I'll start us off with a question regarding social... How can you use social media to sell more during the holidays?

Hi there,

There are several ways you can leverage social platforms to sell more during the holiday season. 

Create a holiday sale. Share a special coupon code with a limited time offer to drive sales. By offering the discount for a short period of time you will create a sense of urgency for your followers to purchase.

Launch a holiday themed contest. Create a blog post which you can share on your social platforms, incentivizing your followers to share for a chance to win one of your most popular products. The more you can engage your followers and have them share your content and products with their community the better! 

Follow your followers so they feel like your brand is engaged. Respond when they comment on your posts and comment or like their posts when they mention your business or products. 

Partner with another brand. You can cross promote another brand's products to reach an even larger audience. Find a business that you resonate with and help each other out. 

Remember, it's always important to have a plan of attack when creating a social media strategy. Identify the goals of your social campaign (to drive traffic to your blog or website, to drive sales, to sign up for a newsletter, etc.), then outline your content and posting strategy from there. Be ready to respond once you post! 

Finally, ensure it's clear what you want your followers to do. Have a direct call to action that's easy for your followers to understand. 

Sure do...

First things first, you'll need to build an email list. Create a lead capture form on your blog or homepage and watch your list grow. The tool syncs with Promote to capture emails and makes it easy for users to join your subscription list. 

Consider design. Have a clean and easy to digest mailer. Customize your emails to suit your brand and include your logo and any other relevant content. 

Once you have your user list and design, you'll want to automate your emails so you can start making sales while you sleep. You can trigger emails to send based on customer behaviors. For example, you can send abandoned cart emails for visitors who didn't make the final purchase, send thank you emails once a purchase is made or re-engage customers who haven't visited your site in a while. Determine a cadence of how often you plan on reaching out to customers and stick to it. 

Leverage seasonality! Take advantage of the holiday peak season and offer holiday promotions with coupon codes, remind followers they can give your products with a gift card for a last minute gift idea. If you're offering a sale be sure to include social sharing icons on your mailers so your customers can share the deal with their followers and increase your customer base. 

Finally, sending the right email at the right time is the best way to drive sales. With Promote Suggested Holiday Emails we're offering holiday templates that are ready to go. The first two emails are free so you can get started immediately. All you need to do is plug in your business specific content, hit send and watch the sales roll in. 

Content is so important because stories resonate with people, not products or brands. 

Write about what's relevant to your business. Think about what your business stands for, how it was started, what's unique about it? If people love your brand they'll likely be interested to hear the story of how it was created and what inspires you.

You can also become a thought leader in your industry on topics which you think your customers may be interested in. For example, if you sell back packs your customers likely will also be interested in nartional parks, tips on the best hiking gear, best kept trails or times of the year when it will be less crowded. If you sell make up, you can blog on the best palettes to wear for holiday parties this season -- and so forth. 

It's also helpful to track trends. When you post content on social media take time to read follower's comments, see what they responded well to and shared, versus what they seemed less engaged with. This will help direct you on future content ideas and new spins on old ideas. 

See what other similar businesses are writing about if you need help with indsutry trends. People are more likely to read your content if you're solving a problem for them, so think about what types of issues you could shed valuable insights on. 

Engage with customers on your blog and when you share on social. Ensure their voices are heard to gain brand loyalty. 

Finally, create a content calendar so you aren't pressed for ideas or inconsistent in your posting cadence. It make seem like a lot of work, but you will thank yourself later!

@ACourtney thank you for the tips as these definitely produce results!

Using these tips, our 2017 calendar is a Top 10 selling Art calendar in our 1st week on Lulu.com (our self-publisher).

We effectively leveraged social media, email, and the Featured Section on our Gallery site www.natemcclain.com to drive sales.

Also, our Facebook page is now over 500 likes!  This may not be a big deal for some but is a milestone for us.

Thanks Weebly and keep up the great work!

Funny you mention that I know who they outsource in India to do everything for them. SEO is not some vodoo magic.
https://www.seoworks.com/how-seo-works/

If I had a team working day & night from India I could do it as well.