Erik Qualman's Blog, page 491

Grammycam to film Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga ….

And the Grammy Goes to….

GoPro. The 58th Grammy celebration will be going down on February 15th and GoPro is grabbing new angles of the event … think elated reactions and tears.  The icnonic microphone trophy will be embedded with a GoPro filmingwinners’ live reactions. The losers reactions will probably be more interesting…

The “Grammycam” is designed to grab all the angles you wouldn’t otherwise see, like backstage footage, passerby reactions and even some red carpet action. The trophies will film for 3 hours total so hopefully that’s enough time to catch all the winners sing karaoke? (Source TNW News)

Tesla Model 3 says ….

Move over to the slow lane Prius.. Tesla announced their affordable Model 3 will be debuted by March 31, 2016 and burning rubber by 2017. The Model 3 will be priced at $35,000 and could even plummet to $25,000 depending on federal government credits and incentives. The model will be sold as either a sedan or crossover variant and will be Tesla’s first mass produced item. Tesla is banking on the Model 3 taking them to new demographics … hint  millennial buying power is growing. (Source TheNextweb)

What Your Twitter Thinks You Drink…

Do you prefer a rum and coke or a dry martini? That’s where Data Cocktail comes in, the first ever robot bartender. Data Cocktail analyzes keywords in your 5 most recent tweets and whips you up a personalized recipe and alcoholic beverage to go with it. The project was organized by Stereolux as a way to represent data through senses other than sight. Here’s a video of Data Cocktail in action, and if you ever wonder what your tweets say about you we’ve got you covered with our book What Happens in Vegas Stays on YouTube #ShamlessPlug. Also do robots accept tips at the bar or nah?  (Source TheCreatorsProject.Vice

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5 Reasons VC Funding Still Beats Crowdfunding

5 Reasons VC Funding Still Beats Crowdfunding  

There has been a lot of hype lately about crowdfunding campaigns and for good reason. The crowdfunding industry is expected to surpass venture capital in terms of the amount of investment allocated to startups. It can easily be implied by this aggressive growth that crowdfunding is a surefire way to get funding and the go-to place to get money for your business. For many startups, this may be the case, especially if they can manage to get funded without giving away any equity at all. This article helps to provide some arguments for why you should consider remaining loyal to venture capital rather than being quick to pursue seemingly cheap equity by appealing to the crowdfunding market.

1.     Venture capital firms offer more than just capital

Many venture capital companies offer strategic resources that crowdfunding cannot offer. For instance, a venture fund may have other companies within their portfolio that enable synergies to help your business. One example may be a venture capital company that has manufacturer relationships that can ensure lower prices and greater stability in the supply chain that would otherwise not be accessible. The synergies that are accessible by a venture firm are often difficult to value at an early stage, but should certainly be weighted in your decision to determine where you will acquire financing.

2.     Having many backers can be dangerous

If you have spoken with entrepreneurs that have successfully exited a company, you are likely to hear some horror stories of dealing with demanding investors. Large companies with many investment rounds may have upwards of ten investment groups backing them that can all be requesting information about the company and be annoying. If you are crowdfunded, you may have to multiply this figure by one hundred or more. Even if your backers just expect a product, there have been cases of a company receiving a poor reputation before it has the opportunity to scale in the market.

3.     Crowdfunding can cause premature product releases

Many crowdfunding campaigns are backed by products that they intend to release onto the market. When this occurs, the product may be prematurely released to many consumers before it has the opportunity to even be Beta tested with a small market. This means that you have a large amount of purchase orders that you need to fulfill and are suddenly rushed to fulfill this backlog. Meanwhile, the online community is demanding their product promise and calling you for information on its status. You quickly find yourself with 50,000 orders to fulfill of a product that is not ready for an official launch until six to eight months out and builds a negative impression on the market before the launch. This is not a theory based on a hypothetical scenario, but founded on a series of historical cases.

4.     Big venture names can give your company clout

When Google Ventures backs your company, there is very little that you need to worry about. Not only will you have top-tier ivy league MBA graduates knocking at your door, but you will also find that forming strategic partnerships and acquiring media attention is much easier than having 10,000 crowdfunding backers. It is surprising how many companies that we have seen never apply to the top venture firms and immediately resort to crowdfunding. It is accurate that many of these venture programs are highly competitive and it is unlikely that you will pass the screening round, but it is definitely worth the effort to get that exposure.

5.     Crowdfunding has its financing limitations

When you are backed by a venture capital group, you can easily raise tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars in order to operate. Crowdfunding can enable you to raise a small amount of capital, but nowhere near the amount of venture capital firms. The reason that crowdfunding financing is expected to surpass the venture capital industry is because it consists of many smaller micro-investments that would otherwise not receive venture financing. The screening criteria of venture capitalists can be rather extensive and challenging to pass. Therefore, it is not always an option for all companies, but is definitely worth an attempt when you weigh all factors into your financing decision.

We hope that this article has helped you to think before you leap onto the crowdfunding bandwagon. It is certainly not an argument against using crowdfunding to finance your company, but rather a proposal for pre-meditation. We strongly encourage you to consider the costs and benefits of all financing options before you select one. The cost of capital is not always free with crowdfunding as it is promoted in the press, especially when you weigh the synergies and value that a venture firm bring to the deal table.

We hope you found the above promoted content as entertaining and helpful as we did.

 

 

 

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How Translated Websites Help Increase Sales of Internet Businesses

You are sitting at an airport behind a counter for the purpose of helping arriving passengers with their inquiries. Would you receive more passengers if you were providing assistance in only English or if you were providing the same services in many different languages? Airports are places where there are people from various backgrounds, ethnicities, races etc. It makes more sense to help people in many different languages rather than sticking to just English or one language. The thing is that websites are places where even more people who speak and understand different languages come on a daily basis.

As technology gets better people expect things in their surroundings to get better too. Just the difference between smartphones from 5 years ago and today is huge. Similar to other things, people like to see websites integrated with the latest features, web applications and other things. All of these things contribute to a great user experience and a great user experience means more visits and more chances of sales. Translation is now the next big thing for websites. Today, websites are fast translating into many languages to successfully increase sales and daily traffic. The many benefits that websites can get by getting translated are as under:

Targeting A Bigger Audience

While English remains the international language, the fact is that there is still more people in the world who can’t speak or understand English. It’s would be just bad marketing to not include those people in your target market when they are literally in billions. When you choose to have your website translated in various languages, you open an extra that lets people who don’t understand English enter your business. When you are targeting more people with such a simple step, you are definitely going to a see a huge increase in your sales.

Going A Step Closer To The Audience

Singers would often try to learn a few words of the languages of the countries they are visiting on their tours. They would at least learn how to say words like “thank you”, “hello” and “goodbye”. When they say such words during their concerts you hear a huge round of applause and noise from the people. This is a proven sign that when you communicate with people in their language, they feel more connected to you. Having your website translated for people in their native language will make them feel special and thus do business with you.

Doing Instant Marketing

When your company is in many different countries of the world, you need to be aware of those cultures as well. It is impossible to run a company in a country other than your original country without knowing the culture of the other country. Certain events, festivals and occasions that are part of that culture should be taken advantage of. You can come up with great offers and discounts for the people of that particular country but make your marketing even more powerful by having it in their language.

Reducing SEO Competition

There are literally millions of websites doing the same business as you are. All of these websites are working on the same keywords because they are mainly in English. The competition for keywords is thus very tough. On the other hand, there are still very few websites that have been translated in other languages than English. This gives you a great opportunity to work on keywords that have not been used by millions of websites. This reduces the competition for you and gives your website a great chance to appear in top results when people search for these keywords.

Developing Brand Identity

This one is attached with the second point on the list. As per an expert from Pangeanic, when people see that you care about them by translating your website in their language, they come a step closer to you. They feel more special doing business with you than they do while doing business with another company. They feel proud to be associated with the name of your company because they think you care about them. This is how a brand identity is created and you create loyal customers around the world that are not willing to move to another brand for the same services as yours.

Being Considered Among The Best

Whenever there is something new in marketing, the biggest giants of the world adopt that first. Look at all the biggest websites of the world and you will realize that they have already been translated in as many languages as possible. Some great examples are websites like Wikipedia, Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. The smaller businesses are still following the trend and stepping into the competition slowly. When you translate your website in many different languages, you are automatically considered among the biggest brands of the world.

Doing Confident Marketing

Translating your website and its all components in many languages means you can do better marketing in future. With translated content you will see a boost in your website’s traffic. This will give you an idea of what the new visitors like the most on your website. By collecting the data of page views, duration of page views etc. you can develop better marketing strategies that meet the requirements of the new traffic that has started to come on your website. You can be proud that your marketing will be effective because now it will be done in a better and more understandable way for your target audience.

Getting Better Reviews

Go through a few online reviews done on different type of websites to see how a website with multilingual options is given rating for that. Think about the stock or forex brokers that have their websites translated into at least a dozen languages. When these brokers are reviewed, the factor of how many languages the website is available in is always brought into the review. In short, this serves as a plus point for the website. You will get plus points in the reviews that are done for your website if it is available in many languages too.

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7 Worst Mistakes That Are Eating Up Your Content Marketing Success

We’re all rushing to create piles and piles of content to serve our customers, upkeep an online image, and create more brand awareness. Despite that, few organizations have it really figured out when it comes to content marketing. The people they’ve targeted aren’t “taking action”. Visitors come and go and analytics aren’t as great as they should be. What could have gone wrong??

Content marketing is a tricky game and unfortunately, there are a number of ways you could mess up your content marketing success. Here are some of the worst and most common mistakes made by content marketers that you should avoid making.

Not Writing up Your Goals and Plans: First of all, you need have clear goals and content marketing strategies to begin with. Secondly, you need to make sure you outline and document and every single one of these goals on paper. The importance of taking this step is to have a clear idea of what worked, what didn’t work, how long it took to work, etc. Not only will you know which goals to focus on currently, but you will also have clear idea of when to change your methods and stick to the ones that are actually working.

Not Being Consistent: Whether you are writing up blog posts, uploading a fresh stream of videos, or promoting a new product, it has to be consistent! They say consistency is the key – and in this case, it couldn’t be put more accurately. It takes months, maybe even several years, to create regular fans of content and not being consistent means that you’re not being predictable enough for your loyal fans to come back regularly.

Not Providing Value: If you’re too focused on sales and conversions, you’re missing the point. Content marketing cannot be all about your company and fulfilling company needs. Agreed, that this is the “ultimate goal”, however, that’s not how it should seem to your online visitors. Get rid of excessively promotional content because that is a major turn off for an online audience. Instead, focus on providing value to customers by knowing exactly what they care about. What issues, challenges, and problems does this target audience face? What makes them tick? Choose those topics and write inspiring content that somehow solves, addresses, or capitalizes on these issues, ideas, or topics.

Choosing Only One Form of Content: Sharing inspirational blog posts is definitely a plus for content marketing, but since online visitors are particularly fond of diversity, it’s not always enough. The idea behind content marketing is not only to craft large chunks of text, contrary to what many amateurs may think. Quality content can be in the form of videos, images, infographics, and other forms of visual content. A large portion of online visitors prefer visual content to readable forms content. By ignoring that lump of potential visitors, you run the risk of alienating them completely.

Participating on Every Social Media Platform: Believe it or not, but content marketers actually run the risk of damaging business reputation by signing up for more networks than they can manage. Trying to occupy as much “social media space” as possible is an overwhelming and ineffective strategy. Not every social media platform is best for a particular business.

Instead start out with just one or two social media network(s). Give some time, thought, and consideration to answer questions such as, “How does this platform contribute to my end goals?” and “where would I expect to find my target audience?”. Pick one that fits the needs of your business and customers best. Posting frequently and consistently on those selected networks is important to ensure that your customers stay in the loop.

Ignoring Your Customer’s Questions: Ask yourself what could your target audience want to know—not from About.com or Wikipedia—but from you and you only? These are the topics, problems, or questions you should be addressing. For example, if your business provides auto-repair service to customers, you may write about the latest car event, which is fine. But there are some crucial questions your customers may have about your business which should be a number one priority. For example, they might want to know about your service plans, how long a certain repair service would take, or who you’ve partnered with for your products. Never ignore this type of useful, valuable, and audience-oriented content.

Promoting Only Once: There is no rule that says you have to share a certain piece of content only once. Given that your subscribers could be following tons of other individuals as well, there is no guarantee that your message has been heard by all of your followers. Consequently, there is nothing wrong with giving your blog post or video a second or third round. Share it in different ways on different times, using different platforms. Share it again a month later. There’s no reason to put down a valuable piece of content just because has already been shared once.

 

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Google Self-Driving Car Considered Legal Driver

Can I See a License and Registration?

But I’m just a self-driving car. According to a recent letter sent from the National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration to Google, Google’s self-driving car can be considered a legal driver under federal law. Forget the traditional driver, these self-driving cars should come with disclaimer: no human needed. Welcome to the future. (Source Reuters)

What to Say When Your Video Won’t Buffer…

This must be how the Obamas feel. In a recent interview with CBS, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama confessed that even The White House has poor Wi-Fi connections. Obama said there are a lot of dead spots where the Wi-Fi doesn’t work because it is an old building. There ya have it folks, the leader of the free world is just like us. #Relatable. Obama has put “fix the Wi-Fi” on the To-Do list for the next president. Someone give Google Fiber a ring. (Source The Vox)

YouTube vs. Netflix

Last fall, YouTube released their subscription service YouTube Red. Essentially a Spotify for videos, YouTube Red is $9.99 a month and offers ad free use. YouTube is stepping it up today with the launch of their first original series called Scare PewDiePie and three original movies. The difference between Netflix originals and YouTube originals is that YouTube will be releasing episodes weekly instead of a season at a time. So if binge watching is more your style, Netflix might be your go-to. (Source USA Today)

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Why Should You Consider Using A Virtual Business Office?

Nowadays, the evolution of online businesses is much stronger than anyone accepted. We have a constant rise in the number of people that are interested in buying products and services online so business management becomes highly important as competition grows. At the moment there are hundreds of thousands of online businesses that are selling a wide multitude of services and products.

The problem with having an online business is that there is usually no business office that exists. This not only lowers credibility but it also stands out as a must have for operations. Setting up a small business office can be complicated so the virtual option becomes highly attractive. We will mention some advantages that you want to learn about since this helps out a lot.

Correspondence Address

Any business needs a correspondence address. This is a certainty and there is no way around it. You want to always think about this. The virtual business office automatically has an address. Business letters can thus be received from media, government offices, clients and suppliers. Emails are obviously used a lot in modern business settings but hard copies are still necessary. Having a business address will be needed sooner or later. As with any aspect of business, you want to be sure that you invest sooner rather than later.

Legal Requirements

When you do business, you have to deal with the legal aspect. There is no way around this. You can perform all the sales prospecting techniques you want and not be allowed to do business without a business address. The virtual office can easily be used as a business operation address.

Building Trust And Credibility

Every single online business out there needs to build credibility and trust. Entrepreneurs have to meet with their clients and business partners. This is a necessity to establish high trust and credibility. While online businesses are now really popular, most of them do not actually understand the importance of having an office.

If you cannot offer business address data, suspicion will appear for your business partners and your potential clients. The financial institutions and the suppliers will not really want to work with you. The huge problem appears when trying to set up some credit arrangements. Any business enterprise needs an office to be approved for a loan and for many other necessary tasks.

Even if you do not need trust and credibility to obtain a loan, the customers may end up not trusting your business because of that lack of physical address. The virtual office automatically solves this problem.

Brand Reinforcement

Having a virtual office is something that people will associate with having a regular office. Because of this, your business brand will be reinforced. Prospective clients will be convinced that your business offers value.

Conclusions

These are only some of the reasons that we can highlight. The advantages of having a virtual office are quite obvious. You surely already know the fact that you would save a lot of cash with a virtual office so you can easily add that to the benefits list.

 

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Some Simple Tips To Save Money For Your Business

One of the most important parts of running a business is definitely trying to save as much money as possible while maximizing profits. This is not something that is easy to do. It is really important that you think about the various options available for you. While you can actually start a business without money, running it without profits would be impossible. With this in mind, do consider the following:

Image via pixabay.com

Look For Cheap Marketing Options

A large part of business success is making sure that your potential clients hear about the deals that are available. Advertising is normally quite expensive but there are always options that are available for those that want to save cash while promoting a business. However, we now have different cheap options available when using social media. Use tools that make the process simpler and you will surely appreciate the amounts that you can save every single month.

Reduce Utility Bills

Many office managers are conscious about simply switching off lights at the workplace but this will not be a huge difference in most cases. In order to save as much money as possible, you want to get a tariff that is perfect for you. This means that you basically have to compare the deals that are offered by different suppliers. You will quickly figure out the fact that it is not that difficult to save hundreds every single month by simply just changing utility suppliers.

Take Advantage Of Freelance Work

A large part of business expenses is how much you pay for the services of the employees. While there are obviously some situations in which you need people inside the office, with most businesses out there it is a certainty that you can take advantage of the lower rates that are offered by freelancers.

As an example, it is possible to use virtual assistance in order to deal with the email enquiries or to write your correspondence. It is really easy to find people to write content for the business website and many other freelancers can be employed to save cash.

Buying Cheap Office Furniture

When first setting up the business, furnishing an office is really expensive. In order to reduce these expenses, it is possible to easily source office furniture. There are different online auction sites, second hand stores and even specialized websites that can help you to find office furnishing that would be really good for you.

Save Money And Time On Travelling

When you travel to a business meeting, you think that you do not spend a lot of time. However, travelling also brings in a waste of time. In order to save cash in your business, you can easily try to focus on Skype meetings and similar deals. This automatically means that you save cash and time. All business managers will love this.

On the whole, we can say that it is not at all difficult to save cash for your business but you have to be careful. Make sure that business operation quality is never compromised.

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5 Eco-Friendly Digital Marketing Ideas

 

With the digital strategies in this post, you’ll learn new ways to be eco-friendly while marketing your business.  is that everyone reading this will learn at least 1 go green tip they can implement into their marketing strategy which at the same time will help us keep our earth a wonderful place to live. With digital technology we have the ability to elevate our traditional marketing strategies

1. Go green promotional items- Many businesses have gotten really smart with their swag and rather than giving away useless tchotchke items they are giving out products that are actually useful. I recommend that if you are going to spend money on giveaways, spend a little extra on things that will be used over and over again so that your logo and business is constantly getting exposure. These items include reusable shopping bags and refillable water bottles. Not only are these things that will last, but they also encourage people to go green.

2.  Accept digital coupons- Rather than creating paper waste by requiring people to print out coupons for your business, accept digital coupons. You can do this by emailing coupons or having a link to them on your website, then encouraging people to redeem the discount you’re offering simply by showing it on their phone. More and more people are getting smart phones and at the same time, less people are buying printers. The easiest way to implement a digital coupon is to have a coupon code associated with the deal. This way when a customer comes in to redeem the digital coupon, all the employee has to do is type in the code. Having a code also helps cut down on any confusion as to what  “Foursquare Check in deal” is or a “Yelp Deal” is when the customer is redeeming your offer.

3. Make print material small and have a call to action- I was sad to see how much print materials were being passed out at the Earth Fair this year at Balboa Park. Brochures and flyers often go straight to the trash. Sometimes printing marketing material is still necessary. You may have an event and want to give out coupons or discount codes for your website, flyers to an upcoming event, or business cards, so people can connect with you again. My recommendations for cutting down on paper waste with print marketing material is to make it small and give an incentive to someone receiving the print material to connect with you online. Make sure to include your website and your social networks on all print material. When connecting people to your social media, include the icon of the network and the actual URL of your sites so people don’t have to search for your page. You can also encourage people to connect with you to receive a discount or promotion. Think, call to action to get your customers online every time you create a piece of print material.

4. Create digital content- Every time you create digital content, you reduce the need for print material. Have downloadable material on your website such as brochures, white papers and e-books. Even blog posts! Most digital content will take time to create but cost little to no money to produce (versus expensive printing costs) so not only are you helping the environment, you’re also saving money!

5. Create a photo op- The old saying, a picture is worth a thousand words works for this tip. People love looking at photos. They’re a digital souvenir so if you’re able to create a photo op that also captures your logo or something that represents your business, then you’re not only creating a marketing opportunity for your business, but you’re also creating memories for your customers. This can be done by having a photo booth that will email the photos taken in the booth, having your logo on a back drop where people are taking photos (think red carpet photos) or having something at your event worth taking a photo of. Check out the photo I took of the Raptor Institute’s booth at Balboa Park’s Earth Fair. This was definitely the most popular booth I saw with everyone waiting to take photos. The little owl you see there (common barn owl) is real and perching right in front of the organization’s logo/sign so the mobs of people who took photos of that owl, also captured the organization’s name and logo.

 

 

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Will You Be Socially Active in Helping the Environment?

If you want to learn more about green living and environmentally friendly construction, social media is a great place to start.

There are a number of social sites out there, some of which are dedicated to discussing environmental issues and green building.

With social environments in mind, here are just a few ways you can use social media to learn more about the green building industry:

Green Construction and Facebook

A growing number of green construction companies are joining the social ranks by opening Facebook accounts.

Using social media to research and connect with the green building industry is a great way to learn about environmentally friendly residential and commercial construction initiatives.

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and many other environmentally-focused construction groups have active Facebook pages.

Whether you want to learn about LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Certification or you just want to stay up to date on green building practices, Facebook makes a great research tool.

Discussing Green Building Topics

From Facebook and Twitter to environmentally centric social sites, social media is the perfect place to strike up a conversation about green construction.

You can use social media to seek out contractors and architects in the green community or you can create your own post on green building topics.

As the following article looks at, whether it’s a general post about green construction materials or a blog entry where Bob Vila discusses green building, the outreach possibilities with social media are endless. If there’s a specific green topic you’d like to discuss, it’s as simple as posting that topic to any number of social sites out there.

Or, if you’ve come across a green discussion already in progress, there’s a good chance you can jump in via the comment section.

Even if you don’t actively participate in green building discussions, simply reading about green building on social media is a great learning experience.

Green Building Blogs

There are hundreds of blogs dedicated to green building.

From architectural salvage blogs to blogs that are focused on cutting edge green construction processes and smart home technology, following green blogs is an effective way to stay on top of the green building movement.

A large majority of green construction companies have blogs associated with their websites.

Green Home Design, Architecture for Humanity, and Sustainable Architecture and Building are just a few of the hundreds of blogs focused on green building and construction.

Green Architecture on Social Media

Although green building initiatives are finding a place in the construction world, there is still a lot the general public doesn’t know about green and sustainable construction. That’s why green construction companies and architects alike are posting pictures of green homes and buildings on photo-friendly social sites.

Facebook, Flickr, Instagram and Pinterest are all great sites to visit if you’re looking for photos and videos of green architecture.

From LEED Certified Homes to green commercial construction, green contractors and architects are increasing their presence via social photos and videos.

If you want to become more active in the green construction movement, consider some of the social avenues mentioned above.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

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Your Guide to Running a Successful Pop-Up Shop

In recent months, the term “pop-up shop” has become very popular. As a number of ecommerce and brick and mortar retailers find success utilizing this unique strategy, more and more businesses are considering the possibility of hosting their own pop-up events and flash sales. However, it’s not as simple as it looks. If you want to have a successful pop-up sale, you need a strategy.

What is a Pop-Up Shop?

Pop-up shops are essentially mobile extensions of your business that randomly “pop up” in different locations in your area. They allow you to interact with your customers in a new light, and often expose your brand to people who have otherwise never heard of you. Pop-up shops might last an hour or two, or they may stick around for a few weeks or months. This versatile nature makes them ideal for brands with some marketing flexibility.

5 Tips for a Successful Pop-Up Shop

Okay, so pop-up shops sound great. But how do you run a successful one that’s worth your time and money? Well, keep the following tips in mind and you’ll do just fine:

1. Have Clear Goals

“Like any business venture or project, you should have clear, reasonable, and measurable goals for your pop-up shop,” writes Armando Roggio of Practical Ecommerce. If you want to sell 500 units of a certain product, you need a plan for how you’re going to sell each unit. If your goal is to interact with 100 new leads, then you’ll need a strategy for making this happen. Specific goals will guide the planning process.

2. Invest in PR and Marketing

While bystanders will inevitably happen upon your pop-up shop, the majority of your customers will show up as a result of your PR and marketing efforts. Start slowly releasing information in the weeks leading up to the event, and then really ramp things up in the 24 hours leading up to the shop.

3. Use the Right POS System

A pop-up shop can look the part, but does it act the part? In other words, just attracting people isn’t enough. You must be able to monetize your efforts. This requires a POS system that’s efficient and accurate. Thankfully, you no longer have to haul around a clunky cash register.

Thanks to advances in POS technology, mobile solutions now exist that allow for quick, effortless transactions. By using the right solution, you can spend more time interacting with customers and less time punching keys and printing receipts. The benefits are endless.

4. Focus on Impulse Buys

People typically show up to pop-up shops ready to open their wallets. As mentioned, unless you happen to attract a random person who in the neighborhood, most of your customers will intentionally stop by after hearing about the event via marketing, advertising, or word of mouth – meaning they’re prepared to buy.

In order to maximize sales, focus on impulse buys. Stock your pop-up shop with lower cost items that scream, “buy me!” These can easily be tacked onto purchases to increase the average transaction size.

5. Choose the Appropriate Location

When it comes to a pop-up shop, location is very important. You want to show up somewhere that’s easily accessible and recognizable. In the end, location can be the deciding factor in whether or not your shop is a success. You know your market better than most, so spend time brainstorming possible locations and don’t be afraid to get creative.

Have a Plan

If you’re going to host a pop-up shop, you need to have a plan. While you may have attended one in the past and assumed it was simple, running a successful show is far from easy. It requires patience, diligence, and lots of planning. If you’re willing to put in the work, though, pop-up shops are typically very lucrative.

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