Category: Marketing Automation

submitted by /u/KKJA102 [link] [comments]

Hi Everyone My name is Sylvain and as a startup founder, my first startup failed. One of the main reasons was that I hadn’t talked to the customers from the very beginning. But engaging with customers at scale and building trust is hard. It’s why I decided to scratch my own itch. For the last few months, a friend and I have been working on a simple video engagement platform. I would LOVE to get your feedback and learn what features you want? and also learn how we can make it better/easier to use. There is a FREE plan. This is it, work in progress… be nice 🙂 https://www.vuzers.com/ submitted by /u/slyyls84 [link] [comments]

As an entirely remote team of more than 80 people, how we communicate is critical to how we operate as a company, collaborate, and build a solid remote culture. As they say, clear is kind. So we aim to be clear in our communication with each other across the team, and clear as a company what those expectations for communication best practices are so everyone can be aligned. We didn’t always have communications expectations written down. When I joined Buffer in 2016, it was something I learned through others while onboarding. At the time, we had a document sharing how we approach conversations with our customers to be respectful and to stay close to our values, and that document also guided how we spoke to each other. We wrote it down in recent years to bring clarity to unspoken best practices and also as a helpful tool when onboarding new teammates who aren’t yet familiar with our communications practices at Buffer. Below is a direct excerpt from our internal wiki with our communications expectations for Buffer teammates. Give it a read, and let us know your thoughts on Twitter! Communications Expectations🤝These are the expectations that are set for how we all communicate at Buffer, including the tools we use and the response times that can be expected. As a fully-distributed, global team, it’s important that we maintain certain expectations so that important discussions and project work can move forward in a timely manner.Please make sure your notifications and email filters are set up appropriately for your role, your role’s tools, and your area’s needs based on these guidelines.1. Check our top communications tools, either daily or weekly.There are a lot of tools we use to communicate, and while it’s important to set boundaries for notifications, as a remote team, it’s also key to be mindful of our communication and check certain tools daily or weekly.Tools to check dailySlack: Please check Slack every day that you are working and update your status or name to reflect if you are on vacation, sabbatical, or family leave, and when possible, if you’re out for unplanned reasons like illness or a personal day.Threads: Threads is our primary communication tool, so please check in at least once a day and mark Threads for follow-up as needed.Depending on your role:Depending on your team and your role, it might make sense for you to also check Notion, Jira, Paper, or Trello daily. Check with your manager or the People team if you’re unsure.Tools to check weeklyEmail: While email is not necessarily crucial for many roles at Buffer, it is important that you check your email and either respond or pass along any emails that might come your way.Notion: HQ, in particular, is the hub for project work. Check out your team’s dashboard to follow along with project progress and add any updates.Depending on your role:Depending on your team and your role, it might make sense for you to also check Jira, Dropbox Paper, or Trello weekly.2. Respond in a timely manner when you are tagged.Respond on Slack the same day.On Slack, if someone specifically @ mentions you or DMs you, the expectation is that they will receive a reply by the end of your normal working day, assuming you are working a regular day.Respond in Threads within two days if you’re tagged, one week if not.On Threads, if you are mentioned in a Thread specifically, the expectation is that you reply within two working days. If you’re waiting on a response from someone and they don’t answer within two days, feel free to ping them again. If you are not mentioned specifically, and it isn’t timely, the response time can be up to one week. Some threads don’t require a response but merely an acknowledgment in the form of an emoji. In that case, these response times do not apply.For all other tools (Dropbox Paper comments, Notion comments, Jira, Trello, etc.), the expectation is within two days.3. Know when to use asynchronous vs. synchronous.We encourage asynchronous communication, though we do not only communicate asynchronously, and synchronous communication still plays an important role at Buffer.SynchronousIf something is urgent, if there are a lot of people involved or if something is really complex, then communicate via synchronous channels. These include:SlackZoomPotentially – texting or calling if you can’t get a hold of someone.AsynchronousIf something is not-urgent or not time-sensitive, then communicate asynchronously via:SlackDropbox PaperNotionThreads4. Keep your calendar up to date.Make sure your Google calendar reflects your working hours and use it to block out lunch hours or appointments to avoid double-booking.Give at least one business day when possible if you need to reschedule a meeting. We understand that things come up, and this isn’t always possible; please give as much of a heads-up as you can.Communication Expectations by ToolSlackYou’re responsible for managing your downtime. It’s important that people can talk to each other even when the recipient is not around. If we’re each responsible for our own downtime (i.e., setting yourself up on Do Not Disturb when you’re offline, not working, or in-the-zone; controlling notifications on your phone if you choose to install Slack there), we give the rest of the team full freedom to communicate as they like. It’s your responsibility then to deal with the message when you’re ready. (Tip: mark unread, star, or click “remind me” for any items you need to take action on so you don’t forget!)Default to public channels: When in doubt, always post a message where everyone can read it. Keep everyone updated on stuff that is not private!Use status and profile to communicate availability: Share your status to let folks know when you’re out sick, on vacation, or just deep in a focus period. Additionally, Buffer’s Slack profiles include lots of great information like time zone, typical sign-on and -off times, and Calendly links. Make sure yours is filled out to help folks understand how best to communicate with you, and check others’ as you work with them.Be deliberate about your notifications: We recommend keeping Slack’s recommended notification settings: only direct messages, @yous, and highlighted words. These settings eliminate worry about missing important messages without your phone or computer going off all day with less important conversations.Communicate proactively: When you ping someone, give that person all the context they’ll need in order to get back to you. (e.g., no need to message “Hi Joel!” and then wait for a reply before saying more). Do include links, docs, your deadline or desired response time, and anything that can move the conversation forward asynchronously.Thread when you can: Using threads to reply to specific points helps us all keep up with the conversations we need to follow.Quit/modify Slack when you need to focus: You can set yourself away, activate Do Not Disturb, or set your status to a focus mode when you want to focus on something without being interrupted.Don’t keep checking messages in the chat system constantly: Having unread messages on Slack doesn’t mean you have to read them immediately! Let people get on with their work while you get on with yours. Save message-checking for when you are out of your focus zone.@channel or @here?: Including @channel in a message will notify everyone that’s in the chat room, but using @here will only notify the people who happen to be online at that moment. For non-urgent announcements, @here is always best. Use @channel and @everyone for emergencies only – it sends push and email notifications to everyone, including people who may be offline or on vacation.ThreadsUse Threads primarily for announcements, updates, asynchronous threads, and decision-making.Use the follow-up function. (Note: It’s expected that you don’t leave a Thread marked for follow-up beyond the time it takes for you to act on it.) Mark threads for follow-up if you want to remember to reply later. However, be careful not to leave threads marked as for follow-up without responding. This leaves the others in the thread uncertain about your response.Use the “Mark as decision” feature for decisions. When using Threads to make decisions, be sure to mark the comment that you land on as a decision as such so that it stands out in the conversation. Anyone can mark a comment as a decision.Only join spaces that you work with regularly. To keep spaces relevant please only join spaces that you work with regularly. If you want to check out Threads, you can click on the headlines in the weekly Recap Thread and thus not have to “join” Spaces that aren’t as applicable.EmailSet an Out of Office response when you are away. So that anyone reaching out knows where else to direct their question or when to expect you back.Forward emails that come your way but are meant for another person.Google CalendarSet your working hours. Set your working hours in Google Calendar so that teammates know when they can schedule meetings with you. Here’s how to add your working hours to Google calendar.Include a Zoom link in all meeting invites. Zoom should automatically populate when meetings are created in Google Calendar. Reach out to the People team if that isn’t the case for you.

Developing a consistent brand starts with creating a brand style guide. These branding rule books help graphic designers, marketers, web developers, community managers, and even product packaging departments all stay on the same page, and present a unified vision of the brand to the public.

The best brands stick in our brains because their presence is defined by the repetition of the same logo, fonts, colors, and images. Once we see them enough, they become instantly recognizable, bringing us a clear sense of reliability and security. All of this is possible when each member of your team adheres to a cohesive brand style guide.

In this article, we’ll go over what brand guidelines are, the elements of a style guide, and some amazing examples of them in action to use as inspiration for your next branding project or website redesign.

Picture the most recognizable brands you can think of. Chances are, you’ve learned to recognize them because of the consistency across the messaging — written or visual — these brands broadcast. The same brand colors are reflected across them. The language sounds familiar. It’s all very organized and, while not rigid, it’s cohesive.
Here are a few types of guidelines you’d find in a brand style guide and which parts of a brand they can influence.

Download our free resource on how to create your own style guide with brand guidelines templates to follow. Creating a consistent style guide isn’t easy, but with these tools you can build an unforgettable one with ease.
The Elements of a Brand Style Guide
A brand style guide encompasses much more than just a logo. It visually encompasses everything your brand is about — down to your business’ purpose. Here are some key elements that make or break a brand style guide.
Mission Statement
Your mission statement is an action-oriented statement declaring your organization’s purpose, making it the compass of your brand style guide. It ensures that all your content is working toward the same goal and connecting with your audience. This statement can guide your blog and paid content, ad copy, visual media, and slogan.
Buyer Persona
A buyer persona is the fictional representation of your ideal customer. It includes details on your customer’s job title, age, gender, and professional challenges — therefore stipulating for whom your brand publishes content. Your buyer persona guides your blog content, ad copy, and visual media which can attract valuable leads and customers to your business.
Color Palette
Your color palette is a group of colors your company uses to design its brand, guiding every piece of visual content created. These color combinations often follow HEX or RGB color codes, and govern your logo, web design, printed ads, and event collateral.
Editorial Style Guide
The job of an editorial style guide is to commit an editorial stylebook on how to phrase certain products, list topics the brand can and cannot write about, and other companies it can mention. Your editorial style guide can guide your blog content, video scripts, website and landing page copy, PR talking points, and knowledge base articles. It can also provide direction regarding your brand’s voice and personality to ensure consistent messaging across all channels.
Typography
Typography is a visual element of your brand style guide that goes beyond the font you use in your company logo. It supports your blog design down to the links and copy on your website — even your tagline. Typography plays a major role in your website’s user experience, so you want to make sure it is visually appealing while also being accessible and easy to read.
As you can see, the purpose of the brand style guide is to form and maintain all of the various elements of a company that, when combined, spell out the entire brand as it’s recognized.
Intrigued? Check out 21 of the best ones we could find.

1. Medium
Medium simple brand style guide emphasizes usage of its logo, wordmark, and symbol. Medium’s logo is the brand’s primary graphic element and was created to feel “confident, premium, timeless, and modern.”
See the full brand guide here.

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2. Walmart
Walmart is one of the world’s largest and most recognizable brands, so it’s no surprise that its brand guide is extremely thorough. The guide includes the brand’s logo, photography, typography, illustrations, iconography, voice, editorial style, and more. Walmart’s color palette is so integral to its brand identity that its primary color is called “Walmart Blue.”
See the full brand guide here.

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3. Asana
Asana’s simple style guide highlights its logo and color palette. It also explains how to properly use the brand’s assets.
See the full brand guide here.

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4. Skype
Everyone’s favorite video chat platform also has a squeaky-clean style guide for its brand. Skype, now owned by Microsoft, focuses primarily on its product phrasing and logo placement.
See the full brand guide here.

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5. Barre & Soul
Barre & Soul’s brand style guide includes variations of its logo, logo spacing, secondary logos, supporting imagery, and a five-color color palette.
See the full brand guide here.

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6. Spotify
Spotify’s style guide might appear simple and green, but there’s more to the brand than just a lime green circle. Spotify’s color palette includes three color codes, while the rest of the company’s branding guidelines focus heavily on logo variation and album artwork. The style guide even allows you to download an icon version of its logo, making it easier to represent the company without manually recreating it.
See the full brand guide here.

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7. Starbucks
Starbucks’ interactive brand style guide includes details about how to use its core elements such as the iconic Siren logo and green color palette. Plus, the guide features a visual spectrum of how their creative assets can be used across different channels as well as case studies of different seasonal campaigns and product launches.
See the full brand guide here.

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8. Paris 2024
Paris 2024’s brand identity pays homage to the 1924 Olympic Games through Art Deco inspired design. The iconic emblem, color scheme, typeface, and iconography are all detailed in its brand guide. Best of all, designers applied eco-branding methods to Paris 2024’s brand materials to reduce the amount of ink and paper needed for physical materials as well as limit the power and data consumption on digital elements.
See the full brand guide here.

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9. Urban Outfitters
Photography, color, and even tone of voice appear in Urban Outfitters’ California-inspired brand guidelines. However, the company isn’t shy to include information about its ideal consumer and what the brand believes in, as well.
See the full brand guide here.

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10. Love to Ride
Love to Ride, a cycling company, is all about color variety in its visually pleasing style guide. The company’s brand guidelines include nine color codes and tons of detail about its secondary logos and imagery.
See the full brand guide here.

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11. Barbican
Barbican, an art and learning center in the United Kingdom, sports a loud yet simple style guide focusing heavily on its logo and supporting typefaces.
See the full brand guide here.

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12. I Love New York
Despite its famously simple t-shirts, I Love New York has a brand style guide. The company begins its guidelines with a thorough explanation of its mission, vision, story, target audience, and tone of voice. Only then does the style guide delve into its logo positioning on various merchandise.
See the full brand guide here.

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13. TikTok
TikTok’s style guide isn’t just a guide — it’s an interactive brand book. First, it provides an in-depth look into how it brings its brand to life through design. Then, it gives an overview of its logo, co-branding, color, and typography. At its core, TikTok is a brand that “celebrates the relentless energy, creativity, and expression of [its] users.”
See the full brand guide here.

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14. University of the Arts Helsinki
The style guide of the University of the Arts Helsinki is more of a creative branding album than a traditional marketing guide. It shows you dozens of contexts in which you’d see this school’s provocative logo, including animations.
See the full brand guide here.

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15. Ivy Lane Events
Ivy Lane Events’ bold style guide is reflective of the edgy events the company produces. In it, you’ll find a mood board with dark, romantic visuals inspired by “victorian gothic style and vintage book art.” The guide also details the proper usage design elements such as the wordmark, primary icon, secondary logos, color, and typography.
See the full brand guide here.

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16. Western Athletic Conference
The Western Athletic Conference’s brand style guide includes extensive information about its history, mission, and vision. It also highlights its member universities and athletic championships and awards it is involved with. The brand elements include logo, colors, slogan, patch, and more.
See the full brand guide here.

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17. Discord
Discord’s brand guide is as colorful and playful as the communities it serves. The brand’s motion elements are based on the dot, which represents the Discord user interacting with others in the communities it belongs to. The guide describes usage of Discord’s typography, colors, and icon (lovingly named Clyde).
See the full brand guide here.

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18. Netflix
As far as its public brand assets are concerned, Netflix is focused primarily on the treatment of its logo. The company offers a simple set of rules governing the size, spacing, and placement of its famous capitalized typeface, as well as a single color code for its classic red logo.
See the full brand guide here.

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19. Scrimshaw Coffee
Featuring a six-code color palette, this “laid back,” “cool,” and “eclectic” brand has a number of secondary logos it embraces in various situations.
See the full brand guide here.

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20. NASA
NASA’s “Graphics Standards Manual” is as official and complex as you think it is. At 220 pages, the guide describes countless logo placements, color uses, and supporting designs. And yes, NASA’s space shuttles have their own branding rules.
See the full brand guide here.

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21. New York City Transit Authority
Like NASA, the NYCTA has its own Graphics Standards Manual, and it includes some fascinating typography rules for the numbers, arrows, and public transit symbols the average commuter takes for granted every day.
See the full brand guide here.

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Build a Memorable Style Guide of Your Own
Once you build your unique brand style guide, customers will recognize your brand and associate it with all the visual cues you want them to. We hope you were inspired by our list of amazing brand style guides and wish you luck in creating a timeless style of your own.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in January 2017 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Research has shown that it takes around eight touchpoints to make a sale. This can be daunting for any salesperson as follow-ups take time and effort. This is one of the many reasons that email marketing is such an efficient strategy.
Having the ability to contact your prospects or your current customers in a relatively unintrusive way (especially compared to phone calls), is essential to increasing your sales, customer engagement, and retention. These emails keep you top of mind with customers and improve brand awareness.

While it may seem simple enough to use your regular email system in the beginning when business is small and clients and prospects are few and far between, the thought of sending individual emails to people when you have a large contact list is time-consuming and unnecessary. In order to handle the volume of emails you’ll be sending out, you need to enlist the help of an email service provider (ESP).
Email Service Providers
An email service provider is software that allows you to send email campaigns to a list of subscribers. It is a set of tools for email marketing that stores email addresses and sends emails. However, depending on your needs, ESP companies offer a variety of different functionalities to help you achieve your goals.
Some of these can include:

Email and marketing automation
Lead capture forms
A/B testing for email subject lines and email content
Website tracking
Audience Segmentation

While there are a number of options to choose from, you’ll want to research ESPs before committing to one. Look for a program that has:

A mobile-friendly design: 85% of users say that smartphones are their primary device for checking email. This means that if you want your customers and prospects to get the most out of your marketing efforts, every email you send must be suitable for mobile.
Email templates: Options are great when you are designing your email campaigns. There should be several ready-made templates to choose from and have the option to get design support from a professional when you need something different.
Integrations with other systems: Chances are you work in a number of software programs to complete your work. An ESP should integrate with CRM and CMS systems, project management programs, and more.
Email series capabilities: These automated programs ensure new subscribers are nurtured and that you can design automated campaigns based on what activities your users engage in.

ESP Companies
When looking for an ESP, remember that price and functionality will differ. Decide what you need out of your email service provider then look for one that best fits your needs. Here is a list of some of the most popular ESPs:
HubSpot Email Hosting Tool

Price: Free

HubSpot’s free email hosting tool lets you quickly send personalized emails to your contacts that are beautifully designed with an easy drag-and-drop interface.
Mailchimp

Price: Free up to 2,000 contacts with paid plans starting at $11 per month

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Mailchimp’s free starter version has basic functionality that allows you send custom emails to up to 2,000 contacts. For more advanced options like email and landing page templates or advanced segmentation, you’ll need to upgrade to a more advanced plan.
Constant Contact

Price: Core plan starts at $9.99 per month; Plus plan starts at $45 per month

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Constant Contact offers email service for small businesses looking to grow their lists. In addition to email functionality, Constant Contact integrates with social media ads for a holistic approach to reaching your audience.
ActiveCampaign

Price: Lite plan starts at $9 per month; Plus plan starts at $49 per month; Professional plan starts at $149 per month

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ActiveCampaign is an email service provider focused on customer retention. This platform offers features specifically for ecommerce, B2B, and B2C businesses.
Campaign Monitor

Price: Basic plan starts at $9 per month; Unlimited plan starts at $29 per month; Premier plan starts at $129 per month

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For those looking for extensive template options, Campaign Monitor could be a great platform to start with. This platform’s template builder makes creating custom, on-brand emails quick and easy.
ConvertKit

Price: Free for up to 300 subscribers with paid plans starting at $9 per month

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ConvertKit is a popular platform for content creators and small business owners. In addition to email service, ConvertKit offers landing pages, integrates with most popular website builders and CRMs, and is fully customizable.
Sendinblue

Price: Free, with paid plans starting at $25 per month

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Sendinblue’s email marketing tools help make personalized emails easy to make. Users can create unlimited lists and groups for easy segmentation.
Once you’ve determined what functions you need in order to reach your marketing goals, and how many contacts you have or are looking to collect, you can decide on the right ESP for your business.

Anyone who has the experience of using these tools- SA360, Kenshoo, Marin, Acquisio for campaign management? submitted by /u/Remote_Shop2439 [link] [comments]

I am a small business, I manage my customers from Google Address book, but I wanted to setup some timed messages for the week ahead. What tools are best to semi automate this? submitted by /u/jaybestnz [link] [comments]

The Six Figure Profit license is your chance to license a brand new online system that will earn the creator more than six figures in commissions per year. ​ Thanks to technology, it’s now easier than ever to make money online. ​ But even with this technology, STILL, there’s a learning curve and you STILL have to invest in a bunch of different software. ​ Well, that’s over. ​ Usually, new technologies are complicated, but it doesn’t get any easier than this. The product developer told me that he developed it SPECIFICALLY for beginners. There’s no website creation. ​ No product creation. ​ No calculation of traffic. ​ No monthly cost like ANY. It’s simple and can be used by anyone, even without any experience. In simple words. ​ With this brand-new software, you get BUYER TRAFFIC. ​ And UNLIMITED COMMISSIONS ON TAP. STOP Creating your own products, funnels, and websites. ​ STOP doing all the work yourself. It’ll take you years to become profitable if you do all the work yourself. ​ You can work on it for the next TEN YEARS of years and end up with almost nothing to show for it. I know this. ​ I’ve tried it. No one gets rich trying to make money online WITHOUT experience or the hacks that the super elite gurus know. ​ It’s impossible. If you go on this way … you’ll fail. Every day your enthusiasm for making money online will wane until the candle is blown out completely. ​ 0What you should do instead is plug into an automated system… It’s all done for you With Six Figure Profit License, they make $100 to $500 a day without you having to know how to market, create a product, build an email list, start a YouTube channel, set up an e-commerce store, post on social media every day, set up an Amazon FBA account, and trade cryptocurrencies. ​ With the Six Figure Profit license, you don’t have to do any of that. ​ 4 Steps to Online Success with Six Figure Profit License. Once you’ve purchased your license, you’ll be able to achieve the same results as they do with the Six Figure Profit license in four easy steps… ​ STEP 1: ACTIVATE & LOGIN: Activate your Six Figure Profit license and choose a free giveaway campaign + choose the high ticket campaign over $1,000 (you’ll earn 100% commissions through the funnel!) ​ STEP 2: ADD YOUR COMMISSION LINKS: Add your “commission links” to the Six Figure Profit license campaigns so you get paid. ​ The commissions earned will go directly to your account ​ STEP 3: SWITCH ON THE TRAFFIC: Activate the FREE automated traffic built into the system. This is a brand new traffic source that’s completely untapped and guaranteed to bring hot visitors to YOUR Six Figure Profit Campaigns ​ STEP 4: SIT BACK & ENJOY. ​ You’re done! Now you can sit back, relax and watch the commissions roll in. ​ With the Six Figure Profit license, you get several powerful software to give away for free. Then the “built-in” upsells that let you earn hundreds of dollars take over EVERY person who uses your free offer. ​ With this license, you also get access to the IN-DEMAND BUYER TRAFFIC SOURCE…with over 800 million hungry buyers ready to buy from you. No product creation. ​ No paid to advertise because free traffic is included. ​ No experience – this is step-by-step easy and the included video tutorials show you EXACTLY how to do it … with FREE traffic. ​ Forget about selling TRYING and scaring people away. ​ This all-in-one income solution includes EVERYTHING you need – EVEN hosting for your sites so there are no ongoing costs … BUT the low price won’t last, so act now to steal this proven method for a one-time fee. https://www.skilatchi.com/2022/10/six-figure-profit-license-review-huge.html submitted by /u/cycysimba [link] [comments]

In the words of David Newman, Author of Do It! Marketing, “Email has an ability many channels don’t: creating valuable, personal touches – at scale.” Email marketing is possibly the most valuable communication channel for you as a business owner. It allows you to nurture and build personal relationships with your target audience and contacts…

Hello I hope you are well I come to show you and recommend you this platform is called ad creative it helps to generate advertisements so that you have more views Here I leave the link and they credit you 500 dollars for free submitted by /u/ManuelValverdeChaves [link] [comments]