Muse is (re)Open for business

[ezgobag]

Hi all,

I had actually started in on an eCommerce site prior to reading The 4HWW and retooled both the site and marketing strategies after reading. The difference has been appreciable. Now I am looking for further feedback. So here it is for y'all to take a whack at:

http://www.EzGoBag.com

Thanks.

[ezgobag]

Hi,

I realized that I should expand on my questions for the board. Specifically, I wanted to get some feedback on the landing page(s), simplicity of navigation, colors, etc. Are there some features/information that seem missing or incomplete?

Currently I get pretty decent though still not stellar site traffic and as I have refined my search keywords, the quality of the traffic/clickthroughs is coming up. Any thoughts on improving conversion rates? I am also looking for additional revenue streams for the site. Thinking about adding a downloadable ebook. Any thoughts there?

Thanks again.

[HWilley]

I just took a quick look at your site and I'd flip the "product description" and the products. I got there and had no idea at what I was looking. I'd also put a concise description of in bold at the top of the box. Something like, "Emergency Survival Kits". That will entice people (like me) to read more.

===
Hunter

Muse to start live Adsense testing next week!
http://www.xSpirulina.com

[Sven]

This might work!

There are a lot of situations where it would bennefit a customer to buy everything in one go.

Here are a few of my thoughts on the site/strategy

The general atmosphere is one of fear. I do not believe that you will sell through fear, selling trought comfort and freedom is probably better. With your idea customers can buy their feeling of safety in one go and go with feeling exited again. The choice to feel safe is nicer than thoughts of not being in danger.

Have you got a bag for (ocean going) sailors? They should have what they call a grab bag if they have to abandon ship. This is a very well stocked bag, worth having a go, the customer is allready used to the idea!

I find the color scheme a bit gloomy. Maybe this is intentional as part of the "danger approach" but I would buy sooner if the scheme supported a warm cozy feeling of safety. Also you have used a lot of diferent colors. The site will become calm if you stick to "one" color. Now you have both greens and reds. These are complemental colors that shout at each other. Have a look at my site www.mistervee.com . Here only orange has been used, all shades derrived from the logo (the grey you see is also orange). You may notice that not all pictures look nice in this site, this is caused by difference in hue between the site and the picture.

Good luck with your muze!
Sven


p.s.
I like the logo, basic and easy to identify.

[webgal]

http://www.colorblender.com/

This should help with the colors. It is sort of gloomy. It needs to be brightened up. Light gray background at the very least and you can do that one right away. Anyway, I like the above tool because you get the whole complementary color scheme with the numbers. I think I'd like to see some yellow in there with lighter gray. Or even army sort of of colors--either the olive ones or the desert ones. Play with the blender and I think one will hit you. It doesn't have to be vastly different but you do need to make it a bit less gloomy. I love you didn't use blue.

I think you need at least something like emergency survival kits under the "We hope.." headline. Vague is the number one problem of most websites. You don't have more than 8 seconds to get your message across.

As a copywriter, I would say "We hope you never need to use our our EZ Go Emergency Kits." And then keep the logo there. But I would explore the "take your umbrella and it never rains" slant. In other words, buy the disaster kit and it's unlikely you'll ever have a disaster. That's a more positive and less gloom and doom approach. But it's one people believe. Quick example below.

Something like-

Banner:
We hope you never need to use our EZ Go Emergency Kits. (EZGo logo)

One line of copy, before the products maybe (if the template allows this):

According to Murphy's Law, if you have the disaster kit, disaster won't strike. We hope Murphy is right. But in any case, you'll be prepared. And isn't your peace of mind worth it?

"Emergency preparedness" is another phrase you might look into as far as a keyword. It's sort of complicated but since the present administration has used it so much, it might have filtered into consumer language sort of like "weapons of mass destruction" has. http://www.trendwatching.com/

I do think specific kits for specific professions and areas of the country would be a way to expand this or niche it. But I do think you find out what's selling and who's visiting and then you can add or carve a niche.

In the later copy, I'd reference how they feel when they hear about a disaster in another part of the country. "There is empathy on your part but at the same time relief and peace of mind that you are prepared in the event of an emergency or disaster."

Those are just off the cuff. I have some headline makeovers on my blog. I should add this to the mix. http://webpreppro.com/blog/ But this does give you an idea of how to take a headline and make it speak to an audience. Your audience is the one who always has the generator and the benedryl in his/her car.

[ezgobag]

Thanks for the great responses. I have been working on color and wording issues. In fact this current build is toned down and simplified from the first version of the site and is performing better. I agree that selling through Comfort rather than fear will be how I can set myself apart. I dont want to be caught up in hardcore survival/martial law kind of area, but rather reduce the fear level through simple, well designed products. I have improved my suppliers and now feel very good about the product itself. It can't be underestimated that this counts- always easier to sell what you think is right.

Thanks for the color blender resource also.

As far as the layout and navigation- any thoughts? The store is a Yahoo store and uses their management systems, so I may be somewhat restricted style wise. Are there too many products on the home page? Most of my ads land you on a specific product page, and these have been most effective. People search for something and if they land directly on it, they buy. My analytics tell me I am getting something like 2 minutes average time on the site, and at most 3 pages.

Thanks again for the constructive criticism.

(PS: I love the self steering wind vane- I lost my boat in a particularly harsh winter (long story) but I had always wanted a windvane. Wish I had need for your product now! On the dreamline.)

Ian

[Sven]

I just noticed something... It seemed to me that one picture didn't seem very different from another. I believe you colored them in? Were they a bit too full? Is it impossible to use the originals?

[mad111]

Hi,

Just one quick thought: Instead of having the main slogan at the top of your page be "We hope you never use our products," it should be "We hope you never have to use our products."

Big difference.

Just a thought.

Good luck with it!

:)

[TimW]

As one who sells similar products, I can tell you with certainty that fear does sell. Right after 9-11 and the anthrax attacks, I couldn't keep gas masks in stock...and these weren't the $40 Israeli masks...these were top-of-the-line masks selling for nearly $200 each. The "trick" to to package it correctly.

I do not know if you can realistically sell these kits as "comfort"...have you ever tried to survive using this stuff? I have and know people who have. "Comfort" is NOT a word that would be used.

TimW
Phoenix

[Sven]

Of course they sell at times like that. But what about now?

If you say "I sell a lot through fear", I say "Imagine what you would sell through safety!" There is only one way to find out... Testing! PPC advertising makes that very easy!