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MenuI have a skincare brand of 3 amazing products but it has been very difficult to get sales. How can I sell my inventory without breaking the bank?
I have a skincare brand of organic, natural, vegan, and cruelty-free products. I have 3 products so far and formulas for the rest of the line but it has been very difficult to get sales and I am thinking of selling the inventory that I have (2,500 bottles of each one of my three products), and then analyze how to relaunch the brand. But first, I need to monetize and the only way to do this is by selling my inventory. Should I find a distributor and if so, where do I find a good one?
Answers
Consider working with social media influencers (either YouTube or Instagram) to get your product out there. Assuming you have a website setup and can sell product directly, micro influencers are are great way to spread awareness and drive people to your website.
First of all, well done you for starting a business and taking a risk! Tricky especially with the minimum order quantities that you had probably to submit to....
It is really difficult to answer your question as we don't know if your product is not selling because the product is bad, the price too high, the target group is wrong, the ads are not connecting or the distribution channels are wrong, or all of this or something else :)
In anycase, in general you will most likely sell those products at loss whatever the channel you select. Therefore my suggestion, assuming your product is good (we could spend time defining what "good" is but let's keep this for a future discussion), is to send it as a gift to people that :
- can give you feedback or reviews on the product
- can be your future partners (Social media influencers, journalists, retailers...)
- family and friends .... and anybody who you could ask a favor to in the future ;)
Before you do that, I'm happy to jump on a call to understand what should be fixed in your offering, communication or distribution. It might be only a couple of elements.
Hello. All i can say is that you can sale your beauty brands in the following ways without breaking a bank.
You will need to set up your online store in case you do not have one. I will recommend signing up at- https://www.bluehost.com/track/caesim/ since they have affordable rates, free SSL certificate, and a free domain name for the first year. Try out their free trial, i am sure it will cost you nothing.
Now use your website to describe the texture, application, finish, and use of the product. Customers do not have access to trying your product on their own skin. So be as detailed as possible. Keep it less cluttered while adding full ingredient listings, warnings, allergy notices and beauty tips. Enhance product pages with large clear images of the product on a white back ground. Consider using more media like videos and make up tutorials can live on product pages or gallery on the website. Bluehost has nice themes which are fully customizable and can accommodate your brand’s logo, fonts, colours and design.
Market your beauty products. The beauty space is so challenging and competitive for emerging brands, while the industry is saturated with large brands that have even larger ad spends. Now for your case if you do not want to break a bank then i would recommend you sign up for a marketing software called GetResponse at https://www.getresponse.com/?a=WVK9TnCHHf. Depending on your niche audience, identify them, find out where they hang out, speak their language.
Tip. Email marketing will be an important means to get you sales and all this is possible with Get Response. GetResponse is a powerful tool , simplified tool to send emails, create pages, and automate your marketing. By the way, they have a free trial which you can decide to try out. So with GetResponse you will get leads, sales and your business will grow.
Also use the power of social proof and product reviews. Study shows that 70% of people say they look at product reviews before making a purchase. Word of mouth from your average customer can be powerful. So consider offering discounts on future purchases or send product samples to encourage sharing which in the end will give reviews to your products hence making more sales.
You can also use brand partnerships and use of beauty influencers. There are people who make their living by promoting other brands. An example is James Charles who has been viewed more than 43 million times. Most beauty customers are turning to their online influencers on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram before buying a product. If you decide to partner with an influencer , there are many lesser- known creators with smaller but engaged audiences who may be more affordable to work with if you are just starting out and you do not want to break a bank.
If you follow the above methods then am sure you will be able to sale your beauty products without breaking a bank and more so i am available for a strategy call just in case you have more questions. Let me know what you think or share with me what you think will be appropriate for you to sale your beauty products from the above methods.
I think the best way for you to sell your products would be a product funnel (a lead magnet with opt-in page, a really good sales page for each product, a checkout page and email automation).
If you want to sell more than one product at a time or build a brand you'll benefit from a website with a home page, about and contact page.
Next, send as much traffic as you can afford to your sales pages with FB ads.
This is a reliable way to make sales and grow your brand. Probably one of the fastest too.
However, I don't know what your numbers are... so Facebook Ads may not be affordable.
I'm able to get leads for $0.41 cents, but I've seen average cost per lead metrics ranging from $4 to $22. And that's just leads (email signups) only a percentage of your leads will convert to customers.
My conversion rates are between 10% and 60%, but most people convert below 10% (many times at 1%). That means less than 10% of the people who's email addresses you collect will actually buy one of your products. That's why it's important to grow your subscriber list.
If you're looking for the lowest cost solutions, try the influencer marketing as someone else mentioned. You can get some big wins with this strategy.
This article should give you a good start:
https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/instagram-influencer-marketing
You can also try selling on FB Marketplace, ETSY or eBay.
Tip #1: Your best option is almost always paid ads (if you know what your doing). They really are cheaper and get results faster... but, you need to have some money to invest in your ad spend.
Tip #2: If you don't know what you're doing, hire it out. Marketing doesn't break the bank. It's an investment. If you're not making $5-$10+ for every $1 dollar you invest in marketing or advertising, you should hire it out.
If you need more information or clarification, book a free consultation.
Securing a professional business coach or a mentor that is affordable and specialize in marketing will be the best investment you can make at this point. They will be able to help you with packaging and messaging that will help you stand out and attract buying customers to you. It may take you awhile but don't give up. If you want to explore some options with me I will be glad to connect.
Hi! Great question. Have you considered contacting both large and small subscription box companies? They're always looking to buy new, innovative products and you could offer them wholesale so that you take some profits home. The other idea you could also try out is selling at local markets. Hope this helps and am happy to throw out some more ideas if needed!
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Generally bootstrapped startups should avoid salespeople, for a few reasons: a. they typically can't afford the base and overall comp required to attract sales people who can actually sell / or afford to support them with marketing, management, etc b. it will be very difficult to find the rare person with the right mix of sales and startup DNA along with the critical domain knowledge, consequently the startup is likely to settle c. the founders need to be very involved in the selling and customers will demand it That said, if the plan is still to hire a salesperson, find someone who has demonstrated sales success in startups and is excited by the early stage in company building. Create a comp plan heavily leveraged on sales results (unless you are in an industry where 100% commission is a common practice, would recommend against $0 base as this creates the false impression that your hire isn't passing time with one company while looking for another job with a richer comp plan - you want your rep focussed). Sell the vision and opportunity to be part of a growth story. I have written a several blog posts on hiring sales people into start-ups. You might find these useful: http://www.peaksalesrecruiting.com/ceo-question-should-i-learn-to-sell-or-hire-a-sales-person/ http://www.peaksalesrecruiting.com/start-up-sales-and-hiring-advice-dont-stop-selling-once-you-hire-your-first-sales-rep/ http://www.peaksalesrecruiting.com/hiring-start-up-sales-reps/ http://www.peaksalesrecruiting.com/startups-and-salespeople/ Good luck!EB
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What should my consulting rates be as a freelance developer who can also do SEO, social media optimization and other marketing services?
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Best sales funnel to scale $47 fitness infoproduct?
Scaling with paid/cold traffic is a very different kind of beast. Depending on your paid traffic source their motivations and behavior is different than that of a house list or affiliate / JV traffic. Usually paid (cold) traffic is more difficult to convert with a $47 initial offer. I've had success warming up this type of traffic, with clients of mine, before asking for that level of sale. There are some exceptions to the rule depending on how rabid your market is to buy, but the fitness niche is usually more skeptical. You can warm them up by starting with an email opt in to a lead magnet then present them with your $47 sales offer, theres a side benefit to this as well. The other way to warm them up is to start with a survey leading them into a customized VSL to your $47 product. There's also some major benefits here if you segment your traffic right. As far as after the initial sale in regards to the backend funnel itself my typical flow looks like this: Sales page > Up Sell #1 > Down Sell #1 > Up Sell #2 > Thank you page. However some of my clients have much more than 2 up sells in place in some funnels. The trick is that your up sells should flow logically to each other. Meaning make your first up sell a product that gets your target market to their desired solution faster and easier with the up sell. For your down sell, you can keep the same product / offer but lower the price or offer a payment plan. Hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions.BH
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What's a reasonable profit margin on merchandise?
Are you the manufacturer or reseller? If you are the reseller, typically about 40-50% above cost. Use the MSRP as an indicator.ZR
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