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9 Ways HubSpot Can Benefit Your Marketing Career

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By Saffron Clacy

HubSpot is one of the best CRM software on the market. Here are some ways you can use it in your marketing career.

HubSpot has been known for being the best customer relationship management platform on the market for businesses of all sizes, but what specifically can the company offer your marketing career?

If you aspire to work in the marketing field or want to start your projects, you’ll want to invest time into a good program to manage customer databases for companies you work for, as well as for your use. Here are some HubSpot features that will help your career get off to a great start.

1. Customer Relationship Management

HubSpot has one of the top CRM platforms above all others, so whether you end up growing a team during your career or choose to work solo, you can guarantee all of your important records will be managed effectively!

Add members of your team to the platform to boost productivity —such as calls or meetings— important information on contacts, companies, deals, and more. Know more about your audience by tracking their patterns, which will overall transform into a collaborative and supportive online workspace!

2. Social Media Management

Not only can you use HubSpot to craft amazing emails, but their social media marketing tools as well. HubSpot can be especially useful to you if you intend on managing your own social media brand! Increase your brand awareness to the public, obtain leads —and hopefully conversions—build relationships with your social media audience, and delve into competitor research.

Instead of spending a fortune on independent programs, you can use the HubSpot social media software to connect your accounts, schedule a bulk collection of posts ahead of time, design images with Canva build into HubSpot, customize the publishing schedule, build social media campaigns with their premium templates, publishing platform, analytics, and more.

3. WordPress Integration

If you’re at that point in your career where you’d like to build a solid website but have no idea how to optimize it, HubSpot has a great tool for it. Integrate WordPress into your HubSpot account, then you can have access to all of their amazing features.

After setting everything up, you can add call-to-action buttons to your site to encourage clicks, create custom forms for potential clients to fill out, set up an email automation feature when people agree to subscribe to emails, and effectively manage your website analytics! Know exactly how many people are accessing your page, and all the nitty-gritty details along with it.

4. Search Engine Optimization

Learning the basics of SEO usually becomes a normality at some point in your marketing career, but with the HubSpot SEO Marketing Software, this can make the process way more simple. It offers advice on what you can do to rank your content higher, assistance with content strategy, accurate reports on your Google ranking, and support at every corner with your blogs, landing pages, emails, and more.

If you’re looking for a system that has the entire package, you need to implement this into your marketing strategy. Furthermore, if you’re still worried due to being an SEO novice, check out the best websites to learn SEO!

5. Sales Tool

Are you working on building a business alongside your career, but do not know sales? HubSpot can show you how. Marketing is important, but so is managing your sales with a platform that can manage them.

The HubSpot Sales Hub Enterprise allows you to take part in sales engagement tools, monitor internal business permissions, manage payments, have access to sales data, analytics, and the overall activity and progress of a business. With these tools at hand, all of your sales information can be stored and managed with ease.

6. Email Marketing Tools

HubSpot has a range of tools in their Marketing Hub. These can be used to build an email list, store and manage contact data such as location or phone numbers, create innovative email campaigns, design forms people can use to sign up to emails, and so much more.

Choose from custom templates, build categorized lists, upload your current clients, and more. In using this feature, you can slowly build up a list of loyal customers that you can manage with a few clicks of the button! If you’re looking to learn the basics of email campaigns, here’s how to leverage email marketing with this boot camp course.

7. Reliable Analytics

With numbers, they need to be accurate, and HubSpot offers precise analytics that can be a big help in your marketing journey. If you decide to send out an email, there are statistics you can always refer back to tweak your strategy.

Check out the number of clicks, the percentage of people who opened your email, the number of emails that didn’t send, and even whether your customers opened your email on Firefox. With solid statistics to keep track of, HubSpot will be your best asset when it comes to those digits.

8. Customized Database

Two Men Using Computer at Work

How good are your organizational skills? This is one of the most important things when climbing up the marketing ladder, and HubSpot has everything you need if you struggle to keep track.

With the database system, you can add in contacts manually or using an Excel spreadsheet, create numerous records, email or call contacts, see communication history, and even integrate Gmail or Outlook to make sure you’re sending to the right people! Don’t stress about that one company that hasn’t received a newsletter yet, you can easily filter their details at the click of a button,

9. High-Quality Customer Service

Employees on Phone Workplace

When starting your marketing career, you need a trustworthy support network! Not only does HubSpot have proven marketing features that work, but their customer service is one you can always rely on.

Easily contact the support team by clicking the chat box via their website, type in your problem, and you’ll receive a friendly support specialist in a matter of minutes. HubSpot is fast, reliable, and goes as far as recording videos on Loom to give you a hands-on demonstration to help you. The effort put into customer satisfaction is phenomenal, and knowing you have a support network will decrease your career anxiety.

Exceed in Your Marketing Career

Working in the field as a solo marketing entrepreneur or employee means you need the right programs to push you forward. HubSpot is professional, easy to use, and will ultimately be the key to your success in the world of business.

All aspects of marketing will benefit from the program, whether it’s content marketing, mobile marketing, direct to consumer, social media marketing, or email marketing. Your stakes are higher with a reputable platform on your side every step of the way.

By Saffron Clacy

Saffron has been freelancing for over five years, specializing in the copywriting and creative writing industry. She is based in Melbourne, Australia. More From Saffron Clacy

Sourced from MUO

 

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7 Cold-Email Marketing Strategies That Will Heat Up Your Sales

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By Himanshu Agarwal

Email marketing can be highly profitable, but your success depends on the tactics you use.

There’s no question that email marketing is one of the most profitable routes to take for marketers.

For every $1 spent on email marketing, the ROI is between $45 to $32. That isn’t surprising since the majority of consumers check their email ten times a day, every day. What’s more? Of those consumers, the ones who actually buy products marketed via email spend 138% more than those who don’t receive email offers.

With this in mind, companies that want to get a leg up on the competition should turn to the following strategies for maximum success.

1. Show you care

Believe it or not, something as simple as addressing customers by name can make them more likely to engage with your emails.

When Experian Marketing Services compared generic, cookie-cutter promotional mailings to personalized ones, they found that personalized emails have 29% higher unique open rates and 41% higher click rates per person. What’s more, according to Harvard Business Review, personalization can deliver five to eight times the ROI on marketing spend — and boost sales by upwards of 10%.

People don’t want to feel like nameless faces in a sea of customers; they want to be respected. If your brand isn’t willing to go the extra mile, your competition will step in to fill the gap.

2. Data is power

Remember back in 2013, when Edward Snowden revealed that the National Security Agency (NSA) was gathering mountains of private, personal information on millions of people? Morality aside, the NSA saw data for what it was: a key to power. While you don’t need to go to such extremes, the principle remains the same. The more you find out about the person or business, the more knowledge you can use to your advantage to build a relationship or secure a sale.

At Outreach Chimp, we draft hyper-personalized cold emails for businesses looking for guest blog placements by studying their website analytics using SEO data providers like MOZ, Ahrefs and SerpStat. The motive is not only to pitch our services, but also to provide valuable information about their website’s shortcomings and suggestions for improvement.

This may sound like a lot of work for a cold outreach campaign, but with automation and the use of application programming interfaces (APIs), it takes minimal effort to achieve major results.

3. Write click-worthy subject lines

Every competent marketer knows the marketing mantra: “Provide value. Solve problems.” Nobody likes clickbait, and if you use it, prepare to never have your emails opened again.

Feature Image Credit: Pavel Muravev | Getty Images

By Himanshu Agarwal

Sourced from Times Union

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How Can You Prevent Formjacking?

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By Shannon Flynn

Formjacking is a dangerous cyberattack that can result in financial loss and identity theft. So what is formjacking and how can you stay safe?

Cybercrime is everywhere, but it’s not always easy to spot. Some types are disruptive and in-your-face, while others, like formjacking, are more subtle. If you don’t know how to prevent formjacking, cybercriminals could steal private information without anyone noticing anything wrong.

So what exactly is formjacking, and how can you stop yourself falling victim?

What Is Formjacking?

man holding credit card while he is on his laptop

Formjacking is a cyberattack whereby hackers insert malicious code into a website, usually a payment form. When you enter your personal information, this code will send a copy to a server so that cybercriminals can access and use it.

Stealing financial information from e-commerce sites is the most common formjacking example, but it’s not the only one. Sometimes, formjackers steal names and addresses to commit identity fraud or break into other accounts. Other times, they’ll just sell your personal information on the dark web. Some cybercriminals will do all of the above too!

Email marketing has taken off during the COVID-19 pandemic; with an ROI of $44 for every $1 spent and the massive shift to online storefronts, the high level of trust we place in email marketing forms has only heightened the issue. Legitimate information forms are everywhere online, giving hackers a perfect opportunity to steal valuable data.

How to Prevent Formjacking

Formjacking is a real danger if you run a website, but you can prevent it. And your visitors can protect themselves from formjacking too. Some of the most effective tools are script blockers like ScriptSafe or JS Blocker. These browser extensions block scripts from running, including those that formjackers might use.

Masked credit cards or tokenization through apps like Apple Pay or Google Pay also helps by hiding sensitive information. Most antivirus programs further include measures to block some formjacking scripts.

Website owners should run tests before every update. This will help reveal any suspicious code and ensure everything works as it should. Putting Subresource Integrity (SRI) into website code will make browsers verify resources deliver without manipulation, helping prevent formjacking.

How to Detect and Respond to Formjacking

man holding four credit cards, a capitol one card, a discover card, and amex card, and an apple card

Regardless of how you prevent formjacking, no prevention method is 100 percent effective. As a result, you should also know how to detect and respond to things that slip through the cracks.

Scan your website’s code regularly, especially before releasing an update, to look for irregularities. Anything you didn’t write or put there could be malicious, so remove it. Obviously, you need to be careful you don’t accidentally delete something that’s important; be doubly sure before you get rid of code.

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) won’t prevent formjacking, but it will minimize the damage because it makes it harder to breach other accounts. Admittedly, 2FA isn’t perfect, but some experts nonetheless call it the most effective tool against cyberattacks. Website owners should offer it and visitors should enable it.

You can also detect formjacking by regularly checking your bank accounts, credit score, and other records. Call your bank to cancel or freeze your cards if you see any unusual activity, and then change your passwords. Automated monitoring apps can make this easier by checking your records for you.

Website owners should contact affected users if they notice unusual code. It’s your responsibility to handle users’ data, so take that burden seriously and be up-front about cyberattacks. Tell them to monitor their accounts and change their passwords. On top of keeping them safe, this transparency will help build trust.

Keep Your Website and Your Data Safe

Even small, non-business sites could become victims of formjacking. Knowing how to prevent formjacking is an important first step in the fight against cybercrime. Website owners and visitors who understand these threats can take the right steps to stay safe.

By Shannon Flynn

Shannon is a content creator located in Philly, PA. She has been writing in the tech field for about 5 years after graduating with a degree in IT. Shannon is the Managing Editor of ReHack Magazine and covers topics like cybersecurity, gaming, and business technology. More From Shannon Flynn

Sourced from MUO

 

 

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Will You Be Successful, or Just a Dreamer? Steve Jobs Said Your Answer to One Question Reveals the Answer

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By Jeff Haden

Work for someone else and your success (at least your professional success) is, in large part, outside your control. You can control how hard you work, how dedicated you are, how loyal you are. But you can’t promote yourself. And you definitely can’t give yourself a raise.

That’s just one reason why entrepreneurs become entrepreneurs. They embrace the opportunities, and the risks, inherent in choosing themselves. They embrace an, “If it is to be, it’s up to me” mindset.

Which is great. Until it’s not.

According to Steve Jobs, independence and self-reliance often get in the way of success. As Jobs said:

I called up Bill Hewlett when I was 12 years old. “Hi, I’m Steve Jobs. I’m 12 years old. I’m a student in high school. I want to build a frequency counter, and I was wondering if you have any spare parts I could have.” He laughed, and he gave me the spare parts, and he gave me a job that summer at Hewlett-Packard … and I was in heaven.

I’ve never found anyone who said no or hung up the phone when I called. I just asked.

Most people never pick up the phone and call. Most people never ask, and that’s what separates, sometimes, the people who do things from the people who just dream about them.

To Jobs, “Do I ask for help?” was a question that predicted an individual’s success.

Take the first iPhone. An early prototype’s hard-coated plastic screen wasn’t hard enough: After Jobs spent a day carrying it around in his pocket, he noticed the screen was already scratched.

Jobs could have gone the self-reliant route. He could have tried to fix the problem himself using Apple’s considerable resources. Instead, he called Wendell Weeks, the CEO of Corning Glass, and described the type of glass he needed.

After a little back and forth, and a few cleverly effective words of persuasion that you should definitely borrow, Weeks agreed to help by providing gorilla glass–a product the company had developed in the 1960s but never put into production.

And here’s the kicker. When Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson walked into Weeks’s office years later, only one memento was on display.

A letter from Jobs that said, “We couldn’t have done it without you.”

That’s the thing about asking for help.

Sure, admitting you need help can make you feel weak, or vulnerable, or somehow “less than” in the eyes of the other person.

But that’s not what happens. When you ask for help, in the right way, other people don’t think about you. They think about how your request implicitly shows you respect them, implicitly shows you trust them. It shows you value or admire the skills, talents, experiences, or resources they clearly worked hard to obtain.

And it gives them the opportunity to make a difference, however small, in someone else’s life. Judging by the framed letter on his wall, Weeks was clearly proud to have made that difference for Jobs.

Which is the ultimate reason asking for help can predict success.

Since no one does anything worthwhile on their own, asking for help might just be the first step towards creating long-term, mutually-beneficial relationships that build a foundation for lasting success.

And lasting friendships.

An element that should be included in everyone’s definition of “success.”

Feature Image Credit: Steve Jobs. Photo: Getty Images

By Jeff Haden

@jeff_haden

Sourced from Inc.

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Tips to Create a Traffic-Generating Blog

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There are common rules that apply to increase the impact and resonate with your audience.

The essence of a blog is that it caters to a definite fan base or customer base. The prime advantage here is that everyone reading it, already harbours a soft spot for your cause. Blogs have ever since been a medium of conversation between a blogger and his readers. The person reveals and narrates intricate experiences of life and lets his audience connect to those instances. The language is different from general content writing norms. And the most important element in harnessing relatability is within the write up. It should be engaging to the point that the reader is glued to it until the last syllable.

There are various kinds of blogs and each follows a distinct pattern of writing. For example, an educational and academic blog would focus on information. It would be presented in a crisp and direct manner. This is so that the student reading it does not have to swim through the pool of ordeal and comprehension to unravel the content. On the other hand, if a writer is focusing on travelogues or anecdotal content then it is important that they cater to the primitive tools of story-telling and setting build-ups along with the gradual progression of the plot. Nonetheless, there are some common rules that apply to both forms of writing that contribute to a better blogpost.

Decide on an engaging title

The title of each blog is its identity, the chief element of the blog that first meets the reader. Therefore, it is important that the title must be catchy. It is not necessary that it be a flamboyant syllable or a foreign phrase. It should be crisp and must have a ring to it. It must make the reader think and wonder what it could be and here lies the second trick to name a blog. The title should balance on the tip of too much and not enough. So the reader would feel that they know but simply can’t figure it out. This instinct is targeted by masterminds of marketing as they manipulate the psyche of the reader, and in their case the client or customer.

Open with a bang for an introduction

The calliout is here and it demands the most exquisite English. If you are aware of the expression that the first impression is the last impression, you will understand the efficiency of the introduction. It is necessary to connect with the reader of the blog in this segment. The reader can then gradually progress down the narrative, building on that introduction. The realization of putting extra effort in the introduction is the mark of a mature writer who values the reader.

Aim the content towards a prospective target audience

Each blog must have a topic and also must host a target audience. Having full knowledge of the target audience is very important for framing the content. Directing the content to a particular set of people helps provide an idea of what language to use. Also, what kind of information to introduce and to what extent it should be explained. The content must also have a definite path, which is difficult to address without a target audience. Having addressed each of these elements, the writer can plan out his entire blog accordingly.

To inform and not to boast

It is important to maintain an unbiased voice. No matter how much either side influences you. At no instance should it feel like the writer is boasting of his work and knowledge. On the contrary, it must feel like the writer is taking the reader on a journey with his words. The reader should be adequately informed, and at the same time, they would also develop their own perspective on the words they read. This information would be well received by the reader, allowing them to form their own opinion throughout the entire blog.

Search optimization

It is important that your blog utilizes SEO tweaks and tricks. It is advisable to follow the norms of incorporating keywords to rank the content higher on search results. This effort will lead to a better reach among readers. Their searches will lead to more accurate results, which in turn will incur better response to content as they themselves have requested it. Mastering this very practice will turn the writer into a formidable presence, and eliminate the need to check the document for SEO alignment.

Call to action

A blog addresses an already loyal audience who are interested in being part of an organization or a cause. Therefore, the writer should include a call to action urging the reader to act on an issue as the goal is to have all the readers react in unison. However, the writer must maintain strict supervision so that the strategy is successful.

Above are the keys to writing a successful blog. But also keep in mind that the most important element, and one not to forget, is the soul of a writer. The primary objective is to connect with the reader and the soul is necessary for that feat to be achieved. Make sure that the content is crisp and concise, as it is most important to ensure the blog is informative and stands tall on its reputation. The worst sin is letting down the reader. For a blogger, that is equivalent to the sin of losing innocence.

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Sourced from Entrepreneur

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Microsoft bought and shut down this entrepreneur’s app. But now he’s raised money for an unofficial successor

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By Sam Shead

German entrepreneur Christian Reber sold his to-do list app Wunderlist to Microsoft in 2015 for a sum that was reported to be between $100 million and $200 million only to watch the U.S. tech giant shut it down four years later.

Now he’s just raised funding for a follow-on app called Superlist, which he’s set up with four other entrepreneurs including two of the other Wunderlist co-founders.

Reber told CNBC earlier this year that the Wunderlist acquisition left him feeling “really unhappy” and annoyed. One of the main reasons Reber was so frustrated when Microsoft shut down Wunderlist is because he felt that the app never became the product he wanted to build.

He didn’t give up there though. In 2021, he launched Superlist, which he describes as the “unofficial successor to Wunderlist” and a “passion project.”

Superlist is a task and project management app that aims to help people collaborate in a hybrid-working world. It’s currently still in the second phase of its release life cycle.

“What we wanted to do was build the de facto standard application to collaborate on personal projects and in business,” Reber told CNBC earlier this year, adding that there are either enterprise products like Asana and Trello or personal to-do list apps like Things or To Do.

“I feel like nothing really nailed the bridge between both,” he said. “You either get like very cluttered software that is basically optimized for project managers, or you get like these very personal to-do apps that make it impossible to collaborate.”

Superlist is designed to help users scale a project from one person to 100 or 200 people.

The Berlin-headquartered company announced Monday that it has secured 10 million euros ($11 million) in a seed funding round led by venture capital firm EQT Ventures. Total investment in the company now stands at 13.5 million euros.

“The global productivity management software market is projected to reach $102.98 billion by 2027, so there is real opportunity for a tool that harnesses team members’ individuality and focuses specifically on the challenges of the modern workplace,” said EQT Ventures partner Ted Persson in a statement.

Superlist said it will use the new funding to double the size of its team from 20 to 40 by the end of 2022, with a focus on hiring developers, designers and product leads.

In addition to Superlist, Reber has also co-founded a Microsoft PowerPoint competitor called Pitch. The four-year-old business, which employs around 160 people, has raised a little over $130 million and it was most recently valued at $600 million.

“I think it’s incredibly easy to raise funding for technology companies right now because it’s like there’s more money than companies on the market,” Reber said. “As a founder who is starting companies more frequently, I feel like it’s never been better to raise.”

Feature Image Credit: Wunderlist co-founder Christian Reber  Pitch

By Sam Shead

Sourced from CNBC

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YouTube Tests Timed Emoji Reactions

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By Stephanie Mlot

The feature lets users anonymously share emoji reactions at an exact moment in a video.

YouTube is experimenting with a new option to share emoji reactions at an exact moment in a video.

The video platform is piloting timed reactions with a “small number of channels to start,” YouTube community manager Meaghan wrote in a blog announcement.

Those watching as part of the trial can tap into a separate reaction panel via the comments section, where users can share their thoughts as colourful pictograms and see how others are (anonymously) reacting—similar to Facebook Live or Twitch. “We’re testing multiple sets of reactions and will add or remove reactions based on how the experiment goes,” the blog post explained.

YouTube last year began testing a function that lets users view comments timed to an exact moment in the video they’re watching. Folks can already timestamp video comments, adding a direct link to a specific point—making it easier to navigate a video or simply highlight a particular moment.

“We heard such positive feedback about the times comments beta feature,” the blog said, “that we wanted to test out similar features.” There’s no word yet on whether timed comments will be made more broadly available.

Emoji reactions are historically hit-or-miss: Twitter has twice tried the iconic retorts, last year asking people to choose between three different sets featuring classic options like a laughing face, thinking face, crying face, astonished face, and flame. Nearly a year later, the microblogging service has yet to roll out any reactions beyond the usual heart.

By Stephanie Mlot

Sourced from PC Mag

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How to Effectively Manage Multiple Social Media Accounts

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By Greg Tuohy

Many of us are aware that social media channels represent some of the most powerful tools to employ within the world of digital marketing. Not only are these portals capable of reaching a broad audience base, but they can often be used without dipping into your revenue streams. However, another caveat needs to be mentioned.

It can be exceedingly difficult to manage multiple social media channels. Keeping track of the latest news, evaluating feedback, promoting offers, and interacting with visitors may detract from other in-house operations. This is when a bit of consolidation is in order. Here are five steps you can follow to help run each one of your accounts.

Employ an Editorial Calendar

One of the most common (and avoidable) mistakes when dealing with social media accounts is failing to understand when and how often to post. For example, you may wish to post Facebook updates three times each week while other platforms such as LinkedIn may require content only once or twice a month. This “digital juggling act” can lead to costly errors. You might even sacrifice conversions as a direct result.

It is therefore a great idea to create an editorial calendar. These calendars will remind you when it is time to post on a specific site. Let’s also remember that many calendars can be shared between different marketing teams. This centralised form of oversight will help to ensure that you remain ahead of the curve. 

Social Media Management Software Bundles

These packages are must-haves for any business that hopes to leverage its social media presence. Their main intention is to simplify the entire marketing process through automation. For example, a single post can be created and subsequently shared across multiple platforms. This saves a great deal of time and effort. Furthermore, you will be ensured that previous posts are not repeated. Here are some useful (and free) packages to consider:

  • Later
  • Hootsuite
  • TweetDeck
  • Canva
  • Buffer


The user-friendly nature of these tools is also beneficial for those who possess a limited amount of experience. 

All About Documentation

Coordination and accountability are important when creating a far-reaching social media marketing campaign. The only possible issue is that it can be tough for multiple team members to remain on the “same page”. Metrics such as policies, the type of content to be posted and the desired style all need to be considered. This is when a bit of oversight can go a long way.

It is important to develop a dedicated social media strategy. These guidelines should then be provided to all relevant personnel. If a question or issue arises, it can be dealt with in a timely fashion. When we remember that different social media pages are often associated with different goals, it becomes clear to understand why a centralised approach is crucial.

Actively Engage with Your Audience

Ironically, one of the most common social media marketing mistakes involves failing to communicate with followers. Real-time monitoring is critical if you hope to appreciate the unique needs of your client base. While this is a core component of any omnichannel marketing strategy, it is even more important when dealing with live interactions.

We are not only referring to responding to feedback in this sense. Proactively following the results of a marketing campaign will need to address other factors. These include (but are not always limited to) mentions, hashtags, keywords, and which posts have attracted the most attention. This enables you to better appreciate if any approach might need to be slightly modified.

Another massive benefit of active engagement will involve how the company itself is perceived. For example, customers are more likely to remain loyal if a question or complaint is quickly resolved. In terms of brand reputation, developing a working relationship with your audience is paramount to success. 

Analyse, Assess and Adapt

We need to remember that not every social media marketing strategy is evergreen in nature. Some approaches may need to be modified while it might be better to entirely discard others from time to time. This is when the power of objective analysis comes into play. Here are some of the metrics which should be evaluated regularly:

  • Engagement rates
  • Reach (how many visitors have seen a post)
  • Impressions (the number of times an individual clicked on a post)
  • Likes, shares and follows


These will provide you with an accurate “barometer” of how a strategy is being perceived. Which accounts are being viewed the most? Are there any campaigns that have received the lion’s share of attention? What do customers have to say about a certain product or service? Answering these questions will allow you to manage multiple channels more effectively. 

Remaining One Step Ahead of the Competition

As this article notes, there are currently more than 4.33 billion active social media users. As they are present across numerous channels, developing a centralised method of oversight has never been more important.

Of course, not every business can leverage the talents of a dedicated in-house social media marketing team. Therefore, adopting clear and efficient strategies from the very beginning is critical. The fact of the matter is that social media is here to stay. If you wish to keep abreast of the competition, learning how to effectively monitor different accounts represents one of the keys to long-term success.

By Greg Tuohy

Greg Tuohy is the Managing Director of Docutec, a business printer and office automation software provider. Greg was appointed Managing Director in June 2011 and is the driving force behind the team at the Cantec Group. Immediately after completing a Science degree at UCC in 1995, Greg joined the family copier/printer business. Docutec also make printers for family homes too such as multifunction printers.

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Businesses get the message – email is crucial to successful marketing

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By Michael Nutley

Many businesses turned to email to connect with their customers when pandemic measures sent so many people online. Now with increased privacy concerns for marketers and a need for joined up omnichannel marketing, email is about to be catapulted back into the limelight, finds a new report.

Email marketing in 2022 is more important, more integrated and more mature than ever, but email marketing teams still need to be faster, more efficient and better at personalization. Meanwhile the biggest concern marketers face – privacy – is also email’s biggest opportunity.

That is the snapshot of the discipline provided by a new report, Email In 2022 – The Trends, Behaviors & Benchmarks Driving Email Forward, published by email sending and deliverability platform SparkPost.

The report puts email’s growing role in the context of the recovery in business activity. It found almost a third (63%) of marketing leaders globally saying their budgets reflect pre-Covid levels. However, the pandemic has left its mark. Priorities are shifting, says the report, in that advertising and wide-net marketing efforts are too much of a gamble for organizations. Instead, businesses are investing in branding, CRM and email marketing. Content remains as high a priority as it was last year.

Email shines during lockdowns

Businesses certainly turned to email when pandemic measures sent so many people online.

“Email became a critical tool for organizations of all kinds to contact various stakeholder audiences with the combination of flexibility, speed, precision, and low cost not available through other modes of communication,” says George Schlossnagle, email evangelist and founder of SparkPost.

This crucial role continued into 2021. Three-quarters of marketing leaders (76%) say their email marketing program made a positive impact on the business in 2021, compared to 58% in 2020. And email’s increased importance is reflected in a greater maturity in the way it’s measured. Almost three-quarters (70%) of leaders said they changed the way they measure email marketing last year, compared to half (51%) who said the same thing in 2020.

Just as importantly, the pandemic also accelerated the integration of email with other marketing channels. Almost everyone who took part in the 2021 survey (95%) said their email marketing was aligned with other marketing disciplines, compared to half the respondents in 2020.

Intriguingly, this acceleration has happened despite the massive switch to remote working at the same time. Despite the fact that only 10% of the world’s companies are fully back in the office, almost everyone surveyed said collaboration is the same or better (98%) and that communication is the same or better (96%) than they were before remote working became a necessity.

Greater integration also ties in with the growing importance of an omnichannel approach to marketing. This means talking to customers on the channels they prefer and breaking down the silos between channels in order to deliver a coherent, consistent customer experience across every touchpoint. This is ‘absolutely the future of marketing’, the report says, particularly with the impending demise of the third-party cookie and the rise of first-party data.

The future is private

Indeed, privacy and data are the biggest concerns for email marketers in 2022.

“What we’re seeing now is only the beginnings of a paradigm shift that will continue to drive marketers to rethink data collection and usage practices,” adds Schlossnagle. “Changes in privacy regulations and a shift in consumer perception of personal data are big factors in marketing leaders’ commitment to investing in earned and owned marketing channels.”

The report found that the biggest concerns for respondents were the fear of existing digital marketing assets being unusable in the future; the threat of having to overhaul existing systems; and the need to re-do things from scratch.

More specifically, email marketers are most worried about Apple’s iOS 15 changes (a medium to high concern for 81% of respondents), Google’s third-party cookie tracking (77%), and government regulations and the deprecation of app tracking data (both 72%).

Email returns to centre-stage

Despite these concerns, the report predicts another impact of these changes will be to thrust email marketing even further back into the limelight. Companies leaning more heavily on first-party data and on the channels that are closest to their known customers – like email – creates an opportunity to build better profiles. In turn, these will drive longer term loyalty and engagement, leveraging audience behaviour on the company’s own website or app.

Email has the ability to be the glue between consumers and brands.

“The demise of third-party cookies puts a tailwind behind channels that leverage first-party data – email being the most pervasive,” says Schlossnagle. “We should all be gearing up for more investment in email and SMS because owned data is about to be more valuable than ever.”

Budget pressures demand greater efficiency

All this talk of a bright future for email marketing comes with a downside. The resources to support all this extra work haven’t necessarily arrived just yet. Two-thirds (69%) of leaders say their teams are busier than ever, but only 5% of respondents report having higher budgets in 2021 compared to 2020.

The result is even greater pressure for marketers to be more efficient – email marketers included. It’s one reason for the push for closer alignment of channel teams. Another effect is the increase in the proportion of companies bringing email marketing in-house. In 2020, just over half (55%) of leaders said they relied on agencies for their email marketing. Last year that fell to under a third (29%).

In addition, one of the key trends identified in the report is the increasing use of email design systems. These are pre-created and optimized selections of HTML templates. As the report explains, all the coding is done before marketers start creating an email – which means you can crank out high quality emails quickly. But it also notes that ‘there are clear opportunities for faster, more intuitive martech solutions, streamlined email marketing processes, and improved collaboration between stakeholders within the marketing team.’

One thing is clear. Email has long been seen as boring and unfashionable, but the current convergence of such trends as more time being spent online, increased privacy concerns and the need for joined up omnichannel marketing are just about to catapult it back into the limelight.

To explore this and more findings from SparkPost’s Email In 2022 – The Trends, Behaviors & Benchmarks Driving Email Forward report, click here.

By Michael Nutley

Sourced from The Drum

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6 Email Marketing Mistakes to Avoid in 2022

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By Ahava Leibtag

Email marketing is one of the most personal forms of digital marketing. In the wise words of Henry Ebarb, CEO and co-founder of Eightfold, “Getting access to someone’s contact information is about as close of a touch point as you can get to your customer.”

When users opt in, your organization interacts with them on a deeper level. Email makes it easier to gain trust, build loyalty and, most importantly, keep a steady flow of patient appointments.

Learn What NOT to Do in Email Marketing

Because it’s so important, how can you ensure you don’t make mistakes that break trust between your brand and your audience? Here are some of the top email marketing mess-ups to avoid this year.

Mistake #1: You Don’t Have a Targeted, Defined Audience

One of the first steps to any new email marketing campaign is to have a product or service to promote, as well as a defined audience for that product or service. Automation tools allow you to segment your subscriber list based on specific attributes, like age, gender and interests. Fleshed-out content, personalization and workflow will come later.

Once you know what product or service you’d like to promote, you can segment your list and define an audience to target. For example, to promote the COVID-19 vaccine, UCLA Health sent emails on a rolling basis to specific patient populations. They worked with population health to prioritize and invite the highest risk eligible patients first. Messages were segmented based on language preference (English vs. Spanish) as well as patient portal activation (active vs. inactive).

The campaign was a massive success; the unique open rate for the vaccine invitations was consistently above 60%.

Mistake #2: You Don’t Use Personalization or Automation Tools

Does your email marketing strategy begin and end with e-newsletters you send to a broad audience?

No single newsletter could possibly meet the needs of all subscribers. What’s the most efficient method of delivering the right content to different audiences? How will you know if you were successful? When you commit to marketing automation, the answers are at your fingertips.

Marketing automation uses tools and data within your CRM to deliver custom content based on your audience’s interests. Automation makes it possible to:

  • Respond quickly after someone subscribes by sending a welcome email.
  • Schedule content delivery so that you don’t have to manually coordinate every newsletter release.
  • Personalize messages by including the user’s name in the greeting.

Mistake #3: Template Design Isn’t a Priority

Do you recreate your emails from scratch each time you send one? Or maybe you use a generic template that doesn’t match your brand style or stand out in any way?

One mistake that some email marketers make is not prioritizing custom template design. You can streamline your email marketing efforts by taking the time (and budget) to create well-designed, professional templates. Then, you can run A/B tests to see which design templates resonate best with audiences.

This year, ditch the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) template builders, which have limitations and restrictions. Custom template creation gives you unique content blocks that look crisp and clean, yet on-brand.

Mistake #4: Your Emails Blend in With Your Competition

When it comes to email marketing, how bold are you?

When trying to stand out, simplicity rules. You have few words and little time to demonstrate that your email is worth a click. A thoughtfully-crafted subject line and snippet along with a good mobile experience can slow your subscriber’s roll so that they absorb every juicy detail.

Here’s how:

  • Start with a short, compelling subject line: Your subject line should create a sense of urgency without feeling spammy. And you have only 25 to 50 characters to do it. A busy subscriber will likely scan past “[Organization Name] Spring Newsletter.” But, “How to Feel Your Best This Spring From [Organization Name]” will likely pique their interest.
  • Write an enticing snippet: This is the first line of text after the subject line. Leaving it blank could result in an error message. Instead, use this small window of opportunity to share an interesting fact, summarize your email or highlight a new offering. It’s just one line, so be concise.
  • Use mobile-friendly design: Users are often opening your email on their phone, so keep things tight and clean. Succinct content and smart use of headers make for easy reading. And don’t go overboard with images. When they don’t display correctly, images become big white gaps that detract from your content.

Mistake #5: You Don’t Have Enough Content to Distribute Through Email

Once you’ve enticed users with your exceptional topic and easy-to-read format, they’ll expect regular emails from you. It can be challenging to keep developing fresh content — especially if you’re managing newsletters on multiple topics. But you don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

How to feed the content beast:

  • Get personal: Introduce the people behind the products and services you offer. Staff interviews are easy to pull together and make for compelling content. This information may already exist in staff bios or clinician profiles, and all you need to do is summarize.
  • Repurpose existing blog and web content: UCLA Health has perfected this process. “We partner with our content editor to determine which pieces to repackage for email. We then write a headline, adjust copy, and add a call to action. The information goes into our template, and we resize images. Then we’re ready to send,” said Anne Machalinski, senior manager of marketing at UCLA Health.
  • Riff off newsletter articles that performed well: Compile a “Top 10” list at the end of the year highlighting popular articles. And write articles with follow-ups.

Related Article: B2B Marketers: Make Your Email Newsletter a Thing

Mistake #6: You Set It and Forget It

Some newsletters will be more successful than others. Analytics provide valuable insights into what’s resonating with audiences and where there’s room for improvement. This information is available in real time, so check early and often — and be responsive to what the data shows you.

Jennifer Coffman, email marketing manager at Cleveland Clinic, told me, “If you’re not managing the campaigns and understanding the behaviours and overall data, it can affect your relationship with your audience and your company’s reputation. Don’t set and forget.”

Pull It All Together

In 2022, it’s time to rethink your email marketing initiatives. It’s time to ditch the common mistakes above and take your email marketing to the next level. Make this the year email marketing has the biggest impact for your business.

By Ahava Leibtag

Ahava is the president and owner of Aha Media Group, a content strategy and content marketing consultancy founded in October 2005. Ahava is passionate about content and prides herself on tackling the toughest content projects — from healthcare to higher education to hip-hop (seriously).

Sourced from CMS Wire

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