Introduction Sterling Bassett is very happy with her life but is disappointed that the idea she had for starting her own business hasn’t taken off as expected. The time has come for Sterling to either renew her website contract or decide to just not put any more time, money or effort into her idea. Sterling believes that she could make a profit this upcoming year if she can come up with other marketing ideas and get the word out about her service she offers. Background When Sterling was preparing for her wedding, her and her fiancé visited the annual wedding fair and was overwhelmed by the amount of vendors that were present. After leaving the fair, they both discussed and agreed that it would be a lot easier to register for gifts once on a central internet site than to provide lots of different stores with bits and pieces of information. With her experience as a website designer, Sterling believed that this would be a simple and beneficial idea for a business.
However, once she got her website up and running, revenue was not what she expected. Sponsors and vendors were hesitant to buy into the website due to the cost of an ad space being $2,400 a year, they also didn’t want to be the “first to sign up” since the future could not be determined when it came to profit. After talking with her friends, family and people in her community, Sterling came to the conclusion that although most people thought it was a great idea, few couples knew where to look on the Internet for a service like Sterling’s. Alternatives At the beginning, Sterling paid for four ads in the Sunday papers, sent information sheets to local clergies in the area, listed the website with 25 internet search engines, and carefully crated press releases announcing there service to almost every publication in the area. One of the multiple articles from a press release did result in some attention and for a few weeks, good amounts of e-mal inquiries came through for more information on her web page. Sterling made a good decision when it came to the press releases but once the inquires slowed down she was back to square one. Proposed Solution Sterling tired Google AdWords which did lead to a couple more inquires but branching out to more prominent social media outlets would benefit Sterling the most. Most people are on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook everyday, as well as Pinterest when it comes to planning weddings.
Pinterest is a “digital bulletin board” when people spend hours scrolling through pictures and post and “pinning” what they like on their board and creating an idea board. The social media outlets like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook are frequently visited sites and with the help of purchasing ads with the sites raises lots of awareness for sites that might interest the users. Sterling would be able to have millions of people looking at her ad every day compared to just staying local and risking her business. Recommendations Since Pinterest allows people to create their “dream boards,” Sterling should make an account and post pictures of the vendors, items, specials etc. that she is offering on her site. When she post pictures with AdWords secretly attached, her pictures will appear when users search words similar to the AdWords she chose.
When users see the pictures and are attracted to them, they can “pin” them to their board to see at a later time or choose to visit the site that the image came from. This is generate more people visiting her site and word getting around resulting in increased profit margins keeping Sterling’s business alive and growing.
