Tune in for three quick
Transcript
Jesse: All right, Rich, are you ready for the holidays?
Richard: This time of the year I always, like, both ready and scared. I just know the stuff that鈥檚 on its way.
Jesse: Yeah!
Richard: But I鈥檓 excited when it comes to this show. And what we鈥檙e trying to help people with.
Jesse: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, when the holidays come, you鈥檙e always annoyed at the first store that puts out their displays and then at the same time you鈥檙e, like: “Oh, that was a great idea,” because you have to be ready for the holidays, especially in
Richard: They鈥檙e getting the jumpstart, right.
Jesse: Yeah, so this is all about helping you get the jumpstart on the holidays. If you bet an
Richard: You know, I was looking up the stats before we started the show and, basically, across the board, 26.6% of retail sales online happen during the holiday season, and jewelry actually goes up as much as 30 percent, sometimes a little above 30 percent.
Jesse: Wow. Yeah. Yeah, it鈥檚 crazy. If you鈥檙e in
Richard: Yeah, basically just get momentum, right, because it鈥檚 kind of like, you know, during the summer you can get a jumpstart if you work in August, right. Because Europe kind of shuts down in August and you can kind of get a good jumpstart there, well it鈥檚 October now.
Jesse: Yeah.
Richard: And that鈥檚 not really a jumpstart, but luckily since 黑料门 is pretty easy to work with and it鈥檚
Jesse: For sure, this is not about reinventing your whole business here and creating new product. We want to give you the ‘what鈥檚 my quick tip’, ‘I forgot about the holidays, what should I do right now, give it to me.’ So, you know, here it is, the three tips to get ready for holiday sales.
So, the first one is, this is pretty basic, all right. So, everybody can do this, even if you鈥檝e been doing your business for several years. It鈥檚 always a good idea to take a look at your website. Go to the front of the website, don鈥檛 look at the backend and try to put on your beginner sunglasses, right. Like, look at the site as if you鈥檝e never seen it before, dive into some pages, like, the ‘About Us’ page and read it and say, you know: ‘Would I buy from this person? Does the page say ‘Lorem Ipsum’ and fill out this page when you have time, like, you know, did you forget that back, you know, back a year ago when you started this?’.
Richard: Address鈥檚 555555.
Yeah, absolutely. Everybody has these, you know, they just were overlooked when you built the site, I mean, I get it, you鈥檙e on a rush to try to sell as fast as possible. So, we want to encourage everybody to go through all the different pages on your site. Look at it and say ‘What would I change right now?’
Richard: Yeah. We would encourage you doing that both on mobile and the desktop.
Jesse: For sure.
Richard: As we know, you know, there鈥檚 a lot of discovery on mobile, but most purchases are still happening on desktop. There鈥檚 exceptions to the rule, we won鈥檛 really going to get into all that right now, but.
Jesse: Yeah, I might want to argue with you on that, but I do agree that I sit at a computer all day, so, I think my website looks like what it looks like on my screen, but that鈥檚 not what it looks like to everybody out there, so.
Richard: Yeah. Well, and one of the tips is going to take advantage of how a lot of it鈥檚 moving towards mobile, right.
Jesse: For sure.
Richard: So, really, the first tip what Jesse is referring to there is, we want to make sure first it looks trustworthy and two, that you can actually make a sale. So what we鈥檙e recommending is you actually go through and buy something or have a friend buy something, you know, you can cancel the order, you don鈥檛 have to get charged, but just make sure the sale can actually take place. You might think you set it up correctly, but until you go through and test that a sale can actually take place both on a desktop and mobile and the experience was good.
Jesse: Yeah.
Richard: You don鈥檛 know for sure that a sale can take place.
Jesse: For sure, for sure. There鈥檚 a lot of things that are still easy to fix. Maybe, you realized: ‘Oh, man, this image I have up on the front banners is really old an ancient.’ There鈥檚 still time to change that out. And then, back to Rich鈥檚 point on the mobile, I test a lot of sites and I always test on desktop, and I know that鈥檚 a mistake, so, take a look at your site on mobile and try to purchase. And, you know, like, maybe, it鈥檚 been a couple of years since you set up payments and the process there requires, you know, your thumbs are tired by the time you鈥檝e completed a purchase. Okay, well, there鈥檚 probably a different option there, like maybe, there鈥檚 probably a PayPal option that you should enable, that would allow you to your customers to log in with their PayPal account and buy without having to type in all their address and stuff. So, just please encourage you to buy from your own site on mobile, on desktop and write down what鈥檚 wrong. I guarantee you鈥檙e going to find several things, like; ‘Oh, man, I didn鈥檛 realize it was that way and, maybe, that鈥檚 where my customers were mad.’ There鈥檚 just always something on everyone鈥檚 site that needs to be fixed. So, please look and let鈥檚 fix it.
Richard: Sounds good.
Jesse: Yeah.
Richard: So that was tip one. When it鈥檚 going to be tip two?
Jesse: Say, still on tip 1, because when you find something that鈥檚 wrong, ask support. So, this is an awkward podcast so most people are going to go to the live chat on the 黑料门 control panel. And, by the way, support is awesome. They were 24 hours a day, five days a week, so, just explain to them your problem. You know: ‘Hey, I went through my site and I saw this weird thing, what鈥檚 wrong?’ And usually the answer is very simple. It鈥檚 always a very simple answer, like: ‘Oh, you should enable this in your settings.’ Anyway, there鈥檚 a million different things that can go wrong on websites, but the answer is, the fix is usually very simple.
Richard: Yeah, sounds good. That鈥檚 a good one.
Jesse: All right. So tip two. This one is, if you listen to other podcasts, you鈥檝e probably heard us talk around this subject. So, this is more of a reminder, but with today鈥檚 mobile phones, social media is where it鈥檚 at. We鈥檝e talked, so we鈥檙e going to talk specifically about Facebook and Instagram.
So, if you鈥檝e been with 黑料门 for a while, you probably already have a Facebook store. That鈥檚 been around for a while that technology鈥檚 been there, but now social media is, like, it鈥檚 on steroids, like, the past couple of months have seen crazy developments in how
Richard: Oh yeah, it鈥檚 amazing. And, you can also, if it lends itself to your product and/or service, then, say, you were doing a video, you could do a video as well. Now, not sure why they changed it from tagging to stickers, but it鈥檚 just considered a sticker instead of a tag in the video, but you can do the same thing. So, say, you do something with animals and you want to just show the puppy running around, and it鈥檚 a cool little collar or whatever that you sell then.
Jesse: Plus puppies, everybody like them.
Richard: Yeah, of course. Or, they actually more cats.
Jesse: Cats, OK. You have a cat product, this is key.
Richard: No haters against puppies or cats, we love animals. No animals are harmed in the recording of this podcast (laughing.) But, yeah, so, definitely take advantage, because again we only have a couple of months till holiday season. We just heard the stats on how much sales happen during the holiday season and we鈥檙e basically tip 1 was just that you can sell, that can actually make a sale and it all work, and then tip 2 is basically taking advantage of social and the kind of virality of social, and why not while potentially your picture is getting more exposure, give them the ability to click on your picture or your video and actually take them to the product page.
Jesse: Yeah, I mean, this is so simple. Everybody, I鈥檓 sure everybody has a phone and on the bottom of your phone is usually a button, that you push to take a picture or you push it and you take a video. So this is what we鈥檙e talking about. You just have to pick up your phone and take a picture of your products, take a video and then when you loaded into Instagram or Facebook, by the way, this also works on Facebook, you can now hover over those products, tag the products, it鈥檚 available for sale and then the Stories, which is kind of Stories are blowing up as well, you know, I鈥檓 a little bit older, so I鈥檓 not a Instagram guy necessarily, I鈥檓 trying鈥�
Richard: Well we鈥檙e going to be going into detail on this a lot more, but again, we鈥檙e just trying to make this be a quick episode for you to get the momentum going. We鈥檙e going to be doing something very shortly, but, you know, it鈥檚 not going to be next episode, but it鈥檚 going to be鈥� It actually might, it depends, but we just wanted to get this out to make sure you could get the process started, because there鈥檚 always something more you can do on your business, we all know that as business people.
Jesse: Yes. Quick and dirty on social: Pick up your phone, start taking pictures, start taking the videos and then tag and use the stickers in Instagram and Facebook. I鈥檝e been in
Richard: Yeah, sounds good. What do, we got for tip 3.
Jesse: All right. So tip 3, again, in the spirit of the, you know: ‘Hey, I forgot about the holidays, what do I do now?’ All right, let鈥檚 get your products up on the top of Google. So, we鈥檙e talking specifically about Google Shopping.
If you want a really
Richard: Yeah. And to your point there Jesse, I mean, if you read between the lines there, like, we said earlier in this podcast, you don鈥檛 have a lot of time to create new content, new blog posts, new, I mean, you can, if you do have the time, bless you. You should do that. We鈥檙e not anti SEO by any means, we鈥檙e all for it.
It鈥檚 just, in this limited time, there鈥檚 probably been a lot of people that have already written those posts, and shot those videos, and done that, and their rankings are kind of high. This is a way, when someone goes in to do that search, because they鈥檙e going to be searching, whether it鈥檚 on social or whether it鈥檚 on Google, they鈥檙e going to be in their searching for it. And this is a way for you to jump above all those people that have done all that hard work and actually be able to have your product featured in front of all those people that have done the hard work already.
Jesse: Yeah, absolutely. This is the growth hack. Like, you know, don鈥檛 give me the hard work answer, give me the easy answer to this, This is the easy button, right. And it鈥檚 not free, right, like, Google is a very big company and they get paid. So, you do have to pay for ads, but right now we do have some promos coming going on where, you know, if you pay the first $150, we give you an extra free $150 from Google, and I think there鈥檚 even other promos if you spend a little bit more, there are some other free money from Google, so, they鈥檙e behind this, we鈥檙e behind this. This is an awesome way that, if you have never done any advertising before and you don鈥檛 really know how to do it, this is the easy button and now is the time to do it. So, you know, if you, please do it. This is the way to go.
Richard: Yeah, I love it. Is there anything that you could think of, as we look back and you know, we鈥檝e been in
Jesse: Yeah.
Richard: 10 years, and, you know, it鈥檚 literally, like, if you鈥檙e doing silly growth hack trying to do your numbers like, don鈥檛 do this with your accounting, but, if you鈥檙e kind of trying to think about what sales are going to look like in December, you know, a lot of us basically say: ‘Take your best month and double it.’.
Jesse: Yeah, at least.
Richard: You know, at least, right, and so, what this is about is really just trying to take advantage, with the little minute time we have left, to take advantage of that holiday season. And there鈥檚 all kinds of more things you can do in the future SEO, you know, I mean, literally, you listen to the podcast, so you know there鈥檚 literally endless things you can do to improve your business, but we really just wanted to put together a short little episode to remind you — some people have already got on this jumpstart, and so, don鈥檛 wait any longer. Take actions now, and we wanted to make them be very simple, very easy and have a chance at actually really being able to move your business forward.
Jesse: Yeah, please, just do one of these things, I would, I really encourage you to do all three, but if you鈥檙e busy, you鈥檙e driving right now and you鈥檙e thinking: ‘Yeah, this is great, I鈥檓 going to do this, but,’ please, just encourage you, just do one of these if not all three. And this is definitely going to take your business forward. All right guys, I really appreciate your time, really appreciate you, Richard.
Richard: Take your energy, your effort, and move it forward.
Jesse: Rate, review. Make it happen. Thanks.
