F Is For Facebook

Facebook is such a big part of our daily lives these days and while I am not big on the networking site in my personal life, it makes it so much easier to connect with the followers and customers of Rainbow Designs.

I love logging on to Facebook and seeing the comments that our amazing fans leave:

I just placed my first order. :) You have such beautiful gifts to pick from, it was difficult to select! I think my mum is going to be very pleased with her birthday gift. :)

Gluten-free fudge, coconut ice and mug. I have to tell you Jacqui, you've done it again. The mug is an elegant shape with beautiful writing on it. The fudge is smoooooooth and oh so tasty.

Woohooo, ooh it's on my desk...thanks - made my day.

Facebook allows us to share and connect with our fans in a more intimate way than say a blog post or newsletter does. We can share exactly what is going on behind the scenes -  like this picture for example. Hardly an explanation is needed when we post an update like this...

or this...

We can showcase our latest lolly and chocolate gifts with one just one click of a button and people are able to leave us a review without too much difficulty at all.

We appreciate our customers more than you know and pride ourselves on our quality customer service and will do our utmost to help you with your gift buying dilemmas.

So if you love what you see on our Facebook page, we would appreciate if you could like or even share our posts particularly if you know someone who may appreciate them like you do. And while we love making you guys happy, your acknowledgement about our posts and our gifts, puts a little smile on our face too.

Are you a fan of Facebook?  What do you like most about it?

A Is For Advertising

As any business owner knows, whether online or off, advertising is necessary to showcase your brand and get yourself noticed.  And for the team at Rainbow Designs, it is a major challenge; you need to identify opportunities for advertising which will garner successful results.  Pay too much and there may be no return on your investment, pay too little and your advertising campaign may fail to get noticed at all.  It is definitely a fine balance.

Our blog of course is one way to get noticed and we have developed Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter pages to connect with our online fans.

Knowing who your customers are can also help pinpoint your options.  As most of our shoppers are female, then a spot on Femail works in our favour.

The ability to leave online reviews makes shopping easier for people and is another positive form of advertising.  We have review pages set up on WOMO, Product Review and Google+.  It is also important to register on sites such as TrueLocal in order that people become familiar with your business and it gives you another website where customers can leave feedback.

We have a monthly newsletter which we send out at the beginning of the month which features our gorgeous gifts and other tidbits.  Repetition is a great way for people to see and recognise your brand and it keeps it at the forefront of your customers' minds.  Not too much, mind you, as you want to avoid what is known as consumer fatigue where they tune out or ignore you altogether.

Over the last 10 years we have learnt a lot about advertising but we are no expert by any stretch of the imagination.  We would love to hear any tips you can provide.

If you have a business, what do you find works for you in terms of advertising?