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Freebies for Your Online Store

March 31, 2020 /

Want some freebies for your online store? A lot of larger companies are stepping up to help out online sellers due to the pandemic. Here are some to consider:

  • USA Today has a Support Local Business website that you can add your business to.
  • Google advertisers will see a credit notification appear in their Google Ads account in the coming months.freebies for your online store
  • Shopify is offering a free 90-day trial if you wish to set an online store. If you’re currently on a 14-day trial, you can extend it to 90 days.
  • Shopify is also giving free access to the digital and physical gift card function, for all new and existing Shopify plans.
  • Facebook is offering grants as well as free ad credits.
  • Etsy will not be charging for their offsite ads for the month of April. Additionally, any seller who needs extra time paying their bills can request a one-month grace period.
  • Square is refunding all software subscription fees for the month of March for existing sellers who currently use Square Appointments, Retail, Restaurants, Loyalty, Team Management, Payroll, Marketing, and Square Online Store.
  • Square is all waving all fees related to curbside pickup and local delivery.
  • PayPal is all waving all transfer fees until May 1st.
  • Moz Academy is offering free SEO courses until May 31st. You just need to sign up for a Moz account and then use the coupon code “wegotthis” at checkout.
  • In the Etsy forums two weeks ago, as well as on their Instagram, I suggested to Etsy that they start a hashtag to support sellers, and now they have #StandwithSmall (although mine was #ShopEtsyWhileIsolating).So use it in your social media posts.
  • #KeepSmallStrong is a new collective hoping to help any small business owner including designing and launching of digital storefronts as well as set up of local delivery and national fulfillment.

Never miss out on these hot insider tips by signing up to receive my blog posts!

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© 2020 Gail Oliver. All rights reserved. Freebies for your online store. 

How to Keep Sales Going During COVID-19 Pandemic

March 25, 2020 /

by Gail Oliver, Online Marketing Consultant

HOW TO KEEP GETTING SALES DURING COVID-19 PANDEMICThe shutting down of businesses due to the Corona virus outbreak obviously has a trickle down effect. If your buyers are not working, then non-essential purchases are typically the first things they have to stop buying.

Therefore, if you have an online shop, you might be wondering how to keep your business afloat, and I have a few suggestions.

Upcoming Buying Occasions

  • Mother’s Day is May 10th, and you can likely assume that most people will still be buying Mother’s Day gifts, however, they may just not spend as much as they normally do.
  • Father’s Day is June 21st, and it will likely be the same situation as above.
  • April, May and June are graduation months, and people are still going to be buying grad gifts, again, maybe just not spending as much. If graduations end up being delayed until the fall, however, then they may wait until then to purchase the gift.
  • People will still be having birthdays (but maybe not parties), anniversaries and having babies (but maybe not showers), so their friends and family will still be getting them gifts.
  • People will still get married, they may just not have a big celebration or they might postpone it until fall. However, their friends and family will still buy them wedding gifts.

What Your Shop Can Do

  • Consider making significant sales offers for the occasions above, particularly on volume orders i.e. Buy any 2 items, get 25% off.
  • If you haven’t been targeting some of the gift buyers above, consider adding in products that would be applicable.
  • Consider adding a lower-priced product line into your shop, to target those buyers who have had their income reduced.
  • Email your previous customers with a special offer for their loyalty.
  • Start using the #ShopSmallBusiness hashtag on social media to remind people that businesses like yours need their shopping dollars.
  • I posted an interesting stat on my Instagram today about how long the coronavirus lives on certain surfaces. Maybe you wish to alleviate any customer fears by outlining your sanitation and safety procedures, to reduce the fear of buying.

Other Opportunities

  • With school possibly cancelled for the rest of the school year, parents will want educational items and craft kits to keep kids busy.
  • Depending on when the quarantine ends, people will likely not be travelling much internationally or might just forgo the summer vacation altogether. Therefore, they might take those vacation funds and put them into sprucing up their outdoor space, especially since they have been stuck inside.
  • Try to think of quirky new sales opportunities, such as End of Quarantine Party supplies or t-shirts.
  • A few weeks back I wrote about 8 Upcoming Publicity Opportunities for Your Business and two really apply to the current situation. So contact your local media – who wants to support you now more than ever – to get your business publicity for National Handmade Day (April 4th) and National Small Business Week (May 3-9). Here is an example of a Denver Magazine who ran an article promoting 10 Local Etsy Shops.

Hang in there everyone.

 

 

 

© 2020 Gail Oliver. All rights reserved. 

How COVID Will Likely Change Life and Business

March 18, 2020 /

by Gail Oliver, Online Marketing Consultant

Whenever a crisis impacts the world, much like the coronavirus is doing, life and business will inevitably change.

For example, after 9/11 airport security screening changed enormously. We will likely see the same impact now after the coronavirus, but this time you will be screened for your health.

  • Technology will be developed that will allow an immediate test on all passengers for any type of infectious disease before they are allowed to board a plane, boat, cruise ship or even cross the border in their car. It may be many years off, and a tedious process, but it is a likely reality.
  • These health screenings might then carry over to other events, such as concerts, sporting events, schools and other mass gatherings.
  • Home test kits might also become a reality as people will want to test themselves.
  • If you never invested in travel insurance before, you will likely see more people purchasing it, if they just lost money on a vacation they had to abandon. The good news is, with increased demand, it might become less expensive.
  • If your business or event never purchased business disruption insurance in the past, you will likely be reconsidering after this shutdown caused by the coronavirus.
  • Cleaning products will change. Don’t be surprised to see companies that sell disinfectant wipes, for example, now position them for “100% effectiveness against infectious diseases”.
  • New services will emerge for cleaning and sanitization as well as for emergency preparedness, among others.
  • Online teaching platforms will expand for elementary, high school and college students, if classrooms shut down for long periods of time.
  • Masks will be developed that will be 100% effective in stopping transmission of the flu.
  • Brands that manufacture products that are currently selling out, such as toilet paper, might decide to bypass the middle man and start their own ecommerce sites, selling directly to customers online, at very least in times of urgent need.
  • Online sales will increase, meaning more opportunities for shipping, transport and logistics companies.

Keep calm and carry on everyone.

 

 

 

© 2020 Gail Oliver. All rights reserved. 

Proven Ways to Drive More Traffic to Your Ecommerce Site

March 12, 2020 /

One of the most proven ways to drive more traffic to your ecommerce site or website in general is to add a blog.

Websites with a Blog Tend to Have 434% More Indexed Pages in GoogleWAYS TO DRIVE MORE TRAFFIC

Why?

The more content you give for Google and other search engines to crawl and index, the better your site will rank and the wider your reach will be in search results.

Websites with a Blog Receive 97% More Links

Why?

Backlinks from “authoritative” or well known websites are very important for your site’s overall SEO. These sites are more likely to link to one of your blog posts (if they find the content intriguing enough) than they are to your website.

This strategy is of a different mindset than simply doing a blog post in hopes it will get on the first page of Google search results. The chances of that are unlikely, unless you optimize the post to be cornerstone content of 2,500 words or more.

Get More Targeted Customers

Having a blog means potential customers can more easily find your products and services. If you title your blog post with a popular question your target market asks, they click on the blog post and inadvertently discover you. You can also scatter your products and services through the post (as I have done here).

Adding a Blog to Your Site

If you sell on Shopify, here is how to add a blog to your store. If you sell on Etsy, you can create a blog for free on WordPress and then link to your Etsy shop through one of your menu items (as I have done on my blog here).

Be sure to read my article, How to Write a Blog Post.

You will also want to check out my brand new 30-page printable Blogging Planner.

I also offer blog post writing services and custom blogging strategy plans. Just send me a message at attentiongetting@gmail.com to discuss.

I hope you enjoyed this post on proven ways to drive more traffic to your website.

 

 

 

Stats Source: Hubspot

©2020 Gail Oliver. All rights reserved. Proven Ways to Drive More Traffic

8 Upcoming Opportunities to Promote Your Business for Free

March 10, 2020 /

by Gail Oliver, Online Marketing Consultant

Want to get some free publicity for your business? Below are 8 great opportunities, but you do have to pitch them a story idea now due to lead times. Blogs and local media are your best bests.

April Publicity Opportunitieshow to get free publicity for your small business

  • National Handmade Day – April 3rd
  • National Decorating Month
  • National Garden Month
  • National Pet Mon

May Publicity Opportunities

  • National Photography Month
  • Military Appreciation Month (it helps if you’re offering a discount or special offer for military personnel and veterans).
  • National Small Business Week – May 3 to 9
  • Teacher Appreciation Week – May 3 to 9 (gift guide opportunities)

If you need help writing a Publicity Pitch, I do offer a very affordable Publicity Pitch Writing Service or my Marketing Planner as it has an entire planning section dedicated to getting publicity for your business as well as creating a plan to help you track when, what and who to submit pitches to.

Good luck!

 

 

 

©2020 Gail Oliver. All Rights Reserved. Free Publicity Small Business 

How Gender Neutrality Will Impact Your Online Store

March 2, 2020 /

by Gail Oliver, Online Marketing Consultant

When I consult for an online store selling kids or baby products, one thing I typically tell them is that buyers predominantly use gender in their product searches. However, this appears to be changing and you need to know how gender neutrality will impact your online store.

If you sell baby or kid’s clothing, toys, décor, even kid’s party supplies, you are going to see more and more gender neutral and unisex searches.How Gender Neutrality Will Impact Your Online Store

Gender Neutral Products on the Rise

  • This past Christmas, Mattel released a series of gender neutral dolls.
  • A survey by ChannelMum.com found that one third of parents are opting for gender neutral names.
  • According to Pinterest’s 2020 trend report, searches for unisex nurseries is up 527%, making it one of the biggest trends of the year.

And while millennials love their gender reveal parties, there is a feeling that Gen Z might not being as interested in carrying on this tradition.

Retailers have already figured out that parents are moving this way. The Gap launched a section in their online shop called, The Neutral Shop, for baby clothes that are not defined by boy blue or girl pink and without any of the themes typically attached to girls (i.e. flowers) and boys (i.e. trucks). Pottery Barn Kids no longer categorizes their nursery or kid’s room décor by gender.

But it isn’t just kids products. Gender neutral beauty and skin care products has been another break out category.

Therefore, if this is the way the market is moving, or just a trend for the 2020s, you might want to look at your business and make sure that you are covering all of your possible market segments for any products that are currently gender specific.

Remember to follow my blog (on the right sidebar) to get my posts as soon as they come out!

 

 

 

© 2020 Gail Oliver. All rights reserved. How Gender Neutrality Will Impact Your Online Store.

Huge Sales Opportunity for Your Online Shop This Week

February 17, 2020 /

by Gail Oliver, Online Marketing Consultant

Now that Valentine’s Day is over, if things are slow in your online shop, there is another huge gift buying opportunity that you can take advantage of.

In the last 4 days searches for “employee appreciation gifts” has spiked.huge sales opportunity for your online shop

  • Friday March 6th is National Employee Appreciation Day, a day for companies to thank their employees for their hard work and effort throughout the year.
  • Only 2,800 listings on Etsy are currently taking advantage of this search phrase, and only about 50,000 on Amazon, so the opportunity is there if you hurry!
  • Gifts under $20, gifts under $10, personalized gifts, bulk gifts, team gifts and cards are the most popular employee appreciation gift searches.

So get going with only 17 shopping days left!

Before You Go

  • If you do not want to miss out on exclusive tips like this, be sure to follow my blog (see sidebar on the right⇒).
  • Are you experiencing slow sales at your online store or e-commerce business? Set up a phone consultation and I can quickly determine why and how to get things moving again.

©2020 Gail Oliver. All rights reserved. 

This is the Average Sales Conversion Rate for E-Commerce

February 7, 2020 /

HubSpot indicates that the average e-commerce industry conversion rate is 2.04%. If your business is not getting this, it could be a variety of factors, and it might be an easy fix.

Order my phone consultation and I can quickly determine why your conversion rate is low and how to fix it. Remember, the higher your conversion rate, the less traffic you need.

©2020 Gail Oliver. All rights reserved.

My Out of the Box Marketing Idea of the Week

January 30, 2020 /

 

Here is my out of the box marketing idea of the week as I love coming up with creative and affordable ways for my small business clients to advertise their business.

out of the box marketing idea

Businesses Rent Out Their Windows as Ad Space

With retail store after retail store going under, there are all of these empty stores that have great positioning and lots of foot traffic, and their display windows are just being wasted.

Is there an empty store front in your city or town that gets tons of passerbys, and you could approach the landlord about renting just the windows. That’s right, you just want the display window, not the whole store. Think of all the empty store windows at your local shopping mall as well. I would imagine that these landlords would like some income as opposed to nothing.

Therefore, ask the landlord if they would allow you to rent the window only, where you could set up a display of your products and/or services. The window can also have signage that clearly indicates your website url and this way people know where to find your business. In fact, encourage passerbys that if they like what they see, take a photo of the url and check out your website.

This would work for any type of business, whether you sell online, you’re a realtor or offering other professional services.

I wondered if anyone was doing this, and then I found a business in the Netherlands whereby they actually approach not only businesses, but apartment buildings, restaurants and so forth, and ask if they wish to use any of their windows for display ads. It’s extra income for the owner of the brick and mortar, so why not?

As long as there are no bylaws preventing it, it can’t hurt to ask.

There are tons of more useful and affordable marketing ideas in my 12-Month Marketing Plans.

You might also like more of my 30-second reads.

© 2020 Gail Oliver. All rights reserved. Out of the box marketing idea. 

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