squirt71 said:
We've been trying to brainstorm on ways to attract new customers. We're purebred breeders (who show a little on the side), and in the past have sold bulls and females on a first come basis. We'd like to have a private treaty weekend (or something along those lines) but are at a bit of a loss on the best way to get our name out to generate some interest and lookers. Our target customer in the past has been the commercial cattleman who wants a solid purebred bull with good EPDs and pedigrees to put on his herd.
This year we hung up fliers at sale barns and other various places, had an ad in a livestock paper that ran a few weeks, we also send mailings to people who have contacted us/bought before, and put ads on various websites. We also took 2 bulls out to the Nebraska Cattlemen's Classic to show and sell, and hope to do more of this in the future to get our name out more. For all you who have sales, what has worked best for you to draw in people? Are e-blasts worth the money? Is trying to get mailing lists from somewhere to send out fliers a good idea? What else am I missing as far as promotional opportunities?
What a great question! I am not in the cattle business, my kids show steers. I am in retail, and do a lot of business over the internet and spend a lot of money advertising, and like you...I am always looking for ways to attract new customers.
I am going to throw some different ideas out at you, and comment on some other stuff.
Put up some signs. I checked out your website, and you have a really neat sign (I assume in front of your house). It looks like it is also on a highway. If not, make sure that you have a really nice sign on a major road relatively close to your farm. Drive by is a remarkably good source for prospective customers to find you. Make sure you are easily identifiable.
Have a "display" area close to a highway as well...close to the sign. Put a few of your best pairs in that area so that people driving by can see what you have to offer. Sort of like a window display. Put your best few bulls in there when it gets close to the bull sale. Put up a bull sale sign in front of the pen. Come and buy these guys on this date......as well as 30 others, or whatever.
By the way, your website is really good. You do a great job keeping it up. Lots of pictures, family pictures on the for sale cattle, lots of hard work and effort going into it. It shows. And it is no nonsense and easy to navigate. Sometimes I get mad when I look at mine because I think I am getting it too hard to navigate. Great job...I know how much work it is.
If you know who your target market is..."Our target customer in the past has been the commercial cattleman who wants a solid purebred bull with good EPDs and pedigrees to put on his herd."...then that is who you have been selling cattle to. I am not trying to be smart when I say this, but rather than guess where to advertise I believe you should ask your existing customers where you should advertise. Ask them where they look for ads. You will find a trend. If you want the customers that you have, just more of them...then ask them what their preferred methods are. It works. And it frustrated me when I realized it too.
Email blasts are kind of "out there", and I am going to side with Jason on them for the most part. About 20% get looked at, and that is 20% of the emails that actually make it through the spam filters. (Lots of cell phones don't have email filtering which helps). Of the 20% that get looked at, most will be eliminated due to geography or being not interested in your breeds or whatever may be the case. So, here is my advice. IF you decide to do email, then pay up and do it right. There are companies (send me a PM or email) that will handle the email campaign for you, and they will be able to tell you how many got opened, who opened them, who went to your website from the email (the email will have a link to your website), what pages they looked at on your website, how long they looked at them, right down to what time of day they looked. They will then give you that information and you will be able to KNOW what the few prospective customers you end up with are looking for and how to handle them. It costs some money to do this......but it is worth it.
Craigslist is fine, but don't mess around with the freeloaders. I post on Craigslist in lots of different cities all the time, but I post differently on Craigslist than my own website or other websites. Just cut the sweet talk on Craigslist. Don't try to romance anyone on that site. Tell them what you have and what it is gonna cost them and see who calls. It will save you lots of time answering stupid questions for someone that wants to spend about 1/3 the price that you want.
Read your Google data. I am not trying to be mean, but be sure you understand how to read the data. I didn't understand it, and had 5 different people telling me 5 different things and I finally just called Google. It is confusing and it is important. That data will tell you where your traffic is coming from. That will help you decide where to put your money.
Put a different phone number on all of your advertising. Don't panic!! It's free. Get Google Voice numbers, and forward them to your normal phone number. You will never know its not a normal call until you log in and look at the call activity on each of your Google Voice numbers. Then you will KNOW what advertising is actually working.
Plain and simple...ASK people where they found you. Make your spouse and daughters and son in law do the same. MAKE them find out, and really ask people. Don't ask in passing. Find out what made them call. It is important! In effect, every dollar you spent EXCEPT the dollar that got that customer to call you...was wasted. You just threw it away. Now do you want to know?
Oh, one thing about your website....and this is PURE OPINION. Have your sales page be your home page.
It's the best I can do...I really don't know either. Hope something in here helps you.
. Craigslist is nice in the fact that we get a lot of lookers, but have found that many of the people there are looking for deals and steals.
