Social media sites are such a big part of marketing today. Many people use them, and most of your customers use social media sites as well. One that has definitely been seen around a lot if Pinterest. If you haven’t seen it, think of it as a virtual scrapbook. Consumers love looking at photos and then if they are interested, they’ll click on the photo and be directed to you. Still unsure of using Pinterest? FGmarket’s marketing tip will focus on how and why you should use Pinterest to help market your business.

First off, Pinterest has over 5 million users and is still growing. You can definitely reach a huge part of your target market and then some. This could definitely be the traffic you are needing for your website. So, here are a few beginner tips that will get you started on the right foot.

• When creating your business account, don’t forget to feature your business name. It’s all about exposure.
• You can also add a description in your profile page. So, don’t forget to tell your potential customers a little about yourself. Here, you can also add your URL.
• Connect your account to your Facebook and Twitter page. This will help you gain followers and let everyone know that you have a Pinterest account.
• Pin photos that are relevant to your business, and pin a lot.
• When pinning photos, don’t forget to give your boards unique titles that will make them stand out.
• Comment on other photos on Pinterest. If you comment on someone else’s board or photo, they might be more inclined to see what you have to offer. It’s all about finding someone who pins unique items.
• Don’t just pin from your website, pin from others as well. People will definitely take it that you are only interested in promoting yourself, so branch out and pin things that you think are interesting.
• When you pin photos, don’t forget to add your own description instead of copying what someone put before you. Your opinion matters and people want to hear it.
• Create seasonal and holiday boards. Do you create special holiday displays in your store or purchase unique products during this time? Take a photo of it and link it back to your website.
• Also, don’t forget to add a Pinterest button to your website so you can let people know you have an account. The more followers, the better.

Pinterest is such an important part of promoting your business. Honestly, it lets potential customers get a sense of who you are as a company. It also helps you reach Continue reading “Marketing Tip of the Week – Marketing with Pinterest” »

When it comes to managing your store, there are a million details that goes into it. How do you get through it? How do you prioritize your time efficiently? This must be something you do to get the most important items checked off your list and to make it through the day efficiently instead of running around in every other direction. Instead of jumping right into your daily tasks or a new project, the key is to plan. So, this week’s marketing tip will focus on better ways you can manage your time more efficiently.

Break down bigger tasks into smaller projects. This idea is breaking down tasks into smaller, more efficient projects that are more manageable and detailed. This helps keep you on task, time, track and budget. If you jump right into a project without a plan, it becomes very disorganized, which may make you lose time and making the project take longer than anticipated or possibly never being finished at all. It can also cause frustration, which is not good for you or your coworkers. Breaking up a large project into small projects may make your checklist a bit long and impossible, however, you’ll definitely feel better once you start checking those items off your list.

It’s pretty simple to manage your tasks. Open up a spreadsheet or just a document program you’re familiar with and this is where you will keep track of everything. Take a look at the entire project. What do you need to do to complete it? Write down what you need to do in order to complete the project in the order they need to be completed. Next, write what you need to do to complete those tasks. This truly makes you organized and it helps set up a plan and create a list of what you will need in order to complete the larger task at hand.

Breaking down your workload into smaller, more manageable tasks will keep you on track. If not, there’s definitely a possibility that you can get off track and it take Continue reading “Marketing Tip – Manage Your Time Efficiently” »

Within every business, there are very many business expenses that you have and may pop up along the way. Sure, you have a budget and you try to stick to it, but are you managing it correctly. It’s so important to manage your expenses correctly so you can make a profit and have a successful business. So, FGmarket has a few tips on managing your business expenses.

1. Understand the cost-revenue structure of your business. This is one of the most important aspects of your cost management. You must have an accurate understanding of what your costs actually look like. How much are you making from your product and services? Who are you highest spending customers? Once you know the answers to those questions, take a look at your costs for implementing these products and services. This way, you know your exact amount of what comes in and what goes out.

2. Back to basics. When your first started your business, you most definitely had a long-term strategy in place. Cost management was more than likely apart of it, so revert back to it.

3. Easy savings for your business. There are so many little things that you can do to cut your cost and end up saving yourself money in the end. Check supplier invoices for overcharging, get rid of unnecessary costs, stop being wasteful, only use first class postage when necessary and source cheaper suppliers if that’s a must.

4. Talk to your customers. Your customers can be critical of you and be your best advice givers. Ask them if you’re doing something that they’re not a fan of or if you’re missing anything. They will definitely feel apart of your store and will then recommend you to their friends, which is one of the Continue reading “Marketing Tip- Manage Your Business Expenses” »

There are so many aspects to your store. You analyze every detail and try to figure out what’s best for your store to work efficiently and satisfy your customers. With that, you have needs and wants for your store. However, how do you determine between the two things? Well, FGmarket has found a quote that sums up wants and needs. See how you can apply this to your store.

Seth Godin – When people have their basic needs met, it’s not uncommon for wants to magically become needs. It’s our hardwired instinct to seek to fill unmet needs.

That pays off for any marketer that has persuaded his market that they need what he sells. It backfires when those ‘needs’ are seen for what they actually are–luxuries.

When you sell a want, you have to work harder, you must seduce the market, because wants are fickle, picky and not easily bullied.

Owning a shop is hard work, yet rewarding. Like everything else in life, you must set goals so you can apply that hard work towards reaching them. Having goals is a must if you want to make anything better. You must have something to strive towards. Having something to work towards honestly makes you more successful than just taking your days as they come. So, FGmarket’s marketing tip of the week is all about setting goals and reaching them to make your business more successful.

Get started with writing your goals out. It’s important to write what you want to achieve by week, month or year. Your bigger goals can be set for yearly and make your smaller ones for weekly or monthly. Your goals can be anything. Whether it’s increasing revenue, gaining traffic to your site or just understanding your customers, goals definitely help make your business even more successful. So, start small and just write down what you would like to achieve.

Next up, you need to decide how you’re going to fulfill your goals. You have no idea how the future is going to turn out, so try and set goals that you may have more control over. Try setting goals that you have control over, like have you control your own performance. That way if any financial or personal setback interferes, it won’t interfere with your goals.

Within setting goals, you must set smart goals too. You don’t want to set off the wall goals, you must set realistic ones. They should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timed. They don’t have to be necessarily truly realistic, just attainable and not out of complete reach. You also want to be able to measure your goal and see if you’re close to achieving it. It’s important to know that you’re making progress. Make your goal relevant to your store and they help make progress in your store in a proper time manner.

So, set your goals that will help your store that you can have somewhat of control over and not have to rely on so many other factors. Make sure they’re specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timed. Once you have those goals, sit down and write out an actionable plan to achieve them. Having goals will help make your business even more successful and you will have something to strive for.

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