| Jul. 17 2008 at 1:11 PM |
|
|
|
Hello all,
I'm having a hard time converting visitors into my website store to become buyers of our merchandise. It's like for 50 unique visitors i got one sale. So, is it that we should increase our ads volume more thus more unique visitors will come in thus bringing in more sales.
I was thinking the website is not a real way to get the sales but it should serve as a presence to our customers.
We do not have a store. We sell through everything online. I'm thinking of attending exhibtions or bizarre to showcase our products but I'm afraid this would lower the image of our merchandise. Internet marketing is part of our plan such as PPC or web affiliation with other popular website. But it would stand small % of our marketing budget, as we felt that this could not bring us the sales. Correct me if I'm wrong.
We are considering giving out catalog as direct mail to households and place at a beach cafe in our country, which is our main focus of marketing. I guess we have to try all means to convert the marketing budget into sales and then to revenues to profit.
I don't think that higher marketing budget would means higher sales. I guess we just need to find more prospects in turn they would become leads.
Rgds,
Alvin
"Success is 99% hardwork and 1% intelligence"
Albert Enstein
|
| Jul. 17 2008 at 3:14 PM |
|
|
|
Owen –
2 ideas strike me quickly.
1) Do you know WHY your visitors do not convert to buyers? Is it price? Selection? Maybe your marketing is only targeting ‘window shoppers’? I don’t know and I’m not critiquing your site. I’m just saying that once you know WHY they do not convert, you can immediately work on making the fix. (I recall a program that let’s you quickly ‘poll’ a visitor who tried to leave your site without buying…it works like a Pop Up ad…but I don’t know anything about the expense of implementing it.)
2) I’m a big advocate for using Blogging as a free-but-powerful marketing tool. Both your home page and your “Why Us’ section show that you know a LOT about ‘quality bikinis’. I would suggest you exploit that niche’. Your goal is NOT to write a blog about how great your store is. Your goal is to write articles about quality bathing suits…quality summer wear…quality materials…bikinis ‘in general’… Now, if each article ended with either a link to your site or a link to a specific item you want to highlight, then you have the icing on the cake.
Your goal is to use the blog to attract readers to your knowledge and your insight. The expectation is that as they regard you as an expert in your niche’ they will then/also check out your store. You are building a brand-loyal base due to their respect for the information you share.
You want to get your blog noticed by ‘communities’…female shoppers, clothing afficinados…people who like to talk up swim wear, etc. It’s a small “niche” but it’s a particularly easy way to expose yourself to them.
Does this make sense?
I can give you more specific examples if I’m in the right direction for you…
The serious blog = www.ShopForTheGood.blogspot.com
The silly blog = www.SodaIsGood.blogspot.com
Either way, you win...
|
| Jul. 17 2008 at 5:12 PM |
|
|
Hi Alvin,
I took a look at your site, and coincidentally, have been reading a
Judith Krantz series (fiction) about high fashion, world markets, and
the very rich. One of the accounts for an advertising company that's
part of the plot is swimwear. Funny coincidence. :-)
Anyway...I looked at your site, and I see two immediate problems, both
of which tend (in my mind) to drive customers away rather than attract
them to buying.
- The overall appearance and "feel" of the site is gloomy, dark, and depressing.
- The low-contrast gray on soft gray is almost impossible to read,
setting aside that the font size is so small as to be like fine print
at the end of a contract. Usually that fine print causes bad problems
for the person signing the contract.
Anyone can sell swimsuits---they can also be purchased in just about
any clothing store. But the thing is that nobody really is selling swim
wear! They're selling a *style* when you get into this business.
The key problem with your site is that it isn't selling a lifestyle---an image.
Craig Landes
---
Defining the undefinable. "There are 10 kinds of people in the world---those who understand binary numbers and those who don't." - Unknown
---
Success = Passion, Patience, Persistence!
|
| Jul. 18 2008 at 1:18 AM |
|
|
Alvin,
I echo the advice already given and add that today's internet business is quite different from even two years ago. We worked with a fashion consultant recently for my wife's business and learned that it can take up to $1.5million to really drive traffic to a new website in the fashion business today. PPC just doesn't work by itself anymore because the web is so crowded. Blogs are okay but if you check the traffic for most this doesn't build a business.
You are absolutely on the right track by wanting to do some more traditional marketing methods. If your product is unique enough take it to a tradeshow, try sending a well-designed (not necessarily expensive) catalog to a tightly defined list of boutiques, send free samples to fashion magazine editors, try to get a celebrity to wear one,
All the best,
Matt
|
| Jul. 18 2008 at 9:18 AM |
|
|
|
We decided to go with a company with a company that just deals with your SEO score.
I know that it hard to find the money upfront but we have found that with everything there is to do with owning a business, this has actuelly been a relief.
Jewelry desighns using nature and gemstones
http://www.southpointstudios.com
My Email
|
| Jul. 18 2008 at 11:03 AM |
|
|
|
Thanks for the great advice.
Yup I'm trying out various methods of marketing to get the Sales going.
As for blog, maybe it might not drive sales but it might give our customers something to read about every week or so. It might serve as a customer service as well. I'm seriously considering doing up a blog for my biz. It might be helpful to me and to our customers.
I'm doing Facebook Ads and it seems to be quite useful to a certain extend.
I'm also thinking of collaborating with a famous beach cafe in our country to set out a brand.
Catalog and direct mail, i guess would be where i get my sales.
I am deciding whether to enter a exhibiton this coming weekend but most probably I would enter it to test the market and waters. No harm trying ya! Anyway its jus a 2 days exhibition with very low cost.
"Success is 99% hardwork and 1% intelligence"
Albert Enstein
|
| Jul. 18 2008 at 12:21 PM |
|
|
Alvin,
I suggest giving Google Website Optimizer a shot. I agree with a lot of the advice given about how you could change the style of your site. Although, what we think may not work, so Google's tool will allow you to actually test it. What it does is automatically show show users different versions of a page (i.e. user X sees landing page 1 and user Y sees landing page 2). Then it will calculate the conversion rate of each and you'll know which design to choose.
There are some basic SEO techniques you could implement on your own. I noticed a site search for your indexed content only retrieved 9 pages: http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Amaregeubikini.com%2F&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a. Of those 9 results, all have the same title (not very unique or helpful to search engines/users).
Another thing is that your navigation is image based, lacking the anchor text or even the ALT text, so search engines have no idea what your what your navigation anchor text is and you're missing out on possible keyword usage.
If you can fix a few things you just might see better search engine referrals.
Let me know if you have any other questions. I can give you some more tips if you feel comfortable implementing them.
-Patrick Daly
Lead Maverick, Inc.
Top Organic Search Results in 2 weeks
www.LeadMaverick.com
|
| Jul. 18 2008 at 3:28 PM |
|
|
|
All advice are welcome :)
I don't know much about SEO but I know we can use PPC ads in yahoo, google or even facebook which I'm using now.
"Success is 99% hardwork and 1% intelligence"
Albert Enstein
|
|
|