Demystifying Marketing Automation Myths and Illusions

posted on February 5, 2022

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As per the Social Media Today’s 2019 State of Marketing Automation Survey, 75 percent of all businesses and companies have marketing automation tools in place. Marketing automation has led to a 14.5 percent increase in sales productivity. Moreover, it has led to a 77 percent boost in terms of conversions.

Because of these figures and the convenience that marketing automation offers, 91 percent of its users have claimed that marketing automation tools are crucial to the success of their online marketing efforts.

The Importance of Marketing Automation

Marketing is one of the key operations of any organization, big or small. It needs to be streamlined and coordinated with all other aspects of a business to ensure that the desired outcomes and results are achieved. Whether it’s email marketing, lead generation, or landing page creation, launching a successful marketing strategy will be difficult without the right tools in place.

For bigger companies, this proves to be more of an issue. Sometimes organizations no longer have the capacity to manage 1:1 connections with their customers because of the volume. This is where automation tools step in. They can streamline and organize operations and cater to customers’ needs.

Today, more and more businesses are integrating and adopting marketing automation tools into their strategies. It is perceived that this trend will continue to rise in the coming years. However, there are still many myths and illusions surrounding the topic, which has led to many misunderstandings about how advantageous marketing automation software really is. Here are the seven most common marketing automation myths and illusions debunked.

The 7 Most Common Marketing Automation Myths

1. Marketing Automation Tools Are Just for Sending Automated Messages and Emails

Many automation tools are designed to send automated messages and emails, but that’s not all that they’re good for. Today’s tools can now measure campaign results, streamline paid advertising efforts, promote videos, and develop other marketing materials. You can find appropriate workflow tools for all of your marketing processes.

2. Marketing Automation Tools Are Impersonal and Robotic

The tone of your marketing materials can be modified and adjusted to be warmer and more welcoming to audiences. This entirely depends on your copy and branding. To avoid sounding impersonal and robotic, personalize your marketing materials in a way that your audience would resonate with.

For example, you can send highly targeted content to your customers. Your customers would then encounter content or material that they’re genuinely interested in, which makes the experience more personalized.

3. Marketing Automation Tools Fix All the Gaps in Your Marketing Processes

While marketing automation tools have many benefits, they are not a cure-all for all of your marketing issues. You and your team need to set aside time to learn how to use your marketing automation tools and see how they can work for your marketing processes. Marketing automation tools are, essentially, meant to make existing processes more convenient and efficient. Like any other tool, you must have a clear view of what you want to accomplish with it because if you don’t, you won’t be able to reap any of its benefits.

4. Once the Marketing Automation Process Is Set, You Can Ignore It

As mentioned, marketing automation tools are not the fix-all solutions to all of your marketing issues. You and your team still need to put in the work for your workflow tools to function as they’re intended to.

This can be seen, for example, in content production. You would still need to ensure that you have a sufficient amount of content ready for publishing or distribution, which means you would need to conceptualize, design, and plan out content using a content calendar. Without anything to post, your marketing automation tool won’t be able to do its job.

5. Automated Marketing Efforts Appear Spammy to Customers

It’s understandable how automated marketing efforts may come off as spammy. However, you and your team can calibrate your automation tools in such a way that you provide your audiences with valuable content. Remember, consistency is key, and you must produce and distribute content steadily.

Spamminess is usually encountered in email marketing, and it could be detrimental to your marketing efforts. Automated marketing efforts require targeting and segmenting your audience and engaging with them meaningfully to help your company grow. Additionally, you would need to create a timeline for your emails so that you’re not peppering your audience with too many of them. This could lead to your emails getting bumped into the spam pile, rendering your marketing efforts ineffective.

6. Marketing Automation Tools Are Very Expensive and Not for Small Businesses

This myth might have been true during the earlier days of marketing automation. In the past, marketing automation tools were primarily geared toward companies with a big budget.

Nowadays, however, there are many tools and solutions available on the market for companies and budgets of all sizes. Less expensive tools offer the same functionality as their pricier counterparts, and some tools are priced at a use-case basis to provide companies with more flexibility.

3. Marketing Automation Tools Are Very Technical, So Most Marketers Can’t Handle Them

Today, vendors provide marketing automation solutions that are simple and user-friendly and can be navigated by those with basic knowledge. Marketing automation solutions can now be seamlessly integrated into your existing processes, and there are those that don’t involve a steep learning curve.

Marketing Automation for All Businesses

Marketing automation tools have a wide variety of benefits for all organizations. They help organize the way that you work, and they make your marketing processes more efficient. To get optimal results, learn as much as you can about your workflow tools, consistently monitor your efforts, and align them with the marketing goals you’re trying to achieve.

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Top 9 Reasons Why Your Emails May Not be Converting

posted on December 17, 2021

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Email marketing is a process of you sending commercial email messages to ’email subscribers,’ or people who have joined your mailing list and have given you their explicit permission to send them email. Email marketing is often used as a bridge between you and your customers to help keep the latter informed, increase sales, and create communities around your business – for example, by distributing newsletters.

Today, the same old traditional email marketing has shifted away from mass mailing practices that are one-size-fits-all in favor of permission, categorization, and personalization.

There are two types of email marketing campaigns that are used for very different purposes. These are promotional email marketing and informational email marketing.

Promotional Email Marketing

This type of email marketing campaign is used to advertise a special deal, a new product or service launch, introduction of ebooks, or an invite to a seminar/webinar or conference, among other things. A campaign might be made up of three to ten emails that are delivered over several days or weeks.

An unambiguous call-to-action or CTA appears in such promotional communications. The CTA denotes the precise action you would like the person reading to perform, such as visiting a website or purchasing your offering.

This form of business email is delivered as needed by your company.

Informational Email Marketing

Informational email marketing is divided into two distinct types.

Newsletters: A newsletter is used to provide ‘news’ about your company such as new benchmarks achieved, new offering features, or to showcase a product demo. Newsletters, sent regularly can be be weekly, biweekly, or monthly and help you establish a continuous relationship with your readers.

Newsletters, however, don’t need to be about ‘breaking news’ as such. Concentrate on the message component. Assume that you’re producing a personalized message to each of your readers about a topic that engages and interests them while serving them some kind of value.

Put another way, a newsletter is a great opportunity to give insights, views, suggestions, or whatever your readership finds most valuable.

Announcements: Email is one of the most reliable and best methods to keep consumers informed about corporate news, releases and launches, service updates, and so on.

Emails provide the essential components for sending significant communications as a medium. This might explain the reason why, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many brands preferred to deliver crisis messaging via email.

How does email marketing work?

Email marketing is simply a type of digital marketing practice that involves sending electronic mail or email communications to the intended audience. The emails are primarily commercial, but they may also be used to teach and inform the receiver on a variety of issues.

Email marketing, to put it simply, is the practice of leveraging email as a marketing and sales channel. You’ll need a large email list of individuals who signed up voluntarily to receive your communications for your email marketing to be successful.

Purchasing email lists, especially when they have emails from individuals who are linked to your industry, are automatically excluded from this work process.

Is email marketing still relevant?

Everybody enjoyed emails when access to the internet became readily available for the first time. Whenever something fresh and intriguing arrived in our digital mailbox, we were ecstatic. However, in today’s world, recipients are skeptical of unexpected communications and selective as to who they permit into their mailbox.

As a result, many entrepreneurs find themselves asking a very common question; “Are email marketing strategies still an efficient and viable strategy for businesses?”

The answer to this question is, YES!

When done right, email marketing can be very effective for some very distinct reasons. Right now, the world of corporate runs on emails. Every person that has access to basic internet has an email address. Thus, email marketing can reach a massive audience easily.

In addition to that, it is also very well known that email marketing is one of the cheapest options available for digital marketing out there and thus, is ideal for businesses of any size with any amount of funding. You can just do it on your own if you have a small budget or hire a digital agency so that you can focus on other business operations.

Email marketing campaigns, however, can be pretty ineffective if it not done in the right way.

Certain bad practices can completely ruin your email marketing campaign and make things go haywire. Here are some common mistakes that digital marketers make that stop emails from getting converted into actual business dealings:

Top 9 Reasons Why Your Emails May Not be Converting

1. Lack of Data Analysis

Email marketing and process automation systems include a wealth of analytical tools and statistics to help you analyze and assess the performance of your commercial and promotional emails. Thus, if you aren’t keeping a track of everything, you’re probably missing out on important information as to why your method is failing.

Make A/B testing and statistical analysis a frequent and regular component of your email marketing strategy, if you haven’t previously. By making such arrangements, you will be able to observe which things work and which don’t work at all. It will help you make more efficient and informed judgments ahead.

2. Boring copy

It’s possible that your business emails aren’t converting because they aren’t particularly attractive to your readers.

Day in and out, most people receive a large number of emails that are related to different aspects of their lives. As a result, to manage their overflowing inboxes, people prioritize what emails they want to interact with and what they want to ignore to avoid overwhelming themselves, which typically implies that perhaps the emails and newsletters that get clicked upon probably have more appealing copy than what you are currently using.

You just have a few seconds to captivate your readers, so ensure your material and text are up to the task. Mix it up by using photographs, movies, and other attention-grabbing elements in addition to text content.

3. Low-quality Content

A very common blunder made by digital marketers is using material that isn’t worth a dime. It is a pretty serious problem if the material you distribute isn’t compelling. Readers will lose interest at some point and opt out of your business mailing list or blog.

You should also never send emails riddled with spelling errors and grammatical faults. It is important to realize that such practice will destroy your chances of making a transaction.

By distributing bad content, you are indicating to your readers and prospective customers that you have a low-quality control system because your business doesn’t even bother to check a badly worded email before sending it out. And if that’s the case, how can people trust the goods or services you’re selling?

Before clicking the submit button, be certain that your content is top tier, high quality, and engaging. Similarly, you should double-check the content on your homepage. Is the reader of your email directed to your official site? If that’s the case, make sure the landing page is attention-grabbing. You don’t want to send prospective consumers fleeing into the hands of your competition.

4. Unclear CTA

Conversions aren’t frequently made by chance. You shouldn’t be shocked at results if you don’t incorporate a clear, forceful, and unambiguous CTA with well-placed contact options.

You must make sure that your prospective customers understand exactly what you require them to do when your emails reach them.

If you desire the recipient to read a recent blog article, join a webinar that you are hosting, or make a purchase, you must make be clear and present the actions you want them to take unambiguously. If you fail to communicate clearly through the CTA, you’re squandering engagement by failing to put it to good use.

5. Emails Lacking Value

Successful business emails all seem to have 1 common factor: they add some value to their receivers’ life.

Not everybody is as enthused about the same topics as you, and they aren’t interested in wasting their time on emails and letters that don’t have a benefit.

And, if you too are missing the whole point of providing value to your subscribers, they will be less likely to view your business emails.

Provide your readers with something valuable in exchange for their time, like a voucher, a free download, or early access to a newly launched product. You’ll see an increase in conversions right away, and also interest which will carry over into future marketing campaigns.

6. Badly Segmented Lists

Bulk emails should be avoided at all costs. Delivering the same information to your whole mailing list is the ultimate recipe for an email marketing disaster since it falls short of contemporary customer needs for customization. Not all information is relevant to all customers.

You must divide your mailing lists into clear segments, and you must do it appropriately when it comes to sending commercial emails. Most firms do this by segmenting their customer contacts into groups based on their position in the funnel, then sending tailored material to every group according to their tastes, preferences, inquiries, and problem areas.

7. Click Baiting

Have you heard of the term “click-baiting”? The term refers to generating material with the sole intention of capturing reader attention and enticing them to engage with your desired links to make money from advertisers.

Clickbait may come in a variety of formats, including email. It is not a good idea to rely on spectacular headlines or a provocative image to generate visitors to your website. People are growing smarter and better at recognizing clickbait-style stuff these days, and they won’t hesitate to remove you from their personal social media pages.

There’s a distinction between writing headlines that convert to something more valuable and exploiting a reader’s intrigue intentionally for gain.

8. Content Stuffing

“Content is king,” is a very popular saying in the marketing and content sector and is true to its meaning. But, it is only true when you are writing a long-read blog article. Not all content is suitable for all kinds of communication media. The wrong content in an email can have disastrous consequences.

Acknowledge that a substantial percentage of your users will read your emails and newsletters on a mobile device. As a result, cramming your mails with a lot of information, photographs, wacky graphics, and a lot of unnecessary design elements will only irritate readers while ruining their concentration, not to mention the increased amount of time it will take for them to download the email.

Keep your content short and sweet, with only one call to action or CTA. Don’t bombard your readers with too much content and sensory experiences in an attempt to accomplish many objectives in a single email.

9. Email Repetitions

Busyness or general laziness in marketing strategies results in some businesses distributing emails that have been sent to their audience many times. If your company does this, it will suffer a poor response.

Most importantly, the recipient will quickly recognize the emails as spam emails. In addition, if the email was ineffective the first time you sent it, it will most likely be ineffective again. Do your homework and deliver freshly crafted emails each time if you’re seeking to build your business.

Conclusion

Email is one of the most low-cost ways to reach out to potential consumers, but poor campaigns convey the idea that a company merely intends to steal resources and leave nothing in exchange. Effective email marketing campaigns prioritize client demands and provide practical solutions to common issues without overpromising. By avoiding the discussed mistakes, digital marketers can address their demographic significantly more successfully; even surpassing traditional radio and TV advertisements.

The post Top 9 Reasons Why Your Emails May Not be Converting appeared first on SiteProNews.

7 Effective Tips for Building an Email Sequence that Works

posted on December 10, 2021

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Email marketing fell out of favor when social media came along. Marketers started to dismiss its value and made the move to social media. Now, email marketing is bigger and more important than ever.

Once you have a customer’s email address, you have immediate access to their inbox. That inbox is as good as marketing real estate gets. You can send email after email at no cost, giving you plenty of opportunities to generate profit through effective CTAs.

The main challenge of email marketing is relevance. If your email communications aren’t relevant to the recipient, they’re simply a waste of time for all involved.

The solution is better email sequences. Here’s what you need to know:

Email Sequences: A Quick Guide

Before we look at the seven tips for building better email sequences, let’s take a quick look at what these are.

Email sequencing is simply the practice of sending an automated email to reflect where a specific customer is on their buyer’s journey. As those customers make their way through the sales funnel, specific and targeted emails are triggered automatically and delivered to that prospect’s valuable inbox.

Image Courtesy of Pixabay

There are seven types of vital email sequences. These include:

  • Lead nurturing
  • Conversions
  • Engagement
  • Onboarding
  • Re-engagement/Abandoned shopping cart
  • Follow-ups after a sale
  • Renewals

There are also some pre-and post-purchase email sequences to have at your disposal, including:

  • Welcome emails to new potential customers
  • Back in stock messages
  • Thank you for purchasing emails

If you’re already using these email sequences, then you’re ahead of the game. It takes time to build a thorough email sequence that hits the mark every time an action is triggered. However, once you have everything in place, it becomes a simple matter of implementing the following tips to ensure that your email sequencing works more effectively.

7 Tips for Building a Better Email Sequence

Follow these tips, and your email sequences will have significantly more impact. Get them right, and those emails can quickly become the key to more sales, better customer loyalty, the development of brand ambassadors, and company growth.

1. Focus on the Evergreen


There are many benefits to email automation in 2021. Once you have your email messages in place, your first step to improving them is to ensure that those emails can be sent automatically at any time and remain relevant.

Evergreen content is essential if you want your emails to be enticing enough to open. Don’t include email content that’s date or season-specific when optimizing your email sequences. While those time-specific emails have value for newsletter subscribers, they should not form part of your email sequencing.

Image courtesy of DigitalMarketingInstitute.com

Instead, create email content that won’t expire. That way, your customers will receive timeless messages when they’re most amenable to them, and you won’t waste time adding and removing content from your sequence templates. There are plenty of writing tools for digital marketers that you can make use of to enhance your email copy.

2. Always Personalize

A personalized email is always more likely to be opened and read – today, that means more than simply automatically adding the recipient’s name to the opening line. Instead, focus on where that customer is on the buyer’s journey and personalize that information.

That means ensuring that you have taken the time to develop a target consumer profile and are aware of the value of analytics when monitoring your sales funnels. Fortunately, personalizing emails based on buyer journeys is easier than ever. Most email providers will have some form of personalization tools that you can use.

Tailor your messages and your CTAs based on your understanding of your customers’ pain points at every stage of the sales funnel. Then personalize your email messages using names and personal information alongside sales funnel-relevant CTAs.

3. Know Your Email Marketing Goals

Just like all marketing, your email sequencing strategy needs to have clear and measurable goals. Without specific aims defined in advance, you’ll have fewer ways to determine how effective your triggered emails are.

This can vary by industry, and a VoIP phone provider will have different goals and strategies from a small ecommerce business selling jam. For example, technology brands will tend to require more follow-up email sequences and a small ecommerce store will likely send more abandoned shopping cart emails.

A good rule of thumb to remember is that the more expensive your product, the longer and more detailed your email sequence messages will usually be. Identify your goals, and then ensure that your email messages are optimized to meet those goals.

Image courtesy of SmartInsights.com

4. Using Multiple Email Sequences

The buyer’s journey is just that: a journey. Sending out a single email throughout the entire buyer journey might have a positive effect, but it can be dramatically improved by combining and delivering multiple messages at the right time.

The goal needs to be to establish an interwoven mix of messages that reflect different stages of the sales funnel. Delivering a simple conversion email at the right time is vital, but you can also include additional sequence content to add further impact to those emails.

By introducing your most potent marketing messages at the right time, you greatly enhance your ability to move that customer along to the next stage of the buyer’s journey. Use multiple sequences at once, and you might even jump straight to a sale.

This approach needs to be taken slowly. Get used to strategies like email retargeting before moving on to combining multiple email sequences at once.

5. Align Emails and Your Website

Your website is one of the best tools at your disposal when it comes to working out how effective your email sequences are. Every email marketing message needs some form of CTA, and by using your website analytics, you can watch in real-time how well those CTAs are working.

If your email sequence has been triggered because of an abandoned shopping cart, a personalized email highlighting the benefits of that product should have a link to a page focused on those benefits. That landing page will then have its own CTA, such as making a purchase.

By watching where customers travel from their email message to a web page, you can assess the effectiveness of your email content and CTAs. Using the right email software can make this much easier to track and measure.

6. Aligning Your Sales Team

Business comms continue to grow more advanced, and the future of these will rely on unified communications platforms. What does UCaaS stand for? UCaaS refers to Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS). This type of software allows businesses to align all their communications from a single point. This means no more toggling between apps. Everything you need to communicate effectively is in one place.

Just as your communications will be aligned, so too must your departments. If your email marketers are not working in alignment with your sales team, then there’s no doubting the fact that you’re losing sales.

Using your sales team to complement and reinforce the messages you send out during your email sequences is more important than ever. While the marketing team can focus on creating the best campaigns, executing them, and then monitoring the results, the sales team should be tracking each triggered email sequence.

Image courtesy of Pixabay

By doing so, they can take over at critical points in the buyer’s journey. Utilizing the core skills of these two different teams and playing to their strengths is one of the best ways to build an email sequence strategy that works.

7. Cross-sell and Upsell on Post-Purchase Emails

You’ve likely seen this type of marketing strategy before. Once you’ve made a purchase, the company sends you an automated thank you email. Often here, though, businesses miss a trick.

If that thank you email is opened, then you have the chance to make another sale. That customer has already shown trust by buying from you. They may also be willing to purchase a related product, especially if you give them a reason to do so (such as discounts or special offers).

Whether you’re selling a hosted IP PBX service or something more tangible, taking advantage of those after-sales email messages is essential.

Email Sequences: The Must-Have Marketing and Sales Tool with Real Impact

Emails are still one of the most popular and commonly used forms of communication in the business world.

Developing an email marketing strategy is now considered one of the most critical steps for a marketing team to develop. Unfortunately, email sequences and their value are often overlooked. That’s largely because consumers and businesses alike can end up being overloaded with their unopened emails.

The key to building an email sequence strategy that works is to ensure that you create the messages that resonate, don’t overdo your communications, and make the best use of your sales team and your CTAs.

When developed well, email sequences are one of the single most powerful digital marketing tactics. Start designing yours today, and they could be the key to making more sales than you ever dreamed possible.

The post 7 Effective Tips for Building an Email Sequence that Works appeared first on SiteProNews.

The Benefits of Email Marketing Automation in 2021

posted on November 9, 2021

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You can only pave new avenues of success for your business if you can transform your prospects into your customers. So, how can you do it? How can you entice your prospects to visit your website or physical store and take action? The answer is email marketing.

Sure, there are many other ways of marketing, but nothing beats the popularity and success of email marketing. After all, it has the highest ROI amidst all the marketing channels i.e. $42 for every 1 dollar spent.

However, email marketing is constantly growing. In the words of Tom Kulzer, the CEO and founder of AWeber, “the most effective email marketing strategies adapt, grow, and innovate.†This is where email marketing automation comes in handy.

Email marketing automation, as the name itself suggests, is a process that automates your promotional email campaigns. It considers predefined triggers and actions and sends the right message to the right person at the right time.

No wonder the global marketing automation market size will reach 25.1 billion U.S dollars by 2023! Automated emails have the capability of generating 320% more profits than non-automated emails.

So, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that undermining the importance of email marketing automation can cost your business a huge chunk of loss in revenues. Simply put, if you haven’t already implemented email marketing automation in your business, it’s high time you do it.

Types of automated emails

Let’s take a look at the various types of automated email campaigns that will help you ace your email automation strategy.

  • Welcome emails

Remember the age-old saying, “first impression is the last impression?” That’s exactly what a welcome email does. It helps you establish an initial communication between your customers and your brand.

You can send a welcome email when a prospect signs up for your newsletter, buys a product from your brand, or just drop a friendly hello to break the ice with a new customer.

Simply put, a welcome email is an excellent way of engaging with your new customers or subscribers. You can take some inspiration from this welcome email from HubSpot.

Key takeaways from this email:

  • Addressing the subscriber with his name. It’s a basic yet excellent way of personalization.
  • Explaining to the subscriber how the HubSpot tools will help him convert his leads and prospects into customers.
  • Thank you emails

Conveying thank you to your customers is vital for building long-lasting relationships. In other words, when you display gratitude to your customers for a particular action they took, you are making them feel valuable, thereby strengthening your connection with them.

This is where thank you emails can come in handy. Once you automate your thank you emails, an email will be sent to customers when they complete an action, such as buying a product/service or signing up for a newsletter. Take a look at this compelling yet straightforward thank you email from Alastin:

Key takeaways from this email:

  • The line “welcome to the A-list” will surely make subscribers feel that they have subscribed to something exclusive.
  • The email has a strong call-to-action (CTA) to encourage subscribers to browse and shop the latest beauty bestsellers.
  • Another CTA gives subscribers access to the latest skincare tips and trends through the brand’s blog, thereby keeping them engaged with the brand.

All in all, automated thank you emails are not only relevant but also help you build your brand’s credibility and trust.

Further, it is an excellent way of encouraging customers to make a repeat purchase. All you need to do is include an offer or a discount coupon in your thank you email and entice customers to come back and shop. Here’s how the tea brand Harney and Sons did it.

Key takeaways from this email:

  • Thanking the customer for the purchase through compelling email copy. Take note of words such as “varietea” and “beauteaful.â€Â
  • Encouraging customers to shop again by giving them $10 off.
  • Subtly putting across that the offer is valid for purchase above $50.
  • Creating Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) by mentioning that the offer expires in 15 days.
  • Recommending tea varieties similar to the one that customer ordered, thereby increasing the chances of a sale.
  • Keeping the customer engaged with the brand by giving them access to the “ultimate tea brewing guide.â€Â
  • Loyalty emails

While it is essential to acquire new customers, retaining your existing customers is also equally critical. How would you do that? By sending them loyalty emails. These emails are a great way of building robust customer relationships. After all, it makes customers feel valued and gives them a reason to come back and shop more.

You can send loyalty emails to your customer in the form of discounts and coupon codes.

See how Chipotle is leveraging loyalty emails like a pro:

Key takeaways from this email:

  • A strong CTA of “claim my rewards” in the beginning to ensure that the customer clicks through it.
  • Introducing a new dish in the form of rewards. It is an excellent way of knowing the customer’s reaction to the new dish without sounding salesy.
  • A step-by-step guide that contains all the ingredients of the dish. It subtly hints at how delicious the new dish is going to be.
  • Mouth-Watering images.
  • Testimonials from people who have had the dish, thereby improving the credibility of the dish.
  • Follow-up emails

A follow-up email is an email that is sent on an action triggered by the customer. You can use a follow-up email in the following situations:

  • To motivate customers to opt for the free plan of service.
  • To encourage customers to leave a review.
  • To suggest products similar to the ones they purchased.

Follow-up emails are an impeccable way of building the trust of your customers while helping you increase conversions.

Here’s a good follow-up email from Really Good Email:

Key takeaways from this email:

  • Since the user couldn’t collect the email the first time, the brand encourages them to try saving the email again.
  • Further, it explains in a step by step process how the user can:
  1. Collect and refer back to the email when needed.
  2. Collect and review the mail with a team.
  3. Collect and create emails on similar lines through code view.
  • Abandoned cart emails

Abandoned cart emails are emails that are sent to customers who add items in their cart but leave it midway without checking out. An abandoned cart email re-engages customers and encourages them to complete the checkout.

An automated abandoned cart email is sent soon after the customer leaves the cart.

See how Everlane makes good use of abandoned cart emails to woo its customers back.

Key takeaways from this email:

  • The brand hits the right chord with customers by telling them about their great taste.
  • The features of the product are explained in detail. This, in turn, will entice customers to think about purchasing the product again.
  • The mail ends with a strong CTA of “take another look” to compel customers to take an action.
  • Order confirmation emails

An order confirmation email is sent to the customer upon completion of a purchase. Such emails consist of details such as order confirmation number, the name and address of the customer, the cost of the purchase, and more.

Order confirmation emails are a great way of following up with customers while assuring them that their order will be delivered soon.

Here’s an excellent order confirmation email from United by Blue:

Key takeaways from this email:

  • Clear and precise details about the order.
  • Good cross-selling and up-selling strategy by recommending the customer look at similar items to the one purchased.

Benefits of email marketing automation

Since you now know what email marketing automation is all about and the various types of automated emails you can send, let’s see how it can benefit you in the long run.

  1. Better customer experience

Automated emails with their perfect timing and relevancy instill a sense of positivity in your prospects. Automated emails such as welcome emails, loyalty emails, special event emails induce customers with a sense of value, thereby fostering a better and long-lasting relationship. This, in turn, increases your chances of having more conversions and sales.

  1. Effective workflow

When you plan your email marketing strategy, you want to regularly reach as many people as you can. Doing it manually can be cumbersome and time-consuming. However, with email automation, you can target a large base of your prospects instantly and consistently. Results? You save ample time and effort.

Simply put, when you automate your emails, you steer clear of the time and effort you need to put in sending individual emails to each of your prospects. Email automation does that on your behalf while you put your time and focus into your core competencies such as marketing and innovation.

  1. Better email sending time

Email automation allows you to send a message automatically as a customer takes an action. As a result, your customer receives the right message at the right time, thereby making the message more relevant for the customer.

  1. Improved lead engagement

Every business encounters people who are interested in their products, but who are not ready to go ahead with a purchase. If you too have such leads, you can keep them engaged through automated drip campaigns.

In such campaigns, emails are sent to leads at regular intervals. These emails consist of FAQs, product demonstrations, and solutions that address customer pain points. This, in turn, keeps your brand in the customer’s mind all the time. These campaigns also keep your leads warm and entice them to go forward in the sales funnel.

  1. Scalable marketing strategy

As mentioned already, sending emails manually is a tiring and time-consuming task. Also, the number of manual emails sent depends upon your staff size. Imagine if your customer size increases overnight, would your limited staff be capable of sending emails to each and every new customer? The answer is no.

But with email automation, you can easily scale your marketing strategy. All you need to do is set up your email as per the requirement and relax as your message gets sent when a customer takes an action. For instance, if you set up email automation for sending a welcome email every time a prospect fills your sign-up form, you don’t need to worry if your staff is present to send it or not.

  1. Better customer retention

Email automation makes staying in touch with customers more effortless than ever. With automation, you can schedule your emails and ensure that your copy is relevant to the customer. As a result, your chances of retaining a customer increase.

Wrap Up

From welcome emails and order confirmation emails to abandoned cart emails and thank you emails, automation is a great way of attracting new customers while retaining existing ones. You can even keep your leads warm through email automation and motivate them to make a purchase.

In addition, a good email automation strategy provides an impeccable user experience to customers and also helps you streamline your workflow.

So, go ahead, get started with your email automation strategy, and see how your business paves new avenues of success, one automated email at a time. Happy Emailing!

The post The Benefits of Email Marketing Automation in 2021 appeared first on SiteProNews.

Best Email Marketing Strategies to Improve Your Business

posted on October 22, 2021

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Over 4 billion people are active email users. That’s more than half the world’s population! So, it shouldn’t surprise you when we say that email marketing can work wonders for your business if you know how to leverage it. 

Yes, there is a right way to wield this medium. And, several digital marketers are already doing it. So much so that they and other industry experts rank email marketing as the most effective promotional platform. Even more than social media, affiliate marketing, and search engine optimization (SEO).

Why is that, you may reckon? Probably because email marketing returns organizations 38$ on every dollar spent. Pretty high, wouldn’t you say! But, this happens when you carefully draft your email marketing strategy and send valuable communication to your leads to engage them. How? Find out in the next section.

Strategize Your Next Email Marketing Campaign in 4 Simple Ways

Now that you know why solid email marketing – one that is worth your lead’s time, is critical, here’s how you should gear your future campaigns.

1. Begin by segmenting your email list

Don’t have an email list? Build one now! Because if you’re not in possession of warm leads to email, none of this will work. There are several ways to create an email list. You can generate leads through website pop-up forms, market surveys, or better yet, by investing in third-party email lists. Once you’ve built a qualified lead database, it’s time to segment them into relevant categories.

Segmenting your email list automatically makes your email marketing campaigns far more targeted. Here is a simple example. Suppose your company wants to host a product launch for small businesses only. If they don’t have a pre-segmented email list of small business owners out of their entire dump of contacts, they’ll end up spamming all types of leads. 

Such a thing could potentially damage your company’s credibility, and entities other than small businesses will stop taking your email communication seriously.

You can segment your email list depending on hundreds of parameters like purchase triggers, likes and dislikes, motivations, age, occupation, and the list goes on.

Remember, the finer your segmentation, the more targeted your email campaign. Creating and segmenting your email list also helps you etch out Ideal Customer Profiles or ICPs. Through these personas, you can identify who your future clients are and prep email content for them. 

2. Personalize Your Emails to the Hilt

No, email personalization does not mean sending out a unique email to every email list subscriber. But your subscribers sure should feel unique! Personalizing emails means using your lead’s personal information, their likes and dislikes, and pitching email content that is highly relevant to them.

Furthermore, email personalization doesn’t stop at addressing a lead by their first name over email. Sure, do this as well. But, along with this, you must ideally pitch an offering the lead is most likely looking for. Don’t send an email if you don’t have anything relevant or remotely valuable to say. 

For example, suppose a customer services manager is struggling to streamline customer information. No matter how hard they try, a ton of customer data is pouring in each day, and they can’t seem to manage it. Sharing with such leads a marketing email for a robust CRM software highlighting its customer service management features is a win-win for both parties. 

For those wondering if email personalization drives results – an Experian study reveals that email personalization delivers 6x higher transaction rates than generic email communication.

3. Design Mobile-Friendly Emails 

Even though this strategy does not directly link to improving your promotional email’s content, it contributes to boosting readability, click-through rates, and subsequent conversions.

The screen on your phone is way smaller than a laptop or desktop, which leads to zooming in or out a lot. Your leads may struggle to find Call-to-Action or CTA buttons and lose interest quickly if your emails are not optimized for smartphones. 

Simply put, what do you think will happen if your promotional email is not optimized for a friendly interaction over smartphones? The lead will lose interest quickly and delete it or unsubscribe from your list.

So, design mobile-friendly emails to make it easier for prospects to browse through them. Here are 5 ways to create mobile-friendly emails.

  • White short subject lines. Ones that can be read in entirety on a smartphone screen.
  • Don’t use heavy imagery. Your email should instantly load.
  • Keep the text concise. Remember, less is more when sharing emails over mobile phones. Also, don’t write a block of text. Instead, break paras into spaced-out sentences, and use bullets where necessary. 
  • Place big CTA buttons on top or bottom so they are clearly visible. More importantly, ensure that the landing pages these buttons take a customer to are also optimized for mobile phones.  
  • Remember that a whopping 1.7 billion people are reading emails on their smartphones, which royally outnumbers the ones checking it on their desktops (0.9 billion). Therefore, designing a mobile-friendly email marketing campaign is non-negotiable.   

4. A/B Test Your Subject Lines, Email Layout, and CTAs

These three elements are cardinal to your email marketing strategy. So:

  • Write unambiguous yet witty subject lines. Studies say a subject line under 9 words is ideal.
  • Don’t design a cluttered layout.
  • Utilize white space intelligently.
  • Do not roll out emails without adding impactful CTAs. They prompt your reader to take action.
  • Finish your email body within 50 to 125 words. Research suggests that email copy within 25 to 50 words offers response rates of 50%.

Further, draft two emails with separate subject lines, body text, and CTAs, and test them with a chunk of leads. This exercise is called A/B testing, and through it, you’ll figure out which email subject line, CTA, and text work better with a particular lead segment.

Over to You

Know that your prospects receive hundreds of emails every day, and a majority of them contain promotional content. But, this shouldn’t mean your email stays on the backburner. 

Such a thing won’t happen if you employ the four email marketing strategies listed above. So, segment your email list, pitch prospects what they want, make your emails easy-to-read on different devices, use imagery, and uncluttered layouts, and you’re good to go.

Maintain the sanctity of email marketing, make it more customer-centric, and you shall be rewarded rather quickly!

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Cross-Channel Marketing – Comprehensive Strategies To Stay On Top Of The Marketing Game

posted on October 22, 2021

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What’s the key to winning at the marketing game today? Targeted, personalized, and real-time messaging across marketing channels. How do you make that happen?

Infographic Courtesy of: Email.uplers.com

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9 Proven Methods for Creating High-Converting Emails

posted on October 5, 2021

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Companies are constantly competing for leads and customers. To stand out from the crowd, you need a good marketing strategy. One such strategy is email marketing. 

Email marketing is more than just sending emails and promoting your products. You need to know how to create emails that convert. There are basic rules you need to follow to do this effectively. In this article, you’ll learn nine proven methods for creating high-converting emails.

1. Make a Customer Persona 

The key to successful marketing is a clear understanding of your audience. So, take the time to design a customer persona. A customer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer.

Image Source

Since a customer persona contains your target customer’s important demographic data and pain points, you can create marketing content that will resonate with them.

But how can you generate that data for your customer persona? Social media platforms are a goldmine of information. You can also capture customer data with forms on your website and surveys. Just send the surveys straight to your customers or potential customers via email.

The more data you generate, the better. That will give you clarity on who your business is targeting, their specific needs, and how to meet them.

2. Pick the Best Email Marketing Platform

Using the right software is important when it comes to B2C and B2B email marketing. It doesn’t matter if you have the best high-converting emails. If you don’t have the right email marketing platform with which to send them, they might not even reach your intended recipients in the first place. Or if they do, they just end up in the spam folder.

A good platform should have the following:

  • Easy-to-use email builder: A good email marketing platform should allow you to create marketing emails easily. Look for a drag-and-drop editor so it will be easy to use. The platform needs to provide you with nice mobile-responsive email templates too.
  • Good email segmentation feature: Your email marketing software solution should allow you to segment your email list easily. The idea is to send tailored content to each of those email segments to ensure better conversion rates.
  • Integration feature: A good email marketing software solution will allow easy integration with third-party software, such as a webinar platform.

Some platforms screen the companies who use their service. They also remove businesses that try to spam people or upload unauthenticated email details.

You want to make sure the email marketing platform you select follows this vetting process. Companies that don’t generally have lower delivery rates. 

3. Create Catchy Subject Lines

You get only one chance to make a good impression. That’s why the subject lines of your emails need to be catchy.

There are many ways you can make your subject line stand out. For example, you can ask open-ended questions. Those will entice your email recipient to click on your email to get the answer. You can also create a sense of urgency (more on this later). For instance, if you’re offering a discount, highlight that it’s a limited-time offer in the subject line.

Using numbers and highlighting benefits is also an easy way to grab attention. Here’s an example of a subject line that uses that strategy:

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Choose a direct approach. Use lines that contain only the essential information. 

Also, use informal language. If you can, add a bit of humor to your subject line. Just make sure the humor isn’t offensive to anyone. Test your subject line on other people before settling for the one you’ll send.

4. Preview Text Should Be Flawless

The preview text is that section of text that appears below the subject line in a recipient’s inbox. It gives the readers a bit more information about the email.

You need to give serious thought to what information goes into the preview. Email recipients are more likely to look at the preview first before deciding whether to open the email or not. 

Here are a few things you can do:

  • Personalize: Create relatable preview text. The idea is to make people want to open your email.
  • Summarize: Let the preview provide an overview of the email. For example, if your subject line is “50% new arrivals,†your preview text should explain what specific products arrived.
  • Include Call To Action – If your email has CTAs and they pair well with the subject line, consider showcasing them in your preview text.
  • Be honest: Never trick your subscribers into opening your emails. Only provide accurate information.

Email preview text can have as many as 140 characters. But it’s best to aim for just 40 to 90 characters instead. No one likes reading long lines.

5. Write as if You Were Writing to a Friend

Remember when I said it’s best to take an informal approach to your subject line? Well, that applies to your email body as well. You want your subscribers to relate to you. That’s the only way you’ll get them to read your entire email. 

So, when writing your high-converting emails, think about how you would usually write to a friend. Use words that are easy to understand. Make your sentence structures simple, too. Use the active voice instead.

Don’t just personalize your preview text and subject lines. Personalize the email body, too. Personalized email content can get more engagement and can drive revenue by as much as 760%!

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To personalize, use your recipient’s first name in the email body like the example above.

Also, your email body should be content tailored to the recipient. Don’t send a person interested in technology an email about your newest shoe product, for example.

6. Use a Clear Call to Action

Every email you write should have a clear call to action. Your CTA is your final instruction to your reader. If they don’t understand what you mean, they can’t take your desired action. 

So, be as straightforward as possible. Instead of saying “Get Started,†say “Buy Now†or “Sign Up,†whichever applies. Don’t leave anything subject to interpretation.

Ideally, you should have only one CTA centered around your goal for sending the email. But you can have more than one if all the CTAs are geared towards you achieving that goal.  

Here’s an example. 

Google’s objective with this email is to get recipients to download the Google Express app. But since there are two ways to download, instead of just one CTA, there are two CTAs.

Finally, make sure your CTAs stand out in your email. 

7. Create FOMO 

Some people who see your CTA won’t click on the link. That’s where urgency comes in. Creating that Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) will incentivize more people to click on your link.

Pointing out that an offer only lasts for a specific period of time is one way to create FOMO (remember when I said you should specify this in your subject line, too?). 

You can even use a timer like in the example above.

8. Send Multiple Emails

Don’t expect your subscriber to take your desired action after sending just one email.  They need to warm up to you before they can do that. That’s why sending multiple emails is important.

You don’t have to send too many. Three to five emails can be enough. Just make sure the content of each email aims to get your subscriber closer to your goal.

Let’s look at an example. Let’s say your goal is to sell an online game. Your email sequence could look something like this:

  • Email 1: Introduce your online game.
  • Email 2: Let your subscriber play the game for a limited period.
  • Email 3: Give them some tips on how to get through a game level.
  • Email 4: Ask them to buy the game.

Notice that you don’t ask your subscriber to purchase the game in your first emails. You just let them experience it first. Once they get hooked, you make your offer.

9. Segment Your Email List 

Segmenting your email list into smaller groups can help you send more relevant emails to subscribers. When you send people content that’s relevant to them, they are more likely to open the email and take action.

You can segment your list by:

  • Geographical area 
  • Customer behavior
  • Purchasing power

There are many other ways you can segment your email list. Just refer to your customer personas for more ideas.

Wrapping Up

Email marketing is a great strategy for generating conversions. However, you need to make sure you create high-converting emails in the first place. 

You learned tips on how to create those in this article. Know your audience, pick the right tools, and create a catchy subject line. Don’t forget to use simple language your subscriber will understand. Use a clear CTA and create FOMO to get them to take action. Finally, segment your email list and send multiple emails. 

Have a strategy in place. Put in the hard work. Your email marketing campaigns will generate great results.

The post 9 Proven Methods for Creating High-Converting Emails appeared first on SiteProNews.

Ultimate Guide to Writing Impactful Outreach Emails

posted on October 1, 2021

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Outreach emails are sent to promote content. The purpose of these emails is to ask for a back-link or to request collaboration or partnership from influencers. Outreach emails are not uncommon. You can open your spam folder and find a number of emails waiting for your reply. So do they even have any use?

The answer is yes. Email outreach does work and businesses still use this approach to get more conversions and sales. In this article, we are going to discuss how to send an outreach email that gets opened and replied to. 

Let’s dig in.

How to send the right type of outreach emails?

You need to create the right type of outreach emails to get replies. Cookiecutter and salesy emails end up in the spam folder. When done right, the audience finds such emails helpful and even interact with them. Such outreach emails offer value to the audience and bring you your desired results. Your business can benefit greatly when you start to send the right type of outreach emails. Some of the key benefits outreach emails can offer include:

Link building

One of the biggest benefits of sending the right type of outreach emails is link building. The truth is, the majority of link-building channels have made it necessary for a business to send outreach emails to further the process. 

Building public relationships

Building strong relationships in the industry is important for any business. That’s what outreach emails offer. You can build strong relationships with other people related to your industry through an outreach email. These emails help you reach out to relevant people in the industry. Some of the perks of sending out outreach emails include opportunities such as interviews, partnership, guest blogging, and more. 

Press coverage

You can also get press coverage with the help of an effectively written outreach email. To make that happen, you need to send exceptionally targeted emails to those journalists that cover your niche. 

The best practices to write a good outreach email

Various practices lead to the creation of a good outreach email that helps you achieve your goal. Some of these practices include:

Generating a list of targets

The first step of making your outreach email strategy a success is to ensure that it is sent to the right audience. We know, that’s common sense. In contrast, if you open the spam folder of your email you will realize that the majority of the emails you have received were never meant for you. Therefore, create a list of targets before writing an outreach email.

Create a template of your own

Many people believe the template is a bad word when it comes to cold email outreach. The first thing that crosses their mind, in this case, is spam emails that millions of people receive and they usually start with “Dear sir or madamâ€Â. These types of emails never work. Therefore, you should avoid sending them. On the flip side, letting go of templates completely is not right either. That’s because if you use a template the right way, you save a lot of time. 

Furthermore, you will require outreach email templates if you want to scale them. You can personalize these templates to suit your intent and target audience. 

How to develop your own template

The first step to developing your own template for outreach email is to look for inspiration. You will find various outreach email example templates online, but never plagiarize these templates. Use them as inspiration only. If you copy the template, your outreach email will look like every other spammy email people receive in their spam folder. 

Personalize your outreach emails

Once you have selected the template to take inspiration from, you need to turn it into your own. You can personalize it in a variety of ways. You can add humor or those elements that set you apart from your competitors. You can decide the length to suit your intent. Make sure you have written a catchy subject line with which to start your email. 

Write multiple emails. Go through each one of them and create different versions. Do a split test and see which one suits your business and your intent better. 

Choose the right email outreach tool

You can save a lot of time and effort when you have the right email outreach tools by your side. These tools help you scale up your outreach email when you need it. Some of the best tools to use include:

Pitch Box

The majority of outreach email professionals use this tool to create effective outreach emails. It includes workflows that lead you through outreach campaigns. 

Buzz Stream

This is one of the oldest tools used by market professionals over the years. It is an ideal tool to add to the SEO arsenal for small teams and solopreneurs. It helps them create and send effective outreach emails. 

JustReachOut

If you want to pitch journalists, influencers, and bloggers, this is the right tool for you. It is a must-have, solid tool for an effective outreach email marketing campaign. 

Ninja Outreach

One of the most effective tools, if you intend to build links and improve your business’s SEO. 

Now that we know the key practices of writing an effective outreach email, it is time to look at some outreach email examples. 

Examples of outreach emails

There are various outreach email examples, each written with a different motive. Some of the most common examples include:

1. Inbound sales and follow-up outreach email examples

The best way to convert a casual visitor to your website into a happy customer is to email your inbound leads. You need to understand that every outreach email doesn’t have to be a cold email. Inbound traffic are leads that come to your website when visitors are searching for a solution to a problem. Here’s an example.

Your course registration 

 Hello {First Name},

We are pleased to have you registered for our recent course on “How to create an effective marketing strategy for a small businessâ€Â.

If you are interested in more courses that help you develop a marketing strategy that converts, reply to this email. We will update you every time there is a similar course available. By replying to this email you will be informed through email when courses of your interest are available.

We hope to hear from you soon.

Kind regards,

The results offered by this type of outreach email are extremely impressive. These emails get opened around 78% of the time. Over 29% of recipients reply to these emails. According to a survey, the first email has the highest chance of being opened by about 35% of the recipients. 

You can use the following template to write a follow-up outreach email. 

Hello {First Name},

I wanted to check back on my previous email. Are you interested in receiving emails about more courses on marketing for small businesses? We can have a chat this week if your schedule allows.

I am looking forward to a reply from you.

Kind regards,

2. Outbound outreach email examples

Outbound emails are another great outreach email example. While they have their worth, it is not always possible to add them to your marketing strategy. These emails are sent to the leads that come from an already established source of traffic. Therefore, this approach may not work for startups and new businesses. 

You can send outbound emails to create initial traction. Outbound emails can also serve as an important channel for coupon marketing. Giving an exclusive discount to your targeted customers is an effective way of getting good results quickly. All you need to do is add the details of your ideal customers to the email outreach software to get in touch with your intended customers at scale. 

Marketing on Ecwid 

 Hey {First Name},

My name is Gregory.

The reason I have reached out to you is that I was visiting your website and I noticed that you have been using Ecwid as your ecommerce platform.

We offer highly-targeted marketing services to the online stores built upon Ecwid. We have already helped some of the most established companies with their SEO and PPC. If you want to avail of our services to grow your business, please reply to this email.

Please let us know if you are available for a brief call next Thursday at 1 PM EST?

3. Staffing and recruiting outreach email examples

Outreach email examples are not limited to selling a product or a service. These outreach email examples can be used to connect with a potential candidate for a job opening. More than 37.6% of talent teams reported that they have been using outreach channels to get in touch with candidates. 

This means instead of depending on job boarding or waiting for the best candidate to apply for a position in your company, take the first step and create staffing and recruiting outreach emails. Let’s take a look at an example, 

Looking for a professional Software Quality Assurance Engineer to Join XYZ Inc

Hi {First Name},

My name is Monona, the CEO of XYZ Inc. I came across your profile while looking for the best engineers with experience in assuring software quality. I am very impressed with your experience and background. Therefore, I have decided to drop you a note.

It might be new to you to see a CEO reach out to you to discuss a career opportunity. However, the success of our company depends upon finding the right people and putting them together to work on challenging yet fun and exciting projects. That’s why I invest a lot of time in finding the right assets for our company.

There is a position we’d like to tell you about, but we can get into that discussion once we hear back from you. Please reply to this email if you are interested in learning more about this position.

4. PR and link-building outreach email examples

Another reason for sending an outreach email is to build PR, an email you write when you want to spread the good word about your company. You can get the attention of journalists and influencers by using these outreach email examples. Writing a good outreach email can get your foot in the door whether you want a backlink from a famous website or news coverage. 

Keep in mind that you have only one chance to make a great first impression. By using the right template you can increase your chances of getting a favorable response. Moreover, it will also make you appear professional. 

Let’s have a look at the following example:

Free (Content Upgrade) for (receiver’s post)

Hey {First Name},

I found your article on (a famous post). I really liked it.

It inspired me to do more research and write my take on the subject matter. I decided to create something deeper. I reached out to you because I have recently published (content upgrade) on the (post subject). I believe it might be of interest to you. I have summarized the cogent points. This article is research based and includes sources to back it up.

Can you have a look and let me know if I should pass it along? I would love to get your opinion on this piece of writing.

Either way, Good luck with your work with (website).

Best regards,

Wrapping up

With the advent of social media platforms and other forms of marketing, email marketing has taken a back seat, but it is still extremely relevant when it comes to achieving certain goals such as building PR, requesting a backlink, collaboration and partnership and even getting press coverage. Outreach emails connect your business with the right and relevant people.

If you want to write effective outreach emails, you should look through outreach email example templates available online for inspiration. You can customize these templates to make your outreach email reach the right audience.

The post Ultimate Guide to Writing Impactful Outreach Emails appeared first on SiteProNews.

How Digital Marketing is Evolving and the Benefits of Digital Marketing Platforms

posted on September 4, 2021

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In recent years, digital marketing, compared to traditional promotion channels, has been taking a more and more important place in the structure of companies’ marketing budgets. And due to global digitalization and technology advancement, the trend will continue. Let’s talk about digital marketing trends, platforms, and their benefits.

Why digital marketing is gaining momentum

Digital marketing is the promotion of products and services by using digital technologies. Its main task is to convey brand information to consumers with the help of digital tools: search engines, social networks, applications, e-mail, and websites.

Compared to such channels as radio, television, print and outdoor advertising, etc. that are considered traditional, digital marketing emerged and became popular much later – in the early 1990s. This is when the first CRM systems began to be used.

With the proliferation of personal computers, marketers have gained the opportunity to manage customer information and run online advertising campaigns. In 1994, the world saw the first interactive digital banner ad. The conversion was high – 44% of users who saw an ad went to the manufacturer’s website.

The emergence of smartphones has changed consumer behavior patterns. Clients now rarely seek advice from shop assistants and look for information about a product on the web increasingly often. Digital tools have become the main selling channel of manufacturers, rather than sales-trained employees.

The development of marketing automation began in the early 2000s. This allowed companies to segment their audiences, run personalized ads, and launch advertising campaigns in parallel across multiple channels.

Today, thanks to social media, manufacturers have more information about clients for planning their marketing campaigns.

Main trends in digital marketing

According to Gartner, the following digital marketing areas will evolve in the coming years:

1. User data security

Marketing involves the use of large amounts of information, including users’ personal data. The ethics of user data is becoming increasingly important – a firm’s actions must comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Companies that fully embrace modern ethical regulations and can guarantee the security of their clients’ data will gain an edge over competitors and ensure user loyalty.

2. Real-time marketing

Marketing messages need to meet consumer expectations, adjusting to their behavior in real-time. This will allow companies to offer relevant information and increase conversions, while marketers will be able to collect, analyze, and use the data of website visitors.

3. Artificial Intelligence

The advancement of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technologies are opening up new opportunities for marketers. AI and ML help to quickly make decisions, change marketing tactics, switch between target audiences, and adjust communication messages during campaigns according to changes in consumer sentiments. This gives digital marketing tremendous advantages over traditional marketing channels where placement has to be planned beforehand.

4. Geolocation

Geolocation plays one of the strategic roles in marketing campaigns. Using clients’ location data allows a brand to be closer to their interests, offering relevant products and services at the right time in the right place. By combining the data from a user’s website experience and offline store visit, a company can form a comprehensive consumer portrait and work with the user in a more personalized way.

5. Personalization

Personalized marketing is a strategy where the user sees those websites, ads, and banners that match their style of interaction with the brand. Content that is more relevant to the user grabs their attention. Personalization is also used for retargeting, i.e. for reminding the client about the products that they were previously interested in and encouraging them to return to the website for purchase.

Types of digital marketing

Let’s consider various options for how a business can promote its products and services and interact with customers:

1. Social media marketing (SMM)

On average, people spend about 2 hours 22 minutes daily on social media. There are up to eight different accounts per user. Among the 5.11 billion smartphone users, 3.26 billion have social media accounts.

It is important for brands to be present on the social networks that their target audience uses. Facebook, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and Instagram provide multiple marketing tools and are full-fledged digital marketing platforms. On these platforms, companies run paid targeted advertising, expand their customer base, interact with clients, receive feedback from them, work with reviews, and conduct research and polls. Companies that effectively use this digital marketing tool remain competitive.

2. Influencer marketing

Brands can partner with celebrities, bloggers, and people who are considered experts in their fields and share similar values. This is how companies attract influencers’ followers.

3. Email marketing

About 60% of consumers claim that email plays an important role in their purchasing decisions. Email marketing allows organizations to send customers personalized offers based on purchase history or brand interactions. In addition, users who have subscribed to newsletters from a brand are more loyal, so they can be invited to participate in research – for example, when new products are launched.

4. Content marketing

Marketing teams create content – blog posts, social media posts, etc. – through which key brand messages are conveyed. Content accompanies consumers at all stages of their interaction with the brand:

  • stage of knowledge or awareness – the consumer learns about the product for the first time,
  • stage of interest – the consumer searches for information about the product, reads reviews, and watches videos,
  • stage of decision-making – the consumer compares the product with competitors’ products and learns the terms of delivery and payment,
  • stage of retention – the consumer has already made a purchase and is using the product; it is necessary to encourage them to return again.

The specifics of the content depend, among other things, on what stage the clients are at.

5. SEO marketing

SEO or search engine optimization of websites means bringing content to such a form that search engines can easily find it. SEO uses a variety of tools for improving the visibility of a website to search engines – for example, keywords.

6. Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing

A brand pays for clicks on its banners and ads posted on the Internet, and thus buys traffic for its website.

7. Affiliate marketing

A brand partners with another business – for example, places ads on another company’s radio podcast and announces promotional codes. But the values of the two companies must not contradict each other.

The above are just some of the digital marketing types. In actual practice, there are many more of them, and different tools are suitable for different tasks. If you find it difficult to orient yourself in rapidly changing technologies and choose the best strategy for your digital presence, digital marketing platforms will come to the rescue.

Benefits of digital marketing platforms

A digital marketing platform is a system that unites several online promotion channels and offers a company various marketing tools for launching and managing campaigns.

Digital marketing platforms combine multiple features in one solution, giving teams a holistic view of their advertising campaigns. Effective collaboration with a digital marketing platform provides a brand with the following benefits:

1. Cost estimation and planning

In digital marketing, determining which channel is most effective for a particular task can be difficult. A digital marketing platform has data on multiple digital channels to help you make the right choice. The platform has access to multi-placement of advertising, which can be beneficial for companies.

2. Relevant information

Digital platforms lean on the latest digital marketing data.

3. Ready-made analytics tools

Platforms like Google Analytics give users access to analytics tools for marketing campaigns.

4. Efficiency estimation

Digital marketing platforms help to work out KPIs, test them, and analyze how the figures change over time.

5. Marketing automation

Digital marketing platforms enable companies to automate their marketing processes.

Conclusion

Digital marketing is one of the key areas of marketing and brand promotion. Digital marketing platforms enable a business to develop and implement an effective strategy with the right set of tools and high-quality performance measurement.

The post How Digital Marketing is Evolving and the Benefits of Digital Marketing Platforms appeared first on SiteProNews.

7 Working Digital Marketing Tips for Businesses 2021

posted on August 17, 2021

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Digital marketing is one of the most important aspects of running a successful business in today’s world. The internet has made it easier to get your message out there. In a world where the digital landscape is changing and businesses need to adjust to stay competitive, it’s essential to know what will work for your company in 2021. 

To stay ahead of the competition, digital marketing needs to be done strategically and with purpose. Here are seven digital marketing tips that are guaranteed to help make your business more successful!

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

With over 4.6 billion people online, it’s essential to be at the top results page when potential customers search for your business.

But how can you guarantee that your website appears in the search engine results pages (SERP) when prospective customers look for things that you offer? This is where SEO comes into play.

Did you know that less than 10% of people don’t go past the second page of search results when they’re looking for something? This means that it’s vital to have an effective SEO strategy to ensure that you’re getting the maximum amount of website traffic.  

Your digital assets should be structured in such a way that they are optimized for search engines to find them easily when keywords or phrases relating to your business are entered into the search bar. SEO includes elements like keyword research, backlinks, Google my business, and metatags.  

For example, suppose you are an advertising agency in Charleston. In that case, digital assets optimized for SEO should be presented so that when potential clients search for digital marketing agency Charleston, your business is found at the top of those results.

Social Media Marketing

In today’s world of digital marketing, social media is an asset that cannot be ignored. With one-third of companies using it as a strategy and over 70% of consumers making use of its services for customer service, it’s crucial to maximize your social media presence. 

Not only do more than 25% of users spend their internet time on these platforms, but they also rely on them for connections with brands. Most users use the platforms to highlight positive shopping experiences or to post reviews about products- ensuring you get contacted by millions through your channels faster!

Social media marketing is a strategy used for building your company’s brand awareness and increasing conversions. Social media campaigns often focus on one or several platforms, depending on the target audience preferences and their platform of choice.

The variety of social media marketing platforms include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. Social media not only promotes products but also fosters relationships with the users on various platforms.

PPC

Pay-Per-Click advertising (PPC) is a digital advertising method used to direct paid traffic to a website when an ad is clicked.

With PPC ads you have the ability to target your audience by location, likes, interests, and reduce the cost of reaching your target audience. In many cases, PPC spending can lower your CPA (cost per acquisition) in comparison to other mediums. This means you’ll be able to determine how much each click costs you so that you know how effective your digital strategy is.

Although PPC campaigns require some upfront investment, it’s proven to be one of the most effective digital marketing solutions. It brings down your cost per acquisition while simultaneously growing awareness about your brand among consumers. 

Not only do businesses earn $8 for every dollar they spend on Google Ads, but users that click on ads are 50% more likely to buy a product. To date, this has yielded an impressive ROI of $2 per investment made on other platforms like Facebook or Twitter.

E-mail Marketing

E-mail marketing involves using digital messages to market various products and services. It delivers high returns on investment because it’s one of the most direct ways of building relationships with customers.  

E-mail marketing offers a way for businesses to connect with their customers on an individual basis. By sending out targeted, personalized e-mails that keep your company top-of-mind and encourage repeat purchases, e-mail increases customer loyalty and awareness, driving sales growth.

With an average ROI of 4400 percent, e-mail marketing offers the potential to increase your revenue by $44 for every dollar invested in e-mail campaigns! More than 60% of users also like weekly promotional e-mails from companies they are interested in and don’t mind being contacted via this channel as long as it’s not too often or disruptive.

For example, social media consultant Charleston, SC, digital marketing agencies can use e-mail marketing to promote digital products such as digital newsletters, digital books, or digital reports. 

Video Marketing

Video marketing is a powerful tool for increasing brand awareness, conversion rates, and company revenue. Video content appeals to current user behaviors and has proven itself as one of the most effective ways to reach target audiences. According to Statista Research & Consulting Group (2016), adults spend up to five hours per day watching videos on sites like YouTube!

Video marketing has become an effective tool of any company’s online strategy. With a video, you can improve conversion rates and generate leads while still being cost-effective. Video also acts as another form of content for e-mail or social media campaigns, which helps increase your customer base with every new viewer.

Research has found that 90% of people make purchase decisions based on what they see in a video, so it makes sense that the same technique could be applied when selling products through content marketing strategies.

Voice SEO

Voice search is becoming a new digital marketing strategy for many companies. It’s one of the newest ways to find information online, and with more people purchasing smartphones and voice-activated speakers like Amazon Echo devices, it has become an integral aspect of modern-day life.

The goal of successful optimization for these searches is to rank at position zero on Google’s SERP listings. This increases your company’s visibility among consumers and leads back to your website or landing page, where you can then convert visitors into customers that buy products from you directly through the site. This innovative approach provides both immediacy and relevancy.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a digital marketing strategy that focuses on creating and distributing valuable content to attract target customers. It’s becoming an essential part of digital strategies for businesses designing digital content to educate, influence, or entertain potential buyers.

Content can take the form of digital books, white papers, infographics, blogs, and social media posts. 

Content marketing is best used alongside other digital marketing techniques like Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC). SEO makes it straightforward for people to find what you’re promoting online, while PPC attracts more qualified leads so that they are ready to make a purchase when they see your product or service.

Get Started with VIP Marketing and Advertising

Getting started with these digital marketing tips can seem daunting. But, luckily you have VIP Marketing and Advertising marketing experts to help turn your business into a success story! Eric Elliott will guide you regarding strategy and execution tailored for what’s best for your company. Contact us today to get started.

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7 Clever Tactics to Up Your Healthcare Email Marketing Strategy

posted on August 12, 2021

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Irrespective of the industry you belong to, email marketing plays a crucial role in reaching out to your prospective clients and customers alike. The healthcare industry is no exception. Along with your website, email is a marketing platform that you must focus on, as a healthcare professional. 

Objective of Healthcare Email Marketing

Email marketing helps you in achieving three main purposes:

  • Acquiring new patients. 
  • Facilitating patient retention and encouraging them to come back to you, if need arises. 
  • Staying in touch with readers and building a strong relationship with them. 

So, how will your emails ensure that you achieve these goals?

Let’s look at some tips and tricks that can take your healthcare email marketing to the next level and contribute to business growth. 

1. Maintain an empathetic tone in your emails

The world is going through a tough time, so you must draft copy that exudes empathy and consideration for readers. Since healthcare is a very tricky service to promote, make sure that you maintain a sensitive tone that does not look like a sales pitch.  

Take a look at this email example by Quest Diagnostics. 

The tone of the copy and the green color reflect warmth and give the feeling that they care for their patients.  

They have even included a “Forward Email†link to prompt the user to share the informative email with their friends and family. In the long run, it enhances SEO efforts to boost the healthcare practice

Another important thing to note in this email is that it follows all the email accessibility best practices (as suggested by Litmus and Really Good Emails). 

2. Build trust with the readers

The foundation of effective healthcare email marketing is in winning the patient’s trust. Share user reviews or testimonials from happy customers and patients to persuade the reader to use your services. 

For example: If you are an ophthalmologist specializing in laser treatment to eliminate the need for glasses, you must include testimonials from satisfied patients who are leading a life without glasses because of your flawless treatment. The same applies to all other fields, including dentistry. 

Perricone sends out a visually rich email to mark Acne Awareness Month. They shared a testimonial by a customer who has used their products and got rid of  troublesome acne.

In addition, they offered a discount to bring in more conversions. 

The email is an interesting read because it looks like a mini-infographic filled with intriguing statistics and facts.

Did you see the nice visuals in the email above?

Well, that brings us to the next point. 

3. Include rich media elements

To make email copy easy to consume, it is advisable to include relevant visuals. Complex topics are easier to understand when coupled with explainer videos or suitable images. This is even more important in the healthcare industry since people might not be aware of the intricacies involved in the medical field.  

Here is an email example that includes a video thumbnail image with a ‘Play’ button to get more viewers.

Similarly, you can use interactive elements like menus and accordions if you have to convey more information in the limited space of emails. Just make sure you follow email design best practices while designing such emails. 

4. Aim to educate readers

An educational tone goes a long way in spreading health awareness and encouraging people to get in touch with you. Just make sure that your email educates the reader without scaring them. It is of utmost importance to let the readers know that they should be aware and not scared. 

DAO Lab sent out a nice email that sheds light on how Chinese Medicine Theory supports fertility and improves reproductive health. Many women might be having questions about this and this email provides satisfactory answers to all those concerns. 

5. Send out relevant content by segmenting your subscribers

If you are a multi-specialty healthcare facility, you must segment your subscribers based on the services they have inquired about or facilities they have availed. For instance: If someone has used your pediatric healthcare services, you must send them relevant content related to pediatric wellbeing rather than hypertension or diabetes. 

Additionally, you can segment your email list according to the patient’s age. Accordingly, you must send out content that is most relevant for them. To cite an example: Older adults might be happy to receive content related to geriatric medicine. 

If you are a marketer for a dental clinic, the same applies to you. If a 60 year old patient has visited your hospital for dentures, you shouldn’t send them emails related to dental problems commonly seen in young patients which would hamper the patient experience and negatively impact the doctor’s reputation. 

6. Set automation workflows and monitor them regularly

Whenever a patient comes to your clinic for the first time and shares their email address, send them an automated welcome email. Introduce your team of healthcare professionals and your story with patients. It is always good to read  about ‘how it all started’. 

Once the treatment is completed, deploy a feedback email asking the user how satisfied they were with the services. You can also send out emails on the patient’s birthday and show that you care for their wellbeing.

You can even send out occasional emails in case you launch any new services or achieve exciting milestones in your business. 

Just make sure that you analyze the metrics of these automated emails and keep optimizing them for best results. If needed, you can even consider pausing the automation which may be necessary in times of unrest and tough circumstances. 

7. Benefit from referral marketing strategy

Incentivize users who help to bring you business. While this can be a very sensitive tactic for hospitals, you can certainly use it if you are in the wellness business or are a healthcare technology service provider. 

Wrapping Up

The Healthcare industry has advanced by leaps and bounds in the past few decades and healthcare marketing tactics have evolved. Emails have gotten more sophisticated and facilitated communication between healthcare professionals and patients. 

Just follow these simple tips and you will surely enhance the visibility of your healthcare business. It will also improve patient access and impart a pleasant experience to patients.

The post 7 Clever Tactics to Up Your Healthcare Email Marketing Strategy appeared first on SiteProNews.

The Best Email Marketing Strategies to Help Your Business Thrive

posted on June 17, 2021

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With global email users reaching a whopping 4 billion in 2020, the potential of tapping into the world of email marketing is immense for businesses across the globe. This figure is expected to reach 4.6 billion by 2025. Also, email marketing generates an average ROI of $42. No wonder 87% of B2B marketers consider email as one of the top free organic distribution channels!

Best Email Marketing Practices to Boost your Business

Email marketing undoubtedly is one of the best strategies that you can leverage to boost your business and stay ahead of your competitors. After all, 73% of millennials look forward to communicating with businesses through emails. Simply put, email marketing if done right can help you generate sales and revenue for your business like never before. 

Here’s a look at a few of the many techniques that you can use to make the most out of your email marketing campaign:

1. Make the Signup Process Smooth

The first step towards the success of your email marketing campaign is bringing customers on board. From making the sign-up process easy to giving visitors a reason to sign-up, there are plenty of ways that you can use to increase your sign-ups. In short, a simple and straightforward sign-up form will entice visitors to give your website a chance by signing up. For instance, see how Reddit keeps its sign-up form simple and easy to fill in. All they are asking the visitors is their email address. 

Also, using popup forms can make the whole signing-up process seamless for visitors. Popups give visitors the option to instantly sign-up on a website without having to leave the homepage. 

Also, since popups appear on full screen and blur out the content in the background, the chances of visitors getting distracted and abandoning the sign-up form midway reduces. Here’s a sign-up popup from gangsta group.com. They have not only kept the sign-up popup form minimalistic and eye-catching but are also enticing visitors to sign-up with an incentive of a superb Black Friday deal. 

Really good emails also nail their sign-up popup form with its quirky content and visually appealing orange background that makes it the center of attraction for visitors.

2. Send Emails That Resonate with Your Subscribers

After sign-up, the real work starts when you have to send emails to your subscribers. It is important to make your email worth reading. Simply put, your subscribers should not feel disappointed by your email. From compelling subject lines to a copy that clicks, your email should entice your subscribers to open and click-through it. Remember, 47% of email recipients open an email based solely on the subject line. Also, effective email copy accounts for a 26% higher open rate for 45% of small businesses. Therefore, make sure the subject line is precise and to the point and the copy is compelling and worth the subscriber’s time. Take a look at Uncommon Goods straightforward subject line that tells subscribers exactly what the email copy is all about. 

Also, isn’t their email copy for the Christmas holiday top-notch? Take a look at how they have made good use of images and whitespace. Also, the free shipping incentive for signing up is another cherry on the cake.

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3. Keep Your Emails Fresh and Appealing

Make sure you keep your content unique. While sending promotional emails once in a while is fine, do not make it a habit. Instead, send out interesting newsletters. You can also inform your subscribers about new products and services through your marketing emails. Take some inspiration from Canva’s newsletter where they are explaining to their subscribers how to make a card with friends and family through their variety of templates. 

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Also, see how they are going with the flow by helping people create customized zoom backgrounds for various occasions. With social distancing and Zoom calls becoming the new normal because of Covid-19, Canva knows how to send the right email at the right time. 

4. Personalization Is the Key

80% of consumers prefer purchasing from brands that provide a personalized experience. Also, 90% of consumers in the U.S look forward to personal relevant messages from brands. Hence, personalizing your email campaign can increase your click-through and open rates considerably. So, instead of annoying your subscribers with generic emails, you must work on personalization. From addressing subscribers with their first name to sending product recommendations based on their browsing history, there are a lot of personalization strategies that can help you improve your customer’s experience. Judy’s does a great job with their email personalization by reaching out to their customer by checking his/her browsing history through cookies. 

Also, look how Epic has used personalization by addressing the subscriber with his name in the email copy:

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Further, sending emails by using a real person’s name in the “from” address is another great tactic of email personalization. After all, 68% of Americans open an email by looking at the sender’s name. In other words, sending emails from a real person doesn’t only give emails a familiar touch, but also increases the credibility and effectiveness of the email. 

In addition, making use of your subscriber’s important dates such as their birthdays and anniversaries can also take your personalization strategy to the next level. Subscribers will undoubtedly engage with your email, thereby increasing your conversions and revenue. You can do it the way Pizza Hut does by wishing their customer a happy birthday through a quirky birthday email. Also, note how they are trying to make a sale without being obvious by giving free cinnamon sticks as a birthday gift on the customer’s next order. 

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5. Work Towards Email Segmentation

Segmentation helps marketers generate 760% more in revenue. That’s the reason 84% of marketers worldwide are already leveraging segmentation in their email campaigns. Here are a few of the many segmentation criteria that you can use to ace your email marketing campaign.

Demography

Age, gender, location, and income are such demographic data that you can use to segment your subscriber list and target them accordingly. For instance, if you run an e-commerce website, you can segment your subscribers based on gender and send them emails targeting their specific interests. You can get this data by sending out surveys/quizzes to your subscribers. You can also offer incentives to your customers to gain response to your surveys/quizzes.  Take some cue from Herman Miller’s survey email:

Geography 

Geographic location is a critical aspect of email segmentation. From where a customer shops frequently to the time zone they belong to, sending emails targeted specifically to a person is surely going to drive your email campaigns to success by increasing the click-through and conversion rates. 

Previous Purchases

The purchase history of customers also plays a vital role in email segmentation. You can send recommendation emails for products similar to their previous purchases. Further, you can send them emails by perceiving their future requirements. 

For instance, if your customer previously purchased a product that requires refilling or renewal, you can calculate when he/she will run out of that product and send him/her an email after a few months suggesting to reorder/refill the product. Here’s how Rockin’ Wellness does it like a pro:

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6. Opt for Mobile Optimization of Emails

Mobile devices account for 60% of email opens. Also, mobile-friendly emails are the second most widely used strategy adopted by marketers to enhance their email marketing performance. Hence, if you haven’t optimized your emails for mobile, you will surely lose a large chunk of your customers. You can create mobile-friendly emails by keeping your subject line short. While the desktop version of an email shows 60 characters of a subject line, the mobile version just displays 25 characters of the same. So, as mentioned already, you must keep your subject line short and to the point. Further, the pre-header text also plays a great role in creating mobile-friendly emails.  Preheader texts are the initial line of your email copy that gives readers an overview of your email. Here’s how preheader texts look like on mobile:

See how in the first email, Godiva has used the preheader text to inform their subscribers about the free shipping on select items.

Also, you must keep your email copy brief and place your call-to-actions (CTAs) at the top. It will increase your email’s clickability. Check this email from Godiva and see how perfectly they have put the “shop now” CTA at the top:

7. Consider Automating Your Emails

Email automation can take a lot of work off your shoulders. All you need to do is set up an automation campaign and you are done. From welcome and follow-up emails to order confirmation and re-engagement emails, automation can easily help you streamline your communication with your subscribers without you having to invest time in it. And with so much time in hand, you can create stellar email content that clicks and converts. No wonder it is the third most used strategy by email marketers to accelerate their email performance! 

While an automated welcome email from HubSpot looks like this:

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An automated follow-up email from ReturnPath is designed this way:

8. Leverage A/B Testing

Once you are done with all the above strategies, you must A/B test your email campaign. After all, businesses that use A/B testing for their every email campaign witness an increase of 37% more revenue than those businesses who never opt for A/B tests.

A/B tests let you send two different variations of your email campaign to two subsets of your subscribers, thereby giving you an overview of which campaign garnered higher results. This, in turn, can help you understand which campaign will perform better, thereby making it easy for you to implement the best version of your campaign on a larger level. From subject lines and email copies to CTAs and preheader texts, these are few of the many elements of an email that you can A/B test. 

Wrap Up

From personalization and segmentation to automation and mobile optimization, email marketing can prove to be a game-changer for your business.

In a nutshell, by using the techniques mentioned above, you can easily streamline your email marketing strategy and take your business to new heights. So, go ahead and give your business the head start it needs through an impeccable email marketing campaign. 


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Sheerin Naz is a freelance content writer. An MBA in marketing, she loves to write about email marketing and for other industries like lifestyle and travel. When not writing professionally, she spends her time reading books and inking her thoughts on her personal blog. You can connect with her on LinkedIn.

The post The Best Email Marketing Strategies to Help Your Business Thrive appeared first on SiteProNews.

How to Bring Your Business to the Next Level With Marketing Strategies

posted on June 15, 2021

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Every business can succeed if you use a proper marketing strategy to better understand how to attract your target audience better and defeat your competitors. The most common strategies that successful businesses and entrepreneurs, like Firefly’s owner Max Polyakov, use are digital marketing strategies, including social media campaigns, content, and email marketing. Let’s dive into the most helpful tips that will let you 10X your ROI and boost your business.

Social Media Marketing Strategy

Social media marketing strategy can skyrocket your business in no time. There are so many social media platforms you can use as a part of your marketing strategies. However, the most common ones are Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, and Snapchat. For a social marketing strategy to succeed, firstly, you need to set your goals. What is the main aim of your marketing strategy? Do you want to grow your brand, improve customer retention or increase sales? It is time to look up some marketing strategy templates available on the internet.

After you have defined your goals, you must analyze your target audience as thoroughly as possible, defining its age, income, location, interests, etc. However, it is crucial to assess the competition correctly when it comes to social media marketing strategy. You should try gaps where your competitors are not putting much effort and try winning the audience there. When you are a brand-new business, it is tough to compete against big players, so you must start winning the audience step-by-step.

When implementing a social media marketing strategy, it is crucial to decide which platform you will use for which purpose. For example, you can use Instagram to communicate with your audience and Facebook for customer support. Once you have chosen your platforms, it is time to set up your profile. It must be neat and attractive with pictures of the highest quality. You might want to hire a new employee responsible for promoting your brand and developing the content marketing strategy.

The social media marketing strategy will be successful if you post consistently. Set yourself a schedule and define the best time to create posts. It is crucial to track your success, too. Do experiments with content and define what your target audience likes best. A social media marketing strategy requires a lot of effort, but it is definitely worth it. You do not need to be present on every social media channel. Instead, it is better to concentrate on two or three channels where you will apply your strategy.

Influencer Marketing Strategy

Influencer marketing strategy is a part of social media marketing strategy when you collaborate with a person who has gained the trust and has authority over some people. Influencer marketing strategy is extremely popular and effective nowadays. People spend a lot of time on social media platforms and trust influencers, who, in turn, have established an image in the eyes of the audience and can impact their buying decisions.

Influencers are a great marketing strategy example as they can engage the audience and have established themselves and built a reputation as experts in their niche. While it might seem easy to become an influencer, it isn’t. To be an influencer and gain a loyal audience, you must stand out. It is not enough to make good pictures. Influencers must attract and retain an audience, too.

Partnering with an influencer can be a great marketing strategy. To find a match for your business, you will need to do research. Define how many followers the influencer should have and set your budget limit. Payment for an influencer’s marketing strategy also greatly depends on the niche, your product, and the competition.

Once you have chosen an influencer for your marketing strategy, you need to come up with a plan for your brand’s promotion. Define when and in what way an influencer will promote the brand. 

When you have found a potential influencer to collaborate with, you must ask for the statistics and see what other products they advertise. Make sure they are in the same niche as your brand is and have an audience similar to yours. If their profile matches your requirements, it is time to start collaboration and promote your business with an influencer marketing strategy.

Email Marketing Strategy

Email marketing can be very effective and give you an ROI of more than $50 for each $1 you invest. However, for email marketing to work, you will need to be creative and consistent. This marketing strategy has changed a lot, so you will need to adjust. The most effective way to increase the open rate is by sending personalized emails. If you use a person’s name, they are more likely to open the letter and click on the link you send them, which will result in better sales. Instead of saying “Dear client,†try “Dear John.â€Â

When implementing an email marketing strategy, make sure the email is mobile-friendly. Most emails are read on mobiles rather than computers, so the emails must look good. If the emails you send are not optimized for mobile devices, the reader will probably unsubscribe and block them.

Another good opportunity to boost your email strategy is to re-engage existing subscribers who do not read your emails. Inactive subscribers can be re-engaged if you send them an email offering a good discount or even a free gift. Make the discount valid for a week to encourage your reader to act faster.

Conclusion

All in all, if you develop a good plan and stick to it, any marketing strategy, be it content, email, influencer, or saas marketing, will boost your business and promote your brand. The most important thing is to define your target audience and set realistic goals. Marketing strategies require a lot of time, consistency, and dedication. Do experiments and track the stats to see which strategies work for your audience.

What marketing strategies have you tried for promoting your business? Which ones were the most successful? Please, let us know in the comments below.


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Emily Moore is an English & programming teacher with a passion for space and blogging. She believes that current exploration should be focused on preserving our planet’s resources. With satellites circling the orbit, it is easier to get relevant data on any environmental changes. This, in turn, should help people quickly address any challenges.

The post How to Bring Your Business to the Next Level With Marketing Strategies appeared first on SiteProNews.

Four Types of Remarketing

posted on June 11, 2021

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Marketers know the majority of site visitors leave without taking any action. These people can be encouraged to return to the site with the help of traditional or dynamic remarketing.

Nowadays, however, the Internet is full of advertising, so it’s vital for each campaign to stand out from the crowd by using the most relevant and useful content. To achieve this, you can use the incredible potential of special types of remarketing.

The aim of this article is to expand your knowledge of remarketing possibilities and explain new ways to use remarketing to reach your goals.

Multi-level remarketing
Thanks to this function, you can show users different adverts promoting new offers, and even change the frequency of ad impressions, depending on the number of days since their last visit to your site. Such tactics are suitable for products or services that have a long sales cycle or trial period.

For example, we have a list of people who have bought a printer in our store. Our goal is to show them a banner with an offer to buy ink after three months. To do this, we’ll create one remarketing list with a 90-day duration, and an identical list with a 120-day duration. In the next step, we’ll combine these two audiences: choose the ‘Custom combination’ option from the drop-down menu.

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Then we add the audience with the longer period of time by using the ‘Any of these audiences’ condition. The ‘None of these audiences’ condition will help us exclude the audience with the shorter period of time.

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In the last step, you should create a new campaign or ad group for this new audience. As a result, our ads will start being displayed 90 days after the visitor bought a printer at our online store, and these ads will follow the customer for another 30 days.

Similar audience
Similar audience is a special kind of remarketing audience that includes people who are not visitors to your site, but their behavior and interests are very similar to those of your customers.
Using similar audiences is a simple and effective way to increase your traffic.

AdWords will record views of sites in Display Network over the last 30 days, and this information will be used for the automatic selection of a new group of potential customers within the network who have similar interests and behavior.

Google makes remarketing lists for creating similar audiences by itself, so lists with similar audiences will automatically appear next to your remarketing lists in Shared libraries. Please note that you won’t be able to see such lists if your remarketing audience contains cookies for fewer than 500 visitors:

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We recommend creating a separate Google Display Network campaign for similar audiences, because quality indicators for these ads could be lower than for the traditional remarketing campaign.

Remarketing lists for search ads
With the help of traditional remarketing lists, you can display ads with special content or adjust your bids depending on the category of your site visitors.

To make your search ads visible to users from your remarketing list, the list should contain cookies for at least 1,000 visitors. You can check this from the Audiences tab in Shared libraries.

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There are several strategies for using remarketing audiences for search ads:

  • Add an audience to the existing campaign and increase bids for recent visitors to your site;
  • Create a new campaign with a specific audience and adapt the text to your needs (offer a promotional coupon, promote special deals and so on);
  • Exclude past visitors to your site who are still interested in products similar to yours. It will help to attract new visitors only;
  • Target your ads at previous buyers who are interested in related products, or at high volume keywords that haven’t been used in a main advertising campaign.


Remarketing for YouTube viewers

If your brand has its own channel on YouTube, you can use remarketing for video viewers.

With the help of AdWords for Video, you can create remarketing lists of users who have completed one of the following actions:

  • Interacted with or viewed your YouTube videos;
  • Subscribed to or unsubscribed from your channel;
  • Viewed your TrueView in-stream ads;
  • Visited your channel.

To create a video remarketing list, your YouTube and AdWords accounts have to be linked. If you haven’t made advertising campaigns for video, please follow the guidelines at: https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2545661?hl=en To create a remarketing list for YouTube viewers, go to the navigation panel and choose the ‘Video Remarketing’ option in Shared Library, click ‘+Remarketing list’, then choose a new remarketing list type and fill in the other fields.

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You will be able to manage your lists from the ‘Targets’ tab of the video campaign.

As we promised at the beginning, we will now explain two ways to optimize your remarketing campaign.

One of the options is to exclude placements with low CTR. On some sites, advertising banners aren’t placed in the best position, which is why users rarely spot the ads. To exclude such low-performing placements, go to the Display Network report, find the Placements tab and analyze the CTR, bounce rate and conversions.

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Highlight placements like those shown in red, click ‘Edit’ and select ‘Exclude.’

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Before you exclude large platforms such as YouTube, remember that you can only exclude individual URLs on the site. To identify such URLs, select the site and go to the See details menu, then choose the ‘Selected’ option.

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You can also add to the list of excluded placements those sites where visitors have a high bounce rate (this information can be obtained from Google Analytics).

The second method of optimizing your remarketing campaigns is to exclude certain categories of sites, so you avoid displaying your ads next to any content that you would not like to be associated with your brand. By this we mean different kinds of sensitive content, mobile apps, games or social networks. By default, only gambling is excluded.

You can find this option by going to the ‘Display Network’ tab, then scrolling down to the bottom of the page and clicking on the green ‘+ Options’ button.

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You can also turn off showing your banners below-the-fold here.

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As you can see, remarketing is an evolving discipline, which provides plenty of opportunities for smart advertisers. To take advantage of the benefits of remarketing, you simply need to determine which types of retargeting are most suitable for your business, then add them to your traditional remarketing campaign.

Why is Japan’s handling of this pandemic so bad compared to their neighbors?

posted on June 11, 2021

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I think the wealthy nations that fared the worst have something in common: Italy, Spain, Japan, Canada, the US, Brazil, Sweden in the early days, all treated the economy and health as being opposing priorities, and tried to get away with half-assing both.

The ones that did the best are the ones that had strong, swift lockdowns and made an effort to offer even-handed, if not always adequate, ongoing financial aid in the meantime.

Countries like Canada and the US and Japan, which applied ridiculously convoluted means testing and conditions on financial aid, saw undue politicization and partisanship, extreme processing delays, uneven distribution, extinctions of entire industries, and, most pertinent to your question, increased unwillingness among the public to cooperate with health measures.

If you give people a choice between potentially getting sick or definitely losing their jobs, they’ll typically choose the former. And then they’ll retcon whatever narrative it takes, even if it’s a crazy conspiracy theory, to manage the guilt.

To give you a sense of what I mean by a surge, here are Canada (where I live) and Japan on EndCoronavirus.org as of today (May 11):

There are no excuses for this. I think I should clarify, for those interested (it’s a long read), why, despite the low death toll and apparently low infection rate, I agree with the premise of the question, that Japan is performing poorly. As I’ve mentioned in several of my comments:

The people of Japan have sustained relatively well, all things considered. The lack of testing can hide case counts — and it’s definitely doing that — but a high death toll is harder to cover up, especially for a disease that’s so deadly that in many places it has become the number-one killer. That might be because of the ubiquity of masks, physiology, lack of handshaking and hugging, prior exposure to similar viruses, the vowelly nature of the language, or some other accidental or semi-accidental reason. In any case, it wasn’t the success of a national response to the pandemic.

The nation of Japan has utterly, catastrophically failed its people, and the evidence of that is in the overwhelmed medical system and the economic turmoil. The complete, deliberate refusal to develop an exit plan (a strategy which they call “with Corona”) is not only putting Japan at future risk, it is also causing current, palpable desperation, reckless defeatism, panic, fear and distrust of important institutions and of other people. That’s all very real damage.

Keep in mind that covid started with one patient. Covid’s growth, being that it infects more than one person per person, is exponential. Treatment for potentially fatal covid cases requires hospital resources, of which there’s only ever a more or less fixed amount — the discharge count can only grow linearly; the remainder die. An exponential minus a linear is exponential, which is to say that, even if things seem safe now, it can easily go horribly wrong overnight. The only way to fight a phenomenon of exponential growth is to nip it in the bud or to be ready to mobilize en masse in case it does explode — that is, to have the one thing that can outrun exponential growth: national policy. Japan has done neither.

Hospitals in many parts of Japan are, or are at risk of being overwhelmed. This is the beginning of a vicious cycle observed throughout the world, in which nurses and doctors become exhausted or themselves ill and quitting in droves, which in turn leads to poorer treatment both for covid as well as for other treatable illnesses, which in turn leads to worse health outcomes, which leads to more suffering, more sick people, and even more expensive treatment in the form of emergency room visits, palliative care and the need for more precious facilities such as respirators.

It’s only while the number of people being admitted to hospital is lower than the full capacity of the medical system that an illusion of success against the pandemic can been maintained. Most of the world learned that lesson in 2020, either through the news or through experience.

The economic suffering is profound. 1 in 5 female students are having trouble affording feminine hygiene products; even as of July of last year, the unemployment rate has been the highest it’s been since the end of the war (and lower-than-minimum-wage gig workers are counted as having jobs); 60,000 homeowners are having trouble paying their loans. It’s clear that even if you don’t see poverty on the streets every day where you live, it is quite severe now as a result of covid. There are too many such symptoms to list them all here, and the on-again, off-again, vague, symbolic, ineffectual states of emergency are only prolonging the suffering.

Until recently, every time the case count grew, it was in areas opened to Abe’s idiotic Go To Travel campaign, which had people supporting the tourism and service sectors by traveling for fun in the middle of a pandemic, in the winter. Japan, Germany and Italy have borrowed by far the most per GDP on covid, and yet people were forced to resort to this kind of insanity. Personally, I don’t lose sleep over the risks of overspending (Japan’s national debt has always been terrifyingly high, and yet it’s never seen very high inflation), but this should be a clear indication that something is wrong with the spending that is taking place.

Finally, the Olympics: the government and the IOC are dead-set on going through with it at any financial cost, public opinion cost or human cost, entirely out of sunk cost fallacy and in service of avoiding relatively small cancellation fees. A solid 80% of the nation opposes the Games, 70%+ of businesses report they will likely see little or no detriment in its cancellation, and it is already causing more outbreaks. Hokkaido saw the nation’s worst daily case number just recently, two weeks after Olympics rehearsals were held there. Nurses are being pulled out of hospitals to service the Olympics, and 70% of volunteer nurses in Ibaraki prefecture have already resigned

Granted, pressure from the IOC is largely to blame for this situation, but it’s quite clear that Japan is very much in a position to kick them to the curb. But the Japanese government wouldn’t know that, given they brazenly admit to never even having read the fine print on the matter.

By the way, I’m not letting Canada, the other nation with which I identify, off the hook, either. Canada hogged 9 times as many vaccine doses as there are people, presumably in an effort to hold for ransom the health of people in less affluent nations as well as global efforts to address the pandemic. Believe what you will about the importance or safety of vaccines, but I don’t know how to describe this behavior other than homicidal.

And yet numerous cities are still in disarray as of now (May 23), and vaccinations are only now ramping up, though quite sharply, as demonstrated by the 45% first dose vaccination rate vs. the measly 4.2% second dose.

Trusted Link Building Techniques

posted on June 9, 2021

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Internet marketers are always searching for the latest, greatest technique to boost numbers. While it’s important, especially in digital marketing, to always keep one eye on what lies ahead, it’s also equally (if not more) important to remain focused on what has and currently is working for you.

When it comes to link building, lots of things have changed over the years. As search engines have cracked down on spammy and automated techniques, it’s important now more than ever to be using trusted and true strategies that actually work. While there are lots of new creative link building techniques, there are also the powerful strategies that have been around for sometime and are continuing to produce great results.

So, what are the five most trusted link building techniques that you can count on in 2015 (and beyond)? Check them out here.

Guest Posting

The most tried and true of all techniques lives on!

Yes, it’s 2015, and yes, guest posting is still one of the most tried and true link building techniques. Don’t let people tell you guest posting is dead, because it’s not. While it’s quite clear and obvious that guest posting has significantly changed from what it used to be, it’s by no means dead, and in fact it’s alive and well.

In terms of how guest posting has changed, it’s in fact become a much more legit form of link building than it used to be. While what once might’ve been easily automated and done in large scale numbers is now pretty much unattainable unless completed on a more personal level. Conducting real outreach to quality blogs, with real accomplished writers and journalists, is how you’re going to get links in today’s digital marketing climate.

Guest posting in 2015 is less about the link you’re getting, and more about the quality blog post you’re posting. The link is an added benefit!

How-To Guides

Become an information powerhouse, and get links while you’re at it!

Creating informative, niche how-to guides and hosting them on your website or blog is another great step to take in order to start gaining valuable links. It might take a significant amount of time or a lot of effort to create a guide valuable enough to really help you get good links, but the time and effort you put in will come back to you tenfold.

Using videos, images, quotes, and more in your how-to guides is imperative if you want to see them turn into link building powerhouses. Once you’ve built up a solid guide (or, for best results, multiple guides) it’s time to start promoting them. Conduct blogger and influencer outreach to a variety of different outlets, and share the guide with them. Share it constantly on social media, and be sure to target niche specific people and blogs.

Building how-to guides is a link building strategy that, with enough effort put in now, will pay off for many years to come.

Expert Interviews

Be the source of expert information, and the links will follow.

Conducting interviews with experts in the niche you’re link building continues to be one of the greatest ways to gain a high number of valuable links. While it’s a strategy that requires a lot of waiting, and a lot of time to put together and finally get live, it’s something that is almost a sure-fire bet to get a number of great links while at the same time networking with some of the more known names in the industry.

Craft a personal email with a number of questions for the expert that you’d like to interview. If you want this piece to just focus on one expert, that’s fine, but ideally you’ll craft a blog post or content page with quotes and analysis from a handful of experts, as this will likely get you the most links. Once you’ve collected the answers and quotes, and have packaged the content together, reach back out to the expert with what you’ve come up with. If you put a lot of work into it, it will show, and you’ll likely get some social shares and a link back to your work.

Consider reaching out to many more experts than you want or think you’ll need, because chances are many will flat or ignore your emails for whatever reason.

Event Sponsorships

Look to find sponsorship opportunities in your niche, and you’ll get relevant links.

Sponsoring events is another excellent link building strategy that companies across many niches are utilizing in 2015. Depending on the size of the event and level of sponsorship, the potential of gaining a huge number of quality links is substantial. Events such as conferences typically list every single sponsor, and as other blogs start writing about the event there’s a chance you’ll get some links back that way too.

While sponsoring events is a great way to get links, it’s important to keep in mind that there is a chance these links will eventually get removed. Use various search queries to find good events that you can sponsor.

Scholarships

One of the more up and coming link building techniques that more and more companies are starting to utilize is offering scholarships. Offering scholarships sort of follows the same idea as sponsoring an event, but scholarships will likely result in more links from more higher quality sites (and possibly for a cheaper price, too).

There are a myriad of locations out on the web that compile lists of scholarships available to high school or college students, as a helpful resource. Sponsoring a scholarship by offering, say, $1,000 to the winner will help your company appear on these lists. You build a page on your website with all the information needed to apply for the scholarship, and promote that page out to the scholarship aggregators.

While the initial startup cost of offering a scholarship might be high, chances are you’ll see a nice return on investment due to the number of high quality EDU links you’ll be getting.

What works for you?

All in all, these five strategies have worked for businesses small and large, for many years. Unless something dramatically changes, they’ll continue working in the future, too. But, just like with any online marketing strategy, it really boils down to what works best for you and your business, as it might vary dramatically from another business!

What are some easy YouTube SEO hacks?

posted on June 7, 2021

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SEO — which stands for search engine optimization — means the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular piece of content, by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine.

In a nutshell, SEO is the process of actively trying to get your content in front of the right audience. Even better, you want them to see your content when they happen to be searching for education on products or services similar to yours. This is achieved through the use of strategic keywords, as well as a few other factors we’ll discuss a little later.

How does SEO work for YouTube Videos?

YouTube sees more than 3 billion searches per month.

And there are a number of factors at play in the YouTube results algorithm, including video length and engagement rates. But SEO has a massive role to play, too.

Achieving great SEO rankings for your YouTube videos is a strategic process that involves optimizing your channel, playlists, and metadata descriptions for specific keywords. It also involves editing your videos themselves to follow specific SEO best practices.

Let’s round things off with a few bonus hacks to help your YouTube SEO soar:

Keep it long

YouTube was built to compete with television (and its advertising rates). Therefore, long high-quality videos tend to perform better in searches. Videos should last at least five minutes and include great information on your topic.

Share to social

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to share your video across your social networks. Not only will this drive users to your videos, but the backlinks will help the search engines index your content quicker.

Ask for the subscribe‍

At the end of your video, a simple one-line call to action can dramatically help you build your channel: “If you enjoyed this video, hit subscribe!” This request reminds people who like your content that they can follow you and hear more of the good stuff.

Where can I buy traffic to an affiliate link from ClickBank?

posted on June 7, 2021

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I would feel remiss if I didn’t answer this question because it shows a HUGE flaw in this question of eleven words.

You DO NOT under any circumstance send paid traffic directly to a Clickbank affiliate link, YOU WILL lose your money. There are no if, and, or buts about it.

If you’re talking about building some sort of funnel and then sending traffic to that, then go right ahead- it’s a good ideal. But sending paid traffic to a Clickbank affiliate link is a huge mistake.

Here, let me walk you through a scenario:

You’re promoting a Clickbank offer that will earn you a 100% commission of $50. You go and buy $300 worth of clicks from a solo ad dealer. Let’s even put each click at $0.40, the lowest I’ve seen. That’s 120 clicks.

Out of those clicks, you get a 50% opt-ins, that’s 60 people entering their name and email. Out of that 60, you get two sales. Congratulations, you just made $100.

So, you decide to try again, with a different vendor (or the same). You pay the same amount, but this time no one opt-in. Well, now you just lost $100…

So, you buy more ads, but this time you filter for prime traffic, that’s a minimum of $0.10 per click and that’s being generous, most charge up to $0.30 extra. That’s $112 in solo ads.

This time, you get 100 people to enter their name and email address and you make, once again being generous, 5 sales. That’s $250. Basically, you’ve made back the $100 you spent before and the $112 you just spent to have $38 in profits.

Guess what, you still lost a combined at least of $800. Where did I get that number from?

Simple, by using a funnel and an email address, you can retarget the, what 160 people who opted in and make additional sales over time. And I’m low-balling this giving you 16 sales total when it’s possible you could make much more through automated email sequences or chatbots.