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Have you ever presented results from a marketing campaign and been asked, “But are these results statistically significant?” As data-driven marketers, we’re not only asked to measure the results of our marketing campaigns but also to demonstrate the validity of the data — exactly what statistical significance is.
While there are several free tools out there to calculate statistical significance for you (HubSpot even has one here), it’s helpful to understand what they’re calculating and what it all means. Below, we’ll geek out on the numbers using a specific example of statistical significance to help you understand why it’s crucial for marketing success.

In marketing, you want your results to be statistically significant because it means that you’re not wasting money on campaigns that won’t bring desired results. Marketers often run statistical significance tests before launching campaigns to test if specific variables are more successful at bringing results than others.
Statistical Significance Example
Say you’re going to be running an ad campaign on Facebook, but you want to ensure you use an ad that’s most likely to bring desired results. So, you run an A/B test for 48 hours with ad A as the control variable, and B as the variation. These are the results I get:

Ad
Impressions
Conversions

Ad A
6,000
430

Ad B
5869
560

Even though we can see based on the numbers that ad B received more conversions, you want to be confident that the difference in conversions is significant, and not due to random chance. If I plug these numbers into a chi-squared test calculator (more on that later), my p-value is 0.0, meaning that my results are significant, and there is a difference in performance between ad A and ad B that is not due to chance.
When I run my actual campaign, I would want to use ad B.
If you’re anything like me, you need more explanation as to what p-value and 0.0 mean, so we’ll go through an in-depth example below.

1. Determine what you’d like to test.
First, decide what you’d like to test. This could be comparing conversion rates on two landing pages with different images, click-through rates on emails with different subject lines, or conversion rates on different call-to-action buttons at the end of a blog post. The choices are endless.
My advice would be to keep it simple; pick a piece of content that you want to create two different variations of and decide your goal — a better conversion rate or more views are good places to start.
You can certainly test additional variations or even create a multivariate test, but, for this example, we’ll stick to two variations of a landing page with the goal being increasing conversion rates. If you’d like to learn more about A/B testing and multivariate tests, check out “The Critical Difference Between A/B and Multivariate Tests.”
2. Determine your hypothesis.
Before I start collecting data, I find it helpful to state my hypothesis at the beginning of the test and determine the degree of confidence I want to test. Since I’m testing out a landing page and want to see if one performs better, I hypothesize that there is a relationship between the landing page the visitors receive and their conversion rate.
3. Start collecting your data.
Now that you’ve determined what you’d like to test, it’s time to start collecting your data. Since you’re likely running this test to determine what piece of content is best to use in the future, you’ll want to pull a sample size. For a landing page, that might mean picking a set amount of time to run your test (e.g., make your page live for three days).

For something like an email, you might pick a random sample of your list to randomly send variations of your emails to. Determining the right sample size can be tricky, and the right sample size will vary between each test. As a general rule of thumb, you want the expected value for each variation to be greater than 5. (We’ll cover expected values further down.)
4. Calculate Chi-Squared results.
There are several different statistical tests that you can run to measure the significance of your data, and picking one depends on what you’re trying to test and the type of data you’ll collect. In most cases, you’ll use a Chi-Squared test since the data is discrete.
Discrete is a fancy way of saying that your experiment can produce a finite number of results. For example, a visitor will either convert or not convert; there aren’t varying degrees of conversion for a single visitor.
You can test based on varying degrees of confidence (sometimes referred to as the alpha of the test). If you want the requirement for reaching statistical significance to be high, your alpha will be lower. You may have seen statistical significance reported in terms of confidence.
For example, “The results are statistically significant with 95% confidence.” In this scenario, the alpha was .05 (confidence is calculated as one minus the alpha), meaning there’s a one in 20 chance of making an error in the stated relationship.
After I’ve collected the data, I put it in a chart to make it easy to organize. Since I’m testing out two different variations (A and B) and there are two possible outcomes (converted, did not convert), I’ll have a 2×2 chart. I’ll total each column and row so I can easily see the results in aggregate.

Once I’ve created my chart, the next step is to run the equation using the chi-squared formula.
Statistical Significance Formula
The image below is the chi-squared formula for statistical significance:

In the equation,

Σ means sum,
O = observed, actual values,
E = expected values.

When running the equation, you calculate everything after the Σ for each pair of values and then sum (add) them all up.
5. Calculate your expected values.
Now, I’ll calculate what the expected values are. If there were no relationship between what landing page visitors saw and their conversion rate in the example above, we would expect to see the same conversion rates with versions A and B. From the totals, we can see that 1,945 people converted out of the 4,935 total visitors, or roughly 39% of visitors.
To calculate the expected frequencies (E in the chi-squared formula) for each version of the landing page, we can multiply the row total for that cell by the column total and divide it by the total number of visitors. In this example, to find the expected value of conversion on version A, I would use the following equation:
(1945*2401)/4935 = 946

6. See how your results differ from what you expected.
To calculate Chi-Square, I compare the observed frequencies (O in the chi-squared equation) to the expected frequencies (E in the chi-squared equation). This comparison is done by subtracting the observed from the expected value, squaring the result, and dividing it by the expected frequency value.
Essentially, I’m trying to see how different my actual results are from what we might expect. Squaring the difference amplifies the effects of the difference, and dividing by what’s expected normalizes the results. As a refresher, The equation looks like this: (observed – expected)*2)/expected

7. Find your sum.
I then sum the four results to get my Chi-Square number. In this case, it’s .95. To see whether or not the conversion rates for my landing pages are different with statistical significance, I compare this with the value from a Chi-Squared distribution table based on my alpha (in this case, .05) and the degrees of freedom.
Degrees of freedom are based on how many variables you have. With a 2×2 table like in this example, the degree of freedom is 1.
In this case, the Chi-Square value would need to be equal to or exceed 3.84 for the results to be statistically significant. Since .95 is less than 3.84, my results are not statistically different. This means that there is no relationship between what version of landing page a visitor receives and the conversion rate with statistical significance.
8. Report on statistical significance to your teams.
After running your experiment, the next step is to report your results to your teams to ensure everyone is on the same page about next steps. So, continuing with the previous example, I would need to let my teams know that the type of landing page we use in our upcoming campaign will not impact our conversion rate because our test results were not significant.
If results were significant, I would inform my teams that landing page version A performed better than the others, and we should opt to use that one in our upcoming campaign.
Why Statistical Significance Is Significant
You may be asking yourself why this is important if you can just use a free tool to run the calculation. Understanding how statistical significance is calculated can help you determine how to best test results from your own experiments.
Many tools use a 95% confidence rate, but for your experiments, it might make sense to use a lower confidence rate if you don’t need the test to be as stringent.
Understanding the underlying calculations also helps you explain why your results might be significant to people who aren’t already familiar with statistics.
If you’d like to download the spreadsheet I used in this example so you can see the calculations on your own, click here.
Editor’s Note: This blog post was originally published in April 2013, but was updated in September 2021 for freshness and comprehensiveness.

After spending hours creating an email marketing campaign, the last thing you want to do is get blocked by your recipients’ spam filters. Luckily, by avoiding common email spam trigger words, you can successfully prevent your emails from getting routed to spam folders.

Let’s take a look at what spam trigger words are, what gets emails sent to spam, and which spam words you should avoid when creating your email campaigns.
Spam filters can be triggered for a variety of reasons, causing your email to skip recipients’ inboxes and land straight in their spam inbox. One of the easiest ways to avoid spam filters is by carefully choosing the words you use in your email’s subject line.
Trigger words are known to cause problems and increase the chances of your email getting caught in a spam trap. By avoiding these words in your email subject lines, you can dramatically increase your chances of getting beyond the filters.
Spam trigger words alone aren’t enough to send your email to spam. For instance, if you are offering a 3-for-1 discount sale, you can still advertise that in your emails and not get sent to spam. It’s important to understand all the factors that come into play when emails get identified as spam.
What causes emails to go to spam?
Email providers look for a number of factors when deciding whether to automatically send your emails to spam. If you’ve made it on an email blacklist, that means you’ve repeatedly sent emails to recipients who haven’t signed up for your email list.
Your emails can get sent to spam if you:

Don’t include an unsubscribe button in your email
Send poorly-designed emails with broken or glitchy code
Address your recipient by “my friend” or “dear” (or not by their name)

Buy email lists online and mass-send messages to email addresses that don’t exist (resulting in a high bounce rate)
Use all-caps text and extreme punctuation (!!!!! or ?????)
Include strangely formatted fonts (𝖑𝖎𝖐𝖊 𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖘)
Provide links to fraudulent websites

Email providers only want to deliver emails from high-reputation senders. To be a high-reputation sender, do the following:

Include an unsubscribe button

Design your emails with clean code using a tool such as Marketing Hub

Personalize your emails with the recipient’s first name
Only email those who’ve subscribed to your email list (if you don’t have any, you should learn to naturally increase your email list subscribers)
Keep your email deliverability high
Keep the text free of odd formatting and extraneous punctuation
Only link out to reputable websites

If you meet these criteria, you can get away with using “classic” email spam words in your subject line and your email. The text surrounding the spam phrase also matters, as does your history as an email sender. If email providers don’t have a reason to mistrust you, they simply won’t.
Email Spam Words to Avoid
When writing your email subject lines, you want to avoid:

Over-sensationalizing
Over-promising
Using strange formatting to “stand out” in the recipient’s inbox

Next time you sit down to write an email subject line, consult the exhaustive list below. In fact, you might want to bookmark this list so you can refer back to it every time you craft an email subject line.
Commerce

As seen on
Buy
Buy direct
Buying judgments
Clearance
Order
Order status
Orders shipped by shopper

Personal

Dig up dirt on friends
Meet singles
Score with babes
XXX
Near you

Employment

Additional income
Be your own boss
Compete for your business
Double your
Earn $
Earn extra cash
Earn per week
Expect to earn
Extra income
Home based
Home employment
Homebased business
Income from home
Make $
Make money
Money making
Online biz opportunity
Online degree
Opportunity
Potential earnings
University diplomas
While you sleep
Work at home
Work from home

Financial – General

$$$
Affordable
Bargain
Beneficiary
Best price
Big bucks
Cash
Cash bonus
Cashcashcash
Cents on the dollar
Cheap
Check
Claims
Collect
Compare rates
Cost
Credit
Credit bureaus
Discount
Earn
Easy terms
F r e e
Fast cash
For just $XXX
Hidden assets
hidden charges
Income
Incredible deal
Insurance
Investment
Loans
Lowest price
Million dollars
Money
Money back
Mortgage
Mortgage rates
No cost
No fees
One hundred percent free
Only $
Pennies a day
Price
Profits
Pure profit
Quote
Refinance
Save $
Save big money
Save up to
Serious cash
Subject to credit
They keep your money — no refund!
Unsecured credit
Unsecured debt
US dollars
Why pay more?

Financial – Business

Accept credit cards
Cards accepted
Check or money order
Credit card offers
Explode your business
Full refund
Investment decision
No credit check
No hidden Costs
No investment
Requires initial investment
Sent in compliance
Stock alert
Stock disclaimer statement
Stock pick

Financial – Personal

Avoice bankruptcy
Calling creditors
Collect child support
Consolidate debt and credit
Consolidate your debt
Eliminate bad credit
Eliminate debt
Financially independent
Get out of debt
Get paid
Lower interest rate
Lower monthly payment
Lower your mortgage rate
Lowest insurance rates
Pre-approved
Refinance home
Social security number
Your income

General

Acceptance
Accordingly
Avoid
Chance
Dormant
Freedom
Here
Hidden
Home
Leave
Lifetime
Lose
Maintained
Medium
Miracle
Never
Passwords
Problem
Remove
Reverses
Sample
Satisfaction
Solution
Stop
Success
Teen
Wife

Greetings

Dear [email/friend/somebody]
Friend
Hello

Marketing

Ad
Auto email removal
Bulk email
Click
Click below
Click here
Click to remove
Direct email
Direct marketing
Email harvest
Email marketing
Form
Increase sales
Increase traffic
Increase your sales
Internet market
Internet marketing
Marketing
Marketing solutions
Mass email
Member
Month trial offer
More Internet Traffic
Multi level marketing
Notspam
One time mailing
Online marketing
Open
Opt in
Performance
Removal instructions
Sale
Sales
Search engine listings
Search engines
Subscribe
The following form
This isn’t junk
This isn’t spam
Undisclosed recipient
Unsubscribe
Visit our website
We hate spam
Web traffic
Will not believe your eyes

Medical

Cures baldness
Diagnostic
Fast Viagra delivery
Human growth hormone
Life insurance
Lose weight
Lose weight spam
Medicine
No medical exams
Online pharmacy
Removes wrinkles
Reverses aging
Stop snoring
Valium
Viagra
Vicodin
Weight loss
Xanax

Numbers

#1
100% free
100% satisfied
4U
50% off
Billion
Billion dollars
Join millions
Join millions of Americans
Million
One hundred percent guaranteed
Thousands

Offers

Being a member
Billing address
Call
Cannot be combined with any other offer
Confidentially on all orders
Deal
Financial freedom
Gift certificate
Giving away
Guarantee
Have you been turned down?
If only it were that easy
Important information regarding
In accordance with laws
Long distance phone offer
Mail in order form
Message contains
Name brand
Nigerian
No age restrictions
No catch
No claim forms
No disappointment
No experience
No gimmick
No inventory
No middleman
No obligation
No purchase necessary
No questions asked
No selling
No strings attached
No-obligation
Not intended
Obligation
Off shore
Offer
Per day
Per week
Priority mail
Prize
Prizes
Produced and sent out
Reserves the right
Shopping spree
Stuff on sale
Terms and conditions
The best rates
They’re just giving it away
Trial
Unlimited
Unsolicited
Vacation
Vacation offers
Warranty
We honor all
Weekend getaway
What are you waiting for?
Who really wins?
Win
Winner
Winning
Won
You are a winner!
You have been selected
You’re a Winner!

Calls-to-Action

Cancel at any time
Compare
Copy accurately
Get
Give it away
Print form signature
Print out and fax
See for yourself
Sign up free today

Free

Free
Free access
Free cell phone
Free consultation
Free DVD
Free gift
Free grant money
Free hosting
Free installation
Free Instant
Free investment
Free leads
Free membership
Free money
Free offer
Free preview
Free priority mail
Free quote
Free sample
Free trial
Free website

Descriptions/Adjectives

All natural
All new
Amazing
Certified
Congratulations
Drastically reduced
Fantastic deal
For free
Guaranteed
It’s effective
Outstanding values
Promise you
Real thing
Risk free
Satisfaction guaranteed

Sense of Urgency

Access
Act now!
Apply now
Apply online
Call free
Call now
Can’t live without
Do it today
Don’t delete
Don’t hesitate
For instant access
For Only
For you
Get it now
Get started now
Great offer
Info you requested
Information you requested
Instant
Limited time
New customers only
Now
Now only
Offer expires
Once in lifetime
One time
Only
Order now
Order today
Please read
Special promotion
Supplies are limited
Take action now
Time limited
Urgent
While supplies last

Nouns

Addresses on CD
Beverage
Bonus
Brand new pager
Cable converter
Casino
Celebrity
Copy DVDs
Laser printer
Legal
Luxury car
New domain extensions
Phone
Rolex
Stainless steel

Use Spam Trigger Words Sparingly and Within Context
So long as you use email marketing best practices and use spam trigger words within context, you can bypass spam filters. Spam filters have become much more sophisticated in recent years. Using one or two phrases won’t hurt you, but make sure to only email customers who want to hear from you and to always personalize your emails. Doing so will optimize the results of your campaign and keep you out of spam folders.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in March 2013 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

At one of my first jobs out of college, my manager admitted that my professional growth “wasn’t a priority.” I knew I wasn’t in a leadership role that required succession planning, but the admission still stunned me. Without support for career development, I wound up leaving the company.
This situation may seem dramatic, but it points to the importance of having a succession plan in place. Of course, senior leadership roles take precedence because these can create a larger vacuum if the position is left unfilled. But succession planning can (and should) extend to all leaders across a company.

Developing a succession plan can set your company up for smooth transitions when leaders resign or accept a promotion. It can have a major impact on employee morale and can position your team to skillfully handle future business challenges.
But you don’t want to wait until you absolutely need a successor. At that point, you’re scrambling and may choose the wrong person. Let’s look at the ins and outs of succession planning so your team is prepared for any transition.
What is succession planning?
Succession planning is a strategic process for identifying high-potential employees and taking steps to prepare them for future leadership positions. It helps your business develop and retain the talent pipeline so you can quickly fill vacant leadership roles.
Some succession plans look ahead 12 to 36 months for when a leader retires, steps down, advances, or leaves. Others, including CEO succession plans, look years into the future to secure the next several generations of leaders. We’ll cover the specifics of C-suite transitions later on. But all succession planning has similar benefits for thinking ahead and identifying what you want in a successor.
Why is succession planning important?
In the Global Leadership Forecast 2021 report, 11% of surveyed organizations said they have a “strong” or “very strong” leadership bench — the lowest reported in the past decade.
The benefits of strong leadership are apparent. It improves employee turnover, ensures the execution of goals, and contributes to the company’s survival. So if a crucial leader leaves, a succession plan can help ensure the role is filled and your company continues to thrive. But that’s not the only upside.
Benefits Of Succession Planning

Finding and developing people for future leadership roles allows you to promote from within. These employees have organizational knowledge and internal relationships that outside hires lack.
Letting employees know that you’re investing in them is a huge morale boost. It can also increase motivation and loyalty to the company.
Training employees for leadership roles forces you to identify the skills, knowledge, practices, and relationships needed for each role in your succession plan. This can attract new talent, retain current employees, and keep you competitive.
Hiring for highly specialized roles isn’t easy. Succession planning helps you find people with unique competencies when it comes time to replace the current employees.

Currently, leaders looking to develop skills outside of their daily work want more coaching and development assignments, in addition to assessment and formal training. Succession planning is the perfect way to formalize training for both present and future leaders.
Succession Planning Best Practices
Succession planning isn’t simple. But if you consider these best practices as you choose successors, your company will be well-equipped to manage transitions and unexpected changes.
Formalize a Plan
The earlier you set a succession plan, the better. You don’t want to risk a leadership vacuum that leaves teams feeling unsupported. That can quickly waterfall into an entire team or department leaving, especially if the leader is particularly strong and has a close relationship with their direct reports. Once you have a succession plan, write it down. Then, make it clear there’s a plan in place for when the inevitable transitions happen.
Stay Dynamic
Volatility is common at every company. People move cities, find new jobs, and retire. Your succession plan should be able to adapt to change. Instead of creating a plan and only revisiting it when the time comes to fill a role, see the plan as an evolving process that needs to be constantly updated.
Evaluate Talent
Part of a fluid succession plan is taking the time to assess employees’ interests, skills, performance, and opportunities. This can be done through 360-degree feedback, weekly check-ins with managers, informal training, or tools like the nine-box grid. The goal is to get an idea of people’s strengths and weaknesses, career goals, and growth opportunities so you know who may be the right fit for leadership roles.
Communicate Openly
Communication builds trust, which makes it easier to set expectations and ensure everyone is on the same page. As you build a succession plan, have honest conversations with employees. Find out where people want to be, and tell them where they’re currently at. The whole point is to make your plan a reality, and successors will appreciate your openness when the time comes to offer them a role.
Make Diversity and Inclusion a Priority
Companies with women in leadership roles experience almost 50% higher profit and share performance. And since women, especially women of color, have been most affected by the pandemic, it’s wise to consider gender ratios in any succession plan — including the 2SLGBTQI+ communities.
Succession Planning Example
When asked, a whopping 61% of organizations said they didn’t have a direct report who could step into their CMO role tomorrow. That’s a bad sign for C-suite succession plans. Without a strategy to replace leaders, a company can quickly go downhill.
To avoid chaos, here are a few examples of how succession planning can play out:
McDonald’s Smooth CEO Succession
How does a multi-billion dollar company thrive after losing two CEOs in one year? They had a concentrated effort to develop high-potential employees and created a backup plan for their succession plan.
Coca-Cola’s Failed CEO Succession
The repercussions of a poor succession plan can affect a company for decades. See the implications of Doug Ivester’s term as CEO and the stakeholder concerns that caused his resignation after two years.
Succession Planning Steps
 

Image Source
1. Make a plan for your plan.
This step is all about defining the goals of your succession plan and aligning with everyone involved. For some companies, this will mean meeting with your board to outline strategic priorities. For others, it will require meeting with senior leaders to define what you’re looking for in a successor.
You’ll be ready to move on to the next step once you:

Define the roles, skills, core competencies, and experience required for a successor.
Gather information and feedback on the above from your team or experts within your network.
Forecast your company’s needs. Consider turnover trends, retirement dates, compensation strategies, and management training.
Update your job descriptions and any leadership models to reflect the information you’ve gathered. You want to be clear about your expectations before looking for candidates.

2. Identify potential candidates.
Using the succession profiles and job descriptions you’ve created, you’re ready to seek out candidates. Make sure your approach is easy to repeat and introduces as little bias as possible. It can be helpful to get support from the HR team, who can share the tools needed to engage candidates and help facilitate the process.
To identify candidates, you can:

Look for leaders who develop others, follow through on projects, take action to support the company vision, and have strong leadership skills.
Get insight into each candidate’s goals, disposition, and potential by holding interviews, creating surveys, and setting up focus groups.
Ask people for ideas on how to improve succession and leadership to get buy-in and discover who’s engaged with the process.

3. Inform candidates.
There’s a great debate on whether or not companies should let employees know they’re succession candidates. But informing people of their potential will not only motivate them—it will prevent them from wondering about their future with the company. A great candidate may jump ship if they’re in the dark and think they can find a better opportunity elsewhere.
Instead, communicate your intentions about the positions, people, and planning. Just keep your expectations incredibly clear on the included roles and people involved.
4. Set up professional development efforts.
Your company likely has programs in place for onboarding and training employees. But development is about creating opportunities for people to get experience beyond their current role and skillset. This is especially important for team members who can get caught in a specialist silo.
Once you identify candidates who you want to develop, you’ll want to figure out the specific skills and knowledge they’ll need to move to the next level. This often involves an individual development plan, continuous feedback, mentoring or coaching, formal training, and open conversations between the employee and their manager.
5. Do a trial run.
As potential successors accelerate their growth, they’ll become true contenders for leadership roles. This is the ideal time to start trial runs to test their knowledge and expose them to various aspects of a position. Exposing candidates to real-world situations can highlight what effective leadership looks like and give them insight into overall company goals.
There are a variety of ways to get candidates involved, just choose the method that makes the most sense for the role.

Job shadow a senior leader to learn about their day-to-day tasks
Take on responsibilities when their manager is away
Invite them to sit in on higher-level meetings
Bring them into discussions on strategy, execution, or company forecasting
Involve them in the hiring process for junior candidates
Give them more responsibility on projects or involve them in cross-functional work

6. Adjust your hiring strategy.
Eventually, the time will come when you extend an offer to a potential candidate. And you’ll need someone else to fill their role. Luckily, the successor can use their new leadership skills to help interview or train the person filling their position. This can be an employee a few levels down or a new hire.
That’s why it’s important to adjust your hiring strategy to account for successor’s roles. Without them, your plan won’t go as smoothly and their team will likely be scrambling to fill the gap.
7. Implement the plan.
Succession planning is a complex process with multiple short- and long-term layers. But eventually, it will be time to make the transition. Make an announcement and celebrate the succession. This will show employees that your company prides itself on strong leadership and has a plan for everyone’s career development.
Sometimes, a more gradual transition is needed. Family businesses often struggle with smooth succession planning because of familial relationships, emotions, and intertwined histories. In this case, a clear succession plan based on business needs is exceptionally crucial to ensure the company’s continued success
CEO Succession Planning
Only one in three CEOs rank their company’s leadership quality as “very good” or “excellent.” That’s a low score for such a high-stakes business priority — especially considering the majority of CEO successors are internal hires.
Harvard Business Review (HBR) ranks CEO succession as “arguably the most important decision a board can make.” Replacing a CEO needs to involve a long-term, well-devised plan that’s linked to both short and long-term company priorities.
CEO succession planning can follow similar steps to employee succession planning, but there are specific considerations for this top-level role. HBR outlines the following tips for developing a CEO successor:

A candidate’s competencies, personal attributes, and experiences need to be connected to business priorities. A charismatic senior leader may seem like the top pick, but a company may need a successor with expert-level technical skills in addition to social skills.
Think several generations ahead instead of focusing on the immediate successor. Succession is a long game, so you want to position it as a continuous process to develop top talent.
Identify seven potential CEOs in your company across all generations. This can take the stress off of each CEO transition and help keep your talent pipeline top-notch.
Train CEO candidates through a combination of on-the-job experience, executive coaching, education, mentoring, and cross-functional training.

Developing talent to take on the CEO role will require time and effort from high-level stakeholders. But it’s absolutely worthwhile to prevent the vacuum this leadership role can leave if succession is poorly managed.
If a board is involved in the process, HBR recommends using board meetings to combine strategy sessions with talent development. That way, stakeholders can make sure strategy changes reflect the skills needed for potential successors.
Employee Succession Planning
Succession planning extends to employees in all roles across a company. Viewing it this way, rather than saving succession plans for senior leaders, helps you identify high-potential employees at all levels. You can then take steps to develop them into leaders who are able to take on additional responsibilities when a role opens up.
When looking for successors, keep an eye out for employees who are interested in learning new skills, are comfortable with change, can adapt to uncertainty and new leadership, and can manage various work environments. All potential successors should be motivated and engaged in the process because they have a chance to grow their knowledge and take on more challenging, rewarding roles.
When you see a path for an employee’s growth, they’ll see it too. So the next time a key leader steps down or a new director position is created, you’ll know just the right people to recruit for the role.

There’s no underestimating the benefits of a good first impression. When it comes to email marketing, welcome emails are a fantastic way to say “hello” to new subscribers and pave the way for a great ongoing relationship. Aside from the long-term benefits, they also generate five times more clicks and four times more opens than…
The post How to Create Welcome Emails That Leave an Impression appeared first on Benchmark Email.

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