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| Original Message Added : 17 April 2009 I started a custom-made fight-wear business (boxing, muay thai, MMA) about six months ago. We have a shop in Phuket, Thailand, and service local custom from there. We get reasonable turnover through the shop but is not terribly profitable as visitors to thailand expect things to be cheap. Without running a large sweatshop, which I have no interest in, we will never have the volumes to make money on local orders. I am based in the UK and am wracking my brains for international marketing ideas. We also have a website www.boXXerworld.com. This, and facebook, is where we get most of our international orders, which are about twice as profitable as local ones. When boxers get their special custom-made kit they are literally like kids on Christmas day; it is remarkable to behold the joy the product brings, especially when coupled with a personal service. As I am a professional boxer, and get quite a lot of press, customers tend to enjoy communicating with me and feel they are getting a special service. The problem is, I don't know how to ramp up our international orders. Facebook is very useful but you have to stay on top of it and spend quite a bit of time talking to people and adding new pictures to generate orders. The website is not optimised and we don't have google adwords so there is clear room for improvement there when we get time to come to terms with it all. We also need to re-do the website as a big priority as it's not very user friendly and the galleries are very cumbersome. A few of things I have tought of is: 1. engaging a limited number of boxers/ thai boxers around the world to act as agents on a commission basis... as the sport is their passion, if I can train them to help customers with their designs this may work. However, they would need to be very motivated as it takes quite a bit of work (I was thinking of offering 10-15%) 2. Is there some way of creating an instant message system on the website like on facebook? I am in the UK timezone and my laptop is on a lot. My business manager is in Thailand (7 hours ahead) and near his computer a lot too so we'd probably catch quite a lot of inquiries between us. I think a lot of the problem is that people have a lot of questions and perhaps if they can't have them answered right away they lose interest. 3. Pricing- we don't have prices on the website. The reason being that we don't know what currency to put them in and also we don't want to deter local custom, to whom we sell much more cheaply. 4. The site was originally going to offer a full "design-toolkit" and be unique in this regard but i soon realised people have no idea what they want. They need help, ideas and feedback. Is it best simply to offer the garment templates showing people how to measure and allowing those who do want to draw their designs to do so? 5. I wanted to create a community feel on the site with customers being able to upload pics of themselves wearing out kit etc but i'm not sure it's worth it and if they don't bother to use the member services it will look bad. 6. I have considered engaging a marketing firm for advice but simply don't know where to turn for someone who both understands general principles and the relevant industries. Sorry for the long message, I really could have gone on for pages! |
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| Reply : 20 April 2009 |
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| Reply : 20 April 2009 Hi Laura, I think you have a great opportunity on your hands with this type of business as it's niche, you are a celebrity in a sport and, and you know for certain that there is a hungry market based on your own needs. A pretty hot combination all round. Probably the quickest way to increase international orders is by starting an affiliate program on your site. Basically you allow other to advertise your stuff on their site and when someone clicks thru and orders then you pay a commission. Here is a competitor site. See how they are doing it. Secondly, I've had a quick search just on 'ladies boxing shorts' and there are about 22 advertisers using Adwords which is a good indication that there is a good competitive market to go for. And given only 22 competing means it won't cost a lot to get on page 1. Your website could definitely be improved to make navigation easier. However don't go spending a fortune on it just yet. Some of the worst sites on the web still get orders because they sell what a person is looking for. Sure your conversion goes up with a better navigating site but lets see if we drive the traffic to it first. So Adwords is an easy win. If you want help with this then let me know. You mention using other international fighters to sell your product on a commission basis. This is another great opportunity only someone in your position could do. Again people love to interact with professionals in any field. What I would advise though is working out how they can promote the product with out getting too bogged down in the design and delivery phase. You could make very good use of Virtual resources around the world, via the internet, to carry out this part of the sale. I think your best currency to display would be $US Dollars. Everyone knows how to convert from $US into their own currency. (And people in the UK think they are getting a bargain - as long as the exchange rate is in our favour). There is a way to get a great looking website without it costing you the Earth. However I'm not going to reveal this little secret to the masses. So contact me if you want to know more... Hope this helps Warm regards, PS If you do want to outsource your marketing then I would be only to happy to help. |
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| Reply : 24 April 2009 Hi Laura, Just a quick note to say Steve's advice is solid. Let me know if he tells you his little secret! He's also got a free relevant/interesting ebook which you'll find in some of his other posts (or ask him for it). I've been sending you traffic from Twitter (Global market) using a free Twitter advertising trial that I've been helping with. Over 160 visitors so far, so hope you get some sales/exposure from that. I've also dropped you some other comments by email. Good luck with it - custom boxing shorts and fight wear looks like a great niche. |
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