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Author: Franz Malten Buemann

  • The Simple Guide to Creating an HTML Email [+ Free Templates]

    When you create an email using a drag-and-drop or module-based tool, you’re actually generating an HTML email.
    There are two main types of email you can send and receive: plain text emails (these are exactly what they sound like — any email that contains just plain old text with no formatting) and HTML emails, which are formatted and styled using HTML and inline CSS.
    HTML emails are easy to spot — most of the styled, multimedia marketing emails in your inbox are HTML emails.

    As a marketer, you’ve probably compared HTML emails versus plain-text emails and realized that there are different benefits to each type. HTML emails aren’t inherently better than plain text emails, and in different situations, both types can be part of a successful email marketing program.
    Here’s what an HTML looks like on the front-end. Click on the HTML button to see the code behind it.
    See the Pen HTML Email Template from HubSpot by Christina Perricone (@hubspot) on CodePen.
    In this article, we’ll cover how you can get started creating HTML emails, regardless of your experience level and comfort with coding, and share some free templates you can use. Let’s dive in.
    How to Create an HTML Email
    Good news: You actually don’t need to know how to code to create an HTML email.
    Most tools that create and send email (like HubSpot) will offer pre-formatted, ready-to-go HTML templates that enable you to design emails without ever needing to access the actual code on the back-end.
    As you make changes in the email editor, those changes will be automatically coded into the final product. Email building tools like this are an ideal option if you don’t have an email designer on your team, but you still want to send professional-looking marketing emails.
    Still want to create an HTML email from scratch?
    If you’re comfortable with HTML and want more direct control over the code of your emails, most email tools will allow you to import HTML files directly for use as custom email templates.
    There are a wide variety of free HTML email templates available on the web (some of which we’ll share below), and if you know your way around an HTML file, it’s usually quite straightforward to adapt the template to the email building tool of your choice.
    To create an HTML email completely from scratch, you’ll need to have an advanced knowledge of HTML (or work with a developer who does). This guide offers a solid overview of coding a basic HTML email. Because the process of creating an HTML email from scratch can be quite involved, we recommend working with a developer or using a pre-made HTML email template instead.
    Developing an HTML email specifically for HubSpot?
    If you’re developing an HTML email template specifically for use in HubSpot, you’ll want to make sure you include the required HubL tokens (these ensure your emails can be customized and are compliant with CAN-SPAM laws). You can find a complete guide to coding HubSpot-specific HTML email templates here. Or alternatively, just use our simple what-you-see-is-what-you-get email editor.
    Now that you understand the basics of what goes into developing an HTML email, let’s go over a few important best practices you should keep in mind. No matter what method you plan to use to create HTML emails, these best practices will help improve the design, user experience, and deliverability of your emails.
    1. Make sure your HTML email is responsive for different screen sizes and devices.
    The way your email looks in a user’s inbox depends on a wide variety of different factors.
    One of the biggest and most obvious factors is the screen size of the device it’s being viewed on. An email that looks amazing and well-formatted on a desktop can easily devolve into a tangle of illegible, overlapping text and images when viewed on a smartphone screen.
    To ensure your HTML emails look the way you intended across a wide spectrum of screen sizes, the best thing you can do is keep your layout simple and straightforward. When you start adding more complex elements like multiple columns and floated images, it becomes more difficult to translate the format of your email for different screen sizes.
    If you do decide to develop a more complex layout, make sure you’re actively solving for how the elements will be rearranged to suit different screen sizes. For example, if your email displays as multi-column on desktop, that same structure won’t fly on mobile — you’ll need to use media queries to define how elements will be displayed on different screen sizes.
    Remember, developing truly responsive HTML emails goes beyond the structure and format of your message. Think about how the overall user experience of your email will be perceived on different devices. Make sure your font choices are just as legible on mobile as they are on desktop, and use mobile-friendly buttons or CTAs in place of hyperlinked text (have you ever tried to tap a little line of hyperlinked text on mobile? It’s not very easy).
    You can find our more in-depth guide to mobile email best practices right here.
    2. Make sure your styling works in different email clients.
    Another big factor that heavily impacts the way your HTML emails appear in your subscribers’ inboxes is the email client they’re using to open the message. Every email client loads emails slightly differently, so an email that looks a certain way in Gmail will likely look different in Outlook.
    Luckily, if you know how most popular email clients load particular HTML and CSS elements, you can create a pretty consistent experience across different users’ inboxes. It’s all about knowing which unsupported tags to avoid and adapting accordingly. This comprehensive guide explains how the most popular email clients (including Gmail and multiple versions of Outlook) support and render different styling elements.
    You can also check out an article we wrote on optimizing emails for different email clients.
    3. Be conscious of how long your HTML emails take to load.
    How long your email takes to load could very well be the difference between gaining a new customer and losing a frustrated subscriber. While it can be tempting to take advantage of all the different styling options and opportunities to incorporate visuals that HTML emails offer, none of that matters if your email takes too long to load.
    As you design your HTML email, remain conscious of how long your email will take to load — especially if someone is, say, opening your message on their morning subway commute with a weak data connection. Here are a few little steps you can take that will go a long way towards improving load time.
    Use images sparingly.
    That way, you’ll bolster the message you want to get across to subscribers. Always use an image compressor (like Compressor.io) to reduce the file size as much as possible. Most image compressors can significantly reduce the file size of an image without compromising on quality, so taking this extra step won’t hurt the visual integrity of your email.
    Use standard web fonts.
    Custom fonts are great for spicing up a landing page, but they can add an extraneous layer of complexity when added to an email. As we talked about above, all email clients handle style elements differently, and this especially extends to fonts. To be safe, use standard web fonts and check to make sure the email client most of your subscribers use supports a particular font.
    Try an HTML minifier.
    An HTML minifier (like minifycode.com and smallseotools.com) automatically removes code that isn’t needed in an HTML file. Repetitive, extra elements will be stripped out, but the actual rendering of your email should remain the same (always test it out!). Each line of code impacts how long an email takes to load, so taking the time to remove junk code can have a positive effect on load time.
    Keep your message focused on a single objective.
    The best way to reduce email load time is to reduce how much content you add to each of your email sends. It might seem obvious, but too many marketers try to stuff too much content into their emails. Not only does that lead to an off-putting user experience (nobody wants to read a novel in email form), but it can send your load time off the charts and cause users to abandon your email. Keep it simple, and your users will thank you.
    4. Plan (as much as you can) for end-user inconsistencies.
    The screen size and email client aren’t the only factors that can alter the way your HTML email renders in your subscribers’ inboxes. Elements like the version of their email client, their operating system, their unique user settings, their security software, and whether or not they’re automatically loading images can all impact how your email loads.
    As you can probably guess by that hefty list of factors, trying to solve for all of them (every single time you send an email) would probably be enough to make you throw your computer across the room.
    But you don’t have to be completely helpless in the face of these variables — you just have to do a little pre-planning.
    Consider creating a webpage version of your email.
    This is kind of like giving your email a fail-safe button. If for some reason — due to one of the many factors discussed above — your lovingly designed email renders like an absolute mess when a subscriber opens it, they will at least have the option to click “view as web page” and see the email as you intended it to be.
    Since style elements render much more consistently across web browsers versus email clients, you’ll be able to have way more control over the web page version of your message. In HubSpot, there’s an option you can turn on that will generate a web page version automatically.
    Create a plain text version of your email.
    A plain text version is exactly what it sounds like — an alternative version of your HTML email that renders in completely plain text. Adding a plain text version of your HTML email is important because some email clients and user settings can’t (or choose not to) load HTML.
    If this is the case, the client will look for a plain text alternative version of your HTML email to load for the user. If one doesn’t exist, it could signal to the recipient’s email server that your message is spam — or potentially dangerous.
    Most email tools like HubSpot will automatically provide a plain text version that displays if a recipient’s email server requires it, but if you’re coding an HTML email from scratch, you’ll need to create something called a multipart MIME message.
    A multipart MIME message is an email that contains both a plain text and HTML version of the same email. If a recipient’s email client or security system doesn’t allow HTML email, the plain text version will be displayed. This is a process that requires an advanced knowledge of coding, so we recommend working with a developer.
    Make sure your email still makes sense if the images don’t load.
    Some users have automatic image-loading turned off, which means they’ll see your email without images when they open it. For this reason, don’t rely entirely on images to get the meaning of your message across, and always add alt-text to the images you do include. Alt-text will load even when images don’t, so your subscribers can get the general idea of what the visuals include.
    5. Conduct thorough testing.
    Finally, you’ll need to test your HTML email at every stage of development to ensure it works across different email clients, operating systems, and device types. Don’t wait until the very end of the process to test out your email — testing as you work is the best way to spot inconsistencies between different email clients and ensure you’re creating the most consistent experience possible for your recipients.
    Some email tools (like HubSpot) offer in-app testing within their email builders to make the process easier. If you’re working from scratch, you can use a tool like HTML Email Check or PreviewMyEmail to get a better idea of how your email will look in different email clients and devices.
    Simple and Free HTML Email Templates
    There are an overwhelming amount of HTML email templates available on the web, and they vary in quality, responsiveness, and price. We’ve pulled together a selection of free HTML email templates that provide a responsive user experience. Be sure to read the terms and conditions on each individual template before use.
    1. HubSpot Free HTML Email Template

    Included in the free version of Marketing Hub, this template is a great place to start if you’re looking for a template with more room for customization. You can easily add images, text, and buttons in an intuitive drag-and-drop editor, and you can be confident that the templates you design will be fully responsive on any device.
    2. Company News HTML Email Template by Campaign Monitor

    This modern template is sophisticated and minimal. The subtle color palette and simple design make it a versatile option for many different industries and purposes, and it’s been tested on different email clients and devices to ensure a consistent user experience across different platforms.
    3. Free HTML Email Template by Unlayer

    Though this template was designed for a fitness company, you can easily adapt it for your own. This clean, muted template is a great way to display content your team has created and connect subscribers with your most recent products or blog posts. The design features two fully responsive columns with multiple color scheme options, and room at the top to highlight a call-to-action.
    4. MINImalist Free HTML Email Template

    Proof that sometimes less really is more, this easy, fully responsive design makes the most of whitespace and keeps the focus firmly on your words and visual elements. Without design distractions, your content can really shine — on any device.
    5. Free HTML Email Templates from Bee Free

    This collection of free, open-source templates are completely responsive and tested across popular email clients. You can edit and build on them on the Bee Free platform, then export the HTML file to your local drive.
    These are an ideal option if you want a more styled, polished starting place, but you still want to be able to customize the design to fit your company’s needs. Each template is available in multiple formats for different marketing purposes, like transactional emails, NPS collection, and email subscriber re-engagement.
    6. Free HTML Email Template by Campaign Monitor

    This sleek, responsive design from Campaign Monitor would be perfect for sending out a discount code — but it could also serve as a stylish way to showcase your latest products to email subscribers. It’s also worth checking out Campaign Monitor’s full library of responsive email templates.
    Create HTML Emails to Increase Your Subscriber Count
    HTML emails are an engaging way to share what’s happening in your business and keep subscribers coming back for more. With the tips and templates we’ve shared, you’re well on your way to creating beautiful HTML emails without writing a single line of code.
    Editor’s note: This post was originally published in June 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

  • 7 Games and Activities Designed to Boost Call Center Agent Engagement

    Managing a call center team isn’t easy. Call center agents are customer service providers 24/7, which means they need to deal with customers with varying moods all day.
    Due to the nature of their work, it’s common to see call centers struggle with low agent engagement. And if managers aren’t paying attention, this dynamic can severely impact work performance, customer satisfaction, and other aspects of their operation.
    While there are plenty of ways to engage call center agents, there is one low-cost, fun way to boost motivation and general satisfaction with your employees – games!
    How to Foster Agent Engagement in a Hybrid Contact Center
    Why do games help call center agent engagement?
    Games might seem juvenile at first glance, but gamification is a popular and highly effective way to engage your staff, no matter their age. By mixing a bit of fun with performance incentives at your call center, you might see more sales, more smiles, and more engagement!
    Motivational games can also boost agents’ productivity at work, and there are many different kinds of games to play. Here are a few additional reasons to add games to your call center agent engagement strategy:
    They’re inexpensive.
    Contact centers don’t always have the budget for an employee trip or paid course. Games and activities are usually low cost, and their impact comes from creativity and planning.
    They assist with training and performance.
    The best games are not only fun, but also opportunities for learning. Some games, when executed properly, can help agents absorb and internalize information more effectively while boosting their performance.
    They bring your team together
    Games create a great structure for team bonding. This is especially true for call centers that operate remotely, or for call centers that have become remote due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
    8 great games to boost call center agent engagement.
    So what are you waiting for? Check out our list of games and activities to try with your team of call center agents:
    Contact Center Knockout.
    Contact Center Knockout is a great game to play if you don’t have a lot of time or resources. A dry marker board is all you need!
    Instructions:

    Draw a grid on the dry marker game, with a box for each member of your crew.
    Anytime an agent makes a sale, they can put their initials inside the box. Once all the boxes are filled, agents can “knockout” other agents from their boxes with more sales.
    If an agent makes a significantly large sale, or if they receive excellent feedback from a customer, they can “lock” the box so nobody else can take it.
    The call center manager chooses the winning boxes before the game begins, and whoever has initials in those boxes get a prize. Some centers use cash, gift cards, early sign offs or sleep-ins, and food for prizes.

    This game is a great way to add a bit of fun competition to your agents’ day-to-day, and encourage more sales.
    Zip Code Bingo.
    Call center agents deal with diverse customers from different areas all the time. Zip code Bingo uses that diversity to help drive engagement.
    Instructions:

    Managers give agents bingo cards with zip codes instead of numbers. For example, 101 for Manhattan NY, or 103 for Staten Island, NY.
    Agents cross out those zip codes after speaking to a customer who lives in that area.
    The first agent who gets a line, cross, or “full house” gets a prize.

    This game helps agents become efficient in their calls, as they want to move onto the next customer to cross out another postal code. While this is usually a good thing, it’s important to make sure agents aren’t rushing calls to the detriment of the customer’s experience.
    Call Center Monopoly.
    For call center monopoly, all you need is a pen and paper, and a die.
    Instructions:

    Create a new monopoly board, but with property names relevant to the call center. Keep the “Go to Jail,” “Chance,” and “Community Chest” squares, however.
    Set aside 10-15 minutes each week or each day to play.
    Each participant gets monopoly money before the game begins, and can roll the die once they meet a certain KPI target. For example, reaching a number of sales in one day. Each time they pass go, they collect a certain amount of money.
    Instead of spending Monopoly money on property or hotels, the goal is to keep as much of the money as you can over time.
    After an extended period of time, perhaps a couple of months, players can use their monopoly money on prizes like more breaks, early sign off, lunch with the CEO, or any other treats you feel could work.

    This game is great for coworker communication and interaction, and long-term productivity boosts.
    Snakes & Ladders.
    For this game, you’ll need a large snakes & ladders board to post on a wall, or somewhere else that the team can easily access.

    Agents can roll the dice if they receive positive feedback on the IVR survey
    The survey asks about the customer’s experience – specifically, how much effort the call took, on a scale from 1 to 9.
    If the agent receives a 9, they can roll the dice and move up or down the board.

    This game is a great way to encourage call center agents to ensure customers are satisfied with their calls. It’s also a great way to make use of Fonolo’s Visual Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system, which is accessible, multi-lingual, and gives your agents real-time updates on the status of your call-backs.
    What’s a Visual IVR and How Does it Improve CX?
    Mystery Prize.
    Mystery Prize is another cost-effective game that boosts agent engagement.
    Instructions:

    Hide a prize somewhere in your call center. Make sure it’s a prize that won’t easily be found or guessed by your team.
    The agent who performs the best on a decided metric each day gets a clue. Each clue should help the agent get closer and closer to the prize.
    The first person that finds the prize wins.

    This game really helps agents boost their performance using metrics that are timely and relevant to your call center’s needs.
    Quality Scores Baseball.
    Instructions:

    Every month or every year, hold a competition for agents to win “home runs” based on their performance
    The agent with the most home runs at the end of the month or year wins tickets to a baseball game.
    You can alter the theme of this game to suit different sports preferences, like basketball, tennis, or football, depending on what your team enjoys.

    This game helps agents prioritize performance over the long term. While quick wins are always nice, incentivizing a longer-term, strong performance can help keep sales steady
    Agent Target Practice.
    This game is a great way for agents to relax and enjoy themselves without thinking about sales for a moment. It’s important to decompress sometimes too, so this could be a great way to give employees that little break that they need to jump back into making those sales!
    Instructions:

    Separate your agents into teams
    Each team rolls the die to determine how many bean bags or tennis balls they can throw.
    Managers decide the value of points for each target.
    The first team to reach an agreed-upon number of points wins!
    The winning team gets a small prize.

    Get your call center into a festive mood.
    Holidays are great opportunities to get your call center in a festive mood. Managers and employees might share culturally festive foods and treats to share on the days nearing Christmas, Easter, Diwali, Kwanzaa, and more.
    There are also many opportunities throughout the year to play holiday games. You could have a leprechaun relay or St. Paddy’s Day trivia for St. Patrick’s Day. Or, you could try a Halloween Jinx or candy corn game for Halloween.
    Don’t force your call center agents to participate.
    While the benefits of engaging employees through games are clear, it’s important to remember that if anything is forced, it’s not fun. Some agents might not be comfortable with the public competition or exposure brought on by workplace games. Additionally, if a manager forces their agents to play a specific game, it can be seen as patronizing.
    Instead of deciding on one game for everyone to play, allow your agents to choose which game they’d like to play. And, if they don’t want to play any games, ask them about any other ideas they have. Taking your agents’ voices and opinions into account increases their engagement because it helps them feel valued.
    5 Important Strategies for Agent Engagement in 2021
    The bottom line.
    Call center agents learn a lot from their day-to-day work, and the many call centers offer opportunities for learning and growth. However, when it comes to your job, culture is important too. Having quality time with your coworkers and management, enjoying each others’ company, celebrating holidays, and having a little fun once in a while goes a long way with employee engagement.The post Blog first appeared on Fonolo.

  • Over the circumstances

    How do you act when you’re in charge? Or when someone else is in control?

    How do you act when you win? Or when you lose?

    Is there a difference between the times you’ve been given the benefit of the doubt and the times you wish you had?

    The circumstances change, but perhaps the way we’d like to contribute, to be seen and to connect shouldn’t.

    The circumstances are here, no matter what we do. It’s up to us to decide to be under them or over them.

  • 5 Emails for Summer Campaign Inspiration

    Summer is here!  It’s the time of year for taking time off from work and setting up much-needed vacations. Taking advantage of the warmer weather (or traveling to climates with warmer weather) is what summer is all about. And while it all may seem like fun and games, summertime is also synonymous with declining sales.…
    The post 5 Emails for Summer Campaign Inspiration appeared first on Benchmark Email.

  • Getting Back to The Office: An Evening with Dunder Mifflin’s Finest

    According to Michael Scott, “Real business is done on paper.” Considering we help companies send more than 180 billion personalized emails every year, however, we have other opinions.
    Regardless of how you do business, though, the last year has been full of changes. After all, who thought you’d be balancing Wi-Fi priorities between your work and school Zoom calls? Or that you’d forget what wearing pants all day feels like?
    We’ve been away from work for so long that many of us have forgotten our favorite parts about office culture. So, how will things like Casual Friday, coworker gossip, and coffee breaks change as a result of this ‘new normal?’
    The Future of Work?
    The truth is, nobody has all the answers. So, we asked two of our favorite accountants to lead Back to The Office: An Evening with Dunder Mifflin’s Finest. And while Chili’s wasn’t at 100% capacity yet, this virtual experience still brought Kevin, Oscar, and hundreds of marketers together to discuss the future of office life.
    If you weren’t there, you missed out on an intimate, hour-long Q&A session with Brian Baumgartner and Oscar Nunez that covered topics like:

    The art of prop comedy
    What they’ve both been learning and doing at home during the pandemic

    Untold, behind-the-scenes stories from the set of The Office

    Their predictions about the future of office culture

    Fortunately, for the next month you can access our full recording of this experience. Simply click here, enter ‘dundies’ into the password prompt, sit back, and enjoy!
    The post Getting Back to The Office: An Evening with Dunder Mifflin’s Finest appeared first on Campaign Monitor.

  • Salesforce User Experience (UX) Designer Certification Available Now!

    The brand new Salesforce User Experience (UX) Designer Certification is available now! If you navigate to Trailhead credentials, you’ll see there is a new role called “Salesforce Designer” and the new credential “User Experience (UX) Designer”.  “Are you passionate about creating human-centered user experiences? Salesforce… Read More

  • 3 Actions to Take on the Road to Leadership Bravery

    “The best way to learn if you can trust somebody is to trust them.”
    – Ernest Hemingway
    Companies that practice what I call “leadership bravery” are choosing to reverse the trend on business practices that have defined their industries. Through leadership guidance and company actions,  they are establishing more balanced relationships, where both sides win.  Both customer and company are better off because they are in each other’s lives.
    What Does Leadership Bravery Look Like?
    Ask how we will and will not grow.
    Three common behaviors are common among these admired companies as they move in this direction. First, leaders are clear about how they will and will not grow.  Leaders diligently take actions to point out exactly what the high road is; creating a path for the company to follow.  For example, by refusing to open their stores on Black Friday, REI’s CEO took a stand to inspire employees and the marketplace by deciding how they would and would not grow.  For REI, Black Friday is a family day, not a commerce day.  Airbnb takes the high road by showing employees how to embrace the coda “belong anywhere:” building its culture of “belonging.”
    Lean into transparency.
    Next, they choose to be transparent in explaining the “why” behind their actions, such as pricing or how and why they build products the way that they do.  By sharing information about their products and pricing, and by openly transferring knowledge to customers they prove they want to do what’s best for them.
    When writing my book, Would You Do That To Your Mother?, I learned a term that describes this approach to fearlessly sharing, that builds bonds with customers: “radical transparency.” In that book, you’ll read about OVO Energy in the UK, who practices this level of transparency with customers by opening up their pricing plans to the public, outlining exactly what the energy costs are to them, so customers feel equity in what they are paying.  As a result, they are earning customer raves and growth.
    Transparency, increasingly, is becoming more important to customers, and more differentiating for brands.  A recent Harvard Business Review article cites a study by researchers at the MIT Sloan School of Management, which found that consumers may be willing to pay 2% to 10% more for products from companies that provide greater supply chain transparency.
    Level the playing field.
    Finally, these admired companies choose to level the playing field, reducing or eliminating practices where in the past, customers might have felt that the company was holding all the cards. They are deliberately resisting or changing industry practices so that customers feel a balanced and equitable partnership, and one based on trust. For example, Luscious Garage brings the technician and customer together as partners making decisions.  As a result, they have eliminated that phone call of waiting for the ‘final’ estimate of the car repair, turning the experience instead into one of collaboration, trust, and even joy.
    Why Take the High Road?
    Some of the high-road actions these admired companies take to grow may sound irrational.  But repeatedly, examples of their bravery in committing to customer relationships have proven otherwise.  They build bonds by the humanity that their acts display.
    The high road is a choice.  And while it’s not always the easiest choice, it’s the one you’ll be happiest about in the rearview mirror. It’s the stuff that clearly makes that mom of yours proud.
    The high road is also the route to success for companies who take this path. Empirical data and anecdotes from customers and employees prove that behaving in this manner grows a business.  Fred Reichheld was one of the first to connect the dots between “golden rule behavior” and business growth.  Further, Danny Meyer’s Hospitality Quotient proves how companies with business practices and employees that deliver values based and human experiences significantly beat the S&P 500. But the key to growing in this manner is leadership.  Leaders must build a company that believes that doing the right thing is the right way to grow.

    Some of the high-road actions companies take to grow may sound irrational. But repeatedly, examples of their bravery in committing to customer relationships have proven otherwise. It can be a route to success.Click To Tweet

    Leadership Bravery Pays Dividends
    As customers, we desire to give our trust to companies who trust us back.  We seek out companies whose employees are given permission to do the right thing, and where we are honored as assets. We breathe a sigh of relief and gratitude when “Gotcha!” moments are flipped to “We’ve got your back” moments. We applaud accountability  because we know that everyone makes mistakes.  And we thank goodness for the companies who level the playing field, and give us information to prosper.
    It takes all of us years of experience to figure out exactly how we, as leaders, will take the high road.  But as we go through the ups and downs of living…it becomes clearer.  Situations provide the choice.  The hard work is having the life lessons to test it out.  Those moments where my dad would say to me, “Jeanne, you can learn from this if you let yourself.”

    This blog post is excerpted and adapted from Would You Do That To Your Mother? 
    Learn more about the book and find out where to order »
    The post 3 Actions to Take on the Road to Leadership Bravery appeared first on Customer Bliss.

  • Getting Back to The Office: An Evening with Dunder Mifflin’s Finest

    According to Michael Scott, “Real business is done on paper.” Considering we help companies send more than 180 billion personalized emails every year, however, we have other opinions.
    Regardless of how you do business, though, the last year has been full of changes. After all, who thought you’d be balancing Wi-Fi priorities between your work and school Zoom calls? Or that you’d forget what wearing pants all day feels like?
    We’ve been away from work for so long that many of us have forgotten our favorite parts about office culture. So, how will things like Casual Friday, coworker gossip, and coffee breaks change as a result of this ‘new normal?’
    The Future of Work?
    The truth is, nobody has all the answers. So, we asked two of our favorite accountants to lead Back to The Office: An Evening with Dunder Mifflin’s Finest. And while Chili’s wasn’t at 100% capacity yet, this virtual experience still brought Kevin, Oscar, and hundreds of marketers together to discuss the future of office life.
    If you weren’t there, you missed out on an intimate, hour-long Q&A session with Brian Baumgartner and Oscar Nunez that covered topics like:

    The art of prop comedy
    What they’ve both been learning and doing at home during the pandemic

    Untold, behind-the-scenes stories from the set of The Office

    Their predictions about the future of office culture

    Fortunately, for the next month you can access our full recording of this experience. Simply click here, enter ‘dundies’ into the password prompt, sit back, and enjoy!
    The post Getting Back to The Office: An Evening with Dunder Mifflin’s Finest appeared first on Campaign Monitor.

  • Customer Onboarding & Project Management for Salesforce [In-Depth Review]

    TaskRay is a Salesforce native, customer onboarding and project management application, designed to make projects organized, repeatable, and scalable. TaskRay enables you to deliver flawless customer service, automate and template repeatable tasks and projects, as well as easily identify and report potential issues. This in-depth… Read More

  • The Modern, Inside Scoop on Google PageRank In 2021

    If you have been in SEO for a while, you may remember the days of working hard to increase the PageRank of websites — it was the metric every SEO cared about and wanted to improve.
    Improving PageRank meant improving your authority (usually with backlinks), which in turn could result in higher rankings and more traffic. 
    But what happened to PageRank? It’s rarely talked about anymore. 
    Believe it or not, PageRank is still used as a ranking signal for Google, even if you haven’t heard it mentioned in a while. Here, we’ll explore what you need to know about Google PageRank in 2021.

    What is Google PageRank?
    Google PageRank is a very complex concept, but we are going to try and break it down to make it easy to understand.
    PageRank uses a mathematical formula to score the value of a page based on the quality and quantity of the pages linking it to it. 
    The PageRank formula will look at the number of inbound links, external links, and the PageRank of those links to determine authority. The formula will create a score using a logarithmic scale with values ranging from 0-10. 
    The higher the PageRank score of a page, the more authoritative that page is.
    You can get more in-depth information about the PageRank formula in the original paper that was published back in 1997.
    The PageRank Toolbar
    Years ago, there used to be a toolbar that could show you the PageRank of any webpage you visited. 
    Unfortunately, the toolbar was removed by Google back in 2016 — and the mystery of what your PageRank is has existed ever since. 
    The problem with the toolbar was that it created an obsession and caused many SEOs to try and find ways to manipulate it. 
    Essentially, the Google team realized that making this score public was adding little value to website owners and decided to stop investing in it. 

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    Does Google still use PageRank?
    Yes, Google does still uses PageRank. 
    While it may not be a metric that website owners have access to, it is still used in their algorithms.
    A tweet by John Mueller, a Senior Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google, solidifies that PageRank is still used as a ranking signal.

    Yes, we do use PageRank internally, among many, many other signals. It’s not quite the same as the original paper, there are lots of quirks (eg, disavowed links, ignored links, etc.), and, again, we use a lot of other signals that can be much stronger.— 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu)
    February 24, 2020

    How important is PageRank?
    There is no clear measure of how important PageRank is. With there being over 200 Google ranking factors, they do not provide data on the importance of each factor.
    But we do know that backlinks play a very large part in SEO success. So it’s safe to assume that PageRank still plays a part in how highly your pages rank. 
    Spending time trying to improve your PageRank is probably not the best use of your time. But building relevant and authoritative backlinks to your website is an undeniably effective SEO strategy, and will likely improve your PageRank as a result.
    You may not see the improvement as a metric, but you will see it in your organic traffic.
    What influences Google PageRank?
    There are some factors you should know about that can positively impact your PageRank. Let’s dive into a few of those, now. 
    1. Backlinks
    The primary way to improve your PageRank is through backlinks. The more relevant, high authority websites that link to you — the higher your PageRank will be. 
    Below are some ways to build valuable backlinks:

    Build relationships with influencers and community members in your niche.
    Create original infographics, webinars, videos, and other creative assets that encourage website owners to share and link to your post.
    Participate in forums and communities that are related to your niche. 
    Share your content on social networks — tag relevant people if they are part of your content so they can share, too. 
    Create amazing content! 

    Building backlinks is one of the best ways to grow your website, but it needs to be done properly. Be authentic, do not spam groups or communities, and most importantly — create content with which people can engage.
    You also want to be sure you have cleaned up any bad backlinks. You can learn more about how to Disavow Links here. 
    Getting links from directories or pages that have a lot of links is not as beneficial for improving PageRank. Every link on a page will dilute the value of your link, so while directory-type links can be valuable in other ways, they will not be a big help for improving RageRank.
    2. Internal Linking
    One of the most underrated SEO tactics is internal linking. By using internal links to pass PageRank from one page to another, you can make a big impact on your rank and traffic. 
    As an example — your homepage will usually have the highest PageRank because of the number of websites linking to it. 
    Every link from your homepage to another page on your website will boost the authority of the page being linked to. 
    Additionally, consider using an SEO tool to identify pages within your website that have high authority, and adding links from those pages to lower-authority pages (when relevant) to give your pages a boost. 
    A quick trick is to look at your Google Analytics — usually the pages with the most organic traffic are the highest authority pages. So you can start using those pages to build internal links to less authoritative pages to give them a quick boost, as long as the links are relevant to the content on the page.
    3. External Linking
    One of the biggest myths I can remember about external links is that linking out from your content can diminish the PageRank of that page.  
    This is not true. Remember, the whole premise behind PageRank is links. 
    While the number of links on a page might affect the “value” of that link to the page being linked to, it does not harm your own. If you find a resource that is helpful for your viewers, then you should absolutely add a link to that resource.
    A study done by Reboot showed that there was a positive correlation between rankings and the outbound links of a page.
    How To Check Your PageRank
    Unfortunately, there is no way for you to accurately know what your PageRank is. 
    There are some websites that claim to provide you with your PageRank, but these are not verified tools so there is no proof they are providing accurate data.
    Other tools — like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz — have all created their own version of numerical values that were meant to replicate the PageRank score. 
    For example, SEMRush has what they call an “authority score”, which offers a numerical value that can signal how helpful a backlink from a website may be. This score is based on the following:

    Monthly traffic to a website
    Average keyword position
    Backlink data

    But Google doesn’t use these scores in their ranking algorithm. So, while you can use them as a guide to understand your website authority, they do not replace PageRank. 
    While most SEOs don’t give much thought to PageRank anymore, and do not try to optimize for it, it’s still worth understanding. Ultimately, if you’re working on building backlinks, improving your internal linking, and using authoritative external links, your PageRank will thank you for it.