baner advertiing at carboot .markets and local events

[goldenwonders]

Hello Elench,
I do see your posts frequently on the dark side of Obay. I do come on these forums most days, but rarely make any comment. I only responded to rpm because its wrong that he should be ignored when he'd got an idea, he'd costed it sensibly and was just looking for some sort of response.

Yes I also gave up posting after the 'idiot' kept destroying any debate!

Where do I begin?? - firstly any 'forward looking' company would automatically have an 'advertising/marketing budget', they may also have a department that specifically deals with marketing/PR activity. Budgets should be in the region of 1.5 to 2.5% of sales revenue. Since I have no knowledge of ebids revenue - how do I know what they have to spend?

My area of expertise was press advertising, creative and promotional brochure design. I will admit to having little experience of web or social media platforms, but I am fully aware they are used with great success. I have built websites, but have not created anything for years.

My real gripe here is members want to see some evidence of the owners doing something, making some effort to increase awareness, yet what do they see?? ....nowt!

Ebid is invisible ...and sorry to say it, but it will remain so and eventually it will become tarnished and rust away like some of its members! Its already growing a reputation with those who leave - who then say, ebid "...oh yes but nothing ever sells there". This can (and will) be more destructive than had these 'new' members not arrived in the first place!

Before anyone can say what needs to be spent - you need a budget. Above all you need a structured plan, an in depth report on where it would be best to spend any money that may be available.

To give a cost is extremely difficult, media type, size of advert, frequency, Which Publication, National/Local, Digital?, PR supported - there are so many variations. Where would they start UK, US ...It really is how long is a piece of string.

To keep it simple personally I would merely look to put a small display advert in as many publications as I could possibly afford. Get a very basic ‘Dealer Block’ created and use it in every possible type of media that was open to me.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS BRAND AWARENESS !
...and as everyone says, hardly anyone has heard of ebid.

Until that changes you are wasting your time.

I’ve just seen the other two posts - I will comment on those in due course.

[BordersBargains]

Tell you what though just one of those banners at one of the larger boot sales in the south of England would definitely get some attention

You know many sellers and some buyers found eBid thanks to the Branded Tape they had many years back, I was one of them

Nothing ever sells there! yes I see that a lot but the funny thing is lots of those people are more than happy to get one or two sales a week on Depop, Vinted etc and I think that's down to the advertising and word of mouth for those platforms.

The main issue is bringing buyers to the site and the more that shop here the more new sellers will appear but that cannot be done until eBid gets noticed, the only way that will happen is some form of advertising and yes even getting branded tape can be expensive but if you don't spend and take the risk you won't grow!

[crafters_corner]

I have read your posts with interest and the points you make are obviously valid.

However, one questions that has never been raised, is how big do the owners of the site WANT it to grow?

Do they have the budget and the staff to implement the extra work if eBid grows the way you are suggesting, or are they happy to take the occasional £69.99 without having to contend with a massive growth and the work it entails?

Yes, that is very cynical, but requests for advertising have been made time and time again over the years I have been here and, as far as I can remember, have never had the courtesy of a reply from the owners.

[BordersBargains]

If I remember correctly they did reply a few times saying it would cost to much but they did show us a branded tape which was one you had to add water too so that was a flop, I think that's how it went anyway

The crazy thing is if they paid to get say a trial of 500 branded tape rolls or Poly bags made and sold them to us for more they would make that initial cost back and with extra profit and I believe many would buy them or a 1% increase in fee's would cover the cost of branded tape. All that branding floating around on boxes etc would bring in interest fast, the site would gain numbers and grow slowly over time but we have been down this road before

[crafters_corner]

Totally agree: such a small outlay and one which could bring extra sales.
The resistance to any change, however small, is mystifying - and depressing.

[yellerbelly]

Totally agree: such a small outlay and one which could bring extra sales.
The resistance to any change, however small, is mystifying - and depressing.

I think as I read it they were looking for a company who would not only print the tape but also despatch it to the buyers when ordered, but I do not think a printing company would want the hassle of despatching the odd order of a reel of tape because at the moment I cannot see anybody wanting to order more than one reel (if any at all) at a time due to low or lack of sales. I would not be buying one at the moment as it would just sit on a shelf collecting dust.

I don't think owners are bothered anyway as must have fingers in more lucrative pies, yes some here are having sales but they could be earning more if they just took notice of suggestions made by members especially on the feedback situation as it looks like nobody sells anything as buyers do not leave feedback these days.
Was watching On the Money with Liam Halligan on GB News today and a local butcher and brewer had a piece about them in Anwick in Northumberland joining forces to promote sales for their product, it had also featured earlier in the morning on the same channel's news. I took notice of this as I have a friend in who lives in Anwick and buys her meat from them. On the Money often promotes small business on the programme by interviewing the owners, free publicity, don't see why they could not get some free publicity there.

[BordersBargains]

True the sales here well for me anyway would not use up much of the tape but then many sellers here also sell on other platforms, so no harm using eBid tape

A printing company would definitely want a large bulk order

[goldenwonders]

BigKidsAttic

“I used to have a Bricks & Mortar shop which I, and not my landlord, had to do advertising for.”

Yes that is the case, but if you were in a shopping mall, or selling at an auctioneers - the Mall or the auctioneer would have to advertise or their shops/auction lots would not sell and owners would pretty quickly move out or stop putting goods in for auction.

“The fee's would eventually and probably increase to the level of Ebay due to extra staff/server use etc..., then as it becomes more complicated as all growing business' do, it will slowly become another Ebay”.

That is an assumption, the fees here are VERY low - which reflects what you get for the cost - Nothing!?

You are correct that not everything sells on Obay... or any site for that matter inc ebid.
I see your selling experience on ebid is 20 years and from what you say you only ever sold a few items on Obay - I’ve experience on both. Yesterday I sold an Hard rock cafe pin. It had been on ebid for a year at £11.95 + post without success, on Obay I got £14.50 + post after 1 month.
I would have been happy to pay ebid another 50p to sell it here - but without some evidence of management giving something back, its never going to happen.

I wish you every success here, you say you’re doing well, but don’t you ever wonder if you could perhaps do better??

theElench

You are a niche seller (as you suggest), you have a very specific market and have an audience that will not find these items just anywhere. There are limited numbers on Obay and you sensibly keep a small presence there - 2 items. You say... “my sales on ebid this year so far, are equal to those on obay and going by the last few years will overtake them by the end of the year”. Well I don’t wish to be critical, but you have over 313 items here so that should not be too difficult to achieve should it???
Again I wish you every luck - and you have some nice items!

You ask me what advertising would cost - I said earlier that its how long a pic of string. But just a very rough guide. If they chose a local regional newspaper and ran a small campaign of maybe 20 insertions over a month. Creating say a basic block with site logo, saying auction site, a clever strapline to say it rivals Obay, between £500-£1000, dependent on the publication and a lot of other factors. Its just a guide.


crafters_corner

“However, one questions that has never been raised, is how big do the owners of the site WANT it to grow”?

... a very valid question. That may be the crux of the matter, happy to tick along with a nice little earner, not too much work involved, enjoy life!

"The resistance to any change, however small, is mystifying - and depressing".

..not mystifying to me crafter, a lot of the resistence comes from 1p sellers, they sell 'very' low priced items more as a hobby and if charges were higher they would be unable to sell these cheap items without incurring a loss.
I've owed ebid 45p in charges for ....I don't know how long! If It was Obay they'd have put me in the stocks for less.

BordersBargains

“they did show us a branded tape which was one you had to add water too so that was a flop”

...correct they did, I remember laughing.

If anyone really wants vinyl branded tape then there are numerous companies produce it. I’ve produced some in the past many years ago for a client, can’t remember who supplied it. However I did a very quick costing yesterday for interest. Probably not the cheapest out there but 720 rolls would cost you £1,512 inc VAT. So thats £1.75 + Vat each roll. I based it on the lowest most sensible qty - smaller qty’s available but a waste of time in my opinion.


Finally one last thing - advertising does not need to cost a penny - it can be free! It just takes some effort on behalf of those who own the company - and quite frankly I don't see any effort being made.
Even the site is now dated and is in need of an urgent overhaul ! But thats another matter.

[Policequilts]

I know that I was looking at having sticker/label/package sealing type tape.
It was $18/00 a roll and I think that was base on 10 rolls. (can't find my notes)

I understand that if eBid would do this, they would be looking at their members and the quantity would change. But that is still a hard hit, and the odds are that sellers would want everything free with free shipping if they are promoting this site.

For me, I look at this site as my website (for now) that I don't mind promoting my shops (as a matter of fact, other eBid sellers' shops). I only use Pinterest and see that I do get my sales from their and lots of views. Lately, work has kept me from doing more promoting but I still have sales.

Now, I would like to be invited to eBid Pinterest boards so that I can pin my items there. This way, I get sales and eBid gets noticed. I did try to contact them about being invited, but the impression that I got was to follow them. I am not sure if they understood what I wanted was to pin to their boards, besides using my Pinterest promoting account, too.

[theElench]

I don't want to divert the thread by discussing my selling strategy in detail. Perhaps another thread on the "Kitchen Table" board would be a better place to continue that topic? But I feel that I should comment on why I have 300 listings here and only 2 on obay. It isn't to put obay at a disadvantage, they did that themselves. I have time constraints but I devote a roughly equal amount of time to listing on both sites. Currently I usually list one auction each week on both sites and if it doesn't sell, convert it into a RUS / GTC listing so I list about the same number of "new" items on both sites each year.

Obay restricts my auctions to 7 day duration, here I can decide for myself and go for 30 or 40 day duration, so naturally I will have multiple auctions running at any given time on ebid. I would do the same on obay if I could.

Here, my RUS listings are listed in date order and keep their position and visibility in the search results. Obay makes no secret of the fact that as older listings become "stale" (which I interpret to mean that they didn't sell quick enough for obays liking), they are demoted in the search results and get less and less visibility. So here, letting RUS run indefinitely is an advantage. On obay the longer they run the more of a disadvantage they become as ebay also says that having non-selling items constantly being re-listed demotes the visibility of all the sellers' other items. That makes it better to end GTC items after one or two re-lists rather than have them drag newer listings down the visibility table. I would happily let them accumulate on both sites if this wasn't so.

I understand your difficulty and reluctance trying to answer my questions. As you say they are of the "How long is a piece of string" type and with so little info. to start with, impossible to give anything other than extremely rough answers to. But thanks for trying.

For the first time ever, that I can recall, we have a couple of useful numbers to base further discussion on. The 1.5 - 2.5% of sales figure as a starting point for what is considered a prudent amount to set as a Budget.

Presumably your example of Regional Local Newspapers comes from your experience that they are both cost-effective and effective in raising a company's profile. Again, it's a starting point that suggests (to me) that with a bit of strategic planning ebid could mount an on-going campaign with a budget of as little as £500 - £1000 per month?