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My company makes and sells computers for Autodesk software, so Structural Engineers, 3D designers etc.

Where would be best to advertise? We have an adwords campaign running, but we are only spending about £5 a day since we are so targeted! We don't want to use the keyword 'computers' etc. because that is too generic and we would be wasting money.

We have looked into magazine advertising, like a structural engineers magazine, but do you think that was have a good ROI for computer sales?

Our budget is £3000, and if it doesn't work then we are going to have to shut the company down.

We are experts when it comes to computers, but we know NOTHING about marketing!

Any help appreciated.

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What about advertising on online job boards: when someone searches for a 3D Designer of Structural Engineer job, they see your ad. And it's not just job seekers that look at job boards: managers look at competitors' job posts too! – frenchie Aug 13 '12 at 14:31

3 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

Honestly, forget about using adwords. There is obviously not the volume you need.

You need to ask yourself "Where do engineers go to find information about software?" (I'll give you a clue - it's not Facebook or Twitter.) Talk to a few. They will soon tell you.

Places you could try looking at are:

  • Sponsoring Industry association events
  • Trade shows (when you grow your budget)
  • Industry magazines
  • Direct mail
  • Phone calls and meetings

Don't just stick it on the internet and expect sales to come rolling in. You need to get out there into the industry.

If you really believe in your product, then you need to market it effectively to give it a chance to take off. Your marketing budget should be adequate to test if there is some interest. If there is, you need to grow your budget and do what it takes to get the funds to market it.

This is all providing that you have already talked to your potential customers and know that they want what you've got.

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Well one of the directors owns his own structural engineering company, he said that there is a HUGE market for high performance computers, but business's don't know it. They spend £10,000 on the software but then buy a £600 pc to run it, why not spend a good £2500 on a pc? Thats our pitch, as I built him a pc for him company and it increased the users productivity by 20% – Adam Tester Jun 26 '12 at 14:20
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If the customers don't know that they need something then there's no market. You'd first have to create this market. But with 3000 GBP that's pretty hard to do. – jsz Jun 26 '12 at 14:56
Apple managed it lol, if we can just get a few sales in, we can go to a bank and get a proper 25k loan, its just the first bit we are struggling with – Adam Tester Jun 26 '12 at 15:58
Get those first few sales, prove your market and then, if you are confident you have a go-er, get some credit cards if you need to. You best (and cheapest) bet is to talk to people in person though. – Susan Jones Jun 27 '12 at 8:01
up vote 1 down vote

We thought of starting business of selling website logos online few months back. Apart from logo designers, we needed web designers & SEO specialist team. And typically we required many other resources. Google adwords campaign seemed to be right idea to start with and we initially set our budget approximately 10,000$ a month. Our management was formulating this plan for a long time, however I was not actively engaged in this program.

After giving it many thoughts, our management could not see its existence if the adwords campaign was not able generate the type of revenue we were expecting. Finally, we left this idea.

Not an every person is expert on Google Adwords. Its a bit difficult program as far as results are concerned. Even professional tests are being conducted by google and then they are awarded certificate for google adwords qualification. What I like to advise you in brief is that you should hire a certified google adwords campaign runner or go with organic SEO. Research for right SEO Company, evaluate their credibility & wait until you get more visitors.

Otherwise Susan Jones has given the right ideas that you should consider.

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Welcome to the site. Please take a moment to read our FAQ. Particularly the section on self-promotion. – Zuly Gonzalez♦ Aug 13 '12 at 15:44
up vote 0 down vote

Advertise on facebook. You can then target people by their profession and interests. It's very hard to do that on any other platform.

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Facebook ads are a great way to waste your money. – jsz Jun 26 '12 at 14:54
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Facebook ads are useless for a business like mine, I trailed it with £100 and got like 10 likes. I also tried running a competition, and I gained 300 likes! But they were all profiles just dedicated to entering competitions! What a waste of money that turned out to be, it's so flawed! – Adam Tester Jun 26 '12 at 15:56
Any advertising can be a great place to waste your money if you don't do it right. @AdamTester it sounds like you did ads for your facebook page, that has a very difficult to measure ROI (and low). Did you try ads to your website, that is what I was referring to. Don't send them to your facebook page or encourage them to "like" your brand, actually send them to your website. Then it's up to you to qualify the audience and convert them when they arrive. – Joel Friedlaender Jun 27 '12 at 0:49

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