So I refuse to let 2020 be a bad year.
Like I am completely and totally hellbent against this year being bad. Despite what everyone else and the media has to say to me, this year is going pretty good!
While I'm not in a complete quarantine like some folks, I'm "essential" to some extent, but I'm still taking this quarantine period as an opportunity to further reach for my goals. The biggest change for my daily routine is I am now working night shifts (I guess they're swing shifts, really) so instead of working my 8 to 5, I work 2:30 to 11PM. This is really beneficial, as my most productive hours of the day are 9AM to 2PM; so instead of giving those away, I can now use them myself, which is awesome!
This has given me a good leg up on the book I'm writing, my build projects, and BRACE Design, which will be rolling out a whole host of new products this year!
That's what I want to focus on here a little bit, is new products and selling them and my experiences so far. I am not a marketer by trade, I'm just making a lot of things up and reading articles on the internet, so whether my results are good or bad, or could be better or worse, I'm not sure, but let me break down my sales funnel, and how I'm analyzing it to determine pitfalls or "areas for improvement."
BRACE DESIGN SALES FUNNEL:
1. Awareness
BRACE Design has a Facebook page (link) that runs an ad. I spend 1$ a day on advertising, and up to 5$ a day when there is something special or urgent (for no more than one day). The Facebook ad drives traffic to...
2. Create Interest
...the product info/landing page on the BRACE website. Here is a more detailed breakdown of the products features, how it was made, design intent, etc. This page is usually advertised on the rest of the site, and gets some more traffic organically. At the bottom of this page, there is then a link to my...
3. Sales Pitch
...Etsy store, where the price is revealed, and more or less the same information is presented as before. Etsy can bring in its own traffic at this point, but analytics show that I drive 100% of the traffic. Hopefully, at this point they will decide to make a...
4. Sale
Add to cart, check out, trade money for product.
At each one of these points, you will lose some people. You will never have 100% conversion, it's just not possible. So on an average week, here's how the numbers look:
1. Facebook ad makes 3892 impressions, and gets 261 link clicks
2. Product landing page gets 276 views (some extra traffic is driven internally and with SEO)
3. Etsy page gets 45 views
4. Zero sales on average
So conversion rates are as follows:
1. Facebook impression to click conversion: 6.7% (meh)
2. Landing page to store listing: 16.3% (Great!)
3. Store sales conversion: 0% (yikes)
Now I can look through my conversion rates and investigate any flaws or areas needing improvement.
Obviously zero sales (on average) is a red flag, but I'm not sure how to fix that, as the store page presents the same information as the landing page. Sure, the sales pitch could be an issue, but I don't know enough to be able to diagnose or come up with a solution. What I can do is assume what's changed between the two is the problem: either the price (BRACE is premium stuff, with a premium price) or the storefront (Etsy) is the issue. Maybe it's a combination? I'm not sure. I will switch to a shopify powered store eventually, which may help with conversions?
Aside from that area obviously needing attention, I can see that my Facebook ad to click rate is a little low for my liking; I want double digits as much as I can get them. So that might mean a change in who the ad is targeting, or a change to the imagery and copy used in the ad. I don't want a shotgun approach to advertising, as that is a waste of money. I feel like I know who the target audience is well enough to make it all work, eventually.
Happy quarantine,
-Jeremy
