15 Digital Marketing Tools to Use in 2022

1. VEED

VEED.IO is an online video editor tool designed to make creating high-quality videos simple and fast. With an intuitive and user-friendly interface, it’s perfect for everyone, whether you’re a beginner or a professional. The platform offers essential editing tools, allowing users to trim, crop, merge, and resize videos effortlessly. You can also automatically generate subtitles and transcriptions in multiple languages, making your videos more accessible to a global audience.

2. Adobe Creative Cloud

One of the digital marketing tools to use in 2022 is none other than Adobe Creative Cloud. You’ll have access to the whole suite of tools, such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, XD, and other apps for social media, design, video, web, and more. Most marketers use Adobe Creative Cloud for social media, whether for TikTok and YouTube videos or Instagram posts. For example, an ecommerce marketer might also use Adobe Creative Cloud for product photography and videography. The digital marketing tools most often used by digital marketers who use Adobe are Photoshop for images and Premiere Pro for video. The whole suite of tools costs $69.99/month.

3. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is one of the most popular digital marketing tools for businesses that attract audiences through content and SEO. You can do keyword research, competitor analysis, and SEO analysis for your own website. When analyzing your own site, you can see your Ahrefs ranking out of all websites in the world to know how you’re doing. On top of this, you can view the exact number of backlinks you have and which websites are linking to you. You can even see which keywords you’re ranking for. But the special icing on the cake is that you can even get a dollar sign for how much those keywords are worth in a dollar amount in case you’re planning to sell your business. You can run site audits to find broken backlinks, uncrawled pages, and the top issues of your website. You can also do a content gap analysis to see which keywords your competitors are ranking for that you aren’t. Overall, this is the digital marketing tool people in the SEO space use the most because of how comprehensive the features are.

4. Beamer

Digital marketing tools like Beamer allow you to send push notifications to your audience when they visit your website. You can also send boosted announcements, segment your user base, and monitor the performance of your marketing efforts. While push notifications aren’t as popular as they were a few years ago, they’re great at generating traffic back to your website or a specific page. Depending on its size, the influx of traffic you get from a push notification can sometimes even be comparable to your email list. Getting people to subscribe to push notifications is easier than convincing people to opt-in to an email list as it only requires one click.

5. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is the best free digital marketing tool you’ll find when it comes to your website analytics. This marketing tool allows you to view real-time traffic of your website so you can see the traffic in real-time when running an ad, sending an email, or going viral from a shout-out on TikTok. You can also view the demographics of your website traffic to understand who’s visiting your site. Age, gender, location, interests, and device are some of the audience details you can view for free in Google Analytics. You can also view how you acquired those audiences. For instance, you can see how much traffic came from social, email, referrals, organic, or even directly visited your website. And if you’re creating landing pages or blog posts for your website, you can view how many page views each page receives. Plus, how much time they spend on each page and the bounce rate of the page are also included in detail. Overall, every website should have Google Analytics installed on it, since it’s a free digital marketing tool that gives you a lot of data to better understand your website’s performance.

6. Dashlane

Every digital marketer knows the importance of storing your passwords securely. After all, hacks are becoming more common every day. You can no longer use “123456” or “password” as the passwords for your digital marketing tools, social media sites, and other log-ins. Dashlane is a password manager that allows you to store your passwords securely. You’ll be able to safely store all your auto-fills, passwords, and credit card details. If you work on a team with other marketers, you’ll be able to share the company credit card details safely as it is encrypted. Their password manager is used by 14 million people, making them a legitimate choice for password, credit card, and other confidential information. You’ll be able to create accounts for your team so that everyone can securely access passwords for team accounts.

7. Long Tail Pro

Long Tail Pro is an SEO tool for digital marketers. Like other popular SEO tools, you can use the tool to do keyword research to find profitable keywords to rank for. You can also track your rank position for your best-performing keywords, articles you recently did a content freshness on, and more. This tool also allows you to monitor your backlinks, which can be useful when doing backlink exchanges. You can also run a site audit with Long Tail Pro to help reduce the technical SEO issues on your website.

8. MailChimp

MailChimp is one of the most established digital marketing tools in the email marketing space. The affordability of the tool makes it one of the leading email marketing tools for small businesses and bloggers. MailChimp allows you to create email campaigns, manage email lists, and distribute emails to your audience. You can use a template or create your own to create a professionally designed email. The tool is no-code friendly, allowing anyone to type text in without needing a technical background. You can also automate email campaigns directly from your blog as new content is posted. Or you can choose to schedule your emails at a specific time of your choosing. Those who’d like to take their email marketing to the next level can even run A/B split tests, to better optimize the performance of campaigns to improve open and click-through rates.

9. Semrush

You can use digital marketing tools, such as Semrush, to help with SEO, content, market research, advertising, and more. This digital marketing tool allows you to do keyword research, on-page SEO, competitor analysis, and ranking tracking, just as other SEO tools do. However, it takes it a step further by offering features for other types of marketing as well. You can also optimize content, distribute it, and analyze it with Semrush. Now, if you want to take it a step further, you can also see your competitor’s ad copy so that you can improve your advertising campaigns. Not only this, but you can do some pretty detailed competitor analysis to determine what the best performing keywords your competitors are ranking for and more. If you’re currently running PPC campaigns, you can do your keyword research on Semrush, making this one of the most well-rounded digital marketing tools.

10. SERP Watcher

Digital marketing tools like SERP Watcher allow you to do keyword research, track your rank position, analyze your backlinks (and competitors), and analyze your overall SEO numbers. Some call this tool the “budget Ahrefs,” allowing you to do the same type of SEO work at a more affordable price. You can look up keywords for your business and see what keywords your competitors are ranking for. You can even track the ranking of your best-performing keywords to see if there’s been an increase or decrease in rank position. SERP Watcher also allows you to look up other websites as part of your research. If you upgrade your plan from Basic, you’ll also be able to have multiple people log in simultaneously for your growing SEO and content teams.

11. Shoelace

Shoelace is a digital marketing tool that specializes in ad optimization. The tool can be used to create retargeting ad campaigns and Google ads. You can even add workflows to improve the performance of your emails. If you don’t have an in-house ad team, you can use Shoelace to help create high-performing ad campaigns for you. The ads are split between acquisition and retention to ensure that you keep the customers you bring in. Each business gets a dedicated account strategist who helps manage the ad account, customer journey, and more. You’ll even get access to app reporting so you can view the result of your campaigns 24/7. If you’d prefer to use Shoelace for your email campaigns, you’ll be able to generate an average of 122% return on investment through the abandoned cart, post-purchase, and even welcome emails.

12. Social Bee

Social Bee is a social media management platform making it a worthy digital marketing tool for social media marketers. This platform allows you to manage social accounts like TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and even Google My Business. With this digital marketing tool, you’ll be able to create content, schedule it, analyze your post’s performance, reuse content, publish content, and collaborate with others on your team. This tool integrates with popular tools like Canva. You can actually design your social media post directly in Social Bee using Canva. The tool also syncs up with a calendar so you can quickly view your promotional social events at a glance.

13. Webinar Ninja

Webinar Ninja is a digital marketing tool that allows you to create webinars. Digital marketers often focus on providing value to their customers, which can come in the form of education like an online course or a webinar. Some of the biggest companies offer webinars to help educate their customers on their products so people can reap the most benefits from a product. For example, Shopify webinars help teach you how to start a Shopify store, how to use Google Shopping, and even how to move your store from Etsy to Shopify. With Webinar Ninja, you could do live webinars for special events or automated webinars that are pre-recorded and played at the same time every day.

14. Canva

Digital marketing tools like Canva allow you to design social media posts, slide decks, and other marketing assets. You could even design products like business cards, notebooks, and more in Canva. Some small businesses and entrepreneurs turn to Canva to design logos, flyers, posters, or social media posts on their own, without needing a professional designer to complete the design. Canva has a drag-and-drop functionality that allows you to easily add graphics, change colors, and even remove backgrounds at the click of a button. For those who aren’t proficient at using tools like Photoshop, Canva is a great alternative for digital marketers looking to quickly design something professional themselves.

15. Airtable

Airtable is one of the digital marketing tools marketers use to help them stay organized. It’s similar to tools like Trello and Asana but offers additional functionality, making it one of the best cloud collaboration tools for marketers. You can add your content calendar, create spreadsheets, and automate workflows. The advanced digital marketing tool includes apps that allow you to automate more processes, simplify your reporting, and help you view data in various ways. The tool is no-code friendly, allowing digital marketers to create advanced reporting without being technical.

Conclusion

Digital marketing tools can save you time and money while helping you hit your marketing goals with the kind of data you need to set you up for success. Whether you invest in an SEO tool, an email marketing one, one that helps you manage your marketing calendar, or all of the above is up to you. No matter what marketing obstacles you face, there’s a digital marketing tool out there that gives you the data, analytics, and competitive advantage to become a better marketer. So, which digital marketing tools will you be investing in next? Let us know.

The post 15 Digital Marketing Tools to Use in 2022 appeared first on A Better Lemonade Stand.

What is a Backlink?

A backlink is an incoming hyperlink from one website to another website.

For example: In one of our previous articles, a Shopify Review, our opening sentence reads:

“It’s been long overdue that we post a Shopify review on A Better Lemonade Stand.”

In that sentence, we included a link to Shopify, the business that we’re making reference to, and that’s a backlink for Shopify.

Any link from another website to yours is considered a backlink to your site. Any link on your website to another page on your website is called an internal link. As a website, your goal is to get quality (more on that soon) backlinks from other websites because it increases your website value, so you increase your ranking position in search results.

Why Backlinks are Important

Backlinks are important because search engines read them as a way of websites vouching for one another which helps to improve the rank and domain authority (think of this as credibility) of the linked site. However, these days, site owners practice link building with sites in relevant industries because relevancy is an important factor. So, it’s not as simple as getting links from any site.

In the example mentioned above, when we’re linking out to Shopify from A Better Lemonade Stand, Google reads that and come to the conclusion that:

• Shopify is likely a reputable website because A Better Lemonade Stand is linking out to them, and;
• A Better Lemonade Stand is likely in the same industry as Shopify.

Backlinks are recognized by search engines as a vote of confidence and the more reputable websites that link back to your own website, the more reputable it makes your website seem to search engines by association. To simplify this, a link from CNN is seen is much more credible and valuable than a link from Joe’s random thought blog that he started 2 weeks ago.

When you have other websites with high domain authority vouching for your website it helps to improve your organic search engine ranking, you get indexed faster and you also get direct referral traffic from websites that are relevant to yours which means targeted traffic gets passed on to you and you’ll experience a lower bounce rate.

How Backlinks are Measured

That being said, different websites are ranked differently in a variety of ways when it comes to reputation, and that, amongst other variables, affects how backlinks are measured.

No backlinks are created equally. They depend on a variety of ranking factors that are, for the most part, speculated.

DOMAIN & PAGE STRENGTH

Website authority can be measured in two different ways:

• The overall strength of the domain
• The strength of the URL

This means that, for example, abetterlemonadestand.com has its own rank of website authority as one entire domain, whilst abetterlemonadestand.com/blog (or this particular blog post) will have an independent authority that’s connected to the domain but separate still because it is its own page.

Bonus: To better understand domain and page authority, check out this free website and page authority checker. To use it, just enter some of your favorite websites to see what their domain and page scores are.

NOFOLLOW & DOFOLLOW LINKS

Backlinks can also be measured by being either nofollow and dofollow links.

• Nofollow links are when a website links to another but it doesn’t boost the external website’s page rank or change it’s placement in search results. Nofollow links are often used by websites if they’re linking to an unverified source for any reason, don’t want to be associated to the page they’re linking out to, or in the case of paid sponsorships, as per Google’s advertising guidelines, they require those links to be nofollow.
• Dofollow links exist when one website links to another one and they want search engines to consider that link as a vote of confidence for the website they’re linking out to. Dofollow links are common when websites or blogs are linking out to other websites or blogs and see no detriment in being associated with that website in the eyes of the search engine.

Note: Generally most links are DoFollow links unless the author of a website, post, or page specifically decides to make a link or set of links NoFollow. NoFollow links are identified by adding the nofollow attribute to the link code.

For example:

• A DoFollow link will look like this: <a href=”https://www.shopify.com”>Shopify</a>
• A NoFollow link will look like this: <a href=”https://www.shopify.com” rel=”nofollow”>Shopify</a>

One important exception to note is easily self-attainable backlinks from self-posting sites/forums and social networks (like Facebook, Twitter, Quora, or comment sections of blogs) are almost always NoFollow.

Bonus: To get a better idea of which links around the web are DoFollow vs. NoFollow, download the NoFollow for Chrome extension. It will highlight all links and show you which ones are DoFollow and which ones aren’t.

LINK PLACEMENT

Link placement is also thought to play a role in how search engines rank backlink authority. If a link is included in the context of written content on the page of a website it’s thought that search engines place more emphasis on it because it’s more likely to be relevant to the content of the website overall and is likely to be clicked more than links that are placed elsewhere on a webpage such as in the footers or sidebars.

ANCHOR TEXT

What words the link is linked to on a page is also thought to be an indicator to search engines of how relevant it is, this is known as Anchor Text. For example, anchor text is the words where the link is tethered to. For search engines, these words are indicative that they’re relevant to the content and likely to be clicked.

As another example, in the yellow bonus section above we purposely linked to a free website and page authority checker and specifically chose the words that were linked. Google and other search engines read and register the words that are linked (anchor text) and these words help search engines better understand what the page or website you’re linking to is about and what it should rank for in search engine results. By specifically linking the descriptive words like “free website and page authority checker,” we have provided that website with a quality backlink that helps search engines better understand what they are and what they do, and we help that website rank higher for some keywords that are important to them and to other people finding them.

LINK RELEVANCY

Finally, link relevancy also plays a role in determining the strength of a backlink. Depending on several factors that search engines are well equipped to measure such as anchor text, other outbound links, keywords, H-Tags, the context surrounding the links and more, each of those helps determine whether a link is relevant to the overall content of the page and therefore whether the backlink is relevant or not.

Search engines place an emphasis on rewarding websites with authority via backlinks carefully and measure the relevancy of links in a variety of different ways to ensure that the backlinks are authentic and not spammy to encourage well-constructed content by websites that are relevant and helpful to searchers so they find what they’re looking for. Search engines reward websites that meet their demand with higher domain and URL authority as well as relevant organic traffic.

Low-Quality Links & Spam

Acquiring links from websites or web pages that have been deemed by search engines to have low domain strength because they’re any combination of being low-quality sources, inappropriate, or spam can result in penalizing your own website. It’s important to not fall into the trap of thinking that more backlinks from more sourcing all pointing back to your website will increase your website’s rank authority in the eyes of search engines. It’s the quality of backlinks that counts more than the quantity. Aim to get links from authoritative sites that are relevant to your own in terms of subject matter and search engines will reward you with increased search traffic over time.

How to Get Backlinks

Now that you have a background on what backlinks are, why they’re important, and how they’re measured by search engines, let’s dive into the ways you can build backlinks for your own website.

1. Reddit Social Proof Method

For those who haven’t already started using the forum Reddit for your business, now is the perfect time to start getting acquainted with it. It’s a very particular kind of forum with savvy users, so if you’re unfamiliar with their content policy, what “subreddits” are and proper “Reddiquette”, get familiar with it before you start using these next two methods to build backlinks

The purpose of this method is to give value, get upvotes, and then replace the content of the socially-proofed post with a link to your site.

Here’s how to perform it:

• Create a remarkable piece of content (more on that in our Content Strategy article).
• Find the subreddit within Reddit that best suits the niche you’re trying to target (make sure to thoroughly search through all the different subs to find the right one (or ones) that is relevant to your content. Relevancy is key as Redditors don’t appreciate spam and this method won’t work if the right niche of people aren’t engaged with the post).
• Create a post to that subreddit following that sub’s community guidelines (this step of the process is crucial. You have to approach your post on the subreddit very carefully. You cannot just post a link to your content and expect the subscribers of that sub to see the value in it, you have to give value first).
• Whilst creating the post, include all the valuable information you discuss in the remarkable piece of content you created. Your goal is to tell people the details you discuss in your piece content, why it’s interesting and why it’s relevant to them, and then, after you provide a thorough few paragraphs of information and if the community guidelines permit it, include a link to your piece of content and let users know they can click on that link for the full article.
• Once you’ve created that post, publish it to the subreddit.
• Once the post has been up for several hours and it’s generated a significant amount of upvotes and comments, edit the original message of your post to just include the link to your piece of content so that users will then have to click through to your web page to view the content. This only works if you’ve generated a significant amount of upvotes and comments.

Links on Reddit start off as nofollow links and as we discussed earlier in this article, that means that there is no link juice transferring over from Reddit to any outgoing links, unless, and this is the important part, a certain amount of upvotes are achieved and then those links become dofollow. The actual number of upvotes isn’t public knowledge, but through educational speculation and testing, it’s widely believed that this theory is true. Getting a dofollow backlink from Reddit is hugely beneficial as their rank and domain authority is very high.

Test out this backlink building method for yourself but remember not to be spammy on Reddit, follow the community guidelines, give value and get social proof first then leave a link to your piece of content and hopefully get some high-value link juice and referral traffic.

Example: Below is an example screenshot of the /r/entrepreneur subreddit. You can see from the highlighted link colors which ones are DoFollow (Purple) and which ones are NoFollow (Red).

2. Create Remarkable Content

If you post remarkable content consistently that’s interesting, engaging, valuable, and helpful, you’ll get high-value websites linking out to you organically without having to ask for a backlink.

This is a difficult method because it takes a lot of time to produce helpful and valuable content consistently and to sustain it over a long period of time. Even if you publish high-value content on your website from day one it’s going to take a while for others to take notice of your effort and in the meantime, it’s easy to get discouraged due to lack of an engaged audience. The difficult part is providing value on a consistent basis over a long enough time period to generate an engaged audience that supports your efforts. Once you reach that point you’ll start to see backlinks from other high-value sources start to come in and that’s when you reap the rewards of the work you put in creating remarkable content from day one.

Until then, you just have to create content that’s interesting, engaging, and helpful, promote it via every possible method, and work on every other link building method.

Bonus: For more on how to create remarkable content, check out our content strategy blog post where we share all our secrets with you.

3. Create Linkbait Content

Link building works best when you don’t need to do a lot of upfront work to get it. A simple hack to get quality backlinks to your site is to create linkbait content. For example, statistics and studies are some of the most linked to pieces of content. By creating content around industry stats for your niche, you can have more people linking out to your content. Depending on your industry, you can also collaborate with a local university or college to do a study in your industry so people link out to your content.

Alternatively, you can also create custom linkable images like infographics with stats compiled. That way, if the research isn’t your own you can include it with a source section on the bottom of the page but still benefit from quality backlinks while ensuring the source gets credit.

4. Get a Link from Your Manufacturer/Wholesaler/Supplier

Depending on your manufacturer, this may be an easy method to build a backlink. Basically, you want to reach out to the manufacturer who you source your products from and ask that they link you as a retailer of their products on their website, or link you as a business that they work with. Manufacturers are likely to have aged domains which are thought to be a high ranking factor by search engines. The older the domain the more authority it keeps.

The difficulty of this method is middle of the range because your manufacturer may not have a place for this kind of link on their website or they simply may not want to link out to you. If your manufacturer is open to the idea it’s an easy link to get but if not, you’re out of luck.

Beyond the difficulty of this method, the value of this backlink also lays in the middle of the range. It won’t be a low-value or spammy backlink by any means, but it also might not give you super high-quality link juice like you would be getting from a high-authority domain. That being said, if you can get your manufacturer to link out to you then it’s relatively easy to acquire and it’s one more backlink than you had before.

Before you reach out to your manufacturer make sure you have a reputable-looking website with some valuable content on it (like we discussed in the previous method) so the manufacturer is more likely to link out to you. They want to make sure they’re linking out to a reputable website as well so make sure you look like one.

Example: Below is an example of Beardbrand’s list of online resellers. When you sell other branded products, it’s usually in the best interest of the supplier or manufacturer to link to you, providing your store with a valuable backlink.

5. Interview Authorities in Your Niche

Seek out “authorities” in your niche, whether they be bloggers, influencers, speakers, entrepreneurs, creators, etc. and interview them. Post the content to your website and reach out to whomever you interviewed and let them know about the content you created.

More often than not the person will share your content, whether it’s on social media or, if you’re lucky, on their own website, and you’ll generate a backlink from it. People love it when they get noticed, even if it’s by a smaller player in their niche, so you will likely be recognized.

The trick with this method is to be persistent in every way. Persistently pursue influencers when you’re reaching out to interview them and persistently pursue influencers when you’re reaching out to share your content with them. It’s likely that they have a lot of emails coming in at any given time, so persistently follow up with them. The more eager you seem the more likely they will be to engage with you. Always be polite, don’t get upset or offended if they aren’t getting back to you, but do be persistent.

If they have a press page also ask to be featured on there as you’ll get a prominent backlink that is likely to have high authority. Build a relationship with the person you interview, generate some good content, and then work on getting the backlink.

6. Republish Old Content

Don’t let great content that you’ve created in the past go to waste. There are some websites where you can syndicate content which means that articles that you’ve published on your own website can be re-published on other websites relevant to your niche that have a much larger and diverse following than your own website. This enables you to get your content out in front of a larger audience and the original source of the content (your website) will get a link back to acknowledge where it was originally published.

Well known websites where you can syndicate your content include:

• Business 2 Community
• Huffington Post
• Lifehacker
• Medium
• Social Media Today

While it’s commonly thought that content syndication can lead to penalization from search engines for publishing duplicate content, that isn’t the case because there will be a link back to the original piece of content acknowledging its origin. Oftentimes the original creator of the content will also add a new introduction or title to the content as a means to differentiate it from the original post, but that’s optional.

Look for high-quality sites you can syndicate your content to (like the ones we mentioned above) so that you get valuable link juice from an authoritative domain. This method is also likely to generate social shares and put your content in front of an audience that’s interested in your niche so you’ll be gaining valuable referral traffic as well.

Bonus: For an additional 46 publications that accept republished content along with the appropriate contact info, please see this list, originally curated by the good folks at Sumo.

7. Reach out to media sources

You can get a lot of high quality backlinks by reaching out to the media. Keep in mind that while media sites have high domain authority, most of the time they aren’t relevant. So don’t focus on this strategy exclusively to ensure that you have a well-rounded backlink profile.

You can build links using sites like Help A Reporter Out (HARO). This tool will send you emails three times a day (morning, noon, evening) with various reporters reaching out for sources for their articles. Not all pitches are accepted, so aim to put a unique spin to your response.

Alternatively, you can also reach out to niche magazines to promote your blog, business, or app for a potential feature. Not only will this help you get a backlink but it might also help you generate more sales too.

8. Guest Posting

One of the most authentic ways to build a backlink is to guest post on someone else’s blog and earn a link back to your website in the byline or add some relevant contextual links to your website throughout the piece of content. When you guest post on someone else’s website you’re able to showcase your expertise in front of a new audience and control which pieces of your own context you link out to. It’s also a mutually beneficial relationship for you and the website host as you provide them with valuable content and they provide you with a quality backlink.

Securing guest post assignments isn’t always easy and you’ll likely have to start small and build a portfolio before you earn guest posts on larger blogs. Your best strategy is to be persistent, polite, eager, and let the website hosts know what value you have to offer. Always lead with what value you have to offer them, not with what you’re hoping to get out of it as they’ll be much more receptive to your guest posting pitch if they see that you genuinely have value to give and want to share it with their audience.

If you plan to reach out to other websites to guest post for them make sure your own site has valuable content already published on it so they have some way to gauge whether you’d be a good fit for their audience or not. Make sure your website looks professional and like you would fit into their niche market. Don’t forget to peruse their website and see if they have any guest post requirements or any particulars your guest post would need to meet such as a specific word count or formatting.

9. Promote on social media

Those wondering how to get backlinks should consider promoting their website on social media despite some of the no-follow links pointing back at your site. Link building on social media means that you’re guaranteed a link and might also get some decent website traffic back.

If you’re promoting blog content, the two easiest social platforms to promote links on are Pinterest and Quora. The cool thing about Pinterest is that it’s a search-based image site for links. You can use a keyword research tool to find the site content with the most search volume and start posting those links on Pinterest first. While you won’t get high quality backlinks from it due to no-follow, you can generate a lot of traffic back to your site. Plus, when something goes viral on Pinterest, it typically ranks higher in search results too. So double win.

Quora is also pretty laid back about including external links to your site on their platform, as long as your response is at least a few of paragraphs long. Link building strategies centered around social media tend to be beneficial for traffic too, so it’s an additional bonus to link building.

10. Broken link outreach

Using SEO tools, you can find websites with broken links based on keywords. For example, say you own a fitness app, you might search for articles that link to the “best fitness apps” and scrape a tool to find broken links in the article. Then, you reach out to those sites and tell them that you found a broken link on their website and your site could replace it. This is a link building strategy that’s really effective for cold, outreach emails.

You can also use a target keyword for other pages that your article has. For example, if someone links to a study that has a broken link, you might promote one of your statistics webpages with a newer updated link they can replace it with. You don’t need to do a Google search to find this information, but you can also do it manually if you can’t find free tools that do this.

11. Product Reviews

If you have a certain product you’d like to promote to an audience, getting a blogger, influencer or another website to publish a review of your product is a valuable way to not only have your product featured in front of an audience that’s relevant to your niche, but a great way to get a contextual backlink as well.

As per search engine ranking systems, product reviews garner high ranking backlink authority because they fulfill many of the high-value ranking requirements such as optimal link placement (within the post itself, not in a sidebar or footer) and link relevancy (within a relevant niche). If it is a sponsored product review, which depending on the website you work with they may only accept sponsored product reviews, as per Google guidelines, the link will have to be a nofollow link as opposed to a dofollow link, which isn’t ideal for a backlink but is still thought to provide some ranking power.

Make sure you reach out to reputable websites for product reviews, and as we recommended with guest posting you may have to start with being featured on smaller websites before you’re able to get onto more popular ones. Approach potential product reviewers with some fact-based data of your product such as how many units you’ve sold, what your customer/market demographics are or how much revenue you’ve earned so you can give reviewers a way to gauge the demand of your product or what target market would be interested in it. Always lead with what value you have to offer the reviewer, be persistent, polite, eager, have a valuable product with some reputable reviews or data backing it up, find reviewers that serve a relevant niche to yours, and have your own professional looking website.

Product Review Sites:

• Bless This Stuff
• Cool Material
• Firebox
• Gear Moose
• HiConsumption
• Product Hunt
• Uncrate
• Werd

12. Try influencer marketing

Every company has potential influencers in it. It could be your content creator, social media team, founder, or even product person. By using the spokespeople in your company, you can get backlinks from making statements and being included in expert round-ups.

Those active on social platforms like LinkedIn or on your website’s blog, could easily be quoted by another website, with a backlink included to their personal website or workplace. You can get more links by being active online and creating quotable content. If someone links to your social media instead, you can look up your brand mentions and ask for a link to your website instead.

13. Reach out to “Resource” pages

Many popular websites have resource pages. In the ecommerce community, many people refer to them as “partner” pages. By looking up listicles of popular blogs, websites, or even Shopify Apps, you’ll find countless resource pages.

You can then reach out to those companies who have set them up and ask to be included. This is an easy way to get a backlink to your website from a company who is willing to give them out. Often, resource pages show that a company is backlink-friendly.

You can find resource pages manually by going through lists of websites in your niche, browsing app stores, or through a Google search. You can also try the broken link tactic for these pages too if you notice that another site featured in the section is no longer active.

14. Request a Link

Search for blogs or websites that have conducted roundup lists or compilations of products, businesses or websites in your niche and ask to be added to the list.

For example, we occasionally get requests from businesses operating a graphic design service to add their website to our blog post, 200+ Free and Premium Graphic Design Resources. From our perspective, this is a mutually beneficial request: It enables us to keep our list up-to-date with the best resources out there and the business is able to get a dofollow backlink without having to guest post, comment on our blog posts, pay for a product review or republish their own content, and the link placement and relevancy is perfect. It’s also a simple request, you’re asking to be added to the already existing post, so it’s a fairly simple request for businesses to fulfill.

Look for posts where your website would just be a simple addition to the post, you’re not looking to re-write it. Find posts that are roundups or ones that have numbers in the title. See what your niche has to offer and just reach out! Make sure your website or product is relevant though, there’s no point if it’s not.

15. Unlinked Mentions Method

One of the ways on how to get backlinks is by doing the unlinked mentions method. As your website grows in popularity, you’ll notice that people start mentioning your website, app, or brand. Sometimes, they link to another article about your website whereas other times there aren’t any links at all.

If you’re looking for a good link building technique, you can use tools for online mentions and reach out to websites asking for a link. You can get high quality backlinks to your website using this method. If you notice that a link was missed, these sites can be added to your list of referring domains.

16. Contact competitor’s backlinks

Using SEO tools, you can easily see all the backlinks your competitor’s get. You can find countless referring domains for any popular website on the internet. By looking up all your competitors, you can sort through their referring domains to determine which sites link out to competitors the most. Then, you can contact those websites and ask for links to your site.

By looking at the website before reaching out, you can create a more personalized message. You can also look up the best ranking content on their site to see if there’s any alignment with your articles and business. Find out if there are any link building opportunities by doing cold outreach or by contacting the SEO employee at that company.

17. Subreddit Moderator Method

This is a very little known method of generating backlinks on Reddit and is lower in difficulty than the last method because you don’t have to generate social proof as a means of turning the backlink into a dofollow link. Even if you have no previous experience using Reddit this is an accessible way to get backlinks without having to engage with subreddit communities.

Here’s how to generate dofollow links to your website from Reddit:

• Create your own subreddit (please note that your Reddit account will have to be at least 30 days old and you’ll need to have a small amount of positive karma).
• Once you’ve created your own sub, you don’t have to post anything to it ever (if you don’t want to) but the value comes from linking your content in the sidebar. As a subreddit owner/moderator, you have the ability to add relevant links and information to your subreddit’s sidebar.
• Every time you have a new piece of content or a webpage you can to link out to, add it to the sidebar of your own subreddit and that will generate dofollow links to your website from Reddit.

As we’ve said above, Reddit is a high-value domain to receive link juice from, so a dofollow backlink from Reddit is beneficial and this is one of the easiest ways to get them. Please note, however, that your subreddit’s webpage will have a much lower authority than Reddit’s domain authority, but you will still acquire link juice and a backlink associated with Reddit.

18. Create more webpages

This might be a given, but the more webpages your site has the easier it is to get backlinks. Having a static one-page website will be much harder to get backlinks to than a website with landing pages, a blog, or multiple product pages. Content marketing is an important part of link building. Without tons of content, it’ll be a harder ask for backlinks. So, if you want to know the secret on how to get backlinks: build a blog.

A quick Google search shows that there are tons of topics you can write about that are relevant to your niche. You can use a free tool for keyword research to come up with ideas. But by writing relevant content in your space, search engines will understand what your website is about and you’ll rank higher in results in that industry. Relevant sites will be more likely to start link building with you. So write some long form content on a regular schedule and stick with it for years to come, so people can rely on your expertise in your industry.

19. Add your own internal links

While building links can be quite a challenge, there’s an easy way to get links to your site: practice internal link building. While you won’t get the same elevation in ranking from an internal link, there are many benefits to adding links to other pages of your websites, such as lowering bounce rate and keeping people on your site.

You can add internal links easily. The more content you have, the more likely that keywords you’ve written about show up in an article. Relevant websites will typically have multiple topics in the same area which makes internal linking easier.

20. Rank higher in search

You can attract links by ranking higher in search. Most people don’t do thorough searches when linking out to another website. If creating link building campaigns and doing cold outreach scares you, you’ll want to rank high in search results to get a few links organically. Referring domains typically pick the top articles to link out to or the article with the exact search intent they’re looking for.

Keep in mind that without backlinks, it’s hard to rank high in search. So if you’re playing the organic game, it’ll be a slow climb up. How many backlinks you get organically will depend on how many articles are ranking in the top three positions in search. But it is possible to earn backlinks organically without doing outreach.

Conclusion

Now you know the top 10 ways you can build backlinks to your website. We encourage you to try out each method for yourself and see what response you get. Don’t forget to be persistent, polite, and eager whilst still providing value when reaching out to other websites. Building backlinks is a marathon, not a sprint so be diligent about building a link here and there over time and they’ll begin to accumulate. First things first though, start working on remarkable content, a valuable product, and a beautiful website if you haven’t already so that you have something to direct potential collaborators to. Remember, it’s the quality of backlinks that count, not the quantity, so aim for quality.

The post How to Build Backlinks: 20 Ways to Get Backlinks to Your Store appeared first on A Better Lemonade Stand.

Americans spent nearly 10 percent more on home improvement projects in 2020, according to Home Advisor. Now, more than ever, the average consumer deeply cares about how their living spaces look.

It’s no wonder why the global home decor market, valued at $616.6 billion in 2019, is expected to reach $838.6 billion by 2027.

Source: Research and Markets

For brands to leverage this booming market, they must reach people. But for a space that’s remained traditionally brick-and-mortar, is selling online the best idea for home decor retailers?

Yes, as it turns out. Ecommerce is driving the sales of home decor. Consumers want to put a lot of love into their homes today, and they’re relying on the digital world to help them out.

Here, we explore why home decor brands need to sell online and how they can begin.

Why selling online is no longer optional for home decor brands

People were already getting used to the idea of purchasing home decor online even before the COVID-19 crisis. Williams-Sonoma and its brands like West Elm and Pottery Barn saw 52.8% of their retail sales come through ecommerce in 2018.

The pandemic has only added greater urgency to this effort:

• The home-products and furnishings category saw a year-over-year (YOY) online sales increase of 97% in March 2020.
• Furniture Today showed a 200% surge in online furniture browsing, 242% increased browsing for desks, 260% jump in searching for outdoor furniture online, and a 205% increase in browsing for home decor in March 2020.
• 58% of millennials, nearly half of Generation X, and 37% of baby boomers say they were more likely to shop for home furnishing online now than pre-pandemic.

Source: Statista

• Websites selling home decor and furniture products online generated 1.7 billion visits in March 2020.

Brands with an established online presence during the COVID shutdown could keep up with sales, despite physical stores getting closed. For instance, DTC home furnishing brand Article shared that April 2020 was their highest revenue month to date, with sales up 200% year over year.

But many retailers weren’t prepared for the pandemic-induced digital shift. They were heavily dependent on in-person sales, with poorly-built websites lacking advanced features for online shopping.

It’s no wonder the home furnishing industry suffered a 26.4% YOY decline in March 2020—translating to billions of dollars in lost revenue.

And for retailers, growth is expected to continue accelerating. A report by Technavio predicts the online home decor market will grow by $83.32 billion during 2020-2024 and reach $348.3 billion by 2027.

Source: Research and Markets

So, online sales aren’t going anywhere. The coronavirus crisis is a testimony to how critical it is for modern brands to have a digital presence.

Being online doesn’t mean shutting down your brick-and-mortar store. The most successful home decor brands are taking a more wholesome approach and developing an omnichannel strategy—allowing consumers to shop hassle-free online or offline.

Here’s how to set up your home decor brand for omnichannel success.

How home decor brands can sell online: Everything you need to know

Opportunities for home decor brands to enter the home are abundant. The barrier to entry is minimal, and no company holds a monopoly—Semisupervised’s 2021 study of 1,111 DTC brands placed “home and garden” in the least saturated category.

If you’ve ever thought about starting a home decor business or taking your existing one online, now is the time. Here’s your step-by-step guide to getting started:

1. Find what you want to sell (and how)

The easiest way to differentiate your brand from the mass market is by offering a unique product to a niche audience.

What you choose to sell depends on your budget, area of expertise, and preferred business model. For example, you can work with a manufacturer to create your furniture or you can make the furniture in-house and work with consumers on a made-to-order model.

You don’t have to come up with an entirely new product, either. You can sell to a niche audience with minor modifications to a popular category. Take Ordinary Habit and Goodfit, for example. Both make puzzles—but while Ordinary Habit aims to design artful games that help people get away from screens, Goodfit makes puzzles reflecting modern culture through recycled cardboard. Same product—targeting two different types of consumer markets.

What you sell also relies heavily on how much you can invest. The amount of money you need to get your business off the ground depends on your product choice and business model. For instance, a print-on-demand business won’t require much investment upfront since you’re buying materials as you go. But a furniture business might need storage and warehouse space—requiring capital right at the beginning.

You don’t have to go big or go home—you can begin humbly. Farah Mehri started her home decor brand Inspire Me! from her Instagram account. After four years of teaching her Instagram audience how to make their homes warm and inviting, she started her own product line.

Source: Instagram

Like Farah, you can begin small with what you can afford and gauge the demand in the market before you scale.

2. Build your brand online

Successful brands are strategic. You need to carve out a brand story, set your visual aesthetic, decide your vision and mission, and solidify your ideal consumer.

Building a brand gives you an edge over your competitors and makes you more memorable. Data shows 77% of brands can simply disappear, and no one would care. You wouldn’t want to be one of those brands, would you?

Branding is essential in home decor categories where consumers largely make logic-driven purchases—like furniture and mattresses. Infrequent purchases mean buyers often spend significant amounts of time evaluating choices, comparing brands, and seeing what goes with their style.

Picking brand guidelines also acts as a reference when you map content for your website and social media. 68% of brands in one study report that brand consistency has contributed 10-20% to their revenue growth.

Source: Lucidpress

Take sustainable furniture company Knoll. They highlight their operational footprint and product processes on their website and even publish a sustainability report.

Source: Knoll

According to one study, 86% of consumers claim there are certain products for which they’ll purchase only from a brand name.

Building a brand can help consumers identify you from the noise and keep coming back for more.

3. Build a top-notch online store and website

Your website and online store are the faces of your company—determining how consumers perceive your brand. You want to capture your consumers and leave a positive impression fast.

Don’t know where to begin?

BigCommerce makes it easy for you to set up your store even if you aren’t big on tech or coding. The platform is highly customizable, letting you design your online store and website to match your brand. You can also purchase your domain name for your store directly from BigCommerce.

While designing your website, don’t make the mistake of skimping on the details of product photography, succinct descriptions about your product, and a consistent color scheme. Here are the elements to take care of:

Homepage

Your homepage is the first thing consumers see when they land on your website. It should talk about what you care about the most and what your existing consumers love about you.

Many brands like Frama—a lifestyle objects company—also opt for displaying their bestsellers and the latest content on their homepage so consumers can immediately start purchasing from them.

Source: Frama

Another thing you need to take care of on your homepage is navigation. Consumers should be able to find their way around your website easily—your brand story, your product categories, a way to contact you, and any FAQs.

Since the homepage is the first impression of your brand to consumers, don’t be afraid to sprinkle some personality. Take the hardware brand, Yuns. It has a homepage with minimal distractions, a stand-out cursor, and a unique experience.

Source: Yuns

Product categories 

If you sell various products, you must separate them into different web pages for the best consumer experience. Howards Storage World’s mega-menu navigation gives customers a quick overview of the various subcategories they can shop from—both visually and textually.

Source: Howards Storage World

You can also apply trends & demand and divide your product categories for what consumers might be searching for right now. For example, Frame Bridge has different categories for different occasions, like gift shopping, Christmas, or travel.

Source: Frame Bridge

You can also get creative and show your product in different use-cases to highlight the categories of your products. Article, for example, does a great job displaying how their product looks in different rooms.

Source: Article

Product images and descriptions 

Consumers can’t see and feel your products, so product photos are your opportunity to build trust and replace the in-person buying experience.

Use a combination of photos of your product to display finer details, for instance, and consumers using your product. For furniture and other items, consider using advanced features such as virtual tours and 3D imaging. They enable consumers to see themselves using your product. It’s possible to do this on your own, but if you can afford it, hire a product photographer to help capture the essence of your brand.

Furniture company American Leather does a wonderful job sharing high-quality photos of their products and people using them. They also have brief product descriptions to go along with it.

Source: American Leather

Here are a few product photography and product description tips and tricks to keep in mind:

• Shoot your product from different angles and highlight the scale. This helps consumers avoid feeling like your actual product differs in size from the image.
• Include detailed measurements for products like furniture in the description. Take furniture brand, Eloquence. Their product descriptions are short, straightforward, and answer all questions consumers might have.

Source: Eloquence

• Try to capture the finer details of your product by taking a zoomed-in picture.
• If it’s possible with your ecommerce website builder, go 3D. BigCommerce’s integration with ThreeKit lets you customize and configure your product in amazing 3D, AR, and virtual photography.
• Tell a story. Who is this product for? How can it be used? Why is it better than its competitors? This makes it easy for consumers to see why they should choose you over your competition. Take how Helix quickly talks about its mattress’ features on its website:

Source: Helix

4. Figure out shipping logistics and provide excellent customer service

The need to provide a smooth shipping experience—with fast shipping, easy returns, and low delivery charges—is indisputable today. Why? It’s one of the biggest deal-breakers for consumers. 49% of consumers cite extra costs of shipping, taxes, and fees as the primary reason for cart abandonment.

Source: Baymard Institute

But figuring out shipping, making a smooth return process, and keeping your customer in the loop throughout can be a nerve-wracking process.

You might be fulfilling orders yourself in the beginning. But as you scale, it makes more sense to hire a shipping company to be your warehouse partner. Make sure your chosen fulfillment partner has good reviews and has worked with similar companies in your industry. Determine what they charge beforehand so you can factor it in while pricing your product.

Gain consumers’ trust by elevating product reviews, highlighting quality assurance seals, and making returns and trials easy. Snowe’s transparent return policy and their detailed FAQ page is a great example.

Source: Snowe

But there’s more to customer service today than just seamless shipping.

Enter: Multichannel and omnichannel retailing.

The pandemic forced many retailers to adapt to multi-channel retailing—the practice of selling merchandise on many different sales channels.

According to a report by Global Data, retailers employing multichannel services achieved the best online channel growth rates—including many traditional retailers like Best Buy, Target, and Walmart.

Neil Saunders, GlobalData’s lead retail analyst, said:

“Despite claims that the growth of online shopping is leading to a ‘retail apocalypse,’ the reality is that many retailers across all sectors are thriving because they are innovating with multichannel to provide a convenient shopping experience for consumers. A very significant proportion of sales that are attributed to the online channel are, in fact, multichannel sales that rely on both stores and online for success. On average, one third of “online” non-food purchases – where a customer actually transacts online – are in fact reliant on physical stores for product selection, pick up, or return.”

The data backs this up—according to a report by Gallup, while brick-and-mortar stores show a five percent YOY growth, 60 to 70% of consumers are researching products both in-store and online. So, being just offline isn’t enough anymore.

Many retailers are also starting to recognize the importance of omnichannel retail—taking multichannel up a notch.

But what is omnichannel retail exactly?

It’s a brand’s presence not just on multiple channels (e.g., e-commerce & brick-and-mortar), but a seamless integration of inventory, customer service, and sales—making the transition between channels seamless.

Do you ever log in to your Amazon app from your smartphone and resume shopping for what you earlier saw on their website? It’s a classic example of omnichannel in action. Omnichannel strategies drive an 80% higher rate of incremental store visits. Omnisend even confirmed marketers using three or more channels in any campaign earned a 287% higher purchase rate than those using a single-channel campaign.

Source: Omnisend

60% of millennials expect a consistent experience from brands across channels. No wonder the global retail omnichannel commerce platform market is expected to reach $11.1 billion by 2024.

But despite the tremendous benefits of multichannel and omnichannel retail, only 73% of marketers have a strategy in place for multichannel marketing. And while 91% of retailers plan to invest in omnichannel strategy, only 12% of retailers say they have the right technology to implement it.

Source: The State of Omnichannel Retail

How can you opt for a better omnichannel approach?

• Get to know your consumers: Conduct surveys, talk to your customers 1:1, and listen to them on social media to offer personalized services and understand what your consumers truly want. For example, Serena and Lily provide personalized design advice to their consumers.

Source: Serena and Lily

72% of consumers say they only engage with personalized messaging. Getting to know your consumers is the stepping stone to offering personalized service to your customers. Furniture store, Burrow, takes customization to the next level with their innovative configurator. Consumers can choose the size, color, height of arms and legs while shopping for their sofa.

Source: Burrow

• Offer a great mobile experience: Optimizing your site for mobile is no longer an option. US mcommerce sales will nearly double their share of total retail sales between 2020 and 2025.

Source: eMarketer

• Be where your consumers are: Don’t jump on every channel available to you. Instead, be strategic and be where your audience is.

Customer service today is beyond affordable shipping and proactive communication. People want a hassle-free experience across devices and plentiful customization options.

5. Create a comprehensive marketing strategy

You can’t afford to be a couch potato when it comes to marketing—you have to be proactive and strategic to figure out what works for your brand. Do Facebook ads make more sense for your business, or should you try content marketing? Experimentation and thorough research are your friends here.

The furniture brand Industry West, for example, ran a creative Instagram campaign that resulted in over $900,000 in online sales. They wrote an “oops” style message sharing the details to access discounted merchandise. Their post took off, and they averaged one order every five minutes. 72% of shoppers from this campaign were first-time customers.

Like Industry West, one way to market well is to share content and build an audience on the social media platform of your choice.

For example, if you’re a furniture brand, you can share design tips and advice. It’s a great way to redirect traffic to your site and convert more social media followers into consumers. You can try a healthy mix of promotional, educational, and entertaining content.

For instance, Holistic Habitat—a socially conscious decor brand—does a great job with its Instagram Reels.

Source: Instagram

Flooring company Flooret, on the other hand, creates blog content centering around design advice, customer stories, industry trends, and more.

Source: Flooret

In the end, focus on marketing authentically and bonding with your consumers. 76% of consumers would buy from you over your competitor if they feel connected to your brand.

There’s no place like home: The future for home decor brands

So, there you have it. Our comprehensive guide to how your home decor brand can sell online.

If you’re still not reaching consumers digitally, you’re leaving money on the table for your competitors.

Right now, the bridge between e-commerce and in-store is shrinking. Selling online without sacrificing the customer experience is the best bet for home decor brands looking to grow in 2022 and beyond.

The post How to Sell Home Decor Online: The Ultimate Guide appeared first on A Better Lemonade Stand.

So rather than spending hours scouring the net for the best social media posting tools, we’ve lined up our top picks:

• Buffer
• Hootsuite
• Later
• Agorapulse
• SproutSocial
• Sendinblue
• Falcon.io
• Zoho Social
• Co-Schedule
• SocialPilot

We’re putting each of the above under the microscope to see what unique features they offer. But, more importantly, we’re taking a close look at what their customers have to say and throwing in real-world case studies of how each platform helped an actual business.

Hopefully, with all that information to hand, you’ll have a better idea of which (if any) tool is right for your business.

That’s a lot to cover, so let’s get straight down to it!

The Top 10 Best Social Media Posting Tools

Buffer

To kick things off, let’s start with one of the biggest names in the social media marketing industry: Buffer.

This platform has lots to offer with ten years of experience, especially if you’re a beginner looking to boost your social presence. It’s incredibly intuitive, and there’s even a free version available, with paid plans starting at as little as $5/month.

Buffer empowers you to post across all major social media outlets and schedule content across a calendar.

Buffer’s paid-for services unlock analytics, insights, reporting features, and an add-on for managing workflows with other staff members.

Customer Ratings & Feedback

Customers rate Buffer an average score of 4.3/5 on G2, with lots of customers saying they found Buffer easy to use and beginner-friendly. Many concurred that the platform is a great time saver for posting — especially when it comes to posting on Instagram. Users also liked Buffer’s well-organized interface and that it’s easy to arrange their content schedules efficiently.

However, we also managed to spot a few recurring issues that were reported in these reviews. For example, many cited glitches that caused errors loading content. Some also complained about costs. The Essentials plan sets users back $5 per channel, which can add up quickly.

Lastly, while Buffer’s reviews were generally positive on G2, there were many complaints on Trustpilot — especially regarding customer service. They scored a meager 2.1/5, with some of the worst complaints concerning users not getting their issues resolved and that the resolution process was overly long and complicated.

Buffer Case Study

• Company: Fortune magazine — a national news reporting agency and website.
• Problem: Fortune magazine had multiple editors posting simultaneously. As such, they found it difficult to spread their social media content out evenly.
• How Buffer Helped: Buffer empowered the company to schedule its social posts more efficiently and regularly, which led to a healthy boost in website traffic. The social media manager at Fortune magazine particularly praises the “bookmarklet” feature, which allowed them to post a quote from each story. This was a game-changer for quickly and easily drawing readers’ attention, enticing them to read more.

If you would like to dig deeper into this case study, you can find the full report here.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is another heavy hitter. It offers a 30-day free trial, then after that, all its services are premium with pricing starting from $39/month.

Hootsuite allows you to schedule multiple posts across several social media channels regardless of which payment plan you choose.

In addition, Hootsuite offers other handy social media marketing tools including analytics, content curation, and engagement tools. More specifically, Hootsuite’s content curation features entail an interactive content planner. From here, you can organize, review, and edit all your content from one centralized place.

Whereas Hootsuite’s engagement tool provides a social inbox. Here you can view comments and inquiries across all your social accounts. Needless to say, this goes a long way to helping you and your team streamline social media management tasks.

Impressively, all of this is included at the lower end of Hootsuite’s pricing scale.

Customer Ratings & Feedback

Hootsuite obtained a respectable 4.1/5 stars on G2. The majority of users find the tool easy to use and manage content. In addition, many described the platform as “time-saving” and “efficient” thanks to its integrated analytics features. On top of that, there was also praise for Hootsuite’s customizable URL shortener.

Additionally, several people complained on Trustpilot that they were charged before their trial had ended, resulting in a meager 1.3-star rating on the site, with many more grumbling about poor customer service in general and that the initial setup isn’t as beginner-friendly as other platforms.

Hootsuite Case Study

• Company: The Dallas Morning News — a regional media company
• Problem: The company wanted to create an online presence and utilize an easy method of engaging readers.
• How Hootsuite Helped: The company reported that Hootsuite helped them centralize their content, giving them far more control over their content marketing strategy. Not least because it ensured all their team members were on the same page. They also said this helped them streamline their workflow and coordinate their content more efficiently. In addition, viewing their content from a macro perspective helped them consistently produce and publish content to build brand awareness. Ultimately, this worked wonders for bolstering loyalty amongst their readers. Finally, the ability to measure analytics quickly and over specific time frames enabled them to tweak campaigns to enjoy further success and increase revenue.

You can read more about this case study here.

Later

Later is another popular social media tool with reasonable pricing plans ranging from their free version up to $40/month. Although Later enables you to post on several social media channels, it’s most suitable for Instagram.

Later’s interface centers on its visual content planner, which is incredibly easy to use. Here, you’ll enjoy access to features like basic media editing, a stock photo library, and the ability to schedule multiple posts in advance. It even provides Instagram analytics — amazingly, all of these features are available on Later’s free plan.

Customer Ratings & Feedback

Customers rated Later a very impressive 4.7/5 on G2, reporting excellent photo and video scheduling for Instagram. Many said it was easy to use and well laid out. The price was also a big draw as it’s lower than many of its competitors. Generally speaking, Later’s moderate customer service rating on Trustpilot of 3.8/5 stars was also higher than competitors, such as Hootsuite and Buffer.

However, for some users, Later’s major drawback is its lack of functionality for other social channels like Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok. Though there are some features, many users found it limited compared with other competitors. For example, it doesn’t allow you to publish multiple posts on Twitter, Facebook, or TikTok. People also noted that linking a Facebook account or API is complicated.

Later Case Study

• Company: Brew Dr. Kombucha — a Portland-based beverage company.
• Problem: The company was just starting up and wanted to introduce its brand values and create a solid first impression with prospective customers on social media.
• How Later Helped: The company felt their brand aesthetic was essential to present themselves to customers, and Later enabled them to do that. More specifically, Later helped them introduce their brand’s personality with eye-catching and coherent Instagram and LinkedIn feeds. In particular, they said that they liked that Later allowed them to gather photos, schedule them and that their whole team could review the feed before publishing.

For more on this case study, you can see the full report here.

Agorapulse

Agorapulse is a CRM and social media management tool with a focus on team collaboration. It’s specifically designed for agencies and businesses handling larger workflows. That said, it offers a free plan and several paid packages (starting at $79/month) that scale as your business does.

Some of Agorapulse’s more unique features center around audience engagement. For instance, you can respond and monitor comments left on your paid social media advertisements on Facebook and Instagram from one shared inbox. You also benefit from stats on follower retention and ROI.

Customer Ratings & Feedback

Agorapulse boasts a high rating regarding what people generally think about it and the customer service offered. In fact, G2 rates it 4.5/5 and TrustPilot 4.4/5.

Customers report that Agrorapulse is great for overall social media management. Many explicitly mention its “listening” features — these were said to be handy for comment engagement.

That said, the main draw of this tool appears to be its steep learning curve and that its price points could be lower. More specifically, some users complained that Later’s interface could be more intuitive.

Agorapulse Case Study

• Company: Travel Media — a travel media company.
• Problem: The company had a growing number of clients counting on them for consultations about their social media and communications strategies, however, they were struggling to prepare impactful reports for each client.
• How Agorapulse Helped: Travel Media noticed when they started using Agorapulse, they benefitted from a more efficient way to organize their social media reports. The company also found the scheduling calendar made it easier to manage their social media posts. Finally, Travel Media praised how easy integrating with their ad account was. Travel Media was able to see all the comments on their ads and manage customer feedback far more cohesively.

You can find a full report of this case study here.

Sprout Social

Sprout Social is a comprehensive social media management and scheduler tool, with analytics being its main selling point. It’s a powerful tool for analyzing data across various demographics. More specifically, Sprout Social utilizes industry, brand, and competitive insights. It also analyzes conversations to identify topics and keywords that give you a better understanding of consumer sentiment and brand health. It also offers valuable CRM tools, including Facebook bots and the ability to answer customer reviews from one centralized social inbox.

Sprout Social offers a 30-day free trial. After that, prices begin at $89/month.

Customer Ratings & Feedback

Sprout Social scores 4.3/5 on G2, with customers praising the platform for its analytics functionalities and smart social inbox.

In contrast, Sprout Social’s customer service scored just 2.5/5 on TrustPilot. Here, a few customers complained that the sales team made it exceedingly difficult to break out of their subscription contract.

Yet on G2, there weren’t many complaints about contracts or functionality. However, some users did mention that the price point is relatively high. Additionally, the inbox’s search tool had a tendency to overlook older customer reviews and social media comments. That said, a recurring comment from long-term customers was that Sprout Social is very good at taking feedback on board and putting it into action.

Sprout Social Case Study

• Company: Volunteer Match — a not-for-profit organization that matches volunteers with volunteering opportunities.
• Problem: The company had a single person managing all their social media content. As such, they needed a more efficient way to create consistent streams of high-quality content.
• How Spout Social Helped: Sprout Social was able to streamline Volunteer Match’s social media publishing process. Now, individual team members can upload posts to Sprout Social’s automatic scheduling queue. Sprout Social then organizes and schedules the content according to post frequency and timings — based on the company’s preferences. On top of that, when social media messages came in, the Volunteer Match team responded much faster, routing them to the appropriate departments when necessary. As a result, this led to building stronger relationships with their audience.

For more info about this case study, click here.

Sendible

Sendible offers valuable social media, team management, and collaboration features. Its collaboration functionality makes managing and delegating social media-related tasks a breeze. For instance, you can assign and approve social media posts. You can also grant team members and clients custom access to social media accounts, including Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. As well as providing a Google Analytics integration, Sendible also keeps you updated on the hashtags and keywords used by your competitors — how neat is that?

There’s a 14-day free trial, then Sendible’s prices begin at $29/month.

Customer Ratings & Feedback

Sendible customers love that the tool is clean and straightforward. The interface is intuitive, and everything is easy to find. On average, Sendible scored an incredible 4.5/5 on G2.

Users seem to love that you can create workflows that ensure content goes through your internal approval before it’s published.

In addition, customers also praised Sendible’s content preview feature. Here, you can see what your content looks like on different social media platforms before it goes live.

But, on the downside, people mentioned that the pricing balloons when you add extra features such as cloud integration, Google Drive integration, and custom approval workflows. They also noted that the process of adding these new features was complex.

Sendible Case Study

• Company: Swamp Fox Bookstore — a brick-and-mortar bookstore.
• Problem: The company wanted to boost community engagement and use social media to increase in-person visits and sales.
• How Sendible Helped: The company took advantage of Sendible’s content scheduling features to make their social media posts more regular and consistent. On top of that, Sendible’s social media analytics informed them of the best times to post and who their audience was. This enabled them to adapt their social media content and schedule accordingly to boost engagement on Facebook and Instagram. It also gave their business more visibility, with many customers commenting that a post online had led them to visit the store.

To read more about this case study, click here.

Falcon.io

Falcon.io is a social media and customer service management tool rolled into one. The software is designed for medium to enterprise-level companies with pricing packages starting at $108 after their 14-day free trial. Some of Falcon.io’s core features include an inbox for managing inquiries. Here, you’ll find customer cards with a log of their prior interactions with your brand, as well as info about their demographic.

You also get access to a handy social listening tool. More specifically, this lets you monitor customer sentiment and brand perception without manually sifting through large datasets. Instead, AI does most of the legwork for you and brings what you need to know to your attention.

Customer Ratings & Feedback

Falcon.io scored 4.1/5 stars on G2, with many customers praising its social listening features and benchmarking capabilities, with the latter allowing users to compare core metrics with ease.

Again, we saw pricing was an issue for some users, with starting costs being particularly steep. In addition, some customers reported limited support for TikTok and Instagram. In addition, issues relating to content scheduling were also detailed. More specifically, some users grumbled about not being able to upload multiple images in one go.

Falcon.io Case Study

• Company: Payoneer — a global payment company.
• Problem: The company used several different social media marketing tools to handle various tasks and social media channels and wanted to combine everything into one streamlined platform.
• How Falcon.io Helped: By enabling Payoneer to handle all their social media engagement from one centralized place, Falcon.io empowered Payoneer to improve their average response times. Initially, it took Payoneer an average of 14 hours to respond to Twitter inquiries. But, after working with Falcom.io, they were able to cut two hours off this time. They also said that since team members could communicate more effectively, they could better organize their workflows and assign jobs more efficiently.

Find the full report here.

Zoho Social

Zoho Social is one of the more reasonably priced solutions on the market, with prices ranging from $10 to $48/month (based on annual billing). It comes with an integrated CRM and a smartQ feature that tracks when your audience is most active. You can easily set up ad campaigns targeting new leads on Facebook and Twitter and encourage them to fill out an “interest form” to learn more about potential customers.

Then, once a lead takes an interest in your brand, Zoho Social’s community manager feature kicks into gear. More specially, this enables you to send out automated replies and get more information about who’s engaging with you.

Customer Ratings & Feedback

Zoho Social is highly ranked by customers for both its service and functionality. For example, G2 rated them 4.6/5. Customers said they liked the platform’s lead generation and social listening tools. It’s also purportedly easy to use. In terms of customer service, Trustpilot rated it a staggering 4.8/5, with many customers citing it as the easiest tool they’ve ever used.

However, some users reported difficulties formatting their content with the publisher. They also said that sometimes there are publishing delays, and the mobile app needs some improvement. Lastly, customers commented that they still couldn’t add their TikTok, YouTube, or Pinterest accounts to the platform.

Zoho Social Case Study

• Company: ATS — a technology solutions company.
• Problem: The company was looking for a social media management tool to quickly churn out content, promotions, and advertising.
• How Zoho Social Helped: ATS found Zoho Social’s interface particularly useful and easy to use. Their social media manager especially liked that they could set up email alerts for whenever a post went live. It helped enable them to keep on top of their daily and weekly social media tasks.

Find the full report here.

Co-Schedule

Co-Schedule is a relatively new social media planning tool. It’s unique in that it offers blogging tools for WordPress and Hubspot users. It also has a re-queue feature that allows you to reshare well-performing posts.

It has two main offerings. A marketing calendar starts at $29 per user per month and a more comprehensive marketing suite that varies in price. You’ll need to get in touch with Co-Schedule directly to get a custom quote for this package. Both plans boast a 14-day free trial.

Customer Ratings & Feedback

The general consensus on G2 is that Co-Schedule:

• Makes it easy to manage marketing projects
• Come with useful automation tools such as auto rescheduling
• Helpful for setting reminders for posts that need to go out

It’s rated 4.5/5 on G2 but has yet to get any reviews on TrustPilot as to its customer service standard. According to some users, the drawbacks of this app include problems with the calendar interface, limited functionality compared to competitors, and a lack of transparency regarding pricing for their marketing suite.

Co-Schedule Case Study

• Company: UMass Memorial Health — a not-for-profit health care network.
• Problem: The company suffered from isolated team management, a lack of collaboration, and low productivity.
• How Co-Schedule Helped: Using Co-Schedule’s marketing suite, the company was able to increase project visibility, streamline workflows, and increase productivity. In fact, the Memorial team managed to reduce emails in their inbox by 400 a month, which freed up 93 hours of productivity. In addition, Co-Schedule provided one place where projects could be easily tracked and managed. They also reported 100% visibility into team workloads and accountability by giving visible deadlines for different marketing tasks.

Find the full report here.

SocialPilot

Moving onto our last contender, SocialPilot also offers an all-in-one platform for social media publishing, scheduling, and engagement management. What makes this platform unique is its extensive range of social media networks supported, including:

• Pinterest
• LinkedIn
• TikTok
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Google My Business

What’s more, the “client manager” lets you invite clients to connect accounts, review upcoming posts and share reports through customized emails.

You can also add your name, logo, and color scheme to all correspondences that go out to clients. Plus, you can send them detailed analytic reports that tell them about their content’s performance and audience insights. There’s a 14-day free trial, then after that, prices range from $25 to $127/month.

Customer Ratings & Feedback

Customers on G2 gave SocialPilot 4.5/5 stars. They described this tool as good for outputting batch content. In addition, users on G2 rated SocialPilot’s customer service highly. With some citing that they could get helpful advice when issues emerge.

However, in terms of reporting, some customers found this feature lacking. Some people also commented that the interface had room for improvement. Some users would also like to see the service include storing and managing hashtags more efficiently.

SocialPilot Case Study

• Company: Elevation Brands — a marketing and advertising agency.
• Problem: The company was launching a new product and wanted a way to manage its new client base.
• How SocialPilot Helped: The company found SocialPilot easily scalable, optimized for client management, and offered excellent customer support. They believe SocialPilot provided good value for money. Plus, with SocialPilot’s customization features, they could add their name, logo, colors, and typography to all of their outgoing correspondences. Finally, Elevation Brands also liked SocialPilot’s detailed analytics that they could share with clients.

Find the full report here.

Our Final Thoughts on the Best Social Media Posting Tools

So there you have it, our list of the top ten best social media posting tools for your business. Managing your brand’s social media accounts can be very time-consuming, but thankfully, each of these tools offers something to make life simpler.

The post The Top 10 Best Social Media Posting Tools appeared first on A Better Lemonade Stand.

Why?

Because they’re able to base their decisions on facts and data rather than on speculation and theories.

To get the facts and data you need to make the best decisions for your business, SEMrush has all the tools you need. And, not only can SEMrush’s tools help you dive deep into your business’ data and analytics, but your competitors’ as well.

Not only can SEMrush’s tools help you dive deep into your business’ data and analytics, but your competitors’ as well.

Having the kind of data and analytics at your disposal that SEMrush can dig up can make your business decisions super powerful.

In this SEMrush review, we’re breaking down what SEMrush does and how we used it to increase our traffic by 532%. To date, it’s one of the most powerful tools or services we’ve ever used to make a big impact on our traffic and sales.

Let’s dive into what SEMrush can do for your business (and what it’s done for ours).

SEMrush Review: What SEMrush Does

SEMrush is essentially a one-stop online marketing research service.

They started as a way to help ecommerce entrepreneurs and website owners identify their competitor’s marketing strategies so they could use them for their own businesses, but over the years, SEMrush has evolved into so much more.

They’ve created many different tools to help entrepreneurs improve their marketing efforts, like:

• Keyword Research Tools
• On-Page SEO Tools
• Competitor Analysis Tools
• Content Marketing Tools
• Local SEO Tools
• Rank Tracking Tools
• Social Media Management Tools
• Link Building Tools
• Competitor SEO Analysis Tools
• Content Creation and Distribution Tools
• Content Optimization Tools
• Paid Advertising Tools
• PPC Keyword Research Tools

And so much more!

SEMrush has about 63 tools in total so we weren’t kidding when we said they’re a one-stop-shop!

And possibly one of the best things about SEMrush is that they don’t just spit out a wad of data and analytics at you — they offer strategy ideas, too. This helps users understand how to use their data and analytics and it can also help uncover any blind spots they might have overlooked.

In short, here are some of the standout things SEMrush can help you accomplish:

• Find out who your competitors are and the top competitors in your niche
• Determine the most valuable keywords your competitors are ranking for
• Learn exactly where your competitors are getting backlinks from
• Track your keywords and monitor their Google search positions
• Discover your competitor’s lucrative products to sell in your own store
• Learn exactly which keywords to use for your own product pages and blog posts

SEMrush Review: Who SEMrush is For

SEMrush is not for the new entrepreneur just starting up their first ecommerce business. It’s a bit too robust of a tool for a new business and would likely be wasted on brand new stores that are just starting to acquire traffic and customers.

Instead, it’s best suited for intermediate- or advanced-level entrepreneurs who are looking to grow their reach, boost their traffic, and get more ROI from their efforts. If you’re ready to grow your business to new heights and really want to dig in and do the dirty work when it comes to reports, analytics, data, and tracking, then SEMrush is the tool for you.

If you’re ready to grow your business to new heights and really want to dig in and do the dirty work when it comes to reports, analytics, data, and tracking, then SEMrush is the tool for you.

SEMrush is also for the entrepreneur who’s ready to get competitive in their industry and take their strategies to the next step. It’s for the entrepreneur who’s ready to get in on the game for real and the entrepreneur who’s ready to perform.

Our Results Using SEMrush for One Year

We’ve been using SEMrush here at A Better Lemonade Stand for several years now.

In particular, we were highly focused on SEO growth in 2015 and used SEMrush religiously to uncover great keywords to target. Over the course of that year, we were able to explode our readership, achieving 532% growth that year.

This set the stage for the rest of our business and was instrumental in our overall success as a business.

Why is SEMrush So Effective?

For most websites, stores, and blogs, the majority of traffic (80%) comes from a handful of pages (20%). This is a perfect example of the Pareto Principle at play.

By knowing exactly what your competitor’s top-ranking pages are, and the keywords those pages are ranking for, you can be exponentially more efficient with your time by creating and optimizing your content based on those keywords.

SEMrush’s tools help you do exactly this, so there’s less guessing you have to do, and instead you can just apply the information, data, and analytics you discover to work in your favor.

SEMrush Review: Video Walkthrough

In the video below, you’ll learn the basics of SEMrush, as well as a real example of how a smaller ecommerce brand can use the tool to uncover keywords and potentially lucrative product ideas from rival competitors.

SEMrush Review: Features & Tools

SEMrush offers a bunch of different features and services, some will be better for your business than others depending on your unique goals and objectives, but there’s sure to be a tool that can help you to improve your business no matter what your target is.

Check out the following descriptions for an overview of each tool and click on the link to learn more about it.

SEMrush SEO Tools

Keyword Research

We’ve discussed the importance of keyword research before in our Ultimate Guide to Keyword Research, so it’s no surprise that SEMrush provides tools dedicated specifically to helping you find the best high-volume and long-tail keywords for your content and website.

SEMrush provides 6 different keyword research tools:

• Keyword Overview: Get access to all necessary data of any keyword you search
• Organic Research: Analyze lists of your competitor’s keywords so you can discover new ways to win
• Keyword Magic Tool: Generate thousands of new keywords from one seed keyword
• Keyword Gap: Compare any website’s keywords profile against your own to find competitive gaps
• Keyword Manager: Analyze metrics for up to 1,000 keywords to keep tabs on your goals
• Organic Traffic Insights: Integrate with your store’s Google Analytics to cross-reference your performance

Keywords are such an important part of SEO and are an essential part of building a strong web presence for ecommerce businesses and websites alike, so SEMrush’s keyword research tools are so valuable if you want to increase your traffic.

On-Page SEO

Google’s algorithm is constantly changing so make sure you’re up to date with everything by using SEMrush’s on-page SEO tools. These tools enable you to check whether you’re hitting the mark when it comes to things like content writing, link building, keyword usage, and plenty of other SEO essentials.

These three tools will ensure that you’re doing everything possible to successfully optimize your website for search engines:

• Site Audit: Fix on-site problems and improve your SEO with SEMrush’s Site Audits. With this tool, you’re able to check the health of your SEO strategy, track your SEO progress, improve security, fix mistakes, and more
• On-Page SEO Checker: Generates a list of strategies you can use to improve each webpage’s SEO
• Log File Analyzer: Discover how a Google crawler sees your web pages so you can make necessary changes to make it easier for it to navigate

Local SEO

Are you a “local” business in your area? Optimize your website using these local SEO tools so you’re more likely to show up in search results for people in your area.

• Listing Management: Get your business listed on important directories like Yelp, Facebook, Google My Business, Amazon Alexa, and TripAdvisor with just one quick and easy entry
• Position Tracking: Track your site’s place in the SERPs to ensure that you’re ranking in search results and staying there
• On-Page SEO Checker: Use this tool to analyze your competitor’s strategies and other trends in the industry to stay relevant
• Social Media Toolkit: Post and schedule content to go live on multiple different platforms from just one place

Rank Tracking

Keep an eye on how your website is performing in Google search results with these rank tracking tools:

• Position Tracking: Track your site’s place in the SERPs to ensure that you’re ranking in search results and staying there
• Sensor: Keep track of Google’s changes and updates to predict how your site’s SEO efforts may be impacted
• Ranks: Discover top-performing websites so you can compare their performance, keywords, traffic costs, and more

Link Building

Link building is an essential part of the SEO strategy and with these tools, you can discover new backlinks, audit current backlinks, create outreach campaigns to get new backlinks, and also track your overall progress.

If you want to take your SEO to new levels, start working on your backlink profile with these tools:

• Backlink Analytics: Discover and track backlinks
• Backlink Audit Tool: Monitor your backlink profile to keep it clean and working in your site’s favor
• Backlink Gap: Find new backlink opportunities by tracking competing backlink profiles
• Bulk Backlink Analysis: Analyze your competitor’s backlinks to find new opportunities
• Link Building Tool: Run outreach campaigns to get new backlinks

Competitor SEO Analysis

The hardest part about SEO is getting ahead of the competition. With these tools, you can keep a close eye on their strategies and tactics so you can find gaps or take over.

• Organic Research: Enter your competitor’s domain to get insights into their SEO strategies and tactics
• Keyword Gap: Compare any website’s keywords profile against your own to find competitive gaps
• Backlink Analytics: Discover and track backlinks
• Backlink Gap: Find new backlink opportunities by tracking competing backlink profiles
• My Reports: Pull together all of your insights in one neat and tidy PDF that you can share with your team or clients

SEMrush Content Tools

Content is king when it comes to your website; it’s how you’ll gain a lot of traffic that you can then turn into customers. SEMrush’s content tools are designed to help you create the best content for relevant keywords so you can attract people to your site like a moth to a flame.

Content Marketing

Create a super-strong content strategy that achieves your goals and gets attention with these tools:

• Topic Research: Find high-quality content topics that your audience will love
• Marketing Calendar: Manage and plan your content calendar with your team
• SEO Content Template: Get helpful recommendations to create SEO-optimized content that competes against top-rankers for your target keyword
• SEO Writing Assistant: Check your SEO and readability score to ensure that your content is on the right track
• Brand Marketing: Find the top people and platforms in your industry to distribute your content
• Post Tracking: Measure your content’s performance, or track your competitor’s content performance
• Content Audit: Check through your content easily to discover what’s performing well and what needs to be updated

Content Creation & Distribution

Use these tools specifically to help you create great content and get it out to the public:

• Topic Research: Find high-quality content topics that your audience will love
• Content Marketplace: Find unique content pieces that you can post to your site
• Social Media Poster: Share and schedule social posts and then analyze the results

Content Optimization

Make your content work for you by putting these tools to work:

• SEO Content Template: Get helpful recommendations to create SEO-optimized content that competes against top-rankers for your target keyword
• SEO Writing Assistant: Check your SEO and readability score to ensure that your content is on the right track

Content Marketing Analytics

Keep an eye on your content’s performance so you can update and adjust as needed:

• Content Audit: Check through your content easily to discover what’s performing well and what needs to be updated
• Post Tracking: Measure your content’s performance, or track your competitor’s content performance

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SEMrush Market Research Tools

If you want to be a strong competitor in your industry, you need to keep an eye on your industry. Use SEMrush’s market research tools to track and analyze the strategies your competitors are using so you can come out on top.

Competitor Analysis

Get all the dirt on your competition with these tools:

• Traffic Analytics: Compare your site’s traffic metrics against your competitors so you can make plans and rebuild
• Organic Research: Analyze lists of your competitor’s keywords so you can discover new ways to win
• Advertising Research: Improve your advertising campaigns by getting a glimpse into your competitor’s
• Brand Monitoring: Stay in-the-know with who’s mentioning you and what they’re saying. You can even keep tabs on your competitor’s mentions so you can target them for yourself and possibly find new channels for distributing your brand
• Social Media Tracker: Analyze your competitor’s social media, keep tabs on your audience’s preferences, and discover new ways to increase engagement

Market Analysis

Get a feel for the competitive landscape in your market with these tools:

• Market Explorer: Discover market size and potential, any key players, and traffic generation strategies
• Traffic Analytics: Compare your site’s traffic metrics against your competitors so you can make plans and rebuild

Paid Advertising

Discover the keywords and copy that your competitors are using in their PPC advertising campaigns:

• Keyword Magic Tool: Generate thousands of new keywords from one seed keyword
• Advertising Research: Improve your advertising campaigns by getting a glimpse into your competitor’s
• Display Advertising: Analyze how other companies create successful display ads
• PLA Advertising: Analyze the performance of Google Shopping advertisers

Competitor PR Monitoring

Keep an eye on your competitor’s online mentions and social media presence:

• Brand Monitoring: Stay in-the-know of who’s mentioning you and what they’re saying. You can even keep tabs on your competitor’s mentions so you can target them for yourself and possibly find new channels for distributing your brand
• Post Tracking: Measure your content’s performance, or track your competitor’s content performance
• Social Media Tracker: Analyze your competitor’s social media, keep tabs on your audience’s preferences, and discover new ways to increase engagement

SEMrush Advertising Tools

Make sure your ads have the best chance at success by using these tools.

PPC Keyword Research

Create your ideal PPC advertising campaign with these tools:

• Keyword Magic Tool: Generate thousands of new keywords from one seed keyword
• Keyword Manager: Analyze metrics for up to 1,000 keywords to keep tabs on your goals
• Keyword Gap: Compare any website’s keywords profile against your own to find competitive gaps
• PPC Keyword Tool: Create the most successful PPC campaigns by building the perfect list of keywords

Website Monetization

Monetize your audience to the best of your ability with the help of these powerful tools:

• Display Advertising: Analyze how other companies create successful display ads
• On-Page SEO Checker: Generates a list of strategies you can use to improve each webpage’s SEO
• SEO Writing Assistant: Check your SEO and readability score to ensure that your content is on the right track

SEMrush Social Media Management Tools

Social media management is a necessary part of any business these days, so use these tools to make your social media strategy as easy and effective as it can possibly be.

• Social Media Poster: Schedule and manage Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google My Business posts from one place so you can save time and always have content prepared and ready to go
• Social Media Ads: Create, launch, and manage ads on Facebook ad platforms. See your low-performing ads so you can adjust and improve

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Pros & Cons of SEMrush

Pros:

• SEMrush offers a huge range of tools to help you better understand, track, analyze, and optimize various aspects of your website
• If you’re interested in really boosting your reach, engagement, audience, and traffic, SEMrush’s tools are powerful and helpful ways to drive improvement
• Find any gaps in your knowledge or execution to improve your strategies and get an edge
• Get all the dirt on your competition so you can overtake them
• SEMrush offers a free plan and a free 7-day trial for paid plans

Cons:

• Some of the data, suggestions, and results that SEMrush provides is based on educated estimations as some of the SEO data they examine is based on speculated information
• SEMrush is not a particularly beginner-friendly tool, it’s helpful to have some experience in SEO, SERP, SEM, PPC campaigns, ad campaigns, etc. to use it
• To access all tools and have the full function of each tool, you’ll need to sign up for a paid pricing plan

SEMrush’s Pricing

SEMrush offers a free version of their services, plus a free 7-day trial for all plans. For access to all of their tools, sign up for one of their paid plans.

What the free SEMrush account includes:

• Daily competitor or keyword research with up to 10 new queries per day
• 10 daily searches in the Keyword Magic Tool and receive 10 rows of results for each search
• Ability to create and manage one Semrush Project
• Track 10 keywords with Position Tracking
• Audit 100 pages of your site with Site Audit
• 10 SEO Idea units per month
• 2 Topic Research queries
• Schedule 1 PDF report

For up-to-date information about SEMrush’s paid plans, check out their pricing page.

Is SEMrush Worth It?

In our opinion? Yes.

SEMrush is worth it because of the wide range of tools that they offer, the dirt you can dig up on your competitor’s strategies and tactics, and based on our own major increase in traffic we experienced after using their tools.

If you really want to grow your marketing and make big moves with your SEO, content, and advertising then it’s definitely worth using SEMrush.

Conclusion

While SEMrush is not a tool for the new entrepreneur, the services they offer are powerful, robust, comprehensive, and informative.

They have every tool a seasoned entrepreneur needs to dive deep into the guts of their business whether it’s their SEO strategy, backlinks, content performance, social media engagement, brand mentions, keywords, domain authority, advertising campaign optimization, and much, much more.

If your business is weak in any or a few of these areas, then SEMrush’s tools can help you get a detailed and raw look at where your problems may lie so you can adjust your course of action, improve your strategy, and make better decisions for the future of your business.

The post SEMrush Review: How We Increased Organic Search Traffic by 532% appeared first on A Better Lemonade Stand.

In the last little while, there have been a bunch of new social media features and platforms popping up that are worth knowing about—and worth marketing on. As an ecommerce merchant, these features and platforms could give your brand greater exposure and lead to an increase in sales—so what’s not to love?!

Let’s get started!

New Social Media Marketing Tools to Promote Your Brand

New Social Media Marketing Tool #1: YouTube Stories

YouTube Stories are a collection of short videos that last seven days. Viewers can watch them in their YouTube mobile app from the top of their subscription feed, some watch pages, or your YouTube homepage.

YouTube creators with more than 10,000 subscribers can create stories to engage their audience with organic, in-the-moment content. It’s a way to provide fresh content that viewers wouldn’t see otherwise without negatively impacting the discovery of your main uploads.

If you’re wondering whether YouTube Stories are worth your precious time, YouTube’s Creator Academy says those with active story feeds can speed up their weekly subscriber count by 8.5%.

Creators can also view the number of comments and views their stories receive during their seven-day lifecycle, making it simple to see what viewers engage with the most.

If you’re looking for a bit of inspiration, Taco Bell is an excellent example of a brand putting YouTube Stories to good use. They post brand-relevant wallpaper backgrounds when they launch their stories every Wednesday, referring to them as #wallpaperwednesday.

As for other kinds of brand promotion on YouTube Stories, you can:

• Advertise discounts lasting the lifetime of the story
• Give customers a sneak peek of your new products
• Take followers behind-the-scenes for a more immersive brand experience

Pros

• YouTube Stories are great for channels that have 10,000+ subscribers
• There’s ample opportunity to get creative and have some fun
• The success of your YouTube Stories doesn’t influence the discovery of your main uploads
• When done well, you can increase your subscriber count

Cons

• Fledgling channels can’t use YouTube Stories
• Content expires after seven days

The Best Type of Content to Post on Youtube Stories

• Limited-time promotions
• Quickfire “how-to” tutorials
• Sneak peeks at new products about to be launched
• Competitions and giveaways
• An immersive behind-the-scenes look at your brand

Keep in mind that you can always hang onto your YouTube Stories content and repurpose it on other social media platforms too, or combine a bunch of stories together to make a mainstream YouTube video.

New Social Media Marketing Tool #2: YouTube “Shorts”

Not to be confused with YouTube Stories, YouTube “Shorts” are a new way for creators and brands to make short and punchy videos (that are 15 seconds or less) from their mobile phones.

Launched in the US in March 2021 to rival TikTok videos, YouTube Shorts provide creators with a unique and fun way to create engaging content. Creators can use musical overlays and use accelerated or slowed down effects to create hands-free content via the YouTube mobile app.

It’s too early to say if advertorial opportunities are on the horizon but, at the time of writing, Shorts can’t be monetized. But, what we can say is that subscribers who watch your YouTube Stories get automatic access to your Shorts, too—so you practically have a built-in audience at your disposal!

It’s also worth noting that unlike YouTube Stories, Shorts don’t disappear.

Pros

• You can be part of something super new that’s still a growing feature
• You have the option to edit and stylize the videos to make them fun and engaging
• You can upload pre-created content from your smartphone’s camera

Cons

• It’s so new that it’s still developing—who knows how it will grow or if it’ll stick around for long
• 15 seconds is super-short, so you’ll have to get creative with how to use this medium

The Best Type of Content to Post on Youtube Shorts

• Quickfire, fun content
• Product launch teasers
• Taster content to entice customers to watch longer videos
• Content that’s aimed at Gen Z and/or Millennials

New Social Media Marketing Tool #3: TikTok

TikTok went viral when it launched back in 2016. By 2018, it was the fourth most downloaded social media app after Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Then in 2019 alone, it earned 500 million new users!

TikTok videos currently can’t be longer than 60 seconds (although an up-to 3-minute video feature is being rolled out) but content can be created on any topic. This platform is widely used by brands and is particularly popular with Gen Z and Millennials, and there are over 689 million active users worldwide.

This social media hub fast became a platform that brands embraced due to its quick virality factor. Since videos are so short, they get seen and shared quickly which can make them go viral fast, regardless of an account’s audience size.

And instead of traditional display ads, brands are exploring creative ways to generate user-generated content so their ads are more organic. Ads on TikTok come across less like “commercials” and more like the rest of the user-made videos on the platform, and users seem to like it that way.

So if you’re a brand with a small team or budget—don’t worry! Your TikTok brand content or ads don’t have to be super professional. In fact, it’s better if they’re not. Users there like to see real, organic content they can connect with rather than high-production commercials.

That said, you can run five different types of ads on TikTok:

• In-feed ads
• TopView
• Branded hashtag challenge
• Branded effects
• Brand takeover

You can learn more about TikTok ads here. TikTok can also help you target your ads to increase the likelihood of your content reaching its intended users.

Pros

• TikTok is embraced by celebrities, brands, and influencers alike, so it’s the place to be!
• It’s quick and easy to create and post fun and engaging content
• With millions of users, there’s enormous potential to extend your brand’s reach
• It’s the easiest social platform to get your content in front of users who aren’t already following you
• To boost brand exposure, you can also pay for TikTok ads

Cons

• TikTok is saturated with content, so there’s lots to compete with
• You can’t link videos back to your website
• Since users don’t have to follow your account to view your content, it can be challenging to build up a following

The Best Type of Content to Post on TikTok

• User-generated content
• Content aimed at younger target audiences, especially Gen Z and Millennials
• New product launches
• Celebrity tie-ins
• Hashtag challenges
• Fun videos set to music

New Social Media Marketing Tool #4: Clubhouse

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Clubhouse is a new invitation-only, audio-based social media app where users participate in live podcast- or radio-like content. Users with an invite can sign up to Clubhouse and join different “rooms” to listen in on conversations, discussions, and talks. Launched in April 2020, the app is populated by users ranging from the rich and famous (think Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Oprah, Drake, and Gayle King) to the average Joe. It’s a mobile-only app that started out on iOS but is now available on Android, too.

Here’s how it works: Clubhouse has a series of virtual “rooms” where a chat is hosted by a user who moderates the content. Any user with something to say has to “raise” their hand and be invited by the moderator to speak.

While the app has faced criticism in the past for some rooms or users discussing inappropriate topics, there are, however, tons of experts on the app sharing their knowledge and expertise on numerous topics in different rooms. If you’re fortunate enough, you may also get picked to ask a question or join in the conversation. There are also talent shows, “meet new people” rooms, and more. It’s a versatile place for individuals and brands alike.

Bite Toothpaste is one example of a business using Clubhouse to their advantage. They sponsored a room where Bite’s founders told their start-up story and scored themselves around 30 new customers. Another example is when former Focus Brands CEO, Kat Cole, hosted her weekly office hours Clubhouse room, she mentioned their bakery brand Cinnabon and told listeners that if they wanted some, she’d send them some. This was an effective way to raise brand awareness and build brand excitement in an organic way.

Pros

• Clubhouse provides access to well-known people and experts
• Its exclusivity attracts a more high-profile and vetted audience
• Its intimate feel provides an opportunity to organically grow brand and product awareness
• You can sponsor a room to get your brand name out there

Cons

• It’s audio-only, so that may impede brand awareness or exposure
• It’s invitation-only, so you have to source an invite to use the app
• The user-base may be limited due to the invite-only model
• Conversations are live and ephemeral—they’re not recorded for playback
• It’s new, and like other newly-launched tools, it hasn’t been around long enough to test the long-term success

The Best Type of Content to Post on Clubhouse

• Live conversations about a wide range of topics, including new products
• Sharing brand stories about how your business started and is growing
• Generating interest for events and promotions
• Launching word-of-mouth campaigns
• Raising brand awareness by sponsoring rooms or offering free products

New Social Media Marketing Tool #5: Twitter Spaces

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If you’re looking for a non-membership version of Clubhouse, look to Twitter Spaces.

In November 2020, Twitter began testing Spaces with a limited number of users and then started rolling it out globally in early May 2021. Still in its early infancy, Twitter Spaces is a fresh way to host live audio conversations. Unlike Clubhouse, you don’t need an invite to join, but you do need 600+ followers in order to host a Space. Any Twitter user, however, can listen in.

Here’s how it works: Each Space has a host who moderates the discussion. Spaces are public, and any Twitter user can participate as a listener—even users who aren’t following the host. As a listener, you can be invited to a Space via a link in a DM, tweet, or email. Each Space can have up to 11 people speaking at any given time but an unlimited number of listeners.

Here’s what Twitter Spaces hopes to introduce in the long run:

• Ticketed spaces where hosts can generate income from their content
• Scheduled events with reminders so users can track what’s happening
• Co-hosting spaces to better manage speakers and participants
• Improvements to live captions to improve accessibility

Pros

• It’s more accessible than Clubhouse
• There’s already a large audience of active Twitter users to reach
• Twitter Spaces offers live captioning (the host just needs to turn on that feature)
• It’s available to any Twitter account with 600+ followers

Cons

• It’s public, which makes it easier for trolls to access the Spaces, however, hosts have the option to block and report users if need be
• Users need 600 followers or more to be able to host a Space
• So far, Twitter Spaces doesn’t have the same celebrity/expert reputation that Clubhouse has since anyone can use the feature

The Best Type of Content to Post on Twitter Spaces

• Live product launches
• Word-of-mouth campaigns to generate buzz around a topic or product
• Creating content for your target audience to connect with in real-time to establish more authentic connections
• Content that could convert random listeners into Twitter followers
• Talking about trends related to your business niche

Overall, there’s definitely more internet chatter now about social audio platforms and how they’re increasingly providing users with more custom content that just doesn’t happen with video content.

New Social Media Marketing Tool #6: LinkedIn Stories

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If you’re interested in sharing professional updates about your business, LinkedIn Stories may be worth exploring. Much like Snapchat and Instagram, LinkedIn members can now post videos and photos lasting a maximum of 20 seconds. Each post is live for 24 hours before disappearing.

Available on the most recent version of LinkedIn’s mobile app, LinkedIn members can view stories posted by their connections or any pages and people they follow.

This is another great way for brands to connect with their audience and share business news or promote their brand. Given that LinkedIn is a platform where members usually go to find work and network, LinkedIn Stories is best suited to business-orientated types of content.

Examples of brands doing just that include Adobe. They used the LinkedIn Stories feature to share the knowledge they’ve gathered from their Digital Insights report. Ernst and Young also showed its more approachable, inclusive side by allowing their interns to take over the E&Y LinkedIn page and post relatable behind-the-scenes stories.

Pros

• LinkedIn Stories are a great way for brands to make their business more accessible
• Both photos and videos can be posted on LinkedIn Stories
• It can be used by individuals and businesses alike
• It’s an excellent way to share news, testimonials, promotions, insights, and more

Cons

• It can be challenging to strike the right tone between professional and accessible/approachable
• Since LinkedIn is oriented to professionals, not all types of content will work for the platform
• Reach on LinkedIn might not be as broad as it is on other social platforms since their niche is so targeted to professionals

The Best Type of Content to Post on LinkedIn Stories

• Giving users a behind-the-scenes look at your brand
• Sharing business tips and insights
• Sharing motivational content and quotes
• Providing sneak peeks of new products
• Sharing the latest/breaking news and announcements about your brand and niche
• Creating interactive content that engages viewers, such as online events and Q&As

New Social Media Marketing Tool #7: Instagram Reels

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Billed as Instagram’s response to TikTok, Reels are 15-second videos that users can record, edit, and share to their feed. Viewers can “like” your Reels, so you can get an idea if your content is hitting the mark or not. For Instagram Reel makers, it’s also possible to repurpose content on other platforms too (such as TikTok).

Launched in August 2020, Reels have been embraced by some pretty big brands. They can be used to:

• Educate your audience about your brand
• Showcase new products
• Share your brand’s personality and values
• Demonstrate why you’re different from your competitors

Pros

• You can increase your audience reach on Instagram
• Viewers can engage with your Reels to give you feedback
• Reels present an excellent opportunity to interact with a wider Instagram audience
• You can repurpose content from other social tools you’re already using

Cons

• There aren’t currently any advertising opportunities to boost your content
• Because of licensing issues, businesses can’t add music to their Reels

The Best Type of Content to Post on Instagram Reels

• How-to videos like product tutorials, assembly demonstrations, and unboxings
• Behind the scenes content, like “meet the team” videos or product sneak-peeks
• “Before and After” videos demonstrating products in action
• Content that tells your brand’s story

Overall, Instagram Reels are another marketing tool that brands can use to express themselves and get their brand in front of Instagram’s massive user base.

New Social Media Marketing Tool #8: Pinterest Stories

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Launched in September 2020, Pinterest Stories are a new type of pin and publishing choice for creators—which Pinterest calls “Story Pins.”

At the time of their launch, Pinterest described them as a “way for creators to tell dynamic and visual 60-second long stories with videos, voiceovers, and image and text overlay.”

Currently available to some Pinterest business accounts, users can share up to 20 pages of images, video, and text Story Pins. Also, unlike some of the other tools we’ve referred to in this article, Story Pins can be saved to Pinterest boards to be viewed later which increases their lifespan.

Pros

• They offer another means of telling your story without viewers needing to leave the platform
• Story Pins aren’t ephemeral—they can be pinned to boards which increases their chances of being seen
• They’re a great way to share videos on the Pinterest platform, which hasn’t been hugely video-friendly until recently
• Story Pins give you the opportunity to showcase your business to Pinterest’s vast audience of 459 million active monthly users
• Videos can last up to 60 seconds and users can post up to 20 pages at a time

Cons

• You can’t add links to your Pinterest Stories
• Users must have a Pinterest business account to access the feature
• As it’s a new feature, it may not be rolled out to all accounts yet

The Best Type of Content to Post on Pinterest Stories

• “How to” content, product tutorials, unboxings, and demonstrations
• Day in the life content, for example, of your small business
• Inspirational content on different topics like creativity, mental health, and goal setting

Are You Ready to Start Using the Latest & Greatest Social Media Tools?

Hopefully, you now have a better idea of how to use some of the most recent social media marketing tools to promote your brand. Each feature and tool on this list has its own set of pros and cons, and while we’re not advocating that you embrace them all, it may be worth your while to test one or two to see if they’re a good fit for your brand.

The post New Social Media Marketing Tools to Promote Your Brand appeared first on A Better Lemonade Stand.

Let’s dive in!

Improvements to Your Online Store

#1: Change Your Popup Copy

Popups are fantastic marketing tools for driving sales and generating leads, but have you thought about switching up your popup messages? Frequent visitors to your website are sure to take a second look at an unfamiliar popup. And who knows—a new message could boost your conversion rate.

#2: Update Your Product Descriptions

Do your product descriptions speak directly to your target customers? If not, improving them can better position your products and/or services in the minds of your audience. Or, you could update your product descriptions with more high-performing keywords in order to improve your SEO.

#3: Add Ratings & Reviews to Your Product Pages

Nothing sells products quite like positive product reviews, so if you have positive feedback from customers, be sure to showcase it on your product pages.

#4: Sell on Other Marketplaces

Multi-channel selling is the way forward, so if you haven’t already, list your bestsellers on other sales platforms to drive sales. If you’re unsure where to begin, social media sales channels like a Facebook Shop or Instagram Shop are great places to start.

#5: Update Your About Page

It’s not uncommon for a website’s About page to go unedited for months (or even years), even though it’s often one of the top-visited pages of pretty much any website! So, if you have some extra time on your hands and haven’t refreshed your About page in a while, why not update it!

#6: Add Video Content to Your About Page

Video media is hugely popular because it connects with audiences in ways the written word just can’t. You can speak directly to customers and convey your personality, giving visitors a better idea of who you are and what your brand stands for.

#7: Update Your Homepage

Usually, your homepage is the first thing people see on your website, so it’s imperative to keep things fresh by changing up the content, copy, images, and calls-to-action. Make some changes, edit the arrangement of different sections, move around what’s above-the-fold, and overall just make it more convenient for your visitors to navigate as well as a more highly-converting page arrangement for your store.

#8: Update Your Shipping & Returns Page

Have there been any changes to your shipping or returns policies, or can you make them more clear and easy for your customers to understand? Head over to your shipping and returns page to make any content or aesthetic changes.

Not sure what to write on your shipping and returns page? Check out this Shipping Policy Template and this Returns and Refund Policy Generator for some ideas.

#9: Update Your Meta Descriptions

Did you hastily throw together your meta descriptions when you first launched your site? Do all of your webpages even have meta descriptions? Are all of them SEO optimized? Review your meta descriptions and add in any outstanding ones so you can improve your site’s SEO and boost your click-through rate.

#10: Optimize Images for Page Speed

If your site’s a little on the slow side, it could be making visitors click away from your site and thus, increasing your bounce rate. Use tools like ImageOptim and ShortPixel to optimize your images and help your site perform better. Check out this post for detailed instructions on how to optimize your website images, and check out this post for more tactics to help you minimize your site’s bounce rate.

#11: Test Your Checkout Process

Place a test order on your site to ensure that everything works and looks as you want it to so that customers enjoy the very best experience from start to finish.

#12: Send a Weekly Email Newsletter

Keep loyal customers in the loop with a weekly email newsletter. Tell them about the latest industry news, new product releases, company announcements, or whatever is relevant to them! Email lists are an easy way to keep in close contact with your best customers, so keeping an active newsletter is valuable to your business.

#13: Add a Website Newsfeed (Using Beamer)

You can use a tool like Beamer to add a newsfeed to your site where you can announce big news, new launches, exclusive offers, and exciting updates. It’s a useful way to engage visitors and keep their eyes on what you want to highlight!

#14: Create Product Upsells & Cross-Sells

Upselling and cross-selling are two of the best strategies you can use to increase average order values on your site and bring in more revenue and profit overall. If you aren’t already harnessing this power, find ways to incorporate it into your site! Whether it’s by adding upsell or cross-sell opportunities directly on product pages, during the checkout process, or even in order confirmation emails—a little bit of work here can drastically boost your store’s sales.

#15: Install Your Facebook Pixel

Are you running paid Facebook Ads? If so, it’s imperative to install your Facebook Pixel onto your store to see how successful your ads are and to gather more data about your customers. With this data, you’ll be better positioned to fine-tune your ads for maximum conversions.

Put your Facebook Pixel to good use with the Facebook Ad retargeting strategies discussed in our Facebook Retargeting Ads: A Step-by-Step Guide article and our Scaling Facebook & Instagram Ads by Retargeting Someone Else’s Website article.

#16: Integrate Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a must-have for any ecommerce store. It makes light work of tracking your traffic and conversions, and provides helpful insights into consumer behavior. Plus, if you ever decide to sell your website or get funding for your business, prospective buyers or investors will want to review your site’s data.

#17: Create Product Bundles

Creating bundles of complementary products is an excellent way to boost sales—after all, everyone loves a bargain! Is there a way you can bundle some of your products together?

#18: Add FAQ Sections to Your Product Pages

FAQs not only help answer customer questions, but they can also improve your SEO (when you optimize them for targeted keywords), and even minimize time spent on customer support. Check out your FAQ page and see if it covers everything your audience is asking, and if you don’t have FAQs anywhere on your site, add them to your Contact page or Help page, or to a dedicated FAQ page.

#19: Create Free Shipping Offers

Whether it’s in-line with a specific holiday or just a means of treating your customers, free shipping is great for enticing website traffic and driving sales. Check out this article to learn how you can offer free shipping to your customers.

#20: Add a Banner to Your Homepage

If there’s one page to focus your efforts on, it’s your homepage—and a banner at the top of the page is useful for both you and your visitors. Use it to announce new products, important shipping information, seasonal promos, etc. to ensure that visitors don’t miss important information that could lead them to make a purchase. This post shows you how to code your own announcement bar on your website.

#21: Update Your Thank You Page Copy

Saying thank you is hugely important, but a generic “thank you for ordering” page isn’t very memorable. So, why not update your copy, so it’s more engaging? Use this as an opportunity to further develop the relationship you have with your customers.

#22: Create a Fun 404 “Oops” Page

Is there anything more frustrating than the dreaded 404 error page? Make yours a fun one so that if customers accidentally find themselves there, at least you have an opportunity to bring a smile to their face. Plus, remember to add links to your homepage, product collection pages, or Contact page so visitors can easily navigate back to another page on your site.

#23: Add Social Proof Notifications

ProveSource is a valuable solution you can use to implement social proof notifications on your site. What’s a social proof notification? If someone purchases a product, it’ll notify your website visitors through a little popup! This creates a sense of urgency and can help to boost conversions. It’s like creating a busy-store-feeling, but online.

#24: Add Product Unboxing Videos to Your Product Pages

Product unboxing videos are a great way to instill customer confidence and build trust and credibility with your audience. Plus, it’s a fun way for potential customers to see the product in action and picture the unboxing experience for themselves!

The more information you can give about your products on your product pages, the better. And if a picture is worth a thousand words, imagine how many words a video is worth!

#25: Add Product Review Videos to Your Product Pages

What’s better than a positive customer review? A video version of that review! Authentic and relatable video reviews on your product pages can go a long way in boosting sales, so if you have some brand evangelists who love your products, ask if they’ll record a little video snippet explaining why. Don’t forget to offer them free products, a discount code, social media shoutout, and/or payment in return!

#26: Add Product Assembly Videos to Your FAQs

If you sell products that require any amount of assembly, include a product assembly video on your FAQ or Help page. Not only will it be beneficial for your customers, but it will also reduce the amount of customer support you have to provide. Plus, it also elongates the time visitors spend on your site, which is great for SEO.

#27: Add a Blog

Content is a hugely important way to attract and keep visitors on your site, so add a blog if you don’t already have one! You don’t have to publish content on your blog all the time—as long as you keep a somewhat consistent schedule and maintain quality over quantity, you can see meaningful results. Our Content Strategy: The Ultimate Guide to Preparation, Production, Publication & Promotion article has tons of valuable information on how to run a blog.

#28: Repurpose Your Best Blog Posts on Social Media & Medium

Already have a blog up and running? Repurpose your best content on social media and syndicate your content on platforms like Medium! This is a super simple yet effective way to bring the content back into the limelight and in front of fresh audience eyes. Don’t let great content get buried—repurpose it for all its worth!

#29: Update Your Transactional/Shipping Emails

Obligatory emails like purchase confirmations and order shipment notifications don’t have to be boring—keep your copy fun! You might have just launched by using generic templates for these emails, so if you have, go back and customize the content to make it more accurately reflect your brand.

#30: Set Up & Launch an Automated Abandoned Cart Email Campaign

We’ve all been there. We’ve filled up our carts and then either forgotten to check out or had a moment of self-control and abandoned the whole shopping process in general. This is where abandoned cart email campaigns come in to save the day (for ecommerce stores). They’re a great way to draw customers back to their abandoned carts and get them to complete the checkout process again, which means more sales and profit for you!

This is one of those easy things you can set-and-forget for your online store that’ll run in the background and bring in sales without you having to lift a finger.

#31: Update Your Shipping Provider/ Shipping Process

There’s always room for improvements, so if you’ve been with the same shipping provider for several years or you just picked one when you first launched and didn’t assess any other options, then why not browse the market to look for a better deal? Or, if you’re loyal to your provider, it may be worth approaching them to negotiate a better deal or shipping process to ensure faster delivery.

#32: Ask Someone to Test Your Website’s Navigation

You can test your own website to ensure the navigation runs smoothly, but if you’ve spent hours looking at it, you might accidentally miss some issues. Getting a fresh pair of eyes on things can really help to highlight any problems that need fixing so you can create a better online experience for your audience.

#33: Create an Online Course

Creating and selling online courses are fantastic for engaging customers, bringing in new revenue streams, and making you an authority in your industry. If you don’t already have an online course on your site, why not create one!

#34: Plan Your Content Calendar

As we’ve previously mentioned, blogging is essential for any website. It attracts and retains an audience, improves SEO, and helps inject personality into your online brand. Why not get ahead of the game and plan out your blog topics in advance? Your future self will thank you! Check out our Content Strategy article for ideas on how to plan your content.

#35: Get a Private Business Phone Number

Having a contact number makes your business that much more professional—and you can easily get one without having to set up another phone or landline. Instead, you can download an app like OpenPhone and select your desired phone number for an affordable monthly fee.

#36: Get a Business Mailbox

Much like opting for a business phone number, getting a P.O. Box helps you appear professional and receive work-related letters and deliveries without divulging your personal address online. You can use a service like Anytime Mailbox to set up a business mailing and forwarding address. With your permission, they can even open and scan your letters for you so you don’t have to constantly pick up your mail from them all the time.

#37: Get a VPN

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is basically standard internet security practice at this point, so if you don’t already have one, it’s time to get on it. We covered why it’s so important to have a VPN in our How to Bulletproof Your Online Business article, but essentially it prevents hackers from being able to access your devices, and it can also help you get around geo-blocking firewalls. And it’s easy to use! Just install a VPN (like NordVPN) onto your devices and enjoy an encrypted internet connection. Simple, right?

#38: Add 2FA to Important Accounts

2-factor authentication (2FA) should be another standard security measure you undertake. It’s easy to set up and provides an effective line of defense against hackers. How? Anyone attempting to sign into one of your accounts must provide an additional numerical code in addition to the username and password—and this code changes about every 30 seconds or so, making it trickier for unauthorized persons and bots to access your data.

You can activate 2FA security within the dashboard of most accounts that you use (like your email account, banking account, Facebook account, Instagram account, etc.) and you can use a tool like Authy to generate 2FA codes to unlock each account.

• Shopify: Enable it in your profile settings, or check out the Shopify documentation
• Google/Gmail: You can enable it here, or check out Google’s documentation for more info
• Apple: You can enable it here, or check out Apple’s documentation for more info
• Facebook: You can enable it here, or check out Facebook’s blog for more info
• Twitter: You can enable it here, or check out Twitter’s blog for more info
• Dropbox: You can enable it here, or check out Dropbox’s documentation for more info
• Evernote: You can enable it here, or check out Evernote’s blog for more info
• PayPal: You can read more about it and enable it here
• Microsoft Accounts: You can enable it here, or check out Microsoft’s documentation for more info
• LinkedIn: You can enable it here, or check out LinkedIn’s blog for more info
• WordPress: You can enable it and read more about it here

For a more complete list of services that offer 2FA, check out the Two Factor Auth List.

Marketing

#39: Launch an Instagram Ad

Instagram is one of the most popular social networks out there, so launch an engaging Instagram Ad to drive more traffic to your store and boost brand awareness!

#40: Place a Facebook Ad

Depending on what you’re looking to achieve, Facebook ads can be an incredibly affordable and effective way to market your business. Best of all, the platform makes it simple to get started.

#41: Create a Pinterest Ad

Pinterest is an effective way to market online businesses through unique, visual ads. Pinterest’s platform empowers you to publish beautiful imagery, making it perfect for online merchants selling beautiful-looking products.

#42: Place a TikTok Ad

Marketing on TikTok can amount to huge brand awareness, as the platform has over 500 million monthly active users, and exposure and virality is easily achievable on the platform. A short video could reach millions of viewers worldwide, and lead to more sales and growth for your brand! If your target market is the Gen Z audience, this is a particularly good platform to advertise on.

#43: Place a YouTube Ad

Video marketing, including Youtube Ads, is an excellent way to connect with prospective customers more memorably and more in-depth than other advertising methods.

#44: Place a Snapchat Ad

Snapchat is different from some platforms because the vast majority of its users are of a younger demographic, so if you’re looking to target this distinct audience, it’s a great ad platform to consider.

#45: Host a Flash Sale

Are you looking for a way to create a buzz about your business? A flash sale is one way of achieving precisely that while generating a considerable rise in sales. Surprise your audience with appealing discounts for a short period of time, and it can generate buzz around your brand.

#46: Offer Exclusive Discount Codes as a Lead Magnet

To grow your email list, offer visitors an incentive to sign up. A discount code can go a long way in encouraging visitors to sign up to your email list, which can land you with more sign-ups and potentially more sales as people make use of the discount code, which can really boost your brand.

#47: Create “This or That” Polls on Your Instagram Stories

Are you seeking quick customer feedback about your products? If so, a “This or That” poll on Instagram is one of the most effective ways to engage your audience. Plus, it helps boost engagement on your brand’s social account, which can help grow your following.

#48: Host an Instagram Live

Getting to know the face behind a business appeals to many consumers, so try hosting an Instagram Live! Not only will your audience feel a greater sense of connection with you, but it’s also a great way to build brand awareness and credibility, too.

#49: Host a Facebook Live

Facebook still remains the most popular social media platform comprising the most diverse range of users, so hosting a Facebook Live is certainly worth considering if you’re looking to connect with your audience in a new way.

#50: Host an Instagram Q&A

Does your brand get asked the same questions regularly? If so, hosting an Instagram Q&A (using the Instagram “Question Box” feature) helps to answer those frequently asked questions and provide real value for your audience.

#51: Create & Sell Merch

If you’re building a personal brand and have a loyal following, consider adding merch to your online store! This is a great way to grow your relationship with your audience, helps establish a sense of community, and is another revenue stream for your company—win-win! You can use a platform like Printful to launch merch super easily.

#52: Run a Giveaway or Contest

Who doesn’t love a freebie? A social media giveaway or contest helps promote your business through the comments and shares it generates—and you’re bound to bring a smile to the face of the lucky winner! Check out our ViralSweep review to learn more about running sweepstakes, giveaways, and contests.

#53: Create Behind-the-Scenes Content

Behind-the-scenes social media content shows the inner-workings of your brand so you can connect more deeply with your audience. It can help your audience appreciate and love your brand even more—and it can entertain them too!

#54: Write a Guest Post for Another Blog

Having your name appear on another reputable blog is an excellent way to extend your reach and establish yourself as an authority in your industry.

#55: Feature as a Guest on a Podcast

Like publishing a guest post, getting your voice heard on a reputable podcast can expand your reach, grow your audience, and get your brand more exposure.

#56: Feature as a Guest on Another Brand’s Instagram Live

Instagram Lives are exciting and engaging, so if you have the opportunity to feature on someone else’s—do it. This is a super simple way to engage with a new audience.

#57: Collaborate with a Brand or Influencer

Nothing ignites consumer excitement more than a collaboration with another much-loved brand or influencer. Collaborating on a collection with another brand or influencer can make your brand more discoverable to more people.

#58: Hand-Write Thank-You Cards to Customers

Customers appreciate a personal touch, so this little extra effort goes a long way to encourage future business.

#59: Join a Community of Like-Minded Entrepreneurs

Joining a community of similar entrepreneurs is a useful way to expand your professional network. Not only can this bring more business your way, but it can also unlock fresh collaboration opportunities!

#60: Attend a Tradeshow

You don’t have to exclusively sell your products online. Getting your name out there in the real world at a tradeshow is an effective marketing method too—especially if you’re looking to attract B2B or wholesale customers.

#61: Start Selling Products at a Local Store

There are still plenty of people who prefer shopping in brick-and-mortar stores rather than online, so if you can get your products on the shelves of any local stores, do it! It may be worth the effort.

#62: Join Forces with a National/International Chain

One sure-fire way to build a reputable name for your brand is to get your products in a well-known store! See if you can get your products stocked online or in-person in a national or international chain.

#63: Create a Webinar or Video Series

To get more eyes on your brand and products, consider creating insightful webinars or video series that provide actionable advice and valuable content to your customers.

#64: Ask Customers for Testimonials

Reviews are a massive part of online business success, but we rarely ever request feedback. Don’t be afraid to ask customers for testimonials—and showcase what they say on your site!

#65: Start Planning Your Holiday Marketing Schedule

Be prepared in advance for Christmas, bank holidays, Thanksgiving, and other national holidays by scheduling your marketing tasks and creating your marketing collateral ahead of time.

#66: Send Loyal Customers a Gift Card

Rewarding loyalty can go a long way with your customers, so identify your most loyal shoppers and give them a gift card to show your appreciation!

#67: Create a Charity Event

Social responsibility and awareness are essential contributions every business should be making, so if you aren’t already contributing to your community, create a charity event. It doesn’t have to be anything complicated—and you can run it completely online, too!

Social Media

#68: Update Your Instagram Bio

Keeping your Instagram bio updated and relevant is essential. After all, it might be the first time someone encounters your brand, so be sure to make a great first impression.

#69: Update Your Facebook Page

If in doubt, the information on your Facebook page could always do with a refresh. Why not post exciting brand updates, product releases, or any other business news that’s worthy of sharing.

#70: Update Your Pinterest Bio

Does your brand’s Pinterest account have an accurate bio? If you haven’t added one or haven’t updated it in a while—go over there and give it a refresh.

#71: Update Your TikTok Bio

Switching up your TikTok bio to keep it fresh and unique is always a good idea—you never know how often people are landing on your account page.

#72: Update Your Twitter Bio

Your Twitter bio is a great place to showcase what you do and link back to your site, so keep it updated.

#73: Update Your Social Media Profile Pictures & Cover Photos

If your brand accounts have had the same profile and cover photos for months or even years, maybe think about switching things up. Keeping them fresh is a great way to keep your brand relevant.

#74: Poll Your Twitter Followers

Twitter polls are an effective way to gauge your audience’s preferences, which makes them a powerful tool for you! Use them to your advantage and get insights into your audience’s wants, needs, and pain points.

#75: Create Instagram Highlights

Instagram Highlights display your most memorable Stories in one place for your audience to find easily. They can help drive engagement and encourage repeat visits to your profile, so keep them up-to-date with popular content and regularly requested content.

#76: Create a Twitter Story

Like Instagram, Twitter now has a Stories feature (called “Fleets”) so use them how your brand would use Instagram Stories! Since they’re still being adopted by many users, you have fewer people to compete against and it puts your content at the front and center of your followers’ newsfeed, which makes them more likely to view your content.

#77: Publish a Facebook Story

Again, people respond well to likable live videos and interactive stories, so creating a Facebook Story is another effective way to interact with your following and get your content seen by more people.

#78: Publish a Creative TikTok Using Your Products

Creating a TikTok video to showcase your products can yield lots of attention and fantastic results, so it’s worth a try!

#79: Create an Instagram Reel with One of Your Products

Instagram Reels are another excellent way to show off your product in a unique way, which can again, make your content more easily discoverable to more people!

#80: Sponsor an Instagram Influencer

Influencer marketing on Instagram can bring in massive amounts of traffic and sales, so if you have the available budget, sponsor an influencer (even a micro-influencer) to mention or review your products.

#81: Sponsor a Twitter Influencer

Like sponsoring an Instagram influencer, collaborating with a Twitter influencer can be hugely beneficial for driving sales.

#82: Sponsor a TikTok Influencer

With TikTok being such a popular platform, it’s another great place to sponsor an influencer to mention or review your products. Find one that’s a great fit for your audience and it can drive valuable traffic and engagement back to your site.

#83: Host an Instagram Live with an Industry Expert or Influencer

Reach out to your network and ask an industry expert if they’ll be a guest on an Instagram Livestream with you! This enriches the content you provide to your audience and can help build interest and buzz around your brand, as well as the person you bring on.

#84: Follow Your Competitors’ Followers

Your competitors are likely targeting the same demographic as you, so following their followers is a strategic way to make your brand more discoverable to your target market.

#85: Post to Reddit for Website Feedback

Looking for honest feedback about your website? Look no further than Reddit, home to unbiased opinions! Find the right subreddits to ask for feedback, though—it won’t be welcome in just any subreddit.

#86: Create a Reddit Subreddit

Creating your own subreddit can help you build your own community of brand evangelists, and it can be a place to bond with your audience and develop more of a relationship with them.

#87: Use Twitter Advanced Search to Reach Out to Your Audience

Use Twitter Advanced Search as a “social listening” tool to find consumers who are discussing problems that your product can solve. Provide genuine suggestions and don’t be too sales-y, and you may help more people discover your products.

#88: Record a Podcast

Have you ever considered creating a podcast? They’re a great way to put a voice to your brand and establish credibility and authority in your niche. Plus, it’s another way to make your brand more discoverable!

#89: Post Customer Testimonials on Your Socials

Have you just received some positive customer feedback? Great! Shout it from the rooftops (or from your socials, at least)!

#90: Take New Photos for Your Socials

Could your Instagram theme use a refresh? Take new photos or use new image templates! Keeping things fresh keeps things interesting for your audience.

Branding

#91: Create Brand Guidelines

Creating branding guidelines helps your brand stay consistent across all your platforms, so if you haven’t established any branding guidelines or made a media kit, make one! Our Branding Guide can help with this.

#92: Create a New Logo

Creating a fresh logo is a great way to revamp your business. If you don’t have the budget to commission one, create your own using Looka or TailorBrands. If you have the budget to commission a logo designer, check out our Logo Designers Directory to find some great logo makers.

#93: Update Your Brand Packaging

Business trends evolve quickly, so consider updating your brand’s packaging if it’s outdated or could use a refresh. Check out our Shipping & Packaging Manufacturers Directory to find packaging suppliers that can make beautiful shipping boxes or mailers for your brand.

#94: Upgrade Your Social Media Posts with Templates

There are so many useful social media templates out there that can improve your social media content. Take a look at Creative Market for social media templates that can kick your social media posts up a notch.

#95: Update Your Website’s Branding & Layout

Does your store’s website theme say what you want it to say? What kind of impression is it giving your audience? If it’s not quite perfect, make adjustments until it is.

#96: Make Your Shipping Packaging Sustainable

Sustainability is at the forefront of many businesses now—is there a way you can make your packaging more eco-friendly? Reach out to your packaging supplier and see if they have more sustainable options, check out other businesses to see how they make their packaging more eco-friendly, and brainstorm ways that you can change your product or its presentation to reduce waste.

#97: Create Buyer Personas

Have you created buyer personas for your brand? Have you ever updated them during your brand’s lifetime? It’s an essential way to hone-in on your target market, so make sure your brand personas are up-to-date.

Personal & Professional Development

#98: Take an Online Course to Further Your Skills

Take an online course to further your skills and improve your business knowledge! Check out our roundup of the top online courses for entrepreneurs here.

#99: Attend a Networking Event with Entrepreneurs in Your Field

Networking with other industry professionals in your field is a great way to share ideas and expand your professional network.

#100: Join a Slack Group for Entrepreneurs

If you’re not a fan of online or traditional networking events, why not find a networking group on Slack? It can help you establish new connections over time without having to take part in an event.

#101: Join a Facebook Group for Local Businesses

Connect with other businesses in your area by joining a Facebook group of other local entrepreneurs! You’ll likely learn about a lot of different businesses and you’ll create opportunities for growth and collaboration.

#102: Interact with Other Entrepreneurs on Twitter

Establish connections with other entrepreneurs on Twitter! It’s a great platform to get to know people since you can drop quick likes, comments, and DMs which can build valuable business relationships. Remember to keep things positive and professional!

#103: Read a Relevant Personal Development Book

There are hundreds of thousands of excellent business books out there so find one that interests you and get stuck in! You’ll likely never regret learning something new.

#104: Use a Time Management App

Are you guilty of procrastinating? Don’t worry, you’re not alone! But, opting for a time management app is a valuable way to keep yourself on-track. Check out our article on the 10 Best Productivity & Time Management Apps to get some helpful strategies!

Conclusion

There you have 100+ ideas for things to do when you don’t know what to do. When you launch a business, it can sometimes leave you with an “Okay, what next?” feeling, and these ideas can help you work on those little things that we as entrepreneurs often forget about.

For more ideas on what to do after you’ve launched your business, and for valuable marketing strategies you can use to grow your traffic and sales, check out our 52 Week Marketing Plan.

The post 100+ Store Updates to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do appeared first on A Better Lemonade Stand.

The problem is that it’s not always easy to find the tools that can do everything your store needs them to do. You might find one tool that looks great but isn’t compliant with your ecommerce platform. Or maybe it fits with your existing strategies, but the pricing would blow up your budget.

The good news is that when you select tools for your ecommerce presence, there’s only one step that’s required: Awareness. You only have to learn what’s out there. If it’s right for you, the next steps are as simple as signing up.

But what are the tools that can optimize your ecommerce presence? Let’s look through some intriguing services that can change the way your store interacts with the world.

AccessiBe

In 1999, the World Wide Web Consortium published the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. The goal: Establish the framework to make the internet broadly accessible. Especially for people with disabilities.

Today, a paltry 2% of websites meet the requirements. That’s according to an AccessiBe 2020 Report that scanned tens of millions of pages.

Given that about one in four Americans experience some form of disability, it’s clear these numbers are way off-kilter. Any website that doesn’t meet the WCAG guidelines is potentially losing 25% of its audience.

Why AccessBe?

AccessiBe helps create web access for people with various disabilities. For example, epilepsy patients can prevent videos from playing automatically and turn off flashing graphics. People with color blindness or impaired vision can adjust contrast and saturation for better visibility, and more generally, Screen Reader and keyboard navigation compatibility.

In short, AccessiBe creates a full solution so you can achieve WCAG/ADA compliance with your website. They meet that goal in a few ways:

• Ongoing audit and remediation—performed every 24 hours. This is especially important for online stores with constant updates and new content
• Updating compliance requirements on the platform so you automatically comply with the latest laws and regulations

AccessiBe uses AI-enabled technology to run tests on websites, identify holes in ADA- accessibility, and recommend changes. They even offer a test tool that anyone can use to check their current compliance!

Don’t assume that your website is fully accessible. Verify it first.

Consider everything that goes into making web forms accessible. For example, do your current forms:

• Use plain language?
• Clearly label form fields?
• Include descriptive text alternatives for images?
• Avoid flashy, difficult-to-read fonts?

If you said no to any of these, a person with a disability may have trouble buying from you. And some statistics suggest that traditional tools only discover about 30% of WCAG issues.

The Importance of Universal Web Accessibility

“It affects everybody, even though we forget about it.” –Brian Teeman

AccessiBe identifies areas of weakness so you don’t have to. With context-reading, image recognition, and other tools, it finds areas to improve accessibility. This helps ecommerce sites, especially those with specific niches and customers who need universal web access.

But there’s another important element at play here: Avoiding lawsuits.

With about 98% of all websites having WCAG and ADA issues, it exposes far too many ecommerce sites to potential legal troubles. The solution is simple. With AccessiBe, a simple JV script lets the software take over. From there, AccessiBe scans for ADA/WCAG issues, diagnosing problems with machine learning.

This replaces the need to hire an expert to do a similar review. Without paying them an hourly fee, you can make AccessiBe work with an annual pricing plan.

Shoelace

Think of Shoelace as a way to implement customer journey marketing through automation. You’ll integrate Shoelace with your ecommerce store, Shoelace will build a custom model for your customer journey, and you’ll do the final approval.

What does that mean exactly?

Shoelace attracts and trains top media buying talent. Their goal: Creating compelling ads and delivering them at the precise moments customers are most likely to buy from you.

Plotting a New Customer Journey

For the merchant, that means a complicated idea like “customer journey” isn’t a headache. It’s one less thing to worry about.

Here are some of the key features of Shoelace:

• Shoelace works with 400+ merchants, using thousands of data points across multiple industries
• They have a user-friendly app that can integrate with existing Shopify apps
• They offer custom and transparent reporting on pricing, with Shoelace never taking a percentage of ad spend
• They have user-friendly features and clear reporting available on a dashboard in the app

Since Shoelace handles the creation and scaling of their paid media, ecommerce stores are free to focus on other areas of their business.

It’s not a “set it and forget it” tool, but more like a collaboration with an Account Strategist. It’s a way for ecommerce stores to embrace ad buying for every aspect of the customer journey without onboarding an entirely new team.

Consumers are getting tired of annoying and repetitive retargeting. The most impactful brands use Customer Journey Retargeting to build genuine emotional connections with their customers. If that sounds complicated, Shoelace’s team can serve as experts in collaboration with your team.

Reeview.app

Reeview is an automated platform that finds, collects, and provides user-generated reviews for ecommerce stores.

It offers the following features:

• One-click install on Shopify
• Once installed, Reeview automatically sorts through product review videos on YouTube
• Reeview places video widgets at the point of shopping decisions, increasing shopper engagement
• Includes automated video sharing via Facebook to improve social traffic
• Once installed, you’ll have access to real-time reports and A/B testing

There’s no doubt it’s handy. You can essentially outsource an entire video review campaign to Reeview’s automatic features.

Why Videos?

Reeview takes advantage of that critical crossroad in any customer’s journey: The point of purchase. By delivering visual and social proof of the concept, it increases the potential for conversion.

Consider that “73% more visitors who watch product videos will make a purchase,” according to Hubspot. By automating the collection and distribution of those videos—from genuine users—Reeview enhances your product’s credibility.

Video is so effective at the point of purchase that many people take their phones into physical stores for this reason. In-store shoppers admit to using video at a rate of 55%. It’s so important for the buyer’s decision, that more than half of shoppers admit that video helps them decide which brand to buy.

How much more effective will it be when the video is provided for them online? If the customer is already on your website and watching a video, the likelihood that they’re ready to make a purchasing decision is that much higher.

This is an especially useful tool for any store that has trouble with visualizations of its product at the point of sale. Yes, it does require that you have an index of YouTube reviews available, but it can give your company an immediate boost and a unique visual element at the most important stage of the customer’s journey.

Boosted by Lightricks

We established that videos are important–but what happens when you need to create your own?

Boosted by Lightricks is a tool that simplifies the process down to its bare essence. By using video templates for branded videos, you can hit the right tone for your shop—even with minimal video editing experience. The web app is extremely intuitive to use for creating short promotional clips quickly, as are the versions for iOS and Android.

Boosted is also ideal for sharing. Features like automatic resizing help you hit the requirements of different digital platforms. You can also access a video library of stock footage, which makes it easy to craft videos with a shoestring budget.

Why Produce Your Own Videos?

Reeview.app is great if you don’t have any of your own videos to share at the point of purchase. But there’s also value in producing your own. Video marketing isn’t only effective, but it’s a great fit for today’s ecommerce buyer. It’s so effective that “66% of consumers prefer watching a video to reading about a product.”

And consumers aren’t tired of it. Hubspot says that 54% of consumers wanted to see more video content.

Don’t wait until conditions are “perfect” to start posting videos online—you won’t ever have the perfect camera, lighting, and concepts. But what you can have is a well-branded video catered to your audience, at minimal investment. And you can use Boosted to learn the ropes of video marketing as you go.

OptinMonster

OptinMonster is a signup form builder. It’s simple to use, including templates and drag-and-drop building to minimize development work.

Any ecommerce store that’s gone beyond the testing phase knows how important it is to build quality forms. Those forms are especially important if you use them to capture emails and build a customer list.

The Science of Gathering Emails

Why focus on your forms? Simply put, you need emails if you want conversions.

High-quality web forms are the fastest way to get you there. Newsletters create some of the highest engagement rates in any type of digital marketing, including generating 40x new customers than social media. And according to Campaign Monitor, you’re six times as likely to get a click-through from an email campaign than you are from a tweet.

One of the reasons OptinMonster works so well is that it lets you pre-program the tool to your specifications. For example, you can decide to “trigger” a web form only when a certain behavior occurs, such as:

• After a user has scrolled a certain percentage of the page
• Time-sensitive campaigns
• Javascript variables, for customizing (especially useful if your site is already javascript-heavy)
• 2-step opt-ins for people checking out images within your content

Dialogue

Think of Dialogue as an AI version of the person in the store who asks, “How can I help you?”

Dialogue uses an AI-powered algorithm to match customers with the ideal message they need to see. It starts by analyzing user behavior. From there, it uses the data to inform content suggestions it can make to them—along multiple stages of the customer journey.

Creating a Conversation with Customers

Once you implement Dialogue, that’s pretty much it. You sit back and let the tool do its work. The result is a “stickier” website that automatically matches customers with what they need to see.

Does it work? According to some statistics, specific recommendations can have a major impact on the way shoppers interact with ecommerce. For example, 37% of shoppers that simply clicked a recommendation during their first visit would return. That’s compared to 19% who didn’t click a recommendation at all. Giving someone a recommendation that suits their needs makes the interaction feel more real, and more memorable. If the recommendation is on point, a customer feels like you “get it.”

It’s especially good for retail. Dialogue’s Product Recommendation feature is intuitive for “browsers,” the same way it might work in a brick-and-mortar store. Stores that need to increase sales via cross-selling will also benefit from AI learning. If you can’t quite figure out what your customers want, consider letting Dialogue give it a whirl.

Hashtagpaid

#paid is a content creation platform that pairs creators with companies to collaborate on campaigns.

Creators there include a wide range of content experts, from writers and freelancers to social media influencers. It features its own centralized communication platform, complete with goals and metrics, so you can target a specific creator’s audience with ease.

Why is this important? In the future, Google is going to crack down on customer tracking for advertising purposes. This is going to make it harder for companies to advertise to highly specific niches. But if you work with a creator with a well-defined audience, your advertisements can be as relevant as you want.

The Importance of Content/Creator Marketing

If 2022 is going to change digital advertising permanently, it only makes sense to invest in the future now. Nearly 40% of marketers already rate content marketing like this as a “very important” part of their strategy. Sponsored influencers already comprise an almost $8 billion market.

Those trends aren’t going anywhere. If you’re going to avoid the Cookie Apocalypse, you’re going to need new avenues to reach highly specific audiences. And #paid is a platform that’s already rolled out the welcome mat.

Referral Candy

Referral Candy helps you set up a referral program for your store. Their mission: Getting your customers to refer your store to their friends in about ten minutes. The “candy,” in this case, includes the incentives you use to make your store worthy of a social share.

Referral Candy does it by connecting your store through a platform like Shopify or BigCommerce. From there, you can set up in-shop rewards for referrals, and motivate word-of-mouth marketing with rewards like cash or discounts.

“Word of mouth is the primary factor behind 20% to 50% of all purchasing decisions. Its influence is greatest when consumers are buying a product for the first time or when products are relatively expensive, factors that tend to make people conduct more research, seek more opinions, and deliberate longer than they otherwise would.” –Ole Jørgen Vetvik, McKinsey

Word-of-mouth marketing is the oldest form of social proof marketing in existence—and it hasn’t gone anywhere yet. It’s just as relevant these days, when “59% of shoppers trust offline recommendations.” Another 49% said that online word-of-mouth is highly credible, too.

(Statistic Source)

It’s great marketing—if you can get it. The problem is that word-of-mouth marketing is easier said than done. Pun intended.

What if you’re selling a product that lends itself to viral success? Some stores need a way to systemize their referral program and incentivize word-of-mouth promotion in the first place.

There are some nice options here, including:

• Choosing the rewards you hand out to customers for their referrals, including cash, discounts, and custom gifts
• You can connect marketing apps (such as Mailchimp) to integrate with your existing promotions and campaigns
• You can incorporate widgets like nuggets and embedded signups to take advantage of organic traffic already present at your shop
• Post-purchase popups help minimize distraction before the point-of-purchase, not taking away any of your conversions

Retooling Your Digital Presence for Ecommerce Marketing Success

Here’s a handy list of all the ecommerce marketing tools you just read about:

• AccessiBe: Ensuring ADA and WCAG compliance for full accessibility
• Shoelace: Collaborate on digital ad buying for maximum impact on the customer
  journey
• Reeview.app: Automatically grab and post video reviews at the point of sale
• Boosted by Lightricks: Video templates and resources for kickstarting your video
  marketing
• OptinMonster: Customize your forms and capture emails
• Dialogue: Match your customers to the ideal product recommendation
• #paid: Work with content creators and build targeted digital campaigns
• Referral Candy: Incentivize word-of-mouth marketing

Which one is right for you? Which ones? Only you can know that.

But if any one of these tools grabbed your attention, there’s a good chance it’s a match for you. What’s next? Many of these tools are simple to implement and try with minimal risk.

You may not feel like your store is ready for major tools that talk about customer journeys and content creator campaigns. But you can always get moving with an online business more quickly than you think—especially if you have the right tools on your side.

The post 8 Online Tools to Get You More Ecommerce Customers in 2021 appeared first on A Better Lemonade Stand.

Depending on what kind of clothing line you want to create, there are likely going to be many different steps involved in the process. The more involved you want to be in the sourcing and production of your line, the more time, effort, and money you’ll have to invest. If you’re just interested in starting something quick and easy, there are options for that too. In this post, we’re going to show you step-by-step how you can start your own clothing line whether you have a budget of $100, or if you have more than $10,000 to invest.

If you’ve ever been thinking about starting a clothing brand, look no further. This post has been in the works for nearly a year and along the way, we’ve included the knowledge and experience of dozens of entrepreneurs and companies from the clothing industry.

This industry knowledge ranges from:

• A small brand that managed to launch a successful crowdfunding campaign that raised $300,000 which they put towards manufacturing their high-end merino wool clothing line
• A private label wholesaler of blank apparel who targets the B2B market
• A pattern maker and tech pack designer who works with aspiring clothing line creators to help bring their visions to life
• And finally, we’ve gone right to the source to get insight from a factory that dyes yarn and weaves textiles

There’s a lot involved when it comes to starting your own clothing line, so let’s jump into it.

Deciding on Clothing Products You Want to Sell

You have a lot of choices when it comes to creating apparel and fashion products.

If you’ve always wanted to start a clothing line, you likely already have a good idea of the particular products you want to create and sell. For others, creating a clothing brand may represent a unique and interesting opportunity to design a product that represents your personal style—but you may be unsure of which products to sell.

Regardless of which category you fall into, it’s important to carefully consider all clothing and apparel options before deciding to move forward on one of them.

Some clothing and apparel products you may want to consider for your brand are:

• Short-Sleeve Shirts
• Long Sleeve Shirts
• Hoodies
• Pants/Leggings
• Dresses
• Lingerie/Underwear/Socks

Each of these clothing products presents their own opportunities and challenges when it comes to building a clothing brand around them, so it’s important to consider them carefully. Keep this in mind as you continue through this article.

Below, we will look into some of the most common clothing line business models to get a better sense of the work, time, and monetary investment required for each.

Choosing a Clothing Line Business Model

If you’re ready to start your clothing brand, you’ll have some important choices to make at this point.

There are several directions you can take to create your own brand which are all pretty different from one another. And most importantly, the difficultly, costs, and time input vary dramatically between each option.

Let’s take a look at the most common options:

• Print-on-Demand
• Private Label Clothing Line
• Custom Cut & Sew Clothing Line

Let’s dig into the advantages and disadvantages of each one below.

Option #1: Print-on-Demand Clothing Line

The first and easiest option for starting your own clothing line involves printing your designs or logo on standard blank apparel.

This is an attractive option for people with a low budget (less than $1,000) and those wanting to benefit from being able to set up a nearly fully-automated business. The biggest drawback of this type of business model is the lower profit margins and the lack of ability to differentiate your product on things like material, stitching, and fit since you’re using standard wholesale clothing.

The print-on-demand or direct-to-garment printing process uses a special digital ink-jet printer to print ink directly onto clothing and apparel. These digital printers are able to produce full-color images on clothing items with extreme accuracy.

Print-on-demand printing produces high-quality printed apparel quickly and efficiently. Because of this, there are no setup costs, unlike screen printing. This means that it’s easy and cost-effective to print small orders (including just 1 unit).

Pros

• No set-up costs
• High-quality prints
• Unlimited color options
• Perfect for low order quantities or one-offs
• Many clothing options (shirts, leggings, socks, dresses, etc.)

Cons

• Not cost-effective for large production runs
• Generally no volume discounts
• Limited print product selection
• Limited finishing options (tags, labels, etc)

Option #2: Wholesale/Private Label Clothing Line

When sourcing clothing products through wholesale or private label suppliers, you are essentially purchasing clothing products from other brands and then selling them to customers from your own store. When you source clothing products this way, you’ll purchase pieces in bulk from a supplier at a discounted price, and then sell the items to your customers at a markup.

With this option, you won’t be manufacturing your own clothing items from scratch, but you’ll be curating a selection of pieces that suit your customers’ tastes. You won’t be able to customize each clothing piece like you would if you were manufacturing clothing items, but you also don’t have to go through the lengthy and expensive process of having your own clothing items manufactured. The main disadvantage with this option, however, is that you have to purchase many stock-keeping units (SKUs) of clothing items in bulk and upfront, which means you’ll need cash flow.

Pros

• Don’t need to manufacture your own items
• Can keep up with changing trends more easily
• Get to curate your own range of products
• Volume discounts
• Potential for good profit margins
• You can brand items with your own hangtags, packaging, etc.
• When working with a private label supplier, you will be able to customize the clothing tags with your own brand name

Cons

• When working with a wholesaler, you won’t be able to customize the clothing tags with your brand name
• Usually, minimum order quantities start at (at least) 10 units per color/size, if not 100 or 1,000 units
• You’ll have to manage inventory and shipping yourself
• You’ll need cash flow to purchase many products upfront

Option #3: Custom Cut & Sew Clothing Line

Custom cut and sew clothing means you’re doing everything. We’re talking about designing sketches, turning them into patterns, sourcing fabrics and manufacturers, and paying for a full production run (which could be thousands of units).

Making your own clothing isn’t for the faint of heart. It can be an intensive process that can take months (at minimum) to get up and running. You’ll need to find a manufacturer, you’ll need to work with a pattern maker, you’ll have to create tach packs, you’ll have to source and test fabric, and you’ll also likely have to create and test many samples before you even come close to a finished product.

Depending on the exact clothing items you’re looking to produce, just to get a few samples as finished products can cost thousands.

Once you have a finished product, you’ll also need to produce a full run with your manufacturer, you’ll need to stock your inventory, and even develop a shipping strategy to get your clothes to your customers.

Pros

• You’ll get a 100% custom product
• Potential for increased perceived value from customers
• Potential for increased margins
• You’ll be 100% in control of branding

Cons

• Very high startup costs
• It’s a complex process involving several moving parts
• It can take months or more to launch

The Elements of a Successful Clothing Brand

Great clothing brands are great for a reason. Usually, they do one thing very well, and sometimes they do multiple things really well. Before starting your own clothing line, there are four important factors to a successful clothing line that you’ll want to consider:

• Niche
• Design
• Quality
• Brand

Let’s dive into each one of these elements a little more below:

Selecting a Clothing Brand Niche

Selecting a specific niche is important—and many times, vital—for success in the clothing and apparel industry. Blindly trying to target large groups of people will leave you with a brand that speaks to no one.

Focusing on a specific group of people has several major benefits:

• It’s easier to market (since you can hone in on your target market more specifically)
• It can be more affordable (since you aren’t targeting the wrong audiences)
• There’s potential for less competition (the more you niche down, the smaller your competitive pool gets)
• You can attract greater customer loyalty (because your audience knows that you’re focused on them)

For example: “Clothing with funny slogans” or “hoodies for men” are both too broad to attack since the markets are very developed. Niching down will help you better target your market, allow you to reach them more easily, and be able to create more value for them. So instead of “clothing with funny slogans” you might cater to a specific and passionate market like “clothing with slogans for nurses or firefighters.” Or, instead of “hoodies for men” you could focus on manufacturing ultra-thick/warm hoodies for people in cold climates.

Clothing Designs

Your designs—whether they’re printed, embroidered, or the design of the actual garment itself—are critical. Not only do your clothing pieces need to look great, but they also need to look great specifically in the eyes of your target market.

Ultimately, you’ll be the one who loses if your clothing designs aren’t aesthetically pleasing and appealing to your buyers. Your designs don’t necessarily need to be complex—in fact, many of the best-selling clothing designs are very simple—however, they do need to connect with your specific audience/niche.

Clothing Quality

You can fool someone once, but you can’t fool them twice. A pattern that fades and cracks over time or a piece that comes apart at the seams after one wash won’t create raving fans that’ll come back and repurchase.

Not all clothing is the same, there can be huge variances in the quality of clothing items. The quality and composition of the materials you choose will affect how the clothing wears, how it washes, how it fades, shrinks, and ultimately how long it lasts. As we mentioned above, quality is paramount to your brand and its success, so it’s important to educate yourself and choose your materials carefully.

It will always be tempting to sacrifice quality for higher profit margins but you need to consider how the quality will affect customer’s decisions to share your brand with others and repurchase in the long run.

Clothing Brand

Many clothing companies are built on a strong brand. Beyond the clothes themselves, a strong brand encourages and reinforces your target market to purchase, represent, share, and repurchase your clothing pieces. Your brand extends way beyond the product itself and encompasses what the brand stands for and the lifestyle associated with it.

Differentiating Your Clothing Line

The clothing design and apparel industries are some of the most saturated industries to be in. In order to effectively compete, you’ll need to have a point of differentiation that sets you apart in the market from all the rest.

Working out of a factory has also given me an upfront view of how many people get into this industry with absolutely no clue what it’s going to take to build a brand that is even remotely successful. Blaming ignorance isn’t entirely fair… We had absolutely no clue how hard it would be either. However, we started Stock with a clear reason of what differentiated us, why people would be interested in buying our stuff, and how we would go about selling. This is a step that I see a lot of aspiring makers skip. –Jim Snediker | Stock Mfg. Co.

The good news is that there are multiple ways to set yourself apart from the crowd…

Design

If you plan to have graphics or images on your clothing pieces, the designs (the style of designs and quality of designs) can help set you apart from others.

Example: Blackmilk Clothing made their name known and became one of Shopify’s largest merchants by creating uniquely designed leggings, while also partnering with major brands, in the case below, Dr. Who:

Fit/Style

If you plan to create your own clothing from the ground up, the actual fit and style of the clothes can be an important point of differentiation.

Example: Sharp Casualwear provides upscale clothing to men 5’8” and under who are seeking stylish staples that fit well. Perhaps the original online brand that became famous and known for a better fit is Bonobos. Bonobos decided that they wanted to create a better-fitting men’s pant. Their better fit helped establish them early on and turned their brand into a 100 million dollar company.

Brand

With all else being the same, people are more likely to buy from a brand whose story they can relate to most. Furthermore, a strong brand alone that connects with consumers can allow you to demand a higher price point, even if the quality is relatively the same as other common or less expensive brands.

Example: Billionaire Boys Club throughout the early 2000s sold t-shirts for nearly $100 that simply said “Billionaire Boys Club.” Although arguably, their t-shirts were the same quality as hundreds of others on the market, consumers bought into the young, urban brand and its story.

Niche

The niche you choose to operate in and your target market (if defined well enough and if it’s under-served) can be in itself a point of differentiation.

Example: Unbound Merino targets digital nomads that work remotely and travel the world. Even with thousands of clothing brands on the market, there are very few, if any, targeting this particular group of people.

80s Tees sells exclusive designs from 80s movies and TV shows. Not only are the designs appealing and nostalgic, but many of the designs are licensed making them exclusive and nearly impossible to find elsewhere.

Finally, Canada Threads focuses on clothing and accessories that uniquely resonate with Canadians, including designs related to the beloved Canadian House Hippo.

Performance/Material/Quality

The type of material plays a part in differentiating your clothing pieces from the rest out there. How they perform for the wearer (are they comfortable, itchy, restricting, warm, light, airy, do they wrinkly easily, etc.) and their overall quality (including any seams, buttons, the weight of the fabric, etc.) will all play a role in your customer’s satisfaction.

Example: Unbound Merino ran a successful crowdfunding campaign raising $300,000 and are building their brand based on the performance of their clothing: Casual wear made from 100% super-soft merino wool which has superior breathability and odor-blocking abilities, allowing this line of travel clothes to be worn many times without washing.

Developing a Business Plan for Your Clothing Line

With some of the basics out of the way, the next step is for you to develop a basic (but critical) business plan to map out your decisions and the direction for your clothing company.

Some of the major elements you’ll want to consider when putting together your ecommerce business plan are:

• Your Business Model
• Customer Personas
• Competitor Strengths & Weaknesses
• Costs & Margins

Crafting a Brand for Your Clothing Line

The next step is to develop a brand for your new clothing company.

Crafting a brand for your new clothing company is paramount. With so many clothing companies and brands out there, you’ll need to differentiate yourself. Your brand will be a big part of that.

Ultimately, every business has a brand and every new business will have a brand. Crafting your brand upfront gives you the chance to better define and communicate your message and story.

If you’re planning on creating a custom cut and sew clothing line, you may want to consider hiring a dedicated branding agency to help you craft your brand. If you’re planning on a print-on-demand or a private label brand where your investment and budget are much smaller, developing your own brand can be a worthwhile and low-cost option.

At this stage you need to identify:

• Who your market is
• What brand would speak best to this market

Below, we will quickly introduce you to several key elements of developing your clothing company brand, however, for a complete breakdown of all brand elements, as well as the guide and worksheets to define all your brand elements, check out our branding guide, A Better Brand.

Defining Your Market

Defining your market is important for any brand, but especially for brands in the clothing and apparel market because it’s extremely saturated. By broadly targeting large groups of people, you’re setting yourself up for failure right from the beginning. What you want to do is niche down and create segments.

Some critical questions to ask yourself at this stage is:

• What type of clothing and apparel products do I want to make?
• Who is going to purchase my products?
• What specific value will my product or brand bring these people?
• What will be unique about my product?
• Who is my competition?

Creating Your Brand Pillars

Brand pillars are a few key words or attributes (usually 3-4) that embody what your brand is about, and they serve as a starting point for developing your brand persona. Later, these words are used as a checkpoint against most activities of the brand. For example, when creating your website, an advertisement, or even a conversation with your customer, you should check it against your brand pillars. Ask yourself: Does my design/website/ad/conversation represent the essence behind my brand pillar words?

Your brand pillars act as a simple tool for keeping your brand consistent throughout all of your activities and they serve as the foundation for your brand.

Develop Your Brand Visuals

Your brand visuals are the common brand elements that many people immediately think about when they think about a particular brand. This includes your company’s logo, brand colors, and fonts, as well as your overall design and photography aesthetics.

• Create a Moodboard: A mood board is a perfect way to start pulling together the visual style you’re going for. Essentially a mood board is a collection of images, photos, designs, colors, and any other snippets of multimedia you find from around the web that serves as an inspiration for your brand. While there are many tools available online to help you collect these elements, the easiest way tends to be using Pinterest or Instagram.
• Select a Color Palette: Your next step in the branding process is to narrow down a color palette to use. Selecting a color palette up front will help keep your brand looking consistent through all channels. You’ll want to start by paying particular attention to the dominant colors used in your mood board since these are likely colors that immediately caught your eye. From there we also suggest you use a tool like Adobe Color to review other community-inspired and voted color palettes to get some additional ideas. Finally, Adobe also offers a tool for helping choose and refine your color palette, check it out here.
• Craft a Logo: When it comes to crafting a logo for your business, you’ll want a logo that not only represents your brand well but one that speaks to your target demographic, too. While we always recommend working with a respected logo designer to craft the perfect logo for your brand, those with a smaller budget can get started for almost nothing with a tool like Looka.

The Product Development Process for Your Clothing Line

For anyone who is completely new to the fashion business, it’s important to know that this is a hugely important step in the process of starting and running a cut-and-sew clothing line. At this point, we strongly suggest that you consider partnering with a professional who knows what they’re doing and how to do it properly.

Professionals such as pattern makers, tech pack creators, design partners, materials partners, and production partners are highly experienced in their respective fields and it’s their job to make your clothing line a reality in the most efficient way possible. Without the help of professionals, things like pattern making and tech packs can be a nightmare for not only you but for the future manufacturer you plan to work with.

This is where researching your manufacturer in advance pays off for you, though. Some manufacturers offer professional product development services, some will only manufacture for you if they have done your product development themselves, and others don’t provide these services but they have partners who they prefer working with. All of this information will be outlined on the manufacturer’s website or by contacting them directly.

When it comes to the product development of your clothing line, there is generally going to be a common path to follow with some common terminology no matter what types of clothing products you’re developing. First, we will look at what the general process of clothing product development looks like, then we will discuss the process in more detail.

• Designs: This generally refers to the initial design concept and is usually represented as sketches either on paper or digitally. While your patterns might start out as concept sketches, eventually you’ll likely turn them into digital sketches using a program like Illustrator.
• Tech Pack: A tech pack is essentially a blueprint for your apparel product, providing a manufacturer with all the details and technical specifications for production. This includes the designs, measurements, materials, and any accessories (zipper, buttons, etc.).
• Pattern Making & Grading: Pattern making is the process of turning your technical drawings into patterns that can be used for production. Grading is the process of taking a single pattern and grading the pattern up or down to create the additional patterns for all the other sizes in your apparel line.
• Sourcing: Sourcing involves finding, communicating, vetting, and working with multiple manufacturers to determine which one is best suited for the full production of your particular products.
• Samples: This involves manufacturers producing a one-off or small batch of samples to provide you with a proof of concept, as well as for you to identify potential issues or improvements prior to a full production run.
• Production: A full product run is the mass production of your apparel products. Depending on the products and the manufacturer, this can be hundreds of units, thousands of units, or even hundreds of thousands of units.

Below, we will go into greater detail about each of these steps in the process and provide you with more content and resources to get you started. However, it’s important to note that there are other resources available that will guide you through the full process, helping you at each step of the way.

Some of the most popular ones are:

• Maker’s Row
• Sqetch
• Sewport
• CALA

Step 1: Design Your Clothing Line Concepts

Your clothing line will begin as sketches—most likely simple sketches in a notebook. This is usually the best route to get the ideas out of your head. As you begin sketching your clothing pieces, also think about adding any specific notes or unique ideas you have, as well as any special features or functionality. These notes will likely be part of tech packs later.

The initial goal is just to start developing your ideas and bring them to life.

Furthermore, the benefit of sketching out your ideas is that they can be shared. This is important because unless you’re a professional clothing designer, you’re going to likely need to enlist the help of a fashion designer or illustrator to help you pull together and refine your sketches into something more realistic and thought out.

Step 2: Create Patterns & Develop Tech Packs

You will need to enlist the help of a qualified pattern maker to take your idea and turn it into an actual pattern that can then be turned into an actual piece of clothing. A pattern can then be used to help create a tech pack.

A tech pack is essentially a blueprint for each garment. Your tech pack tells your manufacturer all the information required to transform your design into a final product. A proper and complete tech pack will reduce errors in production, save you money, prevent miscommunication, and ultimately, bring your product to life exactly how you envisioned it.

Your tech pack should include all possible details about your product, including (but not limited to) the:

• Design
• Fabrics
• Measurements
• Trim
• Stitching
• Artwork
• Label & Tag Information
• Packaging Instructions

Here’s an example of a tech pack for a better understanding:

(Source: Michael Smith Design)

Here are some pattern makers and technical designers who have been vetted and provided by Maker’s Row, to get you started:

• Nicole Melendez
• Clothier Design Source

Additional places to hire freelancers to help produce your tech packs:

• People Per Hour – Tech Packs
• Upwork – Tech Pack Freelancers

Step 3: Research Clothing Manufacturers

The next step in this process is to research potential clothing manufacturers.

Find out things like their location, capabilities, heritage, reputation, and what other brands they’ve worked with to get an idea of what they can offer you. It’s important at this stage to really be thorough as small things such as location can have a massive impact on communication, turnaround time, and shipping when it actually comes to working with a manufacturer.

Not every manufacturer provides the same services so it’s important to know the pros and cons of as many manufacturers as possible so you can find the services you’re looking for without compromising on your brand values.

• Maker’s Row: Maker’s Row has nearly 10,000 factories to explore, including over 3,000 in apparel, all based in the USA.
• Sourcify: Sourcify has relationships with hundreds of Chinese manufacturers and will work with you to find and vet the right one for you.
• Sqetch: Sqetch is similar to Maker’s Row but focuses on connecting you with European manufacturers.

Step 4: Determine Your Budget

Budgeting out product development and production costs is something you need to determine prior to selecting a factory to work with. You need to understand your budget availability and limits so you can map out all aspects of production, such as what fabric you’ll be able to use and whether producing overseas or in your home country is your best option.

Costs to consider in your budget include:

• The price of professional product development services such as pattern making, tech packs, design development, etc.
• The cost of making samples (bearing in mind that more than one sample is usually made)
• The cost of materials such as fabric, buttons, zippers, hardware, and any other pieces used in the construction of your garments
• The cost of transportation between you and the factory for meetings/visiting the factory
• The cost of labor (determine the difference in labor cost between your home country and overseas labor cost requirements)
• The cost of shipping between you and the factory and the cost of shipping the necessary materials to the factory
• The cost of production and actually creating the clothing items themselves

After considering these factors, you’ll be able to communicate your budget to your future manufacturer and find one that fits your requirements.

Pricing out all of these costs is also helpful in determining whether or not producing in an overseas factory is more realistic for your business—bearing in mind that while the cost of labor may be cheaper, the cost of shipping between you and the factory will increase; as will turn around time. Nonetheless, understanding the cost of product development and production helps you and your future manufacturer make the best choices for your business.

Step 5: Select Clothing Manufacturers

Once you’ve researched a bunch of different manufacturers and have an idea of what’s out there, make a shortlist of manufacturers who seem like they’ll be a good fit for your clothing brand.

Maybe there are some manufacturers who specialize in the kinds of clothing products you want to produce, maybe some operate out of your local area, maybe some have raving reviews from past or current clients, or maybe some fit into your budget range better than others. Whatever is important to you in a manufacturer, narrow down your shortlist to ones who seem like they check off some of your most important boxes.

Step 6: Contact Clothing Manufacturers

By now you should have been able to narrow down a long list of potential clothing manufacturers into a shorter list of manufacturers who meet your needs when it comes down to what you require in terms of professional services, which manufacturers are actually able to create your future garments, manufactures in an accessible location, or ones who meet your budget requirements.

Now is the time to contact your potential manufacturers, but that may be easier said than done. Response rates for manufacturers differ, but producing a well-thought-out initial email can increase your chances of actually receiving a response back from potential manufactures.

Here are some general DOs and DON’Ts when it comes to contacting a manufacturer:

• DON’T come across as a “tire-kicker.” If your interest in manufacturing doesn’t seem to be serious or genuine you may not get a response. Manufacturers don’t want to waste their own time working with people who aren’t serious when they could be working with people who actually want to build and grow their business.
• DO be polite. You and your manufacturer will be working together in this process—they don’t solely work for you—so treat them with respect and be mindful of their requirements, services, and processes.
• DO be clear. In the best interest of yourself and your future manufacturer, it’s best practice to be clear about what you’re looking for, the services you require, your timeline, etc. Be upfront about what you need and don’t leave any room for ambiguities in the event that it will create more confusion down the road.
• DO follow up. It’s okay to follow up after your initial email to ensure the factory received and read the message, so be prepared to send up to three follow-up emails spaced apart by a week or so to prompt a response from a factory. This will make you seem eager and serious to the factory which, if you’re new to this process, is what you want.
• DON’T give them too much information. Introduce your company, the products that you’re looking to create with them, what services you’re looking for, and ask what further information they need from you. Give them enough information to know your intentions and that you’re serious about the inquiry, but don’t overload them with your brand goals, material choices, and timelines yet.

Click here to learn more about how to construct the perfect initial contact email.

Step 7: Screen Potential Factories

If you’re lucky, by this step you’ll have received responses from some of the factories you’ve contacted and now it’s time to narrow down your search.

Even if you only received a response from one factory, it is still important to make sure it’s the right fit for you. At this step, you should communicate further with the factories and learn more about how they conduct business and the quality of their products. You should be looking to evaluate whether or not you will get along with them personally and professionally in order to gauge your potential for success as colleagues.

These are things to look out for:

• How they prefer to communicate with their clients (by email, phone, or personal visits)
• Ask for references from other clients (to get a first-hand evaluation of what they are like to work with)
• Ask for samples of products they’ve made (to judge if the quality of their products is at the level you’re looking for)
• Understand how they charge for samples, services, and what constitutes extra charges
• Get a feel for their timeline and availability

Now is the time to learn more about the factory, see their workspace in action, and communicate further with the manufacturer. This stage will give you an initial glimpse of what it will be like to work with this factory in the long run so it’s important to identify your respective strengths and weaknesses now so you can reduce the possibility of headaches and potential miscommunications in the future.

This is also now the right time to let the manufacturer in on your brand goals, where you see your brand starting off, what you see your brand scaling to, and let them know how you want them involved in that process. All the time you spent defining your brand in the first step should be communicated to the manufacturer to see if they understand where your brand is going and if they can get excited for your brand, too.

Step 8: Get Samples Made

Now that you can see yourself manufacturing your clothing line with a factory or two, it’s time to get some samples made so you can truly experience what your potential product will be like.

No matter how well-designed your patterns and tech packs have been, there are always opportunities for adjustments and corrections so it’s strongly encouraged that the sampling step is never skipped. It can be easy to want to jump straight into production—especially when time and money are on the line—but in the end, a whole line of garments that don’t fit properly will cost you more than just having a few samples done right from the start.

At this stage, it is appropriate to have more than one factory make samples of your garments. Feel free to shop around so you’re absolutely sure the factory you pick will be producing the garments you want at the quality level you want!

Step 9: Start Full-Scale Production

The final step of the manufacturing process is really just the first step of building your own clothing brand.

This is the time to work with your manufacturer and get your garments produced! At this stage, it’s important to stay five steps ahead of everything:

• Make sure deadlines are adhered to
• Be available to answer any questions your manufacturer may have for you
• Be diligent with quality control

Once production for one season of garments starts, the planning for the next season begins—this is only just the beginning! But now that you have the right manufacturer for your business, let their skills and services help you build your clothing brand to where you want it to be.

Step 10: Brand Your Clothing & Packaging

The branding of your clothing line has everything to do with how you’ll be perceived by your customers. Branding tells the story of your company and your packaging is one of the few parts of your brand—besides your clothing items themselves—that your customers will actually be able to touch, feel, and see. It engages your customers, it can make them feel valued, and it can even increase the perceived level of quality your customers associate with your brand and your clothing items.

This is why it’s important to seriously consider how you package and present your clothing items, no matter what items you’re selling.

There are plenty of different ways to enhance your brand’s packaging and presentation and to make it unique and true to your brand.

Let’s learn more…

Step 11: Branded Packaging Options

There are two different types of options when it comes to branding your packaging: The actual elements that you use for the packaging itself, and the additional extras you can include with the package to elevate the unboxing experience.

The package elements are the more functional items that are required to actually ship your clothing pieces, whereas the added extras enhance the experience and help to make your customers feel valued.

Elements of a Branded Package

These are the functional parts of a shipping package that you’ll need in order to ship your items from you to your customers. You won’t need every single one of these items, but they’re all options that you can use depending on what you want your packaging to achieve.

Shipping Boxes

Depending on the clothing items you sell, you may have to ship them to your customers in a shipping box. Shipping boxes are sturdy and are a good option for shipping heavy or bulky items (such as coats) or delicate items that need to be protected throughout the shipping process (such as beaded clothing pieces, or items with 3D appliqué).

Shipping boxes, however, can add weight and size to your package making it more expensive to ship, but if it will protect your clothing items while they’re on their way to your customers, it’s a small price to pay upfront that should decrease the potential of damaged items and returned products in the future.

Keep in mind that your shipping boxes don’t have to be boring cardboard boxes. There are plenty of services available to entrepreneurs and small businesses that can create custom boxes for your products at competitive prices, whether you’re looking for something sleek, simple, and plain or something colorful, bold, patterned, and vibrant.

You can also use these services to get your brand name printed onto the box itself for a more professional unboxing experience.

Where to Source Shipping Boxes:

• Refine Packaging
• Pakible
• Packwire
• Lumi
• Wolfpack Packaging Inc.
• Arka
• Box Geek
• Custom Boxes & Packaging
• Custom Boxes Now
• eSupplyStore
• Fast Pack: Boxes
• Instabox (Canada)
• PakFactory
• Papermart
• ValueMailers

Poly Mailers

Another great alternative for shipping clothing items is shipping bags—otherwise referred to in the industry as poly mailers.

These are an ideal option because unlike shipping boxes, they don’t add much weight or bulk to your package, so you won’t be adding extra shipping costs to your package. They are less sturdy than a box though, so they’re a good option if you’re shipping clothing pieces that aren’t easily damaged and can be bent and folded throughout the shipping process. They do come in plenty of sizes too, so whether you’re shipping one item or a few at a time, you should be able to source a selection of different sized poly mailers to meet your customer’s needs. Plenty of brands ship clothing items to their customers in poly mailers, so it is an appropriate method for the industry.

There are plenty of places online where you can get custom poly mailers made for your business so you’re able to add your logo, brand colors, or fun patterns to make it more exciting for your customers.

Where to Source Poly Mailers:

• Sticker Mule
• Pakible
• Lumi
• Uline: Poly Mailers
• eSupplyStore: Poly Mailers

Bubble Mailers

If your clothing items need a bit more protection but you don’t want to completely upgrade from a poly mailer to a full-on shipping box, you have another option: Bubble mailers. As the name would suggest, they’re like poly mailers but they have a layer of bubble wrap included on the inside of the mailer which helps protect whatever’s inside.

They don’t offer the same sturdiness that shipping boxes do, but they help to cushion the contents of the mailer throughout the process and are less bulky than shipping boxes.

Where to Source Bubble Mailers:

• Pakible
• Uline: Bubble Mailers
• eSupplyStore: Bubble Mailers
• Fast Pack: Bubble Mailers

Tissue Paper

If using packing peanuts and crinkle paper isn’t your style, or if your products don’t need additional protection, or even if you’re using a poly mailer, tissue paper may be an ideal option to enhance the unboxing experience for your customers.

Tissue paper makes the unboxing experience feel more like a gift, which can make your package seem thoughtful and your customers feel valued.

Tissue paper is also an easy way to add to your packaging without adding any extra bulk or weight, and you can have it printed with your logo or choose colored or patterned paper to add some extra flair to the package. Use an everchanging assortment of patterns, colors, and styles to keep repeat customers interested.

Where to Source Tissue Paper:

• Uline: Retail Cushioning
• Uline: Industrial Tissue Paper
• JAM Paper: Tissue Paper
• eSupplyStore: Tissue Paper
• Fast Pack: Tissue Paper
• Papermart: Tissue Paper

Packing Tape

Depending on your brand’s style, using packing tape that’s colorful, patterned, or printed with your logo may be an interesting way to decorate your shipping box or package. Not only is it decorative, but packing tape is functional and adds another layer of security to keep box openings sealed throughout the shipping process.

Where to Source Packing Tape:

• Tape Jungle
• Uline: Tape
• JAM Paper: Packaging Tape
• eSupplyStore: Packing Tape

Stickers

If you don’t need something as heavy-duty as packing tape to seal your boxes or mailers shut, stickers can be an alternative option that can also add to the branded packaging experience. Get your logo printed on them, your brand’s tagline, mission statement, fun facts about your brand, or any other piece of info you want to share with your customers for an added layer of personalization. Alternatively, use stickers to brand plain shipping boxes or mailers, or include them inside your package for customers to use or share as they please.

Stickers are super versatile, so think about how you can use stickers to enhance your unboxing experience!

Where to Source Stickers:

• Sticker Giant
• Sticker Mule
• Sticker You
• Moo

Include Extra Branded Material

These aren’t necessary to include, but if you’re interested in elevating your unboxing experience, making it memorable for your customers, and making them feel valued, then including one or two of the following options can help you to start out in a positive way.

Promotions, Discounts & Deals

Including packing inserts that notify your customer of an upcoming promotion, or share a discount code or deal they can use for themselves or share with a friend is a pleasant surprise your customers will likely appreciate when opening their package. It shows thought and care from your end, and it’s also likely to encourage them to purchase from you again, which is advantageous for you.

Business Cards

If you want your customers to remember you, refer you to a friend, or send you feedback about their experience with your business or your products, consider including your business card so they can hold onto it or pass it on to others. It’s a small token, but it shows that you value their input and experience.

Custom Notes/Personalized Messages

This is the ultimate way to make your customers feel valued and shows an immense amount of consideration and thoughtfulness.

Custom, handwritten notes with personalized messages are a great way to connect with your customers and make them feel appreciated. While it likely won’t be possible to include a handwritten note for all of your customers, consider including them for your very first customers, your most frequent purchasers, for customers who leave glowing reviews on your website, or ones who have taken the time to send you valuable feedback. Your customers will likely feel very touched by your effort and will likely also share their experience with their peers or on their social platforms, which is positive exposure for your brand.

Gifts or Samples

Who doesn’t love to receive a gift?! Using gifts as a way to thank your customers for their purchase is a surefire way to capture their attention and make them feel valued. It doesn’t have to be anything big (some companies include candy bars to treat their customers) as you just want it to be an addition to the package, but something small can be just as appreciated by your customers.

If you don’t want to gift an item from another company, consider including a sample of one of your own products. Again, it doesn’t have to be anything big, but something that complements their purchase could be appreciated.

Step 12: Brand Your Clothing Items

Beyond the packaging of your clothing items, you can also add additional touches of branding to your clothing items themselves to ensure they’re as seemingly high-quality as possible and are presented in the most thought out way possible. The best way to do this is by adding custom labels and tags.

Clothing Labels & Tags

Clothing labels are a piece of fabric that’s attached to the inside of clothing items that typically include the brand’s logo. While it’s required in most countries for clothing items to have care and size labels, brand labels aren’t necessary but they add a thoughtful touch to the clothing piece. They also often help customers to remember where the clothing item is from once they’ve integrated it into their wardrobe, and they can add to the overall feel of the clothing piece.

Some labels can be scratchy and uncomfortable for the wearer, which can make the garment seem cheap, while others can be well sewn into the garment and made of a cloth material that’s much more high quality. Think about how you want your brand to be perceived and choose a type of label that fits accordingly.

Clothing Label Material Options:

• Damask Woven Labels
• Satin Woven Labels
• Taffeta Woven Labels
• Woven Patches
• Cotten Twill Labels
• Canvas Printed Labels
• Nylon Printed Labels
• Satin Printed Labels
• Silicon Clothing Labels
• Leather Labels
• And much more

It’s also important to consider which label types exist and where they can be located on the garment.

If you want to increase your brand’s awareness, you may want to consider placing brand labels on the outside of your clothing items such as on hems or cuffs, but if you want to maintain relatively inconspicuous brand placement, you may just want to include the labels on the inside of your garments.

The types of clothing labels you can include on your garments include:

• Manhattan Fold Labels: These are quite similar to Center Fold Labels in their appearance, except that the top of the label is folded over to give a more finished and high-quality look. This type of label is typically sewn into the collar of a garment.
• The End Fold Labels: These have more of a finished and high-quality look to them because the edges are tucked in at the sides. These types of labels are typically printed with brand logos and they’re quite small.
• Straight Cut Labels: These have no folds at all, which means they’re typically sewn on flat—straight onto the garment. They’re commonly also placed on the outside of a garment as a decorative patch, usually with a brand logo printed on them.
• Center Fold Labels: These are the most common type of apparel labels. They’re usually made of woven materials and commonly attached to the inside of garment collars.
• The Mitre Fold Label: These are similar to the End Fold Label as they’re quite small, shaped like a thin rectangle, and are typically printed just with a brand logo. This type of label, however, hangs down a bit farther than the End Fold Label instead of going straight across.
• Loop Fold Labels: These labels are commonly sewn on the inside of garments, typically close to the hemline in shirts or the waistband in some trousers. This type of label is usually reserved for care and size information, not brand logos.

Clothing Tags

Where to Source Clothing Labels and Tags:

• Custom Labels 4 U
• Uline: Hanging Tags

Step 13: Create Your Online Clothing Store

If you’re serious about building a brand or learning more about digital marketing, search engine optimization, and conversion rate strategies, you need to build your clothing store on a customizable ecommerce platform. We can’t recommend Shopify enough. Not only is Shopify one of the easiest platforms to get started with, but its app store is the most robust and has a host of print-on-demand clothing printers and dropshippers if you choose to go that route (read our Shopify Review to learn more about why we recommend it so highly).

Shopify enables you to build your own online clothing store wherever you are, with the ability to sell to customers all over the world. Setting up your store with Shopify is easy, and you don’t have to worry about your website’s security so you can be sure that you and your customers’ sensitive information is protected when shopping on your site.

Overall, Shopify is the most recommended ecommerce platform out there, and it’s your best option when it comes to starting your own clothing store online.

When setting up your clothing store on Shopify you’ll want to take your brand into consideration and make use of all your brand visuals. Implement your color palette, use your logo, take effective product and lifestyle photos of your garments, and create a glowing “About Page” so your customers can learn more about who your brand is and what you stand for.

These are the types of things that will make your clothing store stand out to your customers, so they’ll be more trusting when it comes time for them to make a purchase. You want your website to install confidence in your customers, so take that into consideration when setting up your online clothing store.

Your Store’s Theme

Another aspect of your online clothing/apparel store to take into serious consideration is your store’s theme. Themes are the general outward look and feel of your website, and depending on the products you sell, some themes may display your products better than others.

Since you’ll be starting a clothing/apparel store, you’ll want a theme that shows off your garments to their full potential so choose a theme that enables you to post lots of images.

Shopify offers plenty of free and premium themes to choose from (see them all in action on the Shopify Theme Store) but if you’re looking for more theme options, Out Of The Sandbox creates premium Shopify themes and they are one of the best, if not the best, place to get them.

Step 14: Create a Shipping Strategy for Your Clothing Company

Figuring out how to ship your products to your customers can be a confusing and daunting process if you’ve never done it before as there’s a lot to take into consideration.

What should you charge for shipping? How much does shipping cost? What about returns? What shipping carrier should you use? Should you start off with a shipping and fulfillment warehouse? Will your customers get charged duty and customs fees? What about shipping labels? What about tracking and insuring your packages?

All these questions, and more, are valid questions to be asking yourself—and we’ll dive into them now:

How to Charge Your Customer for Shipping

These are your options:

• Charge Your Customers the Exact Shipping Fee: This means that your customers will be made aware of the shipping costs while they’re checking out and they’ll have to pay the exact amount it costs to get their order shipped to them.
• Charge Your Customers a Flat Shipping Fee: This means that you can instate a flat shipping fee such as $6 for domestic orders and $12 for international orders, no matter how many items each customer orders and no matter where they’re located domestically or internationally. Some orders will cost you more to ship and some will cost you less, but if you budget it correctly it should even out.
• Offer Your Customers Free Shipping Over a Certain Threshold: For example, you could offer all customers free shipping if they spend over $100. This encourages customers to purchase enough products to meet that amount so they don’t have to pay for shipping. By making sure they spend a certain monetary amount, it makes it more worthwhile for you to ship their package for “free” because the cost of shipping is absorbed into your profit margin on the order. Check out our article on How to Offer Free Shipping & Calculating Your Free Shipping Threshold for more information.
• Offer Your Customers Free Shipping Based on their Location: In this case, you could offer free shipping for all domestic destinations and any international locations will have to pay a calculated rate or a flat fee. This encourages your local customers to purchase from you without having to pay any shipping fees and depending on your domestic shipping rates you should be able to absorb the cost in your profit margin, assuming you price your items accordingly. For international customers, however, you’ll be able to fund the shipping cost fully or in part by their calculated or flat rate fee.
• Offer Your Customers Free Shipping on Any Order: Some businesses choose to offer free shipping to all customers because it’s easier for them to calculate, more attractive to customers, and results in fewer cart abandonments. The cost of shipping will be absorbed by your profit margin, so take that into consideration when pricing your items.

Shipping is never free. No matter what it says on any website, “free shipping” is not free for the business—the cost is just being absorbed in some other way. It’s also no secret that shipping costs are one of the most likely reasons for shopping cart abandonments, so in order to combat that, many ecommerce stores offer free shipping to decrease shipping cart abandonments.

Take both of these things into consideration when pricing your products so you can gauge whether you’ll need to charge higher prices for your items so you can afford to offer free shipping, or at least a subsidized shipping rate.

Calculating Shipping Costs

The cost of shipping depends on your carrier, where you’re shipping to, and where you’re shipping from. There are also other variables involved like the weight and size of the package as well, so your best bet is to use a shipping calculator to determine how much it would cost you to ship your packages. Many carriers have shipping calculators available on their websites so you can price out the cost of your packages on there.

• USPS Postage Price Calculator
• UPS Shipping Calculator
• DHL Shipping Calculator
• FedEx Shipping Calculator
• Canada Post Shipping Calculator
• UK Royal Mail Shipping Calculator
• Australia Post Shipping Calculator

How to Handle Returns

You basically have two options when it comes to handling returns for your customers: You can provide your customers with pre-paid postage in case they need to return an item, or you don’t provide your customers with pre-paid postage and they will have to assume the responsibility to pay for postage in the event that they need to return an item to you.

Providing pre-paid postage for customers offers them a seamless shopping experience with your company, however not offering free returns can actually affect customer’s decision to purchase from you at all.

Check out this blogpost from Shopify that discusses shipping returns in more detail to learn more about it and how it affects your business.

Which Shipping Carrier to Use

Most popular shipping carriers offer a business account program so businesses can get perks such as better order management, discounts on shipping, and/or free shipping supplies. Basically, it makes it a little bit easier and less expensive for you than just shipping packages without a business account.

Check out these popular shipping carrier’s business accounts:

• USPS Customer Gateway
• UPS Business Solutions
• DHL Business Account
• FedEx Business Center
• Canada Post Business Account
• UK Royal Mail Online Business Account
• Australia Post Business Credit Account

Using a Shipping & Fulfillment Warehouse

Shipping and fulfillment warehouses can be a tricky service to use for clothing stores as there are usually many different SKUs (stock-keeping units) such as different sizes and colors for each item of clothing. Although shipping and fulfillment warehouses may be convenient services to use since they handle the entire picking, packing, and shipping service for you, there can be some drawbacks, including:

• Inability to Use Your Own Branded Packaging: Some warehouses require that you use their own shipping packaging, so you won’t be able to use any boxes, poly mailers, tissue paper, stickers, etc. that have your own branding on them. It can also be difficult to add other extras such as promotional inserts, custom notes, samples, etc.
• Cost: Shipping and fulfillment warehouses can take the shipping process off your hands but at what cost? It costs you to store your SKUs on your warehouse’s shelf space so depending on how quickly your product ships out to customers and how much product you’re selling, it may or may not be a worthwhile cost for you.
• Handling Returns: Since your business is just one of many at a shipping and fulfillment warehouse, returned items may be handled in an inefficient manner, depending on the warehouse. Make sure you look into each warehouse’s return policy before you work with them.

However, there are also advantages to using shipping and fulfillment warehouses:

• Shipping Costs: Shipping and fulfillment warehouses generally have to pay less to ship packages, so you’ll likely pay less too.
• Simplified Process: No need to wait in line at the post office or deal with couriers to get your packages shipped.
• Saves You Time: All the time that it takes you to pick, package, and send packages can be put to other uses such as managing customer inquires, advertising, or just growing your business in general.

Generally speaking, if you’re just starting your online clothing store: Handle the shipping and fulfillment process yourself, initially.

This gives you the chance to learn the best practices for shipping your own products, you can put your own personal touch on each package and you can use your own branded packaging materials. If you’re just sending out a few parcels a day, it won’t take up too much of your time to send them through post offices or couriers.

If you anticipate having a large customer base to start off with and predict that you may not be able to keep up with packing and shipping orders yourself, have a look into shipping and fulfillment warehouses to see what your options are.

Shipping & Fulfillment Warehouses:

These are some shipping and fulfillment options to consider, however, we encourage you to do your own research and due diligence:

• Printful Warehousing & Fulfillment
• Shopify Fulfillment Network
• Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)
• Fulfillrite
• Fulfillment.com
• Red Stag Fulfillment
• ThinkLogistics
• ShipFusion
• WSI Supply Chain Solutions

To learn more about why third-party logistics providers are advantageous for your business, check out our Ultimate Guide to Utilizing a 3PL Provider for Ecommerce Fulfillment article.

Duty & Customs Fees

It’s important to be aware that you as a business are not in control of the duties and customs fees your international customers may be charged on their orders. Customs and duties fees are managed and imposed on your customers by their country itself, you don’t have the power to prevent them or influence their cost.

You do, however, have the ability to warn your customers about potential customs and duties fees they may face so that they’re not unpleasantly surprised when their order arrives.

On your shipping information page, include a section about customs and duties fees and let your customers know that they may be charged these fees by their county and that your business has no control over that.

For more information about customs and duties declaration, required forms, and policies, check out these pages:

• USPS Postal Exporter
• UPS Import/Export Regulations
• DHL Customs and Duties
• FedEx Guide to Customs Forms
• Canada Post Customs Requirements
• UK Royal Mail Customs and Duties
• Australia Post Customs Forms & Regulations

Shipping Tracking & Insurance

Many customers now expect to have their packages tracked and expect to receive email updates on the whereabouts of the packages. If you’re interested in giving your customers a streamlined and professional shopping experience, look into what tracking options your shipping carrier has available. It almost always costs extra or will mean that you’ll have to upgrade to a more expensive service, but it could be very worthwhile for both you and your customers.

Most shipping carriers offer some kind of insurance, but it may not cover the entire cost of your orders—depending on the price of your items. If you sell high-priced items or just want the peace of mind that you’re insured for any lost parcels, it may be worth looking into a third-party shipping insurance provider such as Shipsurance or InsureShip.

It’s important to be aware that the shipping process can be complex, and it can take a while to set up and get used to all the different steps, systems, and processes. It’ll probably be a learning curve at the start, especially if you’ve never shipped a large number of orders before or if you’re launching to an eager audience, so give yourself time to set up your shipping systems properly so it doesn’t affect your business too much. Once you get a system going though you’ll likely get the hang of it and be able to make small improvements or scale your processes as needed.

Conclusion

We hope this post has provided you with very clear insight into the steps, systems, and processes it takes to start a clothing line. It may seem overwhelming at first if this is all new to you, however, just focus on one step at a time and grow from there. No matter what kind of clothing line you want to create—whether it’s just your own line of t-shirts or an entire collection of cut and sew garments—the information, tools, resources, and experiences provided in this guide should help you get where you want to go.

Before you launch your clothing brand, don’t forget to run through our Launch Checklist to make sure you don’t miss anything important, and once you’ve launched, use our 52 Week Marketing Plan to drive traffic to your store.

The post How to Start a Clothing Line: Your Complete Guide to Design, Sampling, Production & Packaging appeared first on A Better Lemonade Stand.