As someone who designs inexpensive professional websites for a living, I would suggest video. I have clients with websites like yours and by adding video to their sites, we have seen sales increase several times over. Video has a way of engaging your visitors and can show off your products in ways that static photos just can't do. People are drawn to movement and something as simple as rotating photos with captivating captions can do wonders. Maybe you could even have someone demonstrating why your product is so awesome and as one poster replied can create a call for action. Get a Flip camera and take it with you to trade shows and shoot video of people's reaction after tasting your product and put those on your website. Hit the streets with that camera and do the same thing. Shoot people sampling the products an get those reactions up on the home page of your website. Make people want to buy it because it is worth buying.

Now I can see a bit better what you are doing.......

I still think a pdf is a good idea... But I would have recipies that you can use the dip in.
Also... I think a free sample would work very well.... each name should be worth at least $10 per year.

A back end offer would help also.....

Build that list and a lot of opportunities will open up for you.

Capturing email is very important....
Offer something of value like food presentation secrets pdf.
Then you can sequentially market to your subscribers.

Hopefully this helps

Stan,

You can't determine a course of action unless you know the future. It is like this: if all of our expenses were in advertising (but we didn't know it) we wouldn't want to spend all our time cutting costs in production. In other words, you don't want to spend a lot of time optimizing your website if all 2000 visitors are the same person (not reality, just an example) or spend a lot of time marketing if you get 2000 visits a day from interested unique visitors. You also don't want to spend time with internet marketing if your business won't succeed on the internet simply because it is the wrong industry.

There are several tools for determining website statistics. My favorite tool is Google Analytics http://www.google.com/analytics/. It will help you determine who is visiting your site, how they are getting there, when they are leaving, from where they are leaving, where they are from, how long they stay, etc. You can use this tool to assess your needs. THEN you can plan a course of action.

I can't taste your product through the internet, so offer a free sample to be mailed to me. It doesn't need to be big, just enough to get a taste for your product.

The fastest growing segment of internet sales is actually permission based marketing,
it attracts and helps you retain customers and increase their per sale per visit spending, the leader in this market has over 4000 merchants in 42 states. check it out www.suddenvalues.com

Russell Brunson is the authority for all your internet marketing needs. I would recommend signing up for his monthly membership.

There is way too much involved for me to think that I could sum it up in one post, so go check out his site and see for yourself.

Best,

Justin

The key to online marketing is going to be in creating a compelling call to action and a great back story that people can really grab onto. a boutique brand such as yours needs to be cleverly branded so that people feel compelled to give it a shot. Things like the names of the different mixes need to be clever and centered around a solid theme that people can buy into. If you haven't done a good job commercializing the product then people will worry about the quality of the product and be very hesitant to order. I would suggest working on a good back story and name the products something that ties into that story. Rather than original, mesquite and spicy you need something clever and catchy that will compel people to actually try the product. Once you have worked out the rebranding of the product I would suggest following the advise John Nichols gave a few months back and do some free samples. However I wouldnt transition away from the online efforts just yet. I would submit my product to the websites that focus on giving away free samples and use that to drive my new business. if you simply type in free samples in google you will find a bunch of sites that focus on just giving products away. When it comes time to fulfill the free sample it is important that you include another call to action in order to get the customer to return and order more. I would also suggest that you ask the customer to opt into email updates in order to receive the sample. This will provide you a way to actually contact the sample receivers back and ask for their orders. It puts you in the drivers seat.

It appears as though you used some sort of online builder for your website. These are great for affordability but do little to brand and create motivating calls to action. As your business grows you will want to have a site built around the brand and done by a company that knows how to market online.

I hope my advice helps, if you are ever interested in having a website built check out my company at www.hwsinet.com/web. A fully custom ecommerce solution would cost about $800.

Stan you need to get plugged into local events that will get your product out there. Try offering free samples to Bridge groups, Bunko groups, small businesses, charity golf events. Always request a small sign be placed near the product or allow for items to be sold at these venues. When it comes to food people need to try it and then get convinced. Basically start giving it away to get some traction.

Best of luck!

John Nichols