Category: Marketing Automation

 

 

As the company matures, its MarTech stack grows more or less complete and it leaves less room for new tools and improvements, not to mention the costs, that grow rapidly. Yet, the CDP market growth estimations show some whooping values, and this fact clearly indicates that even mature companies see the potential in enriching the stack with Customer Platform. This happens, because CDP not only integrates seamlessly with the existing MarTech stack without major changes or costs, but unlocks the potential of this stack in the first place, making money invested in the MarTech in the past pay off more. In this article we will explain, in detail, how. 

 

CDPs and CIPs rapid rise and the question why?

 

It is estimated that the customer data platform market will grow from USD 3.5 billion in 2021 to USD 15.3 billion by 2026, at CAGR 34.6%.

 

 

During the same forecast period, the global analytics market size is estimated to grow from USD 9.6 billion in 2021 to USD 25.3 billion by 2026, at CAGR 21.3%. 

 

source

 

TheNext Gen CDPs or AI-empowered, Customer Intelligence Platforms, which are basically the same, fall simultaneously into these two categories. On top of this,  84% of marketers plan to include AI capabilities in-house. AI plays an essential role in a modern CDP.

 

Companies around the world adopt CDPs into their MarTech stack, and they do it rather rapidly, like it would be a must-have for a company to even keep up with the competition. 

 

But why? 

 

As we will show in the next chapter, the current MarTech stack, modeled on an average, mature eCommerce company, is already rather impressive. Various expensive systems already are supposed to work in synergy, to provide the companies with outstanding customer insights and assure unparalleled customer experience throughout all the touchpoints.

 

The truth is, that they don’t. Or actually didn’t, until Next Gen CDPs / CIPs entered the stage. Each of the tools in the model stack works well, does what it was designed to do. It is their orchestration that proves to be lacking. 

 

In this article we will uncover the reason behind the rapid CDPs market growth, by explaining, how the adoption of a CDP not only adds it’s individual value, but, finally, unlocks all the repressed potential of all the tools already in disposition, enabling true synergy and becoming functional foundation of the modern MarTech stack. 

 

First let’s take a look at a model stack, often in use today.

 

Traditional MarTech stack model

 

There are plenty of tools in a typical MarTech stack. In this chapter we will briefly introduce some of them and explain how they are supposed to work together to collect the customer data and then activate it in various channels/touchpoints.

 

Data collection

 

Enterprise Tag Management

 

Tag management systems control the deployment of all other tags and mobile vendor deployments via web interface, without any software coding. Tag management systems make it easy to add, edit or remove any tag with point and click simplicity.

manages data collection
manages third-party tags
manges digital data distribution

 

Digital Analytics

 

Digital analytics tools gather and analyze digital data from various sources like websites, mobile applications, among others. It provides a vision on how users or customers are behaving. Through digital analytics, companies obtain an insight into the areas where they need improvement. 

behavior and segmentation
analytics
historical segmentation

 

Data Management Platform (DMP)

 

A direct predecessor to CDP platforms, that was “almost it”, emerged in the early 2000’s. DMP gathers and organizes second and third-party data and shares it with other marketing technology systems to gain deeper insights into customers. It can also segment anonymous ID’s.

customer recognition
audience segmentation, activation and orchestration
look alike modeling and third-party data

 

CRM

 

As of 2021, we can easily call Customer Relation Management the legacy system. It came into existence even before DMPs, in the early 1990’s. It is a technology for managing a company’s relationships and interactions with all of its customers and potential customers. It started with sales, then customer service and marketing came along. Finally commerce joined. Primarily however, CRM works with operational data of known customers. 

customer data, scoring and attributes
opt-in preferences
products/orders

 

Data Activation

 

CMS and eCommerce tools

DAM and Content Management
Template creation and publication
Content authoring

 

On-site and app personalization tools

A/B and MV testing
Targeting and personalization
Recommendation

 

Media tools

DSP/Ad Server
Retargeting platforms
SEM tools
Paid social platforms

 

Cross-channel Campaign Mgtm.

Direct Marketing automation management
Contact and Offers management

 

How they all are supposed to work together

 

This classic package of tools is fundamental to lay a baseline for digital data collection and activation. 

 

In the collection part, data from the Tag Management tool is sent for analysis and segmentation to the Digital Analytic tool. Such prepared data is then sent to DMP, that should provide customer recognition, segmentation and orchestration, using third-party data. DMP also exchanges the data with the legacy CRM, enriching it and taking what is needed for recognition and segmentation. From this central, DMP part, data is then activated.

 

The data is transferred to various activation systems: CMS and eCommerce, On-site and app personalization tools are used to manage the content of the websites and apps as well as for testing, targeting, and personalization of this content. Media tools optimize the content for paid external media, and Cross-channel Campaign Mgtm. has the use in Direct Marketing, like email, sms or chat channels.

 

In reality, such a stack does not work smoothly enough to feed the activation tools with real-time, unified data. 

 

Traditional MarTech stack painpoints

 

Dispersed data

 

Systems like DMP and CRM keep the data in their own silos. They are connected, they are able to mutually enrich or correct their datasets, but none of them puts them all together to create a unified, single source of truth about the customer.

 

From this problem another emerges. Traditional MarTech stack suffers from connection issues between different tools and technologies. The difference in implementation of these tools results in loss of data consistency across the stack. 

 

Security and privacy issues

 

When there is inconsistency and connection issues, the often invaluable data gets inevitably lost. Traditional MarTech stack puts the companies at a major risk of either have their customer data stolen by the outside agent, or misused by i.eg. marketing team.

 

It is next to impossible to control and protect from the hackers all the data flowing back and forth between different systems and technologies, when each has its technological weak spots and it is hard to determine if a data loss, leak or change was an effect of connection problems, human error or outside intrusion. It is no less difficult to manage the customer marketing consents in this situation. 

 

Identity resolution

 

Another problem, linked to data consistency and time to activation, is insufficient ability of the traditional MarTech stack to solve identity resolution. Without a single source of truth about the consumer for the company, marketers are forced to use third-party data in their efforts to unify the customer profile. Third-party data are, as for 2021, becoming a thing of the past. Not to mention, how much time and effort has to be put into, in the end, futile trying to achieve a unified customer profile.

 

Time to activation and time to market

 

Marketing teams and, actually all teams in a company, struggle to deliver the effect of their efforts to the market on time. They are forced to manage the data using too many systems and tools that capture different datasets.    

 

Unfulfilled potential of the MarTech tools

 

All these problems combined diminish and repress the potential that each of the tools in the stack has. Fed with inconsistent data, transferred across differently implemented systems, the tools work slow and fail to produce really usable results. And delivering them in real-time is out of the question.

 

To put it simply, traditional MarTech Stack fails in the task of providing consistent, connected and actionable customer experience in all touchpoints offline and online.

 

CDP / CIP definition

 

The Customer Data Platforms emerged to deal with this problem exactly. Before we explain how the CDPs work, let’s define them. They were designed not to displace all the expensive MarTech stack, but to finally unlock it’s potential and make the data gathered in it usable.

 

The most clear and understandable definition of a Customer Data Platform is probably this on, provided by Gartner: “A customer data platform is a marketing system that unifies a company’s customer data from marketing and other channels to enable customer modeling, and optimize the timing and targeting of messages and offers.”. 

 

Another, also interesting, has been coined by the CDP Institute. According to them, the Customer Data Platform is a “packaged software that creates a persistent, unified customer database that is accessible to other systems.”.  

 

“Packaged software” means that CDP is ready-to-use, off-the-shelf software, provided usually by the vendor. 

 

The part about “persistent, unified customer database” means that CDP collects the data from many different sources, basically, all the company’s touchpoints, where acquiring first-party consumer data is possible, like sales, loyalty, customer service, social media, etc. Data from different sources is stored in CDP, then merged and unified into a single customer profile.

 

Finally, “accessible to other systems” means that customer data is shared with any other system that needs it, like those used by sales, marketing, commerce. 

 

Customer Intelligence Platform (CIP) is the next step in CDPs evolution. CIPs include zero-party data along with first-party data to provide insights. And they leverage AI and machine learning to understand, resolve and evaluate both structured and unstructured data available to the company.  

 

CDP / CIP is just one system, collecting and analyzing data from all other tools/systems/touchpoints simultaneously, and building a unified customer profile, providing a single source of truth for the whole company in real-time.

 

Four CDP steps in making data consistent and usable

 

The CDP actually provides consistent, connected and actionable customer experience in all touchpoints offline and online. Unlike in the case of traditional MarTech stack, without CDP, where data is integrated in every tool separately, Customer Data Platform simply does it all, utilizing the whole stack and touchpoints, physical and digital. 

 

Collecting data from omnichannel sources

 

The  first task for CDP is to collect data from all channels, physical, like stores or call centres, and digital. The data originating from these omnichannel is sometimes anonymous, sometimes nominative. For example when they are linked to an email account or loyalty number.

This data, gathered in real time, is then linked to a wide range of attributes: promotional campaign, content consumed, purchase history, and stored. The goal is to gather all the precious first-party data to help develop customer intelligence.

personal and demographic data
onsite bahavioural data
engagement data
transactiona data
mobile data

 

Matching data to the same individual

 

Traditional marketing primarily targets devices. Today’s approach builds the contact around the person, the individual customer for better relevance.The next step CDP does is matching collected data for a people-based approach.

Cross-channel and cross-device matching is a painful task. First-party and zero-party data can prove useful in helping link information originating from different channels and devices to one single person. CDP also makes use of the existing stack, as the CRM, to extract old and nominative information that it can employ to successfully build a unified customer profile.  It can also take data from CRM and send it back enriched from other sources.

preparation
integration
enrichment

 

Segmentation and activation

 

Personal relationships with the consumer is a fundamental goal for modern marketers. To provide the means to do this, CDPs have  the ability to precisely segment profiles. This is its third step.

 

The CDPs task is to increase the number of possible segments based on several criteria: demography, geography, behaviour, etc. The CDP will then use these audience segments as a foundation to activate the solutions available, i. e.g. Dynamic Creative Optimization or personalised advertisements, marketing automation sequences or website personalisation.

The CDP can also activate data in physical touchpoints such as stores and call centres.

defining rules
building the audience
real time
email
push messaging
sms
social
web

 

Analyzing and optimizing

 

In the third step  activations are applied to segments and the subsequent results are analysed and serve as feedback to further refine these segments and activations. For example CDP gets the best out of A/B testing solutions. CDP can be connected to DMP to provide segments obtained from advanced statistics module as predicted ones.

 

The CDP breaks down metric silos and minimises interpretation bias for campaign results. In the case of the traditional MarTech stack, the attribution models are still rather basic.  The ways in which the performance of i.e.g. campaigns are too isolated to provide the company with sufficient, unbiased results. CDP’s central coordinator role allows for distinct performance metrics from one scenario to another.

modeling
analysing
automation

 

CDP fit into marketing stack

 

Since CDP effectively utilizes all existing MarTech stack employed by the company, one can ask, what this platform really is and how it fits into the existing stack? Is it just another solitary, monolith solution? A system built from several services? Or maybe an architecture, putting together and squeezing the most of already existing tools? 

 

Since the answer to all above questions may easily sound “yes” it is clear that CDP means for the company more than just its definition. 

 

The most practical role or a function for CDP in a MarTech stack is to be its foundation, making all the data gathered in there a single truth, actionable for all the company’s divisions. It does not change the precious stack itself, instead acts as a support for each and every individual tool and adds a value to it. 

 

Challenges for CDPs in the future

 

As for 2021, the biggest challenge for CDP’s, both platform providers and their clients, is an accurate assessment of how much data is actually enough. 

 

Everybody knows that more data provides the analyses with more context and provides the company with more meaningful results. But the major obstacles for unobscured customer data landscape can be summed up in these questions:

How can deeper insight into customers’ patterns be gained?
How to store all this data?
How to do it safely?
How much of it is actually useful in terms of enhancing customer experience?

 

Currently, we work to address all these issues, in order to provide our clients with even more useful datasets that will be actionable across all the company’s touchpoints on the customer journey.

 

To see what immense possibilities in providing consistent, connected and actionable data a modern CDP can offer you today,  request a SALESmanago demo.

 

The only constant in the world of marketing is that things are always changing. And, if you’re a marketer, business leader, or entrepreneur aiming to plan an effective 2022 strategy that puts you far ahead of your competitors, you probably want to know:

Which trends are marketers leveraging today? And, which do they plan to start leveraging in 2022?
Which marketing channels are they using?
What are the top content-marketing formats?
What challenges are they facing?
And, most importantly, what are their plans and expectations for 2022 and beyond?

As the HubSpot Blog’s Research Analyst, I launched our Marketing Industry Survey to help fellow bloggers and readers answer the questions above — and gain further industry insights into 2022 planning.

Our Survey Sample
We surveyed 1,067 global marketers from across B2B and B2C companies from small to large employee sizes. The sample included professionals at varying experience levels from seven countries: the U.S., Australia, Canada, Germany, UK, France, and Japan.
Read on to learn about some of the most interesting key findings, get strategic recommendations based on our data, and find even more blog content that dives even deeper into our research.

Which trends are marketers already leveraging today?
Influencer marketing, mobile-friendly website design, short-form video, virtual events, and experiential marketing are the top trends marketers currently leverage.

These trends will see continued growth in 2022 as most marketers will increase their investment in them or continue investing the same amount.
Let’s dive into each trend and how marketers are thinking about them moving into the next year.
1. Influencer Marketing
While influencer marketing was once less accessible to small brands that couldn’t budget a high-priced celebrity or a top-tier social media user, the growth of social media has led to an abundance of influencers with nano to macro followings.
Now, as more businesses invest in influencer marketing, they’re beginning to see solid benefits. In our survey, Influencer marketing was the most popular and most effective trend with the biggest ROI.
By working with an influencer that’s gained trust, expertise, or notability in a specific industry, brands can gain awareness, traffic, and potentially conversions from that influencer’s audience.
2. Short-Form Video
As TikTok’s virality grew in 2020 and 2021, other social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube rushed to get into the short-form video game. And, as more platforms continue to shift to prioritizing quick, fast-paced content, so have marketers.
Our Marketing Strategy Survey results show that short-form video is popular, effective, and still growing, especially among social media marketers.
In fact, 30% of social media marketers plan to invest more in short-form video than any other social media marketing strategy in 2022. Meanwhile, 33% plan to leverage short-form video for the first time in 2022.
3. Virtual Events
Virtual events are popular, effective, and will continue to be a top trend marketers leverage in 2022.
However, 17% of marketers who leverage virtual events will decrease their investment in 2022, the second-highest decrease of any trend marketers invested in during 2021. Additionally, while 31% of marketers currently leverage virtual events, just 9% of marketers plan to leverage them for the first time in 2022.
If you have virtual events planned, don’t let this research panic you. Virtual events are still the third most prominent trend marketers will invest in throughout the next year.
Additionally, the decreases noted above could signal a natural transition from virtual to hybrid or physical events as more public venues fully re-open in the next year. As an event marketer, it will be important to weigh all of your options and local mandates to determine which event type will be most effective and comfortable for your audience in the coming year.

Which trends do marketers plan to leverage for the first time in 2022?
Short-form video, social responsibility, and inbound marketing are the top trends marketers plan to leverage for the first time in 2022.
While I explained some of the appeals to short-form videos above, here’s a quick snippet about the other two trends.  

Brands Will Take More Social Responsibility
In 2020 and 2021, consumers paid more attention than ever to how companies treated their customers, audiences, employees, and the world around them. And, many companies used this time to take a stance on their values. As these brands took on more social responsibility, they found that current or new audiences shared their values and gained trust, credibility, memorability, and awareness from those consumers.
Moving into 2022, more marketers are recognizing the importance of social responsibility. Investment in social responsibility will continue to grow from those already leveraging it and from marketers using it for the first time.
Digital Transformation Will Boost Inbound Marketing Use
As we move into 2022, consumers will be more connected to the web and digital platforms than ever. And, outbound strategies have gotten even more out of date.
To meet customers and audiences where they are, 23% of marketers will leverage inbound marketing for the first time.
To read more about short-form content, social responsibility, and other key trends analyzed in this survey, check out these posts:

The Marketing Trends of 2022: The Ultimate Guide
The Top 5 B2C Marketing Trends of 2022

Which marketing channels are businesses leveraging?
The top channels marketers currently use are social media, website/blog, and email marketing.

1. Social Media
Social media is the most popular and most effective marketing channel, with the highest ROI.
The use of social media will continue to grow, with 39% of those who don’t use social media planning to leverage it for the first time in 2022.
Additionally, 26% of marketers plan to invest more in social media than any other channel in 2022
In 2022, 51% of marketers who leverage social media plan to increase their investment in social media marketing, and 37% will continue investing the same amount.
The Top Social Media Platforms
1. Instagram
Instagram is the most popular social platform, just ahead of YouTube and Facebook.
However, Facebook has the biggest ROI of any platform, and 25% of social media marketers say they will invest more in it than any other platform in 2022.

2. YouTube
YouTube is No. 2 in terms of usage, but ROI lags behind Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok. Still, expect to see the platform continue to see marketing growth as brands continue to leverage it for its ginormous audience and growing brand opportunities.
3. TikTok
While TikTok is the No. 6 platform in terms of usage by social media marketers, 62% of those who leverage it plan to increase their investment in 2022, the highest of any social platform.

The Top Marketing Content Formats
Video content, blogs, images, and infographics are the top media formats.

1. Videos
Video leads across the board as the most popular and effective format with the highest ROI, and 30% of content marketers plan to invest in video more than any other format in 2022.
2. Blogs
Blogs are popular, effective, and have the 3rd highest ROI of any format.
The use of blogs will continue growing in 2022, with 29% of content marketers planning to leverage blogs for the first time and 10% planning to invest more in blogs than any other format.
3. Infographics.
Adoption of infographics will continue growing as 45% of content marketers currently leverage them and 38% plan to leverage them for the first time in 2022.
Additionally, 56% of content marketers who leverage infographics say it is the most effective content format they use.
4. Podcasts and Audio Content
Only one in three content marketers use podcasts or other audio content. While 51% of those who do plan to invest more in 2022, 43% plan to continue investing the same amount 
Despite low ROI reports, 53% of content marketers who leverage podcasts and other audio content say it is the most effective format they use.
5. Audio Chat Rooms
Just 14% of social media marketers leverage audio chat rooms like Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces, but 68% of those who do say it’s the most effective social media strategy they use, despite low ROI.
Additionally, 49% of those who already use audio chat rooms plan to increase their investment in 2022, while 47% plan to maintain their current investment next year.
More Insights From the HubSpot Blog
Has this data inspired you to build out or refine your marketing strategy in 2022? Be sure to keep following the HubSpot Blog’s data-driven content to dive deeper into current and emerging industry trends.
Next, check out this post where I give 11 recommendations for marketers based on the data above, plus survey findings that didn’t make it into this post. 
Below are a few blog posts that further break down the findings of our Marketing Industry Trends survey. We’ll continue to update this list as we publish more articles, so be sure to bookmark this page!

More Marketing Industry Trend Insights

The Marketing Trends of 2022: The Ultimate Guide
The Top 5 B2C Marketing Trends of 2022 [HubSpot Blog Data]

6 Short-Form Video Trends Marketers Need to Watch in 2022
11 Marketing Recommendations for 2022 [Based on HubSpot Blog Data]

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When it comes to email marketing, the name of the game is efficiency. It would be impossible to assume that you would be able to send each of your email subscribers an individual email. The time it would take to put together hundreds of emails just doesn’t exist. You’re busy, with a lot of other…
The post Bulk Email Senders: What Are They and Tools We Recommend appeared first on Benchmark Email.

Last Updated on November 22, 2021 by Rakesh Gupta I’ve been a firm believer in gratitude and recognizing one’s blessings every day. Some days it appears as though none exist and those are the days one needs to look the hardest and give extra thanks. Thanksgiving provides us an opportunity
The post Deepest Gratitude – Happy Thanksgiving! appeared first on Automation Champion.

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A quick roundup of Constant Contact alternatives for those who are looking for an ESP, or looking to make a switch.
No matter what size your business is, email marketing plays a vital role in success.
Not only does it give you the opportunity to establish and build relationships with your target audience, but the right email service provider (ESP) can help you monitor just how well your communication efforts are paying off.
Picking the right tool, though, can be tricky. With loads of options to choose from, and many of them saying they offer similar features, how are you supposed to make a decision?
Constant Contact has been a popular choice for businesses for a long time. One of the first email marketing platforms out there — they’ve been a familiar name to many marketers and small business owners since 1995.
But what about today? Constant Contact has surely changed and improved since 1995, but how does their platform stack up with other platforms on the market now?
Here are a few Constant Contact alternatives to help you adequately survey the modern ESP landscape.
The 10 Best Constant Contact Alternatives

Campaign Monitor
GetResponse
SendPulse
ActiveCampaign
Mailchimp
BenchMark
ConvertKit
AWeber
Emma
Sendinblue

How we sourced our data
To get an accurate picture of the tools covered in this article, we visited unbiased review sites like G2 and Capterra to get a good first-hand look at how users were experiencing each platform, not just how they were talking about themselves on their websites.
We visited each competitor’s site as well, but only for up-to-date information on features and pricing.
Every email service provider is going to have customers that vouch for it and those who were unhappy. As a marketing professional, you know that you can’t make everyone happy. Here’s a list of Constant Contact alternatives to help you find an ESP that suits your brand’s specific needs.
1. Constant Contact vs. Campaign Monitor

Yes, you’re reading this post on the Campaign Monitor blog, so we acknowledge that this could come off a bit biased. But, we feel that Campaign Monitor is a top solution for those looking for a Constant Contact alternative.
Campaign Monitor is an industry-leading, easy-to-use email marketing platform for all marketing professionals across all industries.
With over a decade of experience, our platform allows users to create and send beautifully branded emails while monitoring their success with our helpful campaign dashboard.
Customers get the most out of our responsive template library, and newly-updated user interface that makes building emails or automation workflows easier and more delightful than ever. This stands in strong juxtaposition to Constant Contact’s interface that has been known by customers to lag and feel a bit out of date.
And with offices around the globe, customers in any timezone are able to connect with our customer support team and resolve their issues any time, day or night.
If you need an ESP to serve as an all-in-one email marketing tool, Campaign Monitor might not be the best fit for you or your email campaigns. Constant Contact offers features like a landing page builder or social media integrations that Campaign Monitor doesn’t have.
Similarly, if you have intricate and complex automation and personalization needs for a wide and varied audience, one of our partner enterprise solutions might be a better tool to help you reach your email marketing goals.
But if you want an email marketing tool that ranks higher for its ease of use, ease of setup, ease of admin, quality of support, deliverability, and building/personalizing emails, Campaign Monitor is your way to go.
You’ll also find a price benefit in picking a more focused tool like Campaign Monitor, with plans starting at $9/month — less than half of Constant Contact’s $20/month.
Reviews from Campaign Monitor customers
Comprehensive Email Marketing Platform. I’ve tried a lot of different email marketing platforms over my 15 years in marketing and Campaign Monitor is hands-down the best option out there. I would waste hours of my time fiddling around on other platforms to get things to display properly. In other platforms, everything would look great until I send out the email and then the HTML would be all jumbled and things wouldn’t display properly. This is not the case with Campaign Monitor. When I send emails they look exactly the same as they do in the preview. Finally, I can get hours of my life back!
— Jessi N, Director of Marketing & Business Development
The best email marketing software. Campaign Monitor is so far the easiest to use in its field. Creating beautiful emails and managing campaigns cannot be easier, even if you have never done it before.
— Luca M, CEO and founder
Great User Support and an Accessible Platform. Campaign Monitor is easy to use and accessible for every employee regardless of their skillset. The client service team responds quickly when there are issues to be resolved.
— Administrator in Public Relations and Communications
2. Constant Contact vs. GetResponse

A screenshot of GetResponse’s website in 2021.

 
GetResponse is a suite of tools that offers email marketing solutions to both enterprise businesses and small businesses — but is particularly known for its small business solutions.
The brand states that their tools help marketers grow their sales, maximize return on investment, and help you succeed in online marketing.
They boast a robust template library with over 500 pre-built template options, though it’s worth mentioning that customers find the drag-and-drop builder not particularly robust.
GetResponse also has a free plan with limited features for those with under 500 subscribers, making it an attractive option for getting started. From there, plans start at $12.30/month.
Reviews from GetResponse customers
One of the best programs to send emails. GetResponse is an incredible tool to do email marketing, in our company we use it to manage our entire list of clients and distribute in an organized way all our informative and promotional emails, usually the emails arrive or inbox or promotions which is very good and shows great quality in this tool, the percentage of reading and opening emails, GetResponse has a very intuitive and advanced email editor with good templates to create our emails, we usually use it to create promotional emails, you can also manage your contact lists and possible customers, I have imported them from any other data collection tool, on the other hand, regarding the price GetResponse is very kind because their plans in quality and price are excellent and they offer us a large amount of monthly emails for a really accessible price.
— Maria S, Marketing Specialist
It is a very reliable tool for email marketing. GetResponse is a very powerful tool, one of the things that I like the most are its reporting and statistics functions since they are very detailed, easy to understand and provide enough data to understand what works best for our landing pages and which campaigns need a readjustment in the strategies to generate more conversions. On the other hand the templates offered have good designs and allow me to create very fast campaigns and easily readjust them.
— David B, Web Designer
3. Constant Contact vs. SendPulse

A screenshot of SendPulse’s website in 2021.

 
SendPulse is an email service provider that offers marketing tools intended to help consumers empower their business. Marketing themselves as an all-in-one communication platform, their services expand beyond just email and into SMS, messengers (think chatbots), and web push (browser notifications).
The brand states that the principles behind their vision include being customer-focused and innovative, all while prioritizing teamwork to help provide only the best for their customers.
Customers find the drag-and-drop builder easy to use, and have enjoyed the SMS function as well. And while the platform scores high for ease of use and ease of setup, customers have mentioned bugs, lack of support, and poor performance when building campaigns among their dislikes.
SendPulse offers a free plan for up to 500 subscribers. After that, plans start at $6.40/month — still favorable to Constant Contact’s $20/month.
Reviews from SendPulse Customers

A Great Platform For Email and SMS Marketing. I admit it was pretty challenging to understand the process of creating a template email and sending out your campaign. But once you know the methods of importing, exporting developing campaigns, this platform is a great start point for any individual. I used it in my previous company to send out campaigns.
— Jonathan P., Marketer

Good integration and useful tool for email marketing. There are lots of things I like with regards to SendPulse, the free edition of this application is one of them since it provides its end-users the opportunity to evaluate the tool and so that they can make their own conclusions.
— Nandani S., Digital Marketing Consultant

4. ActiveCampaign vs. Constant Contact

A screenshot of ActiveCampaign’s website in 2021.

ActiveCampaign is a relatively new tool that boasts a lot of features — particularly around their automation platform. Positioning themselves as a “customer experience automation” tool, ActiveCampaign has features that help you reach, nurture, convert, and grow your audience.
Another all-in-one platform, ActiveCampaign offers a lot of advanced features that more seasoned marketers are looking for. Like Campaign Monitor, they offer an advanced automation builder that a lot of ESPs lack.
With features that span a lot of different use cases, some customers might find ActiveCampaign has more than they need, and may not want to pay the $25/month starting price tag. But, for more advanced marketers who are looking to expand far beyond email, and want to do it all from one platform, ActiveCampaign is a compelling choice.
Reviews from ActiveCampaign customers
ActiveCampaign – Great for Solopreneurs & Small Biz Too. I am a fan of MailChimp – but switched to Active Campaign because it merges the capacity for email newsletters and mass mailings with the need for one–to-one messaging and automation. Usually solutions for larger businesses are overkill for micro-businesses, but AC is a great solution for both.
— Mary M, Principal
Affordable and functional software for Marketing Automation. The Automation Builder is simple and clear to use, and the storage of previous campaigns for use as templates is incredibly helpful! The help guides available online from Active Campaign are also clear and concise.
— Gemma P, Director
5. MailChimp vs. Constant Contact

A screenshot of Mailchimp’s website in 2021.

MailChimp is one of the most popular ESPs on this list. It’s an all-in-one tool with a pretty robust free plan for those with under 2,000 contacts, which makes it easy to say yes to them while getting started. Plus, for beginner marketers who want to be able to manage a lot of their tools — like a website, form builder, popups, and even direct mail — from the same platform, MailChimp is an attractive option. Though, it’s worth noting that running a website with them will be an additional cost from using their email marketing services.
It’s also worth noting that MailChimp just launched a direct integration with Shopify, which is nice for eCommerce retailers.
Marketers who are looking to get more advanced with their marketing, though, might find MailChimp’s features a bit basic. Common quips with MailChimp tend to be around their not-so-advanced automation features, their customer support, and the lack of flexibility in their drag-and-drop editor. Plus, their recent acquisition by Intuit leaves some question marks around where the platform could be heading.
With paid plans starting at $9.99/month, MailChimp is a good option for entry-level marketers looking for an easy-to-use tool and don’t need much email marketing automation or segmentation.
Reviews from MailChimp customers
Modern email program with intuitive interface. Mailchimp is fairly intuitive. The email builder is drag and drop and it doesn’t take long to get the hang of it. I also like the quick view of the email results on the dashboard. It’s a great way to track the success of a campaign and compare it with previously sent emails.
— Dan S., Small Business Co-Founder
Overall good free email marketing program. I like the price point – we are at a free subscription currently. I do like the simplicity of updating and being able to manage contacts well. We have several different groups, depending on the dissemination of information needed, while we can also add tags and target groups that way.
— Stephanie L., Landscape Designer
6. Benchmark vs. Constant Contact

A screenshot of Benchmark’s website in 2021.

Benchmark promotes itself as “email marketing that won’t slow you down,” thanks to its powerful tools that are streamlined for continued growth. This ESP states that it’s their goal to create tools that help marketers grow their audience, all while helping increase both sales and overall engagement.
Most users find their email builder intuitive and easy to use, giving marks for that part of the platform. That said, users have also found list management difficult, leading to trouble segmenting users or adding lists of new subscribers. Pricing can get somewhat expensive as well as your number of contacts goes up.
Plans for Benchmark has a free version capped at 250 emails per month. To unlock unlimited emails, plans begin at $13/month.
Reviews from Benchmark Email customers
Great Tool for General Marketing. Benchmark Email is user-friendly as straightforward as far as features go. This tool would be great for small business marketing, non-profit association or even corporations. Personally, I enjoy the customization features. The different templates are fun and allow you to create a custom piece of work to reach your audience.
— Marissa R., Associate Director of Chapter Services
Benchmark email a great service! This system has allowed to attract new clients and in turn make great advantages or move the traffic of our website, it seems to me that it has extremely attractive simple and simple tools which allows to be much more agile When creating .edit marketing campaigns, we have not had any kind of problem we have had innovation managing to release the work stress found in marketing areas.
— Alice T.
7. ConvertKit vs. Constant Contact

A screenshot of ConvertKit’s website in 2021.

Of the Constant Contact competitors, this one is perhaps the least conventional. ConvertKit is a relatively new email marketing platform specifically tailored toward creators. They have a lot of the features you might expect from an ESP — like automation, sign-up forms, email sending, etc — but their platform is mostly geared toward musicians, writers, podcasters, YouTubers, etc who are looking for a tool to help them monetize their platform and build relationships with their listeners/readers.
For online creators, using ConvertKit is an easy choice. With features geared specifically for making a living off of your online platform, ConvertKit is the leader in this space. For those marketing on behalf of a business or organization, though, a more traditional
ConvertKit is free up to 300 subscribers, and paid plans start at $9/month.
Reviews from ConvertKit customers
User-friendly and easy to start for the not-so-tech-savvy. For someone without a lot of technical knowhow, you can simple, clean, great looking emails. Even someone like me, who is tech-savvy and has used almost every major email marketing provider, the CK setup time is great.
— Alaia W., Business Organization & Process Consultant
A great email service for writers! It’s easy to use, and it’s a great email system for people who are writers or write a lot of content.
— Isabel S., Portrait Designer
8. AWeber vs. Constant Contact

A screenshot of AWeber’s website in 2021.

AWeber is another ESP that gives marketers a wide range of tools to help grow their businesses. With email marketing services, and other marketing tools like landing page templates, eCommerce pages, and push notifications, AWeber has features to reach just about your entire marketing funnel.
A lot of customers think highly of their automation tools and list management — making it easy to segment your email list and reach targeted groups with targeted messages. At the same time, some say their email builder, email templates, and campaign creation interface are a bit outdated.
AWeber has a free tier of up to 500 subscribers, and from there, their paid pro plan begins at $16.50/month.
Reviews from AWeber Customers
High quality service for a premium price. The service that Aweber provides is top notch. All the tools that it gives, the deliverability of the emails, reporting and analytics all is perfect.
— Liudas B, Owner
The best platform for email marketing is incredible. I like how it provides our company with a means to automate the response to personalized emails, I like how it is integrated into each ecosystem of programs, it integrates with other platforms without problem, the delivery capacity is impressive fast, besides it is extremely easy to use and your customer support is effective.
— Maiker L, General Manager
9. Emma vs. Constant Contact

A screenshot of Emma’s website in 2021.

Emma is an industry leader in email and digital marketing that focuses on helping its consumers drive conversions and revenue with email. They typically cater to the needs of those in more specific industries, like fitness, retail, agencies, restaurants, franchises, universities, and nonprofits.
To help these brands, Emma has built a platform that helps managers keep their brands and messages consistent across distributed teams. With the ability to lock templates and manage campaigns across locations, Emma is ideal for organizations that might have more than one location — like a restaurant franchise or a gym — who need to keep their brand consistent while sending messages specific to their location.
Emma doesn’t send transactional emails out of the box (something a lot of ESPs on this list do) or include a survey tool. If getting quick feedback or transactional emails are top priorities in your email marketing strategy, Emma might not be the tool you need to reach your goals as efficiently as possible.
With prices starting at $89/month, Emma is priced above what a lot of small businesses need. However, if you’re running marketing for a franchise or business with multiple locations, Emma is an excellent choice.
Reviews from Emma customers
Easy tool with massive impact. Emma’s easy-to-edit templates are a breeze to use and are a great way to start a mass mailing. Plus, their ability to test multiple subject lines (and see the results for which ones lead to the most clicks) makes it certain that your email will get the greatest engagement possible.
— Dakota R, Resident Director
Reaching our client base with Emma. I love the ease of use. The ready-to-go templates save me time and brain power. Our clients get a beautiful, professional-looking communication from us. I can integrate and customize the look of my Eventbrite events into my emails with no trouble.
— Trista B, Marketing Manager & Maxwell Health Champion
10. Sendinblue vs Constant Contact

A screenshot of Sendinblue’s website in 2021.

Sendinblue is a powerful ESP that covers an array of marketing needs. With email marketing tools, SMS, Chat, and a shared inbox feature for support teams, Sendinblue is an all-encompassing tool.
Customers seem to get the most out of their campaign creation workflow, which is said to be intuitive and easy to segment. However, some customers have complained of their automation features, as well as a lack of integrations with other tools.
Sendinblue has a free tier with unlimited contacts, but it only lets you send 300 emails a day and misses core features like A/B testing. Their paid plans start at $25/month.
Reviews from Sendinblue customers
Great for email automation. Nice free plan for starters and to learn basics. Good support. It works. The templates are good. The UX is good. Creating and following a campaign is easy and you get good information about it. The free version lets you start and try features and learn.
— Gastón B
Good Value! Compared to Constant Contact send in Blue is a great value. Our email list approaches 70k and we found that CC’s pricing kept creeping up. Their templates are easy to set up and customize for your program.
— Dominic J, Executive Director
Wrap up
Those who are considering making a switch from Constant Contact will find no shortage of alternatives. Picking the right ESP for your business needs can be difficult, but we hope that this blog post helped provide some guidance for your decision.
If Campaign Monitor stood out to you amongst this list of Constant Contact alternatives, feel free to request your live demo today and see what we can do to help improve your email marketing efforts.
The post Top 10 Constant Contact Alternatives for 2022 appeared first on Campaign Monitor.

 

 

Collecting zero-party data is not that hard, once you have a good idea and proper tools to execute it. The necessity of building a zero-party data collection strategy may be closer than you think. Here are 7 tricks to boost data collection in a cookieless world.

 

The shift away from third-party cookies is becoming a reality.

 

By 2022, more than 85% of internet browsers will block third-party cookies. (McKinsey)

 

Companies that won’t accept the new reality will be at a loss. Already, many publishers are looking for a way to make the transition to more consensual and ethical data sources relatively painless.

 

The publishing industry will have to replace up to $10 billion in ad revenue with a combination of first-party data and updated contextual targeting and probabilistic audience modeling. (McKinsey)

 

That’s all fine and dandy, but there’s a particular type of data that will make your contact’s profiles, and therefore your marketing, more effective: zero-party data.

 

As early as 2018, 15% of brands planned to collect zero-party data. (Forrester)

 

What’s more, consumers themselves want personalization. However, it must be balanced.

 

Stunning 91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands who recognize, remember, and provide relevant offers and recommendations. (Accenture)
While 41% of consumers think that text from a brand or retailer when walking by a store is creepy, 45% of people finds other personalized action (receiving an apology email after a poor in-store or online experience) rather cool and endearing. (Accenture)

 

It is the use of zero-party data that leads to the humanization of the customer experience in the digital world. And that’s what customers like. They are willing to trade information about themselves and their preferences for it.

 

Whopping 74% of respondents said they would find “living profiles” valuable if they could be used to curate the experiences, offers, and products they receive. (Accenture)

 

How can you boost data collection?

 

Personalize your website

 

First of all, use first-party data to collect zero-party data. Collect everything you know about your contacts based on their behavior. Show them that you notice them and pay attention to what they do and tailor your actions to their preferences.

 

Use this knowledge to customize the banners and pop-ups you display and ask users to provide data in exchange for rewards that appeal to them.

 

Use Web Push channel

 

Gain a new channel of communication with anonymous users. Collect opt-in consents via forms to send notifications.

 

The next step will be to prepare and launch a targeted campaign to get contact information and opt-in consents for other channels!

 

Ask directly

 

Open communication with your audience will also work well for collecting first-party data. If you want to know something about them, such as how often they want to receive messages from you and what topics they want to read about, ask them via email. By sending a campaign with a survey, you’ll give them the opportunity to provide feedback and let you know their preferences.  The data obtained this way will allow you to segment your audience by many attributes and personalize the messages you send.

 

Use progressive forms

 

Not many people are ready to give you a bunch of information about themselves at the first meeting. That’s why it’s a good idea to gather information slowly, starting with the bare essentials for basic marketing activities. More data will come with time, especially if you are committed to building relationships and gaining the trust of your audience. Progressive forms are a good way to gradually collect data about your contacts. Don’t worry about it taking a little longer. The time will pass anyway, and the trust built is priceless and pays off in the future.

 

Ask for rating

 

Customer satisfaction surveys are the bloodstream of business development. Ask your customers to rate the quality of your services and products. Find the satisfied customers who can be stimulated to further conversions and those who need extra care. And who knows? Maybe you will get ready ideas for real improvement of your business.

 

Use Website Automation Rules

 

What about users who are still anonymous, for example they are on your site for the first time? You can use the Website Marketing Automation feature. It uses triggers based on user behaviour to obtain data at the best moment for this purpose. This will still be data that is voluntarily and knowingly submitted. You can use these mechanisms to convert anonymous users into identified ones.

 

Swap

 

Do you have valuable articles on your site? Make good use of them! The knowledge shared by experts is quite a treat for those interested in the topic. Practical guides, instructions, recipes… You can make them all attractive and exchange for recipients’ data. Ask users to leave their contact details and in return provide access to valuable knowledge!

 

A few words about data collection to sum up

 

“Customers have stated that they would be more willing to trust companies that gave control over the collected information, are transparent in the way they use that information, have a strong privacy policy or ask for explicit consent.” (Data Privacy Manager)

 

When collecting data, always consider the feelings and needs of your users. The information once entrusted to you does not suddenly become public property that you can use for any purpose. Do not exceed given consents. Once trust is lost, it is difficult to regain, just like reputation on the market. Fortunately, this also works the other way around, and a firmly established reputation for trustworthiness will spread far and wide and bring you more business.

 

If you want to learn more about ethical data sourcing, contact your account manager and tell them about your needs.

 

Guess what? Global marketing is no longer reserved for brands with deep pockets, nor is it a huge hassle for marketing managers who handle all marketing efforts.
In fact, a global presence is possible for any business with a creative strategy and an understanding of world markets. Let’s go over what a good global marketing strategy looks like and the best examples worldwide.

What Is Good Global Marketing?
Global marketing is the act of focusing a product on the needs of potential buyers in other countries.
Like most types of marketing, though, a global marketing strategy comes down to one thing: audience. Knowing who needs your product, what form they need it in, and how to market it in a way that strengthens the brand are core ingredients of awesome global marketing.
Typically, a global marketing strategy requires a business to do new market research, identify countries where the business’s product might be successful, and then localize the brand to reflect the needs of those communities. However, localization is not always necessary. Some brands adopt a global standardization strategy instead.
No matter where you visit those brands, the experience and imagery is virtually the same.
In contrast to localization, where there’s a more differentiated marketing approach to each market, global standardization provides significant cost benefits as a result of less messaging and fewer campaigns.
However, the key is in knowing when a global standardization strategy will be effective. Because it banks on a universal appeal despite cultural or locational differences, you’ll need to research whether customers use or think about your products differently depending on their market. If there’s no difference between the usage and understanding from country to country, a global standardization approach is practical.
Choosing localization or global standardization is one aspect of creating a great global marketing strategy.

To give you an idea of what a great global marketing strategy looks like, we’ve compiled a list of brands that totally “get it.”
From adapting their social strategies to translate across multiple languages to adjusting their menus to appeal to the cravings of a diverse group of people, these brands are taking positive steps toward creating a solid presence across the globe.
So, if you’re looking for inspiration on how to craft a successful international marketing strategy and expand your business’ reach, check out these examples from the world’s most successful companies.
1. Red Bull

Austrian company Red Bull does such a great job with global marketing that many Americans assume it’s a local brand. How?
One of its most successful tactics is to host extreme sports events all over the world. From the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix to the Red Bull Air Race in the United Kingdom to the Red Bull Soapbox Race in Jordan, the brand’s powerful event marketing strategy takes them here, there, and everywhere.
Aside from events, Red Bull’s packaging also plays a part in its global appeal.
“Red Bull really looks like a product from a global economy. It doesn’t look like a traditional American soft drink — it’s not in a 12-ounce can, it’s not sold in a bottle, and it doesn’t have script lettering like Pepsi or Coke. It looks European. That matters,” explains Harvard Business School professor Nancy F. Koehn. Though it’s since diversified its product selection since that article was published, the fact remains that Red Bull’s consistent packaging has helped this brand go global.
How to Imitate Red Bull’s Strategy
For smaller brands, reaching Red Bull’s level of international awareness might seem out of reach, but you can imitate the brand’s strategy by offering one notable product — the product you’ll most be known for. Then, be sure to keep the packaging the same no matter where you distribute it.
You can also host virtual events across different time zones and regions, which the pandemic has made more possible and trendier than ever.
2. Airbnb

Airbnb, a community marketplace for people to list and book accommodations around the world, was founded in 2008 out of San Francisco, California.
Since then, Airbnb has grown to 1,500,000+ listings in 34,000+ cities worldwide. A large contributor to the company’s explosive global success? Its video campaign titled “Made Possible by Hosts.”
Airbnb launched the campaign to bring its worldwide community of hosts and guests closer in the wake of COVID-19. The company referred to the campaign as a way to highlight “the magical experiences that hosts bring to guests.” To create the campaign, Airbnb took real videos and photographs from guests and put them in a video to create the “sense of nostalgia” we feel when we travel.
Over 3 million people worldwide have engaged, created content, or talked about the campaign. Just one of its videos has over 3.5 million views.
How to Imitate Airbnb’s Strategy
Airbnb is inherently an international brand because its guests and hosts hail from a wide variety of locations worldwide. Even if you identify as a more local brand, there are ways to globalize your efforts.
First, bring the focus to different customers in different regions when you create a testimonial or case study. You can also ask your international customers to contribute a photo or video of your product in use, and feature that in your social media content.
3. Dunkin Donuts

National Donut Day happens every year in June. While we get our hands dirty with a Boston creme (or two) here in the States, Dunkin Donuts China serves up a fresh batch of dry pork and seaweed donuts.
With over 3,200 stores in 36 countries outside of the U.S., Dunkin Donuts has evolved its menu to satisfy the sweet tooth of its global customers.
From Korea’s Grapefruit Coolata to Lebanon’s Mango Chocolate Donut to Russia’s Dunclairs, it’s clear that Dunkin Donuts isn’t afraid to celebrate cultural differences in an effort to strengthen its international presence.
How to Imitate Dunkin Donut’s Strategy
If you run a restaurant business, Dunkin Donut’s strategy should draw plenty of inspiration. To globalize your restaurant brand, try to serve regional or cultural menu items during special holidays for those cultures and regions.
You don’t necessarily have to expand to international regions first, but if it’s financially viable, opening new locations or launching regional websites can help you become a global brand.
4. Domino’s

Similar to Dunkin Donuts, Domino’s has prioritized menu innovation as a means of increasing international interest and awareness.
“The joy of pizza is that bread, sauce, and cheese works fundamentally everywhere, except maybe China, where dairy wasn’t a big part of their diet until lately,” explains Domino’s CEO J. Patrick Doyle.
“And it’s easy to just change toppings market to market. In Asia, it’s seafood and fish. It’s curry in India. But half the toppings are standard offerings around the world.”
By making a conscious effort to gain a better understanding of the preferences of the markets it’s trying to break into, Domino’s can deliver pies diverse enough to gain international attention.
How to Imitate Domino’s Strategy
Domino’s strategy is another you’ll want to use as inspiration if you run a restaurant business. Try to invite chefs from different cultures and regions, then have them cook your menu items in their regional style and with regional ingredients.
Highlight the chefs in your social media profiles. By doing so, you’ll show your followers in those regions that they’re also top-of-mind, expanding your global reach.
5. Rezdy

Some companies may not be trying to attract global markets directly, but if their clients are, they better know how. Rezdy is an Australian-based reservation software designed to make online booking smoother for tourists and agents alike.
Though Rezdy’s clients are Australian-based, the company needs to cater to its clients’ international visitors. On its homepage, it says it works for operators and agents in over 100 countries.
The service is designed to be used globally, with hundreds of personalization options for the tool’s timezone, language, and currency. Rezdy’s website and marketing collateral is English, so it caters to English-speaking tour operators, particularly in Australia, the UK, and North America. But it knows its customers’ target audience are in other countries abroad. It thus emphasizes its tool’s internationalization capabilities.
How to Imitate Rezdy’s Strategy
Rezdy effectively globalizes its services by taking into account that its customers’ target audience will be in other countries. Even if your company is marketing to other regional companies, consider their global customers as if they were your own. If your product, tool, or software can be used abroad in a wide variety of applications, be sure to add that to your marketing collateral — even if you operate regionally.
6. World Wildlife Fund

World Wildlife Fund takes the literal approach to global marketing by having hundreds of offices worldwide, each with highly localized goals for each region. It goes global every year with its Earth Hour initiative — a voluntary worldwide event where participants turn off their lights for an hour to show how easy it can be to battle climate change.
It specially promoted its Earth Hour event in Norway. Scandinavian countries like Norway experience extreme daylight hours in different seasons, making the country a prime candidate for WWF’s Earth Hour campaign. Using digital agency Mobiento, the nonprofit placed the Earth Hour Banner across Norway’s top media sites to promote the event. With one tap of the banner, the screen went black. Finger swiping the black screen slowly revealed the Earth Hour countdown. The banner attracted roughly 1,000,000 impressions and the campaign received three MMA Global Mobile Marketing Awards.
How to Imitate WWF’s Strategy
WWF has hundreds of offices that make it easier for the non-profit to go global, but thanks to the internet, its easier than ever to connect with international audiences, especially for a certain initiative you might want to launch, like Earth Hour.
If you have a cool idea, don’t be afraid to try it out on one international market — just make sure it’s the appropriate audience. (Also, don’t be afraid of the dark.)
7. Pearse Trust

With offices in Dublin, London, Vancouver, Atlanta, and Wellington, Pearse Trust has grown to be an international authority on corporate and trust structures. But it takes more than offices all over the map to reach an international audience.
That’s why Pearse Trust keeps content flowing on its blog that engages its various markets. In the screenshot above, you can see Pearse Trust posts a lot of content featuring international affairs relating to the company’s practice.
It also levels out external articles with Pearse Trust content, featuring news from places like Germany, Ireland (where it has a Dublin office), and the U.K. (where it has a London office).
How to Imitate Pearse Trust’s Strategy
This is a great example of focusing on common interests shared among your company’s various markets while also making the content relatable to customers by region. Globalizing your marketing can be as simple as creating content that caters to different target audiences in different target regions.
8. Nike

Nike has been able to evolve its global presence through the careful selection of international sponsorships, such as its previous long-standing relationship with Manchester United.
Although sponsorship spending can be fairly unpredictable — demand costs tend to surge due to triggers like championships and tournaments — these partnerships have certainly helped the brand capture the attention of a global audience.
Nike’s “Nike by You” co-creation platform serves as another strategy that the company is using to appeal to international markets. By putting the power of design into the hands of the consumer, Nike is able to deliver customized products that align with different cultural preferences and styles.
How to Imitate Nike’s Strategy
Partner with other brands, influencers, and ambassadors in your international target markets. Choose them carefully. For instance, Manchester United is a prominent cultural force in the UK, and that certainly helped Nike grow in that country.
If you sell a consumer product, why not give the option for your audience to customize — and resell — the products as well? You’ll end up capturing a much larger audience, and consumers from different regions will much better capture their region’s preferences and tastes.
9. McDonald’s

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We all know McDonald’s is a successful global brand. While keeping its overarching branding consistent, McDonald’s practices “glocal” marketing efforts. No, that’s not a typo. McDonald’s brings a local flavor to different countries with region-specific menu items. For instance, McDonald’s offers the McArabia, a flatbread sandwich, in its restaurants in the Middle East.
McDonald’s has also introduced macaroons to its French menu:

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And added McSpaghetti to its menu in the Philippines:

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No matter what, there’s something to learn from the giant.
How to Imitate McDonald’s Strategy
Like the other restaurant examples on this list, opening restaurants in other regions may be the first and most natural answer. But if that’s not feasible, especially if you run a regional brand, celebrate the flavors of the world by hosting an “International Day” and posting about it on your website and online. This will get you on the radar of those who may enjoy those foods daily and help you spread the word in other markets.
10. Innocent Drinks

Innocent Drinks is the leading smoothie company in the U.K., but that’s not the only place you’ll find its products. In fact, Innocent products are now available in 15 countries across Europe.
And despite its widespread reach, the company’s friendly branding remains consistent across the board. For instance, the website is very bubbly, with contact information that prompts to the viewer to “call on the banana phone” or “pop by Fruit Towers,” the name for its corporate office.
While global expansion and rapid growth can sometimes distract a company from consistent branding, Innocent Drinks has managed to remain true to itself. By ensuring that the brand’s voice is interpreted the same way around the world, Innocent is able to create a more recognizable brand.
How to Imitate Innocent Drink’s Strategy
Stay true to your brand voice even as you expand to other markets. Innocent Drinks is immediately likeable because of its tone on its website and social media. Friendliness makes you feel more approachable — and thus more accessible to a global audience. Plus, if your brand is consistent across the board, audiences across regions won’t feel like they’re getting cheated out of everything your brand can offer.
11. Traffic Ticket Clinic

The phrase “glocal” can be defined as “Think Globally, Act Locally.” But what happens when you switch the two around?
Traffic Ticket Clinic is a traffic ticket law firm that defends drivers in the state of Florida. Not very global, right? Well, Traffic Ticket Clinic understands that America is a melting pot and that Florida is bursting at the seams with different cultures and languages.
Though a domestic service, the firm’s website is available in English and Spanish. With those options, Traffic Ticket Clinic can cater to Florida’s nearly 3.5 million Floridians who speak Spanish. Don’t miss out on expanding your client base — sometimes you don’t have to look far to attract international business.
How to Imitate Traffic Ticket Clinic’s Strategy
One of the easiest ways you can begin global marketing is by offering your website in different languages. If you own a WordPress website, you can do that by using a translation plugin. But remember: Look at your target market first to figure out the best languages you should offer on your site. For instance, don’t offer Swahili if you don’t serve East Africa.
12. Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is a great example of a brand that’s well-known for its international marketing efforts. Though a large corporation, Coca-Cola focuses on small community programs and invests a lot of time and money in small-scale charity efforts.
For example, in Egypt, Coca-Cola has built 650 clean water installations in the rural village of Beni Suef and sponsors Ramadan meals for children across the Middle East. In India, the brand sponsors the Support My School initiative to improve facilities at local schools. Not to mention, the brand sticks with selling an emotion that can’t get lost in translation: happiness.
How to Imitate Coca-Cola’s Strategy
In your marketing efforts, try to promote your values by investing in communities worldwide. You can start small, such as with a yearly sponsorship or recurring donation, and then work your way up to launching a charity effort on the ground.
Try to appeal to a universal human feeling as well. If you’re a marketer at a hospital, you might appeal to grief and hope in a 1-minute video about a hospital visit. These are feelings that trascend countries and languages, automatically helping you reach a global audience.
13. Spotify

Spotify is considered one of the best global companies in the world, according to Interbrand. We’ve all heard of Spotify (no pun intended), but how did it suddenly, and so quickly, expand from Sweden into other countries?
Spotify’s business model is focused on helping you find something new.
It’s one thing to select a genre of music to listen to — it’s another thing to select a “mood” to listen to. In Spotify’s “Browse” page, you can listen not just to “country” and “hip-hop,” but also music that caters to your “workout” or “sleep” preferences.
By changing how they describe their content, Spotify gets users to listen to music that goes beyond their favorite genres, and instead satisfies habits and lifestyles that people share all over the world. This allows international artists to access listeners from other countries simply because their product is being categorized a different way.
Spotify now has offices in more than fifteen countries around the world.
How to Imitate Spotify’s Strategy
Spotify’s example is a winner because its global marketing strategy is entirely product-based. It offers music, podcasts, and media in so many languages, the audiences in those countries couldn’t help but start using the product. If your product lends itself to that, try featuring items or products that will appeal to the people of different regions and countries.
Start Global Marketing in Small Steps
If you have global aspirations for your business, you need to find out what customers in different communities have in common — and how to localize your product for these different markets. Your first step? Take inspiration from one of the businesses above. Start small, then work your way up as your business grows.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in January 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

The past two years have been anything but consistent.
The pandemic left the United States in the worst recession in history. People struggled to adjust to remote work, and what we defined as “normal” varied day-by-day.
And yet: Out of that turmoil and inconsistency, we now see a record number of people quitting their jobs in pursuit of better opportunities.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, 4 million people quit their jobs in April 2021, and July saw another 4 million leave.
Which leads me to question: Amidst the past two years of unpredictability — and a resulting lack of security — why are so many people taking the leap now?
Here, we’ll explore what employee turnover is, how much it could be costing your business, and how to calculate employee turnover. Plus, how employers can minimize the effects of what’s being called the Great Resignation, according to experts.

What is employee turnover?
Employee turnover refers to the percentage of employees who leave your company during a given period of time.
Your company’s employee turnover rate includes anyone who leaves for anyreason. This includes resignations, terminations, or retirements. However, turnover rate typically doesn’t include internal movement, such as an employee switching teams or being promoted.
Turnover can cost a business thousands — if not millions — of dollars, and can negatively impact team morale and performance.
All of which is to say: The lower your turnover rates, the better. Low turnover rates signal a healthy, engaging company culture— which is critical for any business’ long-term success.
To determine how your company’s turnover rates compare, let’s explore average turnover rates by industry next.
Employee Turnover Rates in 2020 (By Industry)
Employee turnover rates vary by industry, so you’ll want to do your own research to determine how your company’s turnover rates stack up against competitors.
However, to give you a sense for an appropriate range, let’s take a look at a few turnover rates by industry as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor(it’s important to note, these turnover rates are from 2020, which had unusually high turnover rates):

Professional and business services: 69.2%

Health care and social assistance: 45.2%

Trade, transportation, and utilities: 60.5%

Retail trade: 69.7%

Leisure and hospitality: 129.3%

Government: 24.2%

Real estate and rental and leasing: 49.4%

Next, let’s look at average employee turnover rates.
Average Employee Turnover Rates
In 2021, the overall turnover rate across industries was 57.3% — but that drops to just 25% when considering voluntary turnover alone.
Voluntary turnover trends continue to rise. In fact, the Work Institute’s 2020 Retention Report states that there’s been an 8% increase in turnover rates since 2018, and an 88% increase since 2010.
Average turnover rates varies significantly depending on your industry. However, a 90% employee retention rate is generally considered good — which means the closer you can get to a 10% turnover rate, the better.
Cost of Employee Turnover
The cost of employee turnover is broken down into the costs of four factors — the cost to terminate, the cost to hire a replacement, the vacancy cost (i.e. how many days the job is open multiplied by the average value of the job per day), and the productivity cost (i.e. how long it takes the new hire to get up to speed).
Josh Bersin of Deloitte says the cost of losing an employee can range from tens of thousands of dollars to 1.5-2X the employee’s annual salary. This means, if you lose an employee who was making $70,000, you can expect to lose upwards of $140,000.
Alternatively, the Work Institute cites the cost of employee turnover at roughly 30%of the employee’s salary — meaning, if you lose an employee who was making $70,000, you’ll expect to lose closer to $21,000.
Employee Benefit News suggests a similar turnover cost at roughly 33% of a worker’s annual salary.
So, whichever way you slice it … you stand to lose a lot of money with each individual employee who leaves. Of course, turnover costs are so difficult to quantify because they’re so specific to each employee’s role and salary.
When determining your own turnover costs, you’ll also want to keep in mind the negative impact high turnover rates can have on company culture and employee productivity — which could lead to even more lost revenue down the line.
How to Calculate Employee Turnover [Plus High and Low Rates]
To calculate your turnover rates, you need to divide the number of employees who leave your company by the total average number of employees, and then multiply by 100.
And, to find your average number of employees, you’ll want to take the number of active employees at the beginning and end of each period, and then divide by two.
To understand this concept, let’s consider an example. If you have 1,200 employees at the beginning of the month, and 1,250 at the end of the month, your average number of employees on a monthly basis is 1,225 (1,200 + 1,250 / 2).
Now, let’s calculate your monthly turnover rate. In the month of September, if 7 people left your company, your turnover rate formula looks like this:
To calculate annual turnover (which is typically the number companies use when assessing employee trends), you’ll want to find your average number of annual employees. If at the beginning of 2021 you had 1,200 employees, and at the end of 2021 you had 1,500 employees, your average number of employees is 1,350 (1,200 + 1,500 / 2).
Now, let’s calculate your annual employee turnover. If you had 200 employees leave in 2021, your annual turnover rate formula looks like this:
To put these numbers into context, you’ll want to determine what a high and low turnover rate for your industry looks like, since turnover rates vary greatly depending on industry. For instance, retail and e-commerce saw a 30.7% turnover rate in 2021, while the technology industry’s turnover was roughly 20%, and financial services was closer to 15%.
Why is turnover so high?
To reduce employee turnover, we first need to understand what’s causing it.
For starters, we’re seeing employee turnover increasing on a national scale. The Labor Department reports that job openings outnumbered the unemployed by more than 2 million in July as companies struggled to fill positions.
Additionally, Microsoft’s 2021 Work Trend Index predicts 40% of the global workforce will consider leaving their employer this year.
This extreme workplace shift — being called the “Great Resignation” — is due to a variety of factors.
To better understand the high turnover rates of the past year, I spoke with Lily Zheng, a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Strategist and Consultant.

Zheng told me, “We call it a great resignation but it’s more of a great correction. These are employees who had already resolved to leave in 2020 but felt they couldn’t.”

Our HubSpot Blog analyst further investigated this issue by polling 500 marketing professionals to learn why turnover was high at their companies. (Those polled belong to both B2B and B2C companies.)
As shown below, 41% of respondents cite lack of work-life balance as the primary reason for high turnover. Another 37% additionally cite a lack of flexible work schedules.

HubSpot Blog Research
In 2020 and 2021, flexibility, autonomy, and the ability to work from anywhere became a necessity as the world shifted to a pandemic and post-pandemic workforce. And even as offices begin to re-open, we see employees continue to prioritize work-life balance and flexibility.
A few other factors? Lack of remote work options, lack of career growth opportunities, burnout, and employees switching careers to pursue other passions.
For better or worse, the pandemic permanently shifted people’s mindsets when it comes to what they value. And one of the biggest value shifts is a newfound prioritization of time.
Simply put, people will work hard for your company if you enable them to choose when, where, and how they work best.
Next, let’s explore a few tips for reducing employee turnover at your organization.
How to Reduce Employee Turnover
1. Give employees a remote or hybrid option (if conducive to your business and work culture).
Now that people have settled into a remote lifestyle, many of them don’t want to return to the office. In fact, when HubSpot surveyed roughly 500 marketers, 40% of respondents said they’d like to continue working remotely full-time even when given the option to return to the office.
A remote lifestyle enables employees to dedicate more time to priorities outside of work. For instance, I have one colleague who now spends her mornings journaling and meditating — which greatly outweighs her old mornings of being stuck in traffic on her commute to work.
I have another colleague who spends lunch break with his kids.
People have recognized the amount of valuable time they win back when they’re fully remote. So if your company doesn’t offer remote or hybrid options, some of your employees will inevitably leave.
2. Prioritize your employees’ well-being.
Promoting wellness at work has been proven to result in better productivity and less employee turnover — which is why it’s a critical strategy to consider when aiming to reduce turnover.
As Lily Zheng writes in her LinkedIn post with over 19,000 reactions, “Your employees aren’t leaving just because they’ve found better opportunities elsewhere. They’re leaving because this is the first chance they’ve gotten to re-balance the scales of their own wellbeing and success, scales that you and your company swung out of whack during the pandemic.”

Seeing as the post received over 19,000 reactions, I’m willing to bet many employees — and employers — agree that, in some instances, well-being wasn’t prioritized by companies in 2020.
To invest in your employees’ well-being, consider creating a wellness program, which includes strategies aimed at increasing physical activity, reducing employee stress, and offering information on nutrition and health.
Additionally, a few big factors that contribute to a positive workplace experience include flexible work hours, an emphasis on autonomy, an investment in diversity and inclusion, and a focus on employees’ mental health and psychological safety above all else.
3. Foster a sense of belonging.
If you want to reduce turnover, take belongingness seriously.
A sense of belonging is undeniably critical for long-term employee satisfaction. In fact, there’s a 91% correlation between employees who say they belong and those who stay engaged at work, and a 50% drop in attrition among employees who report a sense of belonging.
As Belonging Strategist and Managing Director of BelongingIQ Abam Mambo puts it, “Employees who feel a sense of belonging tend to stay engaged, productive, and are far less likely to leave than those who feel excluded. So if you want your good employees to stay, invest in belongingness.”
How can you invest in belongingness? While this list isn’t exhaustive, Mambo lists a few strategies you can implement to begin facilitating a sense of belonging on your team:

Appoint and pipeline inclusive leaders
Recruit and empower a diverse workforce
Implement fair and equitable employment practices
Reward performance
Reframe your ‘speak-up’ program to ensure employees are heard, treated fairly, and not retaliated against

Ultimately, a sense of belonging contributes to an employee’s sense of pride, happiness, and satisfaction at work. So investing in belonging won’t just help your turnover rates — when done right, it will also positively impact your bottom line, as employees who belong are also employees who are engaged.

4. Use a net promoter score to measure employee satisfaction.
A net promoter score (NPS) survey can help you measure your employee satisfaction, and how likely your employees are to suggest your workplace to friends or family.
The survey uses a 0-10 scale, and those in the high range (between 9-10), are your most loyal and engaged employees who will help fuel your growth through word-of-mouth. The next batch (scoring between 7-8), are satisfied but slightly more indifferent — these are employees who are more susceptible to competitors’ offers.
And, finally, you have your lower scorers (between 0-6). This signifies a group of employees who aren’t fully satisfied at your company. These people are less engaged and more willing to leave.
To lower turnover rates, it’s vital you determine what’s working for your employees, and what isn’t. If you aren’t measuring employee satisfaction, there’s no way for you to know how to improve it. A NPS can help you determine weak spots in your current culture and opportunities to strengthen your employee offerings, which will enable you to keep more employees around for the long-haul.
5. Offer competitive pay and benefits.
Earning more money is the top reason people leave jobs. In fact, PayScale research found 25% of people surveyed left their jobs for higher pay — ranking far above people who left because they were unhappy, wanted more flexibility, or needed to relocate.
Offering competitive pay depends on a variety of factors. You’ll want to consider your geographic area and industry to determine a baseline competitive rate.
Additionally, it’s important to keep in mind the level of expertise for which you’re hiring, as well as supply and demand — for instance, if you’re looking for a senior developer and you know the pool of developers is relatively small in your area, you might need to increase base pay to compete.
If you can’t increase base rate, consider offering competitive benefits packages, instead. Tuition reimbursement, PTO, flexible hours, fitness discounts, and parental leave are all factors to consider when creating a comprehensive employee benefits package.
6. Provide professional development opportunities.
Learning and professional development matters for long-term employee satisfaction.
Consider, for instance, how 94% of employees would stay at a company longer if the company invested in helping them learn.
Additionally, did you know Gen Z learners watched 50% more hours of learning content in 2020 compared to 2019?
Ultimately, the desire to learn and grow is fundamental to human nature. So investing in training and development opportunities is vital for reducing employee turnover.
As Greenhouse’s Director of Talent Acquisition Ariana Moon puts it, “Investing in growing and up-skilling employees is especially important in the context of our rapidly evolving digital environment today.”

Moon says, “Recognizing the talent you have and prioritizing internal mobility is not only key for retention and engagement, but also a win-win for your company due to opportunities to cross-pollinate knowledge and skills across teams.”

While Moon acknowledges the hesitations some team leaders might feel when considering internal mobility programs (due to anxiety about vacancies they’ll have if people move off their teams), she says it’s ultimately critical for the success of the business as a whole. 
As Moon puts it, “Companies need to think holistically about how internal movement can benefit the overall business — through improving morale and productivity, elongating tenure due to new opportunities for growth, and developing employees who have multifaceted skill sets and are more resilient to change.”
At HubSpot, we offer development and training courses that focus on clear communication, leading effectively, giving and receiving feedback, and expanding impact. These trainings are offered by HubSpotters, for HubSpotters.
To create an effective learning and development program, you’ll want to map out a clear career growth plan for each department. Next, you’ll need to determine which skills are vital for each role. Once you have a list of skills, you can begin mapping out a plan that includes training and development opportunities for each of those necessary skills.
7. Be thoughtful and strategic when hiring new candidates.
Retention rates will vary greatly depending on your hiring process. The more time and effort you can put into finding the right candidate(s) who will fit well into your existing organization, the less likely you are to see high turnover rates. 
As Co-Founder and CEO of Crosschq Michael Fitzsimmons puts it, “Historically, hiring managers have been incentivized to increase headcount as fast as possible, but the data shows that approach is a losing proposition. As recruiters work quickly to keep pace with filling roles, they rely on imperfect gauges for candidate quality — including resume claims, interview feedback, and perhaps traditional reference checks.”
“Unfortunately, these methods are scattered at best, introducing bias and frankly, noise. In fact, Crosschq’s research has shown only a 9% correlation between interview scores and the quality of a hiring decision.”

Fitzsimmons adds, “The finish line isn’t the new hire’s first day on the job … it’s the productivity, culture fit, and retention of that hire for months and years to come. It’s important to align what you’re hiring for with what you’re expecting on the other side.”

To improve your hiring strategy, Fitzsimmons recommends modernizing your hiring tools and processes to better leverage data insights for improved hiring decisions. 
Additionally, it’s vital you’re clear and honest upfront with candidates about a role. Even though it might be tempting to paint an unrealistic picture of a role to secure high-quality candidates, it’s better in the long-run if you ensure your candidates are fully aware of both the perks and challenges of each role before they’re hired.
Ariana Moon agrees that hiring is vital for long-term retention — as is onboarding.
She told me, “Many industry surveys have shown that over 85% of new hires make the decision [to stay or leave] within the first six months of employment. That number can be traced back to the onboarding experience. 69% of employees will stay for longer than 3 years if their onboarding experience is good, while 1 in 5 will leave within 45 days if it’s bad.”
To improve your onboarding process, Moon suggests taking a hard look at your programming through the lens of various employee personas, and focus on creating experiences where each new hire can feel heard, represented, supported, and enabled for success.
8. Develop an inclusive culture for distributed teams.
Inclusivity is undeniably paramount for ensuring each employee feels valued — but as the workplace changes, you’ll need to adjust your approach to ensure you’re still creating an inclusive environment for a hybrid or fully remote team.
“To create an inclusive culture,” Zheng told me, “I’d first encourage employers to show humility and admit you don’t know the best solutions for a new, hybrid environment. Host focus groups and listening sessions, and ask your employees what would be ideal for them — and then collect the data.”
As Zheng describes, an inclusive workplace will look different for everyone. Perhaps your data shows your team wants to return to the office — in which case, the ideal solution is to support a return-to-office policy.
Alternatively, maybe your workforce has people who want to feel a greater sense of connection, but don’t necessarily want to return to the office. “In that case,” Zheng says, “maybe you’d benefit from considering a model where you ask people to come back to the office for social activities or team-building activities, but outside of those activities you support remote work.”
Of course, if you have a distributed team with employees across the globe already, you’ll want to brainstorm how you can create a more inclusive culture in a fully remote environment.
Reducing employee turnover will likely require more than just the eight tips mentioned above. Employee satisfaction varies between industries and individual companies, so you’ll want to take the time to research what truly drives people towards — or away from — your business.

And, as Zheng reminds me — reflection is key. “It’s important for employers to recognize that employees have a lot of power right now, and so it’s not the time to be complacent … And, [as you reflect on your employees’ experience], go back and consider which aspects of the ‘status quo’ have always failed a large portion of your workforce. What do you need to reckon with if you want to survive into 2022 and beyond?”
Ultimately, the pandemic shifted people’s perspectives and values when it comes to work. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. If you notice your turnover rates are higher than normal, consider what you need to change to remain competitive in a post-pandemic landscape.