The 17 Best Places Ecommerce Entrepreneurs Go To Find Product Ideas June 18, 2019 bizadmin Coming up with a great idea for a product to sell online will occasionally strike when you least expect it. Many times though, it’s something you need to be proactively on the lookout for. The internet contains a wealth of ideas and inspiration, but as a new entrepreneur, where do you begin? Aimlessly searching online will only get you so far, so we’ve compiled a list of the best resources to give you direction and get you started. Free Guide: How to Find a Profitable Product to Sell Online Excited about starting a business, but not sure where to start? This free, comprehensive guide will teach you how to find great, newly trending products with high sales potential. 17 places to find profitable product ideas: Start with what you have Your local community Online consumer trend publications Industry leaders Product and trend discovery sites Social curation sites B2B wholesale marketplaces Online consumer marketplaces Social forum communities Social media networks On-site and third-party customer reviews SEO analytics and insights Consumer lifestyle publications Your competitors Audience surveys Crowdsourcing Look to the past As you go through all the resources listed in this post, it’s vital to keep two things in mind: While searching for new product ideas, make sure to look beyond the products themselves. It may sound cliche but as we learned in Strategies for Finding Your First Profitable Product, there is heavy competition in the most common and popular product categories. Choosing a different or unique angle can be instrumental to your success. Try not to just look at products, rather look for potential in the product category. Consider new markets, new features and new ways to use the products. Don’t be afraid to look at smaller product categories and niches. Even though a niche is a smaller subset of a larger category with less potential customers, it makes up for that by way of less competitors and a more targeted audience. Less competition makes it easier to get to the top of Google, and is usually more cost effective and efficient to advertise to your customers. In this post we’ll go into detail about the best places to look for product inspiration and ideas. We’ll start with some broad ideas to get your head in the right space to start your search and then get into more specific resources closer to the end of the post. As you go through this post and the list of resources, it’s best to capture all of your ideas on paper. Once you have all of your brainstormed ideas recorded, you will be able to return to them later and evaluate them for viability and potential. Start with what you have Before you begin searching the depths of the internet for business ideas and the ends of the earth for product and niche ideas, it’s always best to start with the ideas you already have. Maybe it’s a product or idea you’ve had for years. Maybe it exists in a half-written business plan sitting in a folder somewhere on your computer. Even if you’ve discounted it at some point prior, it’s worth taking a fresh look at it. At one point you thought it was a great idea, right? Here are a few questions to consider when making your list of internet business ideas: What products, niches or industry you are particularly passionate about or interested in? What products, niches or industries are your friends passionate about? What pain points do you have in your own life? Example: Sisters/entrepreneurs Lisa Kalberer and Allison Hottinger are passionate about family and tradition. They instill these values in their homes by assembling a manger during the holidays. When friends were interested in starting their own traditions, The Giving Manger was born. The product born of passion attracted the attention of influencers that made the brand a nationwide hit, online and in stores. Identify pain points and challenges If there’s a problem, solve it. Consider which pain points you have in your life, or even the pain points of those around you. Active Hound, for example, stepped in to solve the challenge of dog toys that were easily chewed and destroyed. Dog owners would become frustrated with unreliable products, and the expenses can quickly add up. The market for that product was based on this one specific pain point. Your local community Sometimes, you don’t need a new idea at all. Traditional brick and mortar businesses have been around much longer than their ecommerce counterparts. Paying attention to trends in brick and mortar retail and adapting them to ecommerce can be just the ticket you need to create a profitable and unique internet business idea. Look around your community and take note of what new or interesting retail concepts people are talking about. Your local newspapers can also be a great resource for this type of news and information. Example: Grocery-delivery service InstaCart is a perfect example of a company that saw a way to take a brick and mortar concept and put it online. Most grocery shopping happens in-store, according to PwC’s 2017 Total Retail Survey, but with the growing popularity of services like Amazon Pantry, there’s an opportunity to drive and capture online sales. Though many consumers may be apprehensive to online grocery shopping, InstaCart partners with brick and mortar retail stores so customers are still shopping from the same grocery store they know and love. This also supports the small business movement, allowing customers to buy from select local grocers. Online consumer trend publications A great place to start your search for product ideas is to look at some top consumer product trend publications. Following trend publications is great way to begin getting a sense of the direction consumer products are going and the ideas other entrepreneurs are introducing to the market. Following these publications can also expose you to new product categories and industries that you previously didn’t know about. Following what’s trending can help you to dream up new goods, services and experiences for your online business. There are several popular trend publications online including, but not limited to: TrendWatching: TrendWatching is an independent trend firm that scans the globe for the most promising consumer trends and insights. TrendWatching has a team of professionals in locations like London, New York, São Paulo, Singapore, Sydney and Lagos who report on worldwide trends. Trend Hunter: Trend Hunter is the world’s largest, most popular trend community. Fuelled by a global network of 137,000 members and 3,000,000 fans, Trend Hunter is a source of inspiration for aspiring entrepreneurs and the insatiably curious. Jeremy, the founder of Trend Hunter says, “Like many of us, I was an entrepreneur at heart, but I didn’t know what idea I wanted to pursue. I chose careers that I thought would lead me to my business idea… but after years of searching, I was still hunting for inspiration. It was then that I started Trend Hunter – a place for insatiably curious people to share ideas and get inspired.” PSFK: PSFK is a “business intelligence platform [that] inspires creative professionals as they develop new products, services and experiences across retail, advertising and design.” It analyzes research-based consumer trends and insights that you can use as a jumping-off point and validation for ecommerce business ideas. Example: A great example of someone who noticed a trend from another country and brought it home is Dan and his product, Inkkas. Inkkas are beautiful, unique shoes made of authentic South American textiles. The idea came about when Dan noticed the trend for these style of shoes in Peru. Determining this was a great product that would also do well in the North American market, he brought the idea home and successfully funded his Kickstarter project, raising over $77,000 in pre-orders. Industry leaders If you know the industry or niche you would like to be in you can use various tools to discover the influencers in the industry. Following the right people on social media can help inspire new ideas through a constant stream of carefully curated content from the people in the know. It’s up to you to uncover the opportunities. There are several online tools you can use to discover the influencers online for a particular industry or niche: FollowerWonk AllTop Product and trend discovery sites Product review and discovery sites can also be a fantastic source for product and internet business ideas. Sites like Uncrate (men’s products) and AHALife (luxury products) are great ways to see new curated product trends daily. What better way to get inspired than to get a daily glimpse into the new and interesting products other entrepreneurs are bringing to the market. Here are just a few examples of popular consumer product blogs to get you started: Uncrate AHALife Bless This Stuff Cool Material GearMoose Werd HiConsumption Firebox Don’t just look at the big and popular sites but explore niche reviews sites as well. Consider what types of products and niches you’re particularly interested in and search for consumer product review blogs in those niches. Social curation sites Polyvore and other similar image curation sites can be a goldmine for product and niche ideas. Many of the images contain interesting, new and trending businesses and consumer products. Using the built in social signals you can sometimes get a sense almost immediately of their popularity. This could be your first clue if there is a market for the product or niche. Several of the larger social curations sites that may inspire niche business ideas are: Fancy: Fancy describes themselves as part store, magazine and wish list. Use Fancy to find a gift for any occasion and share your favorite discoveries with all your friends. Wanelo: Wanelo (Want – Need – Love) describes itself as a community for all of the worlds shopping, bringing together products and stores in a Pinterest-like product posting format. You can start by checking out out trending people. Wishlistr: Wishlistr is a way to collect, organize and track products you want, as well as share that list with others. More than 9 million “wishes” have been listed to date. B2B wholesale marketplaces What better way to get product ideas than right from the source? This has been a popular option amongst ecommerce entrepreneurs for a while, and this list wouldn’t be complete without it. Wholesale and manufacturer sourcing sites expose you to thousands of potential products ideas. It can be easy to get overwhelmed with the sheer amount of products available, so take it slow. Alibaba: Alibaba is one of the biggest ecommerce companies in the world, up there with Amazon and eBay. The platform connects consumers all over the world with wholesalers and manufacturers from Asia. With hundreds of thousands of products, there’s not much you can’t find on Alibaba. Although it’s generally accepted that Alibaba is the largest online wholesale and manufacturer database, there are many other sites similar to Alibaba you can use for inspiration and to find product ideas. Oberlo: is a marketplace owned by Shopify where you can purchase products to sell on Shopify from suppliers. These suppliers provide automated order fulfillment services, so it’s a popular turnkey option for many entrepreneurs deciding what to sell on Shopify. Browse what’s available and review Oberlo’s trending products to help come up with your own ideas. Some other B2B wholesale marketplaces include: TradeKey Global Sources Made-in-China Wholesale Central Online consumer marketplaces Another rich source for product ideas are online consumer marketplaces. Millions of products is probably an understatement, so you may want to begin your search with some of the popular and trending items and branch out into other interesting categories that catch your eye from there: eBay: eBay is the largest online consumer auction site. Use eBay Market Research to find some of the most popular product categories on eBay. Amazon: Amazon is the largest internet retailer.Amazon Best Sellers shows Amazon’s most popular products based on sales. Amazon Movers & Shakers displays the biggest gainers in sales rank over the past 24 hours. Both are updated hourly. Kickstarter: Kickstarter is the largest crowd-funding website. Browse all projects by popularity, funding, staff picks, as well as many other options with Kickstarter Discover. Etsy: Etsy is a marketplace for handmade items. Look up what’s trending to find the most popular listings. AliExpress: AliExpress is Alibaba’s consumer wholesale marketplace that allows you to order in smaller quantities. AliExpress Popular reveals the most-bought products. Jet: Jet is another internet retailer that continues to grow in popularity. Each product category has its own list of best sellers, such as this one for wholesale and this one for books and media. Social forum communities Reddit Reddit is the largest social media news aggregator. It describes itself as the front page of the internet and is enormously influential. Reddit has thousands of “subreddits” which are sub-sections or niches that cater to different topics and and areas of interest. It’s within these subreddits that you can find lots of inspiration for your next product or business idea. If you have an idea for a particular industry, niche or product category, it’s worth doing a search and finding a suitable subreddit community to join and actively become a part of. There are also many product focused subreddits that are packed with ideas. Here are a few examples: Buy It For Life: For practical, durable and quality made products that are built to last. Shut Up And Take My Money: Interesting, clever, useful products that people want, badly. There are also several subreddits for curated Amazon products, make sure to check out the following: The Best of Amazon The Best of Amazon Canada Weird Stuff on Amazon Find It On Amazon Amazon Under 25 If you’re active on Reddit and pay close attention, occasionally you have come across interesting posts like this one, which asks commenters to share their best purchases for under $50. No matter which approach you take, Reddit has been and continues to be a valuable source of ecommerce business ideas and inspiration, coupled with a great and supportive community. Quora Quora is a community question-and-answer site, “a place to gain and share knowledge,” as the company says. Essentially, users come to Quora to ask and answer questions about pretty much anything and everything. Like Reddit’s subreddits, Quora has topics that you can choose to add to your own customized feed. Consider adding some product- or industry-related feeds, as well as anything else inspired by online business. Quora also shows which topics and questions are trending, as well as a count of the total number of answers (each with a number of upvotes and downvotes from the community). Once you populate your feed, you’ll start to discover questions and answers that may inspire ecommerce business ideas. Here are a few: What is the best gift you’ve ever received? What’s your favorite product? What would you buy from Amazon? Industry and niche forums Depending on the industry you’re targeting, there may be niche forum sites that you can tap into for product ideas to sell. Gaming is one industry that has an active online community, and you can check out forums like GameFAQs or NeoGAF. Here are a few other industry forum sites for niche product ideas: The Fashion Spot Nerd Fitness Rebellion Geeks to Go Social media networks There are a few ways you can use social media to search for product and niche ideas. Hashtag: If you have a particular interest in a product category or industry, you can try searching for applicable hashtags. Another great option is to do a search on social media for hashtags that indicate buyer interest and intent like #want and #buy. Product curation accounts: There are many accounts on Instagram that post curated product content. Like many other examples above, you’ll likely want to search for and find accounts within the niches you are particularly interested in. Audience insights: If you already have a business page on one or more social media platform, you may be able to use your audience data to find ecommerce business ideas. Understand which pages, hobbies, interests and other characteristics they have in common and brainstorm products based on those insights. Instagram Instagram isn’t just pictures of food and dogs, it is also an interesting option for inspiring product and ecommerce business ideas. Because it’s photo-based, it’s easy to scan through many ideas and photos quickly. Facebook Facebook still has the most active users out of any social media platform. If there’s a market you’re trying to reach, there’s a chance they’re on Facebook. In addition to hashtags, trending topics and popular pages, check out which Facebook groups are popular in your niche. You may be able to participate and find inspiration through those communities. Pinterest The average order of value of sales coming through Pinterest is higher than any other social channel. This indicates that Pinterest users are browsing, shopping and buying, making it an ideal spot to research popular products and trends. Another visual platform, it’s easy to scan and find inspiration for ecommerce business ideas. Don’t forget to check out the popular section for what’s trending. Snapchat Especially ideal for a younger demographic, Snapchat admittedly has more limited capabilities in terms of identifying trends. Use the Discover option to find out what the Snapchat community is talking about and follower influencers in your niche to gain more insight into their needs and motivations. Twitter Twitter trends will be helpful in finding new ecommerce business ideas. You’ll be able to see what’s popular in your network or a chosen location. You’ll find these trends on the left-hand side when you log in at twitter.com, or look for the Explore option when you’re on the mobile app. Niche social media sites If you’re searching for niche product ideas, social media sites dedicated to related topics and hobbies are another way to gain insights into new product ideas. Here are a few, as examples: Houzz MapMyFitness Untappd Care2 WAYN On-site and third-party customer reviews If you already have a business (online or in real life), check out your own customer reviews. Savvy entrepreneurs consider customer recommendations, the motivation behind it, and respond accordingly. If you don’t have any reviews of your own to consider, look at reviews of companies and products in your niche. Identify commonalities, paying careful attention to customer complaints, and determine how you can create a product that will address those concerns. Amazon is an especially great place to find honest customer reviews. SEO analytics and insights Search engine optimization (SEO), insights can show you what’s trending on search globally or targeted to specific geographic locations. Google has a number of free and paid tools you can use Google Trends: Find out what’s trending, globally and regionally, and choose from specific topics like Business, Health and Sci/Tech. You can also browse Top Stories to see what’s most popular. If you have a specific market or idea, you can also research keywords to find common related searches, as well as anticipated peaks in search volume (which can help dictate timing for your product launch). Google Keyword Planner: Keyword Planner will help you find average search volume and related keywords to your chosen phrases. You can also look at AdWord competition to gauge whether someone else is bidding on your targeted phrases for your ecommerce business idea. Google Analytics: If you already have a website, use the data from Google Analytics to find out which terms users are searching to find your site. Volume isn’t always important: There may be a longtail, descriptive search phrase that makes you think of your next big idea! You can also use data from your onsite search to find the same insights. Google search: Google.com is an often-forgotten tool to use in your SEO research. There are a few key areas to look when you’re look at a search on Google.com: predicted text (as you type your query in the search bar), paid ads at the top and on the side rail, suggested searches (at the bottom of the page), and Google Shopping results. Remember to check out images and news, too. Learn More: 8 Free and Simple SEO Tools for Bootstrapped Business Owners Consumer lifestyle publications Consumer-facing publications in your industry can reveal a lot about a market segment and what’s trending. Consider what these publications are talking about and which articles resonate most with the audience. To find out which articles are most popular, look at how many comments, social media engagements, or social media shares the content has received. The more popular articles could inspire niche market ideas. Your competitors Learn from the successes of your competitors and popular businesses in your chosen industry. Which products have they launched with the most success? Why were they so successful? Sometimes, brands will share the why and how behind new products. Beyond your competitors’ products, examine their community. Who is their audience and why do they love those products? Look at what the brand is saying to consumers, as well as how customers are interacting with them online. Identify gaps in your competitors’ product offerings and look for ways to fill those gaps with your new product. Audience surveys Surveys are one of the best ways to get qualitative and quantitative insights into an audience. Craft questions about the problems and challenges they face, which products they love most and why, and what they wish they had to enhance their everyday life. Keep a mix of multiple choice and open-ended questions that will let you inside respondents’ heads. Use this information when you brainstorm your ecommerce business ideas. Here are some tools you can use to create and distribute your survey: SurveyMonkey Google Surveys SurveyGizmo Zoho Survey Typeform Crowdsourcing Crowdsourcing is along similar lines as surveying, except when it comes to crowdsourcing, you’re asking for ideas more overtly. LEGO Ideas is a prime example of a brand that uses crowdsourcing to find new product ideas to sell. Consumers can submit their ideas for LEGO sets, and the site also features popular and successful ideas. Create your own crowdsourced ideas or look to those hubs for inspiration. If you want to organize your own crowdsourcing campaign for product ideas to sell, check out the following: InnoCentive Chaordix IdeaConnection Look to the past One way to learn is from the past. Through examining history and old trends, you can come up with a list of revived product ideas to sell. This is one tactic that Dogfish Head Craft Brewery came up with their product series of Ancient Ales, which uses old-school brewing techniques. But history doesn’t necessarily mean historical events and techniques. It’s also about pop culture trends. In fashion especially, we often see the resurgence of trends, and consumers love nostalgia. Choker necklaces have made a comeback, and countless movie and TV show reboots have created renewed interest and passion for consumers. You can evoke this sense of nostalgia through a product that is no longer available or highlights a seemingly forgotten subject likely to inspire fond memories. Condemnation is the Root Cause June 17, 2019 bizadmin Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1, NASB – JUNE 15 – CONDEMNATION IS THE ROOT CAUSE When you have a plant with sickly leaves, it would be foolish to just treat the leaves without knowing the root cause of the problem. Similarly, when “leaves” of sickness, poverty and destructive habits start sprouting in your life, you need to know what the root cause is. Experts will tell you that it is stress. They may go a little deeper and say that it is fear—fear of the future, of rejection, of loss, of death and so on. But is fear really the root? Or is there something deeper than fear? The Bible shows us that the most fundamental cause of problems in our lives is condemnation. With condemnation comes fear. Fear then induces stress which brings about the symptoms of the curse. This is what happened to Adam. Long before he faced poverty, sickness and eventually death, he had stress. Because of his sin, God told him, “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground” (Genesis 3:19). Sweat speaks of stress. But before there was stress, there was fear because Adam told God, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself” (Genesis 3:10). But what made Adam fearful? Adam only feared when, seeing his nakedness, he realized that he had sinned against God. He felt so ashamed and condemned that he hid himself. God then asked him, “Who told you that you were naked?” (Genesis 3:11). There was no one else in the garden other than Adam and Eve, so we know that it was probably the devil who told Adam that he was naked. My friend, condemnation is the root cause of the symptoms of the curse manifesting in your life. That is why you need to know that at the cross, God took all your sins, put them on Jesus and unleashed the full fury of His wrath against them until Jesus cried out, “It is finished!” All your sins have been completely punished in the body of Christ who was condemned for you. The root cause of all your problems has been dealt with. This means that the devil cannot enforce the curse in your life apart from your receiving condemnation. So come to the place of no condemnation and no sick leaves will sprout in your life! -Joseph Prince Branding Your Ecommerce Business – A Step-by-Step Guide June 16, 2019 bizadmin The importance of branding can’t be overstated. Good branding will set you apart from your competition and keep customers coming back. But how do you go about branding your business? What does that even mean? Instead of explaining branding with vague terms like “visual identity” and “sans serif font family,” we’re going to go over how to build a brand step by step. By the end of this post you’ll know how to: Identify brand buzzwords on Instagram Find a click-worthy business name Create a memorable logo Communicate your brand to customers Ready to get started? Let’s build a branding strategy! Why Branding Matters Branding your business is super important, and that’s especially true if you’re dropshipping with Oberlo and Shopify. That’s because there’s typically more than one dropshipper selling a given product. Good branding sets those sellers apart from one another and big-box competition like Amazon. By the way, if you’re new here, dropshipping is one of the easiest ways to start an online business. Instead of buying tons of inventory for your Shopify store, you only order products when you get sales. Your supplier ships your orders for you, so you can sell all over the world! But being a successful dropshipper requires constant learning. Which is why we’re here today: Let’s look at what building a brand looks like. We’ll take men’s jackets as an example. I want to sell jackets like this one: This street style should play well with customers, plus the order count data inside Oberlo confirms that its a popular item. However, this jacket is about $40 with shipping. I want to sell it for at least $59.99 to make a profit. To get sales at such a high price point, we need to build a brand. That brand should convey that my products are high-quality and worth the high prices I charge for them. But let’s stop for a second. What is a brand? What is a Brand A brand is the impression a store has on its customers. Online stores make these impressions through a combination of store design, copywriting, color palettes, and imagery. In other words, imagine your store was a person you met on the street. What would your store look like? How would they walk? How would they talk? What would they say? There’s actually a correct answer here. Your store should look like, walk like, and talk like… your customers. We’re attracted to what we already recognize, and that goes for online stores as well as people. So if you build a brand that feels familiar to your customers, you’ll get more sales. But wait. We’ve only just chosen what I want to sell. We don’t have any customers. How we are supposed to know what they look, walk, and talk like? Enter the first step of branding your business. Head straight to Instagram. Step 1: Research Relevant Instagrammers First I’ll find out who our customers are. Not like their full names, but their personalities. I want to know what they wear, what vibes they give off. To do that, I’m going to find people who are already using my product or something like it. I searched for hashtags relevant to my niche – men’s fashion – and to this particular product – denim jackets, shearling jackets, and men’s jackets. Then I scrolled through the top posts, looking for captions that really said something. Here’s what I found. This Instagrammer could easily be a customer. He’s already wearing a shearling-lined jacket! He uses emojis in his captions, and he describes his look as easy and cool. I wrote that down. Those are buzzwords that could come in handy later. This Instagrammer looks a little tougher and more athletic. Still, he’s wearing a stylish outfit, and maybe he’d be into my dark denim jacket. He also uses emojis. His caption says he’s perfect in his own way and that’s all that matters. That tells me he’s confident, and doesn’t care what the crowd thinks. My customers might feel that way too. This Instagrammer is already rocking a denim jacket, so I know he could be a customer. Like the other two, he uses emojis. But he spends most of the caption talking about travel. That tells me that my target audience might be really interested in traveling as well as men’s fashion. Taking these examples together, here’s what I jotted down about my potential customers. Casual Cool Athletic Confident Individualistic Likes to travel We’ll call these my brand buzzwords. Now I’m starting to form a brand in the image of my potential customers. My next step is to create the all-important business name. Step 2: Create a Business Name A lot of entrepreneurs spend hours stressing over their business name. It doesn’t have to be like that. When it comes to branding your business, there are three criteria for a good business name. First, your business name should make it fairly obvious what you’re selling. Lots of brands break this rule and do just fine. But if you’re just starting out, don’t make your customers guess what you sell. In my case, I want words related to jackets, outerwear, or menswear in my business name. The second rule of a good business name is that the name is somehow connected to my brand buzzwords. And the third rule is that the business name has to be available as a dot com. Ideally, the name is available on social media channels too. With these rules in mind, let’s find a business name for my jacket startup. First I’ll head to the Oberlo Business Name generator. Now I’ll type the word jackets. That checks off my first rule of finding a good business name, since the word jackets relates to what I’m selling. I’ll click Generate Names, and I get a list of 100 potential business names. There’s a lot of good stuff on here. I like Horizon Jackets, but I wonder if it’s a bit too outdoorsy for my customers. After all, when I think of Horizon, I think of deserts, outdoors, etc. My brand buzzwords don’t include anything about the outdoors. Oh but I really like Valor Jackets. The word valor makes me think of courage and masculinity, which fits with my brand’s confident and individualistic streak. That checks off rule two of finding a good brand name. Now for rule three, I like to go to namecheck.com to see if the name I like is available. Now our brand has a face and a name! The next step is to make it official. We won’t do a full-on store build today, but when you’re ready for that, click this link. (For the record, I didn’t buy Valor Jackets. If you love that domain name, it’s all yours!) Now that I’ve got brand buzzwords, a great business name, and an online store, it’s time for the next step in ecommerce branding. Step 3: Create a Logo I’ve got to create a logo. For this step, I’ll head on over to Hatchful, Shopify’s free logo creator tool. Hatchful first prompts me to choose my niche. I’ll click fashion, and hit Next. Then Hatchful asks me to choose my visual style. I remember my buzzwords include confident and cool. Bold and calm are similar, so I’ll keep those selected. Scrolling down, I also see strong. That sounds exactly like my customers: bold, calm, and strong! Now Hatchful presents me with a ton of logo options. I ended up picking this logo right here. It kind of looks like a pilot’s wings, and that connects with my customer’s love of travel. If you’re not sure which color fits your brand, check out our article on color psychology. Now that I have my logo, I can sign up for Instagram and Facebook. I’ll use my logo as my profile photo on all social media accounts. Step 4: Keep it Going! There are lots more ways to brand your store. The images on your website should fit the brand, and so should the font. So for my store, I’m going for courage and masculinity. Therefore, I wouldn’t want a playful font. I’d want something strong. The same philosophy should dictate the images you choose, the product descriptions, and everything else that people will connect to your store. So I’m not done – but I’m on my way! Starting with a single product, I found a few brand buzzwords on Instagram. I then used those buzzwords to find a great business name and create a cool logo. And with that logo, I built a brand identity with coordinating colors and fonts in my Shopify store. 🧜♀️The mermaid blanket that made millions [Video] June 14, 2019 bizadmin Dropshipper Melvin Chee built a $15 million dropshipping store in 2 years. Along the way, he’s discovered several 6-figure products – including one that made him $4 million. We asked Melvin to recommend five dropshipping products to sell in 2019. But Melvin went a step further. He shared the products that he actually sold. He even showed us the ads that got him sales. And he told us how he prices products to cover advertising costs and still make a profit. We just published a YouTube video featuring Melvin’s advice. Happy Dropshipping Jessica How to Make the Most of Instagram Video with Posts, Stories, and IGTV June 13, 2019 bizadmin Since its launch in 2010, Instagram has evolved from an online photo-sharing app into a platform that empowers its users to create quickly, edit, and shares their videos in a variety of forms. These videos, whether shared as Instagram stories, posts in your feed, or through IGTV, add a new dimension to Instagram that static photos can’t achieve. These Instagram videos don’t have to be expensive, complicated productions either. Videos shot on a budget can often appear more authentic (and be more effective) than high production videos. You can shoot compelling videos for your brand’s Instagram page on just a smartphone, with the option to edit it using Instagram itself, a computer, or a variety of useful mobile apps. If you’re not already using Instagram to reach your audience or need help with a social media strategy, check out How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy: A Beginner’s Guide to get started. Gretta van Riel shares her proven framework for growing successful product-based businesses on Instagram. Find out what images work best and how to work with the right influencers for your brand. Creating a video for an Instagram post While photos are still the most popular kind of post on Instagram, videos get 21% more interactions, according to a recent study by Quintly. For this reason, posting videos to your brand’s Instagram page is a smart way to boost your overall engagement. You can film your video directly in the Instagram app, a different camera app, or using an actual camera, but the final video—whether edited or raw—should be under a minute in length. Once you’re happy with your video, you can upload it the same way you upload a photo to your feed: Click the + sign in the app. Choose the video from the appropriate folder on your device. Review the video and choose whether or not you want it to be part of a carousel post of multiple photos and videos before you click through to the next step. Test filters, turn the audio on or off, trim the length of the clip, and select a frame that will act as the cover image for the post. Lastly, you’ll be able to add a caption, tag people, and add a location before you post. At this final step, you’re also able to share the video to your other linked social channels. If you’ve ever posted a photo to your Instagram feed, this final stage is the same as it is for photos. As for the specifications of the video, here is everything you need to know about videos in your feed: File Size: 4GB max File Type: MP4 or MOV recommended Max length: 60 seconds Orientation: square or landscape Aspect ratio: 1:91:1 Quick and authentic vs. High production and promotional There are two main styles of videos that businesses often share on Instagram: Polished high-quality videos for advertising and brand awareness Amateur videos that give viewers a peek behind the curtain so they can get to know the people that use the products or make up the brand. You’ll be happy to know that what most viewers have come to expect on the app is the other format—quick and easy videos you make yourself. Whether the footage is shot at your office, on location at your latest pop-up shop, or an event that your brand is attending, lightly edited videos filmed on your mobile device are the perfect way to let your audience know your brand is authentic and approachable. Just take a look at this Instagram video post from Molekule. It’s not a polished ad for their product by any means but can garner a lot of engagement because it feels authentic and at home on the platform. On the other hand, if you have the resources to shoot footage with high production values (or have access to high-res footage from an event or advertisement shoot), it’s best spent on footage that can be used and reused over time. Think of videos that speak to the core values of your brand, an origin story about the start of your company, or branded content that shows your core product line. This kind of footage can be edited and polished into evergreen content that can live on all your social channels and as marketing materials elsewhere for a long time. If you don’t have a huge budget but want to do some editing yourself, there are some fantastic video editing apps available to help you create polished videos on your mobile device, such as: Clipomatic (iOS only) to automatically translate all speech from your videos into captions. This ensures that your audience doesn’t miss a beat—even when the video is muted. Splice (iOS only) or Quik to crop videos, add transitions, and music. FilmoraGo to create lightly edited stories on the fly, adding music and filters before sharing them with your followers. If you’re concerned about the aesthetic of your brand’s feed, you may find it best to use your more polished videos as posts and save the lower quality videos for your stories—that way they won’t show up in your feed, and they expire after 24 hours. Creating a video for Instagram Stories Unlike an Instagram post, Instagram Stories don’t post to your brand’s feed. They also disappear after 24 hours unless you save them to your page’s highlights. Don’t worry, though; you can still access them in your archive in case you want to use them later. To post a video that you’ve already shot to your stories, have it ready to go in your mobile device’s camera roll. From there, click the same + button in your story section, but instead of clicking the record button, you need to find the video in your camera roll. Just like adding a photo from your camera roll to your stories, you can add Instagram stickers, text, and filters at this point before you share with your followers. Each piece of your story needs to be under 15 seconds in length—if it’s not, then the app will automatically break up the video into 15-second segments when you share it. To prevent an awkward cut at an essential part of your video, be sure to cut sections that are 15 seconds or less beforehand. The specifications for story videos are as follows: Max length per segment: 15 seconds Aspect ratio: 9:16 with 1080 x 1920 pixels are the recommended resolution. However, you can resize your videos before posting them. Creating live videos for Instagram If you have an impromptu video idea that doesn’t require editing, or you have an idea that’s best done in real-time, can also use the Live video feature for Instagram Stories. You can film directly in the app and notify your followers of your live stream by going to your story in the top left corner of the app and clicking the record button. This is a great way to capture live events and show your followers what you’re up to the right this second. Many brands also use Instagram Live to collaborate with influencers, having them take over the brand’s live feed for a set period. When these takeovers are promoted by both parties, it’s a great way to gain new followers and build new relationships. Instagram Live is also an approachable, authentic way to build hype and share the big news with your followers—like the launch of a new product. Want to thank your audience for reaching a milestone or react to something going on in the industry that requires speed? Live videos ensure you don’t miss out on current happenings by taking the time to shoot, edit, and upload a polished video. You can even make your live video more of a conversation with your followers by turning commenting on. If you want the video you created to extend beyond the live broadcast, you can share the video to Instagram stories afterward, so anyone who missed it can still enjoy it. Creating videos for IGTV IGTV is the newest way to share videos on Instagram, where individuals and brands can share longer-form videos with viewers through the Instagram app or the IGTV standalone app. So what kind of videos should you be uploading to IGTV? The short answer is any video where you want to explore an idea beyond the time constraints (60 seconds) of stories and posts. Tutorials, interviews, episodes, behind-the-scenes clips, and how-to videos are just a few examples of content that you can share on IGTV (the kinds of videos you might upload to a YouTube channel). And if you’re worried that your followers aren’t using IGTV yet because it’s so new, you can also share previews in your regular feed to tease new videos that followers can click through to. Just keep in mind that IGTV was made for vertical videos (similar to stories), like this example from MVMT below. The specifications for IGTV are as follows: Video length: up to 10 minutes for regular users and 1 hour for verified users Aspect ratio: 9:16 File type: MP4 Promoting your brand with Instagram video As a marketing tool, Instagram videos are a great way to build brand awareness. They give you a chance to speak to your followers with more than just a short caption. Your videos can include interviews, dialogue, and voice-overs to speak to your followers—assuming, of course, they’ve turned on their audio. Because so many Instagram users have the app muted, it’s best to include a “sound on” sticker in your stories if the audio is important. For your feed, you can ask viewers in the caption to turn on audio, but remember not everyone will do this, so try to ensure that your video can still tell its story with visuals or captions alone. For more on marketing your business through Instagram, check out Instagram Marketing 101: Using Hashtags, Stories, and More to Grow Your Business By tagging the location of your video content and using popular hashtags, your videos can reach beyond just your followers—hopefully attracting the attention of new followers. If your video content resonates with this new audience, you’ll probably gain them as new followers, expanding the reach of your next post as well. Plus, the more users engage with your video, the more likely Instagram’s algorithm will push the video to the Explore tab where you can reach an even larger audience. Driving sales with Instagram video In addition to promoting your brand and gaining followers, Instagram videos can be used to make sales directly. With 60% of Instagram users looking to find new products, tagging your products through Shopping on Instagram can help you convert video views into sales. Use appropriate shopping hashtags as well, so you’re reaching more than just your existing followers with all videos that showcase your offerings. Now with Instagram’s in-app shopping feature, users can complete a purchase without actually leaving Instagram, so it’s important that you’re set up to make sales on Instagram. You can also try to drive viewers back to your website by guiding them to a “link in bio” on your business’ Instagram page. If you’re light on content that showcases your product offerings, try sourcing videos from your customers. See what kinds of posts and stories they’ve tagged your brand in. Whether it’s customer reviews or their video content where they’ve just tagged your product because it’s visible, your audience can be a huge source of user-generated video content. Just be sure that anytime you’re sharing user-generated content that you’re giving proper credit to the creator. If you’re already making sales through Instagram, you can consider buying ads to amplify your results. Instagram ads can be bought as either stories or posts that appear in users’ feeds. The easiest way to buy ads is to use content that you’ve already shared organically and targeted a new audience by demographic, location, interest, or behavior. Examples of brands using Instagram video well Here are just a few examples of businesses using Instagram videos to drive sales, build brand awareness, and connect with their audience. Kylie Cosmetics Makeup giant Kylie Cosmetics uses videos on Instagram to showcase their products in action to inspire viewers to create beautiful looks of their own. The following is a video showing off a new makeup kit, how to use it, and the final look. The caption breaks down which colors are used to help customers decide on a palette color, as well as the price and launch time of the product. Oreo This video that cookie brand Oreo shared to their Instagram uses footage from their commercial spot with artist Wiz Khalifa to tell the story of a heart-warming moment between father and son. The footage doesn’t need audio to convey the message and highlight the product’s role in the special moment. Tesla Motors Vehicle brand Tesla Motors has the resources to shoot incredibly high production videos, and their Instagram includes stunning footage of their streamlined cars across the globe. But they also use the platform to share videos shot by their customers, showing them enjoying real-life moments in their vehicles. The following video shows a group of passengers using the G-force of the powerful car to enjoy a snack—a funny moment shot on a cell phone that makes the brand seem approachable. Ready to incorporate video into your Instagram marketing? As a small business owner, video can seem like an intimidating or expensive medium. But Instagram videos can be a flexible format for showcasing your products and your brand, whether you choose to invest in higher polish or embrace a more organic approach. If you’re not sharing video content on Instagram, you could be missing out on connecting with tons of new potential customers. Don’t be afraid to play around with Instagram videos to see what works for you—remember Instagram stories only live for 24 hours, so they’re the perfect place to test the waters with video content. About the author Lauren Ufford Lauren Ufford is a writer and editor with expertise in retail, e-commerce, and tech. Originally from the West Coast, Lauren spends her free time exploring Toronto with her two comically large dogs. The Secret to Working with Facebook Influencers June 12, 2019 bizadmin Ah, Facebook. Some might argue that it’s the patron saint of social media as we know it today, giving birth to social media’s massive explosion of popularity. (Sure, there was MySpace… but that was just a primer.) Some might also argue that Facebook is slowly dying as more popular platforms catch up and close the gaps that the new, ‘digital native’ generation prefers in its online experiences. While Instagram is the undisputed influencer marketing king, it would be foolish to write Facebook off as a platform that’s not worth examining. Especially after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, it could seem like Facebook’s tarnished reputation is hurting its performance. But if you look at the numbers from Statista, its user base continues to steadily grow with around 30 to 50 million new users per quarter. Influencer marketing studies are also showing that Facebook’s doing just fine. A 2018 survey by influencer marketing company IZEA showed that for 48% of participants, Facebook impacted their decisions to buy a product or service. Facebook was also one of the most popular social media platforms for researching their purchase decisions. The bottom line is that plenty of companies still use influencer marketing to make money on Facebook. So I say: march forward with your Facebook influencer marketing campaigns! If it’s a good fit for your brand, of course. In this article, we’ll look at: Facebook’s new Brand Collabs Manager tool for influencer marketing Some of the most popular types of Facebook influencer partnerships How to find the right Facebook social influencers 3 successful Facebook influencer marketing examples Post Contents [show] Facebook’s New Influencer Tool: Brand Collabs Manager In the summer of 2018, Facebook made a splash on the influencer marketing scene when it announced its new Brand Collabs Manager. Essentially, it’s an influencer search engine that was created to compete with the other major influencer marketing platforms in the game. The fact that the biggest social media platform in the world is creating a special influencer marketing tool makes a very clear statement: influencer marketing is huge, and it’s here to stay. Facebook recognizes the multi-billion-dollar opportunity, and has started competing for its slice of the influencer marketing pie. Travel and photography influencer Laurence Norah agrees that Facebook has some slack to pick up in the influencer marketing game, and it’s working hard to try and do so. This is especially true with the platform’s continuous algorithm changes that have impacted the organic reach that influencers can get on their pages, giving some influencers a tough time in seeing results. Laurence Norah, Finding the Universe Facebook has started to more fully embrace content creators, after largely ignoring them for nearly the full lifetime of the platform.New tools are in place for content creators to use, and also to help them monetize their content – something Facebook has long shied away from, despite competition from platforms such as Youtube which have native monetization options. So I think more content creators will start to use Facebook as a primary platform. Facebook Groups are looking to be a big change that has started to be felt in 2018 – the lack of organic reach on pages has left influencers searching for a new way to reach audiences, and Groups seems to be the way to do that – with a focus on community rather than the individual. Looking back to November 2017, Facebook launched Facebook for Creators (yep, basically the same as YouTube for Creators). This move made it apparent that Facebook was already working on nurturing the influencer space. Facebook says the tool is for passionate and talented video-makers who wish to ‘level up.’ If that doesn’t say, ‘Influencers, use this to make more money!’ – I don’t know what does. Most Popular Facebook Influencer Partnerships One notably successful Facebook influencer marketing tactic is Facebook Live, where users can stream live video broadcasts from wherever they are. In comparison to other social channels, Facebook offers more content diversity because a post doesn’t require any visuals. Whereas Instagram posts need a photo or video and YouTube is inherently videos, users can post all kinds of pre-existing content on Facebook. This can manifest as sharing and reposting a brand’s web page, blog post, branded video, or some other type of content they didn’t create. But generally, the whole point of using an influencer is letting them put their unique spin on it, so a simple reshare usually isn’t the case. Apart from these details, Facebook influencer options are generally the same as Instagram: influencers can post regular photos and videos they’ve created, along with temporary Facebook Stories that can also contain photos and videos. Let’s look at these a bit closer. Facebook Live You can have an influencer promote your product or service inside one of their Facebook Live broadcasts, whether they give it a brief name-drop or show themselves using it in action. Viral comedian Laura Clery promoted the game app Best Fiends by playing it during a live broadcast, including a link for users to download the app straight from her post. By the way, this is another testament to how important it is to let influencers have creative freedom. In the video, Laura played one of her eccentric characters Pamela Pupkin, who got into a rather entertaining and chaotic feud with her husband Roger (played by Laura’s real-life husband Stephen) over the game. This shtick allowed Laura to promote the game while still giving her fans what they know and love. Standard Photo or Video Posts On Facebook, you’ll find all kinds of influencer marketing examples. Tactics like reviews, mentions, competitions, and giveaways can all be executed with standard Facebook posts. In this example, Vital Proteins had fitness influencer Jordan Morello host a giveaway on his Facebook page. He gave three steps for users to enter: follow the company’s Facebook page, like the post, and tag two friends in the post’s comments. He included a fun, simple, eye-catching GIF of himself with the products to gain his followers’ attention. How to Find Facebook Influencers Just like your other searches, your quest for Facebook influencers should start with the good ol’ search bar. Type in keywords for the types of products or services you’re offering, or words that describe your brand and goals. Say you have a travel gear ecommerce brand that’s releasing a new line of mountain climbing accessories. Start with typing ‘mountain climbing’ into the search bar. Use Facebook’s filter options to view the results by ten categories: • All • Posts • People • Photos • Videos • Pages • Places • Groups • Apps • Events To see results from influencers with their own established brands, go to the ‘Pages’ tab, then go to the ‘Categories’ filter section on the left sidebar. Select ‘Artist, Band, or Public Figure.’ You can also check out the ‘Local Business or Place’ and ‘Entertainment’ categories. And as we mentioned earlier, check out the ‘Groups’ tab as well, since Groups may not have the same organic reach issues that pages and profiles do. Try all this with hashtags too. Start with the more obvious ones, like #mountainclimbing. Go to the ‘Posts’ filter tab to see posts that contain the keyword, then start browsing through the profiles and pages the posts came from. Use Google Never forget that Google is your friend. Sticking with the mountain climbing example, you could type in searches like: Mountain climbing Facebook influencers Top mountaineers Facebook Facebook mountaineering influencers Climbers on Facebook Action sports influencers Facebook Facebook extreme sports influencers Your post will likely lead you to media outside of Facebook, like blogs and Instagram. Check those out too! These links might lead you to an influencer who’s also active on Facebook. Or you might fall so in love that you decide to work with them based on their other platforms. 3 Successful Facebook Influencer Marketing Examples The overall success of your Facebook influencer marketing campaign will come down to strategy and execution. If you’re short on ideas, take inspiration from the following campaigns that didn’t feature top-tier influencers but still managed to make noise. 1. HelloFresh’s Facebook Live Cooking Party Meal-kit delivery service leader HelloFresh understands that people want to have fun while preparing their food. And, they want to cook that food well, so that the homemade meal matches up with the delicious-looking mockups online. With that in mind, the brand started hosting a live cooking show series where audiences prepare food at the same time as the hosts. The show regularly features HelloFresh’s head chef and occasional appearances from micro-influencers. Here’s a video featuring a special guest mom and her 4-year-old son. https://www.facebook.com/HelloFreshus/videos/1776471082380735/ This particular video got over 50 comments and 17,000 views. Audiences were also able to ask questions on the fly, and get pro tips from the chef and the host in real-time. While live-streamed interviews and newscasts are fun because of the interaction, the appearance of smaller, friendly, and relatable personalities offers the legitimacy that viewers love and crave. 2. SoFabFood’s Creative Recipes Drive SoFabFood, a group of diverse, self-taught home chefs who share family-friendly recipes, approached micro-influencers on Facebook to promote healthy cooking. The brand wanted to mix influencers’ creativity with the different food items it regularly featured in its recipes. So influencers were required to make something unique out of the food staples in addition to showing their healthy sides. Blogger Sara of Tastefulventure, for example, posted a back-to-school morning recipe featuring a cinnamon turmeric smoothie. When organizing campaigns like these, avoid constraining influencers to the brand’s vision alone. Give them the liberty to explore and enjoy your products thoroughly. 3. Loeffler Randall’s ‘Cool Girls Doing Cool Things’ Campaign High-end footwear and accessory brand Loeffler Randall is a favorite amongst fashion insiders, bloggers, and artists, courtesy of the company’s vow to involving social media influencers in its campaigns. The brand’s program ‘LR Ambassadors’ includes a diverse group of painters, writers, and fashionistas living dynamic lives. In addition to profiling the ambassadors on the official blog, Loeffler Randall has them post content on Facebook and other social media channels. Influencers, in turn, post the hashtag #LRambassador to let people know that they’re associated with the brand. Here’s an example of one such influencer: Could I Have That is a lifestyle blog run by Samantha Wennerstrom. She’s an LR Ambassador who posts about Loeffler Randall’s new and upcoming line of products across different social media channels, piquing users’ interest in the brand’s offerings. Overall, there are pages and pages of successful Facebook influencer marketing campaigns. They’re a testament to the possibilities the platform provides. Go Forth and Influence! As you start gearing up your Facebook influencer marketing efforts, remember to focus on finding authentic and engaging partners that really complement what you stand for as a brand. Be as specific as possible with setting goals and setting up ways to track them, so you can be on top of your results and know when you’re winning or you need to readjust. Above all, have some fun! Make new friends and let your brand’s personality shine. The world of influencer marketing is growing and evolving really quickly as brands across the globe realize the incredible power that these influencers hold in their fingertips – literally. At first glance, it might seem like a ‘pay to play’ game where only the big spenders are succeeding. But no matter how big or famous your brand is – and no matter how big your budget is – there will always be an opportunity waiting for brands with the persistence, savvy, and creativity to make it work. Is your brand one of them? Product Page Tune-Up: 9 Timeless Ways to Increase Conversions June 11, 2019 bizadmin Your product page is where the majority of your customers finally make the decision to either buy your product or leave your store. Unfortunately, it’s an often-neglected part of the sales funnel. While most store owners tend to focus on improving their checkout page or tweaking what happens after a visitor adds a product to their cart, customers won’t get that far unless you create solid product pages that convert. Product pages exist to tell customers why your product is awesome, explain which needs it fulfills or problem it solves, and list the details a customer needs to see in order to make a buying decision. Beautiful photos of your product and well-written product descriptions are important, but they’re also the table stakes—there’s a lot more to you need to get right in order to make a great product page. To help you increase sales and revenue, let’s review a few timeless ways to improve your product pages. Don’t wait to pique people’s interest Understand and address customer concerns Highlight a clear call to action Activate live chat on key pages Complement your photography with videos or GIFs Showcase reviews and personal testimonials Prominently display social proof and guarantees Upsell and cross-sell where appropriate Don’t leave your shelves completely empty 1. Don’t wait to pique people’s interest In the world of journalism every reporter is told to put the lead up front. This means you start a story with the details that matter and never force people to dig in order to find essential information. Store owners can learn a thing or two from this approach. While you may have a number of important product details to cover on a single page, you shouldn’t leave potential customers in suspense; it just takes a single click of the back button to lose a sale. Make it clear what the product is and why it’s valuable, and quickly. Nerd Skincare cleverly applies this principle by providing a distilled summary of the product, what it’s made of, and what benefits it can provide in a single, crisp paragraph at the top of the page. Each of these individual ideas is explored in more detail further down, adding rich context, explanation, and images that help inform and provide proof of the claims made. But for most products, the choice to lead with “at a glance” copy is the right one, because the customer is never left waiting to have their interest piqued. 2. Understand and address customer concerns When figuring out what to include on your product pages, remember that there’s an inherent relationship between the product, your customer’s motivations to buy it, and their objections that may delay a purchase. When selling their Survival Belt, for example, SlideBelts knows that customers have far more questions about functionality than just about the aesthetics. The look of the belt can be conveyed with a high-quality photograph, which leaves room for the copy to address durability and utility. For this product, focusing on how well the belt stands up to harsh environments and frequent wear and tear is essential to helping potential customers see the value. Understanding your customers and challenging your own assumptions through voice of customer research is also important in figuring out what’s on your customer’s mind when purchasing. Start by understanding your customer’s motivations for buying your product and the objections or concerns they need addressed. Kettle & Fire sells a health product that they know not every potential customer will be familiar with (“Why add bone broth to my diet?”). On top of that, the traditional approach to making bone broth comes with built-in hurdles around sourcing ingredients and time to prepare. This creates a natural opportunity to have the copy lead with the hassles of the “old way” versus the comparative ease of using a Kettle & Fire product. Note that while the potential increase in conversions is one benefit, addressing common concerns can also help you set better expectations, which will reduce the number of returns on a product. Your support queue will thank you for your efforts of reducing customer frustration—the main source of which is receiving a product that doesn’t match their expectations. 3. Highlight a clear call to action It seems obvious, but in your pursuit of an “optimized” product page make sure you don’t accidentally drown out the most important element: your add to cart button. Buying should be easy, which means your call to action should be impossible to miss, without being gaudy or clashing with your design. Vermilyea Pelle didn’t have to compromise its sleek, minimalist design that prefers to take a back seat in order to highlight its handmade bags. By surfacing the “Add to Cart” button up top and using simple language (because now is not the time to be clever), it’s easy to find your way to checkout. 4. Activate live chat on key pages Live chat is consistently rated as having the highest satisfaction levels across all support channels; customers like that they get answers fast, can multitask, and feel it’s the most efficient use of their time. Just like an FAQ on your product page, targeted live chat allows potential customers to get their questions answered quickly, making it easier for them to make an informed decision. The difference is they receive their answer through a conversation, either with a chatbot or by talking to you or your support team. This means live chat can require manual work, and is often best to use during high-traffic periods (to close more sales) or on specific product pages, such as pricier bundles that generate higher than average order values. Live chat also lets your visitors know that you’re easily and quickly accessible, making your business more trustworthy. Even if your visitors don’t use live chat, just seeing that it’s available can give them that added peace of mind. When your visitors do choose to use live chat, that’s your opportunity to help them address questions that may be stalling their purchase. You don’t have to be a salesperson; just be as helpful and transparent as possible. For example, having live chat available fits with ThirdLove’s stated mission to help their customers find a bra that fits. 5. Complement your photography with videos or GIFs One of the obvious downsides of shopping online is not being able to to touch, feel, or physically examine a product you’re considering. Because of this, product visuals have to do a lot of heavy lifting in order to provide a similarly useful experience. We’ve long championed how product photography can make or break any ecommerce site, but it’s important to remember that visuals aren’t just limited to photography, and effectively using visuals isn’t just about the aesthetics; great photography, GIFs, and videos all keep your customers questions and concerns in mind and help them make a more informed decision. Storq, which sells maternity clothing, emphasizes their soft, comfortable materials in their copy and uses video of a model wearing their clothes to show how a customer can expect each piece to fit. Videos and animated photos don’t need to be lengthy or complicated, either. Just look at how KeySmart uses a simple animated GIF, with no audio, to show off their product in ways a still image or a set of images can’t quite match. If your customers were buying this product in person, what would they closely examine? What would they want to see and compare? Online stores can bridge the gap by correctly using visuals to show customers what they’d naturally look out for when buying the product in person. Last but not least, remember that while your product photography and videos live on your site, they’re often what’s used to feature and promote your products offsite, too. Wherever your products go, your photos and videos will follow, so they’re always worth investing in. If you want to learn more about how video can help your ecommerce business, check out our brief guide to using video to increase conversions. 6. Showcase reviews and personal testimonials Generally speaking, the more a product rests on providing a specific positive outcome the more valuable it is to have customer testimonials. Reviews, on the other hand, have become essential for establishing trust in almost every product category. Nearly 95% of shoppers read reviews before making a purchase, and surveys have consistently shown that customers trust reviews more than descriptions provided by the store or manufacturer. Since customer reviews are such a commonly-used approach, look for ways to catch your customer’s attention or add to the social proof reviews naturally provide. Here’s how Wildebeest pairs customer reviews next to their quality guarantee on every product page. If you want to easily allow customers to add reviews on your product pages, head over to the Shopify App Store and choose from one of the many review apps. As a bonus tip, follow up with customers a few weeks after their purchase and ask them to leave an honest review—email is typically the best channel to do this. Nearly 95% of shoppers read reviews before making a purchase, which means reviews are essential for establishing trust. If you sell a product that’s intrinsically tied to a personal outcome, like clearer skin or a better golf swing, testimonials will become a critical part of your marketing toolkit. Stars and quick blurbs are enough to sell a pair of socks, but probably fall short if you’re asking a customer to make a larger investment (e.g. a premium product, or a personal product like skin care). Great testimonials focus on real people and provide a story of life before and after your product. Luxy Hair’s products directly affect their customer’s appearance, so to establish trust they liberally showcase their transformation stories and each customer’s candid experiences with the product. 7. Prominently display social proof and guarantees If your product is endorsed or given a reputable seal of approval, letting visitors know with a badge or seal can be a shortcut to establishing social proof. Any certifications or important characteristics of your product, such as safety or legitimacy, are wise to include on your product page (so long as customers care about these aspects). It’s easy to simply write these things into your product description, but badges can save precious space for copy and stand out on your page. The value of these badges is they quickly help customers check bottom-line concerns off of their list (e.g. if a customer has a gluten allergy and requires a gluten-free product). Note that you may need permission or an official certificate to use specific seals or badges on your website. When you’re not referencing an official organization or standard (like “USDA Organic”), you can create your own badges that simply distill important features of your product. For example, features such as “Made in Canada” or “High Quality” would work better as nicely designed badges than simple bullet points in a product description. Primal Pit Paste uses badges in such a way to visually summarize their products. Another way to assuage customer concerns is to display rock-solid guarantees. What’s your return policy? What’s your customer satisfaction policy? Is it hidden away on a separate page for no one to see? The types of guarantees you can feasibly offer depend on your products and profit margins, but clearly displaying what you can provide on your product pages is crucial for reducing ambiguity. 8. Upsell and cross-sell where appropriate The goal of a product page is to sell. However, many online stores actually end up losing customers by cramming their product pages with excessive additional offers and links to related products. Upselling and cross-selling can be key to increase your average order value, but moderation, and organization, is paramount. Going overboard with related products and banners can feel overly-aggressive and spammy, cause analysis paralysis, and distract the shopper from actually completing their intended order. Connecting the additional products to what a customer is currently looking at can make all the difference, and make your original product even more enticing. 3sixteen recommends complementary pieces to encourage shoppers to consider purchasing a complete outfit. To keep buyers focused on the product they’re already viewing, display a healthy amount of additional products, without overcrowding the space that you have. Slyde, a store that sells bodysurfing handboards, only features their most relevant product add-ons, and right next to their offer of free shipping and promise of stress-free returns, which is a nice touch. 9. Don’t leave your shelves completely empty A sold-out item doesn’t mean you have to lose a customer for good. When one of your products is temporarily out of stock, you can avoid potential future sales slipping away by giving shoppers the option to leave their contact information in order to be notified when the product is available again. Greats, a footwear company from Brooklyn, often has limited edition sneakers available in special prints or made in collaboration with other designers. When a certain size isn’t available, customers are prompted to “skip the line” and get a notification when their size is back in stock. Your Shopify theme may already have this functionality built in, but if it’s not, you can check out apps like Back in Stock and Now Back in Stock. You can also look at other ways to capture leads on sold-out product pages, like a customized landing page or offering pre-orders. Creating product pages that sell Your product pages are the lifeblood of your online store. If they’re poorly presented or unstructured, you could risk frustrating your customers and leaving a lot of money on the table. Going the extra mile and creating stand-out product pages will also do wonders for your store’s brand and reputation, separating you from your competition. The more effort you put into your product pages, the more interested shoppers will be in both your products, and your company as a whole. Sometimes, the smallest or simplest change can have a significant impact on your business. Start with strong ideas and iterate—you should begin see your product pages converting browsers into buyers better than ever before. 🚀 Release the Power in You June 10, 2019 bizadmin Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, Ephesians 3:20 RELEASE THE POWER IN YOU! How much power is working in you right now? God’s Word says that there is “power that works in us.” It is a tremendous power that shakes the heavens and the earth because it comes from the throne of God, “who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think”! The problem, however, is that many of us don’t release that power. God wants us to release that power because there are things that will not happen on earth until we do so. Jesus said that “whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:19). What Jesus is saying is that what you permit to happen, heaven will permit. What you disallow, heaven will disallow! So how do we release God’s power in us? One way is to pray in tongues. When we allow His Spirit to make intercession for us (see Romans 8:26), miracles happen. Some time ago, the aunt of a church member underwent surgery to remove a diseased kidney. In spite of the surgery, the prognosis was poor. At home, the church member and his wife were prompted by the Spirit to release the power that works in them by praying in tongues for their aunt. Back at the hospital, the aunt underwent further observation. When an X-ray of her abdominal area was taken, the doctor was shocked to find two healthy kidneys. Five other doctors were consulted who subsequently examined the aunt. At first, they thought that the surgeon who had performed the operation had made a mistake and did not remove the diseased kidney. But further investigation showed that the kidney had indeed been removed. They could not explain what had happened. But the church member and his wife needed no explanation because they knew that when they released the power that worked in them, God did exceedingly abundantly above all that they could ask or think—He gave their aunt a new kidney. Beloved, He can do the same for you when you pray in the Spirit and release the power that works in you! 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Condemnation is the Root Cause June 17, 2019 bizadmin Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1, NASB – JUNE 15 – CONDEMNATION IS THE ROOT CAUSE When you have a plant with sickly leaves, it would be foolish to just treat the leaves without knowing the root cause of the problem. Similarly, when “leaves” of sickness, poverty and destructive habits start sprouting in your life, you need to know what the root cause is. Experts will tell you that it is stress. They may go a little deeper and say that it is fear—fear of the future, of rejection, of loss, of death and so on. But is fear really the root? Or is there something deeper than fear? The Bible shows us that the most fundamental cause of problems in our lives is condemnation. With condemnation comes fear. Fear then induces stress which brings about the symptoms of the curse. This is what happened to Adam. Long before he faced poverty, sickness and eventually death, he had stress. Because of his sin, God told him, “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground” (Genesis 3:19). Sweat speaks of stress. But before there was stress, there was fear because Adam told God, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself” (Genesis 3:10). But what made Adam fearful? Adam only feared when, seeing his nakedness, he realized that he had sinned against God. He felt so ashamed and condemned that he hid himself. God then asked him, “Who told you that you were naked?” (Genesis 3:11). There was no one else in the garden other than Adam and Eve, so we know that it was probably the devil who told Adam that he was naked. My friend, condemnation is the root cause of the symptoms of the curse manifesting in your life. That is why you need to know that at the cross, God took all your sins, put them on Jesus and unleashed the full fury of His wrath against them until Jesus cried out, “It is finished!” All your sins have been completely punished in the body of Christ who was condemned for you. The root cause of all your problems has been dealt with. This means that the devil cannot enforce the curse in your life apart from your receiving condemnation. So come to the place of no condemnation and no sick leaves will sprout in your life! -Joseph Prince
Branding Your Ecommerce Business – A Step-by-Step Guide June 16, 2019 bizadmin The importance of branding can’t be overstated. Good branding will set you apart from your competition and keep customers coming back. But how do you go about branding your business? What does that even mean? Instead of explaining branding with vague terms like “visual identity” and “sans serif font family,” we’re going to go over how to build a brand step by step. By the end of this post you’ll know how to: Identify brand buzzwords on Instagram Find a click-worthy business name Create a memorable logo Communicate your brand to customers Ready to get started? Let’s build a branding strategy! Why Branding Matters Branding your business is super important, and that’s especially true if you’re dropshipping with Oberlo and Shopify. That’s because there’s typically more than one dropshipper selling a given product. Good branding sets those sellers apart from one another and big-box competition like Amazon. By the way, if you’re new here, dropshipping is one of the easiest ways to start an online business. Instead of buying tons of inventory for your Shopify store, you only order products when you get sales. Your supplier ships your orders for you, so you can sell all over the world! But being a successful dropshipper requires constant learning. Which is why we’re here today: Let’s look at what building a brand looks like. We’ll take men’s jackets as an example. I want to sell jackets like this one: This street style should play well with customers, plus the order count data inside Oberlo confirms that its a popular item. However, this jacket is about $40 with shipping. I want to sell it for at least $59.99 to make a profit. To get sales at such a high price point, we need to build a brand. That brand should convey that my products are high-quality and worth the high prices I charge for them. But let’s stop for a second. What is a brand? What is a Brand A brand is the impression a store has on its customers. Online stores make these impressions through a combination of store design, copywriting, color palettes, and imagery. In other words, imagine your store was a person you met on the street. What would your store look like? How would they walk? How would they talk? What would they say? There’s actually a correct answer here. Your store should look like, walk like, and talk like… your customers. We’re attracted to what we already recognize, and that goes for online stores as well as people. So if you build a brand that feels familiar to your customers, you’ll get more sales. But wait. We’ve only just chosen what I want to sell. We don’t have any customers. How we are supposed to know what they look, walk, and talk like? Enter the first step of branding your business. Head straight to Instagram. Step 1: Research Relevant Instagrammers First I’ll find out who our customers are. Not like their full names, but their personalities. I want to know what they wear, what vibes they give off. To do that, I’m going to find people who are already using my product or something like it. I searched for hashtags relevant to my niche – men’s fashion – and to this particular product – denim jackets, shearling jackets, and men’s jackets. Then I scrolled through the top posts, looking for captions that really said something. Here’s what I found. This Instagrammer could easily be a customer. He’s already wearing a shearling-lined jacket! He uses emojis in his captions, and he describes his look as easy and cool. I wrote that down. Those are buzzwords that could come in handy later. This Instagrammer looks a little tougher and more athletic. Still, he’s wearing a stylish outfit, and maybe he’d be into my dark denim jacket. He also uses emojis. His caption says he’s perfect in his own way and that’s all that matters. That tells me he’s confident, and doesn’t care what the crowd thinks. My customers might feel that way too. This Instagrammer is already rocking a denim jacket, so I know he could be a customer. Like the other two, he uses emojis. But he spends most of the caption talking about travel. That tells me that my target audience might be really interested in traveling as well as men’s fashion. Taking these examples together, here’s what I jotted down about my potential customers. Casual Cool Athletic Confident Individualistic Likes to travel We’ll call these my brand buzzwords. Now I’m starting to form a brand in the image of my potential customers. My next step is to create the all-important business name. Step 2: Create a Business Name A lot of entrepreneurs spend hours stressing over their business name. It doesn’t have to be like that. When it comes to branding your business, there are three criteria for a good business name. First, your business name should make it fairly obvious what you’re selling. Lots of brands break this rule and do just fine. But if you’re just starting out, don’t make your customers guess what you sell. In my case, I want words related to jackets, outerwear, or menswear in my business name. The second rule of a good business name is that the name is somehow connected to my brand buzzwords. And the third rule is that the business name has to be available as a dot com. Ideally, the name is available on social media channels too. With these rules in mind, let’s find a business name for my jacket startup. First I’ll head to the Oberlo Business Name generator. Now I’ll type the word jackets. That checks off my first rule of finding a good business name, since the word jackets relates to what I’m selling. I’ll click Generate Names, and I get a list of 100 potential business names. There’s a lot of good stuff on here. I like Horizon Jackets, but I wonder if it’s a bit too outdoorsy for my customers. After all, when I think of Horizon, I think of deserts, outdoors, etc. My brand buzzwords don’t include anything about the outdoors. Oh but I really like Valor Jackets. The word valor makes me think of courage and masculinity, which fits with my brand’s confident and individualistic streak. That checks off rule two of finding a good brand name. Now for rule three, I like to go to namecheck.com to see if the name I like is available. Now our brand has a face and a name! The next step is to make it official. We won’t do a full-on store build today, but when you’re ready for that, click this link. (For the record, I didn’t buy Valor Jackets. If you love that domain name, it’s all yours!) Now that I’ve got brand buzzwords, a great business name, and an online store, it’s time for the next step in ecommerce branding. Step 3: Create a Logo I’ve got to create a logo. For this step, I’ll head on over to Hatchful, Shopify’s free logo creator tool. Hatchful first prompts me to choose my niche. I’ll click fashion, and hit Next. Then Hatchful asks me to choose my visual style. I remember my buzzwords include confident and cool. Bold and calm are similar, so I’ll keep those selected. Scrolling down, I also see strong. That sounds exactly like my customers: bold, calm, and strong! Now Hatchful presents me with a ton of logo options. I ended up picking this logo right here. It kind of looks like a pilot’s wings, and that connects with my customer’s love of travel. If you’re not sure which color fits your brand, check out our article on color psychology. Now that I have my logo, I can sign up for Instagram and Facebook. I’ll use my logo as my profile photo on all social media accounts. Step 4: Keep it Going! There are lots more ways to brand your store. The images on your website should fit the brand, and so should the font. So for my store, I’m going for courage and masculinity. Therefore, I wouldn’t want a playful font. I’d want something strong. The same philosophy should dictate the images you choose, the product descriptions, and everything else that people will connect to your store. So I’m not done – but I’m on my way! Starting with a single product, I found a few brand buzzwords on Instagram. I then used those buzzwords to find a great business name and create a cool logo. And with that logo, I built a brand identity with coordinating colors and fonts in my Shopify store.
The importance of branding can’t be overstated. Good branding will set you apart from your competition and keep customers coming back. But how do you go about branding your business? What does that even mean? Instead of explaining branding with vague terms like “visual identity” and “sans serif font family,” we’re going to go over how to build a brand step by step. By the end of this post you’ll know how to: Identify brand buzzwords on Instagram Find a click-worthy business name Create a memorable logo Communicate your brand to customers Ready to get started? Let’s build a branding strategy! Why Branding Matters Branding your business is super important, and that’s especially true if you’re dropshipping with Oberlo and Shopify. That’s because there’s typically more than one dropshipper selling a given product. Good branding sets those sellers apart from one another and big-box competition like Amazon. By the way, if you’re new here, dropshipping is one of the easiest ways to start an online business. Instead of buying tons of inventory for your Shopify store, you only order products when you get sales. Your supplier ships your orders for you, so you can sell all over the world! But being a successful dropshipper requires constant learning. Which is why we’re here today: Let’s look at what building a brand looks like. We’ll take men’s jackets as an example. I want to sell jackets like this one: This street style should play well with customers, plus the order count data inside Oberlo confirms that its a popular item. However, this jacket is about $40 with shipping. I want to sell it for at least $59.99 to make a profit. To get sales at such a high price point, we need to build a brand. That brand should convey that my products are high-quality and worth the high prices I charge for them. But let’s stop for a second. What is a brand? What is a Brand A brand is the impression a store has on its customers. Online stores make these impressions through a combination of store design, copywriting, color palettes, and imagery. In other words, imagine your store was a person you met on the street. What would your store look like? How would they walk? How would they talk? What would they say? There’s actually a correct answer here. Your store should look like, walk like, and talk like… your customers. We’re attracted to what we already recognize, and that goes for online stores as well as people. So if you build a brand that feels familiar to your customers, you’ll get more sales. But wait. We’ve only just chosen what I want to sell. We don’t have any customers. How we are supposed to know what they look, walk, and talk like? Enter the first step of branding your business. Head straight to Instagram. Step 1: Research Relevant Instagrammers First I’ll find out who our customers are. Not like their full names, but their personalities. I want to know what they wear, what vibes they give off. To do that, I’m going to find people who are already using my product or something like it. I searched for hashtags relevant to my niche – men’s fashion – and to this particular product – denim jackets, shearling jackets, and men’s jackets. Then I scrolled through the top posts, looking for captions that really said something. Here’s what I found. This Instagrammer could easily be a customer. He’s already wearing a shearling-lined jacket! He uses emojis in his captions, and he describes his look as easy and cool. I wrote that down. Those are buzzwords that could come in handy later. This Instagrammer looks a little tougher and more athletic. Still, he’s wearing a stylish outfit, and maybe he’d be into my dark denim jacket. He also uses emojis. His caption says he’s perfect in his own way and that’s all that matters. That tells me he’s confident, and doesn’t care what the crowd thinks. My customers might feel that way too. This Instagrammer is already rocking a denim jacket, so I know he could be a customer. Like the other two, he uses emojis. But he spends most of the caption talking about travel. That tells me that my target audience might be really interested in traveling as well as men’s fashion. Taking these examples together, here’s what I jotted down about my potential customers. Casual Cool Athletic Confident Individualistic Likes to travel We’ll call these my brand buzzwords. Now I’m starting to form a brand in the image of my potential customers. My next step is to create the all-important business name. Step 2: Create a Business Name A lot of entrepreneurs spend hours stressing over their business name. It doesn’t have to be like that. When it comes to branding your business, there are three criteria for a good business name. First, your business name should make it fairly obvious what you’re selling. Lots of brands break this rule and do just fine. But if you’re just starting out, don’t make your customers guess what you sell. In my case, I want words related to jackets, outerwear, or menswear in my business name. The second rule of a good business name is that the name is somehow connected to my brand buzzwords. And the third rule is that the business name has to be available as a dot com. Ideally, the name is available on social media channels too. With these rules in mind, let’s find a business name for my jacket startup. First I’ll head to the Oberlo Business Name generator. Now I’ll type the word jackets. That checks off my first rule of finding a good business name, since the word jackets relates to what I’m selling. I’ll click Generate Names, and I get a list of 100 potential business names. There’s a lot of good stuff on here. I like Horizon Jackets, but I wonder if it’s a bit too outdoorsy for my customers. After all, when I think of Horizon, I think of deserts, outdoors, etc. My brand buzzwords don’t include anything about the outdoors. Oh but I really like Valor Jackets. The word valor makes me think of courage and masculinity, which fits with my brand’s confident and individualistic streak. That checks off rule two of finding a good brand name. Now for rule three, I like to go to namecheck.com to see if the name I like is available. Now our brand has a face and a name! The next step is to make it official. We won’t do a full-on store build today, but when you’re ready for that, click this link. (For the record, I didn’t buy Valor Jackets. If you love that domain name, it’s all yours!) Now that I’ve got brand buzzwords, a great business name, and an online store, it’s time for the next step in ecommerce branding. Step 3: Create a Logo I’ve got to create a logo. For this step, I’ll head on over to Hatchful, Shopify’s free logo creator tool. Hatchful first prompts me to choose my niche. I’ll click fashion, and hit Next. Then Hatchful asks me to choose my visual style. I remember my buzzwords include confident and cool. Bold and calm are similar, so I’ll keep those selected. Scrolling down, I also see strong. That sounds exactly like my customers: bold, calm, and strong! Now Hatchful presents me with a ton of logo options. I ended up picking this logo right here. It kind of looks like a pilot’s wings, and that connects with my customer’s love of travel. If you’re not sure which color fits your brand, check out our article on color psychology. Now that I have my logo, I can sign up for Instagram and Facebook. I’ll use my logo as my profile photo on all social media accounts. Step 4: Keep it Going! There are lots more ways to brand your store. The images on your website should fit the brand, and so should the font. So for my store, I’m going for courage and masculinity. Therefore, I wouldn’t want a playful font. I’d want something strong. The same philosophy should dictate the images you choose, the product descriptions, and everything else that people will connect to your store. So I’m not done – but I’m on my way! Starting with a single product, I found a few brand buzzwords on Instagram. I then used those buzzwords to find a great business name and create a cool logo. And with that logo, I built a brand identity with coordinating colors and fonts in my Shopify store.
🧜♀️The mermaid blanket that made millions [Video] June 14, 2019 bizadmin Dropshipper Melvin Chee built a $15 million dropshipping store in 2 years. Along the way, he’s discovered several 6-figure products – including one that made him $4 million. We asked Melvin to recommend five dropshipping products to sell in 2019. But Melvin went a step further. He shared the products that he actually sold. He even showed us the ads that got him sales. And he told us how he prices products to cover advertising costs and still make a profit. We just published a YouTube video featuring Melvin’s advice. Happy Dropshipping Jessica
How to Make the Most of Instagram Video with Posts, Stories, and IGTV June 13, 2019 bizadmin Since its launch in 2010, Instagram has evolved from an online photo-sharing app into a platform that empowers its users to create quickly, edit, and shares their videos in a variety of forms. These videos, whether shared as Instagram stories, posts in your feed, or through IGTV, add a new dimension to Instagram that static photos can’t achieve. These Instagram videos don’t have to be expensive, complicated productions either. Videos shot on a budget can often appear more authentic (and be more effective) than high production videos. You can shoot compelling videos for your brand’s Instagram page on just a smartphone, with the option to edit it using Instagram itself, a computer, or a variety of useful mobile apps. If you’re not already using Instagram to reach your audience or need help with a social media strategy, check out How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy: A Beginner’s Guide to get started. Gretta van Riel shares her proven framework for growing successful product-based businesses on Instagram. Find out what images work best and how to work with the right influencers for your brand. Creating a video for an Instagram post While photos are still the most popular kind of post on Instagram, videos get 21% more interactions, according to a recent study by Quintly. For this reason, posting videos to your brand’s Instagram page is a smart way to boost your overall engagement. You can film your video directly in the Instagram app, a different camera app, or using an actual camera, but the final video—whether edited or raw—should be under a minute in length. Once you’re happy with your video, you can upload it the same way you upload a photo to your feed: Click the + sign in the app. Choose the video from the appropriate folder on your device. Review the video and choose whether or not you want it to be part of a carousel post of multiple photos and videos before you click through to the next step. Test filters, turn the audio on or off, trim the length of the clip, and select a frame that will act as the cover image for the post. Lastly, you’ll be able to add a caption, tag people, and add a location before you post. At this final step, you’re also able to share the video to your other linked social channels. If you’ve ever posted a photo to your Instagram feed, this final stage is the same as it is for photos. As for the specifications of the video, here is everything you need to know about videos in your feed: File Size: 4GB max File Type: MP4 or MOV recommended Max length: 60 seconds Orientation: square or landscape Aspect ratio: 1:91:1 Quick and authentic vs. High production and promotional There are two main styles of videos that businesses often share on Instagram: Polished high-quality videos for advertising and brand awareness Amateur videos that give viewers a peek behind the curtain so they can get to know the people that use the products or make up the brand. You’ll be happy to know that what most viewers have come to expect on the app is the other format—quick and easy videos you make yourself. Whether the footage is shot at your office, on location at your latest pop-up shop, or an event that your brand is attending, lightly edited videos filmed on your mobile device are the perfect way to let your audience know your brand is authentic and approachable. Just take a look at this Instagram video post from Molekule. It’s not a polished ad for their product by any means but can garner a lot of engagement because it feels authentic and at home on the platform. On the other hand, if you have the resources to shoot footage with high production values (or have access to high-res footage from an event or advertisement shoot), it’s best spent on footage that can be used and reused over time. Think of videos that speak to the core values of your brand, an origin story about the start of your company, or branded content that shows your core product line. This kind of footage can be edited and polished into evergreen content that can live on all your social channels and as marketing materials elsewhere for a long time. If you don’t have a huge budget but want to do some editing yourself, there are some fantastic video editing apps available to help you create polished videos on your mobile device, such as: Clipomatic (iOS only) to automatically translate all speech from your videos into captions. This ensures that your audience doesn’t miss a beat—even when the video is muted. Splice (iOS only) or Quik to crop videos, add transitions, and music. FilmoraGo to create lightly edited stories on the fly, adding music and filters before sharing them with your followers. If you’re concerned about the aesthetic of your brand’s feed, you may find it best to use your more polished videos as posts and save the lower quality videos for your stories—that way they won’t show up in your feed, and they expire after 24 hours. Creating a video for Instagram Stories Unlike an Instagram post, Instagram Stories don’t post to your brand’s feed. They also disappear after 24 hours unless you save them to your page’s highlights. Don’t worry, though; you can still access them in your archive in case you want to use them later. To post a video that you’ve already shot to your stories, have it ready to go in your mobile device’s camera roll. From there, click the same + button in your story section, but instead of clicking the record button, you need to find the video in your camera roll. Just like adding a photo from your camera roll to your stories, you can add Instagram stickers, text, and filters at this point before you share with your followers. Each piece of your story needs to be under 15 seconds in length—if it’s not, then the app will automatically break up the video into 15-second segments when you share it. To prevent an awkward cut at an essential part of your video, be sure to cut sections that are 15 seconds or less beforehand. The specifications for story videos are as follows: Max length per segment: 15 seconds Aspect ratio: 9:16 with 1080 x 1920 pixels are the recommended resolution. However, you can resize your videos before posting them. Creating live videos for Instagram If you have an impromptu video idea that doesn’t require editing, or you have an idea that’s best done in real-time, can also use the Live video feature for Instagram Stories. You can film directly in the app and notify your followers of your live stream by going to your story in the top left corner of the app and clicking the record button. This is a great way to capture live events and show your followers what you’re up to the right this second. Many brands also use Instagram Live to collaborate with influencers, having them take over the brand’s live feed for a set period. When these takeovers are promoted by both parties, it’s a great way to gain new followers and build new relationships. Instagram Live is also an approachable, authentic way to build hype and share the big news with your followers—like the launch of a new product. Want to thank your audience for reaching a milestone or react to something going on in the industry that requires speed? Live videos ensure you don’t miss out on current happenings by taking the time to shoot, edit, and upload a polished video. You can even make your live video more of a conversation with your followers by turning commenting on. If you want the video you created to extend beyond the live broadcast, you can share the video to Instagram stories afterward, so anyone who missed it can still enjoy it. Creating videos for IGTV IGTV is the newest way to share videos on Instagram, where individuals and brands can share longer-form videos with viewers through the Instagram app or the IGTV standalone app. So what kind of videos should you be uploading to IGTV? The short answer is any video where you want to explore an idea beyond the time constraints (60 seconds) of stories and posts. Tutorials, interviews, episodes, behind-the-scenes clips, and how-to videos are just a few examples of content that you can share on IGTV (the kinds of videos you might upload to a YouTube channel). And if you’re worried that your followers aren’t using IGTV yet because it’s so new, you can also share previews in your regular feed to tease new videos that followers can click through to. Just keep in mind that IGTV was made for vertical videos (similar to stories), like this example from MVMT below. The specifications for IGTV are as follows: Video length: up to 10 minutes for regular users and 1 hour for verified users Aspect ratio: 9:16 File type: MP4 Promoting your brand with Instagram video As a marketing tool, Instagram videos are a great way to build brand awareness. They give you a chance to speak to your followers with more than just a short caption. Your videos can include interviews, dialogue, and voice-overs to speak to your followers—assuming, of course, they’ve turned on their audio. Because so many Instagram users have the app muted, it’s best to include a “sound on” sticker in your stories if the audio is important. For your feed, you can ask viewers in the caption to turn on audio, but remember not everyone will do this, so try to ensure that your video can still tell its story with visuals or captions alone. For more on marketing your business through Instagram, check out Instagram Marketing 101: Using Hashtags, Stories, and More to Grow Your Business By tagging the location of your video content and using popular hashtags, your videos can reach beyond just your followers—hopefully attracting the attention of new followers. If your video content resonates with this new audience, you’ll probably gain them as new followers, expanding the reach of your next post as well. Plus, the more users engage with your video, the more likely Instagram’s algorithm will push the video to the Explore tab where you can reach an even larger audience. Driving sales with Instagram video In addition to promoting your brand and gaining followers, Instagram videos can be used to make sales directly. With 60% of Instagram users looking to find new products, tagging your products through Shopping on Instagram can help you convert video views into sales. Use appropriate shopping hashtags as well, so you’re reaching more than just your existing followers with all videos that showcase your offerings. Now with Instagram’s in-app shopping feature, users can complete a purchase without actually leaving Instagram, so it’s important that you’re set up to make sales on Instagram. You can also try to drive viewers back to your website by guiding them to a “link in bio” on your business’ Instagram page. If you’re light on content that showcases your product offerings, try sourcing videos from your customers. See what kinds of posts and stories they’ve tagged your brand in. Whether it’s customer reviews or their video content where they’ve just tagged your product because it’s visible, your audience can be a huge source of user-generated video content. Just be sure that anytime you’re sharing user-generated content that you’re giving proper credit to the creator. If you’re already making sales through Instagram, you can consider buying ads to amplify your results. Instagram ads can be bought as either stories or posts that appear in users’ feeds. The easiest way to buy ads is to use content that you’ve already shared organically and targeted a new audience by demographic, location, interest, or behavior. Examples of brands using Instagram video well Here are just a few examples of businesses using Instagram videos to drive sales, build brand awareness, and connect with their audience. Kylie Cosmetics Makeup giant Kylie Cosmetics uses videos on Instagram to showcase their products in action to inspire viewers to create beautiful looks of their own. The following is a video showing off a new makeup kit, how to use it, and the final look. The caption breaks down which colors are used to help customers decide on a palette color, as well as the price and launch time of the product. Oreo This video that cookie brand Oreo shared to their Instagram uses footage from their commercial spot with artist Wiz Khalifa to tell the story of a heart-warming moment between father and son. The footage doesn’t need audio to convey the message and highlight the product’s role in the special moment. Tesla Motors Vehicle brand Tesla Motors has the resources to shoot incredibly high production videos, and their Instagram includes stunning footage of their streamlined cars across the globe. But they also use the platform to share videos shot by their customers, showing them enjoying real-life moments in their vehicles. The following video shows a group of passengers using the G-force of the powerful car to enjoy a snack—a funny moment shot on a cell phone that makes the brand seem approachable. Ready to incorporate video into your Instagram marketing? As a small business owner, video can seem like an intimidating or expensive medium. But Instagram videos can be a flexible format for showcasing your products and your brand, whether you choose to invest in higher polish or embrace a more organic approach. If you’re not sharing video content on Instagram, you could be missing out on connecting with tons of new potential customers. Don’t be afraid to play around with Instagram videos to see what works for you—remember Instagram stories only live for 24 hours, so they’re the perfect place to test the waters with video content. About the author Lauren Ufford Lauren Ufford is a writer and editor with expertise in retail, e-commerce, and tech. Originally from the West Coast, Lauren spends her free time exploring Toronto with her two comically large dogs.
Since its launch in 2010, Instagram has evolved from an online photo-sharing app into a platform that empowers its users to create quickly, edit, and shares their videos in a variety of forms. These videos, whether shared as Instagram stories, posts in your feed, or through IGTV, add a new dimension to Instagram that static photos can’t achieve. These Instagram videos don’t have to be expensive, complicated productions either. Videos shot on a budget can often appear more authentic (and be more effective) than high production videos. You can shoot compelling videos for your brand’s Instagram page on just a smartphone, with the option to edit it using Instagram itself, a computer, or a variety of useful mobile apps. If you’re not already using Instagram to reach your audience or need help with a social media strategy, check out How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy: A Beginner’s Guide to get started. Gretta van Riel shares her proven framework for growing successful product-based businesses on Instagram. Find out what images work best and how to work with the right influencers for your brand.
The Secret to Working with Facebook Influencers June 12, 2019 bizadmin Ah, Facebook. Some might argue that it’s the patron saint of social media as we know it today, giving birth to social media’s massive explosion of popularity. (Sure, there was MySpace… but that was just a primer.) Some might also argue that Facebook is slowly dying as more popular platforms catch up and close the gaps that the new, ‘digital native’ generation prefers in its online experiences. While Instagram is the undisputed influencer marketing king, it would be foolish to write Facebook off as a platform that’s not worth examining. Especially after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, it could seem like Facebook’s tarnished reputation is hurting its performance. But if you look at the numbers from Statista, its user base continues to steadily grow with around 30 to 50 million new users per quarter. Influencer marketing studies are also showing that Facebook’s doing just fine. A 2018 survey by influencer marketing company IZEA showed that for 48% of participants, Facebook impacted their decisions to buy a product or service. Facebook was also one of the most popular social media platforms for researching their purchase decisions. The bottom line is that plenty of companies still use influencer marketing to make money on Facebook. So I say: march forward with your Facebook influencer marketing campaigns! If it’s a good fit for your brand, of course. In this article, we’ll look at: Facebook’s new Brand Collabs Manager tool for influencer marketing Some of the most popular types of Facebook influencer partnerships How to find the right Facebook social influencers 3 successful Facebook influencer marketing examples Post Contents [show] Facebook’s New Influencer Tool: Brand Collabs Manager In the summer of 2018, Facebook made a splash on the influencer marketing scene when it announced its new Brand Collabs Manager. Essentially, it’s an influencer search engine that was created to compete with the other major influencer marketing platforms in the game. The fact that the biggest social media platform in the world is creating a special influencer marketing tool makes a very clear statement: influencer marketing is huge, and it’s here to stay. Facebook recognizes the multi-billion-dollar opportunity, and has started competing for its slice of the influencer marketing pie. Travel and photography influencer Laurence Norah agrees that Facebook has some slack to pick up in the influencer marketing game, and it’s working hard to try and do so. This is especially true with the platform’s continuous algorithm changes that have impacted the organic reach that influencers can get on their pages, giving some influencers a tough time in seeing results. Laurence Norah, Finding the Universe Facebook has started to more fully embrace content creators, after largely ignoring them for nearly the full lifetime of the platform.New tools are in place for content creators to use, and also to help them monetize their content – something Facebook has long shied away from, despite competition from platforms such as Youtube which have native monetization options. So I think more content creators will start to use Facebook as a primary platform. Facebook Groups are looking to be a big change that has started to be felt in 2018 – the lack of organic reach on pages has left influencers searching for a new way to reach audiences, and Groups seems to be the way to do that – with a focus on community rather than the individual. Looking back to November 2017, Facebook launched Facebook for Creators (yep, basically the same as YouTube for Creators). This move made it apparent that Facebook was already working on nurturing the influencer space. Facebook says the tool is for passionate and talented video-makers who wish to ‘level up.’ If that doesn’t say, ‘Influencers, use this to make more money!’ – I don’t know what does. Most Popular Facebook Influencer Partnerships One notably successful Facebook influencer marketing tactic is Facebook Live, where users can stream live video broadcasts from wherever they are. In comparison to other social channels, Facebook offers more content diversity because a post doesn’t require any visuals. Whereas Instagram posts need a photo or video and YouTube is inherently videos, users can post all kinds of pre-existing content on Facebook. This can manifest as sharing and reposting a brand’s web page, blog post, branded video, or some other type of content they didn’t create. But generally, the whole point of using an influencer is letting them put their unique spin on it, so a simple reshare usually isn’t the case. Apart from these details, Facebook influencer options are generally the same as Instagram: influencers can post regular photos and videos they’ve created, along with temporary Facebook Stories that can also contain photos and videos. Let’s look at these a bit closer. Facebook Live You can have an influencer promote your product or service inside one of their Facebook Live broadcasts, whether they give it a brief name-drop or show themselves using it in action. Viral comedian Laura Clery promoted the game app Best Fiends by playing it during a live broadcast, including a link for users to download the app straight from her post. By the way, this is another testament to how important it is to let influencers have creative freedom. In the video, Laura played one of her eccentric characters Pamela Pupkin, who got into a rather entertaining and chaotic feud with her husband Roger (played by Laura’s real-life husband Stephen) over the game. This shtick allowed Laura to promote the game while still giving her fans what they know and love. Standard Photo or Video Posts On Facebook, you’ll find all kinds of influencer marketing examples. Tactics like reviews, mentions, competitions, and giveaways can all be executed with standard Facebook posts. In this example, Vital Proteins had fitness influencer Jordan Morello host a giveaway on his Facebook page. He gave three steps for users to enter: follow the company’s Facebook page, like the post, and tag two friends in the post’s comments. He included a fun, simple, eye-catching GIF of himself with the products to gain his followers’ attention. How to Find Facebook Influencers Just like your other searches, your quest for Facebook influencers should start with the good ol’ search bar. Type in keywords for the types of products or services you’re offering, or words that describe your brand and goals. Say you have a travel gear ecommerce brand that’s releasing a new line of mountain climbing accessories. Start with typing ‘mountain climbing’ into the search bar. Use Facebook’s filter options to view the results by ten categories: • All • Posts • People • Photos • Videos • Pages • Places • Groups • Apps • Events To see results from influencers with their own established brands, go to the ‘Pages’ tab, then go to the ‘Categories’ filter section on the left sidebar. Select ‘Artist, Band, or Public Figure.’ You can also check out the ‘Local Business or Place’ and ‘Entertainment’ categories. And as we mentioned earlier, check out the ‘Groups’ tab as well, since Groups may not have the same organic reach issues that pages and profiles do. Try all this with hashtags too. Start with the more obvious ones, like #mountainclimbing. Go to the ‘Posts’ filter tab to see posts that contain the keyword, then start browsing through the profiles and pages the posts came from. Use Google Never forget that Google is your friend. Sticking with the mountain climbing example, you could type in searches like: Mountain climbing Facebook influencers Top mountaineers Facebook Facebook mountaineering influencers Climbers on Facebook Action sports influencers Facebook Facebook extreme sports influencers Your post will likely lead you to media outside of Facebook, like blogs and Instagram. Check those out too! These links might lead you to an influencer who’s also active on Facebook. Or you might fall so in love that you decide to work with them based on their other platforms. 3 Successful Facebook Influencer Marketing Examples The overall success of your Facebook influencer marketing campaign will come down to strategy and execution. If you’re short on ideas, take inspiration from the following campaigns that didn’t feature top-tier influencers but still managed to make noise. 1. HelloFresh’s Facebook Live Cooking Party Meal-kit delivery service leader HelloFresh understands that people want to have fun while preparing their food. And, they want to cook that food well, so that the homemade meal matches up with the delicious-looking mockups online. With that in mind, the brand started hosting a live cooking show series where audiences prepare food at the same time as the hosts. The show regularly features HelloFresh’s head chef and occasional appearances from micro-influencers. Here’s a video featuring a special guest mom and her 4-year-old son. https://www.facebook.com/HelloFreshus/videos/1776471082380735/ This particular video got over 50 comments and 17,000 views. Audiences were also able to ask questions on the fly, and get pro tips from the chef and the host in real-time. While live-streamed interviews and newscasts are fun because of the interaction, the appearance of smaller, friendly, and relatable personalities offers the legitimacy that viewers love and crave. 2. SoFabFood’s Creative Recipes Drive SoFabFood, a group of diverse, self-taught home chefs who share family-friendly recipes, approached micro-influencers on Facebook to promote healthy cooking. The brand wanted to mix influencers’ creativity with the different food items it regularly featured in its recipes. So influencers were required to make something unique out of the food staples in addition to showing their healthy sides. Blogger Sara of Tastefulventure, for example, posted a back-to-school morning recipe featuring a cinnamon turmeric smoothie. When organizing campaigns like these, avoid constraining influencers to the brand’s vision alone. Give them the liberty to explore and enjoy your products thoroughly. 3. Loeffler Randall’s ‘Cool Girls Doing Cool Things’ Campaign High-end footwear and accessory brand Loeffler Randall is a favorite amongst fashion insiders, bloggers, and artists, courtesy of the company’s vow to involving social media influencers in its campaigns. The brand’s program ‘LR Ambassadors’ includes a diverse group of painters, writers, and fashionistas living dynamic lives. In addition to profiling the ambassadors on the official blog, Loeffler Randall has them post content on Facebook and other social media channels. Influencers, in turn, post the hashtag #LRambassador to let people know that they’re associated with the brand. Here’s an example of one such influencer: Could I Have That is a lifestyle blog run by Samantha Wennerstrom. She’s an LR Ambassador who posts about Loeffler Randall’s new and upcoming line of products across different social media channels, piquing users’ interest in the brand’s offerings. Overall, there are pages and pages of successful Facebook influencer marketing campaigns. They’re a testament to the possibilities the platform provides. Go Forth and Influence! As you start gearing up your Facebook influencer marketing efforts, remember to focus on finding authentic and engaging partners that really complement what you stand for as a brand. Be as specific as possible with setting goals and setting up ways to track them, so you can be on top of your results and know when you’re winning or you need to readjust. Above all, have some fun! Make new friends and let your brand’s personality shine. The world of influencer marketing is growing and evolving really quickly as brands across the globe realize the incredible power that these influencers hold in their fingertips – literally. At first glance, it might seem like a ‘pay to play’ game where only the big spenders are succeeding. But no matter how big or famous your brand is – and no matter how big your budget is – there will always be an opportunity waiting for brands with the persistence, savvy, and creativity to make it work. Is your brand one of them?
Product Page Tune-Up: 9 Timeless Ways to Increase Conversions June 11, 2019 bizadmin Your product page is where the majority of your customers finally make the decision to either buy your product or leave your store. Unfortunately, it’s an often-neglected part of the sales funnel. While most store owners tend to focus on improving their checkout page or tweaking what happens after a visitor adds a product to their cart, customers won’t get that far unless you create solid product pages that convert. Product pages exist to tell customers why your product is awesome, explain which needs it fulfills or problem it solves, and list the details a customer needs to see in order to make a buying decision. Beautiful photos of your product and well-written product descriptions are important, but they’re also the table stakes—there’s a lot more to you need to get right in order to make a great product page. To help you increase sales and revenue, let’s review a few timeless ways to improve your product pages. Don’t wait to pique people’s interest Understand and address customer concerns Highlight a clear call to action Activate live chat on key pages Complement your photography with videos or GIFs Showcase reviews and personal testimonials Prominently display social proof and guarantees Upsell and cross-sell where appropriate Don’t leave your shelves completely empty 1. Don’t wait to pique people’s interest In the world of journalism every reporter is told to put the lead up front. This means you start a story with the details that matter and never force people to dig in order to find essential information. Store owners can learn a thing or two from this approach. While you may have a number of important product details to cover on a single page, you shouldn’t leave potential customers in suspense; it just takes a single click of the back button to lose a sale. Make it clear what the product is and why it’s valuable, and quickly. Nerd Skincare cleverly applies this principle by providing a distilled summary of the product, what it’s made of, and what benefits it can provide in a single, crisp paragraph at the top of the page. Each of these individual ideas is explored in more detail further down, adding rich context, explanation, and images that help inform and provide proof of the claims made. But for most products, the choice to lead with “at a glance” copy is the right one, because the customer is never left waiting to have their interest piqued. 2. Understand and address customer concerns When figuring out what to include on your product pages, remember that there’s an inherent relationship between the product, your customer’s motivations to buy it, and their objections that may delay a purchase. When selling their Survival Belt, for example, SlideBelts knows that customers have far more questions about functionality than just about the aesthetics. The look of the belt can be conveyed with a high-quality photograph, which leaves room for the copy to address durability and utility. For this product, focusing on how well the belt stands up to harsh environments and frequent wear and tear is essential to helping potential customers see the value. Understanding your customers and challenging your own assumptions through voice of customer research is also important in figuring out what’s on your customer’s mind when purchasing. Start by understanding your customer’s motivations for buying your product and the objections or concerns they need addressed. Kettle & Fire sells a health product that they know not every potential customer will be familiar with (“Why add bone broth to my diet?”). On top of that, the traditional approach to making bone broth comes with built-in hurdles around sourcing ingredients and time to prepare. This creates a natural opportunity to have the copy lead with the hassles of the “old way” versus the comparative ease of using a Kettle & Fire product. Note that while the potential increase in conversions is one benefit, addressing common concerns can also help you set better expectations, which will reduce the number of returns on a product. Your support queue will thank you for your efforts of reducing customer frustration—the main source of which is receiving a product that doesn’t match their expectations. 3. Highlight a clear call to action It seems obvious, but in your pursuit of an “optimized” product page make sure you don’t accidentally drown out the most important element: your add to cart button. Buying should be easy, which means your call to action should be impossible to miss, without being gaudy or clashing with your design. Vermilyea Pelle didn’t have to compromise its sleek, minimalist design that prefers to take a back seat in order to highlight its handmade bags. By surfacing the “Add to Cart” button up top and using simple language (because now is not the time to be clever), it’s easy to find your way to checkout. 4. Activate live chat on key pages Live chat is consistently rated as having the highest satisfaction levels across all support channels; customers like that they get answers fast, can multitask, and feel it’s the most efficient use of their time. Just like an FAQ on your product page, targeted live chat allows potential customers to get their questions answered quickly, making it easier for them to make an informed decision. The difference is they receive their answer through a conversation, either with a chatbot or by talking to you or your support team. This means live chat can require manual work, and is often best to use during high-traffic periods (to close more sales) or on specific product pages, such as pricier bundles that generate higher than average order values. Live chat also lets your visitors know that you’re easily and quickly accessible, making your business more trustworthy. Even if your visitors don’t use live chat, just seeing that it’s available can give them that added peace of mind. When your visitors do choose to use live chat, that’s your opportunity to help them address questions that may be stalling their purchase. You don’t have to be a salesperson; just be as helpful and transparent as possible. For example, having live chat available fits with ThirdLove’s stated mission to help their customers find a bra that fits. 5. Complement your photography with videos or GIFs One of the obvious downsides of shopping online is not being able to to touch, feel, or physically examine a product you’re considering. Because of this, product visuals have to do a lot of heavy lifting in order to provide a similarly useful experience. We’ve long championed how product photography can make or break any ecommerce site, but it’s important to remember that visuals aren’t just limited to photography, and effectively using visuals isn’t just about the aesthetics; great photography, GIFs, and videos all keep your customers questions and concerns in mind and help them make a more informed decision. Storq, which sells maternity clothing, emphasizes their soft, comfortable materials in their copy and uses video of a model wearing their clothes to show how a customer can expect each piece to fit. Videos and animated photos don’t need to be lengthy or complicated, either. Just look at how KeySmart uses a simple animated GIF, with no audio, to show off their product in ways a still image or a set of images can’t quite match. If your customers were buying this product in person, what would they closely examine? What would they want to see and compare? Online stores can bridge the gap by correctly using visuals to show customers what they’d naturally look out for when buying the product in person. Last but not least, remember that while your product photography and videos live on your site, they’re often what’s used to feature and promote your products offsite, too. Wherever your products go, your photos and videos will follow, so they’re always worth investing in. If you want to learn more about how video can help your ecommerce business, check out our brief guide to using video to increase conversions. 6. Showcase reviews and personal testimonials Generally speaking, the more a product rests on providing a specific positive outcome the more valuable it is to have customer testimonials. Reviews, on the other hand, have become essential for establishing trust in almost every product category. Nearly 95% of shoppers read reviews before making a purchase, and surveys have consistently shown that customers trust reviews more than descriptions provided by the store or manufacturer. Since customer reviews are such a commonly-used approach, look for ways to catch your customer’s attention or add to the social proof reviews naturally provide. Here’s how Wildebeest pairs customer reviews next to their quality guarantee on every product page. If you want to easily allow customers to add reviews on your product pages, head over to the Shopify App Store and choose from one of the many review apps. As a bonus tip, follow up with customers a few weeks after their purchase and ask them to leave an honest review—email is typically the best channel to do this. Nearly 95% of shoppers read reviews before making a purchase, which means reviews are essential for establishing trust. If you sell a product that’s intrinsically tied to a personal outcome, like clearer skin or a better golf swing, testimonials will become a critical part of your marketing toolkit. Stars and quick blurbs are enough to sell a pair of socks, but probably fall short if you’re asking a customer to make a larger investment (e.g. a premium product, or a personal product like skin care). Great testimonials focus on real people and provide a story of life before and after your product. Luxy Hair’s products directly affect their customer’s appearance, so to establish trust they liberally showcase their transformation stories and each customer’s candid experiences with the product. 7. Prominently display social proof and guarantees If your product is endorsed or given a reputable seal of approval, letting visitors know with a badge or seal can be a shortcut to establishing social proof. Any certifications or important characteristics of your product, such as safety or legitimacy, are wise to include on your product page (so long as customers care about these aspects). It’s easy to simply write these things into your product description, but badges can save precious space for copy and stand out on your page. The value of these badges is they quickly help customers check bottom-line concerns off of their list (e.g. if a customer has a gluten allergy and requires a gluten-free product). Note that you may need permission or an official certificate to use specific seals or badges on your website. When you’re not referencing an official organization or standard (like “USDA Organic”), you can create your own badges that simply distill important features of your product. For example, features such as “Made in Canada” or “High Quality” would work better as nicely designed badges than simple bullet points in a product description. Primal Pit Paste uses badges in such a way to visually summarize their products. Another way to assuage customer concerns is to display rock-solid guarantees. What’s your return policy? What’s your customer satisfaction policy? Is it hidden away on a separate page for no one to see? The types of guarantees you can feasibly offer depend on your products and profit margins, but clearly displaying what you can provide on your product pages is crucial for reducing ambiguity. 8. Upsell and cross-sell where appropriate The goal of a product page is to sell. However, many online stores actually end up losing customers by cramming their product pages with excessive additional offers and links to related products. Upselling and cross-selling can be key to increase your average order value, but moderation, and organization, is paramount. Going overboard with related products and banners can feel overly-aggressive and spammy, cause analysis paralysis, and distract the shopper from actually completing their intended order. Connecting the additional products to what a customer is currently looking at can make all the difference, and make your original product even more enticing. 3sixteen recommends complementary pieces to encourage shoppers to consider purchasing a complete outfit. To keep buyers focused on the product they’re already viewing, display a healthy amount of additional products, without overcrowding the space that you have. Slyde, a store that sells bodysurfing handboards, only features their most relevant product add-ons, and right next to their offer of free shipping and promise of stress-free returns, which is a nice touch. 9. Don’t leave your shelves completely empty A sold-out item doesn’t mean you have to lose a customer for good. When one of your products is temporarily out of stock, you can avoid potential future sales slipping away by giving shoppers the option to leave their contact information in order to be notified when the product is available again. Greats, a footwear company from Brooklyn, often has limited edition sneakers available in special prints or made in collaboration with other designers. When a certain size isn’t available, customers are prompted to “skip the line” and get a notification when their size is back in stock. Your Shopify theme may already have this functionality built in, but if it’s not, you can check out apps like Back in Stock and Now Back in Stock. You can also look at other ways to capture leads on sold-out product pages, like a customized landing page or offering pre-orders. Creating product pages that sell Your product pages are the lifeblood of your online store. If they’re poorly presented or unstructured, you could risk frustrating your customers and leaving a lot of money on the table. Going the extra mile and creating stand-out product pages will also do wonders for your store’s brand and reputation, separating you from your competition. The more effort you put into your product pages, the more interested shoppers will be in both your products, and your company as a whole. Sometimes, the smallest or simplest change can have a significant impact on your business. Start with strong ideas and iterate—you should begin see your product pages converting browsers into buyers better than ever before. 🚀
Release the Power in You June 10, 2019 bizadmin Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, Ephesians 3:20 RELEASE THE POWER IN YOU! How much power is working in you right now? God’s Word says that there is “power that works in us.” It is a tremendous power that shakes the heavens and the earth because it comes from the throne of God, “who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think”! The problem, however, is that many of us don’t release that power. God wants us to release that power because there are things that will not happen on earth until we do so. Jesus said that “whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:19). What Jesus is saying is that what you permit to happen, heaven will permit. What you disallow, heaven will disallow! So how do we release God’s power in us? One way is to pray in tongues. When we allow His Spirit to make intercession for us (see Romans 8:26), miracles happen. Some time ago, the aunt of a church member underwent surgery to remove a diseased kidney. In spite of the surgery, the prognosis was poor. At home, the church member and his wife were prompted by the Spirit to release the power that works in them by praying in tongues for their aunt. Back at the hospital, the aunt underwent further observation. When an X-ray of her abdominal area was taken, the doctor was shocked to find two healthy kidneys. Five other doctors were consulted who subsequently examined the aunt. At first, they thought that the surgeon who had performed the operation had made a mistake and did not remove the diseased kidney. But further investigation showed that the kidney had indeed been removed. They could not explain what had happened. But the church member and his wife needed no explanation because they knew that when they released the power that worked in them, God did exceedingly abundantly above all that they could ask or think—He gave their aunt a new kidney. Beloved, He can do the same for you when you pray in the Spirit and release the power that works in you!