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How to Reengage with Customers After the Holidays

January 24, 2014 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

Want to know how to reengage with customers after the holidays?

I recently contributed to an article, How Small Businesses Can Keep Their Brand Strong After the Holiday Rush. A lot of the article talks about using this time to stay connected with your customers, which is always good advice.

If you are an online business, one critical thing you need to do during this slow January lull is follow-up with your customers who purchased from you in early November to December 31st. Not only will this foster a good customer relationship (you want their repeat business and referrals), but they may come back to buy more right away.

Three Easy Ways to Reconnect with Your Holiday Buyers

Send the customer an email and ask if the product arrived in time (if applicable) and if they are happy. Keep it short and sweet.
Offer a 20% off coupon for their next purchase as a thank you or mention something cool you are doing on social media if they would like to follow you. For example, “Be sure to follow my Facebook page below as I am posting my favorite Pinterest boards every week…” (following you on social media keeps you in their radar).
Send them a free digital gift, like a one-page printable calendar for the new year. Make sure it has your shop branding and url on it.

Remember, 30 – 40% of your business should be repeat customers, so this presents the perfect opportunity to reach out to them.

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3 Ways to Make the Most of Your Publicity

January 20, 2014 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

how to make the most of your publicity I recently secured a feature article for one of my clients, a children’s book author, in a popular Canadian magazine called, Our Canada (a Reader’s Digest publication). Hopefully the feature transpires into sales, but there are so many other opportunities for the author to take this press and leverage it to further help the sales of her book; tactics you can use when you get publicity for your business.

1. Use Your Publicity to Get Your Products into Stores

The author had been trying to get her book into more book stores. This article poses a huge opportunity to do that. If you take your press into any store and say, “I just had a national magazine write about my product, I think you may want to carry it” (say it much nicer than that, but you get the idea) what store would say no? Press creates demand.

make the most of your publicity

2. Use Your Publicity to Get Credibility

You can leverage any media exposure to gain credibility and trust with new customers who may not know of you. For example, “As featured in this month’s issue of …”. It essentially tells customers you are a player.

3. Use Your Publicity to Get More Publicity

Once you get that first press, use it to turn it into more press. For example, go to your local newspaper with a story pitch where your business success is the story, “My business was just featured in a national magazine, so I thought maybe your readers would be interested in hearing about how my small company has really taken off in the last few months…”. As I’ve always said, local press loves writing about local success stories.

Be Patient! Publicity Can Take Time

Now, I should note, I pitched this story to Our Canada magazine last March and it is just appearing now. That is how long it can take, so be patient. The reason it took so long is because they had to fit it into their editorial calendar, which is planned in advance. Blogs and newspapers move a little faster, but magazines can take a long time.

My Publicity Pitch Service

My publicity pitch service is just $59 USD where I will write a story pitch with 10 top media contacts for you to send to. Just email me at attentiongetting@gmail.com to discuss.

Small Business Planners

January 12, 2014 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

My small business planners are a great way to get organized as well as strategic about your small business.

How to Start a New Small Business Planner

This is where you need to begin, if you are just starting out. My 34-page How to Start a New Business Planner is a printable and fillable digital download PDF that covers publicity, advertising, social media, content marketing, SEO, co-marketing, and so much more! It will be all you need to market your business.

Small Business Marketing Planner

My small business Marketing Planner is a best-seller, with 96 pages that will walk you through every aspect of planning your marketing action plan, as well as tracking the results. It is a printable and fillable digital download PDF.

Strategic Small Business Planner

My Strategic Business Planner takes a complete audit of your business and helps you plan the best strategy going forward. From costs and revenues to which products and services are your best sellers to analyzing your competition and customers, it does it all! A 60-page digital download printable and fillable PDF.

Social Media Small Business Planner

My Social Media Planner is included for free in my Marketing Planner, but if you just want to focus solely on social media, this planner will help. 37-page digital download printable and fillable PDF, it covers all the sites from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIN, and YouTube. It also includes bonus ideas such as social media posts ideas for every month of the year!

My Small Business Services

I offer a variety of very affordable services for small businesses from one on one consulting to various marketing writing services.

About Me

A 20+ year marketing professional, small business consultant, ebook author & blogger, my advice has been featured in the NY Times, Success Magazine, American Express, Big Commerce, Business2Community to name a few – so this is professional advice you can trust!

Since 2012, I have been selling online including on Shopify, Etsy, Gumroad and on Amazon back in its early years. This, combined with my decades of marketing & business experience means I can advise, mentor as well as come up with creative new ideas for your business. It really does help to talk to someone who is objective to get a new but professional perspective.

I have written publicity pitches for clients that resulted in them being featured in Real Simple Magazine, Apartment Therapy, House Beautiful, Vanity Fair, Houzz, Martha Stewart, Glamour Magazine, LONNY, DesignMilk, Emmaline Bride,– just to name a few.

How to Get Those Post Holiday Sales

January 2, 2014 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

Want to get those post holiday sales?

Think your sales have to dry up just because holiday shopping is over? There are a lot of people who will be buying certain items this time of year, you just have to position yourself for those sales.

Start Promoting Valentine’s Day

Just around the corner, people will be buying Valentine’s gifts not just for husbands, wives, boyfriends and girlfriends, but also for their kids, grandkids, friends, grandparents and teachers. So start giving an early bird offer right after Christmas, maybe even a Boxing Day sale.

Wedding Market is Hot

26% of all wedding engagements take place in November and December, followed by Valentine’s Day. So if you have any products or services aimed at brides, now is the time to be promoting them. This is also a popular time for wedding editorial, such as your local newspaper and local magazines, so start pitching those story ideas that would incorporate what you sell.

Big Parties Coming Up

Two of the biggest parties of the year – the Superbowl and Mardi Gras – take place in the next two months. Party supplies, food, and drinkware should all be moved to the forefront.

Ideas for post holiday sales

It’s Vacation Time

Beach vacations and ski vacations are being booked at this time of year, so make sure you target these vacationers if you have products they’ll need.

From swimwear to ski wear to luggage, these will all be top searches in December.

The Winter Olympics Will Be Trending

The winter Olympics start in February and everyone will be wanting to wear and display their patriotic pride. What can you put your country’s flag on?

Have a Clearance Sale

Everyone wants a deal after Christmas and 10% will not cut it. The key to offering a sale in January is to make it a time-limited, 1-day only blowout type sale in order to get people to act quickly. Buyers love getting a deal so even if they are broke, they will justify the purchase if it is a special offer.

Go After the Teen Market

Teens tend to get money and gift cards for Christmas from frustrated relatives who have no idea what to buy them. If you target this market, they have money to spend right now.

Take Advantage of New Year’s Resolutions

Now is the time for people to get fit, lose weight, quit smoking, keep spiritually healthy, make a career change, and so forth. Take advantage of the most popular New Year’s resolutions if they apply to your business.

Follow up with Holiday Customers

30 to 40% of your business should be repeat business. So follow up with customers who bought from you during the holidays and make sure your products arrived on time, that they were satisfied, and give them a coupon for 20% off their next purchase as a thank you (time limited, of course).

As you can see, there are lots of ways small businesses can keep their sales momentum going well into the spring.

About Me

Do you need your Brand Story written or an SEO-Optimized Blog Post or a Personalized Business Consultation? As a 20+ year marketing professional and small business consultant, all of my services are super affordable.

I have consulted for thousands of small businesses since 2012, and my advice has been featured in the NY Times, Success Magazine, Yahoo Business, American Express, Big Commerce, Business2Community to name a few – so this is professional advice you can trust!

My Publicity Pitch service has also gotten my clients featured in Real Simple Magazine, Apartment Therapy, House Beautiful, Vanity Fair, Houzz, Martha Stewart, Glamour Magazine, LONNY, DesignMilk, Emmaline Bride,– just to name a few.

Great Marketing Examples: BaubleBar

December 4, 2013 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

Today I am offering a great marketing example with an online store that markets itself really well – Bauble Bar. Specializing in fashion jewelry, they offer some really unique and smart marketing tactics that you may want to consider for your E-comm business.

1. Uses Instagram to Get Customers to Share

Great Marketing Examples

At the bottom of their home page, Bauble Bar displays photos from customers wearing their jewelry. They offer an incentive for their customers to upload the photos by giving away three $100 gift cards each month. The key is they also have to include the hash tag #BaubleBar. This is a great way to also connect with your customers and get them to recommend you to their friends on social media.

2. Promotes Best Sellers

Great Marketing Examples

Also along the bottom of the home page you will get a constantly moving list of Bauble Bar’s Best Sellers. It is always a good idea to point out to your less-than-savvy fashion customers which are the hot pieces so they will jump on the trend.

3. Has a Monthly Treasure Find

Every Monday and Friday, Bauble Bar secretly marks down two of their products to $10 and $20, respectively, and then they email clues to their customers who sign up to find the deal on the site. This is not only a brilliant way to get people to join your mailing list, but to also take advantage of those customers who are always looking for a deal.

4. Offers Kids’ Line

Bauble Bar offers a small line of affordable jewelry products for young girls, which allows them to branch out into other target markets, but the same buyer (i.e. mothers buying for daughters).

5. Puts a Time Limit on Sales

Sometimes when you indicate that a price has been marked down, people may still not jump on it because they think they have time. But if you indicate that it is only marked down for a limited time, they will act now.

6. Lists Product Categories at the Top

I love how Bauble Bar lists the product categories in large text above the product listings (they do list the categories on the side as well). When you have a large inventory it always helps to give buyers options to quickly narrow down the list to what they are looking for, so they don’t give up in frustration.

As you can see, Bauble Bar is a great example of a company really trying to engage their customers in a variety of different ways. It’s no wonder that there’s a waiting list for so many of their products!

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3 Marketing Ideas to Try on Pinterest

December 2, 2013 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

Today I have three Pinterest marketing ideas to try.

Pinterest is a great social media site for driving traffic to your online store.

Traffic on the site has never been higher, especially this time of year with people searching for holiday recipes, gift ideas and decorating ideas.

So take advantage and brush up on your Canvas skills to create engaging and SEO-optimized pins that can essentially act as free ads for your business.

Here are three ideas:

1. Create a Pin Describing Who Needs Your Product

One Kings Lane is great at creating “pinnable” images. This one is promoting why you should consider buying a bow tie for the men on your list (you will have to make this pin horizontal and put the text on the bottom in order to work on Pinterest). You can use other text with the image, like a quote or a customer review.

2. Create a Pin Announcing a Sales at Your Shop

What better way to announce a sale then to pin it for all your followers to see, like this one from West Elm? What is key here is to ask all of your followers to “Re-Pin”.

3. Create a Pin of a Gift Guide Showcasing Your Products

Take photos of a variety of your products and arrange them into a collage for an overall image (like this one from Bauble Bar). Then pin. In the comments, be sure to include hash tags #gifts #gift ideas #gifts for women, etc.

Pinterest is a great medium for driving traffic to your shop, you just have to make sure to stand out among the all the images, and these ideas will help.

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3 Marketing Ideas To Try In November

November 25, 2013 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

Need some marketing ideas for November?

November can be one of the biggest selling times of the year for a lot of small businesses. As such, it poses a ton of opportunities for promotion.

So, here are three quick and easy marketing ideas to try in November for your small business.

1. Approach Editors About Valentine’s Gift Guides

Marketing Ideas for November

That’s right, holiday gift guides are in full swing, so if you missed out you might as well start on the next big gift buying holiday. Valentine’s Day is 11 weeks away so start emailing editors of blogs and magazines that your target market reads with possible gift guide topics that could work for what you sell. i.e. Valentine’s Gift Ideas for the Dog in Your Life, Valentine’s Gift Ideas for a Boyfriend of 2 Months, Valentine’s Gift Ideas for Kids, etc.

2. Comment on Thanksgiving Posts

Marketing Ideas for November

As long as your avatar and user name denotes your business, commenting on social media posts is free advertising for you. Over the next two days comment on as many Thanksgiving recipe pins you can find, because that is what people will be looking at.

3. Approach a Local Shop

Marketing Ideas for November

Small local shops are always looking for opportunities to bring more shoppers into their store, especially during holiday shopping season. Approach a store that compliments (but doesn’t compete with) what you sell and see if they will let you set up a special table just for your products. You will handle all transactions, giving them a 10% cut at the end of the day. The additional benefit for them is that you will bring all of your friends, family and customers to their shop that day. Plus, they have something to promote, “Special Vendor in the Shop Today!“.

Be Sure to Also Check Out

About Me

I have consulted for thousands of small businesses since 2012. It really does help to talk to someone who is objective to get a new, but professional, perspective. I have also written publicity pitches for clients that resulted in them being featured in Real Simple Magazine, Apartment Therapy, House Beautiful, Vanity Fair, Houzz, Martha Stewart, Glamour Magazine, LONNY, DesignMilk, Emmaline Bride,– just to name a few.

3 Tips to Get Visitors to Notice Your Blog

November 20, 2013 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

how to get your blog noticed If you have a website or online store, and you want to draw visitors over to your blog, here are three easy ways to get it noticed by visitors.

Put a Graphic / Ad for the Blog on the Home Page

Bento&Co sells a variety of Japanese kitchen products. On the home page of their online shop, they post this colorful eye-catching hyperlinked graphic below to bring you over to their blog. You could also put this graphic within various blog posts as well as in your online store product sections and About page. The key is that it is hyperlinked to the blog home page.

How to Get Your Blog Noticed

Give a Graphic Preview of Blog Posts in Drop Down Menu

Shop Terrain sells a variety of home products. At their online shop they have a blog called, The Bulletin. When you run your cursor over its heading in the main menu, you get a drop down graphic that shows you the last four blog posts with both a graphic and the blog title. You can then click on the blog post to go directly to it.

How to Get Your Blog Noticed

Make it Standout in the Menu

Capwell+Co does something very simple to get you to notice their blog by highlighting it in the menu bar with a graphic. BHLDN does something similar by putting the name of their blog in a different color and typeface in the main menu to make it stand out, as does Shop Terrain in the second graphic above. Most businesses do tend to keep the blog at the far right side of the top menu, as this is standard position.

I hope these tips help you drive more readers to your business blog.

3 Marketing Ideas To Try To Get Holiday Shoppers

November 18, 2013 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

The big holiday shopping season is upon us.

If you need marketing ideas to get holiday shoppers into your retail store, then try these three marketing tactics and see if they bring in the buyers you are looking for.

1. Relook at How You Are Using Twitter

Please stop just tweeting out your products. It doesn’t work. Instead, create and then tweet out a Pinterest board, with a really attention grabbing title like Gifts for Men Who Have Everything (i.e. and make sure a few of your products are amongst them). Use the trending hash tags #gifts, #Christmas, #Pinterest #BlackFriday and you’ll see better results. Use the camera icon in the bottom left corner of the Twitter box to include a photo of the board. Encourage people to RT.

2. Use the Senses to Draw Shoppers In

If you have a retail shop, place of business or are exhibiting at a show or event, draw people in ways you can’t always online. Through smell, sight, taste and sound. Decorate your store windows, door, signage, shopping mall cart, whatever you’ve got. It doesn’t have to be for Christmas, it can just even be for winter and it can be something quirky like Anthropologie using marshmallows as snow in the photo above (note: you can also use a cool window display to get publicity in your local paper). Have holiday music playing and piped out into the street (if allowed). Have some sort of amazing scent, whether it is food or a holiday scent like cinnamon luring them in. Hand out hot chocolate or pumpkin lattes with your business name on the cups. Bring the spirit and you’ll bring the shoppers.

Store Window at Anthropologie

3. Display Quirky Signage

People love funny, love quirky and they love quotes. Put up interesting signage that gets people talking, and in this case, are good calls to action. Sometimes people don’t need much convincing to buy something they probably don’t need, especially at those Black Friday sales (44% of Black Friday shoppers buy for themselves).

marketing ideas holiday shoppers

One of the best ways to drive endless, free and qualified traffic to your business is through a blog. If done correctly, over time, one blog post can bring anywhere from 2,000 to 20,000 visits a month. And SEO has proven to convert the highest into sales, more so than email, advertising or social media. I offer a blog writing service if interested!

8 Creative Holiday Promotional Ideas for Your Online Shop

November 13, 2013 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

If you sell online and are looking for some creative marketing ideas to help increase holiday sales at your online shop, try some of these:

Don’t Just Promote Gift Ideas

Position your products not just as potential gifts, but also sell as part of the holiday experience. For example, include a fly-out on the product photo that says, “Ideal Christmas Party Outfit” or “For the Holiday Table” or “Perfect for Santa Photo”.

Offer a Flat Shipping Rate

High shipping costs do turn customers away. However, if you can’t offer free shipping, then offer a “Holiday Flat Shipping Rate” such as $8 or $9.95. This way there are no surprises at checkout and no abandoned carts.

Screen shot 2013-12-08 at 7.31.57 PM

Add a Little Holiday Décor

I love these animated “snowing” photos on West Elm’s site and the holly decorations at Ones Kings Lane.

Allow for the Creation of a Wish List

Give customers the ability to make a wish list and email it to themselves or the potential gift giver. If you can’t do that, then encourage them to pin your products to their Christmas Gift Wish Board (if they don’t have one, you just gave them the idea).

Promote Gift Cards

You should have a separate listing for a gift card and at the end of each product listing remind buyers again with either a link or icon that tells the buyer, “Can’t Decide? Go for our Gift Card, available here…”.

Holiday Promotional Ideas for Your Online Shop

Create Gift Inspiration Boards

Get together with some other complimentary online stores (not competitive) and create a Gift Inspiration Board. Then all of you circulate it on your social media sites extending the reach of it even further.

Holiday Promotional Ideas for Your Online Shop

Gift Inspiration Board at Eat.Drink.Shop.Love

Get Found on Social Media

Use your hash tags when promoting your products on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and Pinterest such as #gift, #Christmas, #GiftForHer, etc.

Holiday Promotional Ideas for Your Online Shop

Remind Buyers of Less Obvious Recipients

Not all gifts are for him or her. There are a lot of searches such as, “gifts for boyfriend’s parents”, “gifts for Dad who has everything”, “gift for employees” (get those volume sales!), and “ideas for stocking stuffers”.

Holiday Promotional Ideas for Your Online Shop

Three Easy Ways to Reconnect with Your Holiday Buyers

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Please Share on Social Media:

1. Use Your Publicity to Get Your Products into Stores

2. Use Your Publicity to Get Credibility

3. Use Your Publicity to Get More Publicity

Be Patient! Publicity Can Take Time

My Publicity Pitch Service

More Posts

Please Share on Social Media:

How to Start a New Small Business Planner

Small Business Marketing Planner

Strategic Small Business Planner

Social Media Small Business Planner

More Small Business Posts

My Small Business Services

About Me

Please Share on Social Media:

Start Promoting Valentine’s Day

Wedding Market is Hot

Big Parties Coming Up

It’s Vacation Time

The Winter Olympics Will Be Trending

Have a Clearance Sale

Go After the Teen Market

Take Advantage of New Year’s Resolutions

Follow up with Holiday Customers

About Me

More Articles

Please Share on Social Media:

1. Uses Instagram to Get Customers to Share

2. Promotes Best Sellers

3. Has a Monthly Treasure Find

4. Offers Kids’ Line

5. Puts a Time Limit on Sales

6. Lists Product Categories at the Top

About Me

More SEO Articles

Please Share on Social Media:

1. Create a Pin Describing Who Needs Your Product

2. Create a Pin Announcing a Sales at Your Shop

3. Create a Pin of a Gift Guide Showcasing Your Products

About Me

More SEO Articles

Please Share on Social Media:

1. Approach Editors About Valentine’s Gift Guides

2. Comment on Thanksgiving Posts

3. Approach a Local Shop

More Social Media Posts

Be Sure to Also Check Out

About Me

Please Share on Social Media:

Put a Graphic / Ad for the Blog on the Home Page

Give a Graphic Preview of Blog Posts in Drop Down Menu

Make it Standout in the Menu

Please Share on Social Media:

1. Relook at How You Are Using Twitter

2. Use the Senses to Draw Shoppers In

3. Display Quirky Signage

Please Share on Social Media:

Don’t Just Promote Gift Ideas

Offer a Flat Shipping Rate

Add a Little Holiday Décor

Allow for the Creation of a Wish List

Promote Gift Cards

Create Gift Inspiration Boards

Get Found on Social Media

Remind Buyers of Less Obvious Recipients

About Me

More SEO Articles

Please Share on Social Media:

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