Optimizing Your Online Outreach ? Retail Minded

Optimizing Your Online Outreach

Posted by:?Nicole Reyhle??? Tags:? E-Commerce, retail, Retailers, Selling Online, Websites??? Posted date:? February 1, 2013 ?|? No comment

Let?s face it, most consumers are online in some way or another. Many are online more than anywhere else ? such as in your physical stores. Third parties across the nation can help support you in your online goals, but sometimes that simply is not in the budget ? and we get that. Here are a few tips you can apply to your business today that can help your online existence thrive.

1. Sign up for free trials with e-mail marketing companies.?Some even offer online support ? or coaching ? to help you maximize your e-marketing potential. Take advantage of these offers. Constant Contact has a great support system, for example, to help you with email campaigns. Find your comfort zone and what makes sense for you. But don?t neglect email marketing ? this is an important piece to your online outreach puzzle.

2. Always aim to grow your email?subscriber?list.?Use a combination of your website, your brick and mortar store and your social media networks to do this. Do not overlook collecting email addresses at special events, either. When working with other businesses through events or B2B projects, be sure to collect their email lists, as well. There may be some limitations here ? but it never hurts to ask.

3. Sign up for practical webinars and other online learning tools that help support email marketing, online optimization and social media support specific to small businesses.That?s the key, though. What works for small shops do not always work for medium to large size businesses. Cater your online outreach to your store size and ? quite frankly ? reality. If you are pitching a local audience only, for example, then drive your online communication to connect with other local businesses, groups and residents. This also means participating in webinars and other learning experiences that supports your goals.

4. Consider introducing online surveys to your website.?You can use them for many things, such as gaining inventory ideas, event ideas, gaining customer demographics and so much more. Most survey companies offer free trials that can help you avoid paying a fee upfront. Use these surveys to collect customer data, thoughts, product interest information and more. Hearing from your customers and caring enough to ask is your goal here.

5. Blend your print, in-store and digital world together with one cohesive look.?When you have a store, it?s important to create it as a ?brand? that seamlessly collides from one area to the next. Online should not be an exception. Are you proud of your website? You should be!

Additionally, remember to always offer your email subscribers the?chance?to?unsubscribe?if they want to. Of course, that isn?t your goal but it is important to include. If you end up working with a third party to help support you in your goals, be sure to utilize all their options in supporting your business. These may include:

1. Split testing ? This samples how emails are opened based on different layouts and when sent at different times during the day.

2. Email lists ? Some companies can offer email lists that are?separated?according to?demographics, age, product interest, etc.

3. Direct mail ? Email is one way to gain an audience, but good old?fashioned?direct mail remains strong.

Finally, trust your gut. A change in your choice of words, the pictures you use or when you send things out can make all the difference in your online optimization. A final thought? Be consistent. Just like exercise, you can expect results overnight. But stay dedicated and you will see rewards.

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About the author

Nicole Reyhle
Nicole Leinbach Reyhle is the Founder of Retail Minded, Editorial Director of Retail Minded Magazine and a national speaker & consultant to many retail focused events, groups and businesses. Get in touch with Reyhle at nicole@retailminded.com and follow Reyhle on Twitter at @RetailMinded.

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Source: http://retailminded.com/optimizing-your-online-outreach/

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Tainted baby formula forces Chinese to look elsewhere

HONG KONG (AP) ? Hong Kong announced measures Friday to curb the amount of baby formula that mainland Chinese visitors are buying as anger grows at shortages in the city's stores.

Chief among the measures is a plan to change the law to restrict the amount of baby formula that individuals can take out of the city.

Food and Health Secretary Ko Wing-man said legislation would be amended to prohibit taking more than 1.8 kilograms (4 pounds) of formula past Hong Kong's borders. The amount is equal to two cans of formula.

Mainland Chinese have increasingly looked abroad for baby formula following a series of tainted-formula scandals. In 2008, tainted formula killed six babies and sickened another 300,000 infants in China. Last summer, Yili Industrial Group recalled infant formula because of "unusual" levels of mercury. At about the same time, Hunan Ava Dairy Industry Co. said it found a cancer-causing toxin linked to mildewed cattle feed in five batches of baby formula.

The law change is aimed at so-called parallel traders from mainland China, who have been flooding into the city to buy up consumer goods that also include cosmetics, toiletries and electronics for resale back home. Parallel trading is frowned upon by Hong Kongers but is not illegal.

"We feel that the formula supply chain being out-of-order is directly related to parallel trading," Ko said at a press conference. "The large demand from parallel traders will lead to shortages of formula at retail outlets on numerous occasions," so the government will change export regulations to clamp down on the traders, he said.

Officials also announced other measures including a hotline that parents can call to order formula if stores have run out. They will also step up coordination with their mainland Chinese counterparts at border checkpoints to increase scrutiny of travelers and tighten up luggage limits on the main rail line that runs to the border.

Traders wheeling bulky bags or boxes stuffed with their purchases have become a common sight at train stations near the city's border with mainland China. Residents complain that their oversized luggage clogs up stations.

The baby formula controversy highlights how cross-border shopping at both the high and low end has become a major source of friction between Hong Kongers and mainland Chinese some 15 years after the former British colony was returned to Beijing.

Hong Kong has become a magnet for mainland visitors, with about 35 million arriving last year ? or about five times the city's population. They're drawn by tax free shopping, a reputation for quality products and the strength of the yuan against the Hong Kong dollar. But some locals are growing increasingly uneasy, calling them "locusts" for their purchases of everything from apartments to luxury goods.

Last year, a Dolce & Gabbana boutique was the target of protests after a staff member reportedly tried to prevent Hong Kong people ? but not mainland Chinese or foreigners ? from taking photos of the shop windows from the sidewalk.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hk-clamps-down-cross-border-baby-formula-trade-105444195--finance.html

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Apple is biggest US phone seller for 1st time

NEW YORK (AP) ? The launch of the iPhone 5 and the declining popularity of non-smartphones have made Apple the biggest seller of phones in the U.S. for the first time, research firm Strategy Analytics said Friday.

The firm estimates that Apple shipped 17.7 million iPhones of all kinds to U.S. buyers in the October to December period, meaning it accounted for one in three new phones.

Samsung Electronics of Korea was close behind, shipping 16.8 million phones, including non-smart ones. Samsung has been the largest seller of phones to the U.S. market since 2008, Strategy Analytics said.

Worldwide, Samsung is still the biggest phone vendor with 23 percent of the market, according to another research firm, IDC. Apple is number three, with 9.9 percent of the market. In between sits Nokia with 17.9 percent.

Samsung beats Apple even when only smartphones are considered. It shipped 63.7 million units worldwide versus Apple's 47.8 million.

IPhones are more expensive than most Samsung smartphones. So, they're well within reach for U.S. buyers, but not for buyers in the developing world, where cheaper phones running Google Inc.'s Android operating system dominate.

In the U.S., iPhone sales are usually very strong in the first few months after a new model is released. They then taper off. That means Samsung could regain the smartphone crown as early as this quarter.

The NPD Group, another research firm, on Friday said the iPhone 5 was the single most popular phone in the U.S. in the holiday quarter. The Samsung Galaxy S III was No. 2, followed by the older iPhone models, the 4S and 4.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-02-01-Apple-Samsung-Phone%20Sales/id-fcddd377f13c49cf8b73f1651ba8fbd1

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Women's Studies Program sponsors Sexual Empowerment Week ...

Western Carolina University?s Women?s Studies Program will host events from Monday, Feb. 4, through Thursday, Feb. 7, designed to help participants gain knowledge to help them develop healthy intimate relationships.

Sexual Empowerment Week activities ranging from question-and-answer sessions to a book discussion will be held in A.K. Hinds University Center and are free and open to the public.

Marilyn Chamberlin, director of women?s studies, said relationships, sexuality and gender identity topics surface in class discussions, and those discussions led to planning a week of events that would offer accurate, comprehensive information on those topics.

?We want participants to explore information that is usually presented either in bits and pieces or presented inaccurately ? information that can help them learn more about their sexual interests and identity, where they fit in and how to develop safer, healthier intimate relationships,? said Chamberlin.

Scheduled events include:

• A question-and-answer session titled ?All You Ever Wanted to Know About Sex but Didn?t Learn in High School? to be held in the UC Multipurpose Room from 7 to 9 p.m. Monday, Feb. 4;
• A session titled ?Healthy Relationships? in the UC Multipurpose Room from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 5;
• A session titled ?Safe Sex? in the UC Multipurpose Room from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 6;
• An informational fair to be held in the UC Grandroom from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7;
• A book discussion titled ?Shades of Grey: The Reality? in the UC Grandroom from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7.

For more information, contact Chamberlin at mchamber@wcu.edu or 828-227-3839.

Source: http://news-prod.wcu.edu/2013/01/womens-studies-program-to-host-sexual-empowerment-week/

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Lena Dunham Developing HBO Show About Personal Shopper

'Girls' creator is working on a project based on the upcoming memoir 'All Dressed Up and Everywhere to Go'
By Gil Kaufman

Lena Dunham
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Green Blog: For Sacramento, Energy Upgrades With No Upfront Costs

Sacramento has announced a new program to help finance energy-saving upgrades for buildings like adding insulation, replacing old windows, installing high-efficiency heating and cooling systems or adding rooftop solar panels.

Owners of homes or commercial buildings will incur no upfront costs for taking part in the program, Clean Energy Sacramento, but will gradually pay back the financing in installments on their property tax bills. The city?s program will be one of the largest in the country based on this approach, known as Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE, financing, said Stacey Lawson, the chief executive of the company that will manage the program for the city, Ygrene Energy Fund.

Sacramento has set a goal to reduce its energy use by 15 percent by 2020. The program will open with $22 million already committed to upgrades, Ms. Lawson said in a telephone interview.

It will also be the first program to operate under a state legislative measure that expanded the guidelines for regulating PACE programs and should help resolve some of the snags that have troubled other such efforts, she said.

In 2008, when cities in California began implementing PACE financing, it seemed like the ideal solution for cutting the huge amount of energy used by homes and commercial buildings, estimated at 40 percent of all energy consumed in the United States each year.

For property owners, PACE offers low-cost financing and long payback terms while improving their properties. Typically, the savings on energy bills pay for the additional tax assessment. Cities see this as a way to meet their climate and energy policy goals without digging into their own pockets.

Since 2008, 27 states and the District of Columbia have adopted legislation enabling local governments to offer PACE programs to building owners. But many mortgage lenders balked. In most states, the PACE tax assessment is considered a senior lien on the property. This means that in a foreclosure, the lien gets paid ahead of the mortgage balance.

In July 2010, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which owns or guarantees about half the home mortgages in the country through the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac programs, issued a ruling expressing its concerns about the ?safety and soundness? of PACE programs. The agency followed up in 2011 with an order that explicitly directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ?not to purchase mortgages affected by first-lien PACE obligations.?

?The F.H.F.A. rulings essentially spooked all the municipalities,? said Eric Bloom, an analyst with Pike Research. A few programs have moved forward, notably in Sonoma County in California and in Babylon, N.Y., on Long Island, he said, but the F.H.F.A. ruling effectively shut down most others. Some programs that focus only on commercial buildings have continued, however, as these properties don?t rely on government-backed mortgages.

California and other states challenged the F.H.F.A. rulings. Last August, a federal district court ruled that the F.H.F.A. edict had violated federal law because it offered no public notice. The district court instructed the agency to offer a public comment period. That ended in September, and a final rule could come from the F.H.F.A. by May, estimated David Gabrielson, executive director of PACENow, an advocacy group.

In the meantime, Sacramento is moving forward with its own program based on passage of Senate Bill 555, which expanded the state?s definition of public-benefit projects that are eligible for repayment through property taxes to include renewable energy, energy efficiency and water conservation improvements on private property.

At the same time, the program will carefully weigh each project to protect the mortgage holders, Ms. Lawson said. For example, the property owner must hold at least 15 percent equity in the property, and the cost of the project cannot exceed 10 percent of the property value. For commercial projects, the project must pay for itself through the savings on energy costs.

For industry watchers like Mr. Bloom of Pike Research, PACE?s potential is vast, but most communities interested in this approach will remain on the sidelines for now, he suggested. ?They are waiting to see what happens with the F.H.F.A. final rules, and watching to see if programs like the one in Sacramento can crack the code,? he said.

Source: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/for-sacramento-energy-upgrades-with-no-upfront-costs/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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The Engadget Mobile Podcast: BlackBerry 10 edition, live at 4pm ET!

We're not saying that the entire podcast will dedicated to today's launch of BlackBerry 10, but let's face it -- that's the news of the week, and there's a lot to talk about. We're hoping to be joined by some special guests as we discuss the new phones and what it means for the future of RIM. Regardless of who joins us, however, it's going to be a great podcast, so make sure to tune in!

January 30, 2013 4:00 PM EST

Filed under: Announcements, Mobile, RIM

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/30/engadget-mobile-podcast/

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