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| Posted on 6/20/08 at 07:50 PM | |
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there are many issues that first need to be addressed, before you can expect any marketing efforts to yield returns. For example: Suppose I sold watches online but I had no credit card processing on my site. In order to buy, the customer would have to send a check to me. Now say I spent $10k in marketing. In this super-simple example, it is clear that any extremely poor sales results would certainly NOT be the fault of my marketing, but rather my system. Lance touched on the point that there are THOUSANDS of "t-shirt" sites online. And yes, you are yet another one. So no matter what you do, as long as you sell shirts online, you'll always have to compete with "shirt sellers online". There was a book written awhile back that suggested that in order to succeed on the web, you have to be one of 3 things. 1. First 2. Best 3. Different Your cheer site certainly isn't first. It is also certainly not best (dont take offence, just be realistic). So the only other thing you, and MANY MANY other small time shops have learned to compete with, is BEING DIFFERENT. That's pretty much where all this NICHE talk comes from. The first and best guys almost always go after the biggest piece of the pie (because they are first and best of course), so the way we can be DIFFERENT is to cater to super-specialized smaller pieces of the pie. The examples here are endless. I think its important to prioritize any list of possible implementations that you might pursue. For example: Will my time be spent making my web-system better? Will I try to optimize SEO? Will I test pay-per-click? There are endless ways at which you can "improve" your site. But realize, just like my check story above, is that there should always be an order to what you need to do. I would highly recommend that you forget about SEO for now, because you are not a coder. Concentrate on what you are good at, and that's your "unique" entreprenerial idea. I don't think you want to spend $500 or even $5000 on something you will be "unsure of". So my advice is to hit the pavement. There is a reason why you made this site in the first place right? You felt there was an unfilled need for these things? You saw a market for these things, you got your juices flowing because OF SOMETHING right? Well go back to that something! Where is this market? You go all around to cheer competitions right? There are tons of cheer events, camps, sponsorhips?, clubs, classes, etc. What I'm saying is that I KNOW YOU KNOW where your market is. So go get them!!!!! Buy another domain for your site. For example www.cheeringiscool.com Just redirect that site to your normal site. Then go to all these HUNDREDS of events, and pass out cards, flyers, etc with this different domain name on them. http://www.google.com/analytics/ Hook this up to your site and you'll be able to see EXACTLY how many visitors are coming from this domain name. You'll be able to track nearly every movement they make. I don't know if you've said you've tried this, but if you have, try harder. Business is all about testing. Nothing we tell you will guarantee anything. You must test it for yourself. What do I know about the buying habits of teen cheerleaders? What works for me and my "online eraser" site may not work for you. So just test it. The reason why I'm so adamant about just going out there face to face, is because as I've said THERE IS A REASON why you chose to work so hard in making this site. And I'm betting that reason has nothing to do with something you saw online. No its something you saw in person. Bank on that. that's how your different. I believe that the smaller you are, the more you need to look at your site as simply a tool. You don't have the resources to create a fully functionable super-web-system. These takes tons of money/time to develop. So in these small stages, use the site as more of a tool. The site I use for my printing orders has NEVER EVER not once closed an order for me. I have ZERO sales on my site. That's funny to say, but technically its true, because my site doesn't sell anything, it is a tool i use, to collaborate with clients. I use it to link quotes to them, show apparel, and relay any faq. YES it does get me leads, because people go on there and use my emailer, or call me, but its me that ultimately does the closing/hand holding. While I'd prefer for the site to do everything the TRUTH is that I'm small potatoes. I accept that, and by doing so, my web site does GREAT at being what I need it to be right now - a collaboration tool. Once you get some traffic going, it is IMPORTANT that you analyze the data coming in. It doensn't matter whether they buy or not. What matters is the data. Find out WHY they aren't buying. If you pass out 100 cards, get 10 web views, and it shows that they were on there for less than 10 seconds, well that means your site is boring to them. There's nothing that catches their attention. CHANGE IT. Pass out 100 more cards, get 20 views, you then see that a lot of people like your _____ shirt. But they don't buy, why? FIND OUT and CHANGE IT. Hell, just tell them straight out on the homepage "feedback welcome, get 50% you're order by filling out a feedback form". Getting sales is the pinnacle of your efforts, of course, but recognize that ANY AND ALL DATA is immensely valuable. The people that don't buy are just as important as any that do. Learn and test. Learn and test. [Edited on 6/20/08 by superjadex12] ____________________ Failure is Great | |
 
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