The boundaries betwee and content marketing are becoming less distinct for experts in our industry, prompting an important question: Is content marketing the future of influencer marketing? Central to this discussion are the strategic interplay between earned and paid influence, and the innovative approach of turning authentic, earned content into digital assets for paid advertising.
The Dynamics Of Earned Vs. Paid Influence
Influencer marketing fundamentally relies on two forms of influence:
• Earned influence consists of organic endorsements from influencers who genuinely support a brand or product. It is characterized by authenticity and trust, as influencers freely share their unfiltered experiences with their followers. This form of influence is highly valued for its credibility and deeper engagement.
• Paid influence involves compensating influencers for promoting a brand or product. While this provides brands with more control over messaging and reach, paid content can appear less genuine to some audiences. However, when executed thoughtfully, paid influence effectively amplifies a brand’s presence.
Content Marketing: The Bridge Between Earned And Paid Influence
Content marketing, which focuses on creating valuable, relevant and engaging content, is becoming a key strategy to bridge the gap between earned and paid influence. To deepen connections with audiences, brands are increasingly repurposing authentic, earned content into digital assets for paid ads.
This offers several advantages:
• Authenticity at scale: Repurposing genuine earned content for paid ads maintains the trust and credibility that come from organic endorsements, even in a paid context.
• Broader reach: Turning earned content into digital assets helps reach audiences beyond the influencer’s community, maximizing content impact.
• Cost efficiency: Repurposing existing content can be more cost-effective than producing new content, optimizing return on investment.
• Extended usability: You can use the content you’ve transformed into digital assets across multiple platforms and campaigns, enhancing its longevity and adaptability.
How My Agency Merges Earned And Paid Influence
In our always-on influencer programs, we try to always combine earned and paid influence to maximize impact for our clients. For the earned portion, we focus on securing as much in-feed video content as possible rather than ephemeral stories. This tactic ensures broader visibility and sustained engagement, as in-feed videos enjoy longer life spans and usually greater organic reach.
Once we have collected a range of earned videos, we carefully scrutinize each piece, identifying which content aligns most effectively with the brand’s messaging and objectives. We then obtain listing rights for the most compelling videos, allowing us to repurpose them as paid ads.
How To Turn Your Earned Influence Into Digital Assets
Transforming your earned influencer content into digital assets involves several strategic steps:
• Identify high-performing content: Select influencer posts that resonate strongly with the influencer’s audience and align with the brand’s values and messaging.
• Secure permissions: Obtain the necessary rights from influencers to repurpose their content for paid advertising, ensuring transparency and maintaining trust.
• Learn to let go of control: You must encourage internal teams—marketing, legal and compliance—to embrace the authenticity that makes influencer content powerful. This means relaxing some of the typical requirements in influencer briefs and trusting influencers to create content that genuinely connects with their audience.
• Repurpose content: Adapt the selected influencer content into various digital formats, such as video ads, banner ads or social media promotions, while preserving the original tone and authenticity.
• Amplify reach: Use paid channels to introduce earned influencer content to new audiences, extending its life span and impact far beyond the influencer’s immediate followers.
By embracing authenticity and giving influencers creative freedom, you can effectively turn earned content into valuable digital assets that resonate with a broader audience.
The Future: Unified Content And Influencer Strategies
Influencer marketing is moving toward a unified approach that leverages both earned and paid influence within a strategic content marketing framework. By converting authentic earned content into digital assets for paid ads, brands can harness the full potential of influencer marketing, significantly expanding reach and engagement.
Ultimately, the merging of influencer marketing and content marketing, supported by the strategic use of earned and paid influence, is redefining how brands connect with audiences. The brands that will thrive are those that can seamlessly integrate these approaches, creating content that resonates authentically while delivering measurable business outcomes. The future of influencer marketing is indeed entwined with content marketing—particularly in the smart use of earned influence as a foundational asset for paid advertising.
Feature Image Credit: getty
By Aurelie Sauthier
Aurelie Sauthier, President & Co-Founder of Made in, Canada 1st Influencer Marketing Agency, est. 2012 with a second office in Paris. Read Aurelie Sauthier’s full executive profile here.
As a business owner, you’re probably wondering why inbound marketing works for some online businesses. You’ve heard it’s a game-changer, but you’re not entirely sure what it’s all about or how it can benefit your business.
By creating valuable content and experiences that resonate with your audience, you can build trust and credibility with your customers, and keep them engaged with your brand.
Ever wonder why inbound marketing works so well for brands like HubSpotand Moz? It’s because they put customers first. Inbound marketing focuses on attracting customers by providing value.
No spam.
No annoying ads.
Just helpful content that meets people where they are. And it works like a charm. So, let’s dive in.
What is Inbound Marketing?
Inbound marketing is a customer-centric approach that moves away from interruptive tactics and instead focuses on pulling customers in with compelling content. It works by attracting the right kind of traffic.
It is often described in three phases—attract, engage, and delight. With these three phases working together, you can generate leads, increase sales, keep customers happy, and increase customer retention.
This is a marketing approach that focuses on creating valuable content and experiences that attract and engage with your target audience. It’s all about providing value to your customers, rather than just pushing out sales messages.
By creating content that resonates with your audience, you can attract and convert leads into customers, and ultimately drive revenue for your business.
Here are some effective examples:
Blog Posts: Regularly updated blogs that provide useful information and insights related to your industry.
Social Media Engagement: Sharing content and interacting with followers on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Optimizing your website content to rank higher in search engine results, making it easier for potential customers to find you.
Webinars: Hosting live online seminars to educate your audience on specific topics.
Videos: Creating engaging video content that can be shared on social media and your website.
Infographics: Designing visual representations of data and information to make complex topics easier to understand.
Ebooks and Whitepapers: Offering in-depth guides and reports that provide valuable information in exchange for contact details.
Email Campaigns: Sending targeted emails to nurture leads and keep your audience informed.
Case Studies: Showcasing success stories of how your product or service has helped other customers.
The Benefits of Inbound Marketing
You might ask, “Why bother with inbound marketing when outbound has worked for years?”
Well, here are some reasons why inbound marketing works better:
Enhanced Brand Awareness: When you create content that people love, they start to see you as an authority. This means more eyes on your brand, which is always a good thing.
Increased Customer Trust: People trust brands that provide value without asking for anything in return. By sharing useful content, you build trust with your audience.
Higher Quality Leads: When people find your content on their own, they’re more likely to be genuinely interested in your products or services. This means they’re better leads.
Increased Lead Generation: Inbound marketing helps you attract and convert leads into customers, which can lead to increased revenue and growth for your business.
Improved Customer Engagement: By creating content that resonates with your audience, you can build trust and credibility with your customers, and keep them engaged with your brand.
Enhanced Brand Awareness: Inbound marketing helps you build a strong brand identity and establish your business as a thought leader in your industry.
Cost-Effectiveness: Inbound marketing is a cost-effective way to reach your target audience, compared to traditional marketing methods like print or TV ads.
The benefit of inbound marketing is that it pulls in customers with great content, SEO, and personalized experiences.
Think of it like this: Instead of blasting ads all over the place, inbound marketing focuses on creating value through content creation and SEO optimization.
By doing this, you attract people who are already interested in what you offer. This makes them more likely to become customers. And who doesn’t love customers, right?
How Inbound Marketing Works
So, how does inbound marketing actually work?
Attract: Create content that resonates with your target audience, such as blog posts, videos, or social media posts.
Convert: Use lead generation techniques, such as landing pages and forms, to capture leads and convert them into customers.
Nurture: Use email marketing and other channels to nurture your leads and build trust and credibility with your customers.
Close: Use sales funnel optimization techniques to close deals and drive revenue for your business.
Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing
So, how does inbound marketing compare to traditional outbound marketing methods? Here are a few key differences:
Focus: Inbound marketing focuses on creating value for your customers, while outbound marketing focuses on pushing out sales messages.
Cost: Inbound marketing is a cost-effective way to reach your target audience, while outbound marketing can be expensive and time-consuming.
Results: Inbound marketing can lead to increased lead generation and revenue, while outbound marketing may not be as effective in driving results.
The Science Behind Inbound Marketing
Alright, so you’re sold on the idea of inbound marketing.
But how do you make it work?
Here’s the lowdown:
1. Content Marketing and Blogging
Content is king, and that’s no joke. By creating valuable, relevant content, you attract people to your site. This could be anything from blog posts to videos. The key is to provide information that your audience finds helpful and interesting.
Use keywords like “content creation” and “blogging for SEO” to boost your visibility.
2. SEO and Keyword Optimization
SEO isn’t just a buzzword. It’s a crucial part of why inbound marketing works. By optimizing your content for search engines, you increase your chances of being found by potential customers.
Remember, it’s not just about stuffing your content with keywords. It’s about using them naturally to enhance your content.
3. Social Media Engagement
Social media is where your audience hangs out, so why not meet them there? Platforms like Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and LinkedInare great for sharing content and engaging with your audience.
This is your chance to build relationships and establish your brand as a thought leader.
Use keywords like “social media marketing” and “customer engagement” in your posts to attract more followers.
By sending targeted, personalized emails, you can nurture leads and convert them into customers.
Tools like HubSpot and Mailchimp make it easy to create and send emails that resonate with your audience.
Remember to keep your emails short and to the point, and always include a call to action.
Lead Generation Techniques
Now that we’ve covered the basics of inbound marketing, let’s dive into some lead-generation techniques that can help you attract and convert leads into customers.
Landing pages: A landing page is a dedicated page on your website that’s designed to convert visitors into leads. Use a clear and concise headline, a compelling offer, and a simple form to capture leads.
Forms: Use forms to capture leads and convert them into customers. Make sure your forms are easy to fill out and provide a clear Call-To-Action.
Email marketing: Email marketing is a powerful way to nurture leads and build trust and credibility with your customers. Use email marketing to send targeted campaigns and automate your follow-up emails.
Social media: Social media is a great way to attract and engage with your target audience. Use social media to share valuable content, engage with your followers, and drive traffic to your website.
Use scarcity: Use scarcity to create a sense of urgency and encourage leads to take action.
Use social proof: Use social proof to build trust and credibility with your customers.
Challenges and How to Overcome Them
Let’s be real. Inbound marketing isn’t a walk in the park.
There are challenges along the way.
But with the right strategies, you can overcome them and reap the rewards and that’s why inbound marketing works.
Here’s how:
Consistency is Key: To succeed with inbound marketing, you need to be consistent. This means regularly creating and sharing content that your audience loves. Set a schedule and stick to it.
Stay Up-to-Date: The world of inbound marketing is always changing. To stay ahead of the game, you need to keep up with the latest trends and techniques. Follow blogs like the Content Marketing Institute and Moz to stay informed.
Measure Your Success: To know if your inbound marketing efforts are paying off, you need to measure your success. Tools like Google Analytics can help you track your progress and make adjustments as needed.
Be Patient: Inbound marketing is a long-term game. It takes time to see results, so be patient and keep at it.
The Future of Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing is here to stay, and it’s only going to get more important in the future. Here are a few trends to watch:
Personalization: Inbound marketing is all about personalization, and using data and analytics to create content that resonates with your audience.
Artificial Intelligence: Artificial intelligence is changing the game for inbound marketing, and allowing businesses to automate and optimize their marketing campaigns.
Video Content: Video content is becoming increasingly important for inbound marketing, and can help you attract and engage with your target audience.
Inbound marketing is a powerful way to attract and engage with your target audience and drive revenue for your business. By creating valuable content and experiences that resonate with your audience, you can build trust and credibility with your customers, and keep them engaged with your brand. So, why not give inbound marketing a try?
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Here are some frequently asked questions about inbound marketing:
Q. What is the difference between inbound and outbound marketing?
Inbound marketing focuses on attracting customers through valuable content and interactions, whereas outbound marketing involves pushing your message to a broad audience, often through ads or direct outreach. Inbound marketing is generally more cost-effective and customer-friendly.
Q. How long does it take to see results from inbound marketing?
Results can vary depending on your industry, target audience, and efforts. However, most businesses start seeing measurable results within 6 to 12 months. It’s a long-term strategy that builds momentum over time.
Q. What are the best tools for inbound marketing?
Some of the top tools for inbound marketing include:
HubSpot: A comprehensive platform that covers CRM, marketing automation, and analytics.
Moz: Great for SEO tools and resources.
Google Analytics: Essential for tracking website performance and user behaviour.
Q. How do I measure the success of my inbound marketing efforts?
Success can be measured through various metrics, such as website traffic, lead generation, conversion rates, and customer engagement. Tools like Google Analytics and CRM software can help track these metrics.
Q. Can inbound marketing work for small businesses?
Absolutely. Inbound marketing is highly scalable and can be adapted to fit the budget and resources of small businesses. By focusing on specific niches and creating targeted content, small businesses can compete effectively with larger brands.
Attract and Engage
Inbound marketing is a powerful way to attract and engage with your target audience and drive revenue for your business, and that why inbound marketing works. By creating valuable content and experiences that resonate with your audience, you can build trust and credibility with your customers and keep them engaged with your brand.
Remember to avoid common inbound marketing mistakes, track your results, and use multiple channels to reach your target audience. With this type of marketing, you can achieve your business goals and drive success.
Whether you’re a small business owner or a marketing professional, there’s no denying the impact of a well-executed inbound strategy.
Inker Street Digital provides online guides for entrepreneurs interested in promoting their businesses. For more information about our services visit or social post on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
Thaddeus Collins is a seasoned digital marketer at Inker Street Digital with over a decade of experience in the ever-evolving world of online marketing. Specializing in strategies that drive growth and engagement, Thaddeus has helped numerous businesses scale their online presence through innovative approaches in SEO, and social media marketing.
Email generators have become a must-have in today’s fast-paced digital world, especially if you’re a marketer looking to level up your campaigns. They help you streamline communication, safeguard your privacy, and boost productivity.
Imagine you’re juggling multiple email campaigns. You’ve got dozens of messages to send, different audiences to target, and limited time. An AI-powered email generator steps in, instantly crafting the perfect email that grabs attention and fits your brand’s voice.
Or maybe you’re tired of your inbox filling up with spam from every site you’ve signed up for. A disposable email generator can create a temporary address, letting you dodge the spam while keeping your personal email secure.
In this article, we’ll explore how email generators can transform your email marketing strategy and enhance your overall communication efforts.
What are email generators?
Email generators are AI-powered tools that use natural language processing to quickly craft complete email messages in just seconds. They can be used to write subject lines, email content, and even develop email templates. Some types of email generators also create temporary or disposable email addresses.
While an email generator’s purpose depends on the type, its main goal is to simplify or streamline the process of email communication.
Types of email generators
AI Email Generators: Use artificial intelligence to generate entire emails based on the context you provide. They can save you time by suggesting email content, tones, and subject lines.
Disposable Email Generators: These are also known as burner email generators. They generate disposable or temporary email addresses for short-term needs, such as signing up for a service or downloading a file. These tools are great for maintaining privacy or avoiding spam.
Email Name Generators: Generates creative or professional-sounding email handles, making it easier to set up a new account that fits with your brand. They are handy if you want a consistent identity across different platforms.
Exploring AI email generators
AI email generators have rapidly gained traction as powerful tools in modern communication. These tools can help users create well-structured, personalized emails with minimal effort.
Benefits of using AI for email generation
Efficiency: AI email generators create emails quickly, saving you the time of figuring out what to write. Simply input your details, and the AI delivers a custom message right away. They can also have templates available for newsletters and other email messages. This speeds up communication, letting you focus on other tasks.
Personalization: AI tools excel at making emails feel personal. By analysing data, they tailor each message to the recipient, improving engagement. They can adjust the tone, style, and content to fit your audience, helping boost open rates and responses.
Consistency: AI ensures your emails maintain a consistent tone and style, which is key for branding. This uniformity makes your emails look professional and polished across multiple channels.
Flowrite is an AI email generator designed to automate daily email communication. It integrates with popular tools like Gmail, Outlook, and Slack, allowing you to generate high-quality content for emails and documents using advanced AI language models.
Key features
AI-generated content for emails, documents, and social media posts
Workflow automation to streamline repetitive tasks
Customizable templates and snippets to maintain consistent communication style
Integrations with Gmail, Outlook, Slack, and other tools
Ability to create custom commands for regular content like meeting agendas and project updates
SmartWriter is a great tool if you’re in sales, marketing, or outreach roles. It drastically reduces the time spent on crafting personalized cold emails and LinkedIn messages. Using AI and machine learning, it automates the creation of highly customized messages that resonate with prospects. Additionally, the tool’s automated follow-ups ensure you don’t miss any leads, increasing your chances of conversion.
Key features
AI-powered personalization for cold emails and LinkedIn messages
Automated research from 40+ data sources (e.g., podcasts, blogs, job bios, social media)
Jasper AI is a powerful AI email writing tool that helps you create personalized emails with customizable voices, ensuring the tone stays consistent with your brand. It supports a wide range of writing tasks, from email marketing to full campaigns. It also includes a feature to generate custom visuals for email enhancement.
Key features
AI-generated content with customizable brand voices
End-to-end campaign generation for emails, landing pages, and ads
Jasper Art for creating custom images to enhance email campaigns
Multilingual support with over 30 languages
Disposable and burner email generators for digital marketers
Disposable and burner email generators provide a smart solution for managing online activities while protecting your primary inbox from unwanted spam, promotions, or even potential phishing attacks.
These email generators create temporary email addresses for short-term use, often for sign-ups, trials, or one-time tasks. After a set period or when the task is done, the email becomes inactive, blocking further communication.
Key benefits for marketers
Here are some of the key benefits that disposable email generators provide:
Protecting privacy
Marketers can use burner emails to protect their personal or work addresses when giving an email is required, but not ideal. A burner email generator helps maintain privacy and blocks unwanted messages after a quick transaction.
Spam control
One of the biggest headaches for any marketer is dealing with a cluttered inbox. With so many sign-ups, free trials, and email subscriptions happening daily, it’s easy for the inbox to get overwhelmed with unwanted messages. Disposable email generators offer an effective way to keep your primary inbox clean and spam-free. With temporary email addresses, you can sign up for necessary services without risking a flood of irrelevant emails later.
Testing campaigns
Marketers are always experimenting with different campaigns to see what works best. Using a burner email generator for these tests prevents their main email lists from becoming cluttered with test emails. They can create temporary emails to test different aspects of a campaign—like layout, tone, or links—without disturbing the real marketing environment.
Analysing engagement
Marketers also use disposable email addresses to test sign-up processes or promotional campaigns without cluttering their main inbox. These temporary emails help monitor interactions like newsletter sign-ups or promotion entries, ensuring systems work smoothly without mixing test data with real user data.
Notable disposable email services
10 Minute Mail
10 Minute Mail is a free, temporary email service designed for users who want to receive messages without creating a permanent inbox. It offers an anonymous, self-deleting email address that expires after 10 minutes, with options to extend its lifespan if needed.
Key features
No account creation required
Temporary, anonymous email addresses
Mailbox expires after 10 minutes (extendable up to 100 minutes)
Simple recovery of recently deleted inboxes
Mobile-optimized interface
No personal details needed
Guerrilla Mail
Guerrilla Mail is a free, anonymous temporary email service that’s been around since 2006, processing over 13 billion emails. It allows users to send and receive emails through a temporary inbox without requiring an account.
Key features
No account creation or personal info needed
Emails automatically deleted after 1 hour
Scramble email addresses for added privacy
API available for tech-savvy users
Option to create or randomly generate email addresses
Mailinator
Mailinator is a disposable email service that started in 2003, designed to help users with email and SMS workflow testing. QA teams widely use it to test email and SMS systems before launching to ensure that workflows function correctly.
Key features
No account is required to use the public inboxes
Private domains and inboxes for Pro and Business users
Persistent message storage for pro and business users
Automated email workflow testing for secure validation
SMS testing for 2FA and OTP automation
API integration for inbox management, fetching messages, and automating tasks
Web-based GUI for manual email review and team management
Custom message management rules for forwarding, automating clicks, and load testing
Practical applications in marketing
Email generators are incredibly versatile, especially if you need to manage and optimize multiple campaigns. Here’s how these tools can be put to work in various practical applications:
Lead generation
Creating unique email addresses for each campaign or ad group helps track engagement across multiple campaigns. This makes it easy to see which efforts lead to the most sign-ups, conversions, or interest, helping you organize and follow up with leads more efficiently.
A/B testing
For A/B testing, unique email addresses for different audience segments let you test how various groups respond to different messages, subject lines, or offers. This helps fine-tune campaigns by revealing what works best for your audience.
Feedback and surveys
To gather honest feedback without making users feel exposed, disposable emails are a great option. They protect users’ privacy, making them more likely to participate in surveys or provide genuine feedback without fearing spam or follow-up emails.
Email generators with inbox functionality
Email generators with inbox functionality create temporary email addresses that lets you interact with emails directly within the platform. This is particularly useful if you need a temporary, fully functional inbox for specific tasks, such as managing temporary projects.
MailSlurp is an email API tool that gives marketers the power to generate temporary email addresses and manage inboxes seamlessly. It’s particularly useful when running A/B tests or handling high-volume email lists without cluttering your primary inbox.
Key features
Create temporary emails for testing campaigns or managing workflows without clogging your main inbox.
Easily manage multiple inboxes with sorting, filtering, and automated responses.
Automate email workflows, like follow-ups or testing, to save time and ensure consistency.
Run A/B tests with real email addresses to track performance and results accurately.
Use custom domains for more professional and segmented email campaigns.
Manage everything via code or an online dashboard, making it simple for any marketer to use.
Keep your primary inbox secure and spam-free by using disposable addresses.
Burner Mail is a dedicated platform designed for users who want to protect their personal email addresses. It keeps your real inbox safe from spam and unwanted messages, while providing robust privacy features for online users.
Key features
Generate burner email addresses instantly
Manage multiple burner email addresses and forward emails to multiple real-world inboxes.
Access emails through an online mailbox if you prefer not to forward them to your personal address
Block unwanted senders by disabling specific burner addresses with just a click.
Reply to emails anonymously
Multi-factor authentication
Email encryption
Chrome and Firefox extensions for on-the-spot email generation
Shared access for families or teams
Comparison of services
Here’s a comparison of the various burner email generator services and their inbox functionalities.
Service
Temporary Inbox
Multiple Inboxes
Automation Features
Security and Privacy
MailSlurp
Yes, temporary emails for testing and workflows
Yes, manage multiple inboxes with sorting, filtering, and automation
Automated responses, follow-ups, and A/B tests
Keeps primary inbox spam-free with disposable addresses
Burner Mail
Yes, instantly generate burner emails for sign-ups
Yes, manage multiple burner emails and forward to real-world inboxes
No automation, but integrates with Chrome and Firefox for quick generation
Multi-factor authentication, encryption, reply anonymously using burner address
10 Minute Mail
Yes, expires after 10 minutes, extendable to 100
No, single-use temporary inbox
No automation
Anonymous and temporary with no personal details needed
Guerrilla Mail
Yes, deleted after 1 hour
No, single-use inbox
No automation
Anonymous with scrambled addresses for added privacy
Mailinator
Yes, public inboxes, private for Pro users
Yes, multiple inboxes with custom rules for Pro users
Tips for managing and utilizing inboxes provided by email generators
An email generator with inbox functionality is convenient, but effective management is key to getting the most out of it. Here are some practical tips:
Monitor inbox lifespans: Many services auto-delete emails after a certain time. Be sure to check your inbox regularly and take action on important emails before they’re lost.
Use separate inboxes for campaigns: If you’re a marketer testing multiple campaigns, create different email addresses for each one. This makes it easier to track performance and manage replies without getting overwhelmed.
Check for reply features: Some inboxes allow you to respond to incoming emails. Use this to your advantage if you need to maintain communication for a short period or if you’re testing customer engagement.
Stay organized: Since these inboxes are often temporary, it’s essential to stay on top of important messages. Download or forward crucial emails to your primary inbox before they expire.
Be aware of public inboxes: Services like Mailinator have public inboxes that anyone can access. If privacy is essential, opt for a more private generator.
Enhancing engagement with email subject line generators
The subject line can make or break your email marketing campaign. It’s often the first thing a recipient sees, and a compelling subject line can significantly increase your email’s open rate. This is where email subject line generators, especially those powered by AI, can step in to help grab attention.
Importance of compelling subject lines for email campaigns
A subject line is essentially the hook that convinces someone to open your email. No matter how valuable or exciting the content inside might be, if the subject line doesn’t catch their eye, your email might end up ignored or, worse, in the trash. A strong subject line:
Grabs attention in a crowded inbox.
Sets expectations for what the reader will find inside the email.
Increases open rates, which is crucial for overall campaign success.
Influences click-through rates by sparking curiosity or presenting an irresistible offer.
In digital marketing, compelling subject lines are crucial because they directly impact engagement metrics, like open and conversion rates. That’s why tools like email subject line generators have become increasingly valuable in the marketing world.
Role of email subject line generators in boosting open rates and engagement
Ai-powered email subject line generators analyse trends, audience behaviour, and even the context of your campaign to suggest subject lines that are designed to perform well. These tools can:
Save time by generating multiple creative options in seconds. This allows you to focus on fine-tuning your overall strategy.
Optimize for engagement by suggesting subject lines based on best practices like personalization, urgency, or curiosity.
A/B test different subject lines to determine which resonates most with your audience.
AI email generators give you subject line suggestions backed by data and trends, boosting the chances your emails get noticed. It also helps overcome writer’s block, providing fresh ideas or unique phrasing you might’ve missed.
Examples of effective subject lines generated by AI Tools
Here are some examples of successful subject lines from an AI email generator and why they work:
“Only 24 Hours Left: Unlock Your Special Offer Now!”
Why it works: It creates urgency and curiosity while directly communicating that the recipient has a limited-time offer. Urgency is a proven tactic to boost open rates.
“You Won’t Believe What’s Inside—Open for a Surprise!”
Why it works: Piques curiosity by teasing something unexpected, which can entice users to open the email to find out more.
“[Name], Your Exclusive Invite Awaits! RSVP Now”
Why it works: Personalization helps establish a connection with the recipient, making the email feel more relevant. Adding exclusivity boosts intrigue and action.
“🔥 Trending Now: 5 Products You Need for Fall”
Why it works: Using an emoji to grab attention, this subject line also emphasizes relevance and timeliness with a seasonal focus. Recipients feel like they’ll gain value by opening the email.
“How to Save 50% This Weekend Only – Here’s Your Code”
Why it works: It’s straightforward and actionable, immediately conveying the value inside the email. Offering a discount with a sense of urgency encourages faster engagement.
Free email generator tools
There are several free AI-powered email generator tools available that simplify the process of creating professional emails. Here’s a look at some popular options:
HubSpot AI Email Writer
HubSpot’s tool is designed for businesses, helping users craft tailored, high-quality emails that engage customers. It allows for easy editing and provides SEO-optimized content. However, it requires sign-up, and the focus is on marketing emails, so it might not be ideal for general communication.
Ghostwrite is perfect for drafting high-conversion emails quickly. It ensures emails are error-free with built-in grammar correction and lets users save templates for future use. Its limitation is that it’s mainly geared toward marketing and sales communication.
Mailmeteor is simple and user-friendly. Users input a prompt, and the AI generates an email in minutes. While it’s fast and effective for basic needs, it only provides one email variation, requiring further customization from the user.
Best practices for AI writing email generators
If you want to use free AI email generators to improve your email copy, follow these best practices:
Refine prompts for clarity Be specific when providing prompts to AI writing generators to get more relevant, accurate emails. Vague or unclear prompts can result in generic or off-target content.
Edit and personalize generated content While AI writing tools can save time, they may produce generic or repetitive emails. Always review and personalize the content to align with your style, audience, and goals.
Pair with email automation tools Use AI writing generators alongside email automation platforms to streamline campaign management. You can quickly generate email content and automate the distribution process.
Test for tone and engagement AI-written emails may need tweaks to better engage your audience. Test different tones or approaches in the generated emails to see what resonates best with your recipients.
Use for drafts, not final versions AI generators are great for providing rough drafts but rarely perfect the first time. Use the generated content as a starting point, then revise it to match your voice and the message you want to convey.
Integrating email generators with Gmail
You can also integrate email generators–both AI and temporary email generators–with Gmail. They can streamline your email communications and also help keep your inbox uncluttered. Gmail itself offers some clever tricks for managing email aliases.
Generating and managing email addresses within Gmail
Gmail offers a built-in method for generating unique email addresses without needing external tools. These are called email aliases. You can create variations of your primary email address, which allows you to track responses, manage sign-ups, or filter incoming messages.
In Gmail, you can add a “+” symbol and any word after your email address before the “@gmail.com” domain. For example, if your email is [email protected], you can create aliases like [email protected] or [email protected].
Emails sent to these addresses will still arrive in your main inbox, but you can easily filter or label them to stay organized. Once you’ve created an alias, you can use Gmail’s powerful filters to sort or label these emails automatically.
Pulling email from disposable email generators into Gmail
If you want to pull messages from your temporary email addresses, follow these steps:
Go to your Gmail’s settings
Select Accounts and Import
Head on to check mail from other accounts
Click “Add a mail account”
Enter the email address
Enter the POP server. This will depend on the service.
AI email generator integration with Gmail
If you have Google Workspace, Gemini is already integrated into Gmail. Gemini, Google’s AI-powered assistant, allows you to generate high-quality emails directly in Gmail. Gemini can help draft emails, suggest responses, and even optimize the tone and content based on your preferences.
Another useful tool is the Mailmeteor Gmail extension. It allows you to send personalized mass emails directly from Gmail, powered by AI. It’s great for automating outreach while keeping messages personal and professional.
Tips for managing email generator tools with Gmail
Set up automatic forwarding: If you’re using a burner email generator that supports forwarding, ensure that emails are automatically sent to your Gmail inbox. This saves time by allowing you to receive all communications in one place while still keeping your personal email private.
Use filters to stay organized: For emails forwarded from disposable or burner email generators, set up filters in Gmail. You can label these emails as “Temporary” or “Marketing,” for example, so they’re easy to find and separate from personal correspondence.
Create a separate Gmail account for generators: If you frequently use burner email generators for marketing campaigns, lead generation, or testing, consider creating a dedicated Gmail account to manage these emails. This keeps your main inbox free of clutter, while still giving you control over your temporary email addresses.
Advanced applications of email generators
Email generators are now doing more than just helping with basic marketing tasks. AI-powered tools can create emails that change based on how someone interacts with previous messages. For example, if a customer clicks on a certain product, the next email might automatically include similar recommendations or limited-time offers—no extra work is needed from the marketer.
On the other side, disposable email generators are used for more than just testing. They’re also helpful in large campaigns where security matters. Businesses can create temporary email addresses to protect sensitive information or manage multiple sign-ups without cluttering up their main inboxes. These advanced uses let companies improve both their marketing and security strategies at the same time.
Hypernova Marketing, a US-based cold email lead generation agency, helps clients secure 20-40 B2B meetings each month, targeting tough prospects like CROs and VPs of Sales.
They knew personalized emails were crucial for success, but scaling this process was difficult. Hiring hundreds of virtual assistants wasn’t practical, so they needed a more efficient solution.
After trying different options, they chose Smartwriter. Before using it, their reply rate was 8%. With AI-driven personalization, it jumped to 16%, fully automated. This boost has been consistent across all clients, making Smartwriter essential to their strategy.
Choosing the right email generator tool
With so many email generator tools out there, picking the right one can feel tricky. Whether you’re a business looking to boost marketing or just want to protect your privacy, the key is finding a tool that matches your needs. Here’s a breakdown of what to look for.
What to consider when choosing an email generator
Privacy features
Many use email generators to avoid spam or unwanted emails. Prioritize tools with strong privacy features like encryption, disposable emails, or self-destructing messages. Make sure the tool doesn’t store your data long-term or share it.
Ease of use
The tool should be simple to use. Whether for marketing or temporary emails, you don’t want to spend time figuring out how it works. Look for tools with easy navigation and quick setup.
Integration capabilities
If you’re a business, check if the tool integrates with systems like Gmail, Mailchimp, or HubSpot. This can make managing emails and tracking performance smoother.
Lifespan of email addresses
Some tools create emails that expire quickly, while others offer longer-lasting options. Choose based on whether you need a temporary or permanent solution.
Cost and availability
Many tools are free, but paid versions may offer more features. Consider your needs and whether premium features are worth the cost. Free trials can help you decide.
Wrapping up
Email generators have revolutionized the way we handle communication. From streamlining marketing campaigns to protecting your privacy, these tools offer efficiency, personalization, and security all in one package. Whether you’re a marketer seeking to connect with your audience or someone looking to avoid inbox clutter, there’s an email generator that fits your needs.
Embrace the power of these tools to transform your email game. Let them handle the heavy lifting, while you focus on what truly matters. They’re versatile, effective, and ready to make a difference in how you manage your digital communications.
FAQs
What is the best AI email generator?
The “best” AI email generator depends on your specific needs. For general email writing, Flowrite, Jasper AI, and SmartWriter are popular choices. Flowrite is great for everyday communication, while Jasper AI offers robust campaign generation with personalized content. SmartWriter excels at crafting personalized outreach emails, especially for sales and marketing.
Can a fake email be detected?
Yes, fake or disposable email addresses can often be detected by advanced systems. Many services now use filters to block temporary email providers by checking known domains associated with disposable addresses. However, some fake emails might still slip through if the detection system isn’t updated or sophisticated enough.
Are AI email generators secure?
Most AI email generators are designed with privacy and security in mind, but it’s essential to verify the policies of each platform. Look for tools that provide encryption, data protection measures, and clear privacy policies. Avoid using AI email tools that store your sensitive information for long periods without transparency.
Ultimately, it’s the human element that takes content from boring to engaging.
Let’s face it — a lot of businesses are in industries that just aren’t very exciting or glamorous. And that can make content marketing all the more difficult. What do you write about to get customers excited to come do business with you?
For example, it is probably much easier to get customers excited to buy new gear for rock climbing than to come in for their biannual dental exam, but both types of businesses can benefit from content marketing. Even if your business is seen by some as boring, that doesn’t mean your content marketing has to be.
Here’s the key: If you think of content marketing itself as boring, or if your marketing team views your business and product or service as boring, you will have boring, ineffective content.
Many businesses end up following in the footsteps of their competitors when it comes to marketing and branding and don’t think outside the type of content others within their industry are publishing. But you don’t necessarily have to publish exciting content to stand out — there are many methods to create engaging content that appeals to your audience and prospects in other ways.
1. Set a Vision for Content Marketing Outcomes
Not only can a strong content strategy increase your website traffic, but it can help you increase your revenue and grow your business to achieve your greater goals on a professional and personal level. Think of it as a vehicle that can take you where you need to go — you just have to put the right type of fuel (and maintenance) in for it to run.
Through strong content marketing, you can also build better brand recognition, develop authority within your field, build relationships, and open new business opportunities. So what do you want to accomplish in your business? Content marketing can help you get there!
2. Get Your Marketing Team on Board With Your Vision
Even if the product or service you sell isn’t something that people get excited to spend money on, it’s still something that’s worthwhile — that’s why people pay you for it. If you or your marketing team views what you’re selling as boring, that will come across through your content.
Stop and think deeply about what it is you provide. Dive into your company’s purpose. Why do you do what you do? How do you help the people you work with? Are you serving an important need within your community or helping individuals improve their lives, even in some small way? Your product or service helps your customer base solve a problem, and that’s worthwhile.
3. Keep Audience First
One of the biggest mistakes I see businesses make with their digital content strategy is to write to appeal to Google’s algorithm rather than writing for people. Always put your audience first, and you can create much more engaging content.
First, identify your core audience — the people who make up your ideal customer base. For example, if you’re a lawyer, then you need to tailor your marketing strategy to meet the needs and preferences of your future clients. You should know what their major concerns are and how you solve the problem they have.
Next, appeal to that audience at every step of the journey toward doing business with you.
• Discovery – This is the point at which the customer begins gathering information in order to address the problem they have. Content that appeals to people at this step is information-heavy and should specifically address that problem in detail. They’re not ready to buy yet, and that’s okay, but you can try to capture their contact information.
• Nurture – In this phase, the customer is aware that your business exists and is considering taking action but isn’t ready yet. Additional forms of marketing, such as direct emails, can be especially useful to move this person past whatever is keeping them from making a decision.
• Purchase – People at this step are ready to buy, so it’s up to you to make it easy to contact you and follow through on the purchase with excellent customer service.
• Retention – The client or customer has already made a purchase, so it’s time to follow up and check in every so often to ensure they’re happy and will want to repeat business or refer others to you.
You should create engaging content directed at people in every step of the journey, and by targeting it in this way, you can avoid boring your customers with content that isn’t relevant to them.
4. Create Quality Content
To avoid writing boring content, make sure that all of your marketing content checks the following boxes:
• Useful – Useful content answers people’s questions and guides them on how to solve their problems. But it doesn’t have to be just information. People also need content that encourages them, shares expert opinions, teaches them skills and resonates with them. Understand your audience and keep the four steps in mind to make your content as useful as possible.
• Timely – Keep your content up to date and publish content that’s relevant to what’s going on within your industry or local community. Change, whether positive or negative, is rarely boring!
• Engaging – As a digital marketing expert, I can tell you that the best content isn’t about what’s being sold or the type of business behind it — it’s about its authenticity. People can tell when you’re not being authentic or when your heart isn’t in it. Let your personality shine through. Bring your sense of humor into your content marketing. Be approachable. You can do these things while keeping your content relevant and getting to the point without making unnecessary or obvious points.
Ultimately, it’s the human element that takes content from boring to engaging. In a world where things seem increasingly automated, people crave human connection; if you can connect with them using your business’s purpose to solve their problem and do it with a personal touch, you can create engaging content while building your business.
The difference between a flourishing business and a floundering business often comes down to an effective marketing campaign. This is especially true for small businesses. Every successful marketing campaign starts with a well-thought-out marketing plan. In this article, we will guide you through the steps on how to create a top-notch marketing plan to help put your business on the road to success.
What Is a Marketing Plan?
A marketing plan is essentially a roadmap that guides businesses through the complex terrain of promoting their products or services. Think of it as a blueprint that details specific marketing campaigns, timelines, target audiences and channels such as social media, email or traditional media. Your plan should also establish clear metrics for success, the methodology used to evaluate performance and allocated budgets.
It is important to note that a marketing plan is not a static document. It is supposed to be an ever-evolving plan that adapts to market trends, customer feedback and the successful or unsuccessful marketing efforts. If done properly, a marketing plan will help you synchronize your marketing objectives with your overall business goals and ensure every marketing activity aligns with your broader vision of growth.
Marketing Plan vs. Marketing Strategy
Some assume that “marketing plan” and “marketing strategy” are the same thing, but be aware they hold distinct meanings and serve different purposes. A marketing strategy is more big-picture thinking. It identifies your target market, your value proposition, how you position yourself against competitors and how you will sustain your value over time. It involves deep insights into your customers’ needs, market trends and competitive analysis. It is essentially the “why” behind all your marketing actions.
The marketing plan, on the other hand, details the “what” and the “when” of those efforts. Once you have your marketing strategy outlined, you can begin to create a marketing plan. The plan should outline the specific campaigns, activities and tactics you’ll use to carry out the strategy. This includes details on the marketing channels you’ll use, the timeline for implementation, the budget and the key performance indicators you’ll track to measure success. It’s a blueprint that translates the strategy into actionable tasks and schedules.
Why Businesses Need a Marketing Plan
A carefully crafted marketing plan can be a game-changer for small businesses dreaming of steady growth and a competitive edge over larger companies. Marketing plans with smart strategies and targeted campaigns can level the playing field by helping small businesses carve out their niche. It provides a clear roadmap that aligns marketing efforts with business objectives to ensure every marketing action contributes to the broader company goals.
This focused approach saves small businesses money by efficiently focusing resources instead of using a scattergun approach that can drain limited budgets. By identifying and understanding target markets, businesses can tailor their messaging to meet specific needs, which increases the likelihood of conversion. A solid marketing plan offers a framework for measuring success by setting benchmarks. With careful tracking, small businesses can quickly see what’s not working and adjust strategies in real time for better outcomes.
Essential Marketing Channels
Today’s businesses have a wide array of marketing channels available to them. From highly analytical PPC advertising to engaging in-person event marketing, there’s no shortage of methods to promote your company.
Social Media
During the past two decades, social media has proved to be a highly effective way for small businesses to market themselves at little to no costs. Platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, X and LinkedIn offer businesses a dynamic platform to engage directly with their audience. They allow for the sharing of content, running targeted ads and fostering community through comments and shares. Effective social media marketing can enhance brand awareness, drive traffic and strengthen customer loyalty.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is another highly effective way to reach an audience directly. Newsletters, promotional offers and personalized content can nurture leads, promote loyalty and drive conversions. Email marketing offers measurable results and high ROI, making it a staple in a digital marketing strategy toolbox.
Content Marketing
Content marketing involves creating hyper-relevant and compelling content that will act as a magnet to attract a laser-focused group of people. You can create blogs, videos, infographics and podcasts to cultivate an engaged community of followers with whom your brand’s message genuinely resonates.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is the practice of optimizing website content to rank higher in search engine results pages. Effective SEO strategies including on-page optimization, quality link building and keyword research help drive traffic to your website.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
PPC advertising is a method of online marketing where you pay a fee each time someone clicks on your ad. Popular platforms such as Google Ads and Bing Ads guarantee your ads show up first in search engine results for specific keywords, allowing you to bypass the “organic” results. While the pay-per-click fees can add up, this form of advertising provides immediate traffic and measurable results.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing leverages the reach of influencers in specific niches to help you promote your business to a larger audience. When you partner with a credible influencer, you can tap into their loyal followings, gain trust quickly and drive engagement that will hopefully lead to greater sales. Affiliate marketing can complement influencer marketing by allowing influencers to earn commissions on the sales they drive. This performance-based option is cost effective, as you will only pay for actual results.
Event Marketing
Event marketing involves marketing your brand, company or service through in-person or virtual events. It can be anything from interactive webinars and educational workshops to large-scale conferences and industry trade shows. Event marketing gives you the opportunity to directly engage with your audience and hopefully provide a memorable experience for your customers.
How To Create a Marketing Plan
Creating a marketing plan is a step-by-step process. Make sure you take your time with each step before moving on to the next one.
1. Create an Executive Summary
An executive summary is a snapshot of your simplified marketing goals, significant milestones and an outline of future plans. It should encapsulate relevant facts about your brand, setting the stage for the detailed strategy that follows. This section provides stakeholders with a clear understanding of where the company stands and where it intends to go, concisely summarizing the essence of the marketing efforts.
2. Identify Your Target Market
Who are you trying to reach? By identifying your target market you can tailor your marketing strategies effectively to help them reach the people most likely to be interested in your products or services. Outline the characteristics of your ideal customer including age, location, goals, pains and trigger points.
3. Research Your Competitors
Competitor research is a critical step in forming a marketing plan. Analyse the strengths and weaknesses in other businesses in your industry. This insight can help you identify opportunities for differentiation and areas where you can fill in the opportunity your competitors may have overlooked.
4. Determine Your Marketing Goals
Without clear marketing goals, you are just shooting barrels in the dark. Are you trying to increase brand awareness, boast sales or grow your digital footprint? And if so, by how much and in what timeframe? Use the SMART criteria for goal setting, which advises that goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.
5. Establish and Track Benchmarks
Once you determine what your marketing goals are, it is important to track their effectiveness.
To do this, set baseline measurements for key performance indicators related to your goals, such as website traffic, conversion rates or social media engagement. Monitor these benchmarks on a regular basis and adjust strategies as needed to enhance marketing performance.
6. Identify Your Marketing Channels
Are you going to throw all your eggs in the social media basket? Or are you going to diversify your marketing strategy with both digital and in-person events? This step requires a deep dive into the various channels available—be it social media, email marketing, SEO or traditional advertising. When choosing your marketing channels, be sure to ask yourself where your target audience is most engaged.
7. Create a Budget
Finally, create a budget that covers all aspects of your marketing efforts from paid advertising and content creation to software subscriptions and event sponsorships. This will help you stay financially responsible as more marketing opportunities arise.
Bottom Line
One of the keys to a successful business is setting yourself apart from the competition. A strategic marketing plan that details your marketing efforts can not only help you stand out but also provide a step-by-step guide toward reaching your business objectives.
It’s simple; if you rely on your online presence to attract business, you must be hands-on when it comes to content marketing.
In my time as a global director of sales and marketing, this has become crystal clear. Even for a niche product, in fact especially for a niche product, expanding your online footprint with useful content in multiple touchpoints is a must.
Short funnel, long funnel, B2B, B2C, impulse buy, considered purchase or whatever else applies—there are no exceptions. When done right, inbound marketing that supplies good content that answers questions, addresses pain points and highlights your expertise will always add to your bottom line.
I’ve had a front-row seat to the content marketing activities at my company, and based on this, here are just a few ways you can leverage your content marketing for continued success:
Building Expertise
It takes time, but by committing to regularly producing quality content, you can gradually establish yourself as an expert in your field. From blog posts to videos on YouTube to online events and more, content marketing builds trust in your brand and lends credibility to your voice as one that can provide answers to the questions that send hundreds of millions of people to the internet every day.
Based on my experience leading a company that has managed to become consistently in the top search results related to our industry, I can confirm the importance of investing time and resources to provide the content that someone, somewhere, is looking for right at this moment.
Using A Content Calendar
Using an actual calendar to plan ahead allows you to make sure you’re mixing things up and avoiding repetition in your content. For me, updates on immigration policy, announcements about events my company is organizing, recaps of events and thought leadership on industry trends are all in the mix. You want to keep those who follow you engaged and show you are involved with the industry and committed to keeping up with the latest information.
The Power Of Different Channels
Being active at multiple touchpoints is essential, and you need to know how to leverage the power of different content distribution channels to the fullest extent possible.
While social media is a crucial component of any marketing strategy, I find that traditional email is still an effective way to distribute content to partners and other professionals. Understanding how users interact with different platforms is critical. For example, if your B2B game is the most important aspect of your business, LinkedIn is the unquestioned must for your marketing toolbox.
Hosting Webinars
It’s no longer a secret that webinars are an amazingly effective way to get your target audience to spend time with you. This is especially true when a long funnel or customer education is involved.
I’ve found that arranging expert guest voices is relatively easy in an age when those experts are constantly working on expanding their own online profiles. Thanks to a wide range of tools, webinars are easy to organize, and they are lead-generation gold mines. Then, of course, when it’s all over, the webinar recording can serve as fantastic content marketing for years to come. That’s a win-win-win situation you can’t afford to miss out on.
Sharing Online Forums
It’s important to create good relationships with a number of platforms and online communities that allow you to share your thoughts on various topics related to your industry. I know from experience that these guest posts are often the first point of contact with readers who later become customers or partners.
It goes to show that you never really know who will be reading something you post. If you can present yourself well and address issues that affect people, you never know where you might pick up a lead. The lesson here is to seek out relationships where you can be invited to supply content as an expert guest. It’s another opportunity to establish your brand as an expert in the field and connect with an audience that might not otherwise notice you.
Content Is King
They say that content is king, and my experience confirms it. Consistently providing high-value content, whatever form it may take, to engage and educate an audience is a great way to yield positive results for your business. In a “buy now” world, content marketing supplies the slow drip you need to build trust, establish a brand and move the conversation forward.
Look at the most successful brands, global or local, and you’ll see that they all share this in common—they produce engaging content that doesn’t ask for anything in return. This approach has been absolutely essential to my company’s success.
Seeking content inspiration for your holiday schedule? Maybe you’re planning for 2024?
Whatever you’re targeting, this new overview of four effective content types, from the team at Giraffe Social Media, may help.
The Giraffe team have put together an overview of some of the best, most responsive content options for your posts, which could help to get you thinking about your marketing plan.
A combination of these approaches could be a great way to boost brand awareness, and grow your following. My only additional note of advice is that you don’t just go and slap these idea prompts into ChatGPT, and end up pumping out generic rubbish.
You can check out Giraffe Social’s full tips here.
There were a lot of changes in content marketing over the past year, and the companies winning the content game aren’t just using the basic best practices that were commonplace a few years ago.
Today, the best content marketing strategy leverages a combination of multiple marketing channels and produces a high volume of quality content.
Many of the best content marketers now leverage AI to scale their content while making it more personal than ever before by incorporating elements of personal branding and user generated content into their content strategy.
It’s also important to remember that you can’t build a brand around a single content marketing campaign or viral video. So below, we’ll show you not only some of the best content marketing examples from the past year, but also break down the content strategy behind each of these highly successful brands.
Ocho Wealth is a platform that allows business owners, creators, and people with side hustles to manage their finances.
They launched in 2022 and grew to over $200,000 in ARR in the first year with just 10 team members.
However, what’s most interesting is that their founder refuses to invest anything into paid ads. Instead, they’re relying entirely on organic marketing efforts (largely content marketing).
You can read his full content marketing playbook here, though here’s a brief summary of how they’re investing in content marketing:
SEO: They’ve already published hundreds of blog posts related to finances for business owners and have scaled traffic to nearly 20,000 monthly searches:
Creator Collaborations: They’re building multiple courses on financial education, like angel investing, setting up retirement accounts, and more. These collaborations also allow them to tap into the creators’ audience.
Personal Branding: The founder, Ankur, has built a significant Twitter audience (currently over 60k followers) and stated that most of his initial customers come from Twitter followers.
Newsletter: They recently launched a newsletter that provides various tips on personal finances for business owners and regularly features creators in the personal finance space.
This strategy has helped the company achieve impressive growth with a very lean team of just ten people and zero dollars on paid ads.
Exploding Topics is an excellent example of a B2B SaaS company that has scaled to millions of dollars in ARR through organic content marketing.
Founded by SEO expert Brian Dean, it’s no surprise that they invest heavily in blog content.
However, rather than just writing generic content targeting high volume and low difficulty keywords, they create content that showcases the product’s capabilities.
Exploding Topics is a trend discovery tool, so they create hundreds of list posts for various industry trends, and each blog post features trends discovered by Exploding Topics.
When readers see that the trends recommended in these blog posts are unique, under-the-radar trends, they immediately understand the product’s value, and if they want more similar trends, it’s a no-brainer to sign up for the product.
As a result most of their current users came from SEO traffic.
As an added benefit, these blog posts generate a lot of traffic (they currently drive over 200,000 monthly visits), which has helped the website gain authority and helped Exploding Topics earn a lot of brand awareness.
To earn backlinks, he created blog posts to answer individual statistic-based questions. For example, some of the top linked-to pages on Exploding Topics are blog posts targeting terms like:
How many people own Bitcoin?
How many cryptocurrencies are there?
How many gamers are there?
However, he also invests heavily in email marketing. In fact, he stated in a recent video that this is the single most valuable marketing channel for his business.
The Exploding Topics newsletter sends subscribers a list of five trending products and five trending companies so that users receive regular helpful trend recommendations and are reminded of the product’s value.
Finally, the team also publishes content very consistently. So create a content calendar and then be sure to stick to it. While it may seem obvious, the key difference that sets the most successful marketing strategies apart from the rest is usually just a matter of consistent execution.
SEMrush has a highly successful content marketing strategy that leverages various marketing channels.
In addition to their blog content, they also have a thriving social media content strategy and regularly post memes, templates, and snippets of content repurposed from their blog and YouTube channel. A quick glance at their LinkedIn account should give you some inspiration for your social content strategy.
Speaking of their YouTube channel, SEMrush regularly collaborates with SEO and general marketing thought leaders to host webinars and then the team repurposes the recording as video content. These collaborations help SEMrush tap into the influencers’ audience and allows the brand to create more high-quality content at scale.
Similar to Ocho, they also take video content to the next level by collaborating with a handful of select influencers to create free courses for their audience.
SEMrush is also a large company with a substantial content marketing budget, so they often deploy that capital to simply acquire existing blogs that their target audience already reads and loves. In fact, they recently acquired the Backlinko blog for an estimated $15 million.
AIOSEO is an SEO plugin for WordPress that makes optimizing your website for search engines easy.
This company is also operated by a relatively small team, and therefore has a lean, yet highly effective, content strategy.
Instead of trying to dominate every marketing channel, they doubled down on SEO content. Like
Exploding Topics, most of their blog content targets keywords that their product solves, and they showcase how the product solves it inside the blog post. For example, this blog post targets the pain point “How to Generate A Robots.txt File In WordPress.”
Then, they walk the user through how to do so with their tool:
This blog post answers the reader’s question and effectively demonstrates the product’s value, making it an outstanding content marketing example.
It’s also worth noting that AIOSEO is part of the Awesome Motive portfolio, a group of various WordPress plugins.
Therefore, other brands within the portfolio also create content about AIOSEO on other blogs.
For example, here’s a blog post on “Best WordPress SEO Plugins” on the WPBeginner blog (another member of the Awesome Motive portfolio), and you can see that AIOSEO is first on the list:
Finally, they also have a thriving affiliate program, which helps them further scale their content marketing strategy at minimal additional cost as their affiliates create content for them. The affiliate content also helps increase the brand’s general credibility.
These combined content marketing efforts have been incredibly effective as they have scaled traffic from 20,000 to nearly 60,000 monthly visitors in just a year.
Hampton is a newer company founded by Sam Parr, and its success is mostly thanks to Sam Parr’s personal brand.
Sam built his personal brand on Twitter and through the popular business podcast he co-hosts, My First Million.
So, when he launched the company, it’s no surprise that he had an overwhelming response. It’s already doing over eight figures and the team is still relatively small.
Therefore, personal branding is proving to be a highly effective content marketing strategy – even for B2B brands.
However, Hampton also has an interesting strategy for their blog content. Rather than targeting SEO keywords, they write stories about the members of their community.
As the product the business is selling is essentially access to high-level entrepreneurs, these stories are actually very effective at selling the value of the business.
AppSumo is an affiliate brand that partners with software companies offering tools to small business owners and freelancers.
The company generates over $85 million in revenue annually, and it relies heavily on content marketing.
First, AppSumo has a thriving SEO strategy that consists largely of listicle posts and guides targeting pain points solopreneurs and small business owners experience.
They’ve also stated that their email marketing strategy is arguably their most effective marketing strategy. Since their business model is selling limited-time deals, email marketing makes sense as customers will want to stay up-to-date with the latest offers.
In addition to traditional marketing strategies, they rely heavily on the founder, Noah Kagan’s, personal brand to attract customers. Noah has a podcast and a YouTube channel that covers topics relevant to solopreneurs, creators, and freelancers.
His YouTube channel tends to focus on topics that could potentially go viral. For example, he has plenty of videos of himself asking owners of fancy cars, homes, yachts, and even private jets how to make money:
While these videos are primarily designed to generate brand awareness, they still attract his ideal audience (people who have small businesses or want to start a business) and therefore contribute to AppSumo’s growth.
In addition, he created a $10 course on earning your first $1,000 and includes a link to it in the description of each video:
This course is part of their content marketing strategy as it allows them to retarget students who join with various affiliate products.
Noah also regularly interviews solopreneurs and other interesting entrepreneurs on his podcast. By interviewing other entrepreneurs, he can tap into their audience to generate more awareness. In addition, he includes ads for AppSumo inside the podcast rather than selling ad slots to other brands.
eWebinar is a webinar platform that serial entrepreneur Melissa Kwan founded.
Like several other companies on this list, eWebinar is more or less a solopreneur business with only a handful of contractors helping her run the company.
Therefore, she also has a very lean content team yet relies almost exclusively on content marketing to drive signups.
Her content marketing strategy consists mainly of bottom of the funnel SEO content, social media posts on her personal LinkedIn profile, and webinars.
Looking at the SEO strategy, you can see that most of the content is pain point focused content that their webinar platform solves. For example, this post targeting the keyword “how to make a pre-recorded webinar” clearly outlines how to create a pre-recorded webinar using the eWebinar platform:
You can also see that almost all of the CTAs across the website drive visitors to sign up for one of the pre-recorded webinars hosted on the eWebinar platform. This is a clever content marketing strategy as potential customers can experience the product the same way their users would experience it if they use eWebinar on their own website.
Finally, Melissa has built a substantial following on LinkedIn.
Therefore, she occasionally also uses her own personal brand to promote the product.
Her personal brand has also made her an attractive guest for podcasters, so she’s been able to further amplify her presence by appearing on podcasts like Traction.
SparkToro is a SaaS company that makes it easy for marketers to do audience research.
Founded by Rand Fishkin, who was previously regarded as an SEO expert, you might think they rely heavily on search engine traffic. However, he has openly stated that SEO content is not a priority for their brand.
Instead, they tend to rely heavily on social media content. He and CMO Amanda Natividad have substantial personal brands, and most of their audience comes from social media content.
However, like most brands on this list, he regularly creates content discussing specific pain points that the product solves. Here’s a great example of this:
In fact, he’s a master of video content marketing. At Moz, he popularized Whiteboard Fridays, quick video SEO tutorials with actionable information.
Now he’s using a similar strategy at SparkToro.
Here is just one of these outstanding video content marketing examples:
Seeing the founder’s face also builds trust with the audience more effectively than exclusively using text-based content.
Acquisition.com is a holding company that consists primarily of service-based businesses. Founder Alex Hormozi is the face of the brand and relies heavily on content marketing to generate leads for both their portfolio and talent acquisition.
He has grown the brand from zero to millions of followers in a few short years, and a key secret to his success is his content repurposing framework, which allows him to publish hundreds of high quality pieces of content each week.
He typically begins by recording a video or podcast interview. Then, his team takes the long-form content and cuts it into shorter clips they can repurpose across social media platforms.
For example, he recorded this video, and then his team repurposed it into social media and podcast content:
This is an outstanding content marketing strategy as he only has to create the content once, yet he still reaps the same benefits as if he created multiple pieces of content for each platform.
The best part is that you can do this with a relatively lean content team. They currently have fewer than ten people on their content team per month, and as of October 2022, they were only spending approximately $100,000 per month on content.
So rather than trying to create multiple different types of content, master just one channel and then hire someone to repurpose it across other platforms.
The newsletter platform, Beehiiv, is one of the trendiest new startups, and they’ve grown mostly through organic marketing efforts.
First, they invest heavily in SEO content and regularly publish case studies and customer stories showcasing interesting newsletter growth strategies.
The customer stories and case studies are particularly excellent examples of content marketing as they tap into the personal story element that most SEO-style content lacks. These stories are also original content that hasn’t been published elsewhere, making Beehiiv an authority on the topic.
However, they also happen to be very savvy social media content marketers.
First, their employees are highly engaged brand advocates and consistently publish content around what they love about the brand, new product updates, and other news.
For example, this post helps communicate a key pain point that the product solves:
You can also tell from these posts by their business development leader that employees genuinely love and believe in the brand:
Beehiiv also has a thriving affiliate program and is one of the few B2B brands that has truly mastered user generated content.
When someone (often an affiliate, though occasionally a random customer) publishes a social media post mentioning Beehiiv, they always republish it to the branded account. Here’s a great example:
Resharing this content on the brand’s social media pages builds Beehiiv’s credibility and encourages more customers to share content around the brand as they know Beehiiv will reshare it with their audience.
There aren’t many donut shops with great content marketing strategies, but Cafe Lola is an exception.
Founder Alexandra Lordes grew the donut shop’s account to over 50,000 followers, but her personal account really carries the brand’s content strategy.
She personally has over a million TikTok followers, and rather than just posting about her life and kids, she also incorporates updates on the donut shop, like new flavours available and other updates. For example, in this video, she has her kids rate the new products:
So unlike many creators that have many followers but few conversions, this content strategy likely drives plenty of sales as it showcases the products themselves. In fact, people regularly make Cafe Lola a top destination on their list when visiting Las Vegas:
In fact, her viral videos have helped her earn orders from celebrities like Karol G, Maluma, and other stars.
So even if you just have a brick and mortar store, creating content about your daily life as the owner and building a personal brand can help you drive customers.
GoPro is an outstanding example of a brand that has mastered user generated content. Rather than paying to create their own marketing content and then investing more to promote it across their social media channels, they just run contests and let customers create the content and promote it for them.
Here are just a few of the challenges they’re currently running:
Here’s just one example of the outstanding content their creators submit regularly:
As a result, GoPro doesn’t have to spend any money creating content because they can simply repurpose the creators’ content.
In addition, GoPro is essentially getting free influencer marketing, as the creators must include the GoPro hashtags in their posts to enter the challenge. These creators often have thousands, if not millions, of followers, significantly boosting GoPro’s brand awareness.
For example, the creator that recently won a Photo of The Day challenge above has over 100,000 followers:
Epic Gardening is an ecommerce brand that sells gardening supplies.
Like many D2C brands on this list, it was built on the founder’s personal brand.
In fact, founder Kevin Espiritu started the brand as a blog that provided helpful gardening tips and advice and later turned it into a thriving YouTube channel.
Today, Kevin has the largest YouTube channel on gardening, though most importantly, he’s turned it into a business that generates over $59 million in revenue annually.
The content he creates is designed primarily for entertainment, and he is still largely the face of the brand:
He publishes roughly 3-5 times per week, and while he currently doesn’t have a robust content repurposing strategy, this might be on the roadmap as his marketing team grows.
Blogilates is another creator-first business that was founded by Pilates instructor turned entrepreneur, Cassy Ho.
She began posting Pilates workouts on YouTube over a decade ago and has since grown her channel to over nine million subscribers.
She has built an athleisure brand, POPFLEX, and she also has a partnership with Target, where she sells workout equipment, clothing, and even supplements.
Today, she doesn’t post many workout videos on YouTube, though she is still active on Instagram, YouTube shorts, and TikTok.
She’s also a great example of a content creator who prioritizes repurposing content rather than creating brand-new content across multiple channels.
For example, she reposted this same piece of content across multiple platforms:
The takeaway from this content marketing example is that consistency is key. If you consistently produce high quality content for over a decade on the same topic, you’ll probably be successful.
How To Use These Content Marketing Examples
Now that you’ve seen these content marketing examples, take action.
If you’re unsure where to start or if you don’t have time to create content yourself – let the digital marketing experts behind Copyblogger’s content strategy create it for you — Digital Commerce Partners.
They can design and execute a content marketing strategy that drives organic leads and establishes your brand as an industry authority. Reach out to them today to learn more.
Rachel Klaver is a marketing strategist, specialising in lead generation and content marketing.
OPINION: I’ve used buyer profiles in retail businesses before, but they have just as much merit when applied to a service-based business. I’m not sure why we seem to think humans will be any different depending on whether they are buying a vacuum cleaner or contracting a cleaner. In the end, your services are still products that humans are choosing to spend their money on.
There are nine key buyer profiles we can intentionally (and unintentionally) attract. No one is better than the other, but you and your business will fit some more than others. It’s a matter of being aware of who you’re attracting, who you are ignoring that you could attract, and who you have consciously decided to repel with your marketing and sales style.
I’m a big fan of using the marketing and sales process to help find your ideal clients, by showing them at the outset what your own business values and boundaries are for. A simple example of this is choosing to only email your prospects during work hours, if that’s what you have as a core way of working with your clients. For me, we do the vast majority of work via Zoom. This is why we also do our sales calls via Zoom too. If the person is uncomfortable with this, they may also be uncomfortable with working with us, too.
When I went through the nine buyer profiles I found several I don’t want to attract, and a few I’d like to do better in drawing in. Use this list, and mentally check against it what you could do in your marketing to help these types of people want to buy from your service-based business.
The Browser
For me, my whole marketing approach is to help the browser. I’ve got people on my email list who’ve been there for three years or more before becoming a client.
These curious individuals stumble upon our content, and while they may not be ready to make a purchase right away, we can capture their interest by infusing our content with personality and emotion.
It’s essential to let them get a real sense of who we are, to truly understand our voice and the way we do things. When they resonate with us, they’re more likely to choose us over our competitors who don’t evoke the same connection. These people will choose us because we consistently resonate with them. They didn’t find us when they were ready to buy. But as soon as they are, they’re coming to us (I often get people emailing me saying: “Love your content. Not ready for you yet, but I’m going to be one day!”).
The Bargain Hunter
In writing this I realised this was me. I’m definitely always sniffing around for a good deal. This is an issue because I also don’t believe we should be discounting our products and services to get the sale.
However, we can cater to these types of buyers without discount. We just need to provide great deals.
To grab their attention, we can offer them lower-cost options or limited-time promotions. For me, I’ve learned that by providing resources, workshops, or even my book, that they can engage with at a lower price point, they can get a taste of what we have to offer and develop a stronger connection with us.
I also use free content. I provide that with things like this column, my podcast, my email newsletter and my blogs. They get value, and then it’s my job to show them that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to working with me.
Showroomers
Showroomers are one type of buyer I’m starting to work harder to attract. I’m weirdly reluctant to share testimonials (of which I have hundreds) and feedback. I literally have to force myself to do it.
What I’ve learned is these types of buyers can take a while to make a decision but they are locked in once they decide, and they become incredible word-of-mouth referrers to others. For me, they are worth connecting with.
These savvy buyers are thorough researchers who want to know all the details before making a decision. Testimonials and feedback from other customers become crucial in gaining their trust.
Sharing testimonials that highlight the benefits and outcomes others have experienced can be a powerful tool in showcasing the value of our services. Testimonials help potential customers understand the benefits they can receive by working with us, and they serve as social proof of our expertise and credibility.
The “I’m on a mission”
These are also great clients, and again a section I’ve ignored in my marketing without realising it. Again this comes down to a reluctance to “show off” in my content. I’m working on this as I’m teaching my clients to become better at it, and I don’t like being a hypocrite as I do!
These individuals come prepared with a detailed checklist of requirements. To cater to their needs, we must clearly outline the features and benefits of our services.
It’s important to highlight what sets us apart and the specific outcomes they can expect to achieve.
Testimonials play a vital role here as well. They help potential customers envision the results they can achieve by working with us.
However, we don’t need to give them everything they want. It’s ok to have boundaries. I’ve encountered mission shoppers who requested to see strategies I’ve created for other clients. That’s a no from me, as it’s sharing someone else’s document, and also my intellectual property. It’s also often showing them the wrong part of the process, which is the completed document. The strength in my work is in the conversations we have to create it (which again is why I prefer to get them on a Zoom instead).
The Impulse Buyer
This might be a perfect fit for your business, but not for me, unless it’s a lower-cost product like a webinar, my book or a small course.
I often recommend service-based business owners don’t target this type of customer unless you’ve got one that solves a pain point that’s easily resolved, and you aren’t necessarily looking for a repeat purchase.
Impulse buyers make quick decisions based on their gut instincts or limited-time offers. To capture their attention, we can create enticing, low-cost options that allow them to experience a taste of what we offer.
If you’re going to target these buyers, having a chat on your website and being quick to respond to social media questions is key. These buyers want it right now.
The Chatties
I’ve got nothing against this type of buyer, but they aren’t a fit for my personality and business style. It’s not a “them” problem. It’s a me issue. I’ve got ADHD and love to talk. I can easily overshare, and add too much value in a sales call. I’ve had to learn to be pretty strong about moving people off phone calls and on to zooms that we’ve scheduled to prevent my entire week to be filled with chats with potential clients that often lead to nowhere. Boundaries are needed when it comes to me, clients and time.
Chatties are enthusiastic individuals who often seek free advice or consultations without genuine intentions of becoming paying customers. It’s crucial to set clear boundaries and protect our time and expertise.
This is also why I teach my clients to ditch the “discovery call” and rename it a “check the fit” call which has a higher sales intent. You may get less of them, but your conversion rate will go up.
Rather than offering endless free consultations, transitioning to structured sales meetings can guide them towards a more committed decision-making process. It’s an area where I’ve struggled in the past, as I genuinely enjoy helping people and can sometimes give away too much for free.
I’ve learned the importance of creating boundaries and directing these individuals to group interactions where others can benefit as well.
The Indecisive Shopper
Indecisive shoppers take their time when making purchasing decisions. They often have specific obstacles or objections that need addressing.
Patience, providing necessary information, and offering support are key in navigating the indecisiveness. It’s important to stay true to our values and clearly communicate the benefits of our services.
Addressing their objections and concerns while giving them the space they need to reach a decision is crucial.
I’ve learned that when faced with a money objection, it’s not merely about the cost but about the perceived value and trust that need to be established. Giving them time and ensuring they have all the information they need is incredibly important
I personally can find the key is to not over push, and allow them to take the time they need. Follow-up is key, but be wary of converting them before they are ready. It will cause you no end of pain as they stay indecisive as you work with them.
Unsplash
Indecisive shoppers take their time when making purchasing decisions. They often have specific obstacles or objections that need addressing. (file photo)
The Fully Educated
These buyers are slow to act, but when they do they come in hot. Educated buyers are well-informed individuals who have followed our content for years. They have done their research and have a deep understanding of what we offer.
Nurturing these relationships requires consistently providing valuable content through various channels. Our website should be clear and informative, while regular promotions and offers can keep them engaged and interested.
It’s important to provide actionable opportunities for them to take the next step in their journey with us. I normally recommend dedicating 10% to 20% of our content to serve these educated buyers is essential. They have invested time in us, and we should reciprocate by offering content that caters specifically to their needs.
The Loyal Customer
Service-based businesses can build a highly successful business by harnessing the magic of these types of buyers. They book and rebook with us, they tell others about us, and they always remember to pay.
Our loyal customers deserve our utmost appreciation. They have stuck with us through thick and thin, and they become our biggest advocates. Offering exclusive discounts, early access to new offerings, and free resources is a way to reward their loyalty.
These loyal customers often refer others to our business, and their support is invaluable. Recognising their loyalty and showing gratitude helps solidify our relationship and build long-lasting partnerships.
Understanding these nine buyer profiles allows us to tailor our marketing approach and connect with potential customers on a deeper level. By recognising the specific profiles that resonate with our business, we can identify areas where adjustments can be made in our marketing strategies to help talk to the best buyer types for our business model. It’s important to remember that patience, value, and consistency are key when engaging with different buyer profiles.
It’s absolutely fine to have several types that you don’t cater to. The key is to take the time to really think about which types work best for your business, then create content in your marketing that helps them get ready to buy. This can grow your business, without significantly changing what you are selling.
Feature Image Credit: Mark Taylor/Stuff
By Rachel Klaver
Rachel Klaver is a marketing strategist, specialising in lead generation and content marketing.
