In 2004, Karen Houghton left her post as advertising manager at the National Collectors Mint to found SimplyKaren.com, a site that markets mineral make-up.
“I was already using mineral make-up and was somewhat happy with it. But I wanted to make some changes to improve it for my use and basically, that’s what got me started,” says Houghton, president/CEO of her Rome, NY-based firm. Mineral make-up is powder derived from such natural ingredients as titanium dioxide, mica and zinc oxide, and contains no artificial fillers. SimplyKaren.com carries more than 25 different products as well as make-up brushes, cosmetic bags and the like.
Initially, Houghton used both paid and organic search engine marketing to promote her site, noting she created her first e-commerce site while working for Mystic Stamp Co., which she left in 2000.
While Houghton was reluctant to discuss which keywords have worked, a cursory glance at Google earlier this week showed the site ranking as number eight amongst the paid search listings under “mineral makeup.”
While search engine optimization is an ongoing part of the company’s promotional strategy, Houghton’s next ventures will be to try direct response print and radio to reach women ages 35 to 60.
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