Marketing / SEO

[Ella Business]

Hi all,

I have a new online business where i sell organic and natural skincare products for all the family. Our USP is fanatical customer service and to offer free skincare advice to our customers and be “The” go to place for all the family to buy organic products from some of the best brands in the market.

My website is more or less there however i am struggling to get sales. Now of course i know i need to advertise and market the website/business, i am just note sure as to what kind of budget I would need to have?

I have a company that has quoted me £1.5k plus VAT a month where they will basically create a strategy, handle all seo, email campaigns, design of any marketing materials, set advertising (of course ad budget on top).

They sound quite good but quite pricey. I am only small and funding it myself of course.

My business is similar to naturisimo if you have heard of it? They would be one of our main competitors.

Anyone know if this is more or less the budget i should set aside? Could it be any cheaper?

Some people say i can do it myself and whilst i can do some blog postings and build social media content i cant do the professional work of people that specialise in this and i know to get my business out there i have to invest.

Any marketing strategies i should follow? Is the price quoted by this company fair?
What kind of Google ads are good for an ecommerce website offering products such as mine?

I have amazing award winning products but no sales....

Any help is much appreciated

Thank you!

 

[fisicx]

Hi Ella,

£1.5K/month for this sort of product range is cheap. Especially as you don't really have a USP.

If you want to get sales you need to market on the places where people are looking for your products. The problem these will be the same places everyone else is selling their products.

It's going to be a struggle - allow 2-3 years to get established.

 

[Ella Business]

Hi Ella,

£1.5K/month for this sort of product range is cheap. Especially as you don't really have a USP.

If you want to get sales you need to market on the places where people are looking for your products. The problem these will be the same places everyone else is selling their products.

It's going to be a struggle - allow 2-3 years to get established.

Hi,

Thanks for your message.

In fact there arent that many online places offering a one stop destination for all the family, our main focus and target will be babies and mums, but of course we want to be the one place to go to for all the family to buy all of their organic skincare products.

Totally understand it will take us a while to get established properly so i dont expect any quick fixes but just want to choose the right people to work with and the right budget so we dont get riped off, its a lot of money to be invested.

Ella

 

[fisicx]

People don't shop like that any more. They search for products and buy from whoever. There is little loyalty. For example, my wife buys her cosmetics from a range of different suppliers.

 

[Ella Business]

People don't shop like that any more. They search for products and buy from whoever. There is little loyalty. For example, my wife buys her cosmetics from a range of different suppliers.

Yes, i agree and i do the same. So what we will offer is to be “the debenhams” of organic beauty/skincare so we will have (in due time by adding more and more) hundreds of brands in one place - so that your wife can choose to be loyal or not , she will have a variety of brands to choose from where all products are tested and are all chemical free

 

[AllUpHere]

You aren't going to make a dent in that market for 1500 quid per month. Excuse my dramatic sexism, but every bored housewife in the country seems to think they need to launch a range of organic natural beauty products these days.

Anyone can develop a range, the skill is in the marketing, and that costs money, lots of money. No company who knows what they are doing is going to tell you it can be done for 1500 quid per month.

 

[Ella Business]

You aren't going to make a dent in that market for 1500 quid per month. Excuse my dramatic sexism, but every bored housewife in the country seems to think they need to launch a range of organic natural beauty products these days.

Anyone can develop a range, the skill is in the marketing, and that costs money, lots of money. No company who knows what they are doing is going to tell you it can be done for 1500 quid per month.

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

I am not creating another beauty product, i am creating a platform offering a one stop chemical free destination for all the family...

Yes - i have come to realise its all down to the marketing hence I have come for some advise here as to what kind of realistic costs I would be looking at to push the business forward

Thanks
Ella

 

[Ella Business]

You aren't going to make a dent in that market for 1500 quid per month. Excuse my dramatic sexism, but every bored housewife in the country seems to think they need to launch a range of organic natural beauty products these days.

Anyone can develop a range, the skill is in the marketing, and that costs money, lots of money. No company who knows what they are doing is going to tell you it can be done for 1500 quid per month.

Also, i noticed that you are a marketing consultant! Are you able to give me an email i can get in touch? Thanks

 

[AllUpHere]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

I am not creating another beauty product, i am creating a platform offering a one stop chemical free destination for all the family...

Yes - i have come to realise its all down to the marketing hence I have come for some advise here as to what kind of realistic costs I would be looking at to push the business forward

Thanks
Ella

Sorry, I should have read your opening post more thoroughly. If you are offering products that are available elsewhere, @fisicx is right, people may well decide what products they want on your site, but will then Google them and buy them from the cheapest trusted supplier. To compete is going to cost serious money. You could easily burn your 1500 quid in a day, rather than a month.

 

[AllUpHere]

Also, i noticed that you are a marketing consultant! Are you able to give me an email i can get in touch? Thanks

More than happy to chat if you'd like to send me a pm. Your market isn't my area of expertise so I wouldn't want to offer any paid advice. I would, however, be happy to help where I can, even if simply to bounce ideas around.

 

[Ella Business]

Sorry, I should have read your opening post more thoroughly. If you are offering products that are available elsewhere, @fisicx is right, people may well decide what products they want on your site, but will then Google them and buy them from the cheapest trusted supplier. To compete is going to cost serious money. You could easily burn your 1500 quid in a day, rather than a month.

The idea is that if they googled organic skincare and they wa

More than happy to chat if you'd like to send me a pm. Your market isn't my area of expertise so I wouldn't want to offer any paid advice. I would, however, be happy to help where I can, even if simply to bounce ideas around.

I have just pm you. Thanks

 

[tony84]

For all the family...
My Mrs buys whatever things she buys from wherever she buys it.
I buy whatever I want from Tesco (admittedly not skin care, I still look like im 12 if I have a shave!) or wherever I decide to shop that week.
My 2 year old gets Johnsons or the tesco own brand equivalent depending on whether my Mrs is doing the shopping or the tight arse (me).

I could be wrong, but are you expecting someone in the household to buy everyones skin care products? I can imagine if I tried to buy my Mrs skincare products, it would 100% be wrong - even if it was right, it would still be wrong.

Personally, I do not see that as a USP... not a worthwhile one - but I am also not a massive believer in USPs in the main. I can not think of any business that offers something I can not get from elsewhere.

Anyway, back to your question... £1500 seems cheap... If you break that all down, you have a lot of things there being done by one company. You could probably get it done cheaper, you might need project manage to some extent - ie SEO to an SEO person/company, email campaigns to a company/person who does email marketing and so on.

Do you need all of that being done on day one? Can you cut your costs somewhere?
Are there cheaper and easy wins? Could you pay someone influencer to advertise it? Could you go and rent a kiosk in a shopping centre and give away free products if they share a tweet and tag you both and give you their email address? £500 worth of stock, kiosk for the day for £500 and you will no doubt have tweets to thousands and thousands of people for a grand maybe possibly give them a flyer/email for a discount on their first order via email.

 

[Ella Business]

For all the family...
My Mrs buys whatever things she buys from wherever she buys it.
I buy whatever I want from Tesco (admittedly not skin care, I still look like im 12 if I have a shave!) or wherever I decide to shop that week.
My 2 year old gets Johnsons or the tesco own brand equivalent depending on whether my Mrs is doing the shopping or the tight arse (me).

I could be wrong, but are you expecting someone in the household to buy everyones skin care products? I can imagine if I tried to buy my Mrs skincare products, it would 100% be wrong - even if it was right, it would still be wrong.

Personally, I do not see that as a USP... not a worthwhile one - but I am also not a massive believer in USPs in the main. I can not think of any business that offers something I can not get from elsewhere.

Anyway, back to your question... £1500 seems cheap... If you break that all down, you have a lot of things there being done by one company. You could probably get it done cheaper, you might need project manage to some extent - ie SEO to an SEO person/company, email campaigns to a company/person who does email marketing and so on.

Do you need all of that being done on day one? Can you cut your costs somewhere?
Are there cheaper and easy wins? Could you pay someone influencer to advertise it? Could you go and rent a kiosk in a shopping centre and give away free products if they share a tweet and tag you both and give you their email address? £500 worth of stock, kiosk for the day for £500 and you will no doubt have tweets to thousands and thousands of people for a grand maybe possibly give them a flyer/email for a discount on their first order via email.

Hi,

You would very rarely find the brands we would sell at Tesco’s, our products are organic and natural, chemical free. We test and check all the ingredients to ensure our customers get clean beauty skincare products.

The idea is that we can be that “wherever” place your wife shops at, but she could also get your children shampoo (absolutely not johnson as its not an ethical brand we would collaborate with) and maybe treat you to something too.

In terms of the work that they need to do, no i dont need it on day one, its an ongoing work, probably around 20 hours a month.

Targeting influencers is on my list, thanks for that, just need to target the right ones.

Giving away products in a shopping centre could be something to look into, thanks for the tip

 

[fisicx]

The point he was trying to make is not everyone in the family wants or needs organic products. And those that do may not need them all the time.

You are just one of many offering these products. There is no USP and no need for anyone to use you exclusiveley.

Don’t expect much from influencers. Their influency is often overrated.

 

[Ella Business]

The point he was trying to make is not everyone in the family wants or needs organic products. And those that do may not need them all the time.

You are just one of many offering these products. There is no USP and no need for anyone to use you exclusiveley.

Don’t expect much from influencers. Their influency is often overrated.

Got it and of course i know that not everyone wants organic products, however people are becoming more aware of what products they use and are choosing more ethical products. There are some that dont care and will use whatever is the cheapest of course...thats not our target market.

 

[menetworkjadaltd]

I love the idea of a place my partner can buy the household skincare/toiletries

Personally I don't buy mine enough as often as I should

 

[alan1302]

one stop chemical free destination for all the family...

Organic products contain chemicals, natural products contain chemicals, water does, I do, you do...I really dislike the 'no chemicals' message a lot of organic/natural websites claim as it's simply not true

 

[Ella Business]

The point he was trying to make is not everyone in the family wants or needs organic products. And those that do may not need them all the time.

You are just one of many offering these products. There is no USP and no need for anyone to use you exclusiveley.

Don’t expect much from influencers. Their influency is often overrated.

fisicx - it seems you are a marketing consultant too?

Organic products contain chemicals, natural products contain chemicals, water does, I do, you do...I really dislike the 'no chemicals' message a lot of organic/natural websites claim as it's simply not true

I understand why you feel that way. As i mentioned above we ensure we test all the products, read all the ingredients used in them and thats how we decide to collaborate or not with a brand. We would not collaborate with a brand that is not ethical and doesnt provide clean beauty products.

 

[Ella Business]

I love the idea of a place my partner can buy the household skincare/toiletries

Personally I don't buy mine enough as often as I should

Thank you

 

[fisicx]

Got it and of course i know that not everyone wants organic products, however people are becoming more aware of what products they use and are choosing more ethical products. There are some that dont care and will use whatever is the cheapest of course...thats not our target market.

So who is your target market?

What do you do that makes you different from all the others selling the same products?

 

[Mark T Jones]

It’s interesting that you describe yourself as Debenhams, since the last time I was in that shop my overriding thought was ‘what is the point of this place?’


As s non marketing expert, I’d say the USps you are suggesting aren’t really unique nor selling points, they are pretty generalised and standard

As others have said in a crowded space where you have competition with huge marketing budgets you need to really stand out in one area. - it’s far more effective to own a tiny part of the market than to compete across the board.

 

[Ella Business]

So who is your target market?

What do you do that makes you different from all the others selling the same products?

Our target market are mums and new babies where we will offer many amazing clean beauty products that can help with their dry skin, eczema, psoarisis etc.

What we will do different is to engage with our consumer and understand their skincare issues and help them on that journey.

 

[fisicx]

Our target market are mums and new babies.

Far too big a target. The competition for mothers and babies is huge.

If your products are to help with skin conditions then focus on these. And focus on the medical usage not the ethical. I have psoriasis and I don’t care where the product comes from as long as it works.

Are you medically trained? As you qualified to advise on the most suitable products for eczema?

 

[Mark T Jones]

Our target market are mums and new babies where we will offer many amazing clean beauty products that can help with their dry skin, eczema, psoarisis etc.

What we will do different is to engage with our consumer and understand their skincare issues and help them on that journey.

That’s fairly different to much of what you’ve written before, and a positive step towards a niche. However it’s still fairly broad and,I suspect, heavily targeted.

Next step is to seek out the niche within the niche - those who will benefit most from what you offer.

 

[Ella Business]

That’s fairly different to much of what you’ve written before, and a positive step towards a niche. However it’s still fairly broad and,I suspect, heavily targeted.

Next step is to seek out the niche within the niche - those who will benefit most from what you offer.

Thank you, i started this business being a mother myself who struggled to actually find something out there that offered what I intend to, to our consumers.

 

[Ella Business]

Can any one list proper and best affiliate platforms like amazon who has great paying options and % on products.?

Far too big a target. The competition for mothers and babies is huge.

If your products are to help with skin conditions then focus on these. And focus on the medical usage not the ethical. I have psoriasis and I don’t care where the product comes from as long as it works.

Are you medically trained? As you qualified to advise on the most suitable products for eczema?

I suffer from the same too and i tell you the products the doctor prescribed me didnt work, plus i couldnt use them as I was still feeding my baby.

 

[Ella Business]

yeah, indeed

Anna, do you have a similar business to mine as well?

 

[Ella Business]

i do, but planning to reform it again soon once i started i let you know.

I see, ok - the best of luck

 

[tony84]

I think you missed my point, it was more the fact that I can not understand why anyone would want or need a one stop shop for organic, ethical natural skincare products.

I actually had a look lastnight what we have for my 2 year old:
Johnsons in the yellow bottle,
Boots equivalent but in a purple bottle to help kids sleep,
Tesco equivalent of the boots one.
and they all have some claim about being a favourite/tested/recommended by paediatricians.

- Basically there appears to be little brand loyalty and they all do the same job so it is just whatever is easiest to get. If I am in Tesco I get whatever I am told to get. If my Mrs is in Boots getting what she gets, she will get it from there.

My Mrs gets stuff from everywhere - boots, avon (although I think this is just because her friend does it), the body shop, tesco plus god knows where else.

There is probably a reason why nobody offers what you were looking for, the amount of people looking for a one stop shop for organic skincare products is probably not massive. Thats not to say your idea will not work, I just think you are looking at a USP which as @Mark T Jones says is not really a selling point (in my opinion).

Have you had a look at the Thread website? It is a clothing site, but unlike normal clothing sites at the outset they ask you a load of questions to find out what you like and then once or twice a month they send an email with new clothes you may like. With you saying you will be offering skincare advice, you could maybe ask a lot of questions upfront such as oily skin/dry skin etc and then send over a list of products specifically for them/whoever else they are buying for. I would be playing more on that as a selling point, but I think that would cost money in website development.

 

[Chloe_BumbleandBloom]

Hi Ella,

I run a marketing consultancy and echo what the others have said, you already know you are entering a very crowded market place competing with big brands and well-known brands (who offer convenience when you're in Tesco) along with "PR friendly" brands like Tropic Skincare. In my opinion, you face two challenges: getting your brand noticed and then converting customers. The latter is the part where £1500pm or £15,000pm doesn't necessarily make a difference , unless you know who you're targeting, why and whether they genuinely want to be targeted.

I completely understand your reluctance to waste money, as a brand new brand this early stage is a case of trial and error, figuring out what works, it's tough but it needs to be done. For example, you could end up building a really engaged loyal list of email subscribers and measuring open rates is what gives you confidence seeing where your money is going. £1500 isn't a lot of money per month when accounting for a marketeers' time, experience and the actual research and content creation etc, however it is a lot of money to a new business.

There's nobody saying it can't be done, but perhaps revisit your sales forecasts. How many products do you want to sell in a week vs how many is realistic as a starting point. Strategically, you're starting from the bottom of the ladder and every "rung up" is an opportunity to shape your brand thanks to feedback from customers and keeping an eye on your competitors. Getting the product in people's hands to touch, feel and enjoy would be paramount in my opinion. Your USP is nice, but it isn't truly unique. It's an admirable goal. What could make you unique is how you manage your customers' experience. Does that make sense?

Another way I sometimes think is: if a big company wanted to buy my brand, what would sell it to them? The way I've proven time and time again to convert customers with the quality of the product (so they become my brand ambassador) or having a nice website with trickle of sales which dried up after 3 months when the £1500pm ran out?

Start from what you can afford, and like the others have said, play around. Do you give away stock or do free treatments at a salon night? It sounds like £1500pm is make or break for you and it puts unfair pressure on the marketing company to perform miracles and make you in excess of £1500 of sales per month to break even which they cannot promise, but also pressure on you to make sales and miss the mark on why people choose your products.

I wish you the very best of luck, marketing isn't easy. There is no right answer or one-size-fits-all, it's akin to gambling and hoping it pays off sometimes when you're a new brand without the big brand name backing or huge budget.

 

[Lucky8]

It’s interesting that you describe yourself as Debenhams, since the last time I was in that shop my overriding thought was ‘what is the point of this place?’

Exactly this. Debenhams is in serious trouble and has been for a few years, it doesn't know what it is for and neither do its customers.

Can't help on the specific question asked (I think you should do it yourself starting out), but there are many online shops that have a large organic collection, including numerous beauty websites, Holland & Barrett and Naturisimo which you mention, so why would I come to you rather than them?

 

[saythisinstead.co.uk]

Hi Ella,

I think most of the folks who responded missed the part of your post that said £1500 per month PLUS advertising costs and you didn't respond to clarify that.

I've sold online for over 15 years so I've been where you are. The biggest problem you face is to get enough traffic to your site to see at least some sales. You didn't say how many visits you've had so far that has resulted in no sales. If you've had 10 visits and no sales then you are non the wiser. If you've had 10,000 visits and no sales.....then you have a huge problem.

You've approached this from the wrong direction. You've found things to sell, set up a website and only now are you going to discover whether there is a market that you can reach cost effectively...understand?

What you should have done is figure out a way to get people to respond to some online marketing. Only then could you make the move to make products available...test a sales page, measure the results and then discover a direction to go in.

You've had quite a bit of negative response, from some very knowledgable people. You really need to stop and draw a line in the sand. The market you are attempting to break into is incredibly difficult.

If you engage a marketing company to drive traffic and they send you a few thousand visitors...only then will you discover whether anyone is prepared to actually buy from you. If they don't buy you'll soon go bust.

Figure out if people will buy.....THEN AND ONLY THEN....can you think about 'marketing' in the conventional sense.

Also, as others have said, you need to establish exactly who would most benefit from your product range....and target only theose people.

I hope this helps.

 

[Darren_Ssc]

Sorry if I missed it but, what are you doing to create sales now and can you just not do more of that for now?

 

[saythisinstead.co.uk]

Sorry if I missed it but, what are you doing to create sales now and can you just not do more of that for now?

She hasn't had any sales.

 

[Darren_Ssc]

She hasn't had any sales.

OK, I guess that's a good goal to start with.

 

[evhow90]

Have you tried to contact subscription box companies who stock natural/vegan products?
There are lots and you should contact them

 

[Guy Incognito]

Why, as a consumer, would I choose to shop through you?

Are you offering brands that no one else is (exclusively)?

Are you cheaper than other websites?

Without those two things I don’t see how this is a viable endeavour.

You either need a product that no one else can buy anywhere else or you need to be cheaper.

That area is very congested and extremely expensive (I know of someone who invested millions into a baby shampoo start up).

Some brands might also not want people re-selling their products online. This is what we do. We took that decision for brand purposes. If you want one of our products you have to buy it through our website. Which in itself means you have to spend more on marketing / advertising / brand awareness but potentially is better in the longer run. It depends on margins / products / sector etc.

 

[julharris]

Jumping in here as I disagree with some of the comments above.
You don't have to be unique. Not every new business needs to be 'blue sky'. Any sector worth being in will have other players.
Comments on the budget are meaningless unless you consider the return on investment. If your ads are generating more income than they cost, then you're onto a winner, especially if you consider the lifetime value of your customer. If a mother finds an effective treatment for her baby's psoriasis, you can bet she'll be loyal and recommend you to others.
You can start by very tight targeting, perhaps based on your brand's ingredients or obscure skin conditions, that way you'll only be reaching people who are the most likely match.
Whereas in the past it was hard for small brands to break through, now it is so much easier as you can make even a small amount of marketing spend count. Being authentic counts for a lot, plus people like discovering something off the usual radar.
As a brand marketing consultant, I love seeing small brands succeed and I hope that this one flies!

 

[Ella Business]

Hi Ella,

I think most of the folks who responded missed the part of your post that said £1500 per month PLUS advertising costs and you didn't respond to clarify that.

I've sold online for over 15 years so I've been where you are. The biggest problem you face is to get enough traffic to your site to see at least some sales. You didn't say how many visits you've had so far that has resulted in no sales. If you've had 10 visits and no sales then you are non the wiser. If you've had 10,000 visits and no sales.....then you have a huge problem.

You've approached this from the wrong direction. You've found things to sell, set up a website and only now are you going to discover whether there is a market that you can reach cost effectively...understand?

What you should have done is figure out a way to get people to respond to some online marketing. Only then could you make the move to make products available...test a sales page, measure the results and then discover a direction to go in.

You've had quite a bit of negative response, from some very knowledgable people. You really need to stop and draw a line in the sand. The market you are attempting to break into is incredibly difficult.

If you engage a marketing company to drive traffic and they send you a few thousand visitors...only then will you discover whether anyone is prepared to actually buy from you. If they don't buy you'll soon go bust.

Figure out if people will buy.....THEN AND ONLY THEN....can you think about 'marketing' in the conventional sense.

Also, as others have said, you need to establish exactly who would most benefit from your product range....and target only theose people.

I hope this helps.

Hi,

Of course i did research prior to setting up the business. I chose debenhams as an example of not how well they are trading now but as an example of an online retailer.

Thanks
Ella

 

[Ella Business]

Why, as a consumer, would I choose to shop through you?

Are you offering brands that no one else is (exclusively)?

Are you cheaper than other websites?

Without those two things I don’t see how this is a viable endeavour.

You either need a product that no one else can buy anywhere else or you need to be cheaper.

That area is very congested and extremely expensive (I know of someone who invested millions into a baby shampoo start up).

Some brands might also not want people re-selling their products online. This is what we do. We took that decision for brand purposes. If you want one of our products you have to buy it through our website. Which in itself means you have to spend more on marketing / advertising / brand awareness but potentially is better in the longer run. It depends on margins / products / sector etc.

I have plenty of brands that approach me to sell their products so the later is not a problem.