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Despite what you may have been told, email marketing isn’t dead. If anything, it’s more relevant than ever. A robust email marketing should be a central pillar of your Black Friday marketing push. Here are some ideas for the types of emails to send.

As preparations continue for the massive Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales season, GD Commerce is helping your business prepare with our weekly blog series. This week, we’re looking at some of the most effective Black Friday/Cyber Monday promotions your business can run.

One of the most common questions we receive from clients is - when is the right time to start marketing for Black Friday and Cyber Monday? We've got the answers in this blog.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday presents a retail bonanza you won’t want to miss out on. Planning is key to ensuring you cover all the bases. In our latest blog, we’ve rounded up several practical tips to help prepare your site for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are coming! Over several weeks, GD Commerce is going to take a deep dive into this annual sales bonanza, helping you to get your business ready to make the most of this invaluable opportunity to grow your business. This week, we're looking at the origins of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

In the final part of our series on sustainability and eco-friendly business practices, we’re examining how to market that your business is eco-friendly. As the market continues to grow for green products and sustainable services, there’s plenty of money to be made. While that may seem overly cynical, one only has to look at the big national brands promoting their eco-friendly bona-fides to see the growth and importance of this area. If your business is based around a green product or service, it’s a massive selling point and should be central to your marketing efforts. Make sure to follow these three essential steps to successfully marketing your green products. Show the Proof True, we live in an era of “fake news” and obfuscation but customers are still savvy at sniffing out bogus marketing claims. Your customers are going to want to see proof your products are actually of benefit to the environment. Thanks to sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor and Google’s own reviews service, customers are researching deeper and reading more reviews before making a purchase. You’re going to want to ensure their research doesn’t contradict your own marketing. As long as your marketing is telling the truth about your product, push those claims hard and go the extra mile to validate your green claims. Nail Your Pricing Price is one of the most important considerations in the customer buying process. Even if your product will save the earth with one purchase, customers will still put value for money to the fore when deciding to purchase. Examine the pricing structure of your competitors and try to challenge their price point. With your focused marketing and strong message, this competitive price will give you an advantage against the competition. Unable to shrink your price anymore? Consider placing greater emphasis on your value add. What benefit do customers get from your product and your product alone? Get Personal with Benefits Humans – we’re selfish creatures. We care about the environment but it’s fair to say we care about ourselves just as much. Try to frame your product as having a personal benefit to go alongside the environmental benefit. This gives your pitch a multi-layered appeal that creates a wider sales funnel. To give a specific example, organic food benefits the environment because it avoids the use of pesticides and herbicides. The selling point for the customer is that these products are also harmful for humans. Ready to Help No matter what area of your business you need assistance with, GD Commerce is standing by to help. Contact Us and find out how we can lessen the load. Thank you to our GD Commerce Partners: Create Your Business Website Using Shopify Harness the Power of Drip CRM Software Set up Subscription Boxes, Recurring Orders and Payments Easily Using Bold Partners Boost Your Business Bookkeeping with Bench Learn How to Master Website SEO Using Mangools

In the third of our series on sustainability and eco-friendly business practices, we’re taking a look at 7 green tips for business sustainability. Searching for ways to make your business more environmentally friendly? The good news is, this can be a profitable move for your bottom line as well as Mother Nature. From buying used furniture, to recycling ink cartridges and taking your composting to the next level, find out the 7 small steps you can take to “green” your business. Limit In-Person Meetings Do you really need to get your team together in-person for that meeting? Handling all meetings electronically, via conference call, software like Zoom or Skype, or just over plain old email will save you money on travel costs, reduce your carbon footprint and make you more time efficient. Print Less Business Cards I know that box of 1,000 business cards might be the best value but are you really going to use them all? By printing less cards you’ll not only save money, you’ll cut down on the waste involved in using all that paper. Unfortunately, business cards are still a must-have for business, but it’s absolutely an area you can trim back on. Buy Used Office Furniture Have you seen the cost of office furniture these days? It’s exorbitant! Luckily, second-hand office furniture is in plentiful supply through sites like Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist. It’s good for the environment, it cuts down on waste and keeps money in your pocket – What’s not to love? Will the Last Person to Leave Turn Off the Lights? Take a stroll around any office district at night and it’s often a sea of illuminated but empty workplaces. What’s the point in all those lights being on? While electricity isn’t the biggest cost out there, it’s still going to make a massive cumulative saving over time to ensure those lights are off at night. Limit Air Conditioning When Possible While we all love air conditioning it’s a resource hog that costs a fortune to run. Consider alternatives such as opening the windows during the day in summer. If the air conditioning is non-negotiable during the workday, ensure it’s not left on overnight or at weekends. Use Coffee Grounds as Fertilizer If, like every other office in Canada, you’re powered by coffee it’s an amazing opportunity to help the environment. Coffee grounds are an excellent fertilizer. Take turns to take the coffee grounds from your office coffee maker home and fertilize your garden or add to the compost heap. Don’t Throw Away Used Ink Cartridges Ink cartridges cost a fortune. Cutting down on printing, when possible, can help get that cost under control. What about the cartridges you’ve already purchased? Most suppliers and manufacturers of ink cartridges have a recycle program, many with a rebate or incentive against your next purchase. Ready to Help No matter what area of your business you need assistance with, GD Commerce is standing by to help. Contact Us and find out how we can lessen the load. Thank you to our GD Commerce Partners: Create Your Business Website Using Shopify Harness the Power of Drip CRM Software Set up Subscription Boxes, Recurring Orders and Payments Easily Using Bold Partners Boost Your Business Bookkeeping with Bench Learn How to Master Website SEO Using Mangools

Last week, we looked at ways to get a green business off the ground in Canada. In the latest in our green-friendly series, we’re going to take a look at The Five R’s of Sustainability and how you can incorporate them into your business. In Canada, we’re proud of our standing as one of the world’s most environmentally aware countries. We’re also keenly aware there’s still plenty of work to be done to improve our score. In 2016, Canada was responsible for almost 25 million tons of waste, an increase of 200,000 tons compared to 2014. Access to recycling and composting has never been easier, while green initiatives are more prevalent than ever before. So, what gives? Small businesses form the backbone of the Canadian economy and have a uniquely powerful position from which to become sustainability leaders. All they have to do is follow the “Five R’s” for cutting down on waste. Refuse Take stock of the items used by your business that simply aren’t needed anymore. Are you overly reliant on paper? If so, consider switching to digital alternatives. Does your business send out or receive junk mail? Stop sending it, and request that you stop receiving it. Look at whether you’re utilizing single-use plastics. If you are, switch to sustainable alternatives. Reduce Unfortunately, there’s always going to be some waste. There are products we need to conduct business we simply can’t do without. Attempt to reduce your reliance on these products where possible and switch to greener alternatives. Businesses have been quick to offer products that are far less damaging to the environment. Make use of them where you can. Reuse Introducing a company-wide effort to cut down on your waste won’t just help the environment, it will have a tremendous effect on your bottom line. When printing, use both sides of the sheet of paper. Thinking of buying new office furniture? Don’t just throw away your old furniture, it can often be re-sold or even donated to a good cause. Recycle A workplace recycling program should be considered a quick win when looking to make your business eco-friendlier. Place recycle bins near points of wastage such as your kitchen or beside the printer. If possible, place recycle bins beside staff desks to help cut down on waste associated with food packaging. The recycling effort should extend to any computer hardware you’re looking to dispose of. Most of these items can be safely recycled. Renew Did you know, old desktop computers are some of the biggest offenders when it comes to energy wastage? Sure, they may be reliable but they are incredibly inefficient. Modernizing your work hardware can lead to energy reductions close to 90 percent. Make sure to look for the 80 Plus designation when purchasing hardware to ensure you’re dealing with the highest standards of energy efficiency. Ready to Help No matter what area of your business you need assistance with, GD Commerce is standing by to help. Contact Us and find out how we can lessen the load. Thank you to our GD Commerce Partners: Create Your Business Website Using Shopify Harness the Power of Drip CRM Software Set up Subscription Boxes, Recurring Orders and Payments Easily Using Bold Partners Boost Your Business Bookkeeping with Bench Learn How to Master Website SEO Using Mangools

Earlier this week I was on the Cubical to CEO podcast with my friend Ellen Yin talking about automation through Shopify, you can listen to it here. I wanted to provide a bit of context to further describe how you can implement automation in your business.