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Promotion

Jun 3, 2010
30
3
6/103 Hunter St Hornsby Sydney
www.ectomorph.com.au
Disclosures
ECTOMORPH CUSTOM BASSES
Not too sure if this is the right place to discuss this and I don't wanna stretch the rules, but what I want is hints and tips for promoting my basses in the US.
I build basses in Sydney Australia and whilst Sydney has 4 million people, not enough of them play bass.
The US is a big market but I don't know how to get my basses noticed over there... I don't know what shops to contact, who might be interested in promoting them or who I could endorse.
Does anyone have any tips for me?
Thanks in advance TBers,
ROB.
 
What kind of basses do you make and what market are you going for? (extended rang bass? Super j? Hifi? Etc, etc) Those are important details to look at immediately. I often pay attention to cool looking top banners on here for custom builders like Jerzy Drozd.

A couple of things I notice on here: those who show a wealth of knowledge and friendliness on this site. There are several individuals with their own small brands whose opinions I value and are some of the first places I'd turn m business to. Check out Dan Atkinson's reputation on here-it's great! He's well earned it. John Worrell, who is starting a pickup business has been great in giving away pickups for testing to people for review. Ive worked with him on getting a huge sounding p pickup. He was so nice to work with that I bought more pickups from him. (also helps that I wanted a couple more sets :p)
 
Afterthoughtp: theres a couple of people who I'd consider contacting on here for review like Tom Bowlus of Bass Gear Magazine. He does a lot of reviews for our TB luthiers and designers. Could be worth the trouble for some decent exposure.
 
My suggestions come not so much from how I've promoted my own business in this field, but from other fields, so others will probably chime in with more bass-luthiery specific info but...

You need to stand out from a marketing perspective.

Have your business plan absolutely dialed. What you do, who you serve, when you serve them, where and how you can provide the service/product you can. This means, have your shipping information prepared in advance through a variety of routes, provide this information to your customer including lead times and expected wait times. Understand the limits of your business in terms of time, quantity of production, resource aquisition, shipping times, etc. Don't skimp on creating a brand, from a color scheme to a motto or business objective, a mission statement/philosophy or similar, include logos and stock photos as well.

Seek honest testimonials from people who's opinions will be respected. Sites like this go a long way to building reputations.

Promote yourself at trade shows, in particular NAMM seems to be the be all end all in north america.

Have a perfect and professional website. This will likely mean hiring a professional web designer to create something that pops. I had a look at your current site and no offense, but its not very attention-getting. It should read very clearly and provide important information immediately. Wherever possible, avoid large flash objects as they aren't compatible with older systems, and slower connections and can really slow down your site. At least have two choices for users on your splash page if you really want a flash entry. Have your options, pricing and limitations available for prospective buyers asap. Include explanations as to yourself, what you do and your history to your work ethic, business philosophy and business model.

Assume the reader of your site is confused easily and is simple minded, this will help guide it to be as user friendly as possible.

A simpler business model in general is easier to implement and maintain at a profit.

Also, don't forget to target the Canadian market as well specifically. There are a lot of small differences in the market from the US that will make or break sales here. (for example, an American flag or a star, or even red white and blue colouring can be a purchasing turn off for many Canadians. Case in point, a few years back Wal-Mart starting putting a little maple leaf in between the "Wal" and the "Mart" instead of the little star like in the US, they didn't do this by accident!). Canadians are the largest economic trading partner to the USA, larger than all of its other trading partners combined in consumption of exports. Considering we're 1/10th the population, we consume a great deal more per capita than Americans themselves do.

Also, read the many threads on this site regarding business models, there are a few with some good information.

Lastly, tantalize us with some build threads, more than a few builders have received customers from the ranks that view their build threads.

Good luck...