Advertising Crazyquiff's

Been struggling lately on where best to advertise - I only get my sales from my website, here and by word of mouth at the mo.  

I need to increase my volumes to cover the cost of the unit  and :twisted:rates:twisted: and to expand the business - new product development, sourcing etc.  

Obvious choices are the VW mags but I don't feel that any of them has a really strong MK1 input - then there are the classic mags but again not focussed on our scene.

Anybody got any thoughts?

Cheers

Rich

maybe try performance vw they've always got a strong vw mk1 golf article in there every month i know its not specific but its a start

What about general classic car mags? We have our club (my!) number in the back of some with our listing and I still get phone calls every month from people with MK1's - not dozens, but I still must get at least half a dozen or so a month.

Otherwise banner links on VW related sites?

Cheers
Andy

There's plenty of mk1 owners on ClubGTi and from their questions, I'm sure they've never heard of you.

A small add in GOLF+ magazine may help .


Selling on Ebay  "open a shop" , leave a few things in it with links to your site and this site on all the adds watch the orders flood in .

How about programme ads in the smaller, local air/water shows?

Get in early and you can usually ask for a more prominent ad. Front/back page, centre pages.

As it happens………………………..

www.elementalvw.org.uk

 :mrgreen:

Even if people dont own one….the mk1 golf seems to be considered a difinitive car by all V dubbers!  (except some of the Air cooled lunatics maybe :wink: only coz it killed off their beloved beetle  )

I would use PVW or Golf+ and see what response you get……a 1/2 page add for a few issues will last a lifetime…especially if others are like me and keep the mags! i often read 10 year old copies of PVW or The Golf as it was then! so your add will survive.

Trouble with expanding on your buisness is your gonna have supply/demand issues….as you know your gonna get phone calls/mails by the dozen everyday for "chrome bumpers" "chrome or red grille surrounds" and all the other hard to find or expensive parts, and the panels that are needed for restoration…a lot of people only want original stuff and thats near impossible for some things………

A sign written van :wink:  with the parts you offer at shows will get you noticed, im sure if you got a plot someone on here would be willing to stick their mk1 on for you to get the punters over.

why not try a more open approach, get yourself a trade stand at most of the shows, maybe get a couple of club members/friends to help you out manning it etc etc

I always feel word and mouth is the best form of advertsing, but you cant beat being under peoples noses, I dont think the mags are a good option, i know myself i always skip past the adverts unless I'm looking for something in particular.. I know from my previous job that magazine advertising doesnt really do much unless its very specific and stands out from anyone elses, to do that you need a full page which would cost megabucks

also might be worth spending a few quid on website advertising, get yourself higher up on more random searches on say yahoo and google..

Finally, if someone knows of you as Crazyquiffs and puts it into yahoo, your header just says HOME, maybe rejig that side of it as well, ( i have no idea how to, but surely someone on here does) and maybe a splash of flare to the website might help

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MG-Midget-Breaking-for-spares-wheel-nut_W0QQitemZ130181342920QQihZ003QQcategoryZ27380QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

No sneaky links to other sites though .  

You guys are amazing  :y: - some fantastic ideas and input for me to mull over.

Chudd - now those rostyles would look great on your MK1  :wink:

Setting up a more professional looking eBay shop would be a good idea. Realistically, I don't think it would pull in enough trade, so you'd have to pick a selection of the VW and classic car mags and advertise in these too. You'd be well advised to keep track of where your various customers have heard of you, so you know which marketing brings in the money.

There's plenty of other forums too, but the problem is that many don't allow traders. We've always allowed them, so far.

The ebay shop is an excellent way to go, and at ?6 per month
you can not go wrong really……..

you will also drag in visitors from google this way,
try it………
just stick "Golf MK1 Trim" in to google……………………….

Just be sure to have auction items as well, otherwise
you will not appear in all of the searches, even if you
dont have anything to auction, just stick an advert up
as a listing, and put a 1p price on it to keep ebay happy :wink:

I had an ebay shop for years, and used to get 16,000 page
views on the shop items each month, you can also keep
track of what people visiting your shop are looking for…….
as you can view what people "search" for in your shop
even if you dont stock it.

Another idea is pay per click on google, but this is more expensive,
you could also approach "classic car insurers" and see if it would
be worth mentioning your website on any literature they post out.

Good luck

Dibbler

ebay shop would be a great way to go.  There are a lot of people who buy mk1 parts off ebay

Magazine wise i would try vwdriver magazine.

As its such a niche market i'm not sure advertising in mags and on other websites would be worth while, if you did you'd have to find a way to work out how much additional income was generated by it to see if it was worth while. Also, wih 8,500 users on here, how many other mk1 owners are there to attract?? Perhaps the peak has been reached?

They are more likely to find you themselves which is where the ebay shop is a good idea, also you can pay search engines to show your site up first when key words are entered making you easy to be found.

Keeping up a high profile on other websites would be a good idea (parts wanted sections etc), although possibly time consuming?? I think word of mouth works wonders for you at the mo anyway as your name's always popping up!! How about getting your name around on the foreign sites??

Would it be worth selling other hard to get vw parts? How about offering additional services? A lot of people ask about places  to get repairs on their mk1 done and i'm sure people would be willing to travel for a specialist mk1 place. Perhaps you could do popular mods and conversions??

Mk2 GTI parts would be good too

My gf step dad runs a boat painting business and purely relys on word of mouth to get his custom and it hasn't failed him yet! It's the best medium and a magazine add will prob cost thousands for a big advert.

An ebay shop is an excellent idea as I'm alway on the lookout for stuff for the golf on ebay! Everyday I trawl through it  

Maybe get a more automated website were people can order the stuff directly and pay for it directly there and then and all you need to do is download the order sheets and payment details every morning and pick out the orders and send them! Kinda like euro car parts website?

kami said

Maybe get a more automated website were people can order the stuff directly and pay for it directly there and then and all you need to do is download the order sheets and payment details every morning and pick out the orders and send them! Kinda like euro car parts website?

This feature is available on my website - most of the new parts can be bought and paid for from the site  

Thanks again for the input guys and gals - It's really useful to get your comments.

I get a lot of great feedback from my customers and the comments above have some great stuff in.

I looked at the ebay shop thing a while back and decided not to do it - primarily because I'm not a big fan of selling on ebay for two reasons.

1.  I got kicked off for a month sometime back for linking to my website, even though I complied with all their rules - now I'm bitter and twisted  :twisted:

2. When you take the whole charge thing into account they take a fair %age of the profit.

3. Stuff tends to be over priced in the e-bay market - I guess I can control the proce of stuff by setting an appropriate but-it-now like I do with dash vent kits - they sell for ?25+ when I am not selling them on there and all the expensive sales dissappear when I am!

Having said all that  need to have another look at it.

The other thing I'll propbably do is focused mag ads when they have MK1 features in the three main mags - This depends on price and location in the mag.

Thanks agian

Cheers

Rich

At some point the natural thing would be to open a MK1 specific workshop to add to the service range - this has always been on the cards and we have done to odd thing from time to time.  We are not ready for this at the mo but when we are…..

kriss said

Mk2 GTI parts would be good too

Our core aim is parts and services for MK1 Golfs and I really do not want to stray from that - The MK1 Golf only approach is what makes us unique in this country.

Having said that we can do any VW part through our VWDirect service and have shipped a fair bit of MK2 and 3 stuff.

Cheers

Rich