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alexsfictionaddiction · 4 years

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'It is not enough to be the non-racist. We must be anti-racist.’

I don’t think I need to explain too much about what has prompted this post. There may be readers of it who will feel that my sudden creation of it is performative and that I don’t REALLY care all that much about what’s going on. That I’m simply jumping on a bandwagon and cashing in on some internet clout amidst the horrors of what is happening in the world. Hopefully my regular readers will know that I actively seek out Own Voices books and that I’m constantly reviewing them or recommending them on this very blog. Hopefully my regular readers will know that this post is very much in line with my inclusive, diverse ethos and that I am simply using my white platform to amplify those of the unheard.

It’s true that I’ve never written a recommendation post dedicated to one particular marginalised group. I think this is because I’ve always felt like these are not my areas to sway into. That these posts would be better written by bloggers who have direct experience with what these books talk about. Honestly, I’m shocked and incredibly upset with myself for having long harboured this mentality. Yes, these books will affect readers who can directly relate to the characters in a way that they couldn’t ever affect me but why on Earth should that mean that I can’t give them a platform in the first place?

Of course, I’ve always known about white privilege and I’ve always used it to take down racists both on and offline. In fact, the events of the past few days have caused arguments within my own all-white British family. There are currently protests happening in central London and Manchester but we are not allowed to use public transport at the moment and we don’t have any local demonstrations, meaning actively protesting just isn’t a feasible option for most Brits right now. It does feel like movements such as Black Lives Matter are ‘an American thing’, despite the huge amount of all types of racism in the UK.

I had never realised (or perhaps never wanted to realise) the amount of extremely questionable attitudes within my own family until very recently. I have had to explain white privilege to my parents, who have actually always been reasonably liberal in their political views, so I was astonished by exactly how much they didn’t know. There is an essence of ‘things aren’t anywhere near as bad as they used to be’ and ‘the police don’t arrest or kill innocent people’. It’s honestly only in the last few days that I’ve realised and therefore had to address the internal racism within my own family and therefore in my own origins and so I think that, as well as what is happening across the Atlantic, is what has really triggered this post. Despite considering myself an ally, I can do so much better than I have been and chances are, you can too.

Because it is a global pandemic. It’s not something that is only happening in the US, it’s happening here just without the guns. It’s happening in every country of the world and I (and my fellow white people) should not be leaving it up to the victims to sort it out. We have the power to boost their blatantly unheard voices and there is so much we can do, in order to do that.

Sign petitions, donate money and help in any way you can right here. Buy from Black-owned businesses, read all you can about the Black experience and above all, call out your friends and family on their racism. Of course, if you don’t want to take the advice of a white person like me, I’d recommend you check out these fantastic Black BookTubers and book bloggers:

LaRonda @ flyingpaperbacks

Madeline @ madelinewilsonojo

Jazmen @ lit-erally black

Nox @ noxthereader

Myonna @ myonna reads

I'mogén @ Peace&Cookies

Ben @ Benreadsbooks

Lauren @ The Novel Lush

Jo @ Jo The Great

Ella @ ella’s novellas

Keeana @ Reading in the Clouds

Francina @ Francina Simone

Lucie @ LucieReads

Jesse @ Bowties & Books

Joel @ fictionalfates

Ane @ Ane Adores

Olivia @ Olivia’s Catastrophe

Cecilia @ thatdisneychik

Taylor @ PageScreenTaylor

Tori @ Medusa Reads

Justin @ Ghost Reader

Seji @ The Artisan Geek

Mina @ Mina Reads

Of course, this is not an exhaustive list and I encourage you to please search for and support more wonderful Black bookworms and creators. They will give you more insightful reviews and recommendations than I would ever be able to, so please check them out and show them some love.

Here are 50 books by Black authors that deserve your attention. While I have read a good chunk of these, I will admit that I have not personally read all of them. This list was compiled following a deep scouring of the internet and reading countless reviews and synopses. I believe I’ve found some incredible hidden gems in here that you will love and pass on to those who need them. Each of them have a link to an online retail outlet that isn’t Amazon, so you can buy these books in quarantine without lining Bezos’ already over-filled pockets. Enjoy! -Love, Alex x

NON-FICTION

1. Stamped From The Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi. This history of racism in America seeks to completely rewrite the way we think of racism and encourages change in the every-day assumptive white ally.

2. Between The World And Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Told in the form of a letter to his young son, Coates attempts to convey what it’s like to be black in America, using history, personal experience and the hope of liberation.

3. Redefining Realness by Janet Mock. An unapologetic powerful memoir from a trans mixed-race working class woman in America that will teach you how to be undeniably real.

4. Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge. Possibly the most widely-read non-fiction book on racism in the UK, Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book explores its links to class, white feminism and the black history we were never taught.

5. So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo. Highly relevant to the current situation in the US, this book talks about police brutality, BLM and the N word, answering the questions that no one ever dares to ask.

CONTEMPORARY FICTION

6. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones. The winner of last year’s Women’s Prize, An American Marriage is the heartbreaking story of newlyweds torn apart by a wrongful rape conviction. Devastating, urgent storytelling.

7. Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams. Searingly relatable and timely, you will fall madly in love with Queenie. She is flawed, overlooked and underestimated. You will laugh, cry and scream as you spend a year inside her life as a British-Jamaican.

8. Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert. When straight-laced nerd Chloe Brown almost dies, she vows to start living in the moment. Enter bad boy Red and you’ve got the perfect ingredients for a sweet, sexy rom-com.

9. Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo. Joint winner of 2019′s Booker Prize and shortlister for 2020′s Women’s Prize, this is the combination of 12 very different Black-British characters that paints a very real picture of contemporary British life.

10. I Almost Forgot About You by Terry McMillan. When Georgia Young begins to feel dissatisfied with her seemingly perfect life, she decides to shake things up. It’s the perfect reminder that it’s never too late to make big changes and start living your best life.

11. Well-Read Black Girl by Glory Edim. Showcasing some of America’s best black female writers, this anthology explores the importance of finding yourself in books. Glory Edim is the founder of Well-Read Black Girl, an online book club exclusively for black women, which you can check out here.

12. The Girl With The Louding Voice by Abi Daré. At 14, Adunni is a wife and commodity within her tiny Nigerian village but she is determined to get her education and her voice. Original, powerful and unbelievably inspirational.

13. Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid. When Emira Tucker starts dating someone with a direct historical link to her boss, things get more than complicated. This is a very clever contemporary, driven by racial differences, that is completely unputdownable.

LITERARY FICTION

14. The Sellout by Paul Beatty. Winner of the Booker Prize 2016, The Sellout is a black comedy ringing with social satire about one man’s deceit having knock-on effects for an entire community. Controversial and weird but incredibly unique.

15. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. Morrison’s debut novel focuses on our obsession with conventional beauty, fitting in and being accepted. Wonderfully written, it addresses race, gender and class in a truly captivating way.

16. Stay With Me by Ayòbámi Adébáyò. Amidst the social and political turmoil of 1980s Nigeria, Yejide's husband takes a second wife when she fails to fall pregnant. It is a heartbreaking portrait of grief, fractured families and motherhood.

17. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward. An epic road-trip novel with hints of supernatural and magical realism, this is the story of a young boy’s coming-of-age within a broken family told in a gorgeously lyrical style.

18. Half Of A Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Set during the Nigerian Civil War, three very different characters are entwined in a story about colonialism, class, race and love. You’ll want the tissues for this one!

19. Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi. This strange unique novel focuses on the split selves of Ada and their gradual rise to power within her. It’s one of the most unique mental health books I’ve ever come across and will resonate with anyone who has ever struggled with finding their own inner peace.

SCI-FI AND FANTASY

20. Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James. Dripping in African mythology, the first in the Dark Star trilogy gets off to a gripping start with plenty of unique characters, as hunter Tracker searches for a missing boy.

21. Kindred by Octavia E. Butler. When aspiring writer Dana is pulled from 1976 into 1815, she is assumed to be a slave. After saving a young man’s life, the mystery of their connection kicks off and takes them both on an incredible emotional journey. This is an amazing time travel story that is thoroughly unputdownable.

22. Rosewater by Tade Thompson. Rosewater is a town on the edges of a strange alien biodome which is rumoured to have healing powers but former criminal Kaaro knows the truth and is in no hurry to revisit it. Whilst making subtle digs at contemporary culture, Rosewater offers a fascinating view of the future.

23. Do You Dream Of Terra-Two? by Temi Oh. Ten astronauts leave a dying Earth to find another habitable planet. Set entirely aboard the ship, it’s a coming-of-age story that reaches beyond the sci-fi boundaries and focuses on human relationships and emotions. Brace yourself for tears!

24. Children Of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi. Inspired by West African mythology, this magical adventure tells the story of Zélie on a quest to restore magic to the kingdom of Orisha. At the end of every chapter something happens that makes you want to keep reading, making it highly addictive.

25. The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor Lavalle. Hidden dark magic in the depths of New York is awakened when hustler Tom attracts its attention. With elements of classic horror and mysticism, this is one for lovers of weird speculative stories.

26. Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi. This touching story is a searing reminder of systemic racism and the violence that black Americans face at the hands of the law. When Kev finds himself in prison, it’s only the visits from his magically-gifted sister Ella that keeps him sane and gives him hope of revolution.

27. We Cast A Shadow by Maurice Carlos Ruffin. Desperate to protect his son in a profoundly racist America, a man embarks on a mission to get his boy a ‘demelanization’ to make him white. It’s an original and edgy satire full of suspense and heart.

MIDDLE-GRADE

28. Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. This poetic memoir charts the story of Woodson’s own childhood, growing up as an African-American in 1960s and 1970s. These are truly beautiful poems that sing a young girl’s desire to be heard and to know who she is.

29. Ghost by Jason Reynolds. Ghost is a sprinter but it’s only when Coach sees his talent that he really starts to chase his dream but his dark past is hot on his heels. Full of Reynolds’ signature humour and heart, it’s highly relatable to almost any kid from around the age of 10.

30. The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste. This creepy magical middle-grade adventure sees fearless Corinne on a dangerous mission to save her home from dark forces. Steeped in Caribbean folklore, The Jumbies is a fantastic gateway into eerie fantasy.

31. The Crossover by Kwame Alexander. Twins Josh and Jordan are basketball stars, following in their father’s footsteps but hardship tests their brotherly bonds. Merging basketball and rap, this verse novel gives us a stark reminder of what really matters.

32. Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes. Get set for a truly heartbreaking but horrendously timely story. Jerome was shot dead by police at the age of 12 and his ghost wanders the Earth in search of answers as to why he was killed. Not sure I need to say anymore as to why this is a highly important tearjerker.

33. Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo. When a plane crash brings two sisters on either side of the Atlantic together, family secrets unravel. Exploring sacrifice and identity, this verse novel is a stark reminder that most losses and tragedies are felt only by the families they directly affect.

34. Orangeboy by Patrice Lawrence. Marlon has promised his mum that he won’t follow the path of his gang leader brother but when a date leaves him a hunted man, he has some impossible choices to make. Laced with musicality, this pacy urban thriller puts you directly in the shoes of an ordinary boy caught up in very real danger.

35. The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta. Struggling with his identity as a mixed-race gay teen, it’s only when he starts university that Michael gains his wings through the power of drag. Tackling both racism and homophobia, The Black Flamingo teaches acceptance and self-love.

36. The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon. Natasha and Daniel meet on the same day that Natasha’s family are about to be deported to Jamaica. Cue an epic quest for love to overthrow the authorities! It’s a sweet romance about fate and taking the future into your own hands.

37. Dear Martin by Nic Stone. When Ivy League-destined Justyce is arrested, he turns to the lessons of Martin Luther King to help figure things out but then shots are fired. Undeniably relevant to today’s America, Dear Martin confronts the blatant racism and injustice within the justice system.

38. On The Come Up by Angie Thomas. Aspiring rapper Bri is desperate to make it to help her family, despite all the odds being against her. Better known for her break-out debut hit The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas’ follow-up is an equally hard-hitting story of standing up and speaking out for what’s right.

HISTORICAL

39. The Color Purple by Alice Walker. Escaping an extremely violent and abusive past in the 1930s American South, Celie finds the strength to be her true wonderful self. The Color Purple is considered a staple of black literature and considered one of the most mind-opening books in existence.

40. Roots by Alex Haley. Tracing the story of his own ancestors, Alex Haley’s Roots is a highly educational documentation of African American history during the Slave Trade. Published in 1976, it made a massive impact on the world and Kunta’s story is just as urgent and vital today.

41. Freedom by Catherine Johnson. This historical middle-grade story follows Jamaican slave Nat as he makes his way to London, where he has heard that slavery doesn’t exist, which he soon finds to be false. Freedom is a moving, action-packed look at British slavery that is the perfect starting point for educating pre-teens.

42. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. This classic tale follows wrestler Okonkwo, who returns from exile to discover his village has been taken over by colonials. It’s a difficult read that captures powerlessness and pain in a short, impactful burst and will no doubt force white readers to look at their own behaviours.

43. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. Exploring bigotry and racism across the US, our protagonist tries his best to play by the rules but continues to be knocked down. Despite being published in 1952, Ellison’s arguments are painfully relevant to today, indicating that not much has changed at all.

44. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. Life as a slave in Georgia is hell for Cora but when new arrival Caesar tells her about the Underground Railroad, escape plans are hatched. Cora’s determination and courage are hugely inspirational and her experience, which mirrors that of many real slaves, should never be forgotten.

45. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. This epic story of two sisters’ very different experiences of 1800s Ghana sprawls across generations, clearly showing how history resonates and the ripples are felt long after the original event. A stunning captivating read.

THRILLERS

46. Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas. Highly selective, isolated academy Catherine House sees teenage runaway Ines join its ranks and a strange Gothic mystery unfurls. This subtly unsettling chilly novel is a brand new debut that I devoured earlier on this month and I’m sure you will too!

47. My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite. Korede is used to clearing up her younger sister Ayoola’s messes -and disposing of the bodies she leaves in her wake! There is a wonderfully dark tongue-in-cheek tone that makes this fast-paced thrilling celebration of sisterhood truly delightful.

48. They All Fall Down by Rachel Howzell Hall. Seven strangers find themselves in a mansion on an island with no contact with the outside world and no escape. With strong Agatha Christie vibes, it’s a highly entertaining mystery whose pages you’ll keep turning.

49. Devil In A Blue Dress by Walter Mosley. When a war veteran is pulled into a search for a mysterious woman, murder and lies are uncovered. Set in 1940s LA, Walter Mosley expertly weaves the natural fears of a Black man of the time into the smoky intrigue, making it extremely immersive.

50. Hollywood Homicide by Kellye Garrett. Broke former actress Dayna didn’t mean to solve a hit-and-run but the reward money would definitely come in handy. Once she starts digging, she becomes determined to find the killer. I love cosy mysteries with amateur detectives and this more than fits that bill.

#black lives matter #black authors #black books #anti-racism #social justice

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robertawilliams · 6 years

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Why Brexit Shouldn’t Concern the Online British Entrepreneur

Brexit.

Yep—we’re going there. Today, for the first time ever, I want to share with you exactly what I think about Brexit, how it’s going to affect UK businesses (online and off), and why you should be paying VERY close attention.

(Hint: It’s probably not what you think.)

British entrepreneurs are full of fear and distrust lately. Even as the business community settles into and tries to understand Brexit, we are afraid to act until someone else does first. No one wants to be the first penguin to jump, which means a whole lot of would-be entrepreneurs are just standing on the edge of the iceberg.

We can’t go back, but few feel ready to move forward.

The US election may have made things worse: as of November 8, there are millions of Americans feeling much the same way we felt back in June. And instead of reassuring our fellow entrepreneurs across the pond, too many have chosen to retreat back into fear and inaction.

This kind of climate can stop an entrepreneur before they even get started, and can derail otherwise successful businesses. They’re even saying so themselves:

“This is bad news for the tech industry,” , CEO and co-founder of the London-based online background checking firm Onfido.

“The outcome is a disaster for this country,” , chief executive of the UK-based peer-to-peer business lending firm, Archover. “You can expect foreign businesses, institutions, and other investors to start pulling out of the UK.”

The more I read about what Brexit is doing to our vibrant business community here in the UK, the more frustrated I get. Why?

Because Brexit isn’t the problem—fear is the problem!

I don’t say any of this to diminish the realities of the referendum, the US election, or anything else happening in the world right now. Quite the opposite! My life and businesses are in both countries, as are many of my family and friends. I know how many people are feeling conflicted right now.

But seriously, this reactionary panic has got to stop! There will always be things to be afraid of—remember Y2K? Remember 2008? Yes, those examples are different from Brexit for all kinds of reasons, but every example is different from the ones that came before. That’s how history repeats itself without any of us learning from it.

Here, let me prove it.

Here are 8 reasons why Brexit shouldn’t concern British entrepreneurs, along with alternatives that actually will make a difference for your business, your audience, and YES, even your country—my country.

8 Reasons Brexit Doesn’t Matter for British Entrepreneurs

1. Online business is global. The people you want to serve aren’t limited to one geographical space. That hasn’t been true for decades. In fact, if you’re globally focused, it’s never been true. This blog, for example, reaches an average of 130,000 unique readers every month. Only 10% of you are from the UK!Need another example? In an , Martin Mills, founder and chairman of the 43-year-old record company Beggars Group, said, “While we digest the consequences, we’d just like to reassure you all that the Beggars family is, always has been, and always will be, international, with no frontiers.” (Sounds a lot more success-minded, doesn’t it?)

2. You can’t change change. My dad used to say there are only three things you can count on: death, taxes, and change. It’s true, and it means there’s no excuse to ignore or stall on your business just because something has changed again. Things will keep changing, and those changes will always scare off the people who weren’t meant to be here in the first place. Will you be among them, or will you step up? If you choose the latter, you’ll be in good company. “We are where we are,” , CEO and cofounder of Love Home Swap and founding chair of Sharing Economy UK. “And now entrepreneurs need to draw on their ability to embrace change and deal with adversity by tackling these challenges and carving out a new way forward.”

3. Success demands risk. Some of the UK’s most successful businesses were started in times of uncertainty, including the £5-billion Virgin Group. And if we end up in another recession, there’s some proof out there that . It is an entrepreneur’s #1 job see the same situations that others see and react differently. We don’t run for safety; we advance into uncertainty. And then we win. Like Bronek Masojada, CEO of Hiscox, said, “The dogged entrepreneurs are more likely to say that the economic environment has made them more likely to succeed. This is true grit.”

4. Your only boss is YOU. Government drama doesn’t dictate my success or lack thereof, and the same is true for you. Brexit doesn’t sign your paychecks, refer you for promotion, or sign off on your expenses. Why would you give it, or any random entity, that much power over your business? Who’s the CEO here, anyway?!

5. The stats are irrelevant. within 5 years. Early on, Brexit had of failing. Until election night, Hillary Clinton had of winning the presidency.What do all those stats have in common? They don’t matter. They make for great headlines the morning after, but all they’re going to do for entrepreneurs is scare you into thinking everyone else knows more than you do. They don’t. But as we learned above, the only one who makes that final decision is you. Especially now, when the pollsters are nearly guaranteed to be wrong.

6. Constraints make you more creative. If few are investing in business because they don’t want to put money out in an uncertain economy, you’ve just learned something very important about them: they’re operating on fear. You can choose to mirror and join in their fear, OR you can see this as an opportunity to either find funding elsewhere, or try to make things happen without outside funding. Constraints require you to think of things in a new way, and make no mistake: the ability to produce with constraints is an essential skill for any entrepreneur to have. The sooner you learn it, the better.

7. Entrepreneur is a verb. (It’s not, really, but stick with me here!) You don’t get to be an entrepreneur if you’re not going to act like one, and it is exactly NOW, when everyone else is too afraid to act, that your bravery and expertise is needed more than ever.

8. This is what we’re here for. If you’re REALLY an entrepreneur, it’s time to prove it—real entrepreneurs live for this stuff. Maybe not Brexit specifically, but what I hope you understand by now is that Brexit was never the thing that mattered, anyway. It doesn’t matter what your personal or political feelings are about it—it’s the climate of fear that Brexit has created that is a problem. Acting in spite of fear is what all the speakers, bloggers, and fellow entrepreneurs you follow have been talking about for ages. It’s what everyone else talks about when they talk about us. And now it’s your turn to live a story worth telling, and build a business worth talking about.

Who’s Really Affected by Brexit?

If you’re afraid to start, scale, or act in your business since Brexit, it’s not you who’s most affected, though it can certainly feel that way.

It’s the people you serve, or want to serve.

The community you’ve been thinking about, gathering, and maybe even inspiring until now is still out there. And now more than ever, they’re counting on you to stay focused and keep sharing what you know. If you, as their leader, are acting from and projecting fear, you’re going to create more of that in your community.

If, however, you commit to action, forward momentum, and the “keep calm, carry on” mindset… well, then you’re really made of the good stuff.

British entrepreneurs have what it takes to get through this, and to inspire the rest of the world in the process.

Your ‘Beat Brexit’ Challenge

Brexit doesn’t determine your success (or the lack thereof), but your reaction to it will have a lasting effect on the community that needs you. This post has given you insight from a number of successful UK business owners, and I hope those insights have helped.

But there’s only so much you can do while reading a blog post. Your audience is still waiting for you to speak up, take action, and lead them to achieve their dreams.

This week, I challenge you to be the first penguin to jump. Despite fear, uncertainty, Brexit, buzzwords, blah blah blah. Jump.

Just jump.

Source

http://www.chrisducker.com/brexit-british-entrepreneurs/

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peterjcameron · 6 years

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Video Pitching: Making Media Relations Human Again

Journalists are inundated with a constant flood of pitches and press releases—and, as the Hustle’s Kendall Baker writes in his open letter to PR professionals, “they all suck.”

“Well, not all of them,” he concedes. “Some are fine. But the majority of the time, the pitches I get from you guys are downright awful.”

Ouch! What’s a savvy PR person to do?

The truth is, Kendall is right to give comms people a little tough love. Journalists are busy people and they’re sick of reading through copy-and-pasted messages or emails that have been blasted to hundreds of others. They don’t have time to read through all the links you just sent them on the off chance that it might result in an interesting article or drive traffic to their website. You need to give them a compelling reason why your story would add value to their publication, otherwise, they’re going to lose interest—fast, and you’re done

The good news is, I’d like to share my secret hack with you, and I can guarantee that it will help you “unsuck” your pitches. Welcome to video pitching.

Take your pitches from zero to hero with video

Video pitching cures what so often ails the kinds of generic and impersonal messages that journalists like Kendall are so tired of getting. By nature, video is attention-grabbing and personal. In fact, when I first gave video pitching a trial run, my pitches received nearly 50% higher engagement than my text-based attempts Not only will you leave an impression, but allowing a reporter to “meet” you over video can open up opportunities for an ongoing relationship down the line.

(Speaking of leaving an impression, I may have given P.J. Bednarski, former Editor of Online Video Daily and VidBlog, a bit of a shock when he received one of my first video pitches. You can read all about it in my how-to post on video pitching.)

That’s not to say that video pitching alone is a catch-all. Just because you’re able to capture someone’s attention with video doesn’t mean you’re off the hook when it comes to adding value to their day. Your pitch should still demonstrate that you’ve done your research on the publication and show how your piece would be of interest to their audience (or open them up to new readership). Combine thoughtful outreach with the power of video and wait for the editors’ responses to come rolling in.

How to craft a great video pitch

If you’re convinced that it’s time to give video pitching a shot—great! I have some tips and best practices that I’ve learned over the past year of experimenting with video pitching that I’m happy to share with you.

(Psst, if you don’t already have a screen-recording tool, now’s the time to download one. I love my company’s free Chrome extension, Vidyard GoVideo, for this!)

1. Do your homework

Each video pitch should be custom-tailored to its recipient, so be sure to do your due diligence. What types of articles does the publication you’re pitching to typically publish? What makes your idea a good fit? Why will their audience be interested?

2. Skip the script

You want to your pitch to engage your audience, but you don’t want to sound forced. I would recommend jotting down a few points ahead of time so you’re sure to hit on your key ideas, but otherwise, don’t plan what you’re going to say. Your message will seem that much more personal and genuine if it’s unrehearsed. If a fire truck drives by in the middle of your video, add a little joke in there like I did below. You’re real, and life around you is too.

3. Keep it concise

I always aim for 30 seconds max, but I also always tend to go over! 30 seconds seems like it would be short enough to hold the attention of a busy reporter, but long enough to show how you would add value to their publication. If they want more, they’ll ask for it.

4. If at first you don’t succeed…try again!

You might feel a little awkward on camera at first and that’s perfectly normal. Give yourself a few no-pressure trial runs to experiment and I guarantee you’ll loosen up. When I first started video-pitching, I’d take 5-10 (sometimes more…) videos before I was happy with the final result. Today, I do it all in one shot.

That’s great in theory but what about in practice? I’ve rounded up a series of examples from past pitches I’ve done that you can use as inspiration. Check them out below:

1. Pitching a speaker

My first example comes from when I pitched our CEO for a big speaking engagement. And I didn’t hold back on this one—I went right to the CEO and co-founder of VentureBeat, Matt Marshall. For a guy who must get pitched ALL the time, he sure got back to me pretty quickly with a note that he loved my personalized video, too, followed by an intro to his speaker lead.

2. Making introductions to fellow panelists

In this next instance, I was about to go speak on a panel for Young Women in Business, and I didn’t know any of my fellow panelists. I don’t know about you, but I always find it awkward walking onto a stage without having any idea who else is up there with me. I made this video to say hello to them and break the ice in advance. It was received with very warm responses!

In this subsequent example, I tried pitching the Twitter and LinkedIn universes on a recent product update, just to see what would happen. What happened, you might ask? Well, 6 favs, and 1 RT, that’s what. I think video is a great way to engage on big announcement days and I’ll definitely be using this tactic in the future!

Video changes relationships. No longer are we judged by our typed words or flat photos. Video makes us human. https://t.co/ZU3sKNXrXv pic.twitter.com/ylWoStuED1

— Sandy Pell (@SandyCanvas) September 26, 2017

3. Responding to a reporter request

Reporter requests have always been an area of struggle for me, but when I add video pitches to my replies, my odds go up two-fold. In this example, Ashley wrote me back right away, offered me the spot, and ended up publishing my opinions in this piece and gave me a complete author profile too. I’ve used video-pitching ever since!

4. Connecting with conference attendees

In this following instance, I wanted everyone to know that I was heading to the Unbounce Call to Action Conference—including a number of reporters who had pinged me that they’d be on site. I made this video and pushed it all across my Twitter and LinkedIn. I had a ton of engagement: 4RTs, a load of comments, and 15 Favs! In addition, people who I had never seen or met before came up to me at the event and told me that they had watched my “video.” Woohoo!

In fact, my first video was so successful, that I decided to do a few follow-up videos from the Call to Action conference, too. I’ve included one below:

Are you at @unbounce‘s #CTAConf? Well, you should be! Watch my video to learn why! https://t.co/DGNhwUL19i #vancouver #teamvidyard pic.twitter.com/1ku8u61tRe

— Sandy Pell (@SandyCanvas) June 27, 2017

5. Follow-up messages and building rapport

Have you already pitched a reporter? In this next example, the reporter wrote back, requesting more information on the pitch. I decided to make them a video to let them know that I was on it while also introducing myself to them. Video is a great way to build common ground and tighten up a relationship.

Bonus: (Another) speaking engagement pitch

I know I already gave an example of pitching a speaker, but this one was too good not to share! In this final example, I was pitching our CEO, Michael Litt, to speak at an upcoming, high-end tech conference called Fortune Brainstorm Tech. Given that Adam Lashinsky probably receives hundreds of emails per day, I didn’t expect a reply. Video clearly worked though; I was happy to see his response shortly after. He even introduced me to his colleague, Marlene, to pick up the conversation.

I hope this post has been helpful and that you’re excited to experiment with video pitching. Let me know how it goes in the comments below—I would love to hear how people respond to you when they find a video pitch in their inbox! Connect with me on Twitter @SandyCanvas.

This piece originally appeared on SpinSucks.

The post Video Pitching: Making Media Relations Human Again appeared first on Vidyard.

from Peter Cameron Business Consultant http://www.vidyard.com/blog/video-pitching/

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mahtewtwook86 · 6 years

Text

Video Pitching: Making Media Relations Human Again

Journalists are inundated with a constant flood of pitches and press releases—and, as the Hustle’s Kendall Baker writes in his open letter to PR professionals, “they all suck.”

“Well, not all of them,” he concedes. “Some are fine. But the majority of the time, the pitches I get from you guys are downright awful.”

Ouch! What’s a savvy PR person to do?

The good news is, I’d like to share my secret hack with you, and I can guarantee that it will help you “unsuck” your pitches. Welcome to video pitching.

Take your pitches from zero to hero with video

How to craft a great video pitch

(Psst, if you don’t already have a screen-recording tool, now’s the time to download one. I love my company’s free Chrome extension, Vidyard GoVideo, for this!)

1. Do your homework

2. Skip the script

3. Keep it concise

4. If at first you don’t succeed…try again!

That’s great in theory but what about in practice? I’ve rounded up a series of examples from past pitches I’ve done that you can use as inspiration. Check them out below:

1. Pitching a speaker

2. Making introductions to fellow panelists

Video changes relationships. No longer are we judged by our typed words or flat photos. Video makes us human. https://t.co/ZU3sKNXrXv pic.twitter.com/ylWoStuED1

— Sandy Pell (@SandyCanvas) September 26, 2017

3. Responding to a reporter request

4. Connecting with conference attendees

In fact, my first video was so successful, that I decided to do a few follow-up videos from the Call to Action conference, too. I’ve included one below:

Are you at @unbounce‘s #CTAConf? Well, you should be! Watch my video to learn why! https://t.co/DGNhwUL19i #vancouver #teamvidyard pic.twitter.com/1ku8u61tRe

— Sandy Pell (@SandyCanvas) June 27, 2017

5. Follow-up messages and building rapport

Bonus: (Another) speaking engagement pitch

This piece originally appeared on SpinSucks.

The post Video Pitching: Making Media Relations Human Again appeared first on Vidyard.

from http://www.vidyard.com/blog/video-pitching/

0 notes

damientremblay · 6 years

Text

Video Pitching: Making Media Relations Human Again

Journalists are inundated with a constant flood of pitches and press releases—and, as the Hustle’s Kendall Baker writes in his open letter to PR professionals, “they all suck.”

“Well, not all of them,” he concedes. “Some are fine. But the majority of the time, the pitches I get from you guys are downright awful.”

Ouch! What’s a savvy PR person to do?

The good news is, I’d like to share my secret hack with you, and I can guarantee that it will help you “unsuck” your pitches. Welcome to video pitching.

Take your pitches from zero to hero with video

How to craft a great video pitch

(Psst, if you don’t already have a screen-recording tool, now’s the time to download one. I love my company’s free Chrome extension, Vidyard GoVideo, for this!)

1. Do your homework

2. Skip the script

3. Keep it concise

4. If at first you don’t succeed…try again!

That’s great in theory but what about in practice? I’ve rounded up a series of examples from past pitches I’ve done that you can use as inspiration. Check them out below:

1. Pitching a speaker

2. Making introductions to fellow panelists

Video changes relationships. No longer are we judged by our typed words or flat photos. Video makes us human. https://t.co/ZU3sKNXrXv pic.twitter.com/ylWoStuED1

— Sandy Pell (@SandyCanvas) September 26, 2017

3. Responding to a reporter request

4. Connecting with conference attendees

In fact, my first video was so successful, that I decided to do a few follow-up videos from the Call to Action conference, too. I’ve included one below:

Are you at @unbounce‘s #CTAConf? Well, you should be! Watch my video to learn why! https://t.co/DGNhwUL19i #vancouver #teamvidyard pic.twitter.com/1ku8u61tRe

— Sandy Pell (@SandyCanvas) June 27, 2017

5. Follow-up messages and building rapport

Bonus: (Another) speaking engagement pitch

This piece originally appeared on SpinSucks.

The post Video Pitching: Making Media Relations Human Again appeared first on Vidyard.

from SEO Tips http://www.vidyard.com/blog/video-pitching/

0 notes

samabd · 6 years

Text

Video Pitching: Making Media Relations Human Again

Journalists are inundated with a constant flood of pitches and press releases—and, as the Hustle’s Kendall Baker writes in his open letter to PR professionals, “they all suck.”

“Well, not all of them,” he concedes. “Some are fine. But the majority of the time, the pitches I get from you guys are downright awful.”

Ouch! What’s a savvy PR person to do?

The good news is, I’d like to share my secret hack with you, and I can guarantee that it will help you “unsuck” your pitches. Welcome to video pitching.

Take your pitches from zero to hero with video

How to craft a great video pitch

(Psst, if you don’t already have a screen-recording tool, now’s the time to download one. I love my company’s free Chrome extension, Vidyard GoVideo, for this!)

1. Do your homework

2. Skip the script

3. Keep it concise

4. If at first you don’t succeed…try again!

That’s great in theory but what about in practice? I’ve rounded up a series of examples from past pitches I’ve done that you can use as inspiration. Check them out below:

1. Pitching a speaker

2. Making introductions to fellow panelists

Video changes relationships. No longer are we judged by our typed words or flat photos. Video makes us human. https://t.co/ZU3sKNXrXv pic.twitter.com/ylWoStuED1

— Sandy Pell (@SandyCanvas) September 26, 2017

3. Responding to a reporter request

4. Connecting with conference attendees

In fact, my first video was so successful, that I decided to do a few follow-up videos from the Call to Action conference, too. I’ve included one below:

Are you at @unbounce‘s #CTAConf? Well, you should be! Watch my video to learn why! https://t.co/DGNhwUL19i #vancouver #teamvidyard pic.twitter.com/1ku8u61tRe

— Sandy Pell (@SandyCanvas) June 27, 2017

5. Follow-up messages and building rapport

Bonus: (Another) speaking engagement pitch

This piece originally appeared on SpinSucks.

The post Video Pitching: Making Media Relations Human Again appeared first on Vidyard.

from SEO Tips http://www.vidyard.com/blog/video-pitching/

0 notes

richardlucianos · 6 years

Text

Video Pitching: Making Media Relations Human Again

Journalists are inundated with a constant flood of pitches and press releases—and, as the Hustle’s Kendall Baker writes in his open letter to PR professionals, “they all suck.”

“Well, not all of them,” he concedes. “Some are fine. But the majority of the time, the pitches I get from you guys are downright awful.”

Ouch! What’s a savvy PR person to do?

The good news is, I’d like to share my secret hack with you, and I can guarantee that it will help you “unsuck” your pitches. Welcome to video pitching.

Take your pitches from zero to hero with video

How to craft a great video pitch

(Psst, if you don’t already have a screen-recording tool, now’s the time to download one. I love my company’s free Chrome extension, Vidyard GoVideo, for this!)

1. Do your homework

2. Skip the script

3. Keep it concise

4. If at first you don’t succeed…try again!

That’s great in theory but what about in practice? I’ve rounded up a series of examples from past pitches I’ve done that you can use as inspiration. Check them out below:

1. Pitching a speaker

2. Making introductions to fellow panelists

Video changes relationships. No longer are we judged by our typed words or flat photos. Video makes us human. https://t.co/ZU3sKNXrXv pic.twitter.com/ylWoStuED1

— Sandy Pell (@SandyCanvas) September 26, 2017

3. Responding to a reporter request

4. Connecting with conference attendees

In fact, my first video was so successful, that I decided to do a few follow-up videos from the Call to Action conference, too. I’ve included one below:

Are you at @unbounce‘s #CTAConf? Well, you should be! Watch my video to learn why! https://t.co/DGNhwUL19i #vancouver #teamvidyard pic.twitter.com/1ku8u61tRe

— Sandy Pell (@SandyCanvas) June 27, 2017

5. Follow-up messages and building rapport

Bonus: (Another) speaking engagement pitch

This piece originally appeared on SpinSucks.

The post Video Pitching: Making Media Relations Human Again appeared first on Vidyard.

from SEO Tips http://www.vidyard.com/blog/video-pitching/

0 notes

listiqueblog · 7 years

Text

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.

youtube

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.

Get 80+ Instagram Shopping Examples Now

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.

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

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ncmagroup · 7 years

Text

Susanna Gebauer

Recently we had a couple of clients who all had similar questions about email marketing. Many new bloggers and businesses are soo afraid of annoying their subscribers that they fail to utilize the full power of their list.

You should send regular newsletters – or your subscribers will forget that they subscribed to you. If that happens they will be even more annoyed when you send an email after some time.

Instead, you should use your newsletter to build a relationship with your subscribers – provide something they can only get via your newsletter.

And yes, sending newsletters should become part of your regular routine – even if your email list is still small.

And even if a couple of your subscribers unsubscribe when you send a newsletter that is just the way it is. These totally uninterested subscribers are not people you want on your list anyway. If they only stay on your list if you DON’T send emails, they are never going to be interested in you and what you have to offer.

But when we tell people they should send a newsletter regularly – for most people that is at least once a week, the next question is always: Oh, gosh. If I have to send so many newsletters what the heck should I send if it is not JUST new blog posts?

So, here are 15 ideas for what you can send in your email newsletter.

1. Start with A Welcome Series

You have a couple of new subscribers. They were lured into your list by an awesome freebie you offered. But chances are high that they don’t know all that much about you.

To open the conversation, start building the relationship, you can send them a couple of emails. Here is an example to give you an idea:

Start with a welcome email, say hello and tell them a bit about yourself and what brought you where you are today.

Ask them a question, you can even add a survey – this helps you to get more information about your subscribers and helps you provide information they want to get – if you get a ton of new subscribers you can even segment your list with the answers

Add some value in your next email. Whatever they freebie they got when they subscribed, add some additional information, a little trick or tweak that is related to the freebie

You can even send another freebie

2. Your new blog posts

I recently read that you should not send out information about your new blog posts if you just send this type of newsletter.

I disagree!

You might not use the full power of your newsletter if you JUST send your blog posts, and I agree that you will most of the time see better results if you offer some exclusive information to your subscribers as well. But some people DO subscribe to blog posts via newsletter for the simple reason that they like to get the new posts to their inbox. – I am one of these persons. I do subscribe to blogs because I like to read them and I want to know what topics they covered. And when I like the topic I open the newsletter and click on the link.

In addition, your newsletter can easily grow into one of your most important traffic sources – and it will be very high converting traffic source.

3. Quick Tips And Tricks

In addition to sending new blog posts, you can use the newsletter to provide additional value in form of some quick tips and tricks. If you discovered a new tool or a trick that got you great results, but maybe the information is not BIG enough to turn it into a blog post. If if is valuable: Send out a newsletter, your subscribers will be thankful for a quick tip.

4. An old blog post

This can be a link to an older but evergreen and very popular post – or you turn an older post into an email. This is a great way to repurpose your old content.

5. Additional product information

Some signups come from an offering a free version of a product or a download of a test version. In that case, you should use the opportunity and offer additional information about the product:

an introductory video

a guide

case studies

customer reviews

You don’t want to leave your most interested leads out in the rain, do you?

6. Invitations to free events, webinars

Webinars and free online courses are part of many sales funnels. Of course, you will invite your subscribers to your own online events.

But you can take this one step further and build partnerships with other bloggers and business owners. Invite people to their events. Either you use this to market affiliate products. Many of the „big name“ bloggers and marketers do co-host webinars – the co-host usually earns money for every new customer he wins for the promoted product.

But you can also simply form partnerships and exchange an invitation – this is an awesome way to grow your email list, too!

7. Ask Questions, Make a Survey

Communicate with your audience. Ask a question once in a while – it will help you to better understand your audience, get new ideas for posts and products – and it will help you build the relationship.

You can even set up a survey to get even more insights. For instance, if you want to create a new product, you can ask questions how it should look like or the specific questions that your audience would love to have answered in the product.

8. Answer questions

Ideally, your subscribers and your audience will provide you with some ideas for questions you can answer. But you can also actively ask them in a newsletter what they would like to know.

I also find a lot of questions to answer in conversations with customers or at events where I talk to entrepreneurs and founders.

9. Tell a story

There are endless stories to tell – just make sure they stay kind of on topic.

You can use stories like:

How I totally failed

How I have been in your shoes and look where I got

How I had this problem and how I found the solution

10. Curated Content

It does not always have to be your own content that you send with your newsletter. Why not provide a list of the best posts you read last week? Again, keep in close to your niche and topic to make sure your audience is interested in your curated pieces.

Content curation also gives you the opportunity to honor some of your fellow bloggers, some customers or colleagues.

11. More Free Stuff

Even if your subscribers already did sign up, some free stuff will be appreciated. There are a lot of possibilities for freebies you can create and if you create a new freebie, why should only new subscribers get the new freebies? Send them to your existing subscribers via email.

Consider using various content formats. This way you can even test what form of content your subscribers are more interested in: Do they rather opt for videos or is an ebook the content format that most of them download?

12. Inform about how you use different channels

My guess is that you are active on multiple platforms and channels. Why not send an email and tell your subscribers what they can expect on the various platforms: Where do you share content, where are you active in discussions, where can they reach out to you etc.

This can even help you build an audience in some of your channels as you may transfer some of your subscribers to one or several of your other channels.

13. Contests, Challenges, Give Aways

Do you have something to offer for free? Maybe 10 memberships for a course for free or you give your (paid) ebook away for free in exchange for some action? You need to be creative. If you use a social network for a contest, you can also use the newsletter to let people know about it.

You can combine this with some other emails, for instance, you can give some rewards to all subscribers who answer a question you send.

14. Re-engagement emails

Everybody has those subscribers who never open an email but also don’t unsubscribe. But honestly, you don’t want a ton of subscribers on your email list who are not interested anyway.

To check whether you want to keep a subscriber or rather delete him, you can send a Re-engagement email. It is an email you send for the sole purpose of checking if a subscriber is truly dead to you – or if you can reactivate the subscriber.

You have to be extra brilliant with the subject line of this email, to catch attention.

If you fail to re-activate your subscribers, you should consider to delete them from your list and clean up your list.

15. An Outlook

What is up in your future, what do you plan and what are you working on? Give a little insight into your business and make it human. It usually pays off to show a little glimpse behind the shiny curtain and shows that there are actually people working.

Don’t be afraid that some of your subscribers will unsubscribe with almost any email you send. You only want subscribers who like to get an email from you – if they don’t want your emails anyway, let them unsubscribe.

Also, you need to stay on the radar of your subscribers and keep up the conversation. Your email list is your chance of building relationships and building anticipation and interest for what else you have to offer.

Not sending emails is not an option!

Go to our website: www.ncmalliance.com

15 Email Ideas You Should Send to Your Subscribers (Without Boring Them To Death) Susanna Gebauer Recently we had a couple of clients who all had similar questions about email marketing.

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fesahaawit · 8 years

Text

6 Great $$$ Ideas To Steal

One of the best things about blogging is starting conversations, and then watching all your smarty pants friends chime in with clever ideas of their own ;)

I’ve been collecting a handful of them over the months, and thought today was as good a day as any to share them around so that you guys can steal them too.

Hope they help!

Idea #1: No more gifts please, 529 only!

I have been searching for a LONG LONG time to come up with a (polite) way to stop getting gifts from family and friends without making it awkward for anyone. Some years are better than others, and it has been getting better over time (for example, now at Christmas we only focus mainly on the *kids*), but I have yet to find that magic bullet that non only pleases the givers (since, after all, they get joy out of it too) but also satisfies my minimalist/essentialist ideals too.

Enter Paul’s idea, which I’m beyond excited to try! (He left this in response to my slacking on our kids’ 529 plans without even realizing I was in desperate need of a better form of gift giving too :))

I have relied a lot on my family to help with 529s. I basically just tell them not to ever get me a present because it will be something that I don’t want and will end up sitting in my basement till I get around to donating it one day. Just tell them to give to your kids 529s instead. Strategy has worked so far. My 9 year old has close to 50K, 7 year old close to 40k, 3 year old has about 10 and my new born has less than 1k…

Some people institute a no gift policy to avoid collecting clutter, I simply took it a step further and asked for a specific gift or nothing… Family tends to be more generous in giving doing this as well.

It’s so brilliant, isn’t it? The givers get to give and know it’s 100% not only what you *want*, but also *need*, and at the same time their grandchildren/nephews/nieces/pals/whatever they are to you get helped too!

And on top of that, they still get to buy the kids toys or whatever since this was “dad’s” gift so they’ll still smile back and love all over you ;) Totally trying this with the next holiday – will report back!

Idea #2. Spend something, save something!

This idea comes from Stefanie O’Connell who dropped it on our post the other week about being able to save more if you’re spending everywhere. Here’s her idea:

I’m not totally against lifestyle inflation. I think some sensible improvements are reasonable, but it is SUCH a slippery slope. So I’ve been thinking a lot about how to find the balance. Somewhat similar to this reader, I’ve toyed with a system of matching any new expenses with additional savings before upgrading. For example, if I’m going to start getting a massage once a month. I won’t consider myself able to ‘afford it’ until I can build both the cost of the massage and match that with an additional contribution to my savings, into my budget. TBD on how this method works out.

TBD or not, I think that’s awesome. It gives you full permission to spend and enjoy yourself, while at the same time doing the responsible thing! The more you spend, the more you save, and the less you spend the more you STILL save! (I think I got that right? ;)) I’ll have to go xfer out $2.60 now which I just spent on this delicious Starbucks coffee I’m downing, haha…

Idea #3: “Do I want to clean this thing?”

I loooooove me some self-reflecting questions whenever you’re about to buy something. We’ve covered a lot of them here on the site (I’ll list them below) but here’s a new one that I’ve never heard as yet – by fellow blogger ZJ Thorne:

“I’m a big fan of asking myself if I’d like to clean/maintain the item before purchasing it. So much is not bought this way.”

YES!! And not only with “stuff”, but with pets too. Sooooo many people pick them up on a whim without even thinking or realizing the level of responsibility that comes with it – myself very much included back in the day :( I can’t even imagine how poorly I treated those poor guys looking back, ugh…

But, a great question to ask yourself for sure. Not only to save some money, but to avoid any stress and clutter down the road the item might bring too! Here are similar questions we’ve posed over the years too that might help:

“Would you go out and buy it again?”

“Would I wear this out of the dressing room right now?”

“Would you rather have this, or straight up cash money?”

Idea #4: Separate out your recurring expenses with your variable expenses

Here’s another idea from the same Paul above (how come he doesn’t have a $$$ blog yet??), which he left on our article on how avoiding debt is much more important than your credit score (true fact):

“Instead of going the credit route, I have thought about opening a second checking account specifically for non recurring and variable expenses (i.e. groceries, amazon, walmart, etc…). That way I could make certain I had enough for recurring bills (i.e. mortgage, phone, internet, etc…). Then if my wife or I went to walmart and got declined because we weren’t paying attention, it would have no effect on the mandatory bills we pay. Also, in the event our card number was stolen it wouldn’t mean our mortgage went into default.”

So smart! Most of your necessities would be covered with checking account #1 (recurring) making you feel pretty comfortable, and then whatever’s left over in account #2 you can do with as you please – knowing when it’s gone it’s gone. It also saves you in the event of a hacking too, as mentioned, which at some point *will* occur of course because people are complete a-holes out there…

Hiding money from yourself is one of my favorite tricks, and one of the only reasons we’re at over $600,000 these days. They go right into our retirement accounts which are completely separated out and only checked for net worth reporting once a month! No way I’d be able to look at those #’s in our checking account and not be tempted to spend any of it, haha… I certainly wouldn’t be a personal finance blogger anymore, I can tell you that much ;)

Now hurry up and get your own site up and running, Paul!

Idea #5: Share your failures at the dinner table

Okay, so this one actually comes from Spanx founder, Sara Blakely, and not someone who reads our site (although you never know?), but it was really good and I thought you’d like it.

Business insider ran a story on how her dad taught her a bunch of business lessons growing up, and one of the ones that really stuck with her was around failure.

Here’s a clip from the article:

From a young age, Spanx founder Sara Blakely was encouraged to take risks… Blakely said her dad used to invite her and her brother to share their failures at the dinner table. Instead of being disappointed or upset, he would celebrate their efforts. “What it did was reframe my definition of failure,” Blakely said of the tradition. “Failure for me became not trying, versus the outcome… I’m already having that conversation with my 7-year-old. I talk to him all about, ‘What have you tried to fail at this week?'”

This is so good on so many levels. First, it encourages you to DO STUFF vs thinking about it all the time! Secondly, it helps you get over the fear of failing in itself. And third, it teaches you to take risks and learn before you’ve got gobs of responsibilities and money to worry about messing up ;) I mean, you’re just a kid!! And when better to fail and learn – and then fail all over again – than when you’re so young and nubile? No wonder why she’s so successful these days… She’s failed a ton!

(Reminds me of a quote I recently read from Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s – “I was an overnight success alright, but 30 years is a long, long night.”)

Idea #6. “How much would I pay for this?”

Lastly, here’s one more question you can ask yourself when you’re trying to decide whether or not to buy something. This time by Sarah Von Bargen over at Yes And Yes Blog.

“Think about how much you’d be willing to pay for it before you look at the price tag.”

This is great because it places YOUR value on the item before you actually find out the true value! Or, I guess, the price tag, but still – same thing if you’ve agreed to exchange money for it, right?

If you guessed close and it *excites* you, great. At least you know you’re getting what you feel it’s worth. If it’s way out of the ballpark, though, you better stop for a hot second and really be sure it excites you enough. After all, you have to want it MORE than cash money, and that’s one helluva tall order! ;)

So there it is friends! A handful of new ideas for you to run off with and steal too. Please continue to spill all your secrets here, and I’ll do my best to continue making you famous :)

See you smarty pants in the comments…

*******

Want more? Check out other tips our community has shared over the years:

29 Quick Money Tricks

Some Tricks That Help Me Be Better at Life

More Inductions To The Saving Hacks Hall of Fame!

More Tricks to Accomplish Your Goals Faster

6 Great $$$ Ideas To Steal posted first on http://ift.tt/2lnwIdQ

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heliosfinance · 8 years

Text

6 Great $$$ Ideas To Steal

One of the best things about blogging is starting conversations, and then watching all your smarty pants friends chime in with clever ideas of their own ;)

I’ve been collecting a handful of them over the months, and thought today was as good a day as any to share them around so that you guys can steal them too.

Hope they help!

Idea #1: No more gifts please, 529 only!

Idea #2. Spend something, save something!

This idea comes from Stefanie O’Connell who dropped it on our post the other week about being able to save more if you’re spending everywhere. Here’s her idea:

I’m not totally against lifestyle inflation. I think some sensible improvements are reasonable, but it is SUCH a slippery slope. So I��ve been thinking a lot about how to find the balance. Somewhat similar to this reader, I’ve toyed with a system of matching any new expenses with additional savings before upgrading. For example, if I’m going to start getting a massage once a month. I won’t consider myself able to ‘afford it’ until I can build both the cost of the massage and match that with an additional contribution to my savings, into my budget. TBD on how this method works out.

Idea #3: “Do I want to clean this thing?”

“I’m a big fan of asking myself if I’d like to clean/maintain the item before purchasing it. So much is not bought this way.”

“Would you go out and buy it again?”

“Would I wear this out of the dressing room right now?”

“Would you rather have this, or straight up cash money?”

Idea #4: Separate out your recurring expenses with your variable expenses

Now hurry up and get your own site up and running, Paul!

Idea #5: Share your failures at the dinner table

Okay, so this one actually comes from Spanx founder, Sara Blakely, and not someone who reads our site (although you never know?), but it was really good and I thought you’d like it.

Business insider ran a story on how her dad taught her a bunch of business lessons growing up, and one of the ones that really stuck with her was around failure.

Here’s a clip from the article:

(Reminds me of a quote I recently read from Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s – “I was an overnight success alright, but 30 years is a long, long night.”)

Idea #6. “How much would I pay for this?”

Lastly, here’s one more question you can ask yourself when you’re trying to decide whether or not to buy something. This time by Sarah Von Bargen over at Yes And Yes Blog.

“Think about how much you’d be willing to pay for it before you look at the price tag.”

So there it is friends! A handful of new ideas for you to run off with and steal too. Please continue to spill all your secrets here, and I’ll do my best to continue making you famous :)

See you smarty pants in the comments…

*******

Want more? Check out other tips our community has shared over the years:

29 Quick Money Tricks

Some Tricks That Help Me Be Better at Life

More Inductions To The Saving Hacks Hall of Fame!

More Tricks to Accomplish Your Goals Faster

6 Great $$$ Ideas To Steal published first on http://ift.tt/2ljLF4B

0 notes