Picture this: you head to your local sports store to grab a new pair of sneakers. One of the assistants comes over and asks if you need help. You accept. While showing you the shoes, they point out their range of high-performance socks, insoles, and foam rollers. 

You walk out of the shop with the shoes you originally came for…and a three-pack of new socks too.

You probably didn’t realize it at the time, but you were just the subject of up-selling and cross-selling in person.

This tactic works well in person, but it works just as well online. There’s endless potential sales out there to seize -- but if you’re not grabbing these cross-sell opportunites with both hands, your business’ bottom line could be missing out.

To help improve the chance of upselling, we’ve compiled three proven cross-sell templates for you to tweak and use.

Opportunity #1: Right after a sale

Your very first cross-sell opportunity comes right after a new customer has made a purchase. We recommend sending out a thank you email — while you’re still fresh in the customer’s mind, offer them some complementary products.

For example, if you’re a DIY company and someone’s just bought a gallon of paint, why not highlight your paint brush, roller, and trays range? If they don’t already have them, odds are they’ll need them very soon… 

Sticking with the paint example, here’s some sample copy:

Hi [insert name],

Thanks a bunch for choosing us for your next DIY project. 

Your order’s been sent to the warehouse and should be on your doorstep in the next 2-3 business days.

If you need some more tools for the job, check out our range of [paint brushes, paint rollers, and paint trays]. 

If there’s anything else we can help you with, get in touch with our customer service team on [insert number].

Thanks again,

[Company X] team

Opportunity #2: when asking for a review

It’s good practice to check in with customers down the line and ask for a review. The review itself will not only help you attract more new customers, but it could help you improve your product or service too.

So, if you’re already doing this, take the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone and steer them towards some more of your offerings. Here’s how you could do it:

Hi [insert name], 

Thanks for shopping with us recently. 

Here at [company name] we take what you think to heart, and we’re always looking for ways to build on what we’ve got. If you have just a minute to spare, we’d love to hear what you thought about your recent purchase. 

>LEAVE A REVIEW< 

If you liked what you got, these might just be up your street too:

[Reel of relevant product names and images]

We look forward to hopefully seeing what you say soon.

Thanks,

[Company X] team

Opportunity #3: promotional pitch

Your cross-sell efforts don’t always have to piggyback onto another of your email activities. You can also send emails when you have a sale happening, you want to promote a new product, or offer a discount on a certain service. You can send cross-sell pitches whenever you want, just make sure you don’t bombard your database with emails — and be sure to keep the products or service offers relevant.

Here’s an example to steal some inspiration from:

Hi [insert name], 

So, you’ve taken out our [insert service name] service, but have you ever considered our [insert service name] offering too?

If the answer’s yes then now’s the time to make your move, because we’re exclusively offering 15% off to existing customers!

By taking out our [insert service name]service, you’ll benefit from:

• Benefit #1

• Benefit #2

• Benefit #3

• Benefit #4

To claim your discount today, just use the code SUMMER2019 at checkout.

Thanks,

[Company X] team 

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Hue & Tone: Email Design and Marketing

So, you’ve got the words, but do you have the design? Don’t worry if not, we can help you create kickass email templates that complement your content and encourage customers to re-convert. Interested? Then get in touch at (336) 365-8559 or hannah@hueandtonecreative.com.

Get your new business of to the best start possible with the right marketing materials!

So, you’ve decided to start a business. You know you need the basics like a logo and business cards – but what other marketing assets should you make a priority?

Marketing materials can encompass everything from websites and letterheads to social media graphics and promotional videos. If you’re just starting out in the small business world, chances are your budget is probably a little tight – but skimping when you start up can mean unnecessary spending down the road.

Think about it: you pick the first business name you think up and print up a bunch of business cards, letterheads, and pens. A few weeks later, you’re hearing from your customers that they can’t remember your business name. Now you’ve confused people, still have to pay for proper branding, and you’ve got to pay to reprint materials you could have gotten right from the start. 

The good news is that we’re here to tell you what you need it, why you need it, when you need it, and how you get it. We hope this run down of essential marketing materials helps empower you when you’re hiring a graphic designer or marketing agency.

Here’s what you need to successfully get your business off the ground:
 

1. Brand Values

Because no physical products come out of this stage of the branding process, it’s often rushed or disregarded – but this is one of the most important stages, and it will influence everything you do from here on out. Your brand values are the set of principles that will dictate every aspect of your business, including the look, messaging, and customer service approach.

Here’s what you’ll want to define:

• Values: what does your business stand for?

• Objectives: where do you want to be in 1, 5, or 10 year’s time?

• Customer personas: who are your talking to and what do they care about?

• Tone of voice: how will you talk to your customers? And why?

• Proposition: what will you do for your customers? And how will you benefit them?

• Tagline/mission statement: how can your brand’s essence be summed up into as few words as possible?

Taking the time to properly develop your brand values will allow you to properly train your workforce and will help you communicate your brand to third parties. We suggest asking your marketing team for a brand book or set of written guidelines that you could hand off to an outside team.

2. Brand Identity

Now it’s time to develop the look and feel of your brand. This is where you’ll work with a designer to create a logo and everything that goes with it. You’ll want to come out of this stage with:

• Primary logo: as well as any alternative logo formats you might need for packaging, online use, or small sizes

• Logo usage guidelines: what is the smallest size your primary logo should be printed? What do you do when you can only print your color in one logo? Make sure your designer provides you with guidelines for every situation you might encounter.

• Font palette: what fonts are you going to use on print, web, and in Microsoft Office?

• Color Palette: what primary and secondary colors will complement your look, logo ad tone?

• Graphic elements: anything needed to complete your print and web designs.

• Sample usage: make sure your designer provides examples of how all these elements will come together to create your signature look.

3. Build a winning website

We talk a lot about the importance of a well designed and properly optimized website, so we won’t waste a lot of space here talking through why you need one. Instead, we’ll run through a few key considerations when it comes to building it:

• Get to the point: you’ve got a limited time to capture visitors’ attention, so get your message across clearly and effectively on every page.

• Contemporary: outdated websites make your brand look instantly aged and untrustworthy. Take the time to get your website looking slick, and outsource it to a specialist if you need to.

• Architecture: once you start adding menus and pages, they can be a right pain to change down the line. To make sure you’ve got a great user experience from the outset, map out your site’s architecture before you start building it.

• Search engine optimization (SEO): with a reputation for being the cheapest marketing method around, it’s crucial that you build and write your website with SEO at the forefront of your mind.

• Contact: make your call to actions and contact information crystal clear.

• Host: choose a content management system that’s reliable. Personally, we would recommend Squarespace – here’s why.

• Domain: be sure to match your domain name to your business’ name.
  

4. Social media

Did you know, 70% of the US population have at least one social media profile? That’s a whole lot of potential customers to capture.

We suggest selecting just 2-3 platforms to get started on – especially if you’re handling your social media in house. To effectively leverage social media, there’s a few things you’ll need to do:

• Only use high resolution profile and background images (pixilated pictures make you look untrustworthy and out of touch)

• Write a succinct and enticing bio

• Link back to your website

• Include contact details

• Keep an eye on your inbox/direct messages

• Commit to regularly posting

• Reply to those who engage with you

• Interact with relevant people and/or profiles

Maintaining social media should be a daily job – if it’s not, you’re not doing it right. We suggest creating a content calendar to stay organized. And, make sure you have a set of templates on hand to save time when you need to create a quick Facebook graphic. 

5. Blogs

Investing in content marketing comes with endless benefits. A well maintained blog boosts your SEO efforts, helps you build backlinks and brand awareness, generates leads, adds brand value, and ups engagement.

Just remember the golden rule: the content you’re publishing must be quality. Churning out subpar articles won’t get you far -- if it even gets you anywhere. Here are a few general post types to get you going:

• Videos

• Infographics

• Webinars

• Tutorials

• Whitepapers

• Presentations

• ‘How to’ guides

• Buzzfeed-style listicles

With good content, you need good images. If you’re not in the position to fork out money for sites like iStock and Shutterstock, consider Unsplash, Pixabay and Pexels for good, free alternatives. 
 

6. Templates

Next up is templates. The extent of this list will vary depending on the nature of your business, but below is an idea of the types of templates we suggest you think about:

• Email campaigns - sales, welcome, thank you, updates, or otherwise

• Newsletters

• Direct mail

• Job descriptions

• Email signatures

• Powerpoint presentations

• Social media graphics

• Letterhead/memos

Your logo should feature on each and every one of them -- which is why it’s important to have a logo that sits well in different settings, and your brand’s look, feel and tone should be encapsulated too. Remember though, your templates don’t need to be uniform to be consistent.

7. Print collateral

We’ve been carrying on about online a lot -- and rightly so! -- but don’t forget about good old offline advertising. Depending on your industry, things like physical brochures and business cards can be an important asset.

If you’re investing in printed materials, remember to:

• Do your research: spending a bit of time selecting a quality printer.

• Don’t compromise: poor quality paper reflects badly on your business.

• Don’t rush: if there’s a proofreading mistake that’s your fault there’s no going back -- without throwing money down the drain.

• Keep it consistent: print materials still needs to mirror your online presence.

• Think of the bigger picture: think about how you can make print materials evergreen so that you don’t have to reprint regularly. Consider what really needs a date and what could go without one.

• Get the right amount of copies: you can easily order more, so don’t go print crazy and order 1000s of copies unless you’re absolutely certain they’ll be used. But, you usually get a discount the more you order, so don’t be afraid to print some extras.

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Need a little help?

Getting all your marketing assets together can feel really daunting -- I know, I’ve been there! But here at Hue & Tone Creative, there’s a lot we can help you with. From logo design and letterhead to web design and social media management, get in touch to see how we can support your business’ success.

Building a well-designed website for your business can be an intimidating task. Squarespace is one of our favorite platforms because it allows you to easily create beautiful and professional websites for a reasonable cost. 

Although it can be fun to experiment with all the offerings on Squarespace, it’s important to consider the overall goal of your website. Do you need to show off the menu of your organic coffee shop? Promote your event photography? Sell products for your online boutique?

Squarespace identifies their templates as falling into three main types of websites:

• Information: “The goal of your site is to provide information to visitors, like business hours, who you are, or an overview of a project. The goal might be passive, where visitors find the information, read your blog, and move on, or active, where they sign up for a newsletter, submit a form, or contact you.”
   
• Images: “The goal of your site is to display beautiful images. If you're an artist, design studio, or photographer, an image-focused template will help you display your work to prospective clients. Sites for restaurants, weddings, and more can also be very visual.”
   
• eCommerce: “The goal of your site is to sell products, services, or media. If you're selling a small number of products, you can use a Website template to create a small shop. But if eCommerce is the primary goal for your site, a Commerce template provides advanced features to help your product display match your brand and vision.”

Squarespace also offers a cover page option. Cover pages are single-page sites that can be used as a standalone or integrated into an existing site. They’re also great if you need to get something up while you’re building your website behind-the- scenes!

Every Squarespace template offers the ability to add text, social integrations, photos, search, and gallery features. However, only some offer things like index pages, gallery pages, and blog pages. Do your research and identify any special features you might need! 

To make your search a little easier, we’ve picked out five of our favorite templates -- we’ve also highlighted some of the differences between each template. If you’re overwhelmed by the amount of options, these are a great place to start!

 

Bedford

Bedford is the most popular template on Squarespace and it’s also the template HueAndToneCreative.com is built on. This beautiful and clean interface is ideal for just about any small business.  We also love that Bedford offers the option to have a second navigation in the footer.

Features: Index  |  Blog  |  Header image  |  Folder & footer navigation  |  Page titles  |  Grid & slide gallery  |  Cannot display social icons

 

Momentum

This clean template is perfect for designers and photographers to showcase high resolution images. If you’re looking to create a portfolio site, Momentum features a great slideshow interface and full screen images. This template’s aesthetic also works well to advertise products.

Features: Index/Gallery  |  Ability to display social icons  |  Page titles  |  Slide & grid gallery  |  No side bars  |  Page titles

Farro

Farro’s sleek editorial style is a great choice for bloggers with strong images or digital publications. This post-like interface could also work well to display the portfolios of photographers.  

Features: Blog  |  Sidebar  |  Ability to display social icons  |  No page titles  |  Grid & slide gallery  |  Secondary navigation

Nueva

We love the professional and polished style of Nueva. We recommend this for stores as well as restaurants. It’s not as image heavy as our other template picks, but it’s well organized and provides the option of a gallery.

Features: Commerce feature  |  Parallax scrolling  |  Multiple navigation  |  Customizable mobile styles  |  Blog
 

Harris

If your business doesn’t rely on pictures to promote your services, Harris is a great option. Its crisp layout, sophisticated font options, and banner styles makes this a great template for law offices, accounting firms, and writers. It also features Blocks to capture customer information as well as several introduction and navigation areas.

Features: Index page  |  Left, center, and right headers  |  Shopping cart  |  Main and secondary navigation

One last note

Even though we’ve made our recommendations, don’t be afraid to try the different templates Squarespace has to offer.  You can switch templates at any time – but *be warned* not all of your formatting will stick when you switch back. For example if you switch from the Bedford to the Nueva, and then back to the Bedford again, you’ll be starting with the original template settings. 

Had a great experience with Squarespace? Let us know in the comments! Feeling a little overwhelmed with Squarespace? We can help!