Barrel.blog

It’s no surprise that ecommerce sales have increased in certain categories since the coronavirus pandemic swept across the country. 

As people spend more time inside their homes, the home goods industry especially has flourished. Home furnishings are essential as new home workers adapt their living space into their working space. And products that add a sense of coziness and peace at home are crucial to easing anxiety while stuck inside.

But as businesses around the country begin to open back up, it raises the question: Will home goods continue to be a strong ecommerce category once we’re not at home all the time? 

Continue reading “The Shifting Consumer Mindset: Why Home Goods Will Continue to Grow Following the Pandemic”

Email marketing is essential for most ecommerce and direct-to-consumer businesses. A healthy email marketing strategy includes targeted campaigns, promotional emails, newsletters, and automated flows.

But one of the most vital pieces of email marketing is often-overlooked: transactional emails. Transactional emails serve as one of the first touch points of customer service, and play a critical role in maintaining a positive relationship with customers.

Continue reading “Leveraging Transactional Emails for a Better Customer Experience”

Google recently announced in a blog post by President of Commerce Bill Ready that it would be bringing back free placements for Google Shopping on April 27th. This decision will change the way digital marketers function, and is likely to reshape the strategies of a number of search marketers.

Google explained that getting started with free placements will be easy and even automated for some. Marketers who opted in to “surfaces across Google” will be seamlessly integrated into the free placement launch. Those who did not will need to do so in order to be eligible for free placements. 

A more structured on-boarding process is expected in the coming months for companies that are new to Google Shopping.  

With the shift to free listings, it’s easy to assume that spending less on paid Shopping is a logical way to save on marketing spend. But spending on Google Shopping is still a wise investment, and optimizing your Merchant Center feed is more important than ever. 

Continue reading “Google Shopping Free Listings and What They Mean for Marketers”

In an increasingly globalized world of ecommerce, investing in multilingual pages only enhances the customer experience for your international consumers. 

Multi-language functionality is essential if your site already sees traffic from multiple countries. It’s also something you’ll want to consider if you’re looking to increase your international visibility and sales.

Translated content is full of SEO-rich keywords that improve your site’s organic search rankings when global users search in their preferred languages. And global visitors who can easily read your website are more likely to convert. 

Making your content available in new languages will attract new customers, grow your website traffic, and ultimately lead to a higher conversion rate. 

Continue reading “The Ins and Outs of Multi-Language Implementation”

The coronavirus pandemic has increased anxiety and depression around the world. 

Fears are high as people worry about contracting the virus. People are feeling lonelier than ever. And social distancing has removed the social interaction we need to feel normal.

But the beauty industry has emerged as an unlikely source of support to ease fears with its focus on self-care. 

Continue reading “Is Self-Care the Answer to Keeping Calm During Quarantine?”

Public health and safety are top of mind for most as we enter another month of social distancing. 

The Centers for Disease Control now recommends all people wear face masks when leaving their house, public parks and trails have been shut down, and businesses continue to struggle as storefronts and warehouses are forced to close. 

But for some, there’s a glimmer of hope of staying healthy throughout the spring with the help of immune-boosting products. 

Continue reading “Immune-Boosting Products Thrive During the Coronavirus Pandemic”

Reporting on the recommendations and campaigns we put into action is a large part of servicing clients. 

We’ve streamlined our reporting by switching to Google Data Studio and building customized dashboards for our clients.

Google Data Studio saves us time on gathering data and allows us to pull out actionable insights for our clients. 

Here’s how.

Continue reading “Upgrade Your Reports With Data Studio”

The turn of the new year and new decade was a hopeful one for many. But in early March, COVID-19 put a wrench in millions of people’s plans.

With social distancing and stay-at-home orders the new norm, many businesses have had to close their doors.

One industry hit especially hard? Studio fitness.

Continue reading “Live Classes, Community Workouts, and More: The Resilience of Fitness Studios During the COVID-19 Crisis”

If there’s one thing we can agree on, it’s that Super Bowl commercials are always weird. Some successfully so. Others, not so much. But even if you watch a Super Bowl commercial and think, “I don’t get it,” you probably remember it.

Who can forget the iconic “Whassup” Budweiser commercial that sparked an endless amount of pop culture references? And it was a Super Bowl commercial that brought us Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.”

What Super Bowl commercials dare to do that so many small brands fear is push the limits. 

Continue reading “What Super Bowl Commercials Get Right And What You Can Learn From Them”

At Barrel, we approach every paid social ad campaign with fresh ideas and a new perspective. It’s always exciting to start a campaign and see what intriguing creative concepts our team comes up with. Our success, in part, can be attributed to a framework we call The Barrel Emotion Index, which allows us to structure unique campaigns proven to resonate with audiences.

The Barrel Emotion Index allows us to prepare briefs and conceptualize campaigns with copy and creative that’s proven to work. It’s the secret sauce that fuels every campaign we work on — the reason we can make unique, engaging ads for our clients. It allows us to analyze trends by industry, brand, touchpoint, and a customer’s position in a purchase funnel, and then identify how to use our creative to generate the most desired consumer behaviors.

Continue reading “How We Leverage the Power of Emotions to Create Effective Social Ads”