Five Key Starters to Growing Your Online Business

Blog contributed by Mignonne Gavigan & Molly Raney

Consumer condition has entirely changed, there are so many different wants and needs which is impacting the way people are purchasing today. There are a few areas that have been consistent winners for us when it comes to helping drive revenue for e-commerce and our brand. These areas we have built on over the years, and now more than ever these five starters are essential to put in to place to help grow your online business. 

1. Brand Communication: This is the first step business owners can take in prioritizing how to reach their customers.  For Mignonne Gavigan transparent and thoughtful messaging has helped us connect deeply with our audience.  We strive to always be reactive and proactive and get our customers involved. We want them to trust us and we want to hear from them.   

2. Create a Marketing Calendar:  Connect the dots with product deliveries, your brand’s DNA and story-telling pillars to create a full cohesive story. Whether a small or large company, having a calendar to align all your marketing initiatives is easy and highly impactful.

3. Social Strategy: Aligning your social strategy with your marketing strategy and product drops has never been more important. 

• What story are you telling? 
• Define your brands value story and make sure it comes through throughout your social platforms and story telling
• People want to feel connected to brands, keep your audience in mind while you are curating and creating content
• Get your audience involved
• Utilize Instagram Stories and Instagram TV, the longer you hold your audience’s attention the better, keep them engaged
• Turn On Instagram Shopping (step-by-step instructions below)

4.  Email Marketing: 5 series you can put in to place that will immediately help drive revenue & engagement

• Welcome Series
• Browse Series
• SCA (Shopping Cart Abandoned) Series
• Back in Stock Alerts
• Win Back Series 

5. Digital Advertising does work! Do you have a small budget you can spend? Is Instagram and/or Facebook a top traffic source? Start with a small budget and work up as you see a return, focus on prospecting and retargeting. 

BONUS

How To: Turning On Your Instagram Shopping

In order to enable the ability to feature products to buy here are the steps you will need to take to get setup:

1. Go to your profile and tap the hamburger menu in the top left-hand corner.
2. Tap Settings.
3. Tap Business. 
4. Tap Shopping. Note: The option to tap Shopping is only available to accounts that that have been approved for Instagram Shopping.
5. Tap Continue.
6. Select a product catalog to connect to your professional account.
7. Tap Done.

If you don’t see Shopping and you have submitted a product feed via your businesses Facebook Business Manager Account, that likely means your account is still under review or hasn’t been approved for Instagram Shopping. The review process can take a few days, but sometimes takes up to two weeks to be reviewed.