Part 1 : Marketing and free soup samples 101

Hi Leslie, good to "talk" to you again. Are you still headed for $500,000 website sales? How do you explain the 100% increase over last year - what changed?
Well, I'm still hoping for my $500,000. We aren't growing as fast as we were last year, competition is much fiercer. I think all the crash and burn websites caused a lot of frustration and hesitation in the marketplace. We saw a drop that was large even for the seasonal nature of soup, in June, just when everything was going mad on the dotcom front. That said, we're very busy up here, and average order size has increased dramatically, but I'd like to see numbers doubling each month. Lately there have been months with only 30% growth in numbers of orders. Like all merchants, I have my fingers and toes crossed for Christmas!

Let's look a little more at how you encourage sales. You offer this huge free sample (soup for 23 servings). Other sites offering free samples have been "ruined" by freeloaders, how come you've managed to be so successful?
First, we charge for shipping, it's just a token $2.75 - but it's enough to make people hesitate if they are not serious about trying our soup. This gets some negative feedback by the way; people want free things to be free. Sometimes I get emails that are, shall we say, rude. I simply explain that the post office is charging me, so I have to charge them! Since the box weighs over a pound, it's easy to see I'm not pulling a fast one. I think people have trouble believing that we're so up front. It makes for some rather cute emails by the way when they suddenly realize that we're people here!

Second, we're very careful to make sure that people don't double dip. It's one free sample per family, period. We send very polite emails asking people who do try for a second why we can't honor their requests and we encourage them to make the request and order. Generally, they do!

Third, we always add something free on to every order, as a surprise. So if you try the free sample, love it, and order again, you get more free stuff!

Fourth, and I think this is really critical, when you place your free sample offer you are encouraged to upgrade to courier service by just adding some of our other soups! Since most of our customers come through recommendations of friends, or because they've heard about the soup on a chat page, they gleefully stock up. That changes a simple free sample request into an order.

Another successful element you have is a popular newsletter. How do you get the content together, and how useful is the newsletter as a means of promotion?
No surprises here I'm sure. Newsletters are the best, most successful means of site promotion there is! My customers are fantastic, and the newsletter gives me the chance to let them know how really seriously important they are! It's also a feedback forum. They can read what others have to say, and often see themselves in print as well.

As for content, I work on it! It's tough, and I'm always on the look out for fun stuff! I have customers/friends all over the net who help me out by keeping an eye out on for fun things! Just the other day I totally cracked up though - one emailed me a part of one of my own newsletters! What comes around, goes around!

As for the recipes I feature, they come from my own experience, with lots of help from all my net friends!

Bottom line: Newsletters are worth doing, but allocate lots, and lots, and lots of time!

Both the site and newsletter are littered with positive customer feedback - how important do you think testimonials are for an ecommerce site?
Obviously, I think they are pretty critical. You've never heard of E.D.Foods. We're not in your local grocery store; why should you buy from us? Any credibility we can build by letting you know that others have had the same concerns - and have been thrilled with the soups - is going to make you just that much more comfortable about trusting us with your money.

And when we last spoke, your experiences with GoTo were pretty negative. Anything new to report on pay-per-click search engines?
Well, I went back, picked words that weren't as popular, and I don't mind spending $25 every other month or so. I'm still convinced this is not a very effective way of marketing my site - the math is all wrong - but I don't want to not participate either. Basically, I'm not happy about it but I'm doing it!

Continued...