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103 Ways to Sell
a New Product
A comprehensive guide to driving sales and maximizing profits
online and offline
Content
CHAPTERS
INTRODUCTION ....………..…………....….………..………....……... 6
TIME ....………..…………....….………..………....……... 7
SOCIAL MEDIA ....………..…………....….………..………....……... 13
COMMUNITIES ....………..…………....….………..………....……... 62
CONTENT ....………..…………....….………..………....……... 84
TOOLS ....………..…………....….………..………....……... 115
EMAIL ....………..…………....….………..………....……... 120
COMMUNICATION ....………..…………....….………..………....……... 128
PAID ....………..…………....….………..………....……... 136
OFFLINE ....………..…………....….………..………....……... 182
GUIDES
Upsell Effectively …..….8 Influencer Outreach …….14
Holiday Campaigns …..….9 Strategically Sell to Friends …….15
Segment Holiday Gift Guides …….10 Word of Mouth …….16
Get an Early Start …….11 Pull a PR Stunt …….17
Unofficial Sales Holidays …….12 Tumblr …….18
2
Instagram Strategically ….…20 Host a Meetup …….78
Get Pinteresting …….27 Get Featured by Uncrate …….82
Start Tweeting …….43 Polyvore …….83
Work on LinkedIn …….45 Offer Social Proof …….85
Boost Your Brand’s Facebook …….46 Recycle Content …….86
Use Your Personal Facebook …….48 Reword Discounts …….87
Facebook Page Shop Sections …….49 Round Numbers ….…89
Go Live on Social …….61 Perception of 9 …….90
Local Businesses …….63 Create Urgency …….91
Volunteer Locally …….64 Provide Comparison …….92
Enlist Employee Help …….65 Create Content …….93
Exclusive Groups …….67 Get Interviewed …….94
Support a Cause …….69 Product Description …….95
Hack Upvotes …….70 Write an Outreach Blog Post …….96
Post on Deal Sites …….71 Make YouTube Videos …….97
Get Active on Forums …….72 Get Controversial …...101
The Reddit Community …….75 Start a Blog …...102
Target Niche Marketplaces …….76 Make a VIral Video …...104
Post on Craigslist …….77 Guest Blog …...105
3
Try Unique ………....108 Less Choices ….....132
Press Release ………....109 Establish Trust and Security ..…...133
Get Reviews ……..…..111 Secure Your Site ..…...134
Plan for Mobile Ads …….…...112 Simplify Checkout ..…...135
Localize Your Offering …….…...113 Freebies ….....137
Offer Free Help …….…...114 YouTube Ads ….....140
Design Your Niche …….…...116 Instagram Retargeting ….....141
Exit-Intent Offers …….…...117 Offer and Group Discount ….....143
Countdown Timers …….…...118 Remarketing ….....144
Use Heatmaps …….…...119 Instagram Paid Shout-Outs ….....145
Email Signatures …….…...121 Host a Giveaway ….....146
Referral …….…...122 Host a Contest ….....147
Industry Mailing Lists …….…...123 Try Affiliate Marketing ….....148
Email Your Pre-Launch List …….…...124 Work with LinkedIn ….....149
Develop E-Mail Lists …….…...125 Coupon Codes ….....150
Mystery Discounts …….…...127 Sponsor an Event .…....152
Sell Your “About” Section …….…...129 Develop a Loyalty Program .…....154
Money Back Guarantee …….…...130 Shopping Engines .…....155
“Free” Giveaway …….…...131 Reddit Ads .…....158
4
Polyvore Promoted Products .………...161
Try Twitter Promos .…….......162
Buy Banner Ads ……........166
Get a Boost with Digg ……........168
Try Bing ……........169
Google Adwords ……........171
Facebook Ads ……........179
Billboards ……........183
Distribute Flyers ……........185
Create a Commercial ……........187
Undercover Marketing ……........190
Sticker Campaign ……........191
Flash Mob ……........192
Fairs ……........194
Use Print Ads ……........197
Sidewalk Chalk ……........202
Go Door to Door ……........203
5
Apprehensive at the thought of attempting your first sale? Don’t be! Many successful
entrepreneurs can attest that the first sale is a tough milestone, but it’s also one of the most
exciting and most important ones. It’s exciting because reaching this stage, where many “idea
people” can only hope to be, means you’ve already conquered the arduous processes of
brainstorming, designing, and refining. It’s also an important milestone because this is the
“make it or break it” stage, where the viability of your idea is put to the test.
At GearLaunch, we wholeheartedly support your entrepreneurial spirit and want nothing but
your success. We’ve put together this guide, 103 Ways to Sell a New Product, to help you
start on the right foot.
Good luck and happy selling!
6
INTRODUCTION
TIME
Marketing at the right time is the difference between making or breaking a
sale. In this chapter, we’ll go over time-sensitive marketing tactics to acquire
customers when they’re most apt to convert.
7
Upsell Effectively
The upsell tactic on its own can be effective, but when combined with an affiliate marketing
program, upselling is a force to be reckoned with.
Consider how many times you’ve added fries to your McDonald’s order simply because the
cashier asked you “would you like fries with that?” at the end of your order. Upsells can be
extremely effective if you can figure out the right item to suggest at the right time. We
recommend following the fast food order example. Customers are already in a buying mood at
the checkout point. All they need now is a great offer from you.
But how can you use this to complement affiliate marketing so that they drive the sales for
you? Business owners who have cracked the code on upsells offer affiliate marketers 100%
commission on the product sale, but collect their own earnings through successful upsells.
8
Holiday Campaigns
For major retailers, holidays don’t start and end on a specific day. Holiday marketing
campaigns can be month-long affairs with additional offers following the actual date. Take a
page from their book and avoid limiting your efforts to 1 or 2 days prior to the celebration date
because it will cost you big sales opportunities.
For example, your Valentine’s Day marketing might look like this:
While celebrations take place on February 14th, your marketing campaigns should be ready
to go by mid-January with major ramp-up happening two weeks before Valentine’s Day.
Additionally, you can run parallel promotions for “Singles Awareness Day” which occurs on
February 15th.
Simple things you can start with include adding themed assets to your store, adding special
greetings to your email communication, and creating themed social media posts.
9
Segment Holiday Gift Guides
If your store offers a wide range of products, tailor gift guides to specific segments of
customers and their recipients. For example, target parents with graduation gift guides for
their high school graduate.
Creating gift guides can also help ease your customers’ pain points as they scramble to
search for the “perfect gift.” Take Fortnum & Mason for example. With Mother’s Day right
around the corner for those in the UK, the retailer provided a selection of gifts targeted to
adults shopping for their mother.
10
Get an Early Start
Customer acquisition ultimately determines the success of a business, and yet the majority of owners
will not give it much thought until the day of launch rolls around. By then, their marketing efforts are
already behind.
You can stay ahead by:
1. Thinking about customer acquisition prior to launch.
2. Using a service like Launchrock to collect emails from visitors interested in early access or a
promotional offer. The special thing about this particular platform is that it integrates social
media into the subscription process, creating the potential for viral growth from a seemingly
regular promotion. Launchrock pages look like this:
Following sign-up, your visitors are shown a message stating that they will receive the promotion if
they tell others about your site through email and/or social networks.
To maximize the potential of this tactic, make your incentive irresistible. Depending on your customers,
try something along the lines of: “Increase your chances of winning by inviting your friends” or “Qualify
for a bonus prize when you invite 3 friends.”
11
Unofficial Sales Holidays
During November and December, major retailers will dedicate plenty of time and resource to
marketing the major sales holidays – Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday. But
there are hidden opportunities to be had among the “unofficial” sales holidays. Have you
heard?
This graph from Custora shows ecommerce revenue by day for 2015 versus 2014:
The ticks in revenue data outside of the major holidays mark additional earning opportunities
for e-tailers. These are just a few to consider:
Green Monday (December 14th) – eBay coined this one in 2007 to reference their best
sales day in December. As you can see from the graph, it remains a popular day for business.
Super Saturday – The notorious last Saturday before Christmas typically triggers panic mode
for procrastinators.
Free Shipping Day (December 21st) - While many businesses are beginning to offer free
shipping across the board, Free Shipping Day initially began in 2008 as an effort to extend the
online shopping season past its peak on Cyber Monday.
If you plan on participating, don’t forget to submit your website to freeshippingday.ca and
freeshippingday.com for free traffic.
12
SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media is the perfect bridge between personal and business
communication. When done right, these brands can enjoy a snowball effect
in brand awareness and – most importantly – sales.
13
Influencer Outreach
Do you know an up and coming influencer within your space? Working with smaller
influencers are better suited for a new business like yours because they do not receive as
many endorsement requests as larger profiles, which increases the probability they’ll notice
and accept your offer.
Send the influencer an email explaining your interest in working with them, and why the
relationship is mutually beneficial. Let them know that you’d like to send them a sample if
they’re willing to promote it to their followers or provide you with a review.
Do note that this happens frequently depending on the influencer’s popularity. You shouldn’t
be discouraged if you don’t get the response you’re looking for.
14
Strategically Sell to Friends
One of the easiest sells you will ever make is by approaching a close friend or family member
in person and then convincing them to make a purchase. However, there’s a finite number of
times you can do this . When you reach this point, it’s time to turn to social media – or more
specifically, Facebook.
The social media giant has a powerful search function that goes beyond finding contacts to
help you locate users interested in keywords related to your offerings. For example, here’s a
quick search for “My friends who like cats”:
Try different keywords until you have a healthy list of connections, then send each user a
personalized message.
15
Word of Mouth
Beyond easy first sales, your friends and family can contribute to a specific marketing strategy
that countless companies attempt to implement: word-of-mouth marketing. Brands have come
to figure out that many of us would rather rely on recommendations and referrals from our
immediate network to form our purchasing decisions. Ask yourself this: do you believe what
advertisers are telling you in a television commercial or would you rather trust
recommendations from close friends and family members?
Getting more people who do not work for your brand to evangelize your products can
contribute to tremendous success – but be mindful with your approach. For example, your
parents telling others how cool your t-shirts are probably won’t do you much good. Here’s the
better way to approach this:
● Consider their social circles.
Your friends and family are made up of different individuals according to gender, age
group, interests, and personalities. One or more of these combinations will resonate
better with your target audience so it’s important you take specific notes. This will help
you launch more specific and relevant marketing campaigns that will yield better
returns.
● Get their testimonials.
Once you determine the individuals best suited for the job, ask them to write
testimonials for your product and your brand. These will come in handy when you
create marketing material.
● Share it.
You can suggest they share the testimony on their own profiles or you can share it
yourself and tag them.
16
Pull a PR Stunt
You’ve undoubtedly seen them: an event so taboo, weird, ridiculous, hilarious, amazing, or
secretive...that you just had to share.
And that’s how PR stunts go viral. Hitting any one of these traits can increase the likelihood of
your stunt bringing tons of attention to your brand from everyone including the press.
Before you act on any ole idea, conduct a brief survey with friends and/or family first. PR
stunts are not a new occurrence, and plenty of people try to best the last outrageous event –
only to be met with criticism. PR stunts don’t necessarily need to be dangerous, costly, or
embarrassing to work.
For example, recall JCPenney's #TweetingWithMittens. By live-tweeting the 2014’s Super
Bowl game with plenty of typos, JCPenney had Twitter users wondering if they were drunk.
As it turned out, it was only #TweetingWithMittens, the brainchild of ad agencies EVB and
Victors & Spoils. JCP stated the campaign was a success, netting more than 10,000 Twitter
followers that night and 130,000 mentions.
The best part: it was fun, safe, and free.
17
Tumblr
If you are confounded by Tumblr, know that you’re not the first. The platform is all at once a
blog and social network that supports posting and sharing images, video, audio, and short
pieces of writing in a format similar to forums. We recommend utilizing Tumblr in a way that’s
reflective of your brand, whether that’s posting only specific type of content or dishing out
ingenious commentary on popular posts.
A few advantages of Tumblr is that its content can be accessed directly whereas a network
like Facebook makes content available only to Facebook users. This means anything you
create will get indexed by search engines and count towards increasing your visibility.
Would Tumblr be a good match for your business? Fifty percent of Tumblr’s user base is age
25 or younger. If your business targets the younger market, Tumblr is perfect. But even if this
isn’t your core demographic, Tumblr's search visibility benefits and popularity should make it
at least worth an experiment.
Let’s look at what you'll need to start using Tumblr for your business:
● Create an account.
Tumblr may feel restrictive at first as a blogging platform if you’re used to publishing
longer articles on a powerful CMS like Wordpress. But that’s exactly it – Tumblr wasn’t
made for lengthy articles. Tumblr users have shorter attention spans and prefer easily
digestible pieces of work.
When you create your account, this will become your default blog. Be creative and blog
with a theme in mind. Yes, the theme should be related to your business but should not
center around it. In this aspect, Tumblr is similar to Instagram. Users don’t come to
Tumblr for direct-sales and product-only posts. It may be helpful to browse around on a
personal account to get ideas for where you should take your brand’s account.
● Engage with others’ content often.
As with any social media platform, listening and engaging are key to gaining active
followers. Search for posts on topics related to your business and your theme. Browse
for accounts that publish popular and engaging items, then follow them.
18
● Spend a few minutes each day to "like,” reply, and share (aka “reblogging) Tumblr
posts. Experiment with various posting times and types of content e.g. links to
interesting stuff, original photos or videos, brief pieces of writing, etc.
A tool that makes sharing content easier is Tumblr’s "bookmarklet" that sits right in
your browser. When you see something interesting online, simply click the bookmarklet
to quickly create a Tumblr post. You can also install Tumblr's mobile app on your
phone or tablet.
● Use tags.
Tumblr users often discover each other through tags. Pay attention to tags on popular
Tumblr posts for topics that interest you. You can save tags in order to track them for
the latest posts.
Use tags on your own posts when it’s relevant so that users who don’t follow you, but
are tracking the tags, can see your content. It may seem tedious, but tags will help
expand your network.
19
Instagram has come a long way since its debut in 2010. The social media platform’s recent
upgrades has the ecommerce crowd turning heads. With notable features such as Library,
Business Accounts, and Shoppable Ads, Instagram joins its parent company (the ad-savvy
Facebook) in enabling businesses to reach 500 million active monthly users in a natural and
noninvasive manner.
For perspective, Instagram was used by just under a third of U.S. brands with 100 employees
or more in 2015. Fast forward to this year and that number is expected to increase by 70.7%
(eMarketer). If that’s not a call for ecommerce business owners to mobilize, we don’t know
what is!
Start with this guide and learn how to sell apparel on Instagram in 2017.
1. Optimize Your Instagram Profile
We need to start with the basics: your brand’s profile page. In order to leave a lasting
impression, you will need to do several things:
● Add a high-res profile image – The face of your brand can be an image that says it
all or you can stick to your logo. In either case, ensure that it’s high-quality and
correctly sized.
Instagram Strategically
20
● Create a professional bio – Unless you've claimed it for your own, this is not the
place for hashtags. Keep your bio clean and error-free. Speak to your target user in a
manner representative of your brand and briefly convey what you're all about.
● Include a link – Add the URL to your *landing page* in the designated URL section.
Why use a landing page instead of your homepage? Put yourself into the shoes of a
visitor converting to a buyer and consider how much of an obstacle a homepage
presents. The visitor now has to jump through several hoops before they can locate the
one item they really wanted. A landing page solves this by smoothly transitioning your
visitor closer to the buy button.
2. Gain More Followers
Your Instagram is a repository of future traffic for your store, and the potential to grow this
repository is the true power of this platform. In other words, you need to have a strategy in
place to actively increase your following.
● Self-Promote – If you're just starting out and gaining followers sounds like a daunting
task, don't fret because you already have a handful of potential followers.
Instagram can link to your Facebook where your friends, family, and fans already
reside. Add them through this connection.
Before you jump to promoting your new account through status updates, make sure
you have a good reason as to why everyone needs to follow you on an additional
channel. Will you have content specifically catered to you Instagram community? Are
you running a special incentive for your new followers?
Remember, most people won't go out of their way to follow yet another account without
having a good reason.
21
● Cross-Promote – Cross-promotions are common practice on Instagram. If you’re
unfamiliar, it’s simply an agreement between two profiles to give each other shoutouts.
The key to implementing this properly requires that you work with a non-competing
(think complementary) brand that shares your target audience but not product offering.
As you can imagine by it’s popularity, cross-promotions are an easy and effective
method to quickly gain followers. However, the mutually beneficial nature of this tactic
means you are limited to brands that share a similar number of followers to your own.
Try this approach to start cross-promoting:
Step 1: Do your research and put together a list of complementary brands that
have a similar follower count to you. If you notice an account has recently
cross-promoted someone, take it as an indicator that they’re receptive to the
idea and prioritize reaching out to them.
Step 2: Compose short personalized emails to propose a cross-promotion.
Briefly explain the benefits of this tactic and why your accounts would
complement each other well - you need to demonstrate that you've actually paid
some attention to their brand.
Step 3: Stand out from the many requests that popular accounts undoubtedly
receive by sending a follow-up.
Proactively Participate
Businesses often make the mistake of giving their competition the cold shoulder on
social channels, not realizing this is actually an opportunity to poach the competitor’s
followers. If executed well, proactive commenting and liking can bring more followers
your way. It all boils down to dedicating the time and practicing sincerity.
● Do your research and develop a list of direct competitors for you to keep tabs
on.
● Set aside time on a daily basis to engage fans who have left comments on your
competition's recent posts by liking or replying to the comments (when it's
relevant).
● Go through your competitors' list of followers. Engage with the real and active
22
● accounts by liking and commenting on the posts. Make sure your comments are
personalized, positive, and clearly show that you’ve paid attention to their
profile.
Bulk Follow and Unfollow
If this method sounds familiar to you, it’s because bulk following and unfollowing was
formerly a popular Twitter strategy to gain followers.
Many Instagram followers who would love your products don't follow you simply
because they’re not aware you exist...yet.
Step 1: To find the ones with a higher likelihood to convert, comb through the
list of followers from your competitors’ profiles and begin following them. These
specific followers have already expressed an interest in an offering similar to
yours. Give yourself an hour each day to do this. You’ll find that you can
average about 100 follows per hour.
Step 2: Run a quick search on Google Play or the App Store for an “unfollow
app” that unfollows people who do not follow you back. Give each batch a full
day to follow you back before running the app.
Take note to limit this tactic. Instagram does not take kindly to this technique and has
internal triggers in place that may hurt your discoverability if you abuse the system.
3. Create Great Content
23
While ads are not always ill-received on Instagram, relying on ads at such an early to grow
your Instagram marketing can be a waste of money. The platform already gives you plenty of
opportunity to garner attention organically. For new or small businesses, organic growth is
your ammo.
Optimize Images
Figuring out the type of images that return the highest engagement for your brand will
not be easy. A lot of this process involves learning and optimizing your images through
trial and error.
● Use a service like Iconosquare to analyze the post details that works best for
your account i.e. time, filters, hashtags, etc. Use these stats to finetune your
future posts.
● Always stick to the recommended image size. Instagram encourages you to
upload photos that have a width of at least 1080 pixels with an aspect ratio
between 1.91:1 and 4:5.
● Continue testing. Even though you’ve nailed down a few details that seem to
increase engagement, your goal should always be to improve it. You will not be
able to do this if you stop experimenting with content and context.
● You must maintain an active account. Aim for 2-3 posts per day. While this
seems a lot when you're crafting engaging content, there’s no guarantee that
every follower will catch every post. Sharing more than one post per day also
gives you more room to experiment for optimal posting times.
Add Variety
Each one of your posts should sell, but not in the way you think. There’s a limit to the
number of times followers can stand to see product posts so it’s critical you find a
balance between “other” content and product posts. But that doesn’t mean non-product
posts can’t sell your brand and its values! Try adding your branded touch to these
ideas and incorporating them into the rotation.
● User-generated content – 92% of consumers trust recommendations from
friends and family over advertisements. People trust people -- this is the power
that user-generated content harnesses. By featuring real customers who are
24
● happy with your products, you offer social proof that has the potential to create
positive sentiment and heighten brand engagement.
● Behind the Scenes – Add depth and character to your brand by offering a
sneak peek into what happens beneath the pretty surface. Because this part of
business typically remains hidden, #bts content can spark interest among
followers.
● Creative Product Feature – Showcasing your products is important so there’s
no need to nix these types of posts altogether, but you can certainly feature
them more creatively. Everyone has already seen product on white
backgrounds. Instead, try selling the lifestyle behind your product.
● Original Memes – So long as your humor is tasteful and rightly aligned with
your target audience, posting memes is A-OK. You can even step it up a notch
to really show off your brand's creativity by using photos of your team (with their
consent of course).
● Educational – Your followers obviously find some interest in your niche. Teach
them something new about the industry.
● Guest Hosts – Similar to cross-promoting, you can enlist the help of someone
cooler to take over your account for the day. Guests not only add a breath of
fresh air to your profile, but their affiliation also draws the interest of their own
fans to your brand. That’s why it’s important you find someone who is
representative of your brand and values.
Step 4: Optimize Your Landing Pages
25
As your follower count increases, your store traffic will also increase. But before you start
celebrating, remember that acquiring followers only adds to the top of your sales funnel. The
next step is to send followers to relevant pages that are optimized for purchase decisions.
These are critical pieces of your landing page that you'll need to pay particular attention to:
● Keep focus on mobile viewability when designing your landing page because the
majority of your Instagram traffic will be on their mobile devices when they find you.
This will affect your navigation, search, shopping cart, CTAs, and payment options.
● If you’re not a copywriter, now is not the best time to practice. It’s easy to sound overly
salesy or cheesy. Head over to Upwork or Freelancer to find a conversion-savvy
copywriter.
● Avoid killing conversions by adding a URL like this:
http://noonewillclickor.sharethis.URL/becauseitstoolengthy. Instead, create a
shortened, branded, and trackable URL with Google Campaign URL Builder.
● Just like your Instagram posts, never stop testing your landing pages – whether that
means tinkering with product descriptions, alternating product offerings, adding
customer reviews, or something else altogether.
● (Optional) Make your Instagram shoppable with services like Foursixty or Dash
Hudson's LikeShop.
26
Get Pinteresting
Originally a wishlist-like platform, Pinterest has grown into an inspiration and shopping
destination for many of its 150 million monthly active users ([Pinterest,
2016](https://blog.pinterest.com/en/150-million-people-finding-ideas-pinterest)) – users who
are not so easily acquired by quick hacks or spammy tactics.
Effectively marketing on this social platform will require more than pinning every item from
your store. Let's go over how to sell apparel on Pinterest.
1. Create or Convert Your Account
One of Pinterest's major strengths is the suite of marketing features available to Business
Accounts. What exactly is in the toolbox?
● Pinterest Analytics – Thanks to rich tracking information, you can determine which
pieces of content from your profile and your website jive with your audience and what
that audience looks like.
● Promoted Pins – Pinterest's version of paid ads, they look like native pins but show up
more frequently in relevant search results and feeds. Promoted Pins are current only
available to US, CA, or UK-based business accounts.
27
● Rich Pins – There are 6 types of Rich Pins – app, movie, recipe, article, product, and
place – all of which provide additional information within the pin itself. Instead of
manual input, Rich Pins will help you automatically pull information such as the price
and availability of a specific item from your store.
● Newsletter – Get business-oriented Pinterest news and updates straight from the
horse's mouth.
Pinterest designed these tools specifically to help businesses maximize the platform's
marketing effectiveness. For this reason, we encourage you to create a Business Account. If
you have an existing Personal Account you'd still like to use, Pinterest also allows you to
convert to a Business Account.
2. Create a Pin
Similar to creating content for any other channel, successful marketing on Pinterest will
require you to understand two things: the kind of content your target user wants to see and
how to ensure the content you've created gets seen.
Know What Your Audience Wants
A study conducted at The University of Minnesota examined 32,200 Pinterest profiles
and analyzed the distribution of their pinning activity based on category and gender.
28
The X-axis shows the 33 Pinterest categories, and the Y-axis shows the relative proportion of
each topic within gender. You can read the full paper here.
Going by the chart, you may be tempted to zero in on the most popular categories.
However, your first concern should be relevancy and then popularity. If your brand has
nothing to do with food and drinks, then avoid dedicating a board to summer cocktails.
Optimize Your Pins for Search
Pinterest functions as part visual search engine for many users and part actual search
engine for others. Therefore, if you don't create easily searchable content, then you
may very well not create content at all.
Image Guidelines
Follow these guidelines to increase the likelihood that your pin reaches its
target.
● Image Size – All pins are 736px wide with an unlimited height. While tall
images do perform better, be mindful that the length of your image
doesn't become overwhelming.
● High-res – Avoid using stock photos as much as possible, and use
original high quality images instead. Your images should not pixelate in
the expanded view.
● Light and Bright – Light images are re-pinned 20x more than dark
images.
29
SEO Guidelines
SEO for Pinterest search is much more straightforward than bigger Internet
search engines – think "relevant keywords."
Step 1: Use Google's Keyword Planner to find keywords related to your
business and pins
Step 2: Include these keywords in your pin's image file name.
Step 3: Use these keywords when writing your pin descriptions. However,
as a general SEO rule, avoid sounding "keyword-y." Your description
should still flow naturally even with the keywords included.
3. Get Views and Re-pins
We've only grazed the surface by creating great visual content. Next, we need to focus on
increasing views and shares.
Connect Other Social Accounts
Gaining new followers organically for any social media channel is undeniably a tough
task. Luckily, you can connect existing social accounts to your new Pinterest for
Business account.
30
Connecting your social accounts not only helps grow your Pinterest following, but it
also bridges your distribution channels to get your content shared more easily and
more frequently.
1. Head over to "Account Settings"
2. From the menu, click "Social Networks"
3. Add your Twitter and Facebook accounts
Time Your Pins
A single "best time to pin" does not exist because it heavily depends on your target
audience. For example, the optimal time to grab the attention of fitness fanatics in
California will vary greatly from a dedicated homemaker residing in Vermont. The only
sure way to confirm this information is to consistently test your pinning schedule.
Use a Call-to-Action
Even though your pin has a link, it doesn't hurt to remind your audience to take action.
In fact, pins with CTAs get 80% more engagement (BrandonGaille, 2013).
4. Gain New Followers
31
Connecting your other social media accounts will help increase your follower count to some
degree, but this should not be your primary means of gaining followers. The value in
Pinterest is to tap into a new stream of followers who have a higher tendency to purchase and
the purchasing power to buy more.
In the study from the University of Minnesota we'd referenced above, researchers found three
factors largely influenced whether a Pinterest user will follow you or not.
Image Source
And they are:
● How many accounts you follow/how many accounts follow you
● Your number of pins
● Your number of boards
In order to turn your account into a follower magnet, you'll need to commit to the improvement
and maintenance of these three factors.
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Find Friends From Other Social Networks
Reach for low-hanging fruit first and connect with your friends from the other social
media accounts you've linked.
1. Click on your business name in the top right corner of the screen.
2. In the dropdown menu that appears, click on "Find Friends."
3. Choose the social networks you’ve connected to find friends, then follow them.
You'll likely get more follow-backs here because you already have a relationship with
these people beyond Pinterest.
Post Regularly
Similar to "the best time to post," there's no definitive number of times you should post
per day. Case studies from numerous sources have found success in frequencies
ranging from 5 to 30 posts per day. The optimal number for your account will heavily
depend on your target audience's level of activity. Start at 5 posts spread throughout
the course of the day and gradually increase until you reach 30. Which frequency
seems to earn the highest engagement, shares, and traffic?
With a posting schedule of 5 to 30 pieces of content per day, Pinterest can sound like a
big time commitment. Don't let the numbers scare you because the majority of your
pins do not have to be original content. There's content everywhere that can make up a
good portion of your posts – just make sure the content is relevant and you've credited
the correct sources.
Stay Engaged
Successful social media for brands is ironically less about the brand and more about
catering to consumers. Take a page out of their book and provide others with a reason
to engage with you by proactively engaging with them first. Beyond responding to your
followers' comments and questions, you need to proactively re-pin their pins, like their
pins, and participate in the community.
Provide Meaningful Responses
Don't be bland and post generic comments such as "nice pin" or "this is great" on every
post. Pinterest users know what you're up and you'll end up wasting your own time.
Instead, leave thoughtful comments that demonstrate your interest and knowledge on
the subject.
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Note: There is such a thing as too much commenting. Pinterest considers commenting
too often spamming and it can lead to the suspension of your account. Limit your
thoughtful responses to 2 or 3 times per day.
Go Where the Popular Pins Are
The Popular section on Pinterest houses top performing pins based on the combination
of re-pins, likes, and comments. It's also the section that will offer you the most insight
into successful Pinterest strategy, so find popular boards that are relevant to your
business and start taking notes.
A portion of your thoughtful comments should go to the pins in the section. Again,
make sure the pins you comment on are relevant to your business. This virtually acts
as free advertising because your brand name becomes exposed to the people who
follow those boards.
Contribute to Others' Boards
Dedicate time to building relationships with owners of popular group boards or the
board's other contributors, and then request an invite to be a contributor yourself.
If you can contribute quality content, the board's followers will likely become your
followers too.
On the flip side, you can create your own board and invite your followers or popular
accounts to contribute. We don't recommend this method until you have some clout to
your Pinterest name.
Collaborate with Influencers
Pinterest has its influencers too, and it's exposure to these influencers' followers that
can really boost your Pinterest reputation.
Start with baby steps by following their boards, re-pinning their pins, and leaving
thoughtful comments to their content. Slowly build familiarity to indicate your interest in
their specialty and ideas before initiating a collaboration.
There are several ways you can work with Pinterest influencers.
● Invite them to contribute to one of your boards.
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● Once you've proven your level of expertise, offer to contribute to one of their
boards.
● Show that you pay attention by offering ideas for their boards.
5. Promote Your Brand
Pinterest is an additional channel to pump new prospects into your sales funnel. In order to
keep that funnel consistently topped off, you'll need to make a habit of best practices that will
contribute to the growth and promotion of your brand over the long term.
Get Rich Pins
Rich Pins, as the name implies, enriches your ordinary pins with valuable real-time
information – automatically.
Pinterest current offers 6 different types of Rich Pins – app, movie, recipe, article,
product, and place – each offering its own set of features aimed at boosting
engagement and direct traffic to your site.
Specifically for ecommerce business owners, we recommend making good use of the
product pin and, if you've been keen on blog content creation, the article pin. Check out
what they look like in action:
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Product Pin
This product pin by Urban Outfitters
features an official link to the store’s
site, updated pricing, and a detailed
description.
To see a complete list of metadata
for product pins, please click here.
Article Pin
This article pin from CNN comes with a
prominent title, a branded logo, a brief
description, and a call-to-action.
To see a complete list of metadata
available for article pins, please click
here.
Image Source: Pinterest
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How to Set up Rich Pins
Because Rich Pins display metadata from pages on your website, you may
need a hand from your web developer to edit its contents.
Step 1: Decide on which pin(s) you want.
Step 2: Find your pin from the menu on the left and determine which meta tags
you need to add to your website.
Step 3: Choose any page on your site that you've added the appropriate
metadata to and [go here](https://developers.pinterest.com/tools/url-debugger/).
Step 4: Enter your chosen URL into the validator form field and hit "Validate."
Step 5: Correct any mistake you see through your site.
Step 6: Select your option below based on how your web page was marked up:
● HTML Tags, if you used Open Graph or Schema.org formats.
● oEmbed, if you used oEmbed format.
● Shopify, if you have a Shopify site.
Step 7: Click "Apply Now." Your Rich Pins will populate within the hour.
Note: You only need to validate and apply for one link per domain.
Add Variety to Your Content
The content you distribute or share on any social media channel acts as an extension
of your brand. However, that doesn't mean you should feel restricted to using one style
or one format of content. And most of all, please refrain from posting only product
images. Pinterest users congregate for interesting and inspiring content. It's your job to
deliver. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
● Gifs – Short and sweet, gifs contain dynamic content that’s rich in meaning and
rarely considered spammy. They're the essence of a good CTA.
● Lists – We are so consistently bombarded with information that we've become
accustomed to skimming or skipping information altogether. Lists are perfectly
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● designed to accommodate the modern attention span – they're short, precise,
and easy to read.
● Guides or Recipes – These references strip lengthy explanations down to
fundamental instructions that help readers better understand the subject matter.
● Memes – Funny always wins, but it's also difficult to get "funny" right. Get honest
feedback from a friend or family member before you post.
Link Your Pins
Rich Pins automatically offer valuable information, but adding a variety of content
means not every pin you publish will be a Rich Pin. And that's ok.
Normal pins still offer an important piece of information: a link to your site.
Prioritize Popular Boards
As you accumulate pins into boards, move better performing boards to the top of your
page. This way, you increase the likelihood of converting and acquiring users who are
visiting your page for the first time.
6. Track and Optimize
Image Source: Pinterest
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Pinterest Analytics provides insight into the performance of your campaign and the audience
engaging with it. The conclusions you draw from this information will help you improve
content, engagement, and conversion.
Here are a few questions this feature will help answer:
● Which of your pins and boards do people love the most?
● How does your target user compare to your actual Pinterest audience (i.e. gender,
location, interests, etc.)?
● What kind of devices are users on when they pin your content?
● For more information on the analytics data available, check out this Pinterest Analytics
guide.
Ready to [access this nifty feature]()? Pinterest Analytics will first require you to create a
Pinterest for Business account (done!). Second, you'll have to [verify your
website](https://help.pinterest.com/en/articles/confirm-your-website).
...and ta-da!
7. Bonus: Advertise on Pinterest
Image Source: Pinterest
We have 3 reasons for keeping Pinterest ads as a bonus step:
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You can only promote existing pins. It would be a waste of your marketing budget to
immediately upload and promote new content. By holding off, you can access the best
type of content to target at the best type of user.
Runnings ads on Pinterest is a short-term fix to an acquisition challenge that requires a
long-term answer i.e. growing and engaging with the Pinterest community. If you
choose to run Pinterest ads, we recommend using it to complement a strategic
approach.
Let's begin!
Determine Your Goal
Pinterest ads, or Promoted Pins, are native ad units i.e. regular-looking pins that you
pay to have displayed to more people. Pinterest offers 3 types of ad campaigns to
support your business goals.
● Awareness: Raise brand awareness by getting your business in front of new users.
You pay on a CPM basis.
● Engagement: Boost engagement with your pins by reaching users with higher intent
and probability for interaction. You pay on a CPE (cost per engagement) basis, where
"engagement" is defined as: a close-up, repin, or click.
● Traffic: Drive traffic from your promoted pins directly to your website. Traffic
campaigns are PPC (pay per click) ads.
Setup for all three types of campaigns follow the same steps.
Step 1: Choose a Campaign Goal
Head over to [ads.pinterest.com](https://ads.pinterest.com/) to select 1 of 3
campaign goals, and name your new campaign.
Step 2: Pick a Pin
As we mentioned earlier, you can only promote existing pins. To ensure your
money is well spent, pick pins that have performed well for your intended goal.
Pinterest offers filters where you can quickly view your most clicked and most
2.
3.
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repinned posts from the last 30 days.
Step 3: Pick Your Audience
In addition to choosing your audience, this is also the time to determine where
you will send users who click on your ad. We recommend customizing a landing
page that matches the contents of your promoted pin.
For audience targeting, you can opt for a general approach based on user
interests and keywords. Interests are restricted to a set list, and keywords are
provided through Pinterest recommendations or manual upload.
Alternatively, you can get more specific by targeting existing customers, people
who have visited your site before, or users whose profiles match those of users
already interacting with your Pinterest content.
Additionally, you have the option to target by location, language, device, and
gender.
Step 4: Pay for Results
Next, enter the maximum amount that you're willing to pay per action taken on
your ad. Pinterest will automatically let you know if your bid is competitive and
good to go or if it's too low.
Remember, if your bid off wins, you won't necessarily have to pay that amount.
You will only have to pay the amount that beats the next highest bidder.
Review your information. If everything looks good, click "Next" to submit your ad
for review (24 hours). During that time, submit or update your payment
information so that you're good to go as soon as your Promoted Pin gets
approved.
Step 5: Track What's Working
To set up conversion tracking, go to the Ads menu on your profile. Select the
conversions you'd like to track such as page visits, sign-ups, purchases, etc.
Copy and paste the code generated into the body of page you want to track.
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Abide by Best Practices
Pinterest makes more money when your ads work – it's within their best interests to
help you. Having said that, go through [Pinterest's Advertising
Standards](https://about.pinterest.com/en/advertising-standards) to ensure you're
setting your ads up for success. Some key points to definitely note are:
● Be authentic and honest.
● Create high-quality and interesting content that elicits action.
● Avoid sensitive topics
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Start Tweeting
Twitter can be a powerful marketing tool for many online store owners without requiring a
large investment in time or money. Not only is it easier to gain followers on Twitter, but you
can engage with Twitter users before they commit to following your page.
The following is a quick strategy to get you started on marketing through Twitter.
1. Create a target audience – Twitter is home to a diverse crowd, which means that
chances are high that your target audience frequents this particular network. If you
have yet to do so, define these users and include specific information such as age,
gender, location, interests, etc. This may seem tedious but it will help you understand
how your target users interact on Twitter and how you can best align your brand to
capture their support.
2. Take advantage of search – Once you’ve clearly defined who they are, you can utilize
the search bar or try Twitter’s Advanced Search to confirm that your target users exist.
For example, here are the top results for “need cat tshirt”:
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3. Establish credibility.
Now that you can confirm that there is a demand for your business, you’ll need to
establish your presence on Twitter. Without credibility, consumers won’t feel secure
buying from you.
You can establish your brand by doing a few things:
● Be consistent – regularly be online and available to interact or address
concerns. Consistency also applies to content--share relevant content regularly.
● Have a strong voice – know your brand. If your brand is a person, what would
they be like? Establishing a brand voice also ties in with consistency. Make sure
the content you share is a reflection of your brand. Not sure where to start?
Twitter has a few guidelines on What to Tweet.
● Support a cause – Businesses concerned with social good are more easily
accepted.
4. Make a sale.
When your profile has some substance and you’re ready to make a sale, try one of
these:
● Deals – Offer exclusive discounts to your Twitter followers.
● Engage – Using the search option, respond to relevant tweets with a link to your
product or offer user a good deal. However, remember not to spam every
person who mentions a need.
● Follow up – if you discover someone discussing their interest in your product,
don’t hesitate to reach out. If it happens to be a customer, ask about their
experience and retweet positive comments.
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Work on LinkedIn
LinkedIn, as a social network for professionals, is traditionally considered a better lead
generation platform for B2B companies while remaining a conundrum for B2C companies.
This doesn’t mean LinkedIn will not work for you, rather it may take some tinkering to figure
out if LinkedIn is better for sales, brand development, or something else altogether. Here are
a couple of things you can start doing to figure that out:
● Promote your people (brand development).
LinkedIn is a great place to show off the awesome talent on your team. It can be
something as simple as spotlighting an employee each week by sharing their photo
along with their tenure, job title, a short quote on why they like their job, and a fun fact
about them. This gives the public a rare look into your company culture and
personality.
● Promote your page (brand and lead development).
It’s needless to say you should share relevant content on a regular basis, but if no one
reads it, then you might as well not have shared anything. Set aside a budget to
promote your page so that others who don’t currently follow you can get a glimpse into
the community you’re building. One of the perks of LinkedIn’s page promotions is that
you can target individuals by job title, industry, location, and more. Targeting ensures
that your marketing spend will go towards people who could directly affect your bottom
line.
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Boost Your Brand’s Facebook
Brands that rely heavily on Facebook to acquire customers experience an emotional roller
coaster every time the social network updates its algorithm. This is because the updates
typically result in less reach and more ad spend.
But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t maintain a presence. Facebook pages remain an easy
way for prospects to find more information on your business, review how others may feel
about your brand, as well as a means for you to distribute information to them. Needless to
say, many brands have full-fledged user acquisition strategies behind their Facebook pages,
so we’ll only go over a few quick wins you can immediately obtain.
● Test the call-to-action (CTA) button on your page header.
Split-test to see which CTA results in the best results for your goal. Typically “Watch
Video,” “Shop Now,” and “Contact Us” are good choices to start with.
● Add videos and create playlists.
Videos uploaded directly to Facebook can be put into playlists. This is a great place to
show off how-to tutorials, product features, DIY tips, and more – all while showing up
better on people’s timelines.
● Share behind-the-scenes (BTS) photos.
BTS photos give a face and character to your business, which helps consumers more
easily trust and identify with you.
● Offer exclusive deals and discounts.
Give fans plenty of reasons to return to your brand’s Facebook page. Share special
deals and offers that expire within 24 hours.
● Host a contest.
Try posting a funny photo and running a caption contest to keep fans entertained.
While it helps to offer discounts or freebies, contests do not always need them.
Instead, you can feature the winner or give them a shoutout (or both).
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● Engage other Facebook pages.
Interact as your page with other business pages, and "like'' your connections’ pages.
Liked or tagged pages will often return the favor, and mention or like your page in
return.
● Share milestones.
Keep fans in the loop with company happenings through your page so they feel part of
your community.
● Add other social media pages.
Add Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and other tabs to your Facebook page to give
potential customers and fans a big picture of your company’s culture and brand.
● Test time and content.
Start strategically split-testing to see which posts boost engagement. Start with a
simple schedule: post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at a specific time with a
specific type of content. After 4 weeks, switch one weekday out with another (e.g.
Tuesday instead of Monday) and see what performs better.
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Use Your Personal Facebook
As of June 2016, Facebook announced it will prioritize posts shared by friends and family over
those by publishers, brands, and other pages. This is good news for you as you build your
brand from scratch.
There’s nothing wrong with using your personal Facebook to promote your product. Rather,
it’s a matter of controlling the number of times you post and the type of content you include.
Here is a helpful gauge for how often certain actions should be taken with your personal
profile:
Rarely: Post direct links to your product or homepage
Sometimes: Show off a particularly nice testimonial or press mention
Often: Engage with others, whether it’s directly or through content they share
Always: Include a personal message in things you share
Finally, remember that your personal Facebook is exactly that--personal. Continue to share
photos, articles, liking and commenting on people’s posts, and being a normal user.
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Facebook Page Shop Sections
The "shop section" feature, which allows users to browse and purchase products directly
within Facebook Pages, was actually rolled out to a several thousand pages in 2016.
The shop section sits in the left menu.
As shown in the example above, this is a new opportunity for different groups beyond just
brands and businesses to participate in a seamless ecommerce experience (e.g. causes,
charity, entertainment, etc.)
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While availability is still limited, we know the feature will be a huge benefit as adoption grows.
● Easier discovery and purchase – Everything a user wants to learn about you or your
products is now contained in one environment, your Facebook Page. This removes a
significant number of pages that buyers have to visit between discovering your Page,
clicking an external link to your store, conducting a search for reviews on your products
and business, and finally completing a purchase. Every additional page visit becomes
a risk that your user drops off. Purchases in-app, on the other hand, can occur faster
and easier.
● Meet users in the medium – More than 500 million people access Facebook strictly
from a mobile device. This is an especially important statistic because research
indicates that mobile users regularly use only five mobile applications. Leveraging
Facebook's mobile ubiquity should not be a question.
● Leverage an existing fan base – Because this feature becomes part of your Facebook
page, you already have a community that shares the interest you represent. Promoting
your product posts to this audience is certainly an easier sell than cold targeting.
● Generate conversation – Standalone shops do not give you the same capabilities to
generate a conversation that a Page does. You have the opportunity to post content
that keeps your community engaged and repeatedly coming back.
In short, the benefits of adding a shop section to your Facebook Page boils down to creating
an easier buying experience for fans as well as an easier selling experience for you.
We don't say "easier" in the sense of rudimentary. The shop feature offers a selection of
robust shopping features. However, their availability will depend on your Page location.
US Facebook Pages may offer these features:
● Upload products and product description. There is no limit to the number of physical
goods you can upload, nor will you need to have a product catalog uploaded anywhere
beforehand.
● Customize your inventory. You have the option of dividing your products into different
collections or categories.
● Sell directly from your Page. Your customers can browse and buy without leaving your
Page. Alternatively, you can also redirect them to an external checkout page once
they’re ready to complete the purchase.
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● Manage orders. With the ability to manage orders, you can record the status of orders,
cancel orders, and refund orders without ever leaving your Page.
● Monitor insights. You have visibility into the number of views, clicks, purchases, and
profit for each product
Non-US Facebook Pages may offer these features:
● Upload products and product descriptions. There is no limit to the number of physical
goods you can upload, nor will you need to have a product catalog uploaded anywhere
beforehand.
● Feature products. You can showcase a number of products.
● Get insights. You have visibility into the number of views and messages you've
received for each product.
Now that we've covered many of the benefits and functionalities of the shop section, let's
activate it for your Page. Again, depending on where you’re located, your set-up options will
also vary.
● US Facebook Pages: You can choose to have customers complete their purchases
within your Facebook Page or you can send them to an external checkout page.
● Non-US Facebook Pages: You can allow customers to message you in order to learn
more about your products or you can send them to an external website to complete
their purchase.
We have provided the appropriate directions for setting up shop sections in each situation on
the next page.
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Let Customers Check out from Your Facebook Page
1.) From your Facebook Page, click the Shop tab from the left menu.
If this is not an option, click Settings from the top-right corner of your Page, then click Edit
Page from the left menu.
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Next, click Add a Tab and click Add Tab next to the Shop option. The Shop tab should now be
visible on your Page.
2.) Review the Merchant Terms and Policies, check the I agree to the Merchant Terms and
Policies box, and click Continue. Enter your password if prompted.
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3.) Choose the preferred currency for your shop. This currency will apply to all of your
products and cannot be changed without deleting your shop section and creating a new one.
4.) Choose Check Out on Facebook, and click Continue.
5.) If you have a separate email to communicate with customers, Facebook, or payment
processors, uncheck the Use this email address for customer service inquiries box and submit
an alternate email address.
Choose either PayPal or Stripe as your payment processor, and click Submit. For either
choice, you will have to connect an existing account or create a new Business account.
Your shop is ready to go and you can start adding products!
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Send Your Customers to an External Website to Complete Their Purchase
1.) From your Facebook Page, click the Shop tab from the left menu.
If this is not an option, click Settings from the top-right corner of your Page, then click Edit
Page from the left menu.
55
Next, click Add a Tab and click Add Tab next to the Shop option. The Shop tab should now be
visible on your Page.
2.) Review the Merchant Terms and Policies, check the I agree to the Merchant Terms and
Policies box, and click Continue. Enter your password if prompted.
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3.) Choose the preferred currency for your shop. This currency will apply to all of your
products and cannot be changed without deleting your shop section and creating a new one.
4.) Choose Check Out on Another Website and click Continue. For each product you upload
to your shop section, you will now be prompted to submit the website.
5.) Click Save.
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Send Your Customers to an External Website to Complete Their Purchase
1.) From your Facebook Page, click the Shop tab from the left menu.
If this is not an option, click Settings from the top-right corner of your Page, then click Edit
Page from the left menu.
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Next, click Add a Tab and click Add Tab next to the Shop option. The Shop tab should now be
visible on your Page.
2.) Review the Merchant Terms and Policies, check the I agree to the Merchant Terms and
Policies box, and click Continue. Enter your password if prompted.
59
3.) Choose the preferred currency for your shop. This currency will apply to all of your
products and cannot be changed without deleting your shop section and creating a new one.
4.) Choose either Message to Buy or Check Out on Another Website. Then, click Continue.
5.) Click Save.
A quick note for business owners as you proceed to upload products to your shops:
Regardless of location, your shop is only visible after you’ve added at least one product that
has been reviewed and approved.
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Go Live on Social
While both Facebook and Instagram Live are fairly new features, its predecessors –
Periscope and Meerkat – have demonstrated powerful marketing potential. Many businesses
have already jumped on the live-streaming trend, hedging their bets on a pattern of
tremendous payoffs for early adopters of social media trends. We encourage you to strategize
for conversions and dive in now!
There are many ways you can use Facebook or Instagram Live to grow your business. For
example, offer a live view of your product, host a Q&A session, or even take your customers
behind the scenes. The point is to establish a connection between your brand and the public
so they trust you enough to buy.
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COMMUNITIES
Online communities are no different than offline communities – they’re
groups of people who share interests, experiences, ideals, or goals. In this
chapter, we’ll show you how to tap into the power of communities, both
online and offline.
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Local Businesses
Teaming up with local businesses is a great way to establish and expand your customer base.
The secret lies in whom you choose to partner with. Find businesses that target an audience
similar to yours without competing in product or services i.e. complementary businesses.
Here are just a few ways you can partner up with other businesses:
● Host community events
Bar crawls, block parties, and the like are a great way to draw in more customers. By
collaborating with businesses in your area, every effort from generating event buzz to
setting up to managing costs gets shared.
● Promote each other on social media
Called cross-promoting, local businesses can work together on social media to
promote and increase each other’s following audience.
● Offer joint discounts
Who doesn’t enjoy dinner AND a movie? By teaming up with a complementary
business, you can offer a deal for a complete package. You don’t have to limit yourself
movie theaters, of course – simply a local business that complements yours will do.
There are endless ways to partner with other businesses—just use your imagination! Teaming
up with the right company can lead to increasing your business and finding new customers.
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Volunteer Locally
An effective approach we’d previously discussed was pledging some of your sales efforts to
support a cause. If that’s not an opportunity for your brand, perhaps volunteering locally is. By
involving yourself, you have the opportunity to earn respect, loyalty, and support from an
entire community.
To find volunteer opportunities near you, use sites like VolunteerMatch.
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Enlist Employee Help
According to the 2013 Edelman Trust Barometer, “Employees rank higher in public trust than
a firm’s PR department, CEO, or Founder. 41% of us believe that employees are the most
credible source of information regarding their business.” Every employee, regardless of role or
duties, has the potential to leverage this trust in your company’s favor. So how do you
mobilize employees?
The easy way out is to hand out t-shirts to your employees with your logo and contact
information, but in order to drive sincere and proactive support – whether it’s sales or talent
recruiting – you need to turn your team into brand ambassadors, i.e. employees who are
connected, motivated, and engaged. According to Gallup, “companies with high employee
engagement levels have 3.9 times the earnings per share when compared to those in the
same industry with lower engagement levels.” Now, the question is: how can your business
be part of the former?
1. Create a Reward Environment
Employees recognize accomplishments that get rewarded. However, when those
rewards are limited to just the sales team (as is tradition), you miss out on a big
opportunity to build brand ambassadors. Recognizing all employees who go the extra
mile instills pride and accountability within every member of your team.
Additionally, these rewards don’t always have to be monetary. Part of creating a
successful reward program is developing an environment in which your employees feel
motivated and supported. Open channels for communication that allow individuals to
connect with each other, share opinions, celebrate successes and milestones, and feel
part of a close community. Instead of feeling like they simply work for someone,
connected employees are likely to be more proactive i.e. become brand ambassadors.
2. Encourage Social Media Activity
While a strong social presence may be important for your business, don’t
underestimate the power of your employees. A study conducted by the MSLGROUP
found that social media posts from employees reached 561% further than the same
posts shared by company pages. This can have big implications for brands that
empower social media advocacy among employees.
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3. Exemplify Effective Leadership
Because brand ambassadors essentially put their reputation on the line when they
recommend a brand or product to their network, it’s unlikely the majority of your
employees will market your brand until they feel confident and empowered – both of
which can only occur through education. However, instead of sitting employees down
with reading material, lead by example.
Beyond worrying about profitability, good leaders possess excellent communication
skills and practice transparent policies. When employees have a clear idea of how the
company's leaders respond to conflict and adversity, they will have natural guidelines
to follow.
In 2015, The Harris Poll found that open communication encourages employees to see
a brighter future for the company. And when your team is encouraged by the
company’s positive outlook, their confidence grows.
However, this will not happen in a single day. It happens over time with multiple
channels of communication such as newsletters, emails, 1-on-1’s, Cookies &
Communication (a GearLaunch practice), and more. Do your part to ensure employees
have the latest on company initiatives, successes, goals, and news. This information
not only ensures they accurately represent the brand no matter where they may be, but
also reminds them of the bigger community they belong to.
Bonus: Employee Appreciation Day is an annual event. While we encourage you to
appreciate employees everyday, why not turn this into an extra special weeklong celebration?
Use this opportunity to try out our tips to get employees to market your brand.
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Exclusive Groups
Consumers all want to be a part of a special select group, even if it’s only an illusion crafted
through clever marketing. The more privileged your customer feels, the more they buy into
your illusion.
The key to offering exclusivity is giving consumers the illusion that a barrier to entry exists.
Ask yourself two questions: what is the perceived value of your membership? What do you
want out of your members. Here are several examples of successful membership
implementations.
● Costco
Have you ever shopped at a Costco warehouse? At every Costco exit stands someone
akin to a bouncer. While they won’t ask for your proof of age, they will ask for you
Costco membership. If you don’t have one, they will redirect you to the membership
services area. Beyond physical access to the store, why would consumers want a
membership?
For a fee, Costco gives its members access to bulk discounts and specially discounted
pricing for health, business, entertainment, and subscription services.
● Safeway
Safeway employs a different approach to its membership. Because they function under
a different business model from Costco, Safeway offers its membership to anyone
given they willingly sign up. Instead of making money upfront, Safeway uses this
information to improve targeting, coupons, and sales.
● Coin Collecting
Coin collection – one of the rare instances when the item’s value is exponentially
higher than its perceived value. This particular method plays on an item’s limited
production to create the appearance that the purchase is an investment – there will
only ever be a small number of the particular item in the entire world.
This "limited edition" tactic doesn’t just play up the sense of exclusivity – it also
contributes to justifying purchases at a higher price point because they are really
making an investment.
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There are many approaches to exclusivity, but keep in mind the general rule when
implementing yours: something denied to one person becomes exclusive to another, and
anything exclusive fetches a higher demand value.
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Support a Cause
We keep talking about niches, but what does that mean? Check out our blog post here for a
better idea.
When you focus your product, you focus your marketing, and therefore you focus your time
and effort. This makes the entire marketing and sales cycle much more efficient, especially
when you’re just starting out.
A great example is to sell for a cause. Why? People support causes when they feel strongly
about something, and passion is much easier to sell to. Craft your product around this e.g.
create a t-shirt that reads “End Hunger in San Francisco.”
While this technique simplifies a lot of the marketing strategy for you, fundraising for charities
comes with its own set of rules. You can get a better idea through this idealist post.
GearLaunch does not currently support fundraising campaigns. Please read more about our
policy on Charity.
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Hack Upvotes
Many communities offer their members the power to upvote posts – if users find the post
funny, engaging, interesting, or some combination in between, they can show their approval
by voting the content to move up in the sea of submitted content. As upvoted posts move up,
more users will see it. And as it continues to gain more momentum upstream, visibility
increases. That could mean a couple of things for you depending on the contents of your post:
brand awareness or conversions.
Achieving this requires several steps:
1. Choose your community wisely. Keep in mind the guidelines we’ve previously provided
for taking advantage of forums, and choose one that offers member the option to
upvote.
2. With the community in mind, create two offers – one offer will be part of your actual
post and the second will be in a follow-up email to those interested in your first offer.
The efficacy of this tactic largely depends on how well suited your offers are.
3. Post your first offer into the community you’ve chosen with a unique URL so you can
track it. Remember – most community members will not appreciate anything that’s
heavily salesy or self-promotional. Try to find other successful posts that have properly
promoted an outside product and model yours after it.
4. Once someone redeems your first offer, follow up with an email containing the second
offer your know they can’t refuse. However, in order to redeem this second offer, they
must go back to your first post and upvote it. If you need to, require they respond to
your follow-up email with a screenshot as proof.
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Post on Deal Sites
Listing your products on deal sites will require rolling back prices on the items you offer, but
you stand to gain several benefits:
● Grow your database
● SEO
● Move old merchandise
● Brand awareness
A strategic approach to daily deals or flash sales site may prove beneficials if the pros listed
above outweigh the cuts made to your profit margins. Check out the deal sites below to
assess for yourself:
● Stacksocial
● Bitsdujour
● AppSumo
● Fatwallet
● Wowcher
● Wahanda
● Dealtastic
● MightyDeals
● HotDeals
● SlickDeals (you need an account in good standing, but if you can generate this, the
forum has great traffic)
● Ozbargain
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Get Active on Forums
According to PostRelease, one in five Americans use forums to discuss and recommend
products, and 64 percent of women online post product recommendations on message
boards. Forum users are also generally net savvy and open to making online purchases. All of
this means forum marketing has the potential to be a high ROI tactic.
Here’s how to effectively use forum marketing as a part of your online marketing strategy:
1. Find the right forums.
Where there’s an interest, there is bound to be forum for it. Successful forum marketing
means finding the right community for your business.
You can ask around or try doing a simple Google search for your industry’s keywords
plus "forum". For example, if you’re selling shirts with funny cats on them, try “cat
lovers forum.”
You’ll undoubtedly come across hundreds of forums, so narrow your list to 5-10 that
will be worth your time. We suggest some of the following criteria, but feel free to tweak
it to better fit your preliminary process:
● At least 1,000 members and 10,000 posts.
● At least ten to fifteen new posts on a daily basis.
● Cannot be overrun with spam.
● Avoid forums hosted by or teeming with your direct competitors.
2. Create a forum account.
Seniority is hugely important in forum communities with older registrants receiving
more deference than newer users. In fact, some forums even prevent new users from
posting for the first few days after registration. However, don't let the idea of being new
to an online forum discourage you. You'll have plenty of opportunity to build
relationships, establish credibility, and authority in the forum community.
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3. Read community guidelines thoroughly prior to posting.
In order to register, you will need to agree to the forum’s user agreement and posting
guidelines. As a business, it’s important you read these rules and guidelines carefully.
There is a lot of legal jargon in these documents so it’s understandably tempting to
skim, but some of these guidelines can severely affect your freedoms within the forum.
Here are concerns you should look out for:
● Are you allowed to place links in your posts?
● Are you allowed to promote your business?
● Are commercial messages allowed in signatures?
● Are you allowed to contact other members for commercial purposes?
● What restrictions are placed on new members?
● What special privileges are given to veteran users?
Violating rules can quickly start you on the wrong side of the community and prevent
you from building good relationships, trust, and credibility with the forum community.
4. Pick a good username and avatar.
These two will be the first things anyone notices about you.
● Pick a username that’s easy to pronounce and remember.
● Avoid extensive and bizarre number combinations or weird misspellings.
● Do not pick a username that means something only to you and no one else (e.g.
your favorite grade school teacher's initials).
● Avoid using offensive or controversial pictures for your avatar
5. Craft a compelling profile.
A solid profile tells other members you’re not there to troll and you are willing to put
your name behind what you say. Feel free to share methods of getting in touch with
you and hobbies or interests, but avoid sharing potentially polarizing information such
as political or religious affiliation. Only share information you wouldn’t mind made
public.
If the forum allows you to link to your social accounts so be sure to take advantage!
6. Introduce yourself to the community.
Many forums encourage new users to introduce themselves to the community with an
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introductory post. Include a short description of your background and that your main
goal is to contribute and learn. Do not attempt any marketing pitches in your first
post--it will most likely get you banned.
7. Spend some time lurking.
Here’s one situation where it’s a-ok to lurk. Forums tend to build communities that shun
and haze newcomers so refrain from immediately posting. Spend a little time getting
used to the jargon, special quirks, and social norms. Learning this info will help you fit
in more easily.Spend some time reading the forum to get a sense of the community's
special quirks and cultural norms. Figure out who the influential users are and note
which topics are perennial favorites. Learning this information will help you fit in more
quickly.
8. Add value to the conversation.
Providing helpful and insightful answers will be your “in.” These situations are
opportunities to demonstrate your expertise and to generate good will. If you can,
backup your advice with links to trusted sources. Don’t forget to follow up and respond
to questions quickly. Forum interactions can sometimes move very quickly.
9. Add your website to your signature.
Signatures are blocks of text attached to the end of all your posts. Most people use
signatures to display their favorite quotes or links to their favorite websites. If
self-promotion is allowed, a short description of your business and a link to your
website is the best way to go.
10. Save the drama.
Never forget that this is a public space and everything you post will forever be available
for everyone to see. Do not get drawn into heated arguments, and resist the urge to
respond to criticism. If you get banned because of an argument, all your efforts will be
wasted.
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The Reddit Community
With over 1 million subreddits, or divisions of the community that share an interest, Reddit is
almost undoubtedly home to a niche group that would be highly interested in your products.
Do your research to seek these groups out, but the same rules apply here as they do for
approaching forums – do not immediately jump in and begin selling your products. If your only
interest stepping into the door is only self-interest, the community will boot you immediately.
Reddit only works if you are a contributing member of its society. That means you need to
provide value through engaging content before you can see any value in return.
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Target Niche Marketplaces
As an online store owner, sometimes it’s easy to forget that your products can also be housed
and offered elsewhere. While there’s no need to relist every one of your products, it’s
important to test other channels such as Etsy and Poshmark i.e. marketplaces that serve a
more targeted demographic unlike eBay or Craigslist.
Listing through niche-specific marketplaces will grant your products visibility to the site’s
existing traffic and consumers who are actively searching for goods. However, just like eBay
and Craigslist, niche-specific marketplaces will not help you build a stronger brand – you exist
in their domain – so test these sites sparingly to make your first few sales and understand
what buyers want more of. Then, use these learnings for your own store.
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Post on Craigslist
Craigslist is a great general marketplace to launch your products.
Don’t get stopped before you start.
Because Craigslist is such a useful marketplace for everyone, many have shamelessly taken
advantage of its reach to maximize their efforts. This has led to Craigslist’s strict crackdown
on anything that looks like it could be spam. Here are few tips to keep in mind:
● Try not to post too many ads for the same product.
● In general, posting too much will get your posts flagged and removed.
● Don’t try to beat the system and spam different cities.
Let’s get started!
1. Head over to the Craigslist homepage. If you’re redirected to your location’s
subdomain, simply click on the Craigslist logo in the upper left corner.
2. Click “Post to Classifieds” to get started.
3. Choose your seller option and the category your product falls under.
4. Now, it’s time to create your post. There’s plenty of opportunity at this point to create a
post that others can’t ignore. Here are a few tips to get you started:
● Use creative and eye-catching titles to stand out from the crowd.
● Create funny or clever product descriptions. Believe it or not, these have
gone viral in the past.
● Keep your images high-quality and clear. Viewers don’t have much to go
on when buying online and generally want every detail they can get.
● Make it easy for them to contact you for more information.
● Link to your product page.
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Host a Meetup
Because meetups are often started by individuals like yourself, they offer a great opportunity
to build your network and to create new opportunities for your business. In order to help
organize these types of offline meetings, many social networks have taken it upon themselves
to offer various event organization tools. However, the expert in this space remains
Meetup.com.
Before jumping headfirst into organizing your own meetup group, consider joining one first to
interact with the community as well as attending an event. When attending your first meetup,
here are a few things you can do to make the most of your experience:
● Cross promote online – Whether it’s through social or email, use this opportunity to get
to know businesses that complement yours. Promoting each other’s content is much
easier when it’s not a conflict of interests.
● Guest blog – There are many benefits to guest blogging. This is a great way to build
the relationships to get you there.
After testing the waters and attending a meetup, evaluate if the time and costs of hosting a
meetup is outweighed by the value it brings to your business – remember, every business is
different.
1. Set up a Meetup account.
Setting up a Meetup account is rather straightforward.
● Visit www.meetup.com and sign up by entering your name and email address.
There is an option to sign up via Facebook but only do so if your Facebook
account reflects your brand messaging and standards.
● Under “Settings,” fill out the fields completely. Use your log as a photo and
connect with your business’s social profiles.
● Log in and click “Start” at the top when you’ve got an idea and some details
about your first Meetup.
● Next, fill in the location of your group, and up to 15 relevant topics. Add your
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group’s name, description, what your members are called, and a web address.
● While Meetup is free for attendees, Organizers have to pay dues ($45 for a
three month term, and $72 for a six-month term, on top of the flat annual rate of
$19 per month).
● Now you’re ready to begin organizing Meetups!
2. Host a Meetup for your business.
Meetup.com can help you achieve a number of business objectives including (but not
limited to) extending your audience reach and brand visibility, increasing sales, and
conducting market research.
We’ve provided some helpful information for when you’re ready to put together your
own meetup.
Prior to the event, you should:
● Ask yourself if your meetup is emotionally compelling.
You want these events to resonate with your audience so leave a lasting
impression by creating positive memories to associate with your business.
● Tastefully brand your Meetup.
While this is an opportunity for you to market your business, it shouldn’t be
treated as a formal marketing event. If you include sponsors, then make sure
they respect your request not to overload attendees with advertising either.
● Be considerate of everyone’s time.
They’re just as busy as you are so give them appropriate time to RSVP.
● Communicate everything to your invites.
Do not assume that just because you can infer something that they will do the
same.
● Ask for contributions.
If you’re hosting this event solo and can’t completely cover the costs, don’t be
afraid to let attendees know that you need to charge, especially if you’re a small
business.
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● Pick 15 topics when creating your group to ensure maximum visibility.
● Clearly describe what the group is about, who should join, and what they can
expect.
● Share your meetup using your various social media channels to grow
membership.
● Add notable attendee profiles onto your event page to increase attendance.
● Attach handouts and worksheets to your Group and request that members bring
them for use during your event. This is a chance for you to incorporate branded
messages on the materials, but remember not to overwhelm attendees with this
branded material. Have a handful of copies at the event in case anyone forgets.
During the event:
● Grab plenty of pictures and video at your event, and make sure attendees sign
release documents beforehand so you can publish them. Create excitement for
photos and videos to be uploaded following the event.
● Whoever is helping out at the event (yourself included) should be dressed in a
fashion that appropriately reflects your brand.
● Never forget to thank people for attending in person when possible, and online
when necessary.
After the event:
● Be consistent in scheduling meetups, and once you’ve nailed the theme, stick to
it. You’ll soon be recognized and positively associated with a valuable series of
events.
● Follow up with attendees for feedback, and act on those insights. Pay attention
to those who take the time to reply.
● Upload photos into your Meetup Organizer profile.
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● Share event photos and video on your social media channels.
● Connect with your Meetup attendees online on their social networks and stay
engaged to increase the likelihood that they continue attendance.
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Get Featured by Uncrate
Uncrate is the leading buyer's guide for men. With over 9,000 items covered and more than
1.5 million monthly readers, Uncrate is widely known for digging up the best of the best men's
products. But its readers don’t just like looking at cool products, they like buying them too.
Getting your product featured on Uncrate can drive significant sales and lead to other press
opportunities.
However, getting featured is by no means a walk in the park. After all, these guys are the
purveyors of cool – there’s no formal process for that. Some companies get discovered by
Uncrate, but others have had success after contacting the company to tell them about their
product or even sending over a sample.
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Polyvore
Launched in 2007, Polyvore remains a growing social site for brands to interact and engage
with followers while also driving traffic back to the brand’s own website.
The value in Polyvore lies in its strong ROI for brands. While Polyvore’s average return on ad
spend for merchants is $6:1, Polyvore quotes an average basket size of $383; significantly
higher than Instagram, Twitter, Wanelo, and Facebook.
Unlike traditional comparison shopping sites, Polyvore offers the ability to adjust ad bidding
based on device with a mobile bid modifier – desktop bids are modified by a positive or
negative multiplier. Mobile often performs differently compared to desktop, so having the
ability to adjust at the device level allows merchants more control over return.
There are plenty of ways to promote your products on Polyvore, but we’ll focus on a couple of
direct response options and how to establish your brand within the Polyvore community.
Engagement (Sets, Collections, and More)
Create your profile and request a merchant badge to begin connecting with the Polyvore
community as a brand. You first step should include building your own “sets” or “collections”
of items that users can like or comment on. Grow engagement by reaching out to individual
users and liking or commenting on their content.
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CONTENT
Content marketing is not just a buzzword – it’s a highly effective marketing
strategy – and it’s not going away. In this chapter, we break down popular
approaches to content and the different hacks that make it so powerful.
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Offer Social Proof
When others start talking about your product in a positive light or even recommending it, the
act validates your brand and business in the eyes of new prospects. This often occurs in
natural conversation, but you can replicate the validation factor through customer reviews and
testimonials on your website and social channels. Social proof helps potential customers trust
your new business.
If you’re lacking in this department, put together a list of your customers and everyone who
has come into contact with your business. Reach out with a friendly, personal note to ask for a
few kind words if they enjoyed their experience shopping with you. In order to elicit a good
response rate, consider running a raffle for those who submit or post an answer.
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Recycle Content
Someone out there is actively searching for a product you offer, but due to the newness of
your business and the nature of SEO, they probably will never find you. This is why content
creation is so important. By creating content that your target demographic is searching for,
you increase the likelihood of getting found organically by an audience with higher purchase
intent.
An easy approach to crafting great content is recycling content from elsewhere. Please don’t
mistaken this for plagiarizing or stealing content – neither of which we encourage because it’s
illegal but it will also have serious consequences on your SEO.
Rather, we do encourage you use what you’ve learned from other reputable sources to spin
together a creative conclusion (with proper credit given). For example, head over to Quora
where knowledgeable community members provide answers to every question you can think
of. Pick a topic you know your target user keeps tabs on and read through the questions
listed. What common questions come up around this topic? Is there new information you can
reveal to your user? Recycle the information you’ve learned here e.g. “best of Quora”
summaries or shareable lists.
We encourage you always giving credit where it’s due – it may even result in the source
sharing your content.
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Reword Discounts
Which one sounds better to you? "Buy one, get one FREE" or "Buy one, get one 50%"?
Yes, they both mean the same thing but "free" is still a very special concept. According to
research by Dan Ariely, our penchant for it appears to be almost hardwired into us.
In his book Predictably Irrational, Ariely discusses an experiment using Hershey's Kisses and
Lindt chocolate truffles. For your reference, Lindt truffles are considerably more expensive
than Hershey's Kisses for its taste and quality.
In the first round, participants could buy truffles for 15 cents (about 50% off the original cost)
or a Kiss for 1 cent. Nearly 75% of participants favored the better price and quality
combination of the truffle offer.
In the next round, the cost of each item was reduced by one cent – 14 cents for the truffle,
and 0 cents (free) for the Kiss. Even though the price difference between both items remained
the same, the results changed drastically.
More than 66% of participants now chose the free Kiss.
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Relieve Pain
One of your greatest influences over a customer exists in your ability to help them avoid pain.
This doesn’t always equate to physical pain – consider stress, heartbreak, self-esteem, etc. In
what ways can your product alleviate their negative emotion?
Once you’ve got that figured out, you’ll need to openly state what the pain is before
introducing the solution. For example “Stop stressing about Christmas shopping and grab a
custom throwback tee for everyone this holiday!”
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Round Numbers
There will be instances where the magic number 9 (from our previous chapter) may not be so
magical. Research indicates that consumers process pricing information differently for round
numbers (e.g. “3") versus non-round ones (e.g."3.99"). So which price format is best for you to
drive a purchase? The answer is not quite that straightforward.
Monica Wadhwa and Kuangjie Zhang, assistant professors of marketing at INSEAD and at
Nanyang Business School respectively, set out to find the answer.
They found that consumers use feelings to process round prices and reasoning to compute
non-round prices. This means the best price format for your business depends on what
products you offer. Is your business more geared toward emotional stimulation or practical
applications?
For example, products geared toward entertainment or luxury (emotion) can benefit more
from rounded prices: price a handbag at $499 instead of $499.99. However, for purchases
with a practical application such as a phone charger, use $29.99 instead of $29.
If your product seems to fall into the grey area, consider one of the experiments the
researchers conducted where participants were given camera options for a family vacation
(leisure) and for a class project (practical). The participants chose rounded prices for leisure
and non-rounded prices for practicality.
With that in mind, understand whether consumers see your offer as a feel-good purchase or a
utilitarian purchase.
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Perception of 9
Here’s another way to convince consumers they’re getting a better deal: use the number 9.
Have you noticed how frequently prices end in “.99”? Economist Tim Harford some
explanation for 9’s frequent occurrence. Briefly, it’s thanks to something called the left-digit
effect, which suggests that the mind places the most emphasis on numbers to the left of a
decimal and ignores the end of prices. The other explanation is that consumers perceive
they’re getting a deal when prices end in ".99".
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Create Urgency
The more time you give a visitor to make a purchase, the less likely they are to buy. Solve this
issue by creating a sense of urgency with messages and promotions like “One Day Sale,”
“Last Chance to Save,” “25% Off, Today Only.” Your visitors are more likely to buy when there
is an urgent call to action.
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Provide Comparison
"...not $100, not $75, not even $50"
Can you hear the infomercial host? Can you see the giant price tags with red “X’s” crossing out the
more expensive price? Comparison is a trick often used in advertising to convince consumers they are
getting a great deal.
It’s easier for us to perceive tremendous value or savings with a product when we can see the
difference. This works especially well for numbers: $189.99 seems like a great deal when compared
with $10,000, but as a standalone, $189.99 can sound a bit pricey.
On the other hand, recall the infomercial voice you just heard. Most people do not find that pleasing,
and may actually distrust it. The challenge for you will be to execute this tactic artfully. You shouldn’t
cheapen your brand or business, but still make a compelling comparison.
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Create Content
Creating content is typically a strategy that depends on creating and optimizing content over
the long term to lead prospects through a marketing funnel. Sound familiar? That’s because
It’s very similar to creating products for your store – the more focused you are, the easier it is.
And just like selling your products, content also comes with two options: marketplace or
self-hosted. For this instance, it’s better to publish to a marketplace where there are already
active readers and people looking for content. Undoubtedly, part of that audience will contain
users within your niche.
This is not the place to sell your platform. Rather, use this opportunity to write articles that
would catch the attention of your target user such as “25 Things Only Gearheads
Understand.” If you’d rather not write, try your hand at podcasts or videos. Here are several
places you can publish your content:
1. Medium
2. Inbound
3. LinkedIn Pulse
4. GrowthHackers
5. HackerNews
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Get Interviewed
Getting your time in the spotlight is not as hard as you might think. The media is always
looking for industry experts and will often allow a brief plug for your business in return. If you
have unique insights on the industry or your niche, you should pitch it to a relevant
publication. Most publications openly disclose directions for sending pitches so just head to
their website. Most will also request that you submit a description or outline of your pitch 2 - 4
weeks in advance with a minimum word count. Often times, there will be a 30-day period
following your article’s publication where you can not publish the content elsewhere.
If you find this to be too much of a time constraint, keep daily tabs with the help of Help A
Reporter Out (HARO).
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103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
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103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline
103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline

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103 Ways to Drive Sales and Maximize Profits Online and Offline

  • 1. 103 Ways to Sell a New Product A comprehensive guide to driving sales and maximizing profits online and offline
  • 2. Content CHAPTERS INTRODUCTION ....………..…………....….………..………....……... 6 TIME ....………..…………....….………..………....……... 7 SOCIAL MEDIA ....………..…………....….………..………....……... 13 COMMUNITIES ....………..…………....….………..………....……... 62 CONTENT ....………..…………....….………..………....……... 84 TOOLS ....………..…………....….………..………....……... 115 EMAIL ....………..…………....….………..………....……... 120 COMMUNICATION ....………..…………....….………..………....……... 128 PAID ....………..…………....….………..………....……... 136 OFFLINE ....………..…………....….………..………....……... 182 GUIDES Upsell Effectively …..….8 Influencer Outreach …….14 Holiday Campaigns …..….9 Strategically Sell to Friends …….15 Segment Holiday Gift Guides …….10 Word of Mouth …….16 Get an Early Start …….11 Pull a PR Stunt …….17 Unofficial Sales Holidays …….12 Tumblr …….18 2
  • 3. Instagram Strategically ….…20 Host a Meetup …….78 Get Pinteresting …….27 Get Featured by Uncrate …….82 Start Tweeting …….43 Polyvore …….83 Work on LinkedIn …….45 Offer Social Proof …….85 Boost Your Brand’s Facebook …….46 Recycle Content …….86 Use Your Personal Facebook …….48 Reword Discounts …….87 Facebook Page Shop Sections …….49 Round Numbers ….…89 Go Live on Social …….61 Perception of 9 …….90 Local Businesses …….63 Create Urgency …….91 Volunteer Locally …….64 Provide Comparison …….92 Enlist Employee Help …….65 Create Content …….93 Exclusive Groups …….67 Get Interviewed …….94 Support a Cause …….69 Product Description …….95 Hack Upvotes …….70 Write an Outreach Blog Post …….96 Post on Deal Sites …….71 Make YouTube Videos …….97 Get Active on Forums …….72 Get Controversial …...101 The Reddit Community …….75 Start a Blog …...102 Target Niche Marketplaces …….76 Make a VIral Video …...104 Post on Craigslist …….77 Guest Blog …...105 3
  • 4. Try Unique ………....108 Less Choices ….....132 Press Release ………....109 Establish Trust and Security ..…...133 Get Reviews ……..…..111 Secure Your Site ..…...134 Plan for Mobile Ads …….…...112 Simplify Checkout ..…...135 Localize Your Offering …….…...113 Freebies ….....137 Offer Free Help …….…...114 YouTube Ads ….....140 Design Your Niche …….…...116 Instagram Retargeting ….....141 Exit-Intent Offers …….…...117 Offer and Group Discount ….....143 Countdown Timers …….…...118 Remarketing ….....144 Use Heatmaps …….…...119 Instagram Paid Shout-Outs ….....145 Email Signatures …….…...121 Host a Giveaway ….....146 Referral …….…...122 Host a Contest ….....147 Industry Mailing Lists …….…...123 Try Affiliate Marketing ….....148 Email Your Pre-Launch List …….…...124 Work with LinkedIn ….....149 Develop E-Mail Lists …….…...125 Coupon Codes ….....150 Mystery Discounts …….…...127 Sponsor an Event .…....152 Sell Your “About” Section …….…...129 Develop a Loyalty Program .…....154 Money Back Guarantee …….…...130 Shopping Engines .…....155 “Free” Giveaway …….…...131 Reddit Ads .…....158 4
  • 5. Polyvore Promoted Products .………...161 Try Twitter Promos .…….......162 Buy Banner Ads ……........166 Get a Boost with Digg ……........168 Try Bing ……........169 Google Adwords ……........171 Facebook Ads ……........179 Billboards ……........183 Distribute Flyers ……........185 Create a Commercial ……........187 Undercover Marketing ……........190 Sticker Campaign ……........191 Flash Mob ……........192 Fairs ……........194 Use Print Ads ……........197 Sidewalk Chalk ……........202 Go Door to Door ……........203 5
  • 6. Apprehensive at the thought of attempting your first sale? Don’t be! Many successful entrepreneurs can attest that the first sale is a tough milestone, but it’s also one of the most exciting and most important ones. It’s exciting because reaching this stage, where many “idea people” can only hope to be, means you’ve already conquered the arduous processes of brainstorming, designing, and refining. It’s also an important milestone because this is the “make it or break it” stage, where the viability of your idea is put to the test. At GearLaunch, we wholeheartedly support your entrepreneurial spirit and want nothing but your success. We’ve put together this guide, 103 Ways to Sell a New Product, to help you start on the right foot. Good luck and happy selling! 6 INTRODUCTION
  • 7. TIME Marketing at the right time is the difference between making or breaking a sale. In this chapter, we’ll go over time-sensitive marketing tactics to acquire customers when they’re most apt to convert. 7
  • 8. Upsell Effectively The upsell tactic on its own can be effective, but when combined with an affiliate marketing program, upselling is a force to be reckoned with. Consider how many times you’ve added fries to your McDonald’s order simply because the cashier asked you “would you like fries with that?” at the end of your order. Upsells can be extremely effective if you can figure out the right item to suggest at the right time. We recommend following the fast food order example. Customers are already in a buying mood at the checkout point. All they need now is a great offer from you. But how can you use this to complement affiliate marketing so that they drive the sales for you? Business owners who have cracked the code on upsells offer affiliate marketers 100% commission on the product sale, but collect their own earnings through successful upsells. 8
  • 9. Holiday Campaigns For major retailers, holidays don’t start and end on a specific day. Holiday marketing campaigns can be month-long affairs with additional offers following the actual date. Take a page from their book and avoid limiting your efforts to 1 or 2 days prior to the celebration date because it will cost you big sales opportunities. For example, your Valentine’s Day marketing might look like this: While celebrations take place on February 14th, your marketing campaigns should be ready to go by mid-January with major ramp-up happening two weeks before Valentine’s Day. Additionally, you can run parallel promotions for “Singles Awareness Day” which occurs on February 15th. Simple things you can start with include adding themed assets to your store, adding special greetings to your email communication, and creating themed social media posts. 9
  • 10. Segment Holiday Gift Guides If your store offers a wide range of products, tailor gift guides to specific segments of customers and their recipients. For example, target parents with graduation gift guides for their high school graduate. Creating gift guides can also help ease your customers’ pain points as they scramble to search for the “perfect gift.” Take Fortnum & Mason for example. With Mother’s Day right around the corner for those in the UK, the retailer provided a selection of gifts targeted to adults shopping for their mother. 10
  • 11. Get an Early Start Customer acquisition ultimately determines the success of a business, and yet the majority of owners will not give it much thought until the day of launch rolls around. By then, their marketing efforts are already behind. You can stay ahead by: 1. Thinking about customer acquisition prior to launch. 2. Using a service like Launchrock to collect emails from visitors interested in early access or a promotional offer. The special thing about this particular platform is that it integrates social media into the subscription process, creating the potential for viral growth from a seemingly regular promotion. Launchrock pages look like this: Following sign-up, your visitors are shown a message stating that they will receive the promotion if they tell others about your site through email and/or social networks. To maximize the potential of this tactic, make your incentive irresistible. Depending on your customers, try something along the lines of: “Increase your chances of winning by inviting your friends” or “Qualify for a bonus prize when you invite 3 friends.” 11
  • 12. Unofficial Sales Holidays During November and December, major retailers will dedicate plenty of time and resource to marketing the major sales holidays – Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday. But there are hidden opportunities to be had among the “unofficial” sales holidays. Have you heard? This graph from Custora shows ecommerce revenue by day for 2015 versus 2014: The ticks in revenue data outside of the major holidays mark additional earning opportunities for e-tailers. These are just a few to consider: Green Monday (December 14th) – eBay coined this one in 2007 to reference their best sales day in December. As you can see from the graph, it remains a popular day for business. Super Saturday – The notorious last Saturday before Christmas typically triggers panic mode for procrastinators. Free Shipping Day (December 21st) - While many businesses are beginning to offer free shipping across the board, Free Shipping Day initially began in 2008 as an effort to extend the online shopping season past its peak on Cyber Monday. If you plan on participating, don’t forget to submit your website to freeshippingday.ca and freeshippingday.com for free traffic. 12
  • 13. SOCIAL MEDIA Social media is the perfect bridge between personal and business communication. When done right, these brands can enjoy a snowball effect in brand awareness and – most importantly – sales. 13
  • 14. Influencer Outreach Do you know an up and coming influencer within your space? Working with smaller influencers are better suited for a new business like yours because they do not receive as many endorsement requests as larger profiles, which increases the probability they’ll notice and accept your offer. Send the influencer an email explaining your interest in working with them, and why the relationship is mutually beneficial. Let them know that you’d like to send them a sample if they’re willing to promote it to their followers or provide you with a review. Do note that this happens frequently depending on the influencer’s popularity. You shouldn’t be discouraged if you don’t get the response you’re looking for. 14
  • 15. Strategically Sell to Friends One of the easiest sells you will ever make is by approaching a close friend or family member in person and then convincing them to make a purchase. However, there’s a finite number of times you can do this . When you reach this point, it’s time to turn to social media – or more specifically, Facebook. The social media giant has a powerful search function that goes beyond finding contacts to help you locate users interested in keywords related to your offerings. For example, here’s a quick search for “My friends who like cats”: Try different keywords until you have a healthy list of connections, then send each user a personalized message. 15
  • 16. Word of Mouth Beyond easy first sales, your friends and family can contribute to a specific marketing strategy that countless companies attempt to implement: word-of-mouth marketing. Brands have come to figure out that many of us would rather rely on recommendations and referrals from our immediate network to form our purchasing decisions. Ask yourself this: do you believe what advertisers are telling you in a television commercial or would you rather trust recommendations from close friends and family members? Getting more people who do not work for your brand to evangelize your products can contribute to tremendous success – but be mindful with your approach. For example, your parents telling others how cool your t-shirts are probably won’t do you much good. Here’s the better way to approach this: ● Consider their social circles. Your friends and family are made up of different individuals according to gender, age group, interests, and personalities. One or more of these combinations will resonate better with your target audience so it’s important you take specific notes. This will help you launch more specific and relevant marketing campaigns that will yield better returns. ● Get their testimonials. Once you determine the individuals best suited for the job, ask them to write testimonials for your product and your brand. These will come in handy when you create marketing material. ● Share it. You can suggest they share the testimony on their own profiles or you can share it yourself and tag them. 16
  • 17. Pull a PR Stunt You’ve undoubtedly seen them: an event so taboo, weird, ridiculous, hilarious, amazing, or secretive...that you just had to share. And that’s how PR stunts go viral. Hitting any one of these traits can increase the likelihood of your stunt bringing tons of attention to your brand from everyone including the press. Before you act on any ole idea, conduct a brief survey with friends and/or family first. PR stunts are not a new occurrence, and plenty of people try to best the last outrageous event – only to be met with criticism. PR stunts don’t necessarily need to be dangerous, costly, or embarrassing to work. For example, recall JCPenney's #TweetingWithMittens. By live-tweeting the 2014’s Super Bowl game with plenty of typos, JCPenney had Twitter users wondering if they were drunk. As it turned out, it was only #TweetingWithMittens, the brainchild of ad agencies EVB and Victors & Spoils. JCP stated the campaign was a success, netting more than 10,000 Twitter followers that night and 130,000 mentions. The best part: it was fun, safe, and free. 17
  • 18. Tumblr If you are confounded by Tumblr, know that you’re not the first. The platform is all at once a blog and social network that supports posting and sharing images, video, audio, and short pieces of writing in a format similar to forums. We recommend utilizing Tumblr in a way that’s reflective of your brand, whether that’s posting only specific type of content or dishing out ingenious commentary on popular posts. A few advantages of Tumblr is that its content can be accessed directly whereas a network like Facebook makes content available only to Facebook users. This means anything you create will get indexed by search engines and count towards increasing your visibility. Would Tumblr be a good match for your business? Fifty percent of Tumblr’s user base is age 25 or younger. If your business targets the younger market, Tumblr is perfect. But even if this isn’t your core demographic, Tumblr's search visibility benefits and popularity should make it at least worth an experiment. Let’s look at what you'll need to start using Tumblr for your business: ● Create an account. Tumblr may feel restrictive at first as a blogging platform if you’re used to publishing longer articles on a powerful CMS like Wordpress. But that’s exactly it – Tumblr wasn’t made for lengthy articles. Tumblr users have shorter attention spans and prefer easily digestible pieces of work. When you create your account, this will become your default blog. Be creative and blog with a theme in mind. Yes, the theme should be related to your business but should not center around it. In this aspect, Tumblr is similar to Instagram. Users don’t come to Tumblr for direct-sales and product-only posts. It may be helpful to browse around on a personal account to get ideas for where you should take your brand’s account. ● Engage with others’ content often. As with any social media platform, listening and engaging are key to gaining active followers. Search for posts on topics related to your business and your theme. Browse for accounts that publish popular and engaging items, then follow them. 18
  • 19. ● Spend a few minutes each day to "like,” reply, and share (aka “reblogging) Tumblr posts. Experiment with various posting times and types of content e.g. links to interesting stuff, original photos or videos, brief pieces of writing, etc. A tool that makes sharing content easier is Tumblr’s "bookmarklet" that sits right in your browser. When you see something interesting online, simply click the bookmarklet to quickly create a Tumblr post. You can also install Tumblr's mobile app on your phone or tablet. ● Use tags. Tumblr users often discover each other through tags. Pay attention to tags on popular Tumblr posts for topics that interest you. You can save tags in order to track them for the latest posts. Use tags on your own posts when it’s relevant so that users who don’t follow you, but are tracking the tags, can see your content. It may seem tedious, but tags will help expand your network. 19
  • 20. Instagram has come a long way since its debut in 2010. The social media platform’s recent upgrades has the ecommerce crowd turning heads. With notable features such as Library, Business Accounts, and Shoppable Ads, Instagram joins its parent company (the ad-savvy Facebook) in enabling businesses to reach 500 million active monthly users in a natural and noninvasive manner. For perspective, Instagram was used by just under a third of U.S. brands with 100 employees or more in 2015. Fast forward to this year and that number is expected to increase by 70.7% (eMarketer). If that’s not a call for ecommerce business owners to mobilize, we don’t know what is! Start with this guide and learn how to sell apparel on Instagram in 2017. 1. Optimize Your Instagram Profile We need to start with the basics: your brand’s profile page. In order to leave a lasting impression, you will need to do several things: ● Add a high-res profile image – The face of your brand can be an image that says it all or you can stick to your logo. In either case, ensure that it’s high-quality and correctly sized. Instagram Strategically 20
  • 21. ● Create a professional bio – Unless you've claimed it for your own, this is not the place for hashtags. Keep your bio clean and error-free. Speak to your target user in a manner representative of your brand and briefly convey what you're all about. ● Include a link – Add the URL to your *landing page* in the designated URL section. Why use a landing page instead of your homepage? Put yourself into the shoes of a visitor converting to a buyer and consider how much of an obstacle a homepage presents. The visitor now has to jump through several hoops before they can locate the one item they really wanted. A landing page solves this by smoothly transitioning your visitor closer to the buy button. 2. Gain More Followers Your Instagram is a repository of future traffic for your store, and the potential to grow this repository is the true power of this platform. In other words, you need to have a strategy in place to actively increase your following. ● Self-Promote – If you're just starting out and gaining followers sounds like a daunting task, don't fret because you already have a handful of potential followers. Instagram can link to your Facebook where your friends, family, and fans already reside. Add them through this connection. Before you jump to promoting your new account through status updates, make sure you have a good reason as to why everyone needs to follow you on an additional channel. Will you have content specifically catered to you Instagram community? Are you running a special incentive for your new followers? Remember, most people won't go out of their way to follow yet another account without having a good reason. 21
  • 22. ● Cross-Promote – Cross-promotions are common practice on Instagram. If you’re unfamiliar, it’s simply an agreement between two profiles to give each other shoutouts. The key to implementing this properly requires that you work with a non-competing (think complementary) brand that shares your target audience but not product offering. As you can imagine by it’s popularity, cross-promotions are an easy and effective method to quickly gain followers. However, the mutually beneficial nature of this tactic means you are limited to brands that share a similar number of followers to your own. Try this approach to start cross-promoting: Step 1: Do your research and put together a list of complementary brands that have a similar follower count to you. If you notice an account has recently cross-promoted someone, take it as an indicator that they’re receptive to the idea and prioritize reaching out to them. Step 2: Compose short personalized emails to propose a cross-promotion. Briefly explain the benefits of this tactic and why your accounts would complement each other well - you need to demonstrate that you've actually paid some attention to their brand. Step 3: Stand out from the many requests that popular accounts undoubtedly receive by sending a follow-up. Proactively Participate Businesses often make the mistake of giving their competition the cold shoulder on social channels, not realizing this is actually an opportunity to poach the competitor’s followers. If executed well, proactive commenting and liking can bring more followers your way. It all boils down to dedicating the time and practicing sincerity. ● Do your research and develop a list of direct competitors for you to keep tabs on. ● Set aside time on a daily basis to engage fans who have left comments on your competition's recent posts by liking or replying to the comments (when it's relevant). ● Go through your competitors' list of followers. Engage with the real and active 22
  • 23. ● accounts by liking and commenting on the posts. Make sure your comments are personalized, positive, and clearly show that you’ve paid attention to their profile. Bulk Follow and Unfollow If this method sounds familiar to you, it’s because bulk following and unfollowing was formerly a popular Twitter strategy to gain followers. Many Instagram followers who would love your products don't follow you simply because they’re not aware you exist...yet. Step 1: To find the ones with a higher likelihood to convert, comb through the list of followers from your competitors’ profiles and begin following them. These specific followers have already expressed an interest in an offering similar to yours. Give yourself an hour each day to do this. You’ll find that you can average about 100 follows per hour. Step 2: Run a quick search on Google Play or the App Store for an “unfollow app” that unfollows people who do not follow you back. Give each batch a full day to follow you back before running the app. Take note to limit this tactic. Instagram does not take kindly to this technique and has internal triggers in place that may hurt your discoverability if you abuse the system. 3. Create Great Content 23
  • 24. While ads are not always ill-received on Instagram, relying on ads at such an early to grow your Instagram marketing can be a waste of money. The platform already gives you plenty of opportunity to garner attention organically. For new or small businesses, organic growth is your ammo. Optimize Images Figuring out the type of images that return the highest engagement for your brand will not be easy. A lot of this process involves learning and optimizing your images through trial and error. ● Use a service like Iconosquare to analyze the post details that works best for your account i.e. time, filters, hashtags, etc. Use these stats to finetune your future posts. ● Always stick to the recommended image size. Instagram encourages you to upload photos that have a width of at least 1080 pixels with an aspect ratio between 1.91:1 and 4:5. ● Continue testing. Even though you’ve nailed down a few details that seem to increase engagement, your goal should always be to improve it. You will not be able to do this if you stop experimenting with content and context. ● You must maintain an active account. Aim for 2-3 posts per day. While this seems a lot when you're crafting engaging content, there’s no guarantee that every follower will catch every post. Sharing more than one post per day also gives you more room to experiment for optimal posting times. Add Variety Each one of your posts should sell, but not in the way you think. There’s a limit to the number of times followers can stand to see product posts so it’s critical you find a balance between “other” content and product posts. But that doesn’t mean non-product posts can’t sell your brand and its values! Try adding your branded touch to these ideas and incorporating them into the rotation. ● User-generated content – 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family over advertisements. People trust people -- this is the power that user-generated content harnesses. By featuring real customers who are 24
  • 25. ● happy with your products, you offer social proof that has the potential to create positive sentiment and heighten brand engagement. ● Behind the Scenes – Add depth and character to your brand by offering a sneak peek into what happens beneath the pretty surface. Because this part of business typically remains hidden, #bts content can spark interest among followers. ● Creative Product Feature – Showcasing your products is important so there’s no need to nix these types of posts altogether, but you can certainly feature them more creatively. Everyone has already seen product on white backgrounds. Instead, try selling the lifestyle behind your product. ● Original Memes – So long as your humor is tasteful and rightly aligned with your target audience, posting memes is A-OK. You can even step it up a notch to really show off your brand's creativity by using photos of your team (with their consent of course). ● Educational – Your followers obviously find some interest in your niche. Teach them something new about the industry. ● Guest Hosts – Similar to cross-promoting, you can enlist the help of someone cooler to take over your account for the day. Guests not only add a breath of fresh air to your profile, but their affiliation also draws the interest of their own fans to your brand. That’s why it’s important you find someone who is representative of your brand and values. Step 4: Optimize Your Landing Pages 25
  • 26. As your follower count increases, your store traffic will also increase. But before you start celebrating, remember that acquiring followers only adds to the top of your sales funnel. The next step is to send followers to relevant pages that are optimized for purchase decisions. These are critical pieces of your landing page that you'll need to pay particular attention to: ● Keep focus on mobile viewability when designing your landing page because the majority of your Instagram traffic will be on their mobile devices when they find you. This will affect your navigation, search, shopping cart, CTAs, and payment options. ● If you’re not a copywriter, now is not the best time to practice. It’s easy to sound overly salesy or cheesy. Head over to Upwork or Freelancer to find a conversion-savvy copywriter. ● Avoid killing conversions by adding a URL like this: http://noonewillclickor.sharethis.URL/becauseitstoolengthy. Instead, create a shortened, branded, and trackable URL with Google Campaign URL Builder. ● Just like your Instagram posts, never stop testing your landing pages – whether that means tinkering with product descriptions, alternating product offerings, adding customer reviews, or something else altogether. ● (Optional) Make your Instagram shoppable with services like Foursixty or Dash Hudson's LikeShop. 26
  • 27. Get Pinteresting Originally a wishlist-like platform, Pinterest has grown into an inspiration and shopping destination for many of its 150 million monthly active users ([Pinterest, 2016](https://blog.pinterest.com/en/150-million-people-finding-ideas-pinterest)) – users who are not so easily acquired by quick hacks or spammy tactics. Effectively marketing on this social platform will require more than pinning every item from your store. Let's go over how to sell apparel on Pinterest. 1. Create or Convert Your Account One of Pinterest's major strengths is the suite of marketing features available to Business Accounts. What exactly is in the toolbox? ● Pinterest Analytics – Thanks to rich tracking information, you can determine which pieces of content from your profile and your website jive with your audience and what that audience looks like. ● Promoted Pins – Pinterest's version of paid ads, they look like native pins but show up more frequently in relevant search results and feeds. Promoted Pins are current only available to US, CA, or UK-based business accounts. 27
  • 28. ● Rich Pins – There are 6 types of Rich Pins – app, movie, recipe, article, product, and place – all of which provide additional information within the pin itself. Instead of manual input, Rich Pins will help you automatically pull information such as the price and availability of a specific item from your store. ● Newsletter – Get business-oriented Pinterest news and updates straight from the horse's mouth. Pinterest designed these tools specifically to help businesses maximize the platform's marketing effectiveness. For this reason, we encourage you to create a Business Account. If you have an existing Personal Account you'd still like to use, Pinterest also allows you to convert to a Business Account. 2. Create a Pin Similar to creating content for any other channel, successful marketing on Pinterest will require you to understand two things: the kind of content your target user wants to see and how to ensure the content you've created gets seen. Know What Your Audience Wants A study conducted at The University of Minnesota examined 32,200 Pinterest profiles and analyzed the distribution of their pinning activity based on category and gender. 28
  • 29. The X-axis shows the 33 Pinterest categories, and the Y-axis shows the relative proportion of each topic within gender. You can read the full paper here. Going by the chart, you may be tempted to zero in on the most popular categories. However, your first concern should be relevancy and then popularity. If your brand has nothing to do with food and drinks, then avoid dedicating a board to summer cocktails. Optimize Your Pins for Search Pinterest functions as part visual search engine for many users and part actual search engine for others. Therefore, if you don't create easily searchable content, then you may very well not create content at all. Image Guidelines Follow these guidelines to increase the likelihood that your pin reaches its target. ● Image Size – All pins are 736px wide with an unlimited height. While tall images do perform better, be mindful that the length of your image doesn't become overwhelming. ● High-res – Avoid using stock photos as much as possible, and use original high quality images instead. Your images should not pixelate in the expanded view. ● Light and Bright – Light images are re-pinned 20x more than dark images. 29
  • 30. SEO Guidelines SEO for Pinterest search is much more straightforward than bigger Internet search engines – think "relevant keywords." Step 1: Use Google's Keyword Planner to find keywords related to your business and pins Step 2: Include these keywords in your pin's image file name. Step 3: Use these keywords when writing your pin descriptions. However, as a general SEO rule, avoid sounding "keyword-y." Your description should still flow naturally even with the keywords included. 3. Get Views and Re-pins We've only grazed the surface by creating great visual content. Next, we need to focus on increasing views and shares. Connect Other Social Accounts Gaining new followers organically for any social media channel is undeniably a tough task. Luckily, you can connect existing social accounts to your new Pinterest for Business account. 30
  • 31. Connecting your social accounts not only helps grow your Pinterest following, but it also bridges your distribution channels to get your content shared more easily and more frequently. 1. Head over to "Account Settings" 2. From the menu, click "Social Networks" 3. Add your Twitter and Facebook accounts Time Your Pins A single "best time to pin" does not exist because it heavily depends on your target audience. For example, the optimal time to grab the attention of fitness fanatics in California will vary greatly from a dedicated homemaker residing in Vermont. The only sure way to confirm this information is to consistently test your pinning schedule. Use a Call-to-Action Even though your pin has a link, it doesn't hurt to remind your audience to take action. In fact, pins with CTAs get 80% more engagement (BrandonGaille, 2013). 4. Gain New Followers 31
  • 32. Connecting your other social media accounts will help increase your follower count to some degree, but this should not be your primary means of gaining followers. The value in Pinterest is to tap into a new stream of followers who have a higher tendency to purchase and the purchasing power to buy more. In the study from the University of Minnesota we'd referenced above, researchers found three factors largely influenced whether a Pinterest user will follow you or not. Image Source And they are: ● How many accounts you follow/how many accounts follow you ● Your number of pins ● Your number of boards In order to turn your account into a follower magnet, you'll need to commit to the improvement and maintenance of these three factors. 32
  • 33. Find Friends From Other Social Networks Reach for low-hanging fruit first and connect with your friends from the other social media accounts you've linked. 1. Click on your business name in the top right corner of the screen. 2. In the dropdown menu that appears, click on "Find Friends." 3. Choose the social networks you’ve connected to find friends, then follow them. You'll likely get more follow-backs here because you already have a relationship with these people beyond Pinterest. Post Regularly Similar to "the best time to post," there's no definitive number of times you should post per day. Case studies from numerous sources have found success in frequencies ranging from 5 to 30 posts per day. The optimal number for your account will heavily depend on your target audience's level of activity. Start at 5 posts spread throughout the course of the day and gradually increase until you reach 30. Which frequency seems to earn the highest engagement, shares, and traffic? With a posting schedule of 5 to 30 pieces of content per day, Pinterest can sound like a big time commitment. Don't let the numbers scare you because the majority of your pins do not have to be original content. There's content everywhere that can make up a good portion of your posts – just make sure the content is relevant and you've credited the correct sources. Stay Engaged Successful social media for brands is ironically less about the brand and more about catering to consumers. Take a page out of their book and provide others with a reason to engage with you by proactively engaging with them first. Beyond responding to your followers' comments and questions, you need to proactively re-pin their pins, like their pins, and participate in the community. Provide Meaningful Responses Don't be bland and post generic comments such as "nice pin" or "this is great" on every post. Pinterest users know what you're up and you'll end up wasting your own time. Instead, leave thoughtful comments that demonstrate your interest and knowledge on the subject. 33
  • 34. Note: There is such a thing as too much commenting. Pinterest considers commenting too often spamming and it can lead to the suspension of your account. Limit your thoughtful responses to 2 or 3 times per day. Go Where the Popular Pins Are The Popular section on Pinterest houses top performing pins based on the combination of re-pins, likes, and comments. It's also the section that will offer you the most insight into successful Pinterest strategy, so find popular boards that are relevant to your business and start taking notes. A portion of your thoughtful comments should go to the pins in the section. Again, make sure the pins you comment on are relevant to your business. This virtually acts as free advertising because your brand name becomes exposed to the people who follow those boards. Contribute to Others' Boards Dedicate time to building relationships with owners of popular group boards or the board's other contributors, and then request an invite to be a contributor yourself. If you can contribute quality content, the board's followers will likely become your followers too. On the flip side, you can create your own board and invite your followers or popular accounts to contribute. We don't recommend this method until you have some clout to your Pinterest name. Collaborate with Influencers Pinterest has its influencers too, and it's exposure to these influencers' followers that can really boost your Pinterest reputation. Start with baby steps by following their boards, re-pinning their pins, and leaving thoughtful comments to their content. Slowly build familiarity to indicate your interest in their specialty and ideas before initiating a collaboration. There are several ways you can work with Pinterest influencers. ● Invite them to contribute to one of your boards. 34
  • 35. ● Once you've proven your level of expertise, offer to contribute to one of their boards. ● Show that you pay attention by offering ideas for their boards. 5. Promote Your Brand Pinterest is an additional channel to pump new prospects into your sales funnel. In order to keep that funnel consistently topped off, you'll need to make a habit of best practices that will contribute to the growth and promotion of your brand over the long term. Get Rich Pins Rich Pins, as the name implies, enriches your ordinary pins with valuable real-time information – automatically. Pinterest current offers 6 different types of Rich Pins – app, movie, recipe, article, product, and place – each offering its own set of features aimed at boosting engagement and direct traffic to your site. Specifically for ecommerce business owners, we recommend making good use of the product pin and, if you've been keen on blog content creation, the article pin. Check out what they look like in action: 35
  • 36. Product Pin This product pin by Urban Outfitters features an official link to the store’s site, updated pricing, and a detailed description. To see a complete list of metadata for product pins, please click here. Article Pin This article pin from CNN comes with a prominent title, a branded logo, a brief description, and a call-to-action. To see a complete list of metadata available for article pins, please click here. Image Source: Pinterest 36
  • 37. How to Set up Rich Pins Because Rich Pins display metadata from pages on your website, you may need a hand from your web developer to edit its contents. Step 1: Decide on which pin(s) you want. Step 2: Find your pin from the menu on the left and determine which meta tags you need to add to your website. Step 3: Choose any page on your site that you've added the appropriate metadata to and [go here](https://developers.pinterest.com/tools/url-debugger/). Step 4: Enter your chosen URL into the validator form field and hit "Validate." Step 5: Correct any mistake you see through your site. Step 6: Select your option below based on how your web page was marked up: ● HTML Tags, if you used Open Graph or Schema.org formats. ● oEmbed, if you used oEmbed format. ● Shopify, if you have a Shopify site. Step 7: Click "Apply Now." Your Rich Pins will populate within the hour. Note: You only need to validate and apply for one link per domain. Add Variety to Your Content The content you distribute or share on any social media channel acts as an extension of your brand. However, that doesn't mean you should feel restricted to using one style or one format of content. And most of all, please refrain from posting only product images. Pinterest users congregate for interesting and inspiring content. It's your job to deliver. Here are a few ideas to get you started: ● Gifs – Short and sweet, gifs contain dynamic content that’s rich in meaning and rarely considered spammy. They're the essence of a good CTA. ● Lists – We are so consistently bombarded with information that we've become accustomed to skimming or skipping information altogether. Lists are perfectly 37
  • 38. ● designed to accommodate the modern attention span – they're short, precise, and easy to read. ● Guides or Recipes – These references strip lengthy explanations down to fundamental instructions that help readers better understand the subject matter. ● Memes – Funny always wins, but it's also difficult to get "funny" right. Get honest feedback from a friend or family member before you post. Link Your Pins Rich Pins automatically offer valuable information, but adding a variety of content means not every pin you publish will be a Rich Pin. And that's ok. Normal pins still offer an important piece of information: a link to your site. Prioritize Popular Boards As you accumulate pins into boards, move better performing boards to the top of your page. This way, you increase the likelihood of converting and acquiring users who are visiting your page for the first time. 6. Track and Optimize Image Source: Pinterest 38
  • 39. Pinterest Analytics provides insight into the performance of your campaign and the audience engaging with it. The conclusions you draw from this information will help you improve content, engagement, and conversion. Here are a few questions this feature will help answer: ● Which of your pins and boards do people love the most? ● How does your target user compare to your actual Pinterest audience (i.e. gender, location, interests, etc.)? ● What kind of devices are users on when they pin your content? ● For more information on the analytics data available, check out this Pinterest Analytics guide. Ready to [access this nifty feature]()? Pinterest Analytics will first require you to create a Pinterest for Business account (done!). Second, you'll have to [verify your website](https://help.pinterest.com/en/articles/confirm-your-website). ...and ta-da! 7. Bonus: Advertise on Pinterest Image Source: Pinterest We have 3 reasons for keeping Pinterest ads as a bonus step: 39
  • 40. You can only promote existing pins. It would be a waste of your marketing budget to immediately upload and promote new content. By holding off, you can access the best type of content to target at the best type of user. Runnings ads on Pinterest is a short-term fix to an acquisition challenge that requires a long-term answer i.e. growing and engaging with the Pinterest community. If you choose to run Pinterest ads, we recommend using it to complement a strategic approach. Let's begin! Determine Your Goal Pinterest ads, or Promoted Pins, are native ad units i.e. regular-looking pins that you pay to have displayed to more people. Pinterest offers 3 types of ad campaigns to support your business goals. ● Awareness: Raise brand awareness by getting your business in front of new users. You pay on a CPM basis. ● Engagement: Boost engagement with your pins by reaching users with higher intent and probability for interaction. You pay on a CPE (cost per engagement) basis, where "engagement" is defined as: a close-up, repin, or click. ● Traffic: Drive traffic from your promoted pins directly to your website. Traffic campaigns are PPC (pay per click) ads. Setup for all three types of campaigns follow the same steps. Step 1: Choose a Campaign Goal Head over to [ads.pinterest.com](https://ads.pinterest.com/) to select 1 of 3 campaign goals, and name your new campaign. Step 2: Pick a Pin As we mentioned earlier, you can only promote existing pins. To ensure your money is well spent, pick pins that have performed well for your intended goal. Pinterest offers filters where you can quickly view your most clicked and most 2. 3. 40
  • 41. repinned posts from the last 30 days. Step 3: Pick Your Audience In addition to choosing your audience, this is also the time to determine where you will send users who click on your ad. We recommend customizing a landing page that matches the contents of your promoted pin. For audience targeting, you can opt for a general approach based on user interests and keywords. Interests are restricted to a set list, and keywords are provided through Pinterest recommendations or manual upload. Alternatively, you can get more specific by targeting existing customers, people who have visited your site before, or users whose profiles match those of users already interacting with your Pinterest content. Additionally, you have the option to target by location, language, device, and gender. Step 4: Pay for Results Next, enter the maximum amount that you're willing to pay per action taken on your ad. Pinterest will automatically let you know if your bid is competitive and good to go or if it's too low. Remember, if your bid off wins, you won't necessarily have to pay that amount. You will only have to pay the amount that beats the next highest bidder. Review your information. If everything looks good, click "Next" to submit your ad for review (24 hours). During that time, submit or update your payment information so that you're good to go as soon as your Promoted Pin gets approved. Step 5: Track What's Working To set up conversion tracking, go to the Ads menu on your profile. Select the conversions you'd like to track such as page visits, sign-ups, purchases, etc. Copy and paste the code generated into the body of page you want to track. 41
  • 42. Abide by Best Practices Pinterest makes more money when your ads work – it's within their best interests to help you. Having said that, go through [Pinterest's Advertising Standards](https://about.pinterest.com/en/advertising-standards) to ensure you're setting your ads up for success. Some key points to definitely note are: ● Be authentic and honest. ● Create high-quality and interesting content that elicits action. ● Avoid sensitive topics 42
  • 43. Start Tweeting Twitter can be a powerful marketing tool for many online store owners without requiring a large investment in time or money. Not only is it easier to gain followers on Twitter, but you can engage with Twitter users before they commit to following your page. The following is a quick strategy to get you started on marketing through Twitter. 1. Create a target audience – Twitter is home to a diverse crowd, which means that chances are high that your target audience frequents this particular network. If you have yet to do so, define these users and include specific information such as age, gender, location, interests, etc. This may seem tedious but it will help you understand how your target users interact on Twitter and how you can best align your brand to capture their support. 2. Take advantage of search – Once you’ve clearly defined who they are, you can utilize the search bar or try Twitter’s Advanced Search to confirm that your target users exist. For example, here are the top results for “need cat tshirt”: 43
  • 44. 3. Establish credibility. Now that you can confirm that there is a demand for your business, you’ll need to establish your presence on Twitter. Without credibility, consumers won’t feel secure buying from you. You can establish your brand by doing a few things: ● Be consistent – regularly be online and available to interact or address concerns. Consistency also applies to content--share relevant content regularly. ● Have a strong voice – know your brand. If your brand is a person, what would they be like? Establishing a brand voice also ties in with consistency. Make sure the content you share is a reflection of your brand. Not sure where to start? Twitter has a few guidelines on What to Tweet. ● Support a cause – Businesses concerned with social good are more easily accepted. 4. Make a sale. When your profile has some substance and you’re ready to make a sale, try one of these: ● Deals – Offer exclusive discounts to your Twitter followers. ● Engage – Using the search option, respond to relevant tweets with a link to your product or offer user a good deal. However, remember not to spam every person who mentions a need. ● Follow up – if you discover someone discussing their interest in your product, don’t hesitate to reach out. If it happens to be a customer, ask about their experience and retweet positive comments. 44
  • 45. Work on LinkedIn LinkedIn, as a social network for professionals, is traditionally considered a better lead generation platform for B2B companies while remaining a conundrum for B2C companies. This doesn’t mean LinkedIn will not work for you, rather it may take some tinkering to figure out if LinkedIn is better for sales, brand development, or something else altogether. Here are a couple of things you can start doing to figure that out: ● Promote your people (brand development). LinkedIn is a great place to show off the awesome talent on your team. It can be something as simple as spotlighting an employee each week by sharing their photo along with their tenure, job title, a short quote on why they like their job, and a fun fact about them. This gives the public a rare look into your company culture and personality. ● Promote your page (brand and lead development). It’s needless to say you should share relevant content on a regular basis, but if no one reads it, then you might as well not have shared anything. Set aside a budget to promote your page so that others who don’t currently follow you can get a glimpse into the community you’re building. One of the perks of LinkedIn’s page promotions is that you can target individuals by job title, industry, location, and more. Targeting ensures that your marketing spend will go towards people who could directly affect your bottom line. 45
  • 46. Boost Your Brand’s Facebook Brands that rely heavily on Facebook to acquire customers experience an emotional roller coaster every time the social network updates its algorithm. This is because the updates typically result in less reach and more ad spend. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t maintain a presence. Facebook pages remain an easy way for prospects to find more information on your business, review how others may feel about your brand, as well as a means for you to distribute information to them. Needless to say, many brands have full-fledged user acquisition strategies behind their Facebook pages, so we’ll only go over a few quick wins you can immediately obtain. ● Test the call-to-action (CTA) button on your page header. Split-test to see which CTA results in the best results for your goal. Typically “Watch Video,” “Shop Now,” and “Contact Us” are good choices to start with. ● Add videos and create playlists. Videos uploaded directly to Facebook can be put into playlists. This is a great place to show off how-to tutorials, product features, DIY tips, and more – all while showing up better on people’s timelines. ● Share behind-the-scenes (BTS) photos. BTS photos give a face and character to your business, which helps consumers more easily trust and identify with you. ● Offer exclusive deals and discounts. Give fans plenty of reasons to return to your brand’s Facebook page. Share special deals and offers that expire within 24 hours. ● Host a contest. Try posting a funny photo and running a caption contest to keep fans entertained. While it helps to offer discounts or freebies, contests do not always need them. Instead, you can feature the winner or give them a shoutout (or both). 46
  • 47. ● Engage other Facebook pages. Interact as your page with other business pages, and "like'' your connections’ pages. Liked or tagged pages will often return the favor, and mention or like your page in return. ● Share milestones. Keep fans in the loop with company happenings through your page so they feel part of your community. ● Add other social media pages. Add Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and other tabs to your Facebook page to give potential customers and fans a big picture of your company’s culture and brand. ● Test time and content. Start strategically split-testing to see which posts boost engagement. Start with a simple schedule: post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at a specific time with a specific type of content. After 4 weeks, switch one weekday out with another (e.g. Tuesday instead of Monday) and see what performs better. 47
  • 48. Use Your Personal Facebook As of June 2016, Facebook announced it will prioritize posts shared by friends and family over those by publishers, brands, and other pages. This is good news for you as you build your brand from scratch. There’s nothing wrong with using your personal Facebook to promote your product. Rather, it’s a matter of controlling the number of times you post and the type of content you include. Here is a helpful gauge for how often certain actions should be taken with your personal profile: Rarely: Post direct links to your product or homepage Sometimes: Show off a particularly nice testimonial or press mention Often: Engage with others, whether it’s directly or through content they share Always: Include a personal message in things you share Finally, remember that your personal Facebook is exactly that--personal. Continue to share photos, articles, liking and commenting on people’s posts, and being a normal user. 48
  • 49. Facebook Page Shop Sections The "shop section" feature, which allows users to browse and purchase products directly within Facebook Pages, was actually rolled out to a several thousand pages in 2016. The shop section sits in the left menu. As shown in the example above, this is a new opportunity for different groups beyond just brands and businesses to participate in a seamless ecommerce experience (e.g. causes, charity, entertainment, etc.) 49
  • 50. While availability is still limited, we know the feature will be a huge benefit as adoption grows. ● Easier discovery and purchase – Everything a user wants to learn about you or your products is now contained in one environment, your Facebook Page. This removes a significant number of pages that buyers have to visit between discovering your Page, clicking an external link to your store, conducting a search for reviews on your products and business, and finally completing a purchase. Every additional page visit becomes a risk that your user drops off. Purchases in-app, on the other hand, can occur faster and easier. ● Meet users in the medium – More than 500 million people access Facebook strictly from a mobile device. This is an especially important statistic because research indicates that mobile users regularly use only five mobile applications. Leveraging Facebook's mobile ubiquity should not be a question. ● Leverage an existing fan base – Because this feature becomes part of your Facebook page, you already have a community that shares the interest you represent. Promoting your product posts to this audience is certainly an easier sell than cold targeting. ● Generate conversation – Standalone shops do not give you the same capabilities to generate a conversation that a Page does. You have the opportunity to post content that keeps your community engaged and repeatedly coming back. In short, the benefits of adding a shop section to your Facebook Page boils down to creating an easier buying experience for fans as well as an easier selling experience for you. We don't say "easier" in the sense of rudimentary. The shop feature offers a selection of robust shopping features. However, their availability will depend on your Page location. US Facebook Pages may offer these features: ● Upload products and product description. There is no limit to the number of physical goods you can upload, nor will you need to have a product catalog uploaded anywhere beforehand. ● Customize your inventory. You have the option of dividing your products into different collections or categories. ● Sell directly from your Page. Your customers can browse and buy without leaving your Page. Alternatively, you can also redirect them to an external checkout page once they’re ready to complete the purchase. 50
  • 51. ● Manage orders. With the ability to manage orders, you can record the status of orders, cancel orders, and refund orders without ever leaving your Page. ● Monitor insights. You have visibility into the number of views, clicks, purchases, and profit for each product Non-US Facebook Pages may offer these features: ● Upload products and product descriptions. There is no limit to the number of physical goods you can upload, nor will you need to have a product catalog uploaded anywhere beforehand. ● Feature products. You can showcase a number of products. ● Get insights. You have visibility into the number of views and messages you've received for each product. Now that we've covered many of the benefits and functionalities of the shop section, let's activate it for your Page. Again, depending on where you’re located, your set-up options will also vary. ● US Facebook Pages: You can choose to have customers complete their purchases within your Facebook Page or you can send them to an external checkout page. ● Non-US Facebook Pages: You can allow customers to message you in order to learn more about your products or you can send them to an external website to complete their purchase. We have provided the appropriate directions for setting up shop sections in each situation on the next page. 51
  • 52. Let Customers Check out from Your Facebook Page 1.) From your Facebook Page, click the Shop tab from the left menu. If this is not an option, click Settings from the top-right corner of your Page, then click Edit Page from the left menu. 52
  • 53. Next, click Add a Tab and click Add Tab next to the Shop option. The Shop tab should now be visible on your Page. 2.) Review the Merchant Terms and Policies, check the I agree to the Merchant Terms and Policies box, and click Continue. Enter your password if prompted. 53
  • 54. 3.) Choose the preferred currency for your shop. This currency will apply to all of your products and cannot be changed without deleting your shop section and creating a new one. 4.) Choose Check Out on Facebook, and click Continue. 5.) If you have a separate email to communicate with customers, Facebook, or payment processors, uncheck the Use this email address for customer service inquiries box and submit an alternate email address. Choose either PayPal or Stripe as your payment processor, and click Submit. For either choice, you will have to connect an existing account or create a new Business account. Your shop is ready to go and you can start adding products! 54
  • 55. Send Your Customers to an External Website to Complete Their Purchase 1.) From your Facebook Page, click the Shop tab from the left menu. If this is not an option, click Settings from the top-right corner of your Page, then click Edit Page from the left menu. 55
  • 56. Next, click Add a Tab and click Add Tab next to the Shop option. The Shop tab should now be visible on your Page. 2.) Review the Merchant Terms and Policies, check the I agree to the Merchant Terms and Policies box, and click Continue. Enter your password if prompted. 56
  • 57. 3.) Choose the preferred currency for your shop. This currency will apply to all of your products and cannot be changed without deleting your shop section and creating a new one. 4.) Choose Check Out on Another Website and click Continue. For each product you upload to your shop section, you will now be prompted to submit the website. 5.) Click Save. 57
  • 58. Send Your Customers to an External Website to Complete Their Purchase 1.) From your Facebook Page, click the Shop tab from the left menu. If this is not an option, click Settings from the top-right corner of your Page, then click Edit Page from the left menu. 58
  • 59. Next, click Add a Tab and click Add Tab next to the Shop option. The Shop tab should now be visible on your Page. 2.) Review the Merchant Terms and Policies, check the I agree to the Merchant Terms and Policies box, and click Continue. Enter your password if prompted. 59
  • 60. 3.) Choose the preferred currency for your shop. This currency will apply to all of your products and cannot be changed without deleting your shop section and creating a new one. 4.) Choose either Message to Buy or Check Out on Another Website. Then, click Continue. 5.) Click Save. A quick note for business owners as you proceed to upload products to your shops: Regardless of location, your shop is only visible after you’ve added at least one product that has been reviewed and approved. 60
  • 61. Go Live on Social While both Facebook and Instagram Live are fairly new features, its predecessors – Periscope and Meerkat – have demonstrated powerful marketing potential. Many businesses have already jumped on the live-streaming trend, hedging their bets on a pattern of tremendous payoffs for early adopters of social media trends. We encourage you to strategize for conversions and dive in now! There are many ways you can use Facebook or Instagram Live to grow your business. For example, offer a live view of your product, host a Q&A session, or even take your customers behind the scenes. The point is to establish a connection between your brand and the public so they trust you enough to buy. 61
  • 62. COMMUNITIES Online communities are no different than offline communities – they’re groups of people who share interests, experiences, ideals, or goals. In this chapter, we’ll show you how to tap into the power of communities, both online and offline. 62
  • 63. Local Businesses Teaming up with local businesses is a great way to establish and expand your customer base. The secret lies in whom you choose to partner with. Find businesses that target an audience similar to yours without competing in product or services i.e. complementary businesses. Here are just a few ways you can partner up with other businesses: ● Host community events Bar crawls, block parties, and the like are a great way to draw in more customers. By collaborating with businesses in your area, every effort from generating event buzz to setting up to managing costs gets shared. ● Promote each other on social media Called cross-promoting, local businesses can work together on social media to promote and increase each other’s following audience. ● Offer joint discounts Who doesn’t enjoy dinner AND a movie? By teaming up with a complementary business, you can offer a deal for a complete package. You don’t have to limit yourself movie theaters, of course – simply a local business that complements yours will do. There are endless ways to partner with other businesses—just use your imagination! Teaming up with the right company can lead to increasing your business and finding new customers. 63
  • 64. Volunteer Locally An effective approach we’d previously discussed was pledging some of your sales efforts to support a cause. If that’s not an opportunity for your brand, perhaps volunteering locally is. By involving yourself, you have the opportunity to earn respect, loyalty, and support from an entire community. To find volunteer opportunities near you, use sites like VolunteerMatch. 64
  • 65. Enlist Employee Help According to the 2013 Edelman Trust Barometer, “Employees rank higher in public trust than a firm’s PR department, CEO, or Founder. 41% of us believe that employees are the most credible source of information regarding their business.” Every employee, regardless of role or duties, has the potential to leverage this trust in your company’s favor. So how do you mobilize employees? The easy way out is to hand out t-shirts to your employees with your logo and contact information, but in order to drive sincere and proactive support – whether it’s sales or talent recruiting – you need to turn your team into brand ambassadors, i.e. employees who are connected, motivated, and engaged. According to Gallup, “companies with high employee engagement levels have 3.9 times the earnings per share when compared to those in the same industry with lower engagement levels.” Now, the question is: how can your business be part of the former? 1. Create a Reward Environment Employees recognize accomplishments that get rewarded. However, when those rewards are limited to just the sales team (as is tradition), you miss out on a big opportunity to build brand ambassadors. Recognizing all employees who go the extra mile instills pride and accountability within every member of your team. Additionally, these rewards don’t always have to be monetary. Part of creating a successful reward program is developing an environment in which your employees feel motivated and supported. Open channels for communication that allow individuals to connect with each other, share opinions, celebrate successes and milestones, and feel part of a close community. Instead of feeling like they simply work for someone, connected employees are likely to be more proactive i.e. become brand ambassadors. 2. Encourage Social Media Activity While a strong social presence may be important for your business, don’t underestimate the power of your employees. A study conducted by the MSLGROUP found that social media posts from employees reached 561% further than the same posts shared by company pages. This can have big implications for brands that empower social media advocacy among employees. 65
  • 66. 3. Exemplify Effective Leadership Because brand ambassadors essentially put their reputation on the line when they recommend a brand or product to their network, it’s unlikely the majority of your employees will market your brand until they feel confident and empowered – both of which can only occur through education. However, instead of sitting employees down with reading material, lead by example. Beyond worrying about profitability, good leaders possess excellent communication skills and practice transparent policies. When employees have a clear idea of how the company's leaders respond to conflict and adversity, they will have natural guidelines to follow. In 2015, The Harris Poll found that open communication encourages employees to see a brighter future for the company. And when your team is encouraged by the company’s positive outlook, their confidence grows. However, this will not happen in a single day. It happens over time with multiple channels of communication such as newsletters, emails, 1-on-1’s, Cookies & Communication (a GearLaunch practice), and more. Do your part to ensure employees have the latest on company initiatives, successes, goals, and news. This information not only ensures they accurately represent the brand no matter where they may be, but also reminds them of the bigger community they belong to. Bonus: Employee Appreciation Day is an annual event. While we encourage you to appreciate employees everyday, why not turn this into an extra special weeklong celebration? Use this opportunity to try out our tips to get employees to market your brand. 66
  • 67. Exclusive Groups Consumers all want to be a part of a special select group, even if it’s only an illusion crafted through clever marketing. The more privileged your customer feels, the more they buy into your illusion. The key to offering exclusivity is giving consumers the illusion that a barrier to entry exists. Ask yourself two questions: what is the perceived value of your membership? What do you want out of your members. Here are several examples of successful membership implementations. ● Costco Have you ever shopped at a Costco warehouse? At every Costco exit stands someone akin to a bouncer. While they won’t ask for your proof of age, they will ask for you Costco membership. If you don’t have one, they will redirect you to the membership services area. Beyond physical access to the store, why would consumers want a membership? For a fee, Costco gives its members access to bulk discounts and specially discounted pricing for health, business, entertainment, and subscription services. ● Safeway Safeway employs a different approach to its membership. Because they function under a different business model from Costco, Safeway offers its membership to anyone given they willingly sign up. Instead of making money upfront, Safeway uses this information to improve targeting, coupons, and sales. ● Coin Collecting Coin collection – one of the rare instances when the item’s value is exponentially higher than its perceived value. This particular method plays on an item’s limited production to create the appearance that the purchase is an investment – there will only ever be a small number of the particular item in the entire world. This "limited edition" tactic doesn’t just play up the sense of exclusivity – it also contributes to justifying purchases at a higher price point because they are really making an investment. 67
  • 68. There are many approaches to exclusivity, but keep in mind the general rule when implementing yours: something denied to one person becomes exclusive to another, and anything exclusive fetches a higher demand value. 68
  • 69. Support a Cause We keep talking about niches, but what does that mean? Check out our blog post here for a better idea. When you focus your product, you focus your marketing, and therefore you focus your time and effort. This makes the entire marketing and sales cycle much more efficient, especially when you’re just starting out. A great example is to sell for a cause. Why? People support causes when they feel strongly about something, and passion is much easier to sell to. Craft your product around this e.g. create a t-shirt that reads “End Hunger in San Francisco.” While this technique simplifies a lot of the marketing strategy for you, fundraising for charities comes with its own set of rules. You can get a better idea through this idealist post. GearLaunch does not currently support fundraising campaigns. Please read more about our policy on Charity. 69
  • 70. Hack Upvotes Many communities offer their members the power to upvote posts – if users find the post funny, engaging, interesting, or some combination in between, they can show their approval by voting the content to move up in the sea of submitted content. As upvoted posts move up, more users will see it. And as it continues to gain more momentum upstream, visibility increases. That could mean a couple of things for you depending on the contents of your post: brand awareness or conversions. Achieving this requires several steps: 1. Choose your community wisely. Keep in mind the guidelines we’ve previously provided for taking advantage of forums, and choose one that offers member the option to upvote. 2. With the community in mind, create two offers – one offer will be part of your actual post and the second will be in a follow-up email to those interested in your first offer. The efficacy of this tactic largely depends on how well suited your offers are. 3. Post your first offer into the community you’ve chosen with a unique URL so you can track it. Remember – most community members will not appreciate anything that’s heavily salesy or self-promotional. Try to find other successful posts that have properly promoted an outside product and model yours after it. 4. Once someone redeems your first offer, follow up with an email containing the second offer your know they can’t refuse. However, in order to redeem this second offer, they must go back to your first post and upvote it. If you need to, require they respond to your follow-up email with a screenshot as proof. 70
  • 71. Post on Deal Sites Listing your products on deal sites will require rolling back prices on the items you offer, but you stand to gain several benefits: ● Grow your database ● SEO ● Move old merchandise ● Brand awareness A strategic approach to daily deals or flash sales site may prove beneficials if the pros listed above outweigh the cuts made to your profit margins. Check out the deal sites below to assess for yourself: ● Stacksocial ● Bitsdujour ● AppSumo ● Fatwallet ● Wowcher ● Wahanda ● Dealtastic ● MightyDeals ● HotDeals ● SlickDeals (you need an account in good standing, but if you can generate this, the forum has great traffic) ● Ozbargain 71
  • 72. Get Active on Forums According to PostRelease, one in five Americans use forums to discuss and recommend products, and 64 percent of women online post product recommendations on message boards. Forum users are also generally net savvy and open to making online purchases. All of this means forum marketing has the potential to be a high ROI tactic. Here’s how to effectively use forum marketing as a part of your online marketing strategy: 1. Find the right forums. Where there’s an interest, there is bound to be forum for it. Successful forum marketing means finding the right community for your business. You can ask around or try doing a simple Google search for your industry’s keywords plus "forum". For example, if you’re selling shirts with funny cats on them, try “cat lovers forum.” You’ll undoubtedly come across hundreds of forums, so narrow your list to 5-10 that will be worth your time. We suggest some of the following criteria, but feel free to tweak it to better fit your preliminary process: ● At least 1,000 members and 10,000 posts. ● At least ten to fifteen new posts on a daily basis. ● Cannot be overrun with spam. ● Avoid forums hosted by or teeming with your direct competitors. 2. Create a forum account. Seniority is hugely important in forum communities with older registrants receiving more deference than newer users. In fact, some forums even prevent new users from posting for the first few days after registration. However, don't let the idea of being new to an online forum discourage you. You'll have plenty of opportunity to build relationships, establish credibility, and authority in the forum community. 72
  • 73. 3. Read community guidelines thoroughly prior to posting. In order to register, you will need to agree to the forum’s user agreement and posting guidelines. As a business, it’s important you read these rules and guidelines carefully. There is a lot of legal jargon in these documents so it’s understandably tempting to skim, but some of these guidelines can severely affect your freedoms within the forum. Here are concerns you should look out for: ● Are you allowed to place links in your posts? ● Are you allowed to promote your business? ● Are commercial messages allowed in signatures? ● Are you allowed to contact other members for commercial purposes? ● What restrictions are placed on new members? ● What special privileges are given to veteran users? Violating rules can quickly start you on the wrong side of the community and prevent you from building good relationships, trust, and credibility with the forum community. 4. Pick a good username and avatar. These two will be the first things anyone notices about you. ● Pick a username that’s easy to pronounce and remember. ● Avoid extensive and bizarre number combinations or weird misspellings. ● Do not pick a username that means something only to you and no one else (e.g. your favorite grade school teacher's initials). ● Avoid using offensive or controversial pictures for your avatar 5. Craft a compelling profile. A solid profile tells other members you’re not there to troll and you are willing to put your name behind what you say. Feel free to share methods of getting in touch with you and hobbies or interests, but avoid sharing potentially polarizing information such as political or religious affiliation. Only share information you wouldn’t mind made public. If the forum allows you to link to your social accounts so be sure to take advantage! 6. Introduce yourself to the community. Many forums encourage new users to introduce themselves to the community with an 73
  • 74. introductory post. Include a short description of your background and that your main goal is to contribute and learn. Do not attempt any marketing pitches in your first post--it will most likely get you banned. 7. Spend some time lurking. Here’s one situation where it’s a-ok to lurk. Forums tend to build communities that shun and haze newcomers so refrain from immediately posting. Spend a little time getting used to the jargon, special quirks, and social norms. Learning this info will help you fit in more easily.Spend some time reading the forum to get a sense of the community's special quirks and cultural norms. Figure out who the influential users are and note which topics are perennial favorites. Learning this information will help you fit in more quickly. 8. Add value to the conversation. Providing helpful and insightful answers will be your “in.” These situations are opportunities to demonstrate your expertise and to generate good will. If you can, backup your advice with links to trusted sources. Don’t forget to follow up and respond to questions quickly. Forum interactions can sometimes move very quickly. 9. Add your website to your signature. Signatures are blocks of text attached to the end of all your posts. Most people use signatures to display their favorite quotes or links to their favorite websites. If self-promotion is allowed, a short description of your business and a link to your website is the best way to go. 10. Save the drama. Never forget that this is a public space and everything you post will forever be available for everyone to see. Do not get drawn into heated arguments, and resist the urge to respond to criticism. If you get banned because of an argument, all your efforts will be wasted. 74
  • 75. The Reddit Community With over 1 million subreddits, or divisions of the community that share an interest, Reddit is almost undoubtedly home to a niche group that would be highly interested in your products. Do your research to seek these groups out, but the same rules apply here as they do for approaching forums – do not immediately jump in and begin selling your products. If your only interest stepping into the door is only self-interest, the community will boot you immediately. Reddit only works if you are a contributing member of its society. That means you need to provide value through engaging content before you can see any value in return. 75
  • 76. Target Niche Marketplaces As an online store owner, sometimes it’s easy to forget that your products can also be housed and offered elsewhere. While there’s no need to relist every one of your products, it’s important to test other channels such as Etsy and Poshmark i.e. marketplaces that serve a more targeted demographic unlike eBay or Craigslist. Listing through niche-specific marketplaces will grant your products visibility to the site’s existing traffic and consumers who are actively searching for goods. However, just like eBay and Craigslist, niche-specific marketplaces will not help you build a stronger brand – you exist in their domain – so test these sites sparingly to make your first few sales and understand what buyers want more of. Then, use these learnings for your own store. 76
  • 77. Post on Craigslist Craigslist is a great general marketplace to launch your products. Don’t get stopped before you start. Because Craigslist is such a useful marketplace for everyone, many have shamelessly taken advantage of its reach to maximize their efforts. This has led to Craigslist’s strict crackdown on anything that looks like it could be spam. Here are few tips to keep in mind: ● Try not to post too many ads for the same product. ● In general, posting too much will get your posts flagged and removed. ● Don’t try to beat the system and spam different cities. Let’s get started! 1. Head over to the Craigslist homepage. If you’re redirected to your location’s subdomain, simply click on the Craigslist logo in the upper left corner. 2. Click “Post to Classifieds” to get started. 3. Choose your seller option and the category your product falls under. 4. Now, it’s time to create your post. There’s plenty of opportunity at this point to create a post that others can’t ignore. Here are a few tips to get you started: ● Use creative and eye-catching titles to stand out from the crowd. ● Create funny or clever product descriptions. Believe it or not, these have gone viral in the past. ● Keep your images high-quality and clear. Viewers don’t have much to go on when buying online and generally want every detail they can get. ● Make it easy for them to contact you for more information. ● Link to your product page. 77
  • 78. Host a Meetup Because meetups are often started by individuals like yourself, they offer a great opportunity to build your network and to create new opportunities for your business. In order to help organize these types of offline meetings, many social networks have taken it upon themselves to offer various event organization tools. However, the expert in this space remains Meetup.com. Before jumping headfirst into organizing your own meetup group, consider joining one first to interact with the community as well as attending an event. When attending your first meetup, here are a few things you can do to make the most of your experience: ● Cross promote online – Whether it’s through social or email, use this opportunity to get to know businesses that complement yours. Promoting each other’s content is much easier when it’s not a conflict of interests. ● Guest blog – There are many benefits to guest blogging. This is a great way to build the relationships to get you there. After testing the waters and attending a meetup, evaluate if the time and costs of hosting a meetup is outweighed by the value it brings to your business – remember, every business is different. 1. Set up a Meetup account. Setting up a Meetup account is rather straightforward. ● Visit www.meetup.com and sign up by entering your name and email address. There is an option to sign up via Facebook but only do so if your Facebook account reflects your brand messaging and standards. ● Under “Settings,” fill out the fields completely. Use your log as a photo and connect with your business’s social profiles. ● Log in and click “Start” at the top when you’ve got an idea and some details about your first Meetup. ● Next, fill in the location of your group, and up to 15 relevant topics. Add your 78
  • 79. group’s name, description, what your members are called, and a web address. ● While Meetup is free for attendees, Organizers have to pay dues ($45 for a three month term, and $72 for a six-month term, on top of the flat annual rate of $19 per month). ● Now you’re ready to begin organizing Meetups! 2. Host a Meetup for your business. Meetup.com can help you achieve a number of business objectives including (but not limited to) extending your audience reach and brand visibility, increasing sales, and conducting market research. We’ve provided some helpful information for when you’re ready to put together your own meetup. Prior to the event, you should: ● Ask yourself if your meetup is emotionally compelling. You want these events to resonate with your audience so leave a lasting impression by creating positive memories to associate with your business. ● Tastefully brand your Meetup. While this is an opportunity for you to market your business, it shouldn’t be treated as a formal marketing event. If you include sponsors, then make sure they respect your request not to overload attendees with advertising either. ● Be considerate of everyone’s time. They’re just as busy as you are so give them appropriate time to RSVP. ● Communicate everything to your invites. Do not assume that just because you can infer something that they will do the same. ● Ask for contributions. If you’re hosting this event solo and can’t completely cover the costs, don’t be afraid to let attendees know that you need to charge, especially if you’re a small business. 79
  • 80. ● Pick 15 topics when creating your group to ensure maximum visibility. ● Clearly describe what the group is about, who should join, and what they can expect. ● Share your meetup using your various social media channels to grow membership. ● Add notable attendee profiles onto your event page to increase attendance. ● Attach handouts and worksheets to your Group and request that members bring them for use during your event. This is a chance for you to incorporate branded messages on the materials, but remember not to overwhelm attendees with this branded material. Have a handful of copies at the event in case anyone forgets. During the event: ● Grab plenty of pictures and video at your event, and make sure attendees sign release documents beforehand so you can publish them. Create excitement for photos and videos to be uploaded following the event. ● Whoever is helping out at the event (yourself included) should be dressed in a fashion that appropriately reflects your brand. ● Never forget to thank people for attending in person when possible, and online when necessary. After the event: ● Be consistent in scheduling meetups, and once you’ve nailed the theme, stick to it. You’ll soon be recognized and positively associated with a valuable series of events. ● Follow up with attendees for feedback, and act on those insights. Pay attention to those who take the time to reply. ● Upload photos into your Meetup Organizer profile. 80
  • 81. ● Share event photos and video on your social media channels. ● Connect with your Meetup attendees online on their social networks and stay engaged to increase the likelihood that they continue attendance. 81
  • 82. Get Featured by Uncrate Uncrate is the leading buyer's guide for men. With over 9,000 items covered and more than 1.5 million monthly readers, Uncrate is widely known for digging up the best of the best men's products. But its readers don’t just like looking at cool products, they like buying them too. Getting your product featured on Uncrate can drive significant sales and lead to other press opportunities. However, getting featured is by no means a walk in the park. After all, these guys are the purveyors of cool – there’s no formal process for that. Some companies get discovered by Uncrate, but others have had success after contacting the company to tell them about their product or even sending over a sample. 82
  • 83. Polyvore Launched in 2007, Polyvore remains a growing social site for brands to interact and engage with followers while also driving traffic back to the brand’s own website. The value in Polyvore lies in its strong ROI for brands. While Polyvore’s average return on ad spend for merchants is $6:1, Polyvore quotes an average basket size of $383; significantly higher than Instagram, Twitter, Wanelo, and Facebook. Unlike traditional comparison shopping sites, Polyvore offers the ability to adjust ad bidding based on device with a mobile bid modifier – desktop bids are modified by a positive or negative multiplier. Mobile often performs differently compared to desktop, so having the ability to adjust at the device level allows merchants more control over return. There are plenty of ways to promote your products on Polyvore, but we’ll focus on a couple of direct response options and how to establish your brand within the Polyvore community. Engagement (Sets, Collections, and More) Create your profile and request a merchant badge to begin connecting with the Polyvore community as a brand. You first step should include building your own “sets” or “collections” of items that users can like or comment on. Grow engagement by reaching out to individual users and liking or commenting on their content. 83
  • 84. CONTENT Content marketing is not just a buzzword – it’s a highly effective marketing strategy – and it’s not going away. In this chapter, we break down popular approaches to content and the different hacks that make it so powerful. 84
  • 85. Offer Social Proof When others start talking about your product in a positive light or even recommending it, the act validates your brand and business in the eyes of new prospects. This often occurs in natural conversation, but you can replicate the validation factor through customer reviews and testimonials on your website and social channels. Social proof helps potential customers trust your new business. If you’re lacking in this department, put together a list of your customers and everyone who has come into contact with your business. Reach out with a friendly, personal note to ask for a few kind words if they enjoyed their experience shopping with you. In order to elicit a good response rate, consider running a raffle for those who submit or post an answer. 85
  • 86. Recycle Content Someone out there is actively searching for a product you offer, but due to the newness of your business and the nature of SEO, they probably will never find you. This is why content creation is so important. By creating content that your target demographic is searching for, you increase the likelihood of getting found organically by an audience with higher purchase intent. An easy approach to crafting great content is recycling content from elsewhere. Please don’t mistaken this for plagiarizing or stealing content – neither of which we encourage because it’s illegal but it will also have serious consequences on your SEO. Rather, we do encourage you use what you’ve learned from other reputable sources to spin together a creative conclusion (with proper credit given). For example, head over to Quora where knowledgeable community members provide answers to every question you can think of. Pick a topic you know your target user keeps tabs on and read through the questions listed. What common questions come up around this topic? Is there new information you can reveal to your user? Recycle the information you’ve learned here e.g. “best of Quora” summaries or shareable lists. We encourage you always giving credit where it’s due – it may even result in the source sharing your content. 86
  • 87. Reword Discounts Which one sounds better to you? "Buy one, get one FREE" or "Buy one, get one 50%"? Yes, they both mean the same thing but "free" is still a very special concept. According to research by Dan Ariely, our penchant for it appears to be almost hardwired into us. In his book Predictably Irrational, Ariely discusses an experiment using Hershey's Kisses and Lindt chocolate truffles. For your reference, Lindt truffles are considerably more expensive than Hershey's Kisses for its taste and quality. In the first round, participants could buy truffles for 15 cents (about 50% off the original cost) or a Kiss for 1 cent. Nearly 75% of participants favored the better price and quality combination of the truffle offer. In the next round, the cost of each item was reduced by one cent – 14 cents for the truffle, and 0 cents (free) for the Kiss. Even though the price difference between both items remained the same, the results changed drastically. More than 66% of participants now chose the free Kiss. 87
  • 88. Relieve Pain One of your greatest influences over a customer exists in your ability to help them avoid pain. This doesn’t always equate to physical pain – consider stress, heartbreak, self-esteem, etc. In what ways can your product alleviate their negative emotion? Once you’ve got that figured out, you’ll need to openly state what the pain is before introducing the solution. For example “Stop stressing about Christmas shopping and grab a custom throwback tee for everyone this holiday!” 88
  • 89. Round Numbers There will be instances where the magic number 9 (from our previous chapter) may not be so magical. Research indicates that consumers process pricing information differently for round numbers (e.g. “3") versus non-round ones (e.g."3.99"). So which price format is best for you to drive a purchase? The answer is not quite that straightforward. Monica Wadhwa and Kuangjie Zhang, assistant professors of marketing at INSEAD and at Nanyang Business School respectively, set out to find the answer. They found that consumers use feelings to process round prices and reasoning to compute non-round prices. This means the best price format for your business depends on what products you offer. Is your business more geared toward emotional stimulation or practical applications? For example, products geared toward entertainment or luxury (emotion) can benefit more from rounded prices: price a handbag at $499 instead of $499.99. However, for purchases with a practical application such as a phone charger, use $29.99 instead of $29. If your product seems to fall into the grey area, consider one of the experiments the researchers conducted where participants were given camera options for a family vacation (leisure) and for a class project (practical). The participants chose rounded prices for leisure and non-rounded prices for practicality. With that in mind, understand whether consumers see your offer as a feel-good purchase or a utilitarian purchase. 89
  • 90. Perception of 9 Here’s another way to convince consumers they’re getting a better deal: use the number 9. Have you noticed how frequently prices end in “.99”? Economist Tim Harford some explanation for 9’s frequent occurrence. Briefly, it’s thanks to something called the left-digit effect, which suggests that the mind places the most emphasis on numbers to the left of a decimal and ignores the end of prices. The other explanation is that consumers perceive they’re getting a deal when prices end in ".99". 90
  • 91. Create Urgency The more time you give a visitor to make a purchase, the less likely they are to buy. Solve this issue by creating a sense of urgency with messages and promotions like “One Day Sale,” “Last Chance to Save,” “25% Off, Today Only.” Your visitors are more likely to buy when there is an urgent call to action. 91
  • 92. Provide Comparison "...not $100, not $75, not even $50" Can you hear the infomercial host? Can you see the giant price tags with red “X’s” crossing out the more expensive price? Comparison is a trick often used in advertising to convince consumers they are getting a great deal. It’s easier for us to perceive tremendous value or savings with a product when we can see the difference. This works especially well for numbers: $189.99 seems like a great deal when compared with $10,000, but as a standalone, $189.99 can sound a bit pricey. On the other hand, recall the infomercial voice you just heard. Most people do not find that pleasing, and may actually distrust it. The challenge for you will be to execute this tactic artfully. You shouldn’t cheapen your brand or business, but still make a compelling comparison. 92
  • 93. Create Content Creating content is typically a strategy that depends on creating and optimizing content over the long term to lead prospects through a marketing funnel. Sound familiar? That’s because It’s very similar to creating products for your store – the more focused you are, the easier it is. And just like selling your products, content also comes with two options: marketplace or self-hosted. For this instance, it’s better to publish to a marketplace where there are already active readers and people looking for content. Undoubtedly, part of that audience will contain users within your niche. This is not the place to sell your platform. Rather, use this opportunity to write articles that would catch the attention of your target user such as “25 Things Only Gearheads Understand.” If you’d rather not write, try your hand at podcasts or videos. Here are several places you can publish your content: 1. Medium 2. Inbound 3. LinkedIn Pulse 4. GrowthHackers 5. HackerNews 93
  • 94. Get Interviewed Getting your time in the spotlight is not as hard as you might think. The media is always looking for industry experts and will often allow a brief plug for your business in return. If you have unique insights on the industry or your niche, you should pitch it to a relevant publication. Most publications openly disclose directions for sending pitches so just head to their website. Most will also request that you submit a description or outline of your pitch 2 - 4 weeks in advance with a minimum word count. Often times, there will be a 30-day period following your article’s publication where you can not publish the content elsewhere. If you find this to be too much of a time constraint, keep daily tabs with the help of Help A Reporter Out (HARO). 94