Keep up with the latest trends, marketing tips & product info.
As days become warmer and nights become shorter, we prepare ourselves for the upcoming summer season. This summer is a time for fresh beginnings with a newfound hope of better days ahead. As several floral holidays remain right around the corner, our FGmarket vendors are stocked and ready to help you make a splash this season! –
The new year is finally here and as the countdown to several major floral holidays begins, we want to help you prepare for the upcoming season! If the past few months have shown anything, it’s that the floral industry is experiencing a dramatic increase in demand. With this new demand comes the need for other essential items such as ribbon, vases, and all things floral. That’s where we come in to help! FGmarket is your wholesale source for everything you need to succeed. Check out what you need to prepare for this upcoming floral holiday season!
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2021 is right around the corner, and with it comes excitement for new opportunities in your store. Whether you’re a wholesaler or a retailer, it’s essential to stay ahead of the game and plan for upcoming seasons and holidays. Although the official “holiday season” that includes Christmas and Thanksgiving will soon be long gone, there are still many holidays just around the corner—especially for the floral industry. Valentine’s Day, Easter, and Mother’s Day are approaching quickly, and if they’re anything like last year, it’s crucial to start planning now. With a higher influx of floral orders comes an elevated need of vases, ribbon, flowers, and more. Even if you aren’t a part of the floral industry, this is still a critical season to prepare for, as it can set the tone for the rest of your year. The first quarter of the year is an important one and should have thorough preparation. Keep reading to find out what you need to plan for this upcoming spring season. –
As wholesalers and retailers, it’s crucial to always be preparing for the next upcoming season. Ensuring that you have all the products you need ahead of time can help prevent scrambling at the last minute or missing out on product sales altogether. Although there’s still holidays left in 2020, it’s essential to start thinking about the new year and the products you want to offer throughout 2021. –
The fall season is officially here, and that means the holidays are right around the corner. It’s time to stock your shelves with wholesale products that bring out the holiday cheer! Though this holiday season may look different than past ones, there is still plenty to do in preparation. Ensuring that you have enough time and inventory to keep your customers happy is the first step to your business’s success this holiday season. Whether your customers will be shopping online or in-store, we want to help make sure you are up to date with the most high-demand products this upcoming season. –
Are you ready to shake, rattle, and roll!? We are! It’s no secret that the baby business is booming. From 2017 to 2018 alone, the infant, toddler, and preschool toy industry has grown 6%. Considering that the study, published by The Toy Association, only contained data up until April of 2018, this is a pretty good indication of the future of the industry. For retailers and wholesalers alike, this is great news. The only trouble might be finding the right kind of toys to keep on your store shelves. We’ve done a little research of our own and found that there are a few kinds of baby toys that parents really go crazy over. Continue reading “Oh, Baby! Toys Worth Playing With” »
Every so often, the largest social media platform in the world, Facebook, decides that it’s time for a change in the way that its users see and interact with the content on their website.
Most recently, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that starting this year, Facebook will begin prioritizing content posted by your friends and family members, rather than businesses and interest pages, in your News Feed. They are moving the News Feed more toward “meaningful interactions between people,” according to a lengthy Facebook post made by Zuckerberg.
But this actually isn’t a new strategy for Facebook; they’ve been moving toward family-and-friend-focused content for the past few years, as far back as 2014.
As a business owner with a Facebook Page, this might make you a little concerned about whether the content you are posting on your business’s Facebook Page will continue to be seen by your followers or if it will be lost among the sea of baby photos and pictures of grandma’s cute kitty cats (all 10 of them).
But not to worry: this isn’t the end of Facebook Pages, you just need to rethink your strategy a little bit to learn how to adapt to the changes. And here are a few ways you can do that.
In Zuck’s Facebook Post, he very clearly laid out what Facebook is changing with their News Feed algorithm: a focus on engaging posts from people you know rather than businesses and other places. But that doesn’t mean that you, as a business with a Page, can’t be engaging as well.
In fact, creating posts that are engaging is what you’re supposed to be doing anyway with your Facebook content! Facebook is built around engagement and interactions between people. That’s why Zuck started Facebook way back in the early 2000s (well, that and as a way to rate the “hotness” levels of his fellow Harvard University classmates).
Focus on creating content that asks your followers questions, or encourages them to Like, comment on, and share your posts. Increasing your engagement lets Facebook’s algorithm know that you are interacting with your followers, which in turn can help to boost your overall post reach.
Live video is the future of video content. That’s evident everywhere you look, from Snapchat and Instagram Stories, to Periscope on Twitter and even the traditional video hosting sites like YouTube.
Facebook has also been making it known that they are prioritizing live video content in people’s News Feeds over other forms of content, even traditional non-live video content.
Live video can be a little more intimidating than pre-recorded video content, but don’t worry; you aren’t expected to do it perfectly every time. That’s the nature of live content!
Use live video to give a tour of your storefront or office, or as a way to give an update to your followers and see if they have any questions they would like to ask you. It’s a great way to create very engaging content.
Unfortunately, friends and family are always going to take precedent over a business’s content. But, what is interesting about Facebook’s algorithm change anouncement is that they never mention ads and sponsored posts being affected by this change. That means your paid posts will still be prioritized over everything else.
At the end of the day, Facebook is a business (albeit a business based on never charging their users to use their site, but still a business). That means they are in the business of trying to make money. And just like any free vs. paid version of a product, the people with the money will get their money’s worth out of the deal.
Buying ads is still the best and most reliable way to ensure that your content reaches your intended audience. Consider investing in paid posts in order to reach the most people.
If you find yourself simply not reaching as many people as you think you should be and you don’t have the time to fix it, then we would love the opportunity to help you out.
FGmarket offers a few Social Media Services packages that can help you to create and schedule your content on Facebook and even Instagram!
Our Social Media Services take the stress and worry out of having to come up with engaging content for your followers. We create the content and we schedule the posts during optimal times during the day to ensure that it reaches the most people.
If you’re looking for more information, visit our Social Media Services page and explore all that we have to offer you.
We may already be a few months into 2018, but it’s never too late to explore the top home décor trends and what customers will be searching for this year.
This year, vintage home décor, as well as heavy brass and copper pieces, are trending. On the other side of the spectrum, however, are more natural pieces, including stone and floral patterns.
Find out what’s trending for 2018, and see what your customers will be looking for this year!
A hot new trend in home lighting décor this year is artisan lighting fixtures. These are fixtures that think outside the box of traditional lighting. Check out this beautiful iron fixture from Marvel Lighting LLC/Margold Lighting.
Natural pieces can really accentuate the rustic or woodsy décor of a home. Stone pieces are a great way to contrast the natural look of wood with the roughness of rocks. Home Stone Imports is an FGmarket vendor that has a ton of great stone pieces that will look great inside or outside the home.
Floral patterns can be found everywhere these days: from dress shirts and ties to dinnerware, and yes, even home décor! The Little Birdie loves using floral patterns in their home décor. Just check out this awesome decorative pillow to see what we mean!
Having that old school feel to your lighting décor is big this year, and no one does vintage lighting better than Summit Lamp Corporation of Salisbury, North Carolina. Just take a look at some of their vintage, handcrafted colonial and Victorian style lamps, made with glass and brass.
Whereas rose gold and stainless steel were the hot metal trends and accents for 2017, brass and copper home décor pieces are making a big comeback in 2018. Both metals add a sense of strength and calm to any home décor. If you’re looking for a vendor that excels at providing both types of metals in their home décor products, check out Rustic Brands.
Home décor trends are always changing, but these five trends should get you through the rest of 2018. Be sure to stay on top of these trends to give your customers the fashionable products they are seeking.
Check out the different categories in FGmarket’s Home & Décor section to find even more great home décor vendors!
How many times have you heard this in your own company: “Well, we’ve always done it this way, so I think it’s safe if we just continue to follow the same plan that we’ve always had. It’s too risky to try to something new.”
There are many companies out there with leadership that thinks this way. And, whether they know it or not, this type of thinking is causing their company to remain stagnant, while other companies grow and surpass them in sales.
If you feel like this is your current mindset, and you’re afraid to move into newer strategies for attracting customers, we’ve got some great encouragement for you today. Keep reading to find out how staying in one place hurts your company, and what you can do to move on.
Keeping things the way they are isn’t inherently a bad thing. If something is working, and showing continual growth in your company, then, of course, it’s smarter to keep things going the way they are currently going.
But, if you see your company falling behind your competitors in terms of sales and customer growth, then it’s definitely time for you to start a new strategy.
Keeping things “the way they’ve always been” gives customers the impression that you and your company are old, out-of-touch, and unwilling to change.
Customers, especially those in the younger generation, i.e. millennials and younger, are looking for trendy, modern companies where they can spend their money.
One example of being out-of-touch is not having a website for your company. It doesn’t matter if you’re a towing company, a boutique, or an HVAC repairman; you need to have a website for your business.
A website is a place where customers can go to research information about you before they decided to call or come into your store. It also gives people the opportunity to leave reviews, contact you, and find directions toward your business.
When you’re trying to decide how to spruce up your business plan, you don’t have to jump in all at once; it’s better to dip your toes in first before taking a full dive.
Start with something simple, like setting up a Facebook Page for your business, or getting your business verified on Google My Business.
Not only are these things simple to do, they also don’t take a lot of commitment. If you don’t see any change in the amount of business you’re getting, then you don’t have to worry about any major consequences. No one will stop shopping with you because you’ve created a Facebook Page or because your business is now verified on Google. It’s a win-win situation for both you, and your customers.
If you see success in the small stuff, then it’s time to move on to re-evaluate some of your major marketing strategies.
A lot of businesses are scared to try new things when it comes to the marketing message, technology, advertising, etc. And this is precisely why many of them get left behind in the dust while their competitors continue to rise.
Start thinking about some new strategies for your business, in 2018 and beyond. Do you need to venture into doing work online advertising? Do you need to rethink your marketing message and tone to be more friendly and relatable instead of completely business-like? Is it time to rebrand your entire company: website, logo, etc.?
These are large-scale decisions that shouldn’t be taken lightly. They require thoughtful consideration between everyone involved in your company, but in the end, they could be the deciding factor between growing your company or losing business.
You’ve probably heard about this trend: simple blogging is heading out the door. Video marketing is the new king of content.
For the most part, that statement is correct. Although, that doesn’t mean you should drop blogging and traditional content creation altogether. What it does mean, however, is that your business should be pivoting toward adding video to your marketing strategy.
Video content is the most consumed form of content on the internet today. In fact, according to YouTube, almost 5 billion videos are viewed on their website every single day. Not only that, in just one month, users have watched 3.25 billion hours of video content.
Those numbers are staggering, and when we start adding in the number of hours users watch Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat videos, it grows exponentially. It’s hard to comprehend just how many hours of video content exists on the internet, but from these statistics, it should be obvious that it’s time for your company to dive into using video content as well.
In order to have video content for your social media accounts, you’ll first need to create your own video content.
There are lots of great and easy to use video editing software available, and many computers come preloaded with simple editing programs, like iMovie or Windows Movie Maker.
There are also great programs that won’t cost you an arm and leg to purchase, such as Movavi.
And if you are really serious about creating videos, and have someone who’s willing to put in the time and effort, Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro are high-end options that offer amazing tools and features to make your videos look as stunning as Hollywood blockbusters.
All of the video editing programs offer helpful tutorials to walk you through the basics of editing and exporting your video creations.
If you need even more help, YouTube is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to tutorials, and they are completely free!
After you’ve created your video, the next step is to decide where to post it. YouTube is the most obvious destination, and anyone serious about creating content for the internet should have a YouTube account to store all of your videos in one place.
But that doesn’t mean that YouTube is the best place to upload your content if you’re wanting to share videos on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
Facebook has re-engineered its News Feed algorithm many times over the years, but one of the major changes that is important for guaranteeing your content gets seen is its treatment of YouTube links.
Facebook penalizes direct YouTube links on its website by making sure that these links don’t show up in users’ timelines as often as video files that are directly uploaded to Facebook. When posting your video to Facebook, always make sure you’re uploading the video file directly to Facebook. This also guarantees that you’ll be able to view the analytics of your video, to see how many views it’s gotten, how much engagement, etc.
Twitter and Instagram work in the same way, although with Instagram you will have to upload your video content through a mobile device, such as a cellphone or tablet.
Uploading and posting your video content directly ensures that they will be made a priority on users’ timelines, and gives them a greater chance of being viewed by your customers.
So what do you do if your video content isn’t performing as well as you’d hoped online?
Sponsored content is the answer you’re seeking.
Whenever you want to boost your post and make sure it gets in front of more people, Facebook and other social sites usually offer a paid sponsored content option.
For Facebook and Instagram, you can set up your sponsored post for both websites from one hub, since Facebook owns Instagram. Usually, Facebook will suggest you boost a post if it is doing well, or if it’s not getting as much interaction as it should. There will be a button that says “Boost Post” on the post itself. Here’s a handy guide from Facebook to get you started.
The great thing about sponsored posts is that you can also target certain groups of people with your video, including those in certain age, gender, and regional groups.
Video content will only continue to grow year by year. Start implementing it into your social media marketing strategy and watch it change your company for the better!