LOS ANGELES, CA – 6/30/2016 — A few months ago, the Anaheim Convention Center, was flooded with health food companies, gurus, distributors, and aficionados in attendance of the Natural Products Expo West. This was a massive natural products expo and trade show where the world’s top brands, as well as some up-and-comers, go to share their products with an eager public. I made my way down from Los Angeles to network and meet some folks in need of cutting-edge marketing and web services in an ever-expanding and competitive market.
After perusing aisle after aisle, relentlessly sampling the plethora of tasty treats available to sample at my will, I decided to bust out my marketing chops and approach some tables to see what they’re doing for online marketing and web stores. A lot of the more established brands had a great online presence and storefront, such as Super Sprout, a company specializing in health powders, and Mighty Leaf, a tea company. Most of the better looking store fronts were implemented using the Shopify platform, which is leading the pack as far as eCommerce platforms are concerned. The up-and-coming start up companies looked like they could use some help on the web store front. Most of them didn’t even have store fronts at all. I’d go up to tables and say “Hey, can I buy your products online?” If they said yes, I’d take their card and check out their websites on my mobile phone. If they didn’t have a functional online shop or mobile functionality for their site, I’d keep their card to check them out later. Sometimes, they’d say no, they didn’t sell online, to which I’d respond by asking why?
Why aren’t these companies selling online? Do they want to limit their market and the potential of their company? It’s 2016. There’s no reason not to be selling online. I’m 28 years-old and I often get pigeon-holed into the millennial demographic, characterized by tech-savvy, privilege, and laziness. This is called the Beattie Cole Rule of User Experience; if I visit your website and can’t figure out who you are, what you sell, and how I can get it within the first 5-seconds of visiting your site, I’m hitting back on my browser and clicking on the next company that came up when I googled “adult onesie.” I don’t want to leave my apartment and go searching for how I can buy your product. I want to be gently led through the consumer process and be provided with all the information I need in order to give you my money. Instant gratification. That’s what works.
I returned to my air conditioned office in Los Angeles and did a Google search for every company whose card I received that day. Out of the 35, 17 had functional websites. By functional, I mean they had clear, concise domain names that weren’t strange, cryptic strings of glyphs, or hidden somewhere amid another website’s content. Among those 17, less than 10 had obvious contact information or links to social media. Only 6 offered to sell online.
Sure, I understand that some of these products are perishable and can’t reasonably be sold over the internet. The majority of the products were not, however, but these rules don’t only apply to the health food industry, but any industry where the ultimate goal is to connect with an audience and generate sales (which is any business, right?). How about this: business owners, you guys focus on creating an awesome product and leave the rest to the folks at Beattie Cole Digital Marketing Agency to drive traffic, turn heads, and let the numbers do the rest.
Distributed by Beattie Cole Digital Marketing Agency
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Company Name: BeattieCole
Contact Person: Zachary Cole
Email: press@beattiecole.com
Country: United States
Website: http://beattiecole.com/
