I want to sell unique women scarves made of down on the US and UK markets. They were being knitted by hand for 300 years in a small russian town from the unique material. I made a website http://www.warmth-of-russia.com, but didn't receive any order. I've tried google and facebook ads without a success. What should I do to get customers?
Disclaimer: I live in russia myself.
Facebook ads are not effective and actually far too costly for independent businesses. Unless you have a huge advertising budget, I don't advise it. To break into the hipster market You need 3 things. Great (concise) story, Great branding, and social engagement.
Luckily, you have "provenance"----the place of origin or earliest known history of something. Provenance is an important quality to convey in your brand's story especially when targeting the hipster demographic who are preoccupied by the origin of all things----they're generally well educated and like to know where everything that they consume comes from.
Great branding: Branding is a combination of visual consistency that positions you as different from competitors. I would consider coming up with a different name. Warmth of Russia, to me, seems long and vague. Maybe going back to the idea of provenance, is there a Russian word that's easy to pronounce and unique? Maybe the particular city where the scarves are made of. Maybe some Russian lore that can be woven into your product's story. I would make a list of 50 different names and then narrow it down to something that you think clicks. I would redesign your site and visuals as well with consideration to photographic styles, font type, colors etc to something a little edgier and different. To me, the colors, font type seem a bit retiring, snoozy. Happy to discuss more because this is a bit more nuanced. As for your site, Squarespace is a great option for making a great, professional looking e-commerce site, and they make it hard to design anything bad. Related to this, excellent SEO practice will bring more traffic to your site. I'm sure there are plenty here on Clarity who can advise you on best practices there.
Next, Social Engagement. You need to demonstrate people using your scarves, the making of the scarves, where the scarves come from, the yarn used for the scarves, etc. You can take pictures of all of these things and tell the story visually all on instagram. If you haven't already made an Instagram account, I would do so immediately. It will take time, but you can build a loyal following of people who believe in your brand story if you do a good job of visually telling it, and engaging with followers. Obviously there's more to it than just this but happy to discuss more specifically once you've thought more about what this brand is.
Hope all of this helps, best of luck!~
Hello Mary
I was wondering about 2 terms you were using in your description.
1. fashion product
2. hipsters
I think your product is not a fashion product, neither you should market it to the so called "hipster"consumer group.
Why ?
Hipster- your website and product does not speak to a nerdy early adaptor in Brooklyn or Berlin.
Fashion- Fashion products are here today and gone tomorrow.
Your product and you major argument is about elegance functionality + heritage.
I guess you should compete with cashmere which is a key product in the luxury market. (Is your product really Better than cashmere ? ...)
You market your product as female and elegant which is more related to a female shopper scanning the websites of luxury brands.
Think about the following:
Research cashmere shawls at luxury web shops, check wording + price levels, brands (I think you product is to cheap)
Try to get into your consumers mind and understand her motivation.
Think about where your typical consumer could find your product and how you could get credibility to compete against luxury brands.(Think about magazines, fashion bloggers)
Design your Purchase funnel (check wikipedia)
Learn about fashion+luxury
there is a free course on Coursera about managing fashion and luxury companies
https://www.coursera.org/course/mafash
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Best regards Christoph
The biggest concern I have is what you wrote about Facebook and Google.
To win in advertising, you must fail. That's more than a snazzy saying, it's the reality that makes many people quit before seeing any favorable results. :)
If I was working with you, I'd ask to review your results on those Facebook ads.
Those metrics have a story to tell you.
You'll find out what didn't work and where to go next.
Did you do any split testing?
Did you let your ad reach enough people before it was deemed "Unsuccessful"?
Did you have your buyer persona written out in detail?
Did you research the "competition" at all?
Did you take advantage of the rich targeting features to hone in on the best, most qualified buyers? (You can't get this functionality anywhere else in the world right now)
Facebook dark posts still work,
They are very effective, especially for folks with smaller budgets. I primarily work with Solopreneurs (one man shows) and they don't need to spend $1000's of dollars to get real results.
Advertising and social selling in general is a process that should be scaled up over time as it makes sense to do so.
By the way, I love the site. It's clean and classy. Not exactly what I think of when I think "hipster" but that's not your major problem right now.
Getting those first customers is the main issue.
Everything else will seamlessly come together as you acquire paying customers.
Like Mark Cuban says, "Sales are the cure all."
So in order to keep afloat and moving forward, I strongly suggest digging into those metrics and giving Facebook an intentional shot with a new focus.
Instagram will be rolling out ads soon, you could start to build up your following there with minimal effort daily so you can test ads when they open up for business.
Pinterest is another big traffic gold-mine that would be a fit for your brand and demographic.
Yet, I say-- review the metrics that you already have. They've already got a story to tell you.
Then, go from there with one solid plan to stick with until you can honestly rule it out as ineffective.
If you want to chat on this, I'd be happy to. This is my sweet spot. :)
Best wishes to you and Congratulations on your new venture.
