Vegan truffle firm makes sweet site

[Guest guest]

BY TASHA CUNNINGHAM

BizBytes101

In 2008, Cynthia Hill and Melba Thorn were struggling to make their vegan

chocolate truffle business, Native Gardens, profitable in the midst of an

economic recession that took a heavy toll on many small businesses.

 

``Before the recession, we were doing pretty well even though we weren't doing

any real promotion of the product,'' Hill said. ``But once the recession hit,

things slowed considerably. We're generating about $7,000 a month in sales right

now, which is probably a 25 percent drop off from where we were before.''

 

Hill, based in Miami Beach, and Thorn, based in Los Angeles, were keen on using

the Web to do two things -- push their vegan chocolate truffles directly to

consumers and sell them wholesale to Big Box retailers and specialty grocers

around the country.

 

``We intend for Native Gardens to really be B2B,'' said Hill, a Miami Beach

resident with years of experience in retail. ``We knew we had a great product in

a niche market, but our knowledge of the Web and attracting large grocery chains

and customers through the Internet was limited.''

 

So Hill and Thorn did things the old-fashioned way, calling every grocer

personally and making distribution deals themselves along the way.

 

``We just rolled up our sleeves and did the leg work ourselves,'' Thorn said.

``I handled the West Coast, while Cynthia worked on the East. We were so busy

doing that work that we really didn't think about our Web presence. But we knew

we had to do something.''

 

To sell their products directly to consumers, Hill and Thorn worked with

Chocolate.com, the leading e-tailer of chocolate around the world. ``We created

a page on Chocolate.com to sell directly to consumers, but we had nothing to

refer people to for selling our product on the wholesale side.''

 

So the pair used a template to build their site at www.NativeGardensInc.com.

``It was easy to create the template site,'' Hill said. ``But we knew we needed

to do more to position the site properly and to use it to promote our product.''

 

To get Hill and Thorn moving in the right direction, BizBytes 101 turned to Todd

Templin, executive vice president of Boardroom Communications in Fort

Lauderdale. His firm provides digital media and Web marketing services to

clients throughout South Florida.

 

``The company is selling a niche gourmet product that has a lot of potential for

success with the help of a good Web presence,'' Templin said. ``They have an

opportunity to reach out not only to their core vegan audience, but to expand

their market to a wider audience of people looking to indulge their chocolate

fantasies and do it in a more socially responsible and health conscious way. ''

 

Templin recommended that Hill and Thorn focus on getting found on the Web. ``The

current site was built on a basic platform that gives them a Web presence, but

not much more,'' Templin said.

 

``They have not uniquely titled their pages or incorporated any special

descriptions or keywords unique to what they are offering.''

 

Keywords are the ``key'' to getting your business noticed on the Web. Keywords

are the words and phrases we type into search engines to find what we're looking

for online.

 

There are two groups of keywords -- longtail and shorttail. Longtail keywords

are the three to four word phrases we type into search engines to find

information, while shorttail keywords are one to two words. To boost your

ranking in search results -- and increase the chances potential customers will

find you -- you've got to determine what keywords you want to use. Once you've

determined your keywords, create content on your website around those words.

 

``Native Gardens should build out the site with the search engines in mind,''

Templin said. ``They will want to rank high when people search for `vegan

chocolate' which happens about 60,000 times per month. There are roughly 2,900

searches per month for ``vegan truffles.''

 

These are all potential customers they are now missing, but have an opportunity

to capture if they implement good search strategies.''

 

To further improve their site, Templin advised Hill and Thorn to add a press

section and a shopping cart to process orders directly through their site in

addition to what they're selling on Chocolate.com.

 

``Right now the company is getting sales from a chocolate retail site, but there

is ample opportunity to get leads and close sales through their own website,''

Templin said.

 

Templin also recommended that Hill and Thorn should add solid PR strategies to

promote their products. ``They have a unique enough product and business to get

the media's attention,'' Templin said.

 

``They should also target food and health editors at general interest magazines

and daily newspapers, especially in regions where they have a retail presence,''

Templin said. ``They should also target the specialty magazines and bloggers who

write about the vegan lifestyle.''