the same $500?

Finally a big trade show called the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Expo (SHOT Expo) is coming up in June and I could potentially get a booth there. My only issue with that is that it will likely cost between $2-3000 for a two day show with a massive amount of prep. But around 15,000 people will attend the show over that period.
I also suspect my main competition will have a booth there.
I can also go there and cover the event for the site without the booth and also get flyers put in some of the booths.

So where is my money better off spent? A years worth of forum advertising? Getting more FB likes or do I go all out and get a booth at the SHOT Expo?

Looking forward to your advice.
Thanks.

[Khalid Adam]

Keith,

Great site and Fanpage. when you got 50% of your "likes" talking, you are in the top 10%.

you got your cost per lead from facebook (37cents). what about cost per sale?

Now what do you want to do with your moneY?

1. enhance brand / image / awareness?

2. generate leads

3. facebook likes

4. more customers (what type)?

I dont what your future plans are but since you are already successful with facebook, i would focus on that and introduce some videos, more articles educating your fans, customers and future customers.

I would also offer a continuity programme as a premium service which should fund your marketing and give you some profit to boot.

tradeshow can help but you want to make sure that you get results and the only way to do that is give something away to get contact details.

why dont u hold an event for enthusiasts and get sponsors from suppliers to the industry? invite competition but your company is the organiser. this will make you the authority in the industry.

another idea that works very well is to start your own association but make it arms length from your business so yo u are not directly connected. It will still enhance your image and you will get more exposure with different media.

i am throwing ideas simply because i dont know where you want to take your business so i hope this helps in some way.

[bluepenguin]

Why not do all 3? If you could come up with the cash for the expo, surely you could dig a bit deeper and find an extra $1,000.

[Sandsy]

All of these mediums seem very targeted towards your particular audience, so I guess you might be best off to try one you haven't done yet.
The expo would be excellent if you can implement some kind of competition to capture a database for new customers. Then you can launch an email campaign to them and get them onto your FB Page as well.
Something which often gets overlooked is the value of setting up alliances with other businesses with whom you can market.
If you do hunting tours, then it might be worth establishing an alliance with an online hunting store. That way, you might be able to use some of their banner ad space to advertise, you could offer them a commission if they can send you referrals, and you could also refer them to your customers. Often the "Book your tour with us and receive x% discount when you purchase XYZ product from this store.
I'm not sure how it might work, but I'm guessing that if you go hunting, then you will need amunition?

There are always other businesses out there who would rather set up a mutually beneficial arrangement, than blow their money on hit and miss marketing campaigns....


Get thinking of your potential partners!

[The Infotainer]

Trade show will cost you more than the 3K to exhibit

because $3k will get you a space but no signage or promotional info to hand out. (although it's moreimportant to get their info as apposed to handing out info)

15000 visitors as advertised by the exhibition organiser

shave about 1/3 of that number for a more accurate number

so 10000 is a more accurate number

here is a paragraph from my trade show brochure

"Exhibiting at a trade show is advertising. Just like the advertising your company places in trade magazines, journals and newspapers.
The effectiveness of an advertisement is measured by the number of persons who read the ad, not the number of people on the publication’s subscription list. The effectiveness of your display at a trade show can be measured by the number of people who receive your message, as compared to the number of people attending the show."

it is important that you re-read the underlined bit over and over. forget 10000 your never going to stop 10000 people at your stand in 2 days which amounts to approx 714 people an hour for a 7 hour trade show (2 days )

look at 6 an hour per staff member which amounts to 84 over 2 days

Trade shows in Australia are primarily good for selling big priced things- not so good for selling small, less that $100 items (unless your selling in wholseale)

take into account trade shows are expensive be careful and do not belive organisers, do not belive testimonials on the website from other exhibitors of the trade show and don't belive a word when they say the number of visitors

Alternatives to trade shows would be

joint venture- split a stand 1/2 way and share it with a neighbouring non compeditor company

Don't exhibit- but get all details from the exhibitors and sell advertising space afterwards- just go in as a visitor

Depending on your clients- rent a room (exhibition centres normally have spare rooms) or set up meetings in the cafe- if your known customers are going to be there- set up a time to meet in the cafe- buy them a coffee and sell.

it's a tough descision where to put your marketing if you know social media- then go for it, because chances are your compeditors don't know it, as for the trade shows- the worst reason to exhibit is because your compeditors will be there, you do it because you have a strategy to get leads, forget everything else. if you don't have a stategy you will not benefit from being at the expo in fact you will lose out money wise.

If your heart was set on the trade show- I would aim at a joint venture- it reduces the costs by half, but you will still need some signage.

don't know anything about the forum thats not my expertise

[The Infotainer]

Also if you do the expo- please note you should be adding this to your facebook proflie so while you might not have the money to do both

you can be at the expo and promote it and hopefully get it shared around on facebook

you will want to intergrate a competition on facebook that would tie into your expo stand

you also advertise on face book stating out months before the expo

[kjd]

Thanks for all the advice guys. It helps a lot.

Khalid,
Obviously more advertisers would be great but I was thinking for this particular exercise to get more visitors to the site.

Sandsy,
We are basically an online magazine for the hunting and shooting industry. So we don't do tours and the like unfortunately.

Infotainer,
I hear you loud and clear, my thoughts were that I could get as much out of attending the trade show, getting content for my site, meeting potential advertisers and getting a few friends that will be there to put out flyers for me.

I am thinking more along the lines of Facebook as I seem to get the most engagement and referrals there. My only problem is that I am putting money into my facebook page and I don't own those guys contact details at the end of the day.

[Khalid Adam]

firstly, i really enjoyed the video where the iphone 4s gets shot ( apple fan). the slow motion, multi angle shots are great.

Getting visitors from facebook to website is what you should be doing. visit the FS fan page and start at the "hello and welcome" tab. follow it and study it.

In your case, you can start by offering a special thing on your site. Drive traffic from facebook ads and your fan page. To access it, the visitors/prospects need to give their email address just like the offer from Flying solo from facebook to website.

Whatever you offer, make sure it's worthy of sale and in fact, you could offer it for sale later but for now, the first "10000" can get the Draft, unedited version as a "Review copy". you can take it further and actually sell the review copy for shipping and handling to cover the facebook ad costs.

look, the key is engaging your audience and it is clear that you know how to do that on facebook. you also know how to drive traffic. but that is very tactical.

What you are lacking is strategy and for that, you need a strategy consultant to help you put together a growth plan.

It's like you're great at making ensuites, garages, bathrooms, landscapes, kitchens, offices, rumpus room, etc but you dont know how to put it together to build the mansion you clearly deserve.

Originally Posted by kjd

Thanks for all the advice guys. It helps a lot.

Khalid,
Obviously more advertisers would be great but I was thinking for this particular exercise to get more visitors to the site.

Sandsy,
We are basically an online magazine for the hunting and shooting industry. So we don't do tours and the like unfortunately.

Infotainer,
I hear you loud and clear, my thoughts were that I could get as much out of attending the trade show, getting content for my site, meeting potential advertisers and getting a few friends that will be there to put out flyers for me.

I am thinking more along the lines of Facebook as I seem to get the most engagement and referrals there. My only problem is that I am putting money into my facebook page and I don't own those guys contact details at the end of the day.

[The Infotainer]

yeah you have a budget

I would spend it converting those fans into customers

not seeking more "likes"

the database is a killer and there are 1000 likers that you could be targeting really at not much cost,

money should be spent on converting your likes to enquiries
(obviously those 1000 likes are not all customers, you need to find out why they liked you, did they like a funny video and click like (which mean nothing) or are they interested in shotting etc

[mexham]

Where and how do you make your money? Through selling advertisements on your website? I didn't see any products for sale there..

If so I'd be more focused on getting people to your website than Facebook. It's nice to have the 'likes' but don't get too fixated on that, particularly when Facebook doesn't bring in any income.