Even though I’ve been marketing for an embarrassing number of years, I’m always on the lookout for new tips and tricks. And if I search for them, I get billions of pages. But when I come to read them, they’re so vague. What does “create a cohesive narrative” even mean? Do I do that before or after lunch? What tools do I need to do that? What exactly will be the benefit?
So I’ve whipped up a list of 5 things that you can do today. Or tomorrow. These are all simple things that will make a difference to your business without you needing to take a marketing degree.
Let’s jump right in.
Revamp your confirmation email
Benefit: Encourage repeat business
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Dear Alice
Thank you for your order. Your reference number is 123456.
Your details are blah blah blah.
Thanks.
The Boring Orders Company
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Yawn. Your confirmation email is the last thing many of your customers will hear from you. Therefore, not using it as a chance to be memorable is a wasted opportunity. People will remember you if you say something different. You can say something funny or touching or have lovely images (if your system allows).
In the past, I’ve bought beauty products from a company that sends a lovely confirmation email. It tells a story about how the company had a party when they received the order and it was sent by private jet with the whole town wishing it ‘bon voyage’. Without that email, it would just have been a pot of nice face cream. It might sound silly, or even a bit cringeworthy - but I will return to them because I remember them in amongst all the other companies that sell decent skincare products.
Say what your company does
Benefit: Search engine visibility, increased traffic
This is probably the piece of advice I give most frequently.
If your website doesn’t say what you do, how is Google supposed to know? Many website templates are constructed very simply and that tends to be a good look. However, in order for Google to serve your website to people who are looking for businesses like yours, you need to tell it the type of businesses you have.
If you sell ‘ethical jewellery’ and you expect your customers to search for ‘ethical jewellery’ but your website doesn’t say ‘ethical jewellery’ anywhere, how is Google supposed to know that? Write a neat paragraph or 2, preferably around 300 words, on your homepage page that includes your search terms, i.e. what terms you expect people to type into search engines to find your site. Then include those terms on some of your product pages as well. Don’t go too mad – Google gets upset if you overdo it but do make sure that those terms are included on your website.
Hashtag shortcut
Benefit: Save time
If you use Instagram, should routinely be using 10 – 30 hashtags per post. Doing this every time is such a pain!
I’m here to help! If you have an iPhone, you can get around this by creating a shortcut. I suspect that you can do the same on Android but I’m not sure exactly what buttons you need to press. Here are the steps for iPhone:
Go to settings and then
general>keyboard>text replacement
Press +
In the ‘phrase’ section, insert all your hashtags and in ‘shortcut’, type your shortcut name. For example ‘tag1’. So when you type ‘tag1’ into Instagram, it will insert all your hashtags.
This saves me so much time. Bear in mind that my iPhone is an iPhone 6 and as old as the hills – so some of the menu items might be slightly different but the process is the same.
Include reviews on your homepage
Benefit: Increase sales
I probably don’t really need to explain this one. We all know that buying from an unknown business can be a little nerve-wracking. Good reviews or testimonials often make us feel more confident in our purchasing choices. Having reassuring sentences on your homepage (or other pages) may give you the edge over your competitors. Wordpress has plugins for this or you can manually make nice little images with stars and text that fit in with your theme and branding. There are various ways of doing it.
Reviews and testimonials are invaluable, so if you haven’t got any to use yet, go out and get them. If you’ve made some sales, offer your customers a discount or something free in exchange for a review on Facebook (or another reviewing platform if you use one). You can them copy that. Or just ask them, if you have a good relationship. People can be surprisingly willing to help small businesses.
Change the wording on your email sign-up
Benefit – increase email sign-ups to increase sales
There’s just not much that’s appealing about ‘signing up’ for something. Signing up is a commitment. You sign up for a mortgage or a Nectar card – or even the army.
Yet probably 80% of websites demand that you ‘sign up’ for their newsletter. Sometimes they offer a discount and if the discount is good (please – no 5% discounts!), then it might be worth it. But still you know you’re going to get an inbox full of junk. ‘Sign up for company news’ – just don’t do this. Nobody cares.
Try being more dynamic in your wording and a bit more specific about what you can offer.
‘Get discounts direct to your inbox’
‘Get skincare tips from the hottest celebrities’
‘Be the first to hear about new arrivals!’
Go do it!
Good luck!
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