Another newsagent is chasing business online using Google AdWords. The third sponsored link down on the image below – Stationery Supplies – is for a newsagency in Victoria. They have put their stationery department online under a different shingle – probably because consumers think newsagencies are expensive. This is a gutsy and smart move. While some newsagents will not be happy they are competing outside their geographic reach, I say good on them. We have to get away from thinking about borders and territories.
While using Google is expensive to attract business, it is essential if you want to build a client base quickly. This is what we did with our Inkfast business – we no longer use Google having established a big client base and good natural rankings in the search engine. Now, without any advertising or marketing expense, we sell between $30,000 and $50,000 in ink and toner a month on top of what we sell in our shop. Only rarely do we sell within our geographic reach.
What the folks at Stationers OnLine have done is show newsagents how a small business can compete against the likes of Officeworks.
Is this the newsagency of the future? Maybe, in part. Newsagents need to be entrepreneurial on their business decisions. This means backing yourself and taking risks.
This is a great idea to get most people out of the mindset that newsagents are either expensive or sell inferior products. I’ve been to the site and it looks great, so my hat is off to the developer. I couldn’t help but notice that if you factor in postage and the delivery time that the prices are about the same as are offered in say your average newsagency, however you don’t get that impression on the site. It’s clean and easy to travel through. The mid year GNS promo on the other hand is simply a push for sovereign products that people see as no frills branded lines and inferior or overloaded with too many of the same stock lines. This reinforces the idea that newagents do not do staitonery well, which is not the case at all, most newsagents do stationery very well but we have to change our marketing to move away from the old school catalogs and push forward with new thoughts like the chap from victoria. Offering cheap cd-r is not going to get people in to spend big $$$.
Hi Mark
Would you know the approx cost to have your business priority listed on google?
Regards
Rowan Higgon
Pakenham News & Tatts
Rowan it all depends on the keyword and the position you want. It could be anything from 50 cents to many dollars. It is a bidding system. If you do a search for Google adwords you can find out more about it. mark