Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hello

A website is a marketing tool in itself ... it`s not about "marketing your site", it`s about "marketing your business".

So, who is your target market?

I have dogs, but I`m not your market because I wouldn`t have a painting of my dog.
So who would?
I`m thinking that high-end services like dog schools/daycare, pet boutiques, and pet cemeteries would be a place to start.

The site itself seems well-done.

I will add that your site is done entirely in flash, so getting search engine traffic will be very hard unless you buy it.

To see how Google sees your site, go to google.com and type in "site:illapet.com" exactly like that, without the quotes. There are a bunch of odd characters on your pages ... not sure what they are doing.

(Cool tip, Nikole!...the "site:blahblah.com) :-)

On topic: I don`t like the site much at all. If I hadn`t read the introduction, knowing that this is an artist wanting to offer pet portraits, the existing site would be nearly meaningless.

I very rarely think that nothing can be saved from an existing implementation, always taking into consideration the money and time that`s gone into making that first thing. But in this case, I believe the whole approach doesn`t work at all. Sorry...but that`s how I see it.

An artist, particularly one focusing on people`s "children" (their pets) has to establish a personal connection with each potential customer. They have to immediately qualify the customer, letting them know this is a vanity product, for people who want a hand-created portrait. The competition is the photo-portrait imprinted on everyday other objects, like mugs.

Secondly, the artist has to develop an empathetic connection with the pet-owner, and elevate that particular pet to the highest of all values. In my opinion, that can only be done by walking the customer through a sales process that "seems" more and more personal. That almost isn`t possible using Flash!, which is too "cold," I think.

For example, I clicked on Gallery, expecting to see examples of Hallmark moments captured in art. Instead, I see a factory-type set of menu options, thumbnails, and a retail-oriented "here`s some dawgs...check `em out, we could probably do something like that fer ya." :-) See? It`s not at all personal.

The site itself looks alright.  I think it is a bit dark and cold (not because of Flash) but mainly because of color theory and page compositions.  I do think it needs to be "warmer" and as an artist, you should know I don`t mean just warm colors.  The site feels like a site for something technical and computery.  Maybe it`s too slick.

The main thing I think you need to improve is your copy.  As it is, you mostly talk about yourself and your services and your product.  You hardly talk about dogs.  I assume you have a dog that you love?  So you know what it`s like to want to pamper your pets and be proud of them.  You have to talk about that.  You have to get people thinking about their own dogs when they browse your site.  It is imperative that you make that emotional connection.  I suggest doing some reading about copywriting before rewriting.  The book `Made to Stick` isn`t about copywriting but it has an excellent section on making emotional connections.

Nikole makes a great point that you need to promote your business (what you do), not the site (one of many ways you can market your products).  You should have examples hanging in high-end pet boutiques, coffee shops and other places.  Get your work out there and have your name/site easy to reference.  This might change how you rework parts of your site when you think about it in the grand scheme.

Otherwise you do nice work.  By the way, I do home portraiture.

Your portraits are "Kick Ass" man, nice work.

Ah...Steve`s got the better description---"too slick." That`s much closer to what I meant than "too cold."