Author: Franz Malten Buemann

  • Mailerlite vs AWeber Comparison

    https://szdebrecen1.medium.com/mailerlite-vs-aweber-comparison-b14a9e0afaf3 ​ https://preview.redd.it/w1aryor3cvj61.png?width=770&format=png&auto=webp&s=ba55ff00188a73cb654571170b37c692532e7572
    submitted by /u/szdebrecen1 [link] [comments]

  • AWeber vs Benchmark Email Comparison

    https://szdebrecen1.medium.com/aweber-vs-benchmark-email-comparison-a7905b782e9a ​ https://preview.redd.it/bif9kbz3ytj61.png?width=770&format=png&auto=webp&s=7086d47f26f239fc9340cef78d7eda75c0835994
    submitted by /u/szdebrecen1 [link] [comments]

  • Appropriation vs. Appreciation

    This article is part of a larger series that focuses on diversity and equity in marketing through the amplification of Black and racially diverse authors. As a company, we are committed to identifying actions we can take in the fight against racism and injustice, and elevating BBIPOC voices is paramount to inspiring change. Follow along and read other posts in this series here.

    This post is authored by Kiana Fitzgerald, Music Journalist and Cultural Critic.
    In June 2014, a precocious teenage Black girl nicknamed Peaches Monroee hopped on the now-defunct video-sharing platform Vine to share a personal announcement. “We in this b*tch, finna get crunk,” the message began. Then came the phrase that would dominate pop culture for years to come: “Eyebrows on fleek.”
    When Monroee, whose real name is Kayla Newman, invented this phrase on the spot, she had no idea the impact she would soon make. 
    The term “on fleek” spread like wildfire throughout the Black Vine space, and Black culture at large. It became the community’s contemporary, insider way of saying “I’m on point.” However, it didn’t take long for the phrase to be co-opted by brands. “Hashbrowns on fleek,” the diner chain Denny’s tweeted in September of 2014. Not to be outdone, rival restaurant IHOP would tweet “Pancakes on fleek” less than one month later. 
    The tweets elicited responses that ranged from confusion to amusement to outright frustration. 
    Despite her hyper-popular phrase taking over pop culture, Newman didn’t see a dime of revenue. “Everyone has used the phrase/word but I haven’t received any money behind it or recognition,” Newman revealed in 2017 in the campaign summary of a partially successful GoFundMe, which she started to raise money for the launch of her own beauty line. 
    And thus began—and ended—another tale of Black people creating a cultural moment and being swiftly swept aside.
    Appreciation
    Late last year, it seemed as though history was set to repeat itself. In December 2020, a car salesman named Durell Smylie, who goes by Relly B on social media, recorded himself comically stepping out of the trunk of an SUV. Upon setting foot on the ground, Smylie immediately begins an entertaining spiel that goes above and beyond any car salesman pitch ever heard before. 
    Toward the end of the video, Smylie begins repeating an earworm of a phrase, telling potential customers where they can find him: “Where the money reside, where the money reside, where the money reside,” he says liltingly, with a megawatt smile on his face.
    It took all of a few days for the video to spread across social media platforms, with the term being turned into a viral hashtag. Music stars like Megan Thee Stallion and Mary J. Blige have since used the phrase as captions on their social posts. Other people in the Black community have borrowed the phrase to speak their own dreams into existence. Meanwhile, a creative bunch took the time to recreate Smylie’s video, in homage, which he approved of. 
    Appropriation
    However, Smylie called out a white person for doing the exact same thing. 
    The individual in question recreated the original video in an attempt to sell cars at another dealership, using Smylie’s mannerisms, vocal tone, and key phrase. “Please stop posting that colonizers casserole version of my video,” Smylie tweeted in early January. In a follow-up tweet, which quoted a video of a Black woman’s near-exact replication of Smylie’s video, Smylie explains the difference between the two examples. “Just so we clear – THIS is appreciation and not appropriation!” he posted. “I’m not being arrogant or none like that me and my team just want to make sure #wherethemoneyreside STAYS IN OUR CULTURE.”
    The difference here is the recreations made by Black people were done in jest intracommunally, and in genuine support of Smylie, while the white person was deliberately looking to capitalize off of Smylie’s persona for his own material gain. 
    When questioned by supporters and curious minds about how he was going to save himself from an “on fleek” future, Smylie said he was in the process of trademarking his signature phrase, something Kayla Newman struggled to do. (In a 2017 interview with Teen Vogue, Newman stated that she still hoped to trademark “on fleek,” despite the passing of a number of years. According to public records, her trademark application has been suspended since 2019, due to being “abandoned.”)
    What brands should know
    While Smylie is taking steps to legally protect his own viral slogan, the issue at hand is that companies and entities outside of the Black community consistently attempt to insert themselves into the cultural narrative, for the sake of profiting. 
    No leg work is actually done to build a relationship with the Black creatives, much less actually provide any kind of compensation for that creativity. 
    There are lessons to be learned from these examples of appreciation vs. appropriation. There are also questions that should be raised—and answered—before ever repurposing content created by Black people:

    Is our company in any way connected to the Black community? Further, do we have more than one Black person on staff, if any?
    Will our usage of this viral content come from left field?
    Can we reach out to the creator of the viral content directly and establish a relationship with that person?

    If at all possible, can we collaborate with the creator for our own inspired content? 

    In answering these questions, it should be abundantly clear whether or not a company can or should co-opt a phrase for its own gain.

    Kiana Fitzgerald holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism (2011), and a master’s degree in new media in mass communication (2013) from Texas State University. She’s been a freelance writer, multimedia reporter, academic and editorial researcher, photographer, social media strategist, collegiate instructor, web developer, and more. 
    She’s worked for NPR, and more recently Complex Networks where she interviewed artists, critiqued albums, songs and videos, both mainstream and underground. As a Diversity and Inclusion Fellow at True Blue Inclusion, she researched, analyzed and presented the effects of politics on media and culture and continues to write and analyze DEI efforts today.
    Visit this page to see more in the series, or check back in a week for our next guest post.
    CM Group is a family of global marketing technology brands including Campaign Monitor, CM Commerce, Delivra, Emma, Liveclicker, Sailthru and Vuture. By joining together these leading brands, CM Group offers a variety of world-class solutions that can be used by marketers at any level. Headquartered in Nashville, TN, CM Group has United States offices in Indianapolis, Los Angeles, New York City, Pittsburgh and San Francisco, and global offices in Australia, London, New Zealand and Uruguay.
    The post Appropriation vs. Appreciation appeared first on Campaign Monitor.

  • Time for Change

    We all experienced (been involved in, or seen) changes that have worked, but often we have seen change done badly (we tend to remember those well) and those are the ones we tend to remember. Change is a given, a bit like death and taxes, but now the PACE is unprecedented – it’s like a roller…
    The post Time for Change appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

  • Why To Use SamCart– Full SamCart Review 2021

    https://szdebrecen1.medium.com/why-to-use-samcart-samcart-review-2021-46a2eda5604
    submitted by /u/szdebrecen1 [link] [comments]

  • The order of operations

    If you put the jelly on before the peanut butter, the sandwich will fail.

    And if you try to spread the peanut butter on the plate and then add the bread, it will fail even worse.

    Like so many things, the order is not optional.

    And yet, we often do the least-scary or easiest parts first, regardless of what the order of operations tells us.

  • Full Mailerlite Review 2021–Tried&Tested Features,Comparisons

    https://szdebrecen1.medium.com/full-mailerlite-review-2021-tried-tested-features-comparisons-581c4543ee36
    submitted by /u/szdebrecen1 [link] [comments]

  • What Are Custom HTML Email Design Services Worth to Your Bottom Line?

    This is a guest post by Kevin Payne.
    The way we interact with email is different now. We no longer have the attention span to read through plain text emails with paragraphs and paragraphs of text.
    Enter custom HTML emails—the reason why we see beautifully-designed email content, from sending eye-catching promotional content, engaging calls-to-action, and even interactive content like surveys. Custom HTML emails will help you get better ROI for your clients, and better results for your shop’s bottom line.
    Are you still wondering whether it’s worth it to add custom HTML email design services to your agency’s service menu? Consider some of the ways you can use custom HTML emails to get clients excited and drive results for them, and determine if it makes sense for you. Then evaluate the best custom HTML email design service platform platform options to make production simple and ROI high.
    In this post, we show you some of the best reasons you and your marketing team might want to subscribe to email campaign software that lets you create custom HTML campaigns.
    Why offer HTML email design services
    There’s a long list of reasons agencies should consider offering custom HTML email design services.
    High ROI all around
    Email marketing consistently drives among the highest ROI of all channels for agencies and clients alike. That’s partially because of the remarkable results it can achieve in driving revenue and conversions, but also because of how affordable and accessible it is to brands of all sizes, from startups to global enterprises.
    Big results means happy clients, and happy clients mean bigger accounts, better renewal rates, and an easier time attracting new business. And the low ongoing cost of providing this service means great margins for your shop.
    It’s the next logical step
    Many agencies get started as highly specialized boutiques, then methodically expand their services over time. If you’re a growing creative agency or a specialized marketing/advertising provider, HTML email design services are a natural next step into broadening your offerings and revenue sources.
    When you already have much of the talent and process in place to make beautiful marketing materials or develop a high-performing campaign, this is a big win you can earn with minimal incremental effort and investment.
    Visually appealing emails 
    When it comes to marketing, looking pretty always comes secondary to getting results. Fortunately with HTML design services, you don’t have to sacrifice on either.
    That means you can put the full breadth of your agency’s capabilities on display all at once. While other agency work can be hard to quantify or contextualize, it’s always easy to show off a beautiful email—and then to point to the results it drove.
    The result is great material for your sizzle reels, case studies, sales decks, and client meetings.
    Even the science supports it: the human brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than it would text. Show, don’t just tell.

    Source: Campaign Monitor Template
    A stable source of recurring revenue
    One of the hardest things about managing an agency is keeping up consistent cash flow. Accounts can sometimes come and go unexpectedly. And even among reliable clients, their needs will wax and wane throughout the year (along with their billable hours).
    HTML email design is a consistent need, once you have clients sold on it. Ongoing campaigns, newsletters, transactional emails and more all require ongoing care and attention to perform optimally. That means reliable work and recurring revenue you can count on.
    Flexible to use for multiple campaigns
    One great thing about custom HTML email designs is that you can adapt the designs for just about any campaign. For almost any client need, there’s a solution to be found with a thoughtfully built and well-designed email. And if you find an incredible template works well for one client, you can transfer that structure over for use in other accounts. 
    You can even use them as an effective tool in promoting your own agency! Use a different email template to share an announcement or a client success case study, to promote your best-selling services, to send an RSS feed of your most recent blog posts or podcast episodes, to share discount codes or special email-only promos, and more.
    Use different designs to share new products (top) or to share your most recent articles (right).

    Source: Campaign Monitor Gallery
    5 Factors to Consider When Choosing an Email Design Service Provider
    Convinced that custom design emails are for you and your agency? Great. Now the question you’re probably asking is, “Which custom HTML email design service provider is right for me?” Here, we list five different factors you can consider when looking for the best email marketing service for your business.
    1. Email marketing features
    Some custom HTML email design service providers might not have the most robust email marketing features in general. This could mean you won’t make the most of your email campaigns. Because of this, search for a custom HTML email provider that offers important email marketing features, including but not limited to:

    Customer relationship management (CRM) to see how your leads are interacting with your emails
    Segmentation and tagging or grouping
    Mobile-optimized email delivery
    Automation

    Visual editors—if you want an easier time creating custom HTML emails, then you’ll want to look for providers that have visual editors for drag-and-drop email building instead of simply coding HTML emails from scratch.

    Campaign Monitor’s visual email editor comes with pre-made elements and templates to help you build your campaigns.
    2. Security and support infrastructure
    Make sure your vendor has the features and qualities as a company that will prepare you and your clients for long term success.

    Security and reliability: Ensure you the platform you choose is reliable, because your clients will perceive it as an extension—even a product—of your business. The technology you choose reflects back on your brand and your client relationships. If it’s unstable, it makes your business look unreliable. What exactly constitutes “reliable” when it comes to selecting an ESP? As a reference point, Campaign Monitor has a 99.9% uptime.

    Support: Occasionally, even world-class email marketing solutions don’t work exactly as you might expect them to. So it’s important to assess the vendor’s support offering to make sure you have support when you need it. But what’s the standard of support you should be looking for? Campaign Monitor offers around-the-clock email support, with phone support options available on certain plans. It’s worth considering whether anything less than this could be a hindrance down the road.

    Deliverability: Your agency may be full of design and content experts, but you likely don’t have a team dedicated to understanding deliverability laws. Find an email marketing vendor that will worry about that for you and ensure your clients’ emails always land in their inbox.

    3. Overall user experience
    User experience design is playing an increasingly important role, especially when it comes to digital product and service development. That includes custom HTML email design service providers, especially if you’re operating on a model that allows clients to manage and send their own campaigns.
    How your customers interact with your custom HTML email design tool matters. If it’s a pain to use or interact with, you may end up wasting precious time and resources trying to understand what should be a simple process.
    With the right HTML email design service, the designing process of your email campaigns can be drag-and-drop for your team and, when appropriate, your clients. This helps ensure your emails are fast-loading, user-friendly, and don’t end up in clients’ spam folders.
    4. Your budget
    Finally, your budget may play a big role in determining which custom HTML email design provider you want to invest in. Fortunately, many of these providers offer flexible email marketing plans and pricing, depending on the size of your list and the features you want for your business. 
    Note, however, that just because an email marketing provider is cheap doesn’t always mean that it’s the best. You may be sacrificing essential features or benefits that are well worth the upgrade.
    Of course, you always have the final decision in your business, so don’t be afraid to test out email marketing services that have the features you and your agency needs—if you make the most of your plan, the return on investment is usually worth it.
    Key Takeaways
    How can you use custom HTML email designs in your own business? We’ve already shown you different use cases, but as long as you can imagine it, you can meet high design standards with the right service provider. 
    If you want top-notch custom HTML emails complete with the best marketing features and customer support team, sign up for a free account at Campaign Monitor and start building your first email marketing campaign today.
    The post What Are Custom HTML Email Design Services Worth to Your Bottom Line? appeared first on Campaign Monitor.

  • Combine Social Media and Email Marketing for Better Branding

    Digital marketing works best when your various channels and platforms work together. A cohesive, multi-channel brand experience creates a more personal connection with your followers by presenting a holistic impression of what your brand stands for.
    Today’s consumers want community. They want the chance to know the people behind their favorite companies as well as the other brand ambassadors. A strong social media presence allows them that opportunity. 
    Through your posts, they get to know you. Through comments and custom hashtags, customers get to know one another. 
    But social media is notoriously fickle. You don’t own the platform and you don’t own the data. At any time, social media platforms can—and do—change up the algorithms that allow you to engage with your followers.
    What is a 21st century brand to do?
    Social media and email marketing in tandem
    The answer to that question is simple: Integrate. It’s time marketers stopped thinking of social media and email marketing as either/or. You should consider them different channels for the same holistic message for your brand.
    Both channels allow you to connect and interact with followers in a one-to-one capacity. Both channels allow you to promote your values and tell your story, building the emotional connection with customers that leads to better results for your business.
    The key is to use social media and email in tandem. Introduce custom hashtags online to generate user-generated content (UGC) you can use across your website, social platforms, and email. Promote your subscription online to grow your list. Feature social proof from your social media followers in your emails to encourage conversions.
    The benefits are endless. And with Campaign Monitor’s drag-and-drop builder, including links to your social profiles has never been easier.
    Sign up to get started building your email for free.
    Need some inspiration? Read on to discover how our favorite emails feature social media.
    How to integrate social media into your email campaigns
    The best place to get started when you’re ready to integrate your social media and email campaigns is by creating an email that keeps your social media front and center. Dedicate an email every few months to promote your social profiles, a custom hashtag, or feature UGC from your loyal fans. Here are a few examples.
    1. Dunkin Donuts
    Dunkin Donuts promotes their social media profiles by dedicating an email to loyal fans. This will encourage your subscribers to engage with you on another platform—always a plus—and it also leads to greater investment from your followers.

    When people see their social posts in your emails or when you repost their content, it tells them you’re listening to them and paying attention to them. They aren’t just shouting into some void. Rather, they’re interacting with you directly. 
    Seeing their posts on your profile and in your email engenders warm and fuzzy feelings in your subscribers. It proves to them that you want to hear from them and value their part in your story.
    With our updated social links tool, you can include links to your social profiles wherever you like, removing one less barrier for your subscribers.
    2. Quiz
    Quiz clothing taps into the power of social media and email marketing by running a social media contest. By including information about the contest in their email, Quiz ensures their most loyal and dedicated followers don’t miss the opportunity to participate and win.

    This campaign also includes physical ads. Quiz has integrated their most powerful channels for marketing into one campaign in order to achieve the most impressions possible. They take their digital campaign and give it a physical, experiential component.
    You know the people most likely to engage with your brand are already on your email list; that’s why it’s so successful as a marketing tool. These are the people who are most likely to take the effort to go find your ad and follow-through with the multiple steps to enter this contest. 
    By combining the max reach of social media with the max engagement of email, this campaign multiplies its opportunities to be a huge success.
    You can make your own email campaign like this effortlessly by dragging and dropping your social links directly into prominent positions within your email with our new update!
    3. Parabo Press
    Parabo Press features some of their favorite posts that use their custom hashtag, #ParaboPress. When it comes to social media, simplicity is key. They’ve found a way to regularly connect with their VIPs, Very Important Printers. 

    This email encourages subscribers to engage with them on social media. The beautiful images from customers helps subscribers visualize what Parabo Press’ products will look like in their own homes, which will lead to more conversions.
    By including these user-generated images, Parabo Press is incorporating social proof and encouraging subscribers to make a purchase. 
    How to do this in Campaign Monitor
    Campaign Monitor recently updated how you can incorporate social profiles into your emails, now making it fast and easy to uncage them from the footer or header sections. 
    The great news is that using our increased customization options is simple and straightforward. All you have to do is insert the social media module in the drag-and-drop email editor and place them wherever makes most sense for your strategy. Already a customer? You can click on the social icons in your footer to access the new customization options.

    That’s how you can get started in Campaign Monitor and get sending in one day.
    Wrap up
    Now that you have some inspiration for getting started, we can’t wait to see how you integrate your social media and email marketing strategies. Both channels encourage one-to-one conversations. When you combine the trustworthy and reliable channel of email with the reach and discovery power of social media, you ensure that your marketing efforts reach their maximum potential.
    We’d love to see what you create with these new tools. Don’t forget to tag us when you share your experience combining social media and email marketing!
    The post Combine Social Media and Email Marketing for Better Branding appeared first on Campaign Monitor.