Website Marketing?

LadyUmbrella

Hi, I'm in the process of setting up my own business, selling designer ladies t-shirts over the web and in shops...to do this I have a website (without a shop at the minute) but now I want to get traffic to the website...anyone have any suggestions or ideas?

...also, anyone have any experience in dealing with fashion retailers or know what I should expect when I pitch my product to them...

Thanks for your help..

Axwell

You need to look into SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) which will get you up the pages in google bases on people searching for keywords. Also internet marketing and advertising, possibly an adwords campaign and incoming linkes from other relevant sites to help bring traffic to yours.

Drop me a pm if you have any questions you want to ask.

HTH

stepbar

LadyUmbrella wrote: »

Hi, I'm in the process of setting up my own business, selling designer ladies t-shirts over the web and in shops...to do this I have a website (without a shop at the minute) but now I want to get traffic to the website...anyone have any suggestions or ideas?

...also, anyone have any experience in dealing with fashion retailers or know what I should expect when I pitch my product to them...

Thanks for your help..

You are definatly going to have to get the shop up and running soon, otherwise SEO and other online marketing will be probably a waste of time. In fact I would not start anything until the shop is live.

TheWaterboy

Stick up a link to your website and we can have a look. An ecommerce site is essential I would say but until you have one a listing on the site of retailers that stock your products would do.

LadyUmbrella

Hi, thanks for the feedback thus far...the site is www.ladyumbrella.com as already mentioned there is no store section yet as we are waiting for stock and then it can be up in a day..why should the site not be optimized now prior to the shop going up? ..for fear that potential customers may come and leave? or will optimizing without a shop have an affect on rankng?

Thanks..

Pixelcraft

The use of flash on your site will have a negative effect on SEO, I'd sort that out first.

LadyUmbrella

Really - lots of sites have flash though...why does it have a negative impact?

Pixelcraft

flash is fine when used correctly, movies - animation on a page etc, but your whole navigation is built using flash. Google can't index flash well at all. There are also numerous accessibility issues with it.

LadyUmbrella

Ah, ok...I didn't know that that was an issue at all...hehe, do you think Google will get better at indexing it?

Pixelcraft

No it's not really likely. They've improved slightly but it's never going to be as good as pure text content. Flash really isn't meant to be used like that, and don't forget the accessibility, for example, how well will a visually impaired person be able to read/use your navigation? These are real issues a business website should take account of.

Axwell

LadyUmbrella wrote: »

Ah, ok...I didn't know that that was an issue at all...hehe, do you think Google will get better at indexing it?

Google has got better at indexing it but thats mainly in the form if animations withing your site, not for navigation and that type of thing. As pixelcraft says its never going to be as good as plain text and accessibility wise its pretty much a non runner. Its o for banners and animations to brighten up yor site but not for navigation, menus and key content.

LadyUmbrella

Alrighty...thanks for the feedback..I'll see what I can do...any other top tips or advice?

tricky D

+10 for losing the Flash - super technology for games, video and presentations but rarely for websites.

Put a physical contact address on your site. Better for trust.

Put products on the homepage and talk about what LU can do for you (selling) as opposed to talking about yourself (not selling).

Prices, prices, prices please, delivery details please, sizes and anything else which helps me make an easier purchase decision.

Develop text which is much more oriented to your keywords: t-shirts etc

Use meta description and keywords tags.

Sort out the layout issues in the gallery (collections horizontal menu off to right)

Make logo a bit bigger and tweak the y merging with the u

Copyright 2009 not 2008

Put a link in your sig file

LadyUmbrella

Hey Tricky, cheers for the feedback...

Put a physical contact address on your site. Better for trust.
- Yep, you're right, I'll get this done..

Put products on the homepage and talk about what LU can do for you (selling) as opposed to talking about yourself (not selling).
- Also a good idea, once we have the t-shirts we'll have their pictures in the flash box on the right hand side of the homepage

Prices, prices, prices please, delivery details please, sizes and anything else which helps me make an easier purchase decision.
- all of this will be in the shop section, which isn't up and running yet but I guess I can put in some plain text for the time being..

Develop text which is much more oriented to your keywords: t-shirts etc
- I thought I said t-shirts enough on the index page and throughout, but I'll try to use it a bit more and other similiar keywords.

Use meta description and keywords tags.
- Being done at the minute, the whole site is getting a bit of a sprucing

Sort out the layout issues in the gallery (collections horizontal menu off to right)
- Ye, this one I know about..it looks fine in some browsers and screen sizes and a little skewed in others...(in some browsers, IE, the gallery doesn't even open which is shameful but being worked on)

Make logo a bit bigger and tweak the y merging with the u
- We'll see what we can do..

Copyright 2009 not 2008
- We have 2008 as that is when we started..should I say copyright 2008 - 2009..

Put a link in your sig file
- I have to hit the magical 25 posts to be allowed have a sig but will do once I'm there...

Really, thanks for the comments...hope you like the tees..

tricky D

LadyUmbrella wrote: »

Copyright 2009 not 2008
- We have 2008 as that is when we started..should I say copyright 2008 - 2009..

Copyright © 2008 - 2009 LadyUmberella. All rights reserved.

LadyUmbrella

Done and done..thanks Tricky..

Miss B

Hi Lady Umbrella, on the issue of marketing your website, why don't you hop on the social networking / marketing band wagon and join up to Twitter, Facebook etc and start blog - write about your products and also about the progress of your site then when its up & running run special offers etc.

Axwell

Miss B wrote: »

Hi Lady Umbrella, on the issue of marketing your website, why don't you hop on the social networking / marketing band wagon and join up to Twitter, Facebook etc and start blog - write about your products and also about the progress of your site then when its up & running run special offers etc.

http://www.ladyumbrella.com/contactus.php - they already have a twitter and facebook if you looked at the site.

LadyUmbrella

Hey Axwell, cheers for highlighting that...ye, we have an auld twitter and facebook in operation...feel free to join us...As suggested, we will be offering promos and discounts and what not for facebook/twitter fans...also, we have recently spruced up the site..any thoughts on the upgrade appreciated...also, tried to address the flash issue that some of you were talking about in another thread..any thoughts? (Axwell in particular as you seem to be a fountain of the good old knowledge regarding sites and what not)...cheers...LadyUmbrella..

Tav

Hi LadyUmbrella,

re. AdWords
It didn't work for me - it increased the traffic but the bounce rate was huge. I guess you really need to know what you are doing with the ad to get the results. But if you have time and knowledge maybe it is worth giving it a try.

re. ads on facebook
These were quite good for us and with your product it should work great. It's cheap enough as well.

re. be-friending other websites/exchanging links
Heh, i always thought this was a good idea but some people don't even bother with sending a reply (even from this forum). I know that our business is targeting a niche market but still it's only a business and people don't seems to notice that part.
Anyway maybe you will more lucky with that

all the best!

LadyUmbrella

Hey Tav, thanks for that...Ye I think I'll go down the Facebook ads road and see if it works..time will tell...

Axwell

Read the charter and rules about advertising

Donagh_mc

Let me just say that I really like the design of the site. It's got a nice web2.0 feel to it. A big plus in my books.

As the guys said alreay, flash will have a negative impact on the SEO performance of the website. While on the SEO topic, it's a long process so don't expect an overnight boost. It can take anywhere from a minimum of six months for any results to be seen but it really is worth it when you see increased results in SERPs.

Social networking has exploded recently so that's a must in my opinion. You can easily connect with you're target market if you engage correctly with them.

Blogging is another area to look into. Maybe a corporate blog on the site keeping people up to date with all your announcements. You could also start a personal blog to complement the site with your thoughts on relevant topics.

Facebook ads are all good and well, but you need to provide users with somethign of value once they arrive on the page you are advertising. Otherwise it's a waste of time and money in my opinion.

zAbbo

First off, nice idea - I like the mood the designs have but from a web marketing POV there are a few things I'd look at.

You mentioned you want to increase traffic, is the existing traffic converting? if not - why focus on increasing traffic?

Right now, I can see why bounce rate would be high - I can't find anything of actionable use on the website.

What metrics does the site have? What are you judging success as?

I bet even a one pager, with images of the t-shirts and a buy link would work, you're selling something visual in a non visual way.

Have a look at this link and how the websites push the product to the front - http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/09/35-inspirational-fashion-website-designs/

Also check out sites like http://www.threadless.com/ & http://en.lafraise.com/

Note how these websites display their tshirts but also have a community feel while answering most of the questions someone would ask before buying a tshirt online

- What is the tshirt quality
- What is the print quality
- How much is shipping
- How long does shipping take
- What payment is accepted
- What sizes can I get, and what are the measurements (is the XL a Irish or US XL)
- Is there a discount on buying in bulk, free shipping etc.

You're going to hear various feedback on Design, SEO, Social Media & Online Marketing - but I'd sit down, have a look at your customers, talk to them, analyse any sales/visitor data you have and break down a strategy involving

- Design & Development (Onsite SEO, User Interface, User Experience, Conversion Optimisation)
- Communications (CRM & PR)
- Online Marketing (PPC, Offsite SEO, Social Media)

You might already have some of this in an overall business plan, but I'd go over it again anyway - important if you're trying to build a brand a get rail space with retailers.

Hope some of this helps!

LadyUmbrella

Hey, thanks for the great feedback there...ye, I've heard about the problems regarding using flash in the header but also have some plain html saying that the header is there behind the flash - hopefully that will go someway to helping the crawlers..

The existing traffic isn't converting because, well, we've no stock to sell yet...the purpose of the site at the minute I guess is to try get some brand awareness and to try help us get facebook followers (which it is succeeding in I think). Also trying to secure pre orders via the site (and we have received quite a few so far which is nice). Once we get the stock the online shop will go up...the online shop section will contain all the pricing, sizing, shipping, payment types etc like all other online shops.

The plan is to change the flash on the front page to have our t-shirts being displayed with an embedded link directly to the shop for that product so from the first page customers should be able to purchase (or at least see that we have t-shirts to sell).

The metrics I'm using at the minute are page views and unique visitors. As I'm trying to "spread the word" I think these are the most valuable for me at the minute. I'm also paying attention to the demographic (via facebooks analysis) and location.

About the social media side of things we've got our blogs up and running, tweeting and facebooking..We will start our facebook ads once we have the store running because as you said there is no point now..With regards to SEO I think the site is keyword rich and with the exception of the flash header follows best SEO practices. Once the online shop is opened I'll make sure all alts and picture titles are apt. I'm also working on the link backs to the site now and thankfully a few t-shirt bloggers are starting to write about us now so we're getting traffic and links from them. Have also submitted the site to all the major directories and search engines so fingers crossed in 6 months or so we'll have a decent page rating.

Thanks for the feedback guys...

R3al

LadyUmbrella wrote: »

With regards to SEO I think the site is keyword rich and with the exception of the flash header follows best SEO practices. Once the online shop is opened I'll make sure all alts and picture titles are apt.

Keywords, metadata, images alts and other on page seo techniques will only get you so far, if you want to increase your website ranking with regard to SEO then your website content and offpage links are the most important factor, you should try to generate as many incoming links to your website as you can from other ranked websites preferably in the same industry or area of your own services, you should also ensure that the inbound links use your target keywords as the link phrase.

Shaneod21

Try writing articles, they drive massive traffic to websites when they are written correctly. Using sites like ezinearticles.com allows you to write articles targeting specific keywords surrounding your niche. These article sites rank extremely well. Ezinearticles from what I can remember has a PR6 so when that links to your site google will look in your favour.

Creating backlinks to your site using specific keywords is very important.

Also the way your site is built plays a huge role. I have sites on Page 1 of google just because of the way I designed the site and had good on page seo!

Easiest way to get traffic fast is through the article directories. There are a lot of tricks to keep them high up in the search engines and literally get thousands of hits. but it would take me too long to go into them!

Post on fashion blogs and give a link to your site.

Adwords mainly work well for I have to have it products. Saying that it does work but you have to know how to use it properly!

Donagh_mc

Ezine-articles, etc can be very hit and miss. You could spend loads of time working on relevant articles only to find out there's absoloutely no conversion rate.

zAbbo

zAbbo wrote: »

First off, nice idea - I like the mood the designs have but from a web marketing POV there are a few things I'd look at.

You mentioned you want to increase traffic, is the existing traffic converting? if not - why focus on increasing traffic?

Right now, I can see why bounce rate would be high - I can't find anything of actionable use on the website.

What metrics does the site have? What are you judging success as?

I bet even a one pager, with images of the t-shirts and a buy link would work, you're selling something visual in a non visual way.

Have a look at this link and how the websites push the product to the front - http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/09/35-inspirational-fashion-website-designs/

Also check out sites like http://www.threadless.com/ & http://en.lafraise.com/

Note how these websites display their tshirts but also have a community feel while answering most of the questions someone would ask before buying a tshirt online

- What is the tshirt quality
- What is the print quality
- How much is shipping
- How long does shipping take
- What payment is accepted
- What sizes can I get, and what are the measurements (is the XL a Irish or US XL)
- Is there a discount on buying in bulk, free shipping etc.

You're going to hear various feedback on Design, SEO, Social Media & Online Marketing - but I'd sit down, have a look at your customers, talk to them, analyse any sales/visitor data you have and break down a strategy involving

- Design & Development (Onsite SEO, User Interface, User Experience, Conversion Optimisation)
- Communications (CRM & PR)
- Online Marketing (PPC, Offsite SEO, Social Media)

You might already have some of this in an overall business plan, but I'd go over it again anyway - important if you're trying to build a brand a get rail space with retailers.

Hope some of this helps!

Unbelievably useful post. Thanks for that. (even though it's not for me )

suey71

Yeah x2 what TheEnt said.

He got there before me:D.

Fantastic post and a fantastic thread, I've learned lots from it.

LadyUmbrella I cant wait to buy one of your t shirts. My wife is mad about them. Why dont you put the prices on your website so I can see how many I can afford:D.

LadyUmbrella

Hey, hehe, great to hear that you're wife likes them...Ye, we hope to have the prices up soon...we are accepting pre orders though so if you let me know which one you'd like via facebook or here I'll give you first refusal...

And also agree, this has been a useful thread, thanks to those who have contributed...