As far as I know aaelghat (based on nothing but observation) iPods are the g-o in the military. (Hell, they walk around with a favourite soundtrack, don’t they…?) Computer access (from what I gather) is pretty easy; I would think iTunes is readily accessible. Just make sure you can build a marketing campaign into it that has some longevity. Otherwise it can be a bit of a one hit wonder.
My standard commission is 15%…
I think eBay would make sense if I sold something people searched on (e.g. figurines, or phones, or…). But on eBay nobody searches for "keepsake CD of phoned-in memories’ or even “40th birthday present”
I actually tried eBay, but because of the above limitation, didn’t have much success…
Go hereand learn. Shawna Fennell (who’s probably sick of me linking to her website by now, but if she wasn’t so darn awesome at what she does, she wouldn’t have that problem, now would she?) is wonderful at this sort of thing.
She started an example website “selling” raincoats designed to be worn by frogs, and in 2 days it was the first hit on Google Search. Now, how many people do you think search for “raincoats to be worn by frogs?” None, that’s how many. But she got great results with SEO for a product that doesn’t exist that no one wants to buy. You have no excuse, selling a nice product that people might actually want. 
Have you thought about Facebook? Fairly cheap, fairly innocuous, but middle-aged folks across the country are getting into it and they seem like the kind of people who’d flock to this from Facebook.
You might even rope in some of the youngsters looking for a present for their parents.
Any thoughts on what the video would be about? I think it would have to have a tie-into the product (without being explicit). Maybe something feel-good about the importance of telling people how much they mean to you, but I don’t know what the actual content of the video might be…
The Internet is not very effective for marketing if you mean through search engines. The two best companies Amazon and eBay have 28% and 19% click through rates. That means if something comes up in a key word search (either pay or free links) the person clicks on it.
That isn’t a BUY, that is just getting a person to click on it. The conversion rate after the click is even lower.
The most important thing for you to do is have a SIMPLE, SPELLABLE and REMEMBERABLE online name.
If you don’t have this, you’re wasting your time.
Because if someone sees a flyer, they won’t take it but if they remember Bridalxxx.Com, it will stick with them whether they take your flyer or see your ad or whatever. But they may not look at your website till months later. If they can’t remember or spell your name, they won’t find you.
You want absolute minimal costs. I would start with Craigslist. Then I would make flyers with phone and Internet and put them near wedding places, like bridal shops. I would put them up at every free place I could find. College campuses, supermarkets. Remember if you have an easy name to remember it doesn’t matter if people want your service NOW. As long as they remember it, they can get you a year from now.
Then I would also start your own blog. Use your own Internet domain site and add a blog to that.
Becareful and be legit. You must write and produce interesting content for it. Do not just copy. That’s spammy and you will not look legit. Then go to bridal boards and participate in discussions. Be LEGIT. Only say things if you have something to add. Do NOT attempt to sell anything on the boards. Offer your opinions. NEVER state your selling.
If people feel you are knowledgeable they will ask questions. You can say “I run a business that deals with weddings.” But that is all. If anyone asks on a board let them come to YOU. Anything else will be preceived as SPAM and will make your business look tacky. Even if it’s not, that’s the way it will be preceived.
Also remember this is a BIG recession. Weddings and such are going minimal. If people don’t need a service absolutely they’ll do without. I had my own computer business. One small ad on Craigslist, and I had more jobs than I could shake a stick at.
Now, nothing no one calls anymore not for months. If a computer breaks now, they will simply do without till times get better. I used to do a lot of bridal websites. Now, none. A year and a half ago each bride needed her own website. Now they get by with a bridal-Facebook page.
So whatever you do make sure advertising costs are virtually nothing.
You can make Facebook pages and YouTube pages and “hope” it takes off. But the chances of that are virtually none. The only time people see success from those kinds of thing is if a celebrity or local news anchor sees it and mentions it on a news cast. You might as well play the lotter as hope your Facebook page or YouTube ad will take off
This strikes me as the kind of thing that brides would really like. I realize that’s a tough market to be in, so my suggestion would be, don’t market to the brides – market to people who sell to brides. I think a lot of brides would buy something like this if it was a part of a photo/video package, or some other kind of package deal.
One other idea would be to consider it as a form of entertainment, not just a memento. Something along the lines of, hey, put this on your placecards at the reception, so people can leave messages during the actual event. Everyone carries a cell phone, pretty much; I can see brides liking the idea of “Hey, while you’re having fun at my wedding, call this number and leave a message for my memory disk!” I mean, people rent photo booths for weddings; why not this?
Well, I’m not much of a writer, but maybe something like a montage of people saying nice things about the bride/graduate/other recipient, fading to a shot of the bride/graduate/other recipient smiling as they take the precious CD of Happy Thoughts carefully out of the machine and back in to the case, with a voiceover briefly explaining the product, giving the company name, and a website, phone number, or other contact info.
If you wanted to go with a darker note, you could open with a scene of a newborn baby, with voice overs from actors playing adults…possibly older relatives expressing their hopes and dreams for the child…fade into scenes of the child growing up…and finding/being given your product…and using it…and then saying something about how glad he is that Grandma and Grandpa took the time to talk to him. They’re gone now, but their wisdom will live forever (display contact info here)…but that might be too tearjerky. I dunno.
Also, if it doesn’t increase your cost too much, maybe you could offer a DVD option, and let people submit webcam video instead of just audio…