#Sticker Mule Blog

Our approach to compensation at Sticker Mule

2016-12-08T00:00:00+00:00

Compensation is hard to get right. It's a tool to keep us aligned, but it's easy to design a compensation strategy with harmful side effects. Our obsession with simplicity serves us well so we opted for a strategy that’s easy to administer and understand.

Our approach is to pay above market wages for all positions. While many companies develop bonus programs that are difficult to understand and create undesirable incentives, our simple approach encourages financial discipline and long term thinking while reducing anxiety.

Encourage financial discipline

Doing more with less is the only way to pay exceptional wages. This incentivizes us to avoid wasteful spending, such as over hiring, and to be vigilant about hiring top performers, designing effective processes and avoiding low impact activities. Doing these well strengthens our ability to provide exceptional compensation for the long term.

Encourage long term thinking

Bonus programs tend to encourage a short term focus by tying compensation to annual results. We hope our team retires at Sticker Mule. Paying above market wages encourages us all to be committed to making our company financially stable for the long term.

Reduce anxiety

Some companies use bonuses to compensate people because they can be reduced. This creates anxiety for both employers and employees. Employers stress about the disappointment created if bonuses don't meet expectations while employees, who have limited control over results, have anxiety over exactly what their bonus will be. By focusing on offering exceptional wages, we reduce uncertainty and make a lasting commitment regarding pay.

How we determine wages

We design sensible pay grades that define what a person makes based on their role and years of service. Grades may be revised upwards based on changes in the job market or nature of a job, but we do not offer wages to new hires that deviate from our system. If a grade increases, it constitutes a pay raise for everyone on it.

Why we don’t use equity based compensation

Companies use equity to encourage long term thinking and reduce costs by exchanging wages for equity. While these are desirable characteristics, equity-based compensation has downsides. It shifts risk onto employees and requires outside investors to allow employees to realize the value of their equity.

By avoiding investors, we have absolute freedom to focus exclusively on the well-being of our customers and coworkers. We can be as big or small as we want and grow at a pace that’s sensible and pleasant. Our freedom allows us to attract exceptional people and maintain outstanding employee satisfaction.

How No Treble grew to 450,000+ page views a month with sticker giveaways

2016-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

We all have unique passions — and we want to be around people who share similar passions and hobbies. The best websites bring content and passion to their audience and avoid trying to make everyone happy.

Every day, there are millions of other people waiting to discover websites and join communities for their specific interests — from design sites like Dribbble to cooking sites like the Pioneer Woman to startup news like Techcrunch.

For an entrepreneur, this means opportunity.

It’s a chance to create a community for obsessed, dedicated fans who share similar obsessions. Plus, it’s a way to grow a loyal audience who return to your site, and buy your products, again and again.

To give you an example of someone who has created an incredible community for a passionate niche audience, take a look at Corey Brown.

Corey, the founder of No Treble, saw an opportunity to create a community for his biggest passion: instruments.

A web consultant and entrepreneur since 1995, Corey wanted to combine his experience with the web with his obsession over bass to create a side project.

The site started small, and he heard concerns from his friends and family:

"You’re targeting a really small group, maybe you should pick a larger audience."
"You’re wasting your time. There’s no way this could be a profitable business."
"How are you going to make money? Are you sure you don’t want to focus more on your actual career?"

Instead of listening to the doubters, Corey pushed ahead. Today, No Treble is one of the most popular niche music sites on the web with 450,000+ monthly visitors and healthy revenue.

We’re going to show you how Corey created his small community for niche bassists and grew it into a thriving business.

Let’s get started.

How Corey grew a unique niche and community into a successful business

Corey’s idea for No Treble started because he wanted to share his passion for bass with a larger audience.

Obsessed with finding the latest news on bass, Corey couldn’t find any bass-focused online magazines like he craved.

For example, on one site Corey would read a great interview with a bass guitar legend. But if he wanted to find information on new amps, or tips for improvising, he’d have to spend hours searching other sites until he found what he was looking for.

To fill his own need, Corey came up with the idea of a “one-stop shop” for bass aficionados like himself.

At first, Corey didn’t care about making it into a business. All Corey wanted to do was build the best collection of bass articles, videos, and content on the web. “I never did create it to make money, I never created it to be big,” Corey explains.

Coming from a career in web consulting, Corey put his idea into a website he called No Treble. It only had a few blog posts and a couple photos of bass instruments, but it was a good start.

Every day, as Corey kept adding content, he thought about how he could introduce other bass fans to his No Treble site.

Getting the brand in front of the right faces would be difficult. Corey had a shoestring marketing budget and he had to make every dollar count.

After exploring a few inexpensive marketing solutions, he found an effective way to grow the brand inexpensively. He found his magic bullet.

How stickers helped Corey skyrocket his niche website into a massive success

In June of 2009, with No Treble only a month old, Corey realized something: "I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do to grow the website. But I knew I was a sticker guy, so I wanted them to be part of the mix."

Corey used stickers as an experiment to grow the site and fan base.

I even saw my stickers on the amps of famous bass players. They were everywhere I looked."

As a trial run, he printed 1,000 three-inch custom circle stickers. He wrote a notice on his website: anyone who mailed him a self-addressed envelope would get a sticker sent to them for free.

The results blew Corey away. "As time went on, I could barely pull the envelopes out of the P.O. Box. There were just so many."

Every day, dozens of letters would arrive. People wanted to show their love for bass wherever they could — and they wanted to do it with No Treble stickers.

Seeing how successful the sticker trial run was, Corey doubled down.

Riding on the interest of his fans, he urged anyone who received a sticker to send pictures.

Hundreds of emails came in.

No Treble stickers were on cars, computers, bass cases...and even bass guitars!

Corey posted every picture on Facebook. Soon, his stickers started going viral. Every time he posted, he had dozens of curious bass fans writing, “I NEED THIS STICKER! Where can I get it?”

Day in and day out, Corey sent new stickers to everyone who asked.

To keep up with the growing demand, he started searching for companies to print his stickers en masse. It was at this point that Corey heard about Sticker Mule. “I loved what Sticker Mule was doing, so we switched over our business.”

With more stickers printed, the chatter surrounding No Treble kept growing.

Passionate bass fans were sharing the No Treble stickers every day. They’d post about it on their Facebook. They’d tweet about it. They’d even tell their friends in-person over drinks.

The "small" website that friends told Corey would be a waste of time was exploding with an obsessive, highly targeted audience of fans.

"I was getting pictures from friends who saw No Treble stickers on cars in different cities. I even saw my stickers on the amps of famous bass players. They were everywhere I looked."

As the stickers continued to go viral, international bass fans caught on.

But because of postal restrictions, Corey wasn’t able to mail self-addressed envelopes back overseas. So he decided to create and sell a special pack of stickers anyone could buy.

"I started a simple online order form where you could buy 1, 5, or 10-packs of stickers. It was incredible because I sold more 10-packs than anything else," Corey told us.

Selling stickers helped No Treble scale the brand and reach more people — and it helped push this “small” niche website into a sustainable business.

With No Treble’s sticker experiment, success is in the numbers. As the main marketing tool the brand used, stickers helped grow the community into 450,198 monthly pageviews.

Corey is quick to point out how stickers were responsible for No Treble’s success. “Free stickers made it a turning point for us. It was the catalyst for us getting involved in product sales and building a sustainable, passionate business. I never would have guessed we’d mail out 10,000 stickers like we did in 3-4 years.”

Today, No Treble still has stickers as their product staple — and the growth from stickers has allowed the brand to start selling t-shirts, books, and more. Even better, it brings in enough revenue for Corey to keep it going, hire world-class writers, and create a thriving niche community.

And if Corey was able to grow his niche community into an exploding business, you can too.

To help you get started, here’s our step-by-step system on how to use stickers to grow your own niche website or idea.

How to use stickers to take your idea, product, and website to the next level

Step #1: Follow No Treble’s lead and order stickers.

Die cut stickers are a great place to start. Use a logo or another piece of branding that your customers and fans will identify with. Our stickers are weatherproof and waterproof, so your biggest fans can put them anywhere they want — from their cars to laptops to their outdoor gear. Stickers are a great way to help push viral growth and skyrocket word-of-mouth marketing 2-5x for a fraction of the cost. (Also check out our custom sticker sheets.)

Step #2: Give away stickers as a free email sign-up perk. Corey gave away stickers to anyone who sent a self-addressed envelope to his P.O. Box. But keeping track of a P.O. Box can be a hassle. Instead, we recommend creating a simple form to request a user’s name, mailing address, and email. Getting an email address gives you the chance to add them to your email list and send offers in the future.

Step #3: Once you start gaining traction, sell special stickers to generate revenue. When No Treble received too many requests for stickers (especially internationally), they saw it as a potential revenue stream. Today, you can buy six different kinds of stickers on their website. Although the greatest benefit is still to spread the word and brand, it can bring in additional cash too.

To see the exact stickers No Treble used to grow their niche community from 0 to 450,198 monthly views, visit their store.

Introducing Rump: Hot-sync two Redis databases using dumps

2016-11-30T00:00:00+00:00

We're thrilled to announce our first open source project: Rump!

Rump is a tiny little tool focused on one simple thing: getting live data out of an AWS ElastiCache Redis cluster.

We faced this problem when trying to get our staging Redis containers in sync with our production cluster. At Sticker Mule we heavily use Docker and CoreOS, relying on an ElastiCache cluster for our Redis needs in production.

Lately we wanted to make our staging environment as close as possible to our production environment, and Redis is part of it. Here's the journey that ultimately led to Rump.

Don't block

We had one simple requirement: do not block production while getting data. The single-threadedness of Redis is an important aspect to take into account.

Surprisingly we discovered that ElastiCache ships with some commands disabled. Basically all commands you can use to safely transfer data.

BGSAVE

The standard way of manually triggering a back up of a Redis database is issuing a BGSAVE, and waiting for it to finish in the background, a non-blocking operation. Unfortunately this is disabled, unless you go with the AWS internal implementation of the snapshot feature.

SLAVEOF

Setting up slaves is another interesting option Redis offers, and it would have been the perfect choice for us.

The plan was to set temporarily the staging Redis containers as slaves of our production cluster, getting live data. Unluckily SLAVEOF too is disabled, there's no way to add slaves to an ElastiCache instance.

Existent tools

There are many awesome Redis tools around that try to simplify the administration of Redis servers, dumping to JSON, etc.

The problem is that most of the stable, maintained tools, use the KEYS command to get keys, and then operate on the keys. The KEYS command has an O(N) complexity, heavily blocking Redis when N is high, until all keys are returned. Staging containers get created and destroyed frequently and we have a good number of keys, we don't want to DoS our own server.

It was clear we needed a simple tool to just do the sync. We started playing with SCAN to get the keys, and DUMP/RESTORE to get/set values.

SCAN is an O(1) command, safe to run on a production server to get all keys, and because of that its implementation has to be different than KEYS. SCAN returns a group of keys currently present in the DB, and a cursor to the next group.

DUMP/RESTORE make the job of reading/writing values independent from the key type.

With this in mind, here's what Rump brings to the table:

Non-blocking progressive keys reading via SCAN.
TYPE independent values operations via DUMP/RESTORE.
Pipelined SCAN and DUMP/RESTORE operations.
Reading from the source server and writing to the destination server are concurrent. Rump doesn't store all keys before writing to the destination server.
Single cross-platform binary, no dependencies.
Minimal footprint, UNIX philosophy, it does just one thing with two flags.

We hope the tool will be useful to those experiencing the same troubles we had, and many, many thanks to Redis for supporting such a wide array of commands!

P.S. If this is of interest to you, consider joining our team or send us a message.

How to use Image Trace in Adobe Illustrator

2016-11-03T00:00:00+00:00

The Image Trace feature in Adobe Illustrator is the quickest way to convert your image to vector format for high quality printing at any size.

Unlike raster images, vector images are made up of mathematical paths that allow the design to be scaled infinitely while retaining its quality.

Here’s how to easily convert a raster image into a vector image using the Image Trace tool in Adobe Illustrator:

Step 1

With the image open in Adobe Illustrator, select Window > Image Trace

This will bring up the Image Trace panel.

Step 2

With the image selected, check the Preview box. This will give you a live look at your image in vector format. Don’t worry if it doesn’t look great right away – there are more steps to go!

Step 3

Select the Mode drop down menu, and choose the mode that best suits your design.

Step 4

Next, adjust the Colors, Grays, or Threshold slider. This slider will change depending on the mode you select, however the functionality between the 3 sliders remains similar.

Colors - Maximum number of colors used for tracing.

Grays - Grayscale accuracy from 0 to 100.

Threshold - Pixels darker than threshold value are converted to black.

If this is too low, it might make your image too plain. And if this is too high, it could make your image too complex. However, this all depends on your unique image.

Step 5

Toggle the Advanced menu down to bring up more options.

Step 6

Adjust the Paths slider.

This sets the number of paths in your design. Fewer paths means a simpler design, but if there are too few of paths it can distort your image or make it appear boxy. Conversely, too many paths can make the edges of your design very rough looking. Again, this all depends on your unique image - so it’s best to find a happy medium.

Step 7

Adjust the Corners slider.

This controls the amount of corners in your design. Less corners will make the curves of your design more rounded, while more corners will make the curves of your design sharper.

Step 8

Adjust the Noise slider.

The noise slider tells Illustrator to ignore parts of your design that fit within the pixel amount set. A higher amount will result in less noise. This can very useful for eliminating artifacts of your design that aren’t supposed to be there. However, it can also eliminate important parts of your design that are smaller, so as always, find a happy medium that works for your design.

Step 9

Click the Expand button and save your image as an .ai, .pdf, or .eps file.

Now that you have vector image, you can have it printed as a 1” inch die cut sticker...or an 8 foot wall graphic and it will look great!

Principles of Manufacturing

2016-10-27T00:00:00+00:00

We use principles to guide decision making for each area of our business. Here are the principles we use in manufacturing:

1. Safety > quality > delivery > cost

It's not worth operating if we do not keep people safe. There's no reason to ship product that is defective. And, there is little value in trying to save money if we do not deliver on time.

2. Design processes so that anyone can perform them

To scale, you need to make processes intuitive so that you can quickly add staff when needed.

3. Judge people primarily on attendance

Attendance is a straightforward evaluation metric. It’s mostly all that matters if processes and positions are well designed.

4. Manage via metrics

Focus on turnaround, labor productivity, material utilization and quality. Making these a primary concern avoids distractions.

5. Share metrics publicly

Metrics always improve when they're visible. The important thing is to pick the right ones to share.

6. Talk to people

Keep good relations with people to stay abreast of problems and spot opportunities to improve.

7. Talk to attorneys

Always get advice on how to handle personnel problems. Don't assume your instincts are correct.

8. Use pay grades

To ensure people are treated fairly, design sensible pay grades and do not deviate from them.

9. Do not use incentive pay

Incentives are difficult to design and maintain. It's best to design processes and positions so that there is minimal productivity variance among staff.

10. Recurring savings > 1 time savings

Do not fret about 1 time savings or expenses. Recurring costs are what matter.

11. Don’t tolerate malicious behavior

Mistakes happen, but it's unacceptable when harmful acts are intentional.

12. Discuss important situations verbally

Manufacturing problems can rarely be solved via email. It’s best to talk about them.

13. Err on the side of extra training

People tend to want less training, but it's best to err on the side of more. This is especially important when training is provided by 3rd parties since it's difficult to schedule additional sessions.

Concluding thought

We aim to build the most productive and happiest manufacturing operations you’ll ever find. Our principles are designed to bring consistency to our decision making so that we are always headed in that direction.

How Ugmonk grew from a side hobby into a full-time, profitable business

2016-10-20T00:00:00+00:00

What if you could share your unique gifts with the world?

What if you could create gorgeous, life-changing products for your obsessive customers...who buy from you at the drop of a hat?

What if you could make money doing what you love — on your own terms, without having to answer to any bosses or clients who ask, "Can you create a version with a little more red and just a tiny bit less blue?"

Jeff, the founder of the highly-respected apparel brand Ugmonk, designing on his own terms.

Maybe some of you have already started down this path.

For example, you might have a side business creating art and selling it on Etsy. Or, you might have a small tent at at your local artisan fair selling hand-crafted organic candles.

Or, maybe some of you are still dreaming about getting your passion off the ground. You know you have creative gifts to share with the world, you just haven’t had the time to get it going yet.

Either way, whether you’ve already started a small business or you’re still in the idea stage, the goal is usually the same: eventually evolve and grow your side hobby into a full-time business.

But, while we dream about the day we can write our own check, it’s easy to get stuck. You might be asking questions like...

What are the actual, no-B.S. ways to get a business started?

Where do I find customers?

How do I grow a business idea into a brand people love, represent, and obsess over?

The good news is, today we’re going to introduce you to someone who grew his side hobby into an exploding business. A business where he gets to share his passions with the world, on his own terms, and exactly the way he wants to do it.

Meet Jeff Sheldon, the founder of the acclaimed, gorgeous, and evolving brand Ugmonk.

The beginnings

Design is something that's always been in me. As a child, I'd sit there and draw for hours with my pencils and crayons."

Growing up, Jeff couldn’t stop scribbling and designing on pieces of scrap paper.

Everywhere he went, he brought pieces of paper so he could draw for hours. Shapes, words, people. It didn’t matter. Jeff was obsessed with creating beautiful designs, and refining until it was perfect.

Creating and refining beautiful designs stuck with Jeff as he got older too. When Jeff graduated college in 2008, he moved to northern Vermont to start a design job at a small marketing agency.

But when Jeff jumped to the professional world in 2008, he was unimpressed with the designs he saw. He wondered why the art and so-called “creative work” he noticed was so bland.

“I wanted to know why it was so tough to find fresh, high-quality, unique items in a modern aesthetic. I felt like the design culture at the time was really lacking in this area,” Jeff told us.

Coming home from his job every day, he put his design skills to work on the side. He’d sit down with a pencil and paper, brainstorming ideas until the early hours of the morning.

Every night, Jeff spent hours drawing, refining, and evolving his ideas.

After a few months, he launched a group of his favorite designs on a small batch of t-shirts under a new brand he called "Ugmonk." The designs were based on his love for typography and minimal design shapes.

Early Ugmonk t-shirt designs

In August of 2008, three months after graduating and spending hours every night perfecting his designs, Jeff put four different t-shirt designs, on 200 t-shirts in total, up for sale.

After sharing on social media and sending to a few friends, Jeff’s designs were posted on a few smaller design blogs. And he sold out of his first batch of orders.

Staying patient

Through the first two years, I continued building Ugmonk by working late nights and weekends. I wanted to be extra-careful with my growth."

Sold out of his first batch, Jeff could have reacted by quitting his full-time job and throwing everything into the Ugmonk brand.

But he didn’t.

Knee-jerk reactions and rushing around without stopping to think was counter to what Jeff believed.

He wanted to grow Ugmonk slowly. Methodically. With a careful eye. He wanted to let it evolve naturally, and he wanted to make sure everything was perfect — even if it meant intentionally slowing down the opportunity to grow.

"Ugmonk was born of a desire to create products and designs that I personally liked. It’s not designing for the trends, not trying to please the masses," Jeff says.

So every night, Jeff kept working in his studio. Away from the chaos and pressure, he created.

And revised.

And revised again.

In 2009, a year after Ugmonk started, Jeff hit the jackpot. He launched an insanely popular t-shirt called And Then I Woke Up. It continues to be one of Ugmonk's best sellers today.

Jeff’s And Then I Woke Up t-shirt design. Beautiful and sold like crazy.

"When I launched the And Then I Woke Up shirt, I knew Ugmonk was here to stay. It got picked up on all design blogs and got a lot of positive feedback which fueled me to keep going," remembers Jeff.

The success of And Then I Woke Up is another chance Jeff could have taken to quit his job. But he didn’t. He still didn’t want to feel rushed with his Ugmonk brand.

Jeff put in another year building out Ugmonk on the side. He worked more late nights and weekends to refine designs, organize logistics, and pack orders by hand.

And with each new design, word-of-mouth spread like crazy and the t-shirts would sell out.

Finally, almost two years after starting the brand (and with momentum continuing to build), Jeff decided it was time to make the full-time move. He left his job so he could take Ugmonk to the next level.

Going full-time

I wanted to focus all my energy on creating amazing designs at Ugmonk. I decided I had to fully focus there so I could do that."

With attention now fully on Ugmonk, Jeff could expand and grow his ideas for the brand.

But in order to keep Ugmonk growing and fund his new plans, Jeff had to make sure the business was generating revenue. In other words, Jeff had to find brand "staples" he could rely on for steady income.

This flies in the face of conventional wisdom in the apparel industry. Typically, apparel companies only sell products for a year. After the year is finished, they discontinue the old designs no matter how well they’re selling.

Once again, Jeff decided to take the unconventional route.

Instead of discontinuing designs after a year, he decided to keep his most popular designs indefinitely (like And Then I Woke Up). Jeff wanted to give people who discovered his brand the chance to buy a design he poured his heart and soul into.

Jeff says, "These designs are as fresh and exciting to someone seeing it for the first time as they were to me six years ago."

This gave Jeff the chance grow his business from stable income on proven designs while he focused on creating new designs that were riskier bets.

Custom rectangle stickers by Sticker Mule

One-off products and special collaborations

I don't mind asking for help. Outside of design, I never consider myself an expert who knows everything."

As Ugmonk gained more attention, the t-shirts sales were increasing. Jeff could have stopped and created t-shirts with the same designs for the rest of his life, resulting in a good living.

But it was never just about t-shirts. And it was definitely not just about the money.

Jeff knew he had to evolve the Ugmonk brand as his own interests evolved. "Ever since the beginning, Ugmonk has really been about my passion for design," Jeff says.

He started looking for the chance to create gorgeous one-off products — and collaborate with other experts.

"These projects apply my design sense to a new product and industry, and they [the collaborative partners] bring their own expertise."

A recent collaboration was inspired by Jeff’s love of specialty coffee. Specifically, a small local family roaster in Lancaster, Pennsylvania called Square One Coffee.

The Ugmonk x Square One Coffee collaboration.

“Square One is one of my favorite coffee roasters. It felt like the perfect fit,” Jeff said.

The result is a premium Ugmonk x Square One Coffee product, including a limited number of hand-crafted leather Chemex collars. Unlike the t-shirts which have been around for years, once the Ugmonk x Square One coffee products are sold out they’ll be gone for good.

At the end of the day, there's no secret game plan for Jeff to get into the coffee industry. It's a way for him to have fun and combine his expertise with another expert in their respective field.

"I'm not interested in making coffee as a part of my business going forward. It was a fun collaboration that had incredible results. People loved the coffee and the design. For me, that’s success," Jeff explains.

And sometimes, Jeff creates one-off products on his own. "Not every product that I design is available indefinitely, but I love exploring new product categories and experimenting with different types of products all based around the same minimalist design aesthetic."

For example, to celebrate the 8th birthday of the Ugmonk brand this year, Jeff created a special 8th anniversary set for his followers.

The anniversary collection includes...

Special 8th anniversary tee made from tri-blend fabric (making it the softest Ugmonk shirt ever)
Metal coaster laser cut from 3/16” raw steel and sealed with a matte lacquer
Custom-designed slide-out box Jeff created from scratch to hold the tee and metal coaster in ultra-premium packaging
Numbered letterpress card, each with a unique numbering from 1 to 200

Like the limited edition coffee products, once the 8th anniversary set is sold out it's not coming back. Jeff launched with two hundred 8th anniversary sets priced at $75 each...and within 24 hours he only had 50 left.

Combined, the limited edition coffee products and the 8th anniversary set have made five figures for the Ugmonk brand. Plus, more importantly, they’ve let Jeff express his artistic vision and grow Ugmonk in new and exciting ways.

Quality is never sacrificed

Quality is more important than quantity. I'm focused on refining designs and making something I’m proud of."

Jeff refuses to let "average" happen with Ugmonk.

Everything about the Ugmonk brand is premium, "It’s worth paying a little extra for way nicer quality. I make sure everything, from the labels to the packaging, is the way I envisioned it and the quality people deserve and anticipate.”

In a recent blog post, we were honored when Jeff mentioned he used Sticker Mule for his premium label packaging on his coffee. "Sticker Mule is really well priced, and the quality is premium," Jeff wrote.

We asked him to explain more: “I knew when I was creating labeling and packaging for anything, I had to use Sticker Mule. I didn’t even give it a second thought.”

Jeff’s obsession over quality can be seen across the other Ugmonk products too.

Coffee products made with premium leather? Check.

Tees made with an ultra-soft hybrid of cotton, polyester, and rayon? Check.

Laser-engraved coasters crafted from special bamboo wood? Check.

When it comes to quality, Jeff doesn’t make any sacrifices with the Ugmonk brand.

Never satisfied, Jeff made some recent critical changes to the brand in 2016 to make the quality even better.

Eight years after the Ugmonk brand originally launched, Jeff introduced the biggest change in Ugmonk history "over a year in the making." The end result was a total rebranding Jeff calls "Ugmonk 2.0."

The new vs. old Ugmonk logo

At a glance, Ugmonk 2.0 might like just a new logo and a prettier website. But there’s a lot under the hood. The redesign goes much deeper than a simple logo change.

To carefully evolve into the next phase of Ugmonk, Jeff crafted a creative brief, tweaked hundreds of logo concepts, designed a secondary logo, and even produced new custom packaging.

There were no stones left unturned. Jeff re-imagined Ugmonk from the bottom up to make sure version 2.0 matched his vision and how the brand has evolved over the past eight years. In the process, he set up the brand for success years down the line.

So with upwards growth, a new design, and freedom to create whatever he wants, what’s next for Jeff and the refreshed Ugmonk brand?

"I don’t know honestly," Jeff tells us bluntly. "I have a few ideas, and that’s to keep things going down the same path because it’s working at a scale and at a pace that allows me to do it. Of course, remaining small and on-purpose is huge too. And I'm always thinking about new product categories."

As Jeff carefully plans the next steps for Ugmonk, transparency with his fans and followers is critical. To show a full view behind the curtain, Jeff shares his insights, step-by-step artistic process, and other behind-the-scenes details in the Ugmonk Journal.

Whatever Jeff decides is next for Ugmonk, it’ll be beautiful, created with the best quality in mind — and uniquely Jeff.

Follow Jeff and the Ugmonk brand as it evolves.

Plus, while you’re starting your own side hobby, you can use the same premium labels and stickers Jeff obsesses about and uses.

From side project into a thriving business

And to help you understand how to evolve your own side hobby into a full-time business, we partnered with Ugmonk to create two unique challenges to get your side hobby growing into a flourishing, full-time business.

Your Ugmonk & Sticker Mule Challenge

Collaboration challenge

"I love the power of collaborations and one-off projects. I think it can benefit both designers and artists wanting to start a side hobby, and those of us who are a little further down the road."

One-off and collaboration projects help get your foot in the door with new contacts who can help cross-promote your business, and they create a sense of urgency so your customers and fans will act quickly. And, my favorite part is collaborations and one-offs give me the chance to experiment and try something totally new.”

How can you grow your side hobby with a one-off, limited edition product or service? Or, who can you reach out to about a potential collaboration?

Action Steps:

Brainstorm 3-5 potential businesses or people you can collaborate with
Reach out to the expert or business you want to collaborate with (if you need inspiration, check out this blog post called How to get the attention of your favorite expert which includes word-for-word email scripts).

Leave a comment below with your progress and experience.

Premium experience challenge

At Sticker Mule we love to surprise and delight customers with experiences that delight and surprise. That’s why we provide free artwork help, customized packaging, expedited shipping and we even include special thank you cards signed by our team members. Similarly, Ugmonk used ultra-soft tri-blend tees for the 8th anniversary set, instead of standard cotton like others would have.

These "little things" add up and they can separate you and your products or services from all the noise and competition in your industry.

Similar to Jeff using Sticker Mule’s rectangle labels for his labeling to showcase the quality of his brand, how can you separate yourself from your competition or other businesses out there with a “small” increase in quality?

Action Steps:

Spend 15 minutes writing down the different cogs in your business from messaging, packaging, shipping, and unboxing.
Identify 2-3 areas you can improve the quality and give your customers a premium experience.
Price out what the 2-3 premium experiences will cost, and pick 1 premium experience based on the cost and the potential positive impact for your business or idea. (For example, a label or die cut sticker used to seal a box is a cost effective way to improve your customer’s experience and spread your branding.

Leave a comment below with your progress and experience.

What is the difference between raster vs. vector images?

2016-09-20T00:00:00+00:00

Raster images are made up of a bunch of tiny pixels, while vector images are made from mathematical paths.

Why is this difference important and what does it actually mean?

Let's pretend you have a raster image that is 300 x 300.

While you could easily make the image smaller, there is no way to increase the size of the image without decreasing the resolution or recreating it entirely.

Now let’s pretend you have a vector image that is 300 x 300.

Because a vector image is made up of mathematical paths, you can increase the size of the image as much as you want and it would never decrease in quality. You could literally increase the size to 3 million x 3 million and all the details would still look sharp (assuming your computer could handle a file that big).

This difference usually makes vector images a superior option, especially when it comes to print. However, there are times when using raster images might be your best option. For example, photographs are always raster images. Converting a photograph to a vector image is possible, but will usually result in a drop in detail.

In this case, you might want to keep your image a raster file. As long as the resolution is at least 300 pixels per inch, your image will be able to be printed just fine.

It's also common for vector images to be converted to raster images to make them more accessible on the web. For example, Google’s standard logo on Google.com is actually a .png file, while the design itself was originally created using a vector editing software. The .png file is very small (16kb) and makes for a quick loading page. But when it comes to printing, Google would want to use a vector version of their logo.

If you plan on using a logo, text, or illustration for print, we recommend tracking down a vector version of the artwork if possible. Otherwise, try to get the highest resolution version of the artwork possible.

Common raster file types:

• .png
• .jpg or .jpeg
• .gif
• .tif
• .psd

Popular raster-based image editors:

• Adobe Photoshop

Common vector file types:

• .eps
• .ai
• .pdf
• .svg
• .sketch

Popular vector-based image editors:

• Adobe Illustrator
• Sketch

How Lauren James used stickers to help build an 8-figure lifestyle brand for women

2016-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Bzzzzzzzt...

That's the sound of another text message hitting your customer’s phone.

Go ahead and add it to the tally. Every day, your customers:

• Send and receive 67 text messages
• Get bombarded with 122 emails
• Exchange dozens of Snapchats with friends
• Tune out most of the 3,000 different product advertisements they see (like yours)

In other words, your customers are overloaded with options and the digital market is crowded.

This is especially true for ecommerce companies, which make up about 12% of the Internet and where competition is brutal. The Internet graveyard is littered with failed ecommerce companies like One Kings Lane, which was valued at $920 million in 2014...but sold for $30 million this year.

For ecommerce brands, failure comes at an especially massive cost.

So with so many other ecommerce businesses out there, how do you gain traction and separate from the pack?

How do you create loyal customers who keep coming back — and excitedly tell everyone they know about your brand?

How do you grab the attention of new customers who will spend hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands on your brand over their lifetime?

Today, we're going to show you the secrets. You'll learn:

• How to separate your brand in the crowded ecommerce market
• How to retain your current customers with ease
• How to get new customers at a fraction of the cost

We’ll introduce you to an ecommerce clothing company that created a thriving brand, grew to 8-figures in only three years, and hacked their way to success using unconventional — and effective — marketing tactics.

And the best part is, you can implement their strategies starting today.

Joining the crowded ecommerce space

Meet Lauren James, an ecommerce clothing company with thousands of deeply loyal customers spending thousands on their brand.

Lauren James was founded in 2013 by husband-and-wife team Lauren and Lance Stokes.

Inspired by the blend of southern classics and modern clothing for women, Lauren fell in love with fashion and wanted to share her inspiration with the world.

Starting out, Lauren and Lance decided to focus on fashion for women ages 18-35. After designing a small batch of clothing, they launched a small private label line as a market test — and sold out.

With the business idea validated, Lauren and Lance knew they had a product market fit.

Next, they wanted to grow the company.

With the private label line, they successfully got their business in front of a couple hundred customers...but how could they reach thousands? Or even millions?

With so many “traditional” marketing methods overused and ineffective, they knew they had to go an unconventional route to effectively (and inexpensively) attract potential customers.

In other words, Lauren James needed to:

Separate their customer experience from the millions of other ecommerce websites
Attract new customers at a fraction of the cost
Keep current customers coming back and avoid churn

Embracing a nontraditional growth hacking mindset, Lance took the first step: create unique, breathtaking designs for their sweet "tees" collection. Today, they have more than 500 designs that customers love.

"We try to maximize the artwork and original content," Lance says. "A ton of time is spent on artwork for tees."

With their new beautiful designs now on tees, they needed a way to get them in front of a large audience.

And, most importantly, they needed a way to generate word-of-mouth marketing buzz (and ROI).

The surprising way Lauren James generated tons of revenue and increased customer loyalty

Lauren James decided to try a fast, easy marketing test: custom stickers.

With every order Lauren James shipped, they also sent the customer a free beautifully designed die cut sticker.

At the start, they knew most new customers were only wearing Lauren James clothes and repping the brand once or twice a week — not every day.

But stickers can go anywhere. Customers can put them on...

• Notebooks
• Car windows/bumpers
• Laptops
• Cell phones
• Water bottles

And dozens of other places people see...Every. Single. Day.

To market their ecommerce brand, Lauren James didn't use expensive SEM management. They didn't use a PR firm. They didn't use consultants creating expensive marketing videos.

Just a few stickers placed in every order.

This simple addition to each order cut through the noise and secured customer loyalty.

Our team is always finding new ways to connect digital convenience to tangible experiences — stickers are a part of that."

It was crazy inexpensive word-of-mouth marketing for the creative startup, and it helped them hack their way to growth and success.

It wasn't just vague "brand awareness" either. The results were in the numbers — word-of-mouth took off, organic search tripled and sales increased.

For only about $0.10 per sticker, Lauren James was surprising and delighting customers (and seeing a direct effect on its bottom line).

Today, if you go to YouTube you’ll see more than 7,000 unboxing videos for Lauren James. These videos cost the company absolutely nothing.

Lauren James’ rabid fans are ecstatic to open their Lauren James package, show the world what they got, and proudly place their stickers anywhere they can.

"Our team is always finding new ways to connect digital convenience to tangible experiences — stickers are a part of that," Lance said.

Today, stickers are an integral part of Lauren James. And, they provide a massive ROI.

Lauren James used stickers to:

1. Launch a blog

"When we were launching our blog, Styled Sweet, we sent out special Styled Sweet stickers with every order. It drove traffic to the new blog which in turn increased social sharing," Lance says.

2. Create a gigantic newsletter list with ready-to-buy customers

"If you sign-up for our newsletter, we'll send you a sticker," Lance says. "We capture emails, shipping addresses, and generate future customers just for the price of a sticker. It's also a great way to create a positive first connection with soon-to-be fans."

3. Generate sales

Lauren James saw such incredible results with giving away stickers that they started selling them. Today, they have over 100 different stickers their customers love.

Customers often share their love for the stickers on social media or on YouTube in unboxing videos, for example a customer recently said, "The stickers are such nice quality, I'm so excited to stick this on my car" in an unboxing video.

Today, the team has grown to over 115 employees and three retail stores with more on the horizon — business is booming for Lauren James.

So what’s next?

Lance told us, "More sticker promotions!"

Capturing emails and future customer information for only the price of a sticker!"

5 Proven tactics Lauren James used to become a 8-figure business

To grow your own ecommerce business, here are 5 proven tactics Lauren James used to grow to a multi-million dollar company with 115 employees. You can start implementing these today.

Strategy #1: Use newsletter opt-ins — with a twist

Lauren James, like most websites, tries to get users to opt into a newsletter. From the business side, a newsletter lets Lauren James nurture prospects and turn them into paying, happy customers...who come back again and tell their friends.

But, growing a newsletter in such a crowded market is easier said than done.

To combat the noise, they offer an incentive: a free sticker.

"Capturing emails and future customer information for only the price of a sticker!" Lance says.

And it’s worked — with opt-in rates far above the industry average Lauren James sends out thousands of free stickers to future customers every month.

To get start this for your own business, create an simple email opt-in page asking for a prospect’s name, email address, and mailing address. Use Wufoo, SumoMe, or any other tool that allows you to collect their email address and information.

Then, you can put the email address in a lead nurturing campaign and increase your chances to sell to the prospect by 2x or more. If you already have a large email list or email your customers regularly, try creating an "Insiders' List" and use stickers an incentive. Use this list to grow referrals, offer special deals for promoting your company online, and more.

Strategy #2: Make an amazing unboxing experience

On YouTube alone, there are 7,000+ Lauren James unboxing videos. These videos are posted by excited fans of the brand and they don't cost the company a dime.

Best of all, they sell Lauren James’ products without Lauren James having to do anything.

To make the unboxing process special and create viral marketing, Lauren James gives beautiful stickers away for free with every purchase.

In your own business, think of one quick change you can make for your unboxing to be better.

When your unboxing is better, your customers will want to share with their friends and the world (and they’ll also want to come back and purchase).

Strategy #3: Create a viral sales loop so your customers sell for you

Lauren James started putting stickers in every package they mailed. Their customers put stickers everywhere — on laptops, notebooks, cars, and anywhere else.

The key lesson here is make it easy to share: it’s common for loyal Lauren James customers to give their stickers in their 2nd, 3rd, or 4th orders to friends who will then visit the website (and maybe purchase).

Instead of wasting time on marketing and advertising, Lauren James puts a sticker in each order — which only costs about $0.10 extra. How's that for effective bootstrapped marketing?

Stickers and other items like custom magnets or custom buttons are an inexpensive and effective way to build a viral sharing loop so your customers sell for you.

Strategy #4: Pour gasoline on the word-of-mouth marketing fire

Lauren James creates a viral marketing loop for their stickers, which can cost 60-75x less than traditional marketing methods.

And after seeing the success of free stickers, they realized they could sell stickers too.

Today, Lauren James sells dozens of different eye-catching stickers. This gives them extra revenue, creates free brand ambassadors, more word-of-mouth marketing, and makes their customers extra happy.

If something is working for your business, do more of it. Offer upsells or variations for customers to buy. It’s not necessary to always reinvent the wheel.

Strategy #5: Use original designs to blow customers away (and increase ROI)

Lauren James became successful partly because of their unique designs for clothing, packaging, and their brand.

For example, most clothing companies send clothes in a boring brown box.

But not Lauren James. They send their clothing in a gorgeous pink box or mailer with stunning typography and hand-crafted care.

The same opportunity is available for every company to improve upon mundane ways most ecommerce companies do business. How can you surprise and delight your customers?

If you want to get started separating your ecommerce business and growing your brand, order custom stickers like Lauren James did to grow their business.

And be sure to visit Lauren James and check out their amazing clothing and designs.

Looking back, Lauren James could have gone the traditional route to market their brand. A few thousand dollars on Facebook Ads here, a full-page advertisement in Elle magazine there...but where would they be now?

The truth is, if you follow the same traditional marketing methods in the oversaturated ecommerce market you’re going to get the same traditional results. Now more than ever, it’s critical to follow nontraditional ways to market your brand.

Ten online clothing brands winning customer loyalty with every shipment

2016-09-08T00:00:00+00:00

When it comes to buying clothes online, I’m sure you’ve had great and poor experiences. If you’re looking for clothing brands that understand how to surprise and delight their customers, then you’ll love this post.

Without a brick and mortar location, online brands must think carefully about the entire customer experience from first click to the moment the box is opened — and beyond. Clothing brands face unique challenges and opportunities. They have an especially difficult task to create a rewarding customer experience as they have to consider clothing fit, returns, and also find unique ways to spread word-of-mouth.

Sticker Mule aggregated a list of ten online clothing companies that include free, unexpected gifts in their packaging to win their customers’ loyalty. Adding a small gift or sticker to a package is often the final step in taking a first time buyer into a fan that promotes the brand online and in real life.

Quick note: We selected these companies based on Twitter and Instagram mentions and in no particular order. We really hope you enjoy this list and maybe decided to implement sending stickers with customers purchases in your company. If you would like to feature your own clothing and apparel company here, please email us at help@stickermule.com and include your information and customers' photos.

1. Lauren James | laurenjames.com | @ShopLaurenJames

LOVE my new Lauren James tshirt with free coozie and sticker! 😍 @ShopLaurenJames #comesailaway pic.twitter.com/6cUoAC8WTH
— Brianna (@bri_barriger) August 25, 2014

In mid 2013, Lauren James was founded by a registered nurse turned fashion designer. Lauren James basis its brand on incorporating modern styles into classics and creating clothes that could be worn on every occasion.

Lauren James customers love that they receive small free gifts with their purchases. Many customers share their orders on social media and take photos of their purchases with the free sticker or gift that was included. The tweet above is one such example where a customer received a sticker and a koozie as a free gift and shared it on Twitter. As customers share their purchases on social media they expose the brand to a whole new set of potential customers as well as increasing the amount of people reordering from Lauren James.

Lance Stokes, COO at Lauren James, says, “Our team is always finding new ways to connect digital convenience to tangible experiences — stickers are a part of that. I tell our team daily that 'if you're not winning in convenience, you better be winning in experience'. The real goal, however, is to do both."

Our team is always finding new ways to connect digital convenience to tangible experiences — stickers are a part of that."

2. Fraternity Collection | fraternitycollection.com | @fratcollection

Get a free koozie and sticker when you buy from https://t.co/6stVjpewe9 use promo code irisgutierrez16 for 10% off pic.twitter.com/z4Y6oo9qt6
— Iris Gutierrez (@IrisIsabellegut) June 18, 2016

Fraternity Collection formed its roots in Jackson, Mississippi. Fraternity Collection was started by two fraternity brothers who aimed at creating a clothing company catering specifically toward the collegiate Greek community.

Through its stickers, Fraternity Collection has created a very recognizable brand all over the world. Their signature sticker that they send out with every order is a bowtie. Customers collect the different bowtie stickers and attach them everywhere, especially on cars which creates an easy way for drivers on the road to recognize Fraternity Collection. Fraternity Collection also loves to send surprises to customers such as koozies. These small surprises really build the brand’s connection to the customer and help Fraternity Collection reach new potential customers.

3. Cotton Bureau | cottonbureau.com | @cottonbureau

The APT shirt I ordered from @cottonbureau came today, there was a Icecream sticker in there as well sooo… pic.twitter.com/yBN1gz2JhP
— Cory Driscoll (@Doomworks) June 29, 2016

I got this 🔥🔥🔥🔥 sticker with my last @cottonbureau order & I’m paralyzed with indecision about where to stick it. pic.twitter.com/cwhP6aX6Oi
— Ed Casey (@edcasey) June 13, 2016

Founded in 2013, Cotton Bureau sells high quality, custom designed t-shirts by different designers from around the world. Cotton Bureau allows anyone to submit a custom t-shirt design, but then the Cotton Bureau team selects only the best designs to be sold online.

Cotton Bureau has a lot of different sticker designs that they send out to their customers. Some stickers are sent out only with certain shirts while other stickers are sent with every purchase to promote the brand.These designs can be found all over social media shared by happy customers. The two most popular designs are the hotdog and ice cream stickers, customers can’t wait to receive these stickers with their order.

4. Roxy | roxy.com | @Roxy

Today started out great because I woke up to my @Roxy jacket on my door step, and I got a free sticker 💛🌊 pic.twitter.com/WlgdKd7uN4
— Taylor Marie (@taylormiddIeton) July 22, 2016

Roxy was born when the brand Quiksilver decided to start a women's line in 1990. Starting a surf brand for women was something that had never been done before. Shortly after Roxy was formed, the brand started paying off. Quiksilver saw what a huge opportunity the women’s surf market was. Today, Roxy has expanded into a sportswear, denim and snowwear brand with many more products.

The tweet above shows just how much customers love stickers and especially stickers from Roxy. Their iconic black and white sticker can be found on many surfboards along dozens of beaches across the United States. Customers are driven to attach these stickers mainly due to their love for the company and as a way to build and display their personality.

5. Vineyard Vines | vineyardvines.com | @vineyardvines

More excited about my free sticker than what I actually bought from Vineyard Vines pic.twitter.com/IN8iHaje1C
— Aubrey Van Dyke (@AubreyVandyke) July 9, 2015

In 1998 two brothers, Shep and Ian Murray decided that the wearing suits everyday to work wasn’t for them and instead decided to create a brand that shows off “the good life”, they named this brand Vineyard Vines. Vineyard Vines sells preppy clothing and accessories for men, women, and children. Today it has grown into a huge brand with many outlets and retail stores throughout the United States.

With unique, creative designs, Vineyard Vines grew their already popular mascot (a smiling whale) into a cultural icon. The smiling whale that comes in many different designs such as the one pictured above inspired people to start collecting the stickers and even reselling them to collectors. Whenever people see the smiling whale they automatically think of Vineyard Vines and "living the good life.” The smiling whale and the Vineyard Vines stickers also took over Twitter receiving hundreds of tweets about them. Stickers have definitely been very successful for Vineyard Vines and their customers love them.

6. Stark Originals | starkoriginals.com | @starkoriginals

Free sticker with every purchase! #craftbeer #breweries #beer #apparel #ctbeer #starkoriginals #microbrew #ct pic.twitter.com/stnNcGItBn
— Stark Originals (@StarkOriginals) January 2, 2016

Stark Originals is a very popular and fun clothing company. Stark Originals likes to have fun, play outside, and drink beer. Their designs are very creative and very often contain really cool art featuring beer bottles. The company sells t-shirts, sweatshirts and many different accessories.

Stark Originals knows how to promote on social media well, through their Twitter account they share their sticker designs and promote that they include stickers with every purchase. This proved to be very successful for Stark Originals because customers loved knowing this beforehand and it pushed more people to order from their website.

7. Rivet & Cuff | rivetandcuff.com | @rivetandcuff

A Rivet & Cuff sticker with every purchase! Where would you post yours? https://t.co/fZuU3S8Spp pic.twitter.com/bpGCQIQBKt
— Rivet & Cuff (@rivetandcuff) July 16, 2016

Rivet & Cuff is a company that first had its roots as a project determined to use technology to solve online sizing and fit. Today there are developing technology that brands and online retailers can license so that customers can find the best fit. In addition to their main goal of solving online sizing and fit they never lost their passion for jeans. Today, they have a large selection of men’s jeans from the best brands for sale.

One of their growth tactics is to send stickers with every purchase. As customers receive these stickers they usually share them on social media and paste them around the neighborhood facilitating a guerilla marketing campaign for a relatively low price.

Rivet & Cuff explains that “At Rivet & Cuff, we take enormous pride in our brand and our logo which captures the vibe of our boutique specialty denim business. We've been selling premium men's jeans since 2013, and with every pair from day one we've included our Sticker Mule stickers as a way for our customers to remember us, and share their stories. We've tried shirts and other promotions, but our customers seem to want the stickers. They wear our jeans, but they put our stickers on just about everything else. Our learning is that if you love your brand and your logo, and you have a passionate customer base that share your values, they'll love your brand too - and stickers are the perfect way for them to express it.”

We've tried shirts and other promotions, but our customers seem to want the stickers.

8. CLE Clothing Co. | cleclothingco.com | @cleclothingco

@CLECLOTHINGCO Even digging the stickers. You are now a fixture on my ski helmet. #Cleveland pic.twitter.com/nAoTpCPRfD
— DanBobBillRay (@danbobbillray) April 20, 2014

Two friends, a graphic designer and an entrepreneur, founded CLE Clothing Co. in 2008. They were both looking for an awesome new project to work on and decided that a clothing company would be a great adventure. Eventually one night after talking it over at their favorite place and having a couple of beers and burgers, CLE Clothing was founded.

CLE Clothing does a really cool thing with their stickers by sending them out with purchases but also selling the stickers on the website. This a great idea because when the customer get a sticker, they are surprised and are extremely happy that they received a product that usually costs money, for free. CLE Clothing shares their many sticker designs on social media platforms such as twitter to show off their stickers designs and promote purchasing their products.

9. SidemenClothing | sidemenclothing.com | @SidemenClothing

@SidemenClothing have the best delivery time and their little stickers are hella cute, you guys are the bomb 🎀
— Sophie (@Loser_Anthems) July 15, 2016

One of the best things about ordering from @SidemenClothing is the stickers that come with it pic.twitter.com/Ct6Sj9dDpS
— nicobob:)) (@_nicolastewart) May 10, 2016

Sidemen Clothing is a brand created by a group of very famous gamers on YouTube in association with their YouTube channel. On the website they sell many different products including clothes, phone cases and gaming controllers.

The YouTubers behind Sidemen Clothing made the brand incredibly incredibly popular among teens. They built this amazing following through their YouTube channels where they have millions of followers as well as on social media giving the brand a huge head start through their amazing reach on these platforms. They also use stickers to grow their brand and channels, for example with every purchase they send different stickers of the brand and a certain YouTuber that is partnered with Sidemen Clothing. This proved to be incredibly successful and inspired fans to create unboxings with the stickers and share them heavily on social media.

10. Runyon Canyon | runyon.co | @runyonusa

Every purchase at Runyon Canyon Apparel comes with a FREE Sticker!!! This is our first col… http://t.co/cNhkaPjBdf pic.twitter.com/Xpfu3Ko67q
— Runyon Canyon (@runyonusa) May 8, 2015

Runyon Canyon Apparel is an outdoor company that specializes in outdoor & performance sportswear. Runyon Canyon was started as the outdoor brand of Los Angeles inspired by the Runyon Canyon and its urban wilderness. Runyon Canyon allows all people from different places to blend with the animals, art, fashion and the outdoors.

Runyon Canyon has a great following on social media. On their Twitter account Runyon Canyon shares regularly that they send out free stickers with every purchase. This is also a really cool twist because their followers and customers get to see the design of the sticker before they order. This twist to the usual surprise is also a push for some people to order. This method proved to be very successful for Runyon Canyon because it serves two purposes, helping facilitate orders and reaching the potential customer that will see the sticker and will visit Runyon Canyon’s website in return.

Runyon Canyon loves stickers and says, “Stickers are great way to extend your visibility and plus people think it’s really cool. We’ve seen our stickers on Nalgene bottles, cars, books, iPads, laptops, skateboards, skis, bikes, helmets… you name it. It’s worth spending the investment just by watching the creative ways people utilize them sticker alone. Not only do stickers make a fun free gift… They also make a great way to decorate and personalize packaging and branding.”

Not only do stickers make a fun free gift… They also make a great way to decorate and personalize packaging and branding."

A great customer experience, branding and packaging doesn't have to cost fortune. Resonate and evoke a positive emotion from your customers when they open your package, see stickers and pick up their apparel for the first time.

Content principles at Sticker Mule

2016-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

At Sticker Mule we view content as more than blog posts. Content includes everything from website copy, videos and FAQs to dashboards, emails, and even training guides and internal documentation.

The importance of content quality isn't often considered, but, in the long run, it shapes who we become. It helps new visitors understand us better and indicates our standards in all things.

Vigilance about content quality has helped us build a solid foundation for our future. Content multiplies as you grow so it is important to foster a commitment to crafting high quality content early.

We created a set of principles that guides our team as they write copy, write scripts, shoot videos, and create documentation. They're shared below for the benefit of future team members and anyone else that may find them useful.

9 principles to help you create quality content

Omit needless words.
Use the fewest words possible. ~~Practice by editing content after you write it to see if any words can be omitted.~~ Practice editing content to omit needless words.

Omit needless information.
Delete information that doesn't matter.

Consolidate and optimize.
Combine similar content into a single optimized piece of content when sensible.

Always be polishing.
When revisiting content fix problems when you spot them.

Obsessively organize.
Put content in the right place so that it is easily found.

Use sentence case.
Camel Case Makes Reading Harder. Use sentence case.

Use hyperlinks.
Link to additional content when appropriate.

Think about the future.
Good design is long lasting and so is good content. Avoid creating content that doesn’t provide long term value.

Practice.
Crafting quality content is difficult. It takes constant practice to become and stay good.

Concluding thoughts

Since the internet makes every business international, content quality is more important than ever. Eventually, many of the words you write will need to be translated to support customers worldwide. If you can't craft exceptional content in your native language, it's going to be even harder to translate your message globally.

An obsession with content quality may seem trite, but words, images and videos are all we have to communicate with our customers and each other. Making a mess of it weakens our foundation, while crafting and curating great content makes it stronger. Our aim is to build an enduring business and long lasting businesses need strong foundations.