Targeted email lists??

[Bulletbobber]

With millions of websites and more popping up every day it is getting harder all the time to get noticed.

I have a cheap product for fishermen, in the $2 to $8 range, and advertising prices are so high I just break even at best. My invention needs a full page color ad to be effective and the big fishing magazines start at about $20,000 per page. Advertising is set up for big ticket items and the little products can't afford it.

I would like a list of email addresses of fishermen. I don't want to spam the world. I just want a way to inform fishermen of a new product I am pretty sure they will like or will at least amuse them. I know this would undercut the economics of marketing businesses but it sure seams like their must be a list of folks that want to hear about new fishing products somewhere???

I get my share of spam and then some but I, like many others, put up with having my email address public because you never know when you might learn something.

Who's afraid of a little spam? I got some spam form idiots that don't care about who they are spamming by being part of the YE forum but it has not been too bad. I also get spam thru my website because I have a place to submit comments.

[mcc]

I don't know about email lists, but have you tried getting your product in stores like Dick's Sporting Goods, Bass Pro Shop, etc.? Maybe you could visit some fishing tournaments, or fishing expos, and see if you could advertise there. Maybe rent a booth or something. Some fisherman like to go to flea markets and buy equipment there from certain vendors. I'm sure you could get the word out without an email list. Look for people that sell fishing supplies online and see if you could sell to them at wholesale or something.

Just my 2 cents. There has to be a way to get the word out without emailing tons of people. I don't know how you would get a list of people strictly interested in fishing.

[Bulletbobber]

Yes - tried them all and fishing tackle is tough market to get into controlled by just a couple very big companies that supply Dick' and Wal-Mart and 95% of the fishing tackle goes in the chain stores. They don't want a guy with a patent taking their market share.

I am doing the biggest fishing tackle show open to the public this year. It is in Harrisburg PA and gets about 100,000 vistors. Shows are a tough thing to do when youy are still working the day job to make a living and burning vacation to do them is a real bummer.

I have done a couple trade shows and many retailers showed interest but the big guys are making sure they don't carry my invention. Any store that carries my product risk not being able to get the rest of the stuff they need to run a fishing tackle department.

I put some in some local stores only to find out that the local bait dealer sells fishing bobbers and told the retailers if they carried mine they wouldn't get bait! If I could afford to order 1,000,000 of them from my suppier I could get a price that would really help make marketing easier!

Fishing tackle is a tough market to break into and patents scare the heck out of many established companies and they are very experienced at shutting them out! If they can't knock off a copy they just want to kill it until the patent to runs out.

[mcc]

Wow! I didn't realize it was such a cutthroat industry. If you can't make a go of it, could you offer your product, patent and all, to those big guys and see if you could get them to bid against each other to buy it from you. Instead of letting them wait out your patent, maybe you could make some money now by giving them the chance to buy it first.

Have you tried selling on ebay or small local flea markets to see if you could build some sort of following for your product? I hope it works out for you. It really sucks the way the big guys keep the little guys down, unless you're a big guy.

[Bulletbobber]

The reatil total for fishing floats is about $200,000,000 a year purchased by about 50 million fishermen. Just $4.00 a year per fishermen makes it big and cutthroat! USA Today reported there were over 80 million folks going fishing every year.
Almost everyone goes fishing at least once in their life.

I have already addressed most of the suggestions you made.

[hardcards]

Try finding a spokesman (pro/semipro fisherman) and offer a percent of sales for time period or a percentage of ownership. Have you tried wholesalers? In my area there are 3 different fishing equip wholesalers that sell directly to the public. They have numerous off brand items and it has been my experience they are always looking for something a little different. You could offer a wholesaler exclusivity for a year in a particular geographical market as well.

[Bulletbobber]

Try finding a spokesman (pro/semipro fisherman) and offer a percent of sales for time period or a percentage of ownership. Have you tried wholesalers? In my area there are 3 different fishing equip wholesalers that sell directly to the public. They have numerous off brand items and it has been my experience they are always looking for something a little different. You could offer a wholesaler exclusivity for a year in a particular geographical market as well.

Sorry but you are wrong about the guys that have a name in the industry they are locked up by contracts. I have talked to many of the big guys and they want 5 digits for a PICTURE of them with a product. None of them will work for % alone. If you look up any big time tournament angler and find their email address you will be lucky.

I have contacted every wholesale company I could find and the only buyer was from UK and I had to promisse I would not look for any other wholesalers in the UK if met some reasonable quotas. It is catch 22 - I need to take down my shopping cart before wholesalers will buy from me but if I take it down and they don't advertise I am going anywhere.

Believe me I have tried every avenue ther is and it takes money to make money and it unfortunately takes a lot more then I have!

The only thing I have going for me is one good saleman in South Dakota that has time to run arround to bait shops but he has a day job too. I need 100 more like him.