Another PR and marketing virgin needing help

[Romperstomper]

I run a small website called http://www.romperstomper.co.uk and over the past year have managed to rack up over 100 happy customers. I've e-mailed every customer to make sure that they are happy and I am happy to say that almost every response that we receive is 100% positive so our product is obviously the right quality.

I only currently advertise/market through Google Adwords and know that I should be pushing more with more intelligent advertising in the form of proper PR. Last year we had one of our products featured as a best buy in Closer magazine and this provided a nice boost to sales for several weeks. I would like to get more of this type of exposure but am not sure how to get it.

Last month as an experiment we dropped prices by 20% and sales doubled but we are trying to market a premium product and I don't want people to think we are selling products that are worth a lesser amount.

My question is what should I do?

Should I send free products to every baby magazine Features Assistant that I can find?

Should I write Press Releases and send out to the magazines?

Should invest in a professional PR agency to write the press releases?

Should I do all of the above 3 points?

Should I place adverts in the classified section of relevant magazines?

Should I redesign my website?

Should I make more products?

Should I drop my prices by 30% or more as an experiment for 3 months before slowly bringing them back to the "correct" level?

Is there something else that I'm missing?

I would appreciate any guidance or suggestions that anyone can provide.

Thanks

Nigel

[SillyJokes]

Nigel, good to see you on the forum.

You've asked a ton of questions relating to how to increase your business and I know you'll get some good responses here.

I see you dropped your prices by 20% and doubled your business. To me this looks like a no brainer, as long as you are still making enough. £14 for a baby shirt seems like a lot of money to me especailly as theres no VAT on kids clothes.

Sassy logos on kids clothes seem to be all the rage at the moment so you'll probably do well if you can keep your shirts distinctive enough or if you can offer this designer sass at a more affordable price. But you'll need to get it right as there is a lot of competition.

I have a Nappyhead shirt for my kid and to be honest I thought it was an expensive indulgence and haven't bought more.

I expect you could diversify the range of items you print on.

There's stuff you can do on your website to turn it into a selling machine. For instance when someone lands on your home page they don't want to see a wall of text. They want to see kids t-shirts with snappy logos on a site which they can trust and they want to click to browe the logos and choose a shirt. On your site you have to hunt around just to find where the shop begins and even when you find it there are no images of clothes.

I think the Seth Godin book Monkey in a Fez (or similar) was mentioned on this forum. I got it and read it and you should too. It takes 20 mins. And it will help you change your site into one that converts a lot better.

He says surfers are like monkeys with about the same attention span. When they land on your site they will give it 3 seconds before leaving. If you don't show them the banana right there and then in a way they can easily grasp they are going to be off to the next tree.

I think the feel of the site is nice. The design is there and once you get past the waffle it's easy. But (excuse me) cut the c**p and give people what they want.

[10 Yetis]

Romper,

There will be others along shortly to give you more words of wisdom, but I thought I would chip in...

All the things you have mentioned in your post add up to a comprehensive campaign.

First off, everyone take note at how PR lifted Romper's sales for a period of time! :) That is one of the best things about PR!!! Anyway, moving on.

I have to say straight away that I run a PR & Marketing company so obviously I am going to push our services but a few thoughts.

I think you have covered alot of the PR areas off, and are very much on the right lines when you say that you are thinking about putting in small ads in the mags you want to get your editorial in (mags will not admit it, but this can influence your story getting in).

One of the real benefits of having a PR company working on your behalf is that they keep their ear/snout to the ground to find you opportunities in your target media. One of these is a thing called "Forward Features". This is a list that a mag puts out to PR people saying what articles they are looking for help with. The PR's then go to their clients and try to match them up with the story.

I sometimes put these on this forum when i have a request come in that does not fit with my client base.

You can have a go at writing press releases yourself, I make no secret of the fact that writing them is not rocket science, it is usually the 'getting them used by the media' bit that is hard and where a PR person can be worth their weight in gold (i am quite heavy, so maybe the gold reference is not accurate). oh yeah, <cheap plug> and my March newsletter on the 10Yeti site has tips for press releases </cheap plug>

I would very much like to discuss this with you in more detail, and I think you would be suprised at how cost effective (cheap!!) PR can be.

Drop me an email, or give me a yodel if you would like to discuss more...

p.s. I am loving the name "Romper"

[c2webdesign]

To answer one of your points, I don't necessarily think you need a complete redesign BUT I would recommend making changes.

- Bring a selection of your most purchased tshirts to the front page and bring your products straight to them.

- For your catagories, within the Online Shop area add a picture of a sample tshirt from each range. That way the visitor knows what type of tshirt fits within each category at first glance.

- Get rid of the 'hidden' text (same colour text on same colour background). If search engines haven't already penalised you - they soon will!

- As soon as a visitor adds a product to their cart - you direct them back to your product pages. Don't direct them, but offer them the choice on where to go next.

- Offer a Tell a Friend section where people visiting your site can easily recommend your site to their friends and family. Link this in to a database and instant stats (I can help with this if you would like)

- Give the visitors a contact form. There is no telephone number to contact you - plus, understandable, you have chosen not to add a mailto: link to your email address - but make it easy for them to contact you

- Offer competition prizes, where the visitor has to join a mailing list (obviosuly with the option to opt out in future) this way you can build your own free targeted mailing list. You can promote the competition from many competition sites. Also you could offer a questinnaire to fill in for entry to the competition - this could result in sought after feedback on the website itself.

- Add a link to each page so the visitor can see the contents of their cart at any time

This is just off the top of my head at the moment - but if you would like any further ideas - or help with any of the above - please just let me know.

Good luck,
Dean
C2 Web Design
http://www.c2webdesign.co.uk

Web Design | Online Marketing | Search Engine Optimisation

Sign up for a FREE weekly search engine optimisation newsletter at http://www.c2webdesign.co.uk

[Romperstomper]

Folks,

Thank you each for your quick responses. I have ordered the "Big Red Fez" book as suggested. Let's hope it isn't a similarly named book for toddlers... to the one that you meant.

Mr Sillyjoke, I shall start cutting the cr@p this weekend. fyi we had all the text in because Web Position suggests about 200 words or so. I may have misinterpreted this and will therefore sort it pronto. The comment ragarding the "no brainer" is obviously useful so we shall consider this also. Our difficulty is that the products are high quality and therefore expensive to produce... but at the same point, it's better to have them in a customer's hands for a small profit than gathering dust with no profit therefore tying up my capital.

Mr Yeti, I shall try to get in contact next week as I think that we may ask for your services albeit in a small-scale manner.

and Dean.... thank you for assessing the site. I shall start by chopping the hidden text and work through your other points one at a time.

Thank you all. Have a good weekend

nigel

[Romperstomper]

Hi Dean,

We have the normal front page at http://www.romperstomper.co.uk/index.html and this is the one that people normally see when they login.

I am planning on changing the front page to be like http://www.romperstomper.co.uk/index2.html but would be interested in finding out which you prefer.

Any input is greatly appreciated

Thanks

Romperstomper

[SillyJokes]

Romper that is so much better - well done.

Now any fool can see what your site is about without having to read a large amount of text.

That said you have just got to give up the welcome text. The only text that is of any interest to your potential customers is the following:

At Romperstomper.co.uk all our cool, funky and punky baby t-shirts are supplied in gift boxes which can be sent to you or with a personal message to a lucky friend who may have just celebrated a new baby.

The rest is all redundant clutter which will not add to the user experience or search engine listings. The text the weboptimiser people are asking for is relevant text about what you do. Yes you need some text but it must not be waffle.

Any store owner has got to think themselves into the mind of a shopper who is time and patience poor and is only interested in what the site can do for them now with no wasting my precious life. At the moment, despite all your calls to 'enter shop' I don't think people will click those. They will click the most appealling shirt.

If you consider that the most important parts of a page are top left first fold you might want to have the four sections represented up there, instead of one off shirts - although I assume those are your top three sellers you currently have across there.

I assume most visitors will know what sex they are buying for so give them those two choices first and once they have started browsing they might look to the new and funky designs.

I think you need to improve those baby images which I can appreciate could be costly.
Even a small town photographer could get some good happy well lit baby snaps on a white background for you. If the shots are good, perhaps the models' mums would buy one too and you could do a deal with the photographer based on how many sold.

The four text images at the bottom could do with some descriptive alt text - this helps people decide whether it is the right click for them.

you have got a few spacing issues with the baby pics on the left - no gap i in I Explorer, the useful text is not spaced out correctly in the middle.

One last suggestion (which you can probably do without) but little babies are invariably carried lying against mum - why not print on the back of the shirt where it can be seen from this position. I've noticed a lot of french designer baby clothes concentrate detail on the back.

"I just wanted a cuddle"

"Warning High Winds!"

"No, you can't have a cuddle"

"Off switch" - this is my personal favourite

"I get what I want"

"Spoilt and lovin' it"

Some little angel wings in a tattoo design with attitude

[pbresser]

...and if so all the web stuff, although laudable, doesn't address the central issue about what to do about generating below the line promotions.

10Yetis is right to point out that generating press releases is straight forward, but if you want to get your stories published, you need to put in the work cultivating relationships with journalists; that takes time and effort and I suspect you are a small business where the problem is 'where to put the broom?' [if you know what I mean ;o)]

So, outsource this job to a PR bod where they do the leg work and develop you as an expert is 'baby fashion', or 'affordable baby fashion', or some other area that reflects your company's core values/messages.

An interesting point was made:
Even a small town photographer could get some good happy well lit baby snaps... ...perhaps the models' mums would buy one too and you could do a deal with the photographer...

There's an opportunity there: Why not talk to a couple of your local photographers and offer a t-shirt prize to any baby that is photographed and in return the photographer carries details of your product range and website to each of his/her shoots? There are two PR opportunities here- the first is the local effect the photographer has. The second is sending details plus a photo of the winner, wearing your t shirt, to the local paper. If you find it has the desired effect and generates more interest on your website, think about extending this out to other photographers as a sort of affilliate programme.

[Romperstomper]

Mr Silly-jokes...

I have now cut the cr@p out of the page... my best offering is at http://www.romperstomper.co.uk/index5.html ......this must be the one...

[Ozzy]

Romper - that is very nice... perfect. I like it.

From a search engine promotion side of things, can you not change the menu on the left to be text links? Then have them as keywords which link to the relevant categories on your shop?

Also, the text you have down the bottom is wasted. You have it all formal when no-one is actually going to read it. Change it to be a description paragraph about your products with a few keywords dropped in here and there, then make those keywords links to the relevant products on your shop again.

The title of your page is also wasted, the search term "baby clothes" gets an estimated 40,000 searches a month across the main search engines...and you dont even have it in your title ... Are you mad???
I would suggest changing your page title for your home page to be something like "RomperStomper : Designer Baby Clothes, Baby Clothing" - See how that goes. It may need tweaking but see if it helps first, allow a couple of months for results though!

One other thing you must work on is your inbound links as you only have ten. You want to get that up to around 100+

[SillyJokes]

Yes, Romper that is looking better. You must admit it is a far more exciting prospect to see some sassy kids wearing attractive shirts instead of a wall of text.

Well done, I just know you will do more sales off that page. Which is great news.

I'm also glad to see your logo no longer wanders off to the right although I always prefer them top left not central.

It will be no effort and a good navigational tip to make your logo a link to the home page.

I love your strapline - it really establishes what your site is about.

A good way to promote your product might be via competitions on parenting sites - but really try and check their traffic before you commit to even £14 worth of shirts - we have been caught out by promises of traffic that never materialised.

And by the way it's 'Mrs' SillyJokes :!: :twisted:

Now, where's my free T-shirt?

[Romperstomper]

Mrs Sillyjokes..... a great apology for my error. Mrs Romperstomper is the brains behind our operation, hence the mistake (my lack of brain-power and inability to multi-task etc)...

we've tried the competition thing and it didn't really do much good, maybe a wee increase in clicks but nothing major.

Ozzy's comments about the inbound links may be key and I will start working on this as a priority. I've also noted the madness of the "baby clothes" keywords and have addressed this.

The question I have to look at is whether there are any errors that I didn't make...ho ho.

free t-shirt? er... how's about a discounted one? drop me a note at enquiries@romperstomper.co.uk and I'll do you a really good deal.

[SillyJokes]

No problem about the 'Mrs'.

Only kidding about the free shirt, however I reckon that page redesign will certainly lead to more than £14 worth of extra business.

A good way of finding links is to visit a competitor with the google tool r installed and check out who links to them. Chances are they would link to you.

Get yourself a product feed and get into Froogle, submit yourself to dmoz if you have't already, spend three days trekking round all the shopping directories and submitting yourself - having an affiliate program will help with this as most of these directories are affiliate sites who make money on sales made via their links. Don't expect any traffic, the links are enough. Get adverts on the board in your local maternity hospital/antenatal/post natal class, check out what opportunities there are to advertise in the National Childbirth Trust magazine, work with a nappy service. Think of some really compelling content for your site that will attract links - funny baby pictures or stories, or have you checked out FloGo baby animations? Do they lease them? See http://www.gamesarcade.net/ and get them to reskin their puppy curling game as a baby curling game and bobs your uncle you'll have links making themselves plus masses of traffic.

Good luck with it.

[Romperstomper]

that puppy curling game is brilliant, I'd never heard of it before. I may contact these guys to see what they can do.

We are in DMOZ and the froogle feed is in our to do list.

We've looked at our competitors and some have over 500 incoming links so this will be a particular focus.

I'd just like to say how much I appreciate the input from all of you, it's been extremely enlightening and is giving extra oomph to our activities that has been very valuable.

regards

Romperstomper

[William Wilson]

Our difficulty is that the products are high quality and therefore expensive to produce... but at the same point, it's better to have them in a customer's hands for a small profit than gathering dust with no profit therefore tying up my capital.

Nigel one observation from a photographer, your photographs may be charming but they don't present a top quality image of your product.

Images are easily over looked, but they convey an instant impression of your product without words and can sell to the discerning buyer or make them leave without venturing further. Designers place high emphasis on how their product is presented and this is important if you want the best price for your goods.

[SteveGibson]

Hi Romperstomper

A couple of quick ideas:

(1) You've got a bunch of happy clients, do you mail to that list? Do you offer them reasons to come back?

(2) There are lists of best and worst dressed celebs and they're in the paper every year.

Would it be bad taste to create your list of best and worst dressed celeb children? You could use this to generate publicity and, with the list, have a little article about kids clothes.

Steve

[Richard Glynn]

Hi Nigel,

Sorry to come to the party late but I’ve had a go at a few of your questions.

Should I send free products to every baby magazine Features Assistant that I can find?

Consider writing a news release and make samples available on request.

Should I write Press Releases and send out to the magazines?

Yes. You should write several. Aim to send two a month.

Should invest in a professional PR agency to write the press releases?

Yes. Don't get me wrong - you can get some good results by doing it yourself. But how much time would you waste filing your tax returns if you didn’t have an accountant to do it for you? And even then, you wouldn’t be sure of you’d done it the right way!

Should I place adverts in the classified section of relevant magazines?

Maybe. If you have spare marketing budget trial an advert or two. Make sure there’s a promotional call to action (see below) so you can monitor the response.

Should I make more products?

I thought you could do with a wider range. However – they do say quality not quantity. And what you've go is good.

Should I drop my prices by 30% or more as an experiment for 3 months before slowly bringing them back to the "correct" level?

No. Stick to your guns. Instead - add value by offering a low value desirable gift with all purchases? Or perhaps consider a limited period 3 for the price of 2 on certain lines. This way you increase the level of spend per customer. Even though you’re still discounting – the perception is that you’re adding value. Maybe offer a 3 for 2 offer via a classified advert and monitor the response. Or offer a 3 for 2 exclusively to local tots groups. Mail them with vouchers and passwords to claim via the internet.

Nice site.

All the best,

Richard