E-COMMERCE
How to prepare for the upcoming shipping rate increase
Here’s one thing we’re not looking forward to as 2022 approaches: rising shipping rate costs.
Shopify has just published a blog post providing an overview of the upcoming shipping rate changes:
- USPS will raise their prices on January 9, 2022. The price increases will range from 50 cents for First Class Packages to 3.1% overall for Priority Mail Express.
- UPS will raise their prices on December 26, 2021. Rates will rise by an average of 5.9%.
- DHL Express will increase their prices on January 1, 2022. Prices will increase by 5.9% on average.
Shopify sellers will not be affected by the price increases, at least not immediately. Shopify has fixed-price agreements with all major shipping providers that have yet to expire.
How to adapt: If you offer free shipping, one option is to do nothing and absorb the increased costs. You can also increase product prices or switch to free shipping minimums.
If you offer flat rate shipping, you can still do nothing (and absorb the pricing hikes). Your other options are to charge different flat rates for different orders, raise your product prices, or increase your overall flat rate shipping price.
ADVERTISING
Here are some creative ad ideas from Twitter
Twitter has just published a list of 9 Twitter Ads campaigns that are meant to inspire. We gotta admit, some of these examples gave us a few creative sparks. Here are 2 ad creatives that we liked:
- #NationalMilkDay. Yup, such a day exists and it’s on January 11th. One brand took advantage of the day by creating a giveaway tweet in which they asked people to comment and tag a friend. In exchange, participants were promised that they “may get a special delivery today.”
- Metaphors. One company selling medical footwear used an image in their tweet that said: “If care was a sport, nurses would be the ultimate endurance athletes.” Can you think of a similar awesome quote for your own product?
Twitter also released a 2022 planner with some interesting checklists and to-dos.
SPONSORED BY HOPIN
Are you keeping up with the evolution of events?
Want to learn more about measuring your event ROI? Read this new guide:
The Future of Events: The ROI of an All-Virtual & Hybrid Approach to Events.
In this guide, you’ll learn:
- What’s new in events for 2021 and beyond
- The key value drivers that deliver next-level ROI
- How to maximize your savings potential (and how some event planners reduced total event costs by as much as 50%)
- How to increase revenue from event programs
- How event technology is changing our ability to measure ROI
MARKETING
Unexpected lessons that will make you a better writer
Sometimes you learn from lectures and courses. Other times, the best lessons come from insignificant things.
It’s the case of Angie Nikoleychuk from Search Engine Journal, who shared seven completely unexpected lessons that made her a better writer, and can do the same for you.
Let’s look at some of them.
“So what?” – Every time you write anything, ask, “So what?” until you get to the core of what’s in it for the reader.
This will make your copy more concise and effective because you’ll cut the unnecessary word that may bore the reader away.
Everything you learned about writing is a lie: When you’re chasing dollars and not grades, the writing rules you learned in high school are irrelevant.
You can use passive voices, you can write EVERYTHING IN ALL CAPS if you need to… In other words, you can break rules.
But beware of the context. If you’re writing a doc for investors, then you better watch out for being a rebel.
Language and music need rhythm: According to scientific research, during a concert, the audience’s breathing and physiological responses sync to the music.
Music tells a story, and your writing should do the same.
Use tension and release phrases, themes, and rhythms. Make it flow in cadences.
And make sure your writing has a soul.
Our brains aren’t that smart: If you’re reading this article, your brain made a mistake.
Or look at this title:
“How this 26 years old built up $150,000 in savings and plans to retire by 37.”
You’ll click on it because the survivorship bias occurs. Essentially, we focus on successes and forget the losses. You think you can follow the same path, but your brain doesn’t consider all the obstacles on the way.
From a writer’s perspective, knowing human brains malfunctioning makes your work more effective.
SPONSORED BY INSIGHTS
How this supplement brand comfortably runs Facebook ads that would get you banned in an instant
Over $24M in revenue a year with one product. Partnerships with Ellen and Jennifer Lopez. FB ads that would get your account banned. How do they do it?
Well, we show how Goli walks the compliance line in the full deep dive… but you can have a glimpse into this with our free preview.
To unlock the full versions of all 8 deep dives, all you have to do is subscribe to Insights.
Try Insights risk-free with our 24-hour money-back guarantee.
THE CREW’S INSIGHTS
Three outside of the box growth marketing ideas
Looking for alternative ways to boost your growth? Here are some outside-the-box ideas from our Insights Deep Dives to grow your business.
Morning Brew and in-person lectures: In their early days, Morning Brew was solely focused on finance students that had to be up to date with news for their classes.
So the two founders asked professors if they could pitch Morning Brew in their class to get subscribers.
They got the first 5 minutes of the class from their professors. And to make sure students would actually subscribe, they passed around a paper for everyone to write down their email addresses.
This tactic granted them their first 10,000 subscribers.
Wise’s semi-naked parades: In February 2015, Wise launched the #Nothing2hide campaign. 100 people protested semi-naked in the streets of London and NYC at the slogan of “#Nothing2hide,” to celebrate the end of hidden bank fees.
Let’s say it was hard not to notice them.
Shark Tank-like shows: Many companies attending Shark Tank and similar shows experienced the so-called “Shark Tank effect.”
Even if they don’t get funding, the reach they get from the show gives them a huge visibility boost.
It’s the case of Peaceful Fruits, a maker of healthy snacks: “We didn’t land a shark as an investor, but we did $75,000 in sales the weekend the episode aired.”
And there are smaller alternatives to Shark Tank. For instance, Lazyjack Press, a brand selling luxury men’s accessories, found success by getting featured on the Billion Dollar Buyer, which is like Shark Tank, just for hospitality products.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
ADVERTISING: Don’t forget about smaller ad networks. Tubi, a streaming content website, is expected to hit $1B in ad revenue by 2023.
SOCIAL MEDIA: Yesterday we reported that Instagram had (unofficially) hit 2 billion users. How long did it take them to get there? Axios has some interesting stats.
SEO: Don’t worry, Google will not penalize your site for not following affiliate links.
TWITTER: Auto captions are coming to videos on Twitter.
TIKTOK: If you want to create more engaging videos on TikTok, the company has some advice for you. Keep your short videos, well, short.
BRAIN TEASER
Who is that with a neck and no head, two arms and no hands?
What is it?
You can find the solution here.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things marketers like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
Rocket scientists and brain surgeons are no smarter than the rest of us
Whenever someone is stuck with something, we usually encourage them by saying: “Hey, it’s not rocket science.”
That phrase may soon become obsolete.
According to a new study, brain surgeons and aerospace engineers are no smarter than the rest of us. The study compared the intelligence of 329 aerospace engineers and 72 neurosurgeons to 18,257 members of the British public.
All participants completed 12 tasks online using the Great British Intelligence Test (GBIT).
The results: Surprising. There was a little difference in general cognitive abilities between all 3 groups.
Only neurosurgeons showed quicker problem-solving skills, but researchers were unsure whether this was due to nature or nurture.
Now, if only they could do this study on rocket surgeons…