You have your newsletter ready to send with the perfect, appealing subject line, an outstanding design that is mobile-responsive and of course some interesting content. But do you have enough people to target?
Continue reading “Get More Subscribers with an Email Sign-up Form”
Marketing Automation can indeed save you time and money in the long-run, but it requires some thinking time upfront to build an effective strategy and streamlined processes.
A recent conversation with a customer about quality content has stuck in my head, most precisely the usage of the phrase “value exchange”.
Continue reading “Get out of the ‘lead magnet’ mindset and focus on value exchange”
The fundamental element of every successful content strategy is being able to create relevant, outstanding and informative content. But the copy itself is not enough, especially if you don’t know how to manage it with the right technologies. Continue reading “Marketers need to learn how to use Martech Tools”
Every day we speak to companies using their data to market to their customers. It’s how we have all carried out our day to day prospecting for some time. But with less than 12 months before a fundamental shift in the law takes place, I worry that many companies are still ill-prepared for what is about to happen. Continue reading “GDPR It’s real and it’s not far away…..”
The 2017 Email Marketing Industry Census highlights a trend of email marketing shifting from an individual team member’s responsibility, to being shared by the marketing team as a whole.
Continue reading “Email marketing is now a team-wide job: too many cooks spoil the broth?”
Due to a data breach back in 2015 which highlighted some serious flaws in their data management, Wetherspoons has just deleted almost all of it’s customer data! It’s a brave move and one that I doubt many other organisations would be willing to take. But their logic for doing so isn’t a bad one – it significantly minimises their risk of a data breach and allows them to focus on other channels that are more successful for them.
This certainly isn’t a strategy for everyone and I would argue that B2B organisations are the least likely to adopt such drastic action. But for a large consumer brand who are targeting the millenial generation, I can see why this is less of an issue when they are more likely to be on Snapchat or Instagram rather than checking their emails.
Wetherspoons is effectively saying our email marketing strategy isn’t working and is susceptible to hackers, what’s the point in persisting with it? Why don’t we invest our energy into something less complicated?
B2B marketing is expensive, right? Well, not always. There are ways to use the tools and resources around you to create some exceptional marketing campaigns without breaking the bank.
Continue reading “B2B Marketing on a Budget: How to Succeed as a Small Business”
The week before last, I had an internal debate with myself about switching off, in more ways than one. With a much-needed week’s holiday to Crete, I was really looking forward to totally taking a breaking, switching off my mind and, more literally, switching off my work mobile. However, a couple of my projects were reaching key milestones and a small part of me wanted to be able to check in every now and again to make sure everything was ticking along.
It’s a common issue for a lot of cloud-based workers these days. Just a quick Google search of ‘switching off from work on holiday’ will show you that. With such easy and instant access to connect with your emails and systems from anywhere in the world, especially with the recent changes to roaming charges in Europe, it becomes very tempting to check in.
Annual leave and, more generally, work-life balance is so important in this busy, connected age we live in. If we don’t give ourselves the proper time to unwind, relax and reset, the impact on mental and physical health can be serious. We all deserve a little time to ourselves and to enjoy the world around us.
So, as we head into holiday season, here’s my gentle reminder to switch off… properly.
Regardless whether you work in the B2B or B2C sector, email marketing is definitely one of the strongest element of your communication strategy. However, since you are competing with numerous companies for the attention of your customer, you need to make sure only relevant content is being sent to your subscribers.
Lack of supervised and controlled email campaigns could have quite serious consequences with your emails ending up in the SPAM folder! This is something that could make your work as an email marketer ineffective, while hurting your brand reputation as well.
Now that I have your attention, I’d recommend you to read the article below from Marketing Tech News that highlights the most important aspects of email deliverability.
Failing to create relevant content that engages inactive subscribers can create a self-fulfilling prophecy for a brand: As more subscribers become unengaged with the brand, many of the popular email clients such as GMAIL, Yahoo and AOL will begin routing those emails into SPAM folders.
It’s not the first time I’ve heard that GDPR doesn’t necessarily have to be all doom and gloom for businesses. As I witnessed at a recent Pardot User Group, it can also be seen as an opportunity for marketers. It is no doubt an important set of regulations to be aware of and adhere to but if you are already delivering on data collection best practice then you will be part of the way there.
Putting the customer first ensures you build processes that are both fair and relevant for the user. The benefits to your business are paramount with engaged and active prospects who want to receive your communications and who are more likely to become loyal customers.
So our advice? Review the data you already have and what permissions you already hold to contact them. Work out how current prospects are being opted in and consider whether it is a clear enough statement and expresses explicit consent. Next ensure your customers preferences are properly maintained as their interests, requirements and circumstances change over time.
Whilst there is still some ambiguity in the guidance offered on GDPR in the UK by the Information Commissioner’s Office, savvy marketers that understand their customers shouldn’t have too much to worry about.
Siri, Alexa, Einstein – the tech giants are investing heavily and moving fast on Artificial Intelligence but can it be used and applied successfully for normal organisations with modest budgets?
Continue reading “Three Things No One Tells You About Email Marketing and AI”