How to create promotional content for your Black Friday Sale

Looking to create some content to promote your Black Friday or Cyber Monday Sale? We’ve put together a list of resources you can use to produce quality content for your online shop.

What is Black Friday/Cyber Monday?

Black Friday is a day known for large sales, traditionally tied to the day following American Thanksgiving. Black Friday is the “official” beginning of the festive shopping period and is typically the largest single sales day of the year for retailers. Cyber Monday takes place on the following Monday and is specifically a day for online sales. In recent years, many retailers (both brick and mortar and online) have adapted strategies that include sales across the entire weekend and occasionally on into the following week. 

How can I promote my Black Friday Sale?

There are several strategies you can use to promote your sale, both online and in print. Which you choose will depend on what media channels are most influential for your customers, as well as what budget you have to work with.

Online

• Social media posts
• Email marketing (both pre and post-sale)
• Facebook “event”
• Paid advertising

Print

• Flyers
• Printed ads in trade publications
• Newspaper advertising
• Billboards and outdoor advertising (for larger budgets)
• Direct mail campaigns (for larger budgets)

Resources

For high-quality images

It is always great if you can use your own images in your marketing campaigns. High-quality imagery of your products will help your audience to picture how your products can fit into their everyday life. 

However, sometimes for seasonal holiday-based ad campaigns, you may want to use imagery that nods to the celebration, rather than to your products. For example, Black Friday sales posts are often done in black and white and may feature celebratory images like confetti or presents. 

Stock imagery websites like Unsplash and Pixabay offer millions of free images that you can use in your ads (yes, even for commercial use!).  

For creating posts, flyers and banner images

You don’t have to be a designer to create amazing posts for your social media and banner images for your website. Take advantage of templates provided by websites like Canva and you’ll be able to create visually appealing content for all types of media, for free! 

EKM has even put together a collection of templates for Black Friday banners and social posts that you can access by downloading our free Black Friday Guide for Small Businesses. 

For printed goods

If you are operating a brick and mortar shop, you may want to print out paper flyers promoting your upcoming sale to give out in the lead up to Black Friday. However, even those who only operate online may want to take advantage of printed flyers and other materials. 

Many business owners choose to include a flyer in their packaging with each order. This could be a thank you message, a discount coupon to encourage further sales or a message encouraging the buyer to find your business on social media and post a picture of their purchases!

Whether you’re wanting to use printed goods in your pre-sale marketing or your post-sale packaging, you’ll want to ensure you choose a printer who can create high-quality items to fit your budget and time scale. Popular services include Solopress, Vistaprint and instantprint. 

For email marketing

Email marketing can not be neglected when it comes to preparing for your Black Friday sales. You’ll want to shout about your sales and ensure that your contact list is excited about the deals you have to offer. 

Creating aesthetically pleasing emails can be difficult for those of us who are not particularly visual, which is why it is great to use a template. EKM has a selection of gorgeous email marketing templates for you to take advantage of. You can also contact our email marketing expert if you’re interested in having a custom template created for your campaign!

---

These are only a few of our favourite tools that you can use to create great content for your Black Friday sales. Do you have another favourite? Be sure to tell us on Twitter @ekm_uk.

Start your preparations today with EKM’s free Black Friday Guide for Small Businesses. Visit ekm.com/blackfriday for your copy and you’ll also receive a free pack of assets for your social media channels.

 

The post How to create promotional content for your Black Friday Sale appeared first on Ecommerce Blog.

from Ecommerce Blog https://ift.tt/3pk9OFY
via IFTTT

Is Buy Now Pay Later the future of online payments?

In recent years split payment options, or buy now pay later as it’s more well known, have become more and more popular when shopping online. Buy now pay later options carry many benefits for both shoppers and online business owners.

Their increasing popularity has sprung up new payment gateway businesses such as LayBuy who offer a split in 6 option, which keeps it simple with interest-free financing for your customers. With more and more demand for flexible payments, we believe that split payments are the future of online shopping and we’re going to be talking about the benefits of buy now pay later options for your online shop.

Flexibility and choice

Firstly, many shoppers want flexibility in how they pay for their online shopping items. With many shopping for higher-priced items or a larger basket value, having the option to split the total cost gives the shopper the control and convenience of paying over a few months rather than all at once.

Providing your customers with a choice on your shop’s checkout will help encourage them to check out with their items better than having only one payment choice. It also helps to indicate trust on your checkout page. Having larger and more well-known brands featured, like PayPal, as well as other payment options demonstrates that you work with reliable and trusted payment gateways.

Increased conversion

Giving your customers more options on your shop’s checkout will only help to increase your conversion rate as you’re giving them the choice and putting the power in their hands. If they feel in control because of the payment options available to them, whether they choose the buy now pay later option or not, by simply having more than 1 payment option, they’re more likely to check out.

Higher basket value

A buy now pay later option can also help encourage your customers to add related products to their shopping basket too. Adding more products and increasing the basket value is only a benefit for your business. And the customer, while spending more money, is happier to do so because they are able to split the payments up.

There are other things you can do on your checkout page to encourage conversion, such as offering free delivery or a free product if the value is over a certain amount. When people can see they could get something for free they’re more likely to click on that checkout button as they perceive the value of their basket is now higher due to the free item or delivery.

Why buy now pay later?

As a business owner, there are many benefits to having buy now pay later options on your shop’s checkout. Not only that but it’s search popularity online has boomed since 2004.

With flexible payment options becoming more and more popular amongst shoppers, we expect this trend to continue to grow. Helped by it’s ever-growing popularity, buy now pay later options have a good reputation as a finance option compared to others such as payday loans.

The younger generation is also more likely to checkout online using a buy now pay later option rather than traditional pay by debit or credit card. A recent article by Marketing Week has suggested that there is now a disconnect between credit card brands and the younger generation. As we become more of a cashless society, buy now pay later options give consumers the instant gratification of purchasing something they desire and speaks to the distrust we have in credit cards.

If you’d like to learn more about setting up your own online shop, you can speak to our ecommerce experts on 0333 004 0333 or request a callback here.

The post Is Buy Now Pay Later the future of online payments? appeared first on Ecommerce Blog.

from Ecommerce Blog https://ift.tt/2Um3qjq
via IFTTT

5 predictions for the upcoming holiday season

2020 has been an unprecedented year for most business owners. The way customers shop has changed dramatically and the worldwide effects of COVID-19 are impacting shopping trends, logistics and more. Business owners need to be aware of what this may mean so we’re looking at 5 predictions for the 2020 holiday shopping season.

Ecommerce is the future

It’s not something that our founder and CEO Antony Chesworth hasn’t seen coming or shared with the world: that ecommerce is the future for businesses, retailers and more. Selling online isn’t a new phenomenon and has been steadily growing for a few decades now.

More and more business owners are understanding the importance of an online presence to grow their business and as of November 2019, the growth of internet sales as a percentage of total retail stood around 21.5%. This figure grew exponentially from March 2020 and hit an all-time high of 32.8% in May of the same year.

As lockdown restrictions eased this figure dropped but is still at a much higher percentage than ever seen before. And we can confirm this with our own statistics. We saw a 100% increase in online sales across our platform around the same time. The levels were much higher than the previous years’ Black Friday, which was the single biggest sales day of the year for our customers.

This indicates a new evolution for businesses. We predict that the holiday season this year will outshine any previous figures and experts are predicting a £7bn spend this Black Friday weekend alone. We don’t believe this is simply a temporary effect due to COVID-19. Shopping online has always had its benefits but with the global pandemic forcing businesses to get online and more established businesses to improve their processes, online shopping will become the new normal.

Online retailers need to prepare for the approaching shift in the way people browse, shop and purchase online. Omnichannel marketing (the multichannel sales approach that provides the customer with an integrated shopping experience) isn’t just something the big retailers are doing. The customer can be shopping online from a desktop or mobile device, via phone, or in a brick-and-mortar store, and the experience needs to be seamless

SMEs are now looking at ways to integrate their strategies into omnichannel marketing as this is the way that shoppers now expect their experiences to be. A completely seamless experience will help ensure a good customer experience.

Buy now pay later

Flexibility with payments is not a new concept but has become more available over the past few years. More recently, bigger players like PayPal have evolved their business model to offer these types of payment options for merchants. It has also opened a new share of the payments market for newer businesses such as Klarna.

Businesses are learning that their customers want more flexibility and payment options when it comes to shopping – and it’s not just for big-ticket items either. Companies like LayBuy, another flexible payment provider, now offer pay in 6 weekly payments. These options make purchases, large or small, a lot more palatable for customers.

The traditional pay by debit or credit card option may become less popular in the coming months or years. Particularly with the younger generation, for whom buy now pay later options are far more appealing and help encourage conversion at checkout.

A recent article by Marketing Week has suggested that there is now a disconnect between credit card brands and the younger generation. As we become more of a cashless society, buy now pay later options give consumers the instant gratification of purchasing something they desire and speaks to the distrust we have in credit cards.

The next year will most likely see an interesting growth in the buy now pay later world, especially with the uncertainty that many people and businesses are now living with.

Delivery and click & collect options

Delivery and click & collect options have been around for some time now but in the wake of a global pandemic, businesses have or should be realising how crucial this is for them – and not just for safety reasons.

More and more consumers are taking advantage of click & collect options whilst shopping online in more recent years. This is because it gives them the instant gratification of being able to order an item to pick up without any delivery costs. It provides an immediacy that traditional home delivery can’t match.

Other benefits for click & collect include helping customers to avoid problems with delivery companies. Items being lost or damaged en route can give the customer a bad experience with your business, regardless of if you’re responsible or not.

In-store pick up is especially helpful to customers who may be going to do their weekend shopping as it saves them time, finding and checking out the product. The name of the game in the next few years will be convenience.

While click & collect has its advantages over delivery, traditional home delivery is also an important part of online shopping, particularly with the holiday season coming up. For those who may not be able to leave their homes or get to the store at a convenient time, delivery is the next best thing.

Free delivery is a powerful tool with online shopping and can help you get a sale over the line, rather than charging for delivery. Business owners can always include a minimum for free delivery which will encourage customers to increase their basket value in order to qualify for free delivery. Both of these options will be a primary method for customers shopping online in the future rather than visiting stores in a traditional sense.

Personal consultations

Personal consultations are something that traditional businesses have shied away from due to logistics among other reasons. However, businesses are now finding that providing a more personalised experience at scale can offer a 1-2 per cent lift for grocery businesses and even higher for retailers.

Typically, these highly personalised customer experiences can drive up customer loyalty and the share-of-wallet amongst already loyal customers. There is also tact in saying that when done well, these experiences can help reduce marketing cost by up to 30%. This also plays into the omnichannel marketing strategy to boost your efforts.

One of the larger UK retailers, John Lewis, announced their free personalised consultations earlier this year in order to support customers finding specific products and receiving advice. This follows their successful launch during the first lockdown of three other virtual services including home interiors, personal styling advice and advice for expectant parents.

Lockdown has fundamentally changed customer shopping habits but customer service should still remain a core part of any business model. Most businesses have embraced digital technology to transform their business and adapt to current times.

Increase in home-based experiences/activities

The lockdown earlier this year sky-rocketed sales for many activity and experience-based businesses. With the lack of activity to be enjoyed outside of the home, craft, hobby and many more similar businesses reported a huge jump in sales.

One example, in particular, was The Yorkshire Jigsaw Store who during the first month of lockdown did 18 months’ worth of orders in only 30 days. With a second lockdown now in place, we expect this industry to continue to grow over Black Friday, Christmas and January sales.

The unfortunate increase in people being put on furlough and or losing their jobs has contributed to a huge boom in home-based businesses. Moving away from traditional 9-5 jobs, people are now taking the reins with setting up their own businesses and due to many people now shopping online, they’re finding success.

We don’t think that this trend will stop when people return to work but we believe that more and more people will be starting their own businesses now and in the future to gain better control of their own incomes, rather than relying on a salaried job.

If you’d like to learn more about setting up your own online shop, you can speak to our ecommerce experts on 0333 004 0333 or request a callback here.

The post 5 predictions for the upcoming holiday season appeared first on Ecommerce Blog.

from Ecommerce Blog https://ift.tt/3ns5TW3
via IFTTT

Piecing together success with The Yorkshire Jigsaw Store

With 50 years of experience in retail, Joe Rushton stops by to give us some insight into how he created his successful online business, The Yorkshire Jigsaw Store.

---

Introduce yourself and The Yorkshire Jigsaw Store.

The Yorkshire Jigsaw Store was set up in 2014 to add a new dimension to our family gift store in the market town of Easingwold, York. We had always sold a small range of jigsaws through our stores over the last 50 years and decided to increase the range and become a specialist store.

Tell us more about your products.

With over 1200 different jigsaw designs in stock, our range offers something for everyone. We stock all the major brands but also try to find smaller companies to work with.

Did you have any experience selling online before starting your business?

I had no online selling experience before starting the business but had worked in IT 15 years ago before joining the family business. It was [a] huge learning curve over the first 18 months with lots of late nights! Social media was a great help at that time for raising awareness of the brand.

How did you earn your first sale?

After making the website live our first sale came through within a day. It was a real buzz to get our first order through. Launching in summer it was a slow start but it gave us time to sort out our processes before things took off in the winter months.

What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced since starting your business?

I think that it has been raising awareness of the brand. There are some well-established competitors and it was a tough balance of spending money on marketing against the returns. I decided early on to focus on organic traffic and word of mouth. This has probably led to slower growth but we have [a] really good customer base which is growing at a constant level.

How has COVID-19 impacted your business? How have you managed to cope with the changes?

COVID-19 has had a huge impact on our business. Overnight the order numbers jumped significantly and with limited team members, this created lots of challenges. We did 18 months’ worth of orders in a single month which impacted hugely on the logistics side of the business.

What advice would you give to someone starting their own business?

Create a clear realistic plan of what objectives you would like to obtain over the first 12 months. It’s going to be hard work and having a plan to work to help keep you focused. Research your market and work out which customers you want to attract to your website.

What do you love most about running your own business?

The challenge! No two days are the same and I like [being] in an environment where we can react immediately and implement things.

What EKM products or services do you believe have helped your business to succeed and grow over the past 7 years with EKM?

The ease setting up the website and payment systems through EKM when I first started. The templates [were] easy to use and adapt and as the company has grown EKM has worked with me to help. [My account manager] Dom has provided huge support over the last six months and is always at the end of the phone when I have a quick query. Working with Olivia through the Evolution Mode they have both helped to create the new website which is working brilliantly.

What plans do you have for your business in the future?

We have recently re-launched both our physical store and the website and the aim over the next couple of years is to increase the awareness of The Yorkshire Jigsaw Store worldwide.

Do you have a favourite jigsaw? What is it?

I love the WASGIJ range which is where the jigsaw inside the box is different to the image on the box. Always a challenge.

 

 

 

If you’d like to learn more about setting up your own online shop, you can speak to our ecommerce experts on 0333 004 0333 or request a callback here.

The post Piecing together success with The Yorkshire Jigsaw Store appeared first on Ecommerce Blog.

from Ecommerce Blog https://ift.tt/3eNhETH
via IFTTT

Components of success with Vital Parts

Meet Michael, the Managing Director for Vital Parts, a components supplier business based in the UK who can also offer custom molding solutions including bespoke line drawings, images and specification sheets to ensure that every detail is perfect even for the most technical of projects. Read more about their story and how they grew their business and overcame the recent challenges with COVID-19.

---

Introduce yourself and Vital Parts, what was your motivation behind starting the business and what do you sell?

My name is Michael Holt. I’m the managing director for Vital Parts, a company started on the base of seeing a gap in the market. We wanted an opportunity to provide the highest level of service and value to customers within our industry by utilising technology, ecommerce, and excellent service. We manufacture and sell a wide range of plastic, rubber, and metal components.

Tell us more about your products

Our products span hundreds of well-established industries and are broadly considered ‘components’. A component is essentially a small element of a larger object, so can mean anything from a plastic foot for furniture, to covers for pipework.

What motivated you to create your brand and products?

As above, we wanted to provide an un-rivalled service on an ecommerce level. At the time, this was something that wasn’t really too commonplace within the industry.

Did you have any experience in selling online before starting your business?

Yes, I was actually a director in a company that created its own CMS, so I could recognise how beneficial and advanced EKM was.

How did you earn your first sale?

I still don’t know. Our first sale just turned up once we were indexed on google—it was a great feeling.

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced since starting your business?

The biggest challenge has been trying to keep up with orders and maintaining the level of service we have built the company on.

What do you love most about running your own business?

I enjoy how far-reaching some of our products have become, from FTSE100 companies to emergency beds for ICUs, and ventilators manufactured by PENLON and McLaren.

What advice would you give to new shop owners just starting out?

Get help, but don’t be afraid to put out version one—to get something out there.

What’s one thing that you would say helped you succeed?

To keep trying. Sometimes things work, sometimes they don’t.

How has the Coronavirus affected your business?

Obviously, its impact was large, and in some-case its true effect is yet to be seen, but refreshingly, we were actually able to take some positives from the situation. Being able to produce plastic, rubber, and metal products has actually enabled us to take the idea of releasing our own sneeze screens to fruition, which helped us increase sales at a time where they were significantly down.

What are your plans for the future?

To grow, and to continue developing a customer-first ethos in line with our values. (vital-parts.co.uk/values)

Why did you choose EKM over other ecommerce platforms?

Ease of use, the ability to scale, and the level of support available over the phone, as well as email.

Would you recommend EKM?

We would actively recommend EKM to anyone who is looking for an effective ecommerce provider.

If you’d like to learn more about setting up your own online shop, you can speak to our ecommerce experts on 0333 004 0333 or request a callback here.

The post Components of success with Vital Parts appeared first on Ecommerce Blog.

from Ecommerce Blog https://ift.tt/35dKQjr
via IFTTT

November themes to incorporate into your newsletter, blog and email campaigns

As autumn moves along, November comes in with cooler temperatures that hint toward the winter and holiday season to come. It may be darker outside, but don’t let your marketing go dark too! Read on to get some ideas of how you can create curated content to market your business this November.

We’ve also put together a list of social media events you can get involved in throughout the month of November.

Remembrance Day / Remembrance Sunday

Each year the UK celebrates Remembrance day on 11 November (which also happens to be Veterans Day in the US!) and formally recognises the second Sunday in November as Remembrance Sunday. These occasions set aside time for the British to remember all of the men and women killed during the two World Wars and other conflicts.

Throughout the month of November, The Royal British Legion’s Poppy Appeal charity sells varying styles of Poppy accessories, which raise money to support members of the armed forces. You can take part as a business by selling poppies or even by taking donations. Perhaps consider advertising that a portion of your proceeds will go towards the Poppy Appeal. If you run a craft business you could even create special poppy-themed items to sell and donate the proceeds to the cause. All of these ideas will make great content for the month of November.

Potential subject lines for email marketing:

Support the Poppy Appeal with us this November
[Business Name] remembers the fallen this November
Your purchase with us supports The Poppy Appeal

American Thanksgiving

Even if your business is UK based, you can still take advantage of American Thanksgiving in terms of themes for your marketing and content. In America, the holiday is all about gathering with family and friends around a big meal and being thankful for the good things in your life. Imagine a big Christmas dinner, without the stress of buying presents! Believe it or not, in the UK it is becoming more common that the British will mimic their own version of the holiday throwing a “Friendsgiving” party and serving a big meal. After all, who doesn’t love an excuse to eat excessive amounts of festive food?

If you happen to run a food business, you may want to pick up on content that features big, comforting family-style recipes. These will appeal to any American shoppers that you have, but also to UK customers as we near the Christmas period. For other businesses, you can incorporate autumnal colours and themes and play into the idea of “giving thanks”. You don’t need to be American to “give thanks” in the month of November! Consider running a promotion like 10% off with code THANKS10 and run an email campaign talking about how you are thankful for your customers.

Potential subject lines for email marketing:

We’re thankful for you!
Give thanks! 10% off this weekend
Express gratitude with our gorgeous gifts.

Black Friday

Following Thanksgiving Thursday in the US is Black Friday, a shopping holiday that has spread from American to worldwide popularity. As an online retailer, you’re likely already preparing for the sales, but don’t forget how powerful Black Friday email marketing campaigns can be!

You’ll want to create a sense of excitement around your upcoming sales. Shoppers will traditionally do a lot of their Christmas gift shopping on this day and will plan what items they want to purchase well in advance. By advertising your sale, you can make sure you are one of the first stores they visit on the day.

Don’t forget that EKM has a Black Friday Guide for Small Businesses that contains tips on planning, marketing, execution and more!

Potential subject lines for email marketing:

Black Friday is coming! Are you ready?
Our biggest Black Friday sale is one week away
Early Black Friday Sale Starts Tomorrow. Save Up to 70%

If you need help getting started with Email Marketing for your online shop, speak to our Email Marketing Specialist today!

The post November themes to incorporate into your newsletter, blog and email campaigns appeared first on Ecommerce Blog.

from Ecommerce Blog https://ift.tt/2Ibrrai
via IFTTT

Why click and collect will be the key to small business survival in second lockdown

Small businesses throughout England will be forced to shut their doors during a second coronavirus lockdown, while those online will likely thrive through delivery and click and collect.

---

Prime minister Boris Johnson announced on 31st October that England will enter a second lockdown from 5th November to 2nd December 2020. During this period, all non-essential stores will be closed, including (but not limited to):

• Clothing and electronics stores
• Tobacco and vape shops
• Leisure centres, gyms, and sporting facilities including swimming pools
• Entertainment venues (concert halls, theatres, cinemas, museums)
• Hair and beauty salons, spas

Food shops, supermarkets, garden centres and others who provide essential services are allowed to remain open. Restaurants must close but can provide takeaway and delivery.

However, non-essential retail will be allowed to remain open for delivery and click and collect services. In other words, businesses who operate online will be the ones who are most likely to survive and thrive during this lockdown.

Throughout the first lockdown, many stores were forced to shut. By the end of June over 76,000 small businesses, in London alone, had permanently closed due to the lockdown.

However, there was some good news too. While the lockdown had devastating effects on businesses who had only a brick and mortar presence, those who were able to reach their customers either via home delivery or click and collect services saw unprecedented levels of success.

In a survey conducted by EKM, 63% of brick and mortar shops who also had an online presence said that closing their physical store did not affect their business.

Across the EKM platform, a 100% increase in online orders was observed, with platform-wide figures for overall orders rising higher than records previously only achieved on major shopping holidays like Black Friday.

 

“We feel so fortunate that we were already online and ran our business from home so we were able to carry on. At one point we were dispatching triple of what would be a normal year – it was crazy for a while!” -EKM Customer

 

Towards the end of the initial lockdown, research showed that consumers would continue to shop online more than they did before the lockdown. Convenience and safety became key drivers with consumers looking to reduce the amount of time spent inside stores.

Before England’s second lockdown, Wales also entered a second lockdown on 23 October, which not only required non-essential shops to shut but also forbade large retailers like Tesco from selling non-essential items.

This action from the Welsh government pushed the citizens to turn to online shopping and caused a 32% rise in revenue on orders placed from postcodes in Wales.

Although non-essential products are still allowed to be sold in England in large multi-product retailers, speciality shops will be forced to shut their doors, meaning small businesses will be at the risk of losing out.

For these shops, if they do not have a way to reach their customers online they will likely feel the stress of this second round of restrictions.

Major retailers like Next, IKEA and Apple have announced that they will be offering click and collect services in their otherwise-closed stores throughout the lockdown in England.

This means that click and collect services will be ever-important for small businesses with a brick and mortar presence, while those who have operated online in the past will likely continue to see record orders and sales.

If these small retailers want to have a chance of competing with the big dogs, they will need to embrace new ways to reach their customers.

One thing is clear. If small businesses want to succeed in this second wave of coronavirus lockdown, they MUST be online.

The post Why click and collect will be the key to small business survival in second lockdown appeared first on Ecommerce Blog.

from Ecommerce Blog https://ift.tt/2U3GLb7
via IFTTT

Social Media Events in December 2020

It’s the final entry in this series of posts and if you’ve been creating your social media content around the various online events throughout the year, it’s obviously been a busy one for you! As a result, you should have increased your followers on your social media platforms and gauged an idea of what content works the best with your target market. You may have even mastered a platform that allows you to automate your posts on social media, leaving you free time to concentrate on running your shop whilst your followers engage with your brand online.

With that in mind, it would be worth noting down which events worked the best for your online shop in terms of your brand, promoting your products, promotions and sales and repeating these during 2021. You can find January’s events in this post. A word of warning though – if you wish to do this, you will need to research the exact dates because many events will fluctuate by a day or two each year.

Back to December though, and there’s obviously less online events in the run-up to Christmas because everyone is preparing for the holidays which is more problematic than usual due to the current lockdowns in place up and down the country. During this period, the key is to keep the conversation and engagement with your customers going to keep them interested in your brand and your products. You’ll need to post more than ‘buy this’ type updates, and instead create conversations with them where possible. This encourages them to form a relationship with your brand, and in turn, return custom.

The Event: Decembeard
Date: All Month
What you could do for a Business Post: If you already joined in with Movember, then you should continue your goodwill and get involved with Decembeard too, where you can raise money for Bowel Cancer UK. If your online shop sells men’s grooming products, specifically razors and oils for facial hair, then you can promote some of these items and even make videos to show how they should be used, whilst showing off your own beard and raising money for a fantastic cause.
What you could do for a Personal Post: If you have no product lines which can be associated with this event, simply advertise your participation with Decembeard with a series of selfies and Boomerangs on your social media and maybe dress that beard up a bit with paint or glitter to really make it stand out.

The Event: National Cookie Day
Date: 4th December
What you could do for a Business Post: The whole point of this event is to celebrate the humble cookie; whether a chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin, today is the day to celebrate the softer version of our own British biscuit. If your online shop sells cookie cutters, cookies, biscuit tins or similar, now would be a good time to promote these items – ideally with a corresponding offer.
What you could do for a Personal Post: Treat yourself – and your staff – to some cookies for lunch and run a poll in the office for the most popular cookie flavour. You could have your followers vote as well, and don’t forget to have the obligatory glasses of milk at the ready!

The Event: Tree Dressing Day
Date: 6th December
What you could do for a Business Post: Contrary to popular belief, traditionally Christmas trees should be decorated on the 1st day of December. If your online shop sells Christmas tree ornaments, tinsel and other such items, you need to promote these around a week before the event. You could even offer a promotion to your customers to take photos of your products on their trees to garner some social proof and followers which can be referred to again in the run-up to Christmas.
What you could do for a Personal Post: If your online shop does not sell Christmas tree decorations, simply put up your own tree and take videos and Boomerangs of the process to share on social media, encouraging your followers to do the same.

The Event: Christmas Jumper Day
Date: 11th December
What you could do for a Business Post: In workplaces and offices across the land, folk will be donning their Christmas jumpers for the day to raise money for Save The Children. If your online shop sells Christmas jumpers and accessories, promote these product lines before the big day, and get involved in your own workplace with your staff if you can. Take photos and videos of the staff in their Christmas jumpers and offer awards for best and worst efforts.
What you could do for a Personal Post: Make a donation to Save the Children and don your Christmas jumper with pride! Share a selfie on your social media and encourage your followers to do the same, posting a link to the Save The Children website so that they can donate too.

The Event: Crossword Puzzle Day
Date: 21st December
What you could do for a Business Post: The aim of this event is for us to celebrate the humble crossword puzzle – that which millions of us complete in the newspaper on a daily basis. If your online shop sells crossword puzzle books, then you need to get these items promoted before the day itself.
What you could do for a Personal Post: You could challenge your followers to answer cryptic crossword clues on your social media – some people are amazing at these and everyone likes to compete to prove their mettle.

The Event: First day of Winter/Winter Solstice
Date: 21st December
What you could do for a Business Post: It’s the shortest day of the year and a day of celebration to those of a Pagan and Wiccan persuasion. If your online shop sells candles, incense and specifically Pagan and Wiccan goods, then you’ll need to get these items promoted before the big day, ideally with an offer of some kind.
What you could do for a Personal Post: Winter Solstice is also the traditional time to make a Yule Log, so whether it’s the ornamental or edible kind, construct your own to take photos to share with your followers.

The Event: Christmas Day
Date: 25th December
What you could do for a Business Post: Obviously there will be millions of posts made during Christmas Day, so keep things simple by publishing a video, Boomerang or photo of yourself and your staff with your branding to wish all of your customers a Merry Christmas. This would also be a good time to advise your customers when your online shop will be open for trading again after the holiday.
What you could do for a Personal Post: Wish your followers a Merry Christmas with a Boomerang, photo or video.

The Event: Boxing Day
Date: 26th December
What you could do for a Business Post: If you are running a Boxing Day sale, make sure that you promote this on your social media profiles before Christmas day with strong graphics and any promo codes to encourage customers to return to your online shop on the day itself.
What you could do for a Personal Post: If you’re braving the Boxing Day sales yourself, make a video of the queuing and crowds. Alternatively, if you’re only shopping online, let your followers know what you’ve picked up in your haul.

The Event: New Year’s Eve
Date: 31st December
What you could do for a Business Post: If you have January Sales due to begin the following day on your online shop, be sure to advertise this today and post a graphic of yourself and your staff, wishing all of your customers a Happy New Year for 2020.
What you could do for a Personal Post: Are you making any New Years’ Resolutions? If so, detail these to your followers and start a conversation with your followers to find out what their goals are for 2021 too.

If you’d like to learn more about owning an online shop and how it can help boost your sales, give our Team a call on 0333 004 0333 or request a callback.

The post Social Media Events in December 2020 appeared first on Ecommerce Blog.

from Ecommerce Blog https://ift.tt/36bjAkS
via IFTTT

5 Blog Ideas for Small Businesses

If you’re new to either selling online or blogging it can seem overwhelming at first when trying to think about what topics you should write about. If you’re looking for ideas for blog posts or you’re a complete beginner, we’re going to cover a range of topics to blog about no matter what industry you’re in with a few tips and resources to get you started.

Why have a blog?

Whether you’re an avid writer or a business owner there are many benefits to having a blog. The main benefit is to support your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) efforts for your website or online shop. SEO is a very powerful tool that you can use to rank higher for searches, bringing more traffic to your site or blog and if you sell online, help you generate more sales.

Second to that, education is another big reason to have a blog on your website. Whether you’re educating customers on your products / services or sharing your knowledge on a particular topic, your content should always be educational.

You can also create a lot of good social media content from your blogs including regular posts on platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram but also content on Pinterest that can help drive traffic to your site via your blogs.

Research

When it comes to actually writing out your blog post ideas there are a few places you can look to for inspiration. The first being this wonderful blog title generator that can help you come up with your titles based on a topic of your choosing.

Also take a look at what your competitors and other businesses within your industry (that inspire you) are doing. See what kind of content they’re creating for their online shops. You’ll be able to get a good idea of what topics you can write about but next up, you’ll need to see what will work well from an SEO perspective.

Tools such as ahrefs can help you take the ideas you have and research into the keyword density for each idea with their keyword explorer. They also have a pretty handy content explorer that will show you what content is working well for that keyword. Or you can do a quick incognito Google search. If you’re still struggling to come up with blog ideas for your online business or blog, here’s a few to help you out.

• Generic Blog Ideas

Setting up a business

Whilst perhaps not as conventional as other topics we’ll discuss, you can write content about how to set up a business and use your own experience whether you’ve been in business for 20 years or you’ve just started out.

You can split this out into a few different topics such as;

• How you created your branding
• The background of your business name
• What you did to register with HMRC
• Your product creation process
• How you choose your packaging design

And so much more. Going into detail on how your business was created will help give your readers an inside look into your business and they may feel more invested in the long run – helping them to become advocates for your business.

• Industry-Specific Ideas

Industry specific blog ideas do what they say on the tin, no matter what industry you work in. Let’s take Jewellery as an example here. Jewellery specific blog topics could include education on diamond cuts, clarity and sizing, for example. Here are a few examples:

• How to find the perfect ring size
• What’s the best diamond cut for you
• 5 engagements rings on a budget

• News-Specific Ideas

News can cover both industry news if it’s relevant to your customers or business related news such as a new hire or a new brick and mortar shop location. Whilst this section may not be as popular as others it can be important for press coverage if you’re pursuing that route both online and offline.

• Business-Specific Ideas

This type of blog will support the push of any of your new product launches, sales, discounts, promotions and behind the scenes type content. We’re going to give a few more examples of each of these below.

• Product Launches / Sales / Discounts / Promotions

When you launch a new product, you want the whole world to know about it. One of the best ways to drum up interest for a new product launch is to draft a ‘sneak peak’ blog on some of your new products. Here are some blog title ideas:

• Here’s first look into our upcoming product launch
• Get a sneak preview of our new products here!

Blogging about your upcoming sales, discounts and promotions is another great way to engage your audience and hype them up about saving some money on their next purchase. It also helps build suspense if you do a bit of pre-promotion like we mentioned earlier.

We hope that this blog has helped inspire you to come up with the perfect blog ideas for your business. If so let us know on social media and make sure to tag us!

If you’d like to learn more about setting up your own online shop, you can speak to our ecommerce experts on 0333 004 0333 or request a callback here.

The post 5 Blog Ideas for Small Businesses appeared first on Ecommerce Blog.

from Ecommerce Blog https://ift.tt/32ePAU2
via IFTTT

Non-essential products banned in Wales, England says “Thanks”

Amidst a second lockdown in Wales, brick and mortar shops have been required to stop selling non-essential items. Though this is not welcomed by the Welsh public, ecommerce retailers across the rest of the UK are seeing positive results.

---

Wales entered a second “fire-break” lockdown on 23 October which is set to last until at least 9th November. As a part of this lockdown, only shops that sell essential products will be allowed to remain open, while all others have been required to shut.

According to the Welsh Government, supermarkets and other brick and mortar retailers who sell a variety of products are now being asked to only sell the essentials.

Source: Twitter.com

This means while stores like Tesco can sell food and other products deemed essential like toilet paper and alcohol, they are not allowed to sell items like clothing or games.

Most high-street shops and small businesses have been required to shut under these restrictions.

Click and collect services are not allowed for any stores who do not sell essential products, and stores who have remained open may only offer click and collect for essential items.

The decision has caused major controversy with the Welsh public, leading to protests and demonstrations in places like Llandudno. Welsh citizens have called this crackdown tyrannical and are calling for the government to ease restrictions.

While this has been an unpopular situation with those in Wales, ecommerce retailers throughout the rest of the UK are enjoying an increase in sales.

According to research conducted by the UK’s leading ecommerce provider, Welsh customers are turning to online retailers, with revenue coming from the region rising 32% since the second lockdown began.

Ecommerce as a whole saw a similar upturn throughout the first wave of the UK-wide lockdown from March-July. During this period orders across EKM’s platform rose 200%, breaking records previously only achieved on major shopping holidays like Black Friday.

If there is one lesson to learn from the “tyrannical” rules imposed on Welsh citizens, it is this: if your retail business is not operating online you are making an undeniable mistake.

Sample taken from active EKM shops on 03/11/2020 with orders placed from locations within the region of Wales from 23-29 October 2020 compared to 16-22 October 2020.

The post Non-essential products banned in Wales, England says “Thanks” appeared first on Ecommerce Blog.

from Ecommerce Blog https://ift.tt/35YOZqN
via IFTTT

Black Friday advice from The Willoughby Book Club

In preparation for Black Friday, we sat down with Marianne from The Willoughby Book Club, a small business who has managed to see big successes in the past on the internet’s biggest sale day. Today, Marianne shares her insight into how Willoughby prepares for Black Friday as well as a few tips you can take away for your own online business.

Tell us about yourself and about your business. How long have you been selling? What sort of products do you sell and what drew you to this range?

The Willoughby Book Club was established in 2012, and I and my business partner Danielle took it over in early 2019. I have been a bookseller for over 20 years, whilst Danielle has a variety of

experience from different industries. Both of us are lifelong book worms and are so happy to be working in a role where we pair readers with a perfect book!

We sell book subscriptions for all ages and all reading tastes. Simply give us a little detail about you or your recipients favourite books and authors, and let us do the rest! We’ll send you a carefully selected, beautifully gift wrapped book once a month for three, six or twelve months.

Tell me about your decision to start selling online. What led you to open your online shop? Do you consider yourself a technically minded person, or is ecommerce something that has been a learning curve for you?

I do not consider myself a technically minded individual, and after a career in bricks and mortar retail was very nervous about making the leap to online retailing! It has been quite a learning curve, but if I can do it, anyone can.

What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced while running your business?

We have faced fairly significant challenges since taking over in 2019, the biggest of which has been the current pandemic. This has had and is having far-reaching effects on us personally and us as a business. We have had to completely re-think the way we work very rapidly, and be open to new ideas.

Do you run a one day sale for Black Friday? Or do you do a multi-day sale? Why do you do it this way?

Historically Willoughby has run single-day sales for Black Friday, but since 2019 we have run a percentage discount promo for the entire weekend and intend to do this again for 2020. This was advertised with a website banner and backed up with a newsletter and social media content. This year we’ll begin the hype earlier, and add flash banners to all the pages on our site. Preparation begins in September/October: we order in extra stock and re-arrange rosters to accommodate the rush.

What tip would you give to another online seller who is participating in Black Friday for the first time this year?

The advice I’d give to another retailer is to prepare and prepare early. Hold your nerve, and aim high! Black Friday is such an important weekend to kick off Christmas trading and will give you an insight into the potential success of the season as a whole. Have coffee and plenty of chocolate to hand on the weekend itself and enjoy the buzz of it all!

Brag on yourself here- how much of an increase do you typically see around Black Friday vs. a normal time of year?

Black Friday is really important for us. It marks the start of Christmas sales and we see a huge jump in sales- I’d expect November’s sales to be ahead of September’s by 60%+. November and December are make or break months for us- it can feel a bit nerve-wracking at this time of year, but trust your product and hopefully things will turn out well.

What (if any) EKM products or services do you believe have helped your business to succeed and grow?

Our account manager Danny has been the biggest asset, being endlessly patient whilst explaining what must be fairly basic stuff to us, over and over again

If you have any sales/promotions/etc. that you’d like us to include in the feature please feel free to put that info below.

As mentioned, we’ll be running a fabulous ???% off all our products for Black Friday, so please sign up to our newsletter on our website or to our social media and we’ll keep you in the loop. If any readers would like to purchase now, please use the code WBCGET10 for a lovely 10% discount- happy reading!

Start your preparations today with EKM’s free Black Friday Guide for Small Businesses. Visit ekm.com/blackfriday for your copy and you’ll also receive a free pack of assets for your social media channels.

The post Black Friday advice from The Willoughby Book Club appeared first on Ecommerce Blog.

from Ecommerce Blog https://ift.tt/37SsYfJ
via IFTTT