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What Is Email Marketing?

Email is one of the oldest forms of digital communication—but it's also one of the most effective digital marketing strategies out there. 

Sure, there are newer methods of communicating with your audience and customers like social media and live chat. However, with a user base of over 4.5 billion people, email is the king of marketing channels.

Additionally, email marketing has an ROI of $36 for every dollar spent, meaning it deserves a place in every marketer’s toolbox. 

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Email marketing is still ranked as the most effective marketing channel, beating out social media, SEO, and affiliate marketing.

Why? With all the hype over new channels, why is this decades-old technology still one of the most effective marketing strategies?

Is Email Marketing Outdated?

Despite the rise of social, people use email more than other platforms. After all, what’s the good of marketing to someone if they’re not there?

Data shows that most people are on email—and the number increases every year.

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In addition, with email marketing you own the connections—you don’t have to worry about algorithm changes tanking your reach.

Still not convinced? According to HubSpot, four out of five marketers say they'd rather give up social media than email marketing. 

That’s why building a successful email marketing campaign is more important than ever.

BOOK A CALL

There’s a problem—most people don’t know how to do it right. (In fact, you’ve probably seen those people in your email box.)

This post is long, but it's worth the read. We'll walk through tips and strategies for building an email list, creating an email that users want to read, designing automated campaigns—and tracking your efforts. 

Getting Started With Email Marketing

Email marketing is a marketing strategy where businesses send promotional messages to people in mass quantities. It is typically used to generate sales by sharing promotional offers, nurturing leads, or expanding the impact of content marketing efforts. 

If you open up your email box right now, there's a good chance at least half of your messages are email marketing, like this one from GlassesUSA: 

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The Fundamentals of Email Marketing

Before diving into the strategies you'll use to build and leverage email marketing, let's cover the fundamentals. These tips will help you maximize your email marketing campaign, which we'll dive into next. 

1. Stay Human: Email marketing is popular—which also means it is competitive. Use email to speak directly to your users, use their name, and let them see the human side of your brand. 
2. Use Engaging Titles, But Don't Bait And Switch: Using interesting subject titles is crucial to increasing email open rates, but keep them on topic and non-spammy. If users feel duped, they're likely to unsubscribe or mark your message as spam, which impacts deliverability. 
3. Keep Messages Short: Most email is read on a mobile device, so keep your copy concise and to the point. Direct users to a blog post or landing page if you need to share a ton of information. 
4. Include CTAs at the Top and Bottom: On landing pages, CTAs are always included above the fold—use the same strategy with email by including strong CTAs after the first paragraph and again at the end. 
5. Ask Permission and Deliver On Your Promises: Never buy email lists—that is illegal in most cases and won't deliver ROI. If you offer a deal or great content, make sure to deliver high-quality content or offers. 

Remember: You’re a Guest in Their Inbox

People are inundated with interruptions, pitches, and ads everywhere they look.

You might think your email is special, but to the reader, your email is one in a million—and not in a good way.

This is why it’s important to use good manners.

Getting into someone’s inbox is like being invited to their home for dinner. If they ask you to take your shoes off, you respectfully do so.

Treat their email inbox with the same respect. You're a guest they've invited into their lives and they can ask you to leave at any point. So be on your best behavior and remember… you’re a guest in their inbox.

Now, let’s talk about how to build your strategy from the ground up.

How Does Email Marketing Work?

Email marketing is one of the top-performing marketing strategies, in no small part because it’s 

fairly intuitive and often automated. 

It can also support a number of other marketing initiatives, including lead generation, sales, and content marketing. 

An effective email marketing campaign requires three essential elements:

1. An Email List

An email list is a database of subscribers that have agreed to let you send them emails. 

To build successful email campaigns, you need an active, engaged email list.  

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There are many ways to build an email list. One of the easiest is to create a lead magnet (also called an offer) your target audience is interested in, like a coupon, in exchange for their email addresses.

2. An Email Service Provider

An email service provider (ESP), also known as an email marketing platform, is software that helps manage your email list. It also helps design and execute automated email campaigns.

Using an ESP also allows you to create automatic triggers when your audience completes specific actions, such as sending a cart reminder if a user adds an item to their cart and doesn't checkout. These triggers enable you to personalize interactions, which improves engagement and open rates. 

3. Clearly Defined Goals

Email can help you achieve a variety of business goals, including: 

• drive sales
• boost brand awareness 
• generate and nurture leads
• keep customers engaged
• increase customer loyalty and lifetime value

To execute an effective email marketing campaign, your email list, ESP, and goals must align. Then, you can get to work.

The first step is to segment your email list according to subscriber demographics or actions.

Next, create an email or series of emails designed to get consumers to do something (your goal).

Finally, use your ESP to send emails and monitor the campaign automatically.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Email Marketing

Just like any other marketing channel, email marketing has pros and cons. Let’s briefly dive into some of the more significant ones:

Advantages of Email Marketing

There are plenty of benefits of email marketing. These are just a few of the top benefits to keep in mind. 

Email Is Permission-based

When a customer trusts you with their email address, it’s the virtual equivalent of being given the keys to their house. Gaining permission to enter rather than showing up uninvited increases the chances of engagement and conversion.

Provides Direct Access to Your Audience

You can communicate directly with subscribers on their schedules. Plus, because most people check email multiple times a day, your message is more likely to be seen. 

Email Provides More Control

With most other marketing platforms, you don’t own the platform. If the platform ceases to exist, all your hard work sinks with it. If Google or Facebook updates their algorithm, your reach could be drastically reduced. 

However, with email, you own the relationships you forge with your subscribers.

More Personalization Capabilities

You can use demographic or psychographic data to create personalized and hyper-targeted campaigns. Research shows segmented and personalized campaigns increase revenue by as much as 760 percent.

Easy to Measure Success

Measuring the effectiveness of a marketing campaign is crucial, and automated email marketing makes measuring your campaign a breeze.

Scalable

Email marketing campaigns can easily scale as your audience grows without straining your resources or compromising quality.

Disadvantages of Email Marketing

Email isn't all roses and butterflies. There are a few disadvantages to be aware of. The good news is a great strategy can reduce the impact of disadvantages such as: 

Tough Competition

Standing out in a cluttered inbox can be a challenge. You'll need to get creative to ensure your emails get opened.

You Need an Email List

With email marketing, you must already have an email list for your campaigns to be effective. Building an email list can be tricky and takes time. 

Many Rules and Regulations to Navigate

There are several laws governing the use of email for commercial purposes. Common examples include GDPR, CAN-SPAM, and CCPA. All of these ban businesses from sending unsolicited emails and outline data storage requirements. 

Unfortunately, some subscribers might report your emails as being spam even if they subscribe. As a result, your sender's reputation takes a hit.

Delivery and Deliverability Issues

Deliverability is not guaranteed. Many email providers (think Gmail or Outlook) use spam filters. To run effective email marketing campaigns, you must contend with delivery and deliverability issues.

Email Marketing Examples to Inspire Your Next Campaign

Let’s briefly look at a couple of email marketing examples for a bit of inspiration.

Teaonic

Teaonic is an e-commerce brand specializing in organic, healthy teas.

Subject line: Getting Low On Wellness?

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What does this email get right?

• Great Subject Line: The subject line focuses on the target audience’s main pain point, i.e., improving their health.
• Leverages Color Psychology: The bright, warm colors trigger feelings of health and happiness.
• Well-Timed: The email targets people who have purchased the product and is sent when the customer’s supply is about to run out.

Bluehost

Well-known for its hosting services, Bluehost decided to try its hand at creating a website builder.

Subject line: Bluehost’s new Website Builder makes building simple.

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• Focuses on Benefits, Not Features: Selling the benefits makes the copy more compelling.
• Clean Design: The simple design makes the email aesthetically pleasing and easy to read.
• Excellent Targeting: Bluehost knows its audience is mainly small business owners without technical expertise. The email uses language targeting this demographic.

How to Automate Your Email Marketing

While the automation process varies by ESP, there are several universal steps you'll take when automating the process. 

Define Your Email Segments

Effective campaigns start with list segmentation. Use the data about your subscribers to group them. This allows you to create more personalized campaigns.

Depending on your audience, this data might include: 

• Behavioral data from your website. 
• Demographic data, such as location, age, or gender. 
• Topics that are important to them. 

Design an Efficient Email Series

After segmenting your email list, it’s time to design a series. This is a list of emails that fulfill the objective of the campaign.

Determine the Right Triggers

Once you’ve designed your workflow, determine what actions will trigger the next email in the sequence. Examples of triggers can include customers opening your email, clicking on a link, or not opening it within a predetermined time frame.

Depending on your goals, your email triggers might look something like this: 

• Subscriber signs up for your email list → Send a welcome email with a coupon and several popular items. 
• After one week → Send a second email promoting new arrivals.
• Subscriber visits your women's clothing section → Send an email promoting a new collection. 
• Subscriber adds an item to their cart, but doesn't convert → Send an email reminder with a 10 percent off coupon.

While this example is for an ecommerce company, you can create similar series for nurturing leads, promoting a course, or driving traffic to your blog.  

Best Email Marketing Strategies

To succeed with email, you need to design strategic campaigns. Here are some of the best strategies you can employ.

Use the Right Email List-Building Strategies

The success of your email marketing campaigns depends on the quality of your email list. To build a list, you must use list-building strategies designed to attract your target audience. 

For example, a case study promoted on LinkedIn may help a B2B brand build a list of engaged subscribers, but would flop when used by a B2C brand.

Examples of good list-building strategies include: 

• offering a coupon 
• creating a downloadable asset 
• hosting a webinar 

Practice Good Email List Hygiene

Another essential email marketing strategy is practicing good email list hygiene. Removing inactive subscribers and incorrect email addresses will improve your sender reputation.

Consider sending an email to subscribers who haven't opened your messages and ask if they're still interested. If they aren't, remove them from your list. 

Keep Your List Warm

Regularly send emails to your list to keep your subscribers engaged (warm). Sporadic emailing could result in subscribers forgetting who you are and lead to low conversion rates.

If some of your subscribers go cold, you can run a re-engagement campaign through paid ads. 

Focus on One Objective

Design each campaign and email to focus on one objective. Trying to kill two (or more) birds with one stone doesn’t work with email marketing. It only confuses your audience and reduces your conversion rates.

Define and Track the Right KPIs

Success requires more than sending subscribers an email every few weeks. To understand which strategies are effective, you must track the performance of your campaigns. That means defining and tracking the right key performance indicators (KPIs).

Depending on your goals, your KPIs might include: 

• open rates 
• click-through-rates
• sales 
• blog traffic 
• unsubscribe rate

Top 7 Email Marketing Tools Every Marketer Should Know

To pull off a successful email campaign, you'll need email marketing tools to optimize your processes. Here are the top seven email tools you'll need for success: 

Email Service Providers (ESP)

One of the most critical email tools you need is an ESP. Top ESPs include: 

• Constant Contact: This is best for e-commerce email marketing campaigns, thanks to features like automated product recommendations and shoppable emails. Plans start at $36 per month.
• Sendinblue: Sendinblue is best for small businesses running simple email campaigns. It has a rich feature set with a CRM, live chat, and SMS, among others. Paid plans start at $25 per month, though they do offer a free version. 
• Pardot (Salesforce): B2B email campaigns require a platform specifically designed for the B2B buyer journey. Pardot fits the bill perfectly. However, to build high-growth email campaigns with Pardot, be prepared to part with at least $1,250 per month for up to 10,000 contacts. 

Email Deliverability Tools

Email deliverability refers to the ability of an ESP to place emails in your receivers’ inboxes successfully. The wise email marketer will have an email deliverability tester in their toolbox. Here are some of the top ones:

• MailGenius: MailGenius inspects your emails for possible spam triggers. You can use it to run deliverability tests to ensure your emails reach their intended recipients’ inboxes. MailGenius is a free tool.
• GlockApps: GlockApps shows your delivery results in real-time, including whether your email landed in the Inbox, Spam folder, Gmail’s Promotional or Social tabs, or if it was never delivered at all. Personal accounts are free, and prices go up from there.

Email Testing and Tracking Tool

Testing and tracking the campaign performance helps you create optimized iterations of your campaigns. Which email marketing tools are best for testing and tracking?

• Litmus: You can use Litmus to test and track your emails in traditional web clients and popular mobile devices.

The ESP you use may also offer this functionality. 

Email Personalization Tools

Take your personalization game beyond adding your recipients’ names by leveraging an email personalization tool.

• Hyperise: When it comes to personalizing email marketing campaigns, no tool does it better than Hyperise. It helps you add dynamic, personalized images to each of your emails, including profile images from social media platforms.

Other tools may also offer this functionality, including your ESP or customer engagement platform. 

How to Write Email Marketing Copy That Drives Results

Whatever your goal is, it all hinges on email marketing copy.

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That’s why you must write yours well. Here's how to do that. 

Know Your Audience

The first step to crafting compelling email marketing copy is knowing your audience. This will help you better segment your list and create hyper-targeted email copy.

Craft a Hard-to-Ignore Subject Line

The subject line is one of the most important elements of email copy as it helps readers decide whether to open your email. To craft a hard-to-ignore subject line, follow these tips: 

• use keywords
• make it benefit-driven
• use the active voice
• personalize as much as possible

Depending on your audience, including emojis may help drive open rates as well. Avoid terms that might trigger spam filters such as clearance, free, bargain, cash bonus, etc. 

Get the Preview Text Right

Email preview text appears immediately below or beside the subject line. Limited to a maximum of 140 characters (email client dependent), it acts as an elevator pitch to convince people to open your email.

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An optimized preview text is an extension of your subject line and reinforces your value proposition. Make sure users can see what the email is about and give them a reason to open it. 

Make It Easy to Read

People are busy and won't spend much time figuring out what you want to say. Write your email copy so it’s easy to read and understand. Do this by:

• using short sentences and paragraphs
• avoiding jargon and complicated words
• using bullet points

If your readers find your emails easy to read, they’ll likely engage with them more.

Leverage Storytelling

Stories are a powerful way to grab attention and get your message across. That’s why you should leverage storytelling in your email copy.

Consider using the “Attention – Interest – Desire – Action” concept to build interest and draw users in. 

Use Psychology to Your Advantage

Human beings are wired to react in specific ways. Use psychological triggers to direct your readers towards fulfilling your campaign objectives. Examples of such triggers include:

• fear of missing out (FOMO)
• color psychology
• social proof

Used well, these triggers can help you craft email effective copy.

Email Marketing Step 1: Build Your List

Before you can start sending out emails, you need people to send emails to. How do you get started building your list? Start by adding a banner or form to your website simply asking people to subscribe.

Then, follow these tips.

1. Offer An Incentive

Think of email addresses as a currency: you wouldn’t give money away for free, right? Offering an incentive is a simple way to gather email addresses.

There are many ways you can do this. Some prefer to give away downloadable assets or offer coupons, while other businesses simply offer a newsletter or product updates.

For example, the business newsletter Morning Brew offers readers a simple benefit: their fun, interesting updates every morning.

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Search Engine Journal uses a small form in their right sidebar offering daily news—they also ask which topics the user is interested in, which helps them send more valuable content.

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You can also offer a checklist, ebook, white paper, or another downloadable asset. Contests and giveaways are another great way to convince people to share their email addresses.

I can’t tell you which is the right or wrong path for your business, but I say it’s important to have a clear purpose when asking for an address.

This is where a strong call to action comes into play, and copywriting is super important.

Simply posting “enter your email for updates” isn’t going to get anyone excited. Instead, share specifics.

You'll attract more subscribers by sharing a specific call to action or benefit from providing their email addresses. 

Common ways to entice people to sign up to your email list include:

• email series
• free downloads
• free white papers or eBooks
• update lists, like new releases and product updates

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Whatever incentive you offer, make it clear and enticing, and don’t be afraid to promote it.

2. Follow Email Marketing Laws and Regulations

Make sure your emails follow local rules and regulations, including CAN-SPAM and GDPR.

Don’t let all the legalese scare you. 

All this means is you can never buy email lists, and you should consider using double opt-in options so people know what they are getting into. Finally, make it easy for people to unsubscribe.

Email Marketing Step 2: Provide Great Content

Email marketing is all about expectations, and it’s up to you to set them.

If your call to action is strong, and your follow-up is consistent, then you can count on a successful email campaign.

However, if you promise to send one email per week and instead send them daily, then you’re setting yourself up for failure. (And annoying your list.)

On the contrary, if someone is expecting daily updates or critical product updates and you don’t deliver, they are likely to be upset in that case, too. 

This is why the first follow-up email is so crucial to the success of your email marketing efforts.

Send an Introduction Email

Here’s a basic welcome email from Airbnb to a new customer. It explains the process, including how to fill out your profile, verify your information, and book your first stay. 

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Spotify sends out a similar email that confirms the subscription and lets them know what they can expect.

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Almost all email service providers allow you to create an automated welcome sequence, so take advantage of it.

The initial follow-up email should be sent immediately as a way to introduce yourself and explain what new subscribers should expect. 

In this first email, it's better to be detailed than quick and unobtrusive, but if you can pull off quick and concise, then more power to you.

From here, it’s simply a matter of living up to their expectations.

Don’t Pitch Right Away

You’re not running an email list just for the fun of it—you want to engage customers and make sales.

Transitioning from an email list that provides tons of free value into a list that pitches a product for money can be tricky.

To do it effectively, think ahead about how and when you'll send the pitch. You don’t want to surprise everyone with a pitch all of the sudden.

You’ll have a much more successful campaign if people expect sales pitches every once in a while.

If you’re going to get in the habit of selling often, put yourself in the reader’s shoes.

Ask yourself if your messaging is consistent with the expectations you’ve set. If possible, pay attention to the customer's interests and send relevant offers down the line.

Those that send blind offers are far more likely to lose permission to keep doing so.

Again, each business has different needs, so there aren’t any hard and fast rules as to how often you can pitch or provide content.

Just remember that an email list is an asset, and it’s better to err on the side of caution than to be reckless.

How to Write a Great Email Newsletter

Let’s talk about the difference between a good newsletter and a bad newsletter.

The first sign you’ve received a bad newsletter is you don’t recall asking to receive it.

Typically, this happens when a business either fails to maintain a regular email routine or manually adds someone to their list after receiving a business card or personal email.

Make sure everyone remembers you—the best way to do this is to send regular updates. Try to send an email at least once a month, or once a week if you can.

I find the most compelling newsletters are those that do a great job of mixing messaging and updates.

For example, while the email might contain a list of product updates and images, it’s balanced by a personal message or friendly memo.

Use your newsletter to further your relationship with the reader/customer rather than to pitch them.

Save the pitch for unique updates, offers, and announcements.

Use Email Automation, But Keep It Human

If you’re just starting your email list, it’s easy to imagine you’ll have time to personally respond to every new subscriber.

Once you have more than a handful of subscribers, it becomes next to impossible to keep up.

You'll start building more complex campaigns, and following through with everyone all the time is impossible.

Top marketers seem to pull this off, but how?

Their secret is email automation.

This automatically sends out emails scheduled in advance and sends emails based on triggers. 

By scheduling a set of emails to send in advance, you can prevent “going dark” for any length of time.

Oftentimes, companies plan out a series of emails—ranging from a few days to a few months—that automatically deliver, warming up anyone who signs up for your list.

That way, when you do need to announce a new product or sale, you know they are paying attention.

Since you’ve built up a relationship over several weeks or months, you’re much less likely to annoy your readers.

Email Marketing Step 3: Analytics and Segmentation

Now that you understand the basics of an effective email campaign, let’s talk about how to take things to the next level.

Specifically, using segmentation and analytics to refine your broadcasts and generate even better results.

How To Understand Email Analytics

We’ve discussed the importance of analytics in web copy, and email is no different.

Every email service provider I’ve ever worked with provides complimentary analytics.

Though they’re all important, the three most important are open rate, click-through rate, and unsubscribes. 

Let’s break down each one and see what you can learn from these metrics. 

Email Open Rate

Your open rate explains how many people open your emails. It’s based on an invisible tracking pixel that loads when someone clicks on your message.

Open rates tell you how good your relationship is with your subscribers. Ideally, people are excited to read your emails and open them quickly.

If your open rate is low, it usually means you have a lot of unengaged subscribers. You need to focus on providing value and managing expectations. Here are a few tips on raising your open rate.

Click-Through Rate

Next, your click-through rate, or CTR, shows how many people clicked on a link (if any) in your email.

If your CTR is low, it means your message is either not targeted enough, or simply not getting through. In this case, focus on improving your copy.

Unsubscribe Rate

Finally, your unsubscribe rate tells you how many people have clicked the “unsubscribe” button at the bottom of your email.

If your unsubscribe rate is high relative to your opt-in rate, then you’ve passed the point of building value and writing good copy… you’ve got some serious work to do.

Essentially, you’ve built a sieve, and people who sign up eventually leave. If this is you, examine when people are leaving and take action based on those leaks.

If they’re leaving after a certain automated email, then re-work it. If they’re leaving after marketing messages, then re-work the way you present offers.

If they’re leaving early in your email funnel, you need to fix your original call to action to align with the rest of your messages. 

Email analytics are critical because they provide very specific clues as to what you’re doing wrong if you're paying attention. 

Of course, the key here is “paying attention.”

How To Segment Your Email Marketing List

If you’re unfamiliar with the term, email segmentation is the practice of splitting up your email list into more targeted groups.

Here are a few ways to segment your list: 

• customer list (in comparison to leads who haven’t bought)
• newsletter subscribers
• daily email list (in comparison to weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc)
• demographics, such as age, location, or job title
• interests, such as marketing or sales topics

Just like targeting in paid ads, dividing your list gives you the ability to send more targeted communications.

For example, some customers want both product and sales updates, while others might only want to hear about new product updates. Sales team leads might want to hear about a new sales feature but not a new marketing tool.

Plus, you can send specific emails to buyers thanking them for their purchase, like this email from Chrome Industries thanking people for making a purchase.

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With segmentation, you can send a broadcast only to those that didn’t open your last message (ask them why), or to those that showed interest (a second pitch).

You can also split-test messaging amongst different groups to A/B test titles, content, or best practices.

As you can see, segmentation isn’t rocket science, but it is work, which is why most don’t take the time to do it right.

If you do, you’ll immediately separate yourself from the pack.

How Much Is Your Email List Worth?

Your email list is one of your most valuable resources, and if you learn how to treat it right, it will pay for itself many times over.

Over time, you can start tracking how much money people on your list spend on average. This will tell you how much your list is worth.

If a list of 10,000 people usually spends $50,000 on a campaign, and you run two of those campaigns each year, you could average it out and say that each subscriber is worth $10 a year.

When you do the math like that, it is easy to see how losing several hundred subscribers could be dangerous to your bottom line.

FAQs

What are the benefits of email marketing?

Email marketing can help businesses reach a wider audience, drive sales, recover abandoned carts, and further develop your relationship with your audience. It's also one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies. 

How do I build an email list?

Build your email list by offering a downloadable asset, hosting a giveaway, or offering a free email course. Consider placing a banner at the top of your site to gather emails as well. Build your email list by offering a downloadable asset, hosting a giveaway, or offering a free 

What email marketing regulations are there?

CAN-SPAM and GDPR (for Europe) require you to protect user’s privacy and avoid sending emails to purchased lists.

What is email automation?

Email automation allows you to create complex email campaigns that send automatic emails based on actions, such as when a subscriber adds an item to their cart or downloads an asset.

How do I segment my email list?

Use your email tool to split subscribers based on demographics, interests, or customers versus non-customers. Then, send customized messages to each segment.

Conclusion

If you've been ignoring email marketing or putting your strategy on autopilot, it's time to step up your strategy. 

Email marketing delivers huge returns for marketers willing to learn how to do it right—and it doesn't have to be complicated. 

First, remember you’re a guest in the inboxes of your subscribers. You are just one click away from losing their interest forever. Be polite, respectful, and deliver value.

You’ll want to follow through with the promises you make. Provide people with what they’ve asked for and email regularly to line up with their expectations.

There’s no formula for boosting email automation. It’s all about what works best for you and your company’s voice and style.

Finally, you can move on to email segmentation and analytics once you’ve mastered the basics. Start sending separate emails to different groups so you can deliver more useful emails.

What email marketing practices keep your readers engaged?

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By: Neil Patel
Title: Beginner’s Guide to Email Marketing
Sourced From: neilpatel.com/blog/beginners-guide-email-marketing/
Published Date: Wed, 03 Aug 2022 19:00:00 +0000

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Você já ficou preso em uma tarefa repetitiva e quis muito poder automatizar seu processo? 

Você está cansado de perder seu tempo procurando a extensão certa, sempre encontrando uma página de resultados vazia? 

Felizmente, se você é usuário do Chrome, você pode criar uma extensão do navegador em apenas oito passos simples.

Como a gente sabe disso? Criamos nossa própria extensão do Chrome para a Ubersuggest para deixar nossos sistemas de pesquisa de palavras-chave mais afiados.

Nesse post, vamos te mostrar como criar uma extensão do Chrome para te ajudar a inovar nas suas tarefas e voltar para o seu trabalho produtivo. 

O que é uma extensão do Chrome?

Extensões do Google Chrome são programas que você pode instalar no seu navegador Chrome para mudar algumas funcionalidades. 

Essas extensões podem te ajudar a automatizar algumas funções do seu navegador, modificar comportamentos existentes e melhorar a conveniência do seu software. Existem até mesmo extensões do Chrome que podem melhorar seu SEO.

Extensões do Chrome são desenvolvidas com scripts HTML, JavaScript e CSS e são basicamente pequenos sites cujo upload é feito para a loja do Chrome.

A única diferença entre uma extensão do Chrome e um site normal é que as extensões contêm um arquivo manifest, que dá a elas uma função específica para executar.

Outra forma de enxergar as extensões é como um código que muda a sua experiência no navegador.

Por exemplo, a extensão do Grammarly te permite editar e modificar seu texto conforme você o escreve. A extensão do LastPass te permite manter seu gerenciador de senhas dentro do seu navegador. 

Aqui estão as nossas 13 extensões preferidas do Google Chrome para você dar uma olhada.

O Que as Extensões do Chromes Podem Fazer?

Uma extensão personalizada pode realizar uma única tarefa. Essa tarefa deve ser definida de forma restrita e fácil de entender para funcionar de forma adequada. 

Você pode incluir mais de um componente ou funcionalidade, desde que todos direcionem a extensão para um objetivo único.

Extensões do Chrome funcionam através de ações da página ou ações do navegador. 

Uma ação da página é uma ação específica para determinadas páginas.

Uma ação do navegador é relevante independente de onde você estiver nele. 

Da mesma maneira, suas interfaces de usuário precisam ser otimizadas e simples. Isso pode variar de um ícone único, como o do Gmail, ou você pode substituir uma página inteira para a sua interface.

Seu produto final vai ser um pacote .crx zipado que os usuários vão baixar e instalar. 

Por Que eu Deveria Criar Uma Extensão do Chrome?

O Google Chrome é o navegador mais usado do mundo. De acordo com o W3Counter, o Chrome tem uma fatia de mercado de 65,3%.

Você também deveria criar uma extensão do Chrome se você quer incluir uma ação simples na sua experiência de navegação.

A vantagem das extensões do Chrome em relação a aplicações comuns é que elas costumam ser mais fáceis de se desenvolver e manter. Uma vez que as extensões do Chrome são construídas em torno de uma única função, sua criação demanda menos tempo e habilidade.

Criar uma extensão costuma levar bem menos tempo do que uma página web do zero. 

Se você quer um jeito simples e eficiente de modificar seu navegador, criar uma extensão é o melhor caminho. 

Extensões do Chrome também podem melhorar seu tráfego web, como você pode ver no vídeo abaixo.

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Quais São as Características de Uma Extensão do Chrome de Sucesso?

Uma Extensão do Chrome de sucesso vai simplificar uma tarefa ou funcionalidade e aumentar sua produtividade. 

Vamos imaginar que você crie sites de e-commerce e está pesquisando lojas concorrentes. Se você instalar a extensão Koala Inspector, você vai conseguir ver se o Shopify criou algum dos sites em que você entrou. Você também pode ver qual tema foi usado, se foi feita alguma atualização e as estatísticas dos produtos.

Outro exemplo, o Eliminador de Feed de Notícias para Facebook, pode te ajudar a melhorar sua produtividade bloqueando seu feed de notícias para você se concentrar nas suas tarefas. É uma função simples, porém eficaz, que pode te ajudar a melhorar seu fluxo de trabalho diário. 

Ambas as extensões executam uma funcionalidade simples que melhoram a experiência do usuário. Quando você estiver desenvolvendo a sua extensão do Chrome, tenha em mente a simplicidade. Esse é o segredo para uma extensão de sucesso.

Seu Guia Passo-a-Passo Para Criar uma Extensão do Chrome

Chegou a hora de criar sua extensão do Chrome.

É importante lembrar que você precisa fazer isso no Google Chrome. Pode parecer óbvio, mas nem todo mundo usa o Chrome como navegador padrão.

Se você não é um usuário regular do Chrome, não se esqueça de instalá-lo antes de começar essas etapas. 

Além disso, não deixe de conferir seu trabalho com frequência conforme você vai avançando no processo. É muito mais fácil corrigir erros de código na hora do que depois de terminar. 

Criando uma Extensão do Chrome Passo 1: Defina o Que a Sua Extensão Precisa

O primeiro passo ao criar a sua extensão do Chrome é decidir por uma funcionalidade.

O que ela vai ser? Como ela vai ser?

Se você quer criar uma extensão para as suas campanhas do Google AdWords, essa é a hora de decidir como ela vai funcionar.

Todas as extensões precisam de um ícone para ser colocado na loja do Google Chrome. Você vai precisar criar ou obter um ícone antes de começar. 

Quando você souber o que a sua extensão vai fazer e qual você quer que seja sua aparência, você pode começar a construí-la. 

Aqui embaixo, vamos te mostrar como criar uma extensão que vai te permitir mudar a cor de fundo da sua página atual. 

Criando uma Extensão do Chrome Passo 2: Crie um Diretório Para a Sua Extensão

Para começar a criar a sua extensão do Chrome, você vai precisar criar um novo diretório para hospedar todos os arquivos da sua extensão. 

Isso é importante porque, para o Chrome carregar seu plugin, ele precisa estar direcionado para uma pasta contendo os arquivos da sua extensão.

Você pode adicionar a esse diretório todos os arquivos que você vai precisar para sua extensão.

Criando uma Extensão do Chrome Passo 3: Crie o Arquivo Manifest da Sua Extensão

A próxima etapa é criar o arquivo manifest da sua extensão.

Esse arquivo vai dizer ao Chrome como carregar a extensão adequadamente.

Crie um arquivo chamado manifest.json e adicione-o ao seu diretório.

Em seguida, adicione o código necessário ao seu arquivo manifest. 

Para o nosso objetivo aqui, o código vai ser o seguinte:

{

“name”: “Getting Started Example”,

“description”: “Build an Extension!”,

“version”: “1.0”,

“manifest_version”: 3

}

Criando uma Extensão do Chrome Passo 4: Suba Sua Extensão Para o Chrome e Confira se Há Erros

Agora é hora de testar sua extensão e ver se o Chrome vai rodá-la. 

Siga os seguintes passos:

1. Vá em chrome://extensions no seu navegador Google Chrome
2. Marque a caixa Modo de programador na parte superior direita
3. Clique em “Carregar Expandida” para abrir uma caixa de diálogo de seleção de pastas
4. Selecione o diretório da sua extensão

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Se a sua extensão for válida, ela vai carregar imediatamente.

Se for inválida, você vai ver uma mensagem de erro no topo da sua página. Se for esse o caso, procure por erros, corrija-os e tente carregar a extensão de novo.

Os erros mais comuns que as pessoas cometem aqui são erros de sintaxe. Revise todas as suas vírgulas e colchetes e tenha certeza que eles estão formatados corretamente. 

Tenha certeza também que a caixa Habilitada ao lado da sua extensão está marcada, para que você consiga vê-la em ação. 

Criando uma Extensão do Chrome Passo 5: Desenvolva Seu Script em Background 

Em seguida, você vai precisar rodar um script em background para dizer à extensão o que fazer.

Primeiro, crie um arquivo chamado background.js dentro do diretório da sua extensão.

Em seguida, adicione seu script.

Para nossa extensão de mudança de cor, vamos usar o seguinte script:

{

“name”: “Getting Started Example”,

“description”: “Build an Extension!”,

“version”: “1.0”,

“manifest_version”: 3,

“background”: {

“service_worker”: “background.js”

}

}

Esse arquivo vai alertar o Chrome que ele precisa fazer uma análise para obter mais instruções.

A extensão que estamos criando também vai precisar de um evento de escura para runtime.onInstalled dentro do script em background.

Dentro da escuta onInstall, a extensão vai determinar um valor na API de armazenamento. Isso permite que vários componentes da extensão rodem e editem esse valor. 

let color = ‘#3aa757';

chrome.runtime.onInstalled.addListener(() => {

chrome.storage.sync.set({ color });

console.log(‘Default background color set to %cgreen', `color: ${color}`);

});

A maioria das APIs vão precisar estar registradas no campo “permissões” do seu arquivo manifest. Assim:

{

“name”: “Getting Started Example”,

“description”: “Build an Extension!”,

“version”: “1.0”,

“manifest_version”: 3,

“background”: {

“service_worker”: “background.js”

},

“permissions”: [“storage”]

}

Em seguida, volte à página de gerenciamento da sua extensão e clique em Recarregar.

Você vai ver um novo campo escrito Inspecionar visualizações. Vai vir junto um link azul dizendo página de fundo.

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Clique no link e você vai ver o console log do script de background, onde vai estar escrito “Cor de fundo padrão verde”.

Scripts de conteúdo também podem ser adicionados para rodar scripts página-a-página.

Scripts de conteúdo devem ser adicionados diretamente ao seu arquivo manifest.

Criando uma Extensão do Chrome Passo 6: Crie Sua Interface de Usuário

Sua extensão pode ter diversas interfaces de usuários, de pop-ups a tooltips, entre outras.

Para começar a desenvolver sua interface, você precisa registrar uma ação do navegador no seu arquivo manifest.

Para o nosso exemplo, vamos usar um pop-up. O código fica assim:

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<head>

<link rel=”stylesheet” href=”button.css”>

</head>

<body>

<button id=”changeColor”></button>

</body>

</html>

Você vai precisar declarar esse código no seu arquivo manifest para ele funcionar.

Para fazer isso, adicione uma ação ao seu arquivo manifest e configurar popup.html como o default_popup da ação.

Seu script deve ficar assim:

{

“name”: “Getting Started Example”,

“description”: “Build an Extension!”,

“version”: “1.0”,

“manifest_version”: 3,

“background”: {

“service_worker”: “background.js”

},

“permissions”: [“storage”],

“action”: {

“default_popup”: “popup.html”

}

}

Esse pop-up específico faz referência a um script de CSS, então você vai precisar adicionar outro arquivo ao seu diretório. Nomeie-o corretamente e adicione o seguinte:

button {

height: 30px;

width: 30px;

outline: none;

margin: 10px;

border: none;

border-radius: 2px;

}

button.current {

box-shadow: 0 0 0 2px white,

0 0 0 4px black;

}

Para o nosso exemplo, você também vai querer adicionar cor aos seus botões de  popup. Mais adiante, essa cor também vai ser usada como fundo da sua página. 

Crie e adicione ao diretório um arquivo de nome popup.js com o seguinte código:

// Initialize button with user's preferred color

let changeColor = document.getElementById(“changeColor”);

chrome.storage.sync.get(“color”, ({ color }) => {

changeColor.style.backgroundColor = color;

});

Ele vai pegar o botão do popup.html e fazer a requisição do valor da cor. Inclua uma tag de script ao popup.js no popup.html assim:

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<head>

<link rel=”stylesheet” href=”button.css”>

</head>

<body>

<button id=”changeColor”></button>

<script src=”popup.js”></script>

</body>

</html>

A partir daí, você pode adicionar badges para mostrar o estado da sua extensão. Por exemplo, um badge pode dizer a um usuário se a extensão está ativada ou não, ligada ou não.

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Ícones da barra de ferramentas devem ser colocados em ação no campo ícones_padrão.

Coloque as imagens que você deseja no diretório e diga à extensão como usar essas imagens. 

{

“name”: “Getting Started Example”,

“description”: “Build an Extension!”,

“version”: “1.0”,

“manifest_version”: 3,

“background”: {

“service_worker”: “background.js”

},

“permissions”: [“storage”],

“action”: {

“default_popup”: “popup.html”,

“default_icon”: {

“16”: “/images/get_started16.png”,

“32”: “/images/get_started32.png”,

“48”: “/images/get_started48.png”,

“128”: “/images/get_started128.png”

}

}

}

Para imagens, as dimensões recomendadas são de 16×16 e 32×32. Todos os ícones devem ser quadrados, senão podem acabar distorcidos. 

Se você não escolher um ícone, o Chrome vai adicionar um ícone padrão para você. 

Quando você criar a interface da sua extensão do Chrome, mantenha-a simples e otimizada para o usuário.

O Google diz que todas as interfaces de extensão devem contribuir para a experiência de navegação, e não ser uma distração.

Antes de continuar, recarregue sua extensão e confira se está tudo certo.

Criando uma Extensão do Chrome Passo 7: Adicione Um Pouco de Lógica

A lógica aprofunda a interação com a sua interface de usuário.

Adicione scripts de lógica a quaisquer opções de interface de usuário que você tenha incluído.

A lógica vai dizer à sua extensão para realizar determinadas ações, como o que fazer quando se clica em um botão.

Por exemplo, se você usou o script popup.js, você deve incluir sua lógica ao final.

Para o nosso exemplo, você pode usar o seguinte script:

// When the button is clicked, inject setPageBackgroundColor into current page

changeColor.addEventListener(“click”, async () => {

  let [tab] = await chrome.tabs.query({ active: true, currentWindow: true });

  chrome.scripting.executeScript({

    target: { tabId: tab.id },

    function: setPageBackgroundColor,

  });

});

// The body of this function will be executed as a content script inside the

// current page

function setPageBackgroundColor() {

  chrome.storage.sync.get(“color”, ({ color }) => {

    document.body.style.backgroundColor = color;

  });

}

function setPageBackgroundColor() {

chrome.storage.sync.get(“color”, ({ color }) => {

document.body.style.backgroundColor = color;

});

}

Esse código gera um script de conteúdo programaticamente injetado. Isso faz com que a cor de fundo da página seja a mesma do botão que você adicionou anteriormente. 

Aqui, sua extensão já deve estar totalmente funcional. Quaisquer novas adições serão apenas frufrus.

Criando uma Extensão do Chrome Passo 8: Teste Sua Extensão

Da mesma forma que os testes A/B no marketing, é importante sempre testar sua extensão para ter certeza de que está tudo funcionando. 

Teste-a você mesmo ou peça para outra pessoa testar.

Se você pedir para outra pessoa testar, faça-o sem dar nenhuma instrução para garantir que ela é intuitiva de usar.

Faça as mudanças necessárias e depois teste sua extensão de novo.

Mesmo depois de lançar sua extensão, você pode otimizá-la e melhorá-la continuamente. Foi o que a gente fez com a extensão do Ubersuggest do Chrome 2.0.

Quando você estiver satisfeito, ela estará pronta para ser usada.

Eu Posso Praticar Criar uma Extensão do Chrome?

Assim que você subir sua extensão para a loja do Chrome, ela vai estar no ar e pronta para uso. 

Se você não quiser que sua extensão seja acessível para o público, você sempre pode criar um repositório do GitHub para as pessoas poderem clonar.

Para isso, você vai precisar dar acesso ao seu código-fonte às pessoas, então pense nisso antes de subir qualquer coisa para o GitHub.

Você também pode experimentar amostras de código aberto antes de mergulhar na sua extensão. 

Amostras de extensões do Chrome estão disponíveis no GitHub do Google.

Conclusão

Criar uma extensão do Google Chrome personalizada é uma ótima maneira de melhorar a funcionalidade do seu navegador e otimizar a experiênca dos usuários.

Além disso, sua ferramenta pode gerar tráfego para o seu site, então modificar essa experiência pode resultar em novos leads para o seu negócio.

Lembre-se, algumas das extensões mais incríveis do Chrome foram desenvolvidas por pessoas como você!

Pode ser uma curva de aprendizado chegar onde você quer com a sua extensão, mas vale a pena quando você tem uma funcionalidade nova para exibir para os seus amigos – e clientes em potencial. 

Que tipo de extensão do Chrome você já criou?

————————————————————————————————————————————–

By: Neil Patel
Title: Como Criar uma Extensão do Chrome
Sourced From: neilpatel.com/blog/como-criar-extensao-do-chrome/
Published Date: Tue, 02 Aug 2022 22:00:27 +0000

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————————————————————————————————————————————–

By: Neil Patel
Title: Find The Best SEO Companies For You (Get Your Free SEO Audit)
Sourced From: neilpatel.com/blog/seo-companies/
Published Date: Tue, 02 Aug 2022 19:00:00 +0000

The post Improving Your Net Promoter Score: 3 Foundational Tips appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.

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By: Guest Author
Title: Improving Your Net Promoter Score: 3 Foundational Tips
Sourced From: marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/improving-your-net-promoter-score-3-foundational-tips/
Published Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2022 09:30:48 +0000

Marketing Insider Group published the post 5 Digital Marketing Tips for Real Estate Agents.

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By: Carter Grimm
Title: 5 Real Estate Agent Digital Marketing Tips
Sourced From: marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/five-real-estate-agent-digital-marketing-tips/
Published Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2022 14:00:00 +0000

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Disclosure: We may earn a commission if you click on any of our links.

Customer relationship management (CRM), the best software for customer service, helps you deliver better services and provides valuable insights about your clients' needs.

This simplifies the day for employees. It allows them to identify the customer they are talking to and store all data in one account. All the information your team requires is available at their fingertips. No more searching for it.

A good CRM software can do much more than that. The idea is simple. You are preparing your employees to provide a 5-star experience every time.

There are many CRM software options available. Each one has strengths that work better for different types companies. Which one is going to help you and your team?

To help you make informed decisions, I reviewed CRM software and created a buyer's guide.

#1 — Zoho CRM Review – The Best “All in One” Solution

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Zoho CRM offers a complete solution for customer relationship management.

You won't need to install additional modules or add-ons for each department, unlike other CRMs. It is ready to use right out of the box and is a great solution for small- to medium-sized organizations.

This CRM is accessible to all your employees, which allows you to make the most of it. The learning curve is minimal, so staff can immediately start using the powerful features and functionality.

Zoho CRM is flexible and can accommodate different needs. You can easily create custom dashboards or multiple pipelines to support unique customer journeys.

Do you want actionable, insightful reporting information? Just a few clicks away.

Other great features of Zoho CRM are:

• Real-time sales insights
• Scoring prospects
• Mass email capabilities
• Inventory management
• Assistance via Artificial Intelligence
• Advanced customizations
• Management of blueprint businesses online and offline

Zoho CRM is an extremely powerful tool that's also very affordable. Plans start at just $14 per user per month. Upgrade to a higher-tier plan for more functions and features, starting at $23, $40 and $52, respectively.

Zoho CRM offers a free lifetime edition for small businesses that have up to three users.

Get a free 15-day trial of Zoho CRM to find out if it is right for you.

Bigin-Zoho CRM has just launched a sales-centric platform specifically for small businesses. Bigin costs just $7 per month.

#2 — EngageBay Review – The Best CRM for Client Support

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Many CRMs perform the same functions. CRMs organize and store your contact information, provide automation tools to send emails and post to social media, and make the lives of your sales team easier.

Not all tools are created equal. EngageBay may be the best tool for you if you are looking for a comprehensive way to increase all three.

It provides many of the essential features that you need to manage customer relationships. You can assign tasks, create a pipeline, and set up automations to send SMS messages, email, or hand off reps.

All of this is done in an intuitive interface that allows you to view your entire funnel, social media messages and interactions, email campaigns and all other information in one place.

EngageBay also syncs with Gmail, Outlook and Office without any hassle or stress.

What I love most about it is the suitability of its use for organizations that value post sale relationships as much as gathering and warming leads.

EngageBay has a complete service bay module that includes tools and features that will make your job as a support representative easy.

EngageBay's lowest-tier plan allows you to connect with customers and manage tickets together. This carries all the information that you have gathered throughout each customer's journey. This ensures that no one is going in blind, and that your support team can turn customers into loyal customers.

EngageBay's Free Plan upgrade allows you to unlock macros as well as canned responses.

Their Growth plan is my favorite. You can use the same powerful automation capabilities–setting triggers, events that streamline workflows- as the sales and marketing teams to provide customer service–for $29.99 per user.

This is a great feature because email sequences can be brought back into play after a service interaction.

This could be a huge boon for SaaS as well as many B2B businesses. You can not only provide ongoing support in these areas to build long-term customers, but you also have the option to use a drip campaign to warm up an existing client for an upgrade or an add-on.

EngageBay is a powerful tool that unlocks the potential of all three departments.

Start with the free plan to get familiarized with the platform. Then, when you feel ready, upgrade to the Growth plan to make sure your sales, marketing and service are firing on all cylinders.

#3 — HubSpot Review – The Best Free CRM Software

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HubSpot is a blog that's popular among those in the marketing or sales industry. You've likely also taken one of their certification courses. They also provide a free CRM software that can help you streamline customer relations management.

HubSpot gives you unprecedented insight into your audience's behavior.

Do you need to track who opens your email so that you can optimize your open rate? That's no problem. Perhaps you'd like to see the behavior of a contact on your website. It's simple with HubSpot.

They offer many solutions depending on the role you play within your company.

These solutions are tailored to the position and include marketing, sales, customer service, operations and owners.

The free plan comes with a solid set of features. The free plan includes all the basic features of a CRM, including deal tracking and reporting.

This combination gives you incredible insight into your sales pipeline. HubSpot makes it easy to organize that information and use it to create your next great campaign or strategy.

This is just the tip. HubSpot's CRM is free and includes:

• Emails scheduled
• Live chat 1-1
• Meeting scheduler
• Tracking website activity
• Task management
• Document sharing

These features are unbeatable on other free plans. HubSpot's paid services are also well worth the price.

The Starter Plan is $40 per month and can be paid annually. If you sign up for a 12-month contract, you will get $50 per month starter access to all four HubSpot CRM software products.

Software that is specialized in marketing, sales and customer service can be purchased for an additional $10 per month.

These prices are based upon 1,000 contacts. For every 1,000 additional contacts, the price will go up.

Register today for a HubSpot free plan.

#4 – Salesflare Review: Best Lead Management Tools For Small Businesses

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Every CRM that is worth its salt must answer the following question: How does it help teams sell better?

This list shows that different platforms have provided different answers. Salesflare is known for its ability to bring lead management tools up to the forefront, without getting bogged down by unnecessary features.

Salesflare might be the right fit for your team if you need help leading opportunities from win to lead.

The software's intelligent information gathering is the first step. Salesflare automatically pulls company information, contact information, and more details from email, social profiles and other sources. The information is stored in both a section that corresponds to the account you are selling to, and in a general contact book accessible by all members of your team.

Salesflare logs all actions taken by your team, such as calls, meetings, and other touch points, and by prospects and customers, including whether they open an email that you have sent, click on a link, visit a landing page, or open an email.

Salesflare allows you to customize how your team approaches the buyer's journey. You can choose to have one person in your team guide opportunities from beginning to end or you can have multiple hand-offs. All the information you need is right there.

Anyone can get the most recent information and the current lead status based on the actions taken recently.

Add the platform's notifications to notify prospects when they take an action or other trigger event and your team will be able to move quickly on warm leads or prospects that have indicated their willingness to buy.

Salesflare's simplicity and power make it an excellent tool for small B2B sales teams.

You get automation that is useful and tools to nail follow-ups (and thus encourage leads on the path to purchase), but you also get key features such as:

• Tracking opportunities from lead to winner – Team-wide timeline view
• Email campaigns that can be personalized, tracked, and scheduled
• The Insights Dashboard can be segmented according to team member, pipeline or date range

All this is included in the base Growth plan at $29/user per monthly

The Pro plan is a step up, and costs $49/user/month. You'll also receive:

• Email workflow creator for multiple campaigns at once
• Permissions for users, including view-only access
• Custom dashboards

An Enterprise plan is available for $99 per user per month. These plans offer additional support, including a dedicated account representative as well as custom-made training modules to your team.

Salesflare is a great choice for small B2B companies. The lower pricing tiers make it very affordable. Salesflare offers a free trial and you can request a demo to give it a shot.

#5 — Freshworks CRM Review – The Best CRM for Sales Team

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Freshworks CRM was specifically designed for sales teams and lead managers. Freshworks CRM helps you build better relationships with customers and cold leads.

This CRM also helps you to find the best leads and get in touch via their preferred method. Finally, it closes the sale.

Freshworks also includes an integrated email and phone system that will simplify the process.

They serve over 40,000 customers, including big-names like Dyson or Best Western. They aren't new to the industry but they are very experienced.

This platform gives you:

• Contact, lead, account and deal management
• Management of appointments and tasks
• Tracking website visitors
• Mobile apps for iOS and Android

Freshworks CRM can be used by organizations of all sizes to provide detailed lead scoring and sales pipelines. This will allow for greater clarity and efficiency in your workflows.

It is especially useful as a single dashboard to manage all sales conversations. Email forwarding and team inboxes ensure that messages get to the right people. Teams can track each interaction and keep it all organized without getting lost in an endless stream of irrelevant emails.

Freshworks also allows you to set up alerts, schedule emails, use many templates, and create email calendars. This allows you to quickly create new messages and be able respond or modify as needed.

They offer industry-specific solutions that are tailored to 15 industries. These include retail, manufacturing, logistics and healthcare.

The forever free plan allows unlimited access with very limited features. It's a great way for you to test it before you invest.

Freshworks' premium plans are more robust and affordable for all businesses. The premium plans include:

• Blossom — $12/user/month (for small teams).
• Garden — $25 per user per month (for growing groups)
• Estate — $45/user/month (for large teams).
• Forest — $79/user per month (for enterprises)

Register for a 21-day free trial of Freshworks CRM to find out if it is right for your team and you.

#6 — Creatio Review – The Best Enterprise-Grade CRM Software

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Although some of the CRM software listed here include an enterprise plan, they may be too restrictive if you manage a large business. Creatio, however, is an enterprise-grade CRM program that was designed with small businesses in mind.

They provide CRM solutions that are tailored to the needs of sales, marketing, or customer service teams.

Marketing Creatio provides enterprise businesses with everything they need for multichannel marketing campaigns that are efficient and can manage incoming leads. It features:

• Visual campaign designer
• Segmentation and tracking of website behavior
• Advanced trigger campaigns
• Personalized email marketing
• Event management and tracking

Pricing is determined by the number and number of email addresses per contact.

Sales Creatio is ideal for large sales teams that need to take over marketing. It is an end-to-end platform for sales management that simplifies the process and saves you time.

There are many features included in this model, including:

• Management of opportunities
• Profiling customers and insight into buying behaviour
• Field sales management
• Performance and operations

Prices start at $30 per user per calendar month

Service Creatio, a tool for customer service departments interested in streamlining processes and creating exceptional customer experiences from beginning to end, is the final option. It features:

• Contact and account management
• Management of knowledge and cases
• Omnichannel communications
• Service catalogue
• Contact us

Prices start at $45 per user/month

If you wish, you can combine all three CRM products. You can also use their online pricing calculator for an estimate of the total cost.

Start Creatio by requesting a free trial.

#7 — Salesforce Review — The Best CRM Software to Support Versatility

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Salesforce CRM is the ideal CRM for small businesses, sales, marketing, IT and customer support teams. Salesforce is a versatile software company that can adapt to your specific needs.

Salesforce is used by more than 150,000 businesses including T Mobile, Adidas and Yeti to build strong relationships with customers.

They offer solutions tailored to 14 industries, including:

• Financial services
• Healthcare
• Manufacturing
• Consumer goods
• Energie
• Communications
• Non-Profits

You can choose from a variety of apps to create a customized CRM solution that suits your business.

Salesforce provides everything you need to build lasting customer relationships.

The following are their business plans:

1. Essentials — $25/user monthly (basic sales, support)
2. Sales Professional — $75/month (complete sales solution).
3. Support Professional — $75/user/month (complete service solution).
4. Pardot Growth – $1,250 per Month for up to 10,000 contacts (marketing Automation)

You can also add more features or applications to your plan depending on your needs. You can also choose from different plans that include customer service, sales, and marketing CRM packages.

Get started today with a free Salesforce trial.

What I Did to Look for the Best CRM Software

There are so many choices and types of CRM software to choose from that it can be difficult to find the right one for you.

This is the best place to start. These products were created to solve the problems businesses face every day.

CRM software has many parts, but each one serves a purpose.

The problems you are facing are well-known. You can learn a lot about their day by talking to customer service representatives, sales reps, IT staff, and everyone who uses CRM software.

CRM software can help your company get the most from every customer relationship.

It is about understanding your company's current situation and its future goals.

Business Size

Your business size plays an important role in choosing the right CRM software. You will need more functions if you have different departments for sales, marketing, IT and customer service than a company with five employees.

You should also consider who will be managing the software. It's not the same thing as using software to its full potential.

To make your investment worthwhile, you will need to set it up and use its features.

It may take a small group to make it a team effort. Larger teams might have dedicated employees who will set up everything and keep the software updated.

How much software will cost depends on how big your business is. Software will be more expensive if you have more users.

Your Challenges

What isn't working? What could work better?

Think about the systems that you would like to improve and streamline. You might think about your current inefficiencies and how CRM can help.

CRM software is used to help with customer service, marketing, and sales. What are you looking to improve on? Do you have the ability to manage and set up everything?

For certain industries, there are CRM solutions that can be tailored.

They are more costly, but they can be a good fit for your particular situation. These CRM softwares are more efficient and will save time for teams.

Basic CRM Features

A majority of CRMs have a set of basic features. These features should be included in the CRM you select.

Although the details of each feature may vary from one software to another, you should have a system to handle them all.

• Contact and lead management
• Document storage and sharing
• Automation of workflow
• Interaction tracking
• Mobile access

Before making any final decisions, make sure you are looking for these core CRM features. You might also want to see how users use these features.

Contact management, for example, is handled differently on each platform. Which one is most compatible with your team's work style?

Advanced CRM Features

Advanced CRM features can also have a significant impact on your business.

Automating routine workflows, processing payments and sending invoices can help employees save hours.

High-tier plans only have the ability to access extremely rich automation capabilities. While there is no doubt that there will be an additional cost, what about the benefits?

Advanced features for lead scoring and marketing automation can help drive revenue. Is it worth the effort?

These advanced features may not be distributed in the same manner by different vendors. You may find the high-end tools that you require in a mid-level plan.

Third-Party Integrations

Your CRM tool must be compatible with your existing tools to streamline and automate business processes.

You should make a list of all the tools that you use, and then double-check that your CRM is compatible with them. This is what I am referring to:

• Email platforms
• Social media tools
• Software for internal communication
• Customer service tools
• Video chat/calling software
• Shopping cart (for Ecommerce)
• Software for contract/proposal management
• Connectors (i.e., Zapier)
• Analytics tools
• Calendar

Once you have a list, you can use that to narrow down your options for the best CRM software. It can be used to talk with sales people to ensure they have everything you need.

Summary

The right CRM software can make all the difference. It helps customers stay organized and makes it easier to keep them happy. Here are my top picks.

1. Zoho CRM – Best for small and midsize businesses
2. EngageBay is the best CRM for client support
3. HubSpot – The best free CRM software
4. Salesflare – The best lead management tool for small businesses
5. Freshworks CRM – Best CRM for Sales Teams
6. Creatio CRM – Best enterprise-grade CRM solution
7. Salesforce – The best CRM software to increase versatility

My top choices for businesses are Zoho CRM and HubSpot. Each offers a variety of features that are suitable for all departments, including customer service and sales.

They are also affordable and simple to set up.

The best CRM software depends on the size of your company and the features that you require. As you make your final decision, remember the criteria that we discussed.

What CRM software do YOU use?

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By: Neil Patel
Title: The Best CRM Software You Should Consider Using in 2022
Sourced From: neilpatel.com/blog/best-crm-software/
Published Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2022 14:00:00 +0000

Marketing Insider Group published the post 10 Tips to Increase Conversion and Eyeballs.

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By: Carter Grimm
Title: 10 Tips To Increase Eyeballs And Conversion
Sourced From: marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/increase-eyeballs-and-conversion/
Published Date: Tue, 05 Jul 2022 14:00:00 +0000

What's your last attempt at making a recipe in the dark? It's unlikely you've ever done it. It is reckless and unnecessary. It's not necessary and reckless.

As if making a mistake by trying to find a recipe, it is also dangerous and irresponsible.

This post will introduce you to marketing analytics and the benefits it offers. We will discuss the different types of marketing data as well as how to create your own reports. We'll also highlight three companies that have used digital marketing analytics to their advantage.

What is Marketing Analytics?

Marketing analytics uses data to assess the effectiveness of marketing activities or group marketing efforts.

Between 2012 and 2020, the percentage of projects in which marketing analytics were used to make decisions has varied from 29 percent up to 43.5 percent. This number may seem low but it shows that marketing analytics can be used to drive campaigns for your business.

Why is Marketing Analytics Important?

Before we get into the details, it is important to understand why marketing analytics are so important. Some companies might argue that analytics data doesn't matter to them, but others will rely on their ability to use the data to make a profit.

The greatest benefit of digital marketing analytics for businesses is their ability to forecast future results and understand large-picture marketing trends.

Marketing analytics can be used to help businesses understand their ROI on individual programs at a micro level. This will help them decide which programs they should cut and which ones to invest in. They will learn what they need for future projects.

Consider that advanced marketers, those who use 5 or more analytics tools, are 39% more likely to see an improvement in overall marketing program performance. Imagine how that growth could look across your portfolio!

Marketing Analytics Data

There are three main categories that marketing analytics data can be classified into when it comes to marketing. Below is a description and examples of the metrics that are used.

Descriptive Analytics

Analytics that provide descriptive insights can help you understand the state of your company. They answer the question “What is happening now?”

These metrics are only surface-level. These metrics provide a snapshot of your business today, but not any analysis or reasoning. These metrics include page views and revenue as well as units sold and average unit prices.

Diagnostic Analytics

Diagnostic analytics can provide insight into the root causes of descriptive analytics. They answer the question “Why is this happening?”

If you have any questions about the descriptive metrics, you can look into the diagnostic metrics. They look at traffic sources, bounce rates and exit rates as well as last touch channels to determine the root cause.

Predictive Analytics

Predictive analytics gives you a glimpse into the future of your company. Predictive analytics answer the question “What's likely to occur in the future based upon past and current trends?”

Predictive analytics, as you can see, requires more complex input. Predictive analytics is more difficult than descriptive and diagnostic analytics. However, it's possible to make connections and draw conclusions. You will typically need to use a predictive modeling tool, or a data analyst.

How to create a marketing analytics report

These steps will get you started if you have been given the task of creating a report on digital marketing analytics for your company.

1. Get the raw data

It all starts with the raw data. The raw data.

The tools and platforms that you use will determine how you get your data. There are many options, both paid and free, and you might find yourself using multiple to get a better picture.

img alt=”A screenshot from a Google Analytics home screen” class=”wp-image-161947″ height=”311″ loading=”lazy”) sizes=”(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px” srcset=”https://neilpatel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/marketing_analytics2.jpg 700w, https://neilpatel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/marketing_analytics2-350×156.jpg 350w.jpg 350w.jpg 350w.jpg 350w.jpg 350w.jpg class=”wp-image-161947″ height=”311″ loading=”lazy” sizes=”(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px” src=”https://neilpatel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/marketing-analytics2.jpg” srcset=”https://neilpatel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/marketing-analytics2.jpg 700w, https://neilpatel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/marketing-analytics2-350×156.jpg 350w” width=”700″/>

Google Analytics provides in-depth website analytics for a nominal fee. You may have free analytics if you use an e-commerce platform such as Shopify. HubSpot, Domo and Tableau are all available as paid options.

2. Understand Your Audience

Before you begin compiling your data, there are two questions that you must answer. These are the questions:

1. What is the purpose of your marketing reports?
2. Who is your target audience for your marketing reports?

You can answer these questions by digging deeper. Here are the answers:

Is the purpose of pulling the data to see a snapshot or something more? Do you plan to present the report directly to a manager or top-level executives? What data will you use? What frequency will this data report be required?

An analysis of a business unit by the CFO of the company will look very different from a weekly report on the business's state to your manager.

3. Highlight the KPIs that Matter

Now that you have the data, it's time to decide the purpose and audience of your report. It's now time to make sure you highlight the correct data in your report. It all comes down to understanding which type of data analytics will be required to answer your audience's questions (e.g. predictive, diagnostic, or descriptive).

Let's suppose you are assigned to report on the launch of your new product. It was launched on the virtual shelves 2 weeks ago. Now it is time to assess its initial success. How does it look?

This is where you will find descriptive analytics. This includes metrics such as product page views, add-to-carts, revenue and conversion rate.

Your audience will want to know the reasons for these metrics. It doesn't matter if they are below or above your target goals. It's important to know what happened to get to where you are.

This will allow you to collect diagnostic metrics such as last touch channel and traffic source. You can also look into customer behaviors and demographics.

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This data will allow your report to become more than just a collection of KPIs or graphs.

4. Visuals can be used to break down the data

Now you have the data and know your audience. You now have your story. It's now time to think about the best way to tell that story so it makes sense to everyone. This is where visuals can be a key tool.

Visuals can include charts, graphs, maps, funnels and Venn diagrams. These visuals can help you to see your data differently and tell your story better.

The good news about analytics tools is that they offer a variety of visualization tools, so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Microsoft Excel makes it easy to convert raw data into visuals.

Examples for Marketing Analytics

It is inspiring to see other businesses using marketing analytics to help them make decisions. These are just three examples to help you think about.

Marketing Analytics: Example #1: Costa Rican Holidays

Marketing analytics evaluations often use averages. This approach is not necessarily wrong, but it's worth looking at outliers to see if they are a good idea.

The conversion rate of Costa Rican Vacations websites has increased by 40% when you look beyond the average customer.

Casey Halloran is the CEO and Co-Founder of Costa Rican Vacations. He says that their team often looks at averages in order to make decisions. These averages include the average amount spent, the average length of stay and the average number travelers.

After digging deeper into the data, they discovered that the average number was far from the actual customer's metrics due to extremes of outliers. This meant that most of their customers fell on either one or the other end of the spectrum, with very few falling in the middle.

Costa Rican Vacations was able to make a change in its product offerings by using this information. They did this by increasing the slider for total budget to $20,000.

img alt=”A Costa Rican Vacations Booking Page” class=”wp-image-161949″ height=”722″ loading=”lazy”) sizes=”(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px” srcset=”https://neilpatel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/marketing_analytics1.jpg 700w, https://neilpatel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/marketing_analytics1-350×361.jpg 350w class=”wp-image-161949″ height=”722″ loading=”lazy” sizes=”(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px” src=”https://neilpatel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/marketing-analytics1.jpg” srcset=”https://neilpatel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/marketing-analytics1.jpg 700w, https://neilpatel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/marketing-analytics1-350×361.jpg 350w” width=”700″/>

They were able to offer their services to a wider customer base, with a higher level of spending, and increased website conversions by 40%.

This example can also be used to benefit other businesses. We don't often consider the impact of marketing decisions on outliers when we only look at averages or medians. This is why it's important to take the time to understand your average customer and whether they are simply an extreme product.

Marketing Analytics #2: Allrecipes

Allrecipes is the largest online food company in the world. It has 18 websites across 23 countries, and over 85 million users. There's always competition, no matter how big your brand is. Allrecipes partnered with Tableau in order to understand the customer journey at every stage. This helped them maintain their competitive edge.

The primary goals of the brand were:

• improve user experience
• Increase video engagement
• drive mobile engagement
• inform product strategy
• Expand user base
• Increase advertising revenue

Allrecipes used Tableau, a business intelligence platform, to visualize data in one place. The brand was able achieve many goals through custom dashboards and collaboration with other organizations. Let's take a look at how Tableau's device level analytics allowed them to drive mobile engagement.

Esmee Williams (VP Consumer and Brand Strategy), stated that mobile usage has increased from 8% to three-fourths in recent years.

It was designed to increase mobile usage and provide a consistent experience across all devices. As a way of learning more about the user's interaction with mobile site elements, they conducted an A/B testing.

class=”wp-image-161950″ height=”457″ loading=”lazy” sizes=”(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px” srcset=”https://neilpatel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/marketing_analytics4.jpg 700w, https://neilpatel.com/wp–content/uploads/2022/06/marketing_analytics4-355×22/marketing_analytics4-355×22/marketing_analytics4-353×22/marketing_analytics4-335×222/350×229.jpg 350w class=”wp-image-161950″ height=”457″ loading=”lazy” sizes=”(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px” src=”https://neilpatel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/marketing-analytics4.jpg” srcset=”https://neilpatel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/marketing-analytics4.jpg 700w, https://neilpatel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/marketing-analytics4-350×229.jpg 350w” width=”700″/>

Allrecipes used Tableau's digital analytics collection and visualization tools to improve their mobile site. The goal was to optimize content and encourage photo uploads using an intuitive interface.

Although you don't have to run a cross-device test, these same results can be obtained by your business. However, mobile device engagement should be evaluated by your business to understand customer behavior. Only then will you be able to implement changes that have a tangible impact on customer engagement metrics.

Marketing Analytics #3: Netflix

Let's close our examples with Netflix, a giant of the industry.

Netflix's customer retention rate is 90 percent, which is much higher than Amazon Prime's 75 per cent and Hulu’s 64 percent. What is the secret to Netflix's success and longevity? Netflix claims that its success is due in large part to the collection of customer behavior data.

What data does Netflix gather and feed their algorithm? Here are some examples:

• What date and time did the user watch a particular show?
• Which device was used for the viewing of the show?
• Do they resume watching the show if the user stops the program?
• Is the user able to binge-watch a whole season of TV?
• How long does it take to binge watch it?

Netflix also considers the interactions customers have with their movies and shows. Does a customer finish a series if they choose a show based upon the recommended Netflix rate of 96 percent? Are they satisfied with the series?

img alt=”An image from the Netflix homepage” class=”wp-image-161951″ height=”305″ loading=”lazy” sizes=”(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px” src=”https://neilpatel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/marketing-analytics3.jpg” srcset=”https://neilpatel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/marketing-analytics3.jpg 700w, https://neilpatel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/marketing-analytics3-350×153.jpg 350w” width=”700″/>

Netflix boasts a huge data base with more than 150 million subscribers. This allows them to gain insights. This is crucial to their success as 80 percent of viewers are triggered by personalized algorithmic recommendations.

Marketing Analytics: Frequently Asked Questions

These are some of the most common questions regarding marketing analytics.

Do you have any other types of marketing analytics data?

There are prescriptive analytics as well as cognitive analytics.

What are the main components of a marketing campaign that uses analytics?

Digital marketing analytics campaigns should be sustainable, scalable, and cost-effective.

Which are the most effective marketing analytics tools available?

Your business's needs will influence your choice of marketing analytics tools. Tableau, Power BI and Adobe Reporting are just a few of the tools you should consider.

Do I need a data analyst for my business to interpret our marketing analytics?

Data analysts can provide valuable insights for your company. They are not necessary for small or medium-sized businesses.

Marketing Analytics Conclusion

Marketing analytics is much more than a collection data. It can provide valuable insights that would otherwise go unnoticed.

You need to assess all data when making major decisions about your company's marketing programs and campaigns. Only by analyzing past data and looking at current trends can you make the right decisions to improve your company's bottom-line.

How much of your company's marketing decisions can be made with analytics?

————————————————————————————————————————————–

By: Neil Patel
Title: Marketing Analytics: Everything You Need to Know To Start Leveraging it Today
Sourced From: neilpatel.com/blog/marketing-analytics/
Published Date: Tue, 05 Jul 2022 19:00:00 +0000

When a customer interacts with your brand on your website, on social media channels, or in person, they should have a cohesive experience.

From brand voice to visual identity, everything should be aligned with your company's mission, values, and goals.

This approach is called integrated marketing communications (IMC).

As more and more customers use three or more channels to research a brand, integrated marketing communications are becoming more and more important.

WSo what are integrated marketing communications, and why do they work so well? In this blog post, we'll answer those questions and give you some tips on how to create your own integrated marketing communications plan.

What Are Integrated Marketing Communications?

The goal of integrated marketing communications is to create a consistent message and brand identity that customers will recognize across all channels.

This requires a coordinated effort that includes all aspects of marketing, from advertising and public relations to sales and customer service.

For example, if a customer sees an ad for your product on TV, hears about it on the radio, and then visits your website, they should have the same experience.

Your message should be consistent across all channels, and each channel should work together to support the others.

Why is this important?

Well, in a world where 77 percent of B2B buyers spend time researching purchases online and purchase frequency is 250 percent higher on omnichannel vs. single-channel shopping, you need to make sure your message is getting through, loud and clear.

An integrated marketing communications plan will help you do just that by bringing all of your marketing efforts together into one cohesive strategy.

Why Integrated Marketing Campaigns Work

Integrated marketing communications campaigns work because they provide a consistent message across all channels that are reinforced with each interaction.

This type of marketing allows you to control the conversation about your brand and ensure that your target audience is seeing the same message no matter where they encounter your brand—–whether it’s through paid advertising, social media, or even in person.

Plus, integrated marketing communications campaigns are often more cost-effective than single-channel campaigns because you can leverage existing content and assets across multiple channels.

Key benefits of an integrated marketing communications plan:

• Rreach a wider audience than single-channel experiences
• Kkeep your brand top of mind across all channels
• Bbuild audience trust with consistent messaging and campaigns
• Ssave budget by reusing content and assets

If that's not enough, research from the Harvard Business Review found that customers who use omnichannel shopping spend 10 percent % more online and four4 percent % more in-store than single-channel customers.

Integrated Marketing Communications Examples

Looking for your next great integrated marketing communications campaign? Check out these examples for inspiration.

Budweisers' “Whassup?” Campaign

The “Whassup?” campaign by Budweiser first aired during Monday Night Football in 1999. The campaign featured characters answering the phone saying, “Whassup?” in a comical, slurred way.

While the internet was still in its infancy, Budweiser became a pioneer by directing viewers to its website.

On the website, visitors could learn how to say “Whassup” in over 30 different languages! With this new marketing campaign, only one phrase increased visitors to Budweiser’s website and sealed the integrated marketing communications campaign’s efficacy.

The campaign was a success and won the Cannes Grand Prix award as well as the Grand Clio award. The catchphrase was also featured in pop-culture hits such as Scary Movie (2000), Friends (2003), The Simpsons (2002, 2005), and Ant-Man and the Wasp (2008).

For the 2020 Super BowlSuperbowl, Budweiser brought this campaign back in a pandemic-themed re-make titled, “Whassup again?”

Domino’s “AnyWare” Campaign

Another integrated marketing communications campaign example success story comes from Domino’s Pizza.

ToIn order to increase digital orders, Domino’s created AnyWare, which allows customers to order pizza through various platforms such as a tweet, text, Ford Sync, Smart TVs, and smartwatches.

Each new way to order was introduced with its own press release and driven to the DominosAnyWare.com website.

In 2015, Dominos also launched a national TV ad campaign featuring celebrities arguing that their way of ordering was the best.

To date, the AnyWare campaign has generated 2 billion earned media impressions including spots on The Ellen Show, Jimmy Fallon, and The Today Show. The TV campaigns generated 10.5 percent year-over-year growth for the brand.

The Martian Movie

To promote the theatertheatre release of 20th Century Fox and Ridley Scott's, “The Martian” in 2015, a prologue campaign was created to increase awareness and excitement.

The goal of the “The Martian” prologue campaign was to build box office hype around the new film.

An integrated marketing communications strategy was built to be consumed on a variety of channels including, but not limited to: social media, video, celebrity endorsements, and traditional PR and marketing efforts.

The campaigns included a mock episode of Neil deGrasse Tyson's StarTalk from the year 2035, an Under Armour campaign showing “The Martian”‘s main character, Mark Watney, as a superathlete of the future, and mock-declassified NASA footage showing each character going through psychological testing before heading out into space.

The Martian opened number one at the box offices and had the second-highest fall opening of all time. It was also the number one movie in the U.S. for four4 weeks.

How to Create an Integrated Marketing Communications Plan

If you want to create an integrated marketing communications plan that highlights the best of your brand, here are a few key steps you need to take.

1. Get to Know Your Audience

Before you start developing your communications plan, you must takeit's important that you take the time to get to know your audience.

Consider demographic factors, such as education level, gender, income, age, race, and geographic location. Then, think about behavioral and psychological traits, including things like interests, hobbies, and values.

Take demographic factors like education level, income, age, race, gender, and geographic location into consideration. Don’t forget about psychological and behavioral traits like values, hobbies, and interests.

Creating a customer profile that is specifically tailored to your ideal customer will help you make better decisions about your marketing campaign.

In some cases, you may have more than one customer profile for a given campaign. Sometimes, you may have multiple customer profiles for one campaign. In that case, it's important to segment your audience so that you can tailor your message to each group.

For example, if you're marketing a new line of environmentally-friendly cleaning products, you might have one customer profile that is interested in saving money and another that is interested in saving the planet.

Tailoring your message to each group will help you create an integrated marketing communications plan that highlights the best of your brand.

2. Set a Budget

Let's face it, you might not be in a position to hire Neil deGrasse Tyson, NASA, and Under Armour in your first integrated marketing communications campaign.

But tThat doesn't mean you can't create a strong, compelling message.

The key is to set a realistic budget and then allocate your resources accordingly.

If you have a limited budget, focus on creating high-quality content that can be distributed across multiple channels.

If you have a larger budget, look for high-profile partnerships, influencer marketing, and other paid media opportunities.

In either case, make sure you have a clear plan for how you will spend your money and what your limits are.

3. Outline Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

One of the most important parts of creating an integrated marketing communications plan is understanding what makes your brand unique.

• What do you offer that no one else does?
• What can you do better than anyone else?

Answering these questions will help you develop a strong unique selling proposition (USP), which will be a key component of your communications strategy.

Once you have your USP, make sure it is front and center in all of your marketing materials.

It should be the through-line that ties together your various communications channels and provides a consistent message to your target audience.

For example, if you are a luxury car brand like Audi, your USP might be “Luxurious and comfortable cars delivering excellent engine performance.”

Make sure this message is clear in your advertising, social media posts, website content, and any other marketing collateral.

If you're selling running shoes like Nike, your USP might be “The best shoes for athletes and fitness.”

Again, this should be a consistent message across all of your communications channels.

Your USP will be the foundation of your integrated marketing communications strategy, so take the time to develop it thoughtfully.

4. Decide Which Platforms You'll Use

Once you know who you're speaking to and what you want to say, you need to decide which channels you'll use to reach your target audience.

This will be different for every business, but some common options include:

• Eemail marketing
• Ssocial media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn)
• Aadvertising (digital and traditional)
• Ccontent marketing (blog posts, infographics, eBooks)
• Eevents and tradeshows
• PR and media relations

Once you decide on overarching channels, you'll also need to determine which specific tactics you'll use on each platform.

For example, if you're using Facebook to reach your target audience, will you primarily rely on organic posts or paid ads? If you're using email marketing, what sort of content will you include in your newsletters?

Asking yourself these types of questions will help you create a more comprehensive and effective IMC strategy.

5. Messaging Style

While your brand voice needs to be consistent across all channels, the way you actually communicate with your audience will vary depending on the platform you're using.

For example, the messaging you use in a Facebook ad will be different from than the messaging you use in an email newsletter.

Your tone might also change depending on whether you're trying to build awareness, generate leads or drive sales.

Keep this in mind as you create your content calendar and start to populate it with messaging that's in line with your brand voice and the goals of each individual piece.

Here are two examples from sneaker company No Bull, which uses different messaging styles on Facebook ads versus Twitter posts.

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>About to take on the week like…<br>Congrats on a great finish in Dubai, Tola!<a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/IAMNOBULL?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#IAMNOBULL</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/JustTheHorns?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#JustTheHorns</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/BehindTheHorns?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#BehindTheHorns</a> <a href=”https://t.co/RqlABILona”>pic.twitter.com/RqlABILona</a></p>— NOBULL (@justthehorns) <a href=”https://twitter.com/justthehorns/status/1206646654989783047?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>December 16, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>

6. Set Your Targets and Goals

You're almost ready to start putting your IMC plan into action, but first, you need to set some targets and goals. Consider the following:

• What do you want are you looking to achieve with your integrated marketing communications strategy?
• Are you trying to improve your external reach?
• What about internal communications?
• Is there a particular target audience you're looking to engage?

Attaching numbers to your objectives is a good way to measure progress. For example, if one of your goals is to increase brand awareness, you could measure this by tracking the number of mentions your brand receives online.

Or, if you're looking to improve customer satisfaction, you could survey your customers after they've made a purchase.

Other goals can include:

• Email sign- ups
• Social media follows and engagement
• Website traffic
• Sales or conversions
• Phone calls
• Event sign-ups and ticket sales

Once you have some goals and targets in mind, it's time to start putting your integrated marketing communications plan into action!

7. Track and Optimize

Once your integrated marketing communications campaign is up and running, it's important to track progress and optimize along the way.

Analytics are key in understanding what's working and what's not.

Be sure to keep an eye on your campaign goals and KPIs, and adjust as necessary. If you're not seeing the results you want, don't be afraid to change things up.

For example, let's imagine you're running an email campaign as part of your integrated marketing communications plan.

You might want to track metrics such as:

• Oopen rates
• Cclick-through rates
• Uunsubscribe rates

If your open or click-through rates are low, you might want to consider changing up your subject lines or email content.

Or, if you're seeing higher than average unsubscribe rates, that could be an indication that your content is not relevant to your audience.

It's important to constantly test and measure the performance of your campaigns so that you can make necessary adjustments to ensure success. By doing so, you'll be able to create an integrated marketing communications plan that highlights the best of your brand.

Frequently Asked Questions: Integrated Marketing Communication Plans

What does integrated marketing communication mean?

Integrated marketing communication is an approach to marketing that uses all aspects of a company's communication channels to deliver a consistent message.

What are the benefits of using an integrated marketing communications plan?

The benefit of an integrated marketing communications plan is to ensure that all of a company's marketing efforts are working together in harmony to deliver a consistent message.

What are the five forms of integrated marketing communications?

There are five main ways to market your product or service. They are advertising, direct marketing, internet marketing, sales promotion, and public relations. All of these methods can be used together to create a harmonious marketing plan.

Do integrated marketing communication plans help drive ROI?

Yes, integrated marketing communication plans can help drive ROI by ensuring that all marketing efforts are working together to deliver a consistent message. This will result in increased brand awareness and customer loyalty, which will lead to increased sales and profits.

Final Thoughts on Integrated Marketing Communications Plans

An integrated marketing communications plan is the key to success for any company.

By creating a plan that outlines the main ways to market your company and product, you can ensure that all of your marketing efforts are working together to deliver a consistent message.

This can result in increased brand awareness and customer loyalty, which can lead to increased sales and profits.

The end result? A more successful company that is better able to compete in today's marketplace.

How have you found success with integrated marketing communications?

————————————————————————————————————————————–

By: Neil Patel
Title: Create an Integrated Marketing Communications Plan That Highlights the Best of Your Brand
Sourced From: neilpatel.com/blog/integrated-marketing-communications/
Published Date: Mon, 04 Jul 2022 19:00:00 +0000

Did you know that 17% of customers can leave your business after one bad experience? This is a significant number, especially if you want to grow your business or increase your return on your investment (ROI).

The good news is that you don't have to lose these customers if your customer experience is top-of-mind. Below I will explain what customer experiences mean, why they are important, and how to optimize your customer experience online.

What are Customer Experiences?

Customer experience (CX), is the way customers view any interaction they have with you company. This is the impression that your customers form about your company as they go through each step of the buyer's journey.

This is how you should think about it. Even if it is only a short interaction, customers are building an impression about your brand. This impression can determine, for instance, whether they will shop again with you or recommend you to their friends.

Positive (or negative!) customer experiences can have a direct impact on your bottom line. Are you a customer who is unhappy? You might lose them or they may never shop with you again. Have a satisfied customer? You might get a referral from a friend or family member.

These actions can influence the customer experience:

• Call your help center
• Paying a bill
• Tweeting you with a question

CX is still very important in real terms. Very. Let me tell you why.

Why is customer experience important?

Customers are the most important thing in your business. They are central to everything that you do. If you are still skeptical about CX, here are some reasons why it is important.

• Brands that provide great customer service are more likely to retain customers. A great customer experience is key to ensuring loyalty.
• A customer who has had a positive experience can leave a review on your website. This encourages other customers to visit your business. ReviewTrackers found that more than a third only review businesses with at least four stars. This means great CX can help boost your visibility.
• Customers are less likely to switch to competitors if they have a positive experience. CX can have a direct impact on your churn rate.

Bottom line: Customers who are happy will spend more, be loyal and refer your brand to others. It pays to improve customer experience optimization if you want to increase your ROI.

What is the biggest mistake most businesses make when it comes to customer experience?

It can be difficult to optimize customer experience, especially if you look at it from the wrong angle. Here are some common mistakes businesses make about customer experience optimization.

Ignoring CX

Although it may seem obvious, the largest mistake companies make when dealing with CX is to ignore it completely. Why? Customers care about the experience. Four out of five customers would abandon a brand if they had less than three bad experiences.

CX can be detrimental to your customer retention and could even hinder your ability attract new customers.

Failing To Track Metrics

You won't know what your performance is without measuring customer experience optimization. While I will touch on the most important metrics later, here are some key questions performance data can answer.

• How many customers have stopped doing business with your company?
• Are you a company that customers would recommend to their friends and family?
• Customers, how easy is it to solve problems or answer questions?

You can improve customer experience at all stages of the buyer's journey by tracking customer experience metrics.

Impersonal Communication

Businesses are more likely to treat customers as a unit than as an online audience. What's the problem? Personal communication is important: Growth won't be achieved through impersonal communication.

• McKinsey research shows that 71% of customers want personalized interactions from businesses.
• Personalized messaging is a key source of revenue for fast-growing businesses.

Customers will not be satisfied with the personal CX you provide if they are treated as numbers.

Not Enough to Train Employees

While it is important to create a website that is user-friendly and makes it easy for customers to shop with you online, the customer experience begins with your staff. Here are some common mistakes companies make.

Failure to properly train employees in customer service delivery.

Customers come to you seeking a pleasant shopping experience. Your customers will be frustrated if your staff lacks the experience and authority to solve customer problems.

You now know what to do. But there is still one question: How can you improve CX to increase your revenue? Let's take an in-depth look.

5 Tips to Enhance Customer Experiences and Increase Revenue

There are many ways to increase revenue through optimizing customer experiences. Here are my top five favorites.

1. Find out where you stand

You must track key performance indicators (KPIs) to determine what is working and how you can optimize customer service.

KPIs are a key part of any marketing strategy. Here are some metrics you can track to measure customer experience.

• Churn Rate: Your “churn rate” is the number of customers who stop using your services (e.g. they cancel their subscription). Higher churn means you are losing more customers.
• Customer effort This indicates how simple people believe it to complete an action, such as completing a checkout. Low customer effort scores indicate that customers are unhappy.
• This is the likelihood that someone will recommend your business. NPS is a measure of how likely someone is to recommend you.
• Retention Rate: Your retention rate is how many customers you keep over time. Higher retention scores indicate greater customer loyalty.

Here are some ways to measure metrics.

• You can measure churn by selecting a period and then dividing the number lost customers by the number you started with. Your churn percentage.
• Use surveys to poll customers and get their opinions.
• Ask your customers to rate you from 1-10.
• You can measure customer retention by selecting a time period and calculating how many customers are with you at the beginning.

Are you unsure where to begin with customer surveys? Send them to customers, or do as Tim Hortons and invite people online to take satisfaction surveys.

2. Enhance Customer Service

Customer service is different from customer experience. Customer experience refers to every interaction that a customer has, and customer service refers only to interactions between customers and employees when there is a problem.

It is not surprising that improving customer service can improve your overall CX. But how can you improve customer service? These are just a few ideas.

• Research by Khoros shows that 77% of customers expect customer service teams to share information to avoid repeating themselves. Integrate customer support processes with software such as customer relationship management (CRM).
• Chatbots: According to the Khoros research, 79% of customers love chatting with customer service representatives through chatbots.
• Recognize your most loyal customers. To encourage new transactions, reward them with special discounts and offers.

Here's an example from Dropbox of a chatbot. The chatbot will guide users through the steps. If the chatbot is unable to answer their questions they can talk to a representative or look at other resources.

You can improve customer service by providing quick, easy, and efficient ways to reach your staff.

3. Conversions made easier

Zendesk research has shown that 65 percent customers want quick and easy transactions. What does this all mean?

This is because customers expect a simple checkout experience if your e-commerce shop sells products. Here are some tips to speed up the process.

• Allow guests to checkout so that they don't have to create an account in order to purchase something.
• Multiple payment options are available, including PayPal and mobile wallets such as Apple Pay.
• Transparency in shipping and delivery
• Where possible, reduce the number of checkout screens

Are you a service provider? You want to make sure your sales process runs smoothly.

• To nurture customers through the sales funnel, offer a free trial
• Ensure that you clearly explain your sales process so customers understand what to expect.
• Set up a sales call to get all the information you need about customers to solve their problems or resolve any doubts.
• Clear pricing structures and packages that are transparent to customers' needs.

Monday.com has, for instance, a very clear pricing structure.

It takes only a few steps to create a free account, so prospects can try the software before they commit to a paid package.

img alt=”A Monday.com account creation screen” class=”wp-image-161923″ height=”473″ loading=”lazy” sizes=”(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px” src=”https://neilpatel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/reinvent-customer-experience1.png” srcset=”https://neilpatel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/reinvent-customer-experience1.png 700w, https://neilpatel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/reinvent-customer-experience1-350×237.png 350w” title=”Monday.com Free Trial Customer Experiences Improvement” width=”700″/>

Create a seamless sales experience that is user-friendly and impresses your customers to increase CX.

4. Personalize customer interactions

Personalization is a powerful tool to increase customer retention and acquisition. But how can you personalize customer interactions? Here are some ways you can personalize customer interactions.

• To identify your ideal customer, create customer profiles. Once you have identified your target audience, you can segment your customers to send relevant marketing materials to them.
• Use an omnichannel approach. Zendesk research shows that companies with higher CX scores provide consistent and reliable experiences across all media, including in-store shopping and purchasing products via a mobile app.
• You can personalize surveys with the customer data and follow-up on survey responses.

Email is a powerful tool that can be used to reach customers. You can retarget customers who have fallen behind with personalized incentives and offer loyal customers recommendations based upon their shopping history.

5. Encourage your employees to take action

Which customers do you interact with? Your employees. Customers will abandon your brand if they aren't satisfied with your employees.

How can you empower your employees? Empower your employees. You can empower your employees by giving them the tools to solve queries.

• Ask employees for feedback. Are they satisfied with their service or frustrated?
• Identifying and addressing the problem. Perhaps you can streamline manual processes through updating your CRM software or improve contact center protocols.
• Let's not forget to empower your employees. For example, they might offer a discount to encourage new customers.

Customer Experience: Gymshark

Gymshark is an international brand that specializes in employee engagement.

How? Because employees have a lot of authority to resolve disputes and because they are very involved with customers online.

One thing they have is a Gymshark Help account on social media to answer customer queries, engage customers and improve customer experience.

class=”wp-image-161924″ height=”446″ loading=”lazy” sizes=”(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px” srcset=”https://neilpatel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/reinvent-customerexperience5.png 700w, https://neilpatel.com/wp–content/uploads/2022/06/reinvent–customer–experience5-535×223/350×223/350×223.png350x223.png-5533355×22/reinvent–customerexperience5-505–350×223.png 350w class=”wp-image-161924″ height=”446″ loading=”lazy” sizes=”(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px” src=”https://neilpatel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/reinvent-customer-experience5.png” srcset=”https://neilpatel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/reinvent-customer-experience5.png 700w, https://neilpatel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/reinvent-customer-experience5-350×223.png 350w” title=”Customer Experience Case Study – Gymshark” width=”700″/>

They trust their employees to provide real solutions that make customers feel valued throughout the buyer's journey, even after the sale.

Is it worth giving employees control over CX delivery? Gymshark is a global company that operates in more than 180 countries. It knows the value of providing great customer experiences to increase ROI.

Commonly Asked Questions about Customer Experiences

While we've already covered the importance of customer experiences and how to improve them, let me share some key points.

How can you improve customer experience?

Find out who your customers really are and how they interact to your business. Understanding the buyer's journey will enable you to equip your employees with the tools they need to satisfy their needs and exceed their expectations.

What are the key components of customer experiences

Customers will have a positive experience with your company if they are able to trust you and your company.

What is the best way to track customer experience?

Use tools to measure your churn, customer effort score and retention rates as well as CX metrics.

What is the key to a great customer experience?

Your staff is the key to a great customer experience. Your staff should have the skills to manage your buyers and impress your customers.

Conclusion: Customer Experience is Key to Business Growth

Customers are the key to your success. Without them, your company will not grow and prosper.

Help your staff to nurture buyers along their journey. This will ensure that customer experience optimization is done successfully. You should monitor key customer experience metrics and ask customers to tell you what they think.

You need additional help in improving the customer experience online? My consulting services are available.

What makes a great CX?

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By: Neil Patel
Title: 5 Ways to Reinvent Customer Experiences That Will Increase Your ROI
Sourced From: neilpatel.com/blog/reinvent-customer-experience/
Published Date: Sun, 03 Jul 2022 19:00:00 +0000