Email Marketing: 10 Email Subject Line Tips to Boost CTRs
Email marketing hacks for your email marketing strategy: Use these test subject lines to engage subscribers and boost CTRs. Every year, you probably see articles that tell you email marketing has died and that you need to turn to some new technology or tactic to boost your content marketing strategy. At the same time, almost every internet user has at least one email account that they check regularly. In fact, HubSpot’s research found that an average email marketing strategy generates an astounding 3,800 percent return. If you’re not getting back $38 for each $1 you spend on email marketing, start with the very first thing that your audience will see — your subject line. Boost your email marketing strategy with these tips for effective subject lines If your own efforts or even those of an email marketing agency haven’t benefited your business, you may simple need to get more people to open up your message by crafting better subject lines. To provide you with some inspiration, consider these tested tips for attention-grabbing email subject lines. 1. Mention video Video marketing has gained plenty of attention as a way to engage people and convert customers. Data analysis from email providers have found that just mentioning video in your email subject line can boost open rates. You don’t need to include the video inside the email but can simply link to a video you have posted on your own site. 2. Add the recipient’s name If you use a CRM or other email marketing system, you should have a way to insert the name of your subscriber or customer into the subject line. Typically, anything you can do to personalize your emails should help gain attention and help the recipient find your content more valuable. With more sophisticated email apps, you can do more, but even the most basic tools generally make it easy to insert a name. 3. Try using lists and numbers List titles, like this one, “10 Email Subject Line Tips to Boost CTRs,” tend to attract attention. People appear to focus upon numbers, so that may explain the popularity of lists. Also, the list style offers content producers a way to organize a lot of information in digestible chunks, and that’s the kind of content that many internet users like to browse. 4. Appeal to FOMO To some degree, concerns about feeling left behind tend to impact almost everybody at one time or another. Perhaps it’s even a survival instinct from the times when groups offered protection against dangerous predators. Today, fear of missing out even has its own acronym — FOMO. Adding a time or quantity limit to emails about special deals can work very well. Let your audience know that your deal ends Saturday or after the first 100 responses. If you want to extend your offer later, you can always explain that you had such a good response that you wanted to please more customers. 5. Keep titles fairly brief but not too short Marketing Land reported upon a study by Retention Science, a marketing analytics company, of 540 email marketing campaigns that sent a total of about 260 million individual emails. They found: Titles with six to 10 words generated an average open rate of 21 percent. Titles with five or fewer words generated average open rates of 16 percent. Longer titles with more than 10 words generated average open rates of 14 percent. Apparently, it helps to include enough words in the title to communicate the point but not so many words that you risk losing readers. 6. Consider adding recognizable movie titles or song lyrics That same Retention Science study found that titles that incorporated movie titles or lyrics averaged over a 26-percent open rate, compared to more traditional subject lines that only averaged about 16 percent. Some mildly amusing and attention-getting example might include: Gone With the Wind — These Deals Will End Thursday I Gotta Feeling You’re Going to Love These Walking Shoes 7. Phrase titles as questions or exclamations Used carefully, punctuation can help titles stand out in a crowded inbox. An exclamation point at the end can help communicate urgency. Alternatively, questions may make your audience curious about the answer or eager to answer themselves. You might also experiment with other special characters, such as asterisks, hyphens, and quotation marks. You might also phrase the question to suggest that something will happen if the reader doesn’t take action. As an example, you’ve probably gotten emails that say you won’t get any more emails unless you respond. 8. Try to add a little humor Like you, your customers probably consider going through their packed inbox a chore some days. If you can get them to crack a smile, they’ll probably appreciate the effort. Some examples of mildly amusing subject lines could include: You’ll Like This Down Comforter Better Than Your Cat Hey, it’s Friday! You’re Just Watching the Clock Anyway! Since You Didn’t Win the Lottery Today… 9. Surprise or challenge your readers You have to take care with this, but clickbait’s a thing for a reason. Of course, you need to make sure you understand your audience pretty well because you have to walk a fine line between getting attention and giving offense. For instance, a title like “Why Your Email Subject Lines Stink” might get attention but also could turn off some readers. If you run a Florida marketing agency, you might need to tread lightly with the famous “Florida Man…” jokes. 10. Personalize your titles and content No matter how well you craft your email titles, you probably won’t enjoy the highest open rates if you can’t segment your audience and appeal to their interests. For instance, a customer who just purchased a pair of men’s hiking boots probably won’t have much interest in women’s ballet flats. On the other hand, there’s a good chance that customer might need the perfect socks to complement those boots. Why not take a little extra care to ensure
Small Business Marketing During and After the Coronavirus Crisis
Read our 7 small business marketing and customer acquisition strategies to obtain more business during and after the coronavirus pandemic. Has the coronavirus crisis derailed your customer acquisition strategy? According to recent studies, this serious outbreak has negatively impacted a great number of small businesses. Meanwhile, even more expect crisis-related obstacles in the near future. On the other hand, some smaller companies have made savvy plays to help maintain and even increase business in the future. Learn how the COVID-19 outbreak has affected American companies and which small business marketing ideas can help you acquire new customers and retain your existing ones. The coronavirus outbreak impact on American small businesses The National Federation of Independent Businesses published a study of hundreds of small businesses on March 13, 2020. The report found that almost one-quarter of U.S. small businesses had already felt a negative impact. At the same time, about 43 percent of business owners said they predicted a negative impact in the future. Another 37 percent of respondents could not predict ramifications, and only 20 percent of the business owners believed that their business, at least, would have immunity to the virus. The business owners who reported negative impacts from the coronavirus outbreak mostly had these kinds of problems: Supply chain disruptions: 39% Slow sales: 42% Ill employees: 4% Again, this survey occurred close to the middle of March, so reactions to the virus had not yet peaked. As the weeks have passed, stay-at-home orders have grown stricter and more common. Even so, just about half of employers who had not yet felt an impact said they had already planned ahead to minimize risks to their business. Some examples of these measures included purchasing more supplies to improve store, worker, and customer in-store hygiene, working with employees on sick leave policies, allowing more remote work, and arranging for alternative distributors for supplies. The survey did not mention ways that small businesses might adapt their marketing customer acquisition strategy during and after the coronavirus. How to get more business for my small business during and after coronavirus? Are you asking how you can keep your business running during the coronavirus and emerge even stronger afterwards? At this time, stay-at-home orders affect almost every part of the country to some degree. Even without them, you will probably see fewer customers who want to visit your store or office. You may even find that the demand for any non-essential products or services you offer has declined. With all this in mind, the obvious conclusion is to ramp up your digital business. If you don’t conduct much business digitally, you could hardly find a better time to start. Consider these digital small business marketing ideas: Sell online Digital Trends pointed out that a number of small businesses have scrambled to take more of their business online during the crisis. As an example, Bonnie Morales owns a small Russian restaurant in Portland, Oregon. Previously, she had no online options to order online or get curbside takeout. She had to close her dining room and layoff staff on a Sunday, decided she needed online ordering on the next Monday, and managed to get basic features live by Tuesday. While Morales worked very quickly, she said she knew she had lost customers who may have looked for online ordering options previously. She promoted her new curbside delivery and online ordering on such social sites as Instagram, which luckily, she had already established. Other local stores and restaurants have followed this trends. Without an established eCommerce site, the businesses make simple platforms that post menus or list items for sale, and they may simple take orders and collect payment by phone. Small businesses may offer curbside pickup or various delivery options. Obviously, small businesses can benefit by having more feature-rich eCommerce platforms and of course, digital marketing platforms. During this crisis, these companies might start with the minimum they need to get online and then work on improving both their digital services and marketing as they go. Connect digitally Explore platforms that allow you to communicate with your customers, even when they don’t care to visit you in person. You can find plenty of visual chat and meeting apps that will let you give presentations, answer questions, and provide customer service in almost the same way you could do in person. Even doctors and therapists are turning to online appointments when possible these days, and so are insurance agents and attorneys. Go social If you haven’t paid much attention to your small business social profiles on sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest, it’s certainly a good time to get started. If you run a B2B company, you might focus on LinkedIn. No matter what, this is a good time to connect with your market and encourage your employees to do the same. As to the kind of content you should post, you might take a cure from similar companies that hope to maintain their business and brand during these challenging times: First of all, let people know they can still buy from you online or over the phone. As one ice cream shop owner said, “We have to shout it from the rooftops.” Work on building your connections, so as many people as possible will see your message. On social sites you can search for the kinds of groups that you are likely to appeal to. Let your community know how you maintain a safe, healthy business to protect yourself, your employees, and of course, your customers. Not only will you help reassure anxious customers, you will enhance your brand. Work hard to build personal connections by explaining how your business and employees need their support in order to survive and thrive. Get creative with your offers to adjust them for delivery or pickup options. Consider ways you can give back to the community by supporting hospitals, first responders, and residents. Not only can you support worthy causes, you can promote your good deeds on your own
Why Differentiation Is the Most Important Marketing Tactic
Even as marketers, the team at our Florida marketing agency knows we’re also consumers. Each day, we face hundreds of choices as to where to eat, where to shop, and which brand of soda to buy. Giving your money to one brand is, essentially, giving your support to that brand to keep doing what they’re doing. Particularly, in the case of a repeat purchase, you’re telling the brand you’re satisfied with the product and have returned to using it again. But, what is it that drives you to that decision to support that brand? Often, it’s convenience, like when I’m on the road, starving, yet the only restaurant around is that McDonald’s just off the highway. However, typically people have more options. Instead of going to the Publix down the street, you could drive a bit further to Fresh Market, where you know you’ll be welcomed by a team of happy people serving fee samples, and will have the opportunity to purchase healthier foods that you might not get from a competing store down the street. Or, maybe you like Fresh Market, but you know you can get a much better deal from Winn Dixie down the street. It may not be as fancy, but you know their deli meat prices are unbeatable. In this case, Winn Dixie can differentiate itself based on cost. Many times, business owners and marketers fail to recognize the importance of differentiation. Differentiation is a key aspect of effectively marketing a business. It is what tells people why you’re superior to other businesses and competitors in the space. If you can’t beat other businesses based on cost, then perhaps you can beat them based on luxury, convenience or customer service. Differentiation is the process of standing out in some way. If there are a million others just like you, there’s not much to make you stand out. But, if there’s some way you can distinguish yourself from others, you can beat out competitors by being the best at whatever that is. It’s okay if your brand can’t beat others in every category… it’s a matter of finding the one that’s right for you, and committing to being the best within that space. Take, for example, Ethica, a grassroots business dedicated to women’s apparel. If the business were limited to just that, they wouldn’t stand a chance against larger retailers that can make clothes cheaper using factory laborers. But, that’s just it. Ethica’s founders decided to adopt a social good initiative, allowing them to only carry clothing and accessories that they can verify is created ethically. Because of that, they’ve garnered attention from some of the leading fashion publications in the United States. Differentiation is key in the company’s success. You can see many examples of differentiation in the choices you make every day. I tend to spend more money on my favorite brand of tissue, but I’ll forsake quality for price when it comes to kitchen needs, like plastic wrap or aluminum foil.Everyone has preferences, so for marketers it’s often just a matter of delving into those specific preferences. When thinking about your business, ask yourself how you are differentiating your business. If you can’t think of anything, then start today by emphasizing your strengths, and working to design campaigns around those differentiators. The team at our Orlando ad agency guarantees that focusing on differentiators will bring results. Contact us today to get started setting your company apart.
Shoppable Search and Instagram Checkout: What Brands Need to Know
Checking out the e-commerce way has never been easier and your media buying agency is the best way to keep up with the shoppable assets within media. Retailers and consumers take note: Google and Instagram are determined to radically simplify the buyer’s journey. Elegant simplicity is one of the highest aims of user experience, and both Google and Instagram are making moves to simplify and streamline purchases made within their ecosystems. Brands are in a position to reap significant rewards from these efforts — and the right media planning agency can help them take advantage. The birth of “Checkout on Instagram” Instagram is a natural space for e-commerce — it’s a highly visual medium that lends itself perfectly to product showcasing and placement. With the recent introduction of “Checkout on Instagram,” the platform is on the way to realizing its e-commerce potential. The new feature works like this: Instead of seeing a “view on website” button when using Instagram’s shopping tags feature; platform users will see a “check out on Instagram” button. By pressing this button, users can immediately purchase the item they are viewing without being referred to a third-party site. Instagram will make these in-platform checkouts fairly seamless by storing payment data from users’ first purchase, which eliminates the need for payment details to be entered repeatedly. Users can also track delivery and shipment information directly within Instagram. Currently, this feature is a closed beta with only 23 pre-selected businesses participating. Instagram will charge each business a fee for each completed transaction. However, given the platform’s reach (one billion active users) that seems like a price most businesses and media planning agencies will be willing to pay. Google extends shoppable ads to image search results Customers (and brands) are always searching for ways to reduce the number of touch points on the path to a sale. Google is particularly well positioned to provide greater simplicity thanks to its massive search index and image library. Now, the company is capitalizing on that positioning by introducing shoppable ads to Google Images search results. Taking a cue from Pinterest (which recently announced its shopping results would be positioned at the top of search pages) and Instagram, brands can now tag multiple products on an ad. Users then see the product type and price when hovering. During a keynote talk at Shoptalk (a retail industry conference), Google President of Retail Shopping and Payments Daniel Alegre said Shoppable Ads would help better connect brands and consumers by reducing touch points. By making these images shoppable, Google allows retailers to theoretically increase conversions by interacting with consumers when they are primed and ready to buy. The greater the number of touch points, the higher the potential for a consumer to become sidetracked or successfully converted by a competitor. Given the combined activities of Instagram, Google, and Pinterest, it’s clear that major platforms are seeking to make search results and ads more shoppable. These efforts dovetail nicely with the desire of audiences for simpler, faster, and better e-commerce options. The takeaway At BIGEYE, we help brands identify the ideal mediums for their marketing messages. Contact our team today and we’ll show you the kind of impact the right media planning agency can have when paired with the right display advertising services.
Huge Changes Ahead for Google Ads Agencies and Why You Should Care
Advertising through Google is essential to today’s marketing landscape, so get ready for a huge industry shift to first-price auction bidding. So, what is first-price auction, and how is it different from second-price auction? The answer is simple: payout. The second-price auction is the system Google has been using. This way, the bidder only pays a small increment above the second highest bid. For example, if Bid “A” is $75 K and Bid “B” is $20 K, then the winner behind Bid “A” pays something along the lines of $20,001. Under the new system, first-price auction, the winner behind Bid “A” would pay the $75 K offered. The first-price system also eliminates “last look.”A program that gave advertisers more access to Google’s offerings. It allowed for a Google ads agency to add a penny and outbid the winner, raising Google’s AdWords and DSP win rates while opening up exclusive offers for the buyer. Second-price auctions have been the name of the game at every Google ads agency for years, so most demand-side platforms are built around it. Many advertisers will be at a disadvantage of negotiating in this new system. More than that, with a service as prominent as Google leading the charge, many PPC, or pay-per-click, providers will be making this same change. Buyers won’t be the only ones floored by this change. Publishers will be at a disadvantage as well. They will need to restructure their price flooring strategies in order to keep sales within a profitable range. Changes like this call for adjustments throughout the industry. How it will change The rollout will be incremental, starting at a small percentage of the traffic and expanding with Google ads updates until first price auctions are all that Google deals in. The switch should cover the entire Google Ad Manager system by the end of the year. It will be a swift change and every digital media buying agency will need to pivot quickly to avoid wasting client funds. Since Google is an industry leader, this change could kick-off a widespread shift across platforms. Each TV advertising agency, digital media buyer, and traditional media strategist will need to learn how to effectively manage first-price auctions. Any PPC management you seek out should be experienced in or exceedingly familiar with the processes that first-price auctions call for. According to Sam Cox, the group product manager at Google Ad Manager, this change in selling styles will only be applied to services bought through the Ad Manager system. At least for now, the Google properties like AdSense for Search, Search itself, and YouTube won’t be changing. The takeaway Google is moving its Ad Manager property from a second-price auction to a first-price auction system. They are starting small, but by the end of the year, all placements bought through Google Ad Manager will be done through the first-price auction. This means you’ll need to find a Google ads agency with a deep understanding of the new system. Get in touch with media buyers that adapt and change quickly, or budget for some growing pains. As an experienced Google ads agency, we understand the first-price auction system well. We are primed to pivot as quickly as process changes like these occur without missing a beat or wasting client money. Ready to take real action? Reach out today!
A Successful Night Envisioning the Future of Advertising
An event that brought industry leaders together to share insight on the future of advertising and how to adapt across industry disciplines. Envision was hosted by BIGEYE Advertising Agency and featured 4 speakers who spoke on their industry experience and predictions for future insight. This 3-hour cocktail attire event on March 28, 2019, was an engaging evening of effective strategizing. Envision began at 7 PM, with an open bar, music, mingling, and concluding with inspiring speakers such as Ben Hewitt, owner, and founder of Corckcicle; Luis Mark González Jr, senior graphic designer at InVision; Kelly Fulford, director of partnerships and digital sales at the NBC Universal Golf Channel; and Kristen Wiley, CEO of Statusphere. “We were blown out of the water by the community’s passion for learning,” said agency CEO and principal, Justin Ramb. “With a great turnout, innovative concepts, and engaging speakers Envision delivered more than we had hoped.” According to BIGEYE’s lead designer, Rhett Whitney, there were over75 100 people in attendance at this event designed to help local advertisers plan for the coming year while looking to the future of the industry. The expert speakers brought cutting-edge concepts and unique viewpoints to the table as they presented their strategic predictions for industry direction. BIGEYE has distinguished itself as a learning space for the Florida advertising community with the success of Envision. “I am extremely proud of what we accomplished with Envision,” said agency marketing specialist, and event director LeAnne Ball. “We wanted to bring the advertising community together to discuss the coming trends and obstacles of the industry and I know that everyone went home more prepared for the future.”
Tips to Jumpstarting Your Business’ Holiday Marketing Efforts
Most businesses want nothing more for the holidays than a successful sales season. Getting an early jump on holiday marketing efforts is one of the best ways to ensure this happens — choosing the right Orlando marketing agency is part of that process as well. With that in mind, let’s review some key things to know when preparing a Christmas marketing in July. Don’t wait to start developing relationships Whether you’re selling B2B or retail, the holiday season is a whirlwind of activity for your customers. Most of them are swamped with their own work and under siege from the marketing efforts of your competitors. This means that businesses need to start cultivating these relationships earlier — much earlier. Engage with prospective clients in the early summer months. Build relationships. Get your CRM database up to date and ready to go. By the time November rolls around, your marketing campaign will be a well-oiled machine. Go against the grain Sometimes the best holiday marketing approach is the most counterintuitive or unconventional one. Customers have become immune to the same holiday displays, symbols and messages; it’s all just background noise. To break through the usual holiday routine, spend July planning a marketing campaign that cuts against the usual grain. REI, the famous outdoor equipment co-op, offered a brilliant example of this kind of holiday marketing a few years ago with its #OptOutside campaign, which was built around REI’s decision to close all of its locations on Black Friday. This idea, which ran counter to countless other marketing campaigns celebrating Black Friday, tapped into emerging public displeasure with the corporate-created pseudo holiday. REI was showered with praise for giving their employees a break from Black Friday chaos — and also earned just about every major advertising and marketing award for its trouble. Take a phased approach Every year it’s like clockwork — businesses begin to flood the zone with holiday marketing as soon as Halloween ends. A smarter approach, however, is to build your campaigns with a phased implementation in mind. Beginning in July, start developing a narrative that can unfold from the summer until the height of the holiday season. Use distinct stages for your messaging and promotional activity. Make it so your campaign evolves along with the buyer’s journey. Pique their interest and build awareness over the summer, then step on the gas in terms of messaging and promotion once you enter the buying season. Choosing the right partner Whether you’re seeking a media buying agency or brand messaging company, BIGEYE can provide the experience and expertise to craft an unforgettable holiday marketing campaign. As a leading Orlando marketing agency with deep roots in the southeastern Florida community, we have the vision — and the creative talent — to help jumpstart your holiday marketing efforts. Reach out to our team today for a free consultation!
Chipotle’s new menu: How good marketing trumps bad queso
Chipotle, the famous fast-casual Mexican restaurant, ended years of burrito purism with a recent menu expansion. Along with the usual overstuffed Mission-style burritos, customers can soon order quesadillas, nachos, milkshakes, avocado tostadas, and salads. Nachos and quesadillas at a Mexican restaurant? And they said innovation was dead. Now, don’t get us wrong — we love Chipotle. They’ve been good to us, with those massive burritos providing the necessary fuel for countless meetings and creative work sessions here at BIGEYE. America may “run on Dunkin,” but our little corner of Central Florida runs on barbacoa burritos. Yet this hasn’t always been a smooth relationship. For as much as we love Chipotle, it hasn’t always been easy to be a customer. First, Chipotle was a victim of their own success, driving us crazy with those long cafeteria-style lines. Then the lines miraculously disappeared — but only because everyone was afraid to eat there following a multi-state outbreak of E. coli at Chipotle restaurants. After a bit of crisis marketing (and the consumer’s natural tendency to forgive and forget over time) Chipotle began to bounce back — only to squander their newfound sympathy and goodwill with the disastrous rollout of their long-awaited queso dip. For years, Chipotle’s most loyal fans had begged for queso sauce; the product they finally got was a goopy abomination described as “dumpster juice” and “expired Velveeta.” So, after all of these trials and tribulations, you can understand why the recent menu expansion was received with skepticism in our office. Will Chipotle finally be rewarded with a big win after years of setbacks? With that said, we have a few ideas about how Chipotle should market the new menu and win back lapsed customers. Marketing the new menu and earning trust and loyalty As mentioned above, our office is full of Chipotle fans, so we’re rooting for the company. Here’s our quick take on their situation: Food safety isn’t the primary reason why sales slumped at Chipotle. Customer surveys showed that long wait lines and messy staging and eating areas have turned off more Chipotle consumers than food safety concerns. We believe Chipotle needs to reassure its customers that new menu items won’t translate into interminable wait times — or any added wait at all. This is a company that needs to put the “fast” back into the fast casual concept they helped pioneer. While food safety may not be the primary reason why Chipotle sales have flagged, it still certainly plays a role. The chain has tried numerous tactics for addressing this problem, including the announcement of “zero tolerance food safety protocols,” the distribution of free burritos, experiments with drive-ins, and now, a new menu. None of it has been quite enough to completely turn the ship upright. Chipotle’s marketing efforts can learn a lesson from Jack in the Box, which faced a far worse E. coli outbreak in the 1990s. Though Jack in the Box introduced many of the same food safety protocols (and slashed prices on its famous tacos) to help lure customers back, it was the 1994 rollout of the wildly successful “Jack’s Back” advertising campaign that truly revived the company’s fortunes. Perhaps, if the new menu isn’t enough to reignite interest, Chipotle (a relatively ad averse company) needs to do the same. As our favorite fictional ad man Don Draper once said, “If you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation.” Regardless of how Chipotles marketing approach turns out, once thing is certain: We’ll be lining up to try the new quesadillas and nachos — but we’re still not going anywhere near the queso.
Why your inbound marketing strategy will be the key to your success
In 2016, Personal Wine, one of the largest corporate branded wine providers increased their traffic over 70% by harnessing an unbeatable inbound marketing strategy. And it didn’t cost them a single media dollar. Inbound marketing gives your PPC and ad budget a break by attracting pre-qualified leads through stellar, well-positioned content — think highly informative blog posts, video, social media, e-books, infographics, and podcasts. These leads are then converted into sales (and repeat customers) through marketing and re-engagement tools such as email marketing campaigns and targeted ads or promotions. BIGEYE is one of the only multi-platform agencies using customized content to engage the right people, in the right place, at the right time, so we’re sharing our favorite inbound marketing techniques to get you started on your next content transformation. Use blogging as the foundation of your inbound marketing strategy Let’s start with the facts. According to a study by TechClient, blogs typically increase a website’s indexed pages — a critical factor in SEO ranking — by over 400%, and brands that invest in blogging activities are 13 times more likely to see a positive ROI on their content marketing spends, according to Hubspot. If you haven’t started your inbound marketing strategy yet, blogging is the place to begin. Blogs give your team an opportunity to establish itself as an industry thought leader and provide support for the greater internet community. Blogging is also one of the most shareable forms of content, making it a great stepping stone to build your inbound social media presence. Podcasts are one of the most effective inbound techniques available Although hosting a dedicated podcast may be too much work for your organization, seek opportunities to appear as a guest expert or host on popular shows related to your audience. As an example, if your brand sells kitchen appliances, consider appearing on popular cooking for foodie podcasts. Podcasts are a surprisingly effective form of inbound marketing because nearly 50% of podcasters listen at home, rather than in their cars, according to Podcast Insights. This means they are able to access their phones or computers to follow up on what they learn about your brand and expertise while the moment is fresh. Additionally, over 80% of people also listen to the podcasts in their entirety, including ads and closing remarks suggesting that the average listener is focused and primed to learn and act on what they hear. Bring inbound market strategy to life through video While blogs, articles, and podcasts establish your leaders as industry experts, amazing video content creates an emotional link to your brand. Become a brand that people love, want to talk about, and are proud to promote (or purchase from) through good storytelling that reveals how your products are transforming lives or even the world. Video content should complement your other inbound marketing efforts by humanizing your brand. Because video content can be labor intensive to curate and refine for multi-platform exposure, we recommend partnering with an agency like ours to reduce cost and increase the effectiveness of your video campaigns. Click here to learn more about our video services and how they may fit with your inbound marketing strategy. No matter which inbound techniques you choose, make sure you include a clear link or call to action back to your brand that will anchor your audience and encourage them to share their email address or begin the customer journey toward a purchase. Reach out to our team to share your experiences using inbound marketing and learn how you can refine your process to perfection.
How to develop a successful sequential marketing plan
As we detailed in our previous post, sequential marketing offers brands an innovative and fresh approach for consumer engagement. By creating compelling and emotionally resonant narratives — and presenting them as advertisements in sequential order across a variety of devices or platforms — businesses are reaping extraordinary benefits in terms of customer engagement and sales. Now that we’ve explained the essentials of the idea, it’s time to outline best practices for crafting a sequential marketing strategy. By doing so, you can help ensure that your organization remains perched at the vanguard of modern digital marketing approaches. Developing a successful sequential marketing plan Like most campaigns, a great sequential marketing plan begins with a commitment to original, creative and evoking content. If the story your brand is telling is dramatically inert, the most precise modeling or insightful buyer personas won’t be of much assistance. Leads must find the story being told interesting and relevant. Ideally, it should also spark some emotional connection — the excitement of seeing something truly unexpected, or the shock of recognition that comes when you identify with a story unfolding on your screen. Stories don’t need to follow a single formula or template, at least creatively speaking, but there should be some common areas of focus. These include identifying why a prospective customer would benefit from your product or service, establishing the problems or pain points presented, then outlining how they can be resolved. Only after the full narrative has been unspooled for the lead, a call to action or another prompt designed to move the sales process forward should be presented. These various elements may be present in different ad sequences. For example, the first sequence may simply introduce the brand to increase awareness. The second sequence may focus on problems solved or benefits offered, while the final sequence delivers a prompt for further action. Beyond the story A commitment to exceptional story content should be paired with the necessary supporting elements: High-quality leads, well thought out and researched buyer personas, and actionable customer data. Questions such as “who is your customer?” “which devices will she use?” and “where do her interests lie?” are all critical inquiries. Sequential marketing is more sophisticated (and often more resource intensive) than other conventional forms of marketing. Because of this, they are generally seen by previous customers or leads who have shown a demonstrated interest in a product or service. Since multi-stage narratives are typically employed, targeting leads with the same sequenced ad multiple times may quickly lead to diminishing returns or ad fatigue — many people simply won’t want to sit through a story they’ve already seen, even if they enjoy it. It’s also important to tailor your ad approach for the platform you’re using. Facebook offers several tools for sequential ads, including the ability to schedule dozens of ads ahead of time. Snapchat, meanwhile, has added a sequential ad capability to its Discover channel. Marketers can take longer videos and trim them into a few short sequences by using this tool. The takeaway Sequential marketing offers brands an innovative method for targeting high-value leads and converting them with greater efficiency. We encourage you to consider the ideas outlined above when developing your next sequential marketing plan. Contact us today to partner with out digital marketing team on setting up your sequential ads and getting them in front of the right people.