There’s a reason why every big YouTube creator has gotten into the business of selling merchandise.

I’m sure you’ve seen it. Take for example SimplyNailogical’s Halo Taco brand, a line of premium nail polish in gorgeous finishes and colors. Or Chamberlain Coffee, which started with cold brew bags and has expanded to apparel, matcha, and coffee accessories. On the Mythical store you can find items including shirts, hair products, and kitchen towels.

These creators know that they’re running a business, and a successful business finds ways to diversify its revenue. 

Relying on advertising and brand deals can be fickle—it comes down to the whims of third parties and algorithms. And, as we know, there’s a history of platforms simply disappearing overnight (RIP Vine).

More than ever, YouTube creators are also realizing that selling merchandise and other products can bring big returns while also energizing their fan base. And the best part is that the creator is in full control, including designing the merch, running the shop, and promoting their goods. No algorithm required.

You don’t need millions of subscribers to start selling—in fact, starting early can help grow your channel. Read on to find out why you should start selling merch and how to get started.

How to make merch—and money—as a YouTuber

As a creator, you already have the skills to get your own merch shop up and running to support your business. Read on to learn how to make merch for YouTube.

Why you should sell merch as a YouTuber

From the outside looking in, being a content creator on YouTube sounds like the ultimate way to achieve career freedom. But the truth is more complicated.

Creators on any platform are too often beholden to other people or companies, whether that’s pleasing YouTube’s requirements for becoming a partner who can run ads, or courting brand deals. Making money as a creator this way means playing by someone else’s rules.

The traditional way to make money on YouTube is through the partner programs, but that has requirements.

Currently, to join the partner program, you need at minimum:

• 1,000 subscribers
• 4,000 valid public watch hours in the last 12 months
• No active community guidelines strikes on your channel
• To be compliant with YouTube’s monetization policies
• To live in a country where the program is available

Only then can you apply, and even then, admission isn’t guaranteed. If you are accepted, YouTube is free to suspend your ad revenue or even suspend or remove your channel if it decides you’ve broken a rule.

Getting into the program requires clearing a big hurdle and then leaving your fate in the hands of YouTube’s automated moderation, which has in the past been accused of wrongly demonetizing creators. 

What’s become clear is that YouTube creators who make it big know how to protect their independence. 

Truly owning your business as a creator means taking back control from YouTube, and merch is one way to get there.

Creating and selling products is a revenue stream that you have full control over, which means you also reap all the rewards. You can set up a store on your own without negotiations or contracts while retaining full autonomy of your brand and values.

For fans, it also offers a way to support you while getting something in return that also has the added bonus of promoting your channel.

By selling merch, you maintain a revenue stream that is protected from these issues and that you can start without needing to be in the partner program. That means you can start making money even with a lower subscriber count.

Truly owning your business as a creator means taking back control from YouTube, and merch is one way to get there. It even has the possibility to surpass what you make from ads.

What to sell as a YouTube creator

Broadly speaking, there are two categories of items you can consider selling as a YouTube creator: fan merchandise and products that you create. There are pros and cons to each approach, and a long-term strategy is to consider how to sell both.

Selling fan merchandise

Creating traditional merchandise is the classic way to offer products to fans. Think of the shirts you can buy at a concert or a branded water bottle. These are items that carry slogans or images associated with your channel that fans can wear and use to show support for your work as a creator.

These can include:

• T-shirts
• Hoodies
• Hats
• Mugs
• Stickers
• Patches
• Enamel pins

Basically anything you can print with your branding is a good candidate for merch.

Scott Walter is the creator behind Miniac, a channel with 303,000 subscribers that focuses on the miniature figurine hobby. On his channel, he posts about table-top gaming and the intricate art of painting miniatures. He’s successfully carved out a niche on YouTube and has a store to go along with it that sells both merch for fans and products for fellow miniature enthusiasts.

His offerings include shirts and hats inspired by both miniatures and his love of metal music.

The benefits of this sort of fan merch is that it’s generally easy to create, especially with on-demand printing options (which we’ll talk about later). This also means the merch can be very cost effective—with so many options out there for printing merch, you don’t have to worry about sourcing original products, keeping an inventory, or even dealing with shipping if you use an on-demand service. All of that saves you both time and money.

There’s also an established market for these products. Fans already know to look for these items and probably have already bought them in the past from other creators or media that they’re a fan of. Plus, every time a fan wears or uses your merch, it’s advertising for your channel to their friends and family.

The downside is that these aren’t the most unique offerings. But you can improve that by focusing on creating exclusive and interesting designs. These products are also typically lower-cost for fans, so your revenue per item may be lower than a product you’ve made yourself.

Selling products you create

Creating your own products from scratch have potential to bring in higher revenue, but they take a lot more work.

We’ve seen this in some of the other examples mentioned, like Holo Taco, Chamberlain Coffee, or makeup palettes. These are products that were designed, sourced, manufactured, and sold by the creator who owns them.

All of this takes time and money, which, as a small creator, you may be short on, but there are still ways to make it happen. Rather, you can start with something less complex. Think of what your niche is as a creator and how you can share that with your fans. 

Creating products could be as simple as:

• PDF instructions for a craft or project
• Handmade items like jewelry
• Workshops or one-on-one lessons
• Art prints
• Audio tracks
• Digital recipe collections

All of these are valuable to your fans because they’re unique offerings that only you can provide.

How to make and sell merch on YouTube

If you’re just starting out selling products as a YouTube creator, fan merch is a smart and cost-effective way to launch a store.

How to design your own merch for YouTube

The first big question you’ll have is what exactly you should put on your merchandise. The good news is you don’t need to be a skilled illustrator or graphic designer yourself to get your hands on unique, high-quality designs.

First, think about how the branding of your channel could translate into a design. You could use your logo, slogans you say during videos, or even illustrations of your face.

Let’s take a look at Mythical, for example. Their YouTube channel, Good Mythical Morning, is known for its two hosts, Rhett and Link, as well as the games they play involving whacky food creations. 

Using that, they have merch that hits a variety of angles, such as:

Taking those as inspiration, you can probably already imagine what merch would look like for your channel.

You can design your merch if you’re a savvy designer. If you’re not, there are plenty of places where you can find artists who can create designs for you.

Look at:

You can also try Shopify’s free logo maker if you’re just getting started with branding your channel.

By browsing through these sites you’re bound to find a designer whose style matches your vision for your own merch.

Set up your store

There are a variety of services available who court YouTube creators looking to sell merch. They streamline the process of selling merch, but the downside is that you have far less control over the look and feel of your shop, as well as what products you can sell.

Scott initially sold his merch on RedBubble, an on-demand printer, but ended up switching to Shopify so that he could sell apparel alongside products he created himself.

“We’re able to sell merch for the channel, but also product for the channel, on one website, which is nice for the buying experience. You don’t have to go to different places to get different things,” he says.

Scott also says Shopify offers the advantage of being able to create a more complex website for his channel, with a blog and other information.

---

Ready to start selling merch? Start your free 14-day trial of Shopify—no credit card required.

Using print on demand to make your merch

When you set up a Shopify store, you’ll have access to print-on-demand apps like Gelato, Printify, and Printful. You can also search through the Shopify App Store for more.

You’ll want to check out different printers and see what types of products they offer and where they ship to. All will offer a range of apparel, such as t-shirts and hoodies, as well as various materials, sizes, and colors. You can also look to see what other products they offer, like mugs, tumblers, mouse pads, or other home goods.

Once you choose a printer and add it as an app in your Shopify store, you can begin uploading your designs and placing them on products. You’ll then set a price and transfer the product to your store, where fans can start buying it.

The advantage of on-demand printing is that the printing service takes care of printing and shipping the orders, so your only job is to run and promote your shop. This takes away the hassle of sourcing items and printing products yourself, which means you don’t have to keep an inventory of items that may or may not sell right away.

How much do YouTubers make from merch sales?

Exactly how much money YouTube creators make is usually a closely guarded secret. Some creators are a little more open than others. Jeffree Star, for example, has often showed off his lavish lifestyle and alluded that his cosmetics line and merch business brings in millions.

On her SimplyNailogical podcast, Chrstine and partner Ben have said their nail polish business has a high volume of sales and is profitable, even with the cost of employees, warehousing, and designing custom bottles. 

In fairness though, these are celebrity-tier creators with millions of subscribers. You’re probably starting from somewhere smaller.

Scott says revenue can vary, but he estimates that up to 50% of his overall revenue is coming from online store sales.

To break that down, he says the majority of his revenue comes from products he created himself, including an exclusive miniature he had manufactured that he sells for $49.99, along with digital instruction for how to paint it. This makes up anywhere from 30% to 40% of his revenue.

The other 10% to 20% comes from more straight-forward merchandise, like t-shirts and posters.

The rest of his revenue as a creator comes from a combination of ads on YouTube, Amazon affiliate links, Patreon, and sponsorships.

Scott says the key is being able to offer something unique. He said that, for example, someone who posts one video a week could make much more from product sales generated by a video than whatever it makes from ad placements.

“If you can create something that gives value to your audience, it’s a huge revenue stream,” he says.

It obviously stands to reason that the more you grow your subscribers and views, the more you can potentially make from merchandise sales. However, even a small creator has potential to have a significant portion of their revenue come from those sales.

How to promote your merch on YouTube

Once you have merch available, your fans need to know about it.

Many creators will post a video announcing the launch of a merch line to get fans excited, as well as announce it on other platforms, such as Instagram or Twitter.

Moving forward, you should include a link to your store underneath all your videos, in your YouTube bio, and in your bio on other platforms as well. And don’t forget to make announcements when you add new items to your collection!

Grow your YouTube channel with merch

Getting started with selling merch as a YouTube creator doesn’t require having a ton of subscribers. You already have all the tools you need to start making income independent of YouTube and its algorithm, restrictions, and partner program.

Making it as a YouTube creator means creating a sustainable business that can thrive through whatever the platform throws your way, and starting your own shop can help get you there.

Feature image by Gabrielle Merite

The human brain can process images in only 13 milliseconds — which means you don’t have much time to make a good first impression on your customers.

What shoppers see is often a deciding factor in whether they will stay on your site or lose interest, so it’s crucial that you invest in building an online store that catches their eye and keeps them intrigued.

One of the best ways to do this is through great product photography.  

If you’re running an ecommerce business, you probably already know how amazing your products are, but until a customer has your product in-hand, all they have to rely on are the pictures on your website. 

This is why the best ecommerce websites not only have great products, but also great photos of their products. These images testify to the quality and value of your products and establish transparency into your ecommerce business.

In this blog post, we’ll give you the full rundown on all things product photography so that you can be on your way to getting that perfect shot.

Types of Product Photography

Product photography isn’t one size fits all. Just as your ecommerce store likely features a variety of products and services, product photos also come in a variety of styles and purposes. Some are for everyday use, while others are more unique and only used in special cases. 

Whether you want to maintain a consistent look across your product photos or tastefully mix and match them, it’s important to understand the difference between each type of product photography and how to best capture them. 

Below we’ve compiled a list of the six most common types of product shots, when to use them and what they look like in practice:

1. Individual shots. 

One of the most common types of product photos, the individual shot contains only one object in the frame. These are often featured in product catalogs, banner images and throughout product pages to showcase individual products independently from the full collection. 

A great example is this one from Skullcandy, which is shot with a white background to create a clean, simple look and keep the focus on the product. 

2. Group shots.

You guessed it — group shots showcase more than one product together. 

Often used for product kits and collections, group photography displays the range and variety of your products and gives the customer a more complete view of your offering. These types of images are perfect for social media posts and advertisements, as they give shoppers a taste of your brand as a whole, rather than just one product. 

3. Lifestyle shots.

This type of photography is where you get to show your products in action. 

Often taken with a model, like this example from Peter Christian, lifestyle shots tell the story behind your product and show your customers how they can use them in their daily lives. 

While lifestyle photos can complement individual shots on your product page, they’re also perfect for social media, emails, ads and other visual channels, because they catch the eye and make your products feel more personal. 

4. Scale shots.

A common issue with shopping online is not being able to gauge the actual size of a product. While product descriptions may list the dimensions of an item, product photos can be deceiving. 

But with scale shots, you can help your customers get a better idea of the actual size of a product by comparing it with other everyday items, similar to this example by Ivory. This will help your customers visualize your products in their everyday lives and increase their confidence when purchasing online.  

5. Detailed shots.

For products with small intricacies that require a close-up, including jewelry and other small items, detailed shots help highlight specific product features that a traditional photo might not catch. 

This type of photography often requires specific light and camera settings, such as a macro lens, to capture those delicate shots.  

6. Packaging shots.

Believe it or not, customers care about packaging. 

From browsing your website to making a purchase and receiving their product in the mail, customers seek a shopping experience that is consistent from start to finish. So, even though you may have an amazing product, if your presentation isn’t up to par, your customers might take note. 

And if your products come with beautiful, branded packaging, why not feature it on your product page to give your customers a taste of what to expect?

Packaging shots, like this example from Green Roads, feature not only the product itself, but also the product packaging, whether it be a box, bag or label. 

Product Photography Tips and Process 

Of course, for those of us who don’t know the difference between a Nikon or a Kodak, product photography can seem a little intimidating. And for small businesses on a budget, investing in expensive photography equipment simply isn’t an option.

Luckily, taking high-end photos is far more accessible today than it was 10 years ago. Considering most of us already have a 12-megapixel iPhone camera in our pockets, and many top-tier editing software is becoming more affordable, improving your ecommerce photography is probably simpler than you think.

Here we’ve highlighted some tips and practical steps for building your own DIY, at-home photography studio. 

1. Set up your background.

Getting the right background not only keeps the focus on the product you’re photographing, but it also helps simplify the editing process when it comes time for post-production. Try using a white or light backdrop, as this will make it easier to remove unwanted objects and retouch photos.

Luckily, you don’t have to spend an arm and a leg on a fancy backdrop to get the perfect shot. There are a couple affordable options that will do the job:

Shooting table

If you’re going to have several photoshoots, you might want to order a white sweep off of Amazon. But if you want to go the homemade route, you can make your own chair-mounted sweep using a roll of white craft paper. 

All you have to do is push the back of the chair against a wall and tape the craft paper on the wall above the chair, allowing it to fall to the ground. This will create a clean transition between the vertical and horizontal planes whenever you position your product on the chair. 

Or, another option is to clamp the sweep to the top of the chair and allow the paper to drape down the chair, which will create the same seamless effect.

However, for larger products such as furniture, you’ll need to invest in a stand-mounted sweep like the one below. Or, you can use the same method as the chair-mounted sweep by taping white craft paper to the wall. 

Light tent

Another affordable option for a backdrop is to build your own light tent, otherwise called a lightbox. This is a wireframe box with translucent walls which helps create an evenly distributed light around the object in focus. 

To make your own, you’ll need a plastic storage container, placed on its side with the lid off. 

Next, cover the bottom — and all the other sides, if you’re wanting a more evenly distributed light — with white paper. 

Lastly, place an artificial light on either side of the container, or simply use natural light from a nearby window if you’re working on a budget.

2. Set up your product.

Now it’s time to bring your product into the spotlight.

It may seem simple, but setting up your product can take a few tries to get the angle, lighting and position just right. 

Place your product in front of the backdrop, making sure that it’s centered and on a flat, stable surface like a table or chair.

For things like jewelry and other accessories, you may want to use a bust that better displays the product, and for items with labels or special designs, you may need to spend some time adjusting the product until it’s precisely centered.

For smaller, more intricate products, here are a few more tools that might be helpful:

• Glue dots and tape for keeping small products in place, such as earrings or necklaces.
• Mannequins for clothing and accessories.
• Hangers or eye-catching flatlay for displaying products at different angles.
• A friend or team member for modeling clothes or creating fun lifestyle shots.

3. Adjust your lighting.

One of the most important elements in capturing a quality product photo is having perfect lighting. Although it may be tedious to adjust, creating good lighting makes all the difference in an image, and you’ll definitely thank yourself later during the post-production process when you have fewer edits to make. 

Luckily for product photography, you only have two types of light sources to choose from: natural light and artificial light.

Natural light

For those who are on a budget, using natural light is the best way to go. But just because this is the cheaper option doesn’t mean it’s lower quality. 

On the contrary, natural light is actually ideal if you’re shooting outdoors or if you’re shooting a lifestyle photo with a model. Just make sure you’re shooting during the day when the sun is at its peak so that you can get optimal light. 

If you’re having a product shoot indoors, place your backdrop and shooting table close to a window that gets a lot of natural sunlight, and if the light is too intense, you can try diffusing it with a light sheet or paper draped over the window.

A great example of when to use natural lighting is for food photography.  

This product photo by Santa Monica Seafood. is a great example of natural lighting. Their website features a buffet of food photography, much of which utilizes natural lighting and gives their products a more dramatic effect.

Artificial light

If you have the budget to splurge on studio lights or you want to shoot during different times of the day when the sunlight isn’t at its peak, artificial light may be a better option. 

What you’ll need are at least two softbox light setups, which will help soften shadows. You can find clip-on light clamps and strong bulbs on Amazon for about $30, or if you have the budget, there are plenty of higher-end options to choose from.

Once you have your studio lights, you can decide how you want to position them to achieve your desired look.

Regardless of how you adjust them, one should serve as your key light, placed in front of your product, and the other should be your fill light, positioned on the opposite side, back or above your product. 

Although it is the lightboxes’ job to diffuse light, if the shadows are still too intense, you can always use a sheet or white cardboard to further soften the light.

Once you have your lighting setup just right, make sure to document the positioning and camera settings so you can recreate a consistent look from photoshoot to photoshoot.

4. Use a tripod.

To get that crisp-looking photo that captures every detail of your product, you’ll want to get a high depth of field, which ultimately determines the sharpness of the image. To achieve this, you’ll need to set your camera to a low aperture (a high f/stop) and slow shutter speed. 

However, when your camera is on a slow shutter speed, it’s nearly impossible to hold it still enough with your hands to avoid ending up with a blurry photograph — and this is where a tripod saves the day. 

5. Pick the right camera.

This might seem like a no-brainer, but choosing the right camera is essential to successful product photography. 

Of course, if you’re not planning on doing photoshoots consistently, or if you’re on a tight budget, don’t feel pressured to drop a chunk of change on a fancy DSLR camera. 

Luckily, smartphone technology has come a long way, so if you have an iPhone in your back pocket already, you’ll be good to go. You can always dress up your photos with your backdrop or play around with lighting to get that perfect shot. 

However, if you’re looking to invest in a DSLR, here are some suggested camera settings:

• Adjust your white balance (WB) to the same Kelvin temperature as your studio lights.
• Set your aperture depending on the type of photo you’re taking. If you want to leave some parts of your product out of focus, then set your camera to a wider aperture. Or, if you want a sharp, focused look, then set it to a smaller aperture for a wider depth of field.
• Turn your flash setting to Off — you won’t need it, since you’ll have already adjusted for natural or artificial light.
• Set your camera to the highest quality image setting — if your camera has it, choose Raw, but if not, choose the largest JPG setting. Often you’ll see two setting options:
  • Size: Choose Large, which will give you the largest file size for the best image quality.
  • Quality: Choose Superfine, as this will use all the available pixels on your camera and thus give you the highest quality image.

Once you’ve adjusted to your desired settings, make sure to document them for easier setup the next time around.

6. Take multiple pictures and evaluate.

Finally, it’s time to see your product photography in action! 

When you’re ready to start snapping, remember that the first few might be a little rusty, so feel free to take several. Take shots at different angles, distances and positions to see which one works best.

Once you feel like you’ve taken enough pictures, upload them to a computer to see how they turned out, since the tiny screen on your camera probably doesn’t give an accurate depiction. It might be helpful to use a program like Adobe Lightroom to organize your photos and begin editing. 

7. Retouch your pictures.

Now it’s time for post-production.

Even though you hopefully already captured a few images you’re happy with, retouching your pictures is still a necessary step in the process. This will bring your photos from average to professional and ensure that all product images across your site have consistent quality, lighting and positioning.

Retouching allows for color correction, removal of unwanted objects and adjustments in lighting. 

Of course, it may seem tedious at first, but after a few times around with the photo editing software, you’ll be able to fly through post-production in no time.  

8. Optimize images.

Unfortunately, the larger the image on your ecommerce website, the slower the page load speed. But on the other hand, if you up your SEO, it can reduce the quality of your image.

Time is money, and many shoppers aren’t willing to wait around for an online store that isn’t loading fast enough. So, it’s vital that you optimize your images to achieve the best quality possible but also keep an eye on the page load speed.

Luckily, there are free minifying tools to optimize your photos and help you find that balance.

Lastly, make sure you name your product photos correctly and include metadata and keywords that will help improve your search ranking. 

The Two Types of Ecommerce Product Photos

While there are lots of ways to get creative with your photography, there are two main types of product images that are necessary for different circumstances, so you’ll want a good mix of both across your product page. 

1. Clean-cut, white background, product-only images.

These are often the most common type of image you’ll see across product catalogs and product pages. With the simple, no-frills background, these photos focus primarily on the product itself, often displaying the item from multiple angles and distances. 

2. In-context or lifestyle photos.

To really bring your brand to life, these photos feature your product in action, often photographed with a model or other complementary products. This helps your customers envision what it would look like to use your product in their everyday life and create a more personal connection with your brand.

Tools to Get Started With Product Photography

Now that you know the process of creating an eye-catching product image, it’s time to gather the necessary tools. 

Although you definitely can go all out on top-knotch photography equipment, if you’re just starting out, feel free to take the DIY route. Here are a few things you’ll need to get started.

1. Shooting table.

To display your products during a photoshoot, you’ll need a surface that’s stable and sturdy. This can be a table, a chair or, if you’d like, a professional shooting table sweep — there are plenty of good options on Amazon.

2. Light tent.

As mentioned before, you’ll need something to use as a backdrop, such as a light tent (aka lightbox), which you can build on your own using a plastic storage container and a white cloth or paper. 

3. Studio lighting.

Unless your photo studio gets good natural light, you’ll want to invest in some decent studio lights — at least two softbox light setups. These will help diffuse harsh lighting and adjust for shadows to achieve desired results. 

4. Tripod.

Setting your camera on a tripod will allow you to achieve consistently clear and focused product images time and time again. Luckily, you can buy them for as little as $20 on Amazon, and they’ll last you for several years.

5. Mobile grip.

If you’re shooting with a camera, it likely already has a screwhole in the bottom that attaches to the top of a tripod. However, if you’re using an iPhone for your photoshoots, you’ll need a mobile grip like the one below to grip the smartphone into place and screw it into your tripod. 

6. Photo editing software.

As the final step in your product photography process, you’ll need access to some sort of imaging editing tool — luckily, there are several free options on the market. 

7. Photography guidelines for consistency.

As you continue to take more photos of your products, it’s important that you maintain a consistent style across all images. To help with this, try creating your own technical style guide and template, making sure to include these key elements:

• Color Palette.
• Saturation.
• Focal Length.
• Shadows.
• Composition.
• Location and Context.
• Consistency.

Why Product Photography Increases Conversions

We are highly visual consumers. So, while the quality of your copy and product may be top tier, if your product images don’t match that same quality, your customers will notice.

Your photography represents your product’s quality and value as well as your brand image as a whole. If done well, it has the potential to increase conversions and drive sales in the long run.

1. High-quality images enhance every buyer touchpoint.

According to studies by Justuno, 93% of shoppers say that visual appearance is the key deciding factor in their purchasing decisions. 

If that’s the case, then your product photos shouldn’t be left on the backburner. 

Most interactions that a customer has with your brand should contain some sort of illustration that helps them envision your brand instead of simply reading or hearing about it. This means your product photos shouldn’t simply stop at your product pages — they should be weaved throughout your social platforms, advertisements, packaging and more. 

A beautiful example of this is luxury jewelry brand Ippolita. 

With a mix of product images, lifestyle shots and videos scattered across its site from the homepage to the final checkout, every stage of the purchase journey contains a visual element that keeps the shopper engaged. 

2. Product images are a key element of branding. 

Branding doesn’t stop at your packaging label or the logo on your website — rather, it should be the foundation for every element of your business. 

With the help of product photography, you can tell your brand story through your social media posts, email updates, marketing events and digital ads.

Bliss World, a clean, cruelty-free, planet-friendly skincare brand, does an amazing job of conveying its brand image through product photography. 

The website’s product images are splashed with light and color, giving the brand a fun, youthful feel. Plus, these images stay consistent across all of Bliss World’s channels, all the way from its ecommerce page to its digital ads to Instagram and Facebook. 

When to Consider Hiring a Professional Product Photographer

Although you don’t need to be an expert to create beautiful product photography, like any DIY project, there may be some limitations. 

Of course, professional product photography can get pricey, but if you have the budget for it, it’ll be worth the investment. Here are a couple reasons why:

1. Professional quality.

Unless you’re an experienced photographer, you likely don’t have the necessary equipment and software to achieve the highest quality photos. The quality of your equipment usually determines the quality of your photography and, most likely, a professional photographer will come loaded with the best of the best.

A talented photographer paired with top-notch equipment is a formula for high-quality product photos, and this is guaranteed to show on your website. 

2. Consistent editing.

Especially if you work with the same photographer multiple times, they’re likely to provide consistency in both quality and style time and time again. 

If you’re an amateur photographer without much experience in photo editing software, it may be difficult to recreate the same lighting, color and positioning every time, but this is a professional photographer’s forte. They’ll be able to provide you with consistency in brand image and quality, which will hopefully lead to consistency in the customers who visit your store. 

Your Options for Professionals

If you’re looking to hire a professional photographer, here are a few product photography services that can help you in your search: 

• ProductPhotography.com: This platform is an easy option if you don’t have time to seek out a specific photographer. ProductPhotography.com allows you to fill out an order form online and ship them your products, and once their photographers have your products in-hand, they’ll photograph them for you and send them back via online delivery.
• Thumbtack: If you’re searching for a professional in your area, Thumbtack is a great option for finding expert product photographers within a range of budgets. The website displays profiles for each photographer, which include ratings, the number of previous hires and a portfolio of their work.
• Squareshot: With locations in New York, Los Angeles, Austin and Chicago, Squareshot allows merchants to ship products to their studio and receive high-quality product photos within a matter of days.

Wrapping Up 

And there you have it — a toolbelt of tips and resources to revamp your product photography and start reaping the rewards. 

Needless to say, you definitely do not need to implement all of these improvements at once. Creating consistent, high-quality product photos is not something that happens overnight, so it may take some trial and error to achieve the results you want. 

However, once you’re in the swing of things, you’ll be able to wield your product photography to not only take beautiful product photos, but more importantly, create a visually compelling brand and successful ecommerce business.

is a film filled with gorgeous vistas from alien planets; skyscraper-sized spaceships; and some of the most beautiful actors working today. It’s a joy to watch, . But there’s also an undersung element that ties everything together: sound design. It practically breathes life to the film — so much so that it makes Dune’s wing-flapping ornithopter ships seem surprisingly real. The key to that magic, according to sound designers Theo Green and Mark Mangini, was a focus on capturing and using organic sounds, rather than fantastical digital creations.

Working together with Dune’s director, Denis Villeneuve, the pair aimed to make “a real-sounding science-fiction film with things we’ve clearly never seen and heard before,” Mangini said in an interview with Engadget.”[It was] almost as if you put out a microphone and captured sounds as if those things actually existed. Everything we did … is an outgrowth of that overarching philosophy to design a soundtrack for two hours and forty minutes that felt organic, as if we were [making] a documentary film.”

That philosophy was essential to crafting the Bene Gesserit voice, a seemingly supernatural ability that allows members of Dune’s religious order to control others. Think of it like the Jedi mind trick (Star Wars owes an absolute ton to Dune, don’t forget). But instead of a hypnotic wave of the hand, the sound of Dune’s voice is like a simultaneous kick to the gut and punch to the face. If you were somehow dozing off while the film’s hero, Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet), tests his budding Bene Gesserit powers, you’d be easily jolted awake.

To make that otherworldly voice a reality, Green credits three elements. There’s the voice actor Jean Gilpin, who he says is “brilliant” at crafting witchy and ancestral voices. The sound designers also recorded Dune’s actors saying their lines several different ways, which they played back through a subwoofer and recorded the final output. That’s an age-old technique known as “worldizing,” or the act of recording audio that’s being played back through speakers in a physical space.

The final component of the voice is the simplest: whenever a character starts to use that technique, the other sounds in the world fade away. In that early scene with Paul Atreides, we go from hearing the sounds of birds in the morning and a far-off thunderstorm to silence. That’s an innately eerie effect that draws us into the interior world of the Bene Gesserit’s powers: As Frank Herbert described it, they’re calling on their ancestors and using advanced psychological techniques to manipulate others.

Green and Mangini went similarly old-school when designing the sound of Dune’s ornithopter ships. They’re the equivalent of helicopters in the film’s universe, but they sound more like gigantic insects. To achieve that, Mangini says they combined the sounds of a large purring cat, a tent-strap flapping in high-velocity wind, and the fluttering wings of a large beetle. They weren’t working from pre-existing sound libraries, either. Green had to bring a beetle into a quiet room and somehow get a decent recording.

All of that was just for the sounds of the ornithopters’ wings. To craft their propulsion system, the duo took recordings of beehives and modulated them to sound like RPMs revving up in a car’s engine. The shifting of the ship’s wings also came from an unlikely source: Mangini’s Chevy Volt.

Once their work on Dune was over, the sound designers counted 3,200 new sounds that they developed for the film. Only three or four of them started out as electronic or synthetic sounds, Mangini says. That hearkens back to the way Villeneuve has approached visual effects in Dune and his earlier genre films: Go real whenever possible. For the sound designers, that push for authenticity also led to some inventive techniques. The gaping maw of Dune’s enormous sandworms, for example, started out as the sound of Mangini half-swallowing a microphone.

Green likens the use of organic sounds as a way to avoid the “uncanny valley” that plagues some visual effects. Our eyes know when certain things look fake, and that takes us out of the reality of the film. “I think [the uncanny valley] is in sound,” he said. “It’s those tiny complexities and tiny nuances that you only get from an organically sourced thing that sells something as being real.”

Apple offers 5GB free iCloud storage with iPhones and iPads and that’s not really sufficient for anyone. Once this storage fills, you either have the option to purchase iCloud+ plans or to switch to different backups, like Google Drive. But do you know that now Apple gives an option to temporarily backup your iPhone data with free unlimited cloud storage? In this article, we will tell you how to get that free unlimited iCloud storage on your iPhone.

Also, read | 5 Ways To Fix iCloud Storage is Full Issue on iPhone

Get Free Unlimited iCloud Storage

Before we go to the steps to get free iCloud storage, there are some things you should take note of. For example, who is eligible for this free storage, for how much it is available, etc. Let’s get into all these details here.

Who can get free temporary iCloud storage?

You should note that every iOS user is eligible for this unlimited temporary iCloud storage, however, there are a few conditions. First of all, one should not have enough iCloud storage to back up their data. Another requirement to get this storage is that your current device must be running on iOS 15 or iPadOS 15.

Steps to create a temporary iCloud backup

1. Go to the Settings on your iPhone and tap on General.

2. Now, scroll down to the bottom and tap on Transfer or Reset iPhone.

3. Here tap on the Get Started button under the Prepare for New iPhone section.

4. Now if you do not have sufficient storage on iCloud, you’ll see the “You’re eligible for as much free iCloud storage as you need to move apps and data to your new iPhone or iPad” message. Tap on Continue.

5. Lastly, tap on Done to confirm.

Now, iCloud will back up your data until you restore it on your new iPhone.

For how much time Apple offers this iCloud storage?

Your free iCloud backup storage will be available for 21 days from starting your backup. But in case you are unable to restore the backup or your new iPhone within the stipulated 21 days, you can get additional 21 days to restore this temporary backup. For this, you will need to select the Keep My Backup Longer option from settings.

Once you restore your temporary iCloud storage to your new iPhone, your data will be available for 7 more days, and after that Apple will permanently delete it.

Steps to restore your iPhone data from a temporary iCloud backup

Restoring data from the temporary iCloud backup is quite easy just like any other backup and restore. While setting up the iPhone, iOS gives you the option to restore from iCloud backup, and you can choose your most recent backup there.

1. To get started, while setting up your iPhone, follow the onscreen instructions and on the Apps & Data screen, select the ‘Restore from iCloud Backup’ option.

2. After that, sign in to iCloud with your Apple ID and select the most recent iCloud backup.

So this is how you can get free iCloud storage to back up your data temporarily.

Many iPhone users are forced to move to other backup options due to the meager 5GB of free iCloud storage that comes with every iPhone or iPad. So this temporary free iCloud storage can come in handy for those who don’t want to purchase the iCloud+ plans.

For more such useful iOS tips and tricks, stay tuned!

You can also follow us for instant tech news at Google News or for tips and tricks, smartphones & gadgets reviews, join GadgetsToUse Telegram Group, or for the latest review videos subscribe GadgetsToUse Youtube Channel.

By Sean Tinney October 27, 2021

We analyzed 1,000 email subject lines from today’s top marketers to discover the best length for an email subject line. Here’s what we discovered.

Your email subject line matters. 47% of people open emails based on the subject line alone, according to research done by Business2Community.

Because of this, people ask us about email subject lines often. And one of the most common questions we hear is this: What’s the best length for a subject line?

To find out, AWeber’s team of email experts analyzed 1,000 subject lines from 100 of today’s top marketers. Here’s what we discovered.

What is the average length of a subject line?

On average, the experts’ email subject lines were 44 characters long.

How long is 44 characters? For perspective, the below subject line from theSkimm (a popular daily newsletter) is 43 characters in length.

Subject line: Daily Skimm: I’ve got the world on a string

Related: Email Subject Line Best Practices To Get More Opens

Email subject line factors to consider

Now that you know the experts write 44-character subject lines, keep yours to 44 characters and you’ve got the perfect subject line, right? Obviously not. There are a few other factors to consider when developing your email marketing subject lines. But don’t worry, we’ll cover them here.

The devices your customers are using

Does most of your audience use an iPhone to read their email? Or are they largely on desktops.  The device your customers use to open and view their emails is extremely important when crafting your subject lines.

The average inbox displays about 60 characters on a desktop while the average mobile device displays only 30 characters. Anything else will get cut off. 

The email provider your customers are using

Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo! Mail, or Apple? The platform your subscribers use for email impacts how many characters appear in your subject lines.

Device + email provider

Now let’s do the math: Combining devices and email providers gives you a set of variables. 

For example, let’s take a look at the subject lines character limits for Gmail on different devices:

So why does this matter? Take a look at this example from PersonalizedMall:

They did a great job creating urgency with the subject line “Sean Your Triple Discount Coupon Expires Today”. But unfortunately I view most of my emails on my Mail App on my iPhone and didn’t see that the offer expired the night I received the email.

What could they have done differently? You’ll find out below when we talk about email subject line length best practices.

Want to know which providers to care most about? A study by Litmus analyzed the most popular email providers, apps, and devices with the top 5 being Apple iPhone, Gmail, Apple Mail, Outlook, and Yahoo! Mail.

Best practices for email subject line length

With so many different combinations, how can anyone write a subject line that will stand out?

Let’s get back to our marketing experts: 71.1% of the 1,000 subject lines we analyzed were between 21 and 60 characters. To stand out from everyone else, instead of focusing on length alone, consider other factors that may affect your open rates. 

1. Keep your most important information in the first 30 characters

Over 50% of emails are opened on mobile devices. Most email clients, like Gmail and Yahoo!, stop displaying an email subject line on mobile devices once it reaches between 33 and 43 characters. The exact number varies from one email client to another.

If you have a strong offer, you shouldn’t be forced to limit your email marketing subject line length. To optimize it for mobile readers, put the most important information in the first 30 characters. This way, this message won’t get cut off in the inbox.

2. Use the preheader to enhance your message.

The preheader is the additional text that appears next to or below your subject line in an inbox. Preheaders help compliment your subject line and can be used as that extra piece of text which may otherwise get cut off at the end of a subject line.

3. Don’t be too wordy

Easier said than done. I’m personally someone who rambles on and often uses more words than needed when talking about something.

How do I overcome this when writing subject lines? 

I start by writing everything I want to say in my subject line, then I reduce it by eliminating or replacing certain words.

Here’s an exercise:

Subject line idea: Get up to 50% off Athletic Shoes this Saturday only

This example is 51 characters long. How can I modify this to reduce the subject line?

How about: Up to 50% off Athletic Shoes on Saturday

This exercise reduced my subject line characters to 40.

4. Test your subject lines

Every audience is different. Try short and long subject lines with your subscribers to see what works best for your unique audience.

Set up an AB split test, sending 10% – 20% of the audience the test with the winning variation receiving the remaining 80% – 90%. This way you maximize your open rates by ensuring the strongest subject line gets sent to the majority of your audience.

Case Study

You might want to experiment with even shorter subject lines. Brian Dean, founder of SEO company Backlinko and one of the 100 top marketers whose emails we analyzed, used to send emails with longer subject lines. These subject lines told his subscribers exactly what they’d find inside the message. The problem with that? “It gave people no reason to actually open my email,” he said.

Now, he sends subject lines with an average of 15.1 characters. 

“After lots of testing, I’ve found that short subject lines get much higher open rates,” Dean said. 

He contributes this to 2 factors:

1. Short subject lines reach the inbox more frequently.
2. Short subject lines are more mysterious.

Here are a few of Dean’s short email subject lines. All are under 15 characters long:

• New Technique
• Email Outreach
• Blog Posts

Start crafting your subject lines today

As you just read, there is no optimal subject line length. There are too many variables. But if you continue to test and follow the other best practices, you’ll start seeing what types of subject lines work best with your audience.

Here’s some additional information that can inspire you to write amazing subject lines:

Get Higher Open Rates with 22 of the Best Email Subject Lines

Jumpstart Your Holiday Emails with 200+ Ready-Made Subject Lines

Everything You Need to Know About Using Emojis in Your Subject Line

75 Open-Worthy Subject Line Ideas

Ready to start using this data to send better emails? Get started with AWeber Free today.

When my father was in college, he had a friend who was blind. His friend made a deal with him – he’d buy a car they could share. The catch? When my father’s friend wanted to take a girl on a date, my father would drop any other commitments and be their designated driver. Sometimes, just for fun, they’d go to an empty lot and his friend would drive the car – flying around at a reckless speed with only the yelling and screaming of his pals to prevent catastrophe.

Now, while we expect this kind of risky behavior in college (based on stories we’ve heard, not our own experiences, of course), flying blind is no way to run a marketing department. Thankfully, today we have access to the marketing attribution software needed to clearly see what channels, content, and campaigns are working…and which are not.

KPIs that matter

When we start our careers as marketers, we tend to jam our foot into the gas pedal and hurry straight into driving programs and campaigns. We learn how to use marketing channels. We learn about content, creative, and CTAs. In time, we master marketing metrics such as views, click-through rates, and marketing-qualified leads. Still, something eludes us. We are counting a lot of things, but none of them are what the CEO really cares about – pipeline and revenue.

For most of us, our first step into the light was single-touch attribution, often enabled by a CRM. Now we could attribute revenue credit to the single campaign which appeared to trigger an important event such as product purchase. Helpful, but also unrealistic in the context of long B2B buying journeys comprised of dozens or even a hundred or more customer touchpoints. So, about ten seconds after we started using single-touch attribution, we realized its limitations in B2B marketing. We were still flying blind.

We needed visibility to the whole journey – every buyer touchpoint, every channel, every content asset, and every campaign that made (or didn’t make) a difference. Only with this complete picture could we hope to optimize our marketing mix across every buying stage in order to grow the business. And, of course, we needed to be able to do this in a modern and automated way that didn’t involve spreadsheets and weekends.

Multi-touch attribution challenge

Led by Marketo (now Marketo Engage), marketing automation providers began to offer capabilities for taking on this multi-touch attribution challenge. In time, Bizible emerged as the leading attribution solution for B2B marketers. Bizible maintains this leadership today as a part of the Adobe Experience Cloud where it can take advantage of native integrations with Marketo Engage and other Adobe software.

So, what’s the value of not flying blind? What’s the value of knowing what’s working and what’s not? As it turns out, the value is immense. We see it with our Bizible customers every day and as we work with prospects to construct financial business cases for Bizible, we regularly come to ROI figures that are as compelling as you will find for any type of software. It makes sense when you think about it. As marketing teams grow in maturity and have gotten good at the mechanics of buyer engagement, there is really nothing more valuable than insights that help you tune that engagement for maximum impact and ROI. As one Bizible customer succinctly put it, “Bizible helps us understand where to put our marketing dollars.”

The financial value of an investment in attribution software

While we love to share customer success stories and create business cases with individual Bizible prospects, we know many marketers are seeking a more general description of the potential financial value of an investment in attribution software. To do this, we commissioned Forrester to perform a Total Economic Impact (TEI) study. Forrester’s TEI methodology provides a proven, industry-recognized approach for assessing the value of technology investments. Results are based on customer interviews and Forrester’s own independent analysis and expertise. In this case, Forrester interviewed five Bizible customers ranging in size from a $50M/year US company to a $52B/year global enterprise.

So, what did they find? What is the ROI of an investment in modern B2B marketing attribution? Forrester found an almost 4x return on investment in Bizible with a payback period of less than one year. Marketing teams were able to generate 15% more qualified leads and millions of dollars in incremental pipeline and revenue while also saving time thanks to Bizible automation. Meanwhile, marketing cost per sales opportunity was reduced by 17%, freeing up money to drive even more growth.

Forrester TEI of Bizible

Ultimately, it’s no wonder so many B2B marketing leaders consider Bizible a part of their playbook for professional success. While flying blind can be thrilling, there comes a time for every marketer and marketing team to graduate to what comes next. Those who do wonder how they ever did their jobs any other way. The B2B marketing attribution software exists today to understand the complete B2B buyer’s journey and link marketing to pipeline and revenue. With the new Forrester TEI study of Bizible, marketers now have a powerful new way to communicate that value to stakeholders and budget owners within their companies.

Check out the complete Forrester Total Economic Impact of Bizible report.

The design elements of a photo include lines, color, shapes, light, texture, and negative space. The use of such elements in product photography can make or break its appeal to shoppers.

This is the 10th installment in my series to help ecommerce merchants take better product images. “Part 1” addressed the importance of backdrops. “Part 2” explained tripods. “Part 3” examined artificial lighting. “Part 4” reviewed angles and viewpoints, and “Part 5” dealt with choosing a camera. “Part 6” assessed lenses and their importance. “Part 7” focused on magnification and close-ups, and “Part 8” and “Part 9” introduced the basics of composition.

In this installment, I’ll look at using lines to make your product photos more engaging.

Lines in Photography

Lines direct the viewer’s eyes to the focal point of an image. Failure to employ lines correctly can make your images confusing or complicated, lowering conversions. Let’s look at the six types of lines for your product photography.

Vertical lines draw viewers’ eyes from the top of your photo to the bottom, or vice versa. Vertical lines can evoke feelings in the viewer, depending on the context.

For example, the image above of a woman washing a reusable water bottle sends a powerful message about the brand’s sustainability efforts and a key selling feature: a removable lid. Viewers’ eyes follow the top of the flowing water before settling on the lid and the overall scene. It’s a compelling example of how product photography can provide a visual journey and prompt shoppers to contemplate an item’s utility.

—

Horizontal. The human eye naturally follows horizontal lines in an image, making their use a powerful tool when crafting a story about a product or brand. Interrupting a horizontal line with the product is an effective way to draw attention, as seen in the example below. I prefer placing a product on top of a horizontal line to occupy most of the upper portion. It forces viewers to gaze upwards and contemplate your product longer.

—

Diagonal lines can create useful tension in product photography. Tension can improve engagement. For example, the diagonals in the image below of the towel and flowers drive viewers’ eyes to the coffee maker and its “smooth pouring” experience.

Diagonal lines can also create depth in an image, which is helpful in forming a story around a product. The image below is much more interesting with the diagonal shoreline in the background.

—

Leading lines can be vertical, horizontal, and diagonal. They steer viewers to an image’s focal point. Leading lines make images less static and more three-dimensional. Use them in any number of ways. For example, a product placed partway through a line entices viewers to continue past the item, take in the entire image, and return.

Lines can also lead directly to your product and terminate, as in the image below. The woman’s arms lead to the water bottle.

Avoid placing a product at the beginning of a leading line. Provide the viewer the experience of following lines to the item. Also, consider more than one leading line as illustrated, again, by arms and legs in the image above. Leading lines can come from the same or varying directions so long as they direct viewers’ eyes to the product.

—

Implied lines stem from the arrangement of elements. The photo below is a good example. The placement of the hat, pillow, jug, and glass implies a diagonal line running from the lower-left corner to the top right. The line draws a viewer’s eye to the product (the jug).

—

Converging lines are two or more diagonal lines that run toward each other. They may not touch, but they are helpful in some settings. For max effectiveness, place your product at the point where the lines converge. This becomes the focal point of the image and can engage viewers.  The water bottle below sits on at convergence of two diagonal countertop lines.

Let’s start a new meme/hashtag/acronym: Global Information Network, or GIN. I know there’s double entendre here, but we’re entitled to have a modicum of fun in life, no?

I’ve been writing about the coming of an information utility for a while but even my visions don’t match what we’re watching unfold. Briefly, it occurred to me a while ago that information was becoming (and now is) so instrumental to life that it was commoditizing along with the infrastructure that supports it.

Products become commodities all the time when something turns out to be so essential that everyone needs it, not just a privileged few. When that happens something curious happens economically.

If you must sell to the lowest common denominator, there isn’t much room for profit. Competitors looking for a seat at the table, mercilessly cut prices until the only way to make a profit is to sell gazillions of the commodity for pennies of profit.

Commoditization of Information

That’s basically what the cloud computing revolution of this century has been about. We started with big rooms full of airconditioned gear that ran on relatively underpowered computers that delivered financial reports to the CFO.

Additional applications were hard to come by and were always at the discretion of the CFO. There was no CIO back then, only a director of MIS or Management Information Systems whose job was to support the CFO, hence the emphasis on reporting.

But commoditization opened all sorts of opportunities: departmental computing, PCs, email, the internet, and a lot more.

By the middle of the 1990s, Alan Greenspan, then chair of the Federal Reserve, was at a loss for explaining the rapid and significant expansion of American productivity and jobs growth with nary a whiff of inflation. Classical economics didn’t have an answer, but we all knew that the commoditization of information also led to its democratization, information for everybody. Productivity followed.

Cloud computing commoditized IT, and not a moment too soon. The late 90’s saw a horror show as the last-ever mass rip and replace movement hit the back-office scrambling to accommodate four-digit date formats. Never again was the silent refrain of those who lived through it.

In its place came cloud computing, or what became cloud computing, a commoditization that made hardware and data center labor irrelevant to the user. It was a simple and seductive promise: Just pay a monthly fee and your data and apps will be there.

Now approaching is the Global Information Network (GIN) which is commoditizing cloud computing just as sure as the cloud made the computer room a distant memory for most organizations.

Anywhere Strategies

To fully appreciate GIN consider how Microsoft Azure is partnering with Oracle and Salesforce as well as others. They’re well on the way of having one giant data store with each fluently converting to another on demand.

Then understand that Amazon Web Services (AWS) is in hot pursuit of any cloud provider that wants the convenience of extending its cloud geography without building or buying massive infrastructure.

Salesforce and others are building relationships to support store anywhere strategies. Also consider how some can move workloads among processors seeking the most convenient and lowest-cost bare metal.

One of the latest examples of cloud proliferation is Oracle’s recent announcement that it will deploy14 new cloud regions in the next year on top of the 22 already in place, with more on the horizon.

Oracle and the others have dreams of covering the world with commoditized information services and migrating their users wholesale from on-premises computing to their clouds — and they will, mostly, that’s the tenor of the times.

But we’re also entering a time of co-existence and greater integration, a time when who owns and manages the hardware is much less important than what gets done for the user. So don’t expect any IT operation to be exclusively in thrall to one vendor.

When PCs fully commoditized, it was because one vendor, IBM, set a standard for PC architecture and everyone from memory, to disk drive, to monitor maker supported the standard.

My Two Bits

That is what commoditization does. The major players such as Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce and a few others grasp this commoditization moment and they understand that the winners will own a substantial part of the market — and a new kind of secret sauce — for the next fifty years. That’s what’s driving a strong interoperability movement.

There’s never been a better time to be a customer in the market for information services. But it’s also a perilous time to be a software startup because while the architectural standards might seem inviting, the market power of the majors will make it difficult to gain share without either being consumed by the biggies or co-opted.

That’s the potential downside of commoditization, it fosters mediocrity as it tamps down innovation.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ECT News Network.

---

Denis Pombriant is a well-known CRM industry analyst, strategist, writer and speaker. His new book, You Can’t Buy Customer Loyalty, But You Can Earn It, is now available on Amazon. His 2015 book, Solve for the Customer, is also available there. Email Denis.

Buyer’s guides are the fastest way to influence buying decisions and make online sales. With more than 52% of buyers shifting their spending online since the pandemic, you need an asset that can answer shoppers’ questions around the clock. 

These landing pages expose people’s struggles, show how your product helps, and acts as a 24/7 sales team that creates new business opportunities for you. 

Major retailers like REI and Best Buy have been using buyer’s guides for years. While smaller brands tend to ignore them, this piece of content can work wonders for lead-generation efforts.

Want in on the action? This guide will walk you through how to create a buyer’s guide, with examples and tips from top-notch retailers online. 

What is the purpose of a buyer’s guide?

A buyer’s guide is an online article that helps customers make a purchasing decision. It provides considerations for a specific product, including functionality, size, maintenance, price, and different features betweens models or brands. Buyer’s guides are helpful for selling high-ticket items such as outdoor gear, furniture, or appliances.

Wayfair is known for creating buyer’s guides for its products, such as its mattress buying guide. 

Say you went to buy a mattress online for the first time. Wayfair’s buyer’s guide would help by teaching you:

• When to buy a new mattress
• How to choose a mattress based on size and sleeper type
• The different types of mattresses
• How to choose a foundation

Buyer’s guides convey general recommendations and tips outside the standard product description. This helps coach buyers through the decision-making process so they can determine the best setup for themselves. 

The most helpful thing [for creating a buyer’s guide] is honesty. Customers want to feel like they can trust you and have confidence in your expertise.

The end goal is to make a sale from your buyer’s guide. That’s why many brands have strategic calls to action throughout their guides. Once a shopper feels confident in their decision to buy, a CTA can bring them straight to the product page. 

How to write a buyer’s guide

Now that you know why buyer’s guides exist, let’s look at how to create one for your brand. 

Define your audience and know who you’re writing for

Buyer’s guides aren’t generic documents. You want to address the challenges a shopper faces in the buying process. By knowing who you’re talking to, you can tailor content to a shopper’s values and needs. 

For example, if you know customers value good deals and saving money, you can highlight price differences between different brands and styles. 

You can learn this information a few ways:

• Surveys. Encourage customers and non-customers to take a survey. Ask questions about their demographics (age, family, occupation) and about their interests, values, and pain points. The goal is to find out a shopper’s challenge and what motivates them to buy. 

• Social media. Scan social media networks and see what conversations are happening around your product. A quick search on TikTok or Instagram can reveal tons of data about many consumer products. For example, search “coffeemaker” on TikTok and you’ll learn that buyers want coffee makers that are easy to clean. Consumers also like to make their own iced coffee with their machines. 

• Digital analytics. Look at your online audience to gain more information about their interest. Scan Google Analytics to discover user interest and behaviors on your website and understand what topics they find interesting. You can also tap into market research from Nielsen and Pew Research Center to uncover trends in your product category. 

Use more than one source of information. Don’t just rely only on interviews or only on surveys or only on digital intelligence. Using multiple sources helps verify ideas, behaviors, and motivations with stronger clarity.

Your audience’s buying habits can change as new trends appear. You may also discover new customer groups altogether as you research your buyer’s guide. Stay flexible and adapt to the data you uncover. It’ll help you create more effective content that drives sales.

Check out our article Finding Your Ideal Customer: How to Define and Reach Your Target Audience to understand your buyers even more. 

Lead problems with product-led solutions

You’ve done the legwork to define your audience and their challenges. Now you want to put that information to use. Build the outline of your buyer’s guide based on pain points and lead with the solution.

[A helpful buyer’s guide] gives shoppers takeaways and points to consider before jumping into an impulsive buying situation. I remember brands when they answer the questions I was asking in my head.

Want to answer the questions in your customer’s head? Use the following template to create your buyer’s guide:

• What is it? Open your guide with a brief overview of the product. Include a high-level definition and two or three top benefits of owning your product. 

• Types. Whether it’s outdoor adventure gear or televisions, there are often many models available to a shopper. Your buyer’s guide should review the different product types, individual benefits, and features, and how consumers use them. 

• FAQ. What common questions do shoppers have about your product? Be sure to create a section that addresses the most important ones. This helps shoppers overcome any hesitations and can lead to a sale.

• Considerations. What should shoppers look for when purchasing your product? 

• Social proof. Customer testimonials and reviews are a great way to build trust with shoppers online. Shoppers tend to rely on the opinions or actions of others to inform their own. Add in one or two testimonials to your guide to help shoppers check out your products and validate a purchasing decision. 

Include any other sections relevant to your product. For example, a new home owner buying a microwave for the first time may need details about features, use cases, or styling tips, while a family upgrading their 4K ULTRA HD TV may need to know when the best time to upgrade is. 

It all comes back to defining your audience and their struggles, and matching your buyer’s guide to those struggles to help alleviate their pains. 

Format your guide for fast and easy reading

People mostly scan when reading online. Large, dense paragraphs won’t communicate your product’s value to readers. The way you format your buyer’s guide influences whether someone buys or bounces from your page. 

Create a checklist to make sure your content has:

• The 80/20 rule. Most relevant information for readers is at the beginning of an article. 
• Jump links. Make it easy for readers to find the information they want.
• Bulleted lists. Help readers scan text quickly.
• Plain English. Sentences are short, between 15 and 20 words maximum.
• Jargon. Specialist language is used. Common and tired expressions are not (e.g., “leverage,” “utilize,” “skyrocket,” “cultivate,” etc.)
• Images. All images help describe arguments or points.

Wayfair, for example, understands that mattress types are a dense topic for its customers. Rather than write a wall of text describing them, it visualizes the information using an infographic. Readers can easily see the differences between the different types of mattresses and their best features in the following graphic. 

Use images and videos to break down long sections of text. Visuals deliver information quickly, with humans processing visuals 60,000 times faster than text. Bonus tip: you can repurpose this content for social media to promote your buyer’s guide, too. 

Optimize guide for search engine optimization

Sixty-three percent of all shopping begins online. People use search engines like Google to look for information about new products. If you can optimize guides to show up for those search terms, you can guide more traffic to your site. 

Take Best Buy’s microwave guide, for example. The page ranks for multiple high intent keywords, such as “microwave sizes” and “microwave buying guide.”

Google can also add the buying guide to your product pages. Notice how when searching for microwave ovens, Best Buy’s buyer’s guide pops up under the main listing. This drives more traffic to your buyer’s guide and can improve conversion rates in your store. 

Use SEO-friendly keywords in your headings and subheadings. Answer questions people are actually searching for, not what you think they’re searching for. This dictates the direction of your buyer’s guide and prevents customers from bouncing and trying to find answers elsewhere.

A few tips for optimizing your buyer’s guide for search engines include:

1. Find a target keyword in an SEO tool like Ahrefs. Make sure it’s related to your product, such as “microwave buying guide” or “television buying guide.” 
2. Include the keyword your page title and URL.
3. Send your guide through an optimization tool like Clearscope. This will tell you if the guide matches the intent of online shoppers. 

Add a CTA

The point of your buyer’s guide is to encourage a purchase. Placing CTAs throughout your page can help improve conversions and sales. You can use CTAs in two ways:

• At the end of your guide. Once people finish reading, you can guide them to your page of choice. Best Buy, for example, invites people to shop coffee makers or find a nearby store.

• Next to select products. If you’re mentioning multiple products throughout the guide, place relevant CTAs near the product. REI takes this approach by hyperlinking to a product page in a product’s title. You could also place a button near the product. 

Buyer’s guide examples

Good Housekeeping

Women’s magazine Good Housekeeping is known for its in-depth buyer’s guides. It’s research department, The Good Housekeeping Institute, tests every product in a given category and assesses the top models to create a truly expert review. A recent one that stands out is it’s guide to the best food processors. 

The buyer’s guide walks you through everything you need to know about food processors, including:

• If a food processor is worth buying
• The difference between food processors and blenders
• What to look for when buying a food processor
• How much to spend

Good Housekeeping makes the information easy to understand and scannable. This helps readers get the information they want, fast. For example, Good Housekeeping breaks down its top picks into a table with best-use cases, why it loves the model, and a Shop Now button. 

“The numbered content lets you jump to the sections you’re interested in,” says Jade Rowlett, Creative Copywriter at ecommerce marketing agency, Contrast, “while the landscape comparison guide shows the pros and cons of each one much easier than a portrait comparison guide, including useful headings like ‘best for X’ and ‘best for Y.’” 

Consumer Reports

Consumer Reports is a nonprofit consumer publication dedicated to independent product testing and consumer-oriented research. It’s no surprise to see it produces practical buyer’s guides. Similar to Good Housekeeping, Consumer Reports describes the testing used to determine what it thinks the best models of products are. 

Its Air Purifier Buying Guide opens with a story relatable to readers. It covers recent events such as wildfires and COVID-19, and how those events drive people to use air purification systems. These days, who doesn’t want a pollutant-free and healthy indoor environment? 

What stands out about Consumer Reports is the honesty and transparency. It discusses different types of air purifiers and buying considerations. Yet it also covers what air purifiers cannot do and what’s still unknown about the product, combating any misinformation out there on the web. 

Consumer Reports also provides readers with photos of key features to look for in an air purifier. Whether you buy online or in-store, you know exactly what you need from the air purifier and can identify it easily.

The guide also offers tips and recommendations for:

• Features to avoid
• Getting the most out of your air purifier
• Cleaning tips 
• More ways to improve indoor air quality

REI

American retail and outdoor recreation brand REI offers a great example of buyer’s guides written by an ecommerce company. REI puts its buyer’s guides under “expert advice” on its website, which builds trust with visitors looking for credible advice. The page is also filled with gift guides to help people do research before big sale events and holidays. 

REI’s buyer’s guides are concise and straightforward. If you click into How to Choose Insulated Outerwear, you’ll notice there is no lengthy description or story. REI leads with problems solved by a product solution. 

The first line leans into a common pain point for buyers, stating, “If you need a jacket to wear when conditions are so cold that a midlayer alone won’t cut it, you need insulated outerwear.” This helps orient the reader and tells them they are in the right place and that they’ll get the information they’re seeking. 

REI uses multiple calls to action throughout its buyer’s guide. For example, if a water-resistant down sounds like the best insulated outerwear, you’re only one click away from purchase.

Best Buy

Consumer electronics retailer Best Buy creates buyers guides for many of its electronics products, including activity trackers, major appliances, cameras, and more. 

What makes these guides unique is the format. Best Buy’s guides, like its Coffee Maker Buying Guide, don’t read like standard articles. Instead, they’re formatted for fast and easy reading.

Light paragraphs with headers and section breaks make the guide easy to scan and hold a reader’s attention. Reader’s can also jump to read about specific coffee makers they want information about right away, making it easier for readers to learn, decide, and head from the page to make a purchase. 

JB Hi-Fi

JB Hi-Fi is Australia’s largest home-entertainment retailer, selling computers, mobile phones, headphones, televisions, and more. It uses buyer’s guides to educate potential buyers about different products and help them make a purchase. 

It’s 2021 TV Buying Guide is built for today’s consumer. Many of the key points are in bulleted lists, which make it easy for people to read on mobile or desktop. 

The guide also covers topics we don’t always think about when shopping for a TV, such as:

• The viewing angle and how it relates to the TV you buy
• The differences between 4K ULTRA HD and 8K resolution
• What smart TVs are
• Different brands to choose from 

It even provides a list of reasons to upgrade your TV if you’re unsure. The copy is fun and relatable, yet professional. Paired with relevant images of TVs in use, the guide helps readers envision using a TV in their own home before buying it. 

Create your product buying guide today

Whether you’re selling used cars, clothes, or condominiums, buyer’s guides are essential to selling online. They help potential customers make informed decisions, improve conversion rates, and increase revenue. 

With the above tips in hand, you’re well on your way to building a powerful content marketing asset for your small business. Create your first one today. You’ll soon see the benefits of more leads and sales thanks to your buyer’s guide.

---

Ready to create your business? Start your free 14-day trial of Shopify—no credit card required.

Buyer’s guide FAQ

What is a buyer’s guide?

A buyer’s guide is a type of content used by online sellers to educate site visitors about a product. It exposes the shopper’s pain points, offers your product as the solution, and acts as a 24/7 salesperson that closes the deal for you.

What are the benefits of a buyer’s guide?

• Helps buyers make informed decisions
• Provides necessary specs and considerations
• Higher conversion rates and sales

What are examples of product guides?

• Good Housekeeping’s Food Processor Buying Guide
• Consumer Reports’ Air Purifier Buying Guide
• REI’s Insulated Outerwear Buying Guide
• Best Buy’s Coffeemaker Buyer’s Guide

The holiday season is a special time of the year and it’s an opportunity for email marketers to really shine.

Whether your customers and subscribers shop on Black Friday, Cyber Monday or scramble for that last-minute Christmas gift, holiday email marketing can be an impactful way to help increase holiday sales and maximize revenue before the new year.

”Email marketing is table-stakes for any ecommerce brand. What makes it so valuable, especially during the holidays, is that it is an opt-in channel. That means consumers choose to receive brand communications and look to it for holiday deals and product discovery.”

— Tracy Puckett, Content Marketing Manager, Omnisend

The best part? It’s never too early or too late to get involved.

If you’re looking for holiday email marketing tips or trying to drill down your holiday email marketing strategy, you’ve come to the right place.

Keys to Holiday Email Marketing Success

Email marketing can receive a bad reputation for being an oversaturated solution. However, the secret to email marketing success lies in your email content. 

No matter if you’re an established company or a small business, emails must be part of your greater marketing plan. Alone, they don’t have the power to convert your customers overnight.

Whether you want to promote sales and Early Bird specials, invite email subscribers to holiday events or showcase that perfect gift idea, use your email newsletter to further engage your customers.

Here are some keys to success:

1. Point customers to buy now.

The holidays are a busy time for your customers and convenience is key. Plus, a sense of urgency helps incentivize customers to purchase. It’s important to share your promotions in an exciting way.

Consider adding “buy now” buttons to your Black Friday emails and Cyber Monday emails that feature limited time deals and take customers directly to landing pages and products.

This streamlines the purchasing journey while delighting your customers during their holiday shopping.

2. Reach customers at the right place with the right message. 

Shoppers have never been more distracted, so it’s important to communicate with your customers when they’re listening.

Dive into your customer insights and metrics to learn when they are most active and which emails have the highest open and click-through rates. Identify what those emails have in common, whether it’s send day, time or overall messaging, and then send targeted communication based on that data.

Emails to Optimize During the Holidays

Gone are the days of looking at email marketing campaigns with a “set it and forget it” mentality.

To ensure your campaigns are effective, you need to consider your audiences, your goals and your possible return on investment (ROI). You also need to track these results to help you improve each and every campaign.

As your content marketing team prepares for the holiday season, take the time to review and update these three key holiday email templates:

1. Welcome Emails.

With traditionally higher open rates, it’s clear that welcome emails are a vital marketing tool.

For starters, a “season’s greetings” email helps you to kick-off the personal connection with your customer, which in turn will have an impact on their customer lifetime value (CLV). They’re also an opportunity for you to coax your customers back to your ecommerce store through loyalty program reminders, product updates, special offers and recommendations. 

Plus, when your customers open your emails, it’s a signal to their email service provider (ESP) that you’re a welcomed sender and won’t end up in the spam folder.

Here are a few quick tactics you can implement to optimize your welcome emails:

• Send it immediately, usually from the moment they have made their first purchase with you. 
• Make sure it’s recognizable — a simple, high-resolution logo placed at the top reminds your customers of exactly who is contacting them.
• Ask your customers to engage. Think small. For example, product recommendations with a “continue shopping” at the bottom prompts them to redirect to your store.
• Give the recipient an incentive to engage with your email. Coupon codes and exclusive offers are a great way to initiate this.
• A bonus during the holiday season is to give estimated shipping times or, better yet, tracked shipping and real-time shipping updates.

2. Promotional Emails.

Give your holiday shoppers insights and set expectations on what promotions you’re running during the holiday season. Here are a few things to include in your promotional emails to subscribers:

• Shipping information (including final delivery dates)
• Gift card services
• Gift wrapping options
• Customer service contact details

3. Abandoned Cart Emails.

An abandoned cart is the last thing you want. 

Usually, it means that something was wrong with or missing from the customers’ shopping experience.

Imagine what proportion of these you could convert just by setting up a compelling and automated abandoned cart email flow.

“A key strategy that is often overlooked is targeting your abandoned carts. Take some time to make a campaign plan to amend these emails to be relevant from November onwards to commence right from the Cyber 5 up to the January Sales. Make sure they are linked to the relevant URL. Maybe offer discount codes, promote payment services, let them know they can collect in store and try on, immediate delivery options if available or easy returns process if not right.”

— Alan Moore, Group Managing Director, RANDEMRETAIL

During the holidays, here are three of the main reasons people abandon their carts (and what your email needs to answer to solve for them):

• Shipping costs: Is it feasible for you to offer free shipping? Do you track parcels?
• Better deal elsewhere: Tempt customers back with price, sales and emotional cues.
• Out-of-stock: How can you capitalize once your products become available again?

For these customers, it’s crucial that you trigger automatic and instant abandoned cart emails that address their needs.

Holiday Email Marketing Campaign Tips

Let’s take a look at some holiday campaign strategies and tactics you can implement during this holiday season:

1. Check out recent trends.

Why reinvent the wheel? Instead, start with what worked last year. There have been some noteworthy email marketing trends over the years, including holiday gift guides, winback emails, mobile-friendly content and holiday-centric themes and imagery.

Holiday Gift Guides

Holiday gift guides are the perfect opportunity to showcase your best sellers and top-rated products for your target audience.

Using dynamic content, you can create digital gift guides that show relevant products to specific audiences that can help you cross-sell and upsell based on a user’s price sensitivity, demographic and personal interest.

Winback Emails

Winback email campaigns target customers who previously showed an interest in purchasing from your store, but some time has passed since they’ve engaged with you.

These campaigns are the perfect way to re-engage. Remind these customers why they were interested in you in the first place and even introduce something, such as a countdown timer.

The email should focus on:

• Reminding them about your brand.
• Reminding them why they initially showed interest in purchasing from you.
• Showing what product or related products they viewed.

Mobile-Friendly Content

Focus on getting the basics right:

• Clear, high-quality images that have been compressed to allow for fast loading.
• Concise content that grabs the customer’s attention and entices them to engage.
• CTAs that invite customers to your store.
• Website compatibility on mobile devices is core to the success of this. If completing an order on your store is a nightmare with a smartphone, don’t bank on any of the above.

Adding GIFs and emojis to your email design can add a nice touch as well, but they aren’t necessary.

Holiday-Centric Themes and Imagery

This is a simple one. Get your customers in the holiday spirit with themed content, just as long as it’s on brand.

2. Start planning early.

It’s never too early to start planning when it comes to the holiday season. For many business owners and marketers, that even means before Halloween.

Planning your holiday email marketing strategy and teasing it out is important so your customers know what offers they might expect.

By planning out in advance you are able to:

• Create the various pieces of content necessary to improve conversions.
• Review your content and strategies that led to high conversions in the past and implement them.
• Ensure you’re tracking important micro- and macro-conversion points for future data analysis.

3. Segment your email list.

Segmenting your email list is crucial.

Break out your email list into various segments that allow you to show relevant products to each segment. This can be a big job with a lot of factors to consider, but some email marketing apps like Marsello do the organization for you.

Customer segmentation creates an opportunity to cross-sell and upsell your customers, but it goes beyond that. You can use these groups to create lead campaigns and even use the same lists with your social media marketing.

“Treat your best customers extra nice this holiday season by giving them access to exclusive promotions and collections before the rest of the public. Tailor your offers via email and on-site to lock down which customers can access what deals.”

— Francis Pilon, Head of Global Partnerships, LimeSpot

Holiday email marketing segments to consider are:

• VIP customers.
• High average order value customers.
• High total transaction customers.
• Lapsed-purchase customers.
• Subscribers who have not made a purchase.
• Customers who haven’t bought recently: 30 days, 90 days and 180 days ago.
• Demographics: age, location, income.

Creating targeted messaging for each of these customer segments can improve your conversion rate compared to a generic, cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all email.

Top Email Software for Holiday Campaigns

Here are some useful third-party app and service integrations available with BigCommerce.

Use these to build better campaigns both on-site before visitors become subscribers and when you’re sending those important holiday emails.

1. Klaviyo.

With Klaviyo, you can:

• Use Klaviyo’s Flow Builder to automate touch points across the entire customer journey and use the pre-built templates to get started quickly before further targeting and personalizing every message.
• Seamlessly sync customer lists and segments to Facebook and Instagram in order to target the right audience on social media to help grow your business.
• Build emails using pre-made templates or create your own with HTML. Pull in product recommendations and other dynamic data to personalize each message. Ensure every campaign is maximized by targeting it to the perfect audience.

2. Omnisend.

Here are just a few of the things Omnisend offers:

• Welcome emails: Greet your shoppers and introduce your brand right after signup
• Combine email, SMS and push notification in your workflows to build consistent, omnichannel messaging.
• Email templates: Save time with beautiful, out-of-the box newsletter templates that convert. Customize as you wish.
• Signup boxes: Place an always-visible and non-intrusive signup widget so that your visitors can opt-in at any time.
• Segmentation: Improve your targeting by segmenting your contacts based on their shopping activity and more properties.

3. MailChimp.

With MailChimp, you can:

• Use key automations to keep the communication ongoing with your customers. Once these emails are set up, they will automatically deploy based on your criteria.
• Create and publish ads that recapture your potential customers’ attention and increase conversion with customers who were once engaged with your products and brand.
• Use the predictive insights tool to look at patterns in return customer behavior and can help you understand their likelihood of purchasing again.

4. dotdigital Engagement Cloud.

With dotdigital Engagement Cloud (formerly dotmailer), you can:

• Sync contact and subscriber data to grow your addressable audience and build out like-minded segments for retargeting.
• Use a drag & drop automation builder to craft omnichannel marketing programs.
• Send your transactional email marketing through Engagement Cloud for better reporting and a consistent customer experience with your brand.

5. JustUno.

Here are just a few of the things JustUno offers:

• Add exit intent pop ups to your site to capture emails before your visitor leaves.
• Engage and convert mobile traffic with mobile-specific pop ups.
• Prevent cart abandonment with targeted offers proven to convert shoppers into customers.
• Add the emails you capture to any list from MailChimp, Bronto, Klaviyo, Hubspot, Constant Contact, Rejoiner and more.

Spread Holiday Email Cheer

Email marketing is irrefutably important and can be a high-converting traffic channel for your business, especially during the holiday season.

Optimize key emails to drive conversions and ensure you account for mobile compatibility. Plan and strategize for the holiday season far in advance. Select the right email marketing tools for your business. Create captivating email subject lines. Let the data help generate other marketing ideas. Delight your customers with your holiday marketing ideas.

It’s time to start working on optimizing your holiday email marketing strategy and making sure it’s geared to get the results you want. There are countless email examples and ways to help your business spread the holiday cheer to your customers.