Published on: 19 August 2019
Last Updated on: 30 July 2021
In the past few decades, there have been major changes in the world and our digital surroundings. While the geopolitics and social interactions of the world are in constant flux, since the beginning of the 21st century, there have been other types of changes that have occurred. Most of these alterations have come from the rise of Internet technologies around the globe. The web has totally revolutionized the world, from the way people interact with one another to the changes in the job market.
The most important driver of the economy in the 21st century is the Internet! Everything from local businesses to billion-dollar corporations uses web-based tech to survive. One part of the economy that the Internet has totally transformed is retail. Retail has in large part shifted to e-commerce, and people from around the world have been starting their own e-commerce stores.
Starting Your Own Ecommerce Store
There are numerous reasons why people start their own e-commerce stores, from the flexibility of lifestyle it provides to the potential to have a lucrative business. There is a myriad of products, which can be sold online. However, finding a niche in your products is a sure way to be successful. This is why running a pet supply eCommerce store is such a great idea. People love their pets and pay serious money for them, so pet supplies is an excellent niche that will certainly lead your company to earn immense revenue. However, if you want to be truly successful, you need to see that your organization will stand out amongst all the other e-commerce stores.
Learning How to Set Up Your Business
Once you decide to get a website for your online store, one of the first steps is to invest in a robust and user-friendly e-commerce website. This involves selecting a platform, which will allow your website to look professional, run effectively, and will enable you to organize your products and services. After your site has been launched, the next step should involve designing and executing a strong Marketing Campaign on various digital platforms.
You need to ensure that your E-commerce store highlights the hero products of your brand. For example, if you have an extensive range of liver supplements for dogs, you need to ensure that you are placing these medicines on the banner of your E-commerce store page. This will help customers identify the same and click on the page that will take them directly to checkout.
The marketing campaign should aim to create a holistic and 360-degree digital ecosystem. This ecosystem should reinforce the belief and experiences of the users. For example, your e-commerce platform should be linked to your social profiles and vice-versa. This will help redirect traffic from different mediums at all times. You would also want to adopt a creative content marketing strategy.
Your e-commerce website needs to be-
SEO optimized.
Linked to Social Media Accounts
Have a great blog section (Inbound Marketing)
Be optimized to run Google Campaigns.
Learning about these numerous facets will allow you to effectively market your e-commerce site and will let you display your brand to the world.
Final Thoughts:
As the 21st century continues to progress, running an e-commerce store will become a more popular career option. In order to be successful in this industry, you need to set up an excellent site, and effectively build your brand with a quality marketing campaign.
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Excerpt: Delivering email campaigns that perform exceedingly well requires effort and email audits help you get closer to better ROIs. Read on!
So half of the year has gone by smoothly (well, almost), your brand’s making money, your workflows are automated, and your email marketing campaigns are doing well. Wait, yes, pause at the last part of the sentence. Are they really performing optimally?
To get a clear understanding of the efficacy of your email marketing campaigns, no matter how great and well-automated they might be in your perspective, you NEED to run audits twice or thrice every twelve months.
If you meet an email marketer over drinks, they will probably have a lot to say about their KPIs and how the click-throughs are not making the cut. So how can one ensure that their email marketing efforts don’t go down the drain? The answer is quite simple indeed: execute email marketing audits to unveil your strengths and weaknesses, areas of improvement, and those that are doing just fine.
In the blog that follows, we will delve into the different kinds of email marketing audits that one can conduct and ways to go about executing them. Let’s get cracking!
The Kinds of Email Marketing Audits That One Can Conduct
In simple terms, an email marketing audit is a deep analysis of the various factors that contribute to the success of an email campaign so that you know what’s working and the areas that need to be tweaked.
The following are some kinds of email audits that you can carry out; each of them focuses on different facets of the email.
1. Email Content & Design Marketing Performance Audit
One of the most common kinds of audits, here you delve into your various KPIs (CTR, CTOR, etc.) to get a holistic understanding of the email campaign’s performance. The aspects that you need to look out for are:
Subject line: Try to keep them personalized, crystal clear, non-sales, and within the range of 40-45 characters, optimized for mobile viewing. Please steer clear of spammy words such as “earn quick money” or basically anything that sounds too good to be true.
Preheader text: It should be related to the subject line, albeit not repetitive.
Header: First impressions are often long-lasting; cliched though that may sound, it does hold some weight. The header text next to your logo should be noticeable, clear, and in alignment with the brand ethos.
Email copy: Grammatical errors and typos are a major turn-off. No wonder brands invest in the best copywriters to churn out good copy, even in the age of AI! Keep it crisp, clean and deliver maximum value in minimum words.
CTA: The Call to Action buttons are the ones that can make or break the ROIs. Keep the design and text in tandem with the brand guidelines, easy to spot and click, devoid of broken links that lead nowhere!
Graphics: When crafting an HTML or interactive email, ensure that the graphics render well across devices and the visual hierarchy is maintained.
Conversions & Engagement rates: This is the litmus test of your email campaign. Are your emails good and engaging enough to keep subscribers interested, or are there more hits than misses? The KPIs should spill the beans on this one.
2. Email accessibility audit
When crafting your emails, if one overlooks the critical aspect of disability, you might fail to foster inclusivity with your campaigns, thereby risking losing the patronage of your subscribers. Keeping email accessibility in mind is absolutely essential, and is something that all email marketers should perpetually strive for.
Ensure that there is no sensory overload for those with visual disabilities by keeping a simple and clean email layout.
For those living with tactile difficulties, make the CTA buttons larger to ensure greater clickability and visibility across a range of devices.
Remember to check for alt text in images to simplify things for users deploying the services of a screen reader.
3. Deliverability Audit
You might have the best of Salesforce email templates (or Hubspot; whatever rocks your boat) and check all the above aspects, but if your email campaigns fail to reach the intended inboxes, all your efforts will end up in vain.
To check for email deliverability issues, one needs to check the following aspects;
Clean email list devoid of incorrect email ids
Email Authentication
HTML code failures
Domain reputation
Blocklisting
Spam traps
IP address
4. Compliance Audit
This would include checking the level of compliance of your email campaigns with the guidelines and requirements of CCPA, GDPR, PECR, etc.
5. Email Code Audit
Here, one would evaluate and carry out a code clean-up, fix bugs (if any), and ensure the incorporation of the best practices in email coding. One would also conduct tests to see how well the email renders across different email clients and devices.
6. Design Audit
In this kind of audit, one would review the emails from the design and aesthetics viewpoint and check how consistent the layout is with the branding guidelines. The different elements one would generally bring under the lens in this kind of audit are checking for the right use of white spaces, design patterns in accordance with the heat map, fonts, logo, layout, graphics, etc.
7. Automation Audit
Here, one would check automated email campaigns to see if everything is in order, such as API triggers, templates, links, rules, customer journey maps, etc.
One can either carry out all these audits or create a bespoke audit plan that includes permutations and combinations of the different kinds of audits mentioned above.
Steps For Conducting The Perfect Email Audit
Now that we are privy to the kinds of email audits that one can carry out, let’s move over to getting started with the process of what’s going well and what’s lacking in your current email campaigns.
Firstly, you need to begin with drafting a clear set of goals. Much like in other areas of life, the lack of well-defined goals in sight can very well be akin to sailing in a rudderless ship, and frankly, no one wants to be aboard such a ship!
You could begin by jotting down the kinds of audits you’d want to run on your existing campaigns and, based on the purpose of the audit, figure out your bespoke learnings and takeaways.
Then, you’d like to create a list of measurable Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that you will be evaluating to check the health and effectiveness of your current campaign.
These may include:
Unsubscribe rates
Open rates (albeit not a very effective one as per Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection feature unveiled in the WWDC conference held on 7 June 2021)
CTR (Click Through Rates)
CTOR (Click To Open Rate)
Spam complaints
Conversions
Email client & device assessment
You can create a spreadsheet to maintain a record of your audit. Here’s what you can document:
Name of the email campaign
Date deployed (not applicable in case of automated emails)
Name of the audience segment
Subject line
Soft bounce rate
Hard bounce rate
CTOR
CTR
Conversion rate
Unsubscribe rate
You can modify the contents of the spreadsheet as per your unique requirements. One can also diversify the main spreadsheet by adding tabs for different kinds of emails, such as promotional, transactional emails, etc.
Once you have your data in place, you can and should proceed with the data analysis. Begin with scanning all the metrics and specifically scrutinize those that fall on the extremities of the curve. The ones that did really well and the ones that missed the mark. Proceed with asking yourself the following questions,
Are the subject lines and preheader texts enticing enough? Will I click on them if I receive them in my inbox?
Is the visual hierarchy of the email in place, or does it look too cluttered?
Does it offer a personalized experience to the subscriber?
Does the email copy offer value to the reader, or does it appear too salesy?
Does it cater to specific buyer personas and age demographic, or does it appear mass-produced with no specific target audience in mind?
Is the cadence too annoying for the subscribers leading to higher unsubscribe requests?
Are the CTAs visible, quirky, and enticing enough to get users to click on them?
Are your emails accessible to users across the entire spectrum?
Wrapping It Up
While there are a number of tools available in the market to help you conduct email audits, and you can always request colleagues for a fresh eye perspective on your campaigns, if you’d rather have experts analyze the game for you, that’s possible too! Email Uplers will not only help you analyze your existing campaigns but also deliver interactive emails from scratch attuned to your specific needs. Do drop by for more information!
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If you know the market activities known as the trade show, then you know how important they can be to develop a company. Trade shows provide a variety of resources including growing knowledge of the brand, networking with potential buyers, and making sales. Trade shows mark a major investment for a company. Therefore, in the marketing field of expertise, you need the statistics to show that this is a successful strategy.
Here are six tips to ensure a good trade show:
1. Find Objectives and Set your Budget
The first step to succeeding in a trade show is to know whether you want to demonstrate. You definitely won't be watching the same show based on the primary goal. However, it is important that you bear in mind the industry's biggest trade shows. You should walk step by step through the goods you want to make their debut or display at the trade show. Never endanger the reputation of your business for inexpensive short-term deals. What could appear inexpensive and enticing now may be dangerous in the long run? You can have your budget set up now.
2. Prepare your staff and teams
It's important to have a strong sales staff and we would recommend you pick the best out of the squad for the trade show. Work them out carefully; clarify explicitly the priorities and stakes involved. ExpoMarketing is having too much competition in the market so you really need to choose the best staff for your trade show. You have two choices, whether to put in an in-house group or to hire an organization with event workers that have expertise with running trade shows. Whatever you decide, realize that your company will be the face of the employees working your booth.
3. Product Demos
It's important to show your product and be prepared to allow the participants to test it out. Customers want something to see, touch, or even try before buying them. Send them a custom email to thank them for coming, and give them more detail about your company. You can also make a meeting. It's very essential to do so when everybody still considers each other. A strong trade show is easy to bear fruit if you respond quickly.
4. Giveaway free products
People enjoy free things and plan to win quite a bit at trade shows. you can attract a crowd with anything as basic as freshly baked cookies, or you can go a step better with discounted items such as markers, shirts, notebooks, or water bottles. It will help crack the ice, open discussions, and ideally, prospects that are eligible. Try selling something that is important to your business.
5. Take Lead notes
Your business card is an opportunity to expand your discussion past the trade fair, and a clear reminder of who you are. It's a must for skilled people. You feel out of place without brochures and people are less likely to be taking you seriously.
6. Follow Up
Refer to the lead notes to craft customized messages that answer each future customer's unique needs and wishes. Know your primary aim that must be to transform the implementation of trade shows into long-term market partnerships.
Read Also:
What Type Of Inflatables Should You Opt For At Your Business Event
Getting a Return on Investment From Using a Trade Show Booth
A Well-Oiled Trade Show Machine: The Ones Running the Show
Marketing is a competitive field, and if you want to start your own agency, you need to make sure you have the right stuff to compete. There’s a lot of stuff to consider when starting your own firm. For instance, what services will you offer? What type of businesses will you cater to? Will you build your own website or outsource it? What sort of marketing agency hosting will you use?
What to Consider When Starting A Marketing Agency
It seems like a lot, doesn’t it? For this reason, we’ve created a simple guide to help you get started building your marketing agency. Read on to learn what you need to get started:
To begin with, you need to make sure you have the right stuff to run an agency. To start a marketing firm, you should be adaptable, have a desire to learn, and amazing communication skills. Next, you need to decide what is going to set your agency apart from your industry competitors.
The best way to figure out what will make your marketing firm unique is to start by asking yourself some questions:
1. What can you specialize in?
Some services your agency can specialize in are:
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Email Marketing
Content Marketing
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
Event Marketing
Guest Blogging
2. Will you specialize in more than one thing?
It’s a good idea to start small and specialize in one or two services; however, the more services you offer to clients, the more desirable your agency will be to potential customers. This is because people tend to like to be able to get all their needs met in one place.
Utilizing marketing automation solutions could make it simple for you to provide a variety of marketing services to your customers. All-in-one marketing tools like digital marketing software for agencies will also enable your staff to perform more effectively and successfully.
3. Will you cater to B2B companies or B2C companies?
B2B is short for business-to-business. It refers to companies that sell products or services to other companies.
B2C is short for business-to-consumer. It refers to companies that sell products or services directly to consumers.
Once you’ve figured out what services you’re going to offer and what type of businesses you’ll cater to, it’s time to identify who your target market will be. Ask yourself:
4. What market are your competitors targeting? Who are their customers?
You don’t want to go after the same market as your competitor, or the same customers when you’re first starting. For instance, if your competitors have lots of eCommerce clients, you may want to choose a more underserved market like real estate.
5. What specific demographics can you target?
It’s important to know not only who needs your service but also who is most likely to buy it. Consider the following factors:
Age
Location
Gender
Income level
Education level
Occupation
Ethnic background.
Now that you know what services you’re selling and who you’re selling them to, its time to write a business plan. Your business plan should have several components:
The goals for your business.
Predictions for your finances and cashflow.
Forecast for your business activity.
Outline of which revenue stream(s) you’ll utilize.
Description of your target audience and how you intend to reach them.
Finally, we arrive at the last part: finding clients. You may feel like the best thing to do is to get as many new clients as quickly as possible. Instead, it would help if you focused on retaining clients. It is much harder and more expensive to acquire new clients, then it is to keep existing clients. So how can your marketing agency find and retain clients?
Find clients by:
1. Networking
Networking can be done by attending industry events, trade shows, and conferences, participating in networking sessions, posting and sharing content on social media, participating in LinkedIn groups and discussions, as well as sharing information on relevant business forums.
2. Offer Free Trials
Free is a golden ticket word for most people. Offering your agency’s services for free will help you build a portfolio while showing potential clients what you can do.
3. Referrals
Once you’ve acquired some clients, use them to expand your client base by asking if their customers or suppliers need your services and letting them know that your firm is available.
4. Promotion
Create a website, use social media, and design promotional material to market your marketing services.
Retain clients by:
1. Making sure everything your firm does is client-focused.
2. Document all your work and file reports.
3. Keep abreast of the latest changes and innovations in the industry.
4. Approach your work with creativity.
Read Also:
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