An unexpected $1,890.00 windfall

I made this short video yesterday to show some newsagents I was talking with how to create and send a basic marketing email in Shopify. In the email I pitched a new silver coin celebrating the classic 1960s Batman car that we have at a website connected to my newsagency: www.mintcoinshop.com.au. Two hours after I sent the email we’d sold 9 of the Batman car coins – $1,890.00. The email generated $2,000.00 in sales of other coins.

Here’s the video:

I am sharing the video here to be transparent about the ease of sending a marketing email through Shopify. Originally, I made the video to be private and shared with a few. Today I thought why not show off this simple and successful opportunity.

Online is vital for the future of retailers today, especially newsagents where so much is changing about our businesses.

Now if you have a website and are not getting the traffic to and sales  that you want, here are steps we suggest you consider:

1. Keep your Google business profile current with fresh content. Always link back to your website. Post at least weekly. If you’re not sure what a Google business profile is, Google it. Every business should have one.
2. Publish blog posts of useful content about your products. If you are running Shopify, use the blog function provided and have a feed of blog posts on your home page. Show your points of difference in the content you publish. Publish at least 3 new posts each week. Posts should be 350+ words and use the keyword you are targeting at least 5 times.
3. Make sure your website is known to Google and that your sitemap is regularly shared when the website has new content – to get your new content found.
4. Consider turning on the Google product feed. This itself is free. You can also pay for your products to feature in google search results.
5. Provide entertaining and useful content on social media. Posts saying buy this are useless, people will ignore them, and your business. How to use a product content is good as is content that makes fun of the business and / or people in it. Sharing local insights is also considered good content. Include a link to your website in posts when it makes sense.
6. Re-purpose content. For example you might have a social media post that is also part of a bigger blog post on the website.
7. Email past customers at least monthly with an update on new stock.
8. Include pages on your website that share useful information. These pages should speak to your knowledge. Sharing your knowledge is key to you being seen as an authoritative source and this is the first step in AI models including your content in their results. This is the new search.
9. Ensure your product names reflect what people search for.
10. Ensure product descriptions are comprehensive, useful, and, containing text people are searching for.
11. In every communication about your website –  email, social media, on the website itself – add value. By value, I mean make sure that what you write or say is helpful and supports your mission to be a trusted source of products and knowledge and enjoyment related to those products.
12. Refresh the look and feel of the website at least yearly. A theme change is Shopify could be all that’s needed here.
13. Do not outsource this work. Doing it yourself helps you learn and decide on the steps that best suit the type of business you are running.

A website is a hungry beast.

newsXpress offers its members access to a unique set of support services to help newsagents maximise the online opportunity. From strategic to tactical, newsXpress newsXpress difference for online success can add tens of thousands of dollars of gross profit.

No other group has the experience and tech skillset to offer what newsXpress offers newsagents. If this interests you, please email help@newsxpress.com.au.