We know many of you rely on rewardStyle and ShopStyle as your affiliate partners, just like we know that July marks one of the biggest sales of the year for Nordstrom, one of the most popular retailers on both platforms! Today, we wanted to share some insider tips and tricks for how you can utilize <em>press themes and plugins to help showcase your #nsale picks sitewide. And, fear not — you don't need an <em>press theme to take advantage of several of these!
1. Update your Boutiques plugin
Our Boutiques plugin features multiple layouts so that you can showcase an Instagram shop up top, a list of retailers, and (in all versions!) up to five boutiques that correspond to matching menu links, which are editable. For the Nordstrom sale, you can change your boutiques menus to correspond to particular product categories, such as shoes, accessories, dresses, coats, etc. This makes it easy for you to categorize like items, and help your users browse for items they're on the hunt for.
2. Create a dedicated #Nsale Boutique!
One feature most users don't discover is that you can apply the Boutiques plugin to multiple page templates! So if you're already using our plugin and love how you have it set up, don't worry — you can simply create a brand new page, apply the Boutique layout like you did before, and theme all the content on it around the sale. Add this new page to your main menu navigation, and presto! You've got a dedicated space for users to shop sale content.
Bonus points: Both of our templates include space to add retailer links — but you can actually add any links you like! Use this section to highlight your blog posts about the sale. You can even swap out our Instashop section for a shop the post widget highlighting your favorite picks. Check out our examples on Miramar, Brevier, Archer, and Presidio!
3. Update your Newsletter Pop Up
Now is the perfect time to send out special content to your newsletter subscribers, and drive new readers to your newsletter as well. Though our Newsletter Pop Up plugin is usually a set-it-and-forget-it feature, consider sprucing up your pop up for special #Nsale content. Change out the photo and update the description text to let readers know what they can expect when they sign up for your newsletter.
4. Swap out your widget content
All of our themes, and most WordPress themes in general, come with special widget areas for highlighting content. Use these areas to highlight your #Nsale blog posts and/or your Boutique page. In our Brevier and Presidio themes, you can add the topics widget to your sidebar and upload one or multiple calls-to-action, with a special image, custom text, and link. This widget also works in Presidio's interstitial widget areas. Or, use the Presidio Highlight widget in a similar fashion. Our Presidio theme even includes a special shop widget to highlight multiple products and a call-to-action to your Boutique page. In Miramar, swap out one or more of your Interstitial feature boxes to highlight #Nsale content. In Archer, create a blog category for sale content, and use the Featured Posts widget to highlight those posts in the footer.
5. Shop the Post
If you aren't already using our Shop the Post plugin to showcase rewardStyle and ShopStyle widgets before a post break, now is the perfect time to get started! Our Shop the Post plugin works with most WordPress themes, not just <em>press. Readers love the convenience of shopping directly from the home page without having to click through posts, especially when scanning on the go or referring back to posts they've already read. Our Shop the Post plugin also coordinates with our Brevier and Presidio themes to showcase shoppable widgets on archival pages.
6. Update your highlighted shopping widget
Our Presidio and Miramar themes include a special area to accommodate a shopping widget near the top of the home page. Be sure to update these to include #nsale picks! If you're not using one of these themes, consider adding a simple text widget to your sidebar, or even your footer.
Above all, don't be afraid to get creative! In many cases, we've designed our products with instructions and hints to guide you, but think of them as suggestions, and don't be afraid to experiment. Have you thought of a fun way to use our products? We'd love to see — leave a comment below with your link!
