Category: Social Media

February 12, 2017

How Do I Make My Emails More Interesting?

I said earlier that you should send out an email newsletter only when you have something new and interesting to say. Coming up with something new is easy. As a retailer you have more new products and new events and stories than you could ever find time to write them up – especially since it takes so much of your energy to write them up in an interesting way.

Here are some easy easy-to-follow templates to make your emails more interesting. (Think of it as Mad Libs for retailers.)

NEW PRODUCTS

Simply finish these three statements.

I bought this product for the store because…
You should buy this product because…
When you use this product you will get…

You can give them all the facts, but what people really want to know is how will this product impact their lives. The first question reminds them you are the expert. The next two questions help them understand why they need this product and what life will be like when they own it. Get them to visualize owning it. People only do in real life what they have already seen in their own mind. Use phrases like, “When you use this…”

NEW EVENTS

Yes people need to know when and where and if there is a charge. That is a single line below the title of the event.

Disney Princess Dance
Saturday, February 17 at 6pm – FREE

After that you follow a similar template as above to get your potential crowd to visualize attending. Use phrases like these…

[Expected Audience] will love coming to…
You will… [talk about what they will do]
You’ll walk away with… [benefits of attending]

STORIES

Telling stories about your staff or your vendors or how you got where you are today help you build relationships and set yourself up as the expert they can trust. Stories make you real. Stories give your fans something to share with their friends.

Here are some easy ways to start your stories…

“You know [staff name], but did you know…?” (Then tell them something interesting, cool, weird, unknown.)
“You bought many things from [vendor] but did you know they…?” (Then tell them something interesting, cool, weird, unknown.)
“You know us as [current reputation] but there was a time when…” (Then tell them something interesting about your history that led you to here.)

Stories don’t have to be long. They just have to capture someone’s interest. In fact, the shorter the story, the more memorable and easier to share.

You don’t have to be a great writer to write interesting emails. Just use these simple templates to keep the focus on what is in it for your customers. Make it about them, not about you, and your engagement will go way up.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Go back through this email and see how many times I used the word “you” versus “me” or “I”. The easiest way to make your emails more about your customer is liberal use of the words “you” and “your”.

February 10, 2017

How Often Should You Send Your Email Newsletter?

Google the question, “How often should you send your email newsletter?” and you’ll get a plethora of answers. According to my inbox, Lands End seems to think the answer is several times a day. For others it is daily. One report that actually surveyed US adults is suggesting weekly or monthly. In that survey the number one reason people who opted into your mailing list still mark you as spam is because you emailed too frequently.

On the other hand, send out your email too infrequently and they’ll forget about you.

The true answer to How Often is, “Whenever you have something new and interesting to say.”

Every week you should have something new to say…

A new product…
A new story…
A new display…
A new event…

Just make sure you say something new… and interesting.

Don’t tell me about your new product. Tell me why you bought it and why you think I need it and how it will benefit me. Don’t tell me about your new event. Tell me why you are doing the event, why I should come, and how it will benefit me.

Rick Seigel, a retail consultant, used to include a joke at the bottom of each email. He knew the joke made people more likely to open the email and scroll all the way to the bottom, whether they read the rest of the email or not. It was new, fun, and interesting.

You have to say something new and say something interesting. Do those two things and you’ll never be accused of sending out too many emails. (Well, okay, there is always one in every crowd. Ignore him.)

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS What is black and white and red all over? An ugly blog template. (More bad blog jokes here.)

PPS Add your media contacts to your email list. Keep them in the loop of what is new with you. You never know when they need a new story that dovetails nicely with what you’re doing.

PPPS Yes, make sure you always share your newsletter on your social media platforms. I regularly got more comments and interaction on Facebook than I did from the actual email.

November 7, 2015

Friends With Benefits

Align yourself with charity. Pick one or two local organizations (or more if you’re up to it) that you feel strongly about. Do something special for them. Help them out. Be their friend and ally.

You’ll both benefit from the friendship.

This is a picture of the Cascades Humane Society doing their annual Santa Paws event – pictures of your pet with Santa Claus. They called me a few weeks ago looking for a space to take the pictures. I have a stage. I love dogs – especially rescued dogs. I said yes.

They coordinate getting Santa here. They hire the photographer. They set up the backdrop. They sign up and schedule the photo shoots. They work the tables. They get the profits.

We get the traffic. We get the goodwill. We get the customers telling us how nice it is that we are doing this for them. We get the social media exposure. We get exposed to everyone on their mailing list. We get our name mentioned in their press releases (and non-profit press releases get picked up far more often than for-profit press releases).

Our friendship with them brings benefits to both of us.

When you partner with a charity, you expand your reach. You get exposure to a crowd of generous people who love to give to charitable causes (can you think of a better demographic for the independent retailer?). You get touchy feely goodwill because you are helping out. You don’t just look like a greedy merchant. You strengthen your community (the better the non-profits do, the better everyone does).

Make friends with a charity or two. You’ll reap the benefits.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Your charity doesn’t have to be aligned with what you sell. We don’t sell pet toys or pet food. Pick charities based on a few different factors such as…

Do they have an active base of followers?
Do they want to “partner” with you (or simply have you do all the work)?
Do they align with your own personal core values?
Are they well-respected in the community?

Those are all good reasons for making friends.

October 29, 2015

My Big Fat Email Subject Line Mistake

Your subject line is the most important part of your email. Period.

Get it right and your email is a success. Get it wrong and nothing else matters. I learned that the hard way yesterday.

We’re doing a big promotion on Election Day. Something new. The subject line in my email read…

“Election Day ONLY – 20% Off all Gift Certificate Sales! See inside for details…”

The first two people I talked to about the promotion asked the same question. “Do we get 20% off the purchase of a gift certificate or 20% off purchases made with a gift certificate?”

I went back and read the content of the email. It clearly states that you get 20% off the purchase of a gift certificate. How did they get so confused? Then I read the subject line again. I saw the error of my ways. It wasn’t as clear and concise as it should have been. I left room for interpretation.

TWO LESSONS

First, before you send an email, understand that many people will only ever read the subject line. They get so much email that they scan subject lines and hit the delete button. Therefore your subject line has to get your point across clearly and quickly with no room for doubt. Clever and cutesie subject lines leave too much room for interpretation. There should be no doubt about the purpose of your email. There should be only one interpretation of your subject line.

The best way to make sure your subject line is tight and to the point is to ask for help. Ask someone outside of your bottle to read your subject line and tell you what it means to them. Try to ferret out all the possible meanings. Then rewrite it to eliminate any confusion or misinterpretation.

Second, if you can’t make your point in the subject line, perhaps because it is too nuanced or complicated, then make sure your subject line has enough enticement to make people want to open the email. According to MailChimp, the average open rate for email from retailers is about 22%. In other words, 8 out of 10 people likely won’t open your email. You have to give them a reason.

Make it clear. Make it concise. Make it work for the 8 out of 10 that don’t open emails. Make it legitimate and not sounding too spammy. Make your subject line get people to want to open your email.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS In case you’re wondering why I am doing a promotion like this for the store, here are the reasons…

I get a huge influx of cash right when I need it most to help stock up for Christmas.
Customers who redeem gift certificates often spend much more that what the gift certificate was worth.
I get my customers to commit to shopping with me now before some shiny bauble from someone else catches their eye later.
I get to promote Election Day as an important day.
My Transactional Customers get a great deal!
About 10% of all gift certificates go un-redeemed, so I’m really only giving away a small bit of margin.

October 7, 2015

Changing Your Thinking on Coupons

I’m not a fan of coupons. There. I said it.

If you’ve downloaded my free eBook Main Street Marketing on a Shoestring Budget, you know I prefer giving away gift certificates with no strings attached – instead of coupons – to attract new customers.

I also fear that using coupons too much trains your customers to wait for the next coupon before they shop.

Lastly, I believe coupons are more geared toward the Transactional Customer than the Relational Customer (the latter whom should be your primary target in your advertising and marketing).

With all that said, coupons done right can be a valuable part of your tool box.

DOING COUPONS THE RIGHT WAY

As I told you yesterday, the real key for coupons is to make them Rare and Special. Rare so that people jump on the deal when it happens and aren’t trained to wait for the next one to make their next purchase. Special so that the customer isn’t anticipating the next coupon and is more likely to act on the current one.

Rare and Special will increase your ROI because they will get more people to act on the current coupon. Your other big issue is delivery. How do you get those coupons into the right hands?

Newspaper Inserts – this is the preferred method of the big bog stores because they have the economy of scale for printing and delivering to get the best rates, and they don’t care who gets their coupons
Direct Mail – you can buy a list (and hope it is okay) or build your own. One takes money and has little return. One takes time but has a better return.
Postal Zip Codes – you can target zip codes instead of direct addresses for a little less per piece than direct mail
Email – easily the cheapest, easiest to share, but also most easily duplicated

Let’s look at that last one a little more closely…

KNOW YOUR GOAL

If your goal is to limit the coupon to “one per customer”, email can be tricky because it is easy for a customer to print out multiple copies and use them herself or give them to her friends. That’s the big question I always get about sending coupons via email. “But how will I track if a customer uses more than one?”

I always ask back, “Does it matter if a customer uses more than one?”

Your goal for any coupon should be to Drive Traffic and Increase Sales. That is what coupons do best. Where is the harm if a customer shares your coupon with others? Where is the harm if the customer makes multiple trips using multiple coupons? Don’t both of those Drive Traffic and Increase Sales?

If your goal is to Increase Profits, then a coupon isn’t your friend in the first place. Coupons won’t help your profit margin (I’ll show you the math later why “lower your price and make it up in volume” doesn’t really work), but they can increase your traffic and cash flow and give your sales staff the chance to increase average ticket sizes and items per transaction.

CHANGE YOUR THINKING

If you send out a coupon via email, you have to consider two things…

It will be shared
It will be printed/used multiple times

If your goal is to Drive Traffic and Increase Sales, sharing and printing multiple copies are both GOOD things. In fact you want to encourage that.

Encourage your email list peeps to share the coupon with as many people as they can. It increases your reach to people who might not yet know you and it gets your fans to promote your business for you. In fact, take it a step further and encourage social media sharing, too. Your goal should be to get the coupon to as many people as possible as cheaply as possible. That’s how to get the best ROI.

Encourage your email list peeps to use the coupon early and often, too. Every trip they make means another chance to deepen your relationship with them and turn them into fans. (If you sell a commodity item like food that people are buying weekly, simply put a tighter time limit on the coupon to keep the coupon Rare and Special). The reality is that you won’t get that many multiple trips. Unless your offer is incredibly compelling and you’re giving away half the store, the likelihood that a customer is going to shop your store twice in one week is fairly low to begin with.

Email is the cheapest way to deliver coupons. It also is one of the most powerful ways to get your fan base to help you reach more and more people. You just have to change your thinking from one of scarcity (“limit one per…”) to generosity (“use it early and often and share it with the world…”).

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS My final tip is to keep the coupon as simple as possible with as few rules and exceptions as possible. The easier it is to use, the happier your customers will be.

September 22, 2015

Two New Social Media Platforms and How You Could Use Them

(Note: this post has been edited)
Video is HUGE. Go look at your news feed in Facebook and count what percentage of posts are videos.

Pretty high, isn’t it?

If you aren’t using videos – Vine, YouTube, iPhone videos loaded to Facebook, etc. – then you might not be reaching all the people you want to reach.

There are two new video services – Periscope and Blab – that might have some benefit to indie retailers. Here is a look at the two and how you can use them…

PERISCOPE

Periscope was launched by Twitter and is live, streaming video you do that allows for people to comment on your video as you’re streaming and send you love through the form of little hearts that float up your screen. The video can then be replayed for up to 24 hours before it disappears.

The upside… This is an easy way for you to do timely videos of things happening in your store in an interactive way. Simply send out a notice through your other social media channels (especially Twitter) that you’ll be doing a Periscope in a few minutes, then grab your phone and go live. Anyone watching you can post comments and questions that show up on your screen. It is kinda like having a FaceTime call with dozens of people at once.

One of the best applications I can see for this medium is behind-the-scenes looks at your business. People love to go behind the curtain. They love to see what is happening there. Best of all, they feel more attached to your store and more likely to share what they know when they feel like they got a peek into something not everyone else gets to see.

You could do Periscopes on products that have just come in.
You could do Periscopes on staff meetings.
You could do Periscopes on the process you go through to ship out an item.
You could do Periscopes on the prep work you put into having a big event at your store.

The downside… The videos are only up for a day. You might do some great footage, but you have to keep doing great footage to grow your presence. In fact, best practices in the early stages of this medium show that you should post something daily, even if it is only a 30-second post each day that says you’ll be back on Friday with a longer video. (Note: they do have ways for you to save the videos, but you do have to jump through a few extra hoops.)

BLAB

Unlike Periscope where only you talk and everyone else comments by typing, Blab is another live streaming video that allows for four people to be in the conversation at once. It kinda looks like Hollywood Squares with four boxes on the screen showing you and the three people you invited to sit in the conversation.

The upside… First, by having a true conversation, you can now invite experts into your social media world. Maybe you might interview a sales rep or one of your favorite vendors. Maybe you might use it to introduce new staff. Maybe you might use it to talk to someone who can talk more about your industry. For instance, since I sell toys, I could talk to a therapist about the value of play in a child’s life. Even better, you could invite your own fans to join in and talk about their experiences in your store.

Just like Periscope, people can type in comments and show you real-time love by tapping the icon on the screen. You can respond to those comments and have a real, live conversation about your store with other people watching. The videos stay up longer than Periscope, too, and can even be uploaded to your YouTube channel.

The downside… This medium is more of a sitting-at-your-laptop-chatting medium than a wander-around-the-store-with-a-smartphone medium, which makes it more difficult to show off products, etc. It is more of a two-way conversation than a one-way talk with you picking and choosing which questions or comments to answer. It becomes less scripted, which can make it more fun and original (and less sales/preachy), but can also go in directions you never intended.

Both Periscope and Blab have some interesting applications. Whether they are right for your business is up to you. Just remember the most important thing about all social media – it is about connecting and creating networks more than it is about selling or pushing your message across.

If used right, both of these channels can grow your network and strengthen your relationships.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS I am looking at both of them as ways to grow both Toy House and Phil’s Forum. Right now I currently use my Twitter handle @philtoyhouse purely for sharing this blog and Toy House newsletters. Since you use your Twitter account to sign in to both of these services, I am considering setting up separate Twitter accounts and using @philtoyhouse for just Toy House activity going forward. I’ll let you know soon what my new Twitter handle for this blog will be.

August 25, 2015

Media Versus Network?

Social media is where it is at!
Social media is DEAD!
Social media is FREE!
Social media has NO ROI!
Businesses are expanding because of social media!
Businesses are wasting their money on social media!

SOCIAL MEDIA, social media, social media, BLAH blah blah.

Everyone has an opinion on whether Social Media is helping businesses grow or is just a waste of money. And everyone is wrong.

Why? They have the word wrong. Chances are, you do, too.

MEDIA VERSUS NETWORK

What happens if we changed the word media to the word network?

Media = an avenue through which you broadcast content and advertising
Network = a connection of people who can help each other out

Which word more accurately describes Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, et al? A network of connected people sharing with each other or a medium with people waiting to be told what to do or think?

Would you use Social differently if you saw it as a networking avenue instead of a medium onto which you broadcast your message?

Would you use Social differently if you were trying to connect to people and connect them to resources and other people instead of just telling your story?

Would you use Social differently if you saw it as a way to have two-way conversations and see how others could help you, rather than just a platform to tell them what you’re going to do?

Would you use Social differently if you were trying to help instead of just trying to sell?

Change the word and you’ll change your focus. Change your focus and you’ll change your effectiveness.

Social Media is DEAD. But the Social Network is alive and kicking!

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS The best way to grow your Network is TRUST. When you engage without selling, when you help and share without financial gain, when you ask more than you tell, when you show that you are listening, when you are real and genuine and not always “on message” then you will gain the trust of your network.

December 6, 2014

Getting Around the Facebook Algorithms

Everyone is lamenting the death of free posts for your company on Facebook. For the third time in the last year or so, even Facebook has said that if you want to play, you better be prepared to pay.

Maybe you have already seen your organic reach plummet and are already calculating your budget for boosting those posts.

I haven’t paid a penny to boost a post in the last three years, yet four of my posts in the last three weeks have reached more people than I have fans for my page. What am I doing differently? After extensive testing, I have learned the following…

What the Facebook Algorithm Doesn’t Like

Posts with exclamation points
Posts with LOTS OF CAPS
Posts with words like Sale, Event, Deal or Free
Posts with hours or days of the week

What Your Fans Don’t Like

Posts that look like an advertisement
Posts that yell or scream at them
Posts that are all about you (the company) not “you” (the customer)
Posts that tell, not show
Posts that tell, not ask
Posts that are boring, expected, or blah
Posts that take the obvious approach instead of a different angle
Posts with no meat on the bones

What the Facebook Algorithm Likes (Allows through)

Interaction – lots of likes, comments and shares, especially shares
Question marks and periods

What Your Fans Like

Stories, good emotional stories that tug at the heart strings
Pictures, especially pictures that tell a story
Interesting facts, insider-information type facts
Links to stories that reinforce their world views
Posts that take different, unexpected angles and approaches to the subject

Here is a breakdown of a post I did yesterday that has already reached 50% more people than I have fans. It started with this picture…

The copy for the post says…

This is a roll of our giftwrap. It is 24 inches wide, 833 feet long and weighs 28 pounds.

Every year we go through at least twenty four of those big heavy rolls of paper. Plus we go through another forty of the 18 inch wide version. And last year we added a smaller 12 inch width (and used another thirty-plus rolls of those).

All told, that’s almost 15 miles of giftwrap to cover your gifts.

Why? Because we can. Because we like to wrap. Because after fifteen miles a year, we’re pretty fast and efficient.

Because it makes you smile. That’s the best reason of all.

I could have simply said, “Don’t forget, we offer Free Giftwrapping!” and walked away with my 368 people reached. But within 24 hours this post had reached well over 5,000 people (even though we only had 3580 fans at the moment I posted).

Why?

I told a story. I used interesting, specific facts. I gave out insider information. I avoided the words that might flag the FB algorithms. I stayed consistent with our Core Value of Nostalgia.

The reality is that most of my fans already know we offer free giftwrapping. We’ve been doing it for 65 years. The goal of the post was to touch an emotional nerve that gets those same people to Like, Comment and Share. Those Likes, Comments and Shares help spread the post to their friends and family who might not know that we offer free giftwrapping. Plus, every time someone Likes, Comments, or Shares, it reinforces our brand in their mind.

Don’t fear the new FB algorithms. Fear lousy copy-writing, a lack of storytelling, and ignorance of a few handy tricks. That will bring your reach down faster than anything FB does.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS What to do if you have a promotion you really want to share? Put all the promotion info into a jpeg on top of a really cool picture. Then share the picture with some catchy saying. For instance, we did a Disney Princess event with Elsa & Anna from Frozen. I made up a poster for the event and shared the poster with the simple statement, “Do you wanna build a snowman?” Yes, the Frozen angle helped. Most importantly, we reached over 11,000 people and had over a hundred shares without spending a penny.

March 5, 2014

My Three Biggest Facebook Posts This Year

This year I have had three totally different Facebook Posts that stood out among the rest.

The first was this…

Can you all help me out?

I need to hype up our JUST FOR FUN SALE that starts this Thursday 9:30am to 6pm.

Hundreds of great toys, hobby and baby products at deep discounts including LEGO and Playmobil, including ride-on toys and summer toys, including board games and puzzles, including dolls, including tons of arts & crafts, including bedding and feeding accessories, including a whole lot more.

Please hit the Share button and help me spread the word.

Thanks! You are the best fans ever!!

That post had a reach of 7,316 people (yet we only have 2890 fans). I got 179 Shares from that post. I had engaged enough with my fans that when I asked a favor of them, they responded in a big way! They responded because I had built up trust. I can’t go to this well too often or I’ll lose that trust and they’ll run away.

The second was this one…

We have a whole bunch of pallets from the many great shipments we have received this winter. Anyone want them? (please?)

There was also a picture of the pallets. Within 17 hours the pallets were gone. Total reach 4,136, including 48 shares. (My dad would say this just goes to show that any fool can give it away.)

The third was this…

A crib mattress shouldn’t do this.

You shouldn’t be able to fold it in half with one hand while you take a picture of it with the other.

Your baby needs a firm flat surface for sleeping for a number of reasons… skeletal growth, proper breathing, protection from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), etc. The more firm, the better.

Don’t take my word for it. The American Academy of Pediatrics says it, too. So does every other organization interested in the health of your child (The Danny Foundation, First Candle, SIDS Alliance, et al)

Firm mattresses don’t fold in half as easily as this one did.

When you go shopping for your nursery, there are three things you don’t want to skimp on – the crib, the mattress and the car seat.

We won’t let you get a mattress that won’t be safe for your child. Apparently other stores don’t feel the same way as we do.

There was a picture of a crib mattress being folded in half with one hand. This reached 3,518 people including 28 shares. There was an emotional edge to the post. Baby safety is a hot topic right now. Hit the right emotional topics and you’ll see a lot of interaction and engagement.

Note than they all had a different style. They all also reached way more than 100%. One was asking for help. One was giving something away. One was sharing information.

The point to take away from this is that variety is the spice of life. Mix up your posts. Don’t make them all the same. Try new things and measure the results. When you find something that works, use it, but not too often. Engage, engage, engage. Give your fans something shareworthy, regardless of whether it is about selling your store or your products.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS There are easy ways to “beat” the Facebook Algorithm. My FB posts for Toy House regularly reach 50% or more of our fan base. Click here to find out why.