Creating and maintaining a familiar and respected brand can be one of the most difficult things for any business owner. While you might look to competitors for inspiration when crafting your own brand, it might surprise you to learn that you could do just as well to follow in the footsteps of the National Lottery. Since launching in 1994, the lottery has become a British institution, paying out over £59 billion in prize money while raising over £38 billion for charities.

From adapting with consumer behaviour to boosting positive brand reputation, the National Lottery has managed to grow alongside its customer base, and remain as popular as ever.

Improve online interaction for customers

Every brand should already be doing making the most of their social media presence, but there are still steps businesses can take to extend their reach. Instead, this entails looking at imaginative ways your customers can interact with your brand, and with each other, online. This could be helping them find quick responses to issues or queries, or providing a place for users to engage with one another.

After launching in 1994, the National Lottery needed to adapt to changing consumer behaviour, especially after the boom of the internet. Players can now buy tickets, check results, and even collect their winnings online, helping the lottery retain its audience. This has since led to more options for users, such as organising and managing lottery syndicates—a group of players who pool their money together to maximise their chances of winning—online. Syndicates are typically made up of colleagues or a group of friends, traditionally requiring the handling of physical cash and entrusting a syndicate manager to be in charge of buying tickets and splitting any winnings. Now, however, online services simplify and automate the process.

Companies like Lotto Social have taken this a step further by allowing single players to enter, who are then automatically assigned a syndicate in an existing group. The company encourages online interaction between users, and provides a members-only area on their website. This enables players to communicate with each other and play bonus draws, keeping them on the website for longer periods of time and encouraging them to spend more money on games while building friendships within the syndicates.

Giving your target audience the chance to interact with—and through—your brand builds a community, and can help encourage repeat visits to your website. This could be with something as simple as letting users leave ratings and reviews on products in exchange for points or vouchers. The added incentive for money off future purchases can work to guarantee more product reviews and interactions, which can encourage new buyers.

Be wary of the risks of social media campaigns

Opening up your brand online and stepping up your social media game can be transformative for your business, but it is risky if you’re not careful. The National Lottery learnt this the hard way after one online campaign went awry.

Teaming up with British Athletics, Twitter users were asked to tweet a post from @TNLUK and include the hashtag #Represent. In return, they would receive a thank you tweet, which included a photo of one of the athletes holding up a sign that showed the account name, which was automatically rendered to save both time and money. However, the Twitterati quickly hijacked the seemingly wholesome campaign, changing their account names to humorous or offensive names and statements. The National Lottery were later compelled to apologise for the campaign going off track.

The campaign was disabled and inappropriate tweets were deleted, but screenshots survived, immortalising the brand’s monumental fail. If you are looking to run a similar campaign, where images or responses will be automatically generated online, make sure you consider the risks. More often than not, if prankster social media users can take over an entire campaign, they will.

Boost your brand’s reputation with charitable donations

A recent survey found that UK consumers are more willing to shop with philanthropical businesses, with 40% of customers even saying they would stop buying from a brand they deemed not ethical enough. Out of the 2,025 consumers polled, 54% admitted they’d like to see sustainably sourced products available for purchase, 38% wanted the company to tackle social issues, and 69% wanted evidence of contribution to the local community.

The National Lottery has recognised this shift towards ethical consumerism, and has started emphasising the charitable side of the game. A large portion of lottery ticket sales funds projects, including donations to youth and sports projects. Noticing the shift to customers wanting to see the local communities benefiting, the focus was switched in late 2018 to helping the homeless. An advertisement featuring homeless people having their hair cut went live as part of the “Amazing Starts Here” campaign, showing off the brand’s charitable side.

The campaign seemed to have worked, as the National Lottery enjoyed an increase of £175.9 million in the first half of the 2018/2019 year in comparison to the same period the year before. Any business will be able to replicate this success by simply highlighting their own charitable efforts, and taking extra care to focus on the local community first while pushing a positive brand identity.

Leading relationship expert Sami Wunder specialises in working with successful, independent women around the world and helps them attract a healthy romantic relationship with a man who is a match for them!

Sami Wunder became a love coach for high achieving women, based on her own life experiences, where she found herself a high-achiever in her professional life but struggled unexplainably in her love life.

An MPP graduate from Germany´s renowned school for public policy, the Hertie School of Governance and a gold medallist in Economics from India´s top college in commerce and economics, Sami´s love life looked the complete opposite of her professional success.

While working in the international development sector as a consultant, it was a heart-breaking experience with a man she loved that finally inspired Sami to dive into studying dating and romantic relationships.

Having always been an ace student, Sami was amazed at what she learnt and how our unhealthy patterns in romantic relationships have much do with our childhood role-modelling, our self-esteem, and an incomplete to zero understanding of how attraction actually works for men (it´s way beyond just good looks, for example!)

Within nine months of her personal transformation, Sami was engaged to the man she would marry. Today, she´s in the 6^th year of her happy marriage and they have a son.

It was in 2016 that Sami decided to leave her successful career in international development and instead set up a coaching business, teaching other successful women like herself how to use the skills she had learned to attract the right romantic relationship, without compromising on their careers or intelligence.

Sami Wunder is passionate about all strong and successful knowing that it is possible to have amazing love, and amazing professional success, all at the same time.

Her work has seen tremendous success in a short amount of time. Love can be a hard crack to code say Naturally Dating who organised events for people looking for love.

She is the CEO of a highly successful company that now reaches over 54K + strong, successful women across 30 countries around the globe and over 100 of Sami´s clients have found soulmate love through her work and several others found the love back in their relationships and marriages.

Why Successful Women Struggle in Love

Sami´s classic client is the smart, successful woman leader who has it going for her in her professional life.

This woman knows how to take charge, be in control, lead, plan, execute and be the one many people turn to, when in a crisis.

While on the outside it seems to outsiders that this woman has it all together, on the inside she is often hurting when it comes to her romantic relationships.

Even though she desires to have a passionate partnership with a good man, Sami´s client often has a hard time finding a man who is a match to her level of talent and intellect.

Secondly, when she does like a man or feels like she´s found someone who has potential, these men may not necessarily be interested in her romantically and can fizzle out or ghost without an explanation.

This otherwise successful, amazing, sensitive woman may also get the feedback from men that she is un-approachable or that they cannot seem to connect and “feel for her” at a deeper level.

Many of Sami´s clients are therefore left feeling embittered and sometimes disliking men all together or wondering whether love is meant for them at all. Their bad experiences in dating also make them conclude that good men are intimidated by their success and strength, something that Sami vehemently opposes.

The Sami Wunder philosophy revolves around helping women in these types of situation to develop the skills they need to attract and maintain healthy relationships, without compromising on their professional success.

Wunder explains women how their “doing” (masculine energy) may have got them professional success but it is their “being” (feminine energy) that will help them attract amazing love.

Wunder supports women through a range of group coaching programs and high -end VIP private support to develop and hone healthy dating skills, self -love and feminine energy, personalising the coaching for each client based on the underlying reasons why she is still single.

Masculine and Feminine Energies

A large part of the teachings of Sami Wunder revolve around recognising the difference between masculine and feminine energies and teaching successful women how to harness their feminine energy in dating while keeping their masculine for work.

Each gender has both masculine and feminine energies inside us, which can be described as ‘doing’ (masculine) and ‘being’ (feminine) energies.

Many strong, successful women, the majority of Sami´s clientele, spend large parts of their lives harnessing their masculine energy to achieve professional success. This is all about doing, leading, controlling, planning, pushing forward.

While this is great for professional success, it can hinder these women when they bring the same masculine energy into play when dating.

The scientific understanding behind this is that attraction in romantic relationships is based on the presence of polar opposite energies. The presence of polarity leads to sexual tension and attraction.

Therefore, a woman who wants to attract a strong, ambitious and successful man must learn how to do so using her feminine energy.

Women who lead with their masculine energy, often attract men who are more in touch with their feminine side and this is okay if they´re happy.

However, what Sami notices is that many strong, successful women would prefer to be with a man who is more goal-oriented, ambitious and driven than them– precisely the type of men who are not going to be attracted to masculine energy in women.

Hence, a woman who knows how to reconnect with her feminine energy and embody that when dating will naturally become irresistible to men, teaches Wunder.

This is the science of attraction in operation.

Embracing Your Feminine Energy

Embracing and harnessing the power of feminine energy that already exists inside of you is one of the keys to finding romantic success, according to the Wunder philosophy.

This doesn’t mean compromising on career choices or other aspects of life that require a harnessing of masculine energy.

It does involve learning to let go of that masculine energy and embrace your feminine in personal relationships.

Wunder explains how women who find that the men they date often say they find it hard to connect with them are likely giving off the wrong type of energy to attract the kind of man they want.

She insists that it is not about playing unintelligent or helpless, but more about becoming a feminine diva.

By respecting a man to take the lead in relationships and seeing yourself as the prize that deserves to be pursued, you allow a man to be in his masculine energy for you.

Your only job is to lean back and receive in your feminine energy.  This sets the stage for the polarity of energies to build attraction between highly successful women and men, based on the science of attraction.

When you approach romance with this knowledge, you can see how you can be highly successful in your career and you can still attract an amazing man in your life, if you don´t lead with your masculine energy in your love life.

A big part of accessing your feminine energy is also allowing yourself to be vulnerable and soft and letting men see you this way.

Embracing emotional vulnerability is not a sign of weakness as many strong women of our generation may have been taught.

Becoming a High Value Woman

A high value woman understands that she is the prize in love. She stays in her attractive feminine energy and lets the man choose her and give to her.

This involves practices such as letting him plan dates, initiate contact and pursue his ‘prize’.

High value traits therefore include the ability to receive, joyfully and actively, without feeling pressure to return in the same proportions.

A high value woman knows that the pleasure of her time, company and attention are gifts enough for a high- quality man. That she is giving to him, albeit not in a masculine way.

Next up, inner confidence, the knowledge that we have choices when it comes to dating and an ability to feel worthy of attention and gifts are all high value traits.

A high value woman puts her own needs first and maintains high standards, never settling for less than the best treatment from a man.

Sami Wunder´s work is revolutionising the way strong, successful, feminist women, approach their love lives and it´s truly making a difference!

For more relationship advice, follow Sami Wunder on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

It’s exciting to watch customers learn what you have to offer when you launch your eCommerce store. As they browse your inventory and buy your products, it’s easy to feel a sense of accomplishment. However, as wonderful as it is when new customers find your site, keeping the old ones coming back for more is key to ensuring the longevity of your business.

To accomplish this, you need to give them a reason to buy from you again. With so many new eCommerce websites launching every day, offering great products may not always be enough. Yes, fielding terrific stock is important, but knowing how to retain online shoppers will ensure they choose you over the competition every single time.

Customer Retention

First off, what is an eCommerce website? According to Shopify, a popular eCommerce platform provider, eCommerce is the sale of goods in exchange for digital dollars over the world wide web. Because the Internet is so large, many e-sellers believe there is an infinite expanse of potential customers.

Funny enough, many eCommerce websites that find success with retaining customers do so by offering their shoppers a sense of temporary status. That’s a bit counter intuitive, but it is true. Offering a guest checkout option has been proven to help boost conversion rates, and even bring back customers.

Why do customers enjoy the ability to bypass creating an account?

Everyone has their reasons, but a main influencer is the lack of intrusion. If prompted to create an account, some customers can feel they might be bombarded with emails, promotions and other materials they probably get enough of already.

If a customer is not interested in these things, offering them a way to shop while still allowing them to avoid these marketing tactics allows them to feel autonomous. This entices them to spend more money and return frequently.

On the other side of the coin, some shoppers love the idea of being kept in the loop. If you run sales, add new products, and even just promote what you have to offer, some customers love hearing about it. This helps them keep you in mind when they shop.

For that reason, a strong email marketing campaign can go a long way.

If you have a customer who subscribes to your email list, you can assume they are interested in your products. Impressing them with great copy writing, flashy visuals and concise marketing pitches can influence them to click-through to your site and shop some more.

If they don’t want this, they won’t choose to subscribe.

Crafting  a strong brand also leads to robust sales. The easiest way to boost your brand is to create a catchy insert to add to your packaging. If branded packaging seems too expensive for your operation at the moment, come up with other ways to catch the customer’s attention when they open your shipments.

Perhaps you have a friend who could do a small series of artwork inserts. Have them do a larger piece that can be cut up into smaller parts that still make sense when viewed. Launch a social media campaign to challenge your customers to collect all of the pieces to create the larger piece of art. Offer a discount code or a free gift to the first 10 winners.

Or, it can be a simple as adding a note of thanks, along with a declaration of your mission statement to help your shoppers connect with you. In the end, it’s all about building a relationship with your customer base to ensure that they look to your store as a source of enjoyment

Grow with the Flow

Building a new flow of customers is tough but keeping them is tougher. In order to retain customers in the online space, it’s important to stand out in a unique and original way. Whether that’s a creative email marketing campaign or some fun packaging add-ons, there are no wrong ways to promote return sales. This is particularly true when you have the customers’ best experience in mind.