Category: My Marketing Advice (Page 6 of 26)

Fun Marketing Idea for Your Next Sales Event

February 20, 2022 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

Fun Marketing Idea for Your Next Sales Event If you sell at farmer’s markets, or your business is appearing at a trade show, or you have a store front, always try to have something customers can pose with.

We have become a picture-taking society, and people love to pose with quirky statues or cutouts and post them to their Instagram accounts. If the statue or cutout is branded with your business name, it’s free advertising for you.

Even entice them to do so by offering them 15% off their order if they post the photo and tag your business.

What People Search for on Google in March

February 16, 2022 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

Want to know what people search for on Google in March?

I track the top Google searches daily so I can refer to them the next year for various marketing reasons. But these popular searches can help your business too (besides SEO opportunities) including:

Inspiration for social media posts
Inspiration for blog content
Inspiration for promotions
Inspiration for products and services

For example, an idea from my 12-Month Marketing Plan for Restaurants (although, any type of business can use this idea) is that every October, the top Google searches are always “fall festivals near me”, “corn mazes near me”, “haunted houses near me”. Therefore, why not create a one-page Local Fall Events Calendar listing these events, but also has your restaurant menu on the other side.

Then place it in local mailboxes, in doors, or hand out on a corner. It’s something people will keep and refer to, and you get relatively cheap advertising for your business. You could even ask these local events to sponsor the flyer, and then it costs you nothing.

So based on last year’s results, here is what people will likely be searching next month:

March Madness (starts March 13th)

What is March Madness?
Where is March Madness?
When is the next March Madness game?
When is March Madness over?
Who is still in March Madness?

Spring Cleaning

Gutter cleaner equipment
Tips for organizing your home
Deep cleaning house tips
How to clean a cast iron skillet?
How to clean white shoes?
How to clean makeup brushes?
How to clean dishwasher?
How to clean suede shoes?
How to organize kitchen cabinets?
How to organize your closet?
How to organize a pantry?
How to organize your room?
How to organize your fridge?
DIY carpet cleaner
DIY drain cleaner
DIY jewelry cleaner
DIY oven cleaner
DIY window cleaner

St. Patrick’s Day (March 17th)

Corned beef and cabbage recipe
Colcannon recipe
Irish stew recipe
Soda bread recipe
Reuben sandwich recipe
Green food
Green beer
Green snacks
Green candy
Patrick’s Day nails

National Puppy Day (March 23rd)

How to potty train a puppy?
How to crate train a puppy?
How to train a puppy?
How to cut dog nails?
How to clean dog ears?
Why does my dog lick me so much?
Why does my dog eat poop?
Why does my dog stare at me?
Why does my dog follow me everywhere?
Why does my dog smell like fish?

April Fool’s Day

April Fools pranks on kids
April Fools pranks on boyfriend
Pranks on friends
Last-minute April Fools pranks on parents
April Fools pranks on teachers

So use these top searches to drive more traffic to your business, through social media post ideas, content marketing, promotions, SEO, products and services.

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Is It Time to Rethink What You Sell?

January 27, 2022 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

is it time to rethink what you sell

As I’ve said before, it is not always your marketing that is hurting your sales. It could just be what you are selling. So try going through these quick three steps below to make sure your offering is covering all the bases.

Does the Product Solve a Problem?

A great way to find out if your product covers all of a customer’s needs, is to read the negative reviews about products similar to yours on Amazon. There is a wealth of information here about what people didn’t like, so make sure you deliver on these things in your products, and emphasize this in the product description. If you sell services, try reading reviews about competitors on Yelp or Thumbtack.

Does It Have the Features Buyers Want?

An easy way to find the product features that customers want is to go to Google and test some search phrases that end with “with” and “for”. It can be for a product, a service or even an occupation. If they are searching for it, they want it. I did it using Google autocomplete and found these top searches, for example:

Travel agent for destination weddings
Baby onesie with mittens
Realtor with low commission
Restaurant with private room
Wedding dresses for older brides

Is the Product Innovative or Interesting?

Buyers love products that put a new twist on a classic product. Recently I came up with an “attention getting” idea for a client of mine that sells candles. My idea was to create a candle with layers of red, white and blue wax (that smells like apple pie) in honor of team USA for the winter Olympics. The idea was to tell potential customers that every time the USA wins a gold medal, light the candle and place it in the window. Product ideas like this are also a great opportunity to get free publicity from blogs looking for interesting Olympic editorial, which brings new eyes to the shop.

Would you like me to take a look at your products, tell you which ones have the best sales potential, which ones need to be amped up and even give you an attention getting product idea? Then set up a 30-minute brainstorming phone consultation with me. I guarantee you’ll leave inspired!

How to Do a Monthly Marketing Audit

December 31, 2021 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

Are you planning, auditing and reviewing your marketing efforts each month?

My top-selling Marketing Planner offers a more comprehensive plan, audit and review, but I thought I would offer a condensed one for those who feel overwhelmed by marketing. So let’s keep it simple.

Step 1 : Set Your Marketing Goals for the Month

Your marketing goals and objectives need to be specific and measurable, such as:

Increase Instagram followers by 1,000.
Create a new ad campaign for Facebook to drive traffic to my website.
Grow email list by 500.
Increase overall site traffic this month by 30%.
Create a promotion for Valentine’s Day.
Launch a new product via email and social media.
Increase overall sales this month by 20%.

Step 2: Create a Tactical Plan

Goal: Increase Instagram followers by 1,000.

Tactical Plan: 1. Run a giveaway every Friday asking people to like and share the post and tag three people in the comments; 2. Boost one of my Instagram posts that had a high engagement to my target market; 3. Post a fun reel showing how to use my product as reels have twice the engagement.

Step 3: Results of Goals & Plan

Goal: Increase Instagram followers by 1,000.

Result: 460 new followers.

What Worked: The giveaway brought the majority of the new followers.

What Didn’t Work: The reel brought engagement but not new followers.

What To Do Differently Next Month: Make the giveaway post a reel, and that is also the post to boost.

Step 4: Overall Marketing Review

This is where you chart your monthly results, so you can compare to last month and to next month. This should include:

Sales
Expenses
Profit
New Customers
Traffic
Email Subscribers
Social Media Follwers
Ad Spending
Ad Results

My 5-page Monthly Marketing Audit makes it easy to plan, review and evaluate your marketing each month. Again, you do not need this if you already have my Marketing Planner.

⭐ I need products to feature (for free) on OnlineShopLove.com so please email me a product link to attentiongetting{at}gmail.com. Photos must be high quality to be considered. Thanks!

5 Ways to Get Rid of Excess Product Inventory

December 8, 2021 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

Did you possibly over estimate your holiday sales and now you have excess product inventory that you need to get rid of? Here are 5 things to try:

Do a flash sale for people looking for those after-Christmas deals; but they expect a big discount – at least 40% off.
Offer the products to a monthly subscription box service at the wholesale price.
If possible, repurpose the products into another product.
Package them into a Mystery Box (a hot trend).
Offer as a free gift with purchase of another item.

An inventory audit is just one of the business audits I cover in my Strategic Business Planner. I also include pages for doing a brand audit, customer audit, competitive audit, cost audit, sales channel audit, traffic audit, product audit and pricing audit.

Low Sales? This Might Be Why

December 1, 2021 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

I consult for hundreds of small business and e-commerce clients each year. I had an Etsy client a while back, who was so focused on Etsy SEO and felt it was the only key to their success on the platform. They were wrong.

I did some SEO work for them, and did manage to get their listings on the first page of search results. However, their traffic and sales did not increase. As a consultant, I tried to explain to them why, but sadly they just didn’t want to listen.

Here were the REAL reasons for their low sales:

They were selling a product that was in a dying market. Looking at Google Trends, I showed them that searches for the product had steadily decreased over the last five years, with demand now one-fifth of what it was 5 years ago.
They were in a saturated market with not only many competitors, but also many people offering their product for free (it was a digital product). Low product demand combined with a lot of competitors is never a good mix.
Even though I managed to get their listings on the first page of results, they did not see an increase in traffic because they were not getting click-through. They were not getting click-through because their product photos looked exactly like their competitors. They were not doing anything different in terms of the product offering, so they did not stand out.

The moral of the story. Sometimes, the problem is simply what you are selling. Not your SEO, not your marketing, but the product itself. If you don’t accept this, you will continue to have low sales.

I will give you another example. I have a client that sells scented candles. At the time, they were a new shop and things were taking time to get going. In doing my research for them, I saw a breakout Google search for a particular scent. They didn’t have this scent in their shop, so I recommended they add one in, especially since there were only 200 listings for this type of scented candle on Etsy at the time. They took the advice, we optimized the listing for SEO and the candle quickly became a best seller for them.

The demand was high and the competition was low. That combined with good SEO does mean success!

Sometimes the solution to your business problems can be quite simple. If you wish to discuss any issues your business is having, please set up a phone consultation with me.

Black Friday Ecommerce Checklist

November 11, 2021 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

Black Friday Ecommerce checklist

Need a Black Friday ecommerce checklist? It is a great way to make sure you are ready for the biggest selling time of the year with this handy checklist.

Black Friday / Cyber Monday Checklist

Host a giveaway on social media, two weeks before Black Friday (so tomorrow) to attract the attention of potential new customers.
Check product inventory and supply inventory levels.
Check packaging and shipping supplies inventory levels.
Update store inventory levels if they are getting low, so you do not sell out and cause listings to deactivate.
Check all expired, sold out and inactive listings to see if there is anything that needs to be re-listed.
Update social media shop banners and avatars for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa & New Years products & sales.
Update store banner & avatar for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa & New Years products & sales. Be sure to add “Last Day To Order By” date.
Update shop owner photo to a festive one, just for fun.
Change email signature to show holiday, Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.
Consider increasing daily ad budget for the month of November or just for November 25th to November 29th.
Only run ads on listings that have the highest sales conversion rate to maximize ad dollars.
Email customers Black Friday offers on November 25th.
Email customers Cyber Monday offers on November 28th.
Post to social media daily, and several times a day from November 25th to November 29th.
Comment daily on popular Facebook and Instagram posts that your target market reads, to get seen by their followers.
If you sell on Etsy, close orders as soon as they ship, to avoid shop getting paused.
Check that all links are working. Links from your social media sites to your store, and vice versa.
Include coupons or gift guides for Valentine’s Day in all packages.
If comfortable, encourage local buyers to do curb side pickup.
Email your local business writer(s) today and ask to have either your Black Friday, Small Business Saturday or Cyber Monday special mentioned in any write-ups they are doing.

Book a 30-minute phone consultation with me to get personalized marketing advice for your online business!

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3 Key Tips for a Successful Resume in 2025

October 28, 2021 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

The first time a client came to me and asked me to rewrite their resume, I was quite surprised. As a long-time marketing consultant, it was never an area that I even considered venturing into. But that is exactly why this executive wanted to hire me. They basically said, “I want you to market me.”

Having written hundreds of resumes since then, for everyone from new graduates to C-suite execs, I can tell you the three roadblocks to having a successful resume in today’s job market.

#1 Your Resume Has to Be Tailored for the Job You Want

Having done a small stint in HR back in the day, I did understand how a cleverly crafted resume could help you stand out in a crowded employment market. In fact, in my younger days, I deployed my own marketing prowess to land a job at the hottest company in town, by selling the qualities I knew the company valued – someone young, eager, willing to work the hours, and where no task was considered beneath me.

Therefore, in your opening summary, instead of saying the basic:

New business graduate looking for an entry position in a marketing role.

WRONG! You have to sell them right away on your key attributes, the ones they are looking for, such as:

As a recent graduate in business, majoring in marketing, I am looking to join a company where my dependable work ethic, go-getter enthusiasm, and desire to train and learn from senior team members is a valued asset.

It more than made up for my lack of experience and sealed the deal. In other words, when the hiring manager is reading your resume, they have to immediately see the personal qualities they want for the job, so that might meaning changing it for every position.

You can learn more about my Resume Writing Service here.

#2 Your Soft Skills are Not Engaging Enough

One of the most important sections hiring managers are looking at right now is soft skills, which includes such things as interpersonal skills, organizational skills, and so forth. However, you do not want to just list “interpersonal skills” that won’t cut it. The more you elaborate, the better.

For example, right now if your resume lists the following typical soft skills:

Strong leadership abilities.
Excellent organizational skills.
Coaching and team mentoring.

WRONG! This will not grab anyone’s attention. What you want is:

Exceptional leadership and employee management capabilities, able to motivate people, instill accountability, and achieve results.
Excellent interpersonal skills with an emphasis on building teams, partnerships, managing conflict, and influencing others.
Proven record in coaching and developing staff to improve performance and achieve professional goals.

You can learn more about my Resume Writing Service here.

#3 You Are Not Listing Quantifiable Achievements

You also have to get very specific about the achievements and milestones you have had in previous jobs. A good format is to list your “Responsibilities” first, ending with your “Achievements”, but you DO NOT want to write your achievements like this:

Increased sales.
Improved administrative processes.
Managed a large team.

WRONG! You want to qualify and quantify, such as:

In 2023, exceeded annual sales target by 23%, generating $500,000 in new business revenue.
Implemented a new messaging app that reduced email volume by 20% and cut the average response rate to less than an hour.
Managed a diverse team of 100 collection agents and 5 department heads across 2 locations.

You can learn more about my Resume Writing Service here.

Final Tip

Since 90% of all businesses now use ATS software to scan resumes, the final piece of advice is to make sure that your resume is in true ATS format and includes all of the major keywords the position is asking for, otherwise it will be rejected right at the onset.

So why don’t you let me market you! You can learn more about my Resume Writing Service here.

I hope you enjoyed these key tips for a successful resume. You might also want to read my post, Why You Need a Personal Brand.

New Places to Sell Online

October 14, 2021 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

With the huge growth of e-commerce last year, due to COVID, more and more online marketplaces have been opening up. If you are looking for new places to sell online, check out these:

New Place to Sell Online: Michaels Marketplace

Michaels, the major craft retailer, is planning to launch the Michaels Marketplace sometime in 2022. Right now, If you are a high-volume seller of components, tools, or craft materials, you can fill in their online application for consideration. There will be no setup, monthly, or listing fees. It is also rumored that they may also allow people to sell their finished crafts on the marketplace as well.

New Place to Sell Online: Yahoo Shops

Yahoo Shops is expected to launch with roughly 50 sellers by the end of the year, with the ultimate goal to have hundreds, even thousands of sellers. For now, they want to remain small and invite-only, with the feeling of a boutique, where everything is handpicked. Therefore, you cannot submit an application, just hope that Yahoo finds you .

New Place to Sell Online: Lands End Marketplace

Lands’ End Marketplace had a soft launch in June 2020 with just 24 sellers. Now sellers span an assortment of categories such as footwear, home décor and intimates, alongside the full product range of the Lands’ End brand. They plan to focus on curating a smaller catalog of highly visible partner brands rather than an Amazon-type marketplace. If interested, you can fill out their online application.

New Place to Sell Online: Target Plus

Target Plus is an invite-only online marketplace featuring an exclusive, hand-picked selection of third party sellers and brands. Even though it is not new (it launched in 2019), a lot of people are not aware of it. They are accepting products in the categories of fashion, baby, beauty, entertainment, grocery, home, pets and personal care. You can fill in an application here.

New Place to Sell Online: Hudson’s Bay

After asking for applicants in the spring, the large Canadian retailer now has more than 500 small sellers offering products in categories such sports and recreation, tech, pets, health and wellness as well as vintage designer handbags and watches. You can fill out their online application here.

New Place to Sell Online: Simons

Simons is another large Canadian retailer who has a dedicated section on their commerce site just for artisans. They are looking for women’s and men’s fashions, jewelry, accessories, furniture, household items, art, kitchen items, toys, kids products, food products and beauty/ skincare. You can submit an application here.

Discover more places to sell online in my post, 50 Online Selling Sites.
Not sure how to drive more traffic to your online store or business? Check out my 12-Month Marketing Plan downloads, packed with tactics that work.
Need specific, one-on-one advice? Book a 30-Minute Phone Consultation with me.
This month, I’m even including a publicity pitch for FREE with every consultation call. I have written pitches that have gotten my clients featured in Real Simple, Apartment Therapy, House Beautiful, Vanity Fair, Houzz, Glamour, LONNY, DesignMilk, Emmaline Bride, Martha Stewart – just to name a few, so book your call today!
If you sell on Etsy, be sure to check out my best-selling 2021 Etsy Holiday Sales Planner that has tons of holiday selling tips, stats, top search phrases, planning pages and more.

5 Key Holiday Sales Tips

October 8, 2021 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

5 Key Holiday Sales Tips

Need some holiday sales tips?

The big holiday gift buying season is already starting, so here are 5 key holiday sales tips you need to know.

1. Start Your Black Friday Sale Now

I personally believe that this year’s holiday sales will be a mix of retail AND online because one of the biggest problems last year was the postal system was not prepared for the huge increase in online shopping.

As a result, many online stores had numerous customer complaints about packages not arriving in time for Christmas, even though the store themselves had shipped in plenty of time.

A lot of customers got burned by this, so they will either be shopping online MUCH EARLIER this year (way before Black Friday) or they will return to shopping in stores to ensure they have gift in hand.

This might be why Google searches for “Christmas gifts” have DOUBLED in the past week.

As such, I have been advising my ecommerce clients to offer their Black Friday sales as soon as possible, even now, and not make people wait until Black Friday. Even Amazon has already started.

The key is to let customers know this is the SAME OFFER you will be making on Black Friday, so if they are holding out for a better deal, there won’t be one. This way you get the early sales and not lose out to the bigger brands. So email all of your customers THIS WEEK with your early bird Black Friday offer.

2. Do Not Overestimate Demand

You might not want to base this year’s inventory on last year’s sales, since 2020 was an abnormality with retail shopping not being an option. Retail is not only back this year, but the number of online stores has also drastically INCREASED.

There are now 1.75 million Shopify stores, with 680,000 new stores opening in 2020. Etsy stores also increased from 2.7 million in 2019 to 4.3 million in 2020. On Amazon, 1.3 million additional sellers joined the marketplace last year.

So, I am advising my ecommerce clients to base this year’s holiday sales estimates on 2019 holiday sales to make sure they have enough in stock, but are not stuck with overstock, unless you think you can still sell your inventory for Valentine’s Day sales.

That being said, do DO NOT let Etsy listings get down to “1 in stock” or the listing will deactivate, fall out of search results and take forever to re-rank, and you will miss out on those holiday sales.

3. Fill Orders Quickly

Last year, a lot of Etsy shops had their shops temporarily put ON HOLD by Etsy, during the big Christmas rush, due to having too many outstanding orders. I am not sure what the magic number is before your shop is put on hold, but you will want to fulfill and close orders as quickly as possible, or else it could cost you days of valuable holiday sales.

4. Change Up Your SEO Game

You would be amazed at how many people search for Christmas gifts using the following adjectives: GOOD, BEST, COOL, THOUGHTFUL, HOTTEST, TOP, POPULAR, 2021, so incorporate these keywords into your holiday SEO. Discover hundreds more top holiday search phrases in my Best-Selling Etsy Holiday Sales Planner.

5. Up Your Social Media Game

If you want your business to get noticed on social media, try answering the Most Searched Google Questions in November, such as:

When does Diwali start?
When to thaw out turkey?
When was the first Thanksgiving?
When does Hanukkah start?
Find more in my best-selling 365 Day Social Media Posting Calendar

Or even just post the top searched recipes in November:

Pumpkins scones
Pumpkin bread
Hot buttered rum
Apple cider mimosa
Spiked hot chocolate
Thanksgiving leftovers

Always make sure that your shop url is on the post graphic!

Big Opportunity!

Last November, I wrote about Why Having Your Own Advent Calendar is an Amazing Marketing Tool. Well Etsy announced that searches for pet advent calendars have gone up 137% in the last 3 months, Google also shows that dog, beauty and kids advent calendars are breakout searches for the past 30 days. In fact, demand for advent calendars has DOUBLED in the last 4 years. Advent starts November 28th, so you need your advent calendar in your store today.

Book a 30-minute phone consultation with me to get personalized advice on how you can maximize sales this holiday season.

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