It's that time of the year again. A time for family, friends, celebration and joy! Not only that, but it's also the time of year when sales are at their highest. Are you prepared to make the most out of this Holiday season?
Click through for Black Friday / Cyber Monday Sale Ideas and Graphic Freebies!
It's that time of the year again. A time for family, friends, celebration and joy! Not only that, but it's also the time of year when sales are at their highest. Are you prepared to make the most out of this Holiday season?
Shoppers get excited to make purchases during Black Friday and Cyber Monday for two main reasons:
Bottom line, it all comes down to getting a great deal. This is the time of year shoppers have been waiting for! The question is, are you prepared? You could be missing out on sales if you choose not to participate.
Have you considered creating a Black Friday / Cyber Monday promotion? If you feel hesitant because you are worried about doing a big dramatic sale, you don't need to be. There are still easy ways to participate in America's shopping holiday! In fact, it may not make sense for you or your business to cut prices dramatically. You don't have to go BIG in order to see your sales increase. Many shoppers just want to feel like they are getting added value for free, or saving money on something they would have paid full price for.
Of course these marketing tips will work exponentially better if you effectively advertise them to your shoppers via newsletters, social media, on-site announcements, and the like. If you don't advertise your sales, you are doing yourself a huge disservice!
Sometimes people hold off on buying lower end items due to shipping costs. Offering free shipping over black friday and cyber monday could be just the incentive a shopper needs to make a purchase!
Offering gifts with purchase can be a fun and easy way to provide some extra value to normal purchases. You can send items to Printaura to be added into your sales. To learn more, check out our article, "How to build your brand using pack-ins".
This is a classic sales technique. If you don't usually hold sales, you can even advertise it as the best prices/ deals of the year! It doesn't need to be a high percent off. Many larger companies offer between 20% and 30% off on orders.
One way to ensure you are getting the best return on your sale is to create a tiered promotional system. This way,...
]]>If you aren't someone who can hand code an entire eCommerce store front, not to worry! That's what themes are for. Themes are ready-made templates for your online shop. The theme will provide the foundation for a shop, and you simply customize it to fit your brand! Make it your own by adding your logo, picking out fonts, choosing colors themes, and adding design elements that are unique to your brand.
Choosing a theme can be both fun and frustrating. With so many to choose from, it can be hard to keep your vision clear. It can also be hard to see past the imagery used in examples of theme to see your own brand vision in the theme.
Try to look past the flashy example branding and concentrate on the bones of the theme. Think about these things and decide if they are a good fit for your brand and your vision:
Now that you know what a theme is used for and have an idea of what to look for, let's check out some great WooCommerce themes! The WooCommerce theme shop itself was a little sparce, and truthfully a bit uninspiring, so I took to one my favorite resources for finding themes, themeforest! Hopefully some of these themes pique your interest and get you excited to design, or update your online store.
If none of these themes strike your fancy, browse for yourself! ThemeForest has a lot to choose from, as do other websites that provide themes!
Please note these themes are WordPress compatible.
View Theme | View Demos Price: $59
View Theme | View Demos Price: $60
View Theme | View Demos Price: $59
View Theme | View Demo Price: $59
View Theme | View Demos Price: $59
View Theme | View Demo Price: $55
View Theme | View Demo Price: $59
View Theme | View Demos Price: $49 (Currently on sale)
Have you found an amazing WooCommerce theme that is easy to use, looks great, and is fun to customize? Share it with our fellow members here in the comments section!
]]>Do you do any online advertising for your brand, products, or online store? If not, you probably want to consider it. Advertising online is essential for getting noticed! If you want to reach your future customers, you have to get in front of them. While Facebook and Instagram can be good platforms to reach people who may be interested in buying your products, Pinterest is an excellent, and sometimes overlooked option as well.
If you have ever used Pinterest before, you know it is a very visually driven platform. Over 200 million people browse through Pinterest every month to discover new things and new ideas. Pinterest is place where people can design their own lives. It's a place for inspiration and discovery!
Pinterest can be a great match for people looking to get their designs and products in front of the people who will love them. You are all artists, designers, and creative people. Ideally, you want people to see, share, love, and inevitably purchase your designs and products.
I was lucky enough to be able to sit down with some people on Pinterest's advertising team. We talked about what makes an ad perform well and stand out. Here is what I learned.
Accepted File Types: PNG and JPEG
File Size: 2MB
Minimum Resolution: 72 dpi
Aspect Ratio: 2:3 or a bit taller
Image Size: 600x900 pixels minimum, 600x1560 pixels maximum.
Description Character Count: 500 characters of less
Include A CTA
What is a CTA? It is a call to action! You want to motivate the user to take some action. What that action is, is up to you! It could be to visit your shop or to purchase a specific item. An ad without a call to action isn't much of an ad! You can do this as a text over lay, in the description, or both. Just be clear and provide the appropriate links.
Tasteful Branding
It's been shown that subtle branding drives higher performance. You can do this through product placement or a small water mark off to the side.
Extra tip - don't put your logo in the bottom right hand corner. It will get covered by the Pinterest product feature.
Design For Mobile
Research shows that around of 80% of users access Pinterest from mobile devices. You might consider uploading your ad to a secret board to check how it looks on mobile to ensure it is legible and is easy to understand. It is also shown that your image will only be on their screen for an average of less than 2 seconds, so make sure you communicate your point efficiently!
Stand Out
One challenge is being able to stand out in a sea of images. Consider what pins will be related to your ad, and try to think and design differently. You want your advertisement to grab attention and stand out, not blend in!
Optimize Visual Space
Advertisers on Pinterest had the best luck creating vertical...
Do you want to start marketing your brand, but don't know where to start? It can seem pretty intimidating, and more than anything, expensive! Marketing your brand doesn't have to break the bank. There are plenty of smart and strategic ways you can go about getting your brand out there!
Understanding your niche is super important. Let's say your apparel company revolves around trail running and the culture that goes along with it. It's your job to figure out what kind of people would be interested in your products. Luckily, if you are making shirts for people who are trail runners, you are likely a trail runner too! It definitely gives you a leg up if you are the kind of person you are trying to sell your products to. Where do you, and your future customers hang out online? You can probably find popular forums, Facebook groups, Reddit threads, and other online communities to join and become an active part of. You might already be a member of some! Use these communities to build your brand.
Tip: Establish yourself in these places. Become part of the community before you start mentioning your products. Let it come up organically! You don't want it to come off as spam!
Creating and running and ad on Facebook or Instagram can be much more affordable than you think! You set the budget, so it will always fit into your budget. You can start testing ads and seeing what type of ad, and what type of audience gets you the best results. I would recommend running campaigns starting around $5.00 and see what happens. Try different imagery and different tactics. Pay attention to which ones perform best, and invest your money into it from there.
Since you've already identified your target market (right?), you should be able to figure out who the influencers are. Influencers online are people who are considered opinion leaders over social platforms like Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, etc. People listen to them and trust what they say. People are "influenced" by their opinions and their likes. Try reaching out to mid level influencers who have a substantial following, but who aren't so popular that your email will be lost. If you can find a mutually beneficial way to work with someone like this, your brand could get GREAT exposure!
Tip: Don't expect something for nothing. It is important to foster good relationships with influencers. You should both benefit from the relationship. This will depend on the influencer and how you decide to work with them.
Let's go back to the trail running apparel company example. Just because you have a business based online, doesn't mean you are stuck there! Take your brand to directly to your potential customers. Where can you find trail runners? You will likely find them out on...
]]>The importance of communicating with your customers is paramount! It's how you can show appreciation, promote your products, retain customers, promote return business, develop relationships, and build trust. There are many services out there that make communicating with your customers easier than ever. If you haven't had a chance to look into email marketing services, take a moment now and check some of these out!
We've put together this list of email marketing services for you guys to check out. All of these services come recommended either by your fellow members, or based on our own experiences. Many of the services we have chosen to feature either have free accounts or free trials available. So why not check them out?
Visit Website Pricing: $0 - $199/ month - plans increase based on amount of contacts
Mailchimp is our top pick for beginners! It is visually pleasing, easy to use, and features a pretty decent free account that works great for people who are just dipping their toes into email marketing.
Free Plan: Yes Chat Support: Yes Tracking: Yes Mobile Friendly: Yes Email Templates: Yes Social Media Marketing: No Reports: Yes
Notable Features:
Visit Website Pricing: $0 - Pricing is tiered for unlimited emailing depending on amount of contacts (ex. 3,500 contacts is $39.95 / month, 10,000 contacts is $73.95/ month, etc.)
BenchMark is a close second in our choice beginners. You can sign up for a free account for up to 2,000 contacts, and can send up to 14,000 emails per month! It's easy to use and another great choice for those of you who are just testing the waters.
Free Plan: Yes Chat Support: Yes Tracking: Yes Mobile Friendly: Yes Email Templates: Yes Social Media Marketing: Yes Reports: Yes
Notable Features:
Visit Website Pricing: $20 / month - $125 / month (call for pricing on 10,000 + contacts)
While constant contact does not have a free version, it does have a 60 day free trial that will allow you to try it before you buy it! That's a sizable amount of time to be able to make up your mind. The pricing is also fairly reasonable.
Free Plan: No, but 60 day free trial available Chat Support: Yes Tracking: Yes Mobile Friendly: Yes Email Templates: Yes Social Media Marketing: Yes Reports: Yes
Notable Features:
Visit Website Pricing: $19.95 / month (1,000 contacts) - $299.96 / month (50,000 contacts) & up from there
Campaigner is another paid service, but like constant contact, they offer a full feature free trial so you can try out their services. Their pricing is tiered like many of the other services mentioned here. This service can accommodate over 1 million contacts!
Free Plan: No,...
]]>Dear aspiring eCommerce entrepreneur,
You want to start your own business. You want to be your own boss. You want to be able to support yourself while doing something you love. However, you are also hesitant.
The idea of failure is crippling. So crippling, that it may have kept you from even wanting to start. Maybe you have started, but things aren't coming together the way you want them to. Maybe you feel discouraged and may have given up, or stepped away.
Your dream starts to seem like it's nothing more than just that, a dream.
Well guess what? You're wrong.
I mean, sure, you can prove yourself right. You can go through your whole life and never explore the reality of your dreams. You can sit around waiting and wishing that something would happen to help get you where you want to be. You can keep yourself from your dreams by focusing on the negative and being so afraid of failure that you never start.
You can just go for it. The hardest part of getting to where you want to be can often be giving yourself permission to start. You can embrace the idea of failure as a possibility, and a learning tool.
You can look your fears in the face and say, TAKE A HIKE!
Why is it so difficult to start working towards our dreams?
Dreams, by definition, seem unobtainable. They seem like impossible possibilities because we are afraid to put ourselves out there. We are afraid to fail. We are afraid to screw up. We are afraid of a perceived loss.
We have an ideal we aspire towards, but so few of us take the road to get there. So few of us even take the first step. When we have BIG dreams for ourselves, they seem so out of reach and we rarely strive towards them. The fear keeps us from feeling inspired and squashes our passion and excitement. The fear ensures our hesitations. The fear ensures we will never start.
In my mind, dreams have two parts. First, there is the dream, the big idea! Second is the expectation that goes along with that dream.
It is the expectations that accompany our dreams that keeps us from working towards them and fighting for them. Achieving a goal, but having it not reach expectations is often seen as failure. And failure is seen as a terrible thing. The truth is, failure is a tool. It helps us get to where we want to be. Failure can be an integral part in helping us to achieve our dreams. Not achieving your expectations can be a learning experience. It can be valuable. You can step back, research, reevaluate, and try again with a newly informed mind. You aren't allotted only one attempt at success.
If there is one thing I have learned, it is that we...
]]>A copyright is the exclusive legal right to copy, publish, profit from, reproduce, or distribute a literary, musical, or artistic work. A copyright is typically given to the originator of a work or the entity it was created for. It essentially means that the holder of the copyright owns that work it as if it were their property. No one else may legally copy or profit from that piece of work, unless given permission by the owner of the copyright.
Copyright issues make up a large percentage of our rejected artwork rate. Many of you may not know this, but we have a few lovely people on our team who go through each and every artwork file that is ordered for print. They check up on a few things, copyright issues being one of the most important. We hate to see people going through the trouble to get artwork created and setup, only to have to reject it do to a copyright infringement. In an effort to prevent this from happening, we have come up with this super simple, no nonsense guide to understanding copyrighting laws.
These laws expand much further than just Printaura's requirements. Be sure to read through them carefully and make sure you are not getting yourself into trouble elsewhere! There can be big time consequences if you are found to be breaking copyright laws. We don't report these issues, but we simply cannot print them without risking getting our members and ourselves into trouble.
A very simple way to think about copyright laws is to ask yourself, "If I created this, would I be okay with someone else using it for their own profit?". If the answer is no, then you really shouldn't be including it in your design. Imagine you've spent a ton of time and energy creating a custom design to sell in your store. The artwork is yours and was made from your own creative perspective. Now imagine someone else just grabs the design you've been working on, and slaps it on a shirt and puts it up for sale in their own shop. Doesn't seem right, does it?
A loyalty program is a rewards program that businesses offer to their loyal customers. Loyalty programs reward and encourage return purchasers. Every consumer loves to feel like their purchases are appreciated. A loyalty program is a great way to give back to your return customers and encourage more sales at the same time. It really is a win-win!
Loyalty programs can demonstrate both a companies loyalty to their customers, and reward a customer's loyalty to a company. Here are some benefits that can ?? from loyalty programs:
1. Encourages return purchases did you know that existing customers spend 67% more than first time customers? It makes sense that we focus on retaining our existing customers. What better way to do that then to reward them for shopping at your business?
2. Allows for marketing opportunities Once a customer signs up for your loyalty program, you have their name and email, and any other information you require for sign up. This allows you the opportunity to communicate with someone you may not have had the chance to otherwise.
3. Encourages first time purchases First time customers can also be persuaded to make an initial purchase if they feel that purchase will work towards something positive for them later on down the line. As consumers, we all love getting a good deal and feeling like our money goes as far as it can.
4. Improves brand relationship Having a loyalty program can help customers feel like they are part of your brand. It can improve opinions about a brand's identity and help to build a relationship between the company and the customer.
Loyalty programs come in many different forms. Each will reward your customers for spending their hard earned money at your store. Here are some easy to implement programs that will encourage your customers to come back for more!
1. Points Program
A points program is a very simple and common type of loyalty program. They are generally easy to set up too. You just decide what actions allow your customers to earn points, and then offer benefits available to trade in for points earned. For example, let's say your customers receive 1 point for every dollar they spend. You can then offer different benefits for different amounts of points. Something like this:
$1.00 spent = 1 point
Once the points are traded in for a benefit, they are gone.
2. Tiered Programs
Tiered programs are a variation on the points program. Instead of having people earn points to trade for different benefits, a customer receives benefits once they get to a certain level. For example, once you earn 100 points, you can unlock a certain benefit. The...
]]>If you're not great with online design or coding, not to worry! There is a theme for that! A store theme is essentially a ready-made template for your online shop. The theme will provide the foundation for a shop design, and you simply customize it to fit your brand! Add your logo, choose your colors, add your products, spruce it up with some imagery, then presto! You're done.
Choosing a theme can be both a fun and frustration process. With so many to choose from, it can be hard to keep your vision clear. It can also be hard to see past the imagery used in examples of theme to see your own brand vision in the theme.
Try to look past the flashy example branding and concentrate on the bones of the theme. Think about these things and decide if they are a good fit for your brand and your vision:
There are tons of themes, both free and paid, to choose from. Here are some of our favorites!
1. Venture Price: Free
2. Brooklyn Price: Free
3. Minimal Price: Free
4. Supply Price: Free
5. Simple Price: Free
6. Boundless Price: Free
7. Parallax Price: $160
8. Pacific Price: $180
9. Ira Price: $160
10. Pipeline Price: $140
11. District Price: $160
12. Blockshop Price: $140
13. Startup Price: $180
14. Masonry Price: $180
Do you have a favorite theme? We know there are lots of places to download themes for Shopify, so let us know if you've found some cool ones we haven't seen!
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Shopify can be an amazing eCommerce platform for entrepreneurs to get their start, and continue on to big things! Out of all of our members, the majority of you use Shopify to host your online shops. Since so many of you are using this platform, we thought we'd ask you all a question ..
Do you utilize the Shopify App Store?
If you are are member of Printaura, you've probably at least taken a look. With thousands of apps available for the platform, it can be tough to figure out which apps are helpful, and which are downright superfluous.
We've put together a small list of the Shopify Apps we feel are the most helpful in terms of marketing, communication, and more!
Price: Free Establishing product and brand trustworthiness is important for converting new customers. Allowing your previous customers to leave you feedback shows not only that you are confident in your product, but that you are interested in what your customers have to say. What if people leave a negative review? Even negative reviews can be positive if you respond in a thoughtful and helpful way. This shows people you can admit a mistake, and are willing to make things right for your customers. We are all human, and people understand that!
Shopify's Product Review App allows your customers to leave you a rating and written feedback. The app also allows you control over publishing, as well as the option to respond to feedback, which is fantastic! You can also customize the design of your review section to match the theme of your shop. You can collect positive reviews to feature on other parts of your site too!
Price: Free - $12/ Month As your business grows, so will the amount of communication between you and your customers. Setting up a way to make communication smoooth and organized can be a huge benefit! With Tidio, you can set up a live chat feature within your store. I know I always greatly appreciate it when places I shop online offer the option to chat with someone in real time.
Chats can be sent directly to your mobile devices, so you can stay ontop of every customer's communication. This app also allows you to view who is currently visiting your website, which can be a fun but also educational feature. If you aren't online, no biggie! The app allows you to set up an offline contact form if someone misses you. The app also boasts language features and automatic responses.
Price: Free (paid upgrade available) This app allows you to send customized receipts to your customers after their purchases. This may seem simple and a little silly, but it can really get your customers excited about their purchases! You can also include incentives for the customer to return and make additional purchases. Receipts emails have a...
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