I received an email from a long-time friend and gift shop retailer yesterday, and in it I noticed a tone of frustration and desperation. She was asking me my thoughts on how to increase sales, since store traffic and, subsequently, sales are really slow for her over the long summer months.

One of the most important things that a retailer needs to do every day is keep the marketing momentum going. While she may already have a few marketing initiatives under way, I encouraged her to keep thinking about how to grow her sales, build traffic, and keep pushing forward with new ideas.

Here is a simple list of questions that I sent her to get her thinking about new ways to connect with her customers and sell more products:

• Are you using your customer list to do regular email marketing? How many customers do you have on your list?
• Do you have a great sales team calling on your top customers to invite them back to the store for special events?
• Have you had a special store event lately?
• Are you employing a top-notch sales team?
• Have you done any craft or artisan shows to market your store to the public and to build your list?
• What is your top-selling line in the store? Can you buy things in that line or for that price point?
• When was the last time you re-merchandised your store windows?
• Have you done any market research or focus groups to determine what people want now?
• Have you tried a Facebook ad campaign or Google ad campaign to drive more traffic?
• Are you issuing a monthly press release to your local newspapers?
• Are you using snail mail to connect with top customers?
• What types of alternative advertising have you tried (like billboards or radio) to drive more traffic?
• Have you started using social media to make new connections and build deeper relationships?
• Are you developing your online presence to sell not only in your community, but also around the world?

My top tip that I gave my friend for increasing store traffic and sales was to develop her website more. Why? So she can reach new customers and sell more to existing customers! Having a robust site filled with content will ensure that she (and you) will SELL MORE PRODUCTS.

This might sound complicated—but I assure you it's not. Need some ideas on how to improve your website to drive more traffic and revenue? Join me for my webinar, "Boost Web Sales with 9 Simple Steps" on August 12, 2010, starting at 1:00 EST.

I'm so sure you'll that you'll love this session (and walk away with immediate and actionable takeaways) that I'm offering a 100% no hassle, money-back guarantee if you're not completely satisfied. Space is filling up quickly, be sure to register now at: RetailConferenceSeries.com

What are you doing to keep the marketing momentum going in your store?

Every Friday, thousands of people can be seen playing the #FollowFriday game on Twitter. What started out as a single tweet announcing the game a year ago has turned into a hugely popular trend that keeps on growing.

The concept is simple: every Friday, tweet about a friend who you think is worthy of following. Include their twitter name + #FollowFriday. Those looking for new people to follow can easily search #FollowFriday and see what others have to offer.

#FollowFriday was specially designed to help people get connected and stay engaged on Twitter. If the people you’re following are starting to bore you, #FollowFriday is the perfect way to help you find new prospects.

This social networking game is also great for businesses. Ask your friends to promote your company with #FollowFriday. Your company’s name will appear on the Twitter feeds of all their friends, in addition to whoever finds your name through a #FollowFriday search. Be sure to make your tweets fun and interesting that day, because you never know who might be checking you out!

The majority of commercial emails go straight to the trash without being opened. This means that the average email is being judged solely on the subject line of the message (before being opened) and/or getting sent to the trash automatically.

MailChimp.com conducted a study, sending out 40 million emails with various subject lines to see which got opened and which got ignored. The results were surprising.

With an open rate of 60-87%, the most successful subject lines were:

1. [COMPANYNAME] Sales & Marketing Newsletter
2. Eye on the [COMPANYNAME] Update (Oct 31 - Nov 4)
3. [COMPANYNAME] Staff Shirts & Photos
4. [COMPANYNAME] May 2005 News Bulletin!
5. [COMPANYNAME] Newsletter - February 2006

With an opening rate of 1-14%, the least successful subject lines were:

1. Last Minute Gift - We Have The Answer
2. Valentines - Shop Early & Save 10%
3. Give a Gift Certificate this Holiday
4. Valentine's Day Salon and Spa Specials!
5. Gift Certificates - Easy & Elegant Giving - Let Them Choose

You’ll notice that the “successful” subject lines are extremely straightforward. They’re not pushy or aggressive in any way—in fact, they’re almost boring. Alternatively, the least successful subject lines are all about selling and read like a newspaper advertisement. While these subject lines may be more “creative” than the straightforward ones, they also look like spam to the recipient, and are therefore extremely likely to end up in the trash.

However, not all emails advertising promotions will be trashed. It’s important to think about your audience. If it’s people who signed up to receive promotional and sales information, go ahead and send them the catchy tagline because that’s what they’ll be looking for.

MailChimp.com’s study showed that some of the more “creative” subject lines also boasted some high opening rates—mainly because people were expecting it. However, if your email list is comprised of people who signed up for a company newsletter, rather than advertisements, they aren’t going to be happy receiving your hard-sell, promotional emails.

The most important tip is to make sure your subject line matches what it contains. Don’t confuse newsletters with promotions. Be straightforward, and most importantly, don’t write your subject lines like you’re writing an advertisement.

When it comes to email marketing, the best subject lines tell what's inside, and the worst subject lines sell what's inside.

Today's guest post is from Kathy Krassner, Owner of Krassner Communications.

One of the joys of attending the National Stationery Show, which took place May 16-19 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City, is finding new resources that offer fresh merchandise to perk up retailers' shelves. With 125 first-time exhibitors among the 900 or so companies at this year's NSS, the show provided many answers to the perpetually asked question, "What's new?"

There are always several clever, "I wish I'd thought of that!" products offered by new companies at the NSS. Byleedesign made its NSS debut with many creatively designed products, including a "Creative Circle Ruler Journal" featuring an inches and millimeters measurement guide on the cover; and "Long Tags," 10-inch-long gift tags that actually provide enough space on the back to write a meaningful message. These tags are available for various occasions as well as in multiple languages.

NSS newcomer Regreet showcased its eco-friendly "regreet greeting kits." These kits include journey labels, note paper and envelopes to repurpose a greeting card that has been received; the kit can also be given with a greeting card to encourage its reuse. Every recipient and sender of the "regreeted" card can then track its progress online and opt-in to receive e-mail updates as the card travels on another leg of its journey. Regreet also offers a spiral-bound greeting card organizer to hold greeting cards for future reuse.

Another clever new item came from first-time NSS exhibitor Cardigans, which debuted its line of die-cut, paper easels designed especially for displaying photo cards. Cardigans' photo-card holders come in several designs for Christmas, party, baby and wedding, and can hold photos as well as photo cards. Also for displaying holiday photo cards is Cardigans' "Send-a-longs" — another easel-type item that attaches to the back of a photo card and can be mailed with it.

Sky of Blue Cards made its debut at the NSS — expanding its previously online-only presence. Among this company's eye-catching stationery lines was a new "Whimsy" monogram collection of 4-3/4" x 3-1/2" letterpress-printed notecards with colorful envelopes. Also introduced at the show was a "Tween Power" playdate card targeted to the tween-girls' market. Printed on both sides, these adorable, fill-in cards measure 2" x 3-1/2".

The NSS also featured international exhibitors from 17 countries. Hailing from the U.K. was Vivid Wrap Ltd., which introduced its line of luxurious giftwrap, bags, boxes and journals to the U.S. market at the show. Vivid's new Autumn Winter Collection includes packaging products handmade from recycled cotton, as well as journals and photo albums featuring vibrantly colored embossed leather covers with recycled-cotton pages.

The next National Stationery Show will be held May 15-18, 2011.

Today's guest post is from Kathy Krassner, Owner of Krassner Communications.

Walking the aisles at the recent National Stationery Show, held May 16-19 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City, certain merchandise categories — and fresh interpretations of products within those categories — stood out among the myriad paper-related items on display.

The eco-friendly, "green" category is certainly one that's here to stay in the stationery industry. What's newly popular in this area, however, are design-oriented, reusable water bottles and travel mugs now available from numerous companies exhibiting at the NSS. Among them were Inviting Company, Lipstick Shades and Fontaine Maury — the latter which offers BPA-free aluminum water bottles that hold 20 ounces and come in a variety of colorful, personalized designs.


Technological advances continue to keep things exciting on the stationery front, too. Following the increasing popularity of 3D movies at the theater and 3D TVs at home are 3D greeting cards and stationery items. At the NSS, Avanti Press showcased a new line of 3D greeting cards that use a lenticular process to give the illusion of depth to the cards' humorous cover designs. Meri Meri's line includes a "3D Dinosaur" greeting card and a "3D Dinosaur" kids' party invitation, both of which come packaged with paper 3D glasses.


There's also a trend toward simplicity and value in the stationery industry, especially when it comes to weddings and other celebrations. With expensive, elaborate cakes often being replaced by more affordable (yet still elaborate) cupcakes at weddings and parties, among the product categories on the rise at the NSS were cupcake holders and other cupcake-related accessories. New from Party Partners, for instance, was the "Paper 'n' Cake" Cupcake Sleeves 'n' Toppers, available in several fun designs for various occasions.


Humor and the Internet were two more themes popular at the NSS, and both of these could be seen on the new "Cheezburger" collection of greeting cards, notepads and magnets from The Madison Park Group. What's particularly unique about this new line is that it takes its hilarious photographic imagery and purposely misspelled versing straight from the Cheezburger Network, one of the largest blog networks in the world. The initial "Cheezburger" product launch features images of dogs and cats — always reliable sellers in the stationery market.

Humor could also be seen in the form of sarcasm throughout the show, and there was no shortage of greeting cards featuring sarcastic messages. Lines that stood out in this genre were Offensive + Delightful, which regularly drops the "f" word on its greeting cards and trade-show booth walls; Bald Guy Greetings, whose "sometimes brutal" greeting cards have garnered a LOUIE "Card of the Year" Award; and Hard Cards, whose tagline is "Times are hard and so are we." Happily, times didn't seem as hard at this year's National Stationery Show, thanks to so many clever new products.

Today's guest post is from Kathy Krassner, Owner of Krassner Communications.

I had the honor of being invited to judge the "Best New Product Awards" at the recent National Stationery Show, which ran May 16-19 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City. Along with fellow judge Patricia Norins, publisher of GIFT SHOP magazine, and other members of the trade press, we helped to select the winners in seven distinct product categories.

Since I've helped to judge the "Best New Products" at the NSS many times before – this was the 23rd NSS that I've attended – it wasn't too hard to spot the truly unique products among the 315 entries on display in the "Best New Product" area of the Javits Center's Crystal Lobby. In fact, five of the seven winners chosen scored at the top of my list.

With each category grouped into sections within the "Best New Product" display, I started with the Social Stationery area – which usually has the most entrants. Although there were many creative greeting cards, boxed notes and other wonderfully designed paper products on view, what stood out most to me was the winner: a "Grizzly Bear Hug" die-cut, letterpressed card ($6) from Blackbird Letterpress. The display showed two of these cards: one with the bear's die-cut arms wrapped around a concert ticket, the other hugging a photo – both great examples of what customers can do with this card. It was a fun and different take on other greeting cards that hold photos or gift cards.

Moving to the Party section, the standout here was the winning "Wishing Tree": a tree-shaped, die-cut paper centerpiece ($39.95) that stands nearly 20 inches tall and comes with 40 pre-strung paper "wishing ribbons" for guests to write down messages and hang from the tree. Not only was the "Wishing Tree" visually appealing, but it was such a clever idea!


Another eye-catching item was the "Texture Boutique Embossing Machine" ($29.99) from the Sizzix brand of Ellison, which won in the Paper Craft/Scrapbooking category. The adorable purse shape of the machine is perfect for attracting the female customer who is clearly the primary demographic for this crafting product, which easily embosses cardstock.


Two of this year's winners come from The Madison Park Group: Wooster & Prince Papers' "Desktop Notes," the winner in the Desk Accessories category; and Shannon Martin/Girl Designer's "Holiday Bath Salts," which took top honors in the Lifestyle/Specialty Gift segment. The "Desktop Notes" ($13.95) offer Wooster & Prince's pretty signature patterns on loose note sheets, housed in a footed box.


The festive packaging of Shannon Martin's "Holiday Bath Salts" ($6.50) features vintage images paired with humorous messages from this company's popular greeting card and stationery line.


In the Luxury category, the winner was Cartesian Graphics for its "Vintage Print Fabric" blank cards ($4.50 each). These handmade notecards feature real fabric attached to the cover of the cards, which are letterpress-printed on textured stock.


Rounding out the "Best New Product Awards" was the winner in the Think Green section: Michael Roger Press, Inc. for its "Re-Bottled Notebooks." These colorful, eco-friendly spiral notebooks ($9 each) feature felt covers that are made entirely from recycled plastic bottles. Look closely and you'll see that the petals of the embossed floral pattern on these covers are actually images of water bottles! Inside, the journals feature pages made with post-consumer recycled paper.


Congratulations to all of the winners and entrants in the 14th annual "Best New Product Awards!"

Click here for more information about these awards and the NSS.

SPREE, our trade show for the cart and kiosk industry is less than a week away, and with record high pre-registration (up 60% from last year), I'm confident this will be our best show ever!

One of the things I enjoy most about going to SPREE every year is the discovery process. I love seeing the exciting products on the tradeshow floor, meeting new people and learning what our industry veterans are up to. I also walk away with loads of new ideas from our in-depth seminar program.

This year I will be presenting two seminars: Getting the Most Out of Email Marketing and 2010 Visual Victories Winners, both on April 14th (see our show website for more details).

I look forward to seeing you at SPREE next week!

Having trouble managing all your social media? You're not alone. It's tedious work trying to update your Facebook status every time you tweet, and to tweet every time you update. The good people at Facebook and Twitter feel your pain, so they've created an application to synch the two: update one and the other automatically follows.

Here's how to do it:

1. Log on to your Facebook account and search for "Twitter." Add the first "Twitter" application that shows up in the search results (it was created by Twitter).

2. Allow Twitter to access your profile by clicking the blue "Allow" button.

3. Log into your Twitter account (via the Twitter application inside Facebook that prompts you). At this point, Facebook will update Twitter, but there are a few more steps to send information in the other direction.

4. In the upper right corner, there will be a blue button that says "Allow Twitter to Update your Facebook Status." Click that.

5. Allow status updates from Twitter back to Facebook by clicking on the button that appears.

6. Check to see if it works! Log into Twitter.com from a different browser window and enter a tweet!

I was recently interviewed for an article on web retailing. The reporter asked me for five suggestions on how retailers could improve their sites, or what they should keep in mind if they are launching their first site.

Here are the five tips that I shared:

1. Skip the introductory page and Flash-based code.
   Consumers are impatient and an introductory page takes time to load. You run the risk of people leaving your site while they wait. Plus, an introductory page won't be indexed by search engines.

2. Easy navigation is key.
   How many times have you left a website because you were frustrated that you couldn't find what you were looking for? Easy-to-use navigation will ensure that consumers can easily find what they came for, and will encourage them to explore other areas on your website as well. Logic tells us that the longer a customer spends on your site, the more likely they are to make a purchase (and if you don't offer e-commerce, the more likely they will be to visit your store).

3. Include easy-to-find store information.
   It seems like common sense, but a lot of websites that I visit have their contact information buried, no physical address or store photos (I recommend posting at least one photo of the inside and outside of your store), they forget to post their store hours and it's nearly impossible to find a store phone number.

4. Quality content.
   By providing quality content on your website, you increase the likelyhood that consumers will find your store when they do an online search for a specific product that you're selling. Retailers often ask me how you provide quality content: it can come in the form of a daily blog, posting a product description for each product you sell and/or a detailed store description on the "about us" page. Plus, the more you update your information the more you will increase your search engine ranking when people try to search for products that you sell.

5. Collect names.
   Your website provides an invaluable place to collect names for sending your email marketing efforts. Be sure to offer incentives for sign up (maybe a free product they pick up in the store), and be clear about how you intend to use the list.

Today's guest post is from Meryl Hooker, Sales Rockstar.

I am not a sports fan but like so many others, the Olympic games in Vancouver caught my attention. I didn't make time to sit down and watch any of the events, but some of the highlights really got me thinking. Of all the amazing performances, I found two athletes particularly inspiring: snowboarder and gold medal winner, Shaun White, and cross country skier and bronze medal winner, Petra Majdic.

Petra Majdic had a brutal time. During a trial run, she tumbled head first off the course into a rocky stream and could barely walk. Volunteers had to help her out of the ravine. She turned around and not only participated in the main event; she placed third – after rejecting a painkiller that would have hindered her movement. Talk about commitment!

How many times have you crashed into your own ravine and just stayed there in defeat?

Shaun White met and exceeded all expectation as well. He locked in a repeat gold performance in the amazingly elegant snowboarding competition. He later admitted he was nervous going into the qualifying round because he didn't want to be the guy who "couldn't hold." I don't know about you, but I sure can relate to that.

How many times have you reached a new personal best, and had moments of doubt about whether you could hold… or exceed it?

When he was asked about what he did to keep his emotions in check and deliver the killer execution of his routine, White responded, "That's how I pictured it in my mind, of how it was going to go down."

How good are you at picturing how something is going to go down… and then making it happen?

I am a die-hard sales enthusiast and there is no doubt that the principles of being an Olympic champion are not all that different from being a sales champion. It doesn't matter if you're running a store or a sales rep running the road. Here's what the games reinforce for me about sales training and execution:

• You don't get good in day.
• You must practice and train every day.
• You must have a deep, down in your soul, drive to be the best.
• Focus always.
• Discipline always.
• Have fun.
• Represent your sport (or manufacturer or customer or store) the very best you can.
• Take a trick and do it a little better and a little bigger.
• Create new things.
• Set goals for yourself. Some that are out of reach, some that aren't.
• It's not always easy and it's not always fun.
• Hard work pays off.

I don't know that any of these are revolutionary new lessons in sales or athletics. It doesn't have to take big events like the Olympics to remind us of these basic principles. We can create the motivation for ourselves everyday by focusing on, planning and practicing a better performance in our stores and with our customers. We may not be as hip as Shaun White, but that doesn't mean we can't earn the gold… or the green.

Meryl Hooker is a manufacturer's representative, writer, speaker, sales coach and all-around Sales Rockstar. She is the writer of "Road Rage," a blog about repping and selling and co-author of the forthcoming book, Pushing The Envelope: The Small Greeting Card Manufacturer's Guide to Working with Sales Reps (Center Aisle Press, May 2010). She lives in Washington, DC and can be reached via www.merylhookersales.com.