Marketing website help & advice needed
Discussion
Hi all,
Could do with a bit of advice regarding marketing a website. Bit of background - we've been selling on Ebay for about 15 years & on Amazon for about 3. Primarily clothing, about 80% womens.
Late last year, we signed up with EKM and have done our "own" website as we feel it's the next natural step for us.
We could now do with a bit of advice...
Firstly, I think our website (www.nuttyplum.com) is not too bad. It's fairly simple but clean looking which is what we wanted. It's difficult to be objective about something you've done yourself though, so any feedback would be appreciated.
Secondly, we now need to do some marketing. We're registered with search engines (if you search for Nutty Plum we're there), but the chances of someone finding us are pretty slim. We don't have much of a budget at the moment, so my question is if you had £200-£250 per month to spend, where would you spend it & why?
Is this sort of figure going to get us anywhere, or should I just take the money and spend it on a good night out?
I'm not expecting miracles, but I have to start somewhere - obviously if I can get the website and advertising to start to pay for itself, then I'd happily spend more to get more results (IYSWIM).
Someone is offering to do us a banner advert with approx. 1m impressions over a month period, but I've got no idea if this is a waste of money or not.
Apologies for the rambling post & thanks for reading!
Could do with a bit of advice regarding marketing a website. Bit of background - we've been selling on Ebay for about 15 years & on Amazon for about 3. Primarily clothing, about 80% womens.
Late last year, we signed up with EKM and have done our "own" website as we feel it's the next natural step for us.
We could now do with a bit of advice...
Firstly, I think our website (www.nuttyplum.com) is not too bad. It's fairly simple but clean looking which is what we wanted. It's difficult to be objective about something you've done yourself though, so any feedback would be appreciated.
Secondly, we now need to do some marketing. We're registered with search engines (if you search for Nutty Plum we're there), but the chances of someone finding us are pretty slim. We don't have much of a budget at the moment, so my question is if you had £200-£250 per month to spend, where would you spend it & why?
Is this sort of figure going to get us anywhere, or should I just take the money and spend it on a good night out?
I'm not expecting miracles, but I have to start somewhere - obviously if I can get the website and advertising to start to pay for itself, then I'd happily spend more to get more results (IYSWIM).
Someone is offering to do us a banner advert with approx. 1m impressions over a month period, but I've got no idea if this is a waste of money or not.
Apologies for the rambling post & thanks for reading!
I know this is going to be blunt and brutal but that website is well below par (putting it nicely).
If I am honest I would never ever purchase from that site, it looks a bit of a mish mash of things thrown together and that isn't even your biggest issue.
You have made the same mistake I made, you built you own site and thought great its up and running however you made SEO errors 101. You don't have friendly URLs, Not sure how you submitted your site but if you have just sent it to a directory to send out to all search engines it will probably be looked at as spam etc.
Do the following:
Find a good freelance website builder and for 300-500 pounds you will get a really really good site. Think of it this way your website is your store on a high street, at the moment yours looks like a charity shop (again I am really sorry!). Especially in todays world, your website is KEY to people coming to it and staying on the site and then purchasing something.
If my wife said I found this nice dress on this site (which she often does) I would tell her to leave it ASAP and it doesn't look trustworthy enough to enter your card details in it.
Secondly only once you have a good website developer build you a site do you start to pay some sort of money towards advertising, the main thing is to have the website SEO optimized and then take it from there.
The 200-300 you have budgeted a month to spend on this particular site is literally like throwing the money on a fire.
I don't think I am wrong in what I have said and again I am sorry for being harsh; I am passing on wisdom of some of my own past errors. hopefully someone can provide more for you here
If I am honest I would never ever purchase from that site, it looks a bit of a mish mash of things thrown together and that isn't even your biggest issue.
You have made the same mistake I made, you built you own site and thought great its up and running however you made SEO errors 101. You don't have friendly URLs, Not sure how you submitted your site but if you have just sent it to a directory to send out to all search engines it will probably be looked at as spam etc.
Do the following:
Find a good freelance website builder and for 300-500 pounds you will get a really really good site. Think of it this way your website is your store on a high street, at the moment yours looks like a charity shop (again I am really sorry!). Especially in todays world, your website is KEY to people coming to it and staying on the site and then purchasing something.
If my wife said I found this nice dress on this site (which she often does) I would tell her to leave it ASAP and it doesn't look trustworthy enough to enter your card details in it.
Secondly only once you have a good website developer build you a site do you start to pay some sort of money towards advertising, the main thing is to have the website SEO optimized and then take it from there.
The 200-300 you have budgeted a month to spend on this particular site is literally like throwing the money on a fire.
I don't think I am wrong in what I have said and again I am sorry for being harsh; I am passing on wisdom of some of my own past errors. hopefully someone can provide more for you here
With a £250 a month budget I had hoped this was a website of an offline business, just looking to get a few extra sales. But its not... its an online only business in an extremely competitive niche. You're pissing in the wind with a £250 budget and no unique website angle.
The website is poor, you're making some very basic errors. You want to be consolidating the number of pages, not deliberately creating more unnecessary ones. Your current setup seems to be begging to be hit by the panda update.
For example these are the same dresses:
http://www.nuttyplum.com/coast-black-multi-jenny-a...
http://www.nuttyplum.com/coast-black-multi-jenny-a...
http://www.nuttyplum.com/coast-black-multi-jenny-a...
etc
You've created a new url for every single size of the same dress. Something as simple as a size option should be an on page choice... the url should be the same whether its a size 6 or for a moose. Likewise if its a simple colour choice on something. So you've got for less urls, less splitting of link equity and no duplicate content.
I think realistically your business model needs a drastic overhaul, and you need a huge budget hike along with it to make it work. As it is now, I think you may as well delete the site and spend your time doing something else, as failure is an absolute certainty with the current setup, sorry
The website looks a bit amateur hour. Thats fine if you're a plumber but if you're trying to sell something lifestyle/glamour related then its hopeless.
The website is poor, you're making some very basic errors. You want to be consolidating the number of pages, not deliberately creating more unnecessary ones. Your current setup seems to be begging to be hit by the panda update.
For example these are the same dresses:
http://www.nuttyplum.com/coast-black-multi-jenny-a...
http://www.nuttyplum.com/coast-black-multi-jenny-a...
http://www.nuttyplum.com/coast-black-multi-jenny-a...
etc
You've created a new url for every single size of the same dress. Something as simple as a size option should be an on page choice... the url should be the same whether its a size 6 or for a moose. Likewise if its a simple colour choice on something. So you've got for less urls, less splitting of link equity and no duplicate content.
I think realistically your business model needs a drastic overhaul, and you need a huge budget hike along with it to make it work. As it is now, I think you may as well delete the site and spend your time doing something else, as failure is an absolute certainty with the current setup, sorry
The website looks a bit amateur hour. Thats fine if you're a plumber but if you're trying to sell something lifestyle/glamour related then its hopeless.Edited by KFC on Thursday 18th June 06:31
That website is well below par, I wouldn't purchase from it. It doesn't feel like a professional company who I could trust at all.
Have you looked at your competitors websites? Asos, Missguided, Pretty Little Thing, Ikrush?
That is the standard of website you should be looking to achieve.
Have you looked at your competitors websites? Asos, Missguided, Pretty Little Thing, Ikrush?
That is the standard of website you should be looking to achieve.
Dejay1788 said:
That website is well below par, I wouldn't purchase from it. It doesn't feel like a professional company who I could trust at all.
Have you looked at your competitors websites? Asos, Missguided, Pretty Little Thing, Ikrush?
That is the standard of website you should be looking to achieve.
To be fair I think they have bigger budgets than £250.00 a month.Have you looked at your competitors websites? Asos, Missguided, Pretty Little Thing, Ikrush?
That is the standard of website you should be looking to achieve.
How the website looks is one place you can actually compete with the big players though. You could hire a good designer to create something impressive visually for < £5k
imo it looks like the OP is in over his head, skill & budget wise though. It would make sense to go build a website targeting something else completely, where you can learn the game and make some money which can be invested into something more complicated later.
Google is basically winner takes all... if you're not on page 1 you might as well not exist. And even on page 1 itself the vast majority of the clicks go to the top few positions. If you ended up page 2 for "red dresses" and couldn't get any higher, you'd make no money. Whereas if you were on page 1 for anything less difficult in another topic, you'd at least make something. If you aim too high you just fail and waste what money you did have. As well as all the time you put in. Its hard to balance though as often you may not be able to tell how far your skills/budget are going to take you until you're already significantly invested into it.
imo it looks like the OP is in over his head, skill & budget wise though. It would make sense to go build a website targeting something else completely, where you can learn the game and make some money which can be invested into something more complicated later.
Google is basically winner takes all... if you're not on page 1 you might as well not exist. And even on page 1 itself the vast majority of the clicks go to the top few positions. If you ended up page 2 for "red dresses" and couldn't get any higher, you'd make no money. Whereas if you were on page 1 for anything less difficult in another topic, you'd at least make something. If you aim too high you just fail and waste what money you did have. As well as all the time you put in. Its hard to balance though as often you may not be able to tell how far your skills/budget are going to take you until you're already significantly invested into it.
Zoon said:
To be fair I think they have bigger budgets than £250.00 a month.
Of course they do, but that is still the template you want to go for. I'm not saying he can go straight out and do that but he can use something like shopify, buy a theme for about £100 and get something looking like that as a basis.$30 a month will get you one of these sites https://www.bigcommerce.com/theme-store/fashion-je... Spend a bit of money on logo + images and you'll soon get growing. Since you already have a customer base then it should be easy enough to contact them letting them know about the site. Offer them some incentives via the money you are saving in ebay/amazon fees and I'm sure you'll soon get selling.
People get hung-up on SEO/PPC but it's really not the first port of call for building a new site nowadays (that doesn't mean you can make a mess of on-site SEO). This post give a better insight than I could on why this is the case and what you should be doing https://moz.com/blog/how-google-s-evolution-is-for...
Women's fashion great for building a brand online as lots of women love to share what they are wearing on Facebook/Instagram etc. Setup a monthly competition for the best photo sent in and you'll soon generate lots of content for your blog and social media pages.
Please also hire a model + photographer for a day and get images of your best selling items. Your images are fine for ebay but will not do your website any favours.
Last one, if you only have home addresses and not email addresses for past customers then get a letter/postcard designed and contact via this method.
People get hung-up on SEO/PPC but it's really not the first port of call for building a new site nowadays (that doesn't mean you can make a mess of on-site SEO). This post give a better insight than I could on why this is the case and what you should be doing https://moz.com/blog/how-google-s-evolution-is-for...
Women's fashion great for building a brand online as lots of women love to share what they are wearing on Facebook/Instagram etc. Setup a monthly competition for the best photo sent in and you'll soon generate lots of content for your blog and social media pages.
Please also hire a model + photographer for a day and get images of your best selling items. Your images are fine for ebay but will not do your website any favours.
Last one, if you only have home addresses and not email addresses for past customers then get a letter/postcard designed and contact via this method.
As a fellow PH'er with a similar Business model I have to say that I also feel the website is poor. My site isnt perfect, but I am well aware of that.
First impressions mean everything on a website and for me the first impressions are Chinese importer has created a cheap website. The logo is too "Word Art" and I dont think its even level - could be my eyes.
Secondly is the complete waste of space on the homepage - on my browser when your site loads I cannot do anything bar click on your headers at the top. You have this massive static arrangement with a slogan and 6 rather flat looking pictures. This is an absolute no go, you need something to interact with the customers straight away. I physically had to hunt around the page to find a category or even a product to buy. Then when I did find 6 featured products further down the page - they are all the bloody same.
I disagree with some of the PH'ers in that you are wasting your time with this project. I fully understand and must drive home that with your budget you are not going to magic up a multimillion £ site over night - but with some changes you could definitely run a site that complements your current Marketplace model. i.e having a basic site that you refer your marketplace customers to and use saved marketplace fees to discount/entice them to purchase from the site going forward. BUT, this only works if you have the right products for repeat business.
I think you have two options:
- Go Template. There are so many companies out there now offering websites on a subscription basis. You can spend a bit of time yourself editing a template or can throw a grand at them and get something designed for you - but fundamentally the basic structure of the site should be OK (and the templates will more than likely look better than your current design.)
EKM have some templates - https://www.ekmpowershop.com/ecommerce-templates - some of which dont look too bad with the right images here and there...
- Get somebody who actually designs stuff to help you. Somebody who has some design experience who can knock up a proper logo and give you some direction on the homepage - in the nicest way possible it really does look a bit s
t - and thats before you get into the nitty gritty with your link structure etc.
Personally Id avoid the whole get a web dev to build a site for £500 for you. I went down this route and whilst it was all good for a while it turned out to be a costly and limiting decision. Fast forward a couple years when internet habits change and you want to add more features to the site or you just want to make changes for the hell of it - expect to pay another £500! Then you want to add yet another feature 6months later - yup you guessed it, you'll have to pay again.
Plus in reality, what does £300-500 get you nowadays? I cant see £300 paying a qualified, experienced and well thought of professional for very long at all - maybe a day or two at most.
If any PH'ers run a fairly large e-commerce site which they paid £500 for then Id like to see it and talk to their dev.
I also second the comments about a Model and Photographer. Your pictures look awfully flat and dull, no pop to the colours what so ever. Plus think about it, you can get a really hot woman to hang around with all day - make sure you stock some underwear too!
First impressions mean everything on a website and for me the first impressions are Chinese importer has created a cheap website. The logo is too "Word Art" and I dont think its even level - could be my eyes.
Secondly is the complete waste of space on the homepage - on my browser when your site loads I cannot do anything bar click on your headers at the top. You have this massive static arrangement with a slogan and 6 rather flat looking pictures. This is an absolute no go, you need something to interact with the customers straight away. I physically had to hunt around the page to find a category or even a product to buy. Then when I did find 6 featured products further down the page - they are all the bloody same.
I disagree with some of the PH'ers in that you are wasting your time with this project. I fully understand and must drive home that with your budget you are not going to magic up a multimillion £ site over night - but with some changes you could definitely run a site that complements your current Marketplace model. i.e having a basic site that you refer your marketplace customers to and use saved marketplace fees to discount/entice them to purchase from the site going forward. BUT, this only works if you have the right products for repeat business.
I think you have two options:
- Go Template. There are so many companies out there now offering websites on a subscription basis. You can spend a bit of time yourself editing a template or can throw a grand at them and get something designed for you - but fundamentally the basic structure of the site should be OK (and the templates will more than likely look better than your current design.)
EKM have some templates - https://www.ekmpowershop.com/ecommerce-templates - some of which dont look too bad with the right images here and there...
- Get somebody who actually designs stuff to help you. Somebody who has some design experience who can knock up a proper logo and give you some direction on the homepage - in the nicest way possible it really does look a bit s
t - and thats before you get into the nitty gritty with your link structure etc. Personally Id avoid the whole get a web dev to build a site for £500 for you. I went down this route and whilst it was all good for a while it turned out to be a costly and limiting decision. Fast forward a couple years when internet habits change and you want to add more features to the site or you just want to make changes for the hell of it - expect to pay another £500! Then you want to add yet another feature 6months later - yup you guessed it, you'll have to pay again.
Plus in reality, what does £300-500 get you nowadays? I cant see £300 paying a qualified, experienced and well thought of professional for very long at all - maybe a day or two at most.
If any PH'ers run a fairly large e-commerce site which they paid £500 for then Id like to see it and talk to their dev.
I also second the comments about a Model and Photographer. Your pictures look awfully flat and dull, no pop to the colours what so ever. Plus think about it, you can get a really hot woman to hang around with all day - make sure you stock some underwear too!
Some good points already raised but I would also question the advice of spending £300 - £500 and expecting to get anything half decent. There does seem to be a trend on PH that for all matters relating to building websites the general advice is "have a go and do it yourself" or "spend £500 and job done"! If only it were that simple...
One specific thing I don't like much is the logo.
One specific thing I don't like much is the logo.
Afternoon,
OP, I'm afraid I agree with the other replies in that the website needs a bit of work. The harsh purple, the stretched logo, the layout, the fonts, all need attention...
I have three websites with EKM, one actually uses the same or a similar template as yours: http://www.commercialpool.supplies/
My other ekm sites are http://www.onlinepoolstore.co.uk/ and http://www.discountpoolproducts.co.uk/
All done in house by me, so haven't cost a penny, aside from subscriptions. Happy to give pointers if you'd like, the EKM tag system can take a while to understand.
OP, I'm afraid I agree with the other replies in that the website needs a bit of work. The harsh purple, the stretched logo, the layout, the fonts, all need attention...
I have three websites with EKM, one actually uses the same or a similar template as yours: http://www.commercialpool.supplies/
My other ekm sites are http://www.onlinepoolstore.co.uk/ and http://www.discountpoolproducts.co.uk/
All done in house by me, so haven't cost a penny, aside from subscriptions. Happy to give pointers if you'd like, the EKM tag system can take a while to understand.
I saw this post this morning and was planning to post this afternoon.
I have to say you've had some of the best and most detailed advice I've seen on here for a good while.
Not much to add apart from the posters above took what I was going to write from me.
You could throw thousands at development and advertising, but it would still be a drop in the ocean compared to the big players.
However, if you learn how to do things from the ground up, then you'll have a better understanding rather than being in a pocket of a developer, forever.
There's a few sites where designers bid to produce logos. For $20 you'll get something that looks great and much more in keeping with the aspirations of your customers.
I have to say you've had some of the best and most detailed advice I've seen on here for a good while.
Not much to add apart from the posters above took what I was going to write from me.
You could throw thousands at development and advertising, but it would still be a drop in the ocean compared to the big players.
However, if you learn how to do things from the ground up, then you'll have a better understanding rather than being in a pocket of a developer, forever.
There's a few sites where designers bid to produce logos. For $20 you'll get something that looks great and much more in keeping with the aspirations of your customers.
Wow - tough crowd!
Firstly, thanks to everyone for taking the time to answer. I don't necessarily agree with everything suggested, but there you go.
I've got plenty to think about & I will take some of the suggestions on board - for the record though, I don't ever expect to be near the top in a google search for a generic "red dress" search. That simply isn't going to happen and I'm not daft enough to think it will. What I was looking for more of was more suggestions on where / how to advertise. I'm a landlord, when I have a property available I advertise in Gumtree because it works for me. One of my mates is a plumber and when he's looking for extra work he puts an add in the local paper. So to those of you with websites, where / how do you advertise?
We do already promote our website to people purchasing off us through Ebay / Amazon & that generates some traffic & purchases but it's the "what else?" I'm interested in.
Again, thanks for all the advice.
Firstly, thanks to everyone for taking the time to answer. I don't necessarily agree with everything suggested, but there you go.
I've got plenty to think about & I will take some of the suggestions on board - for the record though, I don't ever expect to be near the top in a google search for a generic "red dress" search. That simply isn't going to happen and I'm not daft enough to think it will. What I was looking for more of was more suggestions on where / how to advertise. I'm a landlord, when I have a property available I advertise in Gumtree because it works for me. One of my mates is a plumber and when he's looking for extra work he puts an add in the local paper. So to those of you with websites, where / how do you advertise?
We do already promote our website to people purchasing off us through Ebay / Amazon & that generates some traffic & purchases but it's the "what else?" I'm interested in.
Again, thanks for all the advice.
jammy_basturd said:
IATM said:
Do the following:
Find a good freelance website builder and for 300-500 pounds you will get a really really good site.
If you do, consider doing the lottery also. Find a good freelance website builder and for 300-500 pounds you will get a really really good site.
I am sure that would be a better use of a post then what you put up!
northwest monkey said:
Wow - tough crowd!
Firstly, thanks to everyone for taking the time to answer. I don't necessarily agree with everything suggested, but there you go.
I've got plenty to think about & I will take some of the suggestions on board - for the record though, I don't ever expect to be near the top in a google search for a generic "red dress" search. That simply isn't going to happen and I'm not daft enough to think it will. What I was looking for more of was more suggestions on where / how to advertise. I'm a landlord, when I have a property available I advertise in Gumtree because it works for me. One of my mates is a plumber and when he's looking for extra work he puts an add in the local paper. So to those of you with websites, where / how do you advertise?
We do already promote our website to people purchasing off us through Ebay / Amazon & that generates some traffic & purchases but it's the "what else?" I'm interested in.
Again, thanks for all the advice.
Whilst many have been correct in their assertions, allow me to try be a bit more helpful. If purple must be used as your corporate colour scheme, then it needs to be tempered with similar tones, but in lighter shades.Firstly, thanks to everyone for taking the time to answer. I don't necessarily agree with everything suggested, but there you go.
I've got plenty to think about & I will take some of the suggestions on board - for the record though, I don't ever expect to be near the top in a google search for a generic "red dress" search. That simply isn't going to happen and I'm not daft enough to think it will. What I was looking for more of was more suggestions on where / how to advertise. I'm a landlord, when I have a property available I advertise in Gumtree because it works for me. One of my mates is a plumber and when he's looking for extra work he puts an add in the local paper. So to those of you with websites, where / how do you advertise?
We do already promote our website to people purchasing off us through Ebay / Amazon & that generates some traffic & purchases but it's the "what else?" I'm interested in.
Again, thanks for all the advice.
You also need to maximise your search engine optimisation. This is done by having a text based description on your web-page. PM me for details and I will show you what I mean (not wanting to give too many things away on here).
northwest monkey said:
Wow - tough crowd!
Firstly, thanks to everyone for taking the time to answer. I don't necessarily agree with everything suggested, but there you go.
I've got plenty to think about & I will take some of the suggestions on board - for the record though, I don't ever expect to be near the top in a google search for a generic "red dress" search. That simply isn't going to happen and I'm not daft enough to think it will. What I was looking for more of was more suggestions on where / how to advertise. I'm a landlord, when I have a property available I advertise in Gumtree because it works for me. One of my mates is a plumber and when he's looking for extra work he puts an add in the local paper. So to those of you with websites, where / how do you advertise?
We do already promote our website to people purchasing off us through Ebay / Amazon & that generates some traffic & purchases but it's the "what else?" I'm interested in.
Again, thanks for all the advice.
If it's just advertising advice you're after... it takes time.Firstly, thanks to everyone for taking the time to answer. I don't necessarily agree with everything suggested, but there you go.
I've got plenty to think about & I will take some of the suggestions on board - for the record though, I don't ever expect to be near the top in a google search for a generic "red dress" search. That simply isn't going to happen and I'm not daft enough to think it will. What I was looking for more of was more suggestions on where / how to advertise. I'm a landlord, when I have a property available I advertise in Gumtree because it works for me. One of my mates is a plumber and when he's looking for extra work he puts an add in the local paper. So to those of you with websites, where / how do you advertise?
We do already promote our website to people purchasing off us through Ebay / Amazon & that generates some traffic & purchases but it's the "what else?" I'm interested in.
Again, thanks for all the advice.
Facebook page, and get customers to 'like' your page. Run facebook promotions to your followers with promotions to encourage repeat custom - not too often though or people will hold off buying and just wait for your next promo.
Create a Google merchants account, and submit your data feed to it. The data feed for your site can be found here: http://39.ekmpowershop.net/ekmps/shops/ff497c/data...
You can set the feed to update daily, so as you add/amend products, they automatically update on Google within 24 hours.
Then you can dip your toe in the water of Google product ads - PPC. Have a read up on them, but you need your feed in place and approved first.
SEO wise... make sure you have a Google webmaster tools account, and have submitted your sitemap. You can use the tools to track visitors and conversions... Then it's titles, meta data and rich original content.
Dr Interceptor said:
SEO wise... make sure you have a Google webmaster tools account, and have submitted your sitemap. You can use the tools to track visitors and conversions... Then it's titles, meta data and rich original content.
Thats completely ignoring the two post important factors though. Building back links and building brand metrics. Gassing Station | Business | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff