I have been driving for about 45 years, and I haven’t a clue how an engine actually functions. But I think it will be helpful to explain how the Big NI Market will work.
- The engine of the BigNIMarket is the software. It comes from a company in the US that provides mapping services to all sorts of public and private sector bodies all over the world. They have a presence in Northern Ireland and the idea came about from seeing it in action. It has never been used like this before, and the developers are excited with what we are doing.
- The marketing will be two fold. Firstly to recruit members, each paying £10 a month. Then the marketing will be to the consumers in Northern Ireland to promote the members to them, and help them to shop better and buy local.
- Targeting. Using Facebook, we will be targeting a wide range of audiences, promoting the members in the Big NI Market to the people that will be most likely to respond. For example, we tested an audience for arts and crafts with the Christmas campaign and generated great results.
4. With out getting into too much detail, the cost per click and the click through rate were well above the normal benchmark for Facebook advertising. This is the type of campaign we will be running. Creativity is important if we are going to first, attract attention, and secondly, grow engagement. We will be doing a lot of video ads and content marketing. Content marketing is all about creating posts that appeal to the targeted audiences. So for example, a blog about fashion in 2021 will be targeted at those that share an interest in fashion. The link the Big NI Market will be to the fashion brands and stores.
5. Budgets. The Big NI Market is built on a co-operative marketing strategy. What that means is that as we get more members, eveyone will benefit. So, if we have 100 members, that means we have a budget of £1000, 500 members, £5000 etc. So for an investment of £10 a month you are getting the benefit of multiple times that in marketing spend. As people Look Local or Browse they will see your brand page, with all your links. The budget will also cover the costs of managing the campaigns, creating the content, planning the ads, and reporting all the activity to the members.
6. Your role. All your work is done at the beginning. You need to fill in your details, but most importantly, get a great image and write your content so that customers want to buy from you. Not a hard sell, but what makes you good at what you do so they can trust you.
7. What happens when you sign up? It will take two or three days until you appear on the map, We have to get the go-ahead from the payment platform and we also check your details. Then you will see your brand page on the Look Local, Browse and Find sections of the Big NI Market.
8. Market Sections. These will develop as more people sign up. As you tick the sections box on your application, it will begin to populate that filtered area. As we get a number of businesses in each section, then it will appear on the map.
9. E-Commerce. You can indicate if you sell online, so that customers who want to buy local but online can see who offers an e-commerce opportunity to buy.
Big NI Marketing 