Wednesday 16 September 2015

How do I build an online audience and sell to them?

💬	How to build an audience?
I started a mens fashion label and i've been working on it for ages. Finally lauched about a month ago. I've tried advertising on Facebook with very little results and i'm not really sure what is the best way to get noticed. Read More »

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💬	1,500 website visitors, but only a .12% purchase conversion rate. Recommendations on how to increase sales?
My site has had 1,603 visitors since we launched close to two months ago, but we have only had two online sales. Recommendations please.

8 Marketing Tactics (and apps) That Turn Shoppers Into Buyers

by Richard Lazazzera Twitter

As an online store owner, you're always looking for more traffic and sales. With so many ways of achieving these goals it can sometimes be difficult to determine the best place to start. Previously, we shared 13 actionable marketing tactics with you and today we have eight more.

In this post, we will showcase a variety of tactics that you can implement immediately, along with an app for each one. Everything from automated email marketing to implementing referral marketing campaigns effortlessly and a bunch in-between.

Let's find out how to increase traffic and sales.

1. Build An Automated Email Marketing Campaign

When it comes to driving conversions, one channel continues to outperform all others: email. In fact, according to recent research, email has a return-on-investment of around 4,300%. If that's not enough to get you excited about email marketing, consider this:

80% of people say they receive marketing messages alongside their personal emails on a daily basis.
70% of people make use of coupons or discounts they learn about from email.
60% of people say that receiving special offers is the top reason they subscribe to an email list from a business.

If you haven't taken the time to develop a email marketing campaign, you're almost certainly leaving money on the table.

App: Klaviyo

Klaviyo allows you to send beautiful newsletters and automated emails to segments of your list using their completely customizable templates. Want to automatically send a thank you coupon to loyal customers after their second purchase from your store? Klaviyo can do it. Want to send out automatic emails to anyone that hasn't purchased from your store in six months? Klaviyo can do that. The best part? Klaviyo will also automatically track all sales relating from your email campaigns, so you'll know exactly how well it's working.

2. Add An Email Popup

If you looked at the first tactic and tool and thought, "But I don't have anyone to email yet" then this next tactic and app is for you. You likely see them on your favorite blogs, they may even annoy you a bit, however, email popups have proven time and time again to increase you number of email subscribers with very little negative impact.

Adding an email collecting popup to your site can help you to build your email list so you can start using email marketing effectively to make more sales.

App: Pop-Up Window

Pop-Up Window is a simple, yet powerful app that will allow you to add a fully customizable popup to your site to capture customer emails.

3. Persistent Cart

Let's say someone comes to your store and after browsing around for a while, finds several products they want to buy. They add them to the cart but don't complete the purchase. Later when they get home they open their laptop only to find their cart is empty and they have to re-add all the items.

This can be a frustration for your customers and a source of lost sales for your business. In fact, the National Mail Order Association, found that nearly 35% of shoppers took more than 12 hours to complete their purchase, and 21% took greater than three days.

App: Persistent Cart

Persistent Cart is a simple and free app that will save all items in the cart when your customer is logged in. When they switch to a different computer or logout and log back into their account, all their previously added products will be right there, waiting for them to checkout.

4. Feature a Strong Call-To-Action

Call-to-Actions (CTAs) are a powerful tactic yet they're often overlooked. Theres nothing quite so simple and effective than pointing out the next logical step in a users journey towards conversion. The effect of adding CTAs in the right places really can make all the difference in generating leads.

A call-to-action can be any wording or graphic that provides an obvious link to the next clear action. This can be to highlight a sale or promo, or even just to subscribe to your newsletter. Regardless, a CTA should be obvious and simple, with one clear action you want your visitors to take.

App: Hello Bar

The popular Hello Bar is a simple notification bar for your store that allows you to easily feature and change a primary call-to-action. You can use Hello Bar to create a notification bar at the top of your store telling visitors about your new or featured products or use it to promote whatever you like. Easily update your call-to-action whenever you like without having to edit any code.

5. Run a Contest

A great contest can not only increase engagement from your current subscribers and customers, but it can also effectively help you reach new customers. In fact, BeardBrand was able to grow their social presence by 300% and doubled their email list in less than one week with a well thought out online contest.

App: Gleam

Gleam is a contest platform that help you run campaigns that help you grow your audience and engage with your community. Using Gleam, you can set up contests that allows your customers and visitors multiple entries based on pre-determined actions they take, like signing up to your newsletter, sharing the contest on their various social networks or following your brand on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

6. Encourage Referrals

Referral marketing, simply put, is word-of-mouth marketing from your customers and it’s one of the most powerful and influential forms of marketing there is. In fact, according to Nielsen, 92% of people trust recommendations from friends and family, over all other forms of marketing and 77% of consumers are more likely to buy a new product when learning about it from friends or family.

App: Forewards

Tap into the power of referral marketing with Forewards. This nifty little apps makes it easy to set up a automated referral campaign, encouraging your customers to share your store with their friends. Forewards even has pre-written the referral emails and will automatically A/B test them on autopilot to get the best possible conversion rate.

7. Introduce Live Chat

Studies suggest that 21% of online shoppers prefer live chat over other communication methods, like phone and social media, and of that 21%, 79% said they liked it because they could get answers to their questions immediately. That’s important because in the world of ecommerce, answering customers questions and handling objections before they leave your site, significantly increases your chances of making a sale.

App: Tidio Live Chat

Tidio is a simple and easy to use live chat widget for your store that will help you engage and connect better than ever with your visitors. With features like support for mobile devices, offline contact form and automatics replies, this app should meet the requirements of event the most demanding users.

8. Write Great Product Descriptions

Writing great product descriptions is an art. Not only is it an art, but it's extremely important for ecommerce businesses to have unique and compelling product descriptions not only to help sell the product, but product descriptions also help your search engine optimization. Unfortunately, most people tend to neglect this aspect of their store, opting to just write a few lines or even copying and pasting manufacturer descriptions.

App: Copywriter

The Copywriter app gives you access to thousands of professional writers, translators and proofreaders. Use Copywriter to help you create unique and compelling product descriptions for each of your products. Additionally, you can use Copywriter for blog posts and press releases. Copywriter writers provide a quick turnaround and unique content using your predefined keywords.

There you have it. Eight tactics and eights apps to help you increase your conversions and sales for your online store. For more marketing tactics make sure to check out the "How To Sell Online" section of the Shopify blog and more more apps check out the Shopify App Store.

Tell us in the comments what tactics you have recently tried and how they worked for you.

WELL YOU DID WRITE THE LETTERS !

5 Ways to Use Packaging Inserts to Increase Customer Loyalty and Revenue

by Richard Lazazzera Twitter
May 6, 2015

It’s almost always cheaper to retain your current customers than it is to constantly acquire new customers. That's why it's so important to build customer loyalty and exceed expectations with every sale you make.

In a previous post on creating a memorable branded unboxing experience, we briefly touched on adding package inserts like discounts, samples and gifts with each shipped package and their effectiveness. In this post, we’re going to dive deeper into packaging inserts so you can make the most of every shipped package to drive customer loyalty, repeat purchases and revenues through the roof.

Why Are Package Inserts so Important?

Package inserts can be a cost-effective and versatile medium for building a solid relationship with your customers. It's these relationships that can help increase sales, average order size, and profit. Consider this, with every package shipped, your customer's experience with your brand will either:

Fall below expectations
Meet expectations
Exceed expectations

There are many ways, some even out of your control, that your customer's experience with your brand can fall below expectations. If everything goes well and the post office isn't late, you may meet your customers expectations. It's the little extra things though, like using the right packaging inserts, that will help you stand out and exceed expectations, time and time again.

Let's take a look at some of the other top reasons packaging inserts are so important:

Packaging inserts are low cost - Below we will discuss five package insert opportunity types, each of them are very low cost, yet can yield high return.
Inserts can be highly targeted - They are already a customer and you know what they bought. This can allow you to tailor your package insert closely to the exact person receiving it.
The cost of delivering the message has already been paid - The package is already being shipped so you might as well make the most of it.
Package inserts are perfect for cross-selling - Because you know exactly what the customer already likes, you can add highly targeted cross sell opportunities.
Package inserts are a great channel for liquidating merchandise - Hard to move merchandise can be converted to a marketing expense and used to bolster you relationship with current customers.
The right inserts increase loyalty - By making the customer feel special, inserts make the customer feel like they are important and provide a reason for them to share their story.

Package inserts seem pretty simple - just throw a flyer or coupon in the box whenever you ship an order. In fact though, there are a lot of options on the table you can use and mix to deliver more value and build greater loyalty with your customers. Let's take a look at some of the most popular types of packaging insert options.

5 Types of Packaging Inserts

1. Discount Offers

One of the, if not the most popular type of package insert is a discount offer. Sure these could always be delivered by email, and you may even choose digital delivery as well to deliver your discounts by including discounts or credits for future purchases right in the box ensures your customers will receive the offer and leaves them with a tangible reminder.

As an example, Julep, an online beauty brand makes use of several types of discounts to build loyalty.

One of the most cost effective ways to create discount or deal offers to be included with your packaging is to print them at business card size (business cards are such a commodity at this point they are extremely inexpensive). You can use a service like OvernightPrints or, for a more premium quality, Moo Cards and upload your images for print. You may want to consider including two discount cards with each purchase, one for the purchaser and one for the purchaser to give away to a friend. You may also want to test out different types of offers to see which one your audience responds best to.

For example:

Free Shipping On Your Next Order
$10 Credit Towards Your Next Order
25% Off Your Next Order

2. Product Samples

Samples can be a great value add to your packages for a few reasons. First, depending on the products you sell, you can sometimes get samples for free from your vendors. Second, product samples provide a great way to cross-sell customers and introduce them to other products and product lines that they may not know about or have been curious about trying.

Beardbrand, a premiere beard grooming brand specializing in beard oil will sometimes provide small beard oil samples to their customers and wholesalers. This small sample provides customers with additional value and increases Beardbrand's exposure.

3. Small Gifts

Much like samples, small gifts can be a great way to surprise and delight customers without them feeling like you are trying to sell them on other products. The gift you give doesn’t have to be expensive. Since it’s not expected, most people will be pleasantly surprised by any additional gifts.

Take for example what Ryan French did. As the founder of GameKlip, he decided to add a small package of candies with every order. It was so well received by his customer that they talked about it all oversocial media, forums and blogs. Today, if you search Google for “GameKlip Rockets Candy” you’ll find nearly 27,000 results of people talking about the pleasant surprise they received.

GameKlip isn't the only one taking advantage of adding small gifts to their package.

Johnny Cupcakes, a popular streetwear brand, knows exactly how well additional inserts can impact a customer's experience. They include a variety of items in their packages that provides additional value and leaves customers with a smile.

When Nikki Mueller received her package, it contained the following in addition to her t-shirt:

On her blog, Nikki said:

There was also several little branded ziplocs with a gorgeous mini-brochure, a Power Rangers card, a button, and a breath mint! Digging the randomness. So basically Johnny Cupcakes is my new hero.

Just how effective can a small, almost valueless gift be? It's been well documented that the little candies delivered by servers at the end of a restaurant meal help increase tips.

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the impact of this gesture on the tip percentages received by servers. Experiment 1 found that customers who received a small piece of chocolate along with the check tipped more than did customers who received no candy. Experiment 2 found that tips varied with the amount of the candy given to the customers as well as the manner it was delivered.

So what can be learned from this study? The little, seemingly valueless gifts, combined with some personalization makes people feel special and makes them want to return the favor. It's the law ofreciprocity and is a powerful psychological trigger.

Consider how you can can use small gifts and personalization in with your packaging inserts to create customers for life.

4. Thank-You Cards and Personal Notes

The simplest, least expensive and most personalized insert you can add to customer packages is a handwritten thank-you card. A simple card, can be a really thoughtful gesture, that can help build loyalty. This can be particularly effective when first starting out, as it’s a competitive advantage that most larger scale companies can no longer compete with. Use this to your advantage.

Brandon Eley, founder of 2BigFeet posted the following photo in a popular ecommerce forum:

He went on to explain:

One of the ways we encourage repeat business is by sending our best customers a handwritten thank you card with a coupon for future purchase. It's my goal to send 1,000 cards every year, which works out to just 4 cards every weekday. I write all of them personally, but I'm automating the procedure of running the reports, making the coupon codes, etc to cut down on the amount of time it takes me every day.

A customer appreciation campaign like the one from 2BigFeet has the ability to produce massive results and can be done with a very small financial investment for the cards and just a small time commitment to write and send them.

As another great example of a really personalized note comes from TrunkClub, a premium menswear service. TrunkClub includes hand written notes from personal stylists explaining their selection of products with all orders:

Here are some quick tips on writing a thank-you note to your customers from Gregory Ciotti from Help Scout that he posted in a previous guest blog post:

If it's financially feasible, try to use quality stationary.
Be sure to use the customer's name.
Express your gratitude, clearly stating the reason for sending the note.
Mention details about what you enjoyed about your experience with this customer (a fantastic opportunity to be specific and thoughtful).
Allude to your future interactions with the customer.
Close with professional but warm sign-off and a signature. (i.e Best, Kindest Regards, Sincerely, Cheers, etc.)

5. Product Review/Share On Social Media Request

Since the shipped package usually represents the end of the transaction for most customers, packaging inserts can also be a great place to ask for a product review or to share their experience on social media.

Frank Body, a coffee based body scrub encourages social interaction at almost every touch point. This includes adding an insert which further bolsters their brand and a request to share their experience on social media.

As a result, Frank Body has built a massive community (615k on Instagram) of fans all promoting their product which provides social proof to others and further builds their brand exposure.

Conclusion

In the end, packaging inserts are really about providing more value by exceeding expectations and matching the right offering with your particular audience.

As with all direct marketing efforts, be sure to test different package insert programs and different offers to build your own successful program that will increase loyalty, sales and profit for your business.

Bonus: Packaging inserts are just a part of the entire customer experience. Check out How To Create a Memorable and Sharable Unboxing Experience For Your Brand.

About The Author

Richard Lazazzera is an ecommerce entrepreneur and Content Strategist in charge of customer success at Shopify. Get more from Richard on his ecommerce blog.

5 Ways to Use Packaging Inserts to Increase Customer Loyalty and Revenue

by Richard Lazazzera Twitter
May 6, 2015

Why Are Package Inserts so Important?

Fall below expectations
Meet expectations
Exceed expectations

Let's take a look at some of the other top reasons packaging inserts are so important:

Packaging inserts are low cost - Below we will discuss five package insert opportunity types, each of them are very low cost, yet can yield high return.
Inserts can be highly targeted - They are already a customer and you know what they bought. This can allow you to tailor your package insert closely to the exact person receiving it.
The cost of delivering the message has already been paid - The package is already being shipped so you might as well make the most of it.
Package inserts are perfect for cross-selling - Because you know exactly what the customer already likes, you can add highly targeted cross sell opportunities.
Package inserts are a great channel for liquidating merchandise - Hard to move merchandise can be converted to a marketing expense and used to bolster you relationship with current customers.
The right inserts increase loyalty - By making the customer feel special, inserts make the customer feel like they are important and provide a reason for them to share their story.