NEW YORK, NY (July 8, 2013) — Nat Sherman, Tobacconist to the World, unveils the newest addition to its premiumcigar portfolio, The Nat Sherman Sterling. The Nat Sherman Sterling will make its debut at the 2013 International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers Convention in Las Vegas later this month, per an announcement made today byWilliam Sherman, Executive Vice President of Nat Sherman.
“The Nat Sherman Sterling redefines elegance,” said Mr. Sherman. “Following on the heels of our Nat Sherman 1930 and award-winning Timeless collections, The Nat Sherman Sterling maintains Nat Sherman’s tradition ofpassion and creativity by showcasing yet another unique blend of the world’s finest tobaccos.”
Made up of four traditional vitolas, The Nat Sherman Sterling are tied in wheels of 25 cigars and packed in beautifulslide-top cabinet boxes. The Perlas (4” x 40), Marevas (5” x 42), Dalias (6.25” x 43) and Corona Gorda (5.75” x 46)feature a blend of aged-Dominican filler tobaccos (the oldest has been aged for ten years), a Dominican binder and astunning Ecuador-grown Connecticut wrapper.
“The Nat Sherman Sterling represents a new standard for complexity, balance and finesse in premium cigars,” saidMichael Herklots, Executive Director of Retail and Brand Development. “They’re inspired by some of the most prizedHavana cigars of the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s that continue to be collected to this day. These cigars embody balance and sophistication, and focus on flavor more than strength.”
Handmade at the MATASA factory in Santiago, Dominican Republic, The Nat Sherman Sterling range in price from $9.00-$15.00 per cigar, and are available exclusively at authorized Nat Sherman Tobacconists throughout the United States.
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About Nat Sherman International
Founded by Nat Sherman in 1930 and family-guided for three generations, Nat Sherman International continues todefine the authentic tobacco experience. Through a tradition of innovation and expertly crafted products, Nat Sherman’s timeless appeal, while quintessentially New York is embraced and enjoyed worldwide. Learn more at www.natsherman.com.
In our last post, we looked at how to use Facebook to increase brand awareness and communicate with your fans and customers. In this post, we’ll take an in-depth look at how to use Instagram to connect with current and potential customers and drive sales.
First, a few basics on Instagram that should shape your strategy. Instagram is unique in that it is entirely image based. This makes it extremely valuable for enticing other Instagram users to purchase your product. This also means that Instagram is not the platform you want to use to make basic announcements about your business, unless you have marketing images appropriate to Instagram.
So now let’s talk about how to get your Instagram account set up!
We’ll start our how-to with the most important tips you need to know to set up and, just as important, launch your Instagram presence. From there we’ll look at a few tips for quickly building a large following of relevant users (i.e. potential customers). Then we’ll look at the part you’re excited about: how to make money on Instagram. Just remember: each step below is important.
Setup
It goes without saying that your username should ideally be the name of your company. This will help your customers and fans find you easily. Aside from that, follow these basic guidelines:
Important: skip the “find friends” screens that will pop up immediately after creating your account. This comes later.
Your “bio” section should include a brief description of your company, and if possible either your marketing slogan or the handles for your Twitter and other social accounts.
Be sure to add your website to the “website” field.
In your account settings, connect your Instagram account to your Twitter feed unless you plan on posting images separately on Twitter (better, but takes a lot more time).
Upload at least eight or nine photos creative captions to your account. Please: make your photos good. Bad photos count against your brand, not for it.
Launch
Now that your profile is set up, it is time to launch. Go into your options menu and tap “find friends.” From there, hit “Facebook friends.” You’ll be prompted to connect your Facebook account to you Instagram profile. Do it.
Now you’ll see a screen with a list of all of your Facebook friends on Instagram. Hit the “Follow All” button. This will act as a notification for all of your friends on Instagram to check out your account, and since you’ve already posted content, they will likely hit the “Follow” button back!
But we can boost your initial following even more. Here are some ideas:
Go back to the “find friends” screen, and add friends from your phone contact list. Hit the “follow all” button again.
Announce on your other social networks that you have launched your Instagram presence. Be sure to include your best photo in the post so people have an immediate understanding of the value of your content.
Use any company email lists to send an email blast to your current customers and contacts. If you go this route, be sure that your email is polished and professional. After all, if your email isn’t visually appealing, why would anyone want to follow you on Instagram?
Build
Immediately following your launch, you will notice a big bump in your follower count as your friends and fans connect with your account. This is good, but it is only the beginning!
Here are a few best practices to remember that will help you build your Instagram audience:
Post at least once a day. Two or even three times if possible, while maintaining relevant content.
Use hash tags. Hash tags group photos from different users under similar interests, and will help other users find you. A few common cigar related hashtags are: #cigar, #cigars, #cigaraficionado, #cigarsociety, #cigarian. There are many, many more.
Like photos under hash tags like #cigars. Every time you like someone’s photo, they get a notification. Many times, getting a like will pique a person’s interest, and they will often follow you after visiting your profile. This is one of the fastest ways to grow a profile.
Link your Instagram account to your Facebook and Twitter profiles. This will cross polinate your social media followings.
If someone comments on one of your photos, RESPOND! The users who comment on your photos are the most likely to become your next loyal customers. Don’t shut them out or they’ll lose interest and go somewhere else.
If you’ve done this well, you should end up with something like this (another account I built):
Entice
Ok, so you’ve followed the steps above and you have yourself a solid Instagram account running. Now you might be wondering, “How do I sell my product on Instagram?” It’s pretty easy and just takes a bit more work.
Take badass pictures. Nothing is more attractive to a customer than a picture of your product on an exotic beach, on top of a skyscraper, with a famous celebrity, or in any other unique situation. If your pictures are blurry or just plain unenticing, don’t expect anyone to want to purchase your product.
Reach out to your commentors. After a week or two, you’ll notice that other Instagram users are commenting on your photos. If users are interested enough to interact with you – they’re probably interested enough or almost interested enough to buy your product. Start keeping a list of the individuals who comment on your photos. When you have a solid list of 10-15 names, start tagging them in your photos or mentioning them in the comments below your next shot. Here’s a good example of how this works (see below).
Recommend cigars to your Instagram followers. Imagine you have a personalized retail experience online, where a professional is reaching out to you and recommending a product. How likely are you to take the recommendation? Statistically, the answer is “very likely.” Try posting a picture of a cigar, and recommending the cigar to a few of your followers using the @ mention.
Post your crazy awesome deals. You must run sales at some point or another, right? Well, it’s likely that one or all of your sales is worth a mention on social media. Next time you run a cigar sale, take a picture of the cigars that are on sale and drop a caption using non-salesy language. Avoid “x cigar is on sale today. hooray.” and go with something like “Do you love the Fuente Opus X?! Well get your ass down to the shop because they’re half off!” (admittedly, this would be a truly sick deal, but it’s just an example).
Here’s an example from a client I was managing on recommendations/tagging:
Keep in mind, these are only ways to get direct sales on Instagram (where someone says, “yes, I will buy that). Social is powerful, however, in that it leads to many indirect sales by heightening the exposure of your brand in general (more visibility, trust, yada yada).
So there you have it. An awesome guide on how to use Instagram to look badass, be badass, and sell lots of cigars (or anything else, honestly). Pretty simple right? The key here is to be creative and actually interact with your audience. After all, it’s called social media for a reason!
In our next post, we’ll look at strategies for using Google+ effectively and giving your company an exposure boost.
I woke up today and realized I had an open schedule, so I decided to hop in the car and drive out to a local cigar lounge I had never been to. Setup for a great day, right? Not this time. Upon arriving it became immediately apparent that this smoke was going to be pretty unenjoyable because the customer service was so bad. And it really is hard to make something as essentially pleasurable as cigar smoking an unenjoyable experience.
So it got me thinking about which sins that the cigar-lounge-which-will-go-unnamed is guilty of. Here they are, in the form of a story:
1. Ignoring the customer when they enter
I walked into this shop with the purpose of buying a few cigars, meeting the owners, and just having friendly conversation. Pretty normal agenda, right? But when I walked in, I got an interesting reception. Two guys (who happened to be the owners) were standing in the middle of the room. They looked at me as I entered and went back to talking to each other. They were standing in my way so I awkwardly asked “hey.. are you guys open?”
“Yeah,” one of the guys said, “what do you want?”
“Uhh…” I said a little awkwardly, “I was hoping to smoke a cigar.”
“Cool” was the response. So I shuffled by, a little confused, and walked into the humidor and grabbed a few cigars.
When your customer’s first impression is awkwardness and and zero personal connection, that’s a bad sign.
2. Leaving a messy smoking area messy
After buying the cigars, which was again awkwardly silent, I went to sit down. I searched a bit and found a pair of cutters (there were none at the counter), and then looked around and found a tabletop lighter – no help there. I sat down at a table with an empty soda can on top of it and a random iphone charger, so I moved them so I’d have room to set down my laptop. Then I realized that the ash tray on the table was covered in a thick layer of ash, along with dead cigarette butts.
No one likes to set their cigar down in a pile of ash and then have to smoke a dirty cigar.
3. Treating the customer like serving is a chore
On my drive over I thought about stopping and buying a drink to bring in, but I figured I’d be a good patron and just buy a coke or bottle of water at the shop. This was a mistake. After about 5 minutes of smoking, my mouth and throat were parched, so I asked if I could buy a bottle of water.
The owner acted a little annoyed and responded, “we just had a party here last night and I didn’t buy any more. Sorry.”
Rude.
Not having drinks isn’t necessarily such a problem, except for the fact that this shop isn’t anywhere near a store to buy drinks. My mouth was very dry, so I went outside to my car, grabbed an empty water bottle, and came back in and asked if it was okay if I filled the bottle up at the sink. The owners again looked mildly annoyed (as if the suggestion of me wanting some water was offensive) and said “sure.”
As I type, I’m still sitting here, smoking by myself, with the owners sitting on the other side of the room smoking, checking their phones, and watching golf. My cigar is almost done, so I’m going to head out in a few minutes.
I doubt they’ll notice.
Do you have any cigar shop horror stories? Share in the comments.
LAS VEGAS, NV, July 8 2013—La Hoja Cigar Co., a revival of the famed Flor de Florez cigar company dating back five decades, is proud to announce the release of the Hoja de Flores Auténtico Maduro at IPCPR 2013. The new line follows on the heels of the immensely popular Hoja de Flores Black Label, unveiled in early 2013.
In an industry divided between the old traditionalists and the contemporary innovators, the Auténtico Maduro is a new boutique with an old soul. William Flores, President of Hoja de Flores, said, “we are proud to continue the tradition of quality and innovation which was exemplified by my father Carlos over fifty years ago.”
The new Auténtico Maduro is a Dominican puro that features a Corojo 2006 maduro wrapper. A blend of original piloto, ligero and seco Dominican fillers marry to create a smoke of exceptional strength, complexity, and smoothness.
The new blend will be featured in three box pressed vitolas: Torpedo (6-1/4 x 52), Double-Toro (6-1/4 x 54), and Goloso (6×60).
“There is a conception among some that only Nicaraguan tobacco packs the punch,” said J. Carlos Gomez, Executive VP. “The Auténtico Maduro is uniquely cured to deliver a taste that can rival any other in strength, but also deliver the complexity that made Dominican tobacco legendary.”
On its 50th anniversary, the legendary Flores lineage has achieved its ultimate pinnacle of flavor, body and aroma: the new Hoja de Flores cigar. The new cigar will be sold in boxes of 20 and at a suggested retail price of $12.00 per cigar.
About Hoja de Flores
Hoja de Flores, owned by William Flores, is a revival of Flor de Florez, the iconic company that led the cigar industry in the second half of the 20th century.
The management of Velvet Cigar Lounge, located in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, announced yesterday plans to close and relocate. Management cited unreasonable terms of lease resigning details in their decision to relocate. Though they’ve had many problems with ventilation and troubled neighbors in recent years, Velvet really is a great location for cigar smokers and was home to many famous cigar smokers. Off the top of my head, I know I met Billy Connolly (Boondock Saints) and John Rich from Big & Rich. FineTobaccoNYC also hosted a handful of events at Velvet (above).
Here are details from the email:
Dear Loyal Customers and Friends,
We are writing you with the disappointing news that Velvet Cigar Lounge will be closing down on July 31st. This comes after a year of attempting to have a new lease signed at our current location, but due to impossible terms imposed by our landlord, we have been unsuccessful. We have had six great years at the lounge, and we hope you also have fond memories of the cigars, friendship and laughs we’ve all shared.
We need your help to relocate. We are determined to re-open with a bigger, enhanced Velvet Cigar Lounge, and we need your support in making this a reality. We’ve already located and committed to a new space, and you can directly help in this effort by purchasing one of our many perks offered on our Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign.
All of the funds collected through these sales will go directly to the construction of the new lounge, and will specifically assist in covering the cost of a state-of-the-art commercial ventilation system, essential in providing an experience more comfortable than we have been able to offer in the past and topping the list of priorities for the new space.
You will also be helping keep our amazing staff of five employed, and supporting our cigar suppliers and vendors that rely on Velvet for much needed revenue in a hurting industry.
Keep the Velvet spirit alive. We’ve help build a community that mirrors the youthful energy of the East Village, catering to artsy and necktie types alike with the lounge’s creative sensibilities and laid-back vibe. From the actor to the accountant, the unemployed to the overworked, Velvet has become an oasis in our hectic city where one forgets about troubles and meets the most interesting of characters. Please help us keep one of the few cigar-friendly establishments in New York City open.
Lastly, just as important as supporting our crowdfunding campaign by purchasing a perk issharing the campaign with others. Please share by posting this link on Facebook, Twitter and forwarding on this email: http://igg.me/at/velvet/x/3723569
I’ve been hearing a lot of great things about La Jugada by Moya Ruiz cigars at shops and around the blogosphere. They’re currently sold at numerous shops in New York City and New Jersey. You can also find them online. As you’ll read below, I think this is a great purchase.
Blend Specifics
Wrapper: San Andreas Maduro
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Size: Toro (6×52)
Appearance & Construction
I’ve seen a lot of cigars in my relatively short career smoking cigars. Few are presented as well as the La Jugada. The double-banded design features a scheme of off white, gold, and dark green, with a gold-metallic trim. Just gorgeous. The San Andreas Maduro wrapper complements the bands nicely with its warm, chocolate like appearance.
The scent off of the foot is strong, smelling of hay, granola, leather, dirt, and some coffee notes. Such a strong smell gets me excited to light up. I clip the cigar’s triple cap, test the draw, and it is perfect, leaning on the slightly loose side.
Flavor & Smoke Characteristics
The La Jugada opens with a really nice bouquet of flavors including dark chocolate (very rich), black pepper, and a note reminding me of nice dark coffee with heavy cream . Very smooth, with slight spice of the retrohale. About half an inch in, the profile tones down to what I’d call a mild-medium bodied, medium strength smoke. It also becomes apparent that this is one of those cigars you have to remind yourself isn’t to be eaten like a candy bar (it’s just that good).
Moving in to the second third, the smoke becomes a bit less rich, revealing notes of woodiness and more coffee. Definitely medium bodied at this point. The smoke continues likes this for most of the second third, varying minimally. The burn up to this point has been wavy.
In the final third, the body builds up more to a medium-full bodied smoke. Much more prevalent is the black pepper and dry wood notes. This holds for most of the final third, but near the end a lot of the richness from the first third returns for a very nice finish.
Conclusion
La Jugada is a great addition to a crowded industry. It scores huge points on presentation, flavor, and complexity. At about $8, it isn’t a cheap cigar, but it is well worth buying a five pack or even a box.
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