If there’s one thing I’ve learned as a lifelong entrepreneur, it’s that running a business is no easy feat.
Whether you’re starting a business or trying to expand your team, many challenges come into play, from managing customer demands to wearing multiple hats when you don’t have the budget to take on a team.
All of this to say: Is there any way that, as a business owner, you can maintain growth and compete with other major market players, all without spreading yourself too thin?
One thing that immediately springs to mind is marketing automation.
Defining A Marketing Automation Strategy
A marketing automation strategy is a process in which a business uses software to automate time-consuming or repetitive tasks, such as email marketing, customer segmentation, social media marketing or lead generation.
Choosing The Right Automation Platform
When you’re just getting started with marketing automation, the first and most important step is finding the right automation platform. Personally, HubSpot has been my go-to for many years. It has some of the most powerful automation tools wrapped up in a user-friendly interface. If you’re currently running marketing automation tools, it’s easy to integrate, in my experience.
If HubSpot doesn’t gel with you or fit the needs of your business, there are several other platforms I’d recommend, including:
• Marketo: Great for larger enterprises, as it’s very customizable.
• Pardot: Top-tier Salesforce and B2B marketing integration.
• Mailchimp: One of the best email marketing automation platforms for individuals or small-business owners.
Each platform has its strengths and weaknesses, so do your research to evaluate how your chosen platform will operate alongside your business.
For that reason, one of the key automation strategies I’ve implemented over the years is an automated customer satisfaction email campaign. Each month, our clients receive a friendly email packed with tips, updates and a link to fill out a short survey.
By being proactive, I’ve found I can collect valuable feedback, make sure my clients are happy and show them that I’m working to make their experience better.
The content you include in these emails will depend entirely on your industry and target audience. As someone who works in property management, I might include practical tips on property maintenance, updates on market trends or information regarding any changes in the services I’m offering.
Providing these insights shows your clients that you’re an authoritative figure in your industry.
The survey link is a crucial component for me, as it helps me gather feedback and address concerns before they become issues that are out of my reach.
All in all, since implementing my campaign, I’ve seen a noticeable increase in client satisfaction. My clients appreciate consistent communication and feel valued knowing that I’m consistently looking to improve. It’s a win-win.
Sales Sequences For Different Customer Personas
Sales sequences have become an equally crucial aspect of my automated workflow, as they help ensure no leads fall through the cracks. Plus, they keep our sales team on top of the most critical leads.
To make the most of your sales leads, it’s a good idea to tailor them to fit your different customer personas. Start by looking at your client base as a whole and segmenting any separate key personas into groups. That way, any content you send to those groups will be personalized to them.
For example, you might have a unique sales sequence for a first-time homebuyer compared to a real estate or commercial property investor.
The “sequence” aspect comes from the fact that there are several steps you must include, such as automated emails, follow-ups and any additional touchpoints that might be relevant. If the sales sequence is targeting an investor first, those additional touchpoints might include market trend updates or burgeoning investment opportunities.
Why? Because they’re more effective than they’ve ever been.
As you’ve probably guessed by now, one of the last main pieces of my automation strategy is my monthly newsletter. I’ve designed it in such a way to keep my clients and prospects engaged with what we’re doing and informed about the latest happenings in the real estate market.
Each newsletter contains a mixture of elements, including:
• A rundown of our monthly activities.
• Insightful market updates.
• Featured properties.
• Inspiring success stories from clients.
The idea of including all of this information is to ensure there’s something valuable for every reader.
Though writing and designing the newsletter is a manual, collaborative effort, we’re able to automate its distribution using our chosen platform, saving time and making for better consistency in our messaging.
Implementing Marketing Automation
Implementing marketing automation in your current strategy starts with setting clear goals.
What do you hope to achieve with automation, and how will you measure whether it’s successful once implemented?
It’s equally crucial to make sure any content you deliver using automation is relevant and valuable. Just because you’re saving bandwidth by cutting back on your manual work doesn’t mean you should let the quality of your content suffer.
Once you feel comfortable with more user-friendly email automation tools, try integrating automation into the other facets of your marketing strategy, including content and social media. By doing so, you’ll be able to maximize your impact and create a more cohesive approach. This can be especially beneficial if you don’t have the budget to hire separate marketing experts to take on these roles.
As a fellow entrepreneur, I encourage you to start exploring and implementing automation in your marketing strategies today.
Trevor Henson, Chief Marketing Officer at Beach Front Property Management, specializes in property investment and startup growth strategies. Read Trevor Henson’s full executive profile here.
Holiday email promos need a little dialling up — and dialling down — on standard tactics.
The Gist
Email relationships. Previous engagement boosts holiday email performance, increasing subscriber interaction and revenue during Cyber 5.
Social proof. Highlighting top search terms and popular products in holiday emails can inspire and guide subscriber purchases effectively.
Clear messaging.Simplify holiday email content with clear, direct messaging and seasonal imagery to capture hurried subscribers’ attention.
Everyone wants to have their seasonal email strategies stand out during the Thanksgiving-to-Cyber Monday time period, called Cyber 5. And for good reason. Based on an examination of email campaign performance among retailers and ecommerce brands using Oracle Responsys, campaigns sent during the Cyber 5 weekend routinely generate the highest revenue per email for the whole year — by far.
However, marketing emails aren’t ads. They’re not about shouting the loudest, flashing the brightest colours or being the most sensational or shocking. They’re also not about abusing trust with misleading or vague copy.
There are two components in the battle for holiday email marketing attention.
Seasonal Email Strategies: Half the Battle for Attention
The truth is that the battle for attention during the Cyber 5 is already half won long before your Black Friday or Cyber Monday campaign arrives in inboxes. That’s because seasonal email strategies are relationships, so previous engagement has a major impact on future engagement. If your email program delivers value to lots of subscribers during August and September, then they’re much more likely to engage during the holiday season. And the more frequent and substantial that engagement is, the better off you’re likely to be.
ZeroBounce research recently confirmed this, finding that 47% of people say they open a brand email not because of the subject line, but because that brand always sends them good emails.
In my book, “Email Marketing Rules,” I call this the zero stage of an email interaction. This is why sender names are more powerful than any subject line you can come up with. Your sender name brings to the surface all of your subscriber’s feelings about their recent interactions with your brand. If those feelings are positive, it leads to positive results.
The Other Half of the Battle
The rest of the battle is about your seasonal email strategies themselves. But here, brands sometimes have misconceptions, in part because subscribers behave differently during the holiday season. Consumers have different goals than the rest of the year, and they’re also generally much more pressed for time in the inbox, in part because they’re receiving more campaigns.
Here are some tactics to dial up and to dial back on during the holiday season to maximize performance.
Dial Back Personalization
Personalization is perennially among the top email marketing trends. And new opportunities that are fuelled by customer data platforms and advanced AI are likely to keep it at the top of marketers’ to-do lists for years to come.
However, during the holiday season, subscribers are (mostly) shopping for others, so the zero- and first-party data you’ve been collecting all year isn’t likely to be very useful for tailoring messages.
Dial up Social Proof
Instead of focusing on what each subscriber did months ago, focus on what your customers are doing collectively now. In your email campaigns, highlight:
Top site search terms, so subscribers can understand and be inspired by what others are looking for.
Most browsed product categories, which encourage subscribers to explore categories they haven’t shopped recently or ever.
Most social buzz, such as likes on Instagram or pins on Pinterest.
Most purchased products, which is probably the ultimate barometer of popularity.
Dial back Interactivity
Interactive emails bring common web experiences into the inbox, enabling product carousels, tabbed interfaces, hotspots and more. However, interactivity typically isn’t worthwhile during the holiday season because subscribers are in such a hurry. It’s also tough to do because it increases production times when marketers are creating more campaigns than ever.
Dial up Clarity
Even more than usual, clear and simple wins during the holiday season, because people are in such a hurry. Front load your subject lines with the most important words, and pay extra attention to your message hierarchy, ensuring your most important message points stand out from your less important ones. Especially if you’re promoting a strong offer (and I hope you have plenty of those), you don’t want to undermine it by having cluttered messaging or an overly busy design.
Dial up Scarcity
When something is in low supply or likely to sell out, let subscribers know. If you’re able to include real-time inventory numbers for the products featured in your emails using live content, that can be powerful.
But don’t fake it. Your most loyal customers will see that you’re lying to them if you perpetually claim something will sell out and it doesn’t or, worse, you’re faking real-time inventory numbers by manually including them. And it’s your most loyal customers that you can’t afford to offend.
Dial up Seasonal Imagery & Content
Let your subscribers know you’re in the holiday spirit and hope they are, too. Consider:
Adding holiday imagery to your header, including snowflakes, holly leaves or sparkles.
Add a “Holiday” or “Gifts” link to your navigation bar.
Add a gift services footer that highlights gift guides, gift return policies, gift wrapping options, order-by deadlines and other important holiday details and policies.
Dial up Automation
Triggered campaigns are likely the silent heroes of your holiday season. They’re quietly rescuing abandoned carts, following up on product category interest, notifying customers of back-in-stocks, welcoming seasonal subscribers and more. And their ROIs are through the roof.
Before the holiday season arrives, have a plan to ensure your triggered emails perform their best. If nothing else, make time to review and QA your automations, checking for out-of-date language, broken images and broken links. But also, consider adding seasonal imagery and content blocks to these emails, just like you would to your broadcast promotional emails.
The Big Picture
If you’re anything like our retail and ecommerce clients, you’re already well on your way to planning your seasonal email strategies, including your Black Friday and Cyber Monday emails.
But as you do that, recognize that the email experiences you create and the value you deliver to subscribers over the next couple of months will have a big impact on how your seasonal email strategies perform.
Best for creating email marketing campaigns: Pipedrive
Marketing CRM software is a sales solution that specifically aids businesses in creating and managing lead generation and nurturing through digital or in-person campaigns. Campaigns and strategies you can implement include email marketing, social media marketing, digital content marketing, in-person events, referral programs and so much more. Marketing CRM tools can manage all this, plus track how prospects interact with your content, all while promoting a positive perception of your brand.
Top marketing CRM software comparison
CRM providers typically offer marketing products in tandem with sales tools or they offer marketing features embedded into the sales CRM itself. If your business is looking for a CRM provider with advanced marketing functionality, key features to consider are content generation, such as email templates, integrations and general marketing automations.
Below, I review top sales CRM providers for their marketing expertise and capabilities. My list of the best marketing CRM software providers includes HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho CRM and others. I list out pricing details, pros and cons, and identify ideal use cases for each to help you pinpoint which provider best fits your marketing needs.
HubSpot has a product called HubSpot Marketing Hub that offers both free and paid features. Within the free CRM tool, users can access email marketing, web forms, live chat, ad management and mobile optimization. If your business wants more marketing tools and is in a position to purchase a paid subscription, then multiple currencies, email health insights, social media integrations and adaptive testing are advanced features that are up for grabs.
Pricing
Free CRM: Free for up to five users with contact management, quotes, live chat and more.
Sales Hub Starter: $15 per seat per month, billed annually, or $20 when billed monthly. The Starter plan includes all free tools, plus simple automation, e-signature, conversation routing and more.
Sales Hub Professional: $90 per seat per month, billed annually, or $100 when billed monthly, plus a one-time $1,500 onboarding fee. This plan includes all Starter features and prospecting workspace, playbooks, forecasting and more.
Sales Hub Enterprise: $150 per seat per month, with an annual commitment and a one-time $3,500 onboarding fee. Users receive all Professional tools, plus advanced permissions, predictive lead scoring, conversation intelligence and lead form routing.
Marketing Hub Free: $0 per month for up to five users.
Marketing Hub Starter: $15 per seat per month, billed annually, or $20 when billed monthly.
Marketing Customer Platform: $15 per seat per month, billed annually, or $20 when billed monthly.
Marketing Hub Professional: $800 per month, billed annually, or $890 when billed monthly. This includes three seats with additional seats starting at $45 per month.
Marketing Hub Enterprise: $3,600 per month and includes five seats. Additional seats start at $75 per month.
A/B testing: Implement adaptive testing of different marketing strategies by receiving real-time feedback and insight into campaign success.
Web forms: Generate leads directly from your business website by building online forms.
Marketing campaign management: Align marketing and sales teams by allowing collaboration in one central place.
Task tracker within campaign management tool. Image: HubSpot
HubSpot pros and cons
Pros
Cons
Users report easy platform setup.
No free trial for paid plans.
24/7 user support for paid plans.
No live support for free users.
Offers a variety of free tools and templates.
Users report lacking reporting features.
Why I chose HubSpot
HubSpot is the ultimate free CRM software for its rich marketing, sales and support features. As a popular provider thanks to its usability and user support, HubSpot can be a great choice for businesses that are new to using a CRM, want an affordable option or aim to level up their lead generation strategies.
HubSpot’s free CRM is extremely useful, but those upgrades can be costly for small businesses. For a free CRM with more affordable premium upgrades, I would recommend checking out Zoho CRM.
Salesforce: Best enterprise marketing and CRM solution
Star rating: 4.1/5
Image: Salesforce
Salesforce is enterprise CRM software built to handle the needs of large organizations. As one of the most flexible sales solutions, Salesforce allows enterprises to add niche elements and custom app integrations. It offers a marketing solution that can organize campaigns and assets and associate them with sales activities. This allows users to accurately communicate ROI to stakeholders and make strategy decisions based on campaign data history with reporting features.
Pricing
Starter Suite: $25 per user per month, billed annually. Users get account, contact, lead and opportunity management, as well as the mobile app, email integration and more.
Professional: $80 per user per month, billed annually. The Professional plan includes everything in the Starter Suite plus Sales Cloud, full offline functionality and more.
Enterprise: $165 per user per month, billed annually. This tier offers opportunity scoring and deal insights plus data synchronization and harmonization.
Unlimited: $330 per user per month, billed annually. The Unlimited tier includes all features mentioned above plus developer pro sandbox, lead scoring and five campaigns per opportunity.
Einstein 1 Sales: $500 per user per month, billed annually. This tier includes all Salesforce CRM features like collaboration tools via knowledge shares and Slack and more.
Marketing Cloud Engagement: $1,250 per organization per month, billed annually. Includes email marketing, content creation and robust analytics.
Marketing Cloud Account Engagement: $1,250 per organization per month, billed annually. This tier includes up to 10,000 contacts, lead nurturing and scoring, engagement history backboards and campaign reporting.
Marketing Cloud Growth Edition: $1,500 per organization per month, billed annually. This includes AI-powered emails and campaigns, multi-channel journeys and landing pages.
Data Cloud for Marketing: $108,000 per organization per year. These subscriptions unify data into a single customer profile with data ingestion, harmonization and insights and predictive analytics.
Marketing Cloud Personalization: $108,000 per organization per year. Includes web and email personalization, segmentation, rule-based decisioning, A/B testing and reporting and product and content recommendations.
Content creation and selection: Use generative AI that learns from your brand and campaign data to create copy and visual content.
SMS messaging: Manage and track SMS messages by sending alerts and transactional messages to customers using templates and a drag-and-drop interface.
Marketing analytics: Optimize spend and customer engagement by unifying performance data, automate reporting and identify performance opportunities with AI-backed insights.
Einstein AI marketing insights. Image: Salesforce
Salesforce pros and cons
Pros
Cons
30-day free trial.
Users report time-consuming implementation and setup.
Provides customizable reports and dashboards.
Software might be too complex for small businesses.
Offers powerful automations for marketing and sales processes.
An extensive catalog of features and products can make Salesforce complicated.
Why I chose Salesforce
Salesforce is another popular CRM that is ideal for teams with complex sales cycles that rely on accurate data to make business decisions. Salesforce has the ability to generate custom CRM reports, display in-depth analytics and produce real-time forecasts. Additionally, its mobile CRM allows reps to access critical data on the go.
If cost is a bigger concern, Zoho CRM offers a fair amount of customization at a much more affordable rate. Though it’s not as flexible a platform as Salesforce, Zoho CRM costs between $14 and $52 per user per month, and a free version is also available. For this reason, Zoho CRM is an inexpensive alternative to Salesforce.
Within Zoho CRM’s omni-channel communication, users can combine the power of social media marketing with the existing sales process to increase brand awareness and build strong customer relationships. Users can monitor real customer feedback on social sites, add leads from social media back to the CRM and track social media interactions within the CRM. In addition to tracking engagement, users can also post directly to a brand’s social media accounts and get notifications. This can totally enhance lead generation strategies through digital marketing campaigns.
Pricing
Free CRM: Free for up to three users and comes with lead and document management and a mobile app.
Standard: $14 per user per month, billed annually, or $20 per user when billed monthly. Users can access email insights, sales forecasting and multiple currencies.
Professional: $23 per user per month, billed annually, or $35 per user when billed monthly. This tier includes all Standard features, plus assignment rules and unlimited custom reports and dashboards.
Enterprise: $40 per user per month, billed annually, or $50 per user when billed monthly. This plan introduces all AI-powered tools, plus email segmentation, auto-response and more.
Ultimate: $52 per user per month, billed annually, or $65 per user when billed monthly. Ultimate grants access to all mentioned features plus access to Zoho Analytics.
AI email predictions: AI assistant Zia can suggest the best time to contact each lead to get the best results, such as email open rates.
Real-time notifications: Receive real-time notifications for every client interaction by integrating any app to get all alerts on one platform.
Automated lead generation: Set up triggers to automatically add new leads or contacts from social media based on their interaction with your brand to cut out manual data entry.
Automate lead generation from social media. Image: Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM pros and cons
Pros
Cons
15-day free trial.
Users report inconsistent customer support.
High level of customization options throughout the dashboard.
Add-on features can get pricey.
Offers advanced team collaboration features.
Users report a learning curve with the platform interface.
Why I chose Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM is a leading CRM provider due to its multichannel marketing management, sharp sales tools and affordability. This makes it appealing software for startups or small businesses. If you’re a business already familiar with CRM software and are in need of a tool to help generate and nurture leads, Zoho CRM is a great choice for its moderate learning curve but strong customizations.
Since there are multiple user reports of the Zoho CRM interface being difficult to use, Pipedrive is a suitable alternative for those seeking simplicity. Even though PIpedrive is more expensive than Zoho CRM, all Pipedrive plans include AI sales tools and 24/7 customer support, in addition to an intuitive visual interface.
Head over to our Zoho CRM review for more information on this CRM provider.
monday CRM: Best for team collaboration
Star rating: 3.6/5
Image: monday CRM
monday CRM is a visual CRM platform that offers advanced collaboration tools and colourful dashboards that are simple to set up and use. Any user with permission and access can co-edit and comment in real time. With the clean interface, users can collaboratively organize deals, projects and campaigns on the kanban boards that include assignment tabs, color-coded statuses, document tracking and deadlines.
Pricing
Free version: Basic CRM offerings only available for students and nonprofit organizations after submitting an application.
Basic CRM: $12 per user per month when billed annually, or $15 when billed monthly. This tier offers unlimited pipelines, boards and contacts, as well as templates for lead, contact and deal management.
Standard CRM: $17 per user per month when billed annually, or $20 when billed monthly. This includes advanced account, contact and deal management, two-way email integration with Gmail and Outlook, and AI email generator.
Pro CRM: $28 per user per month when billed annually, or $33 when billed monthly. This tier includes Sales forecasting, email templates with custom parameters, mass emails and added integrations.
Enterprise CRM: Contact monday.com for a quote. This level of support offers lead scoring, team goals and advanced analytics.
Activity management: Log all lead or contact-related activity, such as calls, meetings, notes and more, to know where all communication stands.
Email composition and rephrasing: Create any type of email or use a template for professional emails.
Automated task generation: Utilize AI to automate meeting outcomes or marketing strategies into actionable tasks.
Task automation generator. Image: monday CRM
Monday CRM pros and cons
Pros
Cons
14-day free trial.
HIPAA compliance is only available at the highest paid tier.
Can upload unlimited contacts.
Lacks more advanced marketing tools.
Offers unlimited custom pipelines.
Doesn’t offer live user support.
Why I chose monday CRM
Monday CRM is a fully customizable sales platform that can be built without coding knowledge. With its intuitive interface and robust automations, users can save valuable time by automating repetitive work. As a hub for all centralized client communication, reps can efficiently speak with customers through email integrations.
Similar to monday CRM, Pipedrive also offers robust industry specializations and intuitive dashboards. If you’re looking for a tool similar to monday CRM with user-friendly features plus additional email marketing capabilities, I encourage you to look into Pipedrive or Zoho CRM.
Read our monday CRM review for more details on pricing, top features and more.
Pipedrive: Best for creating email marketing campaigns
Star rating: 4.3/5
Image: Pipedrive
Pipedrive offers robust email marketing software that helps users send email marketing campaigns to effectively engage with customers. Pipedrive’s campaigns can capture the attention of your ICP with customizable layouts and additional tracking, analytics and filtering features. Users can access the same intuitive drag-and-drop element from the sales CRM to create custom layouts or use a premade template. Reps can see contact information in lead profiles and all email communications on one dashboard.
Pricing
Essential: $14 per user per month, billed annually, or $24 per user when billed monthly. The Essential plan includes people and organization management, product catalogue, sales assistant and more.
Advanced: $29 per user per month, billed annually, or $39 per user when billed monthly. The Advanced plan offers all Essential features plus automations, two-way email sync, group emailing and more.
Professional: $49 per user per month, billed annually, or $64 per user when billed monthly. This tier supports all Advanced features and contacts timeline, free Smart Docs add-on, automatic assignment and more.
Power: $64 per user per month, billed annually, or $79 per user when billed monthly. The Power plan includes all Professional offering plus phone support, 500 custom fields and more.
Enterprise: $99 per user per month, billed annually, or $129 per user when billed monthly. This tier offers all mentioned features plus up to 180 active automations, unlimited teams and unlimited custom permissions.
Email builder: Choose from free email templates, import pre-existing HTML or use a drag-and-drop editor to create an email from scratch or modify an existing one.
Email reporting: Dive into how your audience is receiving your emails with real-time reporting, including open rate, click rate, click-through rate and total/unique clicks.
Email segmentation: Ensure the right customers are receiving the right email message by creating filtered recipient lists. Use built-in filters such as subscription status, email bounce reason, send data and more.
Email segmentation feature. Image: Pipedrive
Pipedrive pros and cons
Pros
Cons
14-day free trial.
Doesn’t offer a free-for-life tier.
Intuitive mobile app for iOS and Android.
User reports of limited analytics.
Offers 24/7 customer support for users.
No social media marketing tools.
Why I chose Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a top scoring CRM solution that has made its way onto several of my guides, and for good reason. It is a scalable tool for small businesses up to enterprise level organizations. It also offers extensive in-market expertise for niche industries like automotive sales, government, hospitality and more.
Even though Pipedrive’s premium plans are competitively priced for the mix of marketing and sales features, there is no free tier. If that’s a goal for your business to explore before committing to a paid subscription, I recommend looking into HubSpot or Zoho CRM first.
How to choose the best marketing CRM software for your business
Before selecting CRM software, I recommend following best practices to research the software in depth in order to determine if it can provide real solutions for your organization. Starting with the providers on my list, consider signing up for free trials or demos and mapping out each option’s onboarding process with their sales team.
Here are some questions to ask before committing to a paid subscription:
Does this CRM tool integrate with all of my existing tech tools?
Does this CRM tool offer the marketing tools that my business needs?
Are the core sales features offered by this software equipped enough to streamline my sales process?
How quick is the onboarding process to get started using this tool?
Can the CRM software scale up to adapt to my growing business?
Does this CRM tool have any in-market specialization in my industry?
Review methodology
To evaluate each provider’s marketing CRM offerings, I used my in-house rubric with outlined criteria of CRM industry standards. After running each CRM software through this rubric, an algorithm calculates an overall rating, scoring each out of 5 stars. I use those scores and major feature callouts to assign each software an ideal use case that best represents the software’s best offering.
Here’s the exact breakdown of my predefined scoring criteria:
Cost: Weighted 25% of the total score.
Core features: Weighted 25% of the total score.
Customizations: Weighted 15% of the total score.
Integrations: Weighted 15% of the total score.
Ease of use: Weighted 10% of the total score.
Customer support: Weighted 10% of the total score.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
What is a CRM model in marketing?
A CRM model in marketing is very similar to the general CRM model for sales and support. It’s a framework that helps users and businesses manage all aspects of customer relationships. A CRM model for marketing includes the processes, technologies and methodologies used to define an ideal customer profile, generate leads that fit that ICP and then retain them. This model will include a structured framework that displays all the steps and strategies from end-to-end sales.
Which is the best CRM for marketing?
HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho CRM, monday CRM and Pipedrive are the best CRM options for marketing. From this list of providers, determining which can provide the best marketing solution for your business is ultimately up to you. If you want to optimize social media marketing, I would recommend Zoho CRM. If you just want strong email marketing campaigns, I suggest Pipedrive. If you’re looking for AI-powered marketing insights, I’d say Salesforce should be your go-to provider.
What is CRM in e-marketing?
E-marketing is an all-encompassing term for online marketing, which can include email, social media, influencer marketing, affiliate marketing, organic search and much more. A CRM that can monitor e-marketing will come with features such as omni-channel communication, lead segmentation and templates for copy creation.
Allyssa is a sales writer with a background in B2B sales and account management. After earning her degree in English and communications, she spent her selling career supporting Fortune 1000 IT and finance companies including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Credit Karma. As a lead writer for TechRepublic, her specialties include CRMs, enterprise data, and sales software topics. When she’s not writing or updating articles, you can find Allyssa writing poetry, traveling, or picking up any new creative hobby.
Email newsletters can be an important part of your business. Here’s how they can help—but there are a couple of caveats.
Whether you’re a knowledge worker with a point of view you want to share with the world, a high-profile executive who wants to build a platform, or a business owner interested in cultivating new revenue streams, you may have considered launching an email newsletter at one time or another.
And perhaps with good reason.
As social media saturation and the impact of artificial intelligence on search results grow, reaching your core audience becomes trickier. According to HubSpot’s 2024 “The State of Marketing” report, one in three marketers reports using email as a communication vehicle and 87% plan to maintain or increase their investment in 2024. A survey by software company Storydoc found that 90% of respondents subscribed to at least one newsletter and 38% subscribed to between four and 10. With many tools and platforms available to launch email newsletters, it’s relatively easy and inexpensive to get started.
But should you? It’s probably not surprising that Linda Lebrun, head of partnerships for finance and investing content at newsletter platform Substack, thinks so. When asked “who should start a newsletter?” she replies that good candidates may fall into three categories. “[T]hey have a desire to communicate with the audience. They may have a desire to monetize what they are doing,” she says. “And another thing is they may feel like they want to start a community.”
For several successful newsletter publishers, the benefits have been powerful, ranging from reinforcing their positions as thought leaders and credible experts to landing new business opportunities. Here are some of the reasons they devote the time and resources necessary to grow their email newsletters:
Building audience relationships
Sandra Beckwith is a book marketing consultant with a thriving Facebook community called the Build Book Buzz Book Marketing Group. She initially launched her email newsletter, which has grown to more than 10,000 subscribers, to promote her online courses. Over time, she realized that her newsletter was a valuable tool to build relationships with the people who needed her expertise—while also gaining valuable content insight directly from her readers.
“I get responses to my email. When I send my newsletter, people respond back to me, and I get to know them better, and we get these little conversations going,” she says. “We talk about what’s easiest for them, what’s hardest for them, where they need help, what kind of information I can help them with. But [my newsletter] really helped me get to know my target audience better in a way that is almost magical.”
To maintain control of your audience
While social media may be a popular way to build a following, it’s not without risks. Kris Bordessa started Attainable Sustainable in 2011 to encourage people to live more sustainably and self-reliantly. That blog has grown into a robust e-commerce site and an award-winning book entitledAttainable Sustainable: The Lost Art of Self-Reliant Living. Her Attainable Sustainable Facebook page now has an impressive 500,000 followers. But she also values her email list, which includes 15,000 people—a list she culls regularly, eliminating subscribers who do not regularly open her newsletter. She knows that she has more control over the content she can deliver to subscribers.
“Even with a half-a-million people on my Facebook page, just a small smidgen of people are seeing anything that I post. Facebook owns that,” she says.
Algorithms can also affect reach. Teresa Mears runs roughly 20 newsletters to help drive traffic to her network of On the Cheap websites, which promote deals and discounts in various locations. Each site is individually operated. The South Florida–focused newsletter she runs has more than 30,000 subscribers.
As a result, Mears says she promotes her newsletters “every way we can. Particularly as Google has changed its algorithm, the newsletters have become an even more important source of subscribers.” Her network uses pop-ups that encourage website visitors to subscribe. “Every once in a while I put up a Facebook post that says. ‘Facebook doesn’t show you everything. If you want to see everything, be sure to subscribe to our news,’” she says.
To establish your expertise
A newsletter offers another way to deliver customized content to your audiences. Bordessa has different lists based on reader interests, like gardening or food preservation. She also offers free content in specific subject areas in exchange for subscribing.
While Bordessa has well-established expertise in the areas about which she writes, you don’t have to be “the biggest expert” in a particular area to launch a newsletter, Lebrun says. “What [Substack has] found is that when people figure out the intersection, what they have some expertise in, what they feel, they can sustain writing about for a long time, they can go out and share with the world,” she says. “It’s not that you have to be the foremost world expert. You just need to be two steps ahead of your audience, and then they will come along with you.”
To support your revenue plan
Newsletters can help drive revenue in a number of ways, ranging from boosting website traffic to selling products, classes, or services. In some cases, email newsletters are popular or specialized enough that people will pay to subscribe. Lebrun says that some Substack newsletter writers put some content behind paywalls. And some larger newsletters have lucrative business models that include subscriptions and other methods of monetization.
Beckwith says the trust she builds with her newsletter is among the most important reasons to publish one, which is why she is careful about building her list and the content she offers. “If I was just always putting product-related content to people who’ve never heard of me, that’s a waste of my time and theirs because they’re not going to buy from me because they don’t know, like, and trust me,” she says.
Are there downsides? Possibly.
Mears, who uses her newsletter to promote new deals and drive traffic to her site, says building an email list and loyal subscriber base requires marketing; just as you promote your business, you’ll need to promote your newsletter. Lebrun says Substack data finds that consistency is important. “Being consistent with publishing at least once a week helps you create a habit with the reader,” she says. So, the newsletter will take time and resources.
Beckwith advises would-be email newsletter publishers to evaluate the many platforms and publishing tools available to them to determine which is best for their needs. They should also ensure that they abide by the rules governing email newsletters, such as disclosing affiliate links.
However, even with those demands, Mears says starting a newsletter “might be the most important thing you can do” to promote your business and its offerings.
Gwen Moran is a writer and author specializing in business and finance. Her work has appeared in many leading business publications and websites, including Entrepreneur, Kiplinger.com, Newsweek.com, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, and othersMore
Today’s online retailers face an important decision: which channels they should sell on. Should they only sell direct-to-consumer (DTC) via their website, rely on established marketplaces like Amazon or adopt a hybrid approach?
Though each channel offers pros and cons, what makes the decision more difficult is the emergence and unpredictability of other channels. Some social media companies have launched ecommerce capabilities, like TikTok Shops, but they also come with the unpredictability of regulatory bans, making it harder for brands to know which channels are worth investing in.
Choosing the right channel strategy can be the key to running and growing a successful online business. Drawing from my experience working with ecommerce marketing platforms, here are pros and cons to consider when deciding on the appropriate channel for your products.
Direct-To-Consumer (DTC)
The DTC channel involves selling products directly to customers via a branded website.
Pros:
• Complete Brand Control: When selling on a branded website, you control how your brand is presented, your messaging and your customer experience.
• Increased Margins: By eliminating middlemen, like Amazon, you can earn higher profit margins, which can make this strategy especially appealing.
• Building Customer Relationships: Because you control the experience and customer data, you can use personalized marketing, such as email and SMS, to foster stronger, direct relationships with customers, helping to increase brand affinity and loyalty.
Cons:
• Marketing Costs: Investment is typically required to increase web traffic and customer acquisition.
• Operational Costs: The costs of maintaining a website, ecommerce and marketing platforms, inventory and shipping and logistics can quickly add up.
• Customer Service: Brands need to take full responsibility for all aspects of customer service. This may be challenging for companies with limited staffing.
Who is it best for?
I have found that DTC often works best for brands focused on owning the customer experience. This strategy allows brands to build customer relationships through reliable, branded and high-ROI channels like email and SMS marketing. With an email marketing ROI of $36 per dollar spent, you can potentially maximize your profit while building long-term customer loyalty.
Online Marketplaces
Selling on marketplaces, like Amazon, Walmart and eBay, involves listing and selling products on third-party platforms, leveraging their existing infrastructure and customer base.
Pros:• Built-In Traffic: Marketplaces have an already established customer base, which can make finding customers easier than growing site traffic organically.
• Operational Efficiency: Marketplaces often handle the logistics, payments and customer service.
• Increased Credibility: While not fool-proof, marketplaces typically have a stronger reputation than brand-new DTC websites.
Cons:• Lower Margins: Marketplace fees, such as warehousing and per-transaction fees, can impact profit margins.
• Competition: Due to sheer volume, there is increased competition with other sellers on the platform. You may be forced to increase your on-platform ad spend to break through the noise.
• No Customer Relationship: Unlike a DTC channel, the marketplace owns the relationship and data. Communications are marketplace-branded, and individual customer purchase data is kept from sellers, making it harder to build customer loyalty.
Who is it best for?
Sellers who find the most benefit using a marketplace-only approach might include those with limited resources who need to leverage their infrastructure and can easily scale; those looking to borrow brand equity to establish their credibility; and those wanting to rely on the built-in traffic to increase sales more quickly.
DTC And Marketplace Hybrid Models
A hybrid approach combining DTC and marketplace channels allows brands to benefit from the advantages of each channel while mitigating some of the downsides.
Pros:• Diversified Risk: By not relying on a single channel to produce sales, you can shift your risk of flat sales.
• Increased Brand Awareness: You can access traffic from two sources and drive traffic from one channel to the other when it makes sense, such as when DTC inventory is low.
• Sales Insights: Performance changes on one channel can influence your strategies on the other.
Cons:• Operationally Intensive: Managing multiple channels requires more time, effort, logistics and potentially more staff.
• Price Conflicts: Maintaining consistent pricing across channels can be challenging, especially on marketplaces where consumers expect to pay less.
• Inconsistent Experiences: If customers have different experiences based on the channel, this can create a fractured brand experience.
Who is it best for?
A hybrid model may be best for companies looking to diversify their revenue streams and customer reach; those with budgets to allow for multiple forms of advertising; and those with enough resources to effectively manage both channels while mitigating inconsistent brand experiences.
Conclusion
The decision between DTC, marketplace or a hybrid approach depends on various factors, but there is no single right or wrong decision. Each has its pros and cons. However, in today’s ecommerce environment that includes social selling and potential platform bans, building brand-consumer relationships is as important as ever. If you’re looking to establish these relationships, take time to determine which of these three strategies will give you the greatest chance of success.
Rytis Lauris is the cofounder and CEO of Omnisend, a marketing automation platform built for e-commerce. Read Rytis Lauris’ full executive profile here.
It’s time to reframe the conversation around personal branding. Here are four of the top myths about personal branding, debunked.
Does the phrase personal branding fill you with dread? If so, you’re in good company.
I’ve been helping corporate leaders define their personal brands for years, and I have seen how often just the idea itself can elicit strong and negative reactions. Despite its long history and roots with management maven Tom Peters, or even when a compelling case for personal branding is made, many executives still view the concept with derision, discomfort, and doubt.
It’s not hard to see why. Culturally, we have a long legacy of discouraging individuality in the workplace. Our corporate norms dictate that we should blend in and keep our heads down, that humility at work is a virtue, and that our identities belong to our jobs and employers.
For working professionals who grew up in this paradigm, defining who we are and describing our value out loud can trigger cognitive dissonance. It feels selfish and egotistical to talk about ourselves like it’s something for the Tik Tok generation—not serious executives.
“I definitely came in carrying some ‘ick factor’ with me,” says Anna Silverstein, a senior communications leader from a global consulting firm who came to me for help with her personal brand. “The phrase ‘personal brand’ seems to exemplify everything there is to hate about the post-social media era. It sounds so transactional, commercial, shallow.”
Understandable though it is, this perspective has become outdated and problematic. Discouraging personal identities and suppressing diverse voices in the workplace has contributed to many of the systemic problems we face in corporate culture today, from burnout and depression to homogeneous C-suites and boardrooms across industries.
It’s time to reframe the conversation. To help, here are four of the top myths about personal branding, debunked.
Myth 1: Personal branding is selfish.
No, it’s actually an obligation. Especially as we build our careers and grow as leaders, it is up to all of us to take responsibility for knowing who we are and what matters to us, and finding the words to describe it.
“Now that I’ve done the work, I see it as a process of self-discovery and growth,” says Anna. “A brand is basically a well-designed shortcut for telling people exactly who you are and what you care about.”
If we don’t do this work, we pass the onus (and opportunity) to define what we want or need onto everyone else. That doesn’t help anyone—especially those from historically disenfranchised communities or with marginalized voices that need and deserve to be heard.
Myth 2: People with personal brands are loud and obnoxious.
Wrong. Personal branding is actually an inherently quiet and internally focused exercise. When it’s done well, defining your personal brand means taking the time to explore and define who you are, what you stand for, and what others need to know to support, benefit from, and work well with you. It should feel quiet, thoughtful, and authentic.
Ultimately, how you implement your brand is up to you. Some people choose to build a thought leadership platform or become an influencer, but for most, it is simply about becoming more deliberate interacting with others as you build your career.
Myth 3: Personal branding is fake and disingenuous.
Not when it’s done well. Defining your brand is about looking at who you’ve always been and how it has manifested throughout your entire journey, your experiences, your value, and the unique way you move through the world.
When I work with executives, one of the best tactics to unlock this insight is to look at early interests and aspirations and track how they evolved. One woman, a crisis communications advisor based in Canada, remembered her childhood dream of becoming Leonardo Da Vinci. She recalled how she loved the blend of art and science in Da Vinci’s work.
Though she never made it into a science field, and she ultimately dropped out of art school, what she started to see was how the blend of art and science continues to characterize the way she approaches the world. Her clients value the way these two perspectives come together in her work, and she has discovered a creative and authentic way to describe how she operates and why.
Myth 4: Branding is only for senior leaders and C-suite executives.
Definitely not. Personal branding can benefit everyone at all stages in their career journey by keeping us connected to what really drives us, where we offer the most value, and where we are trying to go. Having this knowledge will make it easier for others to help support you, throughout your career path.
“You need that clarity for any number of things, whether that’s to take the next big leap in your career, to supercharge a learning journey, or to make choices that will give your life more meaning,” says Anna.
Regardless of their role, industry, or experience level, people with a strong personal brand tend to be centered, intentional, and real. More importantly, encouraging their people to spend the time to understand their individual strengths, style, and value can help cultivate authentic leadership and greater space for diverse perspectives and personalities to thrive.
It is about understanding people as people and not just as consumers, customers, members, and users.
It is about getting people to advocate for a brand to other people.
It is about upgrading the status of marketing people and upgrading marketing people.
Marketing is about understanding people.
For too long marketers have fixated on consumers, customers, members, and users.
While these are important what is critical is seeking to understand people as people.
When one looks at a person as a consumer one is liable to miss a lot for the following reasons.
1) Narrow lens: When one looks at a person as a consumer it is looking to understand the person through brand usage which is by very definition one of hundreds of brands filling met and unmet needs of a person. People do not define themselves by brands and rarely want to have relationships with brands. Some marketers define themselves by brands and have the delusion that people want to have a relationship with Tylenol versus just wanting their headache to go away.
2) Failure to see competitive threats: Viewing people as consumers or users means evaluating and benchmarking one’s brands with their use of other brands in one’s category. However, the greatest threat and opportunity tends to come from outside one’s category today due to technological disruption and changing behavior. Newspapers were disrupted by Google. Magazines by Instagram and today Television by Netflix and TikTok for example. Focusing on consumers and users meant that none of the incumbents were monitoring these other players. A focus on one’s category may lead a brand to be less pathetic than others in their category but not great or relevant for the future.
Word of mouth has become exponentially more powerful due to social media and new tools and technologies.
TikTok provides editing and other tools to let anyone create and mix videos. Substack enables reaching tens of thousands to millions of people. It is easy to create and distribute podcasts.
Social media channels enable distribution.
Influencers and creators become key to a brand.
Instead of marketing to people we should consider marketing through people by arming them with assets, information, tools, and incentives.
Also, every marketing company should fixate on their employees and suppliers.
Inform, trust, and pay suppliers well. They can be a source of ideas, marketing, and competitive intelligence.
Emerging AI tools such as ChatGPT will further empower the individual and the underlying trends of Web3 will now give them not just a voice but ownership.
Every company’s marketing and media programs should be grounded in marketing through people with significant investment and emphasis on generating and building advocacy among one’s external and internal audiences and partners.
One should fixate as much if not more on people than fixating on first party data, AI and the Metaverse.
Marketing is about upgrading the status and skills of marketing people.
Forty years ago, in my first marketing class at the University of Chicago we read Philip Kotler (a renowned marketing guru operating a few miles away at Northwestern University) who defined marketing as “understanding and meeting people’s requirements.”
For the next four decades I got to work with some of the best marketing companies in the world and looking back two things stood out which taken together raises concerns:
1) Marketing has become more critical: People became more empowered as technology enabled them to have “God Like” power particularly in the past two decades since the scaling of Search, Social, E-Commerce and Mobile. These new technologies also have merged offline/online, above the line/below the line and fused marketing and experience into one. Therefore, understanding and meeting the requirements of people/gods became more important. So marketing was growing more and more critical.
2) Marketers power has diminished in most companies: The first two decades of my career it was not just Agencies that got to present to the Board room, but marketers did. Today look at the Board of Directors of companies including marketing firms, and few have CMO’s on the Board. There is the voice of money in the CFO, the voice of technology in the CTO/CIO, the voice of talent in the Chief Human Resources/Talent officer but where is the voice of the people/customer/consumer just when they are growing more and more powerful?
Companies will find it very difficult to succeed in a world of empowered people unless they have empowered marketers, marketing fuses into every part of the company and every individual upgrades their skills. Marketers need to be in the room where decisions are made rather than implementing or informing decisions.
But the wheel may be turning…
Recently there are signs that marketing is getting a voice by transforming the CMO role to one of a Chief Growth Officer, Chief Experience Officer, or Chief Transformation Officer or combining a CMO role with a Chief Data Officer role and no longer separating CMO from Chief Digital Officer.
Companies are beginning to look for “full-stack” marketers who can drive performance leveraging data and technology and platforms in the short run while building brand and reputation with storytelling, design, cultural relevance and more.
Marketing people need to have a greater voice and to have a greater voice marketing people need to upgrade our skills and capabilities for a world where marketing is not a side car attached to a motorcycle but the engine that makes the motorcycle and its engine throb.
The Blake Project Can Help: Please email us for more about our purpose, mission, vision and values and brand culture workshops.
Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Growth and Brand Education
Campaign precision.Pinpoint your ideal client profile for more effective B2B email campaigns.
List quality matters. Maintain a validated, high-quality email list to boost engagement and ROI.
Engage, don’t ask. Provide valuable resources over sales pitches to enhance B2B email effectiveness.
In a crowded digital environment rife with companies clamouring for attention at every click, B2B email marketing remains a powerful tool for engaging with B2B prospects to generate quality leads. The reason: Most of your target market isn’t actively searching for your solutions, so it’s more effective to go to them and generate interest (demand generation) than it is to wait for them to find you (demand capture).
The challenge: 9.7 billion emails are sent in the U.S. daily so standing out requires a calculated approach. Below are five steps for creating effective email campaigns that resonate with prospects and fuel demand.
1. Understand & Target Your Top Ideal Client Profile (ICP)
Define your ICP based on your most successful client relationships, by industry, company size, and titles of decision-makers and influencers. For example, we ran a successful campaign targeting owners/CEOs of rental service providers in the U.S. between $20 million and $250 million in revenues for an integrator of ERP systems.
It’s common to have at least three-to-four distinct ICPs. Focus on the one with the most potential for several months to gain traction.
2. Build & Maintain a High-Quality Email List
A robust B2B email marketing list of your top target market is key to the success of your campaign. Begin by sourcing contacts from reputable services like ZoomInfo. UpLead and BookYourData offer more cost-effective alternatives.
To ensure deliverability and maintain your sender reputation, run your list through validation services such as ZeroBounce. This minimizes bounce rates and avoids penalties from platforms like HubSpot, which enforce strict bounce rate limits.
3. Craft Active, Compelling Content
B2B email marketing content that educates your prospects about how you can solve their problems is the core of email marketing. This is the essence of B2B brand storytelling: Prospects are the hero of the story and will let you be their guide if you demonstrate that you understand their problems. Don’t lead with products, services, features and benefits.
Give your top ICP something instead of asking for something. Offer resources that encourage engagement, such as guides, webinar invitations, case studies, and relevant blog posts. Don’t send fluffy, top-of-funnel content or newsletters that ramble on about your business. Videos can triple your click-through rates compared to other content types.
Include an offer: a clear, compelling call-to-action (CTA) that encourages recipients to take the next step. It should be something better than “request a free consultation” or “get a demo,” which they may want later but not as a starting point.
4. Optimize Subject Lines & Preview Text
Your subject line and preview text are crucial for grabbing attention and boosting open rates. It could be argued that this is the most important part of the entire email since without a subject line that gets your recipient to open it, the rest is like that tree that falls in a forest, unheard.
In B2B email marketing, subject lines and preview text need to be concise, engaging, positive and relevant to the recipient’s problems. For guidance, consider a formula proven over the past 100 years that combines appealing to the self-interest of prospects, sharing news, stimulating curiosity, and communicating that there’s a quick and easy way to solving problems while creating a sense of urgency.
5. Manage Expectations & Follow Up
B2B email marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. Initial prospecting emails typically achieve open rates between 10% to 20%, and it’s common to receive few responses at first. While knowing 80% to 90% of recipients won’t open your email can be discouraging, persistence is key so follow up with recipients who click on your emails or open them multiple times. Note: If you see that someone has clicked on every link in the email, it’s likely that automated software opened it to check for viruses and phishing scams.
Personalized follow-up emails and calls can significantly enhance engagement and conversion rates but limit your follow-up attempts to no more than three. Keep them on your B2B email marketing list so that the next email may prompt them to contact you. Sometimes an email campaign gets a response months after it was sent because it was the right message at the wrong time.
While digital communication is prevalent, traditional direct mail can complement your B2B email marketing campaigns. With some audiences, a well-crafted direct mail piece can garner more attention than an email, making it an effective tool for reaching your audience in a different format and reinforcing your message.
B2B Marketing Email Campaigns That Work
When it’s done well, B2B email marketing remains one of the most cost-effective outbound methods for generating demand by connecting you to high-quality leads who aren’t actively searching for your solutions.
Anyone who tells you otherwise likely didn’t put the right level of effort into their campaigns. Some just send a few emails, get disappointed, and abandon the effort.
By day, Sean is a B2B marketing strategist, educating small and mid-sized businesses on how to use marketing to fuel their growth; by night, he is a historic bar enthusiast. Connect with Sean Parnell:
Paid media isn’t the only way for direct-to-consumer brands to reach new customers.
Over the past five years, paid media and acquisition costs have skyrocketed, making it increasingly challenging for brands to reach new customers through paid advertising alone. For direct-to-consumer brands, in particular, this has caused significant disruption and revenue decline.
As the CEO and founder of wellness brand Bearaby, I have experienced this shift in the digital marketing landscape and know that it is increasingly necessary to experiment with outside-the-box methods to build branded consumer awareness. Brands are diversifying beyond paid media to reach consumers. Here are three methods I’ve found to be effective and why I believe they work.
Experiential marketing
As an e-commerce brand, providing unique and valuable in-person experiences helps you reach new, highly engaged brand loyalists.
When we were looking to expand Bearaby’s in-person presence, we took inspiration from on-the-ground ambassador programs frequently adopted by apparel brands. Lululemon, for example, has focused on cultivating a community of fitness instructors who are intensely loyal to the brand, tapping into strong preexisting communities within their target demographic.
The key to successful experiential activations is tailoring the experience to your product. Consider whether seeing the product is enough for potential customers or would new customers prefer to interact with it more extensively? What is the most important factor that will influence a new customer’s decision to purchase—or, even better, to buy into your brand values and get on board with your mission?
At Bearaby, we’ve leaned into the benefits of weighted blankets for meditation by partnering with wellness studios like Remedy Place, Sage + Sound, and THE WELL to include weighted blankets in sound bath and meditation experiences. Visitors get to feel the full benefits of resting under a weighted blanket, while learning about an often overlooked use case for the product. As a result of these activations, meditation instructors and wellness enthusiasts have become organic brand advocates, incorporating weighted blankets into their personal practice and beyond.
Whether you activate your product through traditional ambassadors, a pop-up shop, or a unique one-of-a-kind event, staying true to your brand’s authentic mission is the key to finding success through experiential marketing.
Proximity marketing
If an ad spend doesn’t allow you to meet consumers where they are, consider meeting them somewhere nearby. For example, a Super Bowl ad will run you $7 million dollars, but creating on-site experiences in the host city, or targeting digital out-of-home screens in fan hubs, may allow you to reach the most engaged consumers at a fraction of the cost. This is an excellent way to make the most of big events without going over budget. You can apply this same strategy to smaller, localized events that draw super fans who fit your audience.
For direct-to-consumer brands, it can also be useful to examine retail partnerships through the lens of proximity marketing. Brands often focus on the high sales volumes that come through securing placement in national chains, but placement in smaller, targeted boutiques lends itself to a more branded experience, potentially amplifying your presence in a particular state, city, or neighbourhood.
If you’re hoping to achieve this, proper branding and signage remain essential. Even if a customer doesn’t choose to buy your product, they should have an opportunity to see your brand name, read more about it, or enter your digital marketing funnel.
Stunt marketing
Stunt marketing should be true to your brand while containing an unexpected element. Nobody would be surprised by Duolingo offering in-person language lessons, but when the brand went as far as to open a taqueria where diners could practice their Spanish in exchange for discounts, people took notice!
For newer brands, it can be helpful to tie stunt marketing to a particular holiday or time of year—something in the cultural landscape that already has people’s attention.
April Fools’ Day is a great time to flex your stunt marketing muscle with plenty of wiggle room for experimentation. Consumers are on the lookout for surprising, playful activations from the brands they know best, so they’re prepared to be delighted by something truly over the top.
At Bearaby, we’ve seen community engagement skyrocket during fake product launches for April Fools’ Day, like our weighted blanket for hedgehogs. Our most recent “Bearabulky” April Fools’ campaign gave us valuable product feedback. We launched a fake 50-pound weighted stuffed bear, and brand fans we had never heard from before started sharing that they would love to purchase a slightly heavier version of our real 3.5-pound weighted stuffed animals. This stunt campaign helped us catch the attention of new customers, while simultaneously strengthening our understanding of our existing community.
When planning a stunt marketing campaign, it’s important to cater to both brand fans and new customers without alienating either group. Before launching your campaign, think through what success will look like for both groups and let that guide your messaging and budget.
With paid ads continuing to become more expensive, brand building will be put to the test more than ever. The more expensive it is to acquire a new customer, the more critical it will be for that customer to have a touchpoint where they can buy into your mission and become a brand fan. Strategies like experiential, proximity, and stunt marketing won’t replace the need for digital ads, but they can be high-value extensions of the brand backbone that ultimately makes paid advertising pay off.
Undoubtedly, the right typeface can convey a brand’s personality, evoke emotions, and influence consumer behaviour.
This article explores the art and science behind choosing the perfect typography for your brand, highlighting its importance and providing actionable insights to help you make informed decisions.
The Power of Typography in Branding
Typography is more than just selecting a font; it’s about creating a visual voice for your brand. When done right, typography becomes a powerful tool that enhances brand recognition and strengthens brand identity. Here’s how typography impacts branding:
Conveys Brand Personality: Typography can communicate the essence of your brand. For instance, a luxury brand might use elegant, serif fonts to exude sophistication, while a tech startup might opt for sleek, sans-serif fonts to convey modernity and innovation.
Creates Emotional Connection: The style of your typography can evoke specific emotions in your audience. Rounded, soft fonts might create a sense of warmth and friendliness, while bold, angular fonts might evoke a sense of strength and confidence.
Enhances Readability and User Experience: Good typography is not just about aesthetics; it’s also about function. The right typeface ensures that your content is easily readable across different devices, enhancing the overall user experience.
Differentiates Your Brand: In a crowded market, unique typography can set your brand apart. Custom fonts or carefully chosen typefaces can make your brand instantly recognizable, even without a logo or other visual elements.
Key Elements of Typography in Branding
When selecting typography for branding, several key elements must be considered to ensure that the typeface aligns with your brand’s identity and goals.
Font Family: The font family you choose—whether serif, sans-serif, script, or decorative—should align with your brand’s personality. Serif fonts, with their traditional and formal appearance, might be suitable for legal firms or luxury brands, while sans-serif fonts, known for their clean and modern look, might be ideal for tech companies or startups.
Font Weight and Style: Different weights (light, regular, bold) and styles (italic, condensed) can add versatility to your typography. Using a combination of weights and styles within the same font family can create a visual hierarchy, guiding the reader’s attention to the most important information.
Kerning and Tracking: Kerning (the space between individual letters) and tracking (the overall spacing between characters in a block of text) play a crucial role in typography. Adjusting these elements can improve readability and ensure that your text looks well-balanced and cohesive.
Line Height and Line Length: Line height (the vertical space between lines of text) and line length (the horizontal width of a block of text) are essential for readability. Proper adjustments to these can make your text more accessible and easier to read, especially on digital platforms.
Colour and Contrast: The colour of your typography should complement your brand’s colour scheme while ensuring readability. High contrast between text and background is essential for accessibility, making sure that your message is clear and easy to read for all users.
Examples of Effective Typography in Branding
Let’s take a look at some brands that have mastered the art of typography:
Coca-Cola: The Coca-Cola logo is one of the most recognizable in the world, thanks in part to its custom script font. The flowing, cursive typeface exudes a sense of tradition and nostalgia, perfectly aligning with the brand’s identity.
Apple: Apple uses the San Francisco typeface, a sleek, sans-serif font that reflects the brand’s minimalist and innovative ethos. The clean lines and modern look of the typography complement Apple’s products and overall design philosophy.
New York Times: The New York Times uses a classic serif font that conveys authority and tradition. This choice of typography reinforces the brand’s identity as a reliable and established source of news.
Netflix: Netflix uses a custom sans-serif font called Netflix Sans. The bold, modern typeface reflects the brand’s innovative approach to entertainment and is easily readable across various devices and screen sizes.
Best Practices for Choosing Typography in Branding
Here are some best practices to consider when selecting typography for your brand:
Understand Your Brand’s Personality: Clearly define your brand’s personality before choosing a typeface. Is your brand playful or serious? Modern or traditional? Your typography should reflect these characteristics.
Prioritize Readability: While it’s tempting to choose a unique or elaborate font, readability should always come first. Your audience needs to easily read and understand your message, regardless of the device they are using.
Be Consistent: Consistency is key in branding. Use the same typefaces across all your brand’s touchpoints—website, social media, packaging, etc.—to create a cohesive and recognizable brand identity.
Consider Scalability: Your typography should look good at all sizes, whether it’s on a business card or a billboard. Choose a typeface that scales well and remains legible across different applications.
Test Before Finalizing: Always test your typography choices in various contexts and on different devices before finalizing them. This ensures that your typeface works well in all scenarios and maintains the desired impact.
Typography is a fundamental part of branding that goes beyond mere aesthetics. It’s a powerful tool that shapes how your brand is perceived, helps convey your brand’s personality, and enhances user experience. By carefully selecting and implementing typography, you can create a strong, memorable brand identity that resonates with your audience. Use the insights and best practices outlined in this article to make better decisions and create a visual identity that truly represents your or your client’s brand.
Don’t hesitate to find fitting typefaces for your next design and branding projects on WE AND THE COLOR. The section includes a wide range of styles.
