Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Ezami. Great input. Skin care industry has some awesome numbers for online sales. And again my point is to get customers " that already purchase " our products in our stores to go online , without marketing to them directly from our retail stores " cannot do so because of code of conduct with our wholesalers"

Chris thanks for the input awesome response. But the products and field we are in is a multi -billion dollar industry online ( skin - care ) So there is no disconnect there. Again my point was to engage our current customer base that is coming and PURCHASING in our store to go online and build out database up to potentially provide them helpful info and convert them to online registration from store. 22% return customers in our stores vs. 58% return online. see my point . Contractually i cannot market in our retail stores. codes of conduct. Sucks, but thats the situation and i cannot change it

Great idea. same idea i had. We are currently having contest on our Facebook pages. Works great and awesome interaction with NON customers. but not the target audience , We get people who enter contest not people who want to purchase our products. oh btw we are not and Cannot " contractually " market contest or promotions in our retail stores .

should have mentioned that before

Dana great input. Thank you so much . There is definitely a disconnect from Web store experience to actual store experience with ANY product. Our goal as i explained to EGOL was to eventually be a full retail store, but we cannot be successful with this brand since its so expensive and we cannot " currently at this point " loose our retailers by changing and lowering prices. It is just not a possibility . Excuse my french " this will cause a shit storm " so we are being counter productive and coming out with a new line. First initial thought were GREAT AWESOME , but we have a so called " oomph and power " with our current line. Its like trying to reinvent the wheel over again and i know there is no choice so i will bit my lip on this. So my current engagement process is to get the " current customers " who purchase our products to go online to our store and give us their info. Bottom line.

Marketing efforts on ROI with current brand is off the charts , because our products are so expensive .

EGOL. yes way beyond SEO. this is more conversion strategy than anything else. And i mean conversion strategy in a sense that it is not merely about letting the dragon loose to do whatever it wants.

To kind of go back and answer your answers to better understand the situation

The company is about 7 years old and been online for only 2 years.

Your franchisees have probably been online a lot longer.  You have arrived late the the fight and should not expect them to step aside to give you top rankings.

Our fanchisees and bound by contract not to sell anything online. The people that own stores CANNOT sell online. So technically we have fully been online for about 2 + years. So our retail side is still week.

Income comes from 90% from wholesales/retail stores ( owned by franchisees ) .

For this you should give thanks.

_Great i even said great . It keeps the company afloat. and beyond to support its retail ventures. But its not the end result we want. The margins for retail and margins for wholesale its a big difference. Potential profit level of retail is tremendous in this market. _

the wholesales work with a discount tactic to sell products in the store

For this you should give thanks.  Most businesses on this planet try to give their customers a sweet deal.  They are willing to take a lower profit to make your merchandise fly off of their shelves.  If you don't like this institute a MAP policy or raise the wholesale price.  If you do that you might not like the results.

_EGOL its a Gimmicky tactic they use. And we get a bad rap about this all the time. Customer complaints. and since we have a retail side of things they use our website as a reference. I had originally suggested lowering prices completely off the board, raising brand awareness and brand value and not offering ridiculous 70% off discounts.  Great they make the sale and great they make sure they reach quota but its not the way to do business this century even from a wholesale perspective. " Old School mentality owners " and we can't risk loosing them " NOT JUST YET _

And yes we have our website address on the boxes and products

Smart.  This gives you an enormous opportunity. Are your products any good?  If the customer has a poor or lackluster experience with what they purchased they will not be visiting your website.

_Here is where its tricky. The product is AMAZING and works wonders and we sell them at a such a high retail price that orders are far too many apart and not so frequent. but the unhappiness from my perspective comes from people feeling swindled into buying something they don't need and its happened way to often. and i cannot yell at them and say " you have a the choice of free will here moron. " so i fold my hands and move on . and yes its a smart decision but our search value of the name is greater than direct traffic via entrance of URL. _

But we convert customers at a measly 3.5%

How much landing page testing have you done to improve your conversion rate.  Are the products on your website easy to find and properly described.  Does your checkout work smoothly.   I bet that 3.5% would increase if you got some consulting from someone who knows how to convert visitors into buyers.

_3.5% conversion was testing we did from store to online. not online purchases . online purchasing we are changing our entire testing and purchasing format so we are about 2 months way from imp changes. This conversion is Store purchasers to Online registerers. _

I had thought about putting a little tag on the products or a little booklet inside the packaged boxes

This is a good idea... but I would make it an enticement for visitors to come to your site.  I would not offer a free product because you will probably be swamped with people wanting it.  Have you heard about the huge "free stuff" culture that is out there?  Huge.  You might be really sorry if they get the word out on your free offer.

The idea was to create a booklet to offer free test samples of our products " with them choosing which items to receive for Free, with flat shipping rate $2.99 . and IGOL come on that is GREAT if i am swamped . This is what we want , we want to convert people who purchase our products in our store to go online and visit our site and give us their info ( BOTTOM LINE END GOAL )

i wanted help by asking some of the communities creative mind.

The normal advice given here is to work on increasing your visibility through improved rankings and greater keyword reach.  We might also advise you to get moving on social media.   Your situation seems to have problems (or perceptions of problems) that are outside of SEO.

I am a retailer and my advice to you would be to do everything that you can to help the retailer.  You said that they  are driving 90% of your sales.  Instead you are trying to figure out ways to eat his lunch.  My suppliers generally bend over backwards to help me because they know I am doing the job that they either can't do or are not willing to do.  If these people stop selling your product, you will be out of business.

_They get great support amazing pricing and they make a lot of money selling our products. and for the _actual effect of our wholesale stores customers to convert online is LONG away . it will take a tremendous effort and years until we have actual effects of stores closing " which btw we would love to have a full retail based business " i mean who wouldn't and then have 20% affiliate or wholesales. " this is our goal . To be frank the goal is not to steal them . My explanation is off, i want to build database not to MARKET WITH DISCOUNT but to send helpful info. Btw return customers to our stores are 22% where online its 58% .. see where i am getting at .

Awesome response . Again the goal is not to hit them with promotions and marketing . My top two options currently were to offer A. Sampler sets of products for free . B. build an educational resource to connect all customers together . Not a forum

Thank you guys for all the input but my question for specifically trying to convert the store sales into online customers without upseting out wholesale franchisees. How to I collect email addresses or have them come to our online store without having the stores doing it for us , because they won't cooperate . I  strictly talking conversion strategy from walkin to online . Now the conversion does not have to be a purchase . It could be form fill out , to registration to joining a list . The creativity aspect has to do with the product and how and what I can implement inside the boxes !

thanks again for all the input

Hello Moz Community .

I currently work with an e-commerce company who is the health and beauty sector. The company is about 7 years old and been online for only 2 years. Income comes from 90% from wholesales/retail stores ( owned by franchisees ) . The entire worldwide chains generate about 300 to 400 sales per day with an average sale price of $125 per sale.

The problem i have had for the last year is the boosting online sales. ( we are a very unknown brand ). I have missed about 40% of my target goals and its becoming frustrating.

There is my current dilemma and i need some creative ideas.

The wholesales have a hold on the current market and sale prices of the products. We need to make sure we ok the prices with all the wholesale franchisees before doing anything. We cannot do promotion upfront on the website because the wholesales work with a discount tactic to sell products in the store. Although it is unorthodox , it works for them. My Dilemma is we have a potential 300 to 400 customers per day i can convert to online customers, but i cannot market to them in the store what so ever. I cannot ask the wholesale franchisees to get their email address because they will screen from the mountain tops that we are steeling customers from them .

My question to you guys is , what creative way can i grab customers attentions and of course Email - Addresses to potentially switch them over to online customers. Just a reminder i cannot Do anything in the stores, but however i can do anything i want with the product.

And yes we have our website address on the boxes and products and we even have a life time guarantee on products when they sign up online, But we convert customers at a measly 3.5% with that gimmick .

I had thought about putting a little tag on the products or a little booklet inside the packaged boxes and basically invite the customers to order a free sample set of our products. I wanted to create a landing page and then have them input their information. Then i thought about magnifying the procedure by stating " invite your friends to receive Free samples of our products. " and having them input their friend and family email addresses.

I do feel its a solid idea i have but i wanted help by asking some of the communities creative mind.

If you have any questions about anything please feel free to ask and thank you in advance for all your help.

Best Wishes,

Hampig M.

Alice any example of the Affiliate niche sites. Specifically beauty and skin care. Would love your input. ?

Ya Facebook Waste of money . check out this ridiculous stat

http://i1325.photobucket.com/albums/u636/Bizdetox/ScreenShot2013-07-24at95717PM_zps38f87c46.png

Keri. Thank you so much for bringing that up. Its a great reference to this convo and its definitely warranted. You would be surprised how many people DO NOT know that . I mean really surprised.

We use a company called Readypulse. Awesome guys that work there. Software is really intuitive and does great for promotion but i think they market themselves as more of a social analytics type.

When you say " must not use features such as like button as voting mech" you mean to count towards a vote not Like Gating correct? just wanted to clarify that .

Thanks again

Hampig M.

Lesley thanks for the input again. I am a firm believer in blogs and bloggers. You would be surprised on how much they charge . Its ridiculous man. Sorry bloggers i think you guys need to come down to planets EARTH for a bit.

But some have great value. We have done some promotions with blogs that have worked amazingly and some have Tanked. So i guess my input would be what you said " depending on the niche of your market and the blog ",

Good breakdown on the purchasing sequence. I would say i would probably add impulse buyers on the list and maybe categorize them a bit different but overall i think its a perfect rendition. And no man don't compare impulse buyers to your routine buyers or even the yearly buyers. Bulk vs savings, and consider Want vs need as well. I am sure we can go on and on talking about this.

Thanks again for conversing with me on here it helps a lot . Kind of clearing the mind and walking through everything. Hit me up on skype : bizdetox we should talk some more and share ideas. Also i would love to help you out with your form and give some input as well.

Best Wishes

Hampig M

Audience definitely plays such a big roll in what you are publicizing.

Awesome point on the V-logger. Didnt really think a contest could perform well via Video. hmmmmm something to look into

I agree with almost everything you said but i have to give my opinion on some remarks. I think with most people with ANY marketing tactic it is a trial and error. You said it yourself. What works best for you might not work best for me. Now shifting and comparing Matt Cutts and Rand and why people follow them, we both know there is a MUCH HIGHER conversion based on the field that ( you and I ) are in vs e-commerce. I mean staggering difference. So its like me comparing Lacome or even Proactive and why they have such a big follow ( Money, Length they have been around, Devote fans , highly publicized ) to us a new company barely establishing its roots. I can't compare it and i will be a fool is a did ( preaching to the choir here ).

I strongly believe that facebook or any social media venue ( whatever that may be for your business ) is an amazing marketing tool, in a sense that it builds community and reputation. Its almost to respect of, your damned if you do and damned if you don't. I think where people go wrong is what i call the " ignorance is bliss effect ". Slammed with sales after promotion and sales and more sales and oh well refund your money 2X if you dont like our product. Really? that still works in this world . ( btw that was a tv sales tactic i saw the other day )

So my point here is every avenue i have to try and see what is converting after all all efforts are pointless if you cannot answer this one simple questions

" why do i need 1 million likes on facebook " or better yet " what is my end goal of getting 1 million likes " and I say 1 million likes because this company i am working for has their site set towards that. Again, "ignorance is bliss affect ".

Not to get off subject or anything, but my inclination for affiliate marketing was a broader scope of a limited budget to get Maximum exposure . Bloggers Sure. Probably the BEST PRACTICE so far for what i am doing. But time, energy and effort play such a big roll with that . And with pretty much me as a one man show here, my hands are slightly tied. Limited efforts, limited results.

Btw loved your response so i shared it on twitter

Lesley . Thanks for the input.  We were using rafflecopter before, but our current goal is to increase traffic and engagement on our Facebook page.

I like rafflecopter but we currently use a software from ReadyPulse, which DIRECTLY imports user data into our email campaign list. We got some good results and i believe you are right there is no magic potion here to get a lot of traffic. ( try explain that to ownership. )

I like the Social amplification of Rafflecopter bec it allows you to turn it into a point system based where the more they engage the better chance they have to win . But we also like the control we have with Ready Pulse and plus they have some amazing analytics tools

Hmm i guess my initial inclination by attacking big blog lists as well as affiliate programming probably is the best way to go for it.

But even with affiliate i mean how to i reward the affiliates /?

Hey guys. A company i work for has decided to aggressively do Facebook contests and promotions. Giving away $1000 Gift cards via Like Gating etc.

I wanted to know if anyone on the forum has had any experience with contests and how to promoted them. Tried the normal avenues. Facebook promo ( waste of money btw ) Promoted Tweets ( had some good results ) Contest sites ( sweeps advantage and all the top ones ). Email marketing push, blog etc. Even hit up a few our link partners to promote it

But I am wondering if i missed anything. I see company make big pushes and get thousands of likes. Our Company ownership has a ridiculous expectations of 10k + in likes Each time we run a contest ( contest last 2 weeks ). I just don't see that happening or am i wrong?

I am thinking affiliate marketing might be the way to go but I am seeking the forums help

Thanks again,

I did they sent me a MySQL file I am guessing I can important that into my own joomla site and pull the urls ?

Ill check out the links you gave me but something company is nexcuss I think

Hey guys how do I pull an old sitemap or URL structure of a site ! This company I am helping out . Build a new site without any 301 redirect ! It's been about 2 months and hosting company sent me. SQL database file said we basically need to build another site !

Wondering if there are any other ways to see what exact urls were existent before their change over

Bec i am not sure if iam running the Joomla Sef feature or the SEF404. I have installed SEF404 but i dont think i have configured it !

Adam you think disabling the SEF404 feature will fix the problem.