We have some exciting news!

You can see us at the Newtech shows starting Tuesday 21^st & Wednesday 22^nd June in Manchester. eTrader will  be demonstrating our product  and meeting a number of customers firstly at Manchester then at several other Newtech shows in Bristol, London & Leeds.

The Newtech Show will give us a chance to meet a number of print & embroidery companies and demonstrate how we can help transform their online business…

To book your FREE tickets for any Newtech Show click here!

We recently launched a number of updates & upgrades for our customers including:

• Improved iFrame: Credit now Available on Iframe 
• New Quantity Discount Band: (Upto 9) replacing 0-49
• Delivery: Delivery charge now available per shop
• Recommended products: Choose up to four products per page to be your 'best seller'
• Reworded bagging charge to additional charge per item
• Colour Filters: Your customer can now filter a search by colour on each category page

For more info on these updates don’t hesitate to get in touch for a demonstration!

Keep an eye out for us in both Printwear & Promotion Magazine and Images Magazine in the next few weeks.

We will be providing monthly online advice for garment decorators in a number of areas so keep an eye out for us!

You can read this month’s first article online by clicking here!

It’s Christmas time – there’s no need to be afraid….

Well there may be cause for concern if you are in the garment decoration industry.This time of year is full of festive spirit and cheer but traditionally it is a quiet time for small and medium sized print & embroidery businesses across the country – the schools orders have stopped, the workwear orders are at a minimum and production is just trickling along.

We can approach this in one of two ways to make sure that your business makes the most of the quiet period and gives itself the best chance of success:

Run a Tailored Campaign To Ensure Your Business Ticks Over…

It’s a simple one to do in the personalisation game running festive campaigns or seasonal flash sales. Of course there’s great reward but there’s also great risk, prices have to be just right and the quality ideas have to be there (after all you are competing against high street brands providing festive clothing, so the bar is set pretty high) and then conversely you compete against specialist gift stores both on the high street (or not!) or in-store.

So the value has to be there for customers, but to be successful you need more than great ideas you need a great campaign! This is where you need to be savvy and smart and not rely on an ad-hoc approach. Just ask yourself a few simple questions…

• When do I want my seasonal campaign to run? When will things get quiet?
• What do I want to sell to both my existing customers and potential new customers?
• How much I reach them? And how often?
• What mediums will I use – Email, Blogging, Social Media or Traditional Advertising?

Put together a plan of attack before a seasonal lull and watch your sales increase over the quiet period!

Alternatively, Use The Time To Grow Your Online Business…

If you don’t fancy running and online campaign and just accept seasonality on face value – then so be it, just ensure that in some way or another you add value to your business.

Throughout the year, we deal with a number of print & embroidery businesses often questioning their online efforts. The problem for garment decorators is a simple one – time constraints & prioritising. Whereas throughout the year a traditional print & embroidery company focus on prioritising, winning orders, getting the jobs in and out the ‘online stuff’ is left as a lesser priority and something that will be looked at when we are not busy or when we have the time…. so now is the time!

Prepare email campaigns, set up social media accounts, schedule posts, write blogs, create some optimised content, and create customer shops, promotional artwork and so on. Get all the things you would not ordinarily have time for in your day to day schedule done in time for 2016. Implementing just a few of these Online Marketing Techniques will go a long way in determining the future success of your online business, grow your online presence, increase your brand awareness, increase your traffic and most importantly online sales with all the hard yards you put in in the quiet period… Don’t just accept seasonality, make the most of it!

For more information on how to get more from your site & online marketing efforts don’t hesitate to get in touch via email on info@etraderwebsites.co.uk or give us a call on 029 2075 5733 today!

We recently launched an update with several new features for our valued customers. Our focus was on giving them as many sales tools as possible that are simple to use but add value to their business.

One of our new updates allows our customers to download customer records into a CSV format, a simple data tool – and we have been asked why is this important? What does it do for our business?

Existing and previous customer data plays a huge role in retaining business and contact with the old customers, reminding them that you are still out there should they need personalised garments again there is only place they need to go….

A number of businesses place too much emphasis on lead generation, winning the new orders and finding new customers. We are not saying this is not important (as it is!) but also do not forget about retention rates and how to go about increasing them and winning the repeat order.

This is where the pieces of the puzzle fit together nicely, so you have your customer data for the past X amount of months, the key is to use it wisely! Email campaigns are a great way to make the most of the data you have available. Often overlooked by everyday business as quite a specialist facet of Online Marketing and disregard it straight away. But it is an amazing way of communicating and increasing your customer retention rate and despite the number of articles out there that over-complicate the issue with A/B testing, click through rates and so on it is relatively straight forward.

eTrader has been carrying out email campaigns for a long time and through experience found out what works, what does not and how to make the most of the data you have available.

We have put together our top ten tips for beginners looking to improve their online efforts and carry out their first email campaign:

1. Use FREE Software: There is a whole host of email marketing programmes available, of course there will be PRO versions but with a programme like Mailchimp the options, tools and features you get for free are ideal for small businesses.
2. Email Only Offers: Create specific offers for email customers, exclusive codes, discounts only available to subscribers. An effective marketing ploy to measure effectiveness. You can scrutinize click rates, opens etc but the real measure of success is sales.
3. Don’t Over-Complicate it: Email campaigns are an odd one, of course they are sales and marketing tool and you want to make a return from them. But conversely, don’t make them boring – customers will just disregard them and delete instantly which leads us to point four.
4. It’s All about the Subject Line: This is the first thing a customer sees so you better make it eye catching. Offer a punchy line which will leave them left with only one option opening your email. Make it smart; salesy and quirky but avoid sounding like spam of course.
5. Quality Content in Your Email: Now that your interesting subject has got a potential customer to open it, the last thing they want to see is a pretty boring piece of content. Have some fun; use visuals, sales speak, be topical and put together a little bit of content that you think would be interesting. Put yourself in their shoes – would you read a boring email.
6. Call to Actions: An obvious one, but often a big mistake. Don’t forget to put call to actions in place whether it is typed or a button to automatically take care of it. Customers often make buying decisions within 30 seconds of reading your email; if there are CTA buttons in place you give yourself more of a chance of winning the order.
7. Personalise Emails: Even though you customers are essentially part of a mass marketing technique, give them a personalised touch to make them feel special, unique and give your business more of a chance of grabbing their attention. Programmes like mailchimp allow you to break up lists for campaigns for certain products, preferences and so on.
8. Time Your Campaign: Optimum timing is everything! You want your email to land in an inbox at the right time, schedule your campaign for a certain time ensuring it goes out exactly when you want. Customers are more likely to read emails at the start of the day, midday or just after lunch!
9. Get Cute with Automation: An advanced technique of email campaigns that comes across as difficult but in reality is straight forward. Simply plan a series of emails (4-5 per fortnight as an idea) which can be used once a customer has clicked a certain part of your email to send this customer an email X amount of hours after clicking a certain area
10. Lastly and Most Importantly, Trial Run Your Email: Before you send anything send a test version to your inbox, see how it looks, how the content comes across, does it do what you want it do? Trial your email before sending it to customers, save yourself the embarrassment of noticing a mistake after sending a campaign (we’ve all been there).  

Our beginners list is comprehensive but covers all the basics of email campaigns and how to make them successful for your business. Use these tips with the right software and a bit of planning and your business will reap the rewards – sales will only go one way!

For more information or any advice on how to get more from your eTrader site don’t hesitate to get in touch on info@etraderwebsites.co.uk or call 029 2075 5733

Facebook live is a live video streaming service like that of webinars. It is a way for you to interact with your customers, engage your audience and promote your business is come capacity.

For garment decorators this presents an exciting way to market your business, promote your products and services. Discuss your latest products, show off your latest work, review products, discuss your offerings/USP and even go as far as brand something live. These are fun ways of engaging with both existing customers (and hopefully potentially new customers!)

Content Marketing is probably something your business has practiced over the years without really knowing it. Creating valuable, relevant and interesting content to your audience is Content Marketing in a nutshell.

Why Does Your Business Needs Content Marketing?

There are numerous advantages to undertaking Content Marketing and building it into your businesses strategy. Engaging customers has a profound effect on several areas such as increasing sales, improving customer retention and customer acquisition to name a few. In theory it sounds like a lot of Marketing jargon, but simplified just tell your story, build your brand, its values and write about what makes your business and its services so skilful and important.

LinkedIn is the largest online professional Social Media with a global audience of over 450m. A grown-up version of Social Media, professional, slick, modern and you should be part of it too! The ideal social sales tool for you and your business… if you are not on there; you and your business are missing out on the largest B2B networking and one of the largest sales opportunities to high-value customers.

Of course it is a bit different from your conventional day to day Social Media, your Facebook, Twitter and so on so you have to be a bit cuter on how you communicate on there. Its professional socialising, something you do day to day as a business owner but online. Just sell your business, your brand and personality and reap the rewards.

The potential for LinkedIn in the garment decoration is huge. Put simply, creating branded clothing you are always looking for the large value order or the next big contract. The large business clients more often than not account for a large chunk of most garment decorator’s turnover. So it is a bit of a no brainer - LinkedIn gives you a unique chance to create and win these larger orders and opportunities for your business.

Let’s of course not forget the existing customers, connect with these and ‘Network’, give yourself more of a chance of winning the repeat order. Existing customers also have the power to endorse you and refer you to their connections, another potential way of winning business with LinkedIn.

And as if it sounds too good to be true, it just keeps getting better…

In a nutshell, LinkedIn is used by both professionals individually (Managing Directors, Marketing Executives, Business Owners and so on) and businesses themselves. LinkedIn gives you two shots at selling on their site essentially, whether you register as an individual and interact with like-minded people who you think could be your next big potential customers or whether you set up a LinkedIn company page to interact directly with other businesses.

It could not be easier! Set up your profile, write about you, your business and how good you are at what you do and how your products are high-quality then start connecting. LinkedIn allows you to search for both businesses and their workers by location – so get chatting today! Introduce yourself, build up a professional online connection and hopefully when these businesses need branded clothing or similar they know where to go, your business will be the first port of call.

When it comes to going online, there are 1000s of tips out there for small businesses in our industry. We have decided to put together our favourite ten tips for online success. Here are our favourites:

1. Put Your Customers at the Heart of the Online Experience: The most important thing to consider, think why is your business going online? The answers simple – to retain current customers and gain new ones staying ahead of the competition. So put your businesses customers at the heart of your online operation, make ordering easier, give customers logins, private/public on-site shops.

2. Substance Over Style: The most common mistake online in our industry. Customers often come to us with visually amazing sites that don’t offer any functionality. Your businesses website needs to be most importantly user-friendly and secure. Create a website that offers the functionality your customer deserves and make the journey from landing on your homepage to transaction as straight-forward as possible.

3. Make the ‘Online Journey’ as Simple as Possible: Businesses often come to us with the same problem we lose our customer when it comes to ordering. When it comes to personalised clothing there are so many variables, ordering isn’t straight forward. The two main pitfalls – the design tool & checkout. Pick tools that suit your business, many clothing businesses go for the flashiest design tool which often drives the customer away. Keep ordering and checking out simple, customers aren’t afraid to go elsewhere if it’s too complicated – it’s important you get it right like we have for our customers!

4. Create an Online Branding Strategy: Displaying your brand online isn’t as easy as you would imagine, there are so many factors to consider – it isn’t a case of simply putting a few logos in the right places. Create an effective strategy to convey your brand and values online, develop your presence online and grow an ‘online persona’, a voice, personality and style befitting of your business.

5. Produce High Quality Content Online: Many call it time-consuming and call in specialists. But creating quality content isn’t difficult; nobody understands your business better than you. Make content interesting, readable and appropriate – give your customers a reason to scroll down!

6. Create a Continuous SEO Plan for Your Business: The biggest challenge an online business faces is the fight for ranking well organically. With many clothing businesses throwing £1000s at SEO, it’s a big deal online. But why pay someone who doesn’t understand fully what you do/or understand your customers? Simply creating quality content mixed in with some keyword research (Just stop and think what are my customers searching for to find me or what would I like to be found for) with a dash of interesting Social Media, the SEO results should follow.

7. Social Media is Your Businesses Best Friend: Creating and sharing content, news, updates and offers gives your online business another voice, don’t just be seen online – be heard! Whatever the platform, Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, Pinterest – Social Media presents the best way to grow your online presence and brand.

8. Blog Away: Sometimes 140 characters or a post isn’t enough to display what you want. Blogging in the personalised clothing industry is a big one – it allows you to extend your businesses personality. Writing interesting content about your business keeps customers coming back for more. Display the latest news, latest stock, your work with current customers and showcase your businesses expertise. Blogging allows customers to see what you are doing is real and quality work.

9. Don’t Be Afraid To Try New Things: The online world is full of the weird and wonderful trends. The garment industry is a traditional one but don’t be afraid to try new things – online experiments aren’t always a success. But there are customers in places you don’t even know exist yet, it’s your job to find them!

10.Continuously Develop Online, Don’t Stand Still: A huge NO-NO from us is becoming stagnant. Many online businesses get to a point where they are content, with a good site and just go through the motions but the key to success is continuous development. The online world isn’t standing still so why should you? Standing still limits online success, move your online business with the latest trends and developments make sure you are one step ahead of the nearest competition and keep taking your online business to the next level.

We understand the importance of going online for businesses in our sector. For more information don't hesitate to get in touch at info@etraderwebsites.co.uk to see how we can help your business today!