I Have A Quality Brand & Website. How Do I Get Sales?

[Dee_Greene]

I have a quality website (www.xiiplvs.com) for my clothing line XII PLVS and now I want to drive traffic. Our brand, pronounced Twelve Plus, is a Christian based line that focuses on putting out quality designs and media unlike a lot of other "positive" brands who are mostly cheesy.

I have tried Facebook Ads and Google PPC, however, I have NEVER had a conversion from either. I get traffic but I havent gotten any sales from that. All the sales I have gotten so far are from people that I know.

For the quality of the website and products, I feel like our sales should be a LOT higher.

I have been running the brand serioursly since Feb. of this year, and I have had Shopify for maybe 3-4 months. We are active on social media (@xiiplvs) on all platforms, however I am the only person in the company. So I do everything.

If anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears.

Twitter: http://twitter.com/xiiplvs

Instagram: http://instagram.com/xiiplvs

Facebook: http://facebook.com/xiiplvs

[Ramon_Bez]

Hi Dee Greene,

The beginning of any company is the time where you need to first validate if there's even a market for your product.

You talked about your market being of "hip" Christians, if I understood correctly. My question is: where do they hangout online and offline? Is it Facebook? If yes, what kind of groups do they belong to? Or maybe it's somewhere else? This is the time start hustling and manually reach out to people where they are (and not where your brand is), answer questions, gather feedback and learn more about what they want. 

As an example, this is what I'm doing here on the Shopify forum. I want to promote my blog posts, but growing traffic from zero isn't easy. I could just start dumping money on advertising, but it's much more worthwhile (even though it's a lot more work) to come here and be helpful to the people like yourself, that are in my target market. 

"In the beginning, do things that don't scale" is a great advice I received in the past. 

If you want to learn more about the stages that every company needs to go through before they become successful, have a read at this post I wrote about it: https://blog.aftership.com/3-steps-to-start-using-data-to-grow-sales/

I hope you like it!

Ramon Bez Content Marketing & Growth at Compass.co
Compass: The #1 Reporting App in Shopify
https://apps.shopify.com/compass

[Hao_Xu]

Hi Dee Greene!

Just saw your website and i think it is awesome! Are you running the ads of Facebook and Google by yourself or are you working with a PPC company? I think that the main reason of why you get traffic but no conversions is that you are using wrong keywords, which drives wrong targets to your website.

If you are not used to using Adwords, we can run your campaigns for free so that you can save time for doing other things to keep improving your Ecommerce. Here is the link to our app, contact us for any question you may have: https://apps.shopify.com/cleverppc

Best regards.

Hao Xu

Marketing Department of Clever Ecommerce

[Dee_Greene]

Thanks for the response and kind feedback Hao.

To answer your question: Yes and No lol. I'm running the AdWords account by myself, but I also work with Google (almost daily) to optimize my account. So I check the keywords daily as well and I also have added negative keywords.

The search results are related to my products and what im looking for. However, maybe there are some additional keywords that might help get the actual sale.

[Dee_Greene]

Great blog post. Lots of good information. It is very difficult to monitor and truly understand all of the metrics when you are just starting off and doing everything yourself.

Like you mentioned, doing things very cost effective is key. It may take more work, but if you have more time than money then it may be the best option.

Right now I need to make sure my time and money is going into the right areas. I have no problem with being patient. However, I want to make sure my ROI is good. It's a lot of learning and applying (and unfortunately, getting help in a lot of these areas costs money that I normally dont have).

I would deff like to hear more from you tho!

[Ramon_Bez]

Awesome. We'll see each other more frequently here in the forum itself, for sure.

If you're on Twitter, you could follow @startupcompass and my personal profile @ramonbez there. On Facebook, we post a lot of interesting stuff on this page: https://www.facebook.com/Compass.bi

You can also sign up to get our posts by email here: http://compass.us10.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=a14b390d356c21cce795dfd94&id=e9dbf4d857

Not to mention that I'm always available on email: ramon (at) compass.co

-R

[Andre15]

Hey man, I checked your site it looks pretty good. Clothing seems dope as well. Pics are great. 

I think all you have to do is reach out to a known Christian who has shown to have good taste and dope pics on insta and pay them to give you a shout out. Or better send them free clothing and ask them to post a pic on insta and @ you. 

Just hang in there. There's so much little leg work you have to do. 

[Dee_Greene]

Thank you Andre. I think you're right.

I really just need to get more gear in the right people's hands. That can be a cheaper way of advertising and you know for sure that people are getting the clothing that way.

I appreciate the feedback!

[Hao_Xu]

Hi again Dee Greene!:

It can be really hard if you have to run everything by yourself, let us help you!

We will run all your Adwords Campaigns, create beautifuls banners, support you on Adwords questions... All this for free! Once our work is finished all you have to do is check everything is ok!

Let us save time for you so you can use your time for do other things to keep growing your Ecommerce.

Lets build a WIN-WIN relation!

https://apps.shopify.com/cleverppc

If you have any other question feel free to contact me!

Best regards.

Hao Xu

Marketing Department of Clever Ecommerce.

[Craig_Biertempf]

A few tid-bits to add...

I see you are posting to FB but I don;t see any promotional posts.  You got to consistently plan and post promotional content for FB to compliment the conversational posts, informational posts, shared content, etc..  Each product has a specific URL off your store, use that unique product URL and shorten using bit.ly then create posts that - tell me what it is you are posting about, tell me what the value of that "something" is and then tell me what you want me to do (i.e. buy, shop, join our list, etc.).  One reason you are not getting any conversions from FB is you're not posting promotional posts that point me to products you want me to buy.

Second, are you using email?  If so, try including a few products in an email, with descriptions (that entice or sell the product).  Don't overwhelm the viewer with a ton of products in an email, make the email simple/short/sweet and to thje point.  If you give the viewer to many products to consider they'll chose none, if you are direct and to the point and have a clear CTA (call to action) in the email they'll be focus don that product or few products and chose to buy.  You should be consistently emailing customers as well, it is the best way to reach potential customers.

[Toni_Sing]

Hey Dee! 

Your photos are amazing! No doubt! So to ask you a question on your slider images - Are they your best selling products?

If not, I'd recommend a change up to what is. Maybe it's those hats that are blowing up your insta feed? Also, keep in mind that not every woman can identify with baring her belly so having them as your main images may make them feel like they don't belong at first. But you'll know your prime audience and you can see your analtytics to determine how far in they click. 

Hope that helps give you some other considerations. Go get 'em!  Great mission! God Bless!

[Dee_Greene]

Thank you for your post Craig.

You made some great points. Do you have any great examples of promotional posts that I could use for reference? That would be awesome.

I do actually use email (mailchimp). So I send emails about sales, promos, new items, etc. I also send emails once a week about any new blog posts.

I know that I do need to be more consistent with everything tho. It's just a lot doing everything myself, but I think if I know what works and get into a routine I'll be able to handle it!

[Dee_Greene]

Thanks so much Toni!

Great points. I just made some changes to the website to reflect your feedback. I think that makes the website a lot better! Thanks

[Leonard_V]

This is to Hao Xu

I reviewed your site and app but still need to understand what it is that you can do.

Before installing your app, I like to get clear understanding of your services and the costs.

Pls take a look at our site silislick.com and respond.

Thanks much

[Dylan_Hare]

I would second the idea of insta shout outs! You'd be surprised how cheap it can be and the he roi is nice if you choose the right account. Mass message a bunch of related accounts and pick whichever tickles your fancy ! 

[MonicaMaria]

Hi Dee,

We are in a similar situation and know how hard it is to get your brand out there.  Shopify has so many great apps that can really help.  Have you checked into Fishbowl? (https://apps.shopify.com/fishbowl-prizes)  With a minimul investment of a giving away a prize, you can get alot of exposure and increase your mailing list.

All the best,

Monica

[Hao_Xu]

Hi Leonard!:

Let me introduce the app for you!. Our company developed a software with his own algorithms which is programmed to optimize your campaigns. This mean that the daily budget that you set, will be optimized. In addition, we will also create banners for your internet ads (we also send them to you so you can download them and use it as you want). All this is for free! You don´t have to pay us anything! The only cost you will have is the daily ads budget for Adwords that you set (you can change it anytime you want)

By the way, our company is recognized by Google as a Google Partner.

If you have more questions, keep contacting me 🙂

Hao Xu

Marketing Department of Clever Ecommerce.

[Woodies_Captain]

Call to action.  I'm on your homepage.  What do you want me to do?  Shop?  Ok, it's the tiniest little button that says shop.  

Checkout this theme, Colors (https://themes.shopify.com/themes/colors/styles/generic/preview)

Look right there, a nice 'buy now' button right on the homepage . 

I'm re-designing my site with Colors I'm at Woodies.com

I think this change will boost your conversions

[Dee_Greene]

Hey Cory,

Thank you for the feedback. I have made some changes on the site to reflect your input. Let me know what you think.

[Leonard_V]

Hao Xu,

Lets take this conversation private.

gems10021@yahoo.com

Thanks

Leonard