Tag: marketing ideas

How to Get People to Promote Your Online Shop

August 18, 2016 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

by Gail Oliver, Online Marketing Consultant

If you want someone to do something for you, you have to do something for them. I can’t tell you how many people email me asking me to promote their app or article to my readers and offer me nothing in return. What incentive is there for me to do this? I don’t mean to sound cold, but this is business and the best way to make a business deal happen is to make it mutually beneficial.

Getting Press

For example, with your online shop, don’t just ask a blogger to mention your products. Instead, tell them that you if you are fortunate enough to get a mention, that you will return the favor by mentioning their blog on your website (including a link), and you will promote the mention to all of your customers and social media followers. This works really well with upcoming and coming bloggers looking to increase their readers.

Getting In Store Sales

Don’t just ask a local shop if they will allow you to display your products one weekend in a pop-up type display, but instead tell them you will tell all of your customers, friends and family that you will be at their shop that day, and hence you will be bringing them new customers as well (plus you will give 10% of the profits). Who would say no to that ofer?

Getting Referrals

Don’t just ask customers to recommend you to their friends or on social media, offer them 15% off their next purchase or a free gift if they do so. I constantly reward people who recommend me to others with free advice, free leads or a free product. You will be amazed at how many referrals this brings in when you give an incentive.

Remember, nothing looks worse to a potential partner when you seem oblivious to the fact that their time is valuable too. Make it worth their while and you will get much better results!

a Recent Review

“Gail was amazing and very helpful! I am super happy, my store is attracting more customers. Also learned a lot from Gail and she replied to all my questions promptly. Thank you very much!” Renata at Reniego Jewels. Renata has a gorgeous jewelry shop, I encourage you to check it out!

Get my 30-Minute Phone Consultation and get your business on the track to success!
See all of my posts on Pinterest.
If you are an Etsy Shop, CLICK HERE.

93 Awesome Marketing Ideas for October

September 30, 2015 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

by Gail Oliver, Online Consultant

Aren’t you happy fall is here? So am I and October brings a ton of opportunities for your small business.

My monthly Marketing Calendar & Planner is a great way to stay on top of all of them as I give three tactics to do every day, plus I include several “insider” secrets that I don’t mention on my blog. Here is just a sneak peek of what is in my October calendar:

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so if your business is doing anything to support this cause, add a pink ribbon to your site and let people know how you are helping.
#MondayMotivation continues to be one of the most searched hash tags on Twitter so be sure to tweet out a #quote and/or inspiration photo each Monday.
If you haven’t submitted editorial pitches to online media for holiday editorial, the first week of October is really your last chance.
The World Series starts this month so expect it to be trending big time on all social media sites, especially in the evenings.
Mars and The Martian movie have been all over the news the past few days so expect a lot more trending, especially when the movie opens on Friday.
Next month is Small Business Saturday (November 28th) and American Express Open Forum (who selected my blog as one of their Top 10 Small Business Blogs to Follow) offers tons of freebies on their site for businesses.
National Coffee Day trended big on social media a few days ago, so hopefully National #PumpkinCheesecakeDay on October 21 will have the same momentum
Most of this month, particularly the last two weeks, every Halloween costume, decoration, food and makeup pin will be the most popular pins in your feed.
I have just started selling my monthly marketing calendar and marketing ebooks on Gumroad.com. You can sell products and services here as well. The cost is just 5% + 25 cents per transaction, no hosting fees, no monthly fees, no bandwidth feeds, no refund fees. Trust me, that is an awesome deal!

Want the other 84 tips and tactics for October? Get my Monthly Marketing Calendar for October available now for download. You will love it!

I’m Gail Oliver, a longtime marketing professional advising small businesses. If you need help marketing your small business, ask me how I can help at attentiongetting@gmail.com. Be sure to also see my Marketing Ebooks for more creative ideas.

Email Marketing Tips: Promotional Emails That Get Attention

November 7, 2012 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

Need some email marketing tips! I get a lot of promotional emails from stores such as Old Navy, Gap, to name a few. I subscribed to them, so that’s okay. However, I thought I would point out a few tips on how to effectively email your customers, based on what the big companies do that are attention getting (plus a couple of things you shouldn’t do).

6 Email Marketing Tips

1. Free Shipping always gets attention. With gas prices what they are today, it only makes sense to buy something online if you can save money and time driving to the store.

Email-marketing-tips

Little icons get attention. ★’s and even ♥’s do draw the eye to the subject line. For example, ★ 40% OFF TODAY ONLY! ★. But don’t over do it. Too much and it’s annoying. You just want to grab them, you don’t want to blind them.

3. A limited time to act. When the offer says “25% off until 11/09/13” and that is only 2 days away, it gets attention. The customer knows they should probably look at it now if truly interested, otherwise they are going to miss out. Email-marketing-ideas

A significant discount of either 75%, 50%, 40% even 25% will make people act. A 10% or 15% discount doesn’t seem worth the effort.
Don’t add customer’s name in email subject line. A lot of marketing people think this is more personal, but I feel the opposite. I know that when a large company sends out an email and my name is in the header, that they did not personally write each email, but rather just used technology to add my name. This feels more like spam to me than anything. So unless this is an individual email that you physically wrote, do not put the customer’s name in the subject line.
Don’t email too often. There are some companies that send me 2 to 3 promotional emails a day. That’s too intrusive and what will happen is customers will get annoyed and take their name off the email list or just block it as spam. A small business should only email customers either when they have something really special to offer or right before the big holiday shopping season (early November), and no more than twice a month.

FINAL WORD: Email marketing is a very effective way to get sales, so think about what you like and dislike when promotional emails are sent to you, and don’t make the same mistakes with your own customers. Related: How to Get Customers to Join and Stay on Your Email List.

Need Marketing Help?

My 12-Month Marketing Plans will walk you through EVERYTHING you need to do to bring more traffic and sales to your online shop, and they are specific to the types of products you sell. You can download my plans HERE.