Tag: Success

The Keys to Success With Amazon Advertising

Do you want to be more successful with Amazon advertising?

With millions of active customers, Amazon is the perfect place to grow your business. However, it’s not as simple as putting up products and waiting for sales to come in.

Sometimes, you may need the help of ads. Let’s take a look at how best to use them.

What Is Amazon Advertising?

Amazon advertising is paid advertising that runs on a pay-per-click model. Through them, you can feature your product listing at the top of Amazon’s search results for chosen keywords.

Rather than paying upfront for your advertising, pay-per-click ads mean you only pay when someone clicks to view your product.

PPC is very efficient because you only have to pay when you know you’ve reached your target audience. It’s still up to you to get the conversion and sell your product, but Amazon advertising gives you the opportunity to do this.

Ultimately, Amazon is a search engine and, as with most search engines, your click-through rate drops considerably if you’re not in the top few results. Building this presence organically takes time though, so having an Amazon advertising strategy is a great way to gain exposure quickly.

Over 2.5 million products are sold on Amazon only in the U.S., so it’s easy to get lost in a sea of product results pages. By mastering the Amazon ads manager, you ensure this won’t happen to your business.

Benefits of Amazon Advertising

People lead busy lives. One of the reasons Amazon has become so popular is that it’s convenient.

  • It gives people instant access to a huge array of products.
  • It makes checkout incredibly simple.
  • It offers fast delivery so people get their hands on their purchases quickly.
  • People don’t have to leave their houses to buy products.

Amazon respects the fact that people’s time is valuable, and that’s one of the reasons it’s been so successful. It’s also a key reason why Amazon ads are so beneficial for businesses.

People don’t have the time to search through pages two, three, and four of Amazon’s results. They expect to find the best results at the top of page one, and, if your product isn’t there, then your sales are going to suffer.

This is further complicated by the fact that it’s hard to distinguish your brand from the competition on Amazon. When you sell products on your own e-commerce store, you’re in complete control of your branding, however, when you sell on Amazon, you’ve got to work within its regulation.

Limited control over how you build your brand means you’re incredibly reliant on turning up at the top of the search results.

The proof is in the return on investment.

Creating an Amazon ad can bring you instant results, and businesses like Empire Case, a mobile phone and tablet accessories seller, regularly see an ROI of 200+ percent.

Amazon Advertising Examples

I’ve talked about some of the benefits of Amazon ads, but how do they apply to real-world scenarios? As you’ll see from these examples, getting your Amazon advertising strategy right can have a huge impact.

Alexandra Workwear Increased Sales by 300+ percent

Alexandra Workwear, a manufacturer of work uniforms, grew their chef workwear sales by 372 percent year on year using Amazon advertising, achieving a 500 percent return on advertising spend (ROAS).

It followed a simple strategy that brought in impressive results. They:

  1. Set up a “sponsored product campaign” on Amazon’s ad console.
  2. Used the campaign-builder to identify new keywords.
  3. Executed an aggressive bidding strategy to increase search impressions by 80 percent.
  4. Created A+ content for each product.
  5. Optimized product images and copy on the product page.
  6. Ran sponsored display ads to complement the sponsored product campaign.
  7. Expanded their reach and made more sales.

This case study reinforces the idea that appearing at the very top of the search results is extremely important, but it also shows how essential it is to optimize your product pages.

There’s no point in increasing your Amazon ads budget if your product pages aren’t persuasive enough to make sales.

You’ve got to make use of all the organic tools you have available to you. That means offering top-quality images, writing great copy, and utilizing elements like fantastic content.

Lenovo Increased Brand Awareness by 19 Points

These Amazon advertising strategies don’t just work for smaller brands; they’re also effective for large, global businesses like Lenovo computers.

To promote its premium Yoga laptop, Lenovo used a 15-second Amazon video that saw impressive results.

According to the Brand Lift study, this ad campaign coincided with a 19-point lift in brand awareness, a 5-point increase in perception as a premium brand, and a 9-point increase in purchase intention.

On the scale of a business like Lenovo, those are huge numbers, so how did it achieve them? They:

  1. Used Amazon’s ad manager to identify relevant audiences.
  2. Targeted specific groups (such as lifestyle tech enthusiasts, people in-market for laptops, and audiences with high purchase propensity.)
  3. Reached six million people.

The key takeaway from this is targeting.

Don’t assume that you already know exactly who your audience is and what they want. Go the extra mile to make sure your Amazon ads are reaching exactly the right people.

Amazon Advertising Costs

Ready to start using Amazon advertising?

First, you need to set your budget. What should you expect to spend?

This is a tricky question to answer because it varies greatly depending on your industry.

The average Amazon ads CPC in the U.S. is $1.20 per click, however, this is very much a guideline. A CPC algorithm sells each impression to the highest bidder (other factors do enter into the equation, but the value of the bid plays a big part), so the more competition there is, the more you’re likely to pay.

A bar graph showing the average CPC of Amazon advertising over an 18 month period.

However, the element that will ultimately decide your Amazon advertising costs is your conversion rate.

If you’re spending $1 for every click and converting 1 percent of those clicks, then you spend $100 to sell one product. On the other hand, you might pay $2 per click, but if your conversion rate is 5 percent, then $100 of ad spend is going to get you five sales.

The trick is to find keywords where buyer intent is highest. These might be more competitive, but, if they result in much higher conversion rates, then it’s going to offer you a better return in the long run.

Amazon Advertising Strategies: 9 Tips to Drive Sales

Let’s take a look at some of the Amazon advertising strategies you should follow to help you drive more sales.

1. Outline Your Goals

One of the first steps in any form of marketing is to clearly outline your goals.

What do you want to achieve with your Amazon advertising?

This isn’t just how many sales you want to make, or what ROAS you’d like to achieve. It starts with questions like:

  • Do you want to drive brand awareness (as Lenovo did)?
  • Do you want to increase traffic for your product?
  • Do you want to have better conversions and increase sales?

Many people will focus on sales with Amazon, but its advertising options are much more diverse than this.

Remember, people who write down their goals are around 50 percent more likely to achieve them, so this is an important step.

2. Choose the Right Amazon Advertising Campaign

One of the first things you will have to decide with your Amazon advertising is which campaign type you want to run.

An image of the different types of Amazon ads.
Choose the best type of Amazon ad based on your goals.

When you go into your Amazon Ads Manager, you’ll be presented with different campaign types:

  • Sponsored Products: Feature your products at the top of search results.
  • Sponsored Brands: Feature your brand in shopping results.
  • Sponsored Display Ads: Display ads across relevant Amazon pages.
  • Stores: Feature your brand story and portfolio of products.
  • Audio Ads: Play on the free tier of Amazon Music.
  • Video Ads: Play on connected TVs and publisher channels and networks.

The format you choose will largely be dictated by your goals.

For example, if you’re looking to drive brand awareness, then you might choose a store, audio, or video ads campaign. However, if you’re looking to be more sales-focused, then sponsored products, brands, or display ads might be the best option.

One of the great things about Amazon advertising is that they make it very easy to set up and run your campaign, no matter what format you choose.

3. Set a Budget

As with any investment, you should have a clear understanding of what you want to spend on your Amazon ads before you begin.

The last thing you want to do is go over budget and hurt your bottom line. Amazon advertising should be increasing your profit margin, not shrinking it.

The Amazon ad manager can make suggestions for you and tell you if it thinks you need to up your budget, but ultimately, this is something you have to decide.

Amazon certainly isn’t the only ad platform you should consider (Google and the social media networks are also very valuable), so you’ve got to find the balance that works for you.

Set a budget that you’re comfortable with and then give it time to see how it performs. Once you’ve got data to work with, then you can make a more informed decision about raising or lowering your budget.

Digital ad spend is worth over $560 billion, so it’s clearly an important marketing tool. In order for it to work for you, your Amazon advertising strategy has got to work within your monetary constraints.

4. Choose the Right Products to Promote

You want your Amazon advertising to have maximum impact, so you’ve got to choose the right products to promote.

Not only are there millions of products on Amazon and heaps of competition, but you may have products that sell cheaper than the cost you’d spend per click. Therefore, some products of yours will outperform others.

Start to figure out which ones are the best fit for your Amazon ads. Thankfully, the answers are going to be in your analytics.

  1. First, go to your Amazon Seller Central dashboard.
  2. Second, identify how much traffic each of your products is already receiving.
  3. Assess which has the highest conversion rate.
  4. Look at the cost of the keywords you’d want to use.
  5. Work out your ideal profit margin.

This information is going to be crucial in helping decide which products you should start promoting.

You want to choose ones with good conversion rates that aren’t over-saturated with traffic (and therefore costly), as this is where the greatest potential lies.

5. Choose the Right Visual Assets

One of the drawbacks of e-commerce is that shoppers can’t see the products in person before buying them.

You have to overcome this by giving them the next best thing—high-quality images.

If customers can inspect your products in a similar way to how they would in a real-life store, then it’s going to result in more sales.

360-degree rotating images are a great tool for this, and they’ve been shown to increase e-commerce conversion rates by as much as 27 percent. Humans are visual creatures, and we need good images to understand the finer details of products.

6. Write Clear, Engaging Copy

You’ll often see two extremes when it comes to copy on Amazon product pages: those who neglect it, and those who stuff keywords everywhere to try and gain an SEO benefit.

Your copy has a direct impact on your conversion rate though, so it’s an important part of your Amazon advertising strategy.

Yes, you want to include the right keywords, but you’ve also got to be concise and informative.

  1. Tell the story of your business.
  2. Show the benefits of your products (and not just the features).
  3. Build your brand identity.
An image of AstroAI fridges, used as an example of writing engaging copy.
Writing clear and engaging copy helps drive sales.

This is also an area where you can constantly optimize.

Run some A/B tests to find out what works, and make sure your copy is helping you to get the most out of your Amazon ads.

7. Target the Right Audience

As we saw in the Lenovo case study, identifying the right target audience is a vital part of Amazon advertising.

It’s tempting to try and sell your product to everyone. However, you’ve got to focus your resources to maximize your sales. No spraying and praying.

The only way to do this is if your Amazon ads are showing to the right people.

You might find a big new audience that almost seems like the right fit and get a ton of traffic to your page, but it’s not worth it. Clicks without sales eat into your budget, and that’s what happens if your targeting isn’t quite right.

8. Add Negative Keywords

Talking of things that eat into your budget, here’s another: negative keywords.

Amazon’s algorithms are pretty smart. They’re able to understand how keywords are related and which ones might be applicable to your product. The thing is, they don’t get it right all the time.

You’ll find that if you use an automatic campaign, you’ll get some clicks for keywords that just aren’t relevant to your product. When you notice these, it’s important that you add them to your negative keywords list so you don’t show up for that query in the future.

For example, you might be advertising for keywords related to tennis, and Amazon decides that Pickleball and tennis are closely related. If you get clicks for Pickleball related queries, then you’d want to add them to your negative keywords.

Otherwise, you could be losing money.

9. Test + Optimize Your Ads

Selling products online is all about optimization.

If you’re not learning from the data you collect, then it’s difficult to move forward. What data allows you to do is run split tests. This is where you change an element of your Amazon advertising strategy and see how it performs compared to the control version.

By individually testing different elements of your Amazon ads and product pages, you can isolate which tactics work and which don’t.

Frequently Asked Questions About Amazon Advertising

What is the difference between self-service and managed amazon ads?

Self-service Amazon ads put sellers in control of their campaigns, whereas managed Amazon ads are controlled for you. Typically, managed Amazon advertising requires a minimum budget of $50,000.

Can I schedule ads in Amazon advertising?

Yes! Amazon ads can be scheduled. All you have to do is log into your Amazon ads console and select the campaign you want to edit. You’ll see a drop-down table titled more. The first tab in the drop-down is ad scheduling which allows you to choose when your ad is shown.

What are the different types of Amazon ads?

There are six types of Amazon ads: sponsored products, sponsored brands, display ads, stores, audio ads, and video ads. Each has its own benefits, so it’s worth exploring them more to find out which ones best fit your brand.

What are the benefits of Amazon Advertising?

With Amazon advertising, you can reach a huge audience with high purchase intent. Its tools also allow you to be extremely targeted with your ads, ensuring you reach the people who are most likely to benefit your brand.

Conclusion: The Keys to Amazon Advertising Success

There are some great benefits to Amazon advertising, and, to make the most of your money, the key is choosing the best strategy and slowly fine-tuning your approach through trial and error.

Amazon offers some great tools to help you target the correct audience and manage your budget, however, you’ve got to go a step further than this.

If you’re going to invest money in advertising, then your product pages have to be fully optimized, and you need to learn from your analytics.

Through A/B testing and incremental changes, you can perfect the art of Amazon advertising and make a big difference to your business.

Are you using Amazon ads? If not, when are you going to start?

Leveraging Content Marketing for Brand Success

In today’s world, setting up a company is not as easy as putting some money into an idea. It involves a ton of processes and back-breaking work. It is also no longer a matter of … The post Leveraging Content marketing for Brand Success appeared first on Paper.li blog. The post Leveraging Content marketing for … Continue reading Leveraging Content Marketing for Brand Success

Speed Your Way to Success: How to Find Business Credit for Your Gig Economy Job

Get Business Credit for the Gig Economy

The gig economy is a booming market. With more and more people working as independent contractors, entrepreneurs, or freelancers, many are looking for ways to streamline the process of securing business credit. In this blog post we’ll discuss how you can use business credit cards to speed up your way to success in the gig economy.

The Gig Economy and Business Credit

Business credit is good for any type of business. You don’t have to be a large company. And even gig economy workers can start businesses.

What is the Gig Economy?

The gig economy means jobs for a short-term engagement, for a specified time, say, 6 weeks.

Temping is nothing new, but now it’s on steroids. In a gig economy, temporary, flexible jobs are commonplace. Companies tend to hire independent contractors and freelancers, versus full-time employees. At times, this can be difficult for workers due to less employment stability. Working conditions aren’t always the best.

Gig Workers Going in a Different Direction

Workers for places like GrubHub, DoorDash, Uber Eats, Relay, GoPuff, and Instacart might not want or be able to unionize or wait for legislation or otherwise try to change their working conditions. What’s the solution? Become your own business!

How Do You Become Your Own Business When You’re Just One Gig Worker?

If a car sharing service doesn’t say you’re an employee, then you can set yourself up as a corporation on an LLC. Yes, even a single person can do either. By delivering as a corporation and not an individual, you can build business credit.

Building Business Credit

Incorporating is the only way to go (chances are, you will want to start an S corporation and not a C corporation). It creates a separate business entity which can help give you a degree of tax and liability protection. But at the very least, it’s highly likely that your insurance company will still ding your personal auto insurance, if you get into an accident while driving.

Why Create an S Corporation?

It will carry lower risks. But owners must report business profits on their personal tax returns. However, you can save on Social Security and Medicare taxes. An S Corporation owner has protection from personal liability for the corporation’s business decisions or actions. Corporate decisions can include whether to take a certain delivery job at all.

You pay taxes only on the money you earn from the business, recorded as personal income. The business itself is not taxed. Since you’re both an owner and an employee, you pay taxes based only on your compensation. Hence you don’t pay Social Security or Medicare twice, like owners of unincorporated businesses must.

Why Create an LLC?

A limited liability corporation carries lower risks. But business profits go on your personal tax returns, which can result in you paying high taxes. You also pay an employment tax on the net income of the business.

An LLC isn’t a separate structure (per the IRS). Yet as an LLC member you have protection from personal liability for the company’s business decisions or actions. If the LLC goes into debt or is sued, your personal assets are usually exempt. LLCs tend to be for groups of professionals, like doctors’ practices and law firms.

Why Not Both?

You can create an LLC and have it become the sole shareholder of an S corporation. Get the benefits of an LLC’s informality, and the tax benefits of an S corporation. It is best practices to talk to a professional before making either move. For business credit building, becoming an S corporation is the way to go. The only question is whether its sole shareholder is you or an LLC.

Fundability for the Gig Worker

Fundability is the ability of your business to get funding. You’ll need (among other things):

  • An EIN from the IRS
  • A D-U-N-S number from Dun & Bradstreet
  • An NAICS code (485310—Taxi Service or 485320—Limousine Service will work)
  • A separate business bank account

Most of the credit providers we’re listing today will require all of these.

Gig Economy Business Credit

A driver’s expenses include:

  • Fuel and maintenance
  • Possibly buying a vehicle (if yours breaks down or you want a separate one just for your gigs)
  • Registration fees and taxes
  • Phone (hardware, purchased apps if necessary, data plan)
  • Computer (to best manage all expense figures, etc.)

Did you know you can buy ALL these things with business credit?

Building Gig Worker Business Credit

Your driving business doesn’t start off with good business credit already built. Orderly, speedy building business credit means getting vendor accounts. Starting with vendor credit accounts is a proven way to start building business credit.

Building Business Credit: The Process

Gig Economy Credit SuiteUse your business credit and pay on time, just like you should with personal credit. These vendors we’ll show you will report to the business credit reporting agencies. And you’ll build a good business credit score. These trade lines are creditors who will give you starter vendor credit when you have none now. And, they’ll report positive payment experiences to the business CRAs. So use the credit, pay back what you used, and the account goes on report to Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, or Equifax.

Once reported, then you have trade lines, an established credit profile, and an established credit score.

You MUST have 3 or more vendor accounts reporting to move onto more credit with higher limits and better terms, more reporting accounts are even better. It will take 30—90 days for those accounts to report, 60 days on average. Do NOT apply for tier 2 credit without having 3 or more accounts first.

Using Business Credit Vendors

Check out three of our favorite starter vendors to help your driving business:

  • 76
  • Wex Fleet
  • Marathon

All three come from Wex.

76

Phillips 66 Company owns 76. This card reports to: D&B and Experian. Before applying for multiple accounts with WEX Fleet cards, make sure to leave enough time in between applying so they don’t red-flag your account for fraud.

To qualify, you need the following:

  • Business must be in good standing with the applicable Secretary of State
  • EIN
  • Company address matching everywhere
  • D-U-N-S number from Dun & Bradstreet
  • Your business license (if applicable)
  • A business bank account
  • Business phone number with a listing on 411

Your SSN is necessary for informational purposes. If concerned they will pull your personal credit talk to their credit department before applying. You can give a $500 deposit instead of a personal guarantee if you’ve been in business under a year. Apply online or over the phone. Terms are Net 15. Use at any P66, 76, or Conoco fueling location.

Wex Fleet

Wex reports to Experian and D&B. They offer universal fleet cards and universally accepted business fleet cards with a rewards program. Before applying for multiple accounts with WEX Fleet cards, leave enough time in between applying, so they don’t red-flag your account for fraud.

Wex Fleet Card

If you’re not approved based on business credit history, or been in business for at least a year, then you must give a $500 deposit or a PG. Apply online or over the phone. Terms: Net 15 (Wex Fleet Card), Net 22, or revolving (Wex FlexCard).

To qualify, you need:

  • Entity in good standing with Secretary of State
  • EIN
  • Business address (matching everywhere)
  • D-U-N-S number
  • Business license (if applicable)
  • A business bank account
  • Business phone number with a listing on 411

Marathon

Marathon Petroleum Company provides transportation fuels and specialty products supporting commercial, industrial, and retail operations. This card reports to Dun & Bradstreet and Experian. Remember: before applying for multiple accounts with WEX Fleet cards, leave enough time in between applying so they don’t red-flag your account for fraud.

To qualify, you need:

  • Entity in good standing with Secretary of State
  • EIN
  • Business address (matching everywhere)
  • D-U-N-S
  • Business license (if applicable)
  • A business bank account
  • Business phone number with a listing on 411

Your SSN is necessary for informational purposes. If concerned they will pull your personal credit talk to their credit department before applying. You can provide a $500 deposit instead of using a PG if you’ve been in business less than a year. Apply online or over the phone. Terms are Net 15. Let’s move onto what’s called fleet credit.

Fleet Credit

Fleet credit comes with and after starter vendors. Use it to:

  • Buy fuel
  • Maintain vehicles of all sorts
  • Repair vehicles

Even if you just have one vehicle, you can still benefit. Fleet credit works for everything from luxury cars to minivans. These are often gas credit cards.

There may be a minimal time in business requirement. If your business can’t meet this requirement, you may be able to, instead:

  • Offer a personal guarantee or
  • Give a deposit to secure the credit

Now that you’ve got cards to support a vehicle, and your business credit is looking good, it’s time to look at vehicle financing to buy a vehicle!

Vehicle Financing

Vehicles financing is a great way to get a vehicle ASAP. With a fleet car, choices are usually buying or leasing. Providers include banks like Bank of America or the financing arm of a manufacturer, like Chrysler Capital.

Using Business Credit for Vehicle Financing

You can even finance a vehicle purchase or lease through our Business Credit Builder. These offers are in Tier 4. So they have certain requirements that business credit beginners just won’t be able to meet. Lenders want to see that you have the income to support the purchase. Consider Ford Commercial Vehicle Financing.

Ford Commercial Vehicle Financing Via Credit Suite

Ford offers several commercial vehicle financing options. These include loans, lines, and leases to actual business entities. This is not for sole proprietorships. Get a loan or a lease.

Ford may ask for a PG if you do not get approval on the merit of your application. Apply at the dealership. Ford reports to D&B, Experian, and Equifax.

To qualify, you need:

  • Entity in good standing with Secretary of State
  • EIN
  • Business address- matching everywhere
  • D-U-N-S
  • Business license (if applicable)
  • A business bank account
  • Strong business credit history

You must have a good Experian business credit score.

Ally Car Financing Via Credit Suite

Ally provides personal financing. But they will also report to business credit bureaus. If your business qualifies for financing without the owner’s guarantee, you can get financing in the business name only. Ally will report to D&B, Experian, and Equifax.

Ally Car Financing: Ally Commercial Line of Credit

To qualify, you need:

  • Entity in good standing with Secretary of State
  • EIN
  • Business address- matching everywhere
  • D-U-N-S
  • Business license (if applicable)
  • A business bank account
  • Bank reference
  • Fleet financing references

If you use a personal guarantee, they will not report to the personal credit bureaus unless the account defaults.

Ally Car Financing: Ally Commercial Vehicle Financing

Get a lease or a loan. To qualify, you need most of the same things as you need for an Ally Commercial Line of Credit, except for

  • A bank reference
  • Fleet financing references

There is no minimum time in business requirement. Apply in person only, dealer will advise if approved or PG is necessary.

One More Thing About Vehicle Financing

With commercial vehicle financing, business owners may have to personally guarantee vehicle loans. If you are a co-borrower, the loan will tend to report to your personal credit report. Starting off by giving a personal guarantee means you can get money and get your vehicle now instead of later.

When you provide a personal guarantee, you are adding your Social Security number to the application. So expect a hard inquiry. You’re also adding the details of your personal income to the application.

No PG (Personal Guarantee) Financing

With no PG financing, you can get higher limits and better terms. Continue to build exceptional business credit and pay your bills on time. In general, the following will eliminate the need to provide a personal guarantee for this type of financing:

  • good business credit
  • a decent amount of time in business or
  • good personal credit

Much like with any other kind of business borrowing, the more assurances you can give the lender, the better. And with well-built business credit, you’ve got a hugely positive assurance to provide.

Takeaways

Gig economy workers can build business credit to stabilize their employment situation and plan for the future. Use business credit to finance your delivery job in the gig economy and make it easier and more affordable to work as a flexible gig worker.

The post Speed Your Way to Success: How to Find Business Credit for Your Gig Economy Job appeared first on Credit Suite.

How to Make Small Business Saturday an Unqualified Success for Your Business

Small Business Saturday Can Be One Key to Business Success

We talk about business funding and fundability, and business credit building a lot. But they’re not just as a means to an end. We also see all three of these areas as pathways to business success. One strong pathway is higher sales. That’s where Small Business Saturday comes in.

What is Small Business Saturday?

American Express created Small Business Saturday (SBS) in 2010. It takes place right after Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Black Friday is the day major retailers get ‘in the black’ when it comes to their budgets. It is also the unofficial kickoff to holiday shopping.

But Small Business Saturday is meant to be part of the ‘Shop Small’ movement. The intention is to convince consumers to do more of their holiday and other shopping at small businesses. Organizations across the country sign up to serve as Neighborhood Champions. These supporters bring their community together with events and activities on SBS and throughout the year.

Let’s look at some resources to help your business do Small Business Saturday right.

Amex Small Business Saturday Resources for Small Businesses

Amex offers customizable posters and other tools for businesses in the following industries:

  • Beauty
  • Retail
  • Dining

Plus they offer resources for businesses 100% online or catering to B2B.

There’s an Amex ‘general’ toolkit as well. It includes three printable images. There are three social media posts for Facebook, Twitter, and the like. And there’s one larger good quality poster.

Getting Ready

In 2020, Big Commerce made several predictions on how SBS would go that year. With the Delta variant surging, the 2021 holiday shopping season is looking a lot like 2020. Hence the predictions may still be valid.

SBS Prediction #1: More Online Traffic

Even without stay at home orders, consumers may voluntarily want to stay inside more. This can be out of an abundance of caution or concern for the health of loved ones. And what do they do when they’re stuck indoors? A lot of them go shopping online.

SBS Solution #1: Attract That Increased Online Traffic

Baby boomers and Gen X, in particular, love online sales. In 2020, Facebook Business found that 80% planned to Christmas shop online at least to some extent. Adobe predicted that search engines like Google would drive 46.5% of 2020’s online shopping revenue. And Adobe also said social media would drive awareness but not sales.

This means you want to amp up your holiday SEO. Invest in seasonal content. Perform keyword research on holiday phrases. And create landing pages for any holiday and seasonal offers.

SBS Prediction #2: More Sales

Last year, stimulus checks drove at least some spending. But consumers may still be keen to pamper themselves, even if they don’t have an extra few thousand or so to spend. And even if extra unemployment payments have stopped.

SBS Solution #2: Attract Those Dollars and Sales

Creating landing pages is one great way to bring customers in. You can create a landing page focusing on just, say, your newest product line. Give every bit of information you think customers would want to know. Like prices, colors, shipping costs, size choices, and more.

Use high resolution photography showing off your wares to their best advantage. Even purely service businesses can photograph their location or staff.

Customers with long lists will love what is essentially one-stop shopping. And of course you want it to be easy to add an item to their carts, and check out. Also, make it easy for customers to get in touch if they have questions.

You can also reposition your products and services around the holidays. Or create bundles of related products at various price points. Like adding grooming products to an attractive basket or tin and calling it a spa sampler. Or bundling products and services like a coupon for a percentage off a haircut with one for a free manicure and one for a free bottle of nail polish or a high-end hairbrush and calling it a day of beauty.

SBS Prediction #3: New Customers

In 2020, the supply chain was disrupted. Again, 2021 is looking a lot like 2021. As a result, consumers are checking online more than ever. They may also be more amenable to accepting second choices. Or they may be open to trying something new.

Consumers may also want to support businesses which support their values. For example, these can be Black-owned businesses, or women-owned businesses. Per Facebook Business, nearly two-thirds of consumers surveyed were open to new products during the holidays.

SBS Solution #3: Welcome Those New Customers With Open Arms

Got a new customer’s email address? Then why not send them a coupon for a certain percentage off their next purchase? And consider a single question upon checkout. Here’s one: Where did you learn about us?

But Small Business Saturday also comes with some challenges.

SBS Challenge #1: Consumer Awareness

We tend to see a lot more ads for Black Friday, or Cyber Monday, than for SBS. Will your customers forget the date?

Address SBS Challenge #1: Spread the Word

Add website banners, even months in advance. Ask your local Neighborhood Champions for support and ideas. Set up ad retargeting on social media. Consider a delivery strategy of buy online, pick up in store, to get customers in the door.

SBS Challenge #2: Customer Reluctance

How do you convince customers to shop from you and not bigger stores? How do you stand out from the competition? Smaller businesses tend to not have a lot of wiggle room to slash prices. So how do you get customers to choose you?

Address SBS Challenge #2: Personalize!

Small Business Saturday Credit SuiteYou have what the big players don’t. You can personalize, even online purchases! Stand out by treating customers like the individuals they are.

Try hosting online events, or add a personalized note to a delivery. or put customer service front and center. And consider working with other small businesses in the area. Your discounted pedicure could work perfectly with a coupon from a nearby shoe store.

Small Business Saturday: Takeaways

So, SBS is a creative way to bring in customers and help kick off the holiday season. You can make yours more successful with some digital sprucing up, and smart product and service repositioning. Partnering with another local business is another winning strategy.

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Etleap (YC W13) Is Hiring a Customer Success Manager

We are looking for a dynamic, experienced customer success professional to ensure we are building strong and enduring relationships with our customers, and that they are receiving the attention and support needed to achieve their goals.

About Us

Etleap’s mission is to transform the way businesses drive analytics projects.

We started Etleap out of frustration with the exorbitant amounts of engineering work required to set up, maintain, and scale data pipelines for analytics. Our vision is to make it simple for analytics teams to quickly and securely connect the data sources that power their businesses. We’re doing this by removing all of the traditional complexities of data integration and creating a new kind of ETL that enables the end user of data to integrate and transform data from any source.

Our team is customer-obsessed and values openness and being experimental. We’re growing fast, and we’re backed by First Round Capital, SV Angel, YCombinator, and a number of other top-tier investors.

About You

– 5+ years of customer success/account management experience
– Have led onboarding and customer education for a technical enterprise software product
– Experience building relationships with technically sophisticated customers
– Exceptional verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills
– Self-starter: Able to propose solutions and accomplish tasks with limited direction and a figure-it-out attitude
– Startup experience is a big plus

About the Role

– Build relationships and drive engagement with Etleap’s customers via onboarding, periodic business reviews, and other check-ins
– Champion customers’ growth goals in order to maximize product value and identify upsell opportunities
– Manage a customer health dashboard to be shared with the executive team
– Plan and optimize strategy for managing retention and flagging risks regarding renewals
– Own communication with customers for marketing initiatives, including trade shows, webinars, and case studies

You will be working as part of a dynamic team in a fast-paced startup office environment. Our office is near AT&T Park at 2nd & Townsend in San Francisco. We offer catered lunch, a kitchen stocked with great snacks, as well as unlimited PTO, health care, and commuter benefits.

How to Apply

To apply, send your resume to jobs@etleap.com.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26759541

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Etleap (YC W13) Is Hiring a Customer Success Manager

Who is Etleap? Etleap’s mission is to transform the way businesses drive analytics projects. We started Etleap out of frustration with the exorbitant amounts of engineering work required to set up, maintain, and scale data pipelines for analytics. Our vision is to make it simple for analytics teams to quickly and securely connect the data …

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