This post was originally published on April 19, 2019, and was updated on June 10, 2019.
GoDaddy is honored to partner with Bionic Yarn co-founder Tyson Toussant for our “Make the world you want campaign” — empowering makers to change your world if it doesn’t quite fit you.
What can you do with recovered plastic waste and a little help from music superstar Pharrell Williams? You can try to clean up the world one spool of yarn at a time.
Tyson Toussant and Tim Coombs founded Bionic Yarn in 2007 as a raw materials manufacturing company. Though they had much to learn, one thing was certain: They wanted to prove a company could have profit and purpose.
Then, Bionic Yarn ended up on Pharrell’s radar. He became the company’s third partner in 2010. In 2016, Bionic Yarn teamed up with the global not-for-profit Waterkeeper Alliance.
The company’s raw materials are used by an array of impressive clients. From luxury garments to automotive uses and everything in between, Bionic Yarn continues to focus on developing materials to meet industry needs.
Tyson and Tim are executing on their vision for the kind of world they want to live in … and you can, too.
This interview has been gently edited for clarity.
Tyson Toussant: Oh, definitely. I think that’s why we had to start our own business, to create a place to fit in as what was offered or available just didn’t fit.
Tyson Toussant: A world where we don’t have to do what we’re doing. A world that’s considerate of what it’s building and understands the consequence it may have on the environment before it starts to negatively affect us.
Tyson Toussant: Our approach to making this a reality is to try to attach this movement to the real things in everyone’s life. People care about the products they buy. I figured if we can merge the mission to rid the world of plastic with everyday consumer practices, we might be able to get someplace.
Tyson Toussant: I think my generation in particular feels empowered and has the ability to fix things in the world. Once we learned about the problem with plastic, and we found a way to connect it with things that we love — designing products and an outdoor lifestyle — that’s pretty much what I wanted to do.
Tyson Toussant: I would say my child came to life knowing that he had to combat it, and that he couldn’t live a life without figuring out a way to resolve this issue. So, as I learned about taking on this challenge in my 20s, he came out of the womb ready to go. And I think we’re lucky to have kids who are inspired by this — and it seems like they want take this on and continue it after us.
Tyson Toussant: Usually the NGOs [non-governmental organizations] around water protection rely on donations to protect the water. Our model creates a sustainable revenue stream through taking care of the environment. We buy the plastic instead of it being burned in a landfill after collecting it.
Tim Coombs: Bionic was conceived as a company that can harness the power of commerce for good. We work in partnership with some amazing NGO’s, however, at the end of the day Bionic materials must sell to support our mission on the ground.
Tyson Toussant: Everyday … so many. But the biggest roadblock is trying to make a new material from something that has inferior qualities, like a recycled plastic bottle, to then create a durable material for a snowboarding jacket.
The extra work to create strength behind it increases the price, which means you have to sell harder to get people to buy something that they can get for a little bit cheaper.
That’s one of the battles we’re dealing with all the time.
Tim Coombs: By nature we face roadblocks, we transform an imperfect raw material like degraded plastic into quality fabric or polymer.
Tyson Toussant: Everything. It was a way for me to be plugged into the business world while still being in Soho.
Tyson Toussant: I always tell people this: We were fortunate to have become entrepreneurs during broadband and be able to sit in one spot and comb the world for all the answers that we needed.
Once we figured out what we wanted to do, creating a portal for people to come find us was the most important thing.
Tyson Toussant: I was shocked, honestly. I don’t know how you found me! That’s my honest response to this. I’m so grateful, though. This is amazing.
Tyson Toussant: I’m inspired a lot by Elon Musk. I like his approach to business, how he sacrificed so much and dreamed so big to get here. His whole life, to me, is like a moonshot. He doesn’t even consider a Plan B.
Plan B, as far as the environment, is not good.
Tyson Toussant: Failure is going to happen. You have to learn from your failures, move on, and never give up.
Many thanks to the founders of Bionic Yarn for sharing their story. Be sure to check out the Bionic Yarn website and follow Bionic Yarn on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
The post GoDaddy Q&A with Bionic Yarn co-founder Tyson Toussant appeared first on GoDaddy Blog.
This post was originally published on April 13, 2019, and was updated on June 10, 2019.
GoDaddy is honored to partner with Project Backboard founder Dan Peterson for our “Make the world you want campaign” — empowering makers to change your world if it doesn’t quite fit you.
It all started with a few lines and some paint. When Dan Peterson, a former college basketball player and coach, was in Memphis, Tennessee, he noticed the neighborhood basketball courts were missing a vital component: lines. No three-point lines or free throw lines. So he started to paint them. This lead to a bigger idea: partner with local artists to revive the run-down basketball courts in their community.
He started the non-profit Project Backboard in Los Angeles and now crisscrosses the country to create beautiful, colorful courts in big cities like St. Louis, Missouri. And big brands are taking notice: Xbox and Enterprise have both teamed up with Project Backboard recently on courts.
Not only does Dan Peterson bring people together locally — his online presence helps him do so worldwide.
This interview has been gently edited for clarity.
Dan Peterson: So when I was growing up as a kid in New York, there wasn’t really any examples of people who were interested in basketball and art. There were no models that you could look to, to kind of say, “oh, I can do both.” And so as someone who always enjoyed art, but loves basketball, it didn’t really feel like I fit in any particular category all the way.
I think on some level, I pursued the basketball side and kind of left the art side behind until I started Project Backboard. Then I was able to bring them both together into one thing.
Dan Peterson: I want to live in a world where families are active together, where people, meet community members in public places for … whether it’s for basketball, or for picnics, whatever it is you do in the park. I want to live in a world where that’s a regular part of everyone’s life, [where] that sort of interaction with strangers and neighbors is an everyday occurrence.
Dan Peterson: Through Project Backboard, I’m really trying to encourage the sort of behaviors I want to see in the world by creating reasons for people to visit parks — by creating a magnet that’s going to draw people in. And, as they start to experience that sort of community engagement, feel like they’re welcome in the public space and to return again and again, and even deepen in their community ties and turns those strangers into neighbors.
Dan Peterson: Bringing people together matters to me, because, I think, when you start to think beyond yourself, and you start to think about your neighborhood as one big community, you start looking after your neighbors in a different way.
Dan Peterson: I grew up playing outdoor basketball in New York. I kind of took great public parks and vibrant public life for granted. And in Memphis, I realized most public parks didn’t have basketball lines.
And it wasn’t until I came to a court where an artist had already had sculptures next to the basketball court and I asked him to pick out just the colors for the lines. He ended up coming up with a scheme for the entire court surface — that the idea of putting art on courts, you know, really was a thing.
Just from that one experience, having seen the way it changed the way people interacted with that park, and the way they engaged with the neighbors differently, is was an idea that I felt was worth pursuing.
Dan Peterson: I would not say they inspire my work, but I am hopeful they can grow up in a world where they feel they can be an athlete and an artist instead of having to choose one or the other.
Dan Peterson: Most parks departments aren’t used to having this type of intervention. And even though I use the same materials — same methods that they do with their court renovations — we just put the color down differently.
When you’re a public institution, and charged with maintaining space for everyone, sometimes it moves slowly.
Dan Peterson: When I first heard from GoDaddy, I was excited about it.
This campaign is about all the things that I experienced — through starting Project Backboard, creating a website for the first time, creating an Instagram for the first time, and just a lot of figuring stuff out on my own.
It felt really close to my experience and something that I was happy to encourage others to do.
Dan Peterson: Makers — people who are shaping the world they want to see — inspire me through some of the artists that I work with … taking down worn basketball nets and turning them into fine art. Things like that — just little steps people can take to improve their community is, to me, really inspiring to see. It’s something I’d like to see more of.
Dan Peterson: The advice I would have for anybody who has an idea — has a vision — but hasn’t yet pursued it is, No. 1, to start. And, No. 2, don’t have any expectations.
Go into it willing to let it take you where it’s supposed to go. If it takes you in a different direction, follow it.
I would encourage anyone with an idea or a vision to pursue that vision and to share their pursuit, whether it’s through social media or a traditional online presence.
I feel like the more positivity we put out on these various platforms, the more positivity that will come back.
Many thanks to Dan Peterson for sharing his story. Be sure to check out the Project Backboard website and follow Project Backboard on Instagram.
The post GoDaddy Q&A with Project Backboard founder Dan Peterson appeared first on GoDaddy Blog.
All businesses and organizations own a website today. The question is no longer whether you possess a website or not. It is about what competitive advantage your website has and what makes it stand out from the 1.6 billion other websites out there. Technology advancements appear quickly and companies are forced to keep up with them no matter what it takes. Otherwise, they risk being ignored.
To stand out from the smorgasbord of websites that reside on the Internet, you need to focus on web usability. A good experience with a website will make a visitor keep coming back, and this can only happen by meeting people’s expectations and respecting a set of web usability principles. This matter is discussed in detail below by our Amelia team, so, continue reading to find out what web usability is, why it matters, and how can you improve it for your own site.
Users feel important when the website they visit is focused on their needs and meets their expectations. To achieve that, all business owners must analyze what their target audience wants and adapt the web usability level to their requirements and desires. Prospective clients need to value the user experience in order to interact with the website and generate profit for you.
Web usability is the one element that makes the difference between an effective website and one that is disregarded without a second thought. All visitors need to have a pleasurable experience on a website to continue to interact with it, and good web design is the key to achieving this. Every little detail present on a website, including buttons or forms, can affect how a visitor feels when they access a site. Without gathering significant insight into your potential visitors’ minds, you won’t be able to reach a website usability level that will generate positive results in the long run.
Web usability is all about testing your site often and noticing what can be improved. Dealing with web design only once is not possible when you own a website that you want to propel to the top. Some new trend in web design appears almost every month, and you won’t be able to keep up with all of it, but you’ll have to keep the user experience engaging and interactive. That won’t happen unless you test the website regularly and find mistakes that can be fixed or aspects that can be upgraded. Skipping this step will only throw you in a loop of not knowing what to improve and may result in you making changes that hurt usability, not enhance it.
These are some web usability principles to get you started with improving your site. Choose the one that suits your case the best:
7 +/- 2
George A. Miller came to a conclusion a while ago – people are not able to retain all the information they see. Short-term memory can only retain around five out of nine things that a person sees at one time. This is a biological limitation of the brain that was proved by science. Keeping this in mind, when dealing with web usability, you need to divide information into five to nine chunks at a time. This simple principle can help you create a good, clean website layout without much effort. It is used in many industries other than design, so you can safely rely on it.
Another simple principle that should determine how you design your website says that users are not willing to spend more than 2 seconds waiting for a website to load. If your website takes forever to load, don’t wonder why you don’t have enough visitors or why the bounce rate (people who exit a website without interacting with it in any way) goes through the roof. Web usability has to do with how quickly the site loads as well, so do your best to improve this aspect.
One of the most basic principles of good design is to be inclusive of as many users as possible, taking into account that not all people are alike. Some of your users may have disabilities or conditions like colorblindness, and care must be taken when choosing color schemes and font weights in light of this fact. Even for able persons, a website that features faint, hard-to-read fonts can be an instant turn-off.
The core of web usability is creating clear sites. By cluttering a website and filling it with all sorts of elements that are irrelevant for a user, you only make things worse. Instead of making your site’s visitors confused by adding distractions on the site, try to keep everything clear and guide users towards engaging in specific activities on it. Clarity is the only way to design a website properly and to give people the needed guidelines when navigating it. Stick to this principle no matter what other rules you choose to respect.
People are pleased when they interact with a website that is traditionally built. Since all users learn from their past experiences, they generate certain expectations in their heads. Try to keep your website as intuitive as possible. Web usability is improved when the website doesn’t require any instructions or when it’s easy to figure out. Learnability refers to making a design intuitive by using elements that people are already familiar with.
No one will remain on a website that doesn’t inspire trust. Not all websites look trustworthy and that has to do with web usability as well. If a user encounters a lot of errors and warnings while navigating on your site, it is very unlikely that they will trust your site. To establish credibility, make sure that your website has been built professionally, that the content is well-written and mistake-free, and that no errors or broken links lay around the site unnoticed.
Every single page that is part of your website should have a purpose from the very beginning. Because all web designers are limited in space, you need to clarify what the purpose of the site is in the first place. This gives users some direction and you can establish a target audience much easier. All elements included on your site should contribute to perfect web usability, guided by clear goals.
As mentioned, giving your visitors some direction is an absolute must in web usability design. Use CTAs (Call-To-Action) for that. CTAs are buttons that contain action verbs that invite a website’s visitors to do something. For instance, eCommerce websites include CTAs such as “Buy Now” or “Contact Us”. Do the same on your own website but try to moderate the use of them. Too many CTAs can make your site look spammy, while little to no CTAs will lead to poor usability.
Make a priority out of conversions. All websites should make visitors turn into customers in the shortest time possible. If you don’t know where else to start with your website, focus on increasing the number of conversions that your website generates at the end of the month. It could be a simple change of color on some element or other that does the trick.
In Conclusion
When you put a website together, you need to pay attention to the tiniest details, all of which contribute to an enhanced level of web usability. The better a user feels on a website, the higher the chances of turning them into a regular visitor. By following the nine principles listed above, you can’t fail. Just figure out what the best combo for your own situation is and put it into practice. You will notice a huge difference, even if you implement only some of these principles.
If you enjoyed reading this article about Web Usability, you should read these as well:
The post 9 Principles of Web Usability to Follow appeared first on Amelia Booking WordPress Plugin.
It is already well known that Amelia is one of the best WordPress plugins for appointment bookings, end users love its nice and smooth booking process and the award-winning UI design, while business owners enjoy its insightful dashboard and rich features. We are happy to announce that with Amelia 2.0+ you will also be able to automate your Event bookings!
In particular, it means that you will be able to schedule a single day, multi-day, and recurring events with Amelia, your favorite booking assistant. Events module can be used for various occasions, for example, single- or multiple-days traveling tours, conferences, training or language classes that repeat weekly, monthly, or yearly if you will; and many others. You can assign one or several of your employees to the event, – this would allow the event attendees to see who’ll be the host, and in case if that’s one of the regular staff members, his schedule will be blocked for this day for appointment bookings.
All events can be presented in a beautiful-looking event calendar on your site’s front-end, built to guide potential attendees through a step-by-step booking flow. If the maximum planned event capacity is reached, no further bookings will be accepted. No matter what the event status is – open, closed, canceled, or fully booked, – you can always choose whether you would like this event to show in the events calendar, which allows creating private ‘invitation only events’. The post would get way too big if we would describe here all the possible combinations and use cases that Amelia’s brand new event booking feature brings to the table, but you can take a look at our documentation to familiarize yourself with the configuration and to start building your own event calendar.
Although we focused our efforts mostly on the new event booking module, to allow you to quickly and easily create events, accept bookings, and manage attendees along with appointments in just one plugin, we didn’t forget to add a few handy features and to fix a couple of annoying bugs.
Amelia Gutenberg block is here! Now, all of the Gutenberg users can simply use Gutenberg blocks for all Amelia shortcodes including the Events.
Additionally, two more languages are added, Dutch and French!
As our users know, all reported bugs are always fixed in a timely manner, so that the Amelia UX would be even smoother, here are the most important ones that come with 2.0:
BugFix: Fixed issue with showing Dashboard and Employees pages in Internet Explorer,
BugFix: Fixed issue with Follow up notifications,
BugFix: Fixed issue with Minimum time required before canceling option and cancelation of the appointment,
BugFix: Fixed issue with Babel-polyfill on the front-end,
BugFix: Fixed issue between Use service duration for booking a time slot and Default Time slot step for today’s appointments.
The post Amelia 2.0 with the Events Calendar module is here! You asked – we listened. appeared first on Amelia Booking WordPress Plugin.
What is a meta description, exactly? If you’re creating a website from scratch and using a standard website builder, you might see a space available for a meta description on every page of your site. If you pay attention to best practices in the search engine optimization (SEO) realm, you’ve undoubtedly heard about meta descriptions in the past.
But if you aren’t familiar with the term, you might not be able to say what is a meta description are or how to use one properly.
Learning how to write meta descriptions can help you not only earn higher rankings for your pages, but can also help you earn more click-throughs from visitors who encounter your pages in search engine results pages (SERPs).
We’ll start with the basics, then explain how to write an effective meta description for each page of your site.
Related: Beginner’s SEO guide: Search engine optimization for small business websites
A meta description is an HTML tag in the HTML code of your website, which allows you to customize a section of text that describes the page itself. It plays a role in how your page is seen by search engine crawlers, and how it appears in SERPs.
In your website builder, you likely have a box labeled “meta description,” where you can add text to apply to your page. In the back end of your HTML code, you’ll see something like this: <meta name=”description” content=”This is the meta description you’ll write for your page.“/>
Google’s search engine crawlers “understand” that meta tags in the back end of your code are meant to describe the nature of the content of your pages. It’s not certain whether your meta description affects your rankings directly, but it can affect your ranking in indirect ways.
For example, a web crawler might use a meta description to learn more about what your page is about, and make sure it appears for relevant searches.
As you learn what is a meta description, you’ll notice they’re also frequently used as part of a page’s entry in a SERP.
Run any Google search, and you’ll see a list of web pages. The title of the website will be highlighted in blue and prominent, and underneath that, you’ll see the URL for the page in green. Right below that, you’ll see a section of black text; this is usually the meta description of the page.
Since this is one of the first things your prospective visitors will see when encountering a link to your page, it’s your chance to persuade them to click the link to your site.
If your meta description is effective in this persuasion, you’ll see a higher click-through rate (CTR), which is beneficial both for your total organic traffic and for your search rankings (most likely — CTR might be correlated with higher search rankings, rather than being a root cause).
The meta description is your chance to tell both web crawlers and human users what your page is about.
For web crawlers, it serves as context for understanding the relevance of your page.
For human users, it’s a chance to see what the page (and the brand) are all about.
For you, it’s an opportunity to rank higher for relevant searches and persuade more web users to visit your site — instead of a competitor’s in the SERPs.
When writing an effective meta description, you’ll have two main goals. You’ll want to appease search engine crawlers to earn higher rankings for relevant keywords, and you’ll want to persuade more people to click on your SERP listing rather than a competing one.
With those two goals in mind, you can polish your meta descriptions with these elements:
First, you’ll need to keep your meta description length concise and short enough to fall within the limits of search engine crawlers. Historically, the limit for meta description length has been 155 characters, but Google recently bumped that up to 320.
If you write anything beyond 320 characters, it won’t be seen by web crawlers, and becomes essentially useless.
Even with that longer upper limit, it’s a good idea to keep your meta descriptions tight. That way, users will be more likely to read all of your text, and you’ll have a lower chance of getting cut off by mobile or other special formatting.
Try to keep it to 160 characters or fewer, and use a maximum of two sentences. For your reference, this sentence is 51 characters.
Meta descriptions should also be written with an active, energetic voice. A blunt, straightforward description of the content on your page might help web crawlers understand what your page is about, but it isn’t going to motivate any clicks.
For example, the description “a handful of tips to help people budget,” isn’t nearly as active as “Budget more effectively with these actionable tips.”
You can increase your chances of ranking for keywords and phrases that are especially relevant to your business or those with competitive opportunities.
Keyword research is a topic that merits its own separate guide, but suffice it to say, the best keywords are those with high search volume and low competition.
Ideally, your pages will target a mix of different keywords and phrases, so you’ll have a diversity of different competitive ranking opportunities. However, you’ll want to avoid meta descriptions that are so stuffed with specific keyword phrases that they read as unnatural to the average visitor.
Meta descriptions should relevantly describe the pages they’re assigned to.
For example, if you have a website that sells auto parts and you’re writing a meta description for a page on tires, including a phrase like “cheap brake rotors” might boost your domain’s potential to rank for a promising keyword opportunity, but it won’t have anything to do with the core page.
This is important to ensure your pages rank for the most relevant phrases, and to ensure your visitors find appropriate content when they do click through.
It’s also important to differentiate your brand from those of your competitors.
Remember, you’ll be competing with at least a few other brands in the SERPs, and web users will be evaluating multiple meta descriptions in a single session. If yours sounds too generic, or doesn’t have a hook, you won’t get any clicks.
Finally, you’ll need to make your meta description as persuasive as possible. If you can persuade web users to click your link (rather than your competitors’ links), you’ll likely earn more organic traffic immediately, and earn a higher CTR, which can push your rankings even higher.
Your method of persuasion will depend on your target audience and your main goals, but usually, it requires you to “tease” potential visitors with a hint of the value they’ll receive by visiting your page. What new knowledge or skills will they attain after reading your content? Why are your products better than others’?
It’s easy to think about these concepts in theory, but much harder to apply them to your own web pages. To help you think about them in a more relevant context, let’s look at some meta description examples and why they’re effective.
“Keep your pet healthier with an annual checkup from your local veterinarian. Schedule an appointment for your cat or dog today!”
This is a tight 130 characters, and only two sentences, making it a nearly perfect length. Each sentence is an active command, with a central focus on getting pet owners to schedule an annual checkup for their pet. If there’s a weakness, it’s that it’s generic; adding an element of uniqueness could take it from “good” to “great.”
“Switch to snow tires to get more traction in winter weather conditions. Find out what makes our snow tires better!”
Here we have a similar-length meta description for a drastically different type of business. “Get more traction” and “snow tires” are strong keyword targets, and there’s a clear demonstration of value — snow tires will help you drive safer in winter conditions, and evidently, this business’s tires are unique in some key way.
“Are you getting enough from your 401(k)? Learn the rookie 401(k) investing mistakes that might be holding your portfolio back.”
There’s a clear indication of value here. The meta description is targeting inexperienced 401(k) investors who need more information on how to balance a portfolio. The voice is highly active, and the wording is both compelling and unique compared to other financial service providers.
Now, let’s focus on you. What’s the right way to approach writing a meta description if you’ve never written one before?
Now that we’ve covered what is a meta description, here are some straightforward steps that anyone can feasibly follow:
Start with a round of keyword research to learn the most valuable targets for your brand. You’ll want to have an assortment of valuable words and phrases to choose from, so you can distribute them effectively across the pages of your site.
Hopefully, you already have a site map for all your core pages. If not, now’s the time to make one. If you’re writing meta descriptions for individual blog posts, you can address them one at a time.
Either way, write down the main focus or main idea of each page for which you need a meta description. Are you educating your visitors on a particular topic? Selling them a specific product?
Next, run a search for the keyword phrase you’d like to target or the main focus of your webpage. You’ll see a list of competitors, and you’ll have the chance to review their meta descriptions firsthand.
This can help you generate some initial ideas, but don’t copy their strategies directly. Remember, you’ll need to differentiate yourself from other brands.
Armed with a core focus, relevant keyword targets and knowledge of the competition, you should have everything you need to hammer out a first draft.
It doesn’t need to be perfect at this stage, so don’t worry too much about nailing it. Just get something down that accomplishes your main goals.
Now, you can work to edit that description. Clean up any ambiguous phrases with more specific words, and adjust any tonal discrepancies to keep the focus on persuading a click-through. Then, trim to size. Though 320 characters is the upper limit, try to keep it to around 150 characters (including spaces).
Now that you know what is a meta description and have a first draft, you might be wondering if it’s worthy of publication. Consider whether you’ve made (or are making) these all-too-common mistakes:
Writing too much: Concise is almost always better. Definitely keep it under 320 characters, but aim for 150 or fewer.
Sounding unoriginal: Does your meta description sound like everyone else’s? If so, it could use a punch-up.
Deviating from the topic of the page: Everything in the description should pertain to your on-page content. Visitors shouldn’t be surprised at what they find.
Ignoring keyword: At least one targeted keyword or phrase should be included in your description.
Stuffing keywords: That said, don’t include too many keywords or you’ll compromise your content.
Using a passive tone: You need active energy in your words. Don’t be passive or boring.
Failing to indicate value: What benefit will visitors gain from clicking through? Make this apparent.
Did you avoid all these mistakes? If so, you’re ready to publish!
If you’re struggling to write a meta description on your own, there are some online tools that can help you.
For example, Yoast’s SEO plugin for WordPress has many features that make it easy to write, assign, and edit meta descriptions for your most important pages.
With it, you can evaluate which keywords you’re using sitewide, evaluate the length and value of your descriptions, and even get recommendations for synonyms and other keyword phrases to use in the future.
SEO Book has a free meta description generator, and you can likely find similar meta description generators all over the web. These can be useful in helping you come up with new ideas, but be wary of using them exclusively; take the time to edit and polish their recommendations to perfect them.
Meta descriptions are just one of several vital components in your on-site optimization strategy. Fortunately, you don’t have to shoulder that SEO strategy by yourself. And if you’re really looking to work less and rank higher, don’t be afraid to get a little help from the experts.
The post What is a meta description? appeared first on GoDaddy Blog.
This post was originally published on June 1, 2018, and was updated on June 11, 2019.
Father’s Day is just around the corner, which means it’s time to pull out your marketing assets and come up with new and creative Father’s Day marketing ideas for your business. With the right type of promotion, your store is bound to see an influx of sales from anyone looking to show their dad how special he is with a perfect gift.
Before diving into our Father’s Day marketing tips, let’s take a look at some of the top statistics and trends when it comes to spending and Father’s Day.
As those stats show, your business can see big gains by jumping on the Father’s Day marketing train.
In this article, we’ll share with you 10 effective and creative Father’s Day marketing tips, including:
Let’s dive in!
There is no doubt that storytelling is a powerful marketing tactic. Big brands like Toyota have successfully used storytelling to connect with their customers and boost their sales. An example includes their 2015 My Bold Dad campaign, which started off as a Super Bowl ad and later expanded.
What’s more, if you implement this marketing tactic now, you’ll be able to reuse it later on for other holidays.
Related: How to tell your story on your website
Not all dads will be interested in the same things. Some dads will be more interested in cars while others might be gamers and computer enthusiasts. Some, on the other hand, might enjoy a good book.
Take a look at your customer data and segment your male audience based on their interests. You can then create highly targeted marketing campaigns that promote products and services related to those interests.
Editor’s note: GoDaddy Email Marketing makes it easy to create, send, and track mobile-friendly emails to your subscribers.
Another great idea is to hold a social media contest on Facebook or Instagram. Consider creating a branded, special Father’s Day sale hashtag and use it to encourage your fans and followers to participate.
You can ask them to share pictures of their dad, share a brief description of what makes their dad the best, or simply share a photo of their previous Father’s Day celebrations. Your prize can include a gift card or a discount on future purchases, a dinner for the fan and their dad, movie or game tickets, and more.
Related: How to use discounts and coupons to increase eCommerce revenue
You can also create a live event in your store or place of business that can be enjoyed by dads and their kids. Not only does this bring families together, but if you tie the product in with the items you sell, you’re sure to see an influx of cash.
Keep in mind that your event doesn’t have to be related to your offering. You can, for example, host a barbecue or a community game day where dads compete against their sons or daughters.
Whether you run a physical or an online store, a great Father’s Day marketing idea is to create a special Father’s Day section with products geared toward dads. This makes it easy for customers to find products they are interested in, rather than having them walk through multiple aisles and search for the gift.
You can use a gift guide in several ways. You can create it as a blog post and publish it in the weeks before Father’s Day and then promote it on your social media platforms and in your newsletter.
You can also create a PDF version of the gift guide and offer it up as a free download in exchange for the reader’s email. You can also create a photo collage of the products and promote it on social media with a link back to your store.
To create the guide, round up the most popular products for dads, come up with a compelling name, describe why that product would be the perfect gift for their dad, and add product images.
Related: How to create a Father’s Day gift guide
Consider offering BOGO deals on your most popular products geared for the male audience. Not only will this encourage visitors to make a purchase, but it can also increase the number of sales simply because sons might want to snag that item for themselves as well.
Another Father’s Day marketing tip is to take advantage of scarcity marketing. According to research, people are more inclined to deem an item as more valuable if there is a limited amount of that item.
Using countdown timers is a great way to create a sense of urgency and drive sales, as well as to remind buyers that Father’s Day will be here sooner than you think.
Aside from countdown timers, you can also use limited time offers and a Father’s Day sale valid only during the week leading up to the big day.
Related: 5 ways to use urgency to boost eCommerce sales
Parenting has taken on a new definition with same-sex partners. This opens the door for creating promotions that go hand in hand with June being recognized as LGBTQ Pride Month. Create product offers and services to give the best deal to treat both fathers without putting a strain on the kids’ wallets.
The last Father’s Day marketing tip is to partner with a local business by exchanging coupons that can be presented at the time of purchase for services or products.
Related: How to market a local business through strategic collaboration
June might signify the start of a slow sales season, but that’s no reason to give up on your marketing — especially with Father’s Day knocking on our door. Use the Father’s Day marketing tips above to promote your products and services and help your clients and customers find the perfect gift for their dad.
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