Author: Franz Malten Buemann

Your customers, leads, and audience members want valuable content from your business. And that content needs to reach audience members in a way that feels natural and organic versus being disruptive. Content marketing helps businesses do this, and it describes the process of attracting, engaging with, and delighting your target markets.
By honing in on effective content marketing, you can do just that — and as a result, increase conversions, improve brand awareness, boost revenue, establish yourself as an industry leader, and more.

Whether you’re just starting to devise a strategy or you’re refreshing your existing one, it never hurts to re-assess your process and come up with new ways to create and share the content your audiences want. In this guide, we’ll give you a birds-eye-view of content marketing, types of content marketing, content marketing examples, and how to get a strategy going.

Content Marketing
Today, outbound marketing strategies (or anything that interrupts your audience members) aren’t as effective at resonating with and converting audience members as they once were.
Today, your content needs to reach your audience in a way that feels natural (a.k.a. inbound). A common way of doing this is by creating a narrative for your content — or telling a story. In doing so, your content will feel more authentic, engaging, and tailored to your audience.

So, what defines content marketing anyway?

Why is content marketing important?

Educate your leads and prospects about the products and services you offer
Boost conversions
Build relationships between your customers and business that result in increased loyalty
Show your audience how your products and services solve their challenges
Create a sense of community around your brand
Now let’s look at the various types of content marketing.

Types of Content Marketing
There are many types of content marketing that you may choose to incorporate in your strategy — here are some of the most common:
1. Social Media Content Marketing
With over 3.6 billion global social media users, it’s easy to understand why so many businesses invest in social media marketing. There are a number of platforms (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Snapchat) to work with and several ways you can create and share content on each of them (e.g. photos, live videos, pre-recorded videos, stories).
Featured Resource: Social Media Content Calendar
2. Infographic Content Marketing
Infographics display content, information, and data in an easy-to-understand, graphic format. With a mix of simple wording, short statements, and clear images, infographics are a great way to effectively communicate your content. They work well if you’re trying to distill an educational and/ or complex topic down so all audience members can understand it.
Featured Resource: 15 Free Infographic Templates
3. Blog Content Marketing
Blogs are a powerful type of inbound content and allow for a lot of creativity in terms of their purpose and topic. With a blog, you can do things like promote other internal and external content and blog articles via links, add social share buttons, and incorporate product information.
Featured Resource: Start a Successful Blog
4. Podcast Content Marketing
A 2020 survey found that 49% of 12-to-32-year-olds in the U.S. had listened to a podcast within the last month, with an average of six listening hours a week. For this reason, many businesses and media outlets have begun creating and sharing their own podcasts.
Podcasts allow for a lot of creativity as they can be about any topic of choice. Additionally, you determine other factors related to the podcast such as cadence of episodes, who’s on the podcast, where you advertise the podcast, and how long episodes are.
Featured Resource: How to Start a Podcast
5. Video Content Marketing
According to Wyzowl research, 69% of consumers say they prefer to learn about a brand’s product or service through video. Additionally, video marketing can boost conversions, improve ROI, and help you build relationships with audience members. You may choose to share your video content on social media platforms, landing pages, or on a co-marketer’s website.
Featured Resource: The Ultimate Video Marketing Starter Pack
6. Paid Ad Content Marketing
Paid ads can help you reach a broad audience and allow you to position yourself in all of the places you want to be seen — paid ads are especially beneficial when paired with inbound marketing. There are many places you can share paid ads including on social media, landing pages, banners, and sponsored content.
Featured Resource: The Ultimate Google Ads PPC Kit
Next, let’s look at some content marketing examples that are associated with those types of content marketing we just reviewed.

Content Marketing Examples
The following examples will give you a better understanding of how you can incorporate content in your greater marketing strategy.
1. Example of Instagram Content Marketing

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Lush Cosmetics’ Instagram account is on-brand and complements the rest of their marketing content — if the page didn’t say “Lush Cosmetics” anywhere on the profile, customers would likely still know the profile belongs to Lush.
The Instagram page shares the Lush product line, displays different color and scent options for the products, and shows the various ways each product can be used. The profile feels and looks colorful and uniquely Lush, and depicts members of their wide customer base.
2. Example of Infographic Content Marketing

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IBM created an infographic when they launched their Cloud marketplace. Their infographic is on-brand, well-organized, and easy to read. It clearly explains what they’re doing with their Cloud marketplace and how customers can benefit from it. It also tells audience members how they can access the marketplace and get started using it.
3. Example of Blog Content Marketing

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Expedia has a blog called “[Out There Starts Here]” that shares travel-related information including hotel recommendations, great places to visit, and travel-related activities you can take part in around the globe.
Expedia regularly publishes their blog content to keep readers interested and engaged. It includes a wide range of topics related to any type of trip you could imagine.
The blog is on-brand and all articles relate to the travel technology company’s goal and mission of gaining customers and boosting brand awareness. They do this by linking to their services and writing about customers who have already had positive experiences with the company.
4. Example of Podcast Content Marketing

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Harvard Business Review (HBR) has a weekly podcast called HBR IdeaCast which features industry leaders in both business and management. You can either subscribe to consistently receive their hundreds of podcasts or pick and choose which ones you want to listen to.
The podcast is on-brand and complements the rest of HBRs published content. It also serves as a great way for HBR to connect with their target audience, enhance brand awareness, and gain a following of audience members through a medium that differs from their typical work (e.g. podcast versus HBR article).
5. Example of Video Content Marketing

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Much of Dollar Shave Club’s video content has gone viral. Their marketing efforts are on-brand, humorous, and entertaining. In fact, one of their videos has over 27 million views on YouTube. By establishing a name for themselves via online video content, Dollar Shave Club has experienced impressive growth and brand recognition.
6. Example of Paid Ad Content Marketing

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Revolve — a clothing and accessories company — uses paid and sponsored ads on social media (like this one on Facebook) to reach their target audience while they browse their news feeds.
The content ads feature some of their products as well as details about their free shipping and return policy to drive target audience members to their site (and, hopefully, convert them into paying customers).
Lastly, let’s cover your content marketing strategy. By implementing a strategy, your content marketing efforts will be impactful and effective in converting leads and reaching your target audience.
7. Example of Twitter Content Marketing

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HubSpot uses Twitter to market software as well as create a community among customers, target audience members, and industry leaders and experts.
HubSpot shared product information, relevant tips, industry knowledge, and original research on Twitter. HubSpot also interacts with users and ensures anyone in need of customer support knows exactly where to go for help.
8. Example of TikTok Content Marketing

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Chipotle is a very active brand on TikTok — the company uses the platform to reach and engage their customers and target audience members. In addition to reacting to others’ Chipotle-related TikTok content, the brand posts TikToks of their menu items, recipes, people enjoying their food, their restaurants, and more. They have over 1.6 million followers and over 30 million likes.
9. Example of Viral Content Marketing
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This viral content marketing example was one that came from a TikTok video — Nathan Apodaca’s original TikTok video included him sipping Ocean Spray cranberry juice while skateboarding and listening to “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac.
As a result of the viral video, TikTok used part of Apodaca’s video in their ads, Ocean Spray used Apodaca in their ads, Ocean Spray saw a bump in sales and brand awareness, Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” was number one on iTunes, and there were thousands of videos posted by other TikTok users who bought the cranberry juice and recreated Apodaca’s original video.

You can think about your content marketing strategy as you would your content marketing plan — let’s dive into the steps you’ll want to work through in order to develop an effective strategy.
1. Set SMART goals.
The first part of your content marketing strategy is to set SMART goals. These should be specific to your business — they’ll likely complement your broader marketing and company goals.
Here are some SMART goal examples:

Improve brand awareness
Boost revenue
Increase conversions
Improve brand loyalty
Increase customer engagement
Build rapport and trust among prospects and customers
Attract strategic partners

2. Determine your KPIs.
Next, set key performance indicators (KPIs) for your SMART goals. KPIs are quantifiable data points you can use to measure your actual performance against your goal.

smart goal
related kpi

Brand awareness
Site traffic, social media followers, subscription sign-ups, mentions (by customers and partners)

Revenue
Daily sales, site traffic

Conversions
Conversion rate, shopping cart abandonment rate, associated shipping rate trends, competitive price trends

Brand loyalty
Returning customers, promoters, product reviews, referrals

Customer engagement
Likes, shares, follows, mentions, backlinks

Rapport and trust
Returning customers, promoters, followers, mentions

Strategic partners
New partnerships, mentions, backlinks

3. Decide on the type of content.
Next, choose the type of content you’ll create. To do this, start by thinking about your target audience and buyer personas.

Answer the following questions about your target audience to help you narrow down the right types of content for them:

What do they need from you?
What challenges are they looking to overcome?
Why do they need your product or service?
How can you help them succeed?
Where do they spend their time?

Then, take a look back at the various types of content we reviewed earlier to decide which types of content you’ll create.
4. Choose your content channels.
Once you’ve decided on the type of content you’ll market with, it’s time to choose your specific content channels. Where will you share your content? Where will it live and be shared from?
For some of the content types, the channel you need to work with will be obvious. For example, if you’re creating Facebook content, your channel will be the social platform itself.
5. Set a budget.
Now, set your budget. Think about the type of content you’re creating and which channels you’re marketing that content on.
Then, ask yourself the following questions to determine your budget:

Do you need to purchase any software or technology to create the content (such as graphic design software like Adobe Photoshop, a subscription to Canva, a camera to take high-quality photos and videos)?
Do you need to hire any content marketers or designers (such as artists, writers, editors, designers)?
Do you need to pay for ad space?
Do you need access to specific tools or resources to enhance or measure your specific type of content?

Make note of how your responses impact your budget — whether that’s an increase or decrease in what you may have already estimated.
6. Create and distribute the content.
Create and distribute your content so your audience members can consume it — and possibly convert. To ensure you’re consistently producing content and sharing it among your prospects and customers, use a social media calendar or an editorial content calendar.
This will help your team stay on top of all of the content being created as well as allow you to schedule it ahead of time.
Use a free editorial calendar to schedule and optimize all of your marketing content to help you boost conversions.
7. Analyze and measure results.
Lastly, analyze and measure your results so you can make any necessary changes to enhance your content marketing efforts and reach more audience members.
Look at your SMART goals and KPIs to determine the success of your content marketing strategy. Did you achieve your goals and KPIs? Were you close to reaching them, or were you off in your estimations?
Here are some tools to help you with your content marketing strategy analytics and results:

HubSpot Marketing Analytics Software

HubSpot Social Media Management Software
Mention
SharedCount
Sprout Social
Google Analytics

There are hundreds of thousands of tools available today that qualify as excellent content marketing resources. For the sake of this article, we’re going to keep things simple by providing a handful of our favorite options today.

HubSpot Academy for free education on how to become an effective content marketer.

HubSpot’s Free Content Creation Resources for access to resources that will propel your content marketing strategy towards success.

Content Marketing Institute for access to some of the best content marketing online education, print, and events available today.

Blog articles on content marketing, trends, strategies, and tips by industry experts (like HubSpot).
Podcasts about content marketing, such as This Old Marketing, or business trends, such as HBR IdeaCast, to inspire your content marketing strategy.

Google Trends, which allows you to search for trends across broad topics like content marketing or for niche topics within content marketing.
Ebooks and case studies about content marketing or content marketing strategies, like this one by Mention.

Latest content marketing statistics by a reputable database source like Statista.
Easy to use visual content and design software, such as Canva.
Free or paid social media management tools, such as HubSpot, Buffer, or Sprout Social, to help you create and share your social content.
Free or paid content and project management tools, like Trello or Asana, to plan and organize your content marketing strategy.
Free or paid marketing software to connect your content marketing team, plan, strategy, and results to your greater marketing plan (and even your CRM).
Free or paid email marketing software, like HubSpot or Mailchimp, to handle all aspects of your email campaigns and content.
Your network, on platforms like Twitter or LinkedIn, where you can connect with those in your industry to discuss relevant trends, answer each other’s questions, and provide or ask for feedback.
And speaking of tapping into your networks on sites like Twitter and LinkedIn, here’s some inspiration from a few of the greatest content marketers to follow on both platforms today.

3 Marketers to Follow on LinkedIn
1. LinkedIn: Luvvie Ajayi Jones

Luvvie Ajayi Jones is a best-selling author, digital strategist, podcast host, and speaker. She’s known for combining humor with her experiences and background in marketing, communications, and new media. Her LinkedIn is sure to inspire you whether you’re thinking about/working on culture, authenticity, leadership, content, marketing strategy, and more.
2. Zontee Hou

Zontee Hou is a digital marketer and strategist, speaker, and consultant. She works with scaling companies to help them establish effective marketing strategies that work for their unique goals and audiences. On her LinkedIn profile, Hou shares her expertise in content marketing, social media marketing, marketing analytics, and digital marketing.
3. A. Lee Judge

A. Lee Judge is a co-founder and digital marketing strategist at Content Monsta. He’s also a podcast and video producer, speaker, and rev ops practitioner. On his LinkedIn profile, he covers a wide range of topics related to lead generation, social media marketing, how to apply marketing analytics and data, digital experiences, multi-channel marketing, the importance of sales and marketing alignment, and more.
3 Marketers to Follow on Twitter
4. Ann Handley

Ann Handley, Head of Content at MarketingProfs, is a bestselling author and speaker. She provides education and training around marketing that businesses can learn from and apply. She offers in-person and virtual trainings for companies on content marketing, storytelling, lead generation, and branding – all of which are topics she alson talks about, and shares content about, on her Twitter page.
5. Neil Patel

Neil Patel is a bestselling author, marketing expert, speaker, and website and SEO consultant. He’s a thought leader and industry expert in content and digital marketing. His Twitter page includes information about his trainings and services, industry trends, marketing strategy tips and resources, and questions/conversational topics meant to engage followers and other industry experts.
6. Guy Kawasaki

Guy Kawasaki is a marketing strategist, author, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, podcast host, and the chief evangelist of Canva. On his Twitter account, Kawasaki asks followers thought-provoking business questions as well as provides links to, and information about, new podcast episodes, industry trends, marketing strategy tips, and insights based on his experiences.
Engage Your Target Audience With Content Marketing
With effective content marketing, you can reach your target audience and increase conversions. There are several ways to market with content to boost revenue, grow your brand awareness and recognition, and build relationships with your prospects and customers.
And don’t forget to extract more value from every piece of content you create.
To get started, determine which type of content works best for your business and audience, and develop a content marketing strategy to begin boosting your bottom line today.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in August, 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Email design has lagged behind website design for years. Largely, this is because email clients have not optimized as quickly to the changing digital design landscape (especially the rise of responsive design). 
However, in the past five years, email clients have begun to support capabilities initially reserved for the web. Most notably was the announcement in 2016 that Gmail would now support embedded CSS and media queries — two tools that enable responsive design. 
Email designers finally have the opportunity to apply to email what web developers have learned over the past two decades about modern design. Here’s what email designers can learn from web developers. 
Ensure responsive design, especially on mobile
In 2019, more emails were opened on mobile devices than on desktop. Email designers today must prioritize how emails render on mobile devices without sacrificing readability on desktop or tablets. 
This is where responsive design comes in. Responsive design means that your design will adapt to the screen size and resolution of the device it’s read on.
We recommend following the example of website developers and creating three different wireframes for each email (or each email template): one for mobile, one for desktop, and one for tablets. 
Then, use media queries to tell the layout how to render based on factors like screen size, or use the fluid method for email clients that don’t support media queries.
Let’s look at the difference. A non-responsive email may render in mobile with small text that’s hard to read: 

Responsive email design, on the other hand, appears optimized for mobile reading: 

Keep design simple to improve readability
Website developers know that when it comes to mobile readability, simple design is best. Smaller screens make it impossible to comfortably navigate multiple columns or creative fonts and designs. 
Here are the best ways to keep the design simple: 
Use a single-column layout
Single column layouts render most clearly on smaller screens like mobile devices. Additionally, they allow designers to create a single flow of information that guides readers toward taking a desired action (like clicking a button). 
This single flow of information is also a better user experience than having to scroll side-to-side or zoom in on a small smartphone screen to access all the content. 
Reduce visual clutter
Visual clutter is any design element that can be removed and not change the impact of the message. 
For example, dividers to separate sections instead of white space could be considered visual clutter. Similarly, font styles like bold, italics, and different headings could be considered clutter if they are not absolutely necessary to convey the message. 
Aim to create as clean a design as possible, and you will likely enhance the user experience. 
Have only one CTA button
Having mastered the art of conversion-focused design, developers know that it’s crucial to not ask readers to choose from multiple actions to take. Instead, designers should have only one call-to-action so it’s clear what readers should do next.
Additionally, make your CTA a larger, contrasting button rather than hyperlinked text. A button is easier to tap with a finger on a mobile device or tablet than hyperlinked text. 
For example, this single-column email from Planoly is visually minimal and leads directly into a single CTA button:

Borrow advanced responsive design strategies from the web
Creating a single-column design for mobile is the minimum email designers must do to create responsive emails. However, designers who want to make the user experience even better on all devices can take advantage of these slightly more advanced strategies: 
Use progressive disclosure for text-heavy emails
When emails are written like mini-essays, readers experience a seemingly endless scroll of text on a mobile device, even though on desktop, the email doesn’t seem long.
To solve this problem, email designers can borrow the “progressive disclosure” strategy from web developers. This is when certain elements of the email (such as sections of text) appear hidden under interactive elements (such as headings) and are revealed only when the reader taps. 
Progressive disclosure allows readers to experience the email as organized and minimal and skip to the section they want to read. 
Overlay text on images with live text + background images
Previously, any time an email designer wanted to show text overlaid on an image, they had to create a standalone graphic of the image and the overlaid text, and then insert that graphic into the email template. 
This works okay unless the email client fails to render your graphic correctly — and then suddenly, your message is missing a crucial headline. Additionally, it requires designers to create different graphics for each device wireframe, which is extra time spent. 
Instead, designers can borrow a strategy from website developers: Use live text and a background image to create your text overlays. This allows you to have the overlaid text image automatically adjust for each device — without risking a failure to render. 
For example, The Royal Children’s Hospital used live text over a background image to create this dynamic email: 

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Wrap up
Email clients are finally catching up to website platforms in terms of design capabilities. Email designers should look to web developers for how to take advantage of these new capabilities and create more responsive, beautiful, and conversion-friendly emails.
The post What Email Designers Can Learn From Web Developers appeared first on Campaign Monitor.

Get a head start with this B2B email marketing guide where we share tips, best practices, and examples of effective B2B email campaigns from the top brands.

Manual data entry might be one of the most tedious and inefficient tasks in the corporate world. Not only does it put you to sleep, it also wastes precious time and resources, slashing your productivity to bits.
Fortunately, there’s technology that can automate these mind-numbing tasks, eliminating human error and letting you focus on the work that actually matters — workflow automation.

By leveraging self-operating processes that run manual tasks, workflow automation can help your business save time and money, diminish errors, and boost productivity.
How does workflow automation work?
Workflow automation typically relies on a series of if/then statements to trigger another task. It then branches off depending on the action that was taken by a lead, employee, or another stakeholder.
Let’s walk through an example workflow for turning a form submission into a deal opportunity.

A website visitor submits a form.
The action automatically enrolls the visitor in a drip campaign. It creates a new deal and sets the status to “New.”
The first email of the drip campaign is sent to the lead, requesting to schedule a meeting.
The lead clicks through to the meeting scheduler and creates an appointment.
A thank you email is sent to the lead, confirming the date and time.
The CRM creates a new task and assigns it to a sales rep.
The sales rep then reaches out personally, ending the automated workflow.

Here’s what a workflow can look like from start to finish.
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Almost every department in your business can benefit from workflow automation. Whether it’s marketing, human resources, or finance, the technology can help you work smarter, not harder.
Below, we’ll cover some of the most popular workflow automation examples.
Workflow automation can be used in virtually any team and in any business scenario. While it’s mostly related to marketing and sales, it can also be used in customer service, operations, human resources, and finance.
Marketing Workflow Automation

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Some of the most repetitive tasks in marketing, such as sending emails and posting social media updates, can be automated with workflow automation. With marketing automation software, you can schedule your entire social media calendar and set up workflows that nurture certain types of prospects with email offers.
Automated workflows in marketing include:

Subscribing a user to a drip campaign when they download a resource from your website
Welcoming a user to your company after they purchase a product
Reminding a user to check out after they’ve added various items to their cart
Scheduling social media posts across multiple platforms
Distributing marketing tasks across team members

Additional Reading

Beginner’s Guide to Marketing Automation
Marketing Automation Benefits
B2C Marketing Automation
Email Marketing Workflows

Sales Workflow Automation

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Sales workflow automation streamlines tedious lead and prospect management tasks, so that reps can focus on selling, not entering data. Aside from taking leads automatically through the pipeline based on their actions, an automated sales workflow can enroll prospects in drip campaigns and update deal stages as the deal moves forward.
Automated tasks in sales include:

Placing each lead at a different stage of the pipeline when they take a certain action
Moving a lead out of the pipeline if they’ve stopped responding to emails
Sending an introduction email from a sales rep to a lead after they download an ebook
Updating the deal stage once the lead has scheduled an appointment or meeting
Creating tasks for sales reps once a lead has scheduled a meeting

Additional Reading

Beginner’s Guide to Sales Automation
Sales Automation Stats
Sales Force Automation
CRM Automation

Customer Service Workflow Automation

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Workflow automation is incredibly useful in customer service. Aside from launching surveys, workflow automation can take care of tickets, cases, and common questions by sending a series of emails or creating tasks.
Automated tasks in customer service include:

Creating a new ticket in the system when someone reaches out through social media or email
Onboarding customers with a series of helpful emails
Sending NPS® surveys and enrolling them into different email campaigns depending on their rating
Assigning tickets a priority label depending on the tone of the message or email
Resolving and archiving tickets once a resolution has been reached

Additional Reading

Beginner’s Guide to Customer Service Automation
Customer Relationship Automation
Customer Service Software Tools
AI Chatbots Tools

Operations Workflow Automation

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Operations is the lifeblood of any organization, and it, too, can be automated to reduce instances of manual data entry.
Automated tasks in operations include:

Deleting duplicates once they have been detected or merging two properties if they’re the same
Managing team permissions for new team members
Establishing priorities for different businesses processes
Automatically compiling reports at the end of every quarter
Creating tasks in third-party tools such as Asana, Slack, or Zoom

Additional Reading

Guide to Business Process Automation
Ultimate Guide to Operations Hub

Human Resources Workflow Automation
Instead of having to manually enter all your new hires’ personal information — like addresses, social security numbers, and other employee information into payroll, expense, and insurance systems — HR automation software can do it for you in minutes.
Automated tasks in human resources include:

Removing candidates from the database if they’ve been inactive for a period of time
Sending emails to candidates that haven’t made it to the final round
Filtering candidates with certain keywords in their job history
Sending W2s to current employees
Collecting employees’ feedback after they’ve been at the company for a period of time

Finance Workflow Automation
By allowing you to build forms, design workflows, and track processes, finance process automation software can streamline all of your travel requests, reimbursements, and budget approvals.
Automated tasks in finance include:

Taking an expense approval process from start to finish
Managing vendor and contract approvals
Assigning priorities to ACH and wire requests
Managing travel expense requests depending on location and activity
Approving budgets based on a predetermined set of parameters

Now that you know everything about using automated workflows, let’s take a look at the top tools you can use.
Best Workflow Automation Software in 2021
1. HubSpot: Best All-in-One Workflow Automation Software

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HubSpot’s marketing, sales, service, and operations software operates on a single platform, making it one of the best choices for all-in-one workflow automation. Everything is linked together, allowing you to align all of your teams’ processes and reducing friction from task to task.
You can easily hand leads from marketing to sales, connect a service ticket with an existing contact record, and clean up customer data — all in one user-friendly platform.
Best for: HubSpot is highly recommended for growing businesses that have yet to try workflow automation and for enterprise businesses with established processes. You can begin with a Starter subscription, then upgrade as you require more functionalities. Especially recommended for marketing, sales, service, and operations departments.
Pricing for Marketing Hub: Free; $50/month (Starter); $890/month (Professional); $3,200/month (Enterprise)
Pricing for Sales Hub: Free; $50/month (Starter); $500/month (Professional); $1,200/month (Enterprise)
Pricing for Service Hub: Free; $50/month (Starter); $400/month (Professional); $1,200/month (Enterprise)
Pricing for Operations Hub: Free; $50/month (Starter); $800/month (Professional)
2. Nintex: Best Enterprise Workflow Automation Software
With over 3 million workflow applications operating on their platform right now, Nintex helps more than 8,000 enterprise customers manage, automate, and optimize their business processes, with no coding experience required.
By offering a multitude of workflow automation tools — like process mapping, advanced workflows, and process intelligence — your business is able to map out each of your processes, execute them, and monitor their performance.
Best for: Nintex is highly recommended for enterprise businesses with established processes. It’s a robust software that pairs a user-friendly workflow design tool with powerful integrations that will connect every single one of your apps. Especially recommended for IT, law, HR, and finance departments.
Pricing: $910/month (Standard); $1,400/month (Enterprise)
3. Kissflow: Best Beginner-Friendly Workflow Automation Software

Trusted by over 10,000 companies, including Domino’s, Michelin, and Pepsi, Kissflow offers an all-in-one workflow automation software that lets your business create workflows that automate tasks in your human resources, sales, finance, administration, marketing, and purchase departments.
With over 50 pre-installed business process management apps — such as expensing and sales orders, conditions and triggers, and reporting dashboards for your workflows — Kissflow can streamline almost all your business processes.
Best for: Kissflow is highly recommended for small companies that are just now starting to try workflow automation. The tool’s simplicity and user friendliness will make it easier to begin automating processes. Especially recommended for procurement, HR, and finance departments.
Pricing: $200/month (Basic); $495/month (Advanced); $1,900/month (Fully Loaded)
4. Integrify: Best Everyday Administration Workflow Automation Software

Integrify is a workflow automation software that lets you build workflows in a drag-and-drop builder and run parallel or sequential flows. By being able to collaborate on tasks and requests, test your processes, and set up reminders, you can easily streamline your business processes and automate manual tasks.
Integrify also offers workflow examples and a user knowledge base, a rest-based open API that allows you to integrate with external databases, and the ability to import and export data from Excel and even PDFs.
Best for: Integrify is highly recommended for small-to-medium businesses that are looking to automate everyday tasks. Its drag-and-drop “Process Builder” makes it simple and easy to take a process from start to completion. Especially recommended for administration departments.
Pricing: Pricing available upon request
5. Zapier: Best Workflow Automation Software for Connecting Apps

With the ability to connect to and share data with over 1,000 web apps, like Facebook, QuickBooks, and Google Drive, Zapier can automate almost any type of business process. All you have to do is build a workflow in their editor, pick the apps you want to include in your workflow, and design it.
For example, if you want to be able to save all your attachments in Dropbox, you can design a workflow that automatically copies any attachment from your Gmail inbox to Dropbox and then sends you a Slack message about the download.
Best for: Zapier is highly recommended for freelancers and small-to-medium businesses that use a wide variety of tools that aren’t talking with each other. For instance, if you’re using MailChimp to send emails and Typeform to collect leads, you could connect those two tools using Zapier. Especially recommended for marketing and service departments.
Pricing: Free; $19.99/month (Starter); $49/month (Professional)
6. Flokzu: Best Project Management Workflow Automation Software

Without writing any code, Flokzu allows you to create tasks, deadlines, business rules, and notifications. Their software also sends pending tasks to each of your project’s assignees’ inboxes, and as each stage of a workflow is complete, it’ll automatically assign each new task to a user or role.
Additionally, Flozku offers a reporting dashboard that displays your business processes’
performance and metrics, like the amount of currently delayed tasks there are, tasks assigned to each user and role, tasks completed, and the time each task took, which will give you the necessary data to refine and optimize your future workflows.
Best for: Flokzu is highly recommended for individual teams that want to optimize their time management and task workflow. A key feature of this tool is that users will receive pending tasks in their inbox, making it an excellent project management tool. Recommended for any team.
Pricing: Free; $19.99/month (Starter); $49/month (Professional)
Workflow Automation Will Help You Grow Better
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Editor’s note: This post was originally published in January 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

 

 

Loyalty programs are great tools for eCommerce development. They allow you to maximize the value of individual transactions, increase CLV, and positively impact consumer retention. Those that provide a consistent experience across multiple channels work best. How do you create an effective multi-channel loyalty program? Keep reading to discover the answer!

 

Loyalty programs are popular in many industries. Properly implemented, they bring a plethora of benefits:

 

Loyalty Program integration with an eCommerce platform can increase average order volume by 319% (Incentive Solutions).
With a loyalty program, the frequency of visits generated by returning customers increases by 35% (Thanx).
Customers engaged in an eCommerce loyalty program spend 12-18% more each year (Accenture, 2017).
Members of the best-performing loyalty programs are 77% more likely to choose the brand with which they are associated over competitors (Bond).

 

Our customers are also using this solution, combining it skillfully with marketing automation. To quote from our case studies:

 

Bioderma brand streamlines the customer communication process with automation in their loyalty program. They achieve over 470% higher open rate (OR) of emails sent with the automation rules and nearly 800% higher click-through rate (CTR) during the sign-up and gratification cycle for loyal customers. (Download the whole thing for free>>)
Beauty supply store Pigment improves its sales process. Through automation, it achieves a 400% higher OR for automated emails and a 240% higher CTR for its loyalty program. (Download the whole thing for free>>)

 

How can you leverage best practices and create your own high performing, multi-channel loyalty program for eCommerce?

 

What is a multi-channel loyalty program?

 

An eCommerce loyalty program is closely tied to purchases and micro conversions. Therefore, just like the buying journey of eCommerce customers, the loyalty program experience is multi-channel. What makes loyalty programs multi-channel is that they integrate data from different sources to include a variety of actions when rewarding with points.

 

The multi-channel nature of loyalty programs also manifests itself in other aspects of building the customer-brand relationship. Tracked behaviors are used to supplement consumer profiles with multi-faceted data from various sources. In the long run, this translates into strengthening recommendation and prediction mechanisms. What’s more, a good multi-channel loyalty program should be accessible for customers across channels. Whether they use their account on the website or the mobile app, they should see their progress and rewards in the same way. In addition, the applied mechanisms should allow seamless jumping between different channels (scanning the QR code in the stationary store with the mobile app, providing the loyalty card number when logging in at the online store and so on).

 

What communication channels are available for eCommerce loyalty programs?

 

As a quick reminder, it’s worth mentioning the most popular marketing channels that eCommerce uses, especially those that can be combined with loyalty program information. These include:

 

Website – a showcase of the store and a place of intense interaction between the brand and shoppers. You can place there a lot of widgets and dynamic elements that will use the information about the thresholds and rewards in the loyalty program.
Email Marketing – one of the most effective weapons in a marketer’s arsenal. Although it is one of the oldest channels, it still boasts one of the highest ROI in digital marketing.
Social Media – one of the most effective channels for distribution of marketing content, and recently also for sales.
Mobile Marketing – communication in the mobile channel is fast and effective. SMS messages enjoy a high open rate, which increases along with the level of message personalization.
Mobile application – many stores take advantage of the technology and offer their own mobile applications to customers. This is a great marketing move. An engaging app allows you to grab the customer’s attention.Because the space is not shared with other stores (as it is on Facebook, for example), you can engage in a dialogue with the customer without unnecessary distractions.
Offline – eCommerce stores are often an extension or offshoot of online stationary stores. In many industries, hybrid shopping models (showrooming and ROPO) are among the most popular and frequently used by buyers.

 

Why is multichannel important for a loyalty program?

 

Today, more and more businesses are striving to fully integrate and make the Customer Experience consistent across all channels. Consumers easily adapt to new technological solutions and over time stop noticing that something works differently than it used to. As a result, they also expect solutions to evolve to follow that experience. This is why we can observe a boom for mobile payments and a phenomenal pace of voice search development.

 

The speed of software that captures actions across multiple channels is also not insignificant. While it used to be the norm to collect coupons cut out of a package and wait a few weeks for a reward, now it is rather unthinkable. Accustomed to unlimited access to goods and services, as a consumer group we expect instant gratification in most aspects of consumer life.

 

How to build a multi-channel loyalty program for eCommerce?

 

There are many ways to create a loyalty program. They can be simple programs that count the dollars spent and award points at the appropriate time. There are also advanced programs that follow their recipients through all the channels, award them with extra points on their birthdays, add special bonuses for purchases at selected points and at the same time encourage thoughtful gamification. How to build such a program?

 

Multi-channel loyalty program step by step

 

Creating a multi-channel loyalty program should be done in stages. The more insight you have at the beginning of the journey, the easier and more precise it will be to create a working program later that will help you meet your goals.

 

1. Selecting a goal and positioning it in the marketing strategy

 

Every marketing activity of a company should be set in a broader context. In this case, the context will be a comprehensive marketing strategy. A loyalty program as a tool to achieve marketing goals will perfectly complement and combine various online and offline activities.

 

The first decision is to choose the goal that the loyalty program aims to achieve. This can be an increase in customer loyalty measured in repeat purchases, an increase in CLV, an increase in purchase frequency, or even brand popularity (measured by social listening tools). Making this decision helps to adjust the program to the group of recipients, to choose the right tools and mechanisms.

 

2. Resource analysis

 

Before you plan to create content and promotional materials, do a proper audit of existing resources. Check what blog content, ebooks, reports, videos and gated content you already have. Write down the points of micro conversions and full conversions. Look at the structure of the purchase funnel you are working on.

 

3. Competitive market analysis

 

Many companies have loyalty programs, and that includes your competitors. It’s worth checking out how they approach this topic. Select a few of your most important business competitors. You can also add non-direct competitors, such as those offering substitute goods, to the list.

 

Examine the channels in which these companies use the loyalty program, what they base it on, and what mechanisms they use to engage those enrolled in the program.

 

Note also who these companies are targeting with their programs. This can be an important guideline for future activities.

 

4. Target group analysis

 

Once you know what your competitors are doing, turn an eye to your audience. Consider different segmentations – by interest, by buyer persona, by spending level, CLV and so forth.

 

Then decide which segments you want to target with your program. Select those that show the highest propensity to help you achieve loyalty program goals . Analyze their preferences, needs and habits, including those of their preferred marketing channels. Based on this, you’ll learn how to distribute the program’s focus points, what average amounts you can expect for each purchase, and what will drive these individuals to purchase more often or more regularly.

 

5. Marketing channel analysis

 

Once you know your loyalty program’s primary target audience, you can take a close look at the channels they use and how they use them. Finding the touch points in each channel and identifying the types of interactions can be extremely helpful in designing additional, non-transactional reward mechanisms. What’s more, it will also allow you to direct your audience to use the channels that generate the best conversions.

 

6. Framework design (main mechanism, rewards, thresholds, points)

 

Creating the program itself is not a big challenge. Even without coding skills, you can design it within minutes – especially with good initial drafting. To create a new Loyalty Program in the SALESmanago system go to the tab

Loyalty Program → +Create a new Loyalty Program

 

Then: 

Enter basic data and select the program type to determine how points will expire.
Configure points by selecting the ranges of spent amounts and the number of points awarded for each range.
Set program tiers.
Determine the method of adding contacts to the Loyalty Program.
Save the created loyalty program.

 

7. Channel integration

 

When the framework is ready, start building it successively with activities in different channels. First, choose the ones that are most heavily used by your target audience and gradually build a more extensive map of activities. Focus on two areas:

 

what benefits your audience can have in a given channel through a loyalty program;
how you can get loyalty program participants to interact in a given channel.

 

The answers to these questions will be an indication of what functionality plug-in mechanisms tied to the loyalty program should be applied (and where).

 

8. Final touches (Additional rewards, opportunity to earn extra points, additional actions)

 

Finally, consider which other behaviors lead to the desired goal and how they can be reinforced. For example, extra points on birthdays can encourage people to provide declarative data and complete profiles. Doubling points for making purchases within a certain time frame can help with win-back campaigns, and so on.

 

How do you build a consistent loyalty program experience across channels?

 

How do you intertwine loyalty program’s core framework with all the omnichannel machinery your eCommerce business has at its disposal? The easiest way to do this is by setting up a workflow process. This way of managing automations gives you the most control over the consistency of your program participants’ experience. It also allows you to efficiently monitor most of the touch points between consumers and your brand.

 

 

Using CDP data from the very beginning is also an important aspect. Focusing on the most beneficial segments as early as at the loyalty program design stage will allow you to set appropriate goals and implementation methods.  An analysis of behavior within these groups will indicate the channels and activities with the highest conversion and purchase power.

 

What mechanisms can be leveraged in each channel

 

Loyalty program information can be successfully used in various aspects of digital marketing.

 

Website

 

There are a number of ways that you can leverage the information about your customer’s level of engagement with your loyalty program on the website. In the Personal Shopping Inbox, the website visitor can quickly gain access to information linked to their loyalty program account. It makes it easier, for example, to motivate customers to shop regularly by informing them of the loyalty points they have accumulated to reach the next treshold.

 

Depending on the threshold or number of points, you can also conditionally display a specific:

 

personalized banner,
pop up.

 

They may show, for example, rewards from a selected threshold.

 

Another option is to send a Web Push notification where you can, for example, include the number of points a person has accumulated along with information about which threshold they have reached.

 

E-mail Marketing 

 

You can include various information related to your loyalty program in the body of the email. The most obvious would be to include the number of points and the threshold reached by the contact.Such a gamification effort can help encourage recipients to make a purchase and progress to a higher threshold in the program.

 

But that’s not all – the email itself can be targeted to specific contact segments. A segment may also be a threshold in the loyalty program. Having separate campaigns to engage and motivate these contacts to activities that will allow them to earn additional points is worthwhile.

 

Of course, you can also add or subtract points in the program for relevant email marketing activities. Reward opening messages and clicking links, especially those that bring the contact closer to conversion.

 

Social Media 

 

Social media are also a great field to leverage information from your loyalty program. Depending on the number of points accumulated on a contact’s card, you can display different content to your audience – tailored to their level of engagement and threshold in the program.

 

Mobile Marketing

 

When it comes to mobile marketing, it is mainly based on text messaging. In text messages, you can apply the same mechanisms as in emails. These will be:

 

information about accumulated points and achieved thresholds,
sending messages to selected segments,
adding and subtracting points for specific segments.

 

Mobile application

 

In the mobile application you can display the same content related to the loyalty program as on the website. Only Web Push notifications will change to mobile notifications.

 

Offline

 

The offline channel is often an important part of a loyalty program. Participants often shop both in a stationary store and online. In physical stores, you can place a tablet with a personalized offer for them. After filling in the contact’s data, the tablet will show the number of accumulated points and the threshold reached by this person. Additionally, based on offline purchases, you can add points in the loyalty program and migrate them between the thresholds.

 

Multichannel loyalty program – some final thoughts

 

Loyalty program uses mechanisms of gamification to loyalise and activate customers. To be effective, it should seamlessly transition between channels and follow the people it targets. The use of CDP data and workflow mechanisms allows you to precisely target the segments with the highest propensity to buy. Such a combination ensures efficient implementation of the established marketing and sales objectives.

 

Have you already got a loyalty program? Ask your account manager how you can take even better care of the multi-channel experience of your customers.