Instagram still reigns as one of the most powerful and provocative platforms for social media content marketing.

But why? 

Well, Instagram allows you to build your brand image through pictures and videos, far more effectively than Facebook or Twitter. Its clean interface makes it attractive to us Digital Marketers. It has already been proven to enhance customer engagement. 

Instagram also offers plenty of creative possibilities, targeting opportunities, and personalization potential. The visual-centric site offers plenty of ways to connect with high-profile tastemakers, break through the competitive noise, and build active, engaged communities.

So I guess you’re wondering, “how can I make the most out of my Instagram?”

Well, that’s simple! Here are 10 tips and tricks that will help to strengthen your Instagram business. 

Are you ready? Let’s go!

ESTABLISH AND ACTIVATE YOUR INSTAGRAM STRATEGY

For this first tip, you need to give some serious thought to how your Instagram activities can drive your strategic marketing goals.

For example, if lead generation is a top goal for your video content then you need to be aware that Instagram doesn’t offer clickable links as Twitter or Facebook do. Only if you have a verified or business account with at least 10,000 followers.

So, you need to optimize your bio content for lead-gen purposes and choose the link wisely. You can also drive additional leads by including a relevant and enticing call to action on your bio page.

Here’s a prime example from Insta-famous pup Brussels.Sprout, which draws fans towards its merch page with a CTA that promotes his favourite “pet projects”:

In this case, you should ensure that your strategy meshes well with Instagram as a whole. If you want to create your own social media marketing plan, then head to this article!

SET UP A VERIFIED BUSINESS ACCOUNT 

In the screenshot above, you can see that little blue checkmark that verifies Sprout’s status as an influential public figure. This little blue tick is a badge of honour that comes with some useful marketing perks such as: deeper insights on followers, performance analytics for posts, advertising tools, and additional promotion options within the Instagram app.

Anyone on your content team could set up a personal profile and post on your business’s behalf. So, it would be better to build an official business account for your brand’s content activities. Once you satisfy the platform’s eligibility requirements, you can request a verification badge.

ADD PLANNING EFFICIENCY WITH NATIVE SCHEDULING TOOLS

A handy trick that makes an Instagram business account worth maintaining is the ability to schedule posts. In the past, this function only was available through third-party tools. Nonetheless, Instagram corrected this oversight earlier this year with the launch of its content publishing API, which allows businesses to schedule up to 25 photos and video posts within 24 hours.

It isn’t a drastic upgrade, but still significant. This tool can make your content campaigns easier to manage and remove some time constraints required of your social media team. Also, the added bandwidth can be reallocated to monitoring and responding to comments your audience shares about your post, or potentially taking part in other relevant social trends, memes, and cultural conversations that may arise unexpectedly. 

For example, Coca-Cola. They are the masters at this!

For additional ideas on how to position your Instagram efforts to achieve your content marketing goals, check out Ann Smarty’s post on ways to increase organic clicks and leads from Instagram.

CRAFT YOUR CREATIVITY WITH CARE 

It’s all about the visuals on Instagram! So, show off your most aesthetically pleasing brand imagery and supply descriptions that draw viewers deeper into your brand experience. Also, make sure to consider all of the senses (sight, touch, taste, hearing, and smell). This can drastically heighten the experience for your audience.  Fortunately, any business with a signature aesthetic can be successful with Instagram by using stylized imagery and sharing its perspectives and attributes in a unique way.

A great example of this is Apple, which make you want to experiment with your iPhone’s black-and-white photography settings!

If you need to trigger a flow of creativity for your Instagram content, then head over to our brainstorming article! Now go and share your captivating content with the world!

PUT YOUR BRAND VALUE AND VISION ON DISPLAY 

Even if your content team is photo-phobic, Instagram has a lot of other creative options. For instance, SaaS business Atlassian uses a simple, static graphic to take a stand on an issue and drive traffic to its latest podcast episode along the way.

As well as this, text-centric messages offer designers a chance to flex their font-related creative expertise. Olga Rabo shares nine expert-level font hacks, including a way to incorporate animation to help bring more visibility to your Instagram stories.

So, don’t feel limited to one creative avenue. There is a multitude of paths for you to explore on Instagram.

PLACE FOCUS ON YOUR FOLLOWERS 

No matter what content media and design techniques you choose, Instagram works best when you appeal to the interests of your target audience members. It’s their community sandbox, after all.

It is essential that you form a connection with your audience, in order to give them a personal reason as to why they should choose your business over your competitors. This may be a particular ethos that you hold in high regard. Or, it could be an upcoming event within the community. The aim is to find something which you know your audience will be actively excited about, and respond to.

These community-building tips crafted by Monina are extremely beneficial in helping you with this task. 

EXPLORE INSTAGRAMS NEWEST FEATURES 

Even the most captivating experiences on social media can start to feel a little stale. So Instagram takes user fatigue to heart, and continually introduces new products and features, refreshing its old programming to capitalize on new trends. As well as strengthening its value for marketers and creators, like you. 

So I guess you’re wondering, “how can I use these new features to my advantage?”

Well, it’s easy! Here are a few of the latest developments. There are a few which fall right in line with the company’s plans to pivot toward video, entertainment, and creator services:

Text translations and captions: 

Instagram recently launched a panel. This tool enables text overlays and captions to be instantly translated from the original language to the user’s preferred language. In particular, it is useful for brands that target multicultural audiences or operate across multiple global markets.

Extended access to insights:

 Instagram has also announced that it would be doubling its timeframe for tracking and analysing performance data (from 30 to 60 days). 

As well as this, it also released a calendar tool in Insights which enables businesses to choose custom dates for their account metrics.

 

Highlighting diverse accounts and stopping abusive messaging:

 In June, Instagram enabled Black-owned U.S. businesses to self-identify and amplify that distinction with a badge on their profile and product pages. 

Earlier in the year, Instagram also issued an update on how they are going to discourage and penalize users who send abusive or harassing messages through DMs or post as comments.

Helpful, right!

Video remixes: 

Instagram has also launched a Remix function for its short, entertaining video content shared as Reels. This tool gives users the ability to include other people’s content within their videos, similar to TikTok’s popular Duets feature.

I bet you’re gonna give that a try now!

Live Rooms: 

Earlier in March, IG opened up an additional creative option which was the ability to collaborate with up to three additional accounts on a livestreaming video. This is an ideal feature for hosting live Q&A interviews, putting on a show, or even providing a behind-the-scenes view of how your remote teams operate in real time.

So, what will you be live streaming next?

New professional dashboards: 

In January, all creator and business accounts were provided with a centralized dashboard. Here you can discover trends and insights, track content performance, and access additional brand-building tools and products that can improve the impact of their efforts.

 

DISTRIBUTE AND CONQUER 

Even if only a small percentage of Instagram’s billion monthly users regularly post updates and stories, your brand still needs to battle through a lot of content clutter. Because of this, promoting your posts on Instagram is as important as it is anywhere else in your marketing mix.

So, how can you ensure that your Instagram business is seen by your audience?

Well, it’s simple! Follow these steps: 

 

HASHTAGS:

In Robert Katai’s article on Instagram marketing, he outlines the two types of hashtags you can use in your Instagram campaigns:

• Branded hashtags: These feature your company name,. This makes it easier for people to be aware of your company, to discover your content, and to learn more about you.
• Community hashtags: These are more organic to the conversations happening. They help users follow broader topics, specific areas of interest, or other unifying themes.
• Budgeting towards performance: Paid promotions are another great way to boost your brand’s reach and engagement.  You can purchase promoted posts and display ads within Instagram’s regular content feed. Or, you can promote your content by placing ads within Instagram Stories. These display your campaigns between image focussed and video-centric stories which users will click to view.

 

ENLIST POWER PLAYERS 

Where would content marketing on Instagram be without recommendations from its swarm of influencers? Influencers are the leading voices, the brand ambassadors who have already earned the trust and attention of your target audience.

An example of this is are Instagram story takeovers. This is where an influencer of your choice takes over your brand account, and produces exclusive content for a designated time (typically a few hours or a day at most). 

This is a brilliant technique since the influencer’s audience isn’t urged to follow your brand, but rather they are encouraged by the influencer to see what he or she is doing on your brand’s account. This subtle promotion is more effective to increase reach and drive traffic from Instagram Stories to your site or special offers.

For more information on how to utilize your own Instagram stories, then head over to this article for further guidance!

 

STAY OUT OF SOCIAL HOT WATER 

Sharing is always caring, but posting someone else’s creative property without securing permission is never cool. Potentially, it could put your business in legal jeopardy. If you want to mitigate your brand’s risk then you need an understanding of copyrights and the terms for fair use. It’s vital that you know this!

Read more about social media legal ins-and-outs in this article by Allen Murabayashi, which includes tips to help keep your content on the right side of the law.

Overall, whether you share sumptuous photos to livestream your most memorable moments. Or, you want to inspire viewers with fun remixing activities. Instagram is a great platform for putting your brand’s best content assets on display. How are you using the channel to connect with your audience? Paint your picture of Instagram success in the comments.

 

Congratulations! You have just been taught ten detailed Byter tips and tricks on transforming your Instagram business. Now it’s time to put these tips and tricks to the test, and get your Instagram growing as much as it can. Don’t forget to let your family and friends know about your newfound skills from a London Digital Marketing Agency. Also, be sure to let us know how you do on you Instagram business path. We’d love to hear about it!

 

If you want to strengthen your content marketing skills, then explore more of our detailed articles! We want you to be the best you can be!

What is it?

Otherwise known as the marketing mix. This marketing mix is a combination of factors that can be controlled by a company to influence consumers to purchase its products. The 7Ps acronym helps you sum up all the things in and around your product that you need to take into account when trying to market it. 

The acronym was originally coined in the 1960s as 4 Ps: 

1- Product, 

2- Placement,  

3- Price, 

4- Promotion.

Then, in the 1980s the other three more were added: Physical evidence, People and Processes.

When you have a product and you are attempting to figure out how to sell it, you need to ask yourself these questions about it. The 7P acronym is a simple mnemonic to help you to remember all the aspects of your product so that you do not miss a crucial part.

The 7 Ps

1- Product

What is your product? What problems does your product help solve for customers? Why is your product the best one to solve it? 

2- Price

What is the price of your product?The price of your product is based on what your customers are prepared to pay.Otherwise known as your customer’s perceived value of your product, and should of course result in a profit for you.

3- Place

Where your product is displayed and sold? How does this solve a customer problem? It could refer to anything from a warehouse or a high-street store to an e-commerce shop or cloud-based platform. With the invention of social media stores on facebook and instagram it is becoming increasingly easier to shop and advertise online

4- Promotion

How are you marketing this? Promotion refers to your advertising, marketing, and sales techniques. Influencer based? Are you going to do product placement in movies? Are you going to pull complicated marketing stunts?

5- People

The ‘people’ element of the 7Ps involves anyone directly, or indirectly, involved in the business-side of the enterprise.Your staff, your customer service.

6- Process

Describes a series of actions that are taken in delivering the product or service to the customer. Examining the process means assessing aspects such as the sales funnel, your payment systems, distribution procedures and managing customer relationships.

7- Physical Evidence

Physical evidence often takes two forms: evidence that a service or purchase took place and proof or confirmation of the existence of your brand.Validation essentially refers to visual aspects or quantifiable features of your brand, such as your website, your logo, business cards, a sign on your building, the brand’s headquarters and equipment, and your social media presence.

The 7 Ps are used by companies to identify key factors for their business, including what consumers want from them, how their product or service meets or fails to meet those needs, how their product or service is perceived in the world, how they stand out from their competitors, and how they interact with their customers. 

Good luck and happy marketing!

Market demand is the total amount of goods and services that all consumers are willing and able to purchase at a specific price in a marketplace. In other words, it represents how much consumers can and will buy from suppliers at a given price level in a market.

Now, how do we determine market demand? What techniques and technologies can we adopt to help us understand what the market is demanding? Can SEO research aid us in determining market demand? People who opt to following their gut instincts when figuring out market demand can sometimes lead to incorrect analogies, which then leads to pointless campaigns, wasted money and time.

What are the benefits of calculating market demand

To help marketers and business start-ups there are great softwares, apps and technologies that gather correct data based on customer behaviours, this information can then be evidenced forecast to help evaluate whether a business venture is feasible or not, we’ll talk about these later.

On top of figuring out whether a product will sell or not, there are lots of other insightful reasons for calculating product demand that will help you make better-informed business decisions. For example, knowing how high the demand for a product is informs pricing strategies and being aware of the type of people who will be interested in your product helps craft marketing initiatives. 

What determines market demand?

There are several factors you need to be aware of when calculating market demand:

• Number of people actively searching for a product like yours
• How many people are willing to pay for a product like yours
• How available your product is for purchase, considering your own company and your competitors selling the same/ similar products

What technology can help determine market demand?

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s get on to the good stuff. You are probably wondering what technology is out there that can help you perform your market demand analysis. There’s two great tools you’ll need to make use of:

• Search engine optimisation (SEO) tools

There are countless free SEO tools out there that you can use to gather insights about your product or service. These tools will tell you search volume, so you know how many times on average people are searching for the product each month, and keyword suggestions, which tells you how often people are searching for related terms. SEO tools can be a great source of inspiration as they will help you determine how frequently users are searching for your product and related terms. You can even filter your searches by location and time period which will give you specific brand insights that can inform your focus and decisions moving forward. 

Here are a few of some great free SEO tools:

1. Aherfs’ free SEO tools 
2. Google Analytics 
3. Keyword Hero

• Social Media Platforms 

Social media platforms can give you a wealth of data that you can use to inform all kinds of decisions you make related to products, marketing strategies and your overall brand identity. By simply searching specific keywords you can see all related posts informing you who’s talking about them, the general sentiment behind, where people are talking about them and what they’re saying.

• Social Media Insights

A great way to further understand market demands is on social platforms. Instagram has a built in feature for business accounts called Instagram insights, providing information on customer demographics, high and low content interaction, gains and losses on follower count, post reach and so much more (read more about instagram analytics here). Using this free built in feature on your social media accounts can provide you a greater understanding of what your customers like to see, what they demand for and what type of content really resonates with them. 

What other methods can I use to determine market demand?

There are other, more traditional, methods for calculating market demand. For example, you could carry out surveys or questionnaires either on social media or via email. Aim to reach as many people as possible with this method because the greater the scope you create, the more accurate and informative your market research will be. 

Another promising method is planning and executing experiments which, although these can be expensive and time-consuming, offer very informative results. An example of this might be offering a new product at a discounted price for a limited time which will encourage a large number of purchases. From this, you can determine who’s interested in your product and gather feedback from those who have bought it. 

Thinking up a new business idea can be really exciting, but knowing your idea will work is even better. We hope you’ve found this article useful, and if you have any questions we’d love to hear from you! You can contact us here. 

From May 2021 your website traffic might go down (or up). Why? Because Google is implementing a brand new algorithm designed to change the way websites rank on search results. Google’s aim is to provide a positive experience for users interacting on the web. That’s why they have come up with a way to measure and prioritise user experience. Welcome to the page experience algorithm. 

In this post, we’re going to explain to you what the new algorithm is, and show you how to combat it so that when May comes around your traffic doesn’t plummet. You’re welcome. 

An explanation of the Google Page Experience update

By introducing the following three metrics, Google hopes to decrease common frustrations users have whilst interacting with web pages:

• What speed does the page load at?
• How soon is the page interactive?
• How stable is the page?

By prioritising the webpages that positively satisfy these metrics, Google hopes to recommend those which are easy to use and well-maintained first. 

If you want to really get to grips with the upcoming changes, here’s our breakdown of the technical details…

These are the core web vitals that will impact your site’s traffic: 

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)

This is the main metric for page load speed. It measures how long users have to wait before large blocks of content load such as images, videos and chunks of text. Page content that takes more than 4 seconds to load will rank poorly, to improve your LCP measure, consider doing the following:

• Scale down image sizes so they load faster
• Use a size loading optimizer plugin
• Boost server speed

 

• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

We’ve all been there, opened a page and tried to click on something before it’s fully loaded, and then by the time it does load, a shift occurs that changes the location of where we clicked. It’s a real pain and this metric measures just that. Unexpected element shifts can cause unwanted interactions, to avoid this make sure elements on your page do not suddenly change in size between the first and final loading. 

 

• First Input Delay (FID)

This one measures how soon you can interact with elements on a page, or how quickly these interactive elements respond to user action. A good measure for this is 100 milliseconds, and anything longer than 300 milliseconds is, well, too long. You can improve on this by using a good programmer to test, audit and optimise the code. 

What will make pages rank high?

Any pages that are tailored to answering specific queries from a targeted audience to influence conversion rates will be ranking high once the new Google algorithm takes off. This is because conversion rate optimisation (CRO) techniques also influence the user experience (UX). Simply put, Google will be looking at how effective your conversion strategies are in prompting users to take the desired action. 

Our recommendation is this:

• Quality content should remain your top priority. 
• SEO continues to be relevant.
• Regular testing is essential.

Combatting the update

We don’t want to worry you, we just want to prepare you… Here are some actions you can start taking to ensure your site continues to rank well after the update:

• Try out the Core Web Vitals report which will identify areas on your webpages that need improvement. 
• To fix any issues reported by the above, such as slow page loading, try Lighthouse and Page Speed Insights. 

We hope this post has helped you get to grips with the changes coming in May. If you need any help ensuring your page content meets the requirements of the new Google algorithm update, feel free to contact us. We’d love to assist! 

Business Event Marketing

A great way to attract new clients and grow your business is by hosting an event where like-minded people from relevant industries can gather to, learn, network and form beneficial relationships aka a Business event. Do this by planning Business Event Marketing.

For many organisations these events can be one of the most successful outbound strategies because of the positive face-to-face interactions between their brand and others, making it easier to gain and retain clients. 

Hosting a business event isn’t all smooth sailing though, it can be really difficult to attract people to attend them, especially when competitors are hosting events around a similar time. To help you make sure your event is a success, we’ve got some tips to help you spread awareness early, quickly and effectively. Business Event Marketing has many forms, which we will dive more into now.

Reach a wide audience with Business Event Marketing

To have the highest possible chance of attracting lots of businesses to your event, you should utilise multiple channels for spreading the word about your event. 

Business people are busy. So if you want to catch their attention you’ll need to approach them from many different angles. Here are four channels that we believe you’ll have the greatest chance of success in reaching them on:

• Email

A fast way to reach your target audience is via email marketing; a channel that allows you to directly communicate with your existing contacts who might be interested in attending the event. There are also ways to gain new contacts and build up an email list of potential attendees, we’ve written an article that shows you how to do this, read here. 

• Social media

It is almost guaranteed that the majority of your target audience will use at least one form of social media. That’s why we’re telling you to post on all of them. Social media marketing is a great way to catch your audience’s attention, post about your event on Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter, and Pinterest. Facebook also allows you to create events that you can promote to reach your target audience. You can get great results from both organic and paid promotions using social media, so it’s suitable for all budget sizes. 

• Event sites

Websites such as Eventbrite are not only the perfect place to broadcast your event, but they’re super handy too. You can use these websites for registration and selling tickets as well as promotion. This method will only work on people already searching for events like yours though, so opt for a combination of these four strategies if you want the best results. Business Event Marketing should be a part of your digital marketing strategy.

• Direct mail

The power of good old fashioned direct mail should not be underestimated. This method still works well for business marketing, and although it may be going out of style, it can actually be a unique way to stand out from your competitors. You have the option to send postcards, brochures, letters or leaflets that contain relevant information about your event and a strong CTA (call to action) directing your audience to get in touch. 

In addition to these outreach methods, we’ve got plenty of other tips for building a buzz around your event…

• Create an event microsite for Business Event Marketing

Give your event a boost by creating a standalone website dedicated to it. This will serve as a landing page for all your outreach, and keep the focus on your event. Including high-quality content relevant to the event on your microsite will boost SEO and draw in leads from search engine result pages.  Another item for your Business Event Marketing.

• Make sure event outreach is mobile-friendly

A substantial amount of your target audience will access event information and content on their smartphones. If your outreach doesn’t format properly on these devices, you risk losing a lot of potential leads. We recommend building a separate, unique interface for mobile devices so that users get the most seamless experience possible. 

• Maintain event tech year-round for business

A successful event can be a great springboard for future ones. Make use of the existing buzz and try to keep your attendees engaged year-round in anticipation of your next event. Here are some ways you can do it:

1. Pack your microsite with on-demand content that’s accessible year-round and notify attendees every time you upload fresh content.
2. Maintain an active discussion forum so that attendees can ask questions and seek opinions on industry topics. 
3. Build hype for your next event with promotional content such as images, graphics and videos. Success stories and important statistics from your last event will help attract new attendees.

We hope these tips are useful, and we’d love to hear how you get on with your next business event. If you need a helping hand we can handle all things digital for you, get in touch today and let’s chat!

Did you know there are over 4 billion email users worldwide? That’s more than half the world’s population and shows that email marketing is an opportunity your business can’t afford to miss out on. Whether you’re a small business with limited resources or a large business with an enormous budget, email marketing is a strategy that anyone can master and benefit from. 

In recent years social media has become the digital marketing tool that everyone’s talking about, and email marketing is often looked at as a thing of the past. However, email marketing is still up there as one of the best. In fact, according to a study done by McKinsey & Company, Email marketing can be up to 40 times more effective than social media. The key to this success is ensuring your email marketing meets the following three necessary elements:

• You do not bombard your recipients with emails. 
• Your emails contain high-quality content that meets the interests of your recipients.
• You include a compelling CTA, (call to action). 

What is email marketing?

Before we show you how to conduct the perfect email marketing campaign, let’s start with a definition of what it is. 

Email marketing is a digital marketing method that uses email to promote products or services and encourages brand loyalty. Email marketing aims to build customer relationships and keep customers engaged between purchases. In it’s simplest form email marketing is a type of advertisement.

So now we’ve covered the ‘whats’ let’s cover the ‘hows’… here are our four steps explaining how you can build the perfect email marketing campaign. 

Step 1. Plan your email marketing strategy

Planning is an essential part of building your campaign. Your emails are at high risk of becoming lost in overcrowded inboxes or getting sent straight to spam. That’s why it’s crucial that you strategise your approach. Here’s a little roadmap of how to do it:

• Define your audience

Just like every other marketing strategy, you must begin by creating your buyer persona. Who will you be sending your emails to? What are their needs and pain points? This is who you will tailor your email content to. 

• Set your goals

Motivation comes from having something to work towards, so research email statistics for your industry and set yourself some realistic benchmarks. 

• Choose your Email campaign type

There are lots of different types of email campaigns that suit different industries and recipient demographics. For example, standard promotional campaigns, newsletters, product announcements, abandoned carts, and more. Decide which campaign is best for your audience.

• Create a campaign schedule

The best way to stay organised and make sure your campaign doesn’t lose momentum is to stick to a schedule. When deciding how often your emails will go out, first consider how often is too often? i.e. don’t bombard your recipients, and secondly, think about what is the right length of time to leave between emails to ensure your recipients don’t forget about you. 

Step 2. Build your email list

Once you’ve finished planning your campaign you can start putting it together. Start by building an email list of eager prospects that are interested in hearing from you. Wondering how to do that? We’ve got you covered.

There are two elements to building a healthy email list, the first involves using lead magnets to lure in potential customers, the second involves producing compelling opt-in forms. Let’s take a look at these in more detail…

Lead Magnets

If you want to generate an authentic list of emails from people who are actually interested in what your business has to offer, then using lead magnets is a great method for naturally attracting these prospects. A lead magnet is essentially a piece of content, related to your industry, that you offer to people for free in exchange for their email address. Examples of lead magnets are:

• Ebook
• Whitepaper
• Infographic
• Template
• Webinar
• Software or tool

Lead magnets are effective for two reasons. Firstly, because lead magnets are related to and relevant to your business, they attract the right kind of prospects who fit your buyer persona and secondly, because they actually work, people tend to be willing to hand over their email addresses if they’re going to receive something of value to them in return. 

Opt-in forms

You’ve created an attractive lead magnet, and it’s drawing interest from potential customers. What next? This is where an opt-in form comes in. Not having one is the only thing stopping your future leads from accessing the incredible asset you’ve designed for them and stopping you from securing their email addresses. 

What is an opt-in form you ask? It’s a digital form containing a few simple fields to be filled in by your prospects. Once the form is completed, your potential customers will be granted access to your lead magnet, and you will receive the information they entered. 

Here are three things to remember when creating your opt-in form:

• Keep it simple

A lengthy form with too much copy and an excessive number of fields to complete will deter your future leads. Only ask for basic information and keep it to the point. 

• Make sure it’s attractive

Your opt-in form is the first thing people see so the design work needs to be tip-top. Consider adding an attention-grabbing header that will excite people and persuade them to sign up. 

• Only add relevant info

Your primary goal is to get people to sign up, but don’t do this by embellishing or through deception. Make sure all the information on your form is relevant and an accurate description of what they will receive. 

Step 3. Send your emails 

After all the time and effort that went into building the perfect email list, wouldn’t it be a shame if your email is sent straight to spam? Well, that’s exactly what will happen if you lose momentum now. Before you send your email, there’s a little more hard work to be done. Don’t worry though, it will pay off. Here are the next things you need to do:

Choose an email marketing service provider

Since you’re going to be sending out a lot of emails, it’s only wise to choose an email marketing service to support you in your marketing efforts. These are simply tools or software that allow you to design and personalise professional-looking emails which can then be scheduled and sent en-masse. They also offer a breakdown of the data so you can analyse your efforts.

Segment your email list

Your current email list can be segmented into categories which will allow you to send more targeted emails. For example, you may want to segment your list according to age-groups, interests or preferences. This will help you to be more personal with your campaign, instead of sending out generic emails containing ‘canned’ copy. 

Craft your email

You might know what the content of your email is going to be, but do you know how to optimise every inch of it to make sure it lands perfectly? Here are our top tips for crafting the perfect marketing email:

• Write relevant and consistent copy

Try and stick to one topic in your email so that there’s a clear, defined point that your CTA will follow naturally from. Also, decide on a TOV (tone of voice) that will be iconic to all of your brand’s copy, and be consistent with it throughout your emails.

• Include high-quality images

How do you make an email look nice? By including high-quality, attractive images that will make it more interesting and break up the text. Make sure they’re relevant to your topic. 

• Add a CTA

A CTA, or “call to action” is a word or phrase that prompts a response from the reader. For example, if the aim of your email is to direct the reader to your website, tell them to click on a link to it. 

• Consider the time of day

The best time of day to send a marketing email is between 8:00 am and 9:00 am. During this time your email has the highest chance of being opened. 

• Insert an enticing subject line

The first thing your recipients will see is the subject line, think of this as your elevator pitch. In less than 150 characters you need to convince them to open your email. Be clear, concise and use enticing language. 

If you’d like to see these tips in more detail, we’ve dedicated an article to just that. Don’t say we never treat you. Read it here.

Now you’ve crafted the perfect email, you should be ready to click send. Once your email has been delivered, the waiting game begins. However, your work isn’t over yet. Next up is email marketing analysis…

Step 4. Analyse your email marketing 

Measuring the effectiveness of your marketing campaign is going to equip you to make better decisions in the future that will help you to cater for your readers and subscribers and ultimately have a positive impact on your business. Here are four key metrics you should pay attention to when measuring the effectiveness of your campaign:

Deliverability

The rate at which your email reaches the intended recipient’s inboxes. 

Open rate

The percentage of recipients that open the email.

Clickthrough rate

The percentage of recipients that click on the CTA.

Unsubscribers

The number of people who, since receiving your email, have opted out of your email list. 

A/B testing

It can be hard to tell which aspects of your email campaigns are hitting a high note with your audience and which aspects are falling short. That’s where A/B testing comes to the rescue. Here’s how to do it: 

• Choose a variable to test, e.g. CTA, images, subject line.
• Create two versions of the same email, one containing the variable and one without it.
• Simultaneously send each email, one email should go to half of your email list and the other should go to the second half of your email list.
• Now you can measure the effectiveness of the chosen variable by seeing which email performed better.

This article was a long one, we know. But we wanted to treat you to a comprehensive guide so you can make better-informed decisions when crafting your next email marketing campaign. Good luck!

As Always, Good Luck!

Many have predicted that email marketing would either fade away or be replaced and ultimately become a thing of the past. But email marketing is still going strong, and actually, remains one of the most effective marketing strategies out there. 

Since email marketing is a highly effective method for engaging potential and existing customers, it’s also one of the most common. Billions of emails are sent out daily, that’s right, daily. Many of these emails are ignored or sent straight to spam, which is simply wasted efforts. If you want to make your emails sing and compete with the rest of them, we’ve got some top tips that can help you increase your open rates and click-through rates. Let’s jump in. 

Tip 1: Segment your email lists

You probably wouldn’t tell the cashier at your local supermarket about your recent break-up, would you? That’s because, in life, we are selective about which bits of information we tell to which people. The same goes for your email lists. You don’t need to send out every email to every person on the list, you need to be selective. Segmenting your email lists can help you send out emails to the relevant recipients. For example, if you offer student discounts you could segment your email list according to age groups. 

Tip 2: Master your subject line

A great subject line can be the difference between an ignored email and an opened one. You want it to be compelling enough to persuade recipients to open the email, but not so compelling that it comes off as spammy. Nobody likes spammy. You could spell out an offer, or something exciting that’s happening, whilst also keeping it short and to the point. Subject lines with less than 50 characters tend to get the best open rates. 

Tip 3: Ensure your emails are mobile-friendly

People aren’t just checking their inboxes on a desktop or laptop, they’re checking them on the go with their smartphones too. If your email doesn’t load properly on a mobile screen, it’s bound to get sent straight to trash. Many email marketing tools allow you to test your emails so you can see how it looks on both desktop and mobile inboxes, don’t skip this step!

Tip 4: Personalise your emails

A simple trick to increasing those click-through rates is adding your contact’s name to the emails you send them. People are more likely to open emails that are addressed to them as it comes off less robotic and more personal. Plus, taking note of your contact’s previous behaviours, such as which emails they tend to open and which types of content they most interact with, will enable you to customise the emails you send out to them in future.

Tip 5: Include a clear CTA

One of the biggest mistakes people make in their email campaigns is not including a clear call to action. If it’s not immediately evident to your contacts what action they’re supposed to take, it’s likely they’ll just close the email and move on. Whether it’s making a call or opening a link, spell it out with a clear CTA. 

Tip 6: Consider the time of day

The best time of day to send emails is between 8:00 am, and 9:00 am. This is because the first thing people tend to do when they arrive at work is to check their emails, so catching them at this point is your best bet. 

Tip 7: Cleanse your email list

Your email list will degrade over time. For example, when people change jobs their old email address will become redundant. It will negatively impact your delivery rates by having inactive users in your email list, so make sure you cleanse your list by removing those addresses that haven’t been engaged in a long time. As a rule of thumb, you should be doing this once a year. 

And there you have it, our 7 top tips for crafting the perfect marketing email. If you’d like to read a more comprehensive guide to email marketing, check out this article we wrote. 

Good luck!