Looking for customers, unsure where to advertise

I created my website to which I own the domain, with the help of my friend who goes by Jumbo. They helped develop the website and made it so that I could use PayPal to receive payment from my customers and generate shipping labels to quickly and efficiently ship out orders. The problem is that I don't know where or how to advertise my website to the target audience: Fellow coin collectors. I don't want to simply drop it here and accidentally violate any of Numista's rules, but I need help figuring out where to go and spread the word!

Worm regards,

Duncan

Just so you don't accidentally violate policy, the forum policys relevant:

10.Purely commercial messages are not authorized.

11.Sales or inducements to sell are prohibited. Promoting or indicating sales or purchases through forum signatures or member profile descriptions is also not permitted. One link redirecting to the personal profile of a member on an external selling platform is tolerated on the member's profile page through the dedicated field “Personal website”.

I think they only thing you can do on numista is put the link to your storepage as your personal website on your profile.

Maybe check other coin forums and see if they allow advertisement posts? 

Best of luck with your site!

Hi there,

I've worked in setting up a new small business before, and here's how we expanded. This may or may not be useful to you, but you might glean some ideas from it all the same. 🙂

1 - Put some of your core stock & prime pieces onto pre-existing sites. Afraid I don't know any that are particularly for coin sellers, beyond eBay. Remember you may have to increase prices to cover (in part) their commission. (We were home interiors, so we were Etsy, Amazon Handmade, Not on the High Street etc)

1a - Many of these sites will have an integration system for quick postage labels.

2 - When selling stuff, include a flyer or business card with your direct site. Make sure your prices are cheaper and/or have a better selection. Or have a discount code, or free shipping. Whatever you feels best for you. Don't be too excessively generous; you don't want your customer to feel you ripped them off on the first sale.

This encourages repeat online buyers to go direct.

3 - Set a small advertising budget on your most successful third-party outlet. Expect to lose money initially as you tweak & refine. Over time, this should increase initial third-party sales, which should then increase your direct repeat sales.

4 - As web traffic to your direct site increases, if you're really confident in your advertising ability, Google Ads. In all honesty, for such a huge market as coins, you're fighting some seriously big boys. So unless you're very niche, you'll struggle there.

=====Other Tips

A - Always try local coin fairs, town markets, things like that. If you're specialist, go to related events. E.g. Go to Renaissance fairs if selling medieval coins. Remember your business cards/flyers! Do that whenever possible & convenient.

For coin events, check Numista's own “Outings” tab. You'll likely find a few there. 🙂

B - Be quick & responsive to customer enquiries. Answer directly & casual friendly. If you have to deliver “bad” news, try and work for another solution. People love great customer service.

C - This is more a personal belief, but don't do limited time discount sales. Offer fair pricing all year rather than inflated pricing most of the year so you can do a 25% off sale in November. 

If you have clearance stock, fine, sell that at marked-down pricing.

D - Having a social media presence is great. You don't need to be constantly on it with posts - keeping it few for big things. E.g. Just added over 500 Spanish coins, why not check them out?, or look at this super-rare piece I have. Maybe a couple posts a month. Try to hit about a week before most people's payday (Get them excited & they might budget for it), then maybe follow-up on payday.

But it's great for customer communication. E.g. People might ask if you can acquire certain pieces, or provide extra photos.

I do hope that might give you a few ideas. I know every business & business owner's life is unique, so some stuff might be useful. Some might be junk. 🙂

Best wishes on your new venture.

I've worked in setting up a new small business before, and here's how we expanded. This may or may not be useful to you, but you might glean some ideas from it all the same

These are great ideas @A Collector! 😀  

I really need to work on my social media presence (even though I am not a business, just a collector).

=====Other Tips

A - Always try local coin fairs, town markets, things like that. If you're specialist, go to related events

Great extra tips I should try some day soon.  

I think they only thing you can do on numista is put the link to your storepage as your personal website on your profile.

Maybe check other coin forums and see if they allow advertisement posts? 

I bought many notes from other collectors so I decided to try to do the same (use the BUY SELL TRADE sections on other forums).

Thank you 🙂

Social media is a bit of a chore tbh, it was one of my least favourite duties. But I'm not a natural salesman. If someone's a little interested, I have the spiel to get them really enthusised with my products. But I'm no good at getting people interested in the first place. 🤷‍♂️

If you're forever churning stuff out on it, eventually the people you're getting your products in front of will basically go blind ("Oh look, he's selling again. 🙄") rather than engaging with your post. That's bad, the robots will be less inclined to promote that post, and it might reflect on future postings too.

So just be an occasional appearance but be a big impact when you do.

With coins & banknotes, as I say, do “loads of new exciting stuff”, “check out this beauty”, or possibly do a mini-dive into some uncommon stuff “Did you know that this banknote has a secret under UV-light?”, or “Did you know that the bridge featured on this coin is the one over the river Kwai?”.

Don't go for a deep dive, just some fun little facts which might get people engaging with you “Wow, I didn't know that. I drive past that bridge twice a day”. 

Not so great for direct sales, but high engagement encourages the robots in the background to promote that post to other people. And if you capture their attention, they might just visit your site…

Plus it'll encourage the robots to promote later posts, perhaps your payday “buy buy buy” posts.

And try to engage with the people on it. Sometimes, there's nothing to add but if there is, no harm in adding a little.

E.g. if following on from our bridge friend “I've only seen it once, but it's a gorgeous bridge” or whatever.

Try and avoid the bland template responses “Thank you for your interest” blah blah blah. 

Some sites offer the ability to pay to promote your posts. I've never found the return to be worthwhile, but could be worth experimenting occasionally.