Social media is one of the fastest growing and most powerful business tools that can be used at a relatively inexpensive price. When considering what social media platforms to invest time in, Instagram should be on the top of your list. It is a photo and video platform that was started in 2010, and has been growing rapidly ever since. Instagram has over a billion monthly active users making it as much a necessity as an opportunity for businesses.

Over the years Instagram has implemented updates and platform changes to keep up with competitors such as Snapchat and Facebook. Some of these updates have been made to help businesses sell products on the social media platform. We would like to introduce you to these business friendly updates to help your business get started selling on Instagram.

Instagram Business Account

The first thing you will need to do before you start to build your profile and sell products is to set up an Instagram business account. You can choose which type of profile you would like when first setting up your account, but don’t worry, a personal account can be switched to a business account at any time. A business account can become verified, have additional contact information, and can allow you to advertise on Instagram. Business accounts also give you access to features such as Instagram Analytics, which will help you track performance. These additional features will help you step up your game, and better understand the impact your posts are having on your audience. 

Below is Vans Instagram Business account. You can see that right next to the name it has a blue check mark which means it has been verified. This allows your customers to know which is the official account for a brand. Instagram now allows all business accounts to apply for verification just go to “Settings” then “Account” where you will find a form to apply for verification.

Instagram Stories

This is a separate feature that is now being used by most users that have an account on Instagram. Instagram stories are photos or videos that are available to view for only 24 hours. To use Instagram Stories, head to the top bar of your profile, from there you just need to click on the + button around your profile picture. From here you can take a new photo or video, or upload one that you have already taken. When someone else you are following uploads new content to their Instagram Story, you will see a multi-colored ring light up around their profile picture. Stories are a great way to interact with your audience on a less formal basis than the traditional posting formats.

So how can this feature be used to sell products? When posting an Instagram story, brands with more than 10,000 followers have the option to include a link in your post. When you do this, customers just need to “swipe up” and they will be taken to the corresponding link. Many brands will posts photos of products and link the URL to their online store. Brands will also use this feature to gain traffic to other parts of their website. Below is an Instagram Story from an action sports film company known as Teton Gravity Research. They are using the “swipe up” story feature to bring their audience to an article recently published on their website. 

Instagram Shoppable Posts

This is a relatively new feature that Instagram released in 2018. It is a feature that allows customers to complete their entire buying journey without even leaving the Instagram application. These posts are marked with a small shopping bag icon in the bottom left hand corner. Once having everything set up, tagging a product in a photo is just as easy as tagging a person in a photo. 

Pictured above is an Instagram Shoppable post from the backpack company Osprey. In the post there are two products that are being shown with the corresponding prices. To view the product, a customer simply clicks on the “view products” page. This will then pull up all of the products that are in the post, providing the customers an opportunity to view the products on your own website. The great thing about this shopping feature, is that it won’t make you leave the Instagram application, everything is done within it. 

So how do you start using the shoppable feature of Instagram? First you need to complete a few steps:

1. You must be located in a country where the feature is currently available, there are currently 46 countries. 
2. You need an Instagram business account
3. Must have the latest version of the Instagram application
4. Your business must sell physical goods that are in compliance with Instagrams merchant agreement and commerce policies. 
5. Your business profile must be connected to a Facebook catalog. This can be created using a business Facebook page, Bigcommerce, or Shopify. 

If you meet the above requirements, you can add the Instagram channel to your Shopify or Bigcommerce at no additional cost. Then you enable the “Shopping Feature” under the Business Settings on the Instagram Application.

Link in Bio

Another very popular way for businesses to advertise products is by placing a link for customers to click in their bio. A business’s bio is located under the name of the business. It is where businesses can fill in any additional information they want, such as hashtags, business hours, location, or any other relevant information they want customers to see when visiting their profile. 

A business will create a post mentioning a certain product or line of new products and tell customers to click the link in their bio. This requires some effort from the customer, but if done well, it takes only a few taps of a phone screen and customers will quickly be on your website shopping your products. Shown below is a link that Stance Socks placed in their bio for customers to view products that are new for the Fall of 2019. 

Wrapping Up

Even though selling on Instagram is becoming easier, it is important that you are not only selling products to your audience. They are following your brand/business for a specific reason and don’t want to only see advertisements and posts about buying services or products. It is important to continue with the same content strategies you have created for your brand and expect to have success with in the future. It’s easy to overwhelm your customers with shopping related posts so make sure you strike a balance of genuine content posts and shopping posts. If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to our team, we would love to help you out. 

Google My Business is a free tool for both businesses and organizations to manage the online presence that they have within Google, this also includes Google Maps and Google Search. In GMB(Google My Business) you add info such as your business name, hours, location, and you can show/respond to reviews. Editing and verifying this information will make it much easier for customers to find your business. Below we will be going over the benefits of Google My Business and how to set it up for your own business.

Benefits of using GMB

Manage Your Information – Google My Business allows you to manage the information that customers see when they are doing research on your business. You are able to verify your information through Google, which helps customers consider it more trustworthy. When people find your business on Maps or Search it is important that you have the correct information available. This will help to draw in more traffic to your business. 

Interact With Customers – With GMB you are able to read and respond to the reviews that have been posted about your business. You can also post photos to show off what your business does. 

Understand & Expand Presence – An important feature you can use is insights. This will show you how customers arrived on your website and where they are from. You can create & track Smart campaigns, allowing you to enhance the following of your brand. 

How To Set Up Google My Business

Setting up a Google My Business account is fairly easy, and doesn’t take that long. If you follow the steps listed below, it will allow you to maximize the benefit you can receive from GMB. 

Create A Listing – The first thing that you need to do is to create a Google My Business listing. To start this, you need to first sign into the Google account that you would like associated with the business, and then go to google.com/business. 

After that it prompts you to fill in information about your business. You will need to provide your business name, location, website, phone number, and business category. 

Verify Your Listing – This is a very important step, that is sometimes overlooked. Verified businesses on Google are more likely to be trusted compared to unverified businesses. There are many ways to become verified, we will cover some of them below. 

A common way to become verified, is by phone. If you are eligible you will see the “Verify by Phone” option when you go to verify your business. Google will send you a text to the number that you provided earlier in the process, from here you must enter the code that they sent to you. 

Another common way is by email. If you are eligible for this option, you will see “Verify by Email” option when you go to verify your business. Google will use the email that you provided and send you an email. When you open the email up there will be a link to click that will verify your business. 

Some businesses will be able to have “instant verification.” This is possible if you have already verified your business by using another tool called Google Search Console. 

Optimize Your Listing – Now that you’ve created your listing, it isn’t over yet. It’s time to finish creating your profile so it will be as beneficial as possible to all the people that look at your Google My Business profile. 

The first thing you should do is to go to the “info” section, and add as much information as possible. Make sure you have a profile photo, correct hours, your website url, phone number(s), and attributes for your business. An attribute would be a characteristic such as “free wifi”. 

Another thing you should do is add photos to your profile. This will help customers get a better idea of what you offer, and it can help to draw them in. For example, if you are a restaurant, add photos of the food, drinks, and the atmosphere. If done right, this will help to draw customers in. On your GMB profile, customers will also be able to add their own photos from experiences in your business. 

Another important aspect to add is the location of your business. On top of the physical address you can add the location on Google Maps, and show the street view from Google Maps. This will assist customers by giving them multiple reference points when looking for your business. 

You can edit your listing at any time by logging into your profile and heading down to the “info” tab. We suggest periodically checking on your GMB listing to make sure that all of the information is current. Sometimes business will forget to change things, such as Winter back to Summer hours of operation. There is also a Google My Business mobile application. You can download this to a mobile device to edit information on the go, add photos, and to view available insights. 

Wrapping Up

Google My Business is a simple and free tool that every business should be utilizing. It won’t take long to set up and fill in with information. Using the tips and tricks we’ve listed above should help your business receive more traffic and hopefully an increase in sales. If you have any questions, or need any help with this process, please let our team know. 

BigCommerce is an all-in-one e-commerce platforms that offers a wide variety of tools and solutions for businesses of all sizes. It provides users with a large amount of scalability and has some of the best built-in features of an e-commerce platform. BigCommerce can seem quite intimidating as a first time user, but follow the steps in our tutorial and you will have your website up and running in no time!

Step 1: Set Up Your Account

When first starting to use BigCommerce, they give you a 15-day free trial to try the software. To access this trial, simply go to the homepage and click the “get started” button in the top right hand corner. 

After that, you must fill out some information to get started. They will ask you for an email, a password, and some general information about your business. This will help BigCommerce set up your demo website. It only takes a few minutes after you submit all of the info to have your initial website created.

Step 2: Follow the BigCommerce Dashboard Tour

When accessing your new site for the first time, the BigCommerce dashboard will prompt you with the option to take a tour of your new dashboard. We found this tour to be very beneficial and will cover the basic layout of the software. It will cover topics such as marketing, sales, and how to manage orders for your business. 

Step 3: Store Name & Address

If these details were not entered at the start, the set-up wizard will prompt you to add this information. You can access this information by clicking on “Update Your Store Settings.” Under this section you will be able to add a name, address, phone number, and other contact information. 

In this section you are able to mark your site as “Down for Maintenance”. This will allow for your site to display this message until you are ready to unveil it to the internet and all of your prospective customers!

Step 4: Choosing Your Theme & Logo

The templates that BigCommerce offers for its users are known as “themes.” You are provided with two free themes. These themes are modern and responsible, but have fairly basic features. If you are looking for more options, there are themes that you can pay for. The price for paid themes range from a one time payment of $150 – $300 per theme. Paid themes offer more layout and options compared to the free options. If you are unsure about a paid theme, you can view what it would look like on your individual website before you purchase.

It is important to note that when you change from one theme to another, any customization will be deleted. This means that you will need to keep track of what you have been adjusting to your current  website before you switch to a new theme. 

On the left-side menu, right below themes, there will be a tab called “Logo.” Click this and it will allow you to upload your company’s logo. 

Step 5: Add Products

Now that you have set up your store to make it visually stunning, it’s time to add some products to the shelves.

To start this process, the first thing you need to create are the product categories you would like reflected on your online store. To add categories, click on “Product Categories” under the “Product” page. Your demo store will have some pre-loaded categories based on the type of store you chose. You can delete the ones you don’t need, and add others. Under each new category, you need to add a name, URL, and description to the category. 

Once you have your categories set, it’s time to add your products. First you need to click on the “Add” tab under the products drop-down menu. Once you click on this, you will see multiple different fields to add your product information. The most important aspects to add when first entering product information is:

Product Name 

Sku number 

Price

Product Image(s)

Item Weight

Item Variations

Product descriptions

After you enter a few products into your store, you can view them all in a list by “view” under the products drop down menu. Under this list you will also see the demo products that BigCommerce added, you can delete these the same way that you delete the preloaded categories. If you need any extra help loading products into BigCommerce, you can find more information here.

Step 6: Shipping Rates & Methods

It’s almost time to start selling products online, but you first need to figure out how you’re going to ship products to customers. To set this up, head over to “Store Setup” and then click on “Shipping.” 

The first set of information you are asked to enter is the businesses address. After that it’s time to set up what you would like to charge for shipping. Some business offer free shipping on all orders, or none at all. If you decide you want to charge for shipping, the easiest way to do it is by offering a flat rate shipping price. To set this up, you click on the “Flat Rate” shipping option, you can decide what you would like to charge for each order that you are shipping. 

While setting shipping up, you should also set up your payment options. BigCommerce offers its own payment processing service, or if you already have one set up, you can use that too. To find the payment options, click on “Accept Credit Cards & Paypal”. From here, if you would like to use BigCommerce’s payment service, you can set it up. If you already use Square, Paypal, or another merchant account, you can set it up below. 

Step 7: Store Information Pages

You are almost able to launch your website using BigCommerce! One of the last things you need to do is to fill out your store information pages. Having these pages will allow you to communicate your brand to customers and to help answer common questions. BigCommerce makes this process easy by providing a web pages section where you can customize information pages. A few of the most common store info pages are:

About Us

Contact Us

Shipping & Returns

Careers

Shipping

Returns

Order Status

Step 8: Launch Your Site

It’s finally here, the moment you’ve been waiting for! After following all the steps listed above, you’ve added enough information to launch your e-commerce website. Click on the orange button that says “Launch Your Store.” After you press this, your store will be live and you can start selling products! 

Choosing Your Plan:

Once you’ve decided that you want to host your website through BigCommerce, it will be time to decide what plan is right for you. Three different monthly plans are offered, standard, plus, and pro. BigCommerce also has an enterprise option, this is a custom option for larger businesses that are looking to take their growth to a new level. All of the plans have different features to help suit small startups all the way up to large corporations. You can find out more about the BigCommerce plans, here.

Additional:

BigCommerce offers helpful resources for consumers on their website. They send out a weekly newsletter that is filled with helpful tips, strategies, and news happening in the ecommerce world. If you are looking for more specific information, BigCommerce offers helpful guides that you can download, and free webinars to watch. All of these resources can be used to help better understand the software and how it can be used to benefit your business. To find out more about this additional information, click here. 

Wrapping Up

BigCommerce is a strong tool that can be used to take your business to the next level. It provides features that all businesses can use, at a top-tier price. The steps we have listed out above, will help you set up your website quickly and effectively. But these steps only scratch the surface of what BigCommerce is able to do. If you have any questions about setting up your new website with BigCommerce, feel free to reach out to our team.

Inbound Marketing is a methodology that helps to draw customers into your business instead of you reaching out to them. When focusing on inbound marketing, you create helpful content that will attract qualified customers to your website. This content is usually in the form of a blog post, social media, or SEO. The idea of inbound is to present your business in a helpful way compared to the traditional outbound methodology of marketing. Inbound marketing forgoes the ways of the pushy selling techniques that consumers are all too familiar with. The content that you create will help to solve a customers problem or provide them with additional information that they are looking for.

The term inbound marketing was first coined by, Hubspot, and they have continued to help expand the understanding and methodology of inbound marketing. They have created the process of inbound marketing as attracting, converting, closing, and then delighting customers. Hubspot offers a lot of online courses to help learn inbound, this article is actually a form of inbound in itself. You can see some of their courses and offerings by clicking here.

Benefits of Inbound Marketing:

Increase Trust – This is one of the biggest benefits of inbound marketing. When customers view your content they gain valuable information, whether they knew they needed it or not. This helps consumers view your brand as a place where they can find useful content and not just spend money, ensuring they will return to your site over others.

Higher Quality Traffic – By creating specific content, you can draw in a more specific consumer demographic to your website. This will help turn your traffic into potential sales and revenue for your customers by bringing in less consumers that aren’t interested in your products/services.

It’s Inexpensive – That’s right, it’s cheap, at least for the most part. It doesn’t cost your company any extra overhead to produce videos, blogs, and social media content. Usually someone on the marketing team can take care of this, another option would be to bring on an unpaid intern to help create and manage this type of content.

Lasting Impact – Inbound marketing can help to create a lasting impact on your consumers. If a video or blog post stood out to them, they might bring it up in conversation or share it on social media. This again will help to bring more consumers to your website. It will also leave the customer thinking about your brand, and hopefully bring them back to your website.

It is important to note that success with inbound marketing campaigns will not come overnight, it will take some time. Make sure to keep creating content even if there is not a significant change in website traffic. After you have started to produce inbound marketing campaigns, it is important to analyze the results. This will help you better understand what types of content your consumers are most interested in, and what you can tailor future content to be about.

How Inbound Marketing May Be Used:

Since inbound marketing is so broad, there are a number of ways that it can be used in a business setting. Below are some examples of how to use Inbound Marketing.

An online kitchen store has been seeing a drop in customers that are visiting their site. They would like to draw more qualified customers to their website. Their marketing director created a few options to attempt to attract more qualified visitors. They suggested:

– Write blogs on their favorite items in the store

– Produce videos of new recipes

– Send out a weekly newsletter with cooking tips

 

A small marketing firm is trying to consider new ways to inform its customers on the benefits and services that they offer. The firm decides to:

– Post customer testimonials on social media

– Write blog posts about current marketing trends

– Create downloadable ebooks

– Bi-weekly web seminars

 

Takeaways

Inbound marketing has grown to become an important aspect of the marketing mix for an e-commerce business. It helps to attract high quality visitors to your site and creates a better relationship with these visitors. This in turn will help to increase sales and revenue for your business, all being done at an affordable price. Not sure where to start? Reach out to our team and we would love to help you out.

Google Analytics is a powerful tool that you should be using in your marketing mix. It allows you to view a magnitude of data from your website that you can use to assist in making educated marketing decisions. There are so many options with Google Analytics that it can sometimes be overwhelming on where to start and what features are the most applicable to your business. Listed below are some of the features that we find the most helpful for any e-commerce business.

We have previously covered Google Analytics. If you need a general overview of the application, you can see it here.

 

Behavioral Flow:

This section can be somewhat intimidating if you are unsure what to look for. By using the behavioral flow feature on Google Analytics, you will be able to track your user’s step-by-step experience navigating your website. It allows you to see what pages they clicked on, if they backtracked, and where you might have lost them along the way. Using data from this section can help optimize the journey for your users and guide them to making a purchase.

A behavioral flows feature that I find specifically beneficial, is that it shows you the page that visitors started on. This can help you better understand where the traffic from your site is coming from. Whether that is from a marketing campaign, social media advertisements, or users clicking onto the homepage from Google.

Audience Reports

The audience reports gives you an insight into the users that are traveling to your website. It provides you with multiple variables that you can click on ranging from demographics, interests, and even the operating system they are running when visiting your site. Knowing this information about your traffic can help you make more direct connections with them and how you choose to represent your company.

There are many avenues in this section, but I think that one of the most interesting is the Behavior section. These reports provide a gold-mine for understanding how your audience is interacting with your website. It provides how recently they visited, the frequency of the users, the time they spent on the sight, the number of sessions, and multiple other things.

Custom Reports:

Do you consider yourself a Google Analytics pro? After using the software for a while it could be time to step your game up and try custom reports.

Using this feature of Google Analytics allows you to view your data exactly how you want to. To create your own custom reports in Google Analytics you just need to scroll down on the right side. It will provide you with multiple variables that you can customize to see the exact data that you want. Because of this it will help you save time by producing more efficient reports and provide you with the exact data that you’re looking for.

Additional:

If you are still trying to gain more Google Analytics experience, I suggest checking out the training certifications that Google offers. There are six different courses that cover a wide range of topics. The certifications combine watching short videos with step-by-step tutorials to help you gain the most out of each course. Upon completion of these courses you will be able to set up more complicated configurations, more complex data analysis, and more marketing tools to help grow your business. You can find an overview of the certifications here.

Takeaways

We hope this article showed you just the beginning of Google Analytic’s power. Utilizing these new features on Google Analytics will help you capture the full benefits and maximize your use of the application. If you need any assistance Google Analytics, feel free to reach out to our team.

Product descriptions are an important aspect of an e-commerce business. Unfortunately, they often get overlooked or underutilized. It is easy to fill this area with unappealing information, or just to copy the factory specifications from your supplier. This should be avoided at all costs. Although it may take some time, we advocate having strongly written product descriptions which can help to increase sales and revenue for your company.

A product description is used to show a products value to a potential customer on your website. If done well, it will provide features and benefits of the product which will influence a potential customer to purchase. A product description should include a description on how it can fix a customers problem. Many times customers go shopping to find a solution to a problem, this is a perfect area to highlight why your product is the best for them.

Below are some of the tips that we have created to help you get the most out of your product descriptions:

 

Tips:

Write Your Product Descriptions:

Sounds easy right? Many e-commerce retailers tend to copy the description and facts that are provided by the manufacturer. Some of these facts and features will be relevant, but not all of them. Make sure to take some time to develop and write at least part of your product descriptions, it will help you stand out to your consumer.

Tell a Story:

This doesn’t have to be an elaborate fairy tail, but writing a story about the product can help sell it to the customer. You could use storytelling aspects to talk about the product’s history, or highlighting how it could help solve a specific problem.

Write For Your Target Audience:

This is one of the most crucial aspects to consider when writing product descriptions. Would you use the same language when selling a television on craigslist as you would selling it to your mother? Probably not. When writing these descriptions it is important to use phrases and words that are relevant to your target audience and their uses.

Test Descriptions:

You won’t be able to make every description perfect when you first write it. You will have to test different variations to see what works best for your website. If you notice low conversion on a product, consider adjusting the description in slight increments and measuring the results.

Details:

Make sure to include all of the details that are applicable to the customers shopping on your website. If you notice an influx of emails asking about certain product features, include those on the description. Some consumers want more details, while others want only a small amount of information.

Easy To Read:

I know that we’ve given you a number of tips so far, but don’t let your descriptions get overly complicated. Make sure that they will be easy to read and comprehend for the users visiting your website. Have others read your finalized description to see if they can identify the main selling points.

Wrapping Up

Product descriptions are an important part of your website, and shouldn’t get brushed under the table. It will take some time and creativity to understand what aspects are important to include in your descriptions. If you need any help, feel free to reach out to our team.

Consumers are becoming more alert and aware of what you send to their inbox. They are sick of spam email! Sending creative and strategic emails can ensure that your emails stand out among the thousands of emails received by your busy consumer daily. Creating captivating emails gives the consumer the incentive to open that email rather than continuing to scroll by. Sending effective emails will help increase traffic and sales to your website.

Who is this for: This article is for online businesses that are looking to increase sales and visits to their website from automated emails. This could be used by business owners, marketing directors, marketing agencies, and more. This article will help you understand why these emails are important and provide helpful tips to get started. It will also allow you to make adjustments to existing email templates to help you get the most out of every email.

In order for new email campaigns to work you should have an established website with products or services that are available to customers.

Listed below are six of the crucial emails that will increase your email efficiency when sending them to customers. Under every email there will be examples and tips to help you get the most out of each email template. If you want additional examples, you can sign up for our templates here.

Welcome Email:

A welcome email has become a standard across online marketplaces. Shortly after signing up for an account, a websites newsletter, or making a purchase, the customer will receive an email thanking the customer and telling them more about their brand or service. Normally this will be the first official form of contact that a business will have with a prospective customer.

It is important to note that this email will set the tone and expectations for other emails you send in the future. This in return will help to influence the consumer to open future emails from you. What makes a great welcome email? Here’s what we think:

• Promptness
• Include a brief and appealing overview of your business
• Be Gentle on selling products
• Include brand imagery
• Track open rates to see what is working and what is not
• Offer opt-in rewards for signing up, such as a first order discount
• Add social media information in the email

Welcome Email Example:

Listed below are a few examples of welcome emails. The first email is from Vermont Smoke & Cure. This email uses a pun to engage and make consumers see their sense of humor. The email has a nice photo highlighting the examples of the product that the company sells. It also shows how consumers can use the product, pairing meat with hummus and vegetables. Provided in this first email is a coupon code that can be applied for 10% off their first order, to incentivize a product purchase.

The next email is from Hulu, a movie and television streaming service. This email thanks the user for signing up and welcomes them to the service. It provides a concise overview of the service and then has photos to engage the consumer. Hulu also added a silly catch phrase at the bottom “Get your TV on” to encourage the customer to start using the service right away.

The welcome email sent by Uber, a transportation network company, is one of my favorites. It thanks the consumer and provides a short description of the service. It also includes a photo of the application, to give the customer an idea of what it looks like. A link is also provided so consumers can download and start to use the application immediately.

Abandoned Cart/Browse Abandonment:

No company benefits when a customer adds a product to their shopping cart, but doesn’t follow up with the purchase. The good thing is, it shows that the customer expressed interest in that product. Abandoned cart emails recapture the consumer’s interest and will hopefully create a sale. Some companies will send these emails a few hours after not purchasing, while others will wait a few days.  The ideal timing of abandoned cart emails depends on each company and the way that your customers engage with your emails. Below are tips and tricks to send successful abandoned cart emails.

• Emphasizes “low quantities in stock”
• Includes multiple photos of the product
• Provides a link to access the abandoned cart
• Gives contact information to answer any questions or doubts the consumer might have
• Insert catchy phrases to pull the customer back into the process

Abandoned Cart Email Example:

Above is a simple yet effective email sent from AirBnB, a peer to peer marketplace where you can rent out houses and apartments. From previous searches on the website they were able to see what location/time frame the consumer was looking at. It is a friendly reminder to continue planning their trip and to influence the consumer to book through AirBnB. Abandoned cart emails are great because you can quickly adjust the elements to reflect the searches and experiences that other customers are searching.

This next email is from an e-commerce general store. The emails starts off with their logo, and immediately tells the customers that they left something in their cart. A photo of the forgotten photo is pictured to remind the customer of the exact. Paired with reviews of the product to help influence the customer and to show them the positive experience of others.

Order Confirmation:

This is another standard that consumers are now expecting from ecommerce websites. Once an order is placed, it is important to quickly process the initial request and confirm the order to the customer. In this email you can describe the next steps in the order process and ways for the customer to track the progress of the shipment. Many companies will send an additional email once the item has been successfully shipped.

Order confirmation emails provide an opportunity for extra brand promotion. You could highlight similar products, or other services provided by your company. Here are a few tips to help you send order confirmation emails to customers.

• Send them shortly after you receive the order
• Thank the customer for placing the order
• Give them ways to track the shipping/process
• Include the order number
• Provide a photo of the product they have ordered
• Include opportunities for consumers to continue shopping

Order Confirmation Email Example:

This is an email that confirmed the purchase of concert tickets, making sure they display the appropriate artist and date. It added the order number and ways to reach out if there were any issues. It gave the customer all the information they needed and was easy to comprehend.

This receipt from Google is for the rental of a movie. It is similar to a traditional receipt that you would see in a storefront. But it still covers some of the important aspects we covered above. It thanks the customer and provides a description of the rental along with the total cost. Proving that your emails don’t have to be too fancy to be effective! Receiving an email receipt from an online purchase helps the customer keep track of their purchase for their records.

Post Purchase Follow Ups:

Following up with customers shortly after they have purchased a product is an important way to receive feedback on a product/service. You can provide features such as a place to put reviews, to help you sell products. In these emails it can be beneficial to highlight other products that are associated with the product(s) they purchased. Many follow up emails also have a link to direct the consumer back to the company’s main website. Below are tips to help you gain the most out of post purchase follow ups.

• Send 3-5 days after the customer receives the product
• Thank the customer for their purchase
• Ask them to leave a review of the product
• Provide a link to leave the review
• Add related products to the email

Post Purchase Examples

Skylynx, a transportation service from Vancouver B.C. to Whistler B.C., sent a follow up email after I had traveled with them. It first thanked me for using their service, and asked me to leave a review of my experience. They didn’t provide any specific link, but they did provide examples of websites I could use to leave a review. It was sent about two hours after I had traveled with them, so they could receive immediate feedback on the experience.

This email was sent shortly after I received a new pair of reflective sunglasses. The company wanted to make sure that I was satisfied with the product, and provided the appropriate contact information for sending questions/complaints. Later in the email they asked for a review and provided the medium of which they would like it written. It was a short but sweet email to help make sure that I was happy with the product.

Educational Content:

These emails offers additional value for your customers while also increasing the feeling of commitment and care to the customer. It expresses your interested about their business and life and aren’t just using them to make some quick cash. The beauty of educational content is that it doesn’t need to follow any rules. It can be anything that you would consider beneficial for your customers and help your customers gain the most they can out of your brand.

You can write articles about multiple use products, show tests on products, best practices, or write a funny write up of how your company started. Educational content can take many mediums including film and writing. Here are some tips and tricks to sending out educational content emails.

• Send these emails on a regular basis, one or twice a month
• Include information not obvious to the consumer
• Providing value to a diverse group of customers
• Include photos for products
• Have others in the office create content for these emails

We send out our own educational content emails bi-weekly. We call it Taco Tuesday and it’s filled with helpful marketing information. If you are interested in signing up, you can do so here. Below is an example of a Taco Tuesday we sent our a few weeks ago. We include blog posts, videos, and recipes to help add value to the emails we send. Below are two parts of an email that we sent out a few weeks ago.

If you are interested in getting our educational content, you can sign up here (insert hyperlink here).

Cross-Selling Emails:

Cross-selling emails can be a simple but effective way to persuade a customer to make additional purchases from your brand. By compiling previous purchases you can make useful recommendations for productions that complement or are compatible with their previous purchase. Below are tips to get the most out of your cross-selling emails:

• Thank the customer for the previous purchase
• Provide multiple additional items
• Cross-sell similarly priced items
• Include pictures
• Add links to look at the products from the email
• Make sure products are not drastically different in price

Cross-Selling Example:

This example below is from a shaving service that provides a monthly service to customers. This email sent is a reminder of what the customer was receiving, and provided additional products they could purchase. With this strategic model, a customer can add one, or multiple additional products to their cart. The more they purchase, the higher their investment in the brand becomes. This will lead to an increase in revenue for your company.

Wrapping Up:

Emails are one of the easiest ways to increase conversion and traffic to your website from customers already in your system. All six of these emails have provided new options for you to follow up with the customer and keep them coming back to your business. Many of these emails can be automated, which will help you save time and ensure these emails are sent exactly when you want them to be. You can gain our email templates here (insert hyperlink) to start sending emails to customers right away.

Content is now, more than ever, a critical component to your marketing strategies. The content that consumers look at is the center of connection between your brand and them. Because of this, it is crucial that this content is produced at a high standard and aligns with your overall business. Below are 7 tips to keep in mind while you produce content for your website, social media, and other avenues for your company.

Content Marketing Plan

It is paramount that you and your business develop a plan to help align content strategies with business goals. Having a documented plan allows for your business to strategize and produce goal oriented content. Sit down with others from your company and decide exactly what you are hoping to gain from producing content for your business. Firms with a good marketing plan will have their calendars filled to the brim with content and when it should be produced/posted.

Quality vs. Quantity

There is no need to rush the creation of content for your website. The content that you produce directly reflects your website and brand as a whole. Take the time to produce quality content that will impress your visitors and leave them with a strong view of your brand.

Original Content

As the internet continues to grow, it is becoming more difficult to stand out. Producing original content will help to draw in and engage consumers and it will help you stand out. An original blog or video post can stick with a customer and leave them thinking about your brand in a way that a paid ad never could.

Use Multiple Types of Content

Content is now consumed under a multitude of mediums. Consumers don’t always want to read a blog post, sometimes they prefer short videos or social media posts. Mixing up the ways you produce content will help reach and engage a broader audience.

Decisions & Data

A strong way to plan how to create content is by making decisions based on data you already have access too. Looking into data from applications such as Google Analytics, can give you additional insights on your consumer base and how they interact with your website. This can help you decide the best type of content to produce.

If you are unfamiliar with Google Analytics, you can learn more about it here.

Focused Content

It is crucial to make sure that the content you produce is directed at your target audience. This will help draw in consumers that are interested in your products and will create more website visits and conversions. If your content is too broad, it will draw in visitors that won’t convert to customers.

Switch It Up

To help keep the creative spirit alive, have others in the office create content. This can be a fun way to get co-workers from other departments involved in the content creation process. This can also help prevent your team from feeling burnt out and struggling to come up with original ideas.

Hopefully this article has shown you that great, consistent content isn’t an unachievable goal. With a little time and practice you can be attracting customers through your businesses content in no time.

Photo by Alexander Dummer and Patrick Tomasso

Design is Important

A logo is one of the most important elements of a business. It is a symbol that represents your brand to both you and your customers and it is used as an easy identifier when consumers are shopping. This is not an aspect of your business that you want to cut corners on, and it can be frustrating to decide where to start. It is expensive to pay someone to design a logo, and some of the high-end programs such as the Adobe Creative Suite, have a big learning curve. Fortunately enough there are many free and easy programs that can be used to help design your logo. Listed below are four of our favorite tools that can be used by individuals with ranging skill levels.

Canva

Canva is a free online tool that is a favorite for those DIYers. It gives you access to thousands of templates that are a great starting point for any project. To use the program you must first sign up. You can use Facebook, a Google account, or just a regular email. Once you have done this, there are hundreds of quality templates that you have access to for your new logo. Each template is designed for a specific document purpose. They have templates for social media posts, documents, designing logos, and much more. The application was created with an intuitive drag and drop operation, with millions of photos and shapes available to use. You also have the option to upload your own photos. Canva also has hundreds of fonts that you can choose from, this allows for increased customisation and a better representation of your brand. Below is a photo of the start to a Canva logo design.

Canva can be used on most computers and any IOS mobile device. This is great if you are on the move or have access to limited resources. Canva does have the option to upgrade and pay for the service. It is called Canva for Work, and is designed for small businesses that plan on producing a large amount of documents through the application. It provides more features, such as team collaboration, the ability to save brand logo/templates, and provides folders to help organize information. This additional features comes in at a monthly cost of $9.95 USD.

Hatchful

Hatchful is a free logo application designed by the developers of Shopify, and specifically for logos. If you want to learn more about Shopify, you can here. Hachful is a logo design application that uses AI to help suggest brand assets for your business, by combining icon and color combinations for your business. It only takes a few minutes to answer the initial questions asked on the screen, and it will provide you with a large number of new logos to test out. Each logo include pre-sized photos for most social media sites. This allows for you to have high quality logos that consumers will recognize on all social media platforms. I went onto the website and within 3 questions, they created hundreds of new logos for a fictional business “Chad’s Chucks.” An example of three of the logos are below.

Squarespace Logo Maker

Squarespace is a popular application that is known to help you build websites. They also offer a simple application to use during the logo generation process, Squarespace Logo Maker. This program provides both text and icon options that you can use when creating your logo. This application is the easiest to use on the list, with a very easy learning curve. The designs that it creates are somewhat basic, but it provides a great starting point. I again used the business “Chad’s Chucks” to provide an example of what the workspace provided by Squarespace looks like.

 

Squarespace allows you to download low-res and watermarked versions of your logo for free. But for $10 USD you can download a high-res version, or you can download them for free if you are already a Squarespace customers. This application is perfect for creating a simple logo that will still attract customers to your brand.

Gravit Designer

The last application we will be talking about is Gravit Designer. This is a free application that allows you to design your logo, but differently compared to the others listed above. This program is similar to Photoshop and GIMP, it includes tools such as layering, drawing tools, effects, and many more. This sort of application is more suited for an intermediate-advance graphic designer. But if you are looking to step your game up, Gravit provides video tutorials to help customers become more familiar with their application. Below is the start to a new logo for “Chad’s Chucks”.

Gravit does have a few templates that are pre-sized for specific uses such as blog posts. The application is designed to integrate with the Gravit Cloud, which is another free program. This will allow you to backup files and share them with others at your business. Gravit Designer is a great application if you are more experienced and are looking to create a unique logo, but it will take more time. Gravit is free but if you find yourself using it enough, you can upgrade to the Pro version for $80 USD.C

Even though it is intimidating to create a new logo, there are many applications to help you during this process. These applications can be used on a large variety of devices and cater to all skill levels. All of the options that we have gone over today have a free version to help you get started with your logo. A few of them charge small fees to download and use the design, but the $10-$20 dollars you will spend can give you a logo that you can use for years. Have fun designing, and if you need any help let us know.

When first launching an eCommerce website, it can be difficult to decide what platform to help design and build your website. Shopify is a popular and effective program to consider when reaching this step in your online business. It is a complete commerce program that is entirely cloud based. It will allow you to easily […]

Continue reading