Day 19 - Running Giveaway Contests

Let your smile change the world.... 

But don't let the world change your smile.

Over the years, I've run quite a few giveaway contests. These contests either involve me giving away a free piece of jewelry or gift certificate to my shop. There are many reasons why I hold contests from time to time, here are my main reasons:

1. Since people get more chances to win with each entry option they select, it's a great opportunity to gain followers for:
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest
• Newsletter
2. Sends people to my blog. I'm always looking to increase viewership of my blog and it's a perfect site to host my giveaway.
3. Gets my name out there. Let's face it, there are a lot of jewelry designers selling on Etsy. This is just one more way to get people to see my products and learn about me.
4. Brand loyalty. I like giving my customers a way to win jewelry. I advertise my giveaways on my Facebook page, newsletter, and Twitter. This way people who already follow me are aware of the contests and have a chance to enter.
5. Additional advertising. There are many giveaway blog sites out there and they like to link to current giveaways. This is a great way to get free advertising.

I've been using Rafflecopter for my entry form tool. I'm currently using the free version, but may upgrade to the 'blogger' version for $7.99 at a later date if I continue hosting giveaways. With the free version, you can:

• Embed the entry form in your blog or Facebook using a code snippet that Rafflecopter provides.
• Determine the start and end date for your contest. When you reach the ending date, Rafflecopter will halt the contest and allow you to randomly select a winner.
• Specify different ways to enter your contest with assigned point values. Rafflecopter will automatically include the point values when it randomly selects the winner from all the available entries. Here are the entry options I'm creating for my current giveaway: 

As you can see, there are many options for entering this contest, none are mandatory. Rafflecopter handles all the entries automatically, so I don't have to.

The $7.99 version has the additional features:

• Add prize photos
• Change start/end times on the fly
• Email reminders
• More entry options- Pinterest and Surveys (I had to add the Pinterest option myself above - I'm not sure how it will work since there's no way for Rafflecopter to verify)
• Mobile-friendly Facebook app

One point about Rafflecopter, however. With the free version, there is no way to tell if someone has 'faked' the system and hasn't followed through on some of these entry options. Once the contest is over, I will need to manually validate the entry myself. If it's not valid, I'll just ask Rafflecopter to select another random entry (you can do this as often as needed). Since I'm still a small company, this won't be a big burden. But, as I grow my business I will need to find a way to bypass this manual checking. I'm not sure if Rafflecopter even has a way to handle this situation with their upgraded versions. 

I will be  publicizing my contest within the next day or so. I'm looking forward to seeing how it works to gain more followers, especially for Facebook, Pinterest, and my new e-mail newsletter!

Day 18 - How to Grow My Email Newsletter Customer List

The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.

- Anonymous

Now that I've made the leap into e-mail newsletters and have set up the opt-in process, how do I find people to sign up and receive my monthly newsletter? I realize this will be a steady progression and my customer list will slowly grow over time. I have found some good ways to grow my list and look forward to seeing how they work.

You must always get permission to add someone to your list. Just taking a list of past customers and adding them (and then making them opt-out if they don't wish to remain on your list) is a big no-no.

Here is my list of 7 ways I will grow my e-mail list:

Add the link to each of my jewelry listings
By adding the link to each of my listings offering a 10% discount code for joining my newsletter list, potential buyers have an incentive to sign up. I have been offering the discount code for facebook fans and it has worked very well.

When you open a jewelry listing to get further information, this is the first part of the description:

 

Host a jewelry giveaway contest
I've often hosted giveaway contests in the past for various reasons. I offer a piece of jewelry in a random giveaway contest and contestants are required to comment in my blog, join my Facebook page, follow me on Pinterest, etc. in order to enter. They gain one entry for each method they select to enter. So, if they only wish to follow me on Facebook, then they receive one chance to win. However, if they opt to follow me on Facebook and leave a comment in my blog, then they receive 2 chances, and so forth. I am going to be hosting monthly giveaway contests and add subscribing to my newsletter as another method.

Facebook
Since I already have a following of over 700 fans on Facebook, this is a great way to jumpstart my newsletter sign ups. These are people who are already following me so I will be giving an additional incentive to also join my newsletter.

Add a subscribe option to my blog and website
MailChimp will generate HTML code to embed in your site or blog to collect signups. It's really just a one-step process and only took me a few minutes to complete for my blog. My website will take a little longer since I want to embed it on each page of my website and I need to write code to place it.

You can see the subscription request in the upper right portion of this blog.

Add to e-mail signature
This was a no-brainer and took all of 30 seconds to complete.

Add to Etsy thank you notification
All customers receive an automated e-mail once they purchase from my shop, so I edited it to mention my facebook page and e-mail newsletter signup.

Add to Etsy shipping notification
As soon as the jewelry ships, Etsy also sends an automated e-mail. Here is just another opportunity to provide the links to my facebook page and e-mail newsletter signup.

Ask past customers for permission
This is a one-time shot. I will be going back in my records and sending past customers a short e-mail letting them know of my e-mail newsletter and the link to sign up. I will make sure to mention that this is the only time they will receive an e-mail from me and no further e-mails will be sent if they do not opt-in.

So, I think this is a good start for customer sign ups.
Do you have any other ideas? I always welcome suggestions and feedback.

Day 17 - Starting an E-Mail Newsletter

 The only way to do great work is to love what you do.

- Steve Jobs

If there is one thing I've read over and over, it's that having an e-mail newsletter is important to a thriving business. In fact, some people believe it's their number one sales avenue. After reading a lot about the benefits of e-mail newsletters, I decided that this was a definite step I needed to take if I'm going to grow my business.

A couple of main reasons I want to start a newsletter are:

1. Keep a database of customers that are interested in my products. This is especially important if anything were to happen to my Etsy store. I need to be able to communicate with people on my own and not rely on Etsy.
2. I want to offer loyal customers discounts and specials. Not everyone has a Facebook account, and currently, that is the only platform I use for offering my coupon codes and contest announcements.

Setting up a newsletter service
I chose MailChimp for my newsletter service. One main reason is that it's free for the first 2000 subscribers. I figure if I get to 2000 subscribers, I'm doing something right and I'll be happy to pay for the service! I really only need a basic service at this time and they get good reviews.

Just some of the reasons for using a newsletter service include:

1. Pre-approved to send bulk e-mail. Not all e-mail delivery systems are the same and can cause a huge headache when you try to send out a bulk e-mail. Having a service takes care of this potential issue.
2. Analytics and statistics. They provide special tools to separately track how many emails are received and how many are actually opened. You can even see who opened and who clicked through and what was clicked. Plus, you’ll receive reports on unsubscribes, bounces, etc.
3. Formatting. They will verify that your email complies with standards and will display correctly across all modern computers, web browsers, and email systems.
4. They will host and manage your list. They will manage unsubscribe requests and “bounce-backs” from recipients whose email addresses are no longer active. You can even separate lists into multiple groups.

Signing up with MailChimp was quick and painless. I was able to create my first list and signup form within a half hour.

Here is my first sign up form:
Theresa Rose Designs Newsletter Sign up

The next step is to get the sign up form up on my website, Facebook, and blog. I will cover that subject in the next blog post.

Day 16 - Pinstatic - Pinterest Tool Worth Exploring

The things you take for granted someone else is praying for.

Since I've learned that Pinterest is turning out to be one of my best social media platforms, it makes sense to increase my time on this site and explore pinterest tools that help me use it more effectively and grow my follower base.

I found a cool site, Pinstamatic that I really like and I've already started using it to make some of my own pins. They have a variety of fun simple tools that help you make visually interesting images and pins. And it's free!

Here are some of their features:

- Photo Filter: Apply filters to your favorite photos. Upload images from your computer, webcam, Flickr and many more. Choose the the effect you want and press 'Pin'.

 

- Photo Caption: Add captions to your favorite photos. Upload images from your computer, webcam, Flickr and many more. Press 'Pin' when you've got just the right message.

- Quotations : Using a selection of already designed stylish quotation layouts  - you just add your own text and then pin to your Pinterest boards.

 - Stickies:  Leave a note on your board, maybe to summarize the board itself or just as a message to your followers.

- Places: Add a map to your Pinterest board, and when someone clicks it they will be taken to the location in Google Maps. What a great way to show people where you are or where an event is taking place.

I'm looking forward to seeing if Pinterest adds more features and makes them more customizable. Overall, it's a great, fun site and super easy to use.  

Day 15 - January Social Media Results

 If you don't like where you are, move. You are not a tree.

At the beginning of the month, I decided upon 4 social media marketing venues to grow my business - Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram.

I already had a Facebook fan page and an account on Pinterest, so those were the two I've concentrated on the most. Plus, I felt that they would give me the most exposure since they are good venues for my on-line jewelry business.

The results are a little surprising.

Facebook:

• I started the month with 628 fans. I now have 716 fans.
• I gained 58 new fans from my Facebook ad, which means I gained 30 fans directly from Etsy or Facebook friends/fans.
• I have been posting 1 post each weekday and people are starting to engage more often with my posts. That's important as my posts will be seen more often if there is more interactions. At this time, I'm not comfortable posting more than once a day. That just seems spammy to me. :-)
• Here is one interesting statistic: The post that had the biggest reach by far, was my post showing my YouTube video. I've heard that facebook prioritizes posts with video and images, so this tells me that it's worth my time to create more videos.
• Etsy stats show 21 visits to my shop this month directly from Facebook. 
• Google Analytics shows 81 visits to my shop.

Pinterest:

• I started the month with 46 pins and 22 followers on my Theresa Rose Designs board. I now have 64 pins and 27 followers.
• I started the month with 12 pins and 16 followers on my Wedding Jewelry board. I now have 13 pins and 21 followers.
• I've been pinning 4-5 pins every weekday, with only 1 or 2 of those pins relating directly to my jewelry.
• Here's my surprising statistic: I've received more visits to my shop from Pinterest than from Facebook. Etsy stats show 46 visits to my shop from Pinterest. That's double than from Facebook!
• Google Analytics shows 123 visits to my shop. That's 50% more than Facebook.
• Pinterest was my #1 social media referral, according to Google Analytics.

YouTube and Instagram:

• I've just begun posting to Instagram and YouTube, so I don't have any interesting information from these two venues yet.
• I will say that I'm not sold on Instagram. I've read about people having a lot of success with this application, but I haven't fallen in love with it. 

So, this first month's results show me that Pinterest is a very worthwhile venue to pursue. I plan on stepping it up a bit next month and we'll see if my results improve even more.

I'm looking forward to February!

Day 14 - YouTube

Focus on how far you've come, not how far you have to go.

Last week I created my YouTube channel and I finally have my first video uploaded!

This was no small feat, by the way. I taped my video using my iPhone and then had a heck of a time figuring out how to upload it to YouTube. Even though my iPhone has a link to YouTube, Google restricts logging into YouTube from your phone unless you jump through a lot of hoops. After researching it on the internet for much too long, I decided to just upload the video to my computer and then post it from there. It actually worked out better because I was able to clip the beginning and end of the video using MovieMaker first.

Here is the link to my first video:

Theresa Rose Designs 1st Video


I'm hoping this will work out as another way to market myself, my brand, and my jewelry.

I still have a lot to learn, but getting it set up was a big first step!

Day 13 - Time Management

A successful person realizes his personal responsibility for self-motivation. He starts with himself because he possesses the key to his own ignition switch.

- Kemmons Wilson

Founder of Holiday Inn Hotels

Here we are in the last week of January and I have to admit, I'm really frustrated with my progress. I had visions of plowing into my business once the crazy holiday season was over. I thought the rest of my life would slow down enough so there would be minimal distractions and I could dedicate all the hours I needed to grow my business.

It hasn't quite worked out that way.

Life still gets in the way, no matter the time of year. I have a tendency to always look forward and think that next week, next month, next quarter, etc. will be easier and I'll have all the time I need. I was certain that January would give me plenty of time to solely concentrate on myself. How did I ever manage a day job and this business!!

Part of the reason I wanted to run my own business is so I would have more control over my life. And I do. However, I am still learning how to manage my time when I control the clock and priorities. There is no longer a 'boss' telling me which tasks have to be taken care of first and no one to see if I'm in the office by 8:00 am.

I have a long list of goals and tasks, and I naturally want to complete the tasks that are more fun first. While I did write up a schedule and had a clear list of goals for the month, I didn't do a good job of 'chunking it down' and turning these goals into concrete tasks so that I stayed on track.

So, after this month's missteps, I resolve to do a better job documenting the tasks I need to complete in order to achieve the goals I've set for the month.

Here are my new steps to better manage my time and tasks:

1. Every Sunday night:
1. Review my month goals.
2. Write down tasks needing to be completed for the week.
3. For each task, determine a priority level.
1. Priority 1: Absolute Must; Not completing this task is detrimental to my business.
2. Priority 2: Definite Must; Not completing this task affects other tasks.
3. Priority 3: Should; This task is good for my business long term and keeps my momentum.
4. Priority 4: Nice to Have; This task is to be completed after all other priorities are completed.
4. Next to each task, write down which day of the week this needs to be completed for priorities 1 and 2.
2. Each morning, review my tasks for the day and schedule the time of day each task needs to be completed.
3. Cross off tasks as they are completed. If they need to be delayed until the next week, move the task to the next week's list.

This weekly list is being kept in my goal book, in the pages right after my monthly goals. Having all this information all in one book makes it more manageable.

Here is the start to my new weekly list:

I prefer to write my lists in notebooks as I have a tendency to scribble out information and edit. This is just my preferred method and it works for me.

Here is a picture of my goal book for the year. I have January and February tabs already completed.

I have to admit I feel better already seeing it in writing. By maintaining a monthly, weekly and daily list, I hope to stay on track and not get so discouraged when it feels like I'm not moving forward with my goals fast enough.