My Digial Marketing/Sales Journey

[prosper]

I always wanted to create and sale a product online. So, I did a little research and created a 2 hour instructional video. Total cost probably ran about 75 bucks, I had most of the necessary equipment. Recording and editing took about a week. ( Non-stop work ) However, that was the easy part. The content represented what I enjoy and do on a daily basis. Now comes the hard part; trying to sale my product online. I was completely clueless and now I am only a little bit clueless

None of my business friends or colleagues sale online and I want to inform them once I learn how to do this myself. I decided to use facebook and purchase ads. (1) Facebook has a huge audience - nearly 2 billion users; over 200 million in the U.S. alone. (2) You can build your own personal audience with or without ads. I'm not a social media person, so I had to start from scratch. I am now at about the 7th week mark and have about 111 Facebook friends

Here are my current stats:

Leads: 177 - the amount of people that clicked on my ad and visited my website
Cost per lead: $2.93
conversion rate: 1.69 % This represents the amount of people that visited my website and made a purchase

My thoughts:

I did a little research and it seems that the industry standard is the following: cost per lead $1.06 and conversion rate 13.58%
Im operating at a loss but I think that will change soon. My facebook friends total will be bigger and facebook has an algorithm that will over time advertise to your specific target audience. Theoretically, Im throwing a huge net into the ocean and trying to figure out where most of the fish are congregating at. Once I figure out where they are at, I will concentrate my advertising dollars in those key spots. Also, a change Im considering is a monthly subscription based service. This creates a low barrier to entry.

[amastewa93]

I really love Facebook for advertising!! Compared to other similar services, it is extremely affordable. How are you tracking conversions? Is it just a click-through to the site or a purchase? It looks like you're doing really well so far

[Captain Save]

I always wanted to create and sale a product online. So, I did a little research and created a 2 hour instructional video. Total cost probably ran about 75 bucks, I had most of the necessary equipment. Recording and editing took about a week. ( Non-stop work ) However, that was the easy part. The content represented what I enjoy and do on a daily basis. Now comes the hard part; trying to sale my product online. I was completely clueless and now I am only a little bit clueless

None of my business friends or colleagues sale online and I want to inform them once I learn how to do this myself. I decided to use facebook and purchase ads. (1) Facebook has a huge audience - nearly 2 billion users; over 200 million in the U.S. alone. (2) You can build your own personal audience with or without ads. I'm not a social media person, so I had to start from scratch. I am now at about the 7th week mark and have about 111 Facebook friends

Here are my current stats:

Leads: 177 - the amount of people that clicked on my ad and visited my website
Cost per lead: $2.93
conversion rate: 1.69 % This represents the amount of people that visited my website and made a purchase

My thoughts:

I did a little research and it seems that the industry standard is the following: cost per lead $1.06 and conversion rate 13.58%
Im operating at a loss but I think that will change soon. My facebook friends total will be bigger and facebook has an algorithm that will over time advertise to your specific target audience. Theoretically, Im throwing a huge net into the ocean and trying to figure out where most of the fish are congregating at. Once I figure out where they are at, I will concentrate my advertising dollars in those key spots. Also, a change Im considering is a monthly subscription based service. This creates a low barrier to entry.

What type of marketing services do you provide? and what type of business are you going after?

[prosper]

I really love Facebook for advertising!! Compared to other similar services, it is extremely affordable. How are you tracking conversions? Is it just a click-through to the site or a purchase? It looks like you're doing really well so far

If they click on the site that equals a Lead.

[disneysteve]

I really love Facebook for advertising!!

I don't understand why anyone would ever click on an ad on Facebook. I've been on Facebook since 2009, I think, and I am quite sure I have never even once clicked on an ad. I'm always very careful to make sure I don't even accidentally click on one. I consider it right up there with following links in unsolicited emails.

But it must work and I guess the cost is low enough that the return doesn't need to be very high to make it worth it, just like robocalls and telemarketers and spam emails.

[prosper]

What type of marketing services do you provide? and what type of business are you going after?

I dont provide a marketing service however I am marketing a online course.

[prosper]

I don't understand why anyone would ever click on an ad on Facebook. I've been on Facebook since 2009, I think, and I am quite sure I have never even once clicked on an ad. I'm always very careful to make sure I don't even accidentally click on one. I consider it right up there with following links in unsolicited emails.

But it must work and I guess the cost is low enough that the return doesn't need to be very high to make it worth it, just like robocalls and telemarketers and spam emails.

You are right. Most people do not click on an ad link. Its a numbers game and you have to make sure the math works. I try my best to reach people that actually want to use my product by choosing a very specific target audience. Within this target audience, I can analyze the characteristics of the people who actually clicked on my link. (i.e. location, age, interest, married, age of children, ect) Then I can create whats called a "look-alike audience" and re-target the ad.


Work in Progress:

Pros: Facebook is great for advertising. It's Cheaper and more effective than other types of advertising. If you are trying to find new clients, facebook is a great place to checkout.

Cons: I have over 10K fans on my facebook business page. Only 2-4% will see my post. I was initially under the impression that it would be much higher than this. If I want more of my fans to see my post, I have to pay for it. I actually had to pay to find these fans in the first place.

My previous strategy was to simply advertise on facebook and build an audience. Simultaneously, I would sell my product to a "cold audience" for a one time fee.
I recently changed my strategy for two reasons:

(1) It is a lot of time, money, and effort to make one sale. The revenue from each sale doesn't justify the aforementioned. Unfortunately, it is very hard to find historical data and/or comparables to make an informed decision. I did not feel comfortable moving forward with this strategy.

(2) The "facebook fans" who actually see my post is extremely low.



My current strategy:

-Build a monthly Subscription membership site. This has lots of benefits. Low barrier to entry for new clients; worth the cost and effort to gain a potential long term client; predictable revenue, ect.

-Launch a email acquisition campaign. This allows me to connect directly with the consumer. I conducted a test with an email list and was able to get a 37% open rate. Much better than the 2-4% facebook rate.

- Overall, this will be a lot of work and can become costly. Im not sure what the cost of each "opt-in" email will be. The rule of thumb is that 2% of your email list will convert to sales.

[amastewa93]

I don't understand why anyone would ever click on an ad on Facebook. I've been on Facebook since 2009, I think, and I am quite sure I have never even once clicked on an ad. I'm always very careful to make sure I don't even accidentally click on one. I consider it right up there with following links in unsolicited emails.

But it must work and I guess the cost is low enough that the return doesn't need to be very high to make it worth it, just like robocalls and telemarketers and spam emails.

There are probably quite a few blog posts you've clicked on that were "ads" that you didn't know about. These usually just send you to a blog that a page you follow is trying to drive more traffic to, whether it be an affiliate post (which they'll make money from when you click through to another landing page) OR they simply get additional click ad revenue. The Penny Hoarder is famous for doing this and renaming the headline something like "50 Ways to Make Money in Charlotte RIGHT NOW." It looks like a blog, you click, and they have affiliate links as well as click ads that they receive revenue from just by clicking on the post. Not all of them are blatantly advertising anything.

[amastewa93]

Work in Progress:

Pros: Facebook is great for advertising. It's Cheaper and more effective than other types of advertising. If you are trying to find new clients, facebook is a great place to checkout.

Cons: I have over 10K fans on my facebook business page. Only 2-4% will see my post. I was initially under the impression that it would be much higher than this. If I want more of my fans to see my post, I have to pay for it. I actually had to pay to find these fans in the first place.


My current strategy:

-Build a monthly Subscription membership site. This has lots of benefits. Low barrier to entry for new clients; worth the cost and effort to gain a potential long term client; predictable revenue, ect.

-Launch a email acquisition campaign. This allows me to connect directly with the consumer. I conducted a test with an email list and was able to get a 37% open rate. Much better than the 2-4% facebook rate.

- Overall, this will be a lot of work and can become costly. Im not sure what the cost of each "opt-in" email will be. The rule of thumb is that 2% of your email list will convert to sales.

What email platform are you using? Emails are definitely a better way to reach out directly to an already-established customer base for sure. It also allows you to provide things like coupon codes, etc. when they sign up, which provides incentive for giving you their email.

Facebook is definitely a platform you have to really learn and, like you said, "do the math" with. For campaigns I've run, we did the math to determine what CPC we'd need to turn a profit. Usually you need to drive that cost down to less than $0.10 per click to make it profitable, which can take a ton of time.

It sounds like you're off to a really great start!

[corn18]

I have an alternate ID on the internet that I use just to counter all of this crap ya'll are talking about. 2% hit rate is good? What about the 98% that you irritated? And the Facebook crowd is criminal. Their whole business model seemed so altruistic and I'm sure Zuckerberg still believes his own BS, but in reality, they are monetizing our personal info. They got deleted a long time ago.

[prosper]

What email platform are you using? Emails are definitely a better way to reach out directly to an already-established customer base for sure. It also allows you to provide things like coupon codes, etc. when they sign up, which provides incentive for giving you their email.

Facebook is definitely a platform you have to really learn and, like you said, "do the math" with. For campaigns I've run, we did the math to determine what CPC we'd need to turn a profit. Usually you need to drive that cost down to less than $0.10 per click to make it profitable, which can take a ton of time.

It sounds like you're off to a really great start!

Im using mailchimp now. I love it so far. It allows me to put all of my emails in one spot and categorize them. Just curious, what does it cost to acquire an email from facebook?

[prosper]

I have an alternate ID on the internet that I use just to counter all of this crap ya'll are talking about. 2% hit rate is good? What about the 98% that you irritated? And the Facebook crowd is criminal. Their whole business model seemed so altruistic and I'm sure Zuckerberg still believes his own BS, but in reality, they are monetizing our personal info. They got deleted a long time ago.

From my prospective, facebook puts its users first. That's another topic.

The 2% conversion rate represents people who have "opted in" to receive an email. ( hypothetically, for every 100 people that chose to receive an email from amazon, 2 will make a purchase)

Fyi, my email is about 20 years old. As of right now, I have received about 26 marketing emails. I recognize all of them and have opted to be on their email list at some point over the last 20 years.

[disneysteve]

There are probably quite a few blog posts you've clicked on that were "ads" that you didn't know about.

I guess I just don't see how that benefits them. How does reading a blog post make the blogger any money. I'm not paying anything to read it. They aren't selling me anything. My ad-blocker takes care of a lot of the actual ads on various pages. And when there are ads, I ignore them anyway whether it's online, on TV, or in print. I've often had someone ask if I watched a particular show and when I say I did, they say, "Did you see that commercial for xyz?" I never have a clue what they're talking about because I watch the show. I don't watch the commercials. The same is true for websites.

[disneysteve]

-Launch a email acquisition campaign. This allows me to connect directly with the consumer. I conducted a test with an email list and was able to get a 37% open rate. Much better than the 2-4% facebook rate.

I'm curious about this. Who are the people you are emailing? Is it people who have reached out and expressed interest in your product/service or is it a "cold call" list of addresses that you bought somehow? 37% open rate is really impressive so I'm guessing it is people who actually asked for the information. I'm sure the open rate on unsolicited emails isn't nearly that high. And if it's people who requested the info, how did they first find you?

[prosper]

I'm curious about this. Who are the people you are emailing? Is it people who have reached out and expressed interest in your product/service or is it a "cold call" list of addresses that you bought somehow? 37% open rate is really impressive so I'm guessing it is people who actually asked for the information. I'm sure the open rate on unsolicited emails isn't nearly that high. And if it's people who requested the info, how did they first find you?

Your're right, my list consisted of past inquiries from my current business. My plan is to build an "opt-in" email list via facebook ads.