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Marketing/Sales Not Going So Well
Hi All,
Well I set my business up for sales last week, and my sales have been most disappointing, especially considering how hard I`ve been trying to market it. I`ve made 4 sales so far: 2 are from people that I personally know and 2 are from people who had contacted me before the ecommerce site ever went up to request that I contact them at that time.
Here`s what I`ve done so far on the marketing front:
- Emailed pretty much everyone that I know
- Gotten on a couple of baking/cake forums, putting up a ton of pictures and descriptions of cakes in `my photo` sections and putting the website in my signature
- Emailed about 10 somewhat small cake shops around the US
- Contacted the 2 cooking/baking stores in my area
- Emailed every magazine/show that I thought might be interested with a brief description and pictures
- Emailed a couple of party-planning advice sites
- Posted 1 video on YouTube
- I just bought $50 of adwords for words like "cake pan" yesterday
So far:
- One of the local stores has asked that I drop off samples tomorrow
- The other local stores hasn`t gotten back to me
- One party-planning site has also requested samples
- I`ve been getting about 50-70 unique hits per day
- I`m #4 on google for "shape cake" (not requiring quotes) and #1 for "shape a cake" (again, not requiring quotes)
Advice anyone?
Kate
www.shapeacake.com
Well I set my business up for sales last week, and my sales have been most disappointing, especially considering how hard I`ve been trying to market it. I`ve made 4 sales so far: 2 are from people that I personally know and 2 are from people who had contacted me before the ecommerce site ever went up to request that I contact them at that time.
Here`s what I`ve done so far on the marketing front:
- Emailed pretty much everyone that I know
- Gotten on a couple of baking/cake forums, putting up a ton of pictures and descriptions of cakes in `my photo` sections and putting the website in my signature
- Emailed about 10 somewhat small cake shops around the US
- Contacted the 2 cooking/baking stores in my area
- Emailed every magazine/show that I thought might be interested with a brief description and pictures
- Emailed a couple of party-planning advice sites
- Posted 1 video on YouTube
- I just bought $50 of adwords for words like "cake pan" yesterday
So far:
- One of the local stores has asked that I drop off samples tomorrow
- The other local stores hasn`t gotten back to me
- One party-planning site has also requested samples
- I`ve been getting about 50-70 unique hits per day
- I`m #4 on google for "shape cake" (not requiring quotes) and #1 for "shape a cake" (again, not requiring quotes)
Advice anyone?
Kate
www.shapeacake.com
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Comments
How about advertising to:
- Foodies
- Parents
- People who like to entertain
How to do this:
- Start a blog with cake recipes since it will help your SEO. It will also give you things to share on social sites like tastespotting
- Start interacting on food blogs with a focus on cake/desserts/baking. Leave insightful comments, tell the bloggers about your pans and offer to send them a sample if possible (may get you press)
- Start interacting on blogs of people who like to entertain (e.g. evite blog, hostess with the mostest blog). Leave comments and participate in the conversation on their comments threads for their posts
- Purchase some banner ads on sites like Mommies With Style or Hostess with the Mostest (Mommies with Style is a parenting blog, you can promote your product as one that is ideal for parents making a cake for their kid`s parties)
- Talk to some of these bloggers and pitch stories to them about your products
- Get genuinely involved in message boards/forums for bakers, do not just go on there to post your products, actually participate with the forums so you establish some familiarity with the userbase.
- Cross-promote with companies that sell products to your audience (e.g. companies that sell aprons or products to people with young children). Trade flyers with them or guest author a post in each other`s blogs (my site is all about cross-promotion and marketing so you may find more cross-promotion ideas there if you`re interested in this)
Hope that helps.
It looks like you might have a neat product, but since it is called "clay," I would not consider it edible. Even if it was edible clay, I would not want to eat something that someone else played with. I really don`t want to come off as negative or critical, but these are my honest first impressions and I believe there are other people like me who would not order your product for the same reasons. Looks like you put some money into the packaging, so this is probably the last thing you want to hear, but I think you need to rename it.
My only other comment is that we all hope for immediate success when we open a new website, but the personal contacts (as you have experienced) will always produce better (when it comes to a tangible product anyway,) and it takes time to grow your influence.
You might consider attending a trade show to get your product into the stores. Trade shows are great places where people can experience your enthusiasm for your product and pick up on your excitement, expanding your personal connections. Once it is in stores though, your packaging will have to sell it, so again I think "clay" needs to go.
If you get turned down the first time. Don`t give up, and don`t get discouraged. Keep trying. Remember, the squeaky wheel gets the oil.
Also, do yourself a favor and read Joan Stewart`s article, How to Use the Internet for Free Publicity.
http://guruknowledge.org/articles/161/1 ... -Publicity
Dale King
DKing5/7/2008 3:40 PM
Telemarketing isn`t something I`d go into but try to visit forums that are of the same interest and try to build a reputation for yourself. ePhaseNetworks5/7/2008 5:06 PM
Just a thought,
Sandy
Thanks again.
Kate
Here are my ideas/suggestions.
I don`t mean to be critical but I think the overall site structure is not very good and I don`t think information is presented efficiently or effectively.
Homepage: I think the main headline "Shape-A-Cake - Making it fun to bake" is good but the sub-headine is too wordy and needs to be refined. I really like the word imagination and would keep that in there but I`m not a fan of the line "That is about to change." To me it`s a bit heavy for the product.
Positioning: I think you`re not clearly expressing some of the more intangible benefits of this product. You show the cakes which is a great literal benefit but what about showing moms and dads having fun with their kids? You have a bunch of pictures of the cakes at the top and you could include a couple in the bottom but I`d show off the "fun" part of it more. A picture of a kid with icing on their nose.. just a picture of a mom and kid smiling/laughing while using your product. You can position this product as more of a fun activity to do with your kids and not just as a straight-forward cake shaper. I don`t think I would include professional chefs or cooking clubs in your target and would take them off the line. I think the vast majority of customers will be moms with kids.
It took me a little clicking around until I finally realized exactly what it is that you`re selling and I think it`s because of the order of your Nav bar across the top. I think it would be more effective to re-order it like this:
Home
Put a clear button/arrow at the bottom of your paragraph that says: "Learn How To Get Started with Shape-A-Cake!" You want to make it simple and take the lead of guiding visitors through your site.
Getting Started with Shape-A-Cake!
Outline the process from A-Z wiuth photos. Start with choosing a stencil, tracing it on parchment paper etc etc.
Clearly educate the customer here about your two different types of clay. I like to think I`m a pretty smart guy but its not very clear. If you are naming your one product "Decorating Clay" I think it could be helpful to name the other "Shape-A-Cake Shaping Clay"
Make the "free stencils" a bigger part of your marketing. Free things are a great motivator for people. Show images of the stencils and what can be made with them. Maybe don`t give it away right on your site but include it with their product on a CD or an exclusive link. "Includes FREE stencil package to get you started right away!"
Products and Stencils (or maybe the word "Designs")
Videos
Gallery
Tips and tricks
FAQ`s: I think this is absolutely necessary for this product. It`s a new type of product (as far as I know) and people will want to know about safety, taste, refunds, shipping etc etc
I also don`t really like the word "clay" but since its on your packaging right now you will need to explain more about what the clay is made of. I mean I would assume a company wouldn`t sell something dangerous but I don`t know your company and a small doubt can become magnified when you`re dealing with a random site on the web.
I think you need to reword how you describe it. Maybe using the words "food grade" or something to convey that its 100% safe to use. I`m assuming the clay is single use? It`s thrown away after?
I also think 3 different levels of shipping pricing is too much. Just structure your shipping policy (and pricing) to offer free shipping above a certain amount.
Tips and Tricks Page: What is the goal of this page. Might be worthwhile to look into providing this as a free add-on as well. "FREE Tips and Tricks Booklet to help you get the most out of Shape-A-Cake!" There`s no real reason to provide these on your site since you just want your customers to have them. Plus people could just bake square cakes and use the stencils to cut out the shape.
I do like the packaging though and think it looks professional and fun.
Ok sorry I work in advertising/marketing as my career so I got a little carried away! Hope you find my info useful though
Best of luck and keep us updated!
Matt
How about advertising to:
- Foodies
- Parents
- People who like to entertain
How to do this:
- Start a blog with cake recipes since it will help your SEO. It will also give you things to share on social sites like tastespotting
- Start interacting on food blogs with a focus on cake/desserts/baking. Leave insightful comments, tell the bloggers about your pans and offer to send them a sample if possible (may get you press)
- Start interacting on blogs of people who like to entertain (e.g. evite blog, hostess with the mostest blog). Leave comments and participate in the conversation on their comments threads for their posts
- Purchase some banner ads on sites like Mommies With Style or Hostess with the Mostest (Mommies with Style is a parenting blog, you can promote your product as one that is ideal for parents making a cake for their kid`s parties)
- Talk to some of these bloggers and pitch stories to them about your products
- Get genuinely involved in message boards/forums for bakers, do not just go on there to post your products, actually participate with the forums so you establish some familiarity with the userbase.
- Cross-promote with companies that sell products to your audience (e.g. companies that sell aprons or products to people with young children). Trade flyers with them or guest author a post in each other`s blogs (my site is all about cross-promotion and marketing so you may find more cross-promotion ideas there if you`re interested in this)
Hope that helps.
These are all great ideas... a couple to add.
Offer to guest blog on other peoples blogs or offer them an opportunity to write for yours
Don`t go right for the biggest opportunities - look for people who have their own startups in similar fields who need you to help promote them as much as you need them
Talk to teachers about bringing your product into elementary schools and letting the kids design their own cakes.. or maybe in teams to minimize how much youd need to provide. Or even find a relatively small school and see if you can have a contest of some sort where each class designs a cake in a Shape a Cake Competiton. If not at a school theres probably some afterschool program or someplace to do it. It`ll build awareness and trial in your core target and you can use that to generate publicity.
I don`t know much about PR unfortunately, but it seems like too many people make the mistake of issuing press releases that no one cares about. But sponsoring a cake competition (maybe for charity?) will likely get picked up by something somewhere... Maybe a local news channel or newspaper, then maybe it`ll get picked up a larger regional media outlet...
HRB
wowzzy.com
Kate
I also really like the cake competition with the proceeds going to charity. Maybe the local food bank? Natural match and will definitely get publicity.
daleyfla995/10/2008 7:02 AM
I think you might have had your marketing plan launch prematurely. I`m not going to sugar-coat this one.
I see this time and again; what you have done is do the "Fun" stuff first. What you should have done was try to get physically out there and pound the pavement for a while (My apologies if you did, but you didn`t mention it in your first post).
Before you set up the "Advertising" stage of your start-up, you should have had hundreds and hundreds of sales. These sales would have come from you giving presentations.
What was your plan? Who would buy your product? How would they use it? This would guide you in terms of how you would sell your product.
You live in the San Diego area. You mentioned "The two cooking/Baking stores" in your area. I bet there are many, many more out there, if you expand your search. What about caterers? Cooking schools? Cooking programs at community centers? Colleges with cooking programs?
You need to focus on the one-on-one sales presentation, with as much potential customer contact as you can. This is not NEARLY as much fun as posting stuff on the internet and designing fun packaging. The reason is simple: Rejection. You present to someone, they could say no to your face. You post on the internet, and those "No`s" you`ve seen (50-70 per day, according to your estimate) don`t hurt so much.
My suggestion would be to pull back, and focus on getting 250 units sold as a result of face-to-face calls. I bet you will suprised at what you learn. After you get those 250 sold, you will probably know what you need to do to get the next 1,000 sold.
Me, personally, I land and the site just doesn`t look very sophisticated so I`m not drawn to it. In my opinion it`s not just the elements of site design that others have mentioned, it`s the product results and photography. The cakes look like what I`d end up with (in real life) but that`s not going to attract consumers, we`re aspirational. We aspire to decorating like the pros. In other words, maybe you could hire a cake decorator or food stylist to get really slick results with your product. You wouldn`t need to actually bake some cakes, you could cut shapes out of sponges or something but just have them styled by someone who does this professionally. And then have them shot by someone who does food photography. Taking pictures of food is hard!
I am going to be hypocritical here, because my sites suffer from the same faults, but I agree with the above post. I think that the photos on your website don`t necessarily convey the full potential of the product. It boils down to this: amateur photos make professional quality products look amateur. The pictures you choose should convey the message that your product enables someone to bake a cake orders of magnitude more beautiful and intricate than what can be done without it; in fact the photos should be of cakes that are so beautiful as to be down right unachievable by a mere human being. The right photo will make the reader find someone, anyone, to show "this amazing cake!" to.
Maybe it would be appropriate to combine some of the suggestions by pounding the pavement showing the real goods and use some of that cash to hire a photographer to take the photos for the website that will become the next center of growth.
Best of luck, you have a great product! My mother-in-law is really into baking cakes, and I plan to show her your site this weekend.mraero5/13/2008 4:13 PM