13 tools we use and recommend to grow your online store

13 tools we use and recommend to grow your online store

There are so many tools out there, it’s hard to know which ones to trust. Let me share with you the tools we use and recommend to grow your online store.

First up, let’s go through some video creation tools. Video is thumb-stopping and engaging and you really do need video in your media mix. Video has traditionally been expensive and hard to make. But with these apps, you can create video easily and quickly, yourself…

1. Inshot

Inshot is an app that allows you to edit videos on your phone. Crop, trim and merge videos together, add text and stickers to your videos to create engaging videos for your social media. You know those reels where people click their fingers and change outfits… you can easily create those using Inshot. Available on Android and Apple devices.

2. iMotion

Stop motion or time-lapse videos are super thumb-stopping and engaging. They are essentially a bunch of still photos stitched together to make a video and are relatively easy to create. iMotion is an intuitive and powerful time-lapse and stop-motion app for iOS. There are also plenty available for Android – just search “stop motion” or “time-lapse” in the app store.

3. Boomerang

Boomerang is another app that lives on your phone. It’s a video creation tool that allows you to create looping videos. Videos are thumb-stopping and engaging and boomerangs are quick and easy to create. Tip: when creating a boomerang, make one flowing movement and Boomerang will create the looping effect for you. The mistake that most people make is they do the looping movement when recording the video.

4. Clips

Clips is a free app that comes with iPhone. It allows you to add captions automatically to your videos as you talk. Winning.

Ok let’s move onto to some of the other tools we recommend for growing your online store:

5. Canva

Canva is the ultimate design tool for non-designers. You can remove backgrounds from your images in an instant and create all the assets you need for your promotions, social media and website elements.

6. Later

Later is the social media scheduling tool for Instagram that we use and recommend. You can plan and schedule your Instagram feed. We plan our posts on desktop, and it also has a phone app that we use to make any last-minute changes or tweaks.

7. Facebook Creator Studio

We schedule IGTV and Facebook posts natively within Facebook.

8. Google Developers PageSpeed Insights

Having a fast-loading site is essential. Not only is it important for a good user experience, but Google also looks at how long your site takes to load. Google’s number one job is to give it’s users a good experience, so it’s less likely to send people to a site that is slow to load (no one wants to wait around while your page loads). Use this free tool to check your page speed and get insights around how you can improve yours.

9. Tinypng

One of the most common reasons a site is slow to load is the size of your images. Use tinypng to reduce the size of your images before loading them into your website.

10. Google mobile-friendly test

As with page speed, being mobile-friendly is imperative to the user experience factor of your site, as well getting the green tick from Google. Remember, Google’s number one job is to give it’s users a good experience, so it’s less likely to send people to a site that doesn’t work on mobile.

Use this free tool to test how easily a visitor can use your page on a mobile device.

11. Google analytics

Know your numbers. This is something we tell our students and clients on repeat. Use google analytics to track and measure the important metrics on your site. It’s free to install and use. You can’t manage what you don’t measure… so make sure you have this installed on your site now.

12. Shopify

Now for the main attraction. Your website. Shopify is the only platform we recommend to build your online store on. Why? It’s easy to build, easy to use, easy to update and specifically for eCommerce. It integrates with marketing and advertising apps, has an abundant number of plugins available and will grow with you. If you aren’t on Shopify, we highly recommend checking it out.

13. Klaviyo

And finally, email. We recommend Klaviyo for email marketing your online store. It integrates with your online store, is easy to setup and use and you can track exactly how much money you’ve made via email marketing.

So there you have it, 13 tools we use and recommend to grow your online store. Comment and let us know which tools you use, and if we’ve missed any.

Planning Your 2021 Promotions Calendar

Planning Your 2021 Promotions Calendar

Yes… I’m the organised Virgo in the room and I love me a bit of planning.

The new year is the perfect time to map out all of your promotions for 2021.

I recently ran a free training in our free group, Unstoppable eCommerce Entrepreneurs, where I walked through my exact process for making sure you are planned, prepared and proactive for your promotions.

I highly recommend you watch the free training now (no opt-in) so you can literally watch me as I map out the year or promotions.

By planning and preparing now, you will give yourself space to be creative and go with the flow in 2021.

No more last-minute “what are we going to do for Easter?!” thinking.

First, let me explain what I mean by promotions.

What is a promotion:

For this exercise, a promotion is an extraordinary reason for your customers to buy from you. This includes:

  • New product launches
  • Pre-orders
  • Special offers
  • Deals
  • Discounts

Most people think of a promotion as a discount, however, it doesn’t need to be. Launching a new product is as much of a promotion as a sale.

Here is the process I use to plan your promotions for the year:

1. Grab a yearly wall calendar like this one. We will use cloud-based spreadsheets, programs and software on the computer to plan and implement the granular detail but having something tangible to do your high-level planning on is so important, I think.

2. Mark out all and any dates that you think are relevant to your business. This includes:

  • Retail events such as Black Friday, Boxing Day, Valentine’s day etc.
  • Any product launches you have planned
  • Any key dates your influencers or strategic partners have given you (hint: they might not be as organised as you, so ask them if they have any dates you need to be aware of)

Include any and all dates here. Don’t worry about your promotions… yet.

3. Once you’ve listed out all the relevant dates go through and pick out the dates you’ll be running a promotion on. My rule of thumb is to space them out 4-6 apart so you may need to bypass a few of the dates you initially started with. Start with your new product launches, then work out which dates are going to be most relevant to your audience and to your business.

IMPORTANT NOTE: It’s imperative that you only use retail dates that are relevant to your business. You don’t need to do something for Valentine’s Day just because everyone else is doing it. In fact, that is the exact reason why you shouldn’t link a promotion to a retail date. If the special event is relevant to your audience, absolutely go for it but if it’s not, don’t. Also, don’t be afraid to zig when others zag. Running the Valentine’s Day example, instead of doing the hearts and roses stuff that everyone will be doing, think of how you can interrupt the newsfeed. An “I love being single” promotion would cut through way more than a “Valentine’s Day” sale. My point here is:

  • Get creative
  • Don’t follow the crowd
  • Only link your promotions to dates that are relevant to your audience

4. Take any of the events that you marked on your calendar that are not promotion dates and pop them in your content calendar. If National Hug Day was a date you marked down as relevant, but you’ve decided not to run a promo on that date, you can still create some content around it so pop it in your calendar.

5. Now reverse-engineer all the elements that you’ll need for your promotions. These may include:

  • Photoshoot
  • Landing pages
  • Email marketing
  • Social media posts
  • Discount codes
  • Communication to your influencers and strategic partners
  • Facebook Ads

6. Once you have planned all of your promotions out, slot your social media posts and emails around your promotions and then you will have a skeleton for your content… for an entire year!

Watch the free training replay

Ok… so the best way to get the most out of this advice is to watch the free masterclass in our free group.

No script, no fluff, no opt-in, no sales pitch…

Just 100% practical and actionable information for you to plan your entire 2021 promotions calendar. And, to be honest, the rest of your content slots in around your promotions, so you’ll have your entire 2021 content calendar planned too.

This is the masterclass future-you will high five current-you for watching…

By the end of the masterclass, you will have your 2021 fully planned out so you can hit the ground running. No more last-minute “what should we do for Easter next week” thinking.

I also let you in on a few of my promotion planning secrets, including:

  • how many times a year should you go on sale
  • what’s the ideal time between promotions so you’re customers stay engaged, but don’t become sale-tarts
  • how to make sure you stand out and cut through the noise of all the other promotions competing for your customers’ attention

How to access the free masterclass:

Step 1: make sure you’re in our free group. If you aren’t, click here to join now.

Step 2: click here to get instant access to the replay now (no opt-in needed)

Here’s to a super-organised, stress-free year ahead.

 

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. 

Achieving your goals without excuses

Achieving your goals without excuses

You want to achieve big things, or you wouldn’t be reading this article. Right?

If you’re like most people, me included, you’ve set yourself big goals but something always gets in the way of you achieving them.

When I was in my early 20’s, I started a degree… but I didn’t finish it. Fast forward to my early 30’s, I set countless big goals for myself in my business… but I didn’t ever quite finish them. Something always got in the way and I’d always feel like a little part of me died along with that incomplete goal. It wasn’t until I had a major ah-ha moment that I started completing the goals I set for myself.

I’m going to share that ah-ha moment with you now so that you can start achieving your goals too.

Especially if you’re thinking of doing an online course such as eComm Ignitor, this is the one thing you need to do to get the most out of the investment you’re making in yourself, your business and your success.

Sound good?

Ok let’s go!

Step 1: Write down all your reasons

Firstly, I want you to articulate the reasons why you haven’t achieved what you want to achieve in your business so far.

We all have different reasons – it could be lack of time, money or knowledge or something completely different.

Whatever it is I want you to write down the reasons why you haven’t achieved what you want to achieve so far.

Get real and be totally honest with yourself here.

Step 2: Acknowledge the reasons that hold you back

Now have a look at those reasons and acknowledge that they are real…

And now acknowledge that they are going to be the same excuses that pop up again and again to hold you back.

See, as humans we are really good at staying in our comfort zone. Our ego is here to keep us safe and it does that by keeping us in our comfort zone. So by calling out your excuses before they show up, you will be able to recognize when your ego is trying to keep you playing small, and you will be able to grow past it.

Step 3: Develop a game plan

Not only do I want you to call out your excuses, I also want you to develop a game plan as to how you are going to overcome those excuses right now. If not having enough time because you need to look after the kids is one of the reasons, ask yourself what can you do to give yourself more time?

Can you get up an hour earlier each day to get this done before the rest of the house gets up? What do you need to put in place to make that happen? Do you need to ask your partner for some extra help? Do you need to set an alarm? Do you need to sacrifice some TV time and go to bed earlier?

We have a saying at Unstoppable eComm – you can make money or you can make excuses, but you can’t make both.

Once I learnt to call out my excuses and had a game plan in place to overcome them when they did pop up, I took away their power and now I am able to achieve the goals I set for myself. And it feels amazing!

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. 

5 time management tips to get the most done

5 time management tips to get the most done

One of the biggest challenges people face when doing anything is actually finding the time to do it!

And here’s the thing. We are never taught how to work efficiently. We are taught how to do our jobs, but we are never taught how to manage our time.

So in this article I’m going to share with you 5 really important tips that you can implement to manage your time, so it doesn’t manage you.

Tip 1: If it isn’t scheduled it isn’t real

When people join eComm Ignitor we get them to really acknowledge that they are participating in a doing program and this will take time. Every program is different. In eComm Ignitor most people find they need 3-5 solid hours a week. But this time doesn’t just appear out of thin air. You need to carve out some time for you to consume the content, take action, participate in the community and take care of you. So we tell people to schedule this time in your calendar – now. Same goes for any project you are taking on.

Tip 2: Get the support you need

If you need support from your partner, friends or family to be able to give yourself the gift of time to be able to commit to a project, program or activity you’re doing make sure they know how they can help you and why it’s important for you to have this time. Have this conversation early and be as open and honest as you can be.

Tip 3: Manage your email – or it will manage you

I try to think of my inbox like a physical letterbox. I don’t sit there all day waiting for something to be delivered. I check it once a day. I sort through it and throw out the junk and open and action the rest.

Well, I treat my email inbox the same way. Here are my email rules:

  • Check it once or twice a day.
  • Delete (and unsubscribe) from the junk.
  • Action anything that will take 5 minutes or less.
  • Schedule time into your calendar to action anything that requires more of your time and attention.
  • Turn OFF your email notifications from your phone and desktop.
  • Close your email program after you’ve checked it.

Tip 4: Treat social media like a serious business tool – because it is

Just like email, if you don’t manage our social media it will manage you. So allocate a couple of times a day to check your social inboxes and notifications. Turn off all notifications and close the apps when are not in use. We use kill newsfeed, a chrome extension that kills your Facebook newsfeed on your desktop. You can still check your messages and notifications, post status updates, and do everything you could do before. You just won’t get distracting news feed posts.

Tip 5: Kill all distractions

Now… in case you haven’t noticed I want you to turn off all pop-ups and notifications. Disruptions are the worst productivity killer of all time. Every time you see a popup or notification or whatever, your brain turns its attention to that and your concentration on the task at hand is broken.

Final word

So just to recap the 5 tips to manage your time so it doesn’t manage you:

  1. Schedule your time
  2. Get the support you need
  3. Manage your email or it will manage you
  4. Treat social media like a serious business tool
  5. Turn off all notifications and distractions

Remember… you only get out what you put in.

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. 

Tools to successfully run your business from anywhere

Tools to successfully run your business from anywhere

Xero recently published a report on how businesses will operate in the ‘brave new world beyond lockdown’, Rebuilding Australia; The role of small business

As part of the report, Xero featured us – Unstoppable eCommerce founders, Karyn & Megan – and how we work together 2,500km apart. The aim of the feature was to give those in lockdown a glimpse into what successfully working from home looks like. 

Although some of us are out of lockdown (hooray!) the tools and tech we use can be implemented into your business so you can run your business successfully from anywhere. 

Curious to know what tech and tools we use and recommend? Read on to find out…

Tools to make running your online store easy:

Shopify

We recommend Shopify as the platform to set up your online store because it’s eCommerce centric, user friendly, integrates with marketing platforms and will scale with you.

Klayvio

For email marketing for your online store, we recommend Klayvio.

Xero

Xero is an easy-to-use accounting software that allows you to sync with third-party apps for inventory, point of sale and more. It allows you, and your accountant, to check cash flow and the health of your business – from anywhere.

Profit First for eCommerce

We also highly recommend the Profit First system of bookkeeping. You can buy the book here.

 

Keeping our business running:

Google G Suite

We use Google G Suite for our document, email and calendar management. This allows us to have multiple people working on the same document simultaneously and the changes are reflected in real-time.

Zoom

We use Zoom for our Monday check-in and Friday check-out, as well as for any midweek catch ups we may need. We also run our student coaching calls and client meetings on Zoom.

Facebook Messenger

For day-to-day chat we use Facebook Messenger. We use this for what would normally be office banter. We keep important and actionable information to email.

Email

Emails are the death of productivity. We hardly use cc at all and we try to be direct, short and sweet in emails. For example, I am responsible for our client management, so I am their port of call. There is no point in cc’ing Karyn in on all the back and forth I have with them. If something needs her attention or action I will email her directly. I only check my emails once or twice a day and I feel no obligation to respond immediately to an email.

We use prefixes in our subject lines too. Currently, our most used are Action Required and Response Required, and occasionally I’ll use Important & Urgent This just helps to filter to what’s important and kind of acts like a triage system.

Asana

We use Asana for our task management tool… lightly. It has way more capabilities than what we use, but we do use it.

Facebook Groups

We use Facebook Groups for our student support and we also have a private free Facebook Group we use to share our knowledge to help online store owners grow. Feel free to join.

Xero

We use Xero to send invoices and manage our bookkeeping, payroll and accounting. We do all our bookkeeping inhouse and have an external accountant. Xero makes it super simple and easy to do.

Thrive, Samcart & Stripe

We use these tools to automate and collect payments for our student enrolments and payment plans. Honestly, Karyn takes care of this so if you want more info, ask her. Haha.

Active Campaign

We use this as our Client Relationship Management and communication tool. We have some epic segmentation and flows set up thanks to Karyn. The backend is complex, but the front end is super smooth and it makes sure the right people get the right emails. I use this to send our broadcasts… or bunches of flowers, as we refer to them.

WordPress

Although we recommend Shopify for eCommerce websites, we use WordPress with the AccessAlly plugin to host our training. This allows our students to have a super-sexy learning experience when accessing our training.

Final word

If you have any questions around the tools and tech we use and recommend for running a successful online store from home please comment and let us know.

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. 

Lessons from a bricks & mortar store. 5 tactics you can use to sell more on your online store

Lessons from a bricks & mortar store. 5 tactics you can use to sell more on your online store

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.

When someone hits your site you have a few seconds to make a good impression, and for them to take that next step – or to leave your site and potentially never come back.

Think about the experience people have when shopping at a bricks and mortar store.

The moment people enter a store they use their senses to experience the vibe of the store. They very quickly decide if they want to spend time looking around – or if they want to get out of there as quickly as possible.

There are 2 keywords here. Can you guess what they are?

The first keyword is senses. 

People use all senses available to them. They look around, they smell, they touch, they feel. Walking into a physical store is a sensory experience.

Do something for a moment. Close your eyes and imagine yourself going to your fridge. In the fridge, you see a bright yellow lemon. You grab the lemon out, take it over to your bench and cut it in half. You can instantly see and smell how juicy the lemon is. Now, you take one half of the lemon and you lick it.

What just happened to the sensory glands?

This is exactly what you want to do when setting up an online store. You want to evoke your potential customers’ senses.

The other keyword is experience.  

Every time someone visits a store they have an experience. That experience can be good, bad or indifferent.

The experiences people have in a store influences their assumptions about the products sold in that store. If they have a high-quality experience, they assume the products in the store are high quality too.

That’s why traditional retail stores spend so much money on the fitouts of their store.

Did you know that supermarkets play slow, relaxing music during their off-peak times so people take their time to browse, and they play fast, exciting music during peak times so that people make decisions faster. Do you know what a Subway does when they are quiet? They bake bread. Because the smell of freshly baked Subway bread makes people hungry for Subway!

Now, an online store is no different to a physical store — except people can only sense and experience what you give them through the computer screen.

That’s why the content you have on your website is soooo important. You need to evoke your customer’s senses and give them a good experience.

When it comes to an online store this is done in the following ways:

1. A clean and simple layout

If a store is cluttered, badly lit, dirty or cold, people have a very different experience to a store that has lovely displays, smells great and has good lighting. The same goes for an online store. You need to have a clean and simple layout that lets your products shine.

2. An easy to navigate menu

When you walk into a physical store the first thing you do is a quick scan. You may see that the store has dresses, tops, pants, a shoe section and an accessories cabinet. If you are looking for something in particular you will know where to find it. Or you’ll ask the shop attendant. Now, on an online store, there is no shop attendant, so you want to make it as easy as possible for people to navigate their way around your store.

Ashley from I Choose Me has done a great job of creating an easy to navigate menu:

3. High-Quality Product Images

Images are so important for your online store. When looking at an item in a physical store, customers can pick the item up, look at it from all angles, touch and feel it, and even try it on. They can’t do that when shopping online. So it’s your responsibility to replicate that experience as much as you possibly can. Images are the most powerful way to do that.

The human brain processes an image 60,000 times faster than text, not only that but 80% of people remember what they see, compared to 10% of what they hear and 20% of what they read. So images are everything.

eComm Ignitor student, Penny from Vault Country Clothing shows us all angles of these jeans, including front, back and sides, as well as a beautiful lifestyle image:

4. Evocative product descriptions

Some people need to absorb information by reading, so it’s important that you also provide evocative product descriptions. Imagine you were at a market stall and someone came and asked about your product. Use words that would answer any frequently asked questions your customers may have, and convey any important information about your products.

 

5. User-generated content

“I’ll have what she’s having”. Social proof is one of the most powerful marketing tactics when it comes to persuasion. Why do you think shop attendants wear clothes that are in season, on the rack and currently for sale? If you can show your customers that other people have purchased — and love — your products, you are giving them one more reason to trust they will be happy buying from you. User-generated content is basically images that your customers send you. They may tag you in their Instagram pics or add an image to their review.

eComm Ignitor student, Colleen from Ride Proud Clothing showcases user-generated content beautifully:

As does Gina from Kit Maii:

A final word 

When people are shopping online they can only know as much about your products as you let them. If you have an amazing product, it’s up to you to give your customers an amazing shopping experience.

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.