Next week we will be joining our good friends Magic Touch GB Ltd on the Lincoln leg of their road trip. We will be joining up with them Thursday 2^nd July showcasing eTrader to a number of customers in the print industry.

The trip promises to be an exciting one - we aim to just chat to lots of people, show off what we do, giving live demonstrations, offer online advice and most importantly spread the eTrader word!

So keep your eyes peeled for us with the team at Magic Touch and be sure to pop in and say hello if you are in or near the area. This may be the first of many road-shows we pop up at this summer, so keep your eyes peeled and watch this space…

It promises to be a good turnout and an eventful time, we hope to see you all there!

It's been a crazy few weeks here at eTrader HQ with all sorts going on - launching several new sites, working away on new projects, working on our latest updates, support for current customers and our latest developments alongside appearing in several publications to top it all off. With all that's going on, we thought we would share our latest news with you.

The past few weeks have seen a large number of our new customers sites go live. Our new customers come from all across the UK and even as far as Jersey and all share our love of our websites and taking the garment decoration industry to the next level. Some of our recently launched sites include TPR Signs Magic Touch Jersey and Key Cross Media and many many more - we could only pick a few from our growing list!

But do not worry existing customers, we have not forgot about you!

We are continuing to work on new ways to work alongside all our existing customers and make sure that you get the most from your eTrader website. Happy customers makes for a happy eTrader, we continue to run with our Hints & Tips email programme offering you all the latest bits of advice to make sure you maximise your sites potential!

But we are going one step further....

One of current projects is bringing our customers more learning facilities than ever before. Due to be completed in the next few weeks we are working on video learning creating our very own series of videos using Our Youtube Channel. 

In the Media....

The past month or so has seen us feature in two of the garment decorations leading industry magazines. We feature one again in this month's Printwear & Promotion and our article offering our insight into Mobilegeddon and how it affects the garment decoration industry has been well received.

But a first for us, we featured in a quarterly trade magazine Director-e which is aimed largely at the workwear and corporate clothing sector. Our full page spread provided some insight into how businesses in the personalised clothing industry achieve online success.

Lastly, we have produced several blogs for Business Wales who offered us the chance to collaborate on providing Online Marketing & Tech advice for SMEs in Wales. All our blogs are geared towards our customers with the main focus being on small to medium size business in the garment decoration industry.

For the latest news & developments get in touch on: info@etraderwebsites.co.uk or call 029 2075 5733

Social Media, where would we be without it?

It has become a necessary Marketing tool for businesses to grow their online presence and more importantly online sales. But with a large number of garment decorators neglecting it, they can only wonder - are they missing out?

Social Media is considered by many business owners (especially in our industry) a bottom of the list priority, something for a Friday afternoon or a quiet day. But if done correctly and more importantly consistently the effects Social Media can have on small businesses lead generation and sales prove the difference between doing OK online and doing very well online.

Social Media does not have to be complicated, a bottom of the pile Friday afternoon job. We will hopefully give you an insight and convince you that it can work for you & your business.

There are lots of Social Media sites out there but stick to the main few to start Facebook, Twitter and maybe LinkedIn and as you become more competent and comfortable branch out experiment with the likes of Vine, Pinterest, Instagram or whatever tickles your fancy.

Pick the platform that best fit your businesses objectives. Ask yourself what do you want to achieve from going online – developing an online brand, growing an online presence, improving your sales or whatever it may be just pick the right platform to achieve social success.

Facebook: Ideal for B2C Facebook is commonly accepted as a tricky one for customers to get right. But with advertising tools Facebook gives your business the chance to not just grow a following/community but to generate new customers through advertising campaigns that target potential customers for a small cost.

Twitter: The popular tool of choice for small businesses - we come across far more garment decoration, print, embroidery businesses here than anywhere else. Twitter allows you to focus on both B2B and B2C customers. 140 Characters does not sound like enough to sell your business but with a good following and product your business can reap the rewards!

LinkedIn: B2B orientated platform for the business more focused on its trade customers. Connecting and referring on here gives your business the chance to meet customers you may never come across normally ‘Online Networking’. Arguably the most credible for garment decorators looking to obtain working relationships & contracts with large trade customers.

Other Ideas: The garment decoration industry relies heavily on visual content so you would thing Instagram and Pinterest are ideal for garment decorators. These two sites give businesses the chance to meet like-minded people who have a similar interest in clothing and act as more of a brand grower than a sales tool in itself but we would definitely recommend you give it a go!

Just to wrap things up in a nice little bow here are a few little tips to make Social Media success easy for the everyday small business:

• Create a realistic action plan: Define what you want to achieve using Social Media
• Grow Your Following: Grow a following of who you think may be interested in your business/what you do
• Create engaging content: Nobody will read sales post after sales post, go for visuals, Blogs, and latest news – anything that catches your audience’s attention. The sales come afterwards!
• Pick the right platform: As discussed pick what you think would work best for your business and its brand.
• Creating Content: Realistically you won't have someone sat at a PC posting on your sites all day every day. Use planning tools such as Hootsuite to schedule a week’s worth of content in half hour.
• Lastly, just be sociable and have fun with it. Don’t take it too seriously spamming sales posts all over Social Media. Being liked and social will sell more than you ever imagined.

We hope we have won you around garment decorators with our guide to making Social Media a success for your business. Remember, if done right ‘Social Sales’ are what separate you from the rest of the crowd and take your online business to the next level!

For more information on how we can help your online business get in touch simply drop us an email us on info@etraderwebsites.co.uk or call 029 2075 5733 today!