What’s in my Inbox?- Everlane Email Review

On average I wake up to about 15 unread emails each day that consist of beauty tips, new product info, promotional sales, work emails, and of course spam. Competition is high within my inbox, with only a few emails that I actually wanted to open. Today I opened an email from a from a company, EVERLANE, that I’ve been following for quite some time, and have grown to really admire their brand and products. I receive emails from them about 3-4 times a week and usually open each one. You can say I am a dedicated customer to Everlane and will open their emails regardless of what is inside.

Their emails usually revolve around  new product information. Below is a recent email I received from them regarding a color way they dubbed “SAND”. I thought this was a clever way to promote their products, even though there was not a particularly new product they were promoting. Instead they developed a theme around a group of products and showcased them in a creative way. Although I appreciate their creativity and minimalist design, their emails could always improve for the better.

My suggestions:

•   I believe they could benefit by including a bit more written information in their emails, especially for customers that love to read into details
• Including a navigation bar at the top of the email would be very useful, especially being an e-commerce where they have many different products
• The “Shop Now” links both direct to the Sand collection, but what if I want quickly access a particular product in a different color? It would be beneficial to include information that these products also come in other colors.
• A short description of their SAND theme would add to increasing their brand image as to why they chose to put these items together and would help customers understand their reasoning and would fit perfectly to their “radically transparent” mission of the company

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Someday I would love to work for this company because their branding, values, products and marketing is very unique. They put alot of effort into building customer relationships and remaining consistent throughout their entire brand.

-The Marketing Mixologist

How Pinterest brought us new customers

Pinterest is not only one of my favorite social media platforms, it is a growing platform that is popular amongst creative businesses. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I work alongside my boyfriend, Geoff, who sells his artwork online. We first discovered the powers of Pinterest after check our traffic referral stats on Etsy. To our surprise, Pinterest was one of our top referral sites, but we were not posting on Pinterest at the time. It so happened that someone pinned some of Geoff’s artwork from Etsy, onto Pinterest and it spread from there. We’ve since created our own Pinterest account for Pascual Productions, and are continuing to try to grow our presence on Pinterest. Now that we’ve launched our own new website and replaced the old links from Etsy to refer to our new site. This explain why there is a drop in views from 2014-2016. Below is a screenshot of our Pinterest traffic that was pulled from our Etsy data:

After summer I will continue to pin more frequently on Pinterest, engaging with customers, and hopefully bring more traffic to our new website!

– The Marketing Mixologist

Battle of the Homepages

I was online shopping for a graduation dress recently, and went through a number of sites. I began to pay very close attention to what each homepage had to offer and how quickly it took for me to locate the dress department. I went on 3 different sites and here are my first impressions:

Forever21.com

• Cons
  • Overwhelmed by too many photos (Slider moved way too fast)
  • Distracted and immediately was turned off by the clutter
  • The giant photo slider in the background was too much
  • There was also a popup at the bottom that was blocking the slide
• Pros
  • Clear navigation at the top of the website
  • Call to actions of different discounts that were appealing
  • The red SALE button in the navigation was very well placed
  • The cart at the top corner was also a plus

Asos.com

• Cons
  • Navigation was a bit hard to find
  • Hard to find the contact info
  • About us was also hard to locate
• Pros
  • Great call to action and content that describes the site
  • Photos were not overwhelming
  • Easy and large buttons for Women and MEN section
  • Discounted items were easy to find
  • Free shipping is clear and stated throughout the homepage

Urbanourfitters.com

• Cons
  • Very little content on the first page before scrolling
  • Small “Free Shipping” at the bottom was hard to see
  • A lot of scrolling with very large images were distracting to the eyes.
  • Small font
• Pros
  • Colors were very balanced
  • Clear navigation, with a SALE button highlighted in red
  • Bold font with clear 20% off entices customers
  • Creates a sense of urgency with “Ends 5/23”

 

And the winner is….. ASOS.COM!

ASOS.COM had good content that clearly communicated what their services were and what they had to offer in comparison to the other websites. The photos were not distracting and there were incentives and call to actions that were strategically placed and were clear for me to see. The only improvement I would suggest is a clear navigation at the top with more than just Women and Men buttons.

-The Marketing Mixologist

You’ve launched your website…now what?

If you’ve just launched a website and want to gain more traffic, you’ve probably heard about the amazing powers SEO can bring to your business from your marketing friends. When I first learned about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) I was intrigued by how simple yet powerful this marketing concept was. Although SEO may seem pretty easy to do, its quite a daunting task to deal with, and if you are like myself you’ve probably asked: WHERE DO I START?

I’ll be taking this journey with you, as I incorporate SEO practices to a website that I am currently working on. The website looks alright, but its far from where I want it to be. After I graduate this upcoming May, I plan to put all my efforts into making this the best website it can possibly be. I launched the website sometime in November 2015 using Shopify. Here is my massive list of what I want to do this summer:

1. Choose a new theme that works well for Pascual Productions
   • Must have a responsive layout
   • Strong homepage that doesn’t waste space
   • Easy navigation with customizable categories
   • E-commerce friendly
2. Create a site map of all the different pages that will be on the website
   • Keeps me organized and gives me the ability to visually map out what a visitor will see when they get on the website
3. Categorize the products into specific collections
   • Anime prints vs. comic prints etc.
4. Develop a list of Keywords
   • Use keyword planner and test out search phrases
   • Spyfu.com to see what competitors are using
5. Create UNIQUE page titles and descriptions for every page
   • Make sure its relevant to the page and includes keywords
6. Develop quality written content on major pages
   • Home, About, Collections, Products, Contact etc.
   • Include keywords in a natural voice (don’t over use)
7. Create new product descriptions
   • This will take a lot of time, make sure its unique and relevant to that product
8. Find a Shopify app that helps with easy SEO inputs
   • Monitor and test out new content on pages to keep the website updated
9. Start an blog that is embedded into the website
   • Update on a weekly basis
10. Try Google Adwords/Facebook ads/Pinterest ads
    • Test out different ppc ads to see which platform works best for the company and which may be the most profitable

These are just a few things that I want to do in the summer. This list is always growing and will continue to for a while….

– The Marketing Mixologist

 

3 things I learned from my first Facebook Ad campaign

I work alongside my boyfriend, selling his artwork online and at comic and anime conventions. This past March we released our latest Pikachu T-shirt, and I suggested we try paid ads for fun. I was a little intimidated by Google Ads so decided to start small with Facebook. Prior to creating the Ads I asked myself questions such as “Who is our audience? Who old are they? What are they interested in? Where do they live? and What time are they on Facebook?”. After doing some research and analyzing who our target market is I began to work on the campaign. Here’s how I set it up:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

 

Schedule: March 4,2016 (10AM PST) – March 6, 2016 (11:59PM PST)

Lifetime Budget: $125

Location: LA, SF, SD, OC

Age: 18-26

After releasing the campaign and analyzing the results I learned 3 significant things:

1. Less is actually more
   • When money is a a factor, you want each click to be worth it, so narrowing your audience as specific as possible instead of trying to reach everyone will greater increase the possibility of a conversion
2. Test things out and make changes
   • Towards the beginning of the campaign, our ads were taken down due to excess text on the photos. Once I changed the photo ads and rearranged the order on the photo wheel things we got a few more clicks!
3. Be Patient
   • Sometimes campaigns don’t go as well as you planned, but don’t get discouraged! There is a lot of information that you gathered to make your next campaign even better. Although over the 1 week campaign we only got one conversion, that was a customer who we couldn’t of reached if it wasn’t for this campaign. I was extremely happy to get my first conversion and I’m taking this excitement and applying it into my next campaign.

Overall this campaign was a great learning experience for me to finally test the waters and teach myself more about creating ads. Each campaign I do in the future I will strive to double the conversion each time. Wish me luck!

-The Marketing Mixologist

 

5 Tips on using Instagram for business

If you want to expand your  reach online, Social media is crucial for any e-commerce website. One of my favorite social media platforms to use is Instagram. Remember that each social media platform serves a different purpose and has a different audience, therefore we need to be strategic in planning what to post. Here are 5 tips on how to get started on Instagram and utilizing this platform to bring more traffic onto your website!

1. Post creative content!
   • Instagram is a very visual and unique space where individuals can be creative and truly show off their personality. This goes for businesses also! Be aware of each post and how it contributes to your brand’s image. Make sure its aline with your brand colors, aesthetic, and values.
2. Engage with your followers
   • Social media is a place to interact , build trust, and form a relationship with your customers. When you make a post, ask your followers questions that let them engage on that post for example: 
   • Description: ” Show us how you personalize your totes with the #pursenalizeit and we’ll feature our top 3 on our page! “
   • This post is strong visually, and brings followers to want to engage with your brand. It also is an opportunity for them to share on their own pages, images of your product
3. Don’t ignore the comment section!
   • If you see someone aska question on your post or compliment it, reply to them! Customer love talking to their favorite brands because it builds relationships and shows that you are real people and not a computer. Engaging with followers will increase their trust and may possibly lead to a sale in the future.
4. Schedule and plan out your posts
   • Managing an Instagram account takes a lot of time, work, and dedication. If you post inconsistently, followers will begin to forget about your brand. Be prepared and plan ahead! Create a calendar and plan out exactly when and what you will be posting ahead of time. This allows you to utilize your time more efficiently.
5. Post the bare minimum of promotional ads
   • Your followers don’t go on Instagram to be advertised to. Keep your promotional posts to a minimum and post more relatable and engaging content instead. If your selling wearable products, post inspirational content of different ways that item can be worn or accessorized. Another good idea is to repost from your followers because not only is this engaging with your customers, but it also saves you time! Just be sure to acknowledge the follower and compliment them.

Now that you have these tips, you can go off an try them out for your own business

– The Marketing Mixologist

How to develop a Content Calendar

Content calendars are a perfect way to keep your marketing campaigns organized and allows you to plan ahead. Its a good idea to have a schedule that is at least 2-4 weeks ahead of schedule, the earlier the better. It can be as simple as the date and time you want to make a post to a detailed description of the copy and title of a blog or Facebook post.

Below is an example of a simple content calendar I use to stay organized. I first decided to create this calendar to help communicate with our social media helper, as to what I wanted them to post. I made this on an excel sheet and transferred it to a shared google drive folder. I also included any specific descriptions I wanted for particular posts but still allowed them to be creative. If you have someone else doing your social media, this is the perfect way to guide your employees on whats expected. Content calendars help to communicate the company’s expectations throughout all departments, and maintains a consistent image of the brand throughout all social media and marketing channels, from Instagram to your Email newsletter. Consistency is important for your company’s brand image, and communicating expectations to your employees through the use of content calendars does the job.

-The Marketing Mixologist

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

How a Single Email Could Lead to a Sale

We attend conventions on a monthly basis, and meet a lot of people who visit our booth. Therefore we decided to build our email list by simply putting out a sign up sheet at the front of our table during these events! The photo above depicts the email I sent out to new subscribers who signed up at Wonder Con this past March. We got a total of 68 new subscribers, and it was very important for us to send out an email as soon as possible in order to stay fresh in our customers heads. If you wait too long to send a simple Welcome or follow up email, they’ll completely forget about your brand and may unsubscribe. You want to catch them while they still have a good memory of visiting your booth and signing up.

The event took place Friday-Sunday, and I sent out an email the following Tuesday at around 10am. As I learned in my MKTG 455 class Tuesdays and Wednesdays are generally the top days to send emails, because it’s in the middle of the week and everyone is a productive mood. Also its a good idea to send an email towards the morning to noon. This is when most people check their emails.

Below you can see that we had a pretty good open and click rate, and the email even converted one subscriber to visit out website and make a sale! If we hadn’t reminded them of our products, they may not have made that purchase.

It takes alot of time inputing the emails of each signup but its worth it to send out an email as soon as possible!

– The Marketing Mixologist