10 tips to manage your social media like a boss

10 tips to manage your social media like a boss

Social media is a big deal for online stores. A good social media strategy can attract new customers, encourage repeat purchases and can often mean the difference between an eCommerce store with no sales vs a thriving online store.

Social media not only attracts sales organically; it also amplifies the results that paid advertising campaigns can achieve. When we are evaluating potential Facebook ads clients one of the first things we look at is their organic social media. We know if they have good content and high engagement, that we have a good basis to work from.

To celebrate social media week here are 10 tips to manage your social media like a boss.

 

1. Use the content pillars to plan your content

When planning your social media use the 3 content pillars. These are the 3 pillars that we developed to create unique, engaging and magnetic content for our clients.

The 3 pillars are:

  1. Discover
  2. Dream
  3. Do

Discover content is used to inspire your audience to connect with you. This is brand-focused content such as behind the scenes, brand story, problem/solution or engaging questions.

Dream content is used to inspire your audience to imagine themselves with your product. This is product-focused content such as user-generated, lifestyle, product spotlights, feature highlights and before and afters.

 

Do content is used to inspire your audience to take action. This is promotion based content and includes a call to action. This can be used to promote free shipping, a money back guarantee, special offers, limited stock and new product announcements.

Watch our training on the 3 content pillars here.

 

2. Don’t spread yourself too thin

Your time, energy and resources are limited. Too often entrepreneurs try to do all the things. You start strong but then get distracted and social media is often the first to go. Think of your energy, time and resources like a spoon full of jam. You can make one really good sandwich or you can try to make a loaf full of pretty crappy ones. We recommend online store owners start with Instagram and Facebook. Once you get a rhythm going and you start to see what’s working, you can test other platforms but don’t try to do it all at once.

 

3. Humanise your brand

People relate to people. Humans buy from humans. In a world of highlight reels and shiny Instagram feeds, people are craving a real human connection.

Brands that have a human presence behind them – connect, align and convert. By giving your customers someone to connect to, your brand will be more memorable, more magnetic and more attractive.

Step out from behind your product, and let people get to know you.

 

4. Use user-generated content

User-generated content (UGC) is content your customers have created for you. They include real lifestyle images, before and after and sometimes people will even go to the effort of creating a flat lay for you.

User-generated content creates so much trust because they show your potential customers that other people have bought your product and love it. It’s the ultimate social proof.

People trust other customers far more than they trust brand-produced content. With UGC you are letting your customers tell your brand story for you.

By the nature of what it is, you can’t produce user-generated content so you need to encourage and collect this from your audience.

Customers may organically share pics of your products on Instagram. If they do, share it and be sure to tag and thank them.

Sometimes they need a little encouragement. You can do this by including something in your parcel and in your post-purchase communication.

 

5. Batch your content production

Batching content will save time, energy, and stress. When you batch your content you stay in control and out of last-minute reaction mode trying to bust out content… again. Learn how to batch content like a pro here.

 

6. Schedule your social media content

Once you’ve batched your content, schedule it out. While we wait for the bugs to be ironed out of Facebook’s creator studio, we use Later to schedule our Instagram posts. We like to schedule Facebook content directly within Facebook using the schedule feature.

7. Consistency is key

With social media, consistency is key. Don’t commit to a content schedule that’s not sustainable. Choose a posting schedule that you can maintain for the long haul. At the time of writing this, we recommend one post per day on Instagram and Facebook and at least one email per week.

 

8. Manage your social media or it will manage you

If you don’t manage your social media, it will manage you. Turn off the notifications on your desktop and phone. You don’t need to know every time someone likes or comments on one of your posts (no really, you don’t). Respond to comments and engage with your audience at a few preset times throughout the day.

 

9. Treat social media as an important business tool, because it is

Your social media is a serious business tool, so start treating it like one. Set aside high-productive, uninterrupted time to plan, batch and schedule your social media. Treat it like your business depends on it — because it does.

 

10. Progress over perfection

Perfection is the killer of progress. When creating content forget about perfection. Perfectionism is simply our protection mechanism and our excuse to avoid criticism. As Marie Forleo says “If you wait to get it perfect, you’ll never get it out there.” So don’t let the pursuit of perfectionism get in your way of progress.

 

So there you have it, 10 tips to managing your social media like a boss. If you have any tips to add or questions for us, be sure to comment.

Karyn & Megan X

Written by Megan Winter

Megan is an award-winning marketer and has worked with some of the fastest-growing eCommerce brands in the world.

Megan loves helping ethically-produced, heart-centred, soul-driven online store owners to make more income and achieve more impact. 

How to batch content for your online store like a pro

How to batch content for your online store like a pro

Content is critical to the success of your online store because it helps you align with your audience, build a solid relationship with them and stay top of mind. And, when done strategically it drives sales, facilitates collaborations and opens the door to all kinds of opportunities.

But staying on top of your content production is tricky.

You may be familiar with the online store content rollercoaster…

You plan out a few weeks of content. You would even schedule it so it went without you having to do a thing and you were free to focus on the day to day operations of running an online store. So organised, so boss, so #igotthis

Then, before you knew it, those 2 weeks had flown by and you didn’t have anything for the next batch of content.

Sh!t

So you scramble to get something up. You skip a few days here and there. You post without strategy until you find the time to do another content planning session..

Does this sound familiar?

We want you to get off this rollercoaster for good.

That’s why in our signature program eComm Ignitor we teach our students how to stay on top of their content production.

And here, we’re going to show you how to make sure you stay on top of your content.

 

Step 1: start with the big picture

Look ahead and plan out your upcoming sales events, offers and any key dates that are relevant to your brand and your audience. Grab your calendar and map out any important dates for your brand and your audience. This will allow you to see the big picture before writing micro daily content.

You can download this free eCommerce calendar with key dates.

 

Step 2: reverse engineer your content

Reverse engineer a list of what communication elements you will need to create for each promotion, offer or key date and then map out when you are going to send each piece of communication.

These may include:

  • Email campaigns
  • IG posts
  • IG stories
  • FB posts
  • FB ads campaign

Overlap this with your default content plan so that you have a nice mix of content types. You can watch our free training on how to create content that converts.

 

Step 3: batch your content

Batching content will save time, energy, and stress. When you batch your content you stay in control and out of last-minute reaction mode trying to bust out content… again.

 

Tips to slay your batch day:

Tip 1: Remember that you are, in fact, a writer. 

If you can talk, you can write.

As Seth Godin says: “No one ever gets talker’s block. No one wakes up in the morning, discovers he has nothing to say and sits quietly, for days or weeks, until the muse hits, until the moment is right, until all the craziness in his life has died down. Why then, is writer’s block endemic?”

It’s important that you share your message in your genuine voice. So don’t buy into the writer’s block myth and just write as you talk.

Tip 2: Don’t put loads of expectation on yourself. 

Don’t make the process hard. Just have fun and explore what you can produce in one session. Have a plan – and – don’t get down on yourself if you get half of your list done the first time. It gets easier and you will create a natural flow. PROMISE!

Tip 3: Block out uninterrupted time. 

Don’t try to create content while you have a thousand things going on. Every week set at least 4 hours (5-6 is ideal) for you to simply create content. We recommend using the free time management tool, Pomodoro to make the most of your time.

Tip 4: Create a sacred space for your batch day. 

If you need to get out of the office – do that. Maybe you go to your favourite coffee shop with headphones on, or at home with your furbaby curled up at your feet. Be in a space that makes you feel aligned, inspired and creative. Take breaks, play music that lights you up, and bring snacks! ONE RULE: NO DISTRACTIONS!

 Tip 5: Defend this time like your business depends on it — because it does. 

It’s easy to forget that content is really important. But it is. Remember, when done strategically, it drives sales, facilitates collaborations and opens the door to all kinds of opportunities.

 

 

Step 4: Test, measure and tweak

Test and measure the results your content generates and tweak your content accordingly. BE CURIOUS! Remember, until you test it’s a guess.

 

 

By batching your content you will save a tonne of time, energy, and stress and we promise, it’s worth it.

A sneak peek into our facebook ad campaigns

A sneak peek into our facebook ad campaigns

There is a lot of fear flying around at the moment due to Covid19. We’re hearing things like

  • “If you aren’t discounting, you aren’t competitive”
  • “People aren’t buying”
  • “I’m going to pause everything until this blows over because you can’t get good results at the moment”

Fear is really dangerous. Fear is contagious, and it is often worse than the thing that we’re initially afraid of.

Fear often comes from the unknown, so we wanted to get real with you and show you what’s happening for our clients.

Did you know that we also run a boutique Facebook Ads agency where we manage clients ad campaigns for them…

We wanted to lift the hood and give you a sneak peek into our current results.

Below are 2 screenshots from 2 very different accounts, with 2 different budgets.

We know there are a heap of numbers here, so what do you look at to make sense of it all?

  • Amount spent: this is how much was spent on Facebook ads
    Purchase conversion value: this is how much was made in sales on the website as a result of the ads
    ROAS: return on ad spend

Both of these accounts are NOT discounting, people are still buying, and they are getting good results.

So, if you have felt yourself slipping into a state of fear… breathe.

Surround yourself with evidence of success, abundance and positivity.

If you’d like to learn more about running Facebook ads for your online store, click here to take our FREE Facebook Ads Masterclass.

Written by Megan Winter

Megan is an award-winning marketer and has worked with some of the fastest-growing eCommerce brands in the world.

Megan loves helping ethically-produced, heart-centred, soul-driven online store owners to make more income and achieve more impact. 

We purchased from 30 online stores – here’s what we learned

In light of the current pandemic a lot of businesses are feeling unsure, overwhelmed and uncertain of what will happen to their business, income, etc..

Inspired by Denise Duffield-Thomas, Karyn and I decided we would commit to supporting online store owners in various ways, including by spending with them.

We asked people to share their products with us in a post in our group, then we went on a support shopping spree.

Why? 

  • We wanted to intentionally act from a place of support and abundance, not scarcity or fear
  • We knew that the little cha-ching sound of a purchase would spark confidence & optimism for online store owners
  • We hoped it would encourage people to pay it forward and to spread love and abundance by shopping with other small business owners.

We made a purchase from 30 online stores and while we were there we observed the following opportunities to improve: 

When someone asks for a recommendation, send them to the product page, not your home page

Heaps of people said they recommended a certain product but sent me to the home page. This is like asking a shop assistant where the soap is and they say “in the shop somewhere” as opposed to “isle 10 just past the tissues”.  Don’t make it hard for people to find what they are looking for and to give you money.

On that, if someone does happen to land on your home page, make it easy for them to find what they are looking for. Think of your menu like isles in a supermarket. Clearly categorise and communicate what you sell and where people need to go on your site to find it.

 

Limit distracting pop ups

Turn off pop-ups that distract your customers’ attention. For the most part, pop-ups are simply annoying and don’t increase your chances of making a sale. Just because you can have them, doesn’t mean you should.

 

Ask for people’s emails, but don’t send people away from your site

Capturing an email address is great because not everyone is going to purchase the first time they visit your site. By getting their email (and their permission to send them marketing communication) you can continue building up the relationship with them until they decide to purchase from you, or unsubscribe. If you are going to offer an incentive in exchange for someone’s email address:

  1. Make sure the incentive is good. “Subscribe for the latest updates” is not enticing.
  2. Don’t send people away from your website to get their code. A lot of sites said “thanks, check your inbox for your code”. What you’re doing here is basically sending people away from your website to a place filled with other brands’ offers and marketing communications.

Here are 2 websites that I thought offered particularly good incentives in exchange for my email: https://psimvegan.com.au/ and https://tribeskincare.com.au/

 

Don’t deter people with shipping

Free shipping is the best so if you can, offer free shipping. Or at least have a free shipping threshold where people have the option of qualifying for free shipping if they spend over a certain amount. We have an entire blog dedicated to shipping if you’re curious to learn more about the psychology of shipping and how it can impact your online stores’ conversion rate.

If you are going to charge shipping, communicate it early. There’s nothing worse than spending time browsing a site, picking out an item, adding to cart, initiating checkout then being hit with surprise shipping costs, especially if the cost of shipping is almost the same as the product you are buying. It’s just annoying. Clearly tell people what they can expect to pay for shipping upfront and all throughout your site.

A surprising number of sites had “local pickup – free shipping” selected as the default shipping rate. This doesn’t show until the final checkout so you think you’re getting free shipping until all of a sudden you aren’t. Super annoying and an unnecessary obstacle.

 

Keep it super simple

Remember not everyone knows as much about your product for the first time. When designing your product page try to step into the shoes of someone who has never seen your brand or product before. What do they need to see to be enticed to buy?

  • Don’t try to over complicate things. Communicate what you sell, who it’s for and why they should buy it in a clear, simple, easy-to-understand way.
  • The standard works. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel when you’re designing your site. Consumers are used to websites being laid out in a certain way. If you try to be too different people won’t know where to look. Be different in other ways, like your images and language, not the layout of your site.

Images are everything!

Images are one of THE most important elements of your online store. Include a mix of product-only and lifestyle images (images that show your products used in context). Make sure you show every angle of your product and if you sell clothes, tell us what size the model is wearing. Oh, and keep your images all the same size. You don’t want people noticing little discrepancies and taking their attention away from you and your products.

 

Make sure you have a Pixel properly installed on your website

A Facebook Pixel is a free little piece of code that you can install on your website and it allows you to retarget people like magic after they have been onto your website. 76% of websites we purchased from either didn’t have a pixel, or had that was not paired with a catalogue.

 

Make sure you have a privacy policy

Exactly 50% of sites we purchased from didn’t have a privacy policy. Your online store needs to have a privacy policy and in most countries is governed by law. Shopify has a free privacy policy generator that makes it easy to create a privacy policy for your website.

 

Aim to make your packaging instagramable

You want your packaging to be Instagramable. People love a good unboxing experience and when your packaging is a little bit special it makes the experience more engaging, memorable and sharable. Of course, you want to make the packaging, wrapping and materials that your product comes in beautiful and on brand, but by adding something a little extra goes a long way. https://bytaralouise.com.au/ popped in a lollypop which was super cute, memorable and put a big smile on my face.

Also, make sure your packaging aligns with your customers’ values. Consider environmentally friendlier packaging options.

 

Focus on repeat purchases

As well as acquiring new customers we also want to focus on repeat purchases and loyal customers. Selling to an existing customer is much easier, quicker and cheaper than acquiring a new customer.

Send follow-up communication. So often people put so much effort and energy into acquiring a new sale they forget that the purchase journey doesn’t end at the checkout. Don’t forget to continue on the communication with customers after the sale.

 

Share the love & keep moving forward

The more success you have the more positive impact you can have on your life, your family, your community and the world around you.

If you are feeling helpless at the moment, the best thing you can do is to support someone else. On the other hand, if your store is experiencing success, as a lot are at the moment as more people move to online shopping, share the love and support another business. It will literally make their day.

We hope this feedback will help inspire and motivate you to improve your online store. Comment and let me know if you’ve found this helpful and what areas you are going to focus on first.

PS: We have also created this eCommerce Thrive Guide. In this guide we illuminate proactive, positive actions you can take to strengthen your business now, and into the future. Click here to access the guide now. 

Written by Megan Winter

Megan is an award-winning marketer and has worked with some of the fastest-growing eCommerce brands in the world.

Megan loves helping ethically-produced, heart-centred, soul-driven online store owners to make more income and achieve more impact. 

Top 5 mistakes online store websites make & what we recommend instead

Your website is a critical element to the success of your online store. And so often we see people driving traffic to a site that isn’t ready for it. 

We call this, not being Traffic Ready. 

It’s like turning on a tap without having any buckets in place to capture the water, or at best, having very leaky buckets. 

So how do we get Traffic Ready? 

We do this by reviewing and auditing your website through a quantitative and a qualitative lense – and making updates based on our findings. 

We’ve done over 200 online store website audits and we see the same mistakes coming up again and again.  

Here are the top 5 mistakes people make on their website.

Mistake #1: Not having crystal clear messaging 

When someone hits your site you have a few seconds to make a good impression, and for them to take that next step. 

They need to know that they are in the right place, immediately. 

When we live and breathe our products it’s so easy to forget that not everyone knows as much as we do about them. It’s so easy to end up with messaging that’s not clear and a little bit diluted. Often you are so close to your product and your brand that you totally miss the most important messaging because you think that it’s obvious. 

What we recommend:

Make sure your image and text let people know exactly what you sell and why they should buy from you within 3 seconds of hitting your site, without scrolling down. 

We have also created a 3 second test which you can access in our free group. 

Mistake #2: The focus is on the logo

We often see the logo take front and centre. When your logo is front and centre, it takes up a lot of valuable real estate that could be used to showcase your value proposition and products. Now, I’m sure your logo is gorgeous, but people aren’t coming to your website to buy your logo. People come to your website to see what’s in it for them. 

What we recommend:

Reduce the size of your logo and left-align it in your menu bar. This way your logo is still seen, but it won’t take up space that could be used for sale-generating information. 

Mistake #3: Using default headlines

Default headlines 

There is nothing worse than seeing the default headings still in use on a website.

What we recommend:

Don’t be generic when it comes to the headings used throughout your site. Get creative and use call to actions that are in line with your brand. 

Mistake #4: Not having a pixel installed 

The Facebook pixel is a free peice of code that allows you to create and target audiences based on the actions people take on your website. Without a pixel you can’t retarget people on Facebook. 

What we recommend:

Even if you aren’t running ads now, install the Facebook Pixel so you are collecting this powerful data now. 

Mistake #5: Having pop-ups that drive people away from the site 

We often see pop-ups that offer an incentive in exchange for an email address. The problem that we have with this is the message that follows the email entry.

It’s usually something like “thanks, please check your email to receive your code”.

This is another way of saying “thanks, please leave our website and go to your inbox. The same inbox that is flooded with offers from other stores where you may get distracted and never come back to our store again”. 

What we recommend:

Keep people on your site. Sure send them an email too. But let them access the incentive without having to leave your site.  

Final word 

Use these most commonly made mistakes to do an audit on your own site and see if you are making them too. And if you are, take action now to resolve them. 

Written by Megan Winter

Megan is an award-winning marketer and has worked with some of the fastest-growing eCommerce brands in the world.

Megan loves helping ethically-produced, heart-centred, soul-driven online store owners to make more income and achieve more impact. 

Content planning for March 2020

The days are long but the months are short when running an online store.

Before we know it another month has flown by and when we get busy content is often the first thing to go.

But content is one of the most important elements of running a successful online store.

Don’t leave your content to chance. Plan, create and schedule your content for the month ahead now.

Here are some key dates for March that you can leverage and theme your content around.

What’s on in March 2020

01 First Day Of Autumn

The season between summer and winter when the weather gets cooler, the leaves change colour and days get longer.

Your Autumn campaigns may include clearing out of summer stock and preparing for winter.

04 Melbourne Fashion Festival

The Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival is an annual celebration of fashion, arts, ideas and creative endeavour for everyone to enjoy.

  • your take on the current fashion trends 
  • showcase your latest fashions 
  • flip it and explain why fashion sucks 

08 International Women’s Day

The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is #eachforequal.

Here at Unstoppable eCommerce, we believe that equality is not just a women’s issue, it’s a human rights issues.

This day has become somewhat controversial in recent years with some women saying they “don’t need a day”, others celebrate how far we’ve come and others reminding us far we have yet to go.

Whatever your belief, you can use this day to express it. Don’t be afraid to be decisive here. If some people love you, some will hate you and that’s fine, they are not your people.

Suggested content:

  • celebrate your team
  • share what International Women’s Day means to you
  • strike the #eachforequal pose
  • celebrate the women in your life
  • collect and share stories from your customers
  • use the hashtags #iwd2020 #internationalwomensday #eachforequal

15 Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix

One of the premier races around the world, the F1 circuit comes to Melbourne in March. 

If your audience is not into F1 you can still leverage this event (or any of these key dates) by flipping it and saying why it sucks. 

17 St Patrick’s Day

Patrick’s Day observes of the death of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. Who knew? I thought it was for eating green doughnuts and drinking too much Guinness.

17 Click Frenzy Sale

Although Click Frenzy brings deals together on a centralised shopping platform, you can still leverage this date by running your own Click Frenzy sales on your own website. 

18 World Recycling Day

This year, the theme “Recycling into the Future” will focus on the power of youth and education in ensuring a brighter future.

19 National Close The Gap Day

The Close The Gap campaign focusses on improving health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

20 International Day Of Happiness

A whole day dedicated to happiness – what’s not to love about that? This year’s theme is Happier Together, focusing on what we have in common, rather than what divides us.

Suggested content: 

  • share what makes you happy 
  • share what Happier Together means to you
  • share
  • Use the hashtag #InternationalDayOfHappiness

21 Harmony Day

Celebrating Australia’s cultural diversity, this day (week actually) is all about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone.

Well there you have it – some of the key dates in March to incorporate into your 2020 content calendar. If I’ve missed a day you think should be there let me know in the comments below.

Want to plan ahead for your 2020 content calendar? Download our full 12 month 2020 eCommerce planner below.