This weekend proved to be one of the busiest in SeV history solely as a result of the attached NY Times ad and our airport bin advertising. We have done very little advertising since SCOTTEVEST was formed 9 years ago, until some recent experiments in Men's Journal, Esquire, and Bluff (a poker magazine). All of these other ads (except Esquire) were successful and paid for themselves over a period of a month, and encourages us to continue experimenting with ads. However, yesterday's ad in the NY Times Style magazine exceeded our wildest expectations. In one single day, it paid for itself, and all the products sold during that day! The good news is that I expect sales to continue from that magazine throughout this week and month, as people will continue to refer to this magazine for throughout the month, and perhaps even longer. At the same time, this weekend, our airport bin advertising started as well. In just one short weekend, the bin advertising almost paid for itself. This is incredible news. For 9+ years now, I have relied solely on word of mouth, bloggers, and media to spread the word, and have never before found a way to spend money to make money. This has been VERY frustrating as I could not identify a key message or medium to convey that message that would impact our business. We grew by 20-40% annually over the years anyway, despite the economy anyway. Now, with our new travel messaging and website, implemented as of last October, the game has changed completely! Check out this link showing a comparison of our closest competitors for travel clothing, Ex Officio and Tilley Endurables:
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/scottevest.com+exofficio.com+tilley.com/ Well, what does this all mean? We will be doing much more advertising, especially a focus on travel related titles. Also, we will start rolling out our airport bin advertising nationally, and likely internationally in the near future. You will not be able to fly without seeing ads for SeV products in the bins, and soon thereafter throughout the airport, and perhaps our our store in every airport. We will be expanding our line in the fall to include some 20 new products or so. Our biggest problem will be keeping inventory in stock. Prior to discovering effective advertising our sales on average have been 170% of prior years sales, that's almost 3 times as much as last year, which was our best year yet. And yet most people were not aware of our brand. Most of these sales were being driving by our existing customer base and their friends. Now, with the benefit of a clear message, "Travel Clothing for the Trip of Your Life" - We Make Your Travel Experience Easier and Save You Money, I believe there is no limit to our growth aside from inventory and our infrastructure. We are now looking for several key individuals to help us grow our company to reach its potential, starting top down with a qualified COO/President who has proven experience with a fast growing direct to consumer company. If you know anyone that fits that bill, please have them send me their resume scott@scottevest.com. Sit tight, we are about to take a serious ride. I believe by this time next year SCOTTEVEST will be a household name! Thanks for all your support over the years.Sincerely,
Posted via email from SeV / SCOTTEVEST the best travel clothes and clothing in the world
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