#Captain Crunch App Review

[canaryatlaw]

Well, today was interesting, on a few levels lol. Woke up at 6:30, half hour early as they're doing a whole breakfast thing at work this morning, all went as it should and I got to work and DIDNT set off the regular metal detector for the first time in literally months, so that adds to my suspicion that it had something to do with my winter coat (cuz I wouldn't set it off at the other courthouse when I put it through the machine). So that was interesting. Got to my office in plenty of time and offered to help set up but nobody wanted my help haha they were all like "no no we got it you're fine!" Lol. It was also apparently bring your kid to work day, so there were a bunch of cute little 10-12 year olds running around with name tags and then "future ____" whatever they wanted their profession to be, which ranged from president to superstar. But they had a really nice breakfast spread so that was quite enjoyable. After I went to my office and decided if I didn't have anything to do (I didn't) I was gonna start studying for crim pro II (start studying less than a week before the test, God I'm such an upperclassman it's awful) on quimbee. I didn't want to be watching their videos and like drawing attention to myself so I just took their little quizzes after the videos to see where I fell. Their quizzes are weird though, because they always turn on like, stupidly specific facts that don't really matter, but their explanation of the law at least is helpful. As I neared the end of the quizzes (they have a whole lot less material on this half of crim pro than the other half, sadly) I started feeling really sleepy, as a result of having woken up early presumably, so I closed my door and rested on my desk for a little bit, then tried to go back to work but kept being like, overtaken by sleep and every so often I would like jerk awake and I would form some plan to go to my supervisors office and tell him I needed to go home and sleep before slipping back into unconsciousness, and that probably happened about 6 or 7 times until I was actually woken up by everyone finally coming up from court. So I check my phone and it's 1 o clock......which means I dozed off for probably a solid hour and a half and everyone was in court so nobody caught me/cared? It was just weird for me because I'm like not just the kind of person who falls asleep sitting up, like I can't even remember the last time that's happened (when I was on tour everyone would sleep in the vans on the way to the schools since it was typically like 4 am but I never could get myself to fall asleep) so this was very strange. And I was definitely under the impression my being jerked awake were a lot closer in time, like every 20 seconds maybe, not every 20 minutes lol so that was odd. They got an hour for lunch though since court ran long, so since it was my out to lunch day I went out with my supervisor and only one other lawyer for the calendar was able to join us unfortunately, but we went to the little bakery across the street that sells everything and I'm quite fond of their pizza haha, and I also learned that the family that owns it is also the owner of lemonheads- like the sour candy things? They always had them at their register but apparently my supervisor went to law school with one of the sons and that was their thing. He's so funny, he was like "oh I haven't been here in like 15 years!" and then of course he totally loved it and was like "I'll have to come here more often!" And I'm just like lol you're such a cute older man (not in a romantic way obviously, just dorky and cute in an awwww kind of way). So we had a very nice lunch, then ended up running back into court for which was one of the most interesting cases I think I've seen really. It's been in the system since 2013, and the judge is really frustrated about that fact because he thinks that's way too long (it is) plus at least three of the four kids have had upwards of 10 placements which is INSANE but the issue is whether they want to keep working with the parents or terminate and go to adoption, and honestly it was a rough call. The parents were putting in efforts, that's for sure, but they were still dropping the ball in some important areas. The agency had clearly made up its mind towards TPR but everyone else was a bit more hesitant. Our GAL said several times that his clients (the 3 verbal ones at least, the youngest is 1, and was there today and is oh so cute) have expressed on numerous occasions that they want to go back. And the two girls in the middle aren't in a stable placement that wants to adopt, but we also don't want the case to just languish in the system, so it's really a tough call. What really got me at the end though was when the bio dad and the foster father of the baby girl addressed the court. They had been having full family visits at the foster parents house twice a month with both parents and all the kids. And the bio dad just got up there and you could tell he was a "tough guy" or whatever but he started getting very emotional about how hard they're trying to do everything right here but life things do tend to get in the way, but you could just really really tell that he loved his children, like LOVED his children, and even when there's plenty of parents in this building that want their kids back, that kind of raw love isn't all that common in this courthouse. The foster father is what really got me though. Apparently it was a fictive kin placement since the baby was born after the case came in under risk of harm, so she went to the godparents, and from what I can tell the foster father is also the pastor of their church. And man, he just got up there and spoke about how they're the only people they get to see the parents interact with all the kids and how much the parents love the kids and how badly the kids want to be returned home to their parents, and he described how he would have to drive the two middle girls back to their placement (it was a ways out of the city) after the visits and how he was the only person there to hear their sobs and screams that they wanted their mommy and daddy, and that was the point at which I had to close my eyes and just breathe so I didn't start crying in the middle of court. And like, of course emotion complicates things, but you can't just ignore them here when it's such an important part of the decision, really. The judge ultimately decided he wasn't going to enter a goal today (a goal meaning what the case is working towards- a return home goal versus a termination goal) and he wanted to talk to the kids themselves before doing so, which I thought was a smart assessment. It's just such a hard case, because you want to keep giving the parents chances, but I mean, 4 years, that's a lot of chances been given, where does it end? It's such a hard call. I think it was really good though that the foster parent was aligned with the bio parents, and even though they've had this baby girl since she was 9 days old and have completely raised her as their child, they would still willingly turn her over to her parents, and I mean, that's amazing for me to think about. But yeah, we ended eventually, and went back up at like 4:36ish, at which point I had to review my final review for field placement with my supervisor. Most of it was great and very complimentary, there were a few small commends about some of the attorneys saying I didn't like seek out work enough but that was definitely something I had been doing recently so I'm not concerned about that. So that was nice. And yeah, that was my last day, for now at least. I don't know if I'm gonna end up on the same calendar really, I guess we'll have to see what happens, but I really hope I do. Alright, so after that I left and headed to school to chill for a few before the PAD event tonight, and chatted with a nice lady from appeals for most of the trip. Once I got to school I got back on quimbee and took their "final exam" for that section that's 20 questions, and reviewed the answers on that for a while. I think I'm in a fairly good place with the class right now. I'm gonna keep studying obviously, but I'm feeling okay about my chances at a good grade for now. After not too long other people showed up, I heated up and ate the rest of my pizza because I knew there would only be shit food at the event I couldn't eat, lol, then we headed over, it was right close to school. The captain of the PAD mock trial team/former justice was there already, along with that guy she brought to judge one of our scrimmages that I'd had some fun conversations with. So I sat with them for a while and chatted and it was nice, then he said he had to go get his girlfriend's laundry out of the dryer so it didn't wrinkle, which I found to be an unfortunate statement because he was rather cute but *shrug* oh well. So I just talked to other people for the rest of the time and it was nice, we took some pictures of the old and new boards so that was nice. I ended up leaving a little after 9, and decided to uber home because it was cold and windy AF and I somehow actually misjudged the weather in preparing for it (I'm usually very good at this) and just had my suit jacket and I was like yeah no this walk home from the train isn't happening. So I figured that being that I wasn't under any specific time crunch this would be a good time to see if my uber app was actually up and functional, so I did and went for pool just for kicks and because it was like $6 instead of $20, and it did work, so I got in the car which showed up soon, then we drove a bit and picked up another lady who I started talking to pretty much immediately, she's working on a Latino Theatre Initiative here in Chicago which apparently has never been done before so of course we talked about theatre and other things as they came up, and it was a nice refreshing discussion. She got dropped off, then me a bit later, around 10 pm. I decided to watch designated survivor because I am honestly quite addicted to the show, though I suppose I'm not following any of the fandom (if there is one? It strikes me as kind of an older-viewer focused show that might not have a whole online young people following) on here, but still I've been quite enjoying their episodes. I have to say, they're pulling off the whole huge government conspiracy thing really well, probably the best I've seen done. Prison Break put forth a strong effort on that point, but "the company" still always felt a bit contrived. DS is really rocking it though, the episodes are so compelling and the storylines work together very well, so I enjoyed that immensely. After I had just switched to live tv to find that once again friends was on, and this time I could actually stick around to watch it being that I get to mostly sleep in tomorrow. It wasn't an episode I particularly remembered, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Unfortunately as I was watching I was trying to get all my field placement shit turned in so I could just have it off my plate, I discovered that in order to meet the requirements I technically had to have one more meeting with my faculty advisor, even though we've discussed it all to death over the last two semesters, so I sent her an email saying I'll come in whenever works for her along with one to the head of field placement saying I had everything else finished but that and was working to get a meeting, and part of me is hardcore hoping she just responds and is like "it's fine you can just go with what you have" but I don't think that is very likely at all, lol. I guess we'll see though. One more thing to get done. Ugh. Tomorrow is open except for PT, so hopefully I can convince myself to actually get some shit done, hopefully on the paper, I really need to buckle down and figure out the whole budget and all the other math stuff that is going to hurt my history/English/literary analysis brain that is not meant for math/science and such. Oh well. Just gotta get it done I guess. Okay, that's plenty of writing for now, and I am quite tired at this point, so I'm looking forward to sleeping in. Until then, goodnight my peeps. Happy Friday.

[listiqueblog]

The 8 Tools and Strategies Proven to Acquire New Customers & Increase Customer Engagement

How is a sinking ship different from a failing ecommerce site?

At least the captain can go down with their ship!

You can’t – so you better do everything in your power to keep the customers coming.

As we approach crunch time in the world of online shopping, now seems like as good a time as any to review the best tools and techniques for acquiring new customers, increasing repeat business, and minimizing loss.

The whole ecommerce game boils down to getting people to buy your product. And then, hopefully getting some of those customers to come back again and again.

Whether you’re new to ecommerce or a grizzled vet who remembers what it was like to sell on eBay, this guide should give you some new ideas and reinforce old ones, including:

Why actionable, helpful content is your responsibility (i.e. curation isn’t key)

When to ask customers for reviews (and then how to use those!)

How to do influencer outreach to earn increased SEO (the science + the art)

How to use live chat to increase conversions and customer loyalty

Why your site doesn’t need to be beautiful, it needs to be helpful (and what the difference is)

You’ll also find recommendations on BigCommerce apps and integrations that fellow entrepreneurs use to succeed.

If there’s anything you want to add, please leave us a comment or email us – don’t be shy!

Customer Acquisition Tactics: The 4-Step Process

Customer acquisition is the process by which ecommerce brands actively find and then convert net new customers to their sales cycle.

Many brands think that to effectively create a customer acquisition cycle, all you need to do is launch your website.

But that is far from the reality. Once you launch, you need to then:

Create targeted ads on Facebook

Install 1-step checkout

A/B test your copy

Get niche bloggers to talk about it

That’s how net new customers will come.

Let’s go a layer up here, though. Good customer acquisition breaks down into four major categories:

Promotions.

Design.

Testing.

Outreach. 

If you nail these four areas of ecommerce customer acquisition, you should expect to do pretty well at convincing Joe Web Surfer to buy your stuff.

What is cost of customer acquisition?

The cost of customer acquisition is typically referred to as CAC, and it is easily broken down into a simple formula.

It is the cost spent on acquiring new customers (marketing expenses) divided by the number of customers acquired for that given period.  

For example, if you spend $100 in a year and acquire 100 customers, your CAC is $1.

Additional Recommended Reading

In case we’re moving too fast: here’s a comprehensive guide on how to drive traffic to your ecommerce site.

Customer Acquisition Strategy Ideas + Examples

1. Give ‘em a deal they’ll never forget.

What’s the last thing you bought online?

Chances are, it probably was on sale, came with a discount code, or was shipped to you for free.

People love discounts.

Giving someone the feeling that they “won” a deal is a powerful way to make them like your product more than a competitor’s.

You can go about promotions in a variety of ways.

Use your social media channels to run ads featuring a coupon that’s redeemable on your website if you have a pretty solid target demographic figured out.

If you’re more into drip campaigns or interacting with customers off of social media and perhaps have a popular blog, your email list is a bona fide money-making machine.

Encourage people to subscribe to your email newsletters and occasionally reward them for access to their inboxes with an exclusive offer.

Additional Recommended Reading

To get the most out of welcome emails, check out these battle-tested templates.

If you have a less popular item in stock or dwindling inventory of a SKU that’s no longer made by your suppliers, put it to use either as a limited-quantity loss leader or throw it in as a freebie on orders over a certain quantity.

Not only does this free up valuable space in your ecommerce fulfillment warehouse, it gives customers the warm and fuzzy feeling that comes from getting a great deal.

Don’t forget that when you’re crafting deals to lure in new customers, you should pay attention to related trends or the time of year.

That could mean putting together ads that drum up anticipation for the winter holidays or spoofing the new hit TV show that everyone in your demographic follows.

The only thing better than a sale is a sale that connects with the lifestyles of the people who are your customers.

BigCommerce app that could help: Coupon Pop entices new visitors to become customers with instant pop-up discount offers designed to get sales.

2. Design your website to be helpful, not sophisticated.

No one cares if your website has 1080p image sliders or embedded QR codes.

The only thing that matters is that a first time visitor can find what they’re looking for, and then buy it from you.

So keep things simple and easy to use.

Use an ecommerce database (otherwise known as a search bar) for customers that actually answers their queries — and leave breadcrumbs for them to navigate your selection of items if you have an especially large inventory.

When a visitor is ready to make the leap into becoming a customer, make sure your site has a 1 page checkout to keep things as easy as possible.

Write detailed product descriptions that tell your customer exactly what they’re getting when they order from you.

If you sell clothes, include specific sizing charts and model dimensions. You wouldn’t buy something online without knowing what you were buying — so take that into consideration when you think about your customers.

That said, writing an immaculate product description is only the first step to true customer satisfaction.

The real test is ensuring that your order fulfillment process 100% ensures that your customer get the correct product, in the right size, and on time.

Whether these operations are handled in house, or outsourced, the financial cost and soft costs of mispicks, lost inventory, and late shipments can be disastrous to your bottom line.

Additional Recommended Reading

Need to explore different fulfillment tactics more? Check out our article on ecommerce fulfillment, self fulfillment, and dropshipping.

Another underrated feature of any good ecommerce site is load time.

If you’re using a bulky web platform or cheaping out on server space, there’s a good chance you could have a higher bounce rate as visitors decide it’s not worth waiting for a page to load.

You can’t afford to lose traffic just because your load times are slow. Optimizing page load times is fundamental to your site’s chances at success.

Additional Recommended Reading

Need ideas on ecommerce store design? BigCommerce wrote a thorough guide with great examples from around the web.

BigCommerce app that could help: Live Chat Inc. One of the classic drawbacks to shopping online is that customers can’t try on or test out products.

While futuristic solutions such as virtual reality shopping could change that, specialty or customizable items will be a tough online sell so long as customers feel like they can’t know for sure what they’re buying. One method for covering that gap of uncertainty is a customer-facing live chat integration.

ZenPro Audio’s Story

Warren Dent is the owner and founder of ZenPro Audio, an ecommerce site that sells high quality audio equipment and products.

At this price point, most folks have various audio needs and order size requirements, making the product difficult to sell without direct interaction with individual customers.

That’s why Dent decided to install a live chat app. He explains the benefits best:

“I tried a half dozen or so live chat apps, and always ended up coming back to LiveChat. It’s not the cheapest. However, it has the ability to customize the chat window with logos and avatars, allows file transfers back and forth with customers, and is fast and responsive.

The admin page is very clean, and the chat page to me was the most sensibly laid out. Popup notifications work, and when you click them it carries you to the open tab and chat for immediate response every time.

The incoming chat sound is spoken as “incoming chat” which also makes sense to me, when a customer is initiating.

Afterwards, standard message sounds apply.

You can watch your customer type in real time which can be helpful.

Also, customer support is outrageously awesome –– and work, of course, via live chat. They’ve never been unavailable when I had dozens of requests to tweak my design etc.

I tried the rest and found the best in my opinion anyhow.”

How ZenProAudio 2X’D AOV

Live chat isn’t the only tool that helps convert. See how Klarna can turn prospects into customers for high-priced items.

Get a 100% Increase in AOV with Klarna

3. A/B test everything.

A/B testing is important not to see which designs are best or to use data to outwit other colleagues (though it can do both of those as well). No, A/B testing is about figuring out which options produce the highest numbers of conversions.

Ecommerce conversion rate optimization is the #1 tactic to growth for brands past the startup stage.

Why?

Because the more customers you convert (moving the needle from 2% of site visitors to 5%), the more money you make, the lower your CAC (the calculation of which is explained earlier) and the less you have to spend to acquire that customer again.

It’s smart for your brand to have a test plan for online shopping website optimization. That means that you:

Mark on Google Analytics every time you launch a new test

Have a standard for how long you run them and how many visitors must experience both versions

Have a process for executive approval to launch the winner

Move onto the net item to test to increase conversions

Repeat as needed.

This is especially true with copy on landing pages and product pages.

If there’s one thing you should remember about copywriting, it’s this:

The sole purpose of the first sentence in an advertisement is to get you to read the second sentence.

Copywriting guru Eddie Shleyner said that, and he knows a thing or two about what works and what doesn’t.

Without good copy — without the sort of hook, line and sinker content that gets customers’ eyes moving down the page — your product is as good as dead.

So write product copy.

Test out a sentence.

Test out your tone.

Test out corny jokes.

Test out every facet of your website.

Not just the words themselves, but the layout of your website. Does it make sense to have the product search bar tucked into the top right corner, or would you have larger order sizes with a full-width behemoth?

Do blue “buy now” buttons get more clicks, or are they outperformed by red? Is “buy now” a better CTA than “get this?”

The more you know, the better your ecommerce businesses will do.

Here’s a list of 5 fundamental parts of your business that need testing; if you can’t do it, then find someone to do it for you. It’s simply too important to not take into consideration these ecommerce testing scenarios.

5 Ecommerce A/B Testing Ideas:

Product copy

Landing page/lead magnet layout

Email drip campaign copy

Blog content: Video vs infographic vs photo gallery vs test

Advertising layout + copy

Best BigCommerce app for this: Visual Website Optimizer gives you 7 different testing options, including conversion tracking and A/B testing.

Additional Recommended Reading

If you’re stuck on optimization ideas, check these landing page and checkout page design articles.

4. Reach out to influencers.

People who work in marketing either love or hate influencer outreach. It just depends on your personality and whether you like cold-emailing folks to ask for favors or not.

What no one denies is that working the back channels of major media websites or Page 1 heavyweights is not an option if you want your business to succeed.

It’s mandatory.

So how do you stock your pipeline full of quality influencers? This largely depends on where it’s most effective for you to do your marketing.

Additional Recommended Reading

Stuck on influencer marketing? These nine influencer marketing case studies should help.

Building up a catalog of valuable backlinks usually starts with the content you create.

Quid pro quo is a reliable strategy for breaking into more venerable websites. If you allow someone from a relevant website to write a guest post on your company’s blog or simply link to one of their posts from somewhere on your site, you can leverage that into getting a guest post or backlink on their site.

Depending on what sort of audience you’re targeting, it might be more effective to seek out backlinks via an Instagram or Youtube channel instead of on a facebook page or on a blog post.

How do you know which channels make the most sense? By looking at our Google Analytics or BigCommerce Analytics to determine from where your most profitable traffic is coming –– and then working with influencers to get more of that.

In terms of finding influencers, free tools such as the BuzzSumo trial version or Google Alerts go a long way to connecting you with people and media channels who can make a difference.

While it’s not cheap, Pitchbox is a highly effective platform for performing keyword matches on influencer sites in your niche and scraping contact info for you to cold email in automated sequences.

It’s a huge time-saver and can get you handfuls of backlinks, especially if you craft a winning cold email.

Examples of Ecommerce Influencers:

Ezra Firestone

Richard Lazazzera

Sujan Patel

Noah Kagan

Shayla Price

Krista Fabregas

James Thomson

Daniel Wallock

Rieva Lesonsky

Andrew Youderian

Emil Kristensen

Tracey Wallace

Overview of Customer Engagement Tactics That Work

Customer engagement is how much interaction your marketing, merchandising and business as usual activities inspire in your customers. In other words: how often do your customers engage with you?

Customer engagement is a good measuring stick for customer lifetime loyalty and a brand’s overall messaging effectiveness.

Brands typically begin measuring customer engagement once a prospect has bought something –– or turned into a customer.

This is because once you have those new customers coming through the door, it’s time to focus on the next step: getting them to buy again.

What can you do to foster a better relationship and drive trust with your existing customers and ensure that they come back to you for future purchases?

The key to converting new ecommerce customers into repeat customers lies in keeping them interested in what you’re offering. How you do that depends most of all on your brand and what you’re trying to accomplish by engaging with them.

Good customer engagement breaks down into four major categories:

Rewards

Social media

Content creation

Post-purchase experience

6 Examples of Customer Engagement Strategies

1. Build loyalty through rewards.

Making your product appealing to customers on an emotional basis is a powerful way to build loyalty.

After all, when marketers use words like “loyalty” that have emotional connotations, it’s clear that the endgame is to make people feel like your company is more than just a brand and they’re more than just customers.

They want to feel valued.

How do you make someone who paid hard-earned cash for your product feel special? You reward them for it.

Give out discount codes to customers who review you on Amazon.

Have a digital punch card on hand for repeat buyers so they get their 6th product refill for free.

Organize members-only meetups and get your customers talking about your brand to each other and within their social circles.

You can grow customer lifetime value in just a year if you follow these tips.

True brand loyalty – “My daddy only drove Fords and so do I” – is incredibly valuable, hard to fake, and hard to earn.

By showing your customers that you’re willing to give them an exclusive discount, you demonstrate that you want their business and want them to feel satisfied with your product.

Best BigCommerce app for this: Smile.io incentives customers to share your brand with their friends through social media as well as encourage customers to post positive reviews in exchange for future discounts or redeemable rewards points.

Formerly known as Sweet Tooth, the app integrates with BigCommerce businesses with the sole purpose of building customer loyalty through incentives such as discounts and reward points.

Lisa Chu, owner of toddler fashion company Black n Bianco, knows the importance of keeping her customers hooked to her brand.

“Month by month my conversion rate and traffic started to increase [with Smile.io]. By rewarding our customers I built brand loyalty and created a positive feedback cycle of happy, passionate and vocal customers. Rewarding them really helps keep my brand relevant and competitive. Smile.io is the perfect app because it incentives customers to post reviews (especially the positive kind!) and share our brand with their friends through social media.”

After using BigCommerce for 4 years, Black n Bianco integrated Smile.io led to an increase in customer engagement of 38%.

Most businesses would kill for that sort of return on their investment. Maybe you don’t need to kill at all; you can test ride it and start getting the love from your customers you always dreamed of.

2. Reflect your audience’s tastes in your social feed.

There’s nothing sadder than seeing an inactive social media page for an ecommerce business.

How are you supposed to connect with your customers?

Have them call an (800) number? That would be acceptable if your customers were in the senior age bracket and this was 2010.

But even grandma has a Facebook account these days, so you pretty much have no excuse.

Do some research and put together a core list of social media channels you want to focus on.

The plan of attack for successful customer engagement varies depending on your goals and what network you’re using.

Tractor company John Deere uses a clever Instagram hashtag that their customers might use when they’re out in the field on a combine harvester or perhaps dressing up their youngest as tractors for Halloween.

It connects the image of practicality and reliability that characterize the brand with current owners, aficionados, and potential future customers.

Le Creuset knows its customers tend to be passionate about cooking and swoon over food porn. There’s no better social media platform for this than Pinterest, since the focus is on images (in this case of gorgeous browned crusts, sumptuous stews, and other culinary delights).

Oftentimes their enameled cast iron pots are not even in a shot; all you see is a close-up of a freshly-prepared meal with a link to the recipe.

This exemplifies the goal of social media and online customer engagement: you’re not trying to upsell, you’re giving them value for something they already got.

In some ways, this overlaps with the goal of creating loyalty. Either way, the end result is the same: by reflecting your customers’ tastes on the appropriate social media channel, you keep them interested and poised to buy from you again when the moment presents itself.

3. Create useful, actionable content.

It’s not just enough to share other peoples’ creations on the company Twitter account.

You need to proactively create content that your customers will appreciate and find useful.

If done right, your content should not only augment the experience of your customers; it should also be shared and reposted by other influencers, too.

Quality content comes in a variety of forms.

You could release a series of guides or mini ebooks that correspond to the product you sell.

Maybe host a YouTube channel or a podcast with tailor-made episodes.

Or pay bloggers to publish short stories that feature your item just as it was intended.

Whatever content you make, it should connect existing customers to your brand.

So what does useful, actionable content look like in the real world? Here are a couple examples.

Blue Bottle Example

If you’re a coffee addict, you’ve probably heard of Blue Bottle — they’re a heavyweight in the world of subscription premium quality coffee.

They have a few brick and mortar locations, but the creme de la creme of their revenue comes from their ecommerce store.

For anyone who loves coffee, their website is a treasure trove of useful information about how to make the perfect cup.

Whether that comes in the form of a Bialetti or a cold brew, Blue Bottle has step by step guides with clear photos and written instructions that walk you through the process of making coffee the way you like it.

When creating content to engage with existing customers, they asked one simple question — What’s the best complement to our excellent coffee? — and the answer was this series of useful guides.

Excellent content doesn’t need to sell your brand at all; it just needs to feature it.

Ipsy Example

Ipsy understands that principle and that’s why their partnership with popular makeup and cosmetics artists on Instagram is such a brilliant idea.

They run a subscription service that sends out a personalized selection of sample-sized cosmetics and makeup once a month, and they use Instagram for the heavy lifting of content creation.

The brand re-posts images with permission from Influencers like Ashly to help grow their audience and engage with fans.

Turn Your Instagram Fans Into Customers

Instagram Shopping is now available for U.S. sellers. Install it here. And download the guide below for 80+ examples of brands already using it.

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4. Follow up on purchases.

There’s one other way that your business should cater to existing customers: right after the sale.

As you probably know from experience, after you buy something the novelty slowly fades away.

Sure, you’re going to be addicted to your new PS4 for the first couple months that buy it. But eventually other distractions or new toys get in the way and all of a sudden the only reason you use it is when you want to watch Netflix on a Sunday night.

When a new customer comes along and buys something from you, don’t wait til the novelty has worn off to approach them with a social sharing incentive or free product in exchange for answering a survey.

While this is anecdotal and not the same as a scientific survey, most online shoppers I know tend to leave reviews for products within a week after they made a purchase.

Additional Recommended Reading

If you’re having trouble with abandoned shopping carts, you might want to learn how to reduce them — and gain more purchases.

Greg Bullock, director of marketing at longtime BigCommerce website TheraSpecs, has advice for any ecommerce business looking to increase customer engagement in the post-purchase phase.

“Like most ecommerce companies, we use an automation tool — in this case ActiveCampaign — for outreach before and after a purchase. Our precision-tinted glasses often require some time in order for customers to experience relief for their light sensitivity, and we want to experience that journey with them as well as help set and manage their expectations.”

Keeping in touch with customers and demonstrating that you care about their experience after the sale helps to create a positive feedback loop.

That’s only natural when someone places their trust in your brand and is rewarded with a quality product and a friendly email asking if there’s anything that can be done better.

Bullock says that looking for feedback is even more important if a customer isn’t satisfied with their purchase:

“We have automated emails that go out from our service team to learn more about how TheraSpecs are working, and we want to engage with that customer in order to share in their joys of relief or provide service if there are any issues. For those who offer positive feedback, we like to delight them by offering a discount on their next purchase as well as the opportunity to share their story on our blog and social channels.”

This is why following up with customers matters: if you do it right, it just turns right back into good marketing for your brand.

Key Metrics For Customer Engagement:

Email open rate

Email click through rate (CTR)

New versus repeat visitors

Time on site

Bounce rate

Frequency rate (how often the same visitor returns)

Repeat purchase rate

Customer loyalty program activity

The Complete List of Tools

Here is a final list and links to all the tools mentioned in this piece:

Active Campaign

Smile.io

Buzzsumo

Pitchbox

VWO

Live Chat

Coupon Pop

Klarna

What’s your secret to winning new customers and making repeat ones? Tell us in the comments below!

Want more insights like this?

We’re on a mission to provide businesses like yours marketing and sales tips, tricks and industry leading knowledge to build the next house-hold name brand. Don’t miss a post. Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

MktoForms2.loadForm("//app-ab15.marketo.com", "695-JJT-333", 2142, function(form){form.onSuccess(function(values, followUpUrl){dataLayer.push({event: "mktoLead", mktoFormId: form.getId()});try {gaMultiSend("event", "blog", "subscription", "blog subscription");hj("vpv", "/blog/subscribe");} catch(e) {success = false;console.log("analytics data was not sent " + e);}return true;});});

The 8 Tools and Strategies Proven to Acquire New Customers & Increase Customer Engagement published first on http://ift.tt/2wGG0YJ

[noisilytootrash-blog]

Crunch Tech App System Review So What Is Crunch Tech App

Read This! Crunch Tech App Review Read my full review of the Crunch Tech App software before you access the Crunch Tech App

So What Exactly Is The Crunch Tech App?

Crunch Tech App is binary options trading software for any desktop or laptop computer. The interface is attractive and easy to understand, and care has obviously been taken to allow for navigating and comprehending trades as straight forward as can be. It essentially works on the premise that an asset's financial worth is either going to rise or fall it provides a complete summary of the trade, and the indicators which will advise you on how to go forward with the trade. This is far move convenient than need to look for the trading information you need from a number of trading websites. Instead, you'll have all the information you need in one convenient location!

https://youtu.be/6ibfoddKx_Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ibfoddKx_Q

Crunch Tech App Software Review

Crunch Tech App is a realistic application there's no assurances here that traders are going to suddenly be earning millions. No trading software is going to result in easy riches overnight, so instead all it offers is helpful support so that you can place the trade. Each trade will happen at a separate time period over during day, This is particularly useful to those working with tight schedules. The great thing about the Crunch Tech App software is that there's a particular sum that you can risk for each trade, This means that you can spend whatever you're happy with. Crunch Tech App , we were extremely reluctant to be taken in by the claims of Crunch Tech App . We were actually a little discouraged by what the developers had touted as its benefits. Basically The Crunch Tech App is a straight forward and convenient application. All that's needed from you is a few clicks and you'll be investing right away!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ibfoddKx_Q&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLus-nQJsc6c7L7kqbmVC4Q

Crunch Tech App Binary Trading Software

If you're thinking about getting into investing in Binary Options or, if you're already an established investor and your current system isn't working well for you the Crunch Tech App system could help you out. Forex Trading is an industry with huge potential to get some serious cash, and it's constantly growing. Using Crunch Tech App , you can take out a lot of the manual work that's usually involved with trading. Bare in mind there is a chance of winning there is also a possibility of loosing your initial trading financial investment. The first thing you need to have in order to start trading in the binary options market is a internet connection this is needed in order to let you have access to actual time info on what is happening in the market.

http://hommybuddy.blog.com/2016/06/27/crunch-tech-app-system-review-so-what-is-crunch-tech-app/

[decadenttalegardener-blog]

Crunch Tech App System Review What Is Crunch Tech App

Read This! Crunch Tech App Review Read my comprehensive review of the Crunch Tech App software before you download the Crunch Tech App

So What Is The Crunch Tech App?

Crunch Tech App is binary trading software for your computer. The interface is attractive and easy on the eyes, and care has obviously been taken to make navigating and understanding the contents as easy as can be. It basically works on the premise that an asset's financial worth is either going to rise or fall it gives you a complete overview of the trade, and the indicators which will guide you on how to go forward with the trade. This is far move convenient than being required to hunt down the trading information you need from numerous different websites. Instead, you'll get all the info you need in one location!

https://youtu.be/6ibfoddKx_Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ibfoddKx_Q

Crunch Tech App System Review

Crunch Tech App is a realistic application there's no assurances here that traders are going to suddenly be raking in millions. No trading software is going to give you easy fortunes overnight, so instead all it offers is helpful support so that you can place the trade. Each trade will happen at a separate time period over the course of the day, This is particularly useful to those working with limited time. The amazing thing about the Crunch Tech App software is that there is a particular sum that you can put up for each trade, This means that you can spend whatever you're happy with. Crunch Tech App , we were very hesitant to be taken in by the supposed features of Crunch Tech App . We were actually a little discouraged by what the developers had said were its benefits. Basically The Crunch Tech App is a straight forward and easy to use software. All that's needed from you is a few clicks and you'll be trading before you know it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ibfoddKx_Q&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLus-nQJsc6c7L7kqbmVC4Q

Crunch Tech App Binary Trading Software

If you're thinking about getting into trading Binary Options or, if you're already an established investor and your current system isn't working well for you the Crunch Tech App system could help you out. Forex Trading is an industry with huge potential to get some serious cash, and it's always getting bigger. Using Crunch Tech App , you can take out a lot of the manual work that's usually involved with trading. Please note there is a chance of winning there is also a chance of loosing your initial investment. The first thing you have to have in order to begin trading in the binary options market is a internet connection this is required in order to let you have access to actual time information on what is taking place in the market.

http://sweetninja.blog.com/2016/06/27/crunch-tech-app-review-what-is-crunch-tech-app/

[leftcrusadeharmony-blog]

Captain Crunch App Review So What Exactly Is Captain Crunch App

Read This Shocking Captain Crunch App Review Take a look at my comprehensive review of the Captain Crunch App software before you access the Captain Crunch App

So What Is The Captain Crunch App?

Captain Crunch App is binary options software for any desktop or laptop computer. The interface is sleek and easy on the eyes, and care has obviously been taken to make navigating and understanding the contents as simple as possible. It basically runs on the premise that an asset's result is either going to rise or fall it gives you a complete overview of the trade, and the information which will advise you on how to proceed with the trade. This is so much easier than need to look for the information you need from numerous different trading websites. Instead, you'll have all the information you need in one convenient place!

http://captaincrunchapp.com

http://www.captaincrunchapp.com

Captain Crunch App Software Review

Captain Crunch App is a piece of software built for the real world there's no promises here that traders are going to suddenly be making millions. No trading software is going to result in easy riches overnight, so instead all it offers is helpful support so that you can make the trade. Each trade will happen at a separate time period over the course of the day, This will be particularly useful to those of you working with tight schedules. The great thing about the Captain Crunch App application is that there is a particular amount that you can put up for a trade, This means that you can invest whatever you're happy with. Captain Crunch App , we were very hesitant to be taken in by the claims of Captain Crunch App . We were actually put off by what the creators had touted as its unique strengths. Basically The Captain Crunch App is a straight forward and easy to use software. All that's needed from you is a few clicks and you'll be trading before you know it!

http://captaincrunchapp.com/

http://www.captaincrunchapp.com/

Captain Crunch App Binary Trading Software

If you're thinking about getting into trading Binary Options or, if you're already an established investor and the setup you're using just now isn't working as well as you'd hoped the Captain Crunch App system could help you out. Binary options trading is a market with fantastic opportunities to get some serious cash, and it's constantly growing. Using Captain Crunch App , you can take out a lot of the manual work that's usually involved with trading. Bare in mind there is a possibility of winning there is also a possibility of loosing your initial trading investment. The first thing you need to have in order to begin trading in the binary options market is a internet connection this is needed in order to let you have access to real time information on what is taking place in the market.

http://bananaqueen.blog.com/2016/06/25/captain-crunch-app-software-review-so-what-is-captain-crunch-app/

[differentalpacanight-blog]

Captain Crunch App System Review What Is Captain Crunch App

Read This Shocking Captain Crunch App Review Take a look at my comprehensive review of the Captain Crunch App software before you download the Captain Crunch App

So What Exactly Is The Captain Crunch App?

Captain Crunch App is binary options software for your computer. The interface is attractive and easy on the eyes, and care has obviously been taken to make navigating and understanding trades as straight forward as can be. It basically works on the idea that an asset's result is either going to rise or fall it provides a complete overview of the trade, and the information which will guide you on how to proceed with the trade. This is far move convenient than being required to look for the information you need from numerous different trading websites. Instead, you'll get all the info you need in one location!

http://captaincrunchapp.com

http://www.captaincrunchapp.com

Captain Crunch App Software Review

Captain Crunch App is a realistic application there's no promises here that traders are going to suddenly be making millions overnight. No trading system is going to result in easy fortunes overnight, so instead all it offers is helpful support so that you can place the trade. Each trade will take place at a separate time period over the course of the day, This is particularly useful to those working with limited time. The great thing about the Captain Crunch App application is that there is a particular amount that you can risk for each trade, This means that you can invest whatever you're comfortable with. Captain Crunch App , we were extremely reluctant to be taken in by the claims of Captain Crunch App . We were actually put off by what the creators had touted as its unique strengths. Basically The Captain Crunch App is a simple and easy to use software. All that's needed from you is a few clicks and you'll be investing right away!

http://captaincrunchapp.com/

http://www.captaincrunchapp.com/

Captain Crunch App Binary Trading App

If you're thinking about getting into trading Binary Options or, if you're already trading and your current system isn't working well for you the Captain Crunch App system could help you out. Forex binary options trading is an industry with huge potential to get some serious cash, and it's constantly growing. Using Captain Crunch App , you can take out a lot of the legwork that's usually involved with trading. Although there is a possibility of winning there is also a chance of loosing your initial financial investment. The first thing you need to have in order to begin trading in the binary options market is a internet connection this is required in order to let you have access to actual time info on what is taking place in the market.

http://stickydetective.blog.com/2016/06/25/captain-crunch-app-system-review-what-is-captain-crunch-app/

[miniaturepostcherryblossom-blog]

Captain Crunch App Review What Is Captain Crunch App

Read This Shocking Captain Crunch App Review Take a look at my comprehensive review of the Captain Crunch App application before you access the Captain Crunch App

So What Exactly Is The Captain Crunch App?

Captain Crunch App is binary options app for your computer. The interface is attractive and easy on the eyes, and care has obviously been taken to allow for navigating and understanding the contents as easy as can be. It basically works on the idea that an asset's value is either going to rise or fall it gives you a complete overview of the trade, and the indicators which will guide you on how to proceed with the trade. This is far move convenient than need to hunt down the information you need from numerous different websites. Instead, you'll get all the information you need in one place!

https://youtu.be/6YbUeqRpaiw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YbUeqRpaiw

Captain Crunch App Software Review

Captain Crunch App is a piece of software built for the real world there's no wild guarantees here that traders are going to suddenly be earning millions. No trading software is going to provide easy fortunes overnight, so instead all it offers is helpful support so that you can make the trade. Each trade will happen at a separate time period over during day, This will be especially useful to those of you working with tight schedules. The amazing thing about the Captain Crunch App software is that there is a particular amount that you can use for each trade, This means that you can spend whatever you're comfortable with. Captain Crunch App , we were extremely reluctant to be taken in by the supposed features of Captain Crunch App . We were actually a little discouraged by what the developers had said were its benefits. Basically The Captain Crunch App is a simple and easy to use software. All that's required are a few clicks and you'll be trading before you know it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YbUeqRpaiw&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtFTVnOtwLEj7blbiTX7a4w

Captain Crunch App Binary Trading Software

If you're wanting to get into trading Binary Options or, if you're already an established investor and the setup you're using just now isn't working as well as you'd hoped the Captain Crunch App system could help you out. Binary options trading is an industry with huge potential to make profits, and it's always getting bigger. Using Captain Crunch App , you can take out a lot of the manual work that's usually involved with trading. Please note there is a possibility of winning there is likewise a possibility of loosing your initial trading investment. The first thing you need to have in order to start trading in the binary options market is a internet connection this is required in order to let you have access to actual time info on what is happening in the market.

http://pinkdragon.blog.com/2016/06/23/captain-crunch-app-review-so-what-is-captain-crunch-app/

[screechingstudentcycle-blog]

Captain Crunch App System Review So What Exactly Is Captain Crunch App

Read This! Captain Crunch App Review Read my comprehensive review of the Captain Crunch App software before you access the Captain Crunch App

What Is The Captain Crunch App?

Captain Crunch App is binary trading software for any desktop computer. The interface is sleek and easy on the eyes, and care has obviously been taken to make navigating and understanding trades as easy as possible. It essentially works on the premise that an asset's result is either going to rise or fall it gives you a complete summary of the trade, and the indicators which will advise you on how to proceed with the trade. This is far move convenient than having to hunt down the information you need from a number of trading websites. Instead, you'll get all the info you need in one convenient place!

https://youtu.be/6YbUeqRpaiw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YbUeqRpaiw

Captain Crunch App System Review

Captain Crunch App is a piece of software built for the real world there's no promises here that traders are going to suddenly be raking in millions overnight. No trading software is going to give you easy riches overnight, so instead all it offers is helpful assistance so that you can place the trade. Each trade will take place at a separate time period over the course of the day, This will be particularly useful to those of you working with tight schedules. The amazing thing about the Captain Crunch App software is that there's a particular amount that you can put up for a trade, This means that you can invest whatever you're comfortable with. Captain Crunch App , we were very hesitant to be taken in by the supposed features of Captain Crunch App . We were actually a little discouraged by what the developers had said were its unique strengths. Basically The Captain Crunch App is a simple and convenient application. All that's needed from you is a few clicks and you'll be trading before you know it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YbUeqRpaiw&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtFTVnOtwLEj7blbiTX7a4w

Captain Crunch App Binary Trading App

If you're thinking about getting into trading Binary Options or, if you're already an established investor and your current system isn't working well for you the Captain Crunch App system could help you out. Binary options trading is an industry with fantastic opportunities to get some serious cash, and it's constantly growing. Using Captain Crunch App , you can take out a lot of the legwork that's usually involved with trading. Although there is a chance of winning there is likewise a possibility of loosing your initial financial investment. The first thing you need to have in order to begin trading in the binary options market is a internet connection this is necessary in order to let you have access to actual time info on what is taking place in the market.

http://chaoticbarbarian.blog.com/2016/06/23/captain-crunch-app-software-review-so-what-is-captain-crunch-app/

[impossiblyhopefuldefendor-blog]

Captain Crunch Software Review What Is Captain Crunch

Read This Shocking Captain Crunch Review Take a look at my full review of the Captain Crunch application before you access the Captain Crunch

So What Is The Captain Crunch?

Captain Crunch is binary trading app for any desktop or laptop computer. The interface is attractive and easy on the eyes, and care has obviously been taken to allow for navigating and understanding the contents as easy as possible. It basically operates on the premise that an asset's result is either going to rise or fall it provides a complete overview of the trade, and the indicators which will guide you on how to go forward with the trade. This is far move convenient than need to look for the information you need from a number of websites. Instead, you'll have all the info you need in one convenient location!

https://youtu.be/-RBuF0RuD1Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RBuF0RuD1Q

Captain Crunch System Review

Captain Crunch is a piece of software built for the real world there's no assurances here that users are going to suddenly be making millions overnight. No trading system is going to give you easy fortunes overnight, so instead all it offers is helpful advice so that you can make the trade. Each trade will take place at a certain time period over during day, This is especially useful to those working with tight schedules. The amazing thing about the Captain Crunch software is that there's a particular amount that you can use for each trade, This means that you can invest whatever you're happy with. Captain Crunch , we were extremely reluctant to be taken in by the claims of Captain Crunch . We were actually a little discouraged by what the creators had touted as its unique strengths. Basically The Captain Crunch is a simple and convenient software. All that's needed from you is a few clicks and you'll be trading before you know it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RBuF0RuD1Q&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtFTVnOtwLEj7blbiTX7a4w

Captain Crunch Binary Options Trading

If you're wanting to get into trading Binary Options or, if you're already trading and the setup you're using just now isn't working as well as you'd hoped the Captain Crunch system could help you out. Binary options trading is a market with huge potential to make profits, and it's constantly growing. Using Captain Crunch , you can take out a lot of the legwork that's usually involved with trading. Bare in mind there is a chance of winning there is also a possibility of loosing your initial investment. The first thing you have to have in order to start trading in the binary options market is a internet connection this is necessary in order to let you have access to real time info on what is happening in the market.

http://valiantcollector.blog.com/2016/06/23/captain-crunch-software-review-so-what-exactly-is-captain-crunch/

[crookedwizardperfection-blog]

Captain Crunch System Review So What Is Captain Crunch

Read This Shocking Captain Crunch Review Take a look at my informative review of the Captain Crunch application before you access the Captain Crunch

So What Is The Captain Crunch?

Captain Crunch is binary trading app for any desktop computer. The interface is attractive and easy to understand, and care has obviously been taken to make navigating and comprehending the contents as straight forward as possible. It essentially works on the premise that an asset's financial worth is either going to rise or fall it provides a complete overview of the trade, and the indicators which will advise you on how to proceed with the trade. This is so much easier than having to hunt down the trading information you need from numerous different trading websites. Instead, you'll have all the info you need in one location!

https://youtu.be/-RBuF0RuD1Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RBuF0RuD1Q

Captain Crunch Review

Captain Crunch is a realistic application there's no assurances here that traders are going to suddenly be earning millions. No trading software is going to provide easy riches overnight, so instead all it offers is helpful advice so that you can make the trade. Each trade will happen at a certain time period over during day, This will be especially useful to those of you working with limited time. The great thing about the Captain Crunch application is that there's a particular amount that you can risk for a trade, This means that you can spend whatever you're happy with. Captain Crunch , we were very hesitant to be taken in by the supposed features of Captain Crunch . We were actually a little discouraged by what the developers had touted as its unique strengths. Basically The Captain Crunch is a simple and convenient software. All that's needed from you is a few clicks and you'll be trading before you know it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RBuF0RuD1Q&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtFTVnOtwLEj7blbiTX7a4w

Captain Crunch Binary Trading App

If you're wanting to get into investing in Binary Options or, if you're already an established investor and your current system isn't working as well as you'd hoped the Captain Crunch system could help you out. Forex binary options trading is an industry with fantastic opportunities to get some serious cash, and it's always getting bigger. Using Captain Crunch , you can take out a lot of the manual work that's usually involved with trading. Please note there is a chance of winning there is likewise a possibility of loosing your initial investment. The first thing you have to have in order to begin trading in the binary options market is a internet connection this is required in order to let you have access to real time details on what is happening in the market.

http://sizzlingcollector.blog.com/2016/06/23/captain-crunch-review-so-what-exactly-is-captain-crunch/

[canaryatlaw]

So I'm kind of tired, but it's more of a you woke up at 7 am and are still awake at 1 am go to bed tired rather than a complete and total state of exhaustion. This has also been the first week when I've gotten out of bed on time every morning since at least the beginning of February. I'm very happy about that. Anyway, today was pretty good, busy but good. I did wake up at 7, got ready and went to work, where I continued to work on the huge stack of trial prep papers I have, which I am slowly but surely making progress on. After spending another 8 hours on it I'd say I'm probably a third of the way through. The document I'm writing up is around 30 pages. Sigh. This is gonna take a while. But yeah, I worked on that pretty much all day, which is fine, it's boring but it's not terrible, at least it requires some brain power in summarizing and formulating what to write, so it's better than just flipping through files aimlessly. Over my lunch hour I traded between reading my oral argument outline and catching up on fanfiction, lol. I feel like I'm not making a dent into the massive back up in my inbox, but I am steadily reading and deleting emails, so it's gotta add up at some point. Hopefully over break I'll have time to really address that. The highlight of the day came around 4:40 shortly before I had to go. I had given my supervisor the affiliation agreement and first report we needed to do for field placement for him to sign off on, and the office has the supervisors do a mid-point and end-point evaluation that they keep on file in case you want to work there (since pretty much everyone they hire has clerked for them) so he had me look it over at the same time and omg you guys, it was so nice I wanted to start crying. I was a little nervous about it because I did miss a lot of days because I was so fucking exhausted for an entire month, and there was that whole incident with the crazy attorney saying I lied to her (which I knew he knew wasn't true, but still) but it was nothing but compliments and it really made me so happy. I actually wrote it down on my computer to put in my "cheer up notes" doc and I wanted to share with you guys what it was because it made me so happy, so here it is: “Rachel is hard-working, intelligent and has an incredible ability to learn the mission statement of the Office of the Public Guardian. She is an excellent legal writer and is very open to receiving comments. She has good courtroom presence and is a pleasure to work with in the office. She has all the elements in her to become a remarkable attorney and guardian ad litem.” Like......I don't think I could ask for a more glowing recommendation. And like, I do work hard. I work really hard, but I don't necessarily expect it to be noticed, I've kind of been conditioned to think it's the way it HAS to be if you want any chance of surviving in the real world, and maybe it is, but to see it really noticed like that just made me really, really happy. So that left me on a good note, though I then proceeded to leave my lunchbox in the refrigerator, where it'll hopefully stay for the next week since I'll be on spring break. Whoops, lol. So I had to do my oral argument at school at 5:30, and I did not trust public transportation to get me there on time because I've been burned way too many times by it. I knew getting an uber would mean having to deal with traffic, but I figured it still gave me a better shot. Except my uber app crashed like 3 times before I could even get one, so I ended up saying fuck it and used Lyft (not that it really matters, since most drivers are on both). Got a nice driver, had a pleasant conversation with her, traded stories of crazy funny things her kids have done and my siblings have done. It was nice. I ended up getting to school around 5:25, a little later than I would've liked but it worked. Our prof wanted us to go in pairs, one for each side, so we could argue against each other basically. So the girl I'm against is already there, we're friends so it's not a big deal, but we sit and talk for a few before our prof shows up and we get started. Overall it went pretty well, there were a few times I kind of got stuck cuz she like brought up a case I hadn't read and I just had to admit that which kind of sucked (but at the end she said in real life that wouldn't happen because you'd get your opponent's brief in advance so you'd know what to argue). But she said we both did really well, and I can deal with that. So I was happy with that. By the time we finished it was like 5:55, and I had small group at 7:30 so I had some time to kill. I went down to the lounge but it was like, completely and totally deserted so I didn't feel like sticking around there, so I went to the subway down the street and got some food since my dinner was in my lunchbox in the fridge at the office. I still had some time to kill after that, so I went across the street and got some tea from Starbucks and sat in there for a while, reading the law review article we're supposed to read for LARC tomorrow. By 7 I started heading over to the church and made it right on time. Small group was good, it was focused a lot on loving your neighbor, which if you've been following me for any length of time you know is a subject I can wax poetic on for hours on end because I have so very many feelings on the topic. It's one of the reasons I picked this small group over the others that fit into my schedule, because it's called "knowing God and loving others" and I liked that a lot. So we read the story of the Good Samaritan which of course I could recite to you by heart at this point. Then they had us break up into pies to discuss our thoughts on it and I got paired with this kind of awkward guy who was sitting next to me, he's probably at least 30 and balding quite a bit and just generally quiet, but I'm good at talking, especially on a subject like this, so we were able to keep a decent discussion going. When we reconvened as a group and they wanted to know what we talked about I of course brought up my distaste for how just about everyone walks by the homeless without so much as a second thought, as if they're not even human, and how Christians have become so good at limiting our compassion to those we think deserve it, which goes exactly against the lesson the bible is teaching here. I also talked about how love is essentially the central tenet of Christianity (1 John 4:8- "God is love" "all the commandments come down to this- love the Lord you God with all your heart soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself") and yet we've become so good at getting stuck in the complex pieces and tangential issues of religion without first applying love as an overriding principle, which is how you get the strict religious types like the Pharisees and their modern day equivalents (I don't need to name names, you know who I'm talking about). I then also brought up the les mis quote I'm quite fond of, "to love another person is to see the face of God," meaning God is the definition of pure love, his very character is reflected in you loving the people around you in the most selfless way. And I just think that's such a perfect way to put it, really. So yeah, as evidenced by the last several hundred words, this is obviously an issue I could go on about at length, so it was nice to get some of that out tonight. I've been enjoying small group a lot, though getting home afterwards has been a pain. I took the bus to the normal train stop I've been using for the route to church, but the bus was still 20 minutes away. Boo. It was 9:30 at that point, and the donut shop I tried the other day is right there and doesn't close till 10, so I figured if I have to wait 20 minutes for a bus I at least want to do it with a donut. I feel like actually trying one of their donuts on Sunday was a bad idea because now whenever I'm waiting I'm gonna be like "mmmm, donuts" because now I know how good they are. They obviously only had a limited selection left, but I ended up picking a captain crunch Bismarck donut, which ended up being like the exact type of donut I always want haha, it was a glazed donut stuffed with captain crunch infused vanilla custard with a few pieces of captain crunch on top, and it was just heaven. Eventually the bus did come, and eventually I did get home. I wasn't ready for bed yet so I turned on Training Day, which was a pretty solid episode. I need to know how many more episodes we're getting though, and how they're gonna wrap it up. As far as I can tell they haven't released any press beyond episode 1x07, but that may not mean anything left. It stinks because the show did have a lot of potential, but you really can't continue on when you lose the actor who is legit the main character and heart of the show. Sigh. It was good though, plenty of good action for Rebecca which I always appreciate. Then I watched Powerless quickly, which was hilarious as always, and I loved the captain cold shoutout, very funny episode. Then I spent like 15 minutes facing my damn affiliation agreement and evaluation to the field placement lady, though I probably shouldn't complain because she's been exceedingly patient with my quite late submission of these documents, probably because it's a pass/fail situation, but I still appreciate it. And yeah, then I packed my bag quickly because tomorrow is the start of the church kids team retreat a bit outside of the city, just for one night. Should be fun though! I'm looking forward to it, even if I may be the youngest person there 😂 we'll see. And then I got ready for bed and hear we are. I am tired though so I'll sign off here. Goodnight ladies and gents. Happy Friday.