Forge News and Updates |
Forge Member Jacqueline Jones of One Degree MMM wrote a blog post to warn small business owners as they prepare for the holiday sale season. Pay attention entrepreneurs! You need this info:
We all know that holiday season comes at the same time every year. But for some reason, entrepreneurs and small business owners tend to treat it, each year, as though it’s a brand new concept.
Jacqueline Jones of One Degree MMM
While complaining about big box stores having their Christmas decorations up in October, they neglect to turn their attention to their own brand’s holiday plans.
Because the words holiday and sale are practically synonymous in the United States, let’s address where small business owners fall short in taking advantage of a seeming buffet of open wallets and thoughtless spending consumers.
5. Small Businesses Fail to Establish Their Marketing Process in Advance.
Figuring it out as you go along shows that you didn’t believe that your products would fly off the shelves or your services would book to capacity. In a perfect world, small business owners would establish a sales funnel that met prospective buyers at each level of their journey of interaction with their brand.
Marketing at each step helps to push your audience closer and closer to their final commitment. Further, it gives the business owner something to track to figure out where the sale gets lost in translation.
Establish your process and work on your sales funnel. If you don’t know how to pull this plan together, consult with a marketing professional to get on the right track!
4. Small Business Don’t Engage Their Audience Before The Ask.
Unfortunately, a large number of small business owners don’t speak to their audience until they have something to sell. That’s never really a good idea. It’s a worse idea in the busiest sales season of the year. Further, most small businesses primarily use social media as a way to promote and advertise their product or service. By now, we all know that algorithms favor those who are consistent.
Once you’ve made a plan for your sale, turn your attention to what you will do between now and that sale. Interacting with your customers will help build your relationship to both avoid being ignored because you only show up when you want money, and rank higher in platform algorithms. Interacting with your audience may even lead you to adjust what services or products you’ve chosen to highlight for your holiday sale. Put your ear to the streets early!
3. Small Business Don’t Invest in Promotion or Advertising to Increase Brand and Sale Awareness.
If only letting your circle friends know what you have to offer is enough for you to grow your business, GREAT! KEEP AT IT! If you are looking to scale your business and pick up new customers and clients during this busy sale season, start now figuring out what you can budget to support your fantastic holiday sale.
We’ve all heard the phrase, “You have to spend money to make money.” Well, it’s true. Social media, Google, and other platforms practically do the work for you. Your job as the marketer of your brand is to research to figure out what will work best, then put your money where your audience is.
2. Small Business Don’t Ask The Price That Generates Revenue.
The word “sale” can quickly make small business owners forget they have a bottom line. Getting caught up in the competition of it all makes brands feel forced to go lower and lower on the price curve. Stand your ground. Ask what you’re worth, even while it’s on sale.
The first step to accomplishing is having done the work of understanding your pricing in the first place. Since you’re starting early, if you haven’t done so, do it. Then stand tall and ask for the sale.
1. Small Business Wait Until The Last Minute To Make Holiday Sale Decisions.
You can’t possibly be surprised by this. This #1 mistake is the entire reason why this post exists. My team and I strive to help business owners level the sale season playing field single-handedly.
For this reason, I’ve introduced a new and limited-time consultation.
Check out the Small Business Holiday Prep Consultation available now through October 15!
Go on… GO BE GREAT! 
Instagram Marketing |
We recently brought in Adelaide Matte of AMD Birmingham to teach us more about perfecting our Instagram accounts! If you haven’t heard of AMD Birmingham, you need to check them out. They do everything from branding, graphic design, photography, social media to web design! They have worked with brands like Urban Cookhouse, Farmbowl + Juice Co, Dreamland Barbecue, Vulcan Park & Museum and Alabama Ballet. Adelaide gave us 5 steps to Instagram perfection that we’re sharing with you!
Step One: Identify Your Brand
You need to take time to choose your colors and fonts. Also think about what you want the overall feel to be. Adelaide mentioned that Drybar is a great example of a company who has a very defined theme with specific colors and fonts that are recognizable to their audience.
Step Two: Determine Your Grid
What do you want the layout of your Instagram grind to look like? A mixture of photos and text?
If you don’t already have them, you need Instagram Highlights for your account! What do you want your target audience to know? As a restaurant you can choose highlights like food, location, hours and facts! Think about what is your aesthetic? Stick with the colors of your brand as much as possible.
Step Three: Gather Content
You need to take plenty of photos so you can go ahead and plan out your posts. Photos of landscapes, your products, projects and even personal photos are all great options! AMD always focuses on having blue in their photos- especially lots of blue sky if it’s a landscape! Blue is an integral part of their overall style and aesthetic.
Adelaide gave us her recommendations for her top 9 favorite apps for all things Instagram!
(in no particular order)
- Plann
- CapGenius
- Hashme
- VSCO (she REALLY loves this one!)
- Lightroom CC
- Facetune
- Repost
- Canva
- InstaCleaner
Step Four: Find Your Voice
You have to create captions that drive your audience to action! But you don’t want every single post to be advertising for your product or service. Make sure you throw in some inspiring or witty quotes too. Your audience values knowing that they can count on your messaging to provide them with what they’ve come to expect rather than it being a gamble every time.
Brands that accurately hone in on a consistent brand voice for their social media accounts quickly build followers, establish trust, and have stellar engagement rates. Be consistent with your voice!
Step Five: Plug and Chug
Now that you have all of your content stored up, you have all of the tools you need! Go ahead and post! Or better yet, plan out your posts through Plann app and you can see exactly what your grid will look like.
Thanks for all the tips Adelaide!
Forge News and Updates |
Hello! My name is Emily Jackson and I’m an upcoming senior at Samford University. I’m studying marketing and finance and had the pleasure of interning at Forge this summer. I knew nothing about Forge or its purpose before my internship! But my interest continually grew as I came to Forge and began meeting Forge members and attending Forge events. I wrote this blog post about what I’ve learned and why I could never work alone.
In a time where technology has made it very easy to be able to work from where you are, so many people choose to work from home. For many, that initially sounds like a dream, but for me that sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. Not only would I distract myself from my work, but the extrovert in me would be drained and exhausted all of the time. Since working at Forge, I have realized I won’t ever have to put myself through that! The benefits of coworking far exceed working from home or a coffee shop. Here are my top five reasons for working out of Forge!
Community
- I’ve realized how valuable it is to network with other young professionals and meet new people! Forge is packed full of entrepreneurs, remote works and small business owners who are doing amazing things in Birmingham.
- At Forge, I’m not alone. Of course that sounds obvious, but I have realized that simply being in an environment with others around you is incredibly important. It gives you more energy than staying in your basement or home office to work!
Productivity
- I really need a quiet space to focus and be productive. Forge has just the right atmosphere with great playlists. It’s not as quiet as a library but not too noisy like a coffee shop- a great balance!
- The access to conference rooms is essential! If you are working in a group or meeting with a client, Forge has a variety of conference rooms you can book easily. After spending significant time in coffee shops, I realize how difficult it can be for a team to productively meet in a crowded atmosphere like that.
Growth
- The Lunch & Learn events at Forge can help you grow as an entrepreneur or simply as an employee or student. I’ve learned about stress management hacks for the modern entrepreneur and how legal affects your small business. Forge always chooses topics that are relevant to you and your business!
- At Forge you can easily receive feedback from the community around you. Feedback is so important for growth and at Forge you have the community surrounding you whenever you need to ask questions or get opinions about a certain project or pitch.
Location
- If you want to be in the heart of the action, Forge is the perfect spot for you. Being downtown in the Pizitz building is fun and energizing! With so much change and growth downtown, Forge is where you want to be.
- Let’s not ignore the close proximity to the Pizitz food hall! The food hall is packed with a variety of breakfast, lunch and dinner options from around the world. Even if you have a packed schedule of work for the day, you can grab food downstairs in just a few minutes.
Atmosphere
- Forge strikes of a balance of being both relaxing and professional at the same time. You can feel confident bringing a client in for a business meeting at Forge rather than a coffee shop or your own home!
- The environment is bright and welcoming! With big windows around the whole second floor at Forge, you can be certain the sunlight will be much more energizing than your dark basement!
In conclusion, my experience with Forge has taught me how I like to work with others! I love knowing everything that Forge has to offer. Forge is an inspiring atmosphere filled with lots of creative people! I can’t wait to share about Forge with my fellow Samford students.
Forge News and Updates |
If you’re needing advice for your email campaigns, look no further. The team at 24 Communications wrote this blog post to teach you the words you need and the words you need to avoid. Also check out this video they made to go along with the post. The Forge team loves learning from our members like 24c. Read on!
We all know that words have power, but when it comes to your business’s email marketing campaigns, do you really know which words will encourage your subscribers to act, buy, and/or give?
Believe it or not, a few small tweaks to changing how you write your emails just might be the key to increasing engagement. By using more influential words, you can push your subscribers to take the action your email campaign intends to ignite. You’ve landed in your customers’ inboxes; now it’s time for some reciprocation.
The experts at 24 Communications are here to help you uncover the most powerful words and phrases to use for your email marketing campaigns – the ones that ensure maximum effectiveness.
How to use powerful words in your email campaigns
To better help you identify the most powerful email subject line words for your email campaigns, consider these helpful tips:
1. Lead with emotion
Avoid the overused click-bait jargon and aim to appeal to your audience’s emotions instead. Consider the pain points of your customer base and how they will feel when your product or service helps solve that problem. These are the emotions that will increase the power of your email content.
Think of adding some of these pain point healing words in your email campaign subject:
- Tired of feeling [X]
- Grr!
- [X] doesn’t have to be hard
- Make [X] fun again
- Ugh!
- Learn to love [X] again
- [X] survival guide
- [X] 101
2. Dig further into the pain point
If you prefer to cut right to the chase and want to leave emotion to the solution, dig into the pain point to show how you can make your customers’ problem or struggle painless. Instead of going with “wow” words, target specifically what your ideal customers care about.
Effective email campaign words that center around pain points and/or solutions include:
- Ready
- Beat
- Advance
- Save
- Develop
- Complete
- Avoid
- Change
- Escape
- Improve
- Gain
- Faster
- Easier
- Sooner
3. Keep it in the now
Call to action. Call to action. Call to action! We can’t stress it enough.
Words and phrases that inspire a sense of urgency instantly make your emails and subject lines more powerful. You can spark urgency without using all caps or a gazillion exclamation points. Try incorporating these words into your email campaigns:
- Now
- Fast
- Save your spot
- Limited time
- Before tickets run out
- Limited supply
- First come, first serve
- Be the first
- The clock is ticking
- Don’t miss [X]
- Before [X] is gone
4. Make it personal
Throw third person out the window. Your email campaigns become more compelling when you address your customers personally. The intimacy, so to speak, gives your message a personal feel.
This viewpoint can make your subscriber feel like you’re speaking to them exclusively, rather than a group of people. Try these words on for size:
- You
- Your
- Our
- Us
- All of us
- We
- Together, we…
5. Show them you care
A little goes a long way – in life and in your emails. Show your customers a little love by using appreciative words in your email campaigns and subject lines.
When you reach a new goal, thank your customers with a new deal, host a customer appreciation event, or send a kind email thanking new subscribers for signing up. And don’t forget to use these:
- Thank you
- Thanks
- You’re the best
- We appreciate you
- Couldn’t have done it without you
- Here’s a reward
- You deserve this
- Because you helped us [X], we’re giving you [Y]
- You’re awesome
- Because of you, [X]
- Thanks to you, [X]
More tips for effective email campaigns…
Don’t get lost in the inbox abyss of personal messages, promotions, spam sales, news pushes, and more. Here are some more words we suggest using in your email campaign subject line to help you stand out:
- Secrets
- Tips
- Effective
- Learn how to [X] with this guide
- The [X] you’ve been waiting for
Words and characters to avoid
Just steer clear whenever you can:
- Free
- Buy
- Purchase
- Order
- Urgent
- ALL CAPS WORDS
- Exclamation points !!!!!
- Dollar signs $$$
Keep in mind that the ‘rules’ for powerful words are not all black and white. In fact, the most powerful words for emails and their subject lines will vary by industry, and according to what’s being offered and who it’s being offered to.
What works for one business may not work for another, and what works for one brand’s personality may not work for another. The key really getting to know your audience base and what appeals to them. Use these guidelines and apply them to your business, then use your metrics to test, measure, and optimize the most powerful words for your email campaigns.
Need some more help? We’ve got your back! The experts at 24 Communications specialize in everything from email campaigns and newsletters to the development and implementation of marketing plans with copy and design that is maximized for sharable content. We find strategic ways to leverage your content across multiple platforms to maximize your brand reach.
Get in touch with the experts at 24 Communications today. We can’t wait to work with you!
Social Media |
We follow these local influencers on Instagram, and think you should too! Check them out below.
Jim Cavale was named a 3-Time INC. 5000 Entrepreneur for his leadership at Iron Tribe, after growing the company from one gym to more than 45 across the country. He is also the CEO and Founder of INFLCR and is currently filming a DocuSeries that gives a behind-the-scenes look at the company’s success. Along with these impressive titles, he also co-founded @theGLOWapp, an on demand beauty app that brings its services to you.
His extensive experience has taught him a lot – and he shares so much of that through his Instagram! If you are an entrepreneur or small business owner, Jim’s advice and leadership could be very beneficial to your business.
Because of his influence on the city, Jim’s involved in some pretty cool things around Birmingham. He posts lots of behind-the-scenes videos, clips from certain events, podcasts, you name it. If you’re interested following an inspiring entrepreneur and love seeing clips from big events (like, Super Bowl big), go follow @jimcavale!
If you’re looking for ways to best market your business, Jacqui should be your new go-to. As a marketing and branding specialist, she knows the ins and outs of how to make your business stand out.
Jacqui’s Instagram is full of helpful hints, inspiring quotes, and great blog posts (check out our favorite about Instagram pet peeves here!) Her posts range from tips to prepare for brand growth to shutting out fear that comes with being an entrepreneur.
Not only is her account visually pleasing, but she’s always providing helpful content for entrepreneurs. Not to mention she maintains an impressive (and sometimes hilarious) balance of motherhood.
Go follow along!
If you’re a writer, this account is a must-follow.
Javacia is the Founder of See Jane Write, a website and community for female writers, bloggers, and entrepreneurs. Her work empowers women to write and coaches on how to transform a blog into a business.
Javacia recently gave a Ted Talk in March and got to speak on her success of See Jane Write. Her talk focused on the idea of writing being a feminist act. By sharing her story, a woman can discover why she deserves equality and love herself. Because in a world that constantly tells women they are not enough, “self-love is a revolutionary act.” Javacia believes there is power in sharing one’s story and has devoted her life to helping others share theirs.
There’s no doubt Javacia will help you grow your writing into a profitable platform. She’s got great webinars, virtual workshops, and inspiring posts. If you’ve been looking for a community of women writers who encourage and support each other, check out her page.
Deon is the CEO and President of TechBirmingham. This nonprofit’s mission is to support and provide training and education to tech companies in order to grow the technology ecosystem. He has a passion for supporting small businesses and has been instrumental in making Birmingham a better place.
Deon was also just recently selected as BBJ top 40 under 40, chosen among some of the most outstanding servant leaders in the city.
Deon goes to lots of events around Birmingham and constantly posts about new and exciting projects. He does a great job of promoting growing businesses and highlighting leaders all across the city. If you are interested in growing tech companies or looking to support a new business, Deon’s got you covered! His work is inspiring and you won’t want to miss out.
Wanting to follow a leader making a big impact on the city? This just may be your new favorite account!
Who’s your favorite Instagram account to follow? Let us know in the comments below!
