Adventures in Advertising: [Dis]Like.com
30 Mar
I know, I know, it’s been FOREVER since I’ve blogged. Almost three months to be exact- yikes! The good thing about the big hiatus is that I now have lots and lots of stuff to share with you. Now I usually don’t get into my advertising methods too much but I can definitely give you guys a few tips on how not to advertise. When I started my boutique I spent lots of money on online advertising, and now that I’ve learned the ins and outs of this business I spend virtually $0 on advertising. The only kind of paid advertising I would even consider dabbling in these days is ppc (pay per click) shopping search engines. And I’m sure many of you have heard of Like.com, a visual comparison search engine that is dedicated to high end products.
On paper it sounds like a winner, but my results with it were only so so. I’m really not telling you to stay away from Like.com, I would actually recommend giving it a test run and seeing if it works for your business. The actual point to this post is just venting my frustration with the lack of professionalism certain employees at this search engine have.
So here’s what went down. I advertised at Like.com for about two months last year over the Holiday season. And I quickly learned that they had a few stipulations that aren’t exactly user friendly. Such as…
So in other words, Like.com isn’t very organized and is pretty low tech. Let me just clarify that this was the way things were back at the end of last year. I believe they may have or are in the process of upgrading their nearly stone aged systems.
But despite all these interface problems, it’s not what really gets me about Like. What gets under my skin is a certain employee, we’ll just call her *Mya (names have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent). Everyone else at Like.com is extremely helpful and great to work with….except for Mya, who basically tried multiple times to lay a guilt trip on me for not wanting to continue with their services. So after monitoring my account and deciding that I was spending too much with too little return from them, I asked if I could cancel my campaign immediately. And here’s a snippet of the passive aggressive responses I received from her:
We are very sorry to hear that you want to pause since we crawled your site and worked hard for your site to get going
second email:
Is your main concern volume? If this is the major concern, let me talk to our optimization team to see if there is a way to increase volume for you. We have already worked hard to for you to get going by crawling your site.
They worked hard. VERY hard. And apparently Mya seems to thinks for that reason I’m indebted to them. I politely reminded her that it’s her JOB to work hard for campaign and that her clients have every right to suspend a campaign regardless.
And months later there was an issue with a payment, and I simply asked if I could use a different payment method, and here’s how she responds:
I understand you might feel frustrated to receive this again, yet we have already sent you legitimate traffic to your site and developed crawling script to serve your items on Like.com, which already cost us more than $500
Keep in mind that the invoice had already been paid at this point. So basically she makes it sound like they specifically created this script for MY needs (which I know for a fact is false because the method was already put in place when I signed up). Even if they did code it especially for me, it’s something that should have been put in to place to begin with.
To be honest, I actually wouldn’t mind trying Like.com again but apparently I’m a huge hassle to them and too much of a burden. Maybe when *Mya leaves, or at least gets a huge attitude adjustment, I’ll give them another spin.
Hi Kim,
I just found your blog the other day, and I love it. I really want to get started on building my own online boutique. I’m from Chicago, have a Bachelors in Business, I work full-time, I love fashion and I’m also continuing going to school for Interior Design. I’m going to look into the link that you’ve posted on a previous page for shows here in the near future. The whole process is new to me, so would you suggest for me to visit a few shows before buying? Also, I read on some previous posts that you had a certain amount for a budget that you started the business with-did you plan in advance how many lines you were going to carry with this budget? Then for the small minor details like getting an EIN, setting up taxes, and deciding on what to use for a financial accounting (i.e. quickbooks)-did you finanlize all of this before you started buying or was everything a work in progress. Sorry for so many questions-I’m trying to do my reseach, before I make any moves, then make a business plan, and go from there-oh try to figure out how I’m going to finance the start-up costs. You can send a direct e-mail provided, I really do appreciate all the information!
Best,
Amanda
I have just visited your blog for the first time and am enamored with it and your candor especially with the ding dongs at like.com. I have been in retail for 20 years and love your fresh insight, I am going to open a retail store and on line store in the coming year and have found all of your postings very helpful. Keep up the good work!
^Best of luck Ashley, and thanks for your compliments on my blog, I appreciate it!
Hi Kim,
I just came across your blog, great info!
I have always wanted to start my own boutique but due to the costs of leasing a shop and employees etc have been waiting/saving. I had honestly never thought about starting online and have found your journey inspiring.
I was wondering how long someone just starting their business can expect to wait before they see a return? Would it be best to keep your career and begin working on starting an online boutique at the same time? And do you feel that it is best to take some form of fashion courses or would any business/marketing background be helpful?
Good luck on your new retail space, I look forward to hearing about how your success continues.
Britt