Author: Franz Malten Buemann

Employee loyalty isn’t something you automatically get. If the record-breaking resignation numbers in recent years have shown us anything, it’s that you have to continue to earn your employees’ engagement and loyalty. However, internal communications can often come as an uncreative afterthought in organizations, which is made glaringly apparent by the 34% of company newsletters that go unopened.
Let’s be real; we’ve all received those jargony, high-level corporate newsletters with massive blocks of copy we’re never going to read. However, done right, internal newsletters have the power to inspire, cultivate company culture, and keep teams aligned. Internal company newsletters are a powerful tool and should be approached with the same effort and intentionality that you put into any email marketing.

1. Start with what’s most important to your employees
We might break some hearts here, but your internal newsletter is not first and foremost about how awesome your leadership team is. Internal newsletters should focus on creating something valuable, digestible, and engaging for your employees. This doesn’t mean you can’t include high-level company goals or updates; it’s good to keep your teams informed. However, it does require positioning your newsletter content in a way that employees can see how it relates to their role.

This example from Staffbase shows a newsletter content structure that highlights what is most immediately valuable to employees first, before moving into company news. Source.

Give context to growth and goals
Employees will be more motivated and engaged when you share growth and goals in the context of each team member’s contribution. Don’t just throw quarterly numbers at them in a newsletter and expect them to understand their individual impact on initiatives. Connect the dots for them. Organizational goals hold little impact until they become personal.
For example, when sharing quarterly stats, phrase it in a way that highlights their contribution. “Here is where our company OKRs are, which means each individual is performing at XY% of capacity. This is [good/bad/indifferent] because of XYZ. This is our opportunity moving forward, and this is how you can help us achieve that.”
Put a spotlight on your employees
It’s a psychologically proven principle that people love talking about themselves. According to Psychology Today, it’s so gratifying for people it engages the same areas of the brain as other pleasurable activities, like eating good food and even having sex. In short, it’s powerful. If you want to increase employee engagement, celebrate them, talk about them, let them share about themselves.
You can put a spotlight on your employees by celebrating success stories, featuring positive client feedback, sharing promotions, and introducing new hires.

This example from GetResponse highlights a new employee by letting them share about themselves with their new team. Source.

Include diverse perspectives
Help your employees feel a part of the team by including cultural role models with diverse backgrounds and identities. Ask employees to contribute to the newsletter content and share their voice; don’t make things just from the executive team.
Invite employees to share their tips for a successful workday, big wins of the week, praise for their teammates, or a tour of their home office. If a cultural holiday is happening, invite a team member from that affinity group to share about it. Enable your employees to see themselves in the people representing your company.
Create employee feedback loops
When in doubt, ask. Let the people tell you what they want by providing opportunities for feedback. They probably have the best newsletter ideas out of anyone since they’re the ones reading it. Provide feedback opportunities through whatever communication channel your company uses most regularly to gain the most input. It may include a link at the bottom of newsletters or a poll in Slack; the point is to meet people where they are.

Using an app integration like Simple Poll in Slack can be an effective way to gain feedback from teams.

Not sure where to start with your feedback loops? Check out our guide on how to effectively ask for feedback in an email.
2. Watch your tone
Employees get an endless amount of stiff, boring corporate emails in a day, don’t make the internal newsletter another one. This is your opportunity to brighten their day and create something fun they’ll look forward to.
According to Invesp, 47% of email recipients “ read email based on subject line alone.” Make sure yours is one they want to open! Keep it short, pique their interest with a counter-narrative or a phrase that creates a sense of urgency (what the cool kids call FOMO). If you really want to grab your reader’s attention, use dynamic content tags to personalize the subject line, which has been found to increase open rates by 22%!
In your body copy, use a casual and personable tone. Include punchy headlines and title sections that make people want to read more, or insert a relatable gif to help people connect to your content.

This humorous take on an internal memo from clothing brand Bonobos makes the reader do a double-take. What initially appears as an HR reprimand is actually a clever marketing email, which is made apparent in the comical copy. Source.

3. Provide engagement opportunities
The easiest way to make your employees actually read your internal newsletter is to make them part of the conversation. No one enjoys a one-sided conversation. When you engage your employees, you’ll see open rates increase, company culture improve, communication become more effective, productivity rise, and employee brand amplification thrive.
So, how do you make this happen? Include interactive elements like polls, contests, and sharable content in your employee newsletter. This might look like links to company social media posts, workplace bingo, or a poll to see what to order for the next team lunch. The key is to motivate employees to engage by eliciting an emotive response; make it fun, exciting, inspiring, empowering, or rewarding.

Newsletters from Would You Rather are interactive and create something for readers to come back for — the results from the last poll. While it may not be an internal newsletter, the same concept can be applied. Source.

4. Share resources
A great internal newsletter should be an investment in your team. Create real value for your readers by providing professional development and personal support resources.
The resources should help employees hone skills, see a clear growth path at your company, and take care of themselves personally so they can show up better professionally. This could include highlighting fringe benefits, relevant industry news, upcoming company events and training, or internal job openings. Giving employees something to take away with them creates long-lasting value they’ll come back for.

This internal newsletter from Robert Half shares resources for employees’ physical, mental, and relational well-being. They do this by highlighting fringe benefits, company events, and outside resources. Source.

Pull it all together in an eye-catching design
So now that you have all of the elements in place to build an impactful internal newsletter, it’s time to wrap it up in a beautiful design before delivery. Enough with the boring corporate emails; it’s time to up your game. That probably sounds easier said than done, but you don’t have to be a professional designer or spend endless hours to create an eye-catching newsletter design. With our free newsletter templates, all you have to do is drag and drop.
Still not sure where to start building your internal newsletter? Check out how we create and send our monthly email newsletter here at Campaign Monitor.
The post 4 Tips for Creating An Internal Newsletter That Isn’t Boring appeared first on Campaign Monitor.

Coming up with a brand name is one of the most important steps in starting a business. A well-thought-out name can propel your company forward, and the wrong name can become a marketing nightmare. Where would Amazon be today if it stuck with its original name, Cadabra?
Oftentimes, founders think they know what makes a good brand name. But choosing a vague reference or visionary ideal (like Cadabra) for a name can confuse customers.
Naming a brand isn’t as simple as creating a made-up word or picking a name that looks great on paper.
Fortunately, setting up a brand naming process can ensure your name is relevant, memorable, and meaningful. It helps you select a name that catches people’s attention and is easy to remember, which makes marketing, sales, and brand awareness that much simpler.
To help your business become a household name, we’ll explore how to come up with a brand name, cover brand naming guidelines, outline a brand naming process, and share examples of how popular companies decided on their brand names.
What Makes a Good Brand Name
A good brand name is a blend of creativity and strategy. It highlights your company’s mission, vision, and values while showing off personality and creativity.
Josh Reeves, the CEO of Gusto, put it best when describing how his team came up with the company’s name. “Choosing your name…will power everything else forward – the visual design, the way you message it to the team, the way you talk about it with customers. So if you’re going to sink your time and energy into anything, it should be this.”
Strong brand names tend to fall under one (or more) of these categories:

Descriptive: Brand names that tell potential buyers exactly what you do or make. Examples: Dude Wipes, The Weather Channel, Booking.com, and PayPal.

Evocative: These names use metaphor and suggestion to express a company’s creativity, hint at its values, and tell a brand story. Examples: Nike, Amazon, Virgin, Uber, and Patagonia.

Blends: Names that combine two words to make a new word are popular today, and they can be considered descriptive and evocative. Examples: Photoshop, WhatsApp, Headspace, Airtable, and YouTube.

Invented: Made-up names are a good way to differentiate your company and show your unique brand identity. But you’ll have to do more work to tell the story of your company and educate customers on your offering. Examples: Google, Pixar, Garmin, Slack, and Zoom.

Acryonymic: Good brand names are short and memorable, so it may make sense to use an acronym if you want a long name. Keep in mind that meaning is often removed with an acronym, so it’s not the best option for storytelling. Examples: VRBO, BMW, IKEA, UPS, and IBM.

Brand Naming Guidelines
Boundaries are necessary when picking a company name. Without a structure or limits, you can end up with wacky names that have nothing to do with your brand. These brand name guidelines can help you stay on track throughout the process so you wind up with a name that fits your business.
Easy to pronounce and spell.
Even famous brands run into issues with mispronunciation. But you don’t want stakeholders, potential customers, or employees scouring the internet to understand your company’s name. Keep it simple to say and spell, so it doesn’t distract people from your products or services.

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Memorable
I don’t know about you, but I never run to the store for “facial tissues.” Brands like Kleenex, Chapstick, and Band-Aid are such noteworthy names, people use them as generic terms. So when you come up with a brand name, choose one that sticks in people’s minds to help raise your awareness above competitors.

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Meaningful
Brand names that hint at company stories make it easier for customers to connect your values to the brand. Think of the investing platform, Robinhood. The fictional story is about a bandit who steals from the rich to give to the poor, which aligns with the company’s ethos of “Investing for Everyone.”

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Strong Visual Identity
Words have power, but it takes about 10 seconds of looking at a logo for someone to form an impression about your brand. Beyond the other elements, your brand name must look great on paper and online. Experiment with text logos and graphics to see if the name is too long or difficult to design around.
How to Name a Brand
Now that you have name inspiration and guidelines to follow, it’s time to explore the details of how to name a brand. This approach is most effective when paired with your brand positioning strategy, so take time to do that work before jumping into the naming process.
1. Outline your brand goals and identity.
Defining your identity and goals solidifies what sets you apart from the competition and how you plan to position your company. You can pull this information from your positioning statement. If you don’t have one yet, ask yourself the following questions:

Why does your company exist? This is your vision.
What does your company do? This is your mission.
How do you do what you do? This refers to your values. Fun fact, 89% of shoppers are loyal to brands that share their values.
What brand identity do you want to create? This is your brand personality.
What do you want to accomplish with the brand name? Maybe you want customers to immediately understand your offering, or maybe you want to highlight your innovative spirit.

Once you answer these questions, it’s time to look outward.
2. Consider your customers and competitors.
No brand succeeds in a silo, so it’s essential to pick a name that resonates with your audience and within your industry. That’s because people often identify themselves with the brands they buy. This is good news for companies, as customers with an emotional relationship with a brand have a 306% higher lifetime value.
When coming up with a brand name, consider customer reviews and surveys. This feedback can show how people perceive your brand, which is helpful when brainstorming names. If customers talk about how fun it is to work with your team and use your product, it wouldn’t make sense to adopt a serious brand name or persona.
Another crucial consideration is your industry. What are the naming norms? What are your competitors doing? Based on your brand positioning, you have to decide whether to follow the industry formula or choose an unconventional name that makes your brand stand out.
3. Brainstorm and discovery.
Yes, it’s time to break out the whiteboard. But before you jump in, put together a team for ideas and approvals. You need to define who is involved in the decision-making process. If you’re a solopreneur, you can ask a few trusted peers or colleagues to take part.
Fill up your board with whatever ideas come to mind, and if you get stuck, think about:

The adjectives that describe your service, product, or brand
How customers feel about your brand, or how you want them to feel
Words that you want to associate with your business

As you ideate, reflect on what you think makes a good brand name and consider any major concerns you have about naming. Feeling stuck? Try Shopify’s business name generator tool.
4. Refine your ideas.
You probably have a long list of brand names — and that’s a good thing. It’s easier to chop than to create. Start culling down your list by considering the following factors for each name:

Does it fit your brand personality?
Does it have emotional resonance?
Does it have meaning or connect to your company story?
How does it look on paper and on a screen?
Are there any trademarks for it?
Are the domain name and social media handles available?
Does it stand out from the competition?
Is it short, memorable, and easy to spell and pronounce?

Create a shortlist of 10-15 names for the next step. If you have less than this, that’s okay — just aim for three to five options.
5. Get feedback.
There’s nothing like asking your team, customers, stakeholders, or peers for feedback. You’ll quickly learn if a name contender is difficult to pronounce or rubs people the wrong way. If possible, ask a diverse group of people for their opinions individually so you don’t run into groupthink issues.
Once you’ve collected feedback, it’s wise to see how the final options translate across languages. Consider where your company will operate and where you hope to expand. Wix learned this lesson the hard way, but the humor-oriented brand handled it well.
Before making a final decision, take a look at how a few popular companies came up with their brand names.
How Three Companies Came Up With Brand Names
From spelling errors to company-wide brainstorms, there are plenty of stories that highlight the creativity and complexity of the brand naming process. Check out how these three brands decided on a name.
Gusto
Originally named ZenPayroll, Gusto rebranded three years after its launch. The company had thousands of customers and a team that questioned if a new name was essential. Josh Reeves, CEO, and co-founder said the original name was chosen out of convenience. But the founders knew it was temporary.
To expand beyond payroll service into health insurance, ZenPayroll needed a new name and logo. The team wanted to combine their values at the time — peace of mind, calm, warm, trusting, and vibrant — with their vision for the future. “We wanted to capture our emphasis on the people doing the work,” said Reeves.
The result? Gusto, which means enjoyment or vigor in doing something; zest. Here’s the evolution of Gusto, from the original brand to today’s identity.

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Warby Parker
“Coming up with the name ‘Warby Parker’ was one of the hardest things we did as a founding team,” said Neil Blumenthal, the company’s co-founder, and co-CEO. As the story goes, the team came up with over 2,000 ideas over the course of six months before choosing the final brand name.
Their inspiration? A Jack Kerouac exhibition at the New York Public Library that contained a journal with two interesting characters: Warby Pepper and Zagg Parker. The founders had all been inspired by Kerouac and the beat generation ethos of taking the road less traveled. Soon after, the rebellious Warby Parker brand was born.

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HubSpot
As fellow graduate students, HubSpot co-founders Brian and Dharmesh noticed that consumers had gotten really good at ignoring interruptive ads and bids for their attention. They started HubSpot on the idea of “inbound,” the notion that people would rather be helped than harassed by marketers and salespeople.
According to the book, “Marketing Lesson from the Grateful Dead” by Brian Halligan and David Meerman Scott, the name HubSpot sprung from the vision to create a hub-based ecosystem that united software, education, and community to help businesses grow better. That idea, “combined with the double-entendre for Boston (nicknamed The Hub [of the Universe])…made it a good choice.”
What’s Next?
With a powerful brand name, you’re ready to design the visuals that bring it to life. Learn how to make a unique brand identity that draws in customers, successfully launch a product, and create a brand that keeps people coming back.

The HubSpot team is excited to share that the HubSpot App Marketplace has officially crossed the 1,000 apps milestone. We’re proud of this milestone because it reflects the combined commitment of HubSpot and our partners to deliver integrated solutions to help you grow better.
We know there’s an increasing number of software choices out there for your growing company. And that trend is only going to continue: A recent IDC white paper commissioned by HubSpot predicted that the cloud computing industry will only continue to grow over the next three years.
Blissfully estimates that all SaaS categories will continue to experience growth, with IT, security, compliance, and HR being the top-growing categories. That means your company may adopt even more apps to get jobs done, and you’ll have a bigger need for integrations that unite your data and power cohesive customer experiences across your tech stack.
That’s why our app ecosystem is such an important part of HubSpot’s platform for scaling companies. The App Marketplace, now home to 1,000+ integrations that span a variety of use cases (marketing, sales, service, and more), makes it easy for you to find and connect the integrations you need as you grow your business.
On average, our customers install seven apps, and more than a quarter of customers install more than 10. Our goal is to let you bring your entire business tech stack together around the HubSpot platform, to deliver a remarkable, end-to-end, integrated customer experience.
Looking ahead, we are doubling down on our investment in our ecosystem–to bring more offerings to our customers as they make HubSpot their single source of truth for customer data and engagement activity across their SaaS tools. We’ll continue to increase the quantity and quality of apps in our ecosystem, as well as serve an increasingly global audience by offering more App Marketplace listings in multiple languages later this year.
To give you a sampling of the range of apps in our ecosystem, here are a few top ones across several interesting categories.
Top 30 HubSpot Integrations from G2 Industry Leaders

As the HubSpot App Marketplace has grown, we’ve seen an increasing number of industry-leading providers build HubSpot integrations for their customers to leverage. Here are the top apps, certified by HubSpot, built by G2 leaders, and highly rated by customers:

Zapier: quick and easy workflow automation

Dialpad: connect your business phone system and automate activity

WooCommerce by MakeWebBetter: syncs users, orders, and products data

Aircall: advanced inbound and outbound calling

Calendly: scheduling platform to increase your sales velocity

Typeform: interactive forms, surveys & quizzes

Integromat: connect to any API to automate workflows

PandaDoc: create, track, and eSign sales proposals & contracts

CloudTalk: cloud phone system to increase sales and customer support team efficiency

Jotform: build custom forms and collect leads

Databox: KPI and analytics dashboards

Qwilr: create beautiful and interactive proposals and quotes

Zendesk: sync tickets and contacts

CallRail: call tracking and analytics software to sync call and text message activity

Automate.io: sync contact data and automate workflows

Skyvia: integrate with major cloud apps and databases with no coding

Proposify: create, send, sign, and track sales documents

Intercom: capture leads from your website with automation and live chat

Unbounce: build landing pages & optimize campaigns

GetAccept: sales engagement platform & e-signature solution

SurveyMonkey: run surveys and take action on responses

Leadfeeder: manage leads and create new tasks, deals, and companies

Vidyard: add video into your inbound marketing programs

Unito Two-Way Sync: sync deals and tasks with popular work management tools

Wistia: segment, nurture, and score leads based on video view activity

Grow.com: measure your company’s health and get full-funnel visibility

ChurnZero: customer success platform to help you fight churn

Rybbon Digital Rewards: automate sending digital rewards and incentives

Front: collaborative communication platform for real-time updates and context

Teamwork: sync projects and tasks to keep your inbound marketing and sales activities organized

Top New HubSpot Integrations
We launched a variety of extensibility products in 2021 to enable new app functionality and new app categories in our marketplace. These new apps have helped customers integrate their SaaS tools with HubSpot in whole new ways.
Top 8 Data Sync Apps

Early last year, HubSpot launched Operations Hub, which includes Data Sync. Data sync integrations pack the punch of custom-built connectors — bidirectional and multi-object sync, custom field mappings, and more — in an easy, code-free package. There are now 100 Data Sync apps in the App Marketplace. Here are the most installed Data Sync apps:

Google Contacts: sync contacts in real-time and stop using messy CSV files to handle your imports and exports

Outlook Contacts: sync personal Outlook contacts without manual data entry and imports

Mailchimp: sync a Mailchimp audience in real-time

Stripe: sync contacts and add a filter for any Stripe field like account balance or currency

Pipedrive: sync Pipedrive contacts

Sendinblue: set up a one- or two-way sync with Sendinblue

Xero: sync Xero contacts

Airtable: sync Airtable rows that represent contacts or companies

Top 8 Media Bridge Apps

In 2021, we launched a dozen media bridge apps to help you embed media, like videos and podcasts, directly into HubSpot’s drag-and-drop content editors then leverage the engagement data in HubSpot’s CRM and reporting. Below are the 8 media bridge apps most installed by HubSpot customers:

Wistia: segment, nurture, and score leads based on video view activity

Vidyard: add video into your inbound marketing programs

Hippo Video for Sales: easily record, share, and track videos for sales outreach

TwentyThree: drag and drop videos directly into your landing pages

SproutVideo: capture valuable leads with marketing videos and sync video content

Cincopa: pass captured leads & video viewing data into HubSpot

Idomoo: engage customers 1:1 at scale with personalized videos

Moovly: create personal videos and embed them in HubSpot emails and landing pages

Top 8 Workflow Integrations

We launched 50+ workflow integrations in 2021 that integrate directly with HubSpot workflows that make automating your business processes that much easier. Here are the most installed workflow integrations for you to try out in your next HubSpot workflow:

Kixie: automate the busy work reps are responsible for after and between phone calls

WP Fusion: automatically import new WordPress users

Insycle: clean HubSpot data using schedules and workflows integration

WhatHub: trigger workflow automations based on the content of WhatsApp messages

Salesmsg: trigger workflows when someone calls or texts you

Sakari: add SMS to any contact, ticket, or deal-based workflow

JustCall: create SMS Workflows and trigger texts

GoToWebinar: set workflow triggers based on webinar registration and attendance

Top 8 Marketing Event Apps

In the past few months, we’ve expanded the number of marketing event apps that integrate with HubSpot’s marketing event object. These apps help you easily sync your marketing event data with HubSpot in order to build attribution reports and gain insight into the ROI of your events. Here are apps HubSpot customers have installed the most to help run their marketing events:

eWebinar: automated webinar solution that combines pre-recorded video with real-time interactions and live chat

GoToWebinar: webinar platform for virtual conferences and events

Eventbrite: event management and ticketing platform

Zoom: video meeting and webinar solution

Hopin: event technology platform that offers a virtual venue with multiple interactive areas

Airmeet: events platform that provides a virtual venue for engaging experiences

Accelevents: event management platform for virtual, in-person, or hybrid events

On24: virtual event platform and webinar software provider

We’re excited to continue the growth of our app ecosystem in 2022 and beyond and look forward to continuing our partnerships with top developers and partners to build solutions that help you grow better. To learn more about these apps or discover additional ones, visit the App Marketplace.

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Email remains one of the best ways to reach your audience, but you’re not going to have much luck with a shotgun approach. Your leads are constantly bombarded by offers and promotions. And to stand out from the noise, you need to create email marketing assets that take individual subscriber behaviors and preferences into account.…
The post Email Marketing Metrics You Should Be Tracking (and the Goals They Help You Achieve) appeared first on Benchmark Email.

Can I please get a copy of only the “Endless Clients Generator XML” that forms part of the Robert Williams – Endless Clients Course?
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Looking for more ideas for your Valentine’s Day newsletters? Take a look at these examples and make your readers fall in love with your emails!