Looking for advise on direction to proceed with business

monkey8

I am in the process to building a brand.
I am in 7 pharmacies and hoping to go nationwide in the next 12 months.
I have no problem with this aspect of the business.

Where i am inexperienced is my ecommerce site.
I sm looking to sell to the big 5 english speaking countries.
I am just starting out and have been advised that i need to look at paid advertising (principally facebook and instagram) Advised to spend minimum of €1500 adspend + €1000 a month agency fee with expectation/hope that after split testing etc done that should be breaking even at approx. month 3 and hope to have a positive ROAS then and after this to scale up.
These are the agencies advising me this so its in their best interests!

I was hoping to build up more slowly but they say facebook needs as much data as possible to put ads in front of correct audiences (which makes sense)

Would you agree that this is the best way to go at early stage? I was thinking of setting up affiliates to sell for me focusing on instagram which would not cost anything upfront but they would get percentage of sales.

Any advise would be much appreciated.
I dont want to name brand but can do in pm.

Thanks in advance

pedroeibar1

monkey8 wrote: »

I am in the process to building a brand.
I am in 7 pharmacies and hoping to go nationwide in the next 12 months.
I have no problem with this aspect of the business.

Where i am inexperienced is my ecommerce site.
I sm looking to sell to the big 5 english speaking countries.
I am just starting out and have been advised that i need to look at paid advertising (principally facebook and instagram) Advised to spend minimum of €1500 adspend + €1000 a month agency fee with expectation/hope that after split testing etc done that should be breaking even at approx. month 3 and hope to have a positive ROAS then and after this to scale up.
These are the agencies advising me this so its in their best interests!

I was hoping to build up more slowly but they say facebook needs as much data as possible to put ads in front of correct audiences (which makes sense)

Would you agree that this is the best way to go at early stage? I was thinking of setting up affiliates to sell for me focusing on instagram which would not cost anything upfront but they would get percentage of sales.

Any advise would be much appreciated.
I dont want to name brand but can do in pm.

Thanks in advance

Four years ago you were a “ medical oncologist” ; a couple of years ago you were an optician. Six months ago you were bitching on Bargain Alerts because you got hit for tax/duty on importing a pair of glasses (Zenni). You are also a landlord with several properties and problem tenants. Today you’re “in 7 pharmacies and hoping to go nationwide in the next 12 months.”
No wonder you need help .

monkey8

Would be happy to hear from anyone with constructive comments

lastusername

monkey8 wrote: »

I am in the process to building a brand.
I am in 7 pharmacies and hoping to go nationwide in the next 12 months.
I have no problem with this aspect of the business.

Where i am inexperienced is my ecommerce site.
I sm looking to sell to the big 5 english speaking countries.
I am just starting out and have been advised that i need to look at paid advertising (principally facebook and instagram) Advised to spend minimum of €1500 adspend + €1000 a month agency fee with expectation/hope that after split testing etc done that should be breaking even at approx. month 3 and hope to have a positive ROAS then and after this to scale up.
These are the agencies advising me this so its in their best interests!

I was hoping to build up more slowly but they say facebook needs as much data as possible to put ads in front of correct audiences (which makes sense)

Would you agree that this is the best way to go at early stage? I was thinking of setting up affiliates to sell for me focusing on instagram which would not cost anything upfront but they would get percentage of sales.

Any advise would be much appreciated.
I dont want to name brand but can do in pm.

Thanks in advance

Don't mind the resident crank

I've been in digital nearly 15 years, and what I've learned and what people miss starting out is that you need to start with a strategy, not tactics.

Your first port of call is not jumping on board with an agency - it's research. Not sure what research you've done yet but the easiest thing to do right now is to look at the strategy of your top 3 competitors, and assess what they've done, what they're doing and what's working for them.

That way you can start to build a picture of what's working for similar companies / brands, and assess what may work for you. That's when you begin looking at the channels (tactics) you may wish to pursue.

If you're selling spectacles then yes, social media could work well. But you need to step back first and look at the bigger picture.

It's hard to sell anything on social media without building a community / following first, for example. So I would look at how you could do that before spending a cent on ads and nearly as much on agency management fees.

JustMe,K

Without knowing the product you are selling, all I would say is that people are getting sick of affiliate links / ads / sponsored content on facebook & insta. They obviously work to some extent but if you are hoping to use well known 'influencers' then you might be disappointed.

pedroeibar1

lastusername wrote: »

Don't mind the resident crank

Delighted with that description – a crank is something to start a process, e.g. to start an engine.
You’ll find that I’ve made many positive contributions, but if you want to waste your time and do homework for a spoofer, that’s your call.

monkey8 wrote: »

I am a medical oncologist and I am very bad with money………..

A ‘medical oncologist’ indeed.:rolleyes::rolleyes:

Axwell

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

Delighted with that description – a crank is something to start a process, e.g. to start an engine.
You’ll find that I’ve made many positive contributions, but if you want to waste your time and do homework for a spoofer, that’s your call.

A ‘medical oncologist’ indeed.:rolleyes::rolleyes:

Mod: If you don't have any actual advice and are just going to post personal remarks then kindly don't post on the thread as you are adding nothing with your comments.

lastusername

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

Delighted with that description – a crank is something to start a process, e.g. to start an engine.
You’ll find that I’ve made many positive contributions, but if you want to waste your time and do homework for a spoofer, that’s your call.

A ‘medical oncologist’ indeed.:rolleyes::rolleyes:

Only joking, hence the emoji I know you do and anyone who spends time on Boards can see that.

I'd sooner fire off some pointers and give people the benefit of the doubt, and even if he is a spoofer / Walter Mitty type (where are they all coming from?!), then other readers can hopefully pick something up too.

Axwell

monkey8 wrote: »

Would you agree that this is the best way to go at early stage? I was thinking of setting up affiliates to sell for me focusing on instagram which would not cost anything upfront but they would get percentage of sales.

Any advise would be much appreciated.
I dont want to name brand but can do in pm.

Thanks in advance

First, you should be making sure your website is up to scratch and is set up in the best way to take advantage of any traffic you are getting now and from increased efforts in marketing.

Is your website optimised for page speed/performance?
Do you have good SEO in place?
Do you have a pixel in place for retargeting?
Do you have a newsletter signup or some form of mailing list to gather peoples info and be able to engage with them as potential repeat customers or convert potential leads who have not yet made a purchase?

pedroeibar1

lastusername wrote: »

Only joking, hence the emoji I know you do and anyone who spends time on Boards can see that.

I'd sooner fire off some pointers and give people the benefit of the doubt, and even if he is a spoofer / Walter Mitty type (where are they all coming from?!), then other readers can hopefully pick something up too.

I saw your point and perhaps should have used a few emojis.:pac::D:) This forum survives because of decent advice/information given willingly by a few experts – Rudolf on freight, Duplo on food sector, Bandara on retail, PeterDalkey on packaging (before a Mod pi$$ed him off and he left) etc. I also accept that a general answer is educational, however timewasters should be called-out and homework is against the charter. The OP has a history of spoof questions and careers, to just one of which I provided a link.


Giving advice
Before I comment on any new post, I read the post, I check, I examine a few back-posts. Monkey’s opening post is rubbish for several reasons.
Ignoring what he (yes, ‘he’, no woman is that stupid!) claims to be, he states he wants to sell online to the ‘Big Five English speaking countries'. Would it surprise him to know that they are - in descending order - the US, India, Pakistan, Nigeria and the UK (closely followed by the Philippines and Germany). Has he any idea of the differences required in a marketing strategy, online or otherwise, for those markets? Or their cultural differences? Are France, Morocco, Canada and Belgium the same because they speak French?:eek:

He claims to be in 7 pharmacies and is hoping to go nationwide in the next 12 months. Does he know that there are almost 2,000 pharmacies in the Republic? No chain or pharmacy really wants to deal with a sole supplier, they deal with distributors, one single order point, one single drop, one single payment. Why? Mainly because they already are knee-deep in paperwork (State depts,etc), plus most pharmaceutical products have several dosage options and it is impossible to carry all in stock and they need next day delivery (and get it!). And now, hoping to get stocked ‘nationally’ he is trying to pi$$ of the few retailers he has by competing against them online? (I don’t believe in cr@p about ‘second sales channel’, I’ve seen it fail too many times.)

Any marketing advice should be based on knowledge of the product & market. That market is too broad, that product has not been given by the OP, hence any advice will at best be far too general or at worst totally inappropriate. Any product advice on selling in pharmacies is even more in need of a specific description, because pharmacies, second to financial entities, are the most regulated worldwide, even in Nigeria!

Furthermore, in basic marketing practice it is the norm to extensively test the product in the home market before entering new markets. That provides a benchmark against which any changes can be properly measured. That way the marketing can be refined/defined/ measured and tweaked . Seven (even if that number is believed) is nowhere near enough. He will have no idea of what is positive/negative or what is being done right or wrong in a foreign market. Get that right first before waffling on about affiliates and ROAS.

FWIW, what made me question the veracity of his multiple careers was the ‘Medical oncologist’ one - an American qualification. After graduating as a MD add three years minimum as a Resident, various additional exams, which, if successful, lead to a two-year fellowship in oncology. Assuming no exams are failed, it takes about 10 years and a very minimum of $500,000 in student loans to be repaid. You see why I called BS

monkey8

lastusername wrote: »

Don't mind the resident crank

I've been in digital nearly 15 years, and what I've learned and what people miss starting out is that you need to start with a strategy, not tactics.

Your first port of call is not jumping on board with an agency - it's research. Not sure what research you've done yet but the easiest thing to do right now is to look at the strategy of your top 3 competitors, and assess what they've done, what they're doing and what's working for them.

That way you can start to build a picture of what's working for similar companies / brands, and assess what may work for you. That's when you begin looking at the channels (tactics) you may wish to pursue.

If you're selling spectacles then yes, social media could work well. But you need to step back first and look at the bigger picture.

It's hard to sell anything on social media without building a community / following first, for example. So I would look at how you could do that before spending a cent on ads and nearly as much on agency management fees.

thanks for good advise, much appreciated

monkey8

Axwell wrote: »

First, you should be making sure your website is up to scratch and is set up in the best way to take advantage of any traffic you are getting now and from increased efforts in marketing.

Is your website optimised for page speed/performance?
Do you have good SEO in place?
Do you have a pixel in place for retargeting?
Do you have a newsletter signup or some form of mailing list to gather peoples info and be able to engage with them as potential repeat customers or convert potential leads who have not yet made a purchase?

Thanks for advise Axwell.
Yes, i have all these things done/in the process of optimising fully.
I use a shopify store and used the built-in SEO tools to get to page 1 in google for most of my main keywords.
Page 1 for google.ie didn't really result in major traffic which is why i am looking at paid advertising.

i am just a bit concerned that the paid advertising route can be a bit of a minefield with no guarantee of a positive return in investment.

My only knowledge on digital marketing is from self learning so i am thinking about partnering with someone with experience in this field or seeing if i can get a mentor to help me with this side of things.

monkey8

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

Four years ago you were a “ medical oncologist” ; a couple of years ago you were an optician. Six months ago you were bitching on Bargain Alerts because you got hit for tax/duty on importing a pair of glasses (Zenni). You are also a landlord with several properties and problem tenants. Today you’re “in 7 pharmacies and hoping to go nationwide in the next 12 months.”
No wonder you need help .

wasn't going to bother addressing this as i feel its childish and uphelpful but i think its probably preventing me from getting feedback from other posters.

Four years ago you were a “ medical oncologist” - My wife is and logged onto my account one day to ask a question. i had mention she is a doctor in another post that you must have ignored whilst snooping at my previous posts. also mentioned in the about us section of my website that other posters on this thread have seen and can verify.

a couple of years ago you were an optician - i am an optician

Six months ago you were bitching on Bargain Alerts because you got hit for tax/duty on importing a pair of glasses (Zenni). thats my line of business now so was testing the quality and competition

You are also a landlord with several properties and problem tenants so what? is that not allowed?

Today you’re “in 7 pharmacies and hoping to go nationwide in the next 12 months.”

"no chain or pharmacy really wants to deal with a sole supplier, they deal with distributors" they deal with distributors for prescription medications, chiefly uniphar and united drug but have numerous suppliers including sole suppliers for everything outside of prescription items.
All pharmacies have separate accounts with pearl & hickey, ricketts, pemberton as well as many more. my brand uses sale or return and i supply the display stands and offer the pharmacy a 50% mark up so it is very low risk for the pharmacy owner and not as pie in the sky as you think it is.

pedroeibar1

None of the (few) pharmacists I know would bother to clutter their premises with a stand for reading products on which they received a 50% mark-up. The cost of keeping a notoriously messy stand tidy would eat that easily. The margin you are offering is going to be a big hurdle to overcome on any rollout.

Very few customers bother to buy reading glasses in pharmacies – they are widely available in pound shops for €2, or Primark has 3-packs for €5. Lidl & Aldi sell them semi-annually, better quality, similar pricing. Furthermore, pharmacy prices have a public perception of being expensive, so sales generally are grudge purchases. Pharmacies are specific ‘destination’ shops, not for optics, so sales are impulse buys, thus sales are limited and there you have another hurdle.

For your on-line business, there are issues far more important than tweaking a site. How do you respond to my remarks on marketing approach differences USA, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, etc?? What do you know of shipping costs, duties, tariffs, etc.?

What US / Indian / UK citizen will buy glasses from Ireland when the market is saturated by Amazon vendors and Chinese sites like Bangood and Wish? You say Zenni is competition - in the US they sell from just a few bucks with free shipping, so that is the same as your shipping cost! How can you compete with that?

Even if you are an optician and want to move into the realm of on-line sales of prescription lenses (higher cost & better margin) how do you square that with the ethics of your profession? Or trying to develop markets where it is illegal to sell prescription optics online?

antoinolachtnai

Are these pharmacists buying this because you have a great business proposition, or because they know you personally and have a good relationship with you? If it is the latter, then you are really storing up trouble. Really this is not about the relationship with the individual pharmacist, and all about developing presence and from there, brand. This is a tough thing to do, and you have done well to get anywhere at it.

To go online is completely different, You really need a great, distinctive product that is different from what all the others have. 2500 euros a month is really pretty slow. It just isn't worth the agency's while dealing you for less than that. You could certainly find an agency who will deal with you for less, but it may well not be as good an agency and not equipped to deal with you as you scale.

That said, I have my doubts if it's a good idea for you. The business you want to build online has basically no 'synergy' with the offline business you have, at least in my mind (from the limited amount you have said). It really depends on how great your online proposition is. If it isn't good enough for you to be all ready to invest ten grand in advertising, then your own instinct is probably that it's not that great and not sufficiently appealing.

To make affiliate work, you need a really high margin product that can deliver a big commission (as in tens of euros per item sold) to the affiliate marketer. Your business doesn't sound like the one, though I could be wrong.

But all this is talk. Since you are happy that you are succeeding in dealing with pharmacies, I would say that you should concentrate on that and invest all your capital and energy there. It will take a lot of work and capital to turn your business into a nationwide business and overcome the very serious barriers the other posters have mentioned. If you are doing this, don't bother with the online, unless it complements your business with pharmacies and drives business to them.

But I would really be careful here and make sure that whatever you do makes sense and is worth your time.