Category: Marketing I Love (Page 2 of 2)

3 Online Retailers with Amazing Blogs

September 22, 2014 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

by Gail Oliver, Small Business Marketing Consultant

Everyone keeps telling you how you need a blog as a secondary alternative to drive traffic to your online store. It can be very effective as you target your prospective market with articles they care about, and it inadvertently brings them over to your online store. But a blog is a lot of work, so don’t venture into it lightly. Some big retailers do it really well, with ideas that may inspire you.

3 Online Retailers with Amazing Blogs

1. West Elm

Home retailer West Elm has a blog called Front + Main. They cover categories their customers care about such as Food + Entertaining, Before and After Room Makeovers, Bedrooms, Living Rooms, Bathrooms, Kitchen + Dining, Handcrafted, Inspiration and DIY. But also intermixed throughout this highly visual blog are links to recent posts on some of the top home decor blogs, so they curate content as well. They will also answer design dilemmas sent in by customers, giving a personal touch to their business. All content is very attractive for social media-sharing purposes and they actively encourage the use of their #mywestelm hash tag. Front + Main looks like a glossy online magazine that successfully promotes West Elm’s products but not in a in-your-face-kind of way.

2. Free People

Boho clothing retailer, Free People, has a blog but is not strictly about fashion. They have also given it its own name – The BLDG 25 – and it covers all the topics its 18 to 35 year-old female demographic likes, such as music, beauty, food, decor, DIY, and inspiration. Every Monday they offer their motivational quote (which always do so well on social media), and the blog tends to focus on the bohemian approach to life – yoga moves, granola recipes, vegan smoothies, monthly horoscopes. They only have posts about their clothing every 5 or 6 post, so again, it is a subtle way to sell to readers.

3. BHDLN

For wedding retailer BHDLN, a blog almost seems a given. But how to complete with the hundreds of wedding blogs already out there? Well they offer the best of both worlds. Like West Elm, throughout their original content are posts from some of the top wedding blogs. They do promote their products, as Free People does in every 5th or so post, with the other content being articles such as wedding day make-up tips, wedding shoe guide, hot trends, as well as studio visits and interviews with some of their designers. Like the others they give their blog its own name, calling it B-Inspired, and sometimes, instead of posts, they actually post a graphic representing one of their Pinterest boards, and selecting it takes you directly to it. A great way to get more followers.

Your Marketing Take Away

Post content your target market cares about
Give your blog a name so it has its own identity
Encourage using a company hashtag when sharing the post on social media
Link right to Pinterest boards as content
Curate content from other top blogs
Only promote your products every 5th or so post
Use it to connect to potential customers by answering their questions

Need a Creative Marketing Strategy for Your Online Business?

Check out my Marketing Services page to find a service that is right for your business, or ask for something specific at attentiongetting@gmail.com.

Great Product Photography: HerriottGrace.com

March 11, 2014 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

If you need examples of great product photography, I have one today.

I gave across this online shop the other day and I was blown away by their product photography so I had to share.

HerriottGrace.com is a father and daughter team where the father, Lance, hand crafts beautiful kitchen and serving ware in wood, ceramic and metal and his daughter, Nikole, an established photographer, styles and shoots his creations. The results are very inspiring.

examples great product photography

What Makes These Product Photos Work

Showing the product in use
The addition of pops of color against a white background
Creating interest by having others items leading the eye off-center
Including the shadows makes it less sterile
Keeping a little of the messiness of eating makes it realistic
These are magazine quality images that editors will use and people will share on social media

great product photography

How to Get Professional Photos for Free

If you cannot afford professional looking photographs, local photography students may do it for free.

Simply go to your local community college, see if they offer a photography class, and then ask the professor if they would be willing to do a class project whereby they shoot your products for you. They get a class project, you get free photos. Photography students are also in need of subject matter for their portfolio, so you could also approach individual students about shooting your products for this purpose. You can barter with them and/or offer a credit/link to them on your site.

great product photography tips

About Me

Do you need your Brand Story written or an SEO-Optimized Blog Post or a Personalized Business Consultation? 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!

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. Check out my very affordable Publicity Pitch service.

And of course, I have a wide variety of business and marketing downloads you can check out at my Shopify store.

My Etsy Store

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.

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!

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.

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.

Product Photography I Love! One King’s Lane’s Text Fly-outs

October 14, 2013 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

Want some awesome product photography tips?

Are you using your product photos to point out or highlight unique features and/or uses for your products? It can be a really effective selling tool.

Online retailer One Kings Lane is a great example of a shop that uses text fly-outs on their product photos to show the customer the value, use, target market and prominent features.

You can add text to your photos using any photo editing program, so I thought I would give you some inspiration with the example photos below from One King’s Lane.

Product Photography Tip #1: Describe How It Can Be Used

Remember it is not always obvious to people what use they may have for your product and that could be why they end up not buying it. Therefore, point out how to use it, how to display it, how to wear it, etc., but keep it short and simple, especially if it is multi-purpose.

Product Photography Tips

Product Photography Tip #2: Remind the Buyer Who the Product Is For

Especially at this time of year, it helps to remind that while it may not be for them, it could be for someone else. I would have expanded this a bit more and said “Great Gift Idea for Kids” but it does help to get the buyer thinking.

Product Photography Tip #3: Let Them Know You Personalize

If you can monogram an item, personalize it, customize it, etc., let customers know. People don’t always take the time to read through product copy, so make it easy for them to see extra services you offer.

Product Photography Tip #4: Point Out Special Features

A photo isn’t always the same as seeing the item in person. So identify features a customer may not notice, such as “Real 14K Gold”, “Pure Natural Gemstone” or “Super Soft”.

Product Photography Tip #5: Give Other Possible Uses

Think of every room, every place, every event, every occasion, and point it out. In this case, if someone already had a wreath for the front door they would think they didn’t need another one, until you remind them of another place they could put it.

FINAL WORD: Not sure what to highlight to your customers? Simply answer Who, What, When, Where, Why and How to get some inspiration.

About Me

Marketing for Small Business Ideas to Try

June 24, 2013 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

I have some Marketing for Small Business ideas that are so easy anyone can try.

Start locally by Googling “new businesses” and your city. You might find that a local newspaper, magazine or blog likes to feature brand new businesses for free.
Make hats and t-shirts with your business name and url on it, and give them to family members to wear.
Always give incentives for customers to refer you to others, such as gift cards or free items.
Hire a student to help you with the small marketing stuff like commenting on blogs, posting to social media, sending out promotional emails. Many teens looking to get into marketing will value the experience, and they likely know things like social media a lot better than you do.
Find another business that is not a competitor but targets the same market and work together on a joint promotion, even share social media posts or Pinterest boards or mention each other in your monthly customer newsletters.
Make sure the title tag of your website accurately describes what you sell. Do not make it a marketing slogan as Google reads this looking for keywords. Keep it to the point.
Make sure you have added your business to every possible free directory, starting with Google Business.
Comment on at least 10 blogs every day that your customers read making sure that your user name is your business name and including your website url in the comment.
Give away something for free whether it is a download, gift, service, but it is the easy way to attract attention.

NEED ADVICE?

Please visit my Shopify and Etsy stores to see my small business marketing products and services.

You can also ask me a question at attentiongetting@gmail.com, follow me on Instagram for additional tips and learn more about me here.

How to Attract New Customers With “How To” Advice

April 3, 2013 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

What to know how to attract new customers with how to advice? A popular trend in marketing is giving advice your customers are looking for, in order to bring them to your online business.

Well, that’s kind of what I do here, but I am going to discuss it from an online retail point of view.

A lot of online retailers will offer sections on their websites or blogs that give expert advice on topics you are searching for on Google. The hope is that page will turn up in search results and bring these potential customers over to their website (and their shop).

How World Market Did It

A good example is World Market. They are a popular online store selling a variety of goods from all over the globe, and they have a section on their home page this month entitled, “9 Ways to Tie a Scarf” and each of the nine ways shows a different scarf they sell. Each way also includes a 40-second clip on how to do it.

How to Attract New Customers With How To Advice

Why is this brilliant? Well, besides showing how to wear their scarves, they are capitalizing on the fact that the phrase, “Ways to Tie a Scarf” is searched over 8,000 times a month on Google. So when someone searches that phrase, there is a good chance their home page will come up. Plus, visitors can now Pin, Tweet, Facebook this video tutorial (social media loves videos) and World Market can add it to their YouTube channel, spreading this advertorial even further.

How Pottery Barn Did It

Pottery Barn is another online store that knows what its customers are looking for. They have a page called, “How to Hang Curtains” because that phrase is searched about 3,600 times a month on Google. While it is a nice value added service to offer this information to customers, it is also a great hook to bring in new customers who are searching on this, especially when Pottery Barn products are used in the tutorial.

FINAL WORD: What do your potential customers want to know related to what you sell? Be a source of advice for them and they may “accidentally” discover you.

About Me

I also have a wide variety of business & marketing downloads you can check out at my Shopify store.

Effective Product Packaging Example

November 13, 2012 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

If you need an effective product packaging example look no further than Philosophy. If you are not familiar with this product line you definitely should check them out because they do branding really well, especially when it comes to packaging.

Now if the word branding is throwing you off and you don’t do packaging for your products, keep reading because that is not totally what this post is about.

Why Their Packaging Works

On their product bottles, Philosophy uses few graphics (except for special holiday products), mostly text (and a simple font at that), and they don’t even talk about their product on the label. Instead, their products have names like Hope, Purity, and Grace and the label is taken up with a well-written, inspirational paragraph that typically has nothing to do with the product.

Philosophy’s Simple but Clever Packaging

- The names are simple, but clever, and they relate back to what the product is for. For example, Hope is a moisturizer.
- Their skin care products are all in white or cream bottles, evoking an image of clean.
- Their fragrances‘ packaging is light pink and ivory, creating a very feminine feeling.
- Their bath products are bright colors (because baths are fun) and they have fun names like Gingerbread Man, Candy Cane, and Sugar Plum Fairy. In fact their Mimosa Bubble Bath actually has a recipe for Mimosas on the label. Not what you would typically see on a bottle of shower gel, but that’s what makes it eye-catching.

So How Can You Apply This To Your Small Business?

Simple and clever always work. Simple makes it easier on the customer who is thinking of purchasing the product (no hard sell, not a lot of typical “marketing” words on the package) and clever always gets attention. And great packaging alone can sell products.

Now, maybe you don’t package your products, but you can apply these same techniques of simple and clever to your logo, shop design, website design, product names, even product design.

It is a crowded, crowded marketplace so you have to do something to separate yourself from the pack and create a brand that is memorable to customers. If they don’t remember you, they can’t come back and buy from you.

About Me

Clever Creative Product Names

November 8, 2012 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

Do you like clever creative product names? The other day I was on a clothing site called LuLus, whose fashions are obviously aimed at young women. I was looking at the purses and noticed that they were all labeled with very creative names. For example, Seven Year Itch Quilted Stitch Purse, In Hot Purse-uit Purple Purse, and Weave Got Your Back Brown Tote. Cute, right?

As I was reading these I was reminded of the names cosmetic companies give to lipsticks and nail polish colors. Back in the day, shades were just given a number. But due to growing competition in the makeup industry, clever lipstick and nail polish names became a way to show personality, create an image and set their brand apart. A clever lipstick name can actually get publicity just because of the name.

Why Have a Clever Product Name

I have to be honest, these cutesy names were attention getting and kept me on their site longer. I kept reading each product name more out of interest than anything. So maybe that was the intention, if not the result. Creative product names and copy writing can keep people on your site longer and make them actually read the product descriptions instead of just scanning for bullet points. It also made them look like a cool, hip site which I believe is the image they are trying for.

I have always been an advocate of clever writing because it evokes a sense of personality, and when potential customers can get a better sense of who is selling to them, it helps them to feel like they know you a bit better and that helps to get them to trust buying from you. It’s also a great way to establish an identity against competitors who are a little more standard.

3 Online Retailers with Amazing Blogs

1. West Elm

2. Free People

3. BHDLN

Your Marketing Take Away

Need a Creative Marketing Strategy for Your Online Business?

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Like this:

What Makes These Product Photos Work

How to Get Professional Photos for Free

About Me

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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

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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

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Product Photography Tip #1: Describe How It Can Be Used

Product Photography Tip #2: Remind the Buyer Who the Product Is For

Product Photography Tip #3: Let Them Know You Personalize

Product Photography Tip #4: Point Out Special Features

Product Photography Tip #5: Give Other Possible Uses

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How World Market Did It

How Pottery Barn Did It

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Why Their Packaging Works

So How Can You Apply This To Your Small Business?

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