8 Summer Email Marketing Campaign Ideas That Actually Work

Summer Email Marketing Campaign Ideas that Actually Work

What are some summer email marketing campaign ideas that actually work?



To help you launch a successful summer email marketing campaign, we asked email marketers and business leaders this question for their best tips. From creating offline travel reads to presenting seasonal discounts, there are several summer email marketing campaign ideas that have been proven to capture the attention of audiences.


Here are eight summer email marketing campaign ideas:

  • Create Offline Travel Reads to Capture a Captive Audience
  • Think About Parents in Summer Time
  • Connect Your Emails to the Outdoors
  • Prize Draws and Contests
  • Pay Attention to Summer Sales!
  • Offer Summertime Tips and Resources.
  • Send Emails Later in the Day
  • Present Seasonal Discounts in a Travel-themed Newsletter

Create Offline Travel Reads to Capture a Captive Audience

One creative idea for a summer email marketing campaign is to send a series of “travel reads” recipients can save and read later offline while on car trips or in line at the airport. This trick capitalizes on the idle time spent journeying to summertime locations and lends you a captive audience who is likely to pay you full attention. The most crucial part of the plan is to create content that is practical and helpful and not merely advertorial and to include a call to action to draw folks back online.

Michael Alexis, TeamBuilding

Think About Parents in Summer Time

Summer time can be difficult for stay-at-home parents because they are trying to find constant entertainment for their kids while they’re out of school. While creating a summer email marketing campaign, think about how your product or service could support moms (or certainly dads) that are home with their kids all day. Could you promote something that would distract or entertain the kids? Does your product or service allow the moms or dads to relax once the kids are in bed? Does it make their day easier so they can focus on their children more? Summer means 24 hours of taking care of children for a large group, so create an email campaign that will make their job easier!

Logan Mallory, Motivosity

Connect Your Emails to the Outdoors

Summer invokes thoughts of vacations and theming your email around the positive emotions associated with sunny carefree days is a great way to build a summer email marketing campaign. Reading emails is primarily an indoor activity which is opposite of what we pair with summer, thus, creating a connection to the outdoors and activity is a must in order to build a successful campaign.

Sending emails with fun outdoor activity suggestions, a summer music playlist through Spotify, or best beaches to visit checklist, can tie your business to that theme of fun. When customers receive this email, they will feel those positive emotions and associate with your business, building the connections you desire. By tailoring your email to touch on the positive emotions people associate with summer, you will build a successful marketing campaign that will lead to conversions.

Cody Candee, Bounce

Host Competitions to Begin Conversations

In my opinion, this “begins a conversation in your community with your customers,” which in turn strengthens their loyalty to your company. The Father’s Day holiday is a great opportunity to host a candy guessing or essay writing contest for youngsters. Your summer email marketing campaign will stand out from the crowd of generic newsletters with this added touch of warmth and humanity. Competitions are a great way to develop low-cost, high-return content for your email and social media marketing campaigns. Promote contests and freebies through your newsletter and other online outlets. Prizes in Starbucks’ Summer Game competition are both enjoyable and useful, and the event is seamlessly integrated with the company’s loyalty program.

Jay Bats, ContentBASE

Pay Attention to Summer Sales

Summer holiday sales are an effective marketing campaign because consumers are primed to look for deals and are ready to shop at certain times of the year. Memorial Day and the Fourth of July are holidays where people search for steals on products and services. Back to school is another time when people are ready to spend. Tap into the natural cycle of sales for a compelling summer marketing campaign.

Sumeer Kaur, Lashkaraa

Offer Summertime Tips and Resources

Summer is the time when most people are out enjoying the sunshine. According to Marketing Insider Group, email newsletters have a 23.4% open rate. What happens after people open these emails is entirely up to the marketer. No matter what industry your business is in, you can use related summertime tips and resources in your newsletter. 

For example, if you’re running an online food publication, you can add a new summer recipe to your weekly newsletter. It’s important to include a CTA and link at the bottom like “check out more of our sizzling summer recipes”. This will drive traffic to your website by increasing engagement. Helpful tips such as how to keep your bread from molding during the summer months establish authority for the brand and drive interest by providing useful information that consumers are looking for. Tips coupled with resources create strong newsletters with higher engagement rates than those that simply include company updates or news alone.

John Cammidge, JTC Consultants

Send Emails Later in the Day

In the summer, many people are enjoying the sunshine. They’re outside doing activities. They may even eat dinner later because it gets dark later. So don’t send your marketing emails when your audience isn’t as likely to be reading. Understanding the seasonal lifestyles of your customers is a key to success.

Scott Lieberman, Touchdown Money

Present Seasonal Discounts in a Travel-themed Newsletter

Summer is a time when a lot of people travel. Beach destinations and outdoor adventures in the mountains resonate with people. Using color schemes often associated with summer such as orange, yellow, and light blue can make your email more visually appealing and relevant to summer readers.

Additionally, images of beaches or the wilderness reinforce the idea that summer is in full effect. Once you have a solid email template, write or have an email copywriter create the body of the email. Subject lines like “splash into our summer sale” or “25% off on everything under the sun” can get more people opening your emails.

Aside from offering seasonal discounts in the newsletter itself, you can include a giveaway on the landing page with travel items or tickets to a coveted holiday destination. Research from Unbounce suggests that giveaways increase subscriptions by more than 700%. With more subscriptions comes more conversions. This is how your newsletter can get more traction this summer.

Dustin Ray, Inc File

The Do’s and Don’ts of Email Marketing

The Do's and Don'ts of Email Marketing

What is the most common mistake brands make with their email marketing campaigns?


To help you identify common mistakes with email marketing campaigns, we asked marketing professionals and business leaders this question for their best advice. From not ignoring email personalization and data to including a strong call-to-action, there are several do’s and don’ts that may help you conduct effective email marketing campaigns for your business.


Here are 12 do’s and don’ts of email marketing:

  • Don’t Ignore Email Personalization and Data
  • Make Emails Natural and Avoid Branding
  • Don’t Neglect Mobile Users
  • Allow Users Control Over Their Subscriptions
  • Avoid Spelling and Grammar Mistakes
  • Don’t be Desperate for Engagement
  • Test Your Email Content for Effectiveness
  • Avoid Obnoxious Subject Lines
  • Do Not Use Black Hat Techniques
  • Make Your Emails Load Fast
  • Don’t Leave Out The Value When You Email
  • Include a Strong Call-To-Action

Don’t Ignore Email Personalization and Data

The most common mistake brands make with their email marketing campaigns is that they do not work on email personalization and don’t rely on data when setting up email campaigns. This results in low open rates, high unsubscribe rates, and high spam complaint rates. To avoid making this mistake, brands should focus on email personalization and use data to segment their email lists. This will help them send more relevant and targeted emails that are more likely to be opened and clicked on. Additionally, brands should also use data to track the performance of their email campaigns so they can continually optimize and improve them.

Iryna Kutnyak, Quoleady

Make Emails Natural and Avoid Excessive Branding 

The first step for a successful email campaign is that people open your email. Second, people need to start reading your content. This sounds easy, but in reality, companies fail on precisely these two steps. Why? Because the email is recognized as an advertisement right away. Email is the one channel where the brand does not help. 

People read emails from people. We consider emails from a company (especially if we do not know them well) as spammy. Therefore, do not brand your emails. Do not use HTML markups too much. Do not try to deliver a shiny brand experience. Instead, mimic how a natural person would write. Just plain text and probably an image. Keep it short. Do not include multiple topics. Just send out the one fact you want to convey without much background noise. People will appreciate reading information. Not an advert.

Stephan Wenger, B2B Marketing World

Don’t Neglect Mobile Users

One common mistake brands make with their email marketing campaigns is neglecting mobile users. If someone cannot read an email at a glance, they will likely simply not read it period. Having messy or warped content anywhere in the preview can put people off from reading an email out of fear it is spam or malware too. Always remember that text, graphics, etc. look different on a computer screen, versus a phone screen.

Tony Chan, CloudForecast

Allow Users Control Over Their Subscriptions

One of the worst email marketing mistakes your company can make is limiting the control users have over their settings. Let your users manage their subscriptions and give them the chance to choose the type of content they want to receive. Not assuming that all of your customers want to sign up for all your emails or newsletters shows them that you care about their preferences and helps you keep them interested. Your customers should feel excited when they get one of your emails, not annoyed.

John Cheng, Baotris

Avoid Spelling and Grammar Mistakes

Simple spelling and grammar mistakes. I just don’t trust a brand when they send me marketing emails and I catch easy spelling and grammatical errors. The company loses my trust immediately because it shows me they don’t respect their customers. If a company can’t put the time and effort into doing a simple spelling and grammar check, why should I expect them to put time and effort into their product, or customer satisfaction? If a company doesn’t respect their customers, why should customers respect them?

Karim Hachem, Sunshine79

Don’t be Desperate for Engagement

You know that feeling you get when you walk into a furniture store and a salesman rushes you before you’ve even had a chance to get your bearings? Don’t be that. There are few bigger turn-offs to email list subscribers than being bombarded with front loaded content. Lambasting consumers with emails right after they sign up for your email listing are surefire ways to get labeled as spam in their minds. And we all know where spam goes. Don’t be desperate for engagement. Design your email flow to be conscious of your readers’ time and personal agency. It’s always better to have one email over a six that got tossed in the trash bin.

Alex Chavarry, Cool Links

Test Your Email Content for Effectiveness

We see many brands fail to test how effective their content converts their users. Use split testing methods to make sure the emails you send to generate leads or convert sales are using effective content to do so. Each target audience reacts differently to branded content. The best way for your business to know what they’re using as marketing content is effective is to test the content against other variations until they have optimal results. When you don’t test your content, you make a shot in the dark. To get the best ROI for your business, invest in strategic marketing testing to ensure your business can do what it’s made to do.

Kevin Miller, kevinmiller.com

Avoid Obnoxious Subject Lines

Obnoxious subject lines will deflate any email marketing campaign. Even the best products and promotions don’t stand a chance with consumers if the marketing campaign does not get its foot in the door. Annoying subject lines will get that door shut in an instance. Effective subject lines should peak the curiosity of the target audience and avoid utilizing a salesy tone. Consumers do not want to be sold over email. Email sales pitches equal spam in their mind. A true value add that is visible from the subject will grab the attention of customers. Every effective marketer should also consider testing subject lines in order to see what resonates with their customer base.

Katy Carrigan, Goody

Do Not Use Black Hat Techniques

When talking about email marketing campaigns, most mistakes fall within the category of black hat techniques for improving visibility online. One common mistake that we have experienced is adding people to newsletters that they haven’t signed up for, as well as buying subscribers. These practices might seem like they increase the reach at first glance, but can be very dangerous and harm the authenticity and legitimacy of your email marketing campaigns. This is so due to the fact that as a result of this practice, your emails will be sent to the “spam” folder, and consequently place the connection between your brand and the spam folder for the people that receive those emails. Make sure you avoid that, and only use white hat techniques to improve web traffic and brand visibility, as there are many ways to promote a successful email campaign.

Marco Genaro Palma, Genaro Palma

Make Your Emails Load Fast

If you’re sending an email to a customer or potential customer, make it a priority to create one that loads within two seconds or less of clicking. If a customer has decided to open your email, you only have seconds to make an impression. This shouldn’t mean that you stuff your email with heavy visual content like stock images and videos to a point where it affects the loading speed., set a cap on the number of images used and compress the media as much as possible to get the best of both – a shorter load time and an attractive email. Furthermore, you can consider using impactful content that grabs and keeps the attention of the recipient instead.

Igal Rubinshtein, Home Essentials Direct

Don’t Leave Out The Value When You Email

Marketing campaigns often include promotions that are content-rich, as we wish to entice our target audience by offering value, but somehow, many businesses make the mistake of removing that element in their email marketing efforts. It is important to understand that your business has more than products to offer your customers, it has knowledge and expertise. By designing your email to offer value, whether it is answering questions, providing the latest industry information, or offering helpful tips, you will motivate your customers to open your email. Neglecting to do this, and limiting them solely to advertisement status, will have your quickly losing interest, and you will see your open rates decline, as well as your subscribers.

Anthony Puopolo, Rex MD

Include a Strong Call-To-Action

Many brands neglect to include a strong Call to Action in their email marketing campaigns. One of the necessary components of driving good conversions through email marketing is including a colorful, ‘loud’ request to users to progress through the sales funnel. The best CTA’s pop out from an email, usually in blue, red, or orange, to get users’ attention about a product’s value. When the next steps to buying or browsing a product get lost in the content of a marketing email, businesses lose out on conversions due to expecting users to work harder than they likely will. 

The key to driving the best conversions is to use obvious CTA’s that make progressing through the sales funnel as easy as possible for users. Focus on your emails’ visual appeal and plant strategic CTA’s that grab users’ attention.

Shawn Munoz, Pure Relief

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9 Mailchimp Image Size Recommendations For Email Campaigns

9 Mailchimp Image Size Recommendations For Email Campaigns

What size should images be for Mailchimp email campaigns? 


To help you know the right size of Image to use for Mailchimp email campaigns, we asked marketing professionals and business leaders this question for their best recommendations. From 72 pixels per inch at low resolution to ideally 600 x 421 pixels, there are several image sizes suggested that may give you the best quality of pictures for your Mailchimp email campaigns.


Here are nine recommended image sizes for Mailchimp email campaigns:

  • 72 Pixels Per Inch at Low Resolution
  • 600 Pixels Wide
  • 72 Pixels Per Inch at Low Resolution
  • Less Than 600 Pixels Wide
  • No Larger Than 719 Pixels Wide
  • 557 in Width
  • Less Than 1MB Or 72dpi
  • No Larger Than 1200px
  • Less Than 1MB Without Compression Or Cropping
  • Ideally 600 X 421 Pixels

600 Pixels Wide

If you’re talking about size in terms of dimensions, I will propose 600 pixels wide for a picture featured in a campaign and take up your email’s entire width. I’ve found 600pixels to be excellent in all conditions after years of using Mailchimp and other email marketing tools. Height gives you more options. Because people can scroll, even on smartphones, you can take photos quite tall. If you require a tall image, slicing it into slices/chunks and layering them one on top of the other is a frequent strategy. It will appear as if they are a single image if you don’t leave any margins or spacing. Suppose you were building a tall graphic for an e-commerce store where you showcased product categories, for example. In that case, you might create the image so that you could split it into slices, each slice referring to a different category or promotion. You may even build separate links for each slice pointing to those categories.

Oliver Andrews, OA Design Services

72 Pixels Per Inch at Low Resolution

Size the image at 72 pixels per inch. For print, it would need to be around 300 pixels per inch to come out crisp and clear, but on a screen it doesn’t need to be that large. Taking the resolution down makes the file considerably smaller, so it won’t bog down your email marketing platform.

Jae Pak, Jae Pak MD Medical

Less Than 600 Pixels Wide

Mailchimp’s email templates are 600 pixels wide, so your pixels maximum should be less than 600 to render correctly. I’d suggest 564 pixels for full-width images. You also don’t want your images to be too large to slow loading time for your email recipients. In order to make your email responsive, check out Mailchimp’s website for their recommended widths based on the type of email you’re sending.

Isaiah Henry, Seabreeze Management

No Larger Than 719 Pixels Wide

If you want to make sure people can see your images, you’ll want to make sure they are no larger than 719 pixels wide. This will make sure that people on any device can see them. You’ll also want to make sure your images are no larger than 5 MB so that people don’t see “loading” bars when they open the email. For best results, you’ll want to make sure that your images have an aspect ratio of 9:16 so that they look good when they are displayed in your emails. You’ll also want to make sure you have your images edited and optimized for email so that they download quickly.

Farhan Advani, BHPH

557 in Width

For Mailchimp images, resizing photos to a width of 557 and setting “keep proportions” for their heights ensures that your image will format properly across all platforms. Images larger than a width of 557 can displace your newsletter — 557 is the ideal size for all of your Mailchimp email campaigns.

Adam Shlomi, SoFlo Tutors

Less Than 1MB Or 72dpi

When using Mailchimp for email campaigns, it is of the utmost importance to be aware of the size limitations of images. In general, the image size should never be over 1MB and a pixel density of 72. However, there are other factors that need to be considered as well.  

One main consideration is the width of the image. You can have a 1MB image, but it can be too wide. Mailchimp will try to autosize the width, but this can lead to major distortion and formatting issues. So it’s best to insert the correct width image from the start. Here’s the breakdown: Full width image – 564px; column section images – 264px; column section images – 164px  These are just basic values. The more complex the campaign, the more considerations will be needed. But, if you stick with 1MB, 72dpi, and the widths above, your campaign should run without issues.

Devin Schumacher, SERP

No Larger Than 1200px

Mailchimp images shouldn’t be any larger than 1200px wide, but the height of the image can vary based on your templates, messaging, and goals. This is important for the folks receiving your emails because if your images are larger than 1200px, the email will take longer than it should to load, which could lead to dissatisfied customers or even people choosing to just delete your email rather than wait for the download. This can often be improved by compressing images a bit, though a good rule of thumb is to consistently keep Mailchimp email campaign images 1200px wide or smaller.

Gigi Ji, KOKOLU

Less Than 1MB Without Compression Or Cropping

Keep your images under 1MB as a maximum file size, but don’t distort them through compression or cropping. Sending smaller images in Mailchimp is important to reduce lag and potential data fees for your customers, but don’t just condense or compress your images without a proper assessment. A distorted image will give off a lack of professionality, and it can do more harm than good. For that reason, send images that were initially designed small, instead of artificially compressed or cropped ones.

Alex Wang, Ember Fund

Ideally 600 X 421 Pixels

600 x 421 is the ideal size for images in Mailchimp email campaigns. Larger images will be automatically resized. Additionally, Mailchimp recommends a resolution of 1200 x 842 pixels to maximize visibility on retina displays. You should also consider any margin styles or padding in the Campaign template before choosing an image. Still, 600 x 421 pixels are the optimal dimensions to fit well with any of Mailchimp’s templates.

Ray Leon, Pet Insurance Review

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7 Mailchimp Certification Benefits For Marketers

7 Mailchimp Certification Benefits For Marketers

What are the benefits of getting a Mailchimp certification?  


To help marketers see the benefits of earning a Mailchimp certification, we asked marketing professionals and business leaders this question for their best insights. From keeping you current on trends to showing employers you are dedicated, there are several benefits of getting Mailchimp certified that may encourage you to add this program to your learning and development initiatives.


Here are seven Mailchimp certification benefits for marketers:

  • Keeps You Current on Trends
  • Learn How to Create & Automate Email Campaigns 
  • Showcase An In-demand Skill
  • Insider Access to Special Events
  • Enhances Your Credibility
  • Charge More for Your Expert Services 
  • Shows Employers You Are Dedicated 

Keeps You Current on Trends 

The benefit isn’t as much the certification itself, although that does give you access to some marketing tools, a badge, and an approved freelancer status. The benefit is what you learn in obtaining your certification. It’s like taking free marketing courses.

The amount you learn to gain certification to be a freelancer through Mailchimp gives you an edge with your clients. It keeps you current on trends and updates that are important to you and your clients.

Baruch Labunski, Rank Secure

Learn How to Create & Automate Email Campaigns 

One benefit of getting a Mailchimp certification is that you would learn how to create and send newsletters, email campaigns, and other automated emails. Additionally, you would be able to track their success using analytics, and make necessary adjustments to improve the effectiveness of your communications. You would also be able to troubleshoot any issues that may arise.

Natalia Brzezinska, PhotoAiD

Showcase An In-demand Skill

Email marketing is one of the most in-demand skills for marketers. A Mailchimp certification sends a message to employers that you are a valuable asset to a team. The more you know about how to personalize, segment, and analyze data in email marketing, the more you have to offer. A Mailchimp certification is a great thing to add to your resume to help you stand out and prepares you for a job in email marketing.

Sumeer Kaur, Lashkaraa

Insider Access to Special Events

A Mailchimp certification grants you access to exclusive events, webinars, and product news. These special opportunities, offered only to those with this special certification, are a great way to consistently feed your mind valuable insight into the marketing industry.

You can further take advantage of these benefits by networking with other like-minded professionals with similar career goals. Once you’re Mailchimp certified, a whole new world of valuable information and exclusive opportunities are afforded to you.

Datha Santomieri, Steadily

Enhances Your Credibility

Being able to flaunt a Mailchimp certification and thus call yourself a Mailchimp Partner instantly lends credibility to your credentials. This badge of honor separates you from others in freelance marketplaces such as Fiverr and Upwork in terms of knowledge and skillset. Mailchimp is widely recognized as one of the leading marketing automation platforms and email marketing services in the world, so a stamp of approval from them is an invaluable feather in your cap—it also looks great on a resume!

Jordan Duran, 6 ICE

Charge More for Your Expert Services 

Mailchimp’s certification program is a great way to show you know your stuff when it comes to email marketing. It takes just 2 hours to complete, and you can watch the video lessons on your own time. Once you pass the exam, you get a badge that shows up on your profile and is able to showcase to prospective and current clients.

When people are searching for an email expert, they’re looking for someone who’s knowledgeable and trustworthy—and Mailchimp certified tells them you are. You’re likely also able to charge clients a bit more for your services because of your certification too. Plus, if you’re looking for a job, it makes your résumé stand out.

Nick Cotter, newfound

Shows Employers You Are Dedicated 

The benefits of getting a Mailchimp certification are many, and one of the most important is that it will help you land a better job. Since many businesses and marketing agencies rely on Mailchimp for their email marketing, the demand for people with the skills to work with this software will only grow. If you are serious about landing a job in the marketing field, getting a Mailchimp certification will show employers that you are dedicated to furthering your education.

Eugene Chimpoy, Church Helper

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6 Ways To Use Canva and Mailchimp

6 Ways To Use Canva and Mailchimp

How can you can use Canva and Mailchimp, together?   


To help you best use Canva and Mailchimp together, we asked marketing professionals with experience in both tools this question for their best insights. From creating engaging email banners to newsletters, there are several was to use Canva and Mailchimp together to enhance your email communication and marketing efforts.


Here are six ways to use Canva and Mailchimp together:

  • Create Engaging Email Banners
  • Personalize Emails With Customer-Centric Designs 
  • Set Up a New Team Member Onboarding Email Sequence
  • Create Data-driven Emails With Infographics
  • Design Graphics to Fit the Dimensions You Need 
  • Create a Newsletter

Create Engaging Email Banners

You can use Canva to find visually engaging banner templates to be used as banners at the top of your marketing emails. Within these banners you can include important announcements such as big sales coming up. By seeing this aesthetically pleasing content right when opening these emails, your readers will receive a positive impression of this company as professional and creative.

Nick Shackelford, Structured Agency

Personalize Emails With Customer-Centric Designs 

You can use Canva to personalize emails to your customers. If, for example, they like a certain design of ours, we can use Canva to craft an email with that design aimed at them to help convince them to take the next step. Then, we take that design and send it to Mailchimp through Canva, directly enabling us to send beautiful, personalized emails to our customers without having to use multiple apps or programs.

Nataly Vanunu, Boho Magic

Set Up a New Team Member Onboarding Email Sequence

While usually used for customer outreach, Canva and Mailchimp make a great pair for internal email campaigns. For instance, a new team member email sequence can include timely reminders each step of the way, with one call to action in a video or presentation link.

Managing new employee onboarding reminders doesn’t have to be overwhelming or dull. Inexpensive tools like Canva and Mailchimp can support your small business growth including employee onboarding, so you can focus on quality time with your people and customers rather than manually send reminders.

Benjamin Meskin, Cabrella

Create Data-driven Emails With Infographics

Canva and Mailchimp don’t only go together with marketing. If there’s any data you’re presenting in an email, for a client, digital outreach, or within your company, you can use both programs for appeal and simplicity. You can design infographics with incredible ease in Canva by inputting the right keywords in the elements sections. They have intuitive charts and ready-to-go templates if you need a little more help with the visual presentation of the information.

Link your Mailchimp account to Canva, and you’ll be able to import these graphics seamlessly into your carefully crafted email. Presenting data with visuals can make your email more readable, unique and attractive.

Nicole Ostrowska, Zety

Design Graphics to Fit the DImensions You Need

Canva is an excellent platform to create appealing graphics for email newsletters. You can design graphics to fit the dimensions and branding of your newsletter in Canva and then upload them into Mailchimp. Graphics make email newsletters more interactive and visually pleasing. Canva and Mailchimp are best used together, like peanut butter and jelly!

Breanne Millette, BISOULOVELY

Create a Newsletter

One way that you can use Canva and Mailchimp, together is to create a newsletter. A newsletter will help your company stay in touch with customers by providing information about current events, sales promotions or new arrivals. They are also a great way for companies to promote upcoming products or services as well as share their latest updates on the business itself.

Adil Advani, MyPrep

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7 Things To Know About Mailchimp Send Time Optimization

What is one thing to know about Mailchimp’s send time optimization?    


To help you better understand Mailchimp’s send time optimization, we asked small business owners and marketing experts this question for their best insights. From understanding that automated emails are not offered to recognizing the software’s first try isn’t perfect, there are several things to be aware of before using Mailchimp’s send time optimization.

Here are seven things to know about Mailchimp’s send time optimization:

  • Automated Emails Are Not Offered 
  • It is Very Timely
  • You Still Need to Do Your Own Research
  • Mailchimp Uses Data Science
  • You Must Choose a Plan 
  • Send Time Optimization May Not Work The Same Day
  • The Software’s First Try Isn’t Perfect

Automated Emails Are Not Offered

Send time optimization is not available for automated emails. You must craft the email. Mailchimp analyzes user engagement patterns for their emails to determine the ideal time for sending an email to achieve maximum engagement. By turning on send time optimization, Mailchimp will send the email on your desired sent date at the appointed time. You can still send email campaigns, but they aren’t automated.

Bill Glaser, Outstanding Foods

It is Very Timely

Mailchimp’s send time is on point and timely. It is very difficult to stop a campaign once it is in motion and sent out. Make sure that you have proofread the material multiple times in order to see that everything is on par with messaging and it is good to go.

Shaun Price, MitoQ

You Still Need to Do Your Own Research

There has been a lot of research done about the best time to send a message to an email subscriber. Still, the answer truly lies in what works best for your audience. While Mailchimp offers time optimization as a perk, you should still do your own A-B tests to see what jives with your audience that sends messages to your subscriber count at different times. Then, use a comparative reporting feature to help identify which had the best open and conversion rates.

Stephanie Venn-Watson, fatty15

Mailchimp Uses Data Science 

Send time optimization takes a lot of the guesswork out of ensuring your email campaigns are read by your email list contacts. Using data science, Mailchimp’s send time optimization figures out when your email contacts are most likely to interact with your messages. It then schedules emails to be sent at that time, increasing the chances that they will be received and read. It’s a useful tool for increasing contacts’ engagement with your emails.

Candie Guay, Envida

You Must Choose a Plan

You have to be signed up for either the Standard or Premium plan to access Mailchimp’s send time optimization features. Consider whether you are willing to afford these plans and whether this is a worthwhile investment. You could always try it for a month or so to see if your email engagement rates increase during this time.

Drew Sherman, Carvaygo

Send Time Optimization May Not Work The Same Day

Though Mailchimp’s send time optimization is a great capability, it’s not always an option if you’re sending a same day email. You can implement the optimization tool when scheduling emails that are further out, but it can only be used when there are five hours left in the day. That five hours is based on the time zone you’ve set for the Mailchimp account.

Logan Mallory, Motivosity

The Software’s First Try Isn’t Perfect

Mailchimp counts send time optimization based on the previous behavior of recipients; however, it doesn’t have all emails in the database. The software may lack data about recipients you contact for the first time, so its estimation wouldn’t be so successful. Therefore, keep in mind that your campaign will work better and better with every use of your sending list.

Karolina Zajac, PhotoAiD

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10 Creative Virtual Assistant Jobs With No Experience

10 Creative Virtual Assistant Jobs With No Experience

I started, 7 years ago, as a Virtual Assistant, helping clients with everything from Mailchimp to invoicing to simple email communication. It was an incredible way to start working for myself from home while gaining a lot of online marketing experience.

And there are many different types virtual assistant jobs. What is one creative virtual assistant job that someone can obtain with little to no experience?   

To help you with finding a creative virtual assistant job at the entry level, we asked  CEOs and career experts this question for their best insights. From content researching to working as a social media virtual assistant, there are several suggestions that may help you find the perfect virtual assistant job in the future.

Here are ten creative virtual assistant jobs that require little to no experience:

  • Content Research
  • Virtual Assistant For a Travel Company
  • Copy Editor or Proofreader
  • Engage in Social Media Posts 
  • Virtual Administrative Assistant
  • Content Production
  • Email Marketing
  • SEO Content Writer
  • Graphic Designer
  • Social Media Virtual Assistant

Content Research

For someone looking for real-world experience in a creative niche, starting off as a content researcher could be the right fit for you. This role is typically offered by companies who are really serious about the quality of their content. The applicant would want to exhibit that they could research for content ideas and trending topics, and learning to do keyword research could even be another big plus to add to your resume.

Lindsay McCormick, Bite

Virtual Assistant For a Travel Company 

One creative VA job someone can obtain with little to no experience is becoming a Virtual Assistant for a travel company. A travel company is always looking for people who are familiar with the travel industry and can help manage different areas of the business, such as social media, customer service, and marketing. If you have some experience in the tourism field or are just passionate about traveling, this could be a great opportunity for you.

Claire Westbrook, LSAT Prep Hero

Copy Editor or Proofreader

Proofreaders and copy editors have similar goals: to ensure written material is error-free. Corrections to grammatical or stylistic problems, poor formatting, and typos are checked by proofreaders before a work is printed, published, or placed online. Copy editors do the same thing, but they may additionally edit phrases or paragraphs for correctness and clarity. Companies that produce a lot of written material may hire part-time or full-time proofreaders or copy editors, but this work can also be done as a contractor or freelancer. A proofreader or copy editor must have a thorough grasp of English spelling and grammar rules, as well as a sharp eye for detail. Experience in the company’s field or acquaintance with their style guide will be a plus. Copy editors and proofreaders frequently have degrees in English, communication, or related fields, but they can also work without prior professional experience.

Jay Bats, ContentBASE

Engage in Social Media Posts

Chances are that you have experience posting content to social media, and engaging with other people’s posts. Clients will pay you to do this on their behalf, to help them drive engagement on their own profiles. Look for eCommerce brands and others who want to engage new audiences and pitch them on the idea of hiring you.

Dennis Consorte, Snackable Solutions

Virtual Administrative Assistant

Administrative assistants may respond to emails, plan meetings, make memoranda, maintain databases and files, or execute other clerical activities as assigned by their employers. Executive assistants are administrative assistants that usually work for a company’s executives. In addition to administrative chores, they may plan their executive’s travel, take notes for meetings, and conduct research. 

An ideal candidate will be flexible in their work schedule, be well organized, self-directed, and have strong problem-solving skills. Many administrative assistants can now work full- or part-time online in an increasingly digital world. (However, not every administrative or executive assistant just works online, so check the job description carefully!) Most of these jobs require only a high school diploma, although some employers prefer a college diploma. These positions are entry-level, but executive assistant positions may require additional experience.

Sumit Bansal, TrumpExcel

Content Production

If your passion is creating, curating, and editing videos or images, you could start a VA business as a content production creator. Creating content is extremely time-consuming and most businesses don’t have time to commit to this and will look to outsource these tasks. You can offer to help with: Writing blog posts. Researching content ideas. Creating graphics. Sourcing photos. Editing pictures. Creating videos.

Stewart McGrenary, Freedom Mobiles

Email Marketing

If you have a flexible work schedule, creative teams are often looking for extra help. For example, you can help them organize their email lists so that you can learn more about email marketing. It’s super important to understand that in order to become a full on digital marketing expert. No matter what task you’re doing, make sure you’re focused and thinking about it deeply so that you can ask any questions later. This is what helps you learn and grow and shows that your interest is real.

Anne-Marie Faiola, Bramble Berry

SEO Content Writer

Creatives should consider a content writer job in SEO. This digital marketing strategy uses keywords in blog posts and websites to increase domain ratings while improving organic search methods. Most SEO agencies can teach writers a specific formula, which is great for those with little experience in SEO but a strong writing background. This is a career that is easy to learn, with or without a college degree.

Lillie Sun, Three Ships Beauty

Graphic Designer

Graphic designers create images that communicate an organization’s, brand’s, or individual’s ideas, messages, and aesthetics. Graphic designers use text, images, or both to produce digital art or transform handmade art to digital. Graphic designers can create logos, product packaging, infographics, social media imagery, and even website and software aspects. An online career, graphic designers operate mostly alone utilizing a computer and other equipment they may easily keep at home after they know what their employers or clients require. 

For their own or clients’ graphics, some organizations hire full-time or part-time designers, while others build partnerships with freelancers or contractors they admire. A graphic designer must be creative, artistic, and proficient in the newest design, picture, and layout applications. You’ll also need good communication skills to ensure that you and your client are on the same page.

Jamie Opalchuk, HostPapa

Social Media Virtual Assistant

A social media virtual assistant. It’s a field that has a higher amount of entry-level job postings. They need to ask for something, so what is usually required? Proficiency in social media platforms, which everyone has to an extent in this day and age. They may ask for experience using Canva, a graphic design platform. The platform itself is so well-built and intuitive, it’ll take you 15min to get the hang of it. And just a few hours to understand its functions. Very easy. Apart from that: general communication skills along with an ability to cater them to a specific social network, and an eye for aesthetics. Again, spend some time analyzing different brands or accounts on the chosen platform. You’ll find that grasping the basics is intuitive.

Nicole Ostrowska-Cobas, LiveCareer

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6 Ways Email Marketing Fuels an Inbound Strategy

What are the best ways in which email marketing fuels inbound strategy? 

To help marketing professionals truly understand the impact email marketing has on inbound strategy, we asked marketing managers and experts this question and their best tips on how to best use email marketing. From remaining relevant to nurturing your audience, there are several simple ways that may help you fuel your inbound strategy.

 

Here are 6 ways email marketing can fuel an inbound strategy:

  • Remain Relevant
  • Turn to Subscribers for Content Ideas & Promotion
  • Refine Your Brand Messaging 
  • Create Long-term Relationships
  • Open Communication and Network
  • Nurture Your Audience
6 Ways Email Marketing Fuels an Inbound Strategy

Remain Relevant

Email marketing can maintain brand awareness and nurture an ongoing relationship between the company and customers. Even if email list leads are not yet ready to close the sales funnel and make a purchase, and even if not every campaign results in conversion, sending timely emails keeps your company at the top of a client’s mind. After seeing your organization’s name repeatedly in their inboxes, leaders are likely to pay your company consideration and make a visit when finally ready to buy.

Michael Alexis, TeamBuilding

Turn to Email Subscribers for Content Ideas & Promotion

One innovative way to keep email subscribers engaged in the content you are producing is to ask for their input. Find out what topics they are most keen on seeing you publish next as blogs or long form guides. Send your email subscribers a quick survey to gather their feedback, align ideas to your inbound strategy and search rank potential, and then when you publish the new content, thank your subscribers by providing them early access.

Segment the survey respondents before you create the content and let them know they can be the first to share it if they wish before you start promoting across your social channels. It is a great way to improve your content ideation, increase organic sharing, and better align your next content pieces to what your audience wants to read.

Colton De Vos, Resolute Technology Solutions

Refine Your Brand Messaging by Funnel Segment

One inbound strategy is to use email funnels to segment different demographics in your ICP. The more precise your brand messaging is to a specific audience, the more likely they will be attracted to your brand or find your messaging relatable. The best way to pinpoint the risk areas of your funnel is to audit each segment for leads, conversions, and churn. You can do this using most analytics software and subsequently tighten your brand consistency where it’s missing the mark. 

Many companies get the basics down with inbound marketing and funnels but fall short on optimization. The more refined your brand messaging, funnels, overall consistency, and so on, the better your returns.

Zach Goldstein, Public Rec

Email Helps Create Long-term Relationships

Whenever you email people who have willingly given you their email address, it’s basically inbound marketing: your prospect has come to you. Adding email to your inbound strategy is a great way of ensuring that your message is coming to those who want to hear it, and it’s perfectly tailored to their needs.

The core of inbound marketing is producing valuable content that meets the demands of your target audiences and creates long-term customer relationships. And there is almost no better way to build a relationship than email marketing. Personalized content, automated messaging and segmented audiences are the most important and effective tools you can use. If you manage to generate content that will make your customers go “oh I really feel like they’re talking to me”, your inbound marketing will be on a great path.

Klara Dumancic, Investors Club

Open Communication and Network

Email marketing can have a positive impact on your business. There are approximately 1.3 billion email users spread across the globe, and the growing number is bringing marketers into the e-mail marketing industry. It provides an open communication system with the consumers, and the option of personalizing the email works as a cherry on top. You can sync it with CRM and improve your customer relationships and grow your business. It can influence your inbound marketing strategy by grouping your customers and providing them with relevant content. The eventual goal of turning leads and generations can be achieved with the intersection of both.

Meera Watts, Siddhi Yoga International Pte. Ltd.

Nurture Your Audience

While email marketing has its limits, it remains the most effective way to nurture people from dabbler to buyer to brand advocate. Too many marketers categorize email as a conversion channel. It certainly plays a role at the conversion stage, but its most powerful use is as a way to warm your audience up before going for the sale.

Bobby Klinck, BobbyKlinck.com

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9 Ways to be More Gender-Inclusive in Email Marketing

Email marketing video library

What is one way to make your email marketing strategy more gender-inclusive?

To help you create a more gender-inclusive email marketing strategy, we asked DEI leaders and email marketers this question for their best insights. From avoiding generalizations to using a mixed gendered content team, there are several ways to update your email marketing strategy to be more supportive and inclusive to all genders. 


Here are 9 ways to be more gender-inclusive in email marketing:

  • Avoid Generalizations
  • Don’t Focus On Just One Aspect 
  • Focus On Behavior Instead of Gender
  • Expand Your Range of Photos, Icons, Emojis
  • Design Forms that Acknowledge Gender Inclusivity
  • Provide Multiple Options On Email Sign-up Pages
  • Use “To Whom It May Concern”
  • Go Neutral
  • Use a Mixed Gender Content Team
9 Ways to be More Gender-Inclusive in Email Marketing

Avoid Generalizations

Your email recipients are likely a wide range of individuals of different races, genders, cultures, sexualities, abilities and so many other characteristics that make them unique, so your email campaigns should never try to fit your customers all into one neat little box. The language you use in your emails should never be presumptuous or niche in language but instead, should be general and address the different needs and interests of your readers. Use gender-neutral pronouns and rely on behavior metrics of your customers rather than gendered stereotypical assumptions to ensure that your emails remain inclusive to each group.

Saneem Ahearn, Colorescience

Don’t Focus On Just One Aspect 

When thinking about making your email marketing strategy more gender-inclusive, don’t just focus on one aspect. It can be easy to focus too narrowly on your email copy or images when trying to be more gender-inclusive. This can cause issues with the other aspects that are not getting as much attention. You should be giving the same amount of attention to each aspect of your email marketing strategy in order to be truly authentic and inclusive.

Maegan Griffin, Skin Pharm

Focus On Behavior Instead of Gender

Avoid segmenting your email lists by gender. Many consumers have interests that don’t conform to traditional gender roles. Instead of focusing on the gender of your customers, focus on their behavior instead. Their likelihood to open your emails provides more applicable data for you to analyze than their gender does.

Jean Gregoire, Lovebox

Expand Your Range of Photos, Icons, Emojis

Images, icons, and emojis are an integral part of email marketing campaigns today, so ensuring that these visual assets follow the rules of gender inclusivity is essential. Although representing every gender in a single campaign is not often possible, a healthy mix of different genders turns out to be a way better approach than only including one. Doing away with stereotypical visuals and putting in efforts to source the right images go a long way in promoting inclusion and painting your marketing campaign in gender-neutral colors.

Jerry Ford, 4WD Life

Design Forms that Acknowledge Gender Inclusivity

If you include a form in your email marketing campaign to collect opinions or feedback, make sure that every element in the form sticks to the rules of gender inclusivity. Collect information related to gender only if it is essential to your campaign. Even when doing so, it is preferable to ask a question on the lines of who the respondent identifies as instead of only offering them the usual traditional options. Also, do away with the now redundant title section that asks respondents to choose their preferred one.

Azmaira Maker, Ph.D., Aspiring Families

Provide Multiple Options On Email Sign-up Pages

For your email sign-up portal, make sure you have options not just for “male” or “female,” but for “non-binary,” “other,” and “prefer to withhold.” When you send emails, make sure you either aren’t using gendered pronouns at all or using the increasingly more standard “they.”

Michael Williamson, Hoist

Use “To Whom It May Concern”

Public perception of gender as a spectrum rather than a binary is becoming more and more acceptable by the majority. There are a few bureaucratic issues that appeared, such as coming up with a better and more inclusive language in a promotional/professional setting.

If you’re trying to keep up with the times, which you should, it is time to retire the old “Dear Sir/Madam” at the beginning of your emails. With the advancements in technology, there’s a high chance that your tools know the name of the recipient, in which case your email can start with “Dear <Name>”.

If by some chance you don’t know the gender/name/pronouns of the recipient, you may address them as their department/title in the company, or if it’s a customer you may just say “Dear Valued Customer”. It may be better to be awkwardly formal and write “to whom it may concern” rather than assuming someone’s gender and their pronouns.

Gosia Hytry, Spacelift

Go Neutral

One easy way to make your email marketing methods more gender-inclusive is to simply omit gendered content altogether. If you tend to reference women in your emails, as an example, a gender-inclusive practice might entail shifting to a second-person perspective or using only gender-neutral language. Naturally, this tactic won’t work for every brand or business, but thinking about how you can achieve a gender-neutral approach can still be productive.

Consider your current use of language, images, and even colors. Identify if there are any areas where you can make small changes to reduce unconscious bias. For example, be mindful of the language you use; even when not explicitly gendered, many words have gendered connotations that can alienate some of your leads and dismiss others. At the end of the day, evaluating your current strategies and honing in on areas that promote a gender binary or fail to include diverse genders can help you identify areas of improvement.

Sydney Fuhrman, Conklin Media

Use a Mixed Gender Content Team

One surefire way of delivering a more gender-inclusive email marketing strategy is to infuse your email content team with multiple perspectives. If you already utilize a team approach to running your email marketing campaigns, ensure you have at least one male and one female on the team. Likewise, if you currently just have one person managing your email marketing, consider adding a second person to the team, or at the very least seeking input from another person on the broader marketing team of a different gender. 

For gender-inclusivity it all starts at the top with the people that create the content. Thus, the more that you can create a campaign based on an amalgamation of views and opinions, the better off you’ll be. Even if we think we are unbiased and can incorporate gender-inclusive views into our content, the truth is that everyone has unconscious biases. Not to mention, we simply lack the life experience of the other sex to connect fully with them.

John Ross, Test Prep Insight

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12 Company Swag Ideas For Remote Employees

12 Company Swag Ideas For Remote Employees

What is one company swag idea that is good for remote employees? 


To help companies come up with swag ideas for remote workers, we asked creative professionals and business leaders this question for their best advice. From insulated lunch bags to portable power banks, there are several company swag ideas that remote employees will actually use and enjoy for a long period of time. 


Here are 12 company swag ideas for remote workers:

  • Branded Insulated Lunch Bags
  • Clever Tea & Coffee Accessories
  • Send New Hire Swag Packs
  • Custom Thermos
  • Self-Care Swag Box
  • Branded Headphones
  • An Item They’ll Actually Wear Out in Public
  • Warm Up With Insulated Mugs
  • A Custom Memory Foam Seat Cushion
  • Cocktail Kits
  • Custom Business Card Holders
  • Portable Power Banks

Branded Insulated Lunch Bags

Swag should be practical and useful, especially if it’s being sent out to a hybrid team made up of in-house and remote employees. Something simple, like a branded insulated lunch bag, can be easily mass-produced and shipped everywhere, and be of benefit to employees near and far. Even if it’s never used by remote employees to bring lunch into the office, the practicality and thought behind the swag will be what counts.

Randall Smalley, Cruise America

Clever Tea & Coffee Accessories

Most branded items will not be visible online. The exceptions are the coffee & tea accessories that could accompany colleagues at morning and afternoon calls alike. Providing thoughtfully designed tea infusers, isolative bottles, or filtering straws like those used for yerba mate can make a difference. It can also satisfy many employees, including those seeking eco-friendly options.

Michael Sena, SENACEA

Send New Hire Swag Packs

We mail a swag pack to every single employee who comes onboard Curricula. We call our team members “Curriculoos” and we want them to feel like part of our company culture from Day 1. Each new Curriculoo gets a Curricula mug, tumbler, t-shirt, hoodie, stickers, and coozie all in a branded mailer. It’s so important for new hire onboarding and training to create a great experience, especially with so many people continuing to work remotely.

Nick Santora, Curricula

Custom Thermos

Corporate swag is an awesome way for people to represent their company in and outside of the office. Maybe skip the t-shirts this round and go for something you know everyone will actually use, like a thermos. Almost everyone goes for a coffee or tea in the morning so it is almost guaranteed everyone will use it at some point and there are some really awesome customizable options. You can opt for a custom thermos featuring your company’s logo, and for the ecologically conscious, you can find retailers who have recycled material options. If you give it some really good thought you’ll have a gift that everyone will think is pretty cool!

Tom Mumford, Undergrads

Self-Care Swag Box

A self-care swag box is a fantastic option for remote employees, regardless of industry. Equipped with candles, bath bombs, and teas, swag boxes are a great way to appreciate those who work from home and occasionally need a short break to refresh and recharge themselves. By sending a swag box, you can show your remote employees that you care about their health and well-being.

Allan Switalski, LendThrive

Branded Headphones

More employees working from home tend to share an office space with their significant other or children. Providing them with company-branded headphones can ensure that company conversations are kept private and enable their family members to stay in the office space with them. They also have the opportunity to listen to their favorite music to drown out noise or to help them get through the day.

Annette Harris, Harris Financial Coaching

An Item They’ll Actually Wear Out in Public

So many times, people are given swag that will stay confined at home or get lost in a drawer somewhere. I try to think about swag items as something I personally would want to wear. Something I wouldn’t be embarrassed to wear…and something I’d wear often. The point of swag is to create free marketing for your organization. If you want it to be worth it – make hoodies or beanies or scarfs that have the company name and a fun logo/slogan on them. Avoid obnoxious colors, pick neutral tones or a simple black/white, which will get more wearability. Essentially, the more it’s worn in public, the more eyes/awareness around your company.

Annie Raygoza, WebEnertia

Warm Up With Insulated Mugs

A great corporate gift idea is insulated mugs (with lids) which are perfect for using when you take a walk, in the car, or are working at your desk. That’s something employees will actually appreciate because it’s something they can actually use all the time. Plus, colleagues see each other using it on video chats and feel more connected (or reminded to use theirs!) It’s a win-win, and if you get a high-quality one they last a really long time.

Lisa Odenweller, Kroma Wellness

A Custom Memory Foam Seat Cushion

Give your remote employees a custom swag item that will make them more comfortable as they work from home. A cool item would be a memory foam seat cushion. This is a creative solution to a common problem that remote workers face: their home office chairs are not comfortable. A memory foam seat cushion will not only alleviate the pain they feel in their bottom, but also in their back, legs, and hips.

Melanie Bedwell, Olipop

Cocktail Kits

One gift that can be sent out to remote workers but also will help build your team would be cocktail kits. Though you would not be able to mail alcohol to your employees, you can include all the necessities of a cocktail such as glasses, coasters, shakers & dry ingredients to top off the drink. After sending them out, plan an after-work virtual happy hour where each employee shows off their creation and plays some games. Gifting an item that leads to an event will not only bring your team together without being in person but also strengthen employee relationships with one another in a relaxed setting.

Sacha Ferrandi, Source Capital

Custom Business Card Holders

Personalized business card holders are practical gifts that are appreciated by anyone who’s always giving their old, beat-up one away at networking events or other professional gatherings. With personalized business card holders, they’ll always have an up-to-date collection of contacts and will be reminded of your company every time they’re exchanging cards with someone new.

Marc De Diego Ferrer, MCA Assessors

Portable Power Banks

Portable power banks, in my opinion, are the most useful instances of luxury company swag. When an outlet is unavailable, these gadgets allow people to charge electronics such as cellphones, tablets, and laptops. Charge the bank first, then connect the gadget with a cable. These portable chargers are ideal for use during public events, vacations, and activities. The power banks can be used for both business and personal purposes by employees. The best possibilities are high-end brands, which may still be personalized with the corporate name and emblem. Because this swag is more expensive, it may have a greater influence on employees and be more impressive to onlookers.

Anjelica Rivera, Cell Tracking Apps

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13 Spam Trigger Words To Avoid Including In Emails

13 Spam Trigger Words To Avoid Including In Emails

What is one spam trigger word that is sure to send an email to spam? 

To help you know which spam words to avoid, we asked marketing managers and email copywriters this question for their best insights. From using the word “Exclusive” to “Congratulations!”, there are several trigger words that should be avoided to prevent your emails from landing in a spam folder. 

Here are thirteen spam trigger words to avoid:

  • Friend
  • Order
  • Exclusive
  • Services
  • Click
  • Alert
  • Bargain
  • Investment
  • Congratulations!
  • Opportunity
  • Free
  • Guarantee
  • 100% Satisfaction

Friend

A trigger word that you should look to avoid is using “Friend” to refer to your email recipient instead of their actual name. This is an indication of mass email marketing and low personalization to the sender. If you are using Mailchimp, be sure to include Merge tags (https://mailchimp.com/help/all-the-merge-tags-cheat-sheet/) in your email so that your recipient’s first name appears in the greeting. There are also plenty of other merge tags to personalize your emails, decreasing the likelihood that your email ends up in spam!

Thylan Le, Markitors

Order

“Order” is a spam keyword to avoid. “Order now” should be avoided as well since both are sure to send an email directly to spam. You don’t want your customers to miss your direct marketing. You also don’t want to sound as if you’re making a demand of the customer. If it comes across as too forward or abrasive, it could turn the customer off. It’s best to protect your domain reputation by avoiding the use of “order” altogether.

Shaun Price, MitoQ

Exclusive

Anything labeled ‘exclusive’ in an email has normally been sent out to thousands of ‘exclusive’ customers already, if not more. And spam filters are well aware that this word is often used to lure in customers. This is why the word triggers a red flag and prompts email spam filters to send the email straight to the spam folder. Some common variations of the word you can avoid while drafting your email subject line and content are “Exclusively for you,” “Grab this exclusive offer now,” “This exclusive offer is just for you,” and the likes.

Jase Rodley, Entrepreneur

Services

Often, when an email sender uses the word “services” in their email subject line, it can be a fairly clear indicator that the offer inside will be a sales pitch for – guess what – a particular service. If you receive enough of these emails and begin sending them to Trash, this will eventually alert your Spam filter. This will keep your Inbox clean, and stop as many sales pitches from making their way through as possible.

Ryan Rottman, OSDB Sports

Click

If you really have to ask the recipient to “click” on the email, then you can pretty much guess that it’s not an email that they are expecting. And even if the recipient doesn’t recognize the sender, they may sometimes do exactly what the subject line directs them to do, and “click.” However, this word can be seen as very “spammy,” and the chances of an email like this getting past your security filters are slim.

Lauren Kleinman, The Quality Edit

Alert

When a “spammer” is trying to get your attention, they may go completely over the top with their word choices. A word like “alert” can indicate that the email contains a sales pitch that is not welcomed. The subject line may say “Alert: Special Offer” or “Alert: You’re Running Out of Time.”  These types of email subject lines aim to create a sense of urgency so that the recipient will open them right away.

Lindsay McCormick, Bite

Bargain

The word “bargain” is a trigger word that will send your emails to spam. Words or phrases that make your brand sound too discount-focused (like “cheap” or “save $”) should be avoided. Instead, focus on the specific offer and make sure to use an AB-tested subject line and clean email format. You never want to risk being flagged as a dangerous or irrelevant email.

Ryan Brown, Kenra Professional

Investment

There are corrupt people trying to take advantage of innocent ones as long as there are foolish people in the world. But that’s not always the case. The word “Investment” has no negative connotations. Nonetheless, this word is linked to unethical or illegal activity and may be flagged by the spam filter. Spam filters may consider the word “Investment” manipulative & shady. It’s worth noting that a single occurrence of these words might not be enough to set off the spam filter. So, if you insist on using this word, you should do it with caution.

Axel Hernborg, Tripplo

Congratulations!

“Congratulations!” in the subject line of an email can be tricky. The first question the recipient asks is: congratulations on what? And he already imagines that congratulations may refer to winning a prize, which does not exist, for a game he never participated in. So, these fake awards and recognitions go straight into spam!

Chiara Sternardi, PhotoAiD

Opportunity

Unless you’re a known email contact of a recipient, one buzzword that is almost certain to get your friendly email pulled into the dreaded spam folder is the word “opportunity.” The word opportunity is typically associated with all kinds of spammy and soliciting emails – the “opportunity to win,” the “opportunity to enter,” the “opportunity to save a shelter dog.” You get the picture. When someone you don’t know is emailing you, 99% of the time they’re trying to scam you or sell you something, and the path to getting a “yes” from you is through the magic word: opportunity. So my advice for all the email marketers out there – though it may be one, don’t call it an opportunity.

John Ross, Test Prep Insight

Free

Our email campaign analytics always come back with significantly low open rates every time we talk about a ‘free’ or  ‘discounted’ offer in the email. It’s even worse if you try to evade spam-triggering tools by spelling ‘free’ with spaces in between each letter.

Francine Kaye Acelar, Formicidae, LLC

Guarantee

Including the word, “guarantee” can send emails to spam. This is a sales term that is used far too often and thus should be used carefully, if at all. If you can, think of synonyms such as “ensure” (if you’re going for a verb) or consider somehow rephrasing a sentence if you were originally trying to use “guarantee” as a noun.

Schuyler Hoversten, Swoopt

100% Satisfaction

No matter how quality-driven the product is, 100% satisfaction is an unrealistic expectation and Google scans this for sure.  Make sure you don’t use this word in your email subject, title, and content. If the email title or subject line features words making unrealistic claims then the email will land directly in the spam folder. In place of this, try using satisfaction as per the standards. Exaggerating things will only do more harm than good. So, be realistic and set realistic expectations for customers.

Jonathan Tian, Mobitrix

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Top 11 Mailchimp Merge Tags to Use in Email Campaigns

What is one Mailchimp merge tag to use in an email campaign? 

To help you with your business’ Mailchimp efforts, we asked marketing experts and business leaders this question for their best insight. From utilizing date tools to adding a poll to a campaign, there are several strategies that may help you better utilize Mailchimp’s merge tags for your next email campaign. 

Here are 11 top Mailchimp merge tags: 

  • Don’t Overlook Personalization
  • Utilize Date Tools to Save Time
  • Put a Professional Step Forward
  • Confirm the User’s Email Address
  • Speak in the Reader’s Language
  • Add Convenience for Your Email List
  • Provide Dynamic Content
  • Make an Impact With Subject Line Merge Tags
  • Always Enable Users to Unsubscribe
  • Help Knew Customers Get to Know You
  • Add a Poll to a Campaign

Don’t Overlook Personalization

Without a doubt, you should make use of the “*|FNAME|*” merge tag, which inserts a subscriber’s first name into an email. Personalization should never be overlooked since people are more likely to open and interact with messages they feel are directed at them. This is true even if they know they are on a list. So, giving it that personal touch can make a world of difference for your email campaign.

Eric Blumenthal, Zoe Print

Utilize Date Tools to Save Time

We send out weekly email campaigns to our users about new opportunities on our platform. Therefore, my favorite Mailchimp tag to use is “*|DATE:X|*” which will display the current date in whatever format that you prefer. 

This tag is a big time saver when creating weekly emails. To use this tag, replace “X” with a date format, such as “*|DATE:d/m/y|*”

Thylan Le, Markitors

Put a Professional Step Forward

To insert your brand’s logo into the email utilize the merge tag | brand : logo |. This merge tag is great for inserting your brand logo into the email that you are sending to your customers. 

This personalizes the email and makes it more presentable to your customers. You will come off more professional and it will help you tailor your emails better to your audience.

Chris Gadek, AdQuick

Confirm the User’s Email Address

The EMAIL merge tag is useful in email footers. It confirms the current email address of your database contacts. This is especially important when confirming which email will be unsubscribed if the user decides to unsubscribe.

Amber Reed-Johnson, Giraffe Social Media

Speak in the Reader’s Language

It’s really important to include the language merge tag |MC_LANGUAGE|. It allows users to see content in their preferred language based on their profile information. This merge tag inserts a language code at the top. For example, it’s ‘EN’ for English.

Ryan Brown, Kenra Professional

Add Convenience for Your Email List

There is a merge tag that provides a link that says, “Add us to your address book.” This gives your email recipients the option to add your company’s email to their address books in case they want to email the company in the future. 

Down the line when one of your email subscribers is trying to find your company’s email address, they’ll be able to discover it quickly in their address books instead of having to take longer to search for it. People will appreciate this small way of making their lives a little bit easier when they want to email your company.

Joaquín Roca, Minerva

Provide Dynamic Content 

Collecting information about your audience through the Mailchimp signup form is saved in an “audience” field and tied to merge tags. As a marketer, using their services for sending email campaigns (you should be!) allows you to insert personalized or dynamic content for these people into any of those mailings they’re involved with!

Saskia Ketz, Mojomox

Make an Impact With Subject Line Merge Tags

The first thing that a person sees when opening their email is the subject line, and that is why the subject merge tag in Mailchimp is so critical. The subject acts as your call to action and drives the person to open your email. 

Mailchimp’s program allows for both a prominent subject line in the receiver’s mailbox and in the body of text. It creates uniformity while driving the topics that the sender wants to emphasize. It is the most impactful merge tag that Mailchimp offers and is the most effective in an email campaign.

Jeff Meeks, EnergyFit

Always Enable Users to Unsubscribe

You should always have the option for your subscribers to unsubscribe from marketing emails, and you can include this as a merge tag. This will allow people to click a button that says “unsubscribe” which will open up a new page where they can enter their email address to officially take themselves off the email list. If you do not include this merge tag, this will likely bring in complaints.

Mike Clare, Mood Health

Help New Customers Get to Know You

An important aspect of email marketing is to provide a history of previous links and newsletters, so as potential new customers are added to your list, they have reference points to learn about your business, which is exactly what Mailchimp’s List:RecentX merge tag accomplishes. 

This tag provides a list of recent campaigns and categorizes them according to subject matter and date. It can be adjusted to show the ten most recent campaigns or less, depending on how far back you would like your new members to reference. The List:RecentX merge tag is a great tool to demonstrate not only previous campaign highlights but to establish the history of your business.

Adelle Archer, Eterneva

Add a Poll to a Campaign

One really impactful way of gauging subscriber sentiment on a topic is through a simple poll, and Mailchimp makes it super easy. You can embed a very quick and aesthetically pleasing survey on a 1-10 rating scale right in the body of your email. 

By embedding it directly in the email, poll responses are much greater than asking users to link over to a SurveyMonkey poll through a URL. To use the “add a poll” merge tag in your campaign, just use the *|POLL:RATING:x|* and *|END:POLL|* merge tags to open and close your poll.

John Ross, Test Prep Insight

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12 Reasons Email Marketing Is Still Worth It

Why is email marketing still worth it in 2022? Please give one reason.

To help you better understand the value of email marketing, we asked marketing professionals and business leaders this question for their insights. From providing great ROI to building brand awareness, there are several reasons why email marketing is still worth it in 2022.

Here are twelve reason why email marketing is worthwhile into 2022: 

  • Retains Clients
  • Reduces Waste
  • Provides Great ROI
  • Works for B2B and B2C Campaigns
  • Saves Time and Money
  • Encourages Action
  • Hyper-Personalized Emails
  • Provides Value
  • Enables In-Depth Conversations
  • Sends Information to Select Groups
  • Gains Brand Awareness
  • Converts Leads into Clients

Retains Clients

Email marketing will continue to be the most effective and efficient means of acquiring and retaining clients in 2022. It has the potential to keep your company afloat or rocket it into the stratosphere, all while providing a healthy return on investment. It will be even stronger than before, and it will bring with it plenty of benefits and opportunities that, if fully explored, can propel your company to new heights.

Lior Abady, Boho Magic

Reduces Waste

At a physical business location, it is great to be able to speak directly with clients or hand them physical pamphlets, however, physical pamphlets are often wasteful. Most people would either throw out the page immediately or need a reminder of the information at a later date. As such, most clients would much rather receive an email with useful information and reminders of specials and events. This is why email marketing will continue to be worth it to my business now and into the future. This way, I can ensure that my resources are reducing waste, while also providing the right information at the right time to the right clients.

Vanessa Molica, The Lash & Sugar Company

Provides Great ROI

Despite the fact that email marketing is over 20 years old, it continues to play a pivotal role in modern business. In fact,according to Experian, $1 spent on email advertising shows a return between $45 – $51, making it a highly profitable marketing strategy. However, email marketing is always evolving, and you can’t expect to gain new subscribers by employing old and out-of-date content creation techniques. On the contrary, in order to capture the attention of the target audience, you must learn how to integrate traditional and digital techniques.

Vicky Franko, Insura

Works for B2B and B2C Campaigns

Email marketing isn’t dead, and it’s never been. Many businesses, large and small, are reaping the benefits of a B2B email marketing strategy. Email marketing is still one of the most efficient marketing methods for both B2B and B2C companies. Instead of debating if email marketing is still worthwhile in 2022, marketers should focus on upgrading their strategies. You can convert email into a profitable marketing approach if you pay attention to consumer preferences and follow industry best practices.

Eric Blumenthal, Zoe Print

Saves Time and Money

In 2022, email marketing will still be a very effective digital marketing strategy. Beneficial due to its low-cost, time-savings, efficiency, and accuracy, email marketing is a powerful marketing strategy in a digital marketing campaign. Email marketing is often overlooked these days, it is still a good idea to use this well-known and cost-effective marketing approach to reach out to your digital audience. All of your digital marketing efforts may be easily integrated via email. It’s also worth noting that practically everyone with internet access has at least one current email address, which is the best choice for focusing on email marketing.

Henry Babicheknko, Stomadent

Encourages Action

Let’s face it, most professionals today are frequently checking their inbox multiple times a day. Email campaigns are an easy and simple way to ignite action within your community! We use email marketing in order to send out weekly opportunities to our audience. From our email, our community can view new opportunities and easily navigate to our platform in order to act on these opportunities. This is a sleek way to reach your community and add value to your subscribers, all while being relatively non-intrusive compared to other forms of advertisements.

Thylan Le, Markitors

Hyper-Personalized Emails

Yes, email marketing is still worth it in 2022. Here is the biggest reason why: trigger-based emails. Let’s say I send someone a daily email where I talk about different topics. Let’s say day 1 is about email marketing, day 2 is about content marketing, and day 3 is about social media marketing.

I can set up different triggers to hyper-personalize the emails based on the email subscriber’s activity. So, if the subscriber ignores the first two emails and clicks on the third one, it is a signal to me to send more emails about social media marketing. Based on that click, I can put the subscriber in a different sequence built around nothing but social media content.

James Pollard, The Advisor Coach LLC

Provides Value

Plain and simple, share great content and your subscribers will consume it. Email is cost-efficient, targeted, and has outstanding conversion rates. The problem with email is so many marketers don’t provide value and soon the subscriber loses interest.  Then they either stop opening or worse unsubscribe. Either way it is hard, if not impossible, to win them back. So only send when you have great content that provides value.

Eric Rutin, Marketing Mentor

Enables In-Depth Conversations

Unlike visual forms and calls, emails have the advantage of being the best communication form for longer messages. Many people treat email newsletters similar to the press and are willing to retain their focus longer. It is also a preferred medium of communication for Generation X and those that don’t like lengthy podcasts and Youtube videos. As such, an email will remain effective in passing complex ideas and long-form content at scale and without time pressure on the reader.

Michael Sena, SENACEA

Sends Information to Select Groups

Although social media has become arguably a more popular form of digital marketing than email marketing, this is not to say that email marketing is still not important. One of the main differences between social media marketing and email marketing is that social media marketing is meant for anyone online to see, while email marketing can only be sent to a select group of email addresses from people who have previously expressed some kind of interest in your company.

Organizing these emails into particular groups can end up being beneficial for sending out strategic email blasts. For example, if you have an email list of all of your previous customers who have not done business with your company lately, you can send out a marketing email to them to thank them for their prior business and to encourage them to do business with your company again.

Amber Theurer, ivee

Gains Brand Awareness

While email marketing is certainly not perfect, it is still an important marketing tool for companies as we move into 2022. This is especially true for a new brand that doesn’t have much awareness yet. Especially when entering a saturated market, email marketing is a great tool to tell your story and offer an explanation of the value your product/service will add in their lives. Though it shouldn’t be solely relied on as a marketing source, it is highly powerful to have as part of your marketing strategy. In addition, it is cost effective, drives traffic to your company website, and gives you a space to engage with your audience by asking them for feedback through surveys, etc.

Sara Shah, Journ

Converts Leads into Clients

Even though many marketers are becoming more and more skeptical about email marketing and its effectiveness, it is an extremely powerful tool. Emailing is probably the easiest way to reach your leads and convert them into clients. Just think about it, email gives you what none of the ads or targeted sponsored content does — a person’s attention. Not to mention that it is the content they willingly signed up for to either receive curated offers or learn more about your business and its offerings. The hardest work here is done, you don’t need to fight for their attention with ads, cold calls or cold emails. They came to you because they are interested in your product or service.

Anna Klis, HelloFlow

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10 Abandoned Cart Series Strategies to Boost Conversions

Abandoned carts are sales that need a little push to close, but recovering carts require a solid plan. What is one strategy to boost conversions through an abandoned cart series?

To help you boost conversions through an abandoned cart series, we asked marketing professionals and business leaders this question for their insights. From sending follow-up emails to adding discount incentives, there are several tactics you can incorporate to increase customer conversions. 

Here are ten ideas for improving conversions with an abandoned cart series: 

  • Follow Up With Expert Advice
  • Add a Discount Incentive
  • Create a Sense of Urgency
  • Build Trust by Addressing Pain Points
  • Use Humor to Bring Them Back
  • Schedule Your Abandoned Cart Series
  • Simplify the Checkout Process 
  • Engage Them With a Story
  • Close the Sale Using Chatbots
  • Personalize Communications

Follow Up With Expert Advice

Sometimes online shoppers need a little nudge to complete their purchase, so we like to offer more information about the specific products in customers’ abandoned cart emails. As eyelash professionals, we take pride in the fact that everything we sell undergoes a detailed approval process by industry experts so we know our line of products from the inside out. 

When a customer abandons their shopping cart, we send a follow-up email about the product in their cart as well as suggestions of similar or related products. We also have written and video guides that can help potential customers select the right tools for everything from lash extension tweezers to glue to increase conversion rates.

Vanessa Molica, The Lash Professional

Add a Discount Incentive

One good way to boost conversions of abandoned carts is to send an email. But don’t forget to add a little treat inside of it as well. We never really know why someone’s abandoned their cart  — searching for a coupon, needing to rush from place to place, and the list goes on. 

When you send your follow-up email to the potential customer, keep it polite in tone and, if you can, add a small discount to incentivize them to complete their transaction. Keep it time-sensitive without being unrealistic, a max of 24 hours. This way, the customer still has some time to get through what might’ve interrupted them and, in turn, boost their chances of finishing the transaction. 

Carol Bramson, Side By Side

Create a Sense of Urgency

The best way to boost conversions through an abandoned cart series is to create a sense of urgency for the customer through catchy, on-brand language. Customers abandon carts for a number of reasons, from price concerns to just getting distracted. By using engaging language that hooks the customer and creates a sense of missing out on a big opportunity by purchasing your product, you can help them remember why they not just want but need your product. 

With Kegelbell, our sense of urgency comes from the opportunities that customers will have after using the product, which helps move them closer towards not just purchasing Kegelbell but living their best life as a result. 

Stephanie Schull, Kegelbell

Build Trust by Addressing Pain Points

A simple, low-lift tactic to increase conversion rates and reduce abandonment rates is to openly address people’s reservations about your product in a strategic way. First, this begins with getting data from your current and potential customers through the use of surveys and focus groups. It’s imperative that you find out their points of hesitation about your product. Is it the cost? Is it its durability? Is it the product’s reputation? 

Then, address these factors on your landing pages. If a majority of the potential customers site the cost as too high as the main factor they abandoned their carts, then include a discount code for a percentage of your site’s users. Alternatively, you can keep the cost at the same amount and not offer a discount but include more language about why the cost is high and why it actually adds value to the product (e.g., increases quality, allows for more investment in R&D). 

The takeaway is: provide reassurance to potential customers during the buying process so they know they can count on you — and your product.

Mike Krau, Markitors

Use Humor to Bring Them Back

The abandoned cart email is a great opportunity to be quippy and snarky in a fun way. I have found that abandoned cart emails that are variations of “Why do you hate us so much??!!” are a great way to disarm a customer with humor and bring them back to the fore. Often abandoned carts occur due to a customer having second thoughts at the last minute. Therefore, your abandoned cart email should act as a device to get them over the finish line, and often a disarming, humorous comment is just the thing to bring them back on board. 

Hosea Chang, Hayden Girls

Schedule Your Abandoned Cart Series

One strategy to boost conversions is to time your abandoned cart series perfectly. Specifically, the first abandoned cart email should take place four hours after the prospective customer’s cart has been abandoned, while the third and last email should be sent 72 hours after the first email has been sent. By providing evenly spaced emails, customers are more likely to pay attention and less likely to ignore the emails entirely.

Jameson Rodgers, CBDfx

Simplify the Checkout Process

Analyzing your consumers’ habits will help you understand their satisfaction level with your purchasing process. A great indicator is your cart abandonment rate. There was an obvious interest in your product. However, something happened between the initial search and checkout. This can indicate where there were issues. A simple trick is to make your checkout process simpler. The more steps a consumer has to take to purchase your product, the less likely they are to finalize the purchase.

Arthur Garber, Audien Hearing

Engage Them With a Story

As humans, we’re wired to love stories. When clients abandon their cart when booking a private yoga class with us, we email them with a story about how our existing clients achieved their wellness, fitness, or mindfulness goals thanks to our private classes. We make sure to write the story in a way that elicits strong emotions and encourages the user to give us a try because they too can experience the success our existing clients do. Finally, we include some stats and information to help disarm the main objections that may have held the users back from completing their booking in the first place.

Shayna Hasson, Yoga Beyond The Studio

Close the Sale Using Chatbots

The abandoned cart recovery chatbot is a very popular template. This is one of the most important chatbots for e-commerce as it solves one of the biggest concerns of store owners — abandoned carts. It is a fast, efficient, and easy-to-use solution for businesses of all kinds and sizes. Your customer adds products to their cart but doesn’t proceed to checkout. 

Your chatbot can engage them, ask a question, or offer a discount. It actually works and increases the odds of completing a purchase. The abandoned cart chatbots have one mission — don’t let customers walk away without buying! As a result, the conversion rates inevitably increase. Even if customers do not buy anything eventually, they can leave useful feedback on what you can improve. Of course, a chatbot helps with this, too.

Maryia Fokina, Tidio

Personalize Communications

Whether you choose to use paid ads or email to convert customers who left your website without finishing a purchase, personalize your communication when you reach out to the customer. One easy way to do this is to ensure your email templates include your customer’s name. But take it a step further by filtering product reviews for the items the customer had in their cart, generating personalized discount codes, and offering other products similar to or complementary to abandoned products.  
Nataly Vanunu, Boho-Magic

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10 Tips To Ensure Sufficient Coverage

10 Tips To Ensure Sufficient Coverage

What is one tip for small businesses to obtain sufficient insurance coverage?

To help small business owners with having enough coverage, we asked CEOs and business leaders this question for their best pieces of advice. From exploring dental options to asking your employees about their needs, there are several ways that may help you ensure enough coverage for years to come. 

Here are ten tips to ensure sufficient coverage: 

  • Review Business Needs
  • Consider Retirement Plans
  • Explore Dental Options
  • Go With What the Contract Says
  • Talk to More Than One Broker
  • Ask Your Employees About Their Needs
  • Retain an Insurance Broker
  • Research What is Required by Law
  • Explore Cyber Insurance Policies
  • Opt for Overall Coverage

Review Business Needs

Determining whether you have sufficient coverage depends on your business needs. Every business is different. Some factors to consider are the value of your business in terms of revenue, assets, and liabilities. You should also consider how many employees you have and the type of work they do. However, when in doubt an umbrella commercial liability policy might be right for you. These policies generally increase your liability coverage to provide additional coverage for most business liability claims.

Brandon K. Berglund, Berglund Insurance

Consider Retirement Plans 

I definitely would recommend that small businesses look into some type of retirement plan. Your business is your financial lifeline and while it can be easy to want immediate results, you’ll want to also look into a way to help you when you decide it’s time to retire. To obtain full coverage you’ll want to cover everything from disability insurance to preparing you and your employees for retirement. Small businesses will have a variety of options for them from Safe Harbor 401(k) to simple IRA. Knowing those options and selecting the best one for you and your business will help you make sure you have full coverage on all ends. 

Chris Abrams, Abrams Insurance Solutions

Explore Dental Options 

It can feel easy to make sure you have insurance for your business, but it’s equally important to make sure that you’ve got your health covered. You’ll need a variety of types of insurance while running your business. When you’re looking into business health insurance, don’t forget to explore the dental options. You and your employees will be happy to have it in case of emergencies, implants, and for regular cleaning as these are important steps for preventative care. Medical bills can be costly, so make sure that you’re carefully reading the coverage options and get the best options for whatever your budget is.

Henry Babichenko, Eurodenture 

Go With What the Contract Says

In the past, the thing that inspired our marketing agency to obtain insurance coverage was when client contracts called for the coverage. For example, one client agreement required that our agency have a $2M limit on Professional Liability (E&O). When determining what is “sufficient” coverage, I recommend using client contracts as a guide to meet external vendor requirements and ensure good coverage.

Brett Farmiloe, Markitors

Talk to More Than One Broker 

Insurance is confusing, and it can be easy for small business owners to take the path of least resistance when they look to protect their business. To make sure you’re comfortable with the choices you’ll have to make, try talking to more than one broker. While the first broker you come to may be great, or come highly recommended, it’ll be good to have someone to compare them to. You’ll also get more than one opinion on any sticky topics, which may help you understand what you really need.

Elliott Brown, OnPay Payroll

Ask Your Employees for Their Needs

It’s important to understand the needs of your employees when selecting insurance coverage options. One of the ways to do this without overstepping is to send an anonymous survey with questions inquiring about problems with current coverage options, their desired must-haves in an insurance plan, and other basic questions! This helps you see what your employees truly want and need in a plan and you can tailor your options to match those as much as possible!

Brandon Brown, Grin

Retain an Insurance Broker 

As a small business owner myself, I highly recommend not spending time shopping around for the best insurance rates. Let an insurance broker do it for your company. An insurance broker can shop for the best insurance rates for the specific needs of your small business. Retaining an insurance broker will save your small business time and money.

Tate Meagher, Meagher Law Office, PLLC

Research What is Required by Law 

Your insurance needs, in my opinion, will vary depending on a number of things, including your industry, specialty, and business assets. Purchasing business insurance may not only be a wise investment, but it may also be a necessity for your small business. You may be obliged to carry particular coverage depending on your industry, state, clients, and lenders. If you rent a commercial space, for example, your landlord may require you to get a general liability policy to protect yourself from third-party lawsuits alleging bodily harm or property damage. For business property owners, mortgage lenders frequently have similar requirements.

Eric Carrell, SurfShark

Explore Cyber Insurance Policies

Ensure to investigate cyber insurance policies that may be a wise expense to cover up gaps in coverage when obtaining sufficient insurance coverage. Most policies cover damages and losses sustained due to certain types of cyberattacks, as well as personal liability. Ensure you are protected by a policy that includes the right coverage for your needs while keeping your liabilities and operational costs low. Check out our list of best cyber insurance companies to learn about different policies that may be best suited for you. Ensure that your cybersecurity plan includes penetration testing and continuous monitoring and a plan for how to respond.

Katherine Brown, Spyic

Opt for Overall Coverage

Get a Business Owner’s Policy to ensure that your business receives sufficient insurance coverage. A Business Owner’s Policy (BOP) is a type of insurance package that covers all the various types of policies that you will require for your business. This will be easier and usually cheaper to purchase all the insurance you require in this bundled form.

Omid Semino, Diamond Mansion

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