How important is a website for my chilli sauce business? BANK ON DAVE replies

I’ve just started running my own chilli sauce company and I’m doing okay. I could do with a few pointers when things are drying up. 

I mainly sell on Facebook but I don’t have my own website. Is this something I should definitely look in to? I’ve done a fete and it went really well.

Dave Fishwick, This Is Money’s business doctor replies: I definitely think you should have a website for your products. Selling on Facebook means you already have a web presence, but a website serves a different purpose, and I think you need both!

Building a brand is particularly important, perhaps linking your recipe to a well-known local area or landmark or tradition. Create a story around the product.

I did this with The Malkin Pie. I helped a cafe in Sabden, Lancashire create a story around a homemade pie. Christine and Keith made it for their cafe called SanWitches to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the Pendle Witch trials of 1612.

The spooky tale of witches, magic and curses in the shadow of Pendle Hill inspired this carefully researched and imaginative pie. 

The Malkin pie is named after the tower, which was the home of ‘Demdike’, one of the witches. I helped Sanwitches generate a lot of media attention, including local radio and newspapers, and it became so popular they went on to sell their pies in supermarkets.

The Malkin Pie was all about the story and the branding that surrounded the product and helped sell the pie in considerable numbers all over the country. 

You can do the same – think of a great local story and build a brand around your sauce. Telling your story about the quality or heritage of the product or going with a fun and quirky branding style could help you stand out from the crowd.

Contact your local media, and they will be pleased to print your story. You can then use this on social media and your website – whether a fully functional e-commerce website complete with automated payment and delivery options and real-time stock control. 

Or it could just a basic site which tells the story of your products and your business. It’s essential to have a site which tells customers where they can buy your products.

Facebook is still the biggest platform worldwide by the number of active users, with marketing possible from a global to a hyper-local scale. But it isn’t as ubiquitous as it once was, particularly with the younger demographic. At one point it was the main, if not the only social media platform, for small businesses to sell their goods.

However, competitors like YouTube, WhatsApp and Instagram and TikTok all have comparable numbers, and others are gaining ground fast.

Look at your business from the perspective of a potential customer. How do you look for something you’re interested in buying?

Dave Fishwick helped Christine and Keith with the launch of their ‘Malkin Pie’ in Lancashire

Most likely, you’ll start by searching for it in a search engine. Optimising your online presence for the Google search engine is often seen as a bit of a science or dark art. 

Google always offered advice on how to structure your site best, the basics being to provide unique content relevant to the search and regularly updated. This was a big part of their success in their early years as competitors’ results were more skewed to adverts.

While it is generally the best option to build a website on these basic principles, it increasingly seems that the search results we get are becoming less to do with relevance than revenue, with prominence seemingly being sold to the highest bidder.

People looking for specific or technical information increasingly search for it within forums like Reddit.

You can pay for prominence with sponsored search results or Google products, but you can easily overpay. 

Don’t be talked into overspending on your web marketing by pushy salespeople or throw the kitchen sink at trying to reach the top of the first page. Web marketing needn’t cost a great deal. Keep it proportionate to the size of your business.

Always have your website containing as much relevant information as possible. Google algorithms like relevant content and as much of it as possible. Download Google Analytics. This will tell you which are the best and most searched and clicked on words and terms, and most relevant words in connection with your sauces and products. 

One tip is to ensure all the images you upload are named and tagged with relevant keywords.

You don’t necessarily need to compete with big corporations with huge budgets for the most generic search results. 

Focus on marketing the unique characteristics of your products. The more specific the search term, the less competition there’ll be. You can sign up for an online Google optimisation course. I can’t recommend enough how helpful this would be to your online presence.

Selling at a fete is a good old-fashioned way of bringing a product to market, and I think they still have a useful place and are a great social event. It will introduce you to customers who didn’t know they wanted your product until they see it and get a chance to have a taste. 

It would help you even here, though, to have a website to back up your offers. Small cards, flyers, or leaflets with links to your website will be more cost-effective to print than brochures to give out at events like fetes. 

Images with QR code links are more space and cost-efficient than loads of text.

I wish you all the best with your business, and I’ll make a beeline to the chilli sauce stall at fetes from now on to try your wares. Good luck!