{"id":26138,"title":"9 ways to grow your brand and your sales","description":"Our experts have analysed what the top stores do to grow their brands and increase their sales. Check out their 9 principles that you can action today, whatever stage of the journey you\u2019re at. Get all of these right and success will follow.","content":"

So you have an e-commerce<\/a> store and you want to grow it - maybe it will help you raise money for your organisation or turn your hobby into a thriving business - but how?<\/p>

It\u2019s not always easy to know where to start or what really works. That\u2019s why we've analysed what the top stores do and spoken to our experts in order to bring you 9 actionable principles<\/strong> you can apply to boost sales and help your business thrive at any stage of your journey.<\/p>

Get all of these right and success will follow...<\/p>



<\/p>

\ud83d\udcf8 Build identity with original photography<\/strong><\/h2>

Most people never bother to order samples to take their own original photography<\/a>. But we\u2019ve found that it\u2019s the key<\/strong> to success. How your brand looks<\/em> is one of the most important factors that help you distinguish yourself <\/strong>from other brands.<\/p>

We asked our Photography Lead, Sergio, why original photography is so powerful:<\/p>

\u201cPhotography brings your values and the stories behind your products to life. It should complement the words on your site\u201d, he told us.<\/p>

\u201cIf you can get thumbstopping photography into your marketing, you\u2019ll have a much better chance of capturing the attention of new customers.<\/strong> And it\u2019s not only your storytelling that becomes more effective - great photography also helps you raise your conversion rate<\/a><\/strong>. The better the photography on your site, the more likely you are to convert traffic into sales.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>

Data shows conversion rates increase by 35% when original photos of real founders replace stock images.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>

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\u2013 Edgy streetwear brand Nocturnal Create London use graffiti, sunglasses and too-cool-for-school models for consistency across all their imagery. Founder Dave recruited DJs on his nights out to pose in his tees because real customers are the best models.<\/em><\/p>

So great photos = a recognisable and professional brand. But one more, less well-known, benefit to using your own images is that it also helps you get found online.<\/strong><\/p>

Sergio told us: \u201cSearch engines like Google are increasingly looking at images when ranking pages in search results. They want to see original content that searchers will enjoy more than stock images. That means that, with original photos, you can rank higher, leading to more traffic.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>

\ud83d\udc49 Order samples of your products,<\/a><\/u> and get them into the hands of team members, friends, celebs or your biggest fans for a photoshoot that brings your brand's story to life.<\/p>




<\/p>

\ud83d\udd0e Help people find you through search engine optimisation (SEO) and press<\/strong><\/h2>


Beyond uploading your own photography to your site, there are loads of other improvements you can make to make your site more search friendly<\/strong>. SEO<\/a> Copywriter, Sarah told us:<\/p>

\u201cSearch engines give brands a really great opportunity because, once your site is optimised for them, traffic will start flowing to your site as people naturally search for products and content like yours. It's a totally free <\/strong>way to get more visitors.<\/p>

There are thousands of people already looking for the kinds of products and content you\u2019re producing. You just need to make sure they find you. Search engine optimisation<\/a> simply means tagging your pages using the language your customer is using, <\/strong>to signal to search engines that those pages have what searchers are looking for. And Teemill has a built-in tool called Teerank <\/a>to help you do it too, as well as give you new ideas for what to create based on search data.\u201d<\/p>

\ud83d\udc49 Check out our SEO series in Academy <\/a>and your built-in Teerank SEO tool <\/a>to learn more about how to create and optimise products and pages that customers are searching for.<\/p>

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\u2013 When The Wildlife Trusts optimised their store, their daily average store <\/em>traffic increased by +52%.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>

In a similar way to SEO, getting featured in relevant press gives you access to an audience that\u2019s likely to be interested in your story.<\/p>

Reaching out to publications, blogs, news outlets and journalists with compelling stories featuring your products is a great way to get your store in front of many more eyes <\/strong>and generate traffic.<\/p>

Plus, getting links from trusted sources back to your site will also boost your search rankings because it shows that you are trustworthy <\/strong>online. So you\u2019re hitting two birds with one stone by combining PR and SEO.

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\u2013 Streetwear brand Dead Natives produced a political slogan design based on current events and shared the story with local media. That raised awareness for the store and created a link back from a trusted site. Google saw that and boosted credibility in search results.<\/em>

\ud83d\udc49 Reach out to local publications with a great story or keep an eye on #PRrequest and #journorequest on Twitter<\/a> to find journalists looking to write stories that your brand could be perfect for.<\/p>





<\/p>

\ud83d\udc55 Create fantastic products<\/strong><\/h2>

It might seem obvious, but you need to create fantastic products. At the end of the day, it's products that your customers are buying and wearing or using. We spoke to graphic designer Charlie, who's created t-shirt designs for some of the top brands in the world to learn how to make products that wow.<\/p>

Charlie told us: \u201cWhen you\u2019re getting started, it\u2019s more important to create a few designs that you love and see how your customers respond rather than build a massive collection of designs. But as your store starts to take off, it\u2019s worth investing some extra time and effort into creating truly stand-out products.\u201d<\/p>

So we asked him for his tips on how to go about that:<\/p>

\u201cFor your brand to stand out against the competition, your products need to make an impression. <\/em>When potential customers see them on your site, or see other people wearing them, designs that are either funny, interesting or beautiful<\/strong> will capture the most attention.<\/p>

And that\u2019s primarily what you want - attention <\/strong>- which is what leads to people going to your site to check out the product in the first place.\u201d<\/p>

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-- Very British Problems base all their designs on British humour and puns, That's Gabi stuns with beautiful original artwork, whilst Branded and Moniker create super simple yet clever designs based on people's first names.<\/em><\/p>

What makes a fantastic design?<\/p>

Charlie told us that \u201coften, the best starting point is to think about your brand values, your story, what makes you unique. <\/strong>Then, it\u2019s about translating that into a print.\u201d<\/p>

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\u2013 This Thing They Call Recovery, founded by graphic designer Jenny, focuses on designs highlighting mental health and disability rights - the values and her mission clearly come through in her designs.<\/em><\/p>

When we asked for his best advice, Charlie said: \u201cOne trick we see the top stores using is to find what\u2019s trending online in your niche and create a design around that. <\/strong>Look for the ones that overlap with what your brand represents.<\/p>

Often it\u2019s easy to predict what will start trending by looking at what events are coming up in your world. Teemill has a Masterplan<\/a> feature with all the key dates you need.\u201d<\/p>

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\u2013 When BBC Earth launched their Mycelium T-shirt based on a \u2018mushroomcore\u2019 trend they spotted, it quickly became their best-seller,<\/em> outperforming their second best-selling t-shirt by a ratio of 10:1. <\/em>
<\/strong>
\ud83d\udc49 Get creating. Studio has hundreds of design templates to get you started and the Teemill Academy is also full of inspiration <\/a>for everything from slogan tees to designs for mental health. Find trending keywords in Teerank <\/a>and look out for our latest trend report on your Feed<\/a>.<\/p>




<\/p>

\ud83d\udcf2 Share meaningful ideas through content marketing<\/strong><\/h2>

It might sound counterintuitive, but we\u2019ve found that sometimes focusing only on selling<\/em> is not the best way to gain more loyal customers. <\/strong>The solution? Content.<\/p>

Content Writer for sustainable coastal brand Rapanui, Matt, gave us the low-down: \u201cPeople aren\u2019t just looking for great products. They\u2019re also looking for great content. Make that content for them and you\u2019ve created a genuine connection<\/strong> with your customer, before you\u2019ve even tried to sell them something. It might sound backwards but it works.<\/p>

It\u2019s important to talk about your products but it\u2019s not the only story that creates engagement. Interesting, valuable content will keep people coming back for more and sharing your brand with others, driving growth.\u201d<\/p>

These days there are loads of ways to create content, whether it\u2019s through social media, in an email newsletter, blogging or vlogging. You could film a day in your life at the office, write an opinion piece responding to current events, or create a tutorial with valuable advice and guidance for your audience.<\/p>

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\u2013 Greenpeace UK are using email to share the latest campaign news with their customers. These engaging stories are well-received by their customer base, with <\/em>open rates as high as 56%. <\/em><\/strong>Not only that, they see<\/em> conversion rates as high as 15%<\/em><\/strong>, and 13.6% of their total orders come from email marketing<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>

We asked Matt what the most effective content channel is:<\/p>

\u201cBlog posts are great - your blog can become like an online magazine with awesome photos people enjoy scrolling through, and they\u2019re easy to break up to share to socials too. You can encourage followers to click through to read the whole story on the website.\u201d<\/p>

The key with content is to serve your audience.<\/strong> Answer their questions, entertain them or educate them. If you keep them engaged, the sales will follow.
<\/p>

\ud83d\udc49 Start creating content on your blog<\/a> and start posting to socials if you aren't already. Learn more about social media content marketing<\/a> in our Academy tutorials.<\/p>




<\/p>

\ud83d\udc4b Add a face to the brand<\/strong><\/h2>

Products, values and photography are important but don\u2019t forget that your brand is powered by real people.<\/strong><\/p>

Our PR Expert, Hannah told us that \u201cbringing your team\u2019s voices, names, and faces into your content is a great way to humanise your brand and forge deeper connections with your customers. People want to support people<\/strong> at the end of the day.<\/p>

And don\u2019t forget that customer photos and testimonials can also add that personal touch and build trust.\"<\/p>

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-- Rosie of Rosie Johnson Illustrates shared this colourful photo along with a few facts about herself for Instagram's Meet The Maker trend, prompting her followers to feel more connected to her, her brand and her products.<\/em><\/p>

You can create an About Us page, have your founder film videos for your social channels, or write newsletters in the first person to make them feel more personal.<\/p>

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\u2013 When The Lion Whisperer store added a personal \u2018Thank You\u2019 video message to their emails from founder Kevin Richardson, they saw an <\/em>incredible 50% click-through rate.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>

We asked Hannah why she thinks giving a face to a brand works so well:<\/p>

\u201cThis human element converts to sales because your customers are buying from you as a friend <\/strong>rather than a faceless brand, and they\u2019ve been essentially recommended by someone else that shares their values.\u201d<\/p>

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-- Music Declares Emergency is a good example of a campaign store leveraging the power of user generated content. Music lovers, artists, DJs and producers sharing snaps of their tees creates the feeling of a movement and gives them plenty to repost. <\/em>

\ud83d\udc49 Put faces behind your brand, whether that's you, your staff, or your customers. Ask customers to tag you in photos of them wearing your products. You can even run a competition and gift a free tee to the person who sends the best photo of the month.





<\/p>

\ud83d\udd0c Amplify and integrate - go to where your customers are<\/strong><\/h2>


Whilst SEO makes it easier for people to come to you, you can also go to them, to the places where they spend time online. You can think of these places as individual bubbles. \ud83e\udee7<\/p>

Marketing expert Jon explains: \u201cYou want your store to be present in as many bubbles as possible and, at the start, getting involved with existing bubbles is easier than building your own community from scratch.<\/p>

Social media sites especially Facebook and Reddit have lots of little bubbles inside them for individual groups and pages. You want to be in there.<\/p>

Amazon or Etsy are other bubbles that are particularly powerful to plug into. Etsy gets approximately 445.8 million visits every month and Amazon has 2.2 billion visits every month. <\/strong>Getting traffic to your site is often the hardest part of marketing so getting your products featured on those sites is a massive opportunity to reach new people.\u201d<\/p>

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\u2013 Paul, founder of Birds Can Fly, signed up to all the Facebook groups relating to ornithology, since his brand is all about birds. He got talking to people in those communities and started taking requests for designs. The traffic from all these bird lovers drove his first few hundred sales.<\/em><\/p>

\ud83d\udc49 Keep an eye out for our new plugins to hear how you can connect to more channels and, in the meantime, make a list of the bubbles you want to target. You can integrate your store with platforms like YouTube using your Plugins.<\/a>




<\/p>




<\/p>

\ud83d\udcac Turn customers into community<\/strong><\/h2>

As you plug yourself into existing bubbles, you\u2019ll start to build your own community. This helps customers feel connected to each other and to you, increasing loyalty.<\/strong><\/p>

Customer Experience Executive Annabelle told us: \u201cCommunities can exist online through your mailing list, website forums or Facebook groups, as well as in person at events. Play an active part in these communities and make membership feel valuable<\/strong> so that more people will want to be a part of them.<\/p>

There are lots of ways to nurture your community and a nurtured community can also turn into a great asset - 66% of companies<\/a><\/u> turn to brand communities for product development. You could ask them to tell you what products and designs they want to see from you next, instead of having to guess.\u201d<\/p>

Annabelle's top tip?<\/p>

\"Make your community feel special<\/strong> - you could give them exclusive early access to new launches, host giveaways or send them behind-the-scenes content not available to anyone else.\"<\/p>

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\u2013 Wellness brand Balance and Glo built their community by treating each customer and follower as a friend. They talk with their community at in-person retreats and through their online classes, bonding over their shared love for all things health and fitness. It works because it\u2019s genuine. <\/em>

\ud83d\udc49 Set up a social media group to host your community or simply ask customers to sign up to your mailing list. You can stay in touch with them using your built-in email marketing tool, Teemail. <\/a>Leverage your community to be advocates for your brand by also asking them to write reviews of your products.




<\/p>

\ud83d\ude80 Boost with ads<\/strong><\/h2>

If you've mastered great products, photography, content, and community, it might be time to invest in some paid advertising.<\/p>

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Advertising pro, Tom tells us: \u201c28% of orders for the top 10 stores come from paid advertising. That said, paid ads only deliver a good Return on Investment if your photography is outstanding and you pay attention to your customer\u2019s journey through the ad to your site.<\/p>

Once your organic (non-paid) marketing is gaining traction, investing in paid ads certainly speeds up the process of getting in front of more people, faster. We recommend starting with Google and Facebook ads, and Teemill has plugins and tutorials to help you set those up easily.<\/p>

Then, you can look at other platforms like Instagram or YouTube. Choose the one where your audience is and start creating ads for that context.\u201d<\/p>

\ud83d\udc49 Head to your Plugins page <\/a>to get started with Google and Facebook ads.<\/p>



<\/p>

\ud83d\udcc8 Nurture an entrepreneurial mindset<\/strong><\/h2>

Using all the examples and insights from the 8 principles above, you have a bank of ideas to keep you going on your journey.<\/p>

You might be just starting out, or you might be already well-known to your demographic, but as Teemill founder Mart told us: \u201cOne piece of advice is always true: There\u2019s always something to improve or a new opportunity to take advantage of<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>

And that\u2019s why our final principle is to have an entrepreneurial mindset<\/strong> to your store.<\/p>

Mart says: \u201cBeing an entrepreneur, a trader means trying things out, looking at your Analytics to see if they worked, replicating the successes and improving, as well as always being on the hunt for new opportunities to take things further.<\/p>

That could be soaking up knowledge from other founders in the Community Chats <\/a>or looking for collaborations with other like-minded brands.\u201d<\/p>

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-- The streetwear brand Deguisement saw their sales shoot from 10 to 1000 in three months when they committed to an entrepreneurial attitude to TikTok marketing, meaning lots of trial and error, learning and going again. They kept producing content until their posts went viral, and now they\u2019re building on that success.<\/em>





<\/p>

Let's get those sales<\/strong><\/h2>

Armed with all of the above tips and real-life examples, you should now have the framework you need to create your action plan and see where there might be gaps in your current approach which you can improve on.<\/p>

If you have any questions about what we\u2019ve covered in this tutorial or your own wisdom to share from what you\u2019ve learned about creating your brand, don\u2019t hesitate to leave it with us in the comments below. \ud83d\udc47<\/p>","urlTitle":"9-ways-to-grow-ecommerce-sales","url":"\/blog\/9-ways-to-grow-ecommerce-sales\/","editListUrl":"\/my-blogs","editUrl":"\/my-blogs\/edit\/9-ways-to-grow-ecommerce-sales\/","fullUrl":"https:\/\/teemill.com\/blog\/9-ways-to-grow-ecommerce-sales\/","featured":false,"published":true,"showOnSitemap":true,"hidden":false,"visibility":{"id":1,"name":"Everywhere","code":"everywhere","created_at":null,"updated_at":null},"createdAt":1680012980,"updatedAt":1680682497,"publishedAt":1680272382,"lastReadAt":null,"division":{"id":12,"name":"Teemill"},"tags":[{"id":30,"code":"marketing","name":"marketing","url":"\/blog\/tagged\/marketing\/"},{"id":347,"code":"ecommerce","name":"ecommerce","url":"\/blog\/tagged\/ecommerce\/"}],"metaImage":{"original":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/xpiztlw292rw5knbrpxhde9vkogchcxfr42aimeddpjirzhs.jpeg","thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/xpiztlw292rw5knbrpxhde9vkogchcxfr42aimeddpjirzhs.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/xpiztlw292rw5knbrpxhde9vkogchcxfr42aimeddpjirzhs.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"metaTitle":null,"metaDescription":"We spoke to experts and analysed the top Teemill stores to bring you 9 principles for making more sales, from SEO to paid advertising.","keyPhraseCampaignId":4215,"series":[],"similarReads":[{"id":40,"title":"Streetwear photography inspiration from Nocturnal Creature","url":"\/blog\/streetwear-photography-inspiration\/","urlTitle":"streetwear-photography-inspiration","division":12,"description":"Instantly recognisable by their unique and edgy style, Nocturnal Creature's photography is fresh, fun and real. In this dose of Teemill inspo, we catch up with their founder to get his advice on how to create original photography for your brand.","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/5c8dfcbad57ee4.57720394.jpg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/5c8dfcbad57ee4.57720394.jpg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"hidden":0},{"id":44,"title":"How to get influencers to wear your products: Ultimate guide to viral fundraising campaigns","url":"\/blog\/get-celebrities-to-wear-products\/","urlTitle":"get-celebrities-to-wear-products","division":12,"description":"A recognisable face wearing your product can be thumb-stopping content for your audience and help you to grow likes, reach and traffic. In this blog we're talking about how to connect your product with influencers, including templates for how to reach out to them.","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/5c93b706581121.45148005.jpg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/5c93b706581121.45148005.jpg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"hidden":0},{"id":70,"title":"Fashion photography inspiration and tips","url":"\/blog\/how-to-fashion-photography-inspiration-taking-good-pictures\/","urlTitle":"how-to-fashion-photography-inspiration-taking-good-pictures","division":12,"description":"A key ingredient to marketing your products is high quality, original photography. It's the one thing that all the top 50 Teemill stores have in common. It brings your brand to life, expressing what you're all about before we even get to the captions. That's how it leads to higher conversion rates, turning followers into visitors and visitors into customers. And with our Sample Store, you can order your products at wholesale prices to photography. You'll find tonnes of inspiration in Academy to get you started with planning your first photoshoot and tips and tricks for scroll-stopping shots.","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/5edf6a03be0dc6.28860351.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/5edf6a03be0dc6.28860351.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"hidden":0}],"labels":[]}