My husband has invented a waterproof memo board for use in showers, swimming pools etc and he has set up a website to sell it : http://www.waterproofmemoboards.com I have also tried selling them on eBay using auctions starting at 99pence. However, we are hardly selling any of them - 5 coming up to Christmas and none since. I would appreciate ideas on where we can market them or what we could do to increase sales. The website had 6500 page impressions in January but no sales were made. Thank you for your help.
Are you sure there is even a market for this? I have never used a memo board ever.. Also, get a nice fully SEO'd web 2.0 website. Use things like Google checkout and Adwords combined to etc. Make your site easy to read, understand and access.
I have to admit I was looking for a "buy" action to perform right off the home page and it took me a couple seconds to spot the buy link on the right. I'm no design guru, but I think there could be some improvements. Eric
that is something not a lot people will want to use.. try to sell it in swimming schools.. or try to get in touch with someone who is in the pool business and maybe make a deal.
Well, water proof boards have been around for a long time now. I used to use one all the time 15 years ago. Just a quick search on google brings up this page: http://www.diveriteexpress.com/tools/slates.shtml But that doesn't mean yours won't work too, or compete, etc. Could be much much better.... Look into selling it at dive shops in the southern regions, Caribbean, etc. All Dive Masters usually carry one, so they can write and describe what something is to a tour, etc.... Great place to start.
Hi there, I am a professional marketer and have been working exclusively online now for a couple of years and I have a few essential hints and tips: 1) identify your marketplace. have you looked into all the different markets you could sell it into, diving schools, outdoor workers (it does rain a lot here in the uk hint hint), look at competing products, how and where are they being marketed? does your product fit a specific niche? 2) identify your products unique selling points - without those your product wont stand out. 3) create brand/product awareness, let the industry know what you are about and what your unique selling points are! 4) if you are selling them yourselves through ebay/online this is broadly the same marketing wise as selling into trade, if you dont get the word out nobody will know about your products!! 5) make sure you are not losing conversions when you actually get someone on your website, make sure teh design is as clean as possible and your website looks trusteable... for any more specific pointers feel free to ask me! MOG
tut tut.... online sales may occur rarely,,,, posted on a webmaster forum lol... if "online sales occur rarely" for you, perhaps you would be better off trying another industry mate!! In all seriousness though, do lots of research into your niche then try and develop further on what the market leaders are doing.
ie7 is showing a phishing alert on your buy page, doesnt exactly inspire confidence with potential buyers! That needs clearing up, and make the buy buttons immediately visible on the page too could help.
If your getting a decent amount of traffic to your site then either the copy sucks or there isn't a market for this type of product. Do you see other companies selling something similiar? If it was my site I would remove all the links, get rid of those google ads and make it look like a sales page.
Very good point and I meant to mention that. If you work hard to get traffic to your site, why would you want to then sell that traffic to your direct competitors for a few cents?
The design is poor and doesn't give the impression of being a selling store. You don't need to have joomla. Why don't go for a basic HTML page with clean organized design.
Make up a fake story to get some buzz going around. Something like the memo boards helped bring to justice the killer of Amanda in Pheonix Arizona because while she was being killed by drowning in her pool by someone she wrote the name down on the pad and when they found her body, they found the waterproof pad and then got the killer. I wouldnt use that, but something along those lines if you can think of a good fake story.
lol , thats one hell of an imagination you got aaron m8 , OP i would go with aarons story , would defo get you some traffic
The shower pic makes no sense - I cant see the board in the pic This A4 sized (210mm x 297mm 8.3" x 11.7") waterproof memo board is designed for use indoors and outdoors in wet and dry conditions. It is ideal for places where you need to write but conditions are not suited to paper and pencil such as in the bathroom, swimming pool, garden, kitchen, outside in the rain, and on a building site. The only reason to write on a waterproof board in the bathroom is if I was going to pee on it...u dont need to write waterproof in the BR. I dont write much in the shower... You can write on the boards with the pencil provided and it will not wash off. The pencil can be attached to the board as there is some velcro both on the pencil and board. The velcro disk on the board is on both sides so you can have the pencil either on the right hand or left hand side depending on your preference. This is too wordy. Say " Each board comes with an attachable pencil. " - a big problem is that a special pencil is required, so people knowing they will lose it arent apt to buy. To remove the writing from the board just rub with lint free cloth (such as cotton wool pads). Will it come off if I accidently brush it with my sleeve? cotton wool pads? where do I get those? how about a tissue? The boards have a hole drilled in them so they are easy to hang up, either on a hook, using a 's' hook or using string. This is a nice feature, but just say it has a hole for hanging. Nobody uses string anymore. What is an s hook? Saying the hole is "drilled" seems like it is somewhat mutilated. The transparent boards blend in easily with your room but the black pencil writing shows up clearly. The high visibilty yellow boards are great for you when you need high definition or if you are likely to drop the board, you will be able to find it more easily. You can alsowrite on both sides of the board. I am not so blind that I cant see any color object the size of a paper. A better point is to say that the high def yellow is great for locating a dropped board in water i.e. divers, etc. if selling to pools as suggested, do not push the transparent board as it will be invisible under water. (or can that be made into a game?) Heavily promote the wet aspect. Dry erase boards are better for fry You need to sell this to police/EMS for special use in storms Sell to warehouses with giant refridgeration units for inside the fridge send free boards to companies that you think might order 5+ You need to offer this in white You need to offer colored pencils You need to add magnets and/or sticky mounting tabs If you have transparent, then you can make it transparent pink, blue, etc You need to offer preprinted boards (i.e. office vacation in/out boards, lunch special, etc) You need to get this in Staples/OfficeMax/etc Market this to college students who like to put boards on their dorm doors for visitors to leave messages on I just bought my daughter a paper sized white board (dry erase). There are colored pens. I didnt see the google ads because I was using a computer with adblock, but if you are selling something, take them off asap. One last thing (I am majorly guilty of) - just making a website doesnt help. You have to advertise & promote it. Build it and they will come doesnt seem to work very well on the Internet. If this is your [husbands] niche - obscure office supplies - then PM me for an idea I have for unique reusable labels
Unlike one previous poster, I love Joomla, but you have to go beyond the default templates that come with the install... There are plenty of free cheap, or more expensive but really nice templates available. Pick a design that is "wet" looking... Also, very important, your MetaDescription is repeated: <meta name="description" content="Waterproof Memo Boards, Waterproof Memo Boards" /> might get you penalized? could look like keyword loading on your purchase page you "got creative" and put the <buy now> buttons on alternating sides, DO NOT do that, put them all on the right. And remove the borders from the table, looks scary amateur. Get rid of <search> and <links> fromyour main menu, you should not have either of them. If you can spend a little money, condsider Rockettheme's elixer or simplex (both in the blue/green versions) Finally, you can remove the Joomla text from the footer, and the google ads, unless you are really making money from them, should be removed...
First of all, excellent creativity by your husband - this is great innovation. You should patent it. Then... I think price is not relevant here. I think it has little meaning whether your thing costs £1.00 or £12.50 or £37. Alternatively you could keep the board price, but sell little higher priced pens (like £3 or £5 or whatever). Currently your landing page would need improvement. I would consider hiring a copywriter or learning doing that by yourself. Basically - you need to make it 100% clear that you are selling this stuff, and show how well it benefits the user. Providing some sort of money-back-guarantee that you tie in the benefit could be an option too. Something like "if water wipes any notes, we give you your money back and free... whatnot" And for one thing: create a youtube video and SHOW how well it works. Pour water on the system while you are writing on it and so on. You might also want to remind about "creativity" (I think creative people could use your product)
I have an off line business selling industrial computers and keyboards, but I don't know anyone who would use a memo board? The idea of marketing it through pool shows/ suppliers is a good start.