Customize Your Site

Over recent years, online businesses have invested in e-commerce practices that force on accessibility and functionality. While these are crucial elements to a website’s success, they often disregard the emotional and intuitive experience that brands factor into their physical locations. In store, all sense of the customers can be triggered through highly designed visual, audio and olfactory elements that touch on the customers at an emotional level – your online store must attempt to do the same, At the end of the day, your website is a supermarket or a warehouse, it’s reflection of the brand’s identify.

This is why digital visual merchandising is paramount to your brand’s success. If done well, the aesthetic of your website can foster crucial emotional connections between customer and brand, instead of simply facilitating transactions. Online shoppers may not be able to touch your products, but this does not mean that they cannot form an emotional attachment. There are strategies that your company can employ in order to encourage an individual’s interactivity, allowing them to get a feel for your brand, not just a feel for your website.

The well structured homepage
Waiting for a webpage to load may not feel the same as wandering through a luxury boutique, but if done the right way, it can be just as memorable. Your homepage is your first impression, your chance to grab the attention of your online customer, and leave them wanting more. Strong headings, clean backgrounds and quality photography are key in showing your customer what you do, and how you do it. An online shopper needs to know that you have got the goods—your homepage needs to let them know you do, as overtly as possible.

Sales campaigns
Many successful online stores, feature frequent sales campaigns in order to continually reward their online customer. No matter how small, online promotions have the potential to show your customer a little of who you are, and most importantly what it is you value. If you offer free shipping, you understand your customer values a fuss free shopping experience; if you regularly deliver free samples, you’re interested in knowing what your customer thinks about your product. Clever online promotion—such as two for one sales or VIP discounts—allow a brand to earn an online shopper’s loyalty, a feat which is harder to achieve in the absence of human interaction.

Keep your customer informed
A customer can see a picture online, but they can’t always read ingredients, or zoom in on care labels. Make sure that the information you provide about your products (generally alongside them en route to checkout) is detailed, in depth, and accurate. Customers require dimensions, textures, sizes and care instructions to help them make a decision on whether or not to buy. In store your customer can call on the shop assistant for further information— but this is a little trickier online. While online chat options with brand representatives are becoming more and more common, they may not be able to provide the level of detail a salesperson can provide you in store. At the end of the day, your online shopper will thank you for giving them the correct information in the correct context - product information as they’re browsing the online store, and shipping information as they decide to make a purchase. Answering questions before they are posed shows you care about their online experience, just as much as you do when they’re in store.

A picture tells your customer a thousand words they need to know
Your online imagery can make or break the success of your digital visual merchandising strategy. Not only do your photographs need to be of optimum quality, they also need to make your products more desirable. It might seem obvious, but you will need to employ the skills of a professional photographer. They can provide your company with unique, original and high resolution images of your products to be uploaded to your website for potential customers to view (and zoom in on) at their leisure. Remember, your online shopper can find your product, but they can’t feel it. Images need to highlight each and every one of the products features, from top to bottom, front to back.

Better yet, don’t just give them a visual, give them a visualisation. When posting images to your online store, consider featuring models either using or wearing your product. If you’re in the business of fashion, your collections should be featured being worn by male or female models, styled in appropriate outfits, in a setting that evokes a certain feel. If your product is one which can’t be worn, models are still of use. Have them holding your gadget, or using it on screen—this will show the relative product of your product, a very useful trick for all types of items from earrings to electric drills. Featuring your products in this fashion gives your potential buyer a stronger connection to the item, a connection which is harder to make when the product is sitting idle and flat on a screen. For this reason, the inclusion of video footage may also be something to consider, perhaps to show the swing of a skirt, or the drape of a jacket. Regardless of whether they are parading or posing; models are relatable, they promote a lifestyle, not just a product.

Give your online shopper the customer service they deserve
We are living in a material world, and in one way or another, we are all material girls. Unfortunately, this doesn’t make us more decisive, or more aware of what we want. As quickly as we love something, we may decide we hate it. As quickly as we unwrap something, we may also break it. What’s going to happen then? Your terms and conditions are just as important as any other brand copy on your website, such as slogans and product descriptions. Publishing this information in a clear and succinct manner is crucial. Without a shop assistant to quiz at point of sale, the online shopper needs access to a detailed returns policy as well as the particulars of shipping charges. As vocal inflection is absent online, polite and practical web communication relies heavily on carefully considered copy, ideally written by a professional copywriter.

Do judge a site by its cover
You might not be able to paint your website, adorn it with ornaments, or dress its front windows, but it should always look its best. Accessibility and functionality may save your customer from needless hassle as they browse, but digital visual merchandising is paramount to your brand’s online success. Without the ability to touch your product, the online shopper must be offered alternate ways to get a feel for what they’re buying, and in doing so, form a connection to it. Consumers are incredibly visual creatures; it’s important that your website stimulates these ocular senses. Begin with a well structured and welcoming home page, add some high resolution quality visualisations, and top it off with high quality customer service. Still not sure how? Lucky for you, Boutique business consulting have their finger on the pulse. From trends in e-commerce to current opinion on buyer behaviour, we’re up to speed on all the latest research, and we’re ready to help, so get your cover right. Boutique Business Consulting knows e-commerce. Contact us.

Evolution of Facebook Audience Targeting

Facebook is revolutionizing digital ad targeting through what they are coining “Audiences” as the umbrella term with a variety of technical ways to target people, not cookies based on digital behaviors. The “move fast, break things” culture that Facebook embodies could not be more true in terms of the advancements made to the array of targeting features introduced to their ad platform this year.

This Infographic by Opnia, a social advertising and mobile app dev agency,provides a detailed overview of the evolution of Facebook audience targeting. As you can see the targeting opportunities to splice and dice your messages to a highly relevant audience are endless. And now with Facebook’s improved analytics tool “audience insights” advertisers can upload email data to garner social insights about their customers. This tool can be used in a variety of ways for research and content marketing, but main focus is to improve targeting through Facebook advertising.

5 Quick Ways to Improve Your Nonprofit Email Newsletter

I receive a lot of email newsletters – from nonprofit organizations, and from businesses.
In recent months, I dramatically pruned by email subscriptions. This was mostly due to lack of time to read all of them, but it was also due to the fact that most email newsletters are just plain awful.
Hard to read, useless, spammy and worst of all – BORING.
This is my public service announcement to the nonprofits out there. Change your communications now or risk alienating your mailing list!
You have an important advantage when marketing. In the traditional sense, you aren’t selling anything. You should be using all of your communication channels to showcase your impact and prove that you are a good steward of funds. You want to move people, to get them motivated, to get them angry and to get them on board. ,
Emails should be demonstrating the ways that you make a different every day, as well as inspiring people to become involved in your mission.  This is a lot different than the once-per-day flash sale emails from Banana Republic.
Email is not dead and despite what you may think, it should play a critical part in your fundraising and marketing strategy.
Here are 5 simple things you can do today to make those nonprofit email newsletters even better.
1)     Make it mobile friendly.
Did you know that over 50% of people use their mobile devices to check their email? I know that’s the first thing I do in the morning, to make sure there are no fires to put out or cancelled meetings.
Can your email newsletter be easily digested and read on a mobile phone? Make sure to test it to make sure. Try it on several types of phones and with different mobile email apps.
2)     Use images.
When I say “use images” I mean use them sparingly. Make them count!
Too many images will take forever to load, may get stripped out of the email and will look cluttered on mobile devices.
A large, clear and compelling image is usually best. Make sure to label the image with action words, not just “Food Shelter 1”.
For example, label your logo “Click to visit our website” so that even if people can’t see the logo, they may be inspired to click. Label a photo of an event “Register for our event here!” in case the photo gets stripped.
3)     Keep it short!
One or two calls to action per email please. You can always link back to your website – and you should – so people can get more information.
This may mean you need to send more emails per month, rather than cramming every single call to action, news announcement and event registration into one lengthy email. Test out sending more frequent emails and measure the results.
PRO TIP: Stop thinking about Open Rate! This drives me crazy. You may have an open rate of 100%, but if no one is clicking on your links or answering your call to action, then what good is that email? Think about the goal of the email before you send. How will you know that you have been successful?
4)     Think of the subject line.
This is where I differ from a lot of other marketers. People are wise to cute, witty email subject lines that are basically click bait.
If you have had success with calling your emails “June Email Newsletter” than by all means stick to that. If people expect it and look forward to it, changing it up may hurt your open rates.
You may want to test out more compelling subject lines, but don’t get too cutesy, don’t include too much punctuation and do NOT write in all caps – those will get you sent to the spam folder in the blink of an eye.
5)     Break it up.
Use bold headlines, sub headlines, bullets, lists and lots of white space. Use black, non-serif font on white background. Make it very easy to read – no tiny fonts with a variety of colors!

Email Marketing Unsubscribe Do’s and Don’ts

Just recently, I was purging all of my “unwanted” email  subscriptions. We’re talking hundreds of mailing lists that I was no  longer interested in or just plain never wanted in the first place.
It was actually quite an enlightening experience to look at the  processes from a “customer” or “prospect” standpoint rather than that of  the marketer, or online business owner! And it became quite clear WHY  people just get angry and report marketers as spammers!
In this article, we’re going to focus on some of the Do’s and Don’ts  regarding your unsubscribe process. And how to stay out of hot water  when a real live email administrator finds your emails and tries to make  a decision as to whether or not to let you keep on mailing or not!
Some practices or errors to avoid at all costs in list management are as follows:

• NEVER allow an unsubscribe URL to point to a missing or deleted web page! If  you frequently change your website, always keep a record of the  previous names of those pages, and set up HTTP redirectors to bring  misdirected subscribers to the new correct pages.
• NEVER allow another piece of mail to get to an unsubscribed user. Your  database deletes do not necessarily have to be in real-time (though it  is preferred, and a lot easier to manage that way) but all mail  campaigns should begin with ensuring that recently unsubscribed users  are excluded.
• DO NOT program the unsubscribe URL to redirect to another one of your sites to process the removal.  This gives the illusion of foul play, and astute users may skip the  removal process and instead simply report the communication.
• DO NOT create a removal page that prompts a user to re-enter his/her email address. You already know what this address is because you just sent it an  email! Your mail campaign software should be smart enough to build the  subscriber’s ID into the unsubscribe link so that the user does not have  to enter anything extra.
• NEVER send any text on a removal page describing a time frame for removal (eg. “Allow 3-4 days for processing”, “May take 4-6 weeks”). Whether  your process is real-time or otherwise, always indicate that  ex-subscribers will get NO MORE communications, and that you are sorry  to see them go… And remove them right away!
• NEVER attempt to obscure or draw out the unsubscribe process in the hopes that the user may find it too much trouble, and  reconsider. A good (bad!) example of this would be a lengthy and  confusing list of publications requiring that the user clear the check  box next to each.
• Don’t Make the User Go Through Excessive Confirmation Screens!

You see all sorts of convoluted unsubscribe processes out there. In  marketing, it’s the equivalent of “upsell hell” when you’re trying to  make a purchase. All it’s going to do is make people mad and encourage  them to report you as a spammer. There’s no win in that no matter how  you look at it!
Now, on the flip side, here are some Unsubscribe Tips that may help  you not only stay in the good graces of the Email Administrators and  keep a customer – or get a new one!

• Include a 1-Click Unsubscribe Link In All Email Correspondence. At  the end of every email, you should have a link that the person can  click on in order to immediately unsubscribe him/her from your list. And  make it simple and obvious! Don’t make them click through to another  page to enter their email address again and so on and so forth.
• Honor All Unsubscribe Requests Immediately. Unfortunately,  you will have people that don’t click the link and send emails back  requesting removal from your list. (Admittedly, some of these can be  quite rude). And while it may be tempting to send them back through the  process or to reply with instructions to click the link, simply remove  them instead.
• Utilize Your Unsubscribe Page As A Tool. If you put  a custom page up for your unsubscribe, which we certainly would  recommend, be sure it’s a working page.If you have a continuity program,  you may want to make sure they don’t think they are unsubscribing from  the continuity program by putting something to the effect of “You have  successfully been removed from our email database. If you’re requesting  to cancel your subscription to our ACME monthly service, please click  here to complete. Your paid subscription will NOT be canceled until you  complete the cancelation process”.This will reduce your chargebacks and  complaints ten-fold.

You may also use this custom webpage to give them one final offer,  recommend something else via an affiliate link, try to get them to  subscribe to a different list, etc. This is a great way to monetize your  competitors’ marketing efforts!
You have absolutely nothing to lose at this point because this is  your last chance to communicate with this customer, so make the  communication mean something to your bottom line!

Avoid the following when marketing on Pinterest

When pitching your company or product in Pinterest make sure you are not doing any of the following:

No description of your business
If I visit your Pinterest site, how do I know who is responsible for all the beautiful pins? If I don't know who you are and what you are selling why even bother looking at your content.  When opening a Pinterest account always fill every space in your profile and put as much information about your company and products.

Missing link to your website
OK great I'm there, I love your content and your product.  How do I get to it?  Linking is the most important step in order to get potential costumer or client to your site, and don't forget to have a great landing page with clear call to actions so you can land that sale.

Not enough pins from your website or blog
If you concentrate too much on pins related to your business but forget to pin your blog or website content then you are missing the whole point of Pinterest.  Pinning your content from your website or blog will help drive visitors traffic to your main sites.

Low quality pictures
Have you seen all the great pictures that are in Pinterest, then how come yours look so bad?  You can do much better; get a good shot of yourself in good light and a clear background.  If you are a company a nice high-resolution picture of your company headquarters, I know you have lots of those lying around.

Messy Boards
Why do your bring your desktop clutter to the Pinterest board?  A Pinterest board should always be neat and organized.  Don't mix your content; keep one board per relevant subject.  If you do your visitors will thank you while being able to navigate easily through your content and filter out what they don't want to see on the fly.

Missing links to your Social Media sites
I’m there, I like your product but I am a Social Pineapple and I like to see what else is up your sleeve in your Tweeter account and Facebook.   Mentioning these sites in your profile will allow me to go there and check your other side.

Don't Pin just for the heck of it
Keep your pins relevant to your board subject matter.  Always describe briefly what you are pinning so that people have a clue of what you are offering.  Don't over do it either keep those descriptions just to a max of two sentences.

If you apply these concepts to your Pinterest board you will have an excellent board that is balanced with rich content, not boring and your visitors will keep coming back for more.
Take a look at our Pintetest: http://www.pinterest.com/boutiquebusines

5 Tips for writing a newsletter

I recently researched email newsletter for a client, and I came across some interesting tips, which I would be sharing here today. Email newsletters are a great way to build trust and relationships and they include promotional content, they’ll also grow revenue. The key is to make your subscribers actually read them.

Keep it short
If you learn nothing else, remember this, keep your newsletter shot. Include three articles at most, all of which should be short, or else you are wasting your time writing stuff that no one will read. You need to forces on publishing information that your readers will find useful and interesting.

Create relevant subject lines
Most people go through their inbox at least once a day to remove irrelevant email. There's just too much email and too little time so it's critical for your emails have a subject line that makes people want to read more. People are looking for an excuse to delete your newsletter - don't give them one! Don't use a subject line like "Our October Newsletter." Instead, use something that grabs attention like an interesting topic or headline from the newsletter, such as "Venture Capitalists Explain How to Get Funded"

If you'd like to encourage people to forward you emails, try this: The Association for Interactive Marketing (AIM) always adds "Pls. Forward" to the end of their newsletter subject lines. Supposedly it has more than doubled their circulation! With Campaigner, you can run two separate campaigns to send one newsletter, changing only the subject line. Campaigner's reporting feature will allow you to compare open rates and optimize your subject lines.

Don’t make your subject lines too long, and don’t use acronyms in an effort to make them shorter, this is a sure-fire way to get your email deleted!

Include images
Readers are always drawn to images—especially of people—which you can see by looking at the heat map. Include high-quality images that relate to what you are writing about, and not for the sake of visual interest alone.

Keep the best information on top
Put your most interesting or useful article at the top of the newsletter so people will be more likely to read it. If you want your readers to take action on something, like sign up for a webinar, put that information at the beginning. Keep more general industry news at the bottom.

Skip the intro
Intros to newsletters are basically little previews of the newsletter, right? Well, if your newsletter is short, your readers don’t need you to tell them what to expect. As the above statistics show, they’re going to skim the headlines anyway. It’s far better to focus on the headlines and content.
 

Do Mumtrepreneurs actually make money?

This week the Sydney Morning Herald wrote an article about whether mum's who start businesses from home really make money.

Here is the article for you to read.  

The answer seems to be that is depends. Some do make money and some don't. The ones that do advocate the following principals:

1. Start with an affordable website - as you begin to work in your business you realise what functionality to need.  

At BBC we believe you should start with a Cloud Hosted e-commerce package like BigCommerce, Shopify, Wordpress of SquareSpace. These platforms give you a lot of core functionality on day one. We believe you should start your business putting your best foot forward. We don't advocate building the site yourself using the website tools provided for free from hosting providers. If your website is cobbled together, inconsistent, error prone and unprofessional it will reflect badly on your brand. The cloud hosting options give the opportunity to look good on day one and offer your customers a sound buying experience.

2. Make sure you can update the website yourself, don't rely and keep paying for your web developer to do it for you.  

We totally agree with this statement. The e-commerce solutions we provide at BBC give our customers the ability to totally manage the site themselves. They can change the sliders, ad boxes and navigation all on their own. They can implement apps on their own which gives their site additional functionality. We fully train our customers so they can take over the full management of their site themselves.

 3. The key to profitability is to do everything yourself in the beginning.

We also agree with this is principal. Doing everything yourself allows you to learn your business. It allows you to set up the business processes the way you want. However you are not an expert in every aspect of your business. Sometimes you need the help of an expert. This might be the case with search engine marketing or search engine optimisation. If you think you are out of your depth then speak to us. We can either help you or point you in the direction of some sound e-learning to help bridge the gap.

4. You should outsource your graphic design to get your business identity right.

We totally agree with this point. Your business identity is important. It is a reflection of you and how seriously you take your business. You want your customers to think you are a professional company that they can trust and rely on. A logo helps build this trust and brand identity. At Boutique Business Consulting we can create a logo for you from as little as $99. Contact us today if you need help creating your brand identity. We would argue that getting a designer to create elements of your website help to give your website a designed feel. We can create slider images from as little as $60 per slide. Ideally your website is totally designed for your brand.

5. Successful mumtreprenuer businesses investment money in a quality website, proper branding, business cards and get training on how to run an online business - according to Business Coach Kathryn Hocking.

We totally agree with this statement. We also couldn't agree more with getting training. As BBC we are developing tool kits to assist our clients through starting a business. In addition we have a library of recommended e-books that should be read. If you have the means you should attend a local college or TAFE course on running a business if you have never run a business before.

6. Having a social media strategy is key. 

Absolutely. You need to decide which social media platforms you are going to invest your efforts in. We recommend that everyone creates a Facebook, Twitter and Pintrest account. Youtube should also be explored if you can create video content. Each platform requires a slightly different strategy. We work with our clients to assist with developing their strategy. Social media takes time and effort but its worth the opportunity to engage with your target audience.

A number of people have read this article and left comments. One comment I feel is worth expanding on - left by BuyAustralianMade.

"There are a number of mumpreneurs who are BuyAustralianMade members making a profit, though for most it hasn't come easy. The product or service they are selling has to be what customers/clients wish to buy, not just something that the mumpreneur is good at making or likes making. After all not all customers can be friends or family just wanting to help out. Mumpreneurs who find a niche, give great value, engage with their customers, a reliable way of finding new customers/clients are well on the road to turning a profit and most have a very lean supply chain which allows competitive pricing."

We couldn't agree with these comments more. You must find a niche. You must know who your customer is and how you need to speak to them. You need to address your customers wants not just their needs. You must form an emotional connection with them. We have two tool kits that help our clients develop their brand around their customer and help them find their niche. Contact us today if you want help honing your business to your customer.

Tips for Success from Carolyn Creswell - Owner of Carmens

>Carolyn Creswell - owner of multi milion dollar Carmen's has the following tips for success:

"Success is doing the best you can with what you have"

1. Think of the people you work with as another family, delight your customers constantly and your business will thrive quickly.
2. Have a crystal clear vision of where your business is heading and refer to it every day when decision making.
3. Write lists, prioritise and clear your inbox everyday. Learn to say No to things that are not important, so you can work smarter rather than harder.
4. "Drive it like you stole it" - sometimes you just have to trust your instincts, dive into the deep end and go for it.
5. Love what you do! Your passion, drive and enthusiasm will determine your business's success.

http://www.itbdigital.com/people/2013/04/02/carmans-fine-foods-nuts-about-the-business-carolyn-creswell/

soure: In the Black - CPA Australia