Category: Marketing Automation

No business can survive without customers. While customer retention is incredibly important, attracting new customers is essential to growing your business. Because of this, customer acquisition should be a top priority for business owners. This begs the question, how do you get new customers or clients in the literal or figurative door?

Traditionally, your sales team will engage with your potential customers, sending emails, making phone calls, and visiting them in person depending on the nature of your business. Though this approach is often effective, is it the most efficient use of your employees’ time?
Many successful businesses have decided that it would be better for the customers to come to them, rather than them go to the customers. One of the ways to do this is to take an inbound approach and implement a content marketing strategy.
This is a great move for most businesses, however, when you incorporate a content marketing campaign into your overall strategy, you’ll want to ensure you’re seeing a return on your investment.
Content marketing is a type of marketing where you create and share online content in order to spread awareness about what you do and create interest in working with or purchasing from your company.
Earlier, we mentioned how salespeople will interact with potential customers multiple times. Why do they do this? These multiple contacts are so that when your potential customer is ready to be an actual customer, your business is top-of-mind.
Content marketing seeks to do the same thing, but more efficiently. By creating content in the form of blogs, videos, or social media posts, you can position your business as the “go-to expert” in your field. Essentially, you become the brand people find and think of when they are having a problem.
As important as this is, content marketing works in another important way. As a consumer, what do you do when you have a problem? If you’re like millions of other people, you ask Google how to fix that problem. You may not even know how to communicate what’s wrong, but Google magically knows and directs you to the answers you need.
When you engage in content marketing, you become the answer that your potential customer is searching for.
Does it work? According to the Content Marketing Institute, content marketing leaders experience nearly eight times more site traffic than non-leaders.
Need more convincing? Demand Metric says that content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing, and generates three times as many leads.
What are content marketing metrics?
Is content marketing a good strategy to incorporate into your business? Probably. But, it takes time and energy to plan and resources to execute. Just like any other strategy, you would think to include, you’ll want to make sure that you’re seeing a healthy return on investment (ROI) for your effort.
In order to do that, you’ll need to become familiar with content marketing metrics. With these numbers, you’ll be able to determine if what you’re doing is making an impact as is, if you’ll need to tweak your approach, or if you’ll need to abandon it altogether in exchange for something else.
Content Marketing Success Metrics
While there are hundreds of specific metrics out there you could use to determine whether or not your content marketing efforts are making enough of an impact to justify their costs, there are a handful of metrics that are essential. Incorporating the following numbers into your content marketing metrics dashboard will give you a great understanding of your performance and effectiveness.
1. Traffic Sources
It’s wonderful to discover that people are consuming your content. But, how did they find out about it? A truly successful content marketing plan will attract new potential customers through engaging content. On the other hand, you may also be creating more engagement with past customers or on-the-fence potential customers. This is still good as it can create repeat business and help you stay top-of-mind.
Either way, it’s important to know how readers have made their way to your content. To find traffic sources to your blog or website, you can use a platform such as Google Analytics.
2. Impressions
How is your content doing? Does Google recognize that you are an “answer” to the searcher’s problems? Using Google Search Console, you can determine how many impressions your content has received. The more impressions, the more people you’ve reached.
3. Click-through-rate (CTR)
Impressions or views of your content is important, however, without acknowledging your CTR or click-through rate, you won’t be able to fully understand whether or not your content is effective.
More people may be viewing or consuming your content, but is it moving them to action? Are they visiting your website? Are they learning more about your products? Understanding your click-through rate provides this insight.
4. Content Shares and Backlinks
You’re putting out good content (hopefully!), but is it good enough to share? The true test of your content is whether or not people find it useful or interesting enough to share with their own audiences.
Bonus, the more your content is shared, the more Google sees it as the “solution” and shows it to more people. If you’re posting on social media, shares are easy to determine. If you’re looking at blog content, you can use a tool such as BuzzSumo or Ahrefs.
5. Email Opt-in Rates
Click-through rates are important to know if your readers are taking action on your content by visiting your website. However, if they don’t buy right away, are they giving you the opportunity to capture their information and connect with them in the future?
When your content marketing is performing well and truly doing its job, readers will be comfortable sharing their contact information with you and eager to hear more of what you have to say, and potentially purchase your product or service in the future. Your email marketing software can give you this metric.
6. Bounce Rate
Ideally, once people land on your website, they’ll take the time to explore, digest some of your content, and buy. Sometimes though, you’ll see a high bounce rate because people have navigated away from your website immediately after they were directed there. This could be due to slow-loading, a poor user experience, or different content than they expected.
It’s important to know your bounce rate and then understand what’s causing it. This helps you avoid putting all the time and effort into creating quality content, only to find that something on your website is turning off potential customers.
7. Keyword Rankings
A big part of content marketing is selecting the right keywords for your desired audience. Ultimately, the question is “what are your potential customers searching for on Google?” Once you’ve figured that out, you can incorporate those words into your content and ideally, be found more easily.
However, keywords change over time and you’ll need to make sure that you are being successful in your endeavors. Review the keyword rankings using SEMRush or Google Search Console and tweak your keywords or your content when it’s not performing well.
Content Marketing Dashboard
If you’re looking to keep your metrics and data organized, consider creating a content marketing dashboard with up-to-date visuals of the key metrics you want your team to track. When content marketers are clear on their goals, they are in a better position to meet and exceed them.
The ideal content marketing metrics for you to use will be determined by what your goals are with your content marketing strategy. If you are looking to increase brand awareness, you will utilize different metrics than if your primary goal is to increase sales of a specific product or increase turnout for your next event.

There is no denying the necessity of personalization in email marketing. Personalization increases open rates, and it shows your audience that you acknowledge and understand their wants and needs. It leads to more engaged readers driven toward action, and it’s pretty central to an effective lead nurture strategy. According to Epsilon’s research, 80% of consumers…
The post What Is Email Personalization and Why Is it So Powerful? appeared first on Benchmark Email.

What tools do you use to automate?
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You may be familiar with the adage, “Hope for the best, but plan for the worst.” As much as we don’t want to think about the terrible things that can happen in business and life, negative occurrences are inevitable. Whether it’s a product defect that leads to a recall, a security breach that leaves our customer’s data vulnerable, or violence or disasters in the workplace, bad things are bound to happen at some point.
While it’s not the happiest of thoughts, it’s realistic. Unfortunately, we don’t have the luxury of opting out from negative occurrences. Still, we do have the ability to plan ahead so that when the unthinkable happens, we’ve already thought of it, and have a plan in place to limit the damages.
If none of what you’ve read has you rocking in the corner, and you’re actually excited by the possibility of being the person a business turns to in times of crisis, you might be perfect for a career in Crisis Management. Throughout this piece, you’ll learn what a crisis manager does and how to be a great one, according to service experts. 

Crisis Management
Crisis management is how organizations prevent, prepare for, and respond to events that could be detrimental to employees, customers, or the organization as a whole. This field helps identify uncertain conditions that could cause harm and mitigate the impact if you can’t prevent them. It is an essential aspect of any business and can save millions of dollars in fallout, not to mention saving a brand’s reputation.
Throughout this piece, you’ll learn what a crisis manager does and how to be a great one, according to service experts.
What is a Crisis Manager?
The job of a crisis manager is to be proactive, identify threats, and the process they’ll use to work through them before a crisis ever happens. A crisis manager is involved at every stage – before, during, and after a crisis. 
While everyone in an organization may be involved in carrying out a crisis management plan, the crisis manager is responsible for devising this plan, making sure it runs smoothly, and communicating with employees, customers, shareholders, board members, and the public so the experience does not damage the organization’s reputation.
Crisis Manager Tasks Before or Pre-Crisis

Identify risks
Establish early monitoring systems
Develop a crisis plan to minimize risks

Crisis Manager Tasks During a Crisis Response

Lead the crisis management team
Communicate with employees and shareholders, customers
Speak with the media to maintain a positive public reputation

Crisis Manager Tasks After or Post-Crisis

Continue to lead the crisis management team
Review the response plan, identify what did and did not work, and make any necessary changes

How Much Does a Crisis Manager Make?
Before we dive into what it takes to land a job as a crisis manager, you might wonder what an average crisis manager’s salary is. While compensation can vary based on experience, geographic area, the company you work for, and many other factors, the average salary for a crisis manager is $56,359, according to Indeed.com. For example, in Los Angeles, CA, Zip Recruiter shows a range from $24,882 up to $158,820 and determined an average of $63,110.
How to Become a Crisis Manager
Before we dive into education and certification, let’s look at what personality characteristics you must have to be a great crisis manager.
In order to excel in this field, you’ll need to be:

Calm under pressure
A great communicator
Solution-focused
Able to think clearly and act quickly
Able to handle stress
Proactive
Concerned for the wellbeing of the organization and your team members

Critical thinking skills are essential, as are strong leadership and interpersonal skills. You will have to motivate employees to take action during difficult times and keep them calm enough to be effective.
Does this still sound like you? Perfect! Now, it’s time to determine what you need to do to make a career out of your passion and abilities.
While many careers have a very obvious path beginning with a specific college degree, Crisis management is slightly different. If you’re looking at becoming a crisis manager, there are very few job-specific degrees available. However, emergency management is a common educational path for crisis managers as-is business administration.  You will also find a number of crisis management positions that look for a degree or experience in public relations with classes in crisis communication.
There is an Institute for Crisis Management (ICM) that offers certification and provides training in:

Identifying and preparing for a business crisis
Evaluating vulnerabilities
Gaining support from senior management
Essential communication tools
Preparing recovery plans

You can also look for communication courses and resources through organizations like the Institute for Public Relations (IPR).
Like it or not, every business will experience challenges, setbacks, and full-blown crises throughout its lifetime. As a crisis manager, you will be responsible for looking into the future to identify these challenges before they turn into major issues and creating a plan that will help minimize the damage these situations could cause.
You can be the difference between a business being destroyed by a crisis or surviving relatively unscathed.

Every year I create vague New Years resolutions, but this year I decided to try something different. 
Using the SMART goal framework (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound), I reworded my 2022 goal from “read more books” to “read two books per month to hit my goal of reading 24 before the end of the year.”  
The SMART framework is an effective strategy for creating more specific and attainable goals. Plus, it provides benchmarks against which you can measure your progress — if you have a larger, more daunting goal, smaller steps can help you remain motivated. 
Here, let’s explore what SMART goals are, why they’re important, and how to make your own.

What are SMART Goals?
Why Are SMART Goals Important?
SMART Goal Examples
How to Make a SMART Goal

Download this Template for Free

In the working world, the influence of SMART goals continues to grow. The reason why successful marketing teams always hit their numbers is that they also set SMART goals. Use the template above to follow along and create your own SMART goals.

What are SMART goals?
SMART goals are concrete targets that you aim to hit over a certain period. These goals should be carefully drafted by a manager and their direct report to set them up for success. “SMART” is an acronym that describes the most important characteristics of each goal.
The “SMART” acronym stands for “specific,” “measurable,” “attainable,” “relevant,” and “time-bound.” Each SMART goal should have these five characteristics to ensure the goal can be reached and benefits the employee. Find out what each characteristic means below, and how to write a SMART goal that exemplifies them.

Why are SMART goals important?
SMART goals are important to set as they:

Help you work with clear intentions, not broad or vague goals
Provide a method to gauge your success by setting benchmarks to meet
Give sensible objectives that are realistic and achievable
Cut out unnecessary or irrelevant work that could take away from what’s important
Set a clear beginning and end to adhere to in reaching your goals

When you make goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound, you’re increasing your odds for success by verifying that the goal is achievable, identifying the metrics that define success, and creating a roadmap to reach those metrics.
If your goals are abstract, if you don’t know what it will take to achieve success, or if you don’t give yourself a deadline to complete steps, you may lose focus and fall short of what you want to accomplish.
Do SMART goals actually work?
In short — yes, if done correctly.
For instance, one study found 76% of participants who wrote down their goals, made a list of goal-driven actions, and provided weekly progress reports to a friend achieved their goals — which is 33% higher than those with unwritten goals. 
Additionally, I polled roughly 300 participants in the U.S. and found 52% believe SMART goals help them achieve their goals more often than if they didn’t use a SMART framework. 

Setting unrealistic goals and trying to measure them without consideration of previous performance, overly short time frames, or including too many variables will lead you off course.
However, these goals work only if formulated properly and if they take into account the motive and cadence of those working on them. Additionally, your SMART goals can only succeed when the employees working towards them have the means to achieve them.
Let’s take a look at some realistic examples of SMART goals to paint a clearer picture of what they are.

1. Blog Traffic Goal

Specific: I want to boost our blog’s traffic by increasing our weekly publishing frequency from five to eight times a week. Our two bloggers will increase their workload from writing two posts a week to three posts a week, and our editor will increase her workload from writing one post a week to two posts a week.

Measurable: Our goal is an 8% increase in traffic.

Attainable: Our blog traffic increased by 5% last month when we increased our weekly publishing frequency from three to five times a week.

Relevant: By increasing blog traffic, we’ll boost brand awareness and generate more leads, giving sales more opportunities to close.

Time-Bound: End of this month

SMART Goal: At the end of this month, our blog will see an 8% lift in traffic by increasing our weekly publishing frequency from five posts per week to eight posts per week.

2. Facebook Video Views Goal

Specific: I want to boost our average views per native video by cutting our video content mix from eight topics to our five most popular topics.

Measurable: Our goal is a 25% increase in views.

Attainable: When we cut down our video content mix on Facebook from 10 topics to our eight most popular topics, our average views per native video increased by 20%.

Relevant: By increasing average views per native video on Facebook, we’ll boost our social media following and brand awareness, reaching more potential customers with our video content.

Time-Bound: In six months

SMART Goal: In six months, we’ll see a 25% increase in average video views per native video on Facebook by cutting our video content mix from eight topics to our five most popular topics.

3. Email Subscription Goal

Specific: I want to boost the number of email blog subscribers by increasing our Facebook advertising budget on blog posts that historically acquire the most email subscribers.

Measurable: Our goal is a 50% increase in subscribers.

Attainable: Since we started using this tactic three months ago, our email blog subscriptions have increased by 40%.

Relevant: By increasing the number of email blog subscribers, our blog will drive more traffic, boost brand awareness, and drive more leads to our sales team.

Time-Bound: In three months

SMART Goal: In three months, we’ll see a 50% increase in the number of email blog subscribers by increasing our Facebook advertising budget on posts that historically acquire the most blog subscribers.

4. Webinar Sign-Up Goal

Specific: I want to increase the number of sign-ups for our Facebook Messenger webinar by promoting it through social, email, our blog, and Facebook Messenger.

Measurable: Our goal is a 15% increase in sign-ups.

Attainable: Our last Facebook messenger webinar saw a 10% increase in sign-ups when we only promoted it through social, email, and our blog.

Relevant: When our webinars generate more leads, sales have more opportunities to close.

Time-Bound: By April 10, the day of the webinar

SMART Goal: By April 10, the day of our webinar, we’ll see a 15% increase in sign-ups by promoting it through social, email, our blog, and Facebook messenger.

5. Landing Page Performance Goal

Specific: I want our landing pages to generate more leads by switching from a one-column form to a two-column form.

Measurable: My goal is a 30% increase in lead generation.

Attainable: When we A/B tested our traditional one-column form versus a two-column form on our highest-traffic landing pages, we discovered that two-column forms convert 27% better than our traditional one-column forms, at a 99% significance level.

Relevant: If we generate more content leads, sales can close more customers.

Time-Bound: One year from now

SMART Goal: One year from now, our landing pages will generate 30% more leads by switching their forms from one column to two columns.
6. Link-Building Strategy Goal

Specific: I want to increase our website’s organic traffic by developing a link-building strategy that gets other publishers to link to our website. This increases our ranking in search engine results, allowing us to generate more organic traffic.

Measurable: Our goal is 40 backlinks to our company homepage.

Attainable: According to our SEO analysis tool, there are currently 500 low-quality links directing to our homepage from elsewhere on the internet. Given the number of partnerships we currently have with other businesses, and that we generate 10 new inbound links per month without any outreach on our part, an additional 40 inbound links from a single link-building campaign is a significant but feasible target.

Relevant: Organic traffic is our top source of new leads, and backlinks are one of the biggest ranking factors on search engines like Google. If we build links from high-quality publications, our organic ranking increases, boosting our traffic and leads as a result.

Time-Bound: four months from now

SMART Goal: Over the next four months, I will build 40 additional backlinks that direct to www.ourcompany.com. To do so, I will collaborate with Ellie and Andrew from our PR department to connect with publishers and develop an effective outreach strategy.

7. Reducing Churn Rate Goal

Specific: I want to reduce customer churn by 5% for my company because every customer loss is a reflection of our service’s quality and perception.

Measurable: Contact 30 at-risk customers per week and provide customer support daily for five new customers during their onboarding process.

Attainable: Our product offering has just improved and we have the means to invest more into our customer support team, and could potentially have five at-risk customers to upscale monthly.

Relevant: We can set up a customer knowledge base to track customers’ progression in the buyer’s journey, and prevent churn by contacting them before they lose interest.

Time-Bound: In 24 weeks

SMART Goal: In 24 weeks, I will reduce the churn rate by 5% for my company. To do so, we will contact 30 at-risk customers per week and provide/invest in customer support to assist five new customers during onboarding daily and track their progress through a customer knowledge base.

8. Brand Affinity Goal

Specific: I want to increase our podcast listener count as we are trying to establish ourselves as thought leaders in our market.

Measurable: A 40% increase in listeners is our goal.

Attainable: We can increase our current budget and level our podcaster’s cadence, to have the means to hold insightful conversations for our listeners to tune into.

Relevant: We created a podcast and have dedicated a team to source interesting guests, sound mixing, and eye-catching thumbnails to get it started.

Time-Bound: In four months

SMART Goal: In four months, we’ll see a 40% increase in average listener count in Apple Podcasts by providing our team the budget and cadence to make insightful podcasts with quality sound mixing and eye-catching thumbnails.

9. Podcast Listener Count Goal

Specific: I want to boost our podcast’s listener count by promoting our podcast across social channels. We will post four quotes related to new podcast episodes throughout the month on our Twitter account, and we will post six short videos of our podcast conversations with guests on our Instagram account throughout the month. 

Measurable: Our goal is an 20% increase in podcast listeners.

Attainable: Our podcast listener count increased by 5% last month when we published two short videos of our podcast conversation on Instagram.

Relevant: By increasing podcast listener count, we’ll boost brand awareness and generate more leads, giving sales more opportunities to close.

Time-Bound: End of this month

SMART Goal: At the end of this month, our podcast will see an 20% increase in listeners by increasing our social media promotions from two Instagram posts to four Twitter posts and six Instagram posts.

10. In-Person Event Attendee Goal

Specific: I want to boost attendance at our upcoming in-person event by 50% by sending out three email reminders to our subscriber lists each week before the event. 

Measurable: Our goal is an 50% increase in attendees.

Attainable: Our attendee number increased by 20% last year when we sent out one email reminder to our subscriber lists.

Relevant: By increasing attendee count, we’ll increase brand loyalty by providing value to our existing customers, and generate more leads.

Time-Bound: August 30

SMART Goal: By the time of our event on August 30th, our attendee number will increase by 50% from where it’s at now (250 attendees), by sending out three email reminders to our subscribers lists. 
Now that you’ve seen examples of SMART goals, let’s dive into how to make your own.

1. Use specific wording.
When writing SMART goals, keep in mind that they are “specific” in that there’s a hard and fast destination the employee is trying to reach. “Get better at my job,” isn’t a SMART goal because it isn’t specific. Instead, ask yourself: What are you getting better at? How much better do you want to get?
If you’re a marketing professional, your job probably revolves around key performance indicators or KPIs. Therefore, you might choose a particular KPI or metric that you want to improve on — like visitors, leads, or customers. You should also identify the team members working toward this goal, the resources they have, and their plan of action.
In practice, a specific SMART goal might say, “Clifford and Braden will increase the blog’s traffic from email …” You know exactly who’s involved and what you’re trying to improve on.
Common SMART Goal Mistake: Vagueness
While you may need to keep some goals more open-ended, you should avoid vagueness that could confuse your team later on. For example, instead of saying, “Clifford will boost email marketing experiences,” say “Clifford will boost email marketing click rates by 10%.”

2. Include measurable goals.
SMART goals should be “measurable” in that you can track and quantify the goal’s progress. “Increase the blog’s traffic from email,” by itself, isn’t a SMART goal because you can’t measure the increase. Instead, ask yourself: How much email marketing traffic should you strive for?
If you want to gauge your team’s progress, you need to quantify your goals, like achieving an X-percentage increase in visitors, leads, or customers.
Let’s build on the SMART goal we started three paragraphs above. Now, our measurable SMART goal might say, “Clifford and Braden will increase the blog’s traffic from email by 25% more sessions per month … ” You know what you’re increasing, and by how much.
Common SMART Goal Mistake: No KPIs
This is in the same light of avoiding vagueness. While you might need qualitative or open-ended evidence to prove your success, you should still come up with a quantifiable KPI. For example, instead of saying, “Customer service will improve customer happiness,” say, “We want the average call satisfaction score from customers to be a seven out of ten or higher.”
3. Aim for realistically attainable goals.
An “attainable” SMART goal considers the employee’s ability to achieve it. Make sure that X-percentage increase is rooted in reality. If your blog traffic increased by 5% last month, try to increase it by 8-10% this month, rather than a lofty 25%.
It’s crucial to base your goals on your own analytics, not industry benchmarks, or else you might bite off more than you can chew. So, let’s add some “attainability” to the SMART goal we created earlier in this blog post: “Clifford and Braden will increase the blog’s traffic from email by 8-10% more sessions per month … ” This way, you’re not setting yourself up to fail.
Common SMART Goal Mistake: Unattainable Goals
Yes. You should always aim to improve. But reaching for completely unattainable goals may knock you off course and make it harder to track progress. Rather than saying, “We want to make 10,000% of what we made in 2021,” consider something more attainable, like, “We want to increase sales by 150% this year,” or “We have a quarterly goal to reach a 20% year-over-year sales increase.”
4. Pick relevant goals that relate to your business.
SMART goals that are “relevant” relate to your company’s overall business goals and account for current trends in your industry. For instance, will growing your traffic from email lead to more revenue? And, is it actually possible for you to significantly boost your blog’s email traffic given your current email marketing campaigns?
If you’re aware of these factors, you’re more likely to set goals that benefit your company — not just you or your department.
So, what does that do to our SMART goal? It might encourage you to adjust the metric you’re using to track the goal’s progress. For example, maybe your business has historically relied on organic traffic for generating leads and revenue, and research suggests you can generate more qualified leads this way.
Our SMART goal might instead say, “Clifford and Braden will increase the blog’s organic traffic by 8-10% more sessions per month.” This way, your traffic increase is aligned with the business’s revenue stream.
Common SMART Goal Mistake: Losing Sight of the Company
When your company is doing well, it can be easy to say you want to pivot or grow in another direction. While companies can successfully do this, you don’t want your team to lose sight of how the core of your business works.
Rather than saying, “We want to start a new B2B business on top of our B2C business,” say something like, “We want to continue increasing B2C sales while researching the impact our products could have on the B2B space in the next year.”
5. Make goals time-bound by including a timeframe and deadline information.
A “time-bound” SMART goal keeps you on schedule. Improving on a goal is great, but not if it takes too long. Attaching deadlines to your goals puts a healthy dose of pressure on your team to accomplish them. This helps you make consistent and significant progress in the long term.
For example, which would you prefer: increasing organic traffic by 5% every month, leading to a 30-35% increase in half a year? Or trying to increase traffic by 15% with no deadline and achieving that goal in the same timeframe? If you picked the former, you’re right.
So, what does our SMART goal look like once we bound it to a timeframe? “Over the next three months, Clifford and Braden will work to increase the blog’s organic traffic by 8-10%, reaching a total of 50,000 organic sessions by the end of August.”
Common SMART Goal Mistake: No Time Frame
Having no timeframe or a really broad span of time noted in your goal will cause the effort to get reprioritized or make it hard for you to see if your team is on track. Rather than saying. “This year, we want to launch a major campaign,” say, “In quarter one, we will focus on campaign production in order to launch the campaign in quarter two.”
Make Your SMART Goals SMART-er
Now that you know what a SMART goal is, why it’s important, and the framework to create one, it’s time to put that information into practice. Whether you’re setting goals for a personal achievement or as part of hitting important marketing milestones, it’s good to start with what you want to achieve and then reverse-engineer it into a concrete SMART goal.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in December 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

List building is a strategy that allows marketers to target customers based on their needs, goals, or other personal criteria (e.g. purchase history, location, age, etc.). These lists can be applied to all marketing materials (as well as the work of sales and service reps) to help your team offer customers a personalized and delightful customer experience.
Automated list building software exists to help your team create and manage accurate, up-to-date, and easily applicable lists in a way that’s quick and easy.

What is automated list building?
Automated list building is the process of using a tool to help you automatically create lists of audience members, whether buyer prospects or customers.
Automated list building software is a type of marketing automation tool that allows you to do this. We’ll review some examples shortly.
Benefits of Automated List Building Software
Here are some examples of the many benefits that you’ll get from using automated list building software.

Segment customers into groups for targeting.
Identify your most qualified leads and personas.
Personalize customer experiences to help you retain more customers.
Offer your customers the information and content that they care about.
Automate the workflows to share tailored emails, SMS, and campaigns to the right customers at the right time.
Analyze your lists as needed over time.
Ensure your lists are automatically updated with new contact data.
Share lists with Sales and Service reps for easy prospect/ customer handoff.
Better understand your buyer personas and customers.

Automated List Building Software
1. HubSpot Marketing Automation Software

Price
HubSpot’s Marketing Hub comes in four plans: Free, $45/mo (Starter), $800/mo (Professional), and $3,200/mo (Enterprise).
Key Features
HubSpot’s Marketing Automation Software allows you to build beautiful and automated email campaigns that are sent for you based on predetermined triggers. This way, you know your tailored content is being sent to the right recipients at the right time.
Since HubSpot’s Marketing Automation Software is integrated with Marketing Hub and your CRM, your lists will be automatically updated for you with new or updated contact information.
Use HubSpot’s advanced segmentation logic to determine which customers are added to your workflows and at which point in the buyer’s journey that happens. HubSpot also pulls information about your recipients via the Contact Database so each email is customized.
2. Adroll

Price
AdRoll offers a free plan and a Growth plan that’s $19/mo.
Key Features
AdRoll is a marketing platform for email, web, and social media. To help you identify your audience, you can retarget prospects and customers at the right time (e.g. after purchase or sign up) with automated email series.
Trigger form display for email capture by your customer segments and their activity. You can also track then use AdRoll to track the success of those ads and emails in a single dashboard.
3. OptiMonk

Price
OptiMonk has four plans that range in price from free to $199/mo. There’s also a customizable plan that requires you to contact a sales rep.
Key Features
With OptiMonk, you can build email lists of your website visitors who are most likely to convert based on their behavior. Then, OptinMonk will help you create and send emails that include tailored offers for those recipients.
In addition to email, you can subscribe your list of visitors to Facebook Messenger as well as use the tool’s widgets for gathering phone numbers of your website visitors so you’re able to create SMS campaigns.
4. Outgrow

Price
Outgrow has four plans ranging in price from $14 to $600/ month.
Key Features
Outgrow is a marketing platform that helps you create interactive quizzes, polls, calculators, and chatbots. Increase engagement across your content with dynamic text and charts that are based on user inputs.
You can segment your leads and assign them to campaigns that are tailored to their needs and interests. You can also use those segmented lists to help you personalize confirmation emails for your visitors.
5. Klayvio

Price
Flexible pricing with the option of a free plan for Email, SMS, or Email and SMS depending on your needs.
Key Features
Klayvio is an email and SMS marketing automation software. With Klayvio’s Flows feature, you can set customizable triggers to split audience members into different lists or groups. Customers are then sent down unique paths based on their list/ grouping with emails and texts that are specific to their needs and goals.
You can also set up list automations so that customers who subscribe to your business, they’re sent a welcome series via email and/or SMS. Additionally, create and share messages based on audience segments such as region, past purchases, and more.
Automate Your List Building
Automated list building helps your team accurately and efficiently create prospect customer lists and segments that can be used by Marketing (as well as other internal teams) to tailor marketing content and materials to individuals. By automating the personalization of the buyer’s journey, your team will have the ability to convert, delight, and retain more customers.

Just like every building needs a foundation, every business needs brand architecture. It’s the structure that allows you to organize your offerings, develop a brand identity, and gain brand equity.
The right brand architecture provides clarity around your products or services and influences how your brands and sub-brands relate to one another.
Without this framework, there’s no connection between your brand’s offerings, messaging, and identity. This inconsistency can confuse consumers and dilute the overall value of the brand. (Think of it like walking through a building where every room has vastly different interior design).
To ensure your brand architecture fits your business, this post will share the various brand architecture models, highlight real-life examples, and provide steps to choose the best structure for your company.
What is brand architecture?
Brand architecture is the organizational framework a company uses to structure its brands, sub-brands, and products or services.
The framework helps define both the breadth and the depth of a brand, which makes it easier to develop marketing campaigns, identify growth opportunities, and ensure consumers understand the offerings.

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Companies use brand architecture to inform internal efforts. It acts as the foundation for the brand identity, style guide, and brand story, but it also helps increase efficiency by highlighting opportunities for cross-promotion, brand awareness, and mergers and acquisitions.
Brand architecture isn’t always obvious to consumers, who use it as a way to categorize the company and understand how it meets their needs. For example, people may not know that Alphabet is the parent company of Google. But they have a specific perception of Google’s brand equity and transfer it to products like Google Sheets, Google Docs, or Google Search.
Ultimately, brand architecture is meant to bring order to a brand’s offerings and build brand equity. Not every architecture will work for every business, so let’s look at the options to see which may be the right fit for your brand.
Brand Architecture Models
The most common brand architecture models are branded house, house of brands, endorsed brands, and hybrid brands.
Branded House

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A branded house architecture combines several house brands under a single umbrella brand, leveraging the well-established master brand for its equity, awareness, and customer loyalty. Oftentimes, the house brands are designed to target different audience segments to maximize reach and revenue.
For instance, Apple uses a branded house architecture to create a seamless look and feel across its sub-brands: iPad, iPhone, iMac, Watch, and TV. By leaning on Apple’s loyal customer base, the sub-brands increase their equity and more easily attract buyers.

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The following companies use a branded house architecture:

FedEx: FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight, FedEx Office, etc

Virgin: Virgin Mobile, Virgin Pulse, Virgin Money, etc

HubSpot: Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, CMS Hub, Operations Hub

House of Brands

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A house of brands architecture downplays the master brand in order to feature the sub-brands. This structure allows the sub-brands to shine on their own because they aren’t tied to the messaging, appearance, or positioning of the master brands. But it also increases the complexity because each brand has a distinct audience, brand identity, marketing strategy, and equity.
Due to that complexity, companies that use a house of brands structure are often large global brands with established equity. While the master brand may be widely recognized, like the consumer goods company Unilever, it can also be behind the scenes, like the fast-food company Yum! Brands.

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The following companies use a house of brands architecture:

Procter & Gamble: Pampers, Tide, Bounty, Bounce, Dawn, Tampax, and more

Yum! Brands: KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill

GE Appliances: Monogram, Café, GE, GE Profile, Haier and Hotpoint

Focus Brands: Aunties Anne’s, Cinnabon, Jamba Juice, Carvel, and more

PepsiCo: Pepsi, Lays, Quaker Oats, Gatorade, Aquafina, Tropicana, and more

Hybrid Brand

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A hybrid brand architecture combines the house of brands and branded house models. The goal of this structure is for the sub-brands to have similar styles as the master brand while maintaining distinct brand identities.
Companies that use a hybrid architecture may mention the master brand in marketing, but most adopt this model as a way to keep the master and sub-brands separate after rounds of mergers and acquisitions. It’s also a good approach for brands that want to cater to vastly different target audiences, like Marriott Bonvoy.
By taking a hybrid approach, the company maintains a diverse portfolio of brands that includes luxury hotels, such as the Ritz-Carlton, alongside budget-friendly options, such as Residence Inn.

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The following companies use a hybrid approach:

Alphabet: Google, Nest, YouTube, Fitbit, Waze, and more

Microsoft: LinkedIn, Skype, GitHub, Mojang, and more

Amazon: AmazonBasics, Presto!, Mama Bear, AmazonFresh, Zappos, and more

Levi’s: Levi’s, Dockers, Denizen, and Signature by Levi Strauss & Co

Endorsed Brand

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Another option for brand architecture is the endorsed brand model, which has a master brand and sub-brands that rely on an association with it. Each sub-brand benefits from the strength of the others because they all share the same endorsement.
Oftentimes, an endorsed brand incorporates the logo and colors of the master brand. Of course, this allows the sub-brand to leverage the reputation of the main brand for improved brand equity, awareness, and security.
The endorsed approach is great for companies that use a hybrid approach and want each sub-brand to have its own identity, without separating it from the master brand. Unlike the house of brands approach, the endorsed model lets everyone know the main brand behind the products or services. And unlike the branded house approach, an endorsed brand can have a different look or feel from the master brand.

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The following brands use an endorsed approach:

Nescafe by Nestle
Playstation by Sony
Rice Krispies by Kellog
Polo by Ralph Lauren

How to Develop Brand Architecture
Defining brand architecture is one of the first steps a company should take when building a brand because it lays the foundation for an organized, intuitive branding strategy. Although brand architecture can become complex, with dozens of sub-brands, the right structure can ensure each brand remains true to its identity.
You can develop a brand architecture for your business in three steps: research, strategy, and application.
1. Research
Strong brands don’t simply choose a model and run with it. Conducting research is an essential step to developing brand architecture because it gives you the information you need to organize offerings in a way that makes sense for your company, customers, and industry.
The more data, the better. But gathering the following information will provide the insights you need to get started.

Brand audit – Brand loyalty, brand awareness, brand perception, brand equity, brand assets, and brand portfolio

Market research – Buyer personas, market segmentation, product/service use, pricing, customer satisfaction, and competitive analysis

Before you make any decision, it’s wise to review your company’s mission, vision, and values to ensure the brand architecture aligns with business goals.
2. Strategy
With data in hand, it’s time to design the brand architecture. If you’re revamping an old architecture, this step may require tough decisions on whether to get rid of or sell brands that don’t fit into your desired architecture. If you’re starting from scratch, you have to decide how closely you want your current (or future) sub-brands to be connected to the master brand.
You can test out each architecture by seeing what the brand would look like in each approach and creating a list of pros and cons. Maybe the branded house model won’t work because you have several distinct brands that can’t be grouped under the parent brand.
When you find a structure that may work, outline the connections between the master brands, sub-brands, and products or services. You need to know how everything works together because defining distinct brands, designing cross-promotions, or marketing to customers.
Along the way, make sure to consider your available resources (employees, budget, time). Certain approaches take more work than others, so you want to choose a brand architecture that fits your current capacity as well as your future vision.
3. Application
Choosing a brand architecture is just the start of creating a lasting brand that people love. But for the sake of this article, the last step is to share the finalized structure with your team.
Since brand architecture is part of your brand identity, you can unveil it alongside your overarching brand positioning strategy. Make sure to include a clear structure that highlights the relationships between the master brand, sub-brands, and offerings, in addition to any connections between sub-brands. Everyone on the team should know the strategic role of every brand within the architecture framework and how it relates to customers.
As your company grows, your brand architecture must change to include any new offerings or brands — whether it’s the result of a new product launch or an acquisition.
By taking time to conduct brand research, develop a brand architecture strategy, and share it with your team, you’re setting your entire organization up to make efficient branding decisions that have a long-term effect on brand equity.

Two weeks ago, after I posted my post, many people visited my website and gave me some feedback. I am really grateful and then I decided to do a section on the first screen to write a brief introduction to my website according to your opinions. Since I have no previous experience with similar sites, I put out the interfaces of several competitors in my last post, hoping to get some advice about how to learn from one of them. Everyone voted for D. During this period of time, I tried to not only refer to the competitor’s website to do the first screen by myself but also contacted some engineers to deal with the difficult technical problem. However, due to the limitations of the theme, I can only make it to this extent. What do you think of the website I have changed so far? I really want to know what you guys think. Especially the first screen and category bar of my website, do they look strange, compared with others? Have a nice day, everyone 🙂
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