Gourmet Site Steps up Marketing

After a false start or two, chocolateofthemonth.com is preparing to get serious about marketing itself, starting with a new promotion with a local radio station, says Charles Wycoff, CEO of the Ellicott City, MD firm.

On St. Patrick’s Day, employees of a radio station in Baltimore will go to several local bars and hand out about 800 pieces of chocolate and peppermint truffles to help establish the brand locally.

Depending on how it performs, the radio effort could spark a new wave of marketing, says Wycoff, who also works in the computer industry.

Two years ago, the company, which specializes in small batch hand-dipped chocolate, was almost ready to make a splash but its chocolate chef backed out at the last minute, putting the project on hold, he says

Then a couple of months ago, Wyckoff and his wife Angela met April Pitts, an executive chef and chocolatiere who was looking to start her own business. They convinced her to hop on board.

So far, the company’s marketing efforts have centered on search engine marketing, pay-per-click and word of mouth.

SEM efforts to date have used “all variations of the word chocolate, gourmet chocolate, handmade chocolate, small batch chocolate and so forth,” says Wycoff, who found the efforts somewhat wanting.

“When we did pay-per-click we had a decent amount of hits but the ROI wasn’t very good just because we used terms that were too broad,” he says. “So we’re going to go back and revisit that at some point and try to pick out more detailed niche-specific words,” says Wycoff, noting it’ll take some research to come up with just the right terms.

The company may also look into hiring an advertising agency as well as possibly buying more radio airtime, says Wycoff.

While he’s not sure if chocolateofthemonth.com will enable him to retire, Wycoff says “we would like to get to the point in a year where it’s making a decent income.”