eBid Marketing Challenge!!

[nykmedia]

That's the very one, that 'impulse' that there's nothing can stop except fulfilling your 'must have' needs! It's great! Maybe they could replace the boring watch with the busiest auction and a nice seasonal image linking to more 'now that I see it I want it now' items? Have to agree on the car thing, have done similar myself all too often and then worried about how to deal with the stunned silences and looks of shock and horror on arrival home. LOL

[Armstrongs]

Morning peeps

Yes, it would be interesting to know if more "closing" auctions were dotted around the site, if sales also increased?

I dont think the "busy" auctions or "what people have been looking for" sections on the front page are very good ads.
Not when "busy" actually means "closing with at least one bid" & the other one, well, that just looks like a car crash......mainly used for frivolity on the forums when it's funny to read, ie. " todger camping" pmsl

So perhaps the "Marketing Challenge" should be to tidy up the front page.
Less is More.....if you know what I mean.
A clean row of flags for Categories...Busy Auctions....Buddie Point Table etc. etc.
Give the frontpage auctions a higher profile (people have paid good money for them)
& use all the space thats left for thumbnailed closing auctions......just for us impulse buyers.....and there are lots of us....lol.

xx

[nykmedia]

Just bumping this thread to try and attract a few more ideas. Look at it this way, if you had £2,000 to spend on advertising or marketing YOUR eBid store, how would you do it to attract the most number of 'shoppers'?

[HannaHolly]

I'm starting to think this £2000 would be much better spent retaining current customers . At the moment I believe we loose far to many good customers for not very good reasons.
examples:
1. If i take a look through my feedback i have dozens and dozens of customers with strikethroughs - some deserved i'm sure - but what about all those with 100% positive feedback? have we 'banned' them from buying and selling because of a minor technicallity or misunderstanding? How much would it cost to send out explainitory emails when people get strikethroughs helping them get things right? How about shorter 'suspention' periods for minor issues?
2. Glytches such as seling templates defaulting to 'featured'. If we can iron out these long standing glytches we will retain more seller goodwill
3. Communication. It's getting better ( newsletter for example) but we could really do with a regular presence on these forums responding to questions.
4. Do something radical with pppay- it's no kind of asset for the site at the moment

So spend the £2000 on fixing longstanding glytches, on working out a better 'strikethrough' system and on employing someone ( part time) to respond to forum questions. Measure the effectiveness by comparing the numbers of lost customers in previous months to the numbers lost after the 'fixes' are put in place.

[HannaHolly]

building on my last post. BT , British gas and other large companies have spent a fortune trying to lure back old customers. here's my suggestion on how ebid could bring back some former users.
1. Review the strikethrough users list and identify users with a feedback rating of (say) 95% or higher
2. Remove any who were struck through for serious breaches of ebids T & C
3. For the remainder, remove their strikethrough, give them buyer only status and send them an email which could start off something like like
" Following a review of ebid policies we are please to advise your ebid membership has been reinstated and you have been granted 'buyer' status...."

Whether or not these returning buyers would be allowed to upgrade to seller may depend on why they were suspended in the first case. I assume there is some kind opf code which identifies what suspentions related to, so it wouldn't cost much to build this in to the process

I don't know exactly how many members this would bring back, based on my own feedback records i'd estimate hundreds - many of who'm were good customers for sellers here. Welcome them home

[ropegg]

I'm starting to think this £2000 would be much better spent retaining current customers . At the moment I believe we loose far to many good customers for not very good reasons.

So spend the £2000 on fixing longstanding glytches, on working out a better 'strikethrough' system and on employing someone ( part time) to respond to forum questions. Measure the effectiveness by comparing the numbers of lost customers in previous months to the numbers lost after the 'fixes' are put in place.

My biggest concern is with the STRIKETHOUGH and SUSPENSION of BUYERS.

I think it is good to be concerned with new members and keep the site creditable but I FEEL LIKE A LOT OF BUYERS HAVE BEEN DRIVEN AWAY FROM EBID before they even get a chance to see what eBid is really like or how creditable it is. One thing I don't like is the fact that a buyer doesn't actually have to do anything WRONG to be suspended. If they are new and have done something wrong there is a good chance that it does not warrant EMBARRASSING THEM BY SUSPENDING THEM AND PUTTING A STRIKETHROUGH their ID, contact them and give them a chance to correct it.

Here is what has STRONGLY RAISED MY CONCERN -----

When I found out about eBid and their no fees I almost couldn't contain myself -- WOO HOO AND WOW WOW I had found someplace besides feebay and it looked like something I could use to list and enjoy.

The first thing I did was sign up --- the next thing I did was tell someone else about it. I had a plate they wanted and I said hey why don't you join eBid too and buy it off there. They thought that was a good thing and did so.

BUT GUESS WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Within 24 hours of their bid they had been suspended with a strikethough and no notice that anything had happened. I did get a notice from eBid telling me they were concerned about the bidder's intentions. **** A new member, and had made one bid, and they WERE CONCERNED ABOUT THEIR INTENTIONS. **** WOW *** The new member couldn't get into their account. They contacted eBid to see why they couldn't get into their account and were told they needed more information as to their address. They sent their information in again changing P.O. Box to Post Office Box and apparently all was well. They received an apology from eBid saying the offence should have never happened. I also contacted eBid concerning it and wondering why the bid had been removed from which I received an apology saying it had been an error. It seems to me it would have been much better to have sent and email to them asking for more information than to have suspended them with a strikethough and pulling their bid.

That immediately took away the WOO HOO AND WOW WOW feeling and to this day the other person has a hard time warming up to eBid. Although I still see great potential in eBid and I do like it, I will admit my feeling has never been the same either.

After I had been an eBid member about 7 months, I listed a ring and an eBid member in the same town I live in had a flea market and saw the ring and bid on it. They had been an eBid member for about 6 months but had not done anything yet as they were still using feebay. Within 24 hours of their bid, the bid had been removed and they had been SUSPENDED with a STRIKETHOUGH ID, no notice that anything had happened. I did get a notice from eBid telling me they were concerned about the bidder's intentions. **** A member that had signed up six months before but had done nothing since had made one bid and they WERE CONCERNED ABOUT THEIR INTENTIONS. **** Again I contacted eBid concerning it and wondering why the bid had been removed from which I received an apology saying it had been an error. The bidder was also sent a letter of apology but they still have never used eBid to my knowledge.

After almost two years with eBid I have recently been having trouble making contact with someone that had been a new eBid member for 3 days and had bid on some of my merchandise. Knowing the sight is different and they were new and also knowing that I have been having some problems with email communications both with eBid and otherwise I decided to give them a call. I checked the internet and found a phone number with the address matching the information I had received from eBid and called to find it was no longer a working number. I contacted eBid asking if they had a different phone number and what I got back was no mention of a phone number or if eBid did in fact have one. I got a message saying they were taking appropriate action while investigating the matter further. It had been less than a week since they had made the purchase so what did eBid need to investigate just because I ask for a phone number. But GUESS WHAT --- I looked and sure enough there was a strikethough ID and they had been suspended. WHY - WHY - WHY

I did ask why and what they needed to investigate because of me asking for a phone number and I received a note saying they were concerned about scams and maybe they had been over zealous. Then they did send me a phone number though.

I DO NOT SEE WHERE ANY OF THESE ACTIONS DID ANYTHING TO IMPROVE THE BUYING OR SELLING SITUATION ON eBid. I truly don't think bidders normally scam with a bid (they may end up being a nonpaying bidder but I don't consider that a scam).I feel it would be better if eBid would not do anything to suspend a bidder unless there has been a complaint made by a seller (I would not call just asking for a phone number being a complaint). We need sellers and we need buyers but I feel like it will be easier to have and keep sellers if eBid does not run off the buyers.

I had transactions prior to eBid with two of the members involved above and had never had any negative situations and eBid admitted they had made an error in suspending them both and withdrawing their bids. Just those two that I had dealt with before eBid makes an average of 1 per year for me. If eBid runs away or even takes the chance of running away 1 new member per year per existing membership think of the results that can happen to eBid and the eBid community (which includes buyers and sellers). For each existing member think of how many buyers may well be driven away for nothing and how many seller are affected and what a difference it might make in the eBid community. If eBid had only 500 members and two new member were gained in a year for each of the 500 members that would make for 1500 members but if one just of those new members for each of the original 500 members left because they were treated like the ones mentioned above then eBid would end up with only 1000 members instead of 1500. I wonder how many really are lost!

I don't know what the £2000 can do to change this situation but I feel like we NEED BUYERS and DO NOT need to prematurely run them off. Like Val said, maybe some of the £2000 could be used to keep the members eBid has by hiring someone to actually do some communication which could be for forum questions and with the concerns about new buyers and old buyers when eBid feels there is a problem.

[kengillam]

I believe it is said that do something good and they will tell three people, give them a bad experience and they tell twenty! Sounds as though there is some serious work to do.

[HelenAndGraham]

Still following this thread to see how it develops or concludes.

I notice it's very hard for participants to stay focused on the advertising aim and they often drifts back toward broader marketing ideas/concerns. This should be providing valuable feedback to Mark & Gazza.

I also notice how relatively few eBidders are actually taking part in this challenge. Seems strange to me as not many sites put £2K on the table and challenge you to spend it! I thought the recent newsletter may have lured a few more opinions in than it has.

The conclusions I'm drawing are that there are few alternatives being proposed that will benefit all the international sites by attracting traffic to eBid better than the current adwords campaign. That's not to say the Adwords are doing the best possible job.

For me the highlights I'm taking away are the various marketing concerns. Some tools are apparently missing that sellers want to help market themselves (and eBid) and there also appears to be legitimate concerns about various glitches being experienced or seeking reviews of user treatment aspects of the site. While this aren't advertising ideas for the £2K challenge, they are certainly food for thought.

[ropegg]

I would love to be able to realistically give some advertising ideas and I would also love to see advancement in the US and other localities. That is far from being my field but I can't think of anything that £2K will do better than the adwords as far as advertising to get more members.

I do realize the idea of keeping the members we have is not advertising or solved by advertising but it does seem to cut the value of advertising if we are losing them unnecessarily.

I feel like eBid realizes that £2K is truly very little to advertise with unless it is done locally and local advertising is not the kind of advertising I feel eBid needs. Sometimes need and being able to fulfill it are far apart.

[HannaHolly]

In my opinion running campaigns to bring back previous customers IS advertising. As I mentioned before many of the big UK companies have recognised the value of keeping or bringing back an old customer who is familiar with your product and they are spending serious money on this.

I looked through my feedback last night and counted 22 people I have traded with- who have feedback ratings of 95% or higher- and who have strikethroughs through their name. Not every seller will have 22, even if they each only had a couple of unique names to add we would soon be in treble figures.

Peggy you have made a lot of valid points. Maybe we should copy our postings to a separate thread so they don't get overlooked.