Now What Project

Now What Project Update - $60,000 in 6 Months

support@1c4y.com (Shawna Seigel) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 15:33:00 +0000

I am so excited about today!

First, I am no longer sick. YAY!!

Second, we have a new webinar today!

I will be doing an update on our Now What Project and showing you how we created over $60,000 in sales in about 6 months with our new online store.

I hope you will join me at 1:00 PM Eastern!

You can sign up now by going to:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/202018512

Third, how are you doing with your 30 day challenge? I unfortunately am getting a late start on this because I was so sick but... that is not going to stop me. Don't let it stop you either!! If you miss a day... keep going!

All of this is to help you gain more traffic, sales, and higher conversions :)

The 30 Day Blogging Challenge for Online Store Owners - Can You Do It?

support@1c4y.com (Shawna Seigel) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 16:19:00 +0000

I am so excited about the 30 Day Blogging Challenge!

We all know how important your blog can be in helping you to:

Gain trust
Listen to your customers
Build your brand
Build your credibility
Increase traffic
Increase sales
Increase rankings in the search engine

However, I see time and time again store owners are neglecting their blogs or have yet to put one up.

That all changes right now!

This week we kick off the 30 Day Blogging Challenge!

What is the 30 Day Blogging Challenge?

The concept is quite simple, we want you to blog:

At least once a day
Every single day for 30 days straight
From your online store's blog

For instance, our store is 1 Choice 4 Quilting. Our blog is http://blog.1choice4quilting.com

view our setting up your blog tutorial

What will I blog about?

Anything you want!

Do some keyword research and write blogs focused on one keyword at a time
You are the expert of your products... share your knowledge
Ask your customers to submit stories
Ask your customers to submit ideas for new blog posts
Share personal things about yourself so customers can begin to like, know, and trust you
Make sure you follow the 80/20 rule. 80% should be creative and education. 20% of your posts should push the sale.

Why are we doing this challenge?

As many of you know, I am taking the Master Certification Course at Market Motive. I absolutely LOVE the classes and one of things we discussed is of course blogging. I learned some interesting facts:

Blogs get 55% more visitors than your website
97% more inbound links than your website
434% more indexed pages
Hubspot says you have 67% more leads when you have a blog because it's a soft sell

So let's get to blogging!

What will I win?

Besides growing your blog and your business, we wanted to make this more interesting.

All blogs that complete the challenge will be eligible to win a $100 Gift Card. This gift card can be an Amazon, Best Buy, or Visa gift card. The choice is yours :)

Depending on how many people we get to participate, we may give out additional Gift Cards!

How do I join in the fun?

Leave a comment below with your name, website, and blog address.
Follow our blog for updates
Join our Facebook Page for ideas, inspiration, and questions.

FAQ

Can I do 30 blog posts from multiple blogs?
Nope. One blog post with 30 days of posting
I have two ecommerce blogs. Can I enter twice?
Absolutely! If this gets you motivated to blog every day on two of your blogs... let's do this!
When does the contest officially start?
Right now :) We will take submissions below up until ~~Sunday August 7th~~ extended until Monday August 8th. This will give store owners a little extra time to set up their blog if need be. Whether you start today or Monday... make sure you blog once a day every day for 30 days.

Mc Donalds is making customers want to come back for more... As they are eating!

support@1c4y.com (Shawna Seigel) — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 18:30:00 +0000

I had Kayla run over to McDonalds for some lunch and grabbed up a 6 pack of Chicken Nuggets.

As I ate the nuggets, I looked into the box and saw the following message,

"Give some heat to your Chicken McNuggets with Spicy Buffalo sauce.

Which sauce did you go for?

Creamy Ranch, Tangy BarBeQue, Sweet Chili, Sweet 'n Sour, Spicy Buffalo or Honey Mustard?"

My immediate response...

This is BRILLIANT marketing!

Think about this for a moment....

Here you are already eating your meal from Mc D's and they have you thinking about other sauces you should try out. As you are eating your meal, you are thinking about the next time you go to McDonalds.

You haven't even finished your meal yet and you are planning your next order.

As I said... this is BRILLIANT marketing!

How can you do the same with your products?

Instead of asking your customer to join your newsletter during the sale, ask them to join on the confirmation page. Then remind them they can join in the confirmation email, shipping status email, and all other communications with the customer.
When the product arrives to the customer, include a coupon for their next purchase.
Have a new hot product to promote? Include a promotional flyer in the shipping box.
Are there great accessories to the product they purchased, why not include a "You Might Also Like" flyer.
Would your product work better if it had more instructions? Add a flyer instructing your customer where they can go, on your website, for more information. Provide videos if needed.

What has worked for us?

We include at least one small gift in every single order and also include a handwritten thank you note.

The gifts do not have to be extravagant. In fact, we picked up some Nail Files that have quilt blocks on them for around $0.50 a piece.

You would be surprised how much of an impact that small gesture can make on your customers.

Take a look.

Customers are already waiting for the next time they get to shop with us again and they are so excited to do so.

They are also so excited about their order that they upload pictures to their blog and Flickr.

Next time you send out an order, what are you going to include so they are immediately thinking of their next purchase from you?

Now What Project - Have you heard these interviews?

support@1c4y.com (Shawna Seigel) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 23:21:00 +0000

I realized after doing my radio show on Monday that I had some other shows where I discussed the Now What Project and changes that have been made.

I do hope you will enjoy them and learn from what we have done!

How to Use Social Media to Increase Sales and Traffic

Air Date: July 19, 2011

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Learn How to Use Social Media to Increase Sales and Traffic as Shawna and Rene explain how Social Media is no longer a hobby that is now a required tool for store owners and how social media tools can create more traffic and sales.

Guidance on How to Build a High Quality Website

Air Date: May 9, 2011

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Google released a new blog post on their Webmaster Central blog with some guidance on how to build a high quality website and Shawna and Rene discuss how you can apply these guidelines to your online store.

5 Ways to Double Your Sales
Air Date: May 2, 2011

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Shawna updates us on the Now What Project, which to date has had over $12,000 in sales in just 3 months, increasing sales from March to April by over 150 percent.

Small Changes Create Big Results

Air Date: April 18, 2011

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Shawna and Rene take us inside the changes on the Now What Project website, which is only 2 and 1/2 months old, has resulted in 64 sales in the past 17 days.

Immediate Increase in Sales and Page Views

Air Date: March 28, 2011

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Shawna and Rene takes us through their Now What Project store, since they opened less than 8 weeks ago have seen sales go up 268 percent . and page views up over 900 percent. They detail how you can make it happen to your store too.

How a Few Simple Words Inspired a HUGE Increase in Sales

support@1c4y.com (Shawna Seigel) — Thu, 05 May 2011 15:24:00 +0000

As many of you know, I am taking the Master Certification Course at Market Motive in Social Media.

This is an AMAZING course led by Jennifer Laycock who is AMAZING. I have followed her for over 10 years and have learned SO much. Honestly, she is one of those few people that I would say - I would not be here today if it weren't for her. She always gave it to me straight and in a way that I could always understand.

As I was watching the video course on blogging, Jennifer made one simple comment that changed my newsletter:

"Women are 3x more likely to share information they feel is valuable."

So before I sent out my 10% off coupon, I added a small note in the form of a P.S.:

"You are only getting this coupon because you are on our newsletter. We will NOT be advertising this special. However, feel free to pass on the coupon code to your friends and family if you think they will enjoy using it :)"

Remember, this store is only 3 months old :)

Now let's show you the results!

This was a 2 day coupon Monday May 2nd and Tuesday May 3rd.

In the image above, notice how sales go back to the norm on Tuesday but, pick up again on Wednesday? I received letters asking if bloggers could share this coupon. Cool!

Relevant links AND more customers!

YES - Extend that coupon one more day! Sales spiked again on Wednesday.

Let's take a look at our sales for this month because once again - we are on target to double our sales in May.

A special thank you to Market Motive, I get to share more of what I am learning and the results of our testing.

I asked them if they could give our readers a special coupon - boy did they EVER!!

Use coupon code MM99 and you will get your first month of education for $99 instead of $299. I highly recommend it! There are classes in SEO, Conversion, Social Media, PPC, and Social Media.

Just Finished Our 3rd Month - How Did Our New Online Store Do? AMAZING!

support@1c4y.com (Shawna Seigel) — Mon, 02 May 2011 15:36:00 +0000

The last two weeks have been a little crazy. We had a few accidents and a few injuries to deal with but, we are moving on!

I thought I would give you an update on our brand new store that I have been working on.

We just finished our 3rd month and here are the numbers -

Total Sales in 3 Months - $11757.40 (Hit over 12,000 with sales we had today)

Here is what is really interesting -

Look at our huge jump in sales from Month 2 to Month 3.

How did we do it?

I will be discussing all the details today on Ecom Experts at 6:00 PM Eastern and doing some live site reviews as well.

You can listen live and ask questions by going to:

http://www2.webmasterradio.fm/chat/

The Classic Mistake EVERY Store Owner Makes

support@1c4y.com (Shawna Seigel) — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 19:11:00 +0000

Monday I told people on our radio show how I made the classic mistake that EVERY store owner makes at least once -

I stopped the movement.

We had 13 orders in one day and it wiped me out. Can you believe 13 orders in one day on a store not even 3 months old? Remember, NO advertising either. We are JUST doing social media.

Anyway, I stopped the movement. I wasn't as active and I wasn't blogging or really updating Facebook.

I became "too busy."

What happened? I know you know.

The orders almost stopped. We went back to 1-2 orders a day. I had gotten off my bike and we weren't traveling anymore.

So what did I do next? I jumped right back on the back and got back to work.

The results?

We are back to 5 orders a day.

We have surpassed our last month as well.

The Moral of the Story

Even when you get busy and get tons of orders, you have to keep the movement going. Hire help so that you can keep doing the blogs, the Facebooking, and making the money. Enlist family members to help you. My husband is now a fabric cutting MACHINE!! You have to keep creating movement for your website so you don't stop getting orders.

What's coming up next?

This week I started my new classes for the Market Motive Social Media Master Certification. I will be implanting the things I learn into this new site and will be sharing the results with you. I think it is going to fun and exciting!

Stay tuned for more!!

P.S.

Shawna are you really ONLY using Social Media to promote this site? Yep and here is the proof :)

As we can see, our blog brings in the most traffic. Google has brought in the most sales. So let's take a look at our references from Google.

A lot of people searching for our name because of the Social Media we have been doing.

How Do We Find Out Who We Are Marketing to in Google Analytics?

support@1c4y.com (Shawna Seigel) — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 17:20:00 +0000

Previously we discussed, who is your customer and how are we going to market to them?

We learned how to find out who are customers are on Facebook. Now we need to learn who our customers are on our website.

Let's dive into our analytics!

Click on visitors from the Dashboard

Let's take a look at our overview for the store we built for the project.

We get a nice little picture of what has been happening in our quilt store for the last month.

On the right side, we can look at Visitor Segmentation.

Take the time to learn:

What browsers do your customers use? Test your website on those browsers.
Where are your customers located? Are you shipping to those areas? Are you marketing to those areas?
What language do your customers speak? Do you speak their language?
How much time are your customers spending on your website? How can you get them to spend more time on your website?
Are your customers viewing your site mobile? Do you need a mobile version of your website?

Learn more about how your customers are using your website and make sure you are marketing directly to them.

How Did Our Blog Help Boost Our Rankings?

support@1c4y.com (Shawna Seigel) — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 18:28:00 +0000

I have been able to use the blog to connect with customers, increase page views, and rank for keyword phrases in the search engines.

Check this out.

I was ranking on page 3 and nowhere for two search terms. I wrote a few blogs linking to the category page.

Granted - the page itself could be better optimized too but, this site is to teach people. We wanted to show people what would happen with just writing great content on our blog and linking it up.

Here is what happened:

Our blog ranked #16 for one search phrase and our website ranked 18 for the other.

Remember, this site is only 8 weeks old.

If we put a little more time and effort into this page, we could be on page 1.

Let's look at our sprinkles by clicking on the cached version.

We have some good sprinkles on this page but, we don't mention the brand name in the link coming to this page. We don't mention the brand name at all in our paragraph. So basically we have tons of links and no content.

So we should change the link and add more content to this page. Since we want to stay above the fold, we could add more content at the bottom that is relevant.

What type of content would we write? We could write how much customers love this product, why this product is better than others, why this brand is better than others, why this collection is so great, how this collection of products works, etc.

We just need great content. Grab your recorder and start talking. Then grab a keyboard and start transcribing.

Who is YOUR Customer and How Can you Market Directly to Them?

support@1c4y.com (Shawna Seigel) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 17:00:00 +0000

My new mantra is:

When you try to please everyone, you wind up pleasing no one.

In the New Life Book Club we are reading Chapter 2 of our Yahoo Style Guide. Chapter 2 is all about finding out who your customer is. What is their persona? Find a picture to represent your customer and learning how to market directly to them.

Too many times we think our product is for everyone but, we have to remember our new mantra.

When you try to please everyone, you wind up pleasing no one.

So let's really look at who the majority of your customers are and do our best to market to those customers.

We want to look at:

How old are our visitors?
Are they male or female?
How much money do they make?
Where do they live?
Do they have disabilities?
Do they have religious views?
How much time are they spending on our site?
What pages do they visit the most?
What pages do they spend the most time on?
What are they trying to accomplish on our website.

Let's go to Facebook and see who is connecting with us with Facebook. Later this week we will dive into our Google Analytics!

Let's get started.

First go to your Facebook page and click on Insights. (All the images below can be clicked on to enlarge)

Second, let's take a look at our demographics by clicking on Users on the left side.

75 % of our users are over the age of 45. Very interesting information. Most live in the United States although we do have some from other countries. Dallas seems to be popular and if we wanted to target that area a little more we could do so. Although we have mostly women interacting with us, we do have a small percentage of men. We do not want them to feel alienated from our Facebook Page so we have to be very careful.

So out of these women who are over 45, it would be interesting to learn who works, who stays home, who is starting a second job or side job with quilting, and much much more.

Let's take a look at something else.

Under interactions we can see what time of day and type of posts get the most reactions. For instance, everything posted during the day has less than 1% feedback.

That helps us a lot!! We need to post after 6:00 PM when our customers are online.

In fact, if we sort by feedback we learn something else.

When it comes to THESE customers, whenever we post on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday AND it is around 6:00 PM....

We get the best feedback.

So go check your Facebook Page and look at what your customers are doing.

Who are they?
What are they looking for?
When are they looking for it?
How are they trying to find it?

Adding a new product to your store? 5 Steps for telling the world!

support@1c4y.com (Shawna Seigel) — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 13:26:00 +0000

Adding a new product to your store is fun and exciting not only for you but, your customers as well! So let's get ready to add a new product to our store.

Step 1 - If we know that a product is going to come out ahead of time, we can create a little buzz and get a head start on our SEO.

For instance, let's pretend you have a store where new products are launched every month. Create a new section called - What's Coming, Coming Soon, etc. Create an item page and allow your customers to pre-order the items. Make sure your customers know they should sign up for your newsletter and immediately get alerted when the product(s) become available. Create blog posts in anticipation of the new product or product line.

Step 2 - Now that we have the item, let's add it to our store.

Dump the manufacturer's description and create your own beautiful content. Make sure to answer questions of who, what, when, where, how, and why. This will not only help your SEO but, your conversions too. Use keywords that your customers are searching for BUT write the text as if you were speaking to them on the phone describing the product.

Would you use the same word over and over again because someone told you it was the word they searched for to find you? Ummm no.

Let's try this out with a plumber in South Bend. "Yes I am a plumber in South Bend and I can fix your toilet because I am a plumber in South Bend. As a plumber in South Bend I fix many toilets. I also fix leaky pipes as a plumber in South Bend."

My response - "Dude are you on crack?"

This is what websites sound like when they try to keyword stuff their product descriptions because that is what they think will work.

If you are doing this let me give you a hint - IT DOESN'T WORK!

Talk into a microphone if you have to and then transcribe your recording. When a customer has questions about the product, add the question and answer to the page for more unique content.

Step 3 - Add a picture of the item to Flickr and then create a blog post.

Use Flickr to help you embed the image into your blog. Instead of making the blog post pitchy, try helping your customers instead.

What problem does your customer have and how can you solve it with the new item you have?
How was this product made that makes it different then other products on the market?
What is the process for making this product?
Is the item handmade? What was the process of creating this product?
How could other people create this product or something similar?

Don't be afraid to give away secrets! It only shows them how much time and effort it takes to make your product.

In your blog post, link to your item page using the keyword phrase that people are going to use to find your product. Have several keyword phrases that people use? More than likely it's a complicated product that needs more content. Write more blog articles using the different keyword phrases. More on that soon!

Step 4 - Create a video showing how cool your new product is and how it works.

Don't make your video a sales pitch, just talk about your product.

Why is it great?
Why do your customers want it?
How will it help your customer?
What makes it different?
Who is this product for?

Upload this video to YouTube, write a description explaining what the video is about, and link back to your item or section page. Embed your video on the item page and/or blog post.

Step 5 - Get social on Facebook and Twitter.

On your Facebook page, write a sentence or two and add the link to your blog post. Why the blog post? Because your blog post is not a sales pitch. Your blog post is informational.

Tell your Twitter friends about your blog post. Again why the blog post? Because your blog post is not a sales pitch.

An important note about Facebook and Twitter - If all you are doing is sending out these types of posts without connecting, engaging, and responding to your audience first - don't bother. Your customers will feel like they are on that horrible date from hell where the other person will NOT shut up and will NOT stopping talking about themselves. All they will hear is blah blah blah blah.

Tell your customers in a newsletter. If you tell you your customers you will be emailing them when new products come in, then email them about the new product. If you tell your customers that you will email them how to articles, then send them an email with a summary of your blog post where you explained the how to.

Notice all the writing that you have to do?

Why? What does Google want more than anything? Good quality websites with unique content. If you provide the who, the what, the when, the how, the where, and everything in between in YOUR words you will have...

Unique - Solid - Quality - CONTENT

Now go add a new product to your store and let me know how it goes!

The Problem with Building a Website Today

support@1c4y.com (Shawna Seigel) — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 01:17:00 +0000

We think that by clicking the publish button suddenly all this traffic is going to flood our website.

This is not the Field of Dreams! Just because you have built it, doesn’t mean anybody is going to come!

If you had opened your store in your local mall, you probably wouldn’t have to spend a fortune on advertising because tons of people would be walking by your store each and every single day. They would see your window displays, they would see your signage, and they would see you exist.

When you first publish your new website, it is as if you opened your store in some back alley. Nobody knows you are down there. Nobody knows you even exist. YOU need someone in a monkey suit to stand on the corner and direct people to your website.

YOU need to jump up and down, scream, and say...

“LOOK AT ME! I AM OPEN!!! I am way back here in the back alley.”

Because when you first open your website, you are that back alley business that nobody can find.

You could pay Google Adwords to be your monkey in a suit. You could pay Facebook, Bing, or many other websites to be your monkey. You could pay those monkeys thousands of dollars.

However, most new companies have to be their own monkey.

They have to be the monkey in the suit telling everyone to check out their new business.

My goal over the next few months will be to show you:

How do you get traffic to your website?
How do you tell your customers you exist?
How do you tell the search engines you exist?

Welcome to the Now What Project Site!

support@1c4y.com (Shawna Seigel) — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 22:17:00 +0000

Well as you can tell, the Now What Project site is still under construction.

We wanted to get it up and start sharing the information right away so we do hope you will pardon our mess :)

The best way to describe the Now What Project is to have you watch a webinar where we discuss all the details during our recent New Life Event.

You will learn about the website we opened for the project, how we came up with the idea, and how we marketed this new website using only social media.

I will be back soon to fix the website and give you more "Now What" updates.

In the meantime, please hit the "Like" button on our brand new Facebook page and we will keep you updated on all the changes!

We would love it if you use the follow our blog button on the left too :)

We look forward to showing you....Now What?

Now What Project - What is It?

support@1c4y.com (Shawna Seigel) — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 22:17:00 +0000

The Now What Project is aimed at helping people who have built their website and are wondering...

Now What?

How do I get traffic to my webiste?

How do I get sales?

How do I get conversions?

How do I get the search engines to find me?

How do I get customers to find me??

Now What?