In previous articles, I’ve talked about how to improve your website so people will want to stay awhile and shop; we’ve covered website merchandising, cross merchandising, social merchandising, creating value, and how to manage your reputation so your customers will return again and again. Let’s back up a bit now and think about what we…Click to read more >
Advertising With Facebook Offers
Facebook Offers, a new form of online advertising, may be the closest thing yet to a measurable, ROI-positive ad platform for small retailers. But will it remain that way? If you’re like most small business owners, you need to manage your advertising spending carefully. And if you’re the owner of an online business, you are…Click to read more >
Shedding Light on Exposure
Are you exposed? Despite how it sounds, I’m not talking about how much (or little) you wear in your photos but how light or dark they are. Learning how to set your exposure is a crucial component of good photography anytime, but it’s an absolute necessity during the long, dark days of winter when natural…Click to read more >
Business Building with Blog Tours
If you’ve ventured into the quilting blogosphere, you’ve probably come across the occasional blog tour. Blog tours come in many different forms, but essentially they are a series of posts scheduled on different blogs within a short time period designed to promote something. The most common blog tours are for book releases, as publishers and…Click to read more >
Increasing Your Online Value
Higher sales and more customers – everyone wants this! To achieve this in our stores, we create enticing displays, start new programs, make samples, hold classes and demos, offer solutions, create great customer service, and collect customer testimonials! In order to get higher sales and more customers online, we need to figure out how to…Click to read more >
Investing in Your Shop’s Photos
Crafters are visual creatures, so it’s no wonder that the popularity of websites like Pinterest and Flickr and apps like Instagram continues to grow among the quilting and sewing crowd. After all, what is a blog post without at least one photo? And even with Facebook we’re told to ‘go visual or go home.’ Images…Click to read more >
Building Business with Twitter
Twitter is a bit of a mystery for many businesses. The conversations can fly by fast and furious, a mix of personal replies and broad announcements. How do you decide to jump into the fray and how do you keep the momentum going? Because Twitter is more about relationship building than clicks to your website,…Click to read more >
Do You Know What Your Customers Are Saying About You?
Reputation is Everything Get Feedback Take a look at your business brand identity. What do you want to be known for? Are you fulfilling the mission statement for your brand? If you are using social media or are merely curious about what your customers are saying about you, here are some ways to find out:…Click to read more >
Just Be Consistent – The Importance of Product Names and Images
Access to quality images and accurate product names is vital for online retailers for two reasons: we must be able to quickly load products onto our websites and it greatly increases the chance that these products can be readily found by and sold to customers who are looking for them. The bottom line is this:…Click to read more >
Is Your Newsletter Mobile Ready?
Reaching out to customers through email has been, and continues to be, the most effective marketing tool available to business owners. Nearly everyone who uses the Internet also uses email, making it a perfect means of reaching customers. Now with mobile phones’ popularity soaring, your message can reach them anywhere and everywhere. Especially as smartphones…Click to read more >