Have you always wondered how you could turn your little idea into a big dream? There’s good news. You’ve come to the perfect place.
We can see from reading many of the inspiring stories out there that many businesses can turn one small idea into a successful e-commerce business. One such example is Beardbrand who market themselves as a business which wants to help men feel more confident about themselves. Beardbrand sells grooming products as one way to help people men’s confidence. So one crucial thing to know in order to grow your small idea into a big commercial success is the reason why your business exists. Casper made it big with just a single product, a mattress in a box. Another great success story is how Beer Cartel managed to increase its revenue through effective content marketing. These are just a few examples of how people have gone about creating a big business from one good idea.
What is more, there is great value in learning how to do one thing well. That’s all you need to do really. By focusing on a single product you’ll easily be able to state what makes your product interesting and unique, without having your potential buyers overwhelmed by too much choice. You will be free to concentrate on providing excellent customer service while doing thing one thing better than all your competitors.
We hope that the following 5 rules to building a website designed to sell one new product will help put you on the road to success.
What are we waiting for? Let’s find out more.
Understand your niche and your buyer
To sell a single new product through your e-store you have to be aware of who your audience is. In order to be successful at selling your product, it must have either unique selling points or be aimed at a very specific niche in the market. A niche is a small targetable section of a particular market. In other words, a niche is a subset of a given market consisting of customers who are often passionate and selective about what they buy. These customers are not usually catered for by the larger market and products that appeal to them are not always in high demand. Thus, niches tend to be less competitive than larger markets because your target audience is normally under-served.
To understand where a new product fits into a market you need to identify its unique selling proposition (USP). What makes your product stand out? What makes it different from what your competitors are offering? This can be a wide range of things. Is your product more affordable than your competitor’s? Is it of a higher quality? It is important to remember that you can’t stand out for everything. Figure out what your product’s USP is and stick to it. That way you can use it more effectively in your marketing strategy.
The next thing you need to do is to begin to understand your buyer. The best way to do this is to build a customer avatar so that you have a clear idea of the type of people you are marketing to. Your customer avatar represents your ideal buyer. Understanding your customer avatar allows you to understand the best way to reach out to buyers. You can use a combination of online research and surveys to find out more about your potential buyers. There are several helpful templates available online. Some of the characteristics you will want to find out about your buyer include the following:
- Their age, marital status, whether or not they have children, their educational background and affluence.
- What products or brands they are likely to buy, their likes and dislikes, typical behaviours and political leanings.
- How do they connect with others and what is most important to them? What do they want? What do they think is significant? In what way do they prefer to be contacted?
When you have created a detailed customer avatar, you will have a better idea of how to find and target your niche.
Get creative with your homepage content
Another factor that can make or break a single product launch is how well you manage your website’s homepage.
How then should you fill the space on your homepage? After all, this is the place where people will decide within about 5-10 whether your product is something they would buy. Therefore, it’s vital to get it right. Think of imaginative ways to explain how what you’re selling works, what the product’s features are and why people like it or want it. Be sure to look at your competitors’ websites or other successful single product homepages to get some ideas. For example, Neos promoting their security camera.
It’s best not to go mad trying to fill every inch of white space. Instead, keep things simple and remember that in business less is more. Here are a few ideas on how you get creative with your content.
- You can describe your process with icons and text. Show your customers your product’s technical specifications and features at a glance.
- Use a gif showing your product working/ being used so that your buyers can view it in action. You could also do this using a short video. You can also use a video tell help tell the story of your product in an interesting and dynamic way.
- Draw customer’s attention to any press mentions, reviews or testimonials.
- Provide your buyer with any setup, or assembly instructions if needed. Be sure to make these as simple as possible.
- Include excellent high-quality images to really showcase your fantastic product.
- Make sure your homepage is eye-catching and attractive. You can create a narrative of how your product is made, or what it does. Give your customer a truly enjoyable experience on your website to make it more likely that they will buy. You can even use slick interactive displays to tell the story of your product.
Above all, remember to keep things simple and relevant. Don’t overload potential buyers with a homepage crammed with too much information.
Marketing your product simply but effectively
After setting up a fantastic homepage, what are the next steps you need to take in order to market your product? Knowing your audience allows you to market your product more effectively. You need to find out what your customers want and give it to them. Identify what problem you are solving for your customer, or how your product is going to make their life easier. Then show your buyer the benefit they will derive from purchasing your product. Find a creative interesting way to convey to people what advantage they will experience if they buy what you are offering. Will it help them be more relaxed, allow them to spend more time with their family or promote better health?
Explain all the possible positive impacts your product could have on your customers’ lives. It is helpful to devise simple taglines to get the purpose of your product across quickly. This is effective because peoples’ attention spans are not as long as they once were. You can also give your potential buyer stats about your product if you have some available.
One effective marketing strategy is finding a way to tell the story of your product. Sell the experience of your product, not just the benefits of your product. This will help your audience engage more deeply with your content.
Consider your audience carefully before you make the mistake of launching a product which doesn’t resonate. Always be willing to try something new in marketing, try to do what your competitors won’t. Above all, remember to market to your existing customers and only make promises you can deliver on to get your customers excited. If you make a big promise to buyers, it’s essential that you deliver on it in order to succeed and increase your sales.
Putting it simply: Make sure your product photography is up to standard
When you have put so much effort into other aspects of your online shop, there is no point in letting yourself down with poor quality product photography. The reason product photography important is because, in general, people are not great at describing what they see. In the world of e-commerce visitors to your site can’t physically interact with your product so you have to use photography to supplement the 5 senses. You should aim to showcase your product. Good quality photography means you can cut through all the noise of the online world and add value and authority, which helps you build trust with your customers.
Typically, when people are find two identical products on different sites at the same price it is the quality of the photography that becomes the deciding factor. For this reason, it might be a good idea to hire a pro to handle it for you. However, if you can can’t afford a professional don’t despair. All you need to do is research the equipment you might need, from cameras and lights to backdrop. These things are all much more affordable than they were 10 years ago. It is possible to do it yourself. So here are some tips on how you can make the most out of your photography.
- Keep it simple- A clean, strong photographic style males a statement. Stripping away all the clutter to help potential buyers to focus on the product and create a more versatile image.
- Don’t forget about the backdrop- A consistent background helps focus your buyers’ attention on your product.
- Make sure you think about the design of your website when doing your photography- Will landscape, square or a portrait layout be best suited? Is there enough space around the image to add text?
- Consider adding alternative perspectives of the product in your photography. Take photos from different viewpoints to give as your customers as much information as you can about your product. This reduces the likelihood of a project being returned.
- Use high resolution photography where ever you can so that it really showcases what you’re offering. This allows you to add a zoom feature to your website.
It is always worth checking if your supplier has any images you can use on your site.
Make it easy for your buyers to trust you
The importance of working hard to build trust between your company and your customers cannot be overstated. It is the foundation of every successful relationship. Here are some good ways you can build a trusting relationship with your buyers.
- Be honest – If a product has sustainability certification, use it. If it doesn’t have it then don’t. Don’t exaggerate your product’s strengths or diminish their weaknesses. Being honest means your buyers are more likely trust that they good things you say of a product are true.
- Always honour your commitments- Do what you promise and do so to the best of your ability.
- Try to connect with people on a personal level- This is a vital component of building trust.
- Make sure you get some reviews of your product- If you can get them, video reviews are excellent, but written ones are very good too. Reviews help people to trust you more because others are saying good things about you and your business. If you host reviews on your website it may stop visitors from trying to find reviews on other sites. Another advantage of a good review system is that it counts as new content in many search engines, which will help you rank more highly on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)
- Pricing- Have pricing and any offers clearly displayed on your website so as not to frustrate your visitors and cause them to leave your site.
- Include a Trustmark- This is also a great way to make customers more confident about buying from you. Third-party certificates can give your online shop a wonderful boost.
Conclusion
You can build a great business based off of a single product. This approach can reap many benefits as it creates a myopic focus that leads to ‘doing one thing right’ which is a tried and tested way to ensure a good experience for your customer. We have only to look at the many success stories to know that it is possible. We hope that the 5 rules for setting up a first-class e-commerce platform for a single product launch we have provided will give you the confidence to follow your dream. All that’s left for you to do now is to go ahead and transform your little idea into reality. Visit SimpleShop today to find out more.