Leverage your product: How to make sure it’s worth growing
October 12, 2015
Product demand
Sit down and ask yourself. Are you answering the needs of the consumer? Will they miss you if you were not in the market place. If your answer is is less then 40% you should revise until you have an answer to market need.
One of the crazy facts about me as an entrepreneur is that I love trying out new ideas. I have a furniture site, an online flower shop, and some other eCommerce sites that I test Product/Marketing/Conversion strategies on continuously. One of the big takeaways I learned from with these tests is how important market demand is for items.
For this article I will be referencing my success with my Online Web Design Business: Creativehaus. I will also give examples of my brick and mortar company: Fox and Jane Salon.
It has now become our mission that every product we work on must answer this question: How would you feel if you could no longer have this product? — CreativeHaus really answered this question first hand. We get so many clients who literally say they couldn’t have put their business online if it wasn’t for our flexible prices and support. Our cancellation rates compared to our other services are extremely low due to the fact that we answer such a demand. We never nickel and dime the client, we found this was a retention issue with web designers who would get the client for an initial design, they would then leave and go somewhere else a year or two later.
Fox and Jane was an early adopter to this concept in the brick and mortar perspective. We slightly underpriced our high end, boutique experience. All our stylists must have 5 years minimum experience and go through an intensive training process. Finally we heard from clients that a business reflective to the community goal was important. This answers the demand of quality, affordable, services with ethical mission statement to help the local groups. Since its inception 3 years ago we have now grown to be the busiest salon in NYC area and do close to $4 million a year in business.
Give your budget a fighting chance
Whenever we first start marketing efforts we always start the uphill battle of conversion and budget.
I quickly try to learn about the emotions of the visitor so not to waste PPC budgets, this is otherwise known as A/B testing. I also meet with my sales team/office staff to figure out the exact concerns of a client as they contact us. I try to subtlety answer concerns they might have whilst on my sites. I spend time making changes and addressing the visitors to conquer conversions.
Fix leaks
Creativehaus did this after a bumpy few weeks with conversion tracking. We updated the image of a mobile device and a website on it, no contract, all inclusive. We also took away online ordering of the service, now a client fills out a form and gets to talk through the issues and design they want to have. CreativeHaus now has a close rate of 60% and a conversion of 1:10 to 1:19 depending on if I’m running Pay Per Click.
With Fox and Jane we have our prices clearly posted, reference to yelp reviews, well branded website, and the ability to book online. Our conversion is now between 1:6 to 1:8 depending on seasonality.
This has allowed us to leverage marketing spends and have a strong return on investment.
Increase ease of action
“Nothing ever comes easy” – Should not apply to a conversion on your website. You want to make the ease of purchase instant. Amazon has done this with 1 click purchasing.
I typically have a form visible for ‘fill out’ on every page of my site. I also try to reduce the process of eCommerce purchasing with fast checkout options.
Fox and Jane helps this by directing clients to a specific geo page based on their location, appointment setting, and a phone number that they would need to make an appointment. Many other location specific Salon sites lack this goal.
In all…
You have to find the best conversions for you. What might sell paper plates may not be the same conversion ideas of someone selling high end rugs. Keep this in mind and be agile in your approach to updates and changes.