What I Wish Clients Would Do... (Besides hire me)
Copy doesn't operate in a vacuum. It's most effective when it has supporting elements - great photos, beautiful design... and of course an audience to see it!
Here are three things every CPG brand needs (besides great copy) to sell more online:
1. Get Good Photos
Like, really good photos. This is important for alll businesses, but especially food businesses. We eat with our eyes folks! Finding an expert in styling, lighting, and shooting food is extra important because the wrong photo can be a real turnoff. If you're searching for an awesome photographer, Monica Faber of Hello Fancy Media is a real pro.
There are services like Soona that offer convenient, affordable product photography sessions where you simply mail your product and any custom props you want, and they select professional backgrounds and then shoot your items!
2. Have a Good Shopify Site
Ok, it doesn't have to be Shopify, but Shopify is a dependable, flexible platform that's built especially for ecommerce. It really is the best-in-class option for selling products online. You can go two ways here: DIY your site with a template, or hire a designer. Custom designs can run into the tens of thousands of dollars, but they can also set you apart and make you look truly professional.
Templates can look a little, well, template-y, but Shopify's new free 2.0 templates offer you more flexibility! If you're interested in DIYing your design, check out Shelley Easter's amazing Shop School course for help (watch the free workshop and then get the details about the full program).*
3. Build a Traffic Strategy
In order to convert traffic, you have to have traffic. No amount of effort on design and copy will matter if no one sees it.
Paid ads and SEO are two ways to start getting traffic. Paid ads give the most immediate results, but they're also expensive and can give an unpredictable ROI. SEO is fantastic getting free traffic, but you won't see overnight results. And certain products lend themselves more easily to search than others.
A third traffic-builder is earned media. Not only can you get short term traffic and sales, but you can build brand awareness that helps your business grow in the long-term.
The best way for startups to get into the publicity game is gift guides. There are tons of opportunities to pitch online publications and even print magazines to feature your product around the holidays. You can hire PR firms to manage your pitches, but it's also possible to DIY this. Nora Wolf of Wolf PR and Wolf Craft has an awesome course that's under $1k and covers all the nitty gritty details of pitching, along with templates you can customize and start sending out now.*
Hopefully these three buckets are already a part of your marketing program, but if not, I'd take some time today to figure out how much you can budget toward each, and when you're going to put time on the calendar to get them done.
*This is an affiliate link, fyi :)