Blog Archives - Stevens & Tate Marketing

Fostering a Better Client-Agency Relationship to Grow Your Business

July 26, 2024/in Advertising Agency, Articles, Blog, Directors /by Nicole Wagner

There are many benefits to working with a professional marketing agency, no matter how big your business is. A marketing agency can help develop, execute, monitor, and analyze your marketing strategy, thereby assisting in the growth of your company. As a direct result, you’ll also reduce the amount of time, money, and resources you need to throw at your marketing efforts, allowing you to focus on other business-related tasks instead.

However, it’s critical that you build a close working relationship with your agency. You’re entrusting them with your company’s future success, after all. You’ll want to make sure that they’re tailoring your strategy to meet your company’s needs. Keep in mind that a strong relationship is one that both sides work to develop. As such, the following are a few important elements of a successful client-agency relationship that you should be aware of:

1. Clear Expectations for the Client-Agency Relationship

An agency needs to know exactly what you’re expecting from them, both in terms of what services they are providing and what metrics you’re expecting them to achieve. If you don’t lay out your expectations from the get-go, then they won’t know whether they’re on the right track. You should establish milestones and standards. On top of that, make it clear that you expect clear communication and transparency so that if there are any issues, the agency will share them with you and explain their course of action. Otherwise, they may just go at it alone without your input.

Five Reasons To Hire An Advertising Agency Versus Staffing In-House

2. Open Communication

Any relationship, whether in the business world or not, relies on open communication to work. Make yourself available to the agency if they ever have questions or if there are ever any issues. Request the same of them. You’ll want to be able to reach your team leader with ease if there is anything you want to discuss or if you have any questions that need answering. It’s a good idea to have points of contact in place so that both sides know who to reach.

By demonstrating that you expect clear communication, you’ll also make the agency more comfortable in knowing that they can reach out when needed. There are many businesses that will just leave the agency to their own devices and who won’t want to be bothered. Additionally, some agencies may operate in the same way. However, this is a poor way to manage what should be a long-term relationship.

3. Transparency

An agency needs to understand what you’re looking to achieve with your marketing, both in terms of short-term and long-term goals. It also helps to understand what your business goals are so that your marketing strategy can reflect that. If you withhold information such as this, it will be more difficult for the agency to tailor your strategy to your specific needs. In fact, monitoring and evaluating marketing performance will become much more difficult as a result.

4. Honest Feedback in the Client-Agency Relationship

Establish from the outset that you expect the agency to provide feedback when needed. This way, if you’re not providing the information that your marketing team needs or you’re not getting back to them quickly enough, they will actually let you know. As a result of straightforward feedback, you can not only strengthen your relationship over time, you can keep it from deteriorating (which will only hurt your marketing efforts). The same goes for your side: if the agency’s marketing efforts are not meeting expectations, you need to let them know. You may even want to consider implementing a mutual evaluation at specific dates.

5. True Partnership

Don’t think of an agency as a service provider. Instead, think of them as a partner. After all, their success relies on your success. If you go into the relationship with the idea that you’re partners, you’ll be much more likely to find yourself on the same page as the agency you’re working with. By treating the relationship as a partnership, the agency will have greater success meeting your company’s specific needs.

These are the factors that contribute to a strong relationship between a business and a marketing agency. It’s important that if you outsource your marketing to an agency that they make an effort to develop a trusting relationship with you; however, remember that a good relationship depends on both sides. As such, you need to meet them halfway for the partnership to be a fruitful one. Here at Stevens & Tate, we pride ourselves in not just the work we do, but the relationships that we build with all of our clients.

Hubspot vs Mailchimp

July 17, 2024/in Articles, Blog, Directors, Marketing Automation /by Nicole Wagner

There are hundreds of different tools available for every aspect of online marketing. Such tools can be used to automate basic tasks, provide aesthetic options, analyze performance, and much more. However, choosing the right tool can be difficult, especially when it comes to email marketing. For instance, two of the main email marketing tools currently on the market include HubSpot and Mailchimp. Both have a stellar reputation for user-friendly interfaces, customization options, and automation features. But how do you choose between HubSpot vs. Mailchimp? The following is a breakdown between HubSpot vs. Mailchimp:

What Is HubSpot?

HubSpot is essentially an all-in-one marketing platform. As such, email marketing is just one of its components. The HubSpot ecosystem also includes inbound marketing, analytics, CRM, and sales tools. Using their email marketing service, you will be able to segment your email lists and use a variety of automation features to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your email campaigns. Although HubSpot’s most basic plan starts at $45/month, they do offer free tools, including email marketing tools.

What Is Mailchimp?

Unlike HubSpot, Mailchimp’s primary focus is on email marketing. They have built a reputation as one of the premier email marketing services on the market. Like HubSpot, MailChimp does have a free service that includes their marketing CRM, form and landing pages, website builder, and creative assistant. However, access to additional email marketing features, such as custom branding, A/B testing, and more, requires a paid plan (plans start at $9.99/month).

What Are The Differences Between HubSpot vs. Mailchimp?

As email marketing tools with a large set of customization capabilities and automation features, HubSpot and Mailchimp may seem very similar. The following is a closer look at some of the differences between the two, which should help guide you in making your decision:

Price – Although both HubSpot and Mailchimp offer free plans, you’ll likely want to pay for access to more email marketing features. Mailchimp is going to be cheaper at every tier. HubSpot’s plans range from $45 to $3,200/month, while Mailchimp’s plans range from $9.99 to $299/month. Of course, you’ll be getting a more comprehensive marketing suite for the price if you go with HubSpot.
CRM – Both HubSpot and Mailchimp offer list segmentation tools, as well as pop-up and embedded forms. However, HubSpot also offers standalone and collected forms. On the other hand, HubSpot only allows up to 60,000 contacts compared to Mailchimp’s 100,000 contact limit (although 60,000 is arguably more than enough).
Email Building Features – Both tools offer drag-and-drop features along with customizable templates and A/B testing. HubSpot does have a design manager that makes its tool particularly user-friendly for building your emails.
Automation Capabilities – Automation is essential to any successful email marketing campaign. Mailchimp’s automation features include data-based and behavior-based automation, welcome messages, product recommendation, and retargeting emails, as well as in-depth multi-step automation (such as pre-built journeys). HubSpot offers most of these features in addition to complex branching logic, follow-up campaigns, multi-channel automation, score leading, workflow templates, and more. However, access to these features on HubSpot requires their professional plan.
Analytics – Mailchimp includes a dashboard with real-time performance and analytics. Additional features include ROI tracking, a click map, advanced audience insights, and more. HubSpot has arguably more comprehensive email analytics capabilities, including up to ten reporting dashboards and custom reports for their starter plan. Higher tiered plans include more dashboards and report options. HubSpot’s data analytics are more detailed as well.
Landing pages – Landing pages are essential to building your email list. Not to mention that they are also needed for your emails to convert. HubSpot has an easy-to-use landing page builder that allows you to choose from various customizable templates. However, this feature is not available in their free plan. On the other hand, Mailchimp doesn’t have a landing page builder at all. Instead, it offers integrations with other third-party tools that you can use to build your email landing pages.

Also Read: 5 Ways to Revamp Your Email Marketing Strategy and Increase ROI

Both HubSpot and Mailchimp are excellent options when it comes to email marketing tools. However, when taking into account the differences between HubSpot vs. Mailchimp, we believe that HubSpot does edge Mailchimp in terms of its quality and capabilities. On top of that, HubSpot has an entire ecosystem of marketing tools and platforms, making it easier to integrate all of your marketing capabilities and to run your efforts from a single hub. As such, you should strongly consider HubSpot for your email marketing needs.

Marketing Blog tips to Supplement your Digital Strategy

July 12, 2024/in Articles, Blog, Content Marketing, Directors /by Nicole Wagner

Ask any business, big or small, and they’ll tell you how important digital marketing is to their overall marketing strategy. When it comes to digital marketing strategies, most prioritize social media, SEO, and email marketing. While these strategies can be very effective, it’s critical that you don’t dismiss the importance of maintaining a digital marketing blog. For many businesses, their blog isn’t nearly as big of a priority as other digital marketing elements. However, a digital marketing blog has an enormous impact on the overall success of your digital marketing efforts. In fact, a successful blog can have a huge impact on how effective your SEO and social media strategies are.

Why Maintaining a Blog Is So Important

The following are some of the reasons why you should maintain a blog on your website:

Keep new content organized – Digital marketing requires regular content generation to be effective. A blog allows you to publish and organize all of your content in one place, making it easy for leads to find information that they’re looking for. Leads will also know where to go to find new content, keeping leads engaged.
Educate and nurture your leads – A regularly updated blog allows you to continually educate new leads and to nurture them through the buyer’s journey. The more informed your leads are, the more prepared they will be to make a purchasing decision in the near future.
Generate website traffic – Having a blog makes it easier to improve your website’s SEO. When you routinely publish relevant, highly optimized content on your blog, you’ll end up boosting web traffic. As a result, you’ll bring in more new potential leads.
Build brand authority – A blog full of high-quality content will help position your brand as an authority within your industry. The more you build your authority, the more brand trust you’ll create. It will also help you build your audience on social media as followers will be more likely to share your blog content with others.

Brand Storytelling Examples to Learn From

Tips For Maintaining A Successful Blog on the Website

Now that you have a better understanding of why a blog is so vital to your overall digital marketing strategy, the following are a few tips to help you build and maintain a successful blog:

Know who your audience is – If you don’t know who your target audience is, then you won’t be able to create and publish content that’s relevant. Two of the main goals of a content strategy are to build authority and attract new leads. Neither will occur without an understanding of who your audience is. Develop your buyer personas so that you know who your blog is for.
Perform content research – Once you know who your audience is, you can figure out what kind of information they’re looking for. Do research on trending topics that are relevant to your audience. You should also look at the blogs of various competitors to see what type of content they’re publishing.
Publish new blog content regularly – To maintain your audience, you need to publish new content on a regular basis. This means posting new content to your blog on the same days of the week, at the same times. Doing so ensures that your audience knows exactly when to visit your blog for new content, thereby helping keep your brand at the top of mind.
Monitor the performance of your blog – Use analytics tools to track how your blog posts are doing. You can learn a lot about your blog content this way. For instance, what types of content get the most views, engagement, click-throughs, and conversions. This data is invaluable when it comes to adjusting your content strategy for success.

Keep Your Blog in the Front of Your Audiences Eyes

Publish different types of content.– Make sure you vary the type of content you post so that you keep things fresh. In addition to written content, create and post infographics, SlideShares, and videos
Keep your content interesting – It’s okay to post promotional content to your blog once in a while (such as a product announcement or a sale announcement), but it’s better to stick to educational content so that your blog doesn’t feel like a giant advertisement. However, this doesn’t mean your content should be purely informative. Your content should also be entertaining to keep your audience’s interest.
Optimize your blog for SEO – Proper optimization through the use of high-quality internal and external links and relevant keywords will improve your chances of ranking. By ranking well, you’ll attract more traffic through Google and other search engines.
Promote your blog – Don’t rely solely on SEO to attract an audience. Promote new blog content by posting links in your email newsletters and on social media. You can even use PPC ads to promote specific blog posts you want to showcase.

Building and maintaining a blog is essential to a successful digital marketing strategy. Be sure to use these eight tips to maintain a successful digital marketing blog on your website.

Up Your Email Engagement: Consumer-Oriented Strategies

July 5, 2024/in Articles, Blog, Directors, Email Marketing, Emails /by Nicole Wagner

Email marketing may be one of the oldest forms of online marketing, but it has not lost its relevance. Despite the fact that many businesses are focusing more on social media marketing and SEO, email marketing should still be a priority for any online marketing strategy. The use of email can help you deliver valuable resources and promotional offers to your audience. However, it’s vital that you keep your leads engaged in order for your email marketing strategy to be successful. Now first have a look at what is email engagement:

What is Email Engagement?

Email engagement means the interaction and responsiveness of recipients with email content. It is measured via metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. It indicates how effectively an email captures the audience’s interest and prompts them to take desired actions, like clicking on links, making purchases, or sharing content.

With that in mind, the following are a few tips to help increase email engagement.

1. Send Emails That Offer Value

The most important thing to remember when building an email marketing campaign is that your content matters. Poor content that offers little value to your recipients isn’t going to do anyone any good. Your emails have to provide value in order to engage your leads. There are two ways you can do this:

Provide Educational Content – Generally speaking, you should avoid sending too much promotional material through email. The more ads you send, the more likely your leads are to unsubscribe. As such, focus on creating content that is informative and helpful. Such content will help build your brand authority, thereby boosting brand trust. The more they trust you, the more attention they’ll pay to what you have to say.
Target Your Promotional Offers – Although you should focus more on educational content, that doesn’t mean you can’t ever promote your products or services. However, when you do email a lead a promotional offer, make sure that it’s relevant to their needs. Target your offers based on the data you have from them (such as purchase history) and the actions they take (such as the type of content they’ve downloaded in the past).

Email marketing continues to evolve with the times. Here is what to expect.

2. Segment Your Email Engagement List

It doesn’t matter how high-quality your email content is if it’s not relevant to the person you send it to. For instance, your email about what to look for in high-quality dog food isn’t going to be useful to a cat owner. Use the data you collect from your subscription forms to segment your email list. This will not only ensure that you send your emails to the relevant recipients, but also that you’re creating content that addresses every different part of your audience.

3. Personalize Your Emails

Personalizing your emails will make it easier for leads to relate and engage with your brand. Segmenting your email list will go a long way towards personalizing your emails. However, there’s more to do than just that. For instance, write in a more personal tone of voice using the second person. Use humor where appropriate. Also, send emails that are neither promotional nor educational every once in a while to celebrate a special occasion. For example, a personalized birthday email is always appreciated. You could also send out emails for specific holidays as long as they aren’t religious in tone.

4. Design Your Emails Effectively

The aesthetic of your email matters. You can’t just send a regular default text email to your leads and expect them to be intrigued by what you have to say. Use colors and images that are relevant to your brand and your content. Use CTA buttons that stick out. You can even add GIFs, which make your emails more visually dynamic and which will draw the eye. According to the results of a Dell email marketing campaign, the use of GIFs increased their click rate by 42 percent and their conversion rate by 103 percent.

5. Send The Right Number Of Emails

This can be tricky to figure out. Send too many emails, and you may be marked as spam. Send too few, and your leads may forget about you. Generally speaking, it’s better to send too many than too few. Monitor your unsubscribe rate to get an idea of whether you’re sending too many. If you have a high unsubscribe rate, you may need to cut back on how often you’re sending out emails.

6. Track Performance And Optimize Your Email Engagement

Finally, analyze your email metrics to identify elements that are engaging and elements that are not. For instance, compare the performance of emails using images versus those that don’t. Compare the titles of your emails to see which results in a higher open rate. Use heat maps to figure out what parts of the email engage readers most. This information can be used to optimize future emails to boost customer engagement.

These are six effective methods for creating a more engaging email marketing campaign. The more engaged your email recipients are, the better your chances are of converting your leads into customers — and of converting those one-time customers into loyal long-term customers.

How to Incorporate Email Marketing into B2B Campaigns

June 21, 2024/in Articles, Blog, Directors, Email Marketing /by Dan Gartlan

Email marketing has been a popular strategy for decades, and there’s no sign of it slowing down as an effective marketing tactic. However, as a B2B business, successful B2B email marketing can be challenging. When it comes to B2C email marketing, many companies simply use it to promote new products or to advertise special promotions. This won’t work with B2B marketing. Additionally, because most companies do embrace email marketing, you’re going to have to work a little harder to stand out from the competition and engage your leads. With that in mind, the following are a few B2B email marketing tips:

Email Marking Strategies for B2B

1. Focus On Educational Content

Long-term relationships are much more important for B2B businesses than B2C businesses (although you can’t discount their importance to B2C companies either). As such, the bulk of your email content should focus on providing your leads with information that is useful to them. The more informed they are about the problems you solve or about the industry you’re in, the more comfortable they will be making a buying decision down the line. Not to mention that you’ll position yourself as a brand authority that they can trust.

2. Personalize Your Emails

Don’t make the mistake of assuming email personalization starts and stops with addressing the lead by name. Personalization goes way beyond that. Use the information you have on your subscribers (gained from opt-in forms, questionnaires, purchase history, and more) to segment them into different lists. You can then target specific subscribers using content that is relevant to each list. Doing so will increase the chances of engagement and will make it easier to nurture your leads.

3. Use Automation

As mentioned, automation can be used to segment your email list to ensure that your email content is personalized. However, automation can be used in a variety of ways to further boost engagement. For instance, you can set up email triggers based on actions your subscribers take. When they download something from your site, make a purchase, or sign up for a webinar via one of your emails, it will trigger a relevant email to be sent right after the action was taken.

You can schedule emails using automation to be sent at specific times and on specific days. This allows you to reach your users based on when they are most active on their email accounts.

Find Out How Marketing Automation Can Help You

4. Embrace Drip Email Campaigns

Email drip campaigns consist of a chain of emails designed to follow one another in a specific order and on a scheduled timeline. Usually, a drip campaign will consist of around five emails sent at 3 to 5-day intervals. They are effective because they build on one another, thereby ensuring relevance and generating more engagement. Drip campaigns are designed to welcome new leads, educate them, and finally to encourage a purchase.

5. Don’t Spam Your Subscribers

Even if you’re not sending overly promotional emails, you don’t want to overdo it. Your emails may be chock-full of useful and informative content, but if your recipients are receiving it on a daily basis, they’re going to start ignoring you. When that happens, it will be more difficult to reach them with content that they would actually find helpful. Some subscribers may even unsubscribe, resulting in lost leads.

6. Re-Engage Inactive Subscribers

Every once in a while, take the time to identify subscribers who haven’t engaged with your emails for some time. Don’t just assume that they are a lost cause. While some may have lost interest, others may simply have forgotten about your brand. Send out re-engagement emails that give these subscribers a reason to re-engage with you. Such emails can include polls and surveys, which can help you identify why they became unengaged in the first place. You can also use special offers based on their purchase history to generate interest in your business again.

7. Market Your Email Subscriptions

For your B2B email marketing campaign to be successful, you need to have leads to actually email content to. Besides having email subscription forms on your website, you should actively promote your email subscriptions on your blog and on social media. You can even gate some of your long-form content (such as ebooks and whitepapers), requiring leads to sign up to your email list in return for access to your content.

Also Read: Differences Between B2C and B2B Email Marketing

B2B email marketing can be an incredibly effective way to engage and nurture leads. Make sure to keep these 7 tips in mind for a successful email marketing camp

How Your Web Page Speed Effects Your SEO and Google Ads Performance

June 7, 2024/in Articles, Blog, Brand Development, Directors, Marketing Strategy, SEO /by Nicole Wagner

For companies that already advertise to prospective customers on mobile devices, or who have organic search presence, there are numerous elements of their online presence that need to be checked, tested, and, where appropriate, changed. Implementing a robust SEO strategy is crucial to ensure visibility and competitiveness in the digital landscape. Knowing how to optimize your mobile site for speed will make all the difference to your search engine rankings.

The Importance of Testing Site Speed

The changes are going to make knowing the speed of a mobile site essential. Many tools permit site owners to determine their page speed to see whether enhancements are needed. Most of the tools that are available to test speeds are free and do not require administrator access to the website in question. That means that companies can check their competitors’ sites as well as their own.

Adjusting Mobile SEO Strategy for Google’s Speed Update

One such change that companies should consider is switching to Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). An AMP works by altering the source code of the website, thus directing the standard HTML page to a minimalist version of itself, the hosted AMP page. As AMPs are still so rare, they load exceptionally quickly. In initial Google testing, AMPs reduced load time up to 85%.
Local search should not be ignored, either. A Google Mobile Moments Study revealed that 40% of mobile searches have local intent. Companies also need to be aware that mobile search engine users enter queries differently than desktop search engine users; mobile queries tend to be much shorter.

Leveraging Search Console is a fantastic way to check in on a site’s usability. Using the following options under “Crawl Errors” can make a significant difference to usability:

Smartphone tab – It allows users to recognize any crawl errors that might be burdening their mobile pages
Fetch on Google – It allows users to to see how crawlers view the site and adjust accordingly for better indexing and ranking in search results.
Mobile Usability report – It precisely informs users about pages with mobile usability issues, along with detailing the nature of these issues.

How Will Google’s Speed Update Impact Your Google Ads Account?

The Quality Score algorithm, the algorithm that determines how much users pay per click to serve an ad on the Search Network, is heavily influenced by landing page experience. If a company’s site does not load quickly and does not convey beneficial information, the company will either end up paying a premium or realize that they are unable to serve an ad at all.

The Google Ads documentation recommends five ways to affect positive change regarding a site’s landing page experience:

Include relevant, compelling content
Be recognized as trustworthy
Make navigation simple and effective
Reduce load time
Make the website faster

In Conclusion

Google Ad users need to ensure they optimize for load time and landing page speed, and not just in terms of relevance. Companies should also contemplate making a move to AMP, ensure that their intent is on point, and make the most of the power of Search Console and page speed insights.

How to Have a Successful Blog (Expert Tips)

May 16, 2024/in Articles, Blog, Directors, Inbound Marketing /by Nicole Wagner

Blogging has become a great way for companies to write about content that relates to what they do. This can include tips and advice on anything the company is an authority on. Topics for blogging can range from “What a Good Landing Page Looks Like” to “How to Start Your Own Business in 10 Easy Steps.” Blogs can also strengthen online marketing efforts.

You might be wondering, how can my company have a successful blog? Here are 6 expert tips to help you out.

Tips for creating a successful blog

1. Choose a Topic People Care About

The first step to having a successful blog is to write about a topic that people want to read about. Make the topic interesting, and something worth reading. Once you choose a topic, research it to make sure you are providing reliable information to your readers. Then you can begin writing your blog.

2. Make the Formatting Easy To Read

When formatting your blog, it is better to have many short paragraphs rather than a few long paragraphs. A blog is something that people want to be able to read easily. Short paragraphs are more easily digestible than long paragraphs. When writing a blog for your company, make sure to include offers and promote other blog posts as well.

3. Have an Attention Grabbing Title

As you are reviewing your blog, go back to the title. The title is important and needs to be clear and specific. Most importantly, the title needs to be attention grabbing. Titles should be between 50 and 60 characters. If it goes over 60, the end of the title will be cut off in the search engine results.

4. Pictures Are Fun to Look At

A blog without pictures can be boring. Add a picture or two to your blog to make it more visually appealing. These pictures can be relevant to your topic, and they can also just be a part of your blog as long as they fit. For example, if your blog is directed towards an audience of readers who are business people, you could include a picture of someone wearing a suit. Pictures are a nice addition to a blog. Do not forget to cite the pictures you use if they are not yours.

5. Links and CTA’s

There are many reasons a successful blog includes links to other relevant articles. Successful blogs also include a CTA (call-to-action). You can offer downloadable resources like ebooks, checklists, or templates related to your blog post topic in your CTA.

Also Read: 50 Most Powerful Call-to-Action Phrases

Once you have written your blog, it is time to share it. You can share your blog through social media platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook.

7. Be Consistent and Frequent

The most important things to remember are consistency and frequency. Blogging is more than one post. Instead, it is multiple consistent posts over time. When you are in charge of blogging for your company, it is best to post a minimum of two blogs a week.

Blogging can be fun. Follow the above tips for creating a successful blog for your company.

Digital Communication Tools to Help Build a Human Brand

April 18, 2024/in Blog, Brand Development, Digital, Directors, Marketing Strategy /by Mark Beebe

The success of your brand depends on much more than just convincing a potential customer to try your product. While in the past the customer experience has been based around the product being offered, these days, you need to look at the big picture. It’s not just about the customer experience in regards to your product. It’s about the emotional connection that they are able to form with your brand.

Customers don’t just want a product, they want a relationship with the brand that is selling them that product. You need to focus on fostering an emotional connection instead of just trying to build awareness for a certain product. Fortunately, building an emotional connection with your audience is easier than ever before with the number of digital communication tools that are at your disposal.

The Importance Of An Emotional Connection

Customers are human beings. They have hopes, dreams, and feelings. In a world where their product choices are practically limitless, they will want much more out of a brand. They do not want to engage with a corporation. Customers want to engage with a brand that’s relatable on a personal level. Their desire for connection in such a world is not surprising. A brand that is able to touch them emotionally is going to make them more engaged.

There are many ways that you can do this; reinforcing the beliefs or perspective of your audience, supporting the goals or perspective of your audience, or challenging your audience to do greater things.

5 Marketing Tactics You Should Be Using in 2019

How Digital Communication Tools Can Help Foster An Emotional Connection

Engaging on an emotional level with your audience is easier than it’s ever been, as long as you make the effort to do so. The following are just a few ways that digital communication tools can help you to connect with your audience emotionally and to build meaningful relationships with them:

Video content – When it comes to content, few other forms are able to engage audiences on an emotional level like video content. There are numerous reasons for this. First of all, people consume visual content much more easily than written content. Secondly, you can use actors or even real figures that audiences can relate to on a personal level. Thirdly, you can emphasize certain emotions much more effectively through the production of video, from the look of how it was filmed to the type of music that’s used to how the video is edited. YouTube is the most popular platform for sharing video content.
Segmentation – Segmenting your leads and customers based on the data you’ve collected (via opt-in forms, surveys, and more) will provide you with valuable insight into who your audience is and how you can connect with them. It also allows you to personalize your content much more effectively, which will make it easier to drive engagement.
Social interaction – The use of social channels makes it easy to engage with your audience directly. Direct interaction makes it easier to build meaningful relationships. You’ll have a bigger emotional impact on those who witness the interactions on social media as well.

Building a human brand will help you build long-term relationships with your audience based on real emotional connections. Use the digital communication tools available to you to emphasize emotion in your marketing efforts. Doing so will help your audience relate to you on a more personal level, thereby driving engagement with your brand.

The Importance of Package Design – How it Affects Your Brand Story

February 13, 2024/in Articles, Blog, Brand Story Telling, Directors, Storybranding /by Mark Beebe

Creating a strong brand identity requires good storytelling in order to establish your brand as unique and relevant as well as to make it more engaging for your target audience. We’ve gone over the ins and outs of brand storytelling before, but what we haven’t touched on yet is how your package design affects your brand story and the role it plays in telling that story.

Why packaging design is important?

The Importance of Packaging Design to Your Brand

When it comes to the visual identity of your brand, consistency matters, from your website design and your social media pages to your storefront sign and your business cards. Consistency is what helps to strengthen your brand identity. As such, it’s important that consumers can recognize your brand from the packaging of your products. If the packaging is consistent with your brand, people who are already familiar with your brand will identify it right away. This makes it easier to stand out from the crowd.

Keep in mind that it works the other way as well – those who purchase your product will become familiar with your brand as a result and be able to identify your brand when they see it elsewhere — as long as there is consistency with your branding efforts.

7 Package Design Tips for Creating a Strong Brand

Brand Storytelling Using Your Package Design

Using visual elements of your brand in your package design is important, but there’s more to it than just that. What your product’s packaging ends up looking like on the shelf can tell consumers a lot about your product. For example:

Targeting your audience

When designing the visual elements of brand packaging design, you should take into consideration your target audience. For example, packaging for kid products often uses large, bold typography and a colorful style, while products targeting career-oriented adults may use more elegant typography in a more minimal design.

Conveying an experience

The package design should reflect the experience of your product. For example, an eco-friendly product should probably be packaged using sustainable materials to help build trust in your product. If you’re selling a luxury product, then you should use high-end materials and not cheap packaging. If one of the benefits of your product is convenience, then the package should be easy to use.

Creating an aesthetically pleasing design

Consumers tend to judge books by their covers. When they see that a brand has put effort into creating a visually pleasing package, they will assume that this is reflective of the brand’s effort to create a high-quality product. The real challenge is not only creating a visually pleasing design but one that is unique amongst competing products as well.

Brand packaging design has a huge impact on your brand identity and vice versa. It should help spread awareness of your brand and promise to deliver on your unique value proposition. It should also target your audience and it should speak to the personality of your brand. Your package design shouldn’t just leave a good first impression, it should leave a lasting impression.

Email Opening Lines That Actually Work

January 19, 2024/in Articles, Attraction Marketing, Blog, Direct Marketing, Directors, Marketing Strategy /by Nicole Wagner

In the digital age, emails have become a primary mode of communication, especially in professional settings. The opening line for email is crucial; it’s the first thing the recipient reads and sets the tone for the rest of your message. A well-crafted opening line can make the difference between your email being read or ignored.

In this blog, we will explore the best opening lines for an email suitable for different contexts, including formal, polite, professional, business, and friendly scenarios.

Formal Email Opening Lines

Formal emails are often used in professional settings where a respectful and serious tone is required. They are ideal when communicating with someone you don’t know well or in situations demanding a high level of professionalism.

Formal Opening Line for Email Examples:

“Dear [Recipient’s Name], I am writing to you regarding…”
“To Whom It May Concern, I wish to express my interest in…”
“Dear [Recipient’s Title and Name], I write to seek your guidance on…”
“Esteemed [Recipient’s Title], I am contacting you in relation to…”
“Respected [Recipient’s Name], I am reaching out regarding our upcoming collaboration…”
“Dear Sir/Madam, I am formally requesting assistance with…”
“To the [Department/Team Name], I wish to submit my proposal for…”

These lines establish a formal tone, showing respect and professionalism, which is crucial in official matters.

Polite Email Opening Lines

Politeness is important in any form of communication, especially in emails. Having polite opening lines help in fostering a positive relationship with the recipient.

Polite Opening Line for Email Examples:

“I hope this message finds you well. I am reaching out to…”
“Thank you for your attention. I would appreciate your input on…”
“Good day, I hope this email finds you in good health. I wanted to discuss…”
“Hello, I trust you are doing well. May I inquire about…”
“Greetings, I hope you’re having a productive week. I’m writing to ask about…”
“Hi there, I hope you had a great weekend. I’m reaching out because…”
“Dear [Recipient’s Name], I hope this message finds you well. I am eager to hear your thoughts on…”

These lines demonstrate courtesy, enhancing the recipient’s receptiveness to your message.

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Professional Email Openings

Professionalism in emails is about being concise and to the point while maintaining a respectful tone. These openings are perfect for day-to-day business communications.

Professional Opening Line for Email Examples:

“Greetings, I would like to discuss…”
“Hello, thank you for your email regarding…”
“Greetings [Recipient’s Name], I am writing to follow up on our last conversation regarding…”
“Hello [Recipient’s Name], I wanted to touch base about quickly…”
“Hi [Recipient’s Name], I’m reaching out to provide an update on…”
“Dear [Recipient’s Name], I have some news regarding our ongoing project…”
“Good morning/afternoon, I want to clarify a few points about our recent meeting…”

These lines are straightforward yet courteous, suitable for regular business interactions.

Opening Sentences for Business Emails

Business emails demand clarity and a direct approach. The opening sentence should immediately convey the email’s purpose.

Opening Sentence Business Email Examples:

“Regarding our upcoming project, I wish to update you on…”
“Following our recent conversation, here is the information you requested…”
“As agreed in our previous discussion, I am sending over the details of…”
“Following up on our recent meeting, I have compiled the report on…”
“In response to your request, here are my recommendations for…”
“I would like to draw your attention to the recent developments in…”
“Pertaining to our last conversation, I have a few updates regarding…”

These lines are clear and direct, indicating the email’s purpose right from the start, which is appreciated in business communications.

Friendly Email Opening Lines

When writing to someone you have a good rapport with, a friendly opening can be engaging—these lines are ideal for less formal, more personal communications.

Friendly Opening Line for Email Examples:

“Hi [Name], I was just thinking about our last meeting and wanted to ask…”
“Hey [Name], hope you’re doing well. I have some ideas to share regarding…”
“Hey [Name], just a quick check-in. How’s everything going with…”
“Hi [Name], I was just reminiscing about our last meeting and thought to follow up on…”
“Hello [Name], I came across something that reminded me of our project. Have you got a minute to discuss?”
“Hi there [Name], hope you’re doing well. Just wanted to share a quick update on…”
“Hey [Name], I was thinking about what you said last time and wanted to explore the idea of…”

Crafting Opening Lines for Different Scenarios

It’s essential to tailor your opening line to the context of your email. The tone and formality should match the purpose of your email and the relationship you have with the recipient.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Email Opening Lines

Avoid overly casual or overly formal language in inappropriate contexts.
Starting an email with an apology can also weaken your position unless it’s necessary.

The Impact of a Well-Chosen Opening Line

The opening line of your email holds significant importance in determining its efficacy. A well-thought-out introduction sets the tone for your message, captures the recipient’s attention, and improves the likelihood of a positive response. The first line is an opportunity to establish a connection with the reader, convey the purpose of your email, and create a favorable impression. Hence, it is crucial to invest time and effort in crafting an opening line that is engaging, relevant, and tailored to your audience. By doing so, you can increase the chances of your email being read and responded to positively.