How I used Digital Marketing to grow my small business...

When I first started my business, I anticipated it to be a local business selling ethnic jewelry to people in my city. Two years later, I reached 1000+ customers across 23 states, 80% of who live outside my State..

This would not have been possible without the use of Digital Marketing strategies and Social Media tools to create awareness and generate Demand. What follows now is a few learnings I gathered along this Journey and strengthen my resolve to make a career a Digital/Social Marketing Professional.

The first few months of my business was mainly local. But then, through word of mouth and customer referrals I started receiving calls and emails from outside town. This prompted me to take my first step which was setting up a Facebook Business Page. I spent some time designing the page and uploading my products on the page and tagged my local customers and friends (with their permission of course).

Quickly it reached about 100 likes in span of 2 days and most people were friends and “friends of friends”. This is where I first tried advertising on Facebook. I had some free Facebook Bucks and I thought I would use them on Facebook ad’s to increase my LIKES. I spent $5 of those bucks and in 3 hours I had 2000 likes. And most of those profiles did not even seem real.

I stopped the Facebook campaign; painstakingly deleted the likes generated by this 3 hour campaign and started working on other means of increasing my audience organically.

Then I started tracking and analyzing the data Facebook provides for business pages. I started identifying which of my posts are generating customer conversations and having an impact on the popularity of my page. I also started tracking the sales, especially after specific posts/promotion.

After identifying what worked, I made it a regular practice to create posts that generate customer engagement – these included regular contests, giveaways and seasonal sales. I also created the ability for my customers to post their photographs wearing my product and that has very positive impact. I posted my product videos on YouTube and provided clickable links for my Facebook page and my website. I applied principles of SEO to add the right kind of key words into my website.

Over two years, I got my hands wet applying various Digital and Social Media Strategies, figuring out what worked and did not. I learnt a lot along the way. This experience demonstrated the power of utilizing these strategies to drive customer engagement and was one of the core reasons why I am currently pursuing roles in Digital Marketing & Media.  This is also the reason why I completed the Digital Media Specialist and Strategist Certifications in Cisco to support my practical knowledge with the science behind Digital Marketing.

Ipsy My Glam Bag July 2013 is here!!

Yay!! My first subscription box arrived today and I am totally thrilled about it. I have been reading a lot of blogs about how these monthly subscription boxes are the "in thing" now. After a through research on which subscription to subscribe, I finally decided to go with Ipsy My Glam Bag. I joined Ipsy in June 2013 and just received my first package today. (excited)

This month's theme is Beach Beauty and the products came in a pink plastic bag which almost looks like a cylindrical pencil pouch.

So here's what is in my bag:

This one is a palm sized hair spray. I never tried this brand.

This one is a lip crayon from Pop Beauty. Unfortunately this color doesn't suit my skin tone. It's a kind of very light pink and it  vanished in my lip color. :-(

This is called Coola Mineral Sunscreen for face. Again never heard about this brand before.

I am soo looking forward to try this lip and cheek tint from Benefit Cosmetics. Seen it a lot of times in the stores but never picked it up. Having a sample of this is great, since now I can decide whether I want to indulge in a full size product or not.

  

The last one to add to the list is this mini eye shadow palette called "California collection" from bhcosmetics. Again, I never heard or tried this company before. The three colors are named "Hollywood", "San Francisco", and "Malibu".
  
Hollywood is a kind of deep purple and I am going to use it more as an eyeliner than an eye shadow.
San Francisco is a nice shimmer Bronze and Malibu is a shimmer gold.

Overall, except for the Pop Beauty lip crayon I like everything in the bag and I am already looking forward for my next month's bag. Really, it's so much fun getting surprises in the mail. Love.

If you would like to subscribe to the Ipsy bag, please click here Ipsy

Amy Butler Birdie Sling

Yay! I finally finished making the much talked about Amy Butler sling.  It took me two days to finish this, (and that is between cooking, shopping and everything else)…not bad. 

The fabric I used is Treetop Fancy Aqua by Tina Givens.

Here's a close up.

The inside.

I had to customize this bag a little by adding a zipper pocket and magnetic snap (the original pattern had just twopockets and no snap closure).  I never use a bag without a zipper pocket and I would prefer my bag to close shut instead of things falling all over the place.

The only thing I disliked about this pattern is there are way too many things to cut.  But once it's done, it looks sooo adorable.

And the thing I really love about this bag is it’s huge.  Yes, and I mean HUGE!!  Which means I can carry loads of stuff (I usually carry a truck load of stuff in my bag, bigger bag = more stuff = happiness). 

I have a few more bag patterns which I may end up sewing pretty soon.  But now that classes have picked up, there are many unfinished projects vying for my attention.

And before I go here's a pic of some super cute Hydrangeas from my garden.  

YAY! For Craft Classes!!

No, I did not go to a craft class. I started teaching instead.

I finally took the big leap and decided to teach stuff I know.  As many of you know, I continue learning all the time and there is no better way of learning more than teaching what you know.

Here are some of pics of the cards we did today. The kids and I had loads of fun making these fun cards.

Kid 1

Kid 2

Don't you think they did an awesome job?  I am super impressed.

Card Making Part2

Back with some more pics of cards we made. You can check out the post here.

This one is completely hand drawn and shaded with pencils. (Design taken from Creative card making book).

Hope you all have a wonderful week ahead.  

Card Making!!

I am back after a long break.  And this time it’s not soap or sewing.  My big girl tracked out of school for 3 weeks and she had a blast playing with her baby sister who recently turned 15 months.  She is toddling all over the house keeping us extremely busy, with little or no time left for blogging. 

Now that Valentine’s Day is coming closer she wanted to make some handmade cards for her friends and she wanted me to teach her how to make cards.  So we collected all the stuff like stamps, colors, cardstock and some distressed ink and got on to the job.

Here are a few we made.

We still have a few more to make and I will post more pictures once we are done.  Have a great weekend you all.

Soap story from Bellingham, WA

Hello Blog land!!! How have you been?  I know I know! It’s been a while since you saw me around, but life with my 10 month old has become way too hectic.  The moment she sees me on my computer she is all over me trying to pull out the keys!!  When she sleeps, I am too tired to do anything, so I just sit and have a cuppa tea before she is up again.  But, with all these little things, life has really become sweet seeing all the pranks this little one is up to each day.  We all have a hearty laugh seeing her pranks; especially big sister is having tons of fun.  We are having a gala time.   

Moving on to the blog post, we recently visited my brother’s family in Seattle.  And guess what I did during the trip?

I visited the Soap Queen’s Otion Soap at Bellingham, WA ! Yay!! I had a design a class scheduled with Otion Soap as part of my birthday gift and Boy! that was fun.  I had a wonderful time learning all the good stuff from Kathryn Hackney aka Kat. She is an amazing instructor with tons of patience.  I was really impressed with her hard work and passion for Soap making.  You can check out all the good stuff she posts at Soap King Blog.  I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Anne Marie, yes, Anne-Marie Faiola aka Soap Queen.  Can you believe it??!! I have been watching her videos since the past 2 years and it was so exciting to meet her in person.  I had great time learning from her.  

Here is a visual treat of all the goodies we made.

Have a great weekend you all.

Indian Blouse Part 2

Finally, I got some time for a blog post.  I made many indian blouses till now.  Indian blouses have both very simple to very complex patterns.  These are just a few variations on how they are made.

Here is the final version of the Indian blouse I talked about in my previous blog post. 

Both the front and back neck has a piping with metallic gold single fold bias strip which is available in most fabric stores.

Back View:

I attached fabric tubes at the back with beads.  This part is optional, though fabric tubes act as a support to hold the shape for deep necks.   

Side view:  I cut out two motifs off the extra part of the saree and patch worked it to the back of the blouse. 

Front view: This blouse has front opening.

Here‘s another version of the blouse with opening at the back.

Sleeves can be of various lengths, short, 3/4^th sleeves or long. 

This is another variation where the opening is on the side.

P.S: This dress form is not my twin.  I haven’t had a chance to buy my twin yet.  I just fell in love with this antique singer dress form and it had to come home with me.  Indian blouses generally are worn with a very snug fit unlike what you see here on the dress form.

Urban Decay Naked Palette.

Holy Moly!! Look what I finally bought.   After hunting for months, 3 weeks ago I finally got my hands on the ever so famous Urban Decay Naked Eye shadow Palette.   It was sold out on Urban Decay website, Ulta and Sephora.  And people who were selling this palette in places like Amazon and eBay were minting money by charging twice its original price (ouch).

I called up Sephora to find out about a Benefit product I was interested in and during conversation the sales executive told me that the one palette they had was on hold for someone and if that person does not turn up,  this gorgeous beauty can be mine.  Lucky me, I got it!!

As is obvious I am a total sucker when it comes to eye makeup.  Beauty for me lies in One's eyes. He he.

I am posting this to let you guys know this sinful palette is back again in the Urban Decay website.  YAY!! Grab one before it goes out of stock.

Indian Saree Blouse.

Finally, I got to spend some time in my sewing studio and here’s what I have on my cutting table.

It’s a work in progress Indian Blouse.

I am doing some patchwork on the back bodice and I will be adding metallic piping to both front and back neck.

I will be posting more pics once I am done sewing the blouse.  


So, what’s on your cutting table?

My Blog has a New Name!!

YAY!! you heard it right.  Finally, after mulling over for a long time, I decided to change my blog name to something that reflects more of all that I do than just sewing.  So, here I am with my Handmade By Lalli avtar.  

A short and sweet post...

Just wanted to share a few pictures of my little pumpkin who is going to be 5 months soon :) Time flies, Really!!

This little lady is very demanding, and she is thoroughly enjoying all the pampering from Big sister, Mommy and Daddy. :)

Granny Stripe Blanket

Or the more appropriate title should be The Long forgotten post!!

I finished making this blanket a week before I delivered my baby.  While blog hopping I came across Attic24.  It was such an awesome blog I just couldn’t help but read the entire blog right from the day she started to the current post.  I think there are very few blogs that can make you do that.  I am so glad I found this blog.

If you would like to make a Granny Stripe Blanket for yourself just follow her instructions here.

Her blog is so lovely colorful and inspiring.   She also keeps adding loads of interesting tutorials.  Check them out. 

Life changes so much when you have a newborn at home.  Just hoping to get back to my studio as soon as possible.   Grow up fast kiddo, momma needs some “me” time now.