Holiday 2019 Business Prep Challenge Week 3 Emails
Oct 29, 2019
Week 3, Day 1
Good morning! Can you believe we are already in week 3 of this challenge?!
So far, we have taken a look at email marketing and social media, and hopefully you have gotten yourself a little schedule going and have some clarity about where your customers spend their time, how to get their information, and how you want to be sharing your business info.
This week, we are going to be talking about how to spruce up your online shop so that your customers have a beautiful, shoppable place to land when they come online. There are a few small but powerful steps you can take to make sure that your product listings are in tip-top shape, and that your customer feels welcome and safe with their purchase from you.
Today's Task: It's best to start with a clean slate, and that means making sure that your products are listed, active, and available. This may be a bigger task for some than for others, depending on how many items you have: today I'd like you to review your product listings and quantities and make sure these are accurate. If you are on Etsy, you can deactivate any listings that are sold out (this keeps the stats there in your shop, but the unavailable products aren't out on your shop page). If you are on Shopify or another eCommerce site, make sure any sold out items are removed from your visible sales pages (I personally just remove them from that sales channel so that the stats stay). I am SO guilty of this: I currently have a website full of sold out products (yikes!), which is probably pretty frustrating for my customers!
Share Your Progress In The Group ♡
Tomorrow we are going to talk about using Etsy shop sections, tags, and website collections to boost visibility and create a landing space for holiday shoppers.
See you in the group!
Week 3, Day 2
(no email sent on Tuesday)
Week 3, Day 3
Good afternoon: we are halfway through the week already. Boy, time really does fly this time of year!
This week, the focus is on getting our websites and Etsy shops in tip-top shape to get ready for the holidays. I'm not gonna lie: this is sometimes not real fun. The more products you have, the more maintenance it takes, and that is more time all around. As with your email marketing and social media posts, batching/scheduling is going to be your best friend when it comes time to listing and updating products.
Before you get to that, though, it's best to start with the basics. Yesterday's task was to clean up your product listings by removing any expired or unavailable items and updating quantities. It's ok if you aren't completely done with that task (spoiler alert: I'm not!): it can take a long time if you have a lot of things in your shop.
Today's task: Download this workbook and start checking into the basics of your shop to make sure they are all filled out, properly linked, and up to date. While these things aren't really exciting to do (I know...sorry!), they really are essential.
Get Your Website Workbook Here
We are going to be working in this booklet for the rest of the week, so don't feel like you have to do everything in there now! Everyone is at a different place in their shop, so if you have all of the boxes checked off already, feel free to move on and search some keywords. If you are just opening and you are still getting up and running, give yourself some grace and time to work through these. Remember, DONE is better than PERFECT. Having basic, understandable shop policies, clear shipping times, and a place for your customers to get to know you is going to elevate your customer experience right out of the gate.
Tomorrow (Thursday 10/17/19) at 9:15pm I will be doing a 30 minute Facebook Live in our group to answer any questions you may have about prepping your site/shop for the holidays. I won't be able to get into the tech type questions, however, I will have some resources to share with you to help with the basics. You can RSVP to the event below, and make sure to add in any questions you may have.
Happy shop-cleaning: see you in the group♡
Week 3, Day 4
Good afternoon: it's almost the weekend! Tonight is Q&A night, and I wanted to check in first to see how everything is going with your website/shop organization.
This week has been a little bit more work with getting our product listings into shape, which really does go a long way towards having a successful online holiday sales season. After your listings are accurate, prepared, and polished up, the next step is to get customers onto your site to shop! That's where the process of keyword research, SEO, and social media strategy come into play. It's all coming together!!!!!
Get Your Website Workbook Here
Today's task: Brainstorm any questions you may have about your website and/or Etsy shop, and I will address those questions during tonight's Facebook Live video. It can be hard to even know where to start, so I'll be answering some frequently asked questions about how to drive traffic to your website, how to spiff up your listings to get them holiday ready, where you can go to get some extra eyes on your page, and whatever else comes up.
Happy Thursday: I'll see you in the group!♡
Week 3, Day 5
Hello, and happy weekend!!! I hope you were able to get a good bite on some of the tasks in this week's challenges. As we come into the holiday season (and looking forward to 2020), it's important to get your online shop in tip top shape. This is how your customers are going to be connecting with you and your product, and you want to be giving them the same great experience that they'd get if they were with you in person.
I want to pause here to give a little reminder: it is OK if you haven't gotten this far yet and it's OK if you don't have it "perfect". Spoiler alert: it will NEVER be "perfect"! There will always be something else that can be tweaked, changed, fixed, honed, or touched up. This is the root of the phrase "done is better than perfect": if you aren't sharing your website or aren't connecting with your customers because your site isn't perfect, well, that's really going to make it hard to get your online sales going!
Last week, I talked about using gift guides as a way to boost engagement and share valuable content with your readers. This week, I set the challenge to get your listings straightened up and your site basics set. Now, I am going to invite you to share one of your holiday-ready listings so that I can create a Challenge Group Gift Guide that we can all post and share. I'm going to be creating the guide (or guides depending on how many responses I get!) from the linked facebook page (click the button below), so make sure your response goes there so that I catch it.
Today's Task: If you would like to particpate in the holiday gift guide (you certainly don't have to, but it's a nice extra traffic boost!), choose one of your gift ready items (it does NOT need to be a holiday item) and post a picture and the purchase or info link to that item in our Facebook group. Please make sure that your picture and comment is on the post linked in the button below: I won't be able to track all of the posts if they are in the general group feed and I wouldn't want to miss anyone.
Post Your Gift Guide Item Here
See you in the group!
