Emily’s Email Resource Library


PDF Presentations

Effective Email Marketing (PDF Presentation)

6 Email Hacks for Email That Convert (PDF Presentation)

49 Mailchimp Design Tips (free PDF download) (so many of our best-kept secrets in this!).


VIDEOS

Below you’ll find some of my favorite 2-minute Mailchimp video tips. Enjoy!

VIDEO: Our Best Button/CTA Design Secrets

VIDEO: Mailchimp’s email editor lets you resize images right in your Mailchimp account.

VIDEO: Mailchimp’s nice PDF reports (great for sending to clients)

VIDEO: View this email online.

VIDEO: A cool way to use Mailchimp’s “Image + Text” Block

Make Your Own Social Media Icons for your Emails

It’s actually pretty easy to make your own Mailchimp social media icons for your email campaigns.

Here is exactly what I do:

  1. You first need to make your colored icons. I use Flaticon.com. You’ll sign up for a free account and then search “Instagram,” for example, and pick the icon you want to use.
  2. From there you can click EDIT ICON and you will choose the exact color you would like your icon to be. Enter your brand’s HEX colors at this step.
  3. Download a PNG file of your colored icon. I usually do 32px size.
  4. Then you will go into Mailchimp and head to your Content Studio > My Files. Upload the images of your new custom-color social icons.
  5. You will then click on the actual file in Mailchimp and then click “View Details” and then click COPY URL. This is the URL you will need for your coding.

Now the easy part!

  1. Now head to your email campaign and you will drag in a “Code Block” wherever you want your icons.
  2. PASTE IN THIS CODE and we will soon put in that link you just copied.
<style type="text/css">
.social { font-family: 'Lucida Sans Serif', sans-serif; size: 10px; }
.social img { width:35px; height: auto; }
.social a {text-decoration: none;}
.social a:hover { color: #ffffff; }
.social ul { list-style-type: none; margin-right:40px; text-align: center; }
.social li { display: inline-block; margin: 10px; }
</style>
<div class="social">
<ul>
    <li><a href="https://www.twitter.com/emilyryantweets" target="_blank"><img src="https://mcusercontent.com/73b7dc46becfe523a3c6cbd58/images/ce277f61-a3df-ffd9-6fc0-a0756260241d.png"></a></li>
    <li><a href="https://instagram.com/emilyryanlikes" target="_blank"><img src="https://mcusercontent.com/73b7dc46becfe523a3c6cbd58/images/0e498196-ce63-f6eb-509f-ea1173064000.png"></a></li>
</ul>
</div>

NOW, SIMPLY REPLACE THE LINKS IN THE CODE.

You can edit the code above and put in YOUR social media handles for each button (you see here – emilyryantweets and emilyryanlikes) – REPLACE with your handles.

And then PASTE in that URL you copied of your first social icons where you see the link “mcusercontent” – Make sure you paste between the quotes.

You’ll need to go back to your Content > My Files in Mailchimp and upload your other icons and grab those other links and repeat this for each.

That’s it! You should have pretty, custom-colored icons now!

Any questions? Let me know! You can email me at hello (at) westfield-creative (dot) com.

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

Terkel creates community-driven content featuring expert insights. Sign up at terkel.io to answer questions and get published. 

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

Terkel creates community-driven content featuring expert insights. Sign up at terkel.io to answer questions and get published. 

8 Email Marketers Share Their Biggest Email Frustrations

Email marketing challenges

Email marketing isn’t always easy and many of our clients come to us because they’re frustrated with the amount of time it takes to make a great email. We wanted to hear what the experts thought too! Below you’ll hear from 8 Mailchimp Partners and email marketers (including myself) on what frustrates us the most.

Email coding is still stuck in the 90s, and I doubt that will change. The biggest frustration is also the thing that excites me the most. I find as a creative person, when you have limited resources, the challenge to create something unique and fresh each time is what drives us to keep innovating and dreaming up new ways to work around these limitations. Obviously, Outlook is a pain, but hey.

-Doug Dennison, CEO & Co-founder, MailNinja

The lack of email standards has always been a huge barrier for email marketers and the teams that prepare the messages. The fact that your email can render differently in hundreds of different email clients means that you are never 100% sure that your email looks and works the way you want it to everywhere. And additionally, the differences in the display of fonts, backgrounds, animated GIFs, etc. means you have to prepare and test for a wide range of scenarios. This also prevents progress in our industry, as certain advancements like AMP have limited client support, so it’s less attractive for brands to pursue using it.

-Adam Holden-Bache, Dir. of Email Marketing, Enventys Partners

Email can be frustrating but the misinformation and lack of understanding of how email marketing actually works is probably our biggest pain point. We spend more time breaking down email marketing strategies, ESPs platforms, training and other general questions more than anything else.

-Sequoia Mulgrave, CEO & Founder, Daily Mode Studio

Well, Outlook of course, but there’s so much that goes into a perfect email that makes it challenging. Testing takes time – checking spelling, links, image loading speed, checking you have all alt text descriptions, testing on different devices (really formatting for mobile is one of the hardest things about email), getting into the Inbox, making sure your plain text version is set, checking recipients. So much! The most frustrating part is that there really is so much that needs to be tested before you hit that big send button.

How to solve this? Have a great process for testing your email, whether that’s a checklist or a program (like Litmus) that does the testing for you.

Emily Ryan, Co-founder & Mailchimp Strategist, Westfield Creative

As I work a lot with email automation, I’m continuously experimenting in Mailchimp with old Automated Workflows and new Customer Journeys Builder. I think I know by heart the limitations of the former, and time after time I’ve learned a lot of hacks to overcome them; as for the Customer Journey Builder, sometimes it drives me crazy because it still lacks some features, and every now and then something doesn’t work properly, which I report to the patient Customer Support folks. I’m aware that advanced features are probably used by a small fraction of users, but nonetheless, I wish to see them prioritized asap.

-Alessandra Farabegoli, Digital Strategist, Co-Founder, Digital Update

I’ve always found the tech to be the easy part of the job. It’s generally predictable and reliable. It either does or it does not (with Outlook, that’s usually a “does not”). When tech does not do what you need, you work around a solution.

The most variable factor in email is the human on either side of the communications. Clients who can’t make up or continuously change their minds, subscribers who are unpredictable, customer service management for campaign responses… those are the least controllable and predictable factors in email, and there is not a single thing I can do to control that.

-MaryAnne Pfeiffer, Digital Marketing Strategist, 108 Degrees Digital Marketing

…it would be really cool if you could reliably track opens…

…it would be good if all the email systems worked the same and you could develop better-looking emails without having to test them in 100 different systems.

…it would be great if Mailchimp could update some of the things at the more advanced end of things

…it would be good if there was a better understanding and explanation of data privacy over borders

…it would be good if Gmail would be a bit more transparent (never gonna happen!) of what’s good/bad and why emails end up in promo/spam

-Robin Adams, Founder, Chimp Answers

1000% Outlook. I don’t understand why Outlook needs to “translate” the email into a Word doc and then render the Word doc in HTML.

The second is Gmail not delivering emails to the inbox and dumping them into the archive never, neverland. So frustrating!

-Amy Hall, Email Marketing Strategist and Certified Mailchimp Partner, amyhall.biz

Want to connect with a Mailchimp Pro Partner? Check out the Mailchimp Experts Directory here.

She Who Mailchimps: 6 Takeaways

She Who Mailchimps Zoom Event

What happens when you get 6 Mailchimp Women Experts (and Mailchimp Partners) in one Zoom room for an hour? You get some awesome email marketing advice and also an hour of fun. I was thrilled to have 5 super-smart email marketing minds join me to answer some of the most asked Mailchimp and email questions we get – including “what’s the best time/day to send an email?” “what’s our favorite Mailchimp hidden egg?” and much more.

We recently asked a few Mailchimp Partners, including some from the live event about their top takeaways were from the session. Here’s a great rundown in case you missed it. Want to watch the replay? You can here.

I loved the relaxed format. The hosts were having an open conversation, which felt very honest and welcoming. There were loads of takeaways points, the honest discussion around the way these Mailchimp partners actually use Mailchimp themselves was enlightening and I made a lot of notes! You can watch the event right here: https://youtu.be/KJpAuJP-WAU

-Doug Dennison, CEO & Co-founder, MailNinja

The talent that was on display at the She Who Mailchimps event was ridiculously good. It was an interactive webinar with a live Q&A where the super-talented panel answered lots of questions about Mailchimp and email marketing in general. With their Mailchimp expertise, they were able to share a lot of great information.

Top takeaways included:

1) Use Mailchimp Partners to help you with any Mailchimp issues

2) Consider using ALL the Mailchimp features including landing pages, postcards, social posts, link-checker, and more.

3) Test, test, and test some more. Conduct subject line testing, content testing, send time optimization, etc. to learn what resonates best with your audience.

-Adam Holden-Bache, Dir. of Email Marketing, Enventys Partners

Holy moly, the brains! I didn’t add it up, but there were probably over 60 years of email marketing experience on that panel. And while for some questions, the answers were similar, everyone had their own spin and just a little different way of looking at things. It was great to get all the email philosophies together in one place and see how they’re similar and so utterly different at the same time. The nuances in the differences were the gold.

-Amy Hall, Email Marketing Strategist and Certified Mailchimp Partner, amyhall.biz

This was the very first time I did a workshop in English, and the days before I was pretty scared about it; but the other ladies were so nice and supportive that I thought oh, what the hell, I can do it! Apart from that, the idea was great and I think the whole formula worked very well: good timing, a balanced distribution of questions, and a bunch of super-expert ladies all willing to share their knowledge. Being part of this network, finding ways to collaborate and learn from each other, is one of the perks of Mailchimp & Co., and I value it immensely.

-Alessandra Farabegoli, Digital Strategist, www.alessandrafarabegoli.it

My office needs much better lighting, and Sequoia Mulgrave has a second career as a broadcaster if she ever opts for it! That said, the talent available in the Mailchimp Experts Directory is something anyone serious about their business or email marketing should tap into. I’m truly impressed with the knowledge of each of these women and would be happy to have them as part of my team, or my own marketing department! If you haven’t watched the recording, reach out to Emily Ryan to get access.

-MaryAnn Pfeiffer, Digital Marketing Strategist, 108 Degrees Digital Marketing

1. There are some very knowledgeable email experts out there… and if you don’t tap into that knowledge, you’re losing out.

2. Being a marketer, this is always at the forefront of my mind, but being clear on your who and how it impacts the best way to approach email marketing was worth reminding – anecdotally there are good times to send and bad times to send an email, but it all depends on the who – the who you are sending to.

-Robin Adams, Founder, Chimp Answers

Want to connect with a Mailchimp Pro Partner? Check out the Mailchimp Experts Directory here.

How often should you send an email? (Advice for B2Bs and B2C’s)

How often should you email?

This is, by far, one of the most-asked questions I hear about email marketing. And below you’ll hear some great advice from 8 Mailchimp Partners/Experts with actual, concrete answers that can really help your email strategy.

Weekly or fortnightly is a good frequency for most businesses. Some e-commerce business send more than that, and some companies we work with send every 2 months, which in my opinion is not as often. Of course, if you factor in sending to smaller segments, you could effectively be sending a few emails every week, just not to your entire audience.

-Doug Dennison, CEO & Co-founder, MailNinja

The companies reaping rewards from email marketing, email frequently. Weekly if you can (although there is no perfect answer for this). Once a month is simply not enough to move the needle. Most of our clients do at least one email per week and many e-commerce clients do 3-7 per week (to different targeted segments). If unsubscribes start increasing, pull back some and if you want to increase sales, consider emailing more. One of the biggest mistakes I see is companies not emailing enough. Many business owners worry they will bother their subscribers, but if you’re sending interesting, relevant content, people will open your emails.

Of course, it always depends on your business and your Audience. For e-commerce, weekly but for say, a lawyer, a lot less…

Emily Ryan, Co-founder & Mailchimp Strategist, Westfield Creative

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to email frequency. It will vary for senders based on many factors including their ability to create engaging content, the types of products and services they are selling, the frequency at which subscribers want to receive emails, and many other factors.

Through my experience I’ve found that recipients don’t mind receiving emails if they offer valuable, relevant content. So as long as you are sending something that subscribers WANT to receive, it seldom creates a negative experience. The problem is that many brands don’t have enough quality content to email at a high frequency.

If you do email frequently, want your metrics for a plateau or drop in positive metrics (opens, clicks, and conversions) along with a rise in negative metrics (non-opens, reduced click ratio, unsubscribes, etc). If you see that happen, dial back your frequency until you see things return to positive results

-Adam Holden-Bache, Dir. of Email Marketing, Enventys Partners

As a general rule, you should send an email whenever you’ve something interesting and useful to say; if you rarely have something relevant to say, you have a problem, and it is not an email marketing issue: you better reconsider what you’re doing and why.

This said, the key to finding the right frequency is the reasonable expectations of your audience: not exceedingly many, but also not so seldom that they forget having subscribed.

Once a month is a minimum, and it’s a risky one because if somebody misses one, they won’t hear from you for too long; a weekly newsletter with a fixed day and hour, instead, soon becomes a habit for the reader and builds expectation and loyalty.

-Alessandra Farabegoli, Digital Strategist, www.alessandrafarabegoli.it

This is a question I get asked a lot and I’ll split out B2B vs B2C below.

Email is great at two things: keeping you top of mind and prompting action. That applies to both B2B and B2C.

However, do I want to hear from my accountant every day? Probably not. Once a month is enough to use the Power of the BCC to create great content I will read. That applies to most B2B service businesses.

B2B businesses selling products, especially consumables, need to up their game and think like retailers. Sending less more often. To do that you need a Marketing Plan.

For B2C I believe the minimum is 3 times a week. That should be possible. For example, Monday send all the deals, Thursday a reminder of your top deals from Monday and Saturday last chance for the deals. This requires a good e-commerce platform, good deals and again a Marketing Plan.

-Glenn Edley, Director & Email Strategist, Spike

For an email program to be effective, your subscribers need to remember who you are and find your information relevant. Whether you have a B2B or B2C audience, the minimum number of campaigns to leverage brand recognition and relevance is once per month. As some of your audience is likely to miss some of those campaigns, anything less will render you irrelevant in just a few months.

From there, the frequency really depends on the relevance of your messaging and the responsiveness of your list. Journalistic emails and e-commerce coupons are sent daily by industry leaders, industry news and special offers can happen weekly
 but some industries and lists will not tolerate more than twice per month before the unsubscribe rate starts to climb. At the end of the day, the frequency and cadence depend on what your audience will tolerate. The best way to know this is to TEST your list, and when possible, allow your subscribers to select their preferences for subscriptions, so you reach them as often as they want to hear from you.

-MaryAnne Pfeiffer, Digital Marketing Strategist, 108 Degrees Digital Marketing

Ask not how often you should send an email, rather ask, how often would my email list like to receive one! Like most of marketing, it’s never about you, and always about your customer/prospect and the nature of your relationship. It doesn’t matter if it’s B2B or B2C, every relationship is different, every product is different.

…and remember, not everyone on your list is the same, some want more emails, some less – so test, and give them the option.

-Robin Adams, Founder, Chimp Answers

I think how often you send your emails depends on your industry & business. Some businesses have so much going on in their business and industry that a daily update email works. Some businesses are slow-moving and a quarterly email is enough. My default is a once a month email.

-Amy Hall, Email Marketing Strategist and Certified Mailchimp Partner, amyhall.biz

Want to connect with a Mailchimp Pro Partner? Check out the Mailchimp Experts Directory here.

Mailchimp Socks + 11 Creative Swag Ideas For Email Campaigns

Mailchimp Socks and 11 Creative Swag Ideas

What is the best swag item you have ever given away or received?

To help your company decide on great swag items to give away, we asked PR experts and business leaders this question for their best items. From day planners to headphones, there are several items that may help you find the right swag items for your customers.

Here are 11 great swag items that your company should try: 

  • A Digital Detox Kit
  • Day Planner
  • Free Beer + Branded Growlette 
  • Reusable Water Bottles
  • Sunshade
  • Industry-related Swag
  • Company T-shirt
  • Hangover Kits
  • Everyday Items
  • Technology
  • Headphones

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A Digital Detox Kit

Mailchimp really cares about their partners, and we’ve received some pretty amazing swag from them. Besides a new Freddie (which of course is the best swag, in my opinion), my favorite was a beautiful “digital detox” box that Partners received one year during the holidays, complete with everything you need to unplug (freelancers and agency owners probably need that more than anyone!). It was so thoughtful, and I actually used it!

Emily Ryan, Westfield Creative

Day Planner

Lash swag is the best swag! I am obsessed with organization, which is why our Lash Technician Planner is my top pick. It is literally a business in a book with social media planning templates, expense/inventory trackers, and everything in-between. It is much more than swag; it is an incredibly useful planning tool that can revolutionize how lash technicians run their business.

Vanessa Molica, The Lash Professional

Free Beer + Branded Growlette 

I’m not even sure if this is legal, but we’d give out free beer to people who visited our office. And not just any beer, but our company branded IPA (Markitors IPA, specially brewed by the creative geniuses at Barrel Brothers Brewing Company). To give away the beer, we’d conclude meetings and office tours with an inevitable question, “want some beer?” We’d take guests to the office keg, fill them up a Markitors branded growlette with our company core values, and pour up a 32 oz growlette to go. I’ve never seen people leave an office so happy. Today, many people tell me that they still have the Markitors growlette, which gives me a lot of satisfaction knowing that they get some enjoyment out of a swag item that costs us about $1. 

Nikitha Lokareddy, Markitors

Reusable Water Bottles

As a professional printer, I am in the business of making “swag items” for several of my clients!  I recently worked on a job where the client wanted us to make custom reusable water bottles to hand out to clients and prospects. I thought this was a great idea as water bottles are an item that everyone uses on a daily basis, and it is a great way to spread brand awareness organically. I liked the idea so much that I ended up doing them for my business as well.

Eric Blumenthal, The Print Authority

Sunshade

My favorite swag item I ever received was from my mechanic, and it was a branded sunshade for my car. As an Arizona native, summers can be brutal! I use that sunshade every time I park my car outside, and it keeps it super cool, and it always reminds me to call my mechanic to keep my wheels in tip-top shape.

Brian Greenberg, True Blue Life Insurance

Industry-related Swag

Since we work primarily with dentists, we also receive teeth-related swag at any event or convention we attend. Giving out swag that creatively represents your business or industry is always remembered and appreciated well after it is given out. We always love to receive tooth-shaped pens, note pads, erasers, and more! 

Henry Babichenko, DD, Stomadent Dental Lab 

Company T-shirt

The best swag item I have received is a company t-shirt from my marketing agency! Not only is the shirt super soft and comfortable, but it also came along with a handwritten letter that made me feel like they really care about my company and me. 

Blake Murphey, American Pipeline Solutions

Hangover Kits

For a small business client exhibiting at an event for bar and restaurant owners, we decided to create hangover kits. The night before the panels and floor show opened, attendees had a wild party which most certainly equals hangovers the next morning. We created a kit with the tagline printed on the front of “A Hangover Kit for What Ales Ya” playing on the theme of the event being for the bar and restaurant industry. Attendees flocked to the booth just to get the kits, which contained useful items to help their heads and contained useful marketing about our client. This was a highly influential swag piece and had little expenditure for high reward.

Hana Ruzsa Alanis, Graphic Designer & Marketing Specialist

Everyday Items

To answer this, I just looked at the items I still have, still use, and are well branded. The first is a stylish, high-quality pen that is always on my desk. Not cheap and plastic, and it works very well. The second is a nail file I keep beside my bed. It has the company name boldly printed on the back, so I see it every time I use it. The final item is an insulated tote I keep in my car for groceries. These aren’t fancy or high tech, but I see the company’s name on a regular basis.

Rick DeBruhl, Communication Consultant

Technology

We’re fortunate to work with companies across several industries, including insurance and finance. Outside of venture-based technology companies, some of the best swag comes from the insurance and finance industries. You’ll typically see big-ticket items like iPads, MacBook Pros, or actual tickets being given away by these companies. But one creative thing these companies do when giving away a big swag item is to make sure everyone wins. No one likes to go home a loser, so whatever big item is given away, make sure everyone can access the feeling of “winning” in some way.  

Eli Patashnik, iFax

Headphones

As crazy as it is to admit, my favorite swag item came from a box of Budweiser. Red Bluetooth headphones that fold up for easy travel and the battery last surprisingly long. From a marketing perspective, a genius at Budweiser added a little feature that makes me smile every time I hear it. When you turn the headphones on, it repeats its tagline, “This Buds for you.” Free headphones with basically unlimited marketability. Genius.

Colton De Vos, Resolute TS

The #1 Best Business Decision I Made For My Business

Emily and Elizabeth at Mailchimp

Before I tell you the best decision I ever made for my business, you must first know this story…

In the early 90s, my dad decided he would have a side hustle, creating a touch-screen computer program that would be sold to grocery stores where you could pair your wine purchase with food. This was the VERY early 90s…so we’re talking super high-tech for that time. Actually, WAY before its time. But amazing nonetheless.

He worked with a close friend who was a wine expert and I just recall 4-5 computers laying around our house with these wine pairing options. (If this was developed 10 years later, we could have been billionaires….thanks, dad). It didn’t quite take off, but I remember it being in one or two stores.

But what did happen is that my sister and I grew up around computers and my sister became the real techy of the family, going to a “math and science” high school for very smart people (that’s what I call it), later going on to study Information Technology (IT) and then worked in Seattle for many years for various .com’s doing IT. I just remember her being on the computer A LOT. I was probably in the other room singing showtunes way too loud.

Main story here — years later I get to work with my sister every day and having her join forces with me and grow this business, has been, hands down, the #1 best decision ever. For me, having someone that I can, not only bounce ideas off of in Slack every single day, but having that partner that I can ask what to do when I’m dealing with a tough client or a stressful situation…it’s truly priceless. Many people don’t get that and I feel extremely lucky.

I don’t talk about her enough and how vital she is to our business. Years ago when we were designing our website, she told me she didn’t want her photo on it. She said to me — “I don’t want to be in the spotlight. I don’t need my name on anything. I am good in the background. Video off.” She was even adamant the business be under my name. But that felt weird. (BTW – Westfield Creative is named that because we grew up on Westfield Road in Charlotte, NC.)

Elizabeth has always just wanted to do the work, make a great income from home and call it a day. She’s truly one of the most humble people I know and whenever we have a win in our business, it’s pretty incredible to get to celebrate with her.

So I just wanted to give a major shout-out to Elizabeth (Liz, I get to call her — but please don’t call her that) and everything she does behind the scenes daily to make our clients happy. She is truly the brains behind most of the work we do and I always say – she can usually fix anything tech-related. Give her a broken website and login and you good.

I am a very lucky sis. Thank you, Liz, for being the best possible partner to work with every day.

Is there a way to ethically hack email list growth?

How to grow your email list, ethically

Below you’ll hear some of the best tips and advice from 8 Mailchimp Pro Partners (including myself) on how you can ethically grow your email list. Growing your email list should always be a priority when it comes to your email marketing, but there are creative ways to do it that are still in compliance with Mailchimp Best Practices.

One hack works above all else. Create high-value and relevant content such as a free course or an ebook to drive signups, rather than simply saying ‘signup to my newsletter’, then add multiple captures like popups on your website to do the heavy lifting for you.

-Doug Dennison, CEO & Co-founder, MailNinja

I always recommend aiming for quality over quantity when it comes to growing your email list. Capture data in as many places as possible, provide an appealing reason for someone to subscribe, and follow through on what you promise by delivering relevant content. Anything other than this can lead to less than desirable results from your email audience.

-Adam Holden-Bache, Dir. of Email Marketing, Enventys Partners

There are countless smart and ethical ways to grow your email list that don’t involve purchasing emails. Purchasing emails and then marketing to them is not only illegal but it’s simply a bad idea. As long as people are agreeing to opt-in, the sky’s the limit in terms of ways to gain subscribers.

Here are some ways you maybe haven’t thought of:

1. Contributing to a guest blog is a fantastic way to get people back to your own website and hopefully sign up (like the contributors on this post).

2. Offering a simple lead magnet/opt-in via Instagram (like a one-page PDF checklist) and asking people to click the link in your bio to sign up and get it.

As long as you’re asking for permission and people know they’re opting-in, you can dream up almost anything to get a new subscriber.

Emily Ryan, Co-founder & Mailchimp Strategist, Westfield Creative

For me, hacking means knowing very well from the inside how things work and to use this knowledge to reach your goals; there’s nothing inherently unethical in this, as long as the goals are correct and respectful. List growth happens through focusing on our target’s identity, needs and expectations, forging a message that resonates with them and putting that message in front of them, in the right place, at the right time; this requires a deep knowledge not only of email marketing but of CRO, UX, advertising and the rules of persuasion. Most importantly, I don’t believe in short term goals such as the mere quantity of new subscribers; I’d better work for quality subscribers, who not only enter the list but keep reading and maintain the engagement for a long period of time.

-Alessandra Farabegoli, Digital Strategist, Co-Founder, Digital Update and Freelancecamp Italia

List growth can definitely be hacked, by hard work. Every point of contact with your business is a marketing opportunity and an opportunity to get permission to send emails to someone. The question people should be asking before they go outside of their business is, “Are we using every single point of contact we have to get email addresses?”. They’re generally not.

Some other ways are:

1. Using google to get people to your website and asking them once they get there to sign up.

2. Using co-registration and working with other businesses to access their database.

3. Advertising on podcasts or being featured on a podcast.

There are endless ethical ways to hack list growth. They generally take more planning and work but will gain you a much higher value customer.

-Glenn Edley, Director & Email Strategist, Spike

If executed correctly and with precision, cold email campaigns can be used very effectively to build permission-based email lists. Cold email reaches out to a qualified list of potential customers or subscribers, tactfully introducing them to the brand in a way that is non-offensive. With the right lures and effective targeting, this method can provide a stream of traffic to your website or offer, which can then be converted into a permission-based email list.

-MaryAnne Pfeiffer, Digital Marketing Strategist, 108 Degrees Digital Marketing

Firstly, make sure you are ethical with your email list… please… if you’re not it’ll hurt both you AND everyone else so don’t send marketing emails to people who you shouldn’t. In terms of ethically hacking, well, if you take the fact that hacking implies some sort of shortcut or ‘easy path’, I’m not sure… Ultimately, you need to have a way of getting people onto an email list, and not just anyone, but people who want to engage with your business and brand – anyone can build an email list quickly – but is it actually worthwhile, or would you rather focus on emailing the RIGHT people? (but if you do want a short-cut, make sure it’s as easy as possible for the right people to sign up – I’ve seen too many bad forms and no automation to believe that just doing the basics is a good start for most!)

-Robin Adams, Founder, Chimp Answers

I’m not sure I would call this a hack… running ads on Facebook and LinkedIn for newsletter subscribers. Your list will grow quickly, but in my opinion, your list won’t be as engaged as organic subscribers.

-Amy Hall, Email Marketing Strategist and Certified Mailchimp Partner, amyhall.biz

Want to connect with a Mailchimp Pro Partner? Check out the Mailchimp Experts Directory here.

The 4 Most FAQs We Get About Email and Mailchimp

Email Marketing FAQs

When we decided to focus our agency on Mailchimp email marketing, we started getting a lot of the same questions. Many of these questions we hear several times a week from prospective and new clients. So we’re giving you the deets today.

I’m going to try to answer these for you in the easiest and shortest way possible.

But these are truly four of the most frequently asked we get OFTEN.

1. What’s the best time to send my email?

The answer: There is no perfect send time, except the time you determine after months of testing YOUR audience. Some experts will say Tues-Thurs at 10 am is the best and don’t send on Mondays, but there truly isn’t a perfect time and it’s super important to utilize A/B testing to test different send times to see which time performed better.

In this awesome Guide from Hunter on the best times to send an email, they analyzed 9 prominent case studies and came up with some interesting data – like Fridays being the best for open rates.

And with the pandemic, optimal send times have changed a ton. In the past, Saturdays used to not be so great for sending an email, but now I find that everyone is home and relaxing and this can be a great send time. So it’s important to test this over a period of weeks or months to see what works for your people. What works for an audience of realtors is going to be different than an audience of people who buy, say makeup.

2. Do I need to clean my email list?

The answer: Yes and no. “Cleaning your list” refers to removing or archiving any contacts that are no longer opening your emails or engaged. This is extremely important because it affects the deliverability of your emails. The cleaner your email list, the higher your open rates will be, which improves your sender reputation.

The good news is that Mailchimp helps you do this. Mailchimp automatically “cleans” emails that bounce. I still recommending periodically creating a segment of contacts that “have not opened” one of your last 10 or 20 emails – and then ARCHIVING them. OR creating a re-engagement email campaign to reach out to them and asking if they’re still interested in hearing from you. Anyone that does NOT open that email– archive them (don’t unsubscribe).

3. How do I grow my email list?

The answer: There are many ways, my friend. This is a long conversation, but this should always be one of your top priorities. Growing your email list is vital to having success with your email campaigns. So I always tell clients to focus on this before anything.

Here are some quick ways to start growing your email list:

  • Create a simple one-page PDF to use as a “freebie” or “lead magnet” and offer that people in exchange for signing up. You can offer through a popup on your website or creating a page on your site where people sign up. Create an automated email that sends to them, with the download, after they sign up.
  • Host a short webinar on a topic and ask people to sign up for it.
  • Post weekly on your social media channels about joining your list and the fun stuff they will receive if they subscribe (Ex: This Friday I am sending out the latest edition of my fun weekly email, full of the best email marketing tips…make sure you’re on the list!)
  • Talk about your email list in everything you do. If you’re on a podcast or speak on a webinar, remind me to subscribe to your list.
  • Post multiple opt-ins around your website. Your homepage should have several – a popup, a button at the top, and others weaved in.

There are many other ways, but start with these and it will grow quickly.

4. Do I need to use Tags or Groups or Segments? 

The answer: Yes. Using Mailchimp’s “Tags” or “Groups” and also creating “Segments” are some of the most powerful Mailchimp features you can utilize to personalize your email marketing and create campaigns that are sent to the right people at the right time. And I promise you, they’re not as confusing as you may think.

Tags are used to simply tag your contacts internally. Think of it as a little contact note. Tags could be “local contact” or “contest entry” or “attended Feb webinar” or “Subscription-Active” and the list goes on. A tag is is powerful because you can create campaigns JUST for a specific tag of people and then send them an email campaign. Read more on getting started with Tags here.

A segment is something that you can create in Mailchimp or you can use one of Mailchimp’s pre-built segments. Segments use data already in Mailchimp. For example, “did not open the last email campaign” would be a segment you can create. Or “Purchased an item in last month.” Or “Email contains nike.com” or even “Location is United States.” There are endless possibilities for segments you can create and they’re incredibly useful when sending targeted email campaigns. More on segments here.

Lastly, “Groups.” The important thing to note about “Groups” is that the contact can view these. You can set up a Group to ask your customer/contacts something like “Are you interested in:” “Emails only, webinar info, events, don’t want any emails” Those would be 4 responses within 1 group. Groups are useful for gathering contact’s interests. More here on getting started with Groups.

Example of a Group in Mailchimp

So while TAGS are something you do internally to tag a contact, a Group is something you setup so your contacts can choose. And a segment is what you create based on these tags and groups.

These are some quick answers to some of our most asked questions. Hope they were helpful!

11 Creative Social Media Ideas For B2B Businesses

11 Creative Social Media Ideas For B2B Businesses

What is one creative social media idea that a B2B company can actually pull off (and for which platform?)

To help small businesses with creative social media ideas, we asked business leaders and marketing professionals this question for their best ideas. From digital detoxes to hosting a webinar, there are several ideas that may help your business with its social media.

Here are eleven creative social media ideas that a B2B company can pull off: 

  • Use Your Social In Email
  • Reddit Forums
  • Create an eBook or Ultimate Guide 
  • Make Youtube Videos
  • Employee Social Media Profiles
  • Get All Your Partners Involved
  • Write Articles on LinkedIn
  • Giveaways On Twitter
  • Host a Webinar
  • Highlight Your Behind-The-Scenes Moments
  • Start a Podcast

Use Your Social Posts In Your Next Email 

One of the smartest things you can do as a business is repurpose content from your social media in your email campaigns. You could take one of your Instagram posts and make that into an entire email, using the photo and caption. Or your last 5 tweets could be a fun email — “Look what we’ve been up to on Twitter
” Your social media is full of great posts which equals great content that would work well in emails. No need to always create new email content — pull from your other platforms. 

Emily Ryan, Westfield Creative

Reddit Forums

Find your target market on Reddit and engage in the community! Reddit is untapped territory for B2B, but if done right, can be very effective for inexpensive acquisition. Forums can get very niche and specific, so if you can find one that pertains to your business, you will likely be able to start valuable conversations with potential customers. Just make sure you aren’t trying to sell directly, moderators will kick you right out. Be genuine, ask questions, respond to others, and establish yourself as a trusted member of the community. 

Zack McCarty, Qwick

Create an eBook or Ultimate Guide 

Because they are low cost and are great for generating qualified leads, a great social media tactic would be to create an eBook or Ultimate Guide around a niche topic for B2B and share it on LinkedIn! You could always recycle old blog content into an eBook to create an easier path to executing this social media marketing strategy.

Kayla Centeno, Markitors 

Make Youtube Videos

Our Seattle criminal defense firm Will & Will has an extensive library of YouTube videos we’ve created over the years. While YouTube isn’t the first platform a B2B company thinks of for “social media,” we’ve found that YouTube videos have helped effectively brand our firm. Videos can personalize a firm, and communicate why a client should consider doing business with a company. I’d recommend to any business owner to consider shooting a video about the company, or about a core service offering.

Court Will, Will & Will

Employee Social Media Profiles

B2B companies should be very cognizant of the image employees have on sites like LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. The reason? Prospective customers buy from people, and many sales activities include checks on social media profiles. For example, a cold email may result in a check of a LinkedIn profile. Or, an introduction to a new Client Services representative may be followed by a check of an Instagram profile. The single most important thing a B2B company can do when it comes to social media is to have a polished uniform presence online. Educate employees about how customers may be looking at their LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media profiles to make decisions about your business.

Ben Walker, Transcription Outsourcing

Get All Your Partners Involved

An easy social media idea that we do to encourage referrals from the people we work with is by simply tagging other trades on social media platforms, like Instagram to grow exposure. Let’s say we finish designing a beautiful, luxury kitchen, we make sure to tag the cabinet company that followed our plans and installed the cabinets into the kitchen, we tag the lighting company that sold the builder the pendants we picked out over the island, and we tag the granite company we worked with to make the design come together. By taking an extra minute to tag all the people that made the design happen and having them share it on their own pages, we get triple the exposure! Tag the companies you work with and encourage them to share your content.

Alisha Taylor, Alisha Taylor Interiors

Write Articles on LinkedIn

LinkedIn has become the place to network now that person-to-person, live networking events have been quashed by COVID. First, be sure your personal profile is up to date with a nice, professional-looking headshot, and all the sections are complete as well as skills using relevant keywords. Next, make sure your company profile page is complete and well-branded like an extension of your website. Make sure all links, including the ones in your contact info section are working properly. Now, you write an article–300 words or more. Hopefully, you’re blogging on your website at least once a week. All you do is copy a blog from your site into LinkedIn’s blogging feature. At the bottom, put, “This article first appeared on…”, then link it to the original article on your site. Share it on your personal feed and company page, Facebook and Twitter. This helps with exposure, building trust and credibility and helps with SEO.

Giselle Aguiar, AZ Social Media Wiz

Giveaways On Twitter

Twitter is an incredibly powerful social media channel. Unfortunately, as usual, building up an audience is a slow and time-consuming process. Twitter Ads are a good option to give yourself a boost. But there is an organic alternative to PPC: You can speed up the process with a giveaway. Identify a product that your audience is interested in. This can be a generic mainstream product such as a MacBook or a product from your own business. Next, identify the value offered and divide it by the average cost of your PPC campaign as a reference. When this value falls below the realistically achievable number of engagements you are in the positives. Make sure to give the campaign an initial boost by tagging some people from your audience. Here you can also fall back to Twitter’s PPC offerings: a small campaign can kick start your organic giveaway and trigger an avalanche.

Peter Thaleikis, Bring Your Own Ideas Ltd.

Host a Webinar

Hosting a small webinar with a guest book author is a great creative social media idea that a B2B company can pull off. For example, invite an author of a sales or marketing book you enjoy to a webinar and invite 10 people from your LinkedIn to join a special Q&A session. From idea to execution, you could run this campaign in a month and deepen relationships with a set of key prospects.

Bruce Harpham, Technology Marketing Consultant

Highlight Your Behind-The-Scenes Moments

If you ever spent any time watching your favorite TV show’s bloopers reel you know – watching behind-the-scenes real moments is a lot of fun. There is something about those moments when actors stop being actors for a second and screw up, laugh, and make fun of each other in touching, purely human moments. Somehow we connect with them more during those times. We can replicate similar emotions and connections when we share behind-the-scenes moments with our customers. As B2B entities companies often get stuck in the professional space, limiting their personal, human connections with their customers. Sharing engaging, entertaining, and real behind-the-scenes moments can facilitate these connections. While that can be done on any platform, the best fit for behind-the-scenes content is Instagram. Using stories, posts, and other interactive tools of that platform can be of great help.

Natalya Bucuy, LiveHelpNow

Start a Podcast

While that idea might sound daunting to some, it doesn\’t have to be. Your podcast episodes could be as short as five minutes every week. Just talk about industry trends, news topics, and what’s happening in your business. It doesn\’t have to be perfect and sites like Anchor allow you to record, edit and publish all in one place. Once your show is live then you have some great content to share on social media. You can share new episodes on your social channels while repurposing episodes into PDF slides, audio snippets, and blog posts that can all be shared too.

Liam Quinn, Reach interactive

This Canva/Mailchimp secret is my fave

Wanna see something real cool?

Canva has this super handy Mailchimp integration that most people don’t know about. It allows you to take any of your Canva graphics and with a click of a button, they go straight into your Mailchimp Content Studio. I thought it would be helpful to show you where it’s hidden, so I made ya video.

CLICK HERE to see a quick video of this awesome integration.


Also, did you know Mailchimp has 273 integrations?! That’s more than any other email provider out there. From Unsplash, to Photoshop to Salesforce and so many more.



12 Creative Ways To Market Your Business

12 Creative Ways To Market Your Business

What is one creative way you plan to market your business in 2021? What do you have planned?

We asked marketing professionals and business owners about what they have in store for the year ahead. 

Here are twelve creative ways to market your business.

  • Instagram Reels
  • Prioritize Video Content
  • Plain Text Emails
  • Optimized Blog Content 
  • Join Online Communities
  • TikTok
  • Exterior Branding
  • Get Personal
  • Hit It Old School
  • Highlight Success Stories
  • Establish Yourself as Experts
  • Live Shopping on Apps

Instagram Reels

Everything is virtual these days and one of the most creative things you can do is capitalize on this. I am a big fan of Instagram’s “Reels” feature which is similar to TikTok. I’ve seen a lot of business owners using Reels to teach their followers something short and fun. You could do a simple “3 Tips for…” and set it to music. It makes for fun content and it gets a lot more exposure than a traditional Instagram post. Make sure to include hashtags in your caption!

Emily Ryan, Westfield Creative

Prioritize Video Content

Video creation is one of the most creative ways to market your business in 2021. Studies show that video content performs better on social media and also increases the average time on page for web users, and it is a powerful tactic that not many people use due to the labor-intensive nature of video production. We are excited to do more in this space come 2021!

Noah Downs, American Pipeline Solutions 

Plain Text Emails

Sending personalized, plain text email messages to existing and prospective customers is a simple, but underutilized marketing tactic. We receive so many emails every day, but if you can insert your business into an inbox in an unobtrusive way, then you are able to deepen customer relationships and be there when customers need you. 

Carey Wilbur, Charter Capital

Optimized Blog Content 

Going into 2021, we plan to create high-quality, optimized content to be featured on our blog.  Our goal is to be the most trusted experts in our industry.  This helps us organically rank on search engines and be the featured page when people are looking for durable device cases. We have gotten really creative with keywords and topics to appeal to potential customers and just rolled out a 3-month content strategy to aid in our marketing efforts. Content will be king in 2021. 

Peter Babichenko, Sahara Case 

Join Online Communities

One creative way you can market your business in 2021 is to join different online communities! I personally attend online webinars and meetups for female entrepreneurs and creatives to build my network and promote my company to potential clients. In addition to the reach these communities provide for my company, they also give me the opportunity to meet other prominent professionals in my vertical who help me get even better at my craft.

Nikitha Lokareddy, Markitors 

TikTok

A tactic we have been utilizing in 2020 and will use well into 2021 is TikTok. With over 800 million monthly active users, Tik Tok is officially the hottest new social media platform. While TikTok is thought to just be for teens, we have found that a lot of our target market is active on TikTok and looking for content geared toward them. We created an account and have been making our own videos and publishing them for the world to see. With no monetary investment, we just use our free time and creativity to spread the word about our brand. 

Stephanie Schull, Kegelbell 

Exterior Branding

We equip all of our vehicles with visually appealing exterior graphics to help capture what it’s like to “Cruise America.” We often hear positive comments from customers and prospective customers about these graphics. With more than 4,500 vehicles on the road, the more our vehicles are in use, the more marketing benefit our company receives. 

Randall Smalley, Cruise America

Get Personal

Not in a creepy way, but in a true authentic way. We are all exhausted from being online 24/7. Can you send a handwritten card just because? Can you organize a pickup/drop off spot for a joint activity or craft project? Can you organize a safe winter wonderland activity? I believe the secret sauce behind effective marketing in 2021 is going beyond the digital screen.

Audrey Hutnick, Smallwave Marketing

Hit It Old School

We’re hitting it old-school with some of our approaches this coming year to activate our wholesale network. Our plan is to resurrect the idea of “scratcher postcards,” but with actually great rewards under those silver flecks. Digital ads are becoming more expensive and are vying for subprime attention, while print advertising is seeing a resurgence in both affordability and the stronger eyes it gets.

Hana Ruzsa Alanis, Graphic Designer & Marketing Specialist

Highlight Success Stories

In 2021 we are aiming for the strategy of storytelling. We’re focusing on telling our clients’ stories. We believe storytelling, be it brand-led or customer-led, connects with audiences. We’re combining the two to show how our brand helps our customers through their success stories. It will take us some time to find the right stories, shape them for our audiences, and tell them in a way that showcases our clients’ hard work and success. Any good story has a setting, a character, character flaws, conflict, resolution, and lesson. Brand storytelling is not an exception. We plan on incorporating all those elements into our stories.

Natalya Bucuy, LiveHelpNow

Establish Yourself As Experts

When we look at 2021, it’s important to understand that we still have uncertain times ahead. Therefore, we need to not only have a Plan B, but we need to work our way a little further down the alphabet. We plan to stay innovative and ready to make a pivot whenever traditional marketing efforts aren’t paying off. So, we have targeted strategies for outreach, guest posting, and providing beneficial quotes for articles on high-traffic sites. By establishing ourselves as experts in our niche, we plan to exude trustworthiness and professionalism.

Sally Rong, Rellery

Live Shopping on Apps

In order to successfully market your business next year, the answer lies in adopting a combination of new social tools vs. tapping into just one. We’re anticipating that the next phase of retail will heavily focus on ‘Live Shopping.’ For example, our partners at Facebook and TikTok are rolling out new features that will make it extremely quick and easy for consumers to make purchases directly from interactive content—without ever leaving their respective app or site. In 2021, brands will be able to sell seamlessly through Instagram’s ‘Checkout’ feature and take advantage of TikTok’s first-ever commerce partnership with Shopify. This provides a great opportunity to work with influencers across platforms and explore new channel capabilities.

Greg Gillman, MuteSix

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