Page 13 of 50

How to Create Social Media Posts Using Canva

February 10, 2022 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

Want to know how to create social media posts using Canva?

I’m creative but I’m not a designer, so thank goodness for Canva! If you’re not using this amazing free tool to create your social media content (not to mention other marketing materials) I have a few tips, but first an overview.

Starting Points on Creating Social Media Post Using Canva

Join Canva and get a free account.
Decide what type of post you want to create by simply searching i.e. Instagram Post.
Choose either a blank template, or one of the free design templates, which you can also completely alter.
Let’s say you choose a blank design. You click on “Elements” (in the side bar) to add a graphic, photo, video, audio, table and more from their inventory.
What if you want to add your own photo or graphic? Then go to “Uploads” and upload your image.
Now you need to add text. If you struggle with fonts, use one of their free “Font Combinations” (in the side bar) or select from their huge list of free fonts in the drop down menu.
When complete, hit the “Download” button in the upper right corner (select PNG if it is a static image), and the image is ready to post.

My Canva Tips

If you want to use one of the Canva templates, but worry that other businesses will also use it, then simply change the color scheme, swap out a few of the graphics or fonts for different ones, or just move things around.
If you struggle with colors, try the Canva Color Palette Generator.
If you upload your logo, Canva will automatically add your brand colors to the color palette.
If you are looking for photos to use beyond what Canva offers, try free ones at Unsplash.
To create a carousel post, simply use the “Duplicate Page” icon in the top right corner (or the “add a page” button at the bottom), and create up to 10 slides (the maximum allowed on Instagram).
Always include your business url on every post.

Now take an idea from my best-selling 365 Social Media Posting Ideas Calendar and drop it into a Canva template and you’re ready to go!

Easy Side Hustle Right from Home

February 6, 2022 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

Need an easy side hustle right from home?

How about one with no start up costs?

Therefore, you will love the business idea behind neighbor.com.

If you want to make some money on the side using your house and/or property as storage for someone’s car, boat or personal items, this marketplace will list your services and find you customers.

This is a really fabulous idea for you if you live near a college, as out-of-town students need to store their stuff over the summer months.

Not to worry, Insurance is covered as part of the sales commission they charge you.

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.

My Favorite Marketing Ideas of the Week

February 3, 2022 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

I’m always on the lookout for creative marketing ideas, and here are some I found this week that you might want to try with your small business.

I’ve noticed that more and more online stores are getting very creative with their store sections, and customers get lured in almost out of curiosity. For example, I saw shop sections entitled, The Home Care Shop, The Wellness Shop, The Love Shop, Spring Refresh and Selling Fast.
I love how this online art store has a section called “Gallery Walls” (I’m pretty sure it’s an option in certain Shopify themes). I have been suggesting this to my art clients for years, as this is a great way to upsell more prints by showing people how they can display many pieces of your art. You just click on the gallery wall you like, and all of the prints, in the sizes shown, are ready to be added to your cart.
Nordstrom has an Instagram story called “Follow Friday“. It’s the equivalent of when blogs were doing link sharing with other sites. In other words, Nordstrom will recommend fashion and beauty stylists and other types of Instagram accounts they think you should follow. But it’s a great idea to try on your Instagram, as a way for your business to form alliances using social media.
I was in a big brand home goods store, and hanging on a hook they had several paper measuring tapes. I thought this was brilliant, because customers are probably always asking them for a tape measure. So, if you own a retail store, consider this idea as customers can keep the measuring tape (probably costs little to print), which conveniently has your store name and url on it.
I love how Barbie® celebrated the start of Black History Month on Instagram.
The online store Wolf and Badger uses symbols in each product listing that helps buyers easily identify whether the product meets the sustainability issues they care about. But you could also create icons to quickly convey any key feature, such as free shipping, next day shipping, country made in, female-owned business and so forth.
My own ideas: Post something clever on social media for the start of the 2022 winter Olympics i.e. if you sell jewelry, post a photo of some of your rings in the shape of 5 ring Olympic symbol. If you sell nail polish, post 5 shades in the colors of the Olympic symbol. If you sell baby onesies, post one that says “Future Gold Medal Winner”. Get creative!

Need personalized advice about your small business? Maybe you want to start your own business, but don’t have an idea, or know where to start. Feel free to set up a 30-minute phone consultation with me, always followed up with notes of what we discussed and a next-steps action list.

Local SEO Optimization for Small Businesses

January 30, 2022 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

Local SEO Optimization Tip for Small Businesses Are you trying to figure out local SEO optimization for small businesses? It also starts with the words you use in your website’s title tag.

A title tag will be obvious on the SEO page of your website. It is typically what you call your website, but that is not really want you should make it. If you do not fill it it, Google will just random choose from any words on your home page, but you don’t want that either.

Let’s say you are looking for Italian Food in Stowe Vermont, here is a good example of a restaurant that did their title tag correctly:

The title tag is the portion in blue. They started with the name of the restaurant, then they stated what type of restaurant, then they followed with the city and state. This is perfect.

Now, you don’t typically have to put in the city and state as Google is smart enough to know where you are, but it does give you an advantage when people do a “near me” search. “Near me” searches are the most popular local searches, for example, “pizza near me”, “grocery store near me”, “vet near me”.

Then you have to think of all of the other ways that many people will search for a local business. Believe it or not, they search using words such as:

Top
Best
Good

Therefore, you will want to try to work these keywords into your site’s title tag as well.

I personally feel it is better to lead with what your business is, then the location, then the name because Google will only read the first 60 characters, so you do not want the actual search phrase to get cut off.

Once you have decided your title tag, then make sure your meta description incorporates the keywords for a one-two punch. The meta description in the example above is the wording below the title tag, and you can see how they repeat their business name, type of restaurant and location. This is why it came up on the first page of Google results when I search “Italian restaurants Stowe Vermont”.

When writing a title tag and meta description, you also want to think about the keywords people use for your type of business. In the example above, you can see how they incorporated the words “casual” and “family” into the meta description. This is because this is how people search for restaurants, i.e. family restaurant, casual restaurant, takeout restaurant.

I hope this helps you understand how to improve local SEO optimization for small businesses.

Shop my business downloads at my Etsy store and my business & marketing services at my Shopify store.

ALSO READ: 3 Tips for a Successful Resume

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!

Free Publicity Opportunity for Black Business Owners

January 23, 2022 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

Free Publicity Black Business Owners Next month presents a great free publicity opportunity for black business owners.

If you’re a black-owned business, you should be spending this week pitching your success story to business and lifestyle blogs (as well as your local media) in hopes of being included in next month’s most popular editorial “Black Businesses to Support in Honor of Black History month”.

Every publication and blog from Oprah to Reader’s Digest to Yahoo to Glamour wrote an article like this last year.

Be Sure to Also Check Out

Awesome Marketing Ideas for Your Retail Store

January 19, 2022 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

Wouldn’t you love an easy to follow 12-Month Marketing Plan that will drive more traffic to your retail store?

Here is the plan for January from my 12-Month Marketing Plan for Retail Stores to inspire you or pass along to anyone you know that has a retail store. Get the plans for all 12 months by downloading my PDF today!

Retail Marketing Plan for January

Click to download.

Retail Publicity Ideas for January

You don’t have to just pitch publicity ideas to your local media, you can also pitch to national media as people do travel and if they read an article that mentions your store, they may take note when they visit your city. Just pitch a story that pertains to what you sell (and your city), such as “The Best Clothing Stores in Chicago”. Try pitching to these blogs who have written these types of stories: Trip Advisor, 10best, Frommers, Refinery29, USNews, Airbnb and Travel & Leisure.

Retail Advertising Ideas for January

Consider running an advertisement for your store in local real estate newspapers and newsletters.
Gift a popular local restaurant (that is near your store) a large clock for their wall that has your store name on the clock face, for free advertising to their patrons.
Check with local tourism websites and publications for possible free mentions of your store.

Retail Social Media Ideas for January

Do an audit of all your social media sites and make sure that your banner images on Twitter and Facebook show a photo of your store front and your address to create instant recognition with customers. Include a cross street map if necessary.
Post a graphic of all the big events happening in your town for the month of January.
Post a photo of a busy day at the store for #ManicMonday.
Post a photo of a dog posing in front of your retail store for #WoofWednesday.
Post a photo of the view outside your store window for #ThursdayThoughts.
Post video / reel of new items in the store for #SaturdaySwag.
Create a Pinterest board called, “Stores in {Your City}” as this is a way to find your local traffic on Pinterest. This is actually a popular search on Google. Pin your store to the board, as well as non-competitive local stores.
On social media, follow your local newspapers, radio stations, sports teams, and other popular local businesses like restaurants, entertainment venues, etc. so you can comment daily on their Instagram, Facebook posts and tweets to get your business name seen by their followers and your local market.

Retail Email Ideas for January

Email your customers all of the new items in your shop this month, as well as any sales or special offers, and a free one-page calendar download for the new year that has your store branding and address at the bottom.
Email your customers a list of all the big events in your town this month. Mention your store at the end.

Retail Sales & Promotional Ideas for January

Hold a huge one-day only January sale in the store complete with food, drinks, and a party atmosphere. Email invites to customers and tell them to bring a friend to get another 15% off.
Check for sponsorship opportunities with any local winter festivals.
Frost your store windows and create a wintery theme for the month of January, to grab the attention of passer-bys.
Add your store to the retail app Storemapper.

Retail Content Marketing Ideas for January

If you haven’t already, create a blog to drive traffic to your website. You can then circulate your blog posts on social media as well as on blog sharing sites like BLOGLOVIN’, even if your posts are something as simple as curated and locally focused content, such as “What to do in {Your City} This Weekend” It also gives you a reason to email your customers weekly with a blog post.

Get hundreds of more tactics for your retail store by downloading my 12-Month Marketing Plan for Retail Stores.

Click to download.

You might also like my post, 6 Ways to Get Customers Coming Back to Your Retail Store.

retail store marketing ideas strategy

8 Instagram Reel Ideas for Small Business

January 12, 2022 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

It has been proven that videos and reels on social media get higher engagement. They do not have to be complicated to make a big impact, so here are some Instagram Reel Ideas Small Business.

Effective Reels from Big Brands

This reel from Burt’s Bees is cool because it is a very quick transition from one product to the next.
This video from Pottery Barn is simply stop motion to transition in one piece of the table setting at a time.
With this reel from Bauble Bar, the model has on new jewelry every time she snaps her fingers.
This reel from Barbie shows how you can use static images and make them look like a video, simply by the type of transition effect that appears between images.
This reel from Justice also looks like a video, but it is again just stop motion with four images featuring the products in different positions as it transitions from one image to the other and then goes in reverse.
The store Mark and Graham simply took four images, and used stop motion to make it look like a video.
A time lapse video of you creating your product (or demonstrating how to use it) is fairly easy if you just string together short clips, like this video from Michaels.
Even your giveaways will get more engagement if you make them animated graphics complete with music, like this video from World Market that you can easily do in Canva.

My Instagram Reel Ideas

If you sell clothing, show your model walking down the street and every time she passes behind a building and reappears, she is wearing a new outfit.
If you’re a fitness trainer, show a spliced together video / reel of you running up various outdoor stairs in your city.
If you sell wedding gowns, film a bride walking down the aisle and with every step forward, her gown changes.
If you sell jewelry, show a video / reel whereby the model has one piece of jewelry added to her look one at a time until she is completely decked out in layered necklaces, earrings, bracelets and rings.
If you sell cosmetics, focus the video on the model’s eyes and every time she blinks, her eye makeup changes.
If you sell wall art, create a stop motion type video / reel showing a gallery art wall being reconfigured in 3 different ways, all using your art.
If you sell real estate, splice together a video / reel of some of your listings showing their holiday lights coming on, one after the other.
If you’re a restaurant, post a video/reel that transitions from each of your menu boards for the past week.

Need more social media posting ideas? Check out my best-selling 365 Social Media Posting Ideas.

You might also like Free Business Card Templates.

Be Sure to Also Check Out:

Social Media Marketing Articles

Get Inspired by this Brilliant Product Idea from Bauble Bar

January 9, 2022 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

I love creative product ideas, and this Pixar Toy Story Mr Potato Head stacking ring from Bauble Bar is brilliant. It lends to the nature of the Mr. Potato Head product, merged with a stacking ring, which have been so trendy the last few years. Plus, it makes a perfect gift for the Toy Story fan.

© 2022 Gail Oliver. All rights reserved.

Attention Getting

Page 13 of 50