Is the creative approach appropriate for the target audience?

What is the best way to promote a website that has a broad target audience?

• Some background information: I've just finished a beta version of a site called HavorNeed.com(http://www.havorneed.com) it lets people post what they need or what they have to get rid of.  People can trade, sell, or just give away their goods we're really just about putting people together.  We're on facebook (we have a one-click signup thru their OAuth/SDK) and about to start promoting there.  Our issue is our target user could be anyone from a teenager in college who needs some cash or concert tickets to an elderly couple who don't wan their RV anymore.    What would be the best approach? I know "best" could be used lightly here but we've scrapped together a small budget and want to try to stretch the pennies as far as they can go.  Do we do PPC?  Facebook ads?  Should we hit the streets and start promoting colleges?  We just need to start bringing in some more movement to make sure the site's UI is tweaked properly and get some momentum going to grow our audience. We're really open to any ideas here.  Thanks much in advance!

• Answer:

  1. It sounds like you're basically doing what craigslist and kijiji are doing, so I'd start with researching how these companies grew and promoting your offerings through those sites. 2. I don't think PPC is a good choice, unless you're taking a commission off every sale -- for example, when an RV gets soild. PPC tends to work best with large transactions (e.g., promoting $2,000 services) because spending $5 per click or $20 per conversion is worth it. You could use PPC to build a mailing list of people that you later market to for free using email. 3. One of the cheapest ways of reaching a big audience is through key influencers / thoughts leaders. Can you identify someone who fits this criteria? Many a person from Pawn Shop reality shows? 4. Yours site is very geo-specific, so you'll need to segment your markets based on location. If you were planning to sell niche items (i.e., items people are willing to purchase from afar) then your approach would be different. Advertising based on niches is generally easier because you have more opportunities to buy banners on niche-specific sites and magazines. In your case, however, you may have to pay a premium to be in local newspapers / blogs. 5. SEO may help, but if your products are only up for a limited time then I'm not sure how helpful this will be. It sounds like you need people to go to your site first to find what they want (rather than, for example, just Googling a product and running into your site). This is difficult because you're competing with big players like craigslist. The key is going to be keeping people coming back -- something websites like Ethical Deal do a good job of. E-mail marketing was a huge component to this. But this is much harder for you because you don't have a niche market the way Ethical Deal does...can you split your market up into niches?