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Hello everyone – welcome to today’s special Digitize Your Firm webinar where we’re going to return to talk about Joe and how he is going to put in place the many tactics and tool we’ve been discussing.
For those who may be joining us for the first time, we’ve been exploring a fictional entrepreneur named Joe who runs a local business making sweaters.
Joe has owned his business for over 20 years and is in Downtown Dartmouth. Joe has been selling at the Halifax & Dartmouth Farmer’s Markets in addition to his shop, but he is seeing a decline in business. To tackle this issue, he has decided to take his storefront online to open his consumer base.
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As with all Digitize Your Firm webinars, this will be recorded for later playback in case you wanted extra time with a certain section or for listening on the go. If you haven’t already, visit the Weekly Webinar Schedule on our Digitize Your Firm page to check out our past webinars.
Now, let’s go over today’s agenda.
When we last left Joe, we had given him lessons on CRMs, Digital Customer Service, and a bit of cyber security. Since then, we’re covered nine weeks of new topics we’ve been covering so we can not only enforce what we’ve talked about, but to also show the strategies in place as well.
We’re going to start by helping Joe set up a sign-up form on his website, followed by a special event landing page for his story’s 25th anniversary, and end off with the building of a promotional newsletter.
As we’ve previously discussed, sign up forms are a fantastic way to gain contacts that you can beginning sending marketing content to. As Joe is looking to expand his client base, he’s created one and put it onto his website in the interest of gathering more contacts. Having done his homework, he’s set a few best practices in place:
1. The form is short and simple, asking only for a name, email, and products the contact may be interested in.
2. When a submission is made, a confirmation email is sent that not only confirms that the email is correct, but keeps him compliant.
3. There is an opt-in box to receive a monthly newsletter that is not pre-checked.
To encourage the sign-up process, everyone who resigns up received a 15% coupon after clicking their confirmation email, which can be redeemed both instore and through his online shop.
Not only has this helped increase his sign ups, but also helps to push more foot traffic into his door and drive more sales online. Not only has this helped to increase his sales since its inception, but it has also helped him to better identify what products have been selling well and has featuring them more heavily on his site and store.
Joe has also taken his process one step further by adding a link to the form on his store’s Facebook page and pinned it to the top while encouraging his followers to share.
What do we think of Joe’s strategy so far? Do you think this would be effective? Can you think of other strategies?Well there is a second strategy Joe can actually employ to encourage
Well there is a second strategy Joe can actually employ to encourage sign ups that we’ve previously discussed – he could offer mobile phone sign ups through shortcodes. This not only makes the sign up as easy as putting in a few key strokes and email, but allows for instant opt-in as soon as the text is sent. It also means that he can now send deals and promotions straight to a contact’s phone, whether it is general news or a flash sale.
Speaking of sales, Joe’s 25th anniversary for his store is coming up and he has taken to digital media so much… that he has created his own special landing page.
Joe’s 25th anniversary is around the corner, and he felt the best way to get the word out is with a landing page. Why a landing page? Because they are fantastic for promoting a specific event or sale. In Joe’s case, he’s created a landing page that explains the event, place, and time, and mentioned that many sales and surprises that his audience can hotly anticipate. To further grow his contact back, he even put a sign up form on to it where customers can enter their name to win a $200 shopping spree. Not bad, Joe!
The best part? He can switch it on and off whenever he wants – so the landing page can go live the day of and be turned off on the same day – talk about a timed exclusive.
This is just one example however – say Joe was having a party in his shop, and wanted to take sizes for shirts he could order. He could do that as well through his landing page, and with the right software, could even have those sizes integrated into a CRM so he could send targeted messages with certain sizes.
As we’ve mentioned before, the landing page will also provide stand-alone analytics separate from his website so that he knows how effective it is. If it is drawing a lot of attention but people aren’t signing up for his contest, it may mean that the form needs to be place more prominently or simplified.
What about other ways he could use the landing page?
It would be a great resource to link to over products as well, and social media features could be added in allowing people to share the page for organic promotion.
He could also do one step further and create an additional page with a different design and edited content to see which one his customers respond best to.
Now – how are some ways he can best distribute the landing page? Social media? An email blast? Well… my vote is via newsletter (because everyone lines a good newsletter!).
If Joe is going to see success, he’ll need to market it the best he can to ensure as many people as possible find out about it. One of the ways he is going to do this, is by sending a newsletter to his existing contents.
The first key component he will need to start with is a subject line – which must be engaging to make someone want to read the newsletter. Lines such as “25th Anniversary Sale” and “Joe’s Sweaters is Turning 25” will go over better than “Sale This Week, Look Inside For Info” or “Enter to Win a Shopping Spree.” Be specific and experiment with different subjects to see which result in the most opens.
Next up is graphics – Imagine looking at a poster and seeing text squished between the images. Think about the last document you say that was just a wall of text without any pictures or graphics at all. Neither of these sounds very appealing, do they? When it comes to newsletter, you must perform a balancing act between content and imagery. Aim to pre-select stories you want to include graphics for and ensure that the graphics themselves they relate to the article’s content and is aesthetically pleasing.
Now, you may have heard it more times than you can count, but content is king. Make sure your titles and writing are clear and concise. Don’t be afraid to put all of your text into the newsletter and begin by cutting words or phrases that are not adding to the piece such as adverbs like “very.”
Make sure your call to actions are prominent in both writing and design. Keep it short and have it stand out by putting it at the bottom of a story, bolding the words, and having an eye-catching colour. If you are looking for the reader to perform an action online, don’t forget to link to it.
Speaking of hyperlinks and calls to action – have you considered using buttons? While hyperlinks are fantastic to link via words to outside resources, buttons provide a more eye-catching way to encourage your audience to engage with your content. Essentially, a button is a graphic that you create or import that links to outside resources, like a website, social media account or event page.
If you’re linking to supporting statistics, a hyperlink may be a good way to go but if you’re seeking to increase visitors to your website or RSVP to an event, a button will make your call to action stand out.
Don’t forget about a very important element – the footer. Make sure you are staying CASL and CAN-SPAM compliant by providing company information such as your postal address, phone number, and most importantly an unsubscribe button. If you’re looking to drive more traffic to social pages, try adding buttons that lead to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or any other channel you may have so your readers have more options to contact you.
Finally – don’t be afraid to do some A/B Split testing. Through A/B split testing, send audiences different versions of content to see which resonates more. This tactic is a fantastic way to see how you could improve your current template and discover the topics or information that your stakeholders find most appealing.
Any questions? Thoughts?
Let’s review.
To review, let’s go over what we’ve covered today:
1. As we previously discussed, sign up forms are fantastic to grow your contact base, and the simpler, the better! Don’t be afraid to offer sign up bonuses like coupons, or to employ SMS shortcodes so that clients can quickly and easily sign up right in your store. Not only will this help increase foot traffic, but it can also draw more attention to your online store. Don’t forget to use opt-in emails as well so that you can not only confirm the contact’s email address, but to also confirm their consent to receive continued messaging from you.
2. When it comes to having a focused resource for an event, promotion, or initiatives, look no further than landing pages. Not only are they highly versatile, they are also highly focused and can easily be turned on and off. They also can often provide unique analytics that don’t meld in to your main website’s traffic, allowing you to judge the page on it’s efficiency entirely on its own. Remember to keep them informative and inviting, and don’t be afraid to try using A/B testing to see what language or graphics your audience responses best to. In Joe’s case, he will want to share his across mediums like Facebook, his website, and through email to get as many people entered into his contest as possible.
3. Newsletters are a great way to promote upcoming events, like the 25th anniversary of Joe’s store. When it comes to promotional newsletters, start with an engaging subject line that would capture the attention of your audience. Use graphics and photos to really make it draw the eye when they open it, and you can even hyperlink a few to great buttons and save text space. Don’t forget to create a clear call to action such as ‘click here to register’ or ‘enter now’ to encourage contacts to click the button. Finally, don’t forget to stay compliant by including your business’s postal address and an unsubscribe link the future. You can also stand out by adding in social media links so that you can draw traffic to your other social media channels and grow your online community.
Next week we’re going to be exploring a topic you may have looked into your self – digital advertisement. We’re going to start by talking to you about the basics of online ads, talk about ads on Facebook, and Twitter.
