Author: Franz Malten Buemann

Most businesses still see email marketing as the most cost-beneficial and conversion-rich way to develop relationships with potential customers or clients and promote their products or services. What makes it such a powerful tool? The numbers speak for themselves. A recent study holds that the median email marketing ROI is 122 percent. So far, no…
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As a marketer, you know how important it is to have a marketing strategy.
You also know how important it is for your strategy to align with your audiences’ needs and interests, and the required approach for each channel you use, whether it’s social media or email. Having a marketing strategy also helps you create the content your audiences want to see and share it where they’re most likely to see it.
But, when you have this strategy, how do you figure out what to say in the content you share with them? What you need is a marketing message, and it’s just as important as your overall strategy.
You can think of it like this: if you know you want to post about a new product launch on Instagram, how will you prove to your audience that they need to buy this new product? Your marketing message. Essentially, no marketing message means no way to execute your strategy.
In this post, we’ll define what a marketing message is, give real-life examples from businesses, and explain how you can create your own.

Because of this, you should craft your marketing message with care, specifically for the audiences you’re trying to reach. It should also address their pain points and present your business as a solution.
When your message speaks to their needs, you’ll build trust with your audience and inspire customer retention.
Every business engaging in marketing needs a marketing message, whether you sell B2C or B2B, software as a service (SaaS), or clothing.
Marketing Message Examples
Successful marketing messages attract leads and convert them to paying customers. Below we’ll go over some real-life examples of effective marketing messages.
Nike
As a clothing and apparel brand, Nike is committed to providing equipment to everyone who needs it, regardless of the sport they play and who they are.
Their marketing message is “Where All Athletes Belong,” and it speaks to their target audience and lets them know that they have something for everyone —from professional athletes to first-time players.

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Black Girl Sunscreen
Black Girl Sunscreen targets an audience often left out of sun safety discussions: women of color. Their message lets that market know they’re there for them: “Protect your melanin. Sunscreen is always in season.”
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Chipotle
People with dietary restrictions or food preferences that don’t align with mainstream ideas of nutrition are often unable to find food they can eat at fast-food restaurants.
Chipotle’s marketing message, shown in the image below, reads “Find your plant power.” The brand is speaking directly to those with diverse needs, inviting them to try their expanded menu with plant-based options and letting them know that they recognize the gap in the market for their needs.

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Lab Muffin
Ingredients in beauty and cosmetic products can be hard to understand if you don’t have a scientific background or relevant experience. Lab Muffin’s marketing message speaks to those who want to understand the chemistry behind the products they use: “The science of beauty, explained simply.”

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Zoom
Zoom is a virtual meeting tool that allows users to connect virtually. It markets to an audience who wants to continue having fulfilling conversations, regardless of their physical location: “Meet OnZoom. A marketplace for immersive experiences.”

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All in all, these marketing messages capture attention and, in just a couple of words, explain why their business is the best fit to meet their audience’s needs.
How to Craft a Marketing Message
As mentioned above, a well-crafted marketing message converts your audience into customers. All businesses should aim to have one, and below we’ll discuss how to create a compelling marketing message for your own business.
Know your target audience.
Just as with most marketing practices, you can’t begin creating your marketing message without identifying your target audience. When you know who they are, you’re not marketing to customers you think are interested in you, but rather to those you know are interested in you.
In brief, your target audience is a group of consumers with similar characteristics and purchasing intent, and stand to gain the most value from your products. While your overall target audience is probably defined by the industry you’re in, it’s important to have a deeper understanding.
To learn more about your target audience and narrow down who they are, you can conduct buyer persona research, analyze your competitors, practice social listening, and invite people to participate in focus groups or interviews.
Overall, what you want to learn from identifying your target audience is understanding what they “look” like. This can be simple demographic information, like age and location, to what they like, desire, and want from the businesses they buy from.
Having this information then makes it easier to personalize your strategies and create a marketing message that will resonate with them, especially when addressing their pain points.
Understand your audience’s pain points.
Your persona research should tell you about your audience’s pain points and challenges.
As a refresher, pain points are issues that affect your target audience’s day-to-day routines, business tasks, or general life desires. These challenges are typically things that your audience is actively seeking solutions for.
For example, if you’re a business selling marketing SaaS, you may discover that your audience has trouble managing their campaigns because they use multiple platforms throughout their process. When you create your marketing message, you should speak to your ability to streamline their efforts with your easy-to-use, all-in-one platform.
If you’re a B2C business that sells eco-friendly clothing, a customer pain point could be that they struggle to find brands without significant environmental impact. In your marketing message, you should speak to their desire to minimize environmental pollution through sustainable shopping opportunities.
When you understand pain points, you don’t have to guess why your customers need you — you’ll know why they need you. As a result, you can create a marketing message that addresses their needs.
The first two steps on this list involve gathering the necessary background information, and the following steps will help you begin crafting your message.
Make value propositions.
Value propositions highlight your product or service’s unique value and tell customers that your brand is tailor-made to meet their needs. It clearly says why they should do business with you instead of a competitor, and that is precisely the point of a marketing message.
When creating your message, present your product or service as a cure for their pain points, and prove it. Continuing with the eco-friendly business example, you can specifically mention that your clothing is locally produced, separating you from the competition that mass produces its goods abroad.
This message tells consumers that you’re solving their pain point, which is a lack of sustainable clothing brands, because you design ethically produced and environmentally friendly products.
Prioritize clarity and concision.
Even though your marketing message needs to say a lot, you need to say a lot while saying a little. You shouldn’t beat around the bush. Instead, get to the point and explain how your product is a solution.
Customers should read your message and find answers to their questions without needing to overanalyze your statements. Prioritize being clear, concise, and easily understood, as you want your words to speak for themselves. To reiterate, get to the point.
You can think of it like this: I said a lot in this explanation just to tell you to get to the point. If this were a marketing message, you would’ve moved along already. However, if I wanted to follow the tips I’ve mentioned, I would simply say, “Tell me why you’re the best – no ifs, ands, or buts.”
Use familiar, conversational language.
Even though your customers are in your industry, you shouldn’t assume that they know or understand the technical jargon related to what you sell. Therefore, it’s important to sound conversational and use language that is familiar and palatable to most audiences. Your message copy should be simple, straightforward, and not require an industry-specific dictionary.
For example, you can use technical terms to describe the features in your latest automobile model. Still, car enthusiasts would be the only ones that genuinely understand what it means to have a 600 horsepower engine and AAA uniform tire quality grading (I certainly don’t know what this means).  
Aim to write as people speak during conversations, maintain a friendly tone, and make customers feel welcomed. Robotic and technical language may be confusing and lead them to think that doing business with you will be complicated and confusing as well.
In sum, by being conversational and familiar, you’re reaching everyone, from first-time industry customers to seasoned CEOs.
Showcase your brand’s originality.  
Your marketing message’s overall intent is to attract your target audience, but it’s also to set you apart from your competitors. Given this, a key pillar of your final message is originality.
Run-of-the-mill marketing messages seem like they could belong to any of your competitors, and original ones showcase what makes you unique. This can be your brand’s personality, the features that set you apart from your competitors, or a combination of the two.
Your marketing message is unique to your business, your solutions are unique to your business, and your words should prove that.
Use user-generated content (UGC).
Consumers are 14% more likely to trust recommendations from someone like them (another consumer) over a brand employee. With that in mind ,using UGC in your messaging, like testimonials and reviews, can help you support your products’ value.
As your target audience likely shares the same challenges, seeing that someone like them has benefited from your product can help them make their final decision. For example, you could say, “95% of our customers love [xyz], and you will too.”
Appeal to customer emotions and logic.
There are a variety of consumer behavior models that explain how people make purchasing decisions. Some models say that it’s through logical reasoning, and others say that it’s purely emotional. In reality, it’s probably a combination of the two, and you should use this to your advantage.
Through tactics like humorous copy, you can showcase your brand’s uniqueness to appeal to customer emotions, and use value propositions to appeal to logical reasoning and show customers how you’ll solve their problems.
Use Your Marketing Message to Speak to Your Customers
The key takeaway here is that your marketing message should convince your audience to do business with you.
Focus on showcasing your brands’ individuality, creating an emotional connection, and clearly showing your customers what’s in it for them. If you do this, you’ll likely find yourself with a marketing message that speaks directly to your target audience and helps you grow your list of clients.

Over the past year, marketers got a crash course in remote work.
As 2021 approached, many of us had already invested in at-home desks, workout equipment, and other tools meant to make work-from-home a little easier.
At the top of that list? Video conferencing software.
Video conferencing tools saw a 500% increase in demand in 2020 as a result of the worldwide pandemic. And, as the workforce continues to shift to a more flexible, hybrid model, it’s critical your business invests in equipment designed to foster collaboration regardless of an employee’s location.
But video conferencing software isn’t always cheap, and the fancy bells-and-whistles aren’t always necessary for small businesses looking for a simple, effective solution.
Here, we’ve compiled 10 of the best video conferencing tools for small businesses, ranging in price and features, to help you find the best fit for your needs.
But first — what are the benefits of video conferencing software, and do you need it, anyway?

Video Conferencing Benefits
Video conferencing offers opportunities for collaboration, productivity, and increased engagement with colleagues, stakeholders, and customers — all without the hassle (and cost) of traveling to an in-person location.
I could write a whole blog post about the benefits of video conferencing, but for our purposes, let’s focus on four:

Video conferencing is a cost-effective opportunity to have face-to-face interactions with colleagues, prospects, stakeholders, or customers. It’s more personal and engaging than a phone call, and it’s much cheaper and more efficient than paying to commute — or fly — to a physical location to meet someone for an in-person conversation.
Like mentioned above, video conferencing offers an opportunity for more personal connection. Eye contact, facial expressions, and body language are cues we use to effectively communicate with one another on a daily basis — and those cues are all lost in a phone or email conversation.  
Video conferencing can increase your team’s productivity, since it limits the amount of time you spend running to conference rooms in-between meetings, driving to meet a client, etc.
Video conferencing can foster increased collaboration, as opposed to email or Slack. For instance, if I hear an interesting project a colleague is working on, I’ll ask them to join a quick Zoom call with me so we can discuss opportunities for collaboration — which is much more efficient than emailing about it.

However, video conferencing software can be expensive, and if you work for a small business with limited resources, it can be difficult to persuade leadership that it’s a worthwhile investment. Fortunately, you don’t have to break the bank to test it out — in fact, a few of the tools in this list are free forever, and others offer free trials.
Let’s dive into the most impressive video conferencing tools we’ve found for small businesses.
10 Best Video Conferencing Tools for Small Businesses
1. Zoom 

Pros: If you’re on a tight budget, you can’t beat the free option you get with Zoom, one of the highest-rated video conferencing tools available. The tool offers clear audio with background noise suppression, an option to share your screen, and a recording function to save and send the meeting to those unable to participate.
Additionally, Zoom has a few fun, engaging tools for increased participation among attendees — including filters, reactions, polls, hand raising, and chat. Plus, you can schedule a Zoom meeting right from your Outlook, Gmail, or iCal email calendar.
Zoom is also part of the HubSpot ecosystem and connects seamlessly with your CRM.
Cons: Outside of meetings, Zoom doesn’t offer any collaboration tools such as file sharing or messaging to follow-up with colleagues — additionally, the links you might’ve shared in the Zoom chat aren’t saved anywhere for later viewing. You also can’t add a meeting agenda to the invite from the app itself.
Overall, Zoom is a great option for small teams, but as you scale, there are some growing pains. For instance, you can get 100 participants in a meeting for 40 minutes with the free version, but if you have a company of 100+, you’ll need to pay more to increase participants.
Price: Free for Basic, which includes the ability to host up to 100 participants, up to 40 minutes of group meeting time, and unlimited one-on-one meetings. $149.90 per year for Pro version, which is recommended for small teams, and $199.90 per year for Small & Med Businesses version.
2. Jiminny 

Pros: Jiminny offers a ton of unique, impressive features that can be particularly useful if you’re hoping to use your video conferencing tool for your sales team or for client-facing purposes.
For instance, the software offers a “Themes” feature, which means your meeting recording will be automatically broken up into important parts like “Next Steps” — for anyone who’s ever scanned an hour-long meeting recording looking for a two-minute conversation right in the middle, this can greatly increase efficiency with follow-up materials.
The recording feature can integrate with your CRM to automatically input data from your recordings, enabling you to reduce the time-consuming task of manual note-taking. The software also offers metrics such as ratio of talking versus listening to improve your sales reps conversation (and listening) skills.
Cons: The company is in the early-stages, so as they continue to iterate and improve on their product, you might experience some growing pains. Additionally, if you’re not planning on using the video conferencing tool for prospect/customer-facing purposes, some of these features might be unnecessary for your internal marketing team.
Price: Pro plans starting at $75/month per user if you sign up for a full year; that goes up to $95/month per user if billed monthly.
3. Google Meet

Pros: Google Meet is an incredibly cheap and easy-to-use video conferencing tool for small teams. In fact, if you’re not interested in recording or storing meetings, the tool is free forever for up to 100 participants.
Google Meet integrates with other apps and even lets you build a custom app using Apps Script. The tool also comes with unlimited Google Drive storage.
Additionally, the tool offers a speech-to-text real-time captioning feature for video chats and meetings — ideal for hearing impaired participants, non-native speakers, or participants with noisy backgrounds.
Cons: The free version doesn’t offer the ability to record or save your meetings, which means you’ll need to upgrade if you need either feature.
Google doesn’t offer personalized setup or training, and it doesn’t offer the same robust features as some of the other options in this list. It also can’t support more than 250 participants, so it won’t work if you plan on hosting larger webinars or conferences.
Price: The app is free for up to 100 participants and an unlimited number of meetings. However, if you want to record or store meetings, pricing starts at $8/month per user.
4. Bluejeans 

Pros: Bluejeans, a video conferencing software created by Verizon, offers impressive features such as the ability to use AI and voice recognition to automatically take notes, create action items, and identify key moments for later follow-up. Additionally, engagement is a breeze from within the tool with features such as screen sharing, polling, Q&A, and chat.
Bluejeans integrates with messaging, scheduling, and productivity tools, and offers impressive security and scalability requirements.
Cons: Bluejeans doesn’t offer file sharing capabilities, and if you only purchase the Me plan, you’re limited to 25 hours of recordings. Additionally, support is limited.
Price: $13.99/host per month, up to 75 participants and 25 hours of recordings.
5. GoToMeeting 

Pros: LogMeIn’s video conferencing software has some impressive features, including a “Smart Meeting Assistant” transcription service that automatically transcribes the meeting so you can search through and share detailed notes with others.
You can record the meeting and store the recording locally or in the cloud, and participants can join the meeting on desktop or through a mobile app.
Overall, GotoMeeting’s HD video and audio software is high-quality and integrates easily with Google Calendar or Chrome for increased efficiency.
Cons: GoToMeeting requires an error-fee data connection to work well, and some reviewers have noted the mobile app isn’t as user-friendly as they’d like. Additionally, the Professional plan doesn’t offer the transcription, note taking, or drawing features.
Price: $16/user per month, for up to 250 participants, for Business plan.
6. Skype

Pros: If you have a tight budget and you’re often calling people from across the globe, Skype could be a great option for you. The software is free to use, and doesn’t charge users for calling anyone from anywhere in the world. Video calls can also include up to 50 participants at once. The tool is easy to install and use.
Cons: The audio quality isn’t always great with Skype, particularly since Skype’s audio quality is based on bandwidth, so if users have a slow speed ISP, then audio quality will be negatively affected. Additionally, since Skype calls occur over the internet, there’s always a possibility that data will be intercepted. This makes it a less secure option than some others in the list.
Price: Free
7. Microsoft Teams

Pros: If you’re planning on hosting large webinars or conferences with over 250+ attendees, Microsoft Teams is a good tool for you to consider. The software allows up to 10,000 participants to meet at once, and lets you host with anyone inside or outside your organization.
Additionally, Microsoft Teams enables you to organize different departments or groups into “Teams” (which can be up to a few thousand people) — within those Teams, you can have separate channels of conversations and focus on different projects.
Microsoft Teams provides a few impressive features for increased engagement, including notifications, mentions, comments, GIFs and emojis in chats, and the ability to chat one-on-one or in groups. The software also offers advanced security features.
Cons: Microsoft Teams is an inclusive option for ensuring everyone within a given “Team” automatically has access to all the files, notes, and channels in the Team. Unfortunately, that means you don’t have permission settings to inhibit certain users from accessing files within a group, and you also can’t invite guest users to selected channels.
Price: Microsoft 365 Business Basic is $5/user per month (annual commitment) and allows for 300 participants, but doesn’t include the advanced security and compliance features, administration, or support. Microsoft 365 Business Standard is $12.50/user per month (annual commitment), and Office 365 E3 is $20/user per month (annual commitment) and includes everything Microsoft Teams has to offer.
8. RingCentral Video

Pros: RingCentral offers HD video and high-quality audio, and it’s a cost-effective option for an unlimited number of users, video meetings with up to 100 participants, and up to 24-hour meeting duration. The software enables you to hop easily between mobile and desktop devices, and provides seven layers of security.
Additionally, RingCentral provides personalized onboarding training and 24/7 live support, so if you feel your team might need support getting set up or in the future, this is a good option to consider.
Cons: RingCentral offers a recording feature but it’s only available as an offline option, meaning you need to download the recording as a local hard disk rather than a publicly available folder like Dropbox. The software also doesn’t come with its own calendar and task management function to integrate video meetings with your calendar events — for that, you’ll need to download the company’s Glip app.
Price: $24.99/user per month for the standard version.
9. Zoho Meeting

Pros: One of the most cost-effective options in the list, this is a good, user-friendly video conferencing software for small businesses. Users don’t need to download and install any software, since Zoho is hosted on a web browser, and the software offers all the basic features you’d need in a video conferencing tool, including screen sharing and meeting recordings.
Aditionally, you can use 100+ local dial-in numbers and 55+ toll-free numbers to join from different countries. Best of all, the interface is easy to navigate and use.
Cons: Zoho Meeting limits attendees to 100. If you need more participants than that, you’ll need to switch to Zoho Webinar. You also need to purchase an add-on if you plan on storing over 10 recordings.
The tool doesn’t offer some of the fancy features we’ve seen elsewhere in this list, including a smart assistant or cloud video recording. Still, this is a good option for smaller teams who don’t need all the bells and whistles.
Price: $2.50/host per month for 10 participants, $5/host per month for 25 participants, and $10/host per month for 100 participants.
10. Intermedia AnyMeeting

Pros: Intermedia AnyMeeting has a clean, easy-to-use interface and offers an impressive array of features — including an AI-powered smart assistant for meeting transcriptions, and screen annotations so participants can direct attention to key points on a shared screen — for a relatively low cost.
The software integrates with plenty of popular office tools including Outlook, G-Suite, and Slack, and offers unlimited recording storage and sharing capabilities. With the Pro version, you’re also able to create custom branded meetings with a company logo and personalized background.
Cons: Intermedia AnyMeeting doesn’t have end-to-end encryption of ongoing calls, which could raise privacy and security concerns. Additionally, some G2 reviewers have mentioned the audio quality could be better.
Price: $9.99/user per month for the Lite version, which enables up to 10 participants. $12.99/user per month for the Pro version, which enables up to 100 participants.
Remember — when choosing video conferencing software, it’s critical you keep your own team’s needs, resources, and requirements in-mind. If you’re still unsure after reading through this list, consider testing out a few demos or trial versions to see which feels best-suited for your brand. 

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After all the sweat, blood, and tears you gave to craft a valuable email for your subscribers, it’s finally time to hit the send button. But, after you send them, a large chunk of your subscribers end up not getting it. Can you even imagine the horror? Bounced emails aren’t a new kid on the…
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