Home accessories business owner needs some tough love

Melanie launched What a Host during COVID with a clear vision: to design and manufacture beautiful, functional home accessories that elevate everyday dining and decor.

With over 250 products, from gold cutlery sets to handmade candle holders, the brand has strong creative roots and a growing loyal audience. But despite great products and quality design, growth had plateaued. Melanie was investing in SEO, PR, affiliate marketing, and paid media – but with no clear direction, the business lacked focus.

This episode of Grow with Evergreen dives into how narrowing in on a few bestselling products, and building the brand around them, can unlock real performance.

Current business overview

What a Host is a D2C-led homeware brand focused on stylish, well-made dining accessories.

• Founded during COVID, now trading for 4 years
• Products designed in-house, manufactured in India
• Over 250 SKUs available through Shopify store
• Bestsellers include gold cutlery sets and candle holders
• Light B2B sales to hospitality and interiors trade
• Turnover currently under £100K
• 70% of sales via paid media, 30% organic

Main challenges

Melanie’s passion and product quality were clear, but marketing efforts were spread across too many products and channels.

• No clear hero products or brand focus
• Blog content was ranking on Google, but not converting
• Paid media budget was spread too thin across the full catalogue
• SEO strategy focused on broad lifestyle topics with little commercial intent
• Homepage lacked product clarity and didn’t support key revenue lines
• Affiliate and PR activity were not aligned with paid or organic strategy

Hero product strategy

The biggest opportunity was to focus the brand around a handful of top-performing SKUs – products that already had strong sales and high customer appeal.

• Identify 4-5 top sellers with high margin and consistent demand
• Build blog and ad campaigns solely around those products
• Feature hero products more prominently on homepage and site nav
• Concentrate ad budget for more consistent ROAS and learnings
• Use customer data to back the decision-making

Blog content shift

What a Host had already invested heavily in blogging, but much of the traffic wasn’t converting into sales. We recommended a more product-led content strategy.

• Move away from generic lifestyle content (e.g. wedding styling)
• Write blog posts that directly support hero products
• Answer real buyer questions (e.g. how to style gold cutlery)
• Link blogs more strategically to product and category pages
• Track performance using conversion metrics, not just traffic

Website improvements

The homepage and navigation needed to reflect the brand’s new focus.

• Promote bestselling cutlery and candle holders clearly on the homepage
• Fix broken links and banners
• Add blog to the main navigation (not just footer)
• Remove underperforming apps that clutter the user experience
• Create more intuitive categories to group similar products

Paid media improvements

The brand’s Google Ads performance was limited by the full product feed. We suggested a more refined approach.

• Strip the feed down to only top 5-10 SKUs
• Launch new PMax campaigns focused on hero products
• Separate asset-led and feed-only PMax campaigns for better testing
• Shift budget to what’s already working, not spreading across everything
• Build clear landing pages for each product

Growth priorities for Q4

With Christmas approaching, Melanie now has a clear path to focus on her best-performing products and scale from there.

• Gold cutlery is the standout product – ideal for Q4 gifting and events
• Build 5-10 blog posts around cutlery and candle holders
• Improve internal linking between blogs and product pages
• Add new bundles or gift sets to increase average order value
• Launch retargeting ads to support abandoned baskets

Key takeaways

The lesson from this episode is simple: doing less can help you grow more.

• Be famous to a few – build your brand around proven bestsellers
• Use blog content to support sales, not just traffic
• Focus paid spend on a few products to improve ROAS
• Clean up your homepage to reflect your brand focus
• Don’t chase every channel – align efforts around clear commercial goals

Summary

What a Host is now on a much clearer growth path – with a focused product mix, a cleaner website, and a simplified marketing strategy that prioritises performance over volume. By building the brand around gold cutlery and other bestsellers, Melanie is creating a scalable foundation for growth in Q4 and beyond. The next step is execution: tighter campaigns, smarter content, and a product-first message that resonates with customers across paid, organic, and email. Sometimes the fastest way to grow is to narrow your focus – and that’s exactly what What a Host is now doing.

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