All About Retailing Blog - This blog tackles the topic of retail technology solutions and key retail trends. One Step Retail Solutions is your one step resource for your retail technology needs.
Why bother hosting events in-store? They can take up already valuable time above the normal day-to-day operations, and put extra workload on you and your staff. You may worry that if you hold a store event that’s under-planned, under-attended and underwhelming, it could actually hurt rather than help your reputation. So, is it really worth the effort? The answer is YES. A successful store event brings increased exposure, traffic and sales with it.
The reason certain store events stand out is because they add something remarkable to their otherwise normal store experience. They create a connection with customers, encourage them to speak to others about the event, and ultimately drive repeat business back to your store.
74% of consumers have a more positive impression of a brand after an in-store event. 59% say that they plan on telling others about that experience within 48 hours of it. - (Event Marketing Institute)
Don’t simply pass over store events because they take up too much of your time to plan, or because they haven’t produced the results you desire in the past. All you need in order to host a successful event is proper planning, access to marketing channels to promote the event, and a dash of creativity.
Do you want double your social engagement and get your content shared like crazy? For small businesses and brands everywhere, posting multiple images on social media has been proven to have massive traction. It seems simple right? But if it was so easy wouldn’t everybody do it?
Like most good things, in life – there’s a catch. And it isn’t not needing a huge budget or incredible graphic design skills.
When it comes to content creation, many people make this simple mistake: they add more visuals just for the sake of it. This is a basic approach. Smart content marketers create a visual content strategy that reaches people’s emotions – content with real psychological impact.
If you’re not a graphic designer or artist, don’t worry. I’m going to walk you through you ten types of powerful visuals that are easy to create and can double your social media engagement. Let’s get started.
1. High quality stock photography
Beware: your fans will smell a cheesy stock photo from a million miles away. Not only will it lead them to discredit your professionalism as a brand, but will deter them from wanting to share your post.
On the other hand, high quality stock photography can do the complete opposite. As well as making your brand seem more credible, high quality and relevant images help establish your brand’s reputation and boost engagement. If you’re looking for original content, check out this handy article that lists and rates over 70 free stock photography websites.
Image: Elite Daily
Take a look at this post on Elite Daily’s Facebook page. By using relevant and high quality stock photography, the band achieves a “wow factor” which immediately tempts the viewer to click through to the blog.
After all, everything your audience shares on social media will reflect back on themselves. You can’t blame them for wanting to look good, but you can choose the right images to make it possible.
2. Screenshots
You’ve probably heard the old adage “seeing is believing.” In terms of visual content, the psychological lesson here is that when people can see something for themselves, they’re more likely to trust the source – which develops its credibility.
Image: Buffer
In this Twitter post Buffer gauges interest around one of its growth experiments by showing two screenshots of an A/B tested email. By doing so, Buffer is able to immediately impress the viewer, intriguing them to read on.
The text used to accompany the post is short yet effective: providing a hook for the article but letting the image become the compelling factor.
3. Infographics
The most basic way to understand why visual content is so effective on social media is to consider that the brain processes visual information 60,000 times faster than text. When we’re scrolling through hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of posts, tweets and updates – images are simply easier to digest.
Infographics take this concept to the next level, allowing brands to capture complex pieces of information and turn them into engaging social media posts.
Notice how Charity World Vision have created a Pinterest board dedicated solely to its infographics. By doing so, they’re able to share large chunks of information in a single visual post.
Image: World Vision
By following design guidelines to ensure your infographics are easily readable and visually engaging, this is a great opportunity to increase impact beyond what a single image could achieve.
4. Personal photographs
The best way to connect with your audience on a deeply authentic level is to show them that you’re human, no matter how successful you are. If your business or brand doesn’t have a human face, people will find it hard to relate to.
To execute this personal element in your visual social posts, add snaps of your CEO or management staff. In this example taken from fashion retailer Nastygal’s Instagram, the brand’s CEO Sophia Amoruso is seen at a book signing of her recent book #GIRLBOSS.
Not only does this boost interest around the book, it builds the authenticity of the brand. Look at her: she’s a boss!
Image: Nastygal
5. Behind the scenes shots of your workplace
Another way to connect people to the human aspect of your brand is to show behind the scenes shots of your workplace. This exclusive insight fosters a personal connection with your fans and strengthens their brand loyalty.
This particular type of imagery is more suitable for Instagram and Facebook, which are often considered the more “social” mediums. Designer Jen Gotch does this well on her instagram account by regularly featuring quirky shots of team activities.
Image: Jen Gotch
These images show the “real people” behind the brand and even encourage fans to consider Jen as a friend.
6. Quote graphics
A throwback to those motivational posters in your school counselor’s office – a quote graphic is still very beloved, and highly sharable. In fact, quote graphics work on every social media platform, including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.
The three things to consider with a quote graphic are the quote, the font, and the imagery. Go for a short quote with words that are easily digestible. Consider a font that’s readable on smaller screens because a lot more people are viewing through mobile devices.
Be sure to find an image that captures the spirit of the quote without competing with it for attention. The image should serve as a meditation space for the mind to go while its considering the quote.
Image: Canva Quotes
7. Original designs
Branding your images is essential in order to build recognition on social media – a goal that should always be at the forefront of your visual content creation.
Also consider that generic images are rehashed over and over again, so creating unique content gives you a much greater chance of becoming memorable.
When designing your own images, always create a style guide to ensure brand consistency. This means determining rules for your fonts, color scheme, and image personality. The goal: you want your brand to be instantly recognizable.
Take a look at how Amanda Fuller, creator of Kaleidoscope Blog, uses a simple yet original design over and over in her posts on Pinterest. Whenever I see a pin from the Kaleidoscope Blog on my Pinterest feed, I know exactly who its from based on this unique calling card design.
Image: Kaleidoscope
8. Images that reflect the essence of your brand
If you want to create images that impact your target audience always consider: what made them choose you over your competitors?
The answer to this question is your unique selling point. By choosing images based around it, you’ll be strengthening the foundations of brand loyalty.
Consider VOSS Water. Propelled by brand values of purity, distinction, and social responsibility, VOSS Water’s visual social media posts always reinforce one (or more) of these ideals.
In the Facebook examples below, you’ll find the distinctive VOSS Water bottle featured prominently as anchor branding. Both images convey a sense of nature/natural living, and the fruit infusions look fresh and healthy, right on target with branding.
Image: Voss
9. Action shots
Stimulate the imagination of your audience with an action or experience shot. Nothing is quite as convincing as a still photo that captures a moment in time.
Charity: Water engages its audience with this vibrant image of clean water and outreached hands. Without reading, you instantly get the visual: What’s a bigger need than clean water? And what’s a great joy than having access to it?
Image: Charity Water
While you may not be providing clean water to those in need, you can still use this type of visual social media post to inspire your followers to feel good about you and themselves, also, for following you.
Share images of your product or service in its ideal use. There’s a reason why, depending on the brand, beer ads show customers partying at the hottest club or lounging on the beach – that’s the desired experience.
Whatever you’re selling, you want a product shot of your ideal customer actively reaping the benefits of it.
10. Images with a striking color palette
Colors can depict and elevate mood. Whether you’re looking to compel or commiserate, colors play a huge role in human psychology. Consider: what are the feelings you want to evoke from your social media audience? Try and replicate that feeling with the colors you choose.An easy way to do this is to use a color picker tool to extract colors from your favorite images. Before you start designing, you should always set out to limit yourself to four main colors – this will help establish a theme or feeling for your designs and increase their impact.
Now it’s your turn!
Adding visual content to your social media strategy is a no-brainer, but using visual content that reaches your fans emotions and catches their eye is the smart marketer’s approach. Whether you’re creating original content, sourcing photographs or shooting your own, always consider how it will impact your audience.
To view the original article please visit: NewsCred
Want to see more articles like this? Check these out:
Social networks do not drive a lot of e-commerce sales directly (see chart), but they do influence shoppers by helping them discover new products to buy. Now some retailers are leveraging that influence to drive sales in stores.
Nordstrom recently announced that it's installing video monitors in more than 100 of its stores to display products being shared on social shopping app Wanelo. "It's a purely customer-driven strategy," said Bryan Galipeau, Nordstrom's social media director, in a press release. "We take a snapshot of that trending category once every week, and we will then match that up against our inventory and what's available in those stores so we're providing a good customer experience."
Facebook influences 30% of American women when deciding what professional clothing to buy. Pinterest influences 22%, according to a joint study by Netbase and Edison Research.
When it comes to clothing for a special occasion, Pinterest influences 28% of American women and Instagram influences 17%.
BI Intelligence
In the BI Intelligence report, we analyzed the data and spoke to leaders in the social commerce space to understand how their companies are adding value at different stages of the retail and e-commerce "purchase funnel," the long process that ultimately leads to a retail sale.
Some of the latest trends include building social networks around e-commerce platforms, partnering with brands, and otherwise transforming social commerce's strengths for Pinterest-style digital window-shopping. The report looks at the most important way retailers are leveraging social engagement to drive purchases.
Here's how social commerce companies are driving sales:
It's not about click-to-buy: Social commerce is not simply transactional — it's not just about offering a click-to-buy link next to an offer on Facebook. Social commerce will never be what some have wanted it to be, an "Amazon killer."
There are a few ways to encourage purchases:Retargeted advertising may be one missing link. It enables social commerce to connect the sales funnel from end-to-end by serving ads that remind users of products they have browsed across the Web but have not yet purchased. Facebook has made huge strides with its retargeted efforts.
Collaboration has led to some of the greatest achievements
of all time ranging from the discovery of DNA to the creation of Fortune 500
companies. So why shouldn’t the same idea work for your business success too?
“Shop Local!” has
been a popular theme giving the small to medium size retailers the business opportunity
to collaborate and reach new customers that will keep coming back. We have a
few suggestions of how to make your business standout in your community by
finding the right partnerships to increase sales growth.
1.A Passport Program Talk to similar businesses in your community to create a
passport program for customers to engage in! You can schedule the program for
any length of time, but by having it occur for a day or over a weekend, you
will have a much better chance of customers getting to every store.
For this passport program, each retailer will give a stamp
whenever a customer makes an in store purchase during the designated time frame.
At the end, customers who have filled their passport can turn it in to be
entered to win a gift basket with goodies from all the places they shopped that
day! This is a great opportunity for you and your customers to promote this on
social media and tag retailers to drive traffic to their website.
Not only will you have an increase of traffic through your
front door, but you’ve created relationships with your retail neighbors that
can be very valuable in the long run!
Ex. South Lake in
Pasadena hosts a Holiday Fest each December that all of the local retailers can
participate in and promote!
2.Choose a Charity
If the passport program is a success and your new team of
retailers would like to host another event, selecting a charity to receive your
donations is a great way to build mutually beneficial partnerships while
helping others. You can select certain items in your store or a percentage of
each purchase can go towards the proceeds to a charity in your local area.
This gives retailers involved a chance to cross promote on
social media, in store, and directly to customers while assisting those in need!
Ex. Three Dog Bakery
hosts a food drive for one month at each of their locations. They’ve made it
into a competition between their stores of who can raise the most money for
their local animal focused charity!
3.Know your niche market and utilize it!
Knowing who your market is and where to reach them is
crucially important. Teaming up with companies that consist of your possible
clientele can be great for new business.
For example, if you own a store that sells athletic clothing
such as yoga pants or running gear, hosting a trunk show for your local Yoga or
Pilate’s studio or running club gives you direct contact to your niche market!
People may not buy everything at the trunk show, but it provides an incentive
to stop by your store later or you can ask the owner if you can leave business
cards or flyers at their front desk and see your customer base grow! You can
also offer an incentive to those that make a purchase at your store for the
opportunity to try out a free sweat session at a local Yoga, Pilates, dance studio
or Crossfit gym
*This will help cross promote to your target demographic
while creating mutually beneficial business partnerships within your community.
Ex. A Snail’s Pace
teamed up with running shoe company, New Balance, for their pub run! Runners
were able to try out new shoes from New Balance and finish the night with a
drink.
4.Sharing Advertising
Marketing your store can be expensive and you want to make
sure you’re utilizing the right tools for the best bang for your buck. Social
Media has great platforms for retailers to communicate directly to consumers,
but if they’re not searching directly for your business, it can be difficult to
reach the right audience.
Consider working with a retailing neighbor to split the cost
of mailers or sponsorship for a community event in your area. There is a high
chance that any advertisements will be posted in their store as well, giving
your business more promotion!
Ex. The Ann Arbor
Summer Festival has many different levels of sponsorship allowing for any size
retailer to be a part of the event!
Teaming up with other local businesses gives every retailer
a chance to be more involved in their community and increase traffic to their
stores. Once the customers are in your
door, it’s up to your stellar sales staff and unbeatable customer service to
create loyal customers who are excited to return, even when there isn’t a
promotion occurring. Start partnering up and encourage people to Shop Local!
If there is something that has worked for your business we
would love to hear your story and share it on our social media platforms!
Please feel free to email us at: info@onestepretail.com
March 17, 2015 by Bruce Jones, Programming Director, Disney Institute
Brand loyalty is defined by some organizations as simply having repeat customers. While repeat purchase behavior is certainly a good thing, it doesn’t necessarily mean customers have a long-term, deep attachment to the brand—a personal, deeply felt emotional connection that inspires true loyalty.
At Disney Institute, we have found that true brand loyalty is based on creating something truly special so that when customers interact with your brand, an emotional connection is built, and the foundation for a long-term relationship is formed. So, how can an organization move beyond simple repeat-purchase behavior to building true brand attachment? Start by making a meaningful and credible brand promise to your customers, and then deliver on that promise over and over again.
In our Disney’s Approach to Business Excellenceprofessional development course, we share with participants that a "brand promise" is a succinct statement of the tangible and intangible benefits provided by the ideal brand experience. In other words, a brand promise is a statement of how you want the customer to feel when they interact with your product or service.
So, what constitutes an effective brand promise—one that connects emotionally with customers and is the basis on which relationships can be formed? Here are four things customers are looking for a brand promise to be:
Important – Customers have expectations regarding the fair exchange of value. In exchange for their money and time, they rightfully expect something meaningful in return. The brand promise must convey what matters most to your customers.
Credible – Customers must believe that what you are promising is possible and deliverable. It has never been good policy to “over-promise” and “under-deliver.”
Exclusive – No organization can be successful at trying to be everything for everybody. Find your niche, and carve out a unique space to “own” in the mind of your customer.
Differentiating – The brand promise must truly set you apart from your competitors and be based on legitimate differentiators.
The ultimate reward for making andkeeping an effective brand promise is deep attachment between your brand and your customer. The key will be delivering consistently on your promise…over, and over, and over again. This will require everyone in the organization to become brand ambassadors and brand managers who understand and apply the brand promise to their daily decisions and actions.
