Retail Post

14/10/2024

Looking forward to sharing my LinkedIn quick wins with a great group of business owners.
Not got your ticket yet?
Click the post below and Barbara will get you booked in!
See you there 😊

Save the date! On 17th October, join us at The Business Room - Rutland & Stamford, for an insightful Added Value talk on 'Developing Effective LinkedIn Habits' led by Alison Pike from Retail Post. Learn how to overcome common LinkedIn frustrations and cultivate efficient habits for more rewarding connections.

About Alison:

⭐ Over 12 years of helping small businesses (and large) tame social media algorthims!

⭐ Worked with a Great British Bake Off finalist to grow a food brand's audience by over 20% with one reel.

⭐ Coached an Independent Estate Agent who has revolutionised how the industry uses social media.

⭐ Got one small business on national TV through one tweet.

⭐ 15 years of commercial, retail and FMCG experience ensures her clients see measurable results against their business objectives.

⭐ Takes the stress and angst out of social media management with a simple effective and efficient system, saving time and guaranteeing better performance.

⭐ Completed Couch to 5K, then 5K back to Couch, then Couch to 5K again, and now training for 5k-10k. Half marathon next year.

If you're interested in improving your LinkedIn connections, reserve your visitor seat here: https://portal.yourbusinessmatters.co/visitor/

12/05/2023

Last night I had the pleasure of joining Jo from at the Women United event hosted by from .
Guest speaker was and oh my goodness, what a powerhouse she is, sharp witted, engaging and very human, taking about her daughter, her challenges and of course sport and politics.

So refreshing to be somewhere new, with new people. Renewed vigour this morning!

05/07/2022

I really hope you had a fantastically successful Independents Day Weekend!!

How was it?

Hopefully you put into practice my 5 challenges and they helped you get the results you were hoping for. More reach, more engagement, more followers!

Recap on each challenge and watch this video or go through the videos from the last couple of posts.

If you enjoyed the challenge I'd like to invite you to go further and in more depth with more examples, more step by step detail and how to's and get on the list for my course when it launches in September.

🌟 Instagram for Independents 🌟

In the course I'll be going into the 5 C's in much more depth, live coaching with you and a small group of independent retailers and creatives. There will be templates and resources to help you along the way as well as joining a community of like-minded business people to share your progress with.

Sign up to my email list in the bio to be first in the queue when the course opens for booking in September 22. By joining the list you will get a FREE list of 99 post ideas for your shop's IG account and you will be offered a discount on the course too!

It's a no-brainer!

Keep in touch and let me know how you are doing. I'll be back regularly with more morsels of marketing to grow your business soon!

Bye for now x

29/06/2022

Day 4 - CREATE

Thinking of ideas to post is a big blocker for everyone, not just independent retailers. The other factor is how to create the idea in your head.

Remember that anything and everything can be content so take photos or videos of anything that catches your eye during the day.
👉The light on a shelf of product
👉The neatly stacked stock
👉The postman
👉A customer (posts with people in them get more engagement btw)
👉Writing new shelf labels
👉Packing orders

Use canva or inshot to edit your images and videos straight on your phone.

Look out for the "use template" button on reels to get past the intimidation of reels.
Avoid reposting the same image if you can, but you could crop an old image, add text to repurpose older content.

🌟If you would like me share a list of content ideas and examples with you, type Yes please in the comments!🌟

Back on Friday at 10am for the final part of the challenge right ahead of
Bye for now x

27/06/2022

Hello lovely indie retailers 🙌
Your next challenge is for you to use keywords to find new accounts to connect with but also for new accounts to find you.
Think about your customers problems, what words are they using to search with to find solutions?
What words can you use in your captions and hashtags to get discovered?
Don't think handbags think Wimbledon centre-court chic!
When you have found a new account to follow, be sure to engage with their content, leave a comment that they can respond to and their followers can use to connect with you too.
Bye for now x

24/06/2022

It's day 2 of my challenge which focuses on Conversation.
Do you have conversations on Instagram? Are you responding in an open way to comments on your posts?
Are you commenting on other people's posts?
Conversations lead to discovery which lead to a better understanding of your customers.
So your challenge today is to start a conversation and see where it leads.
Back on Monday at 10am UK time for day 3 of the challenge
Use the # in your posts so we can support each other, let me know if you have any questions and I'd really like to hear from you if there is something you would like my help with.
In the meantime have a brilliant day of sales for day tomorrow.
Bye for now x

23/06/2022

Welcome to day 1 of my challenge where we talk about Customers.

Think about their problem that they are trying to solve when they shop with you, think about the solution.

The first challenge is to create a post that provides useful information and that the audience will want to save.
If it's saved it is a signal to IG that the audience value the content so more people will get to see it and that means more engagement. More engagement means more followers and more customers 🙂

Tag your posts with so we can help support each other.
Day 2 will be going live Friday 24th June 4 pm.

Bye for now x

21/06/2022

It is only a couple of weeks until Independents Day UK weekend, the 2nd & 3rd of July.

There is a lot of noise about it, the Independents' Day UK campaign, Holly & Co campaign Shop Independent and locally to me there is amazing Shop Stamford campaign started by Sarah from Energy clothing stamford . There will be lots of other local campaigns near you , we’re sure, and if not, WOW!, what an opportunity for you to start one!

The increased marketing around small independent retailers provides you with a timely opportunity to piggy back on the trend and boost your own individual marketing.

Because my clients tell me, and because I lived and breathed retailing for 20 years, I know you are
> stuck for time,
> stuck for ideas,
> and stuck for ways to make sure your marketing efforts land, get seen and get acted on.
That’s why, as a taster for my course which will launch in September, I have designed a 5 part Instagram challenge for you indie retailers.

It starts on Thursday the 23rd June then every other day leading up to the independent retailers weekend.

I’ll be on Instagram live at 10am (UK time) every couple of days for 5 minutes setting you a challenge.
It will be a quick activity that introduces you to the one of the 5Cs that I use with all of my social media coaching clients. More on that as we go through the challenge.

Key things to note: It's 5 minutes to watch my live, 5 minutes to take action on it, strike while the iron is hot and do the task, and maybe 5 minutes late in the day to see what difference it made to your Instagram insights.
Any q’s please just comment here or DM me.
Use in your posts and follow the # too so we can all watch and support each other with a like, a comment, a share or a save.
Add me to your favourites on IG and tap on the bell at the top of my profile to be notified when I post so you see the challenges.

See you Thursday, tell your friends, and let's be social 💙

26/11/2021

Best Black Friday email award goes to Hiut Denim Co.

Each year, on this day, we like to close our website. We prefer to sit this one out. But, of course, that didn't stop us from having a rubbish idea.

09/03/2021

There is a definite hint of Spring in the air. Can you feel it too?
Ideas start to come into bud.
Green shoots are forming.
Is that the scent of optimism?
I'm feeling it and I bet you are too for your business.
The promise of businesses reopening to the public lifts the spirits.
But is your marketing ready?
Now is a great time to give it an overhaul.
Are you still targeting the right customer?
Chances are your target customer's priorities have changed?
Or you need to look to new audiences for growth?
No, we are not going back to normal. Normal was so 2019.
2021 needs a new edginess.
A relevancy.
Fresh thinking.
Feeling stuck in 2019?
Drop me a message.
x

19/11/2020

This idea was brought to my attention by Kayleigh at Kakadu Creative and it is simply genius.
All our independent retailers with shop windows should jump on to this and get selling!
https://www.eadt.co.uk/business/qr-codes-for-digital-window-shopping-trialled-1-6928258

Shops in East Suffolk are putting QR codes in their windows so that people can order the items on display without setting foot in the shop.