Pop's Angry Pepper Jelly

[Anthony81586]

So my dad started up a small LLC last year at the rest of the families request and financial backing. For years he used to make his own "angry jelly" in our kitchen, he would then take the jars and send them to my brother and I who were deployed overseas. We loved the stuff and so did our buddies. After I did my 6 years in the Marines I got out and pressured him to start his own product line. Well after a year of peddling it door to door (or shop to shop), we finally were able to get our website up and running.

We hope to eventually expand the line slightly but for now we are offering a spicy/sweet alternative to the jelly world. This isn't your everyday jelly. It's HOT. My wife and I have done some pretty awesome things with it so far, we've glazed wings, made "angry" grilled cheeses, put it on egg sandwiches and regularly use it for breakfast with cream cheese.

What I'm hoping to get at with this post is to try to get the word out about our product and have some people try it out and get some feedback. If you have the time or are interested in the product let me know. The site is;

www.PopsJelly.com

I really hope to hear some feedback!

[LMT]

You might be limiting your sales by having bible verses on the web site. My first thought was wtf? I would not look further at the site because of my preconceived notions of people that mix religion and business. 

Good luck.

[Anthony81586]

My dad is the religious one. I've advised him against that for the very same reasons but in the end it's his product. The bible verse doesn't reflect the product so much as it does his own personal beliefs. But you're entitled to your opinion and if the numbers of a bible verse off-put you from the product it's understandable.

[Anthony81586]

Thanks for that feedback by the way!

[Slide Panda]

Professional web nerd here - and my suggestions are for the site...

- look into Wordpress. It's a free and easy to use CMS that just about any hosting company can set up for free. There are TONS of free or low cost themes available and many dedicated to the food business. This is a pretty pain free way to bring a better look and more functionality to the site.

- Look at the google maps API. You can create a map with the distro locations and add it to the site w/o much hassle.

- Id suggest a bit more description of the product like what sort of peppers or what makes it unique. There's other pepper jelly out there tell folks why your's is better. From your post "This isn't your everyday jelly. It's HOT. " might be a good place to start. Evocative descriptions get people thinking. Rich, smokey, balanced blah blah - they way wine snobs might describe it.

- Who's the photo of? Right now it's got no context other than there's a jar of jelly in it. A caption would help.

-  The bible verse notation is polarizing. Of course it's the business owners prerogative to put on the site but, as noted, it can give folks who are not Christians a moments pause

[dolci]

Not entirely certain why this comes up when I click on the "Buy It Now" tab, but it does....

The web site below has been determined to be part of a category that xxxxx has blocked. The contents of this site are considered unsuitable or unsafe for viewing on a company computer or the category is being blocked by  policy.

Website:

http://www.popsjelly.com/buy-now.html

category:


Illegal Drugs

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please contact the Content Filtering support Team if you believe this is in error or would like to request access to this site.


Those must be SOME peppers.

[Slide Panda]

^^^ That is odd. It's a couple pix of the jars, and paypal buttons... that's really it.

[Anthony81586]

Not entirely certain why this comes up when I click on the "Buy It Now" tab, but it does....

The web site below has been determined to be part of a category that xxxxx has blocked. The contents of this site are considered unsuitable or unsafe for viewing on a company computer or the category is being blocked by  policy.

Website:

http://www.popsjelly.com/buy-now.html

category:


Illegal Drugs

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please contact the Content Filtering support Team if you believe this is in error or would like to request access to this site.


Those must be SOME peppers.

Yea it did the same to me on my work computer. I'll look into it tonight. I can assure you that there is nothing illicit going on. Thanks for the confirmation.

[Anthony81586]

Professional web nerd here - and my suggestions are for the site...

- look into Wordpress. It's a free and easy to use CMS that just about any hosting company can set up for free. There are TONS of free or low cost themes available and many dedicated to the food business. This is a pretty pain free way to bring a better look and more functionality to the site.

- Look at the google maps API. You can create a map with the distro locations and add it to the site w/o much hassle.

- Id suggest a bit more description of the product like what sort of peppers or what makes it unique. There's other pepper jelly out there tell folks why your's is better. From your post "This isn't your everyday jelly. It's HOT. " might be a good place to start. Evocative descriptions get people thinking. Rich, smokey, balanced blah blah - they way wine snobs might describe it.

- Who's the photo of? Right now it's got no context other than there's a jar of jelly in it. A caption would help.

-  The bible verse notation is polarizing. Of course it's the business owners prerogative to put on the site but, as noted, it can give folks who are not Christians a moments pause

Thanks for the suggestions. The google maps thing I will certainly look into. Also we will look into adding a bigger description. We are used to doing tastings with the product so we can actually talk about it, we must've overlooked that part while creating the site.

The picture is of my brother, we wanted a picture of "pops" but i didn't have an updated one on my computer.

Thanks again for the feedback.

[VisceralReaction]

Well reading the above I expected bible verses ala Dr. Bronners soap bottles.
I didn't think the John 3:16 reference was to bad but it will put some people off.
But it's Pop's website and his prerogative. As well as the suggestions above I would like to see
another page added showing pictures of the product while in use. Like on a bagel with cream cheese,
or on other dishes etc while giving a description of the product as others have mentioned above.

[Anthony81586]

Well reading the above I expected bible verses ala Dr. Bronners soap bottles.
I didn't think the John 3:16 reference was to bad but it will put some people off.
But it's Pop's website and his prerogative. As well as the suggestions above I would like to see
another page added showing pictures of the product while in use. Like on a bagel with cream cheese,
or on other dishes etc while giving a description of the product as others have mentioned above.

This has actually been discussed. Since we literally just got the site up and running this past Saturday we obviously have some work to do, especially based on some of this great feedback. The pictures will actually be the main point for the Facebook page. We plan to use that as news feed about what stores recently picked up the product or where we are planning to do a tasting as well as pictures of the jelly in use.

[zooom]

This has actually been discussed. Since we literally just got the site up and running this past Saturday we obviously have some work to do, especially based on some of this great feedback. The pictures will actually be the main point for the Facebook page. We plan to use that as news feed about what stores recently picked up the product or where we are planning to do a tasting as well as pictures of the jelly in use.

what do you expect to be the more trafficked and main medium?...the FB page or the webpage?...I ask because there are alot of people whom aren't on FB or can't access FB at work, where they might otherwise be able to go to your webpage!...just something of a primary/secondary thing you may want to consider/think about.

[Anthony81586]

what do you expect to be the more trafficked and main medium?...the FB page or the webpage?...I ask because there are alot of people whom aren't on FB or can't access FB at work, where they might otherwise be able to go to your webpage!...just something of a primary/secondary thing you may want to consider/think about.

Good point. Maybe the Facebook page would be updated more often, but on the main page we can probably do a tab with suggestions/photos. Maybe even a review/comments section for those who don't use Facebook or other social media. They can still get the "pops" experience.

[hbliam]

Its funny how intolerant the people that demand tolerance are.

[elyse]

i like the packaging
i don't mind the bible verse
the website does need work, but totally understandable since it's so new. i would suggest a recipe section for how to use the jelly, because when most people think jelly they're thinking fruit jelly.
i would also suggest an "about" section of the website. the family story behind it is a good one. a picture of you, your dad & your brother would be a nice addition i think.... if you are concerned about the john 3:16 thing, then maybe the about section is where it belongs, so it's not the first thing site visitors encounter
Also, like previously suggested, a better description of the product "Pop`s Angry Pepper Jelly is a sweet yet HOT jelly, made with fresh all natural ingredients" ..that doesnt tell me what i'm eating. it doesn't even indicate the type of pepper or peppers used. an ingredients list should be added.
as for marketing, you might also want to utilize twitter, you can contact a large group of people pretty quickly through twitter.

good luck!!