Twitter | Wazala

Posts Tagged ‘twitter’

Promoting Your New Product

March 14th, 2012

Got a new product in your online store? Hooray! New things are always exciting, but the tough part is getting your customers excited as you are. There are many steps you can take to ensure that your product launch is a successful one, and we hope these would help.

Have a Goal in Mind
What are you trying to accomplish? Coming up with a promotional directive is a great way to lay the foundation for your promotional campaign. Do you have a set inventory and wish to reach a certain amount of sales? Maybe your new product open doors to attract a new customer base? Or are you trying to up-sell, or get previous customers to come back for more. Setting an ambitious but realistic goal will help you to hone your promotional tactics and measure the campaign’s success more efficiently. If your goals are usually similar from launch to launch, the results of these campaign can be A/B tested against one another to hopefully give insight on which tactics work best for your products.

Get a Good Mix
Every product launch should involve a familiar mix of tools, such as newsletters, press releases, social media marketing, and even paid advertisements. Making sure to utilize all these venues can help increase your sales. In addition to using your go-to means of communication, you should also try to add something new into the marketing mix, be it a guest blog, a YouTube video, or even a Pinterest post. Try as many new avenues as you can. It can’t hurt, and might prove to be extremely rewarding if utilized effectively.

A Fresh Product Description
No one wants to buy something that sounds boring. So make sure to add some spice to your descriptions, and add cool images that really make the product pop. Checkout our earlier posts on writing killer product descriptions, and showcasing your product pictures well.

Facebook Contests
Facebook contests are a great way to get people involved and excited about a new product. Have people upload photos, videos, or post on your wall. Get creative! The prize doesn’t have to be huge; maybe the winner will get your new product for free. In order to enter the contest, each person should have to like your page, which will gain you fans and raise awareness about your brand and the contest. Offer everyone who enters the contest a discount on your new product, which will in turn give them more incentive to buy.

Feature It
A simple tweak to your website home page to feature your new product can definitely help. Place it on top and make sure to state that it is available for sale. You can also create a new category in your store as “NEW ARRIVALS” and add it there. New and returning customers like to see that you’re constantly adding new goods for sale. This tweak can also help in attracting a new audience, especially if you’re product is unlike anything you usually sell.

These are just a few of the many options available to you when promoting a new product. Just find out what works for you, and run with it!

Happy Selling!

Using Twitter as a Support Desk of Sorts

November 9th, 2011

Twitter users love to do two things most: gossip and air their complaints. More and more, people are are logging on to twitter every day to engage brands. This is really cool because it provides an open forum in which conversations can happen about your products. But what do you do if someone complains about your brand in a tweet? How do you respond? Do you respond at all?

The answer to this is actually pretty straightforward. Yes, you should try your very darndest to respond all the time, and you should respond in an extremely helpful manner. Most people expect you to respond, and if you don’t then you’re not meeting their expectations, and that’s just horribly unprofessional of you. According to Maritz Research, (some big customer experience research company), people view Brands who respond to tweeted complaints very positively. People are surprised and delighted to know that there is actually someone on the other side listening, someone that represents your brand who is concerned about their concerns.

And you should be genuinely concerned. Or at the very least, act concerned. These are your customers, and this is a public arena. All eyes are on you. We believe you should always try to be kind and understanding towards your clients, but even if you can’t stand your customers, your brands twitter page is not the place to show your true colors. Your business is your baby, and responding to a tweet that says “your products suck” with an expletive laden rant that mentions Ghandi and a Porto-potty in the same sentence won’t win you any points (unless it’s really, really funny!). Be the bigger man. Or at least direct them to customer support where your exchange will be (slightly) more private. Just remember, the customer is always right, especially on twitter. So treat them as such, and you may get a few treats in return. On a side note, we have a bunch of left over candy from a productive Halloween night that we’re looking to sell in bulk/trade for the 6th Harry Potter DVD. Hit up Wazala on twitter if you’re interested PEACE.

Creating An Online Holiday Pop Up Store

October 23rd, 2011

With the Holiday season just around the corner, more businesses are catching onto the idea of a Holiday Pop Up Shop. These little businesses open around the Holidays spreading their marketing hard, then simply disappearing once the season is over. Halloween shops are found in strip malls, while Christmas gifts and gift wrapping businesses take advantage of this in small mall carts and little huts. They pop up out of nowhere, make a quick profit during the holidays then close shop.

Lately the same idea is becoming popular online. Ecommerce sites, and businesses are also taking advantage of this by creating limited time holiday pop up stores for specific merchandise of the season, or even marketing there goods as featured gift ideas in a separate Holiday store.

Thinking of creating one this season? Well Wazala would be a perfect fit!

Easiest Holiday Ecommerce Setup
The simple and easy to use store manager of Wazala allows you to add products easily for sale. Whether you wish to offer digital products with digital delivery or shippable products, it is effortless to create a product, upload a few pictures, set shipping rates (as well as express shipping to meet the holiday deadline) and list your products for sale. We truly mean it when we say easy!

Spread The Joy Of Shopping
A quick way to market your new store is to publish it on your site immediately. Wazala’s viral features allows you to add your store to multiple websites, social profiles and especially Facebook for added marketing and sales push. You can create the store with the true functionality of a pop up light box. The Wazala red button, looks great with a Christmas theme (you can also create your own), and you can customize it to be clear with a title of “Holiday Gifts”. Add it to your Holiday specials page on your website, as well as our Facebook business page for a fully functional Facebook store, and you’re ready to take orders anywhere your customer is.

Holiday Discounts & Special Offers
Coupons, sales and special discounts are also easy to create with Wazala. Your ecommerce platform comes pre-configured to give out discount codes on specific products or store wide deals, and customers are always on the look out to save more during the Holidays. Place your on sale products in a category, offer coupon codes on social networks or for returning customers via email marketing. A proven way to close deals is to also offer free shipping, or at least discounted shipping. While some care to get their shipment on a discount, many also look for express shipping that you can set up with Wazala for an extra fee that your customer can pay.

Socially Drive Your Pop Up Store
The purpose is to attract those looking for deals and special promotions, and using the Wazala social promoter with discount codes, this time of year would prove helpful in gaining new customers. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter can be configured to your Wazala store to post out your special deals, Holiday products and shipping rates. With a simple password configuration, you will be ready to ring those bells and shout out your offerings.

With only a few weeks left for the Holidays starting early is important. Many try to finish their shopping early enough to relax and enjoy the season, while marketing may take time to work, putting in your efforts early will prove big. A big tip we hope you would take advantage of is to send out a coupon code to all your customers, allow them to redeem and also send it out to a friend.

Share a little this Holiday season and reap the rewards on the New Year.

Selling Your Music Online

September 5th, 2011

If your reading this, you’re probably a musician, a band manager, or something in between, and you want to make money selling music online. This article will give you a few ideas on how to make that happen.
The first thing you have to know about selling your music online is that its VERY COMPETITIVE and you need to be vocally smarter not loader!
Ready to put some BASS into your sales? Read on..

Be Everywhere
Don’t be shy. If you want to actually sell your songs online, your going to have to get your butt out of your cozy cocoon of solitude and become an annoyingly social butterfly. Sign up for every music service, forum and blog in existence. Create awesome profiles with pictures of your band in badass poses. If the regular band profile is a shy, acne ridden nerd sulking in the back of class, your profile should be the popular jock with a heart of gold and perfect SAT scores. Not every profile you make is going to be a home run. Some of them will get no attention whatsoever. The key is to be in front of every pitch, swinging like a freaking madman.

Make It Easy to Find
There’s no point being crazy cool if people have no clue where to go to witness your awesomeness. In order to make your presence known, you should tag your music with specific keywords that are relevant to the music your putting out. Just to give an example, my brother is in a band. I would best describe what him and his band “play” as a highly delicate mix of jazz fusion, electro-acoustic pop, and horrifyingly awful garbage. So if he wanted to make sure that people found his music (I don’t know why he would), he would tag his music with the words “indie, jazz fusion, electro acoustic pop, horrifyingly, awful, garbage. That way, if someone was in the mood to take a dive into the musical equivalent of a dumpster, the incomprehensible heap of noise that his band calls music would be right there to aptly accommodate them. (sorry brother!)

Sell Anywhere
So your a pretty big deal, and easier to find than an senior citizen in miami. Now its time to start printing the money. Wazala and the Benjamins go way back, and we’re always down to arrange an introduction. We make it scary easy to start selling your music online, so that making bank doesn’t make you crazy. Another great feature that makes Wazala so incredibly amazing is that it allows you embed your store everywhere. Your Facebook, your blogs, your tumblr, your website, your mom’s website, it doesn’t matter. Long story short, anywhere you show your “I live to rock” mug, people will be able to buy your “I live to rock” mugs.

Stay Social
Talk with your fans. Engage them. Let them know whats going on with your band. This goes hand in hand in hand with being everywhere. A social media presence online is imperative in spreading the word about your band, as well as retaining fans and keeping them informed. Basically, people expect to hear from you. With Wazala’s social promoter, this is a breeze. The social promoter recommends and publishes messages to your twitter and facebook account, making it much more simple and efficient

Offer Something Different
Don’t be boring. Offer more than just music. Selling your merch is a great way to make extra money and raise awareness about your band. You can sell posters, CD covers, t-shirts, unreleased songs, tickets to shows…..the list goes on and on. You could also sell signed merch for your hardcore supporters. Wazala allows makes selling all these things easy. You can also sell the physical version of your album, in addition to the digital version.

Cut The Middle Man
Cut out the middle man! Make sure that everything you sell is revenue to you! Wazala does not take a transaction fee. Just a minimum subscription, & there is also a free store where you can sell up to five products to start with until you can afford more.

Show Your Best
Make great music. Music that gets a reaction. When it comes down to it, if your music isn’t good, no amount of marketing is going to be able to sell it. Remember you may only get one chance to make an impression on a listener, so you better make it count.

Interview – The Taylor’s Gift Foundation

August 28th, 2011

Are you an organ donor? 90% of Americans say they would donate an organ, but a few really do. In an effort to raise awareness, The Taylor’s Storch Foundation helps you ReGift Life.

The story of Taylor Storch caught our hearts and more importantly the positive empowerment that her Foundation creates! We got in touch with Todd Storch, Taylor’s father and one of the founders of Taylor’s Gift and we wanted you to hear their story..

Tell us about Taylor’s Gift and what it is you do?
Taylor’s Gift Foundation’s purpose and mission is increasing organ donation to regift life, renew health and restore families. We work every day to accomplish a number of items: Increase each state’s official organ donation registration database.
Be a resource to those that need information about organ donation.
Help support and bring help to those that are waiting to receive a donation.
And soon to provide resources to those families that have lost a child suddenly.

How easy is it to become a donor?
Easier and quicker than typing most emails! In almost every state in the USA, you can become a donor. If you spend 90 seconds at www.TaylorsGift.org and click “Become a Donor”, you can register with your state’s official registry.

What programs or opportunities do you offer for others that want to get involved?
Our Foundation is built on amazing volunteers that support us in a number of ways. We have opportunities and need that stretch from computer work to developing and running specific programs. Anyone can learn more and reach us at http://www.taylorsgift.org/get-involved

How does the sales of your online store help in expanding your mission?
We have a number of items available on our online store. The dollars we raise helps us with our Mission, develop programs and keep our Foundation running. Thank you Wazala for making this easy!

Any upcoming events that you wish to spread the word about?
We have a number of upcoming events from golf and sporting clay tournaments, to speaking engagements and fundraising events. Check out www.TaylorsGift.org/events for everything upcoming! A number of our events are in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area as well as the New York City area. We also have a number of people that help our Mission with Grassroots events across the country. Please contact us at getinvolved@taylorsgift.org for more information.

We urge you all to visit the Taylor’s Gift website – www.TaylorsGift.org – and get involved, become a donor or simply support this cause with a purchase from their online store.

Using Twitter to Market Your Online Store

August 18th, 2011

A Twitter presence for a business can vary based on your goals. As an online business, your main focus should be acquiring new customers, supporting those you captured and building upon your brand’s image.
Today we will discuss the available resources Twitter offers to boost your online sales, keeping your followers happy and develop a good strategy to follow through.
Know Your Keywords
Twitter allows you to search tweets using any keyword. Your customers are probably searching for your product, but may simply be using a different word, than what you normally use. Take the time and search through Twitter for your common keywords and make a list of those terms. Compile different tweets using these keywords and start testing. It may take time to see results, but in the long run, you will find that your exposure relies on a certain few.
Hashtags play a role here as well. The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. This became an easier way to categorize a tweet, and clicking on a hashtag shows you more tweets in this category. Let’s say you’re having a sale on your overstocked t-shirts. Tweeting out the message “Big #sale on our awesome #tshirt” will boost your chances in getting seen.

Tip: Always link when tweeting out a message with a call to action. Simply stating you’re having a sale, and not providing a direct link to your store is a poor strategy.

Spread Out Your Tweets
No one wants to follow a spammer. Even if your tweets have beneficial content, tweeting out a handful at once clogs your followers stream, and they are more likely to unfollow. Use a tool like Hootsuite (our favorite and has great analytics) to schedule your tweets. This also allows you to capture your audience at different times of the day.
Make sure to tweet out engaging and relevant content to your audience between your marketing tweets, so you’re not just broadcasting noise.

Tip: Remember international customers are on a different time zone, so if you’re targeting them, making sure your tweeting when they are online.

Start A Conversation
You’ll see this stated in every article, blog or Twitter strategy ever written. Sure it’s easy to say, but staying engaged is hard. You do need to put in the effort to interact and converse. Reply back to a tweet you found interesting, re-tweet it with a nice message or simply ask a question. Think of what would make you happy. If someone re-tweeted you with a nice message or replied back, you’d be thrilled for this positive response and engage back. Go ahead give a try, karma is usually on your side here.

Tip: Use the @ symbol when mentioning someone or another product even if it was not directed to them. this increases your chances of being heard and shows trustworthiness. Eg: “@PotentialCustomer We ship next day through @FedEx to be sure your shipment gets there on time.”

Listen In On Your Competitors
Twitter gives you the power to stay in the know and ahead of your competitors. Create a competitor list, using Twitter Lists and listen in on their conversations. Learning from what others are doing can give you ideas on capturing new leads and keeping your customers happy. Learning from others mistakes allows you to jump a step ahead.

Tip: You don’t have to follow them to do this, just make sure the list you create is private so your not being obvious!

Stay Active
Our best advice is to stay active and present. Long absences or reply time shows poor support. Keep tweeting and reply back quickly. Never ignore negative remarks and handle them with grace and kindness. You never know who is listening, and even if your customer leaves unhappy, you at least did your best to help, and others can see that. A good way to stay in the know, is to to activate Twitter emails, or use a phone app to get notified.

Tip: Wazala’s social promoter, helps you remember to tweet out announcements based on actions you take in your store. Added a new coupon code? Simply tweet it out with a click.

Twitter can truly broaden your reach. Just start slowly and learn the basics. Once you dive in, you’re sure to stumble upon inspirational ideas to better your business. Just remember to share back and engage. Want to know more? Take a look at our promote page on more tips to market your online store.

Happy Tweeting and don’t forget to follow us for news, tips and promos!

How to socially promote and market your online store

June 8th, 2011

There’s a cool new feature out in Wazala! Based on actions you take as a store owner while managing your online store, Wazala recommends tweets and Facebook postes for you to push out to your social profiles. It’s easy social marketing!

What is it all about?
The Wazala Social Promoter recommends and publishes messages to your Facebook and Twitter accounts. Let’s say you created a new coupon, Wazala will automatically recommend tweets and Facebook links that you can edit to your liking and simply push out to the social sphere. Your followers and others looking for such a promotion, will see this link and are automatically aware of your coupon.

Why you need it?
Your followers expect to hear from you. Your competitors are ruthless in promoting their online store. You can never have too many new customers. You are too busy to keep up with the tedious marketing strategy. You need to spread the word about your online store. And mostly, it helps your brand promote its offerings.

How does it work?
In the new Promote tab within your Store Manager, we request access to your Twitter and Facebook accounts. This access is secure, and we never use it without your permission. Once this is configured, every time you offer something new in your store, such as adding a new product for example, you will notice a bubble, that recommends links for you to share. You can browse through these links until you find one you like. You can also edit the link to your linking and simply click Promote, or you can skip it if you feel this is not news worthy. This link is published under your own social profile, so your brand is promoting your own store. It’s simple! It’s effective! It’s effortless social marketing at your fingertips!

We’re social too!
Follow us on Twitter & “Like” us on Facebook and join the conversation. Our Twitter and Facebook followers get tips and tricks, featured new stores and the latest dish on cool new features first!

The Social Wazala

August 27th, 2010

“The value of a dollar is social, as it is created by society.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

With the social playing field getting more popular, small businesses need to play smarter and be everywhere. Facebook and Twitter are front and center in social media marketing, and you already see the bigger companies showing off their muscles by taking advantage of these platforms in creative ways. But you too need to jump in and create a voice for yourself, no matter what size your business is. Your audience expects you to be where they are!

The Social Sale

As a retailer, you need to capture the impulse buyer and allow them to buy wherever they find you. Facebook is an inviting platform where customers are used to browsing, so it makes sense that they would be open to buying there too. The Wazala Facebook App allows you to easily add a store tab to your Facebook business page, so you can showcase your Wazala store and sell on Facebook. With it you get full product descriptions, a picture showcase, and a “share product” button for spreading the word. It’s your store — on Facebook.

Make it easier to share

Becoming a Twitter trending topic may be out of reach, and you may never be the Old Spice of Twitter, but you would never know unless you try. Recruit your store visitors to spread the word about your products. Wazala comes with a Twitter and Facebook “share” button for every product. With a simple click you are allowing your visitor to spread the word to the social-sphere. Yes, it is that easy to get some buzz.

Posts Tagged ‘twitter’

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