Category: Marketing Automation

In 2018, Musical.ly, music sharing app, was purchased by Chinese tech firm Bytedance and merged with the firm’s new app, TikTok.
It started out as a video-sharing social network where users shared short clips of themselves lip-synching and dancing to trending music. It has since expanded to house more diverse videos and become a creative outlet for brands.

After the merger, TikTok’s active user base grew by almost 800%. Today, the platform has over 1 billion monthly users and brands are using TikTok ads to reach them.
In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about TikTok’s advertising platform and discuss if it’s worth leveraging.

Types of TikTok Ads
How do Tiktok ads work?
How to Set Up Your TikTok Account
TikTok Ad Review Process
TikTok Ad Examples
TikTok Advertising Cost
Should you leverage TikTok for Business?
TikTok For Business Pros and Cons

The platform’s stated goal is to help businesses unleash their creative side by teaching them how to use the app through their e-learning service and guiding them through making advertisements on the Ads Manager platform.

The sole marketing format for businesses to use on TikTok is video advertisements. The TikTok For Business Ads Manager platform helps marketers create these advertisements, and they can choose from five different formats.
TopView Ads
TopView ads on TikTok are videos that appear once a day, immediately after a user opens their app for the first time. Here’s an example of a TopView ad by candy company M&M that they’ve created to advertise a virtual Halloween experience.

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TopView ads can be up to 60 seconds long, which is longer than the typical run-time for TikTok videos. Because of this, it’s perfect for businesses looking to advertise products or services that require longer periods of attention, like TV trailers.
In-Feed Ads
In-Feed ads are videos that appear on a user’s discovery page, otherwise known as the “For You” page. This is where users land when they open the app. The For You page features videos that the TikTok algorithm believes are of interest to the user based on their app activity.
These ads are the fourth video users see as they scroll through their feed. For reference, this type of advertisement is similar to those that appear in a user’s Instagram feed. Here’s an example of an In-Feed ad created by food delivery service GrubHub.
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In-Feed ads are especially valuable for marketers looking to use TikTok to drive sales conversions, as the videos can feature a call-to-action (CTA). Acorns, a finance business, has used the In-Feed CTA feature to prompt viewers to download their app.

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Some brands have created their own version of In-Feed ads by partnering directly with influencers. For example, Raising Cane’s Restaurant partnered with famous TikTok influencer Chase Hudson to promote their business.

@lilhuddy
this my way eating @raising.canes what’s yours #CaniacAmbassador #raisingcanes
♬ Stuntin’ On You – Tyla Yaweh

Users who follow Hudson would see this video within their For You feed.
Branded Hashtags
Branded Hashtags are advertisements that businesses use to inspire TikTokers to create content around a brand-related hashtag of their choice. Businesses using this ad format have exclusive access to the hashtag, which is not the case on other social media sites. Its exclusivity comes along with a high price tag, and reported average costs are around $150,000 USD for six days.
For example, say you’re a sportswear company that has just launched a new athletic shirt called Blue Shirt. You may create a branded hashtag called #InMyBlueShirt, where you encourage TikTok users who have your product to post videos of them doing physical activities in the shirt.
Jennifer Lopez, a music artist, has used the Branded Hashtag feature to advertise her song, Pa Ti. The hashtag is called #PaTiChallenge, and Lopez posted a video of herself dancing where she encouraged other TikTok users to take part in the challenge by replicating her dance.

@jlo
Let’s goooo! ✨🚨✨ Can’t wait to see and share some of your best #PaTiChallenge dances! Thanks for kicking it off @charlidamelio! @papijuancho
♬ Pa Ti – Jennifer Lopez & Maluma

The #PaTiChallenge hashtag has garnered 2.4 Billion views.
Hashtag Challenges can be featured on TikTok’s Discover page, where users can find new creators and browse trending hashtags. The Discover page is similar to Instagram’s Explore page.
The hashtag challenge #WorldSeries, sponsored by Major League Baseball, is featured on TikTok’s Discover feed, and the hashtag encourages users to post videos showing how they’ve celebrated baseball games. Clicking on the hashtag brings users to an internal landing page that features the sponsors’ logo, challenge description, and other videos using the hashtag.
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Brand Takeovers
Brand Takeovers are an ad format that can include TopView, In-Feed, and Branded Hashtags all at once. They can also be videos, gifs, or still images. The takeover aspect of these ads is that TikTok only features one business per day, and the starting cost is around $50,000 USD per day.
Guess, a fashion company, ran a Brand Takeover on TikTok to advertise their denim jeans. Over six days, their TikTok account gained over 12 thousand new followers and generated a 14.3% total engagement rate. Their Brand Takeover included Top View, Branded Hashtag, and In-Feed ads.
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Branded Effects
Branded Effects ads use 2D, 3D, or AR to add images of your products into TikTok videos. Brands typically create stickers of their products or create filters that TikTokers can use when creating their videos. These filters and stickers increase engagement and brand awareness, as using them typically involve playing brand-specific games.
Puma, a clothing company, used the Branded Effects feature to advertise their new soccer shoes. Their 3D sticker prompted users to play a virtual reality game with a soccer ball. They paired their Branded Effects sticker with a hashtag challenge that generated over 100,000 videos of user-generated content.
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How do TikTok ads work?
Setting up a TikTok ad is relatively easy.
First, you have to create a business account from which you will build, manage, and track your ads. The next step is describing your business and setting up your payment type.
Now, here’s where the fun starts. You can choose between two ad manager modes: simplified and custom.
In both options, you build your ad in levels. You first outline your campaign, then define your ad group, and finally create your individual ads.
Here’s the difference between these two modes:

Simplified mode takes a simple and straightforward approach to ad creation, letting Tiktok’s algorithm do the heavy lifting.

Custom mode gives advertisers full control over their ads with advanced customization options, such as A/B testing, audience targeting based on video and creator interactions, and ad combinations.

Choosing a mode isn’t permanent, you can always switch to another mode.

Now that you know how TikTok ads work, here’s how to set up your account and build your ad.

Create a business account.

Describe your business.

Enter your billing information.

Set up your payment type.

Select your ads manager mode.
Build your ad.
  Pro-tip: When building your ad, consider Promo, the video marketing tool that allows you to find video templates and create high-quality promotional videos.
Review and submit.

TikTok Ad Review Process
When you submit an ad for review, it usually takes 24 hours to review. To avoid any delays, you want to make sure your ad meets the platform’s ad requirements and follows its policies.
Here’s a checklist to use when reviewing your ad before submission:

The landing page:

Is functional and mobile-friendly.
Delivers on what it outlines in the ad.
Matches the product name in the ad.
Is in the language of the region it’s targeting.
Doesn’t automatically download files to a user’s device.

The ad:

Is free of spelling and grammatical errors.
Contains audio.
Is between five to 60 seconds.
Doesn’t include excessive use of symbols, spacing, numbers, or capitalization.
Matches the caption.
Is in the language of the region it’s targeting (or includes subtitles.)
Doesn’t include any prohibited products or services. Find a full list here.

Is not blurry or pixelized.
Follows standard video sizes: 9:16, 1:1, 16:9.

TikTok Ad Examples
1. Fly By Jing

In this TikTok ad, food brand Fly By Jing partnered with food influencer TiffyCooks to demonstrate how easy (and tasty) it is to use the brand’s product.
Leveraging a known influencer is always a great way to raise awareness for your brand and build trust with your audience. Another great thing about this ad is that the offer is clear: Users can get 10% off by clicking on the CTA and using the code.
2. Tiffany & Co.

To promote its latest partnership with Beyoncé and Jay-Z, the brand has launched a series of ads including the artists.
The ad is simple, but effective and leads users to a landing page where they can learn more about the campaign.
3. Omsom

In 20 seconds, this food brand accomplishes a lot.
The video effectively showcases hows how its product is used. The caption also gives users some background on the brand and tells a story in just a few words. In addition, the CTA leads users right to a product page (instead of the homepage) where they convert.

Lastly, too often, ads seem jarring because they don’t fit the feel of the platform. That’s not the case here. The ad feels so natural in the feed that you wouldn’t know it was an ad if you removed the #sponsored tag and CTA.
TikTok Advertising Cost
When it comes to budgeting for Tiktok advertising, here’s the breakdown. You can select a daily or lifetime budget, which can be changed at any point during your campaign.
At the campaign level, you must have a minimum daily and total budget of $50 USD. For an ad group level, your budget must exceed $20 USD daily.
As for the advertising cost, TikTok hasn’t released its pricing policy. However, there is some information out there.
In 2020, Digiday reported that TikTok had a cost-per-mille as low as $1. After running their own experiment, JungleTopp reported that the cost-per-click was $0.19 – much lower than Facebook and Instagram.

With this platform, you can choose between several bidding strategies that are optimized for specific goals.
Should you leverage TikTok in your marketing strategy?
Since peaking in 2020, TikTok has become a go-to advertising platform for many brands. As the number of users increased, the number of ads they saw also followed from 19% in 2020 to 37% in 2021.
A 2021 Kantar report ranked the short-form video platform in the number one spot for ad equity, surpassing Amazon, Instagram, Google, and Twitter. This isn’t the first time either – they also held that spot the year prior.
Despite this impressive ranking, the data suggests marketers are still unsure about the platform. According to the report, many marketers view TikTok as highly innovative but not quite trustworthy.
As such, many prefer to rely on tried-and-true media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.
From a consumer perspective, consumers go to TikTok for authenticity and community.
According to a 2020 Nielsen study surveying global TikTok users, 59% of respondents said they feel a sense of community when they hop on the app. It’s also a major source of discovery for consumers, with 85% of users discovering new content they enjoy on the app.
As a result, the ads that are on the platform also tend to be more creative and a little less “commercial.” The study revealed that 68% of TikTok users globally find that the ads on the platform are unique and different from other social media platforms. In Indonesia, that figure goes up 23%.
So, the audience is there and ready to engage. However, the decision to use TikTok For Business in your marketing strategy ultimately comes down to your business goals and desired campaign outcomes.

To make the decision easier, we’ve compiled a list of pros and cons for marketers to use when making this decision.
TikTok For Business Pros and Cons

Pros
Cons

TikTok Ads Manager will help you expose your content to new audiences. The ‘similar audiences’ feature helps you select lookalike audiences that are similar to your target ones. TikTok has a reported 1 billion monthly users and is available in 155 different countries. If your brand is smaller or less well-known, this could bring significant awareness to new audiences. 25% of TikTok’s user base is between 10 and 19, and 22% are between 20 and 29. If your target audiences are of different age groups, you could gain exposure to a new type of customer.

TikTok’s largest user base is not representative of all demographic groups. Since its primary user base is very young, the audiences that businesses market to on the platform may be significantly younger than the intended target audiences. Advertising on the app may require you to tap into a user base that may not understand the need for your product or service.

TikTok thrives off of informal, ‘behind-the-scenes’ content. Authenticity matters to Generation Z, and they tend to shy away from the ‘ sales-to-drive’ leads marketing ads. If your brand or business typically creates sales-driven formal content, utilizing the platform can help you diversify your content types and display a new, creative side of your business.
TikTok requires niche content. The type of content that TikTok calls for may not be in line with your brand mission. If you’re a more serious, sales-focused business, learning to adapt to the fun and exciting content required for TikTok versus just driving sales conversions may be a difficult skill to learn.

TikTok has higher engagement rates than Instagram and Twitter. In 2019, TikTok’s average engagement rate at all follower levels was higher than both Instagram and Twitter. Small accounts with just 1,000 had an average engagement rate of 9.38% . Even if you’re a smaller brand just starting on TikTok, you’re guaranteed to have an engaging audience.
TikTok For Business reporting tool can’t be integrated with other platforms. All marketers know that data is crucial to understanding the success of marketing campaigns. At the moment, it doesn’t seem as though the platform can integrate with your preferred insights tool. While the Ads Manager is convenient, it will require an additional step for collecting data that you can use to understand your campaign engagement and ROI.

Should you choose to incorporate TikTok into your advertising strategy, it can be a valuable tool for growth. While the app does call for niche types of content, brands and businesses can diversify their strategy and advertise to a new audience.
Whatever your final decision is, TikTok For Business is available to those who want to harness the app’s advertising potential.

Welcome to Breaking the Blueprint — a new blog series that dives into the unique business challenges and opportunities of Black business owners and entrepreneurs. Learn how they’ve grown or scaled their businesses, explored entrepreneurial ventures within their companies, or created side hustles, and how their stories can inspire and inform your own success.
Over the last year and a half, entrepreneurs have had to revamp their marketing strategies to navigate doing business during a pandemic. This shift hasn’t been easy, especially for Black business owners. According to an H&R Block study, more than half of Black-owned small businesses experienced at least a 50% decrease in revenue during the pandemic.
As a Black woman who launched two businesses in the last year and a half, I’ve had to revisit my marketing strategy to avoid this dip in revenue. My goal was to pay close attention to who my audience is, keep track of performance metrics, and create engaging content without wasting time or money. The key was to use marketing tools that make our company more strategy-focused and data-driven.
If you have a small team, you don’t always have to hire more people to maximize results — you can invest in tools and systems to streamline your marketing strategies. Read on to discover seven high-quality tools that are user-friendly, cost-effective, and able to help you succeed.

7 Marketing Tools for Black-Owned Businesses
1. HubSpot

Best for: Customer Relationship Management
Price: Starts at $45/mo
If your marketing strategy is on point, you’ll have leads flowing in with ease. Keeping track of those leads can tell you what converted them to a buyer — this is key for knowing what’s working in your marketing strategy.
Our team uses HubSpot’s CRM tool to keep track of conversions, and when revisiting our marketing strategy, we look at two essential items:

How did the lead hear about us
What services/products are they interested in

Your marketing strategy should include a clear overview of your buyer’s journey, from awareness to decision making. HubSpot’s Deal Stages dashboard houses this important data. That way, you can keep track of each stage, and better nurture leads with relevant content.  

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2. Mailerlite

Best for: Email marketing
Price: Free, then $10 if you have less than 1,000 subscribers
My company Perfeqta started using Mailerlite this year and the benefits are endless. With the tool my team has been able to:

Easily design landing pages and newsletter campaigns with a drag-and-drop editor.
Create pop-ups and embed forms to add to our company website.
Monitor subscriber lists and divide them into interest groups.
Quickly access campaign reports to understand results.

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For those who are less email marketing savvy, Mailerlite’s academy program will walk you through its core functions so you can start building email campaigns within a few days’ time. Because of the free plan, this is one of the most cost-friendly options for all of its features.
3. Buffer

Best for: Social media marketing
Price: Free for three social channels – $10/mo per social channel for unlimited channels
Buffer is an all-in-one social media tool that my team uses to manage 12 different accounts. The dashboard is incredibly user-friendly, and it is easy to schedule (as shown in the image below), review, and publish content without having to change pages or switch accounts.

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Here are the key benefits that have allowed my team to maximize their time:

Approval tool that lets you review posts before they’re published.
Option to create campaigns and view analytics in one spot.
Audience demographics so you know who you’re targeting.
Download reports as charts and images to share with the team.
A community management tool that lets you reply to comments and engage with followers from your desktop.

And here’s another bonus: If you’re a Black- or POC-owned or -led organization that engages in anti-racism work, Buffer offers a 50% discount.
4. Google Analytics

Best for: Website tracking
Price: Free
No matter the size of your business, tracking website analytics is essential for company success. There’s a reason why many companies use Google Analytics to track customer data — it’s easy to understand, even if you aren’t very familiar with metrics.
Here’s how my team uses Google Analytics to drive our marketing strategy:

We can see which pages lead to conversions and turn people away, which allows us to make effective changes.
We can see audience demographics, which gives us a better understanding of who our clients and customers are, where they live, and how they engage with content.
We can better plan for future marketing campaigns and set attainable goals because we have clear data to reference.

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As you scale your business, you’ll want to track growth as closely as possible, so you know how to stay connected to your audience and serve them content they will engage with.
5. Canva

Best for: Content creation
Price: Free – $12.99/mo for Pro account
Once a simple software for quick, text-based graphics, Canva has become a full-fledged design suite. My team uses Canva to create content for social posts, presentation decks, flyers, proposals, and more — for only $13 a month.

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If you don’t have a designer on board, you can use Canva templates for inspiration and customize them based on your brand guidelines.  With a pro account, you can also:

Import your brand fonts and create brand color palettes.
Use Canva stock photos, which have become more diverse in ethnic representation.
Collaborate with your team and comment feedback directly on posts.
Plan your content and share it directly to your social channels.
Organize files into folders to keep track of content.
Export various file formats, including png, jpeg, pdf, gif, and more.

The platform also has a video editor, which helps eliminate the many hours spent creating quick, 60-second social media posts.
6. Asana

Best for: Building out a marketing strategy
Price: Free – $24.00/mo
Effective communication and project management are crucial for running two companies with multiple team members. Asana has made it incredibly easy for me to outline marketing campaigns, assign tasks to responsible individuals, monitor due dates, and link files to specific projects.

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My team creates visual workflows for our marketing strategies by making lists, cards, and a project calendar for each phase. Here’s how we break down some of our boards:

Research and Discovery: This section includes links and files to outside research and our brainstorming notes.
Content: We share links to relevant folders under specific tasks, so it’s easy to pull social media assets and navigate directly to Google Docs, where we write our copy.
Technical Support: We send our technical specialist reminders to ensure she keeps up with regular website updates and tests our campaigns before they go live.
Reporting: This is where we create visual charts to help us keep track of progress on an individual and team level.

Asana is also mobile-friendly, so everyone gets project updates sent directly to their phone and email.
7. Moz Pro

Best for: SEO & keyword research
Price: Starting at $99/mo
Spending endless hours creating content isn’t worth it if your target audiences won’t see it — Moz Pro helps ensure that this won’t happen. Use the tool to serve content to your audiences and rank higher in search results, drive traffic to your website, and monitor SEO campaigns, all of which are essential to growing your business and increasing visibility.
Here are the key benefits of Moz Pro:

Keyword ranking and search visibility score to see what your audience is searching for.
Link research to increase the number of high-quality links pointing to your website.
Technical site audits to make sure technical SEO issues don’t go unnoticed.
SEO insights and reporting so you can use data-driven insights when strategizing for multimedia content.

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Moz also has tons of resource guides to help you understand link metrics and analytics altogether.  
As Black business owners, it’s essential to have tools and systems that streamline your marketing processes while also supporting your business growth and team growth.
Remember, you don’t need to be an expert in every area of your business. Take advantage of the resources that have already been created by the experts so you can focus on what you do best – building amazing products and services that people love.

Google Analytics for businesses & beginners Did you know that with the help of Google analytics, you can grow your business? It can show you how to use things such as data collection and configuration to help you fine-tune your email autoresponder. Go to https://skillshop.withgoogle.com/ Click get started, go down to Analytics to get started, Google will even give you a certification that you can use in your Linkin profile. If you are unsure but are interested in the idea of affiliate marketing, check out the link below for a free Ebook on affiliate marketing and how to start your epic lifestyle change today! https://www.jonathanmontoyalive.com/3dayvsl?fpr=epicfreelancelifestyles
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In 2021, privacy issues will probably dominate marketing practices and customs. Everybody expects its major influence on the data gathering, storing and usage process, and the new regulations are frequent. The eCommerce companies as well as their tech partners brace themselves to meet the consequences of this trend. But is privacy a thing the consumers really want, and, if so, can CDPs provide the companies with adequate solutions?

 

Ambiguous expectations

 

The number of privacy legislations risen in recent years in many countries, privacy is on everybody’s lips, the consumers demand it to the point, that 30% of consumers said a brand had become “too personal”—and 69% of these consumers would stop doing business with a brand or reconsider their relationship to the brand because of this.

 

We can also observe Data Privacy related moves from the tech giants, like Apple.The recent introduction of Mail Privacy Protection feature is not the first, nor will it be the last change, forced by their clients in order to better protect their Data and/or Information Privacy.

 

On the other hand, 90% of the consumers willing to share behavioural data for an easier shopping experience, and 72% say they only engage with personalized messaging. 

 

This may create some cognitive dissonance, unless we just want to acknowledge that the consumers want to have the cake and eat a cake. In this article we will briefly introduce some basic, privacy-related definitions, speculate on how the privacy trend will affect CDPs development and explain how CDPs can help privacy right now.

 

Finally, we will try to find an answer to the title question finer than just  “The consumers want it all”.

 

Tightening regulations. Data Privacy, Information Privacy and Data Sovereignty Definitions

 

Data Privacy is the set of practices ensuring that the data shared by the customers is only used for its intended purpose. The practices focus on proper handling of sensitive data, like:

 

personal data
confidential data (i.eg. financial)
intellectual property 

 

The goal of these practices are to ensure meeting regulatory requirements as well as protecting the confidentiality and immutability of the data.

 

Information Privacy is the right of individuals to have control over the process of collecting and using their personal or confidential data.

 

Finally, there is Data Sovereignty. The term refers to the data as the subject of the laws of the country in which it is located.

 

As the adoption of cloud data services rises, many countries introduce legislations requiring data to be kept within the country in which the customer resides. In most countries, Data Privacy is a legal concept, not technology. In the European Union, data privacy is recognized as a fundamental right. On the other hand, in some countries, privacy is seen as an element of liberty, free from intrusion from the state.

 

Some examples of Data Privacy legislations:

 

California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) gives consumers more control over the personal information that businesses collect about them and the CCPA regulations provide guidance on how to implement the law. It gives the consumer i.eg. the “Right to be forgotten” or the right to opt-out of the sale of their personal information. 
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) gives EU citizens new control over their data and their interactions with companies.
US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), the legislation extends government restrictions on wiretaps to include transmissions of electronic data.
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) gives parents control over what information websites can collect from their kids.

 

How the privacy trend will influence CDPs further development

 

The regulations concerning Data Privacy as well as Information Privacy are tightening all around the world. Many sources place Data Privacy and compliance related topics among the most important trends in CDPs development as well as the digital transformation as a whole.

 

The trend for privacy is obvious, the symptoms occur everywhere, from legislation to technological solutions.

 

As the CDPs became much more common in recent years, they are now the essential part of many companies’ tech stack. The privacy trend will not only influence further development of the platforms, it will even be beneficial for CDPs. 

 

From the technological perspective, you should expect further development of even more sophisticated data governance around data privacy and customer communication preferences, provided by modern CDPs.

 

From a market perspective, the inherent traits of CDPs make them a great tool and natural choice for efficient Data Privacy practices, so you should expect even greater growth of the platforms’ market share.

 

What inherent traits make CDPs such an efficient tool for providing Data Privacy, and how can you use them to your advantage in this area right now?

 

3 inherent CDPs traits to leverage for Privacy

 

CDPs are consolidating data into a single customer record. This enables better control over customer data and enhances consumer experience at the same time. CDPs however are not designed to be privacy platforms. You don’t just get Data Privacy solutions as functionalities out-of-the-box. Used in the right way however, they help substantially.

 

GDPR and CCPA compliance. Disclosure Requests and the Right to be Forgotten

 

Both GDPR and CCPA grant consumers the right to ask for the information a company is storing about them. In the absence of CDP, the data is gathered and stored in silos across multiple systems, and some of it may go missing. Inherent trait of CDP, that is being a source of single truth for all consumer data, makes the compliance with these regulations a lot easier. This trait also supports “Right to be Forgotten” regulations, making it seamless for companies to purge non-essential customer data.

 

Unified first-party and zero-party data

 

Some marketers show high reliance on third-party data providers in order to create a unified customer identifier across different data sets, in other words identity resolution. Third-party data providers leverage their ability to match customer lists with third-party data and extend it by sending back a unifying customer ID to the brand. 

 

In the Privacy era, combining first-party with third-party customer data from external sources may prove problematic and inconvenient for a brand, as at some point it may violate Data Privacy practices. Qualities inherent to CDPs enable them to perform this same identity resolution process by using first-party and zero-party data, omitting the collision with privacy practices, policies or regulations.

 

Enforcing Cross-channel Preferences

 

Another inherent trait constituting a CDP is consolidating customer records across data sources. They are easily capable of creating a cross-channel standard for customer communication preferences. The standard can be used in segmentation rules across different channels, ensuring that customers who have opted-out for specific communications, never appear in lists that would have otherwise targeted them.

 

What do consumers really want?

 

Both consumers’ expectations and legislations in privacy matter don’t prevent the companies from developing the unique, personalized, customer experiences. The consumers gladly share their data with the brands. They don’t just “want it all” from the companies, without providing the information necessary to personalize the communication. 

 

Consumers seem to expect that we will be as efficient, agile, and willing in the execution of their privacy rights, ensuing from the legislation and given consents, as we are in other aspects of our interactions with them. They want their privacy rights delivered as they want their goods – here and now. They want us to do what we do, only better. And modern CDP can help you substantially to meet their expectations. See SALESmanago demo to learn in detail, how we can support the best of your Data Privacy practices.

Content. Links. RankBrain.
These are the top-ranking factors Google considers when it comes to showing results on the search engine result page (SERP). Given that much of search engine optimization centers around getting lots of good links to and from your website, it’s essential to learn how to make these links work for you.
In this article, we discuss what external linking is and why you should do it. We also reveal seven external linking best practices. At the end of this article, you’ll know how to use external linking to help your content appear higher on the search engine results page.

When should you link to other sites in SEO?
External links are hyperlinks that direct readers to a website other than your own. On the surface, using external links seems counter-intuitive—these links take people away from your website, after all. However, as we shall see later in this article, it’s one of the most essential sources of ranking power you can ever use.

Four Benefits of External Linking
Linking to outside websites, when done right, offers several benefits:
1. External linking improves your credibility.
When you add trustworthy and relevant website links to your content, it improves the credibility of your website. In addition, valuable external links provide your readers with references, which will enhance your website’s authority.
External linking is similar to the way you cite sources in a bibliography for an academic paper—it shows that you’ve created your content based on sound research.
2. External linking improves your SEO.
The external links you add can assist search engines in determining the usefulness and quality of your pages. High-quality pages usually link to other high-quality pages; thus, search engines will look at your content favorably, helping you rank higher.
If you link to an interesting article on a critical topic of interest to your business, Google uses this as one way to know what your website is about.
3. External linking is an easy way to create connections.
Other websites can tell when you’re linking to them. And the chances are that they might return the favor and link back to your website if the opportunity arises, which is great because the more quality backlinks you get, the better.
It’s an easy and positive way to reach out, make connections in your industry, and get your content in front of the right audience.
4. External linking offers readers more value.
Adding external links provides a better user experience for readers. These links lead to related information that adds to the value in your content without duplicating content. When readers see that you consistently link out to resources that’d help them understand a topic better, they’ll begin to associate more value with your website.
External Linking Best Practices
According to Google, linking is one of the most important factors for achieving high rankings, you must understand how to use external linking to your advantage. Here are key external linking best practices to adopt.
1. Make the links relevant.
When adding external links, don’t just add links for the sake of it. Instead, add links that direct readers to relevant content.
Good external links tend to point to related content. Examples of what you might link to include statistics, infographics, videos, etc.
Google and other search engines value users and want to show the most relevant results to their query. Therefore, when external links come from websites in the same niche, Google better understands the relevance of your content and its popularity, leading to a higher SERP ranking.
Example

2. Link to reputable sources.
The external link in the image above has 60% as its anchor text. It leads to a website that contains that statistic and other relevant information.
When linking externally, only link to sites that are authoritative and trustworthy. If you link to websites that promote clickbait content or aren’t professional, you’ll diminish your reader’s trust. And it could negatively affect how search engines rank your content.
If you have no choice but to link to websites where you don’t trust the content, use a no-follow tag. This tag indicates to search engine crawlers that the linked page shouldn’t be associated with your page.
Example
The latest content marketing report compiled by HubSpot is full of external links to reputable sources in the content marketing industry.

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3. Use anchor text correctly.
Let’s examine a practical example of what makes a good and bad anchor text.
We’ve got an article on HubSpot that talks about how to write a blog post. You can click here to read that article.
See what I did there? The word “here” is what is known as the anchor text for the link. And this anchor text is essential for search engines to read your website. Unfortunately, by using “here” as an anchor text, I’m giving Google very little help or hints about the content of the page I’m linking to.
Instead, here is a much better (and right) way to do this:
The right way: We’ve got a previous article on HubSpot that talks about how to write a blog post.
The second way is much better than the first for multiple reasons.
First, the link is easier for readers to click on (and know that it’s a link). But, more important is the fact that we now have the anchor text as “how to write a blog post.” So, when the search engine spiders “see” this link, they factor in the anchor text when determining what the target page is about.
So, use descriptive keywords in anchor text or keywords the linked page is trying to target. However, don’t shoehorn anchor text into sentences because it can look like spam, and readers might find it annoying.
After including anchor text, read it again. Does it look forced? Does the link look helpful and natural? You want the latter to be true.
Here’s an example where Google gives more information about how to write good link text.
Example
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4. Add helpful links.
How many external links should you use in your content? There’s no conclusive answer.
However, you shouldn’t overwhelm your reader with too many external or internal links. Your goal when linking should be to provide the best reader experience possible. You might end up losing readers if they feel they’re merely being used as part of your SEO strategy.
Example
This page from Backlinko has at least 150 external links and ranks #1 on the Google SERP for several queries. Therefore, you can have as many external links as you like as long as it makes sense to add them.

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5. Open external links in a different tab.
Your external links should open in a different tab, and there are various reasons why this is important. However, the most significant reason to have links open in a new tab is that this gives the visitor as much control as possible with their experience on your site.
Example
This article about statistics that prove why link-building is important contains external links that open in a new tab. This lets the reader continue reading the article while also taking a look at the information you linked to without losing one or the other.
6. Don’t link to competing websites.
It’ll be detrimental to link to sites competing for the same keywords. For example, if you’re targeting the keyword “Best toys for dogs,” you shouldn’t link to a site that is already ranking #1 for this keyword.
Instead, link to websites that offer value to your content, like pages that contain general information. Using the “Best toys for dogs” example, you can link to a video about a specific dog toy you’re promoting that’s not on a competitor’s website.
Example

In the image above, HubSpot’s article about the best digital marketing tools doesn’t link to a competing article but links to specific tools like Ahrefs that support the article.
7. Conduct a link audit.
Spend some time every quarter (or within regular intervals) to audit your content for any outdated or broken links. Why’s this important?
When readers encounter broken or outdated external links in your content, it diminishes their experience, and they might begin to lose faith in your credibility.
You can use a tool like Check My Links to find broken links on your website.

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Build a Successful External Linking Strategy
Quality external links in your content provide more resources to your readers while building your content and website’s authority. When done right, external linking can even boost your ranking on the SERP.
So now is the time to implement all you’ve learned from this article and make external links work for you.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in January 2007 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

If you want to grow your business, great search engine optimization (SEO) is a must: Recent survey data found that 53 percent of all trackable website traffic originated from organic search, which means that if you want to get noticed, you need to show up at the top of search rankings.
The challenge? Many small businesses don’t have the time, skills or expertise necessary to handle everything that comes with a solid SEO strategy. From keyword research to content evaluation, from page optimization to internal linking, it’s easy for companies to end up with a generic web presence that doesn’t inspire engagement or drive conversions.

The result? It’s worth considering an SEO consultant or agency to help manage this process and maximize your impact. In this piece, we’ll tackle key outsourcing operations, including how it can benefit your business — and why SEO can’t be entirely outsourced. Then, we’ll break down top SEO pitfalls and offer actionable advice to find an SEO agency that best fits your brand.
Why Outsourcing SEO Can Be a Good Idea
Designing an effective SEO strategy isn’t a simple task. Companies have to consider how search engines are evaluating content, what aspects of SEO offer the most impact, and where they could change their current content to better align with search engine expectations.
This is especially critical as search engines like Google continually refine their ranking process. For example, page loading speed is now a factor in search result rankings. In practice, this expands the role of SEO; it’s not enough to simply weave in popular keywords and deliver high-quality content. Brands also need to consider the entire user experience.
As a result, it’s often worth outsourcing SEO services to ensure that your digital presence is generating maximum impact and capturing the highest volume of prospective customers. In much the same way that companies outsource their marketing efforts to experts, outsourcing SEO provides a way for brands to identify key strategic goals and then leave the complex process of meeting those goals to industry experts.
For small businesses and entrepreneurs, outsourcing offers the big benefit of time: Instead of learning about the ins and outs of SEO, testing new strategies, and refining results, business owners and managers can focus on customer conversions, product improvements, and new ideas.
Why Your Business Can’t Fully Outsource SEO
While it’s possible to outsource much of your SEO strategy to an agency or consultant, there are aspects of the process that still rest within your business. These include:
Your Keywords
Although an SEO expert can help pinpoint specific keywords of opportunity, you’re often the authority on the core keywords that define your business and operations. You know that if you stray too far from these keywords, your brand simply won’t be the same — and customers that do end up on your site may be there looking for something else. As a result, you always have a role to play in choosing ideal keywords.
Your Content
The content on your site is unique to your brand. And while SEO agencies have gotten much better at creating targeted content designed to attract your market, there are some aspects of your onsite content — such as information about the history and mission of your business — that you’re best-suited to create and manage.
Your Relationships
No matter how good your SEO provider may be, they can’t replicate the relationships you have with other businesses, suppliers and partners. This means that while they’re able to provide strategy for your SEO framework, you provide the connective tissue that makes it possible for your content to be posted (and reposted) across your industry network.
Your Brand Perspective
The unique nature of your brand perspective is what’s taken you this far — and it’s what will continue to drive your growth. Even the best SEO agency can’t be in your head; they don’t know what your brand means to you or how you want to communicate your message to the world. As a result, outsourcing SEO is ideal for laying a foundation for conversion and revenue, but it only works when paired with your perspective.
Your Growth Strategy
While you provide general goals to your SEO agency — such as increasing your rankings for a specific keyword by X amount or boosting total website visits — you’re still responsible for your overall growth strategy. Where do you want to be in a month? A year? Five? And how can your SEO partner help you get there?
Five Common Pitfalls to Avoid in SEO
Every business is different, but the principles of SEO remain the same: Rank higher in search engines for popular keywords to drive more traffic to your site. The challenge? Reaching this goal isn’t easy, leading some brands and SEO agencies to make potentially costly mistakes. Here are the top five pitfalls to avoid.
Keyword Stuffing
If there’s a cardinal rule of modern SEO it’s this: Don’t keyword stuff.
Stuffing is the practice of adding the same keyword over and over to your content with the intention of ranking higher. The problem? Search engines are now smart enough to detect this practice and will down-rank your site if keyword stuffing is detected. Generally speaking, one instance of your primary keyword per piece of content is enough to get noticed.
Duplicate Content
Next up is duplicate content. While more content on your site with keywords can help you rank higher, simply copying and pasting content — or slightly changing content to include a new keyword — lowers the overall value of your site and in turn your ranking.
Put simply? New content is always better than old.
Low-quality Backlinks
Backlinks can help increase the relevance and authority of your content — but only if they link to high-quality sites. If your content links out to sites that are continually keyword stuffing or don’t receive many visitor views, you won’t enjoy a bump in search rankings. In fact, links to these sites may hurt your overall standing.
Unoptimized Images
Images help capture user interest, but it’s not enough to simply put pictures on your site: You also need to ensure they’re optimized.
This starts with the image itself. Make sure it’s relevant and easy to understand. For example, if you run a construction company, use an image that’s related to the services that you offer and that’s high enough quality that users can immediately tell what it is. If the image is low-resolution or confusing, users won’t bother sticking around.
It’s also a good idea to look at the size of your images. Here’s why: The more images you have on your site, the slower it loads. Optimizing images for size (without losing quality) can help improve the user experience and your search rankings.
Muddled Meta Descriptions
Meta descriptions are snippets of text that offer a quick description of content on a specific page. Here, clear and concise descriptions are critical. Muddled or vague meta descriptions make it easy for users to overlook your site. Ideally, you want to use your primary keyword and provide a quick overview of the page in question so users know what they’re getting into.
Simply put? Ask questions. Not sure which ones to ask? We’ve got you covered.
Let’s explore each question in more detail.
1. What makes you different?
While the process of SEO is fairly straightforward, approaches differ significantly. Some companies rely solely on specific metrics, while others opt for a more organic approach or a more middle-ground stance. As a result, it’s worth asking agencies and consultants what sets them apart from the competition — what can they offer to boost your rankings and drive traffic?
Quick tip: Listen to what they say and then fact-check it against their own site’s SEO rankings. If they don’t show up near the top of their page for their own targeted keyword, consider looking elsewhere for help.
2. What’s your process?
Your prospective partners should be able to lay out their process in a way that’s clear, concise, and understandable. If you find yourself on the receiving end of too many buzzwords or big promises with no underlying proof, other choices may be a better fit.
3. What are your tools?
From the HubSpot Website Grader to Ahrefs, from SEMRush to Moz Pro, there are a host of SEO tools available. Many agencies will also have their own proprietary tools they use alongside these popular offerings — look for a provider willing to specify what tools they use, why, and how.
4. How long will results take?
Beware any company that promises instant results. SEO rankings don’t increase until search engine “spiders” have crawled the web to assess site changes and their impact. Generally speaking, substantive results start showing up around the 4-to-6 month mark.
5. What are your metrics?
Metrics matter in SEO. These include new referring domains, text readability, keyword rankings, organic search volumes, lead conversions, bounce rate, and click-through rate. All are relevant depending on their context and all measure different aspects of SEO impact. Always ask your potential provider what metrics they use and why, and ask for an explanation of how they impact results.
6. How often do you report data?
Data reporting is key to tracking SEO success. Some companies report results weekly; for others, this frequency is every other week or even monthly. Here, go with whatever you’re comfortable with — while longer reporting periods may show more change, they may also miss key indicators that strategies aren’t working or need to be adjusted.
7. Who have you helped?
Finally, ask for references. If your prospective SEO provider is as good as they say they are, they should have data that shows how they’ve boosted the impact of other brands. If they’re short on specific data and big on promises, tread carefully.
Solving for SEO
A solid SEO strategy can help your brand rank higher in search engine results and drive more traffic to your business. Outsourcing is a great way to jumpstart this process — the right agency can give you the advantage when it comes to getting noticed and capturing customer interest.
But outsourcing alone isn’t enough. Your brand perspective is critical to drive success and avoid common pitfalls. Not sure where to get started learning SEO? HubSpot has you covered.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in June 2008 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Email marketing is continually evolving as subscriber preferences shift toward more personalized experiences. On average, 99% of people check their email every day, and the average email open rate is 17.61%.
However, that doesn’t guarantee your email will make the cut. Several factors impact email deliverability, opens, clicks, and conversions. So, what’s the first step to keeping your email KPIs strong? A clean email list. Clean email lists (with a great email marketing strategy behind them) will keep your email engagement high and your unsubscribe and spam rates low.

1. Limit unsubscribes.
The more people on your email list, the higher the likelihood that some have lost interest in your email. It happens. It could be a good idea to review engagement and remove any subscribers who no longer seem interested before they hit the unsubscribe button.
2. Decrease spam complaints.
Spam complaints are bad for your reputation with ESPs. If your emails are constantly marked as spam, your ESP might flag your account for sending unwanted solicitations. If this happens too often, your deliverability rate can suffer.
3. Improve deliverability.
The cleaner your list is, the greater the number of subscribers who want to open it. On the other hand, a list full of people who don’t engage, have changed their email address, or worse, never opted in will result in spam filters and bounces — both of which can hurt your deliverability.
4. Improve a reduced open rate.
Quality over quantity is the goal here. If you start to see your open rate decline, take a look at your list and check for inactive subscribers. Of course, you’ll want to attempt a reengagement campaign before removing them. If that doesn’t work, you should consider retaining only your active subscribers.
5. Keep costs down.
Many ESPs tier their pricing by the number of emails you send. In order to keep your costs down, you’ll want to remove the subscribers who are receiving your emails and never opening them.
All of these add up to one big red flag — your email subscribers aren’t engaged (or aren’t getting your emails). When people unsubscribe from your email list they are actively opting out of receiving your emails. If several of your emails get marked as spam, your deliverability rates will suffer.
Open and click through rates tell you how many of your subscribers are opening the email you sent, clicking on a link, and ultimately, if they’re interested in the content you’re sharing.
Making sure your email lists are clean and targeting the right audience increases your ROI and decreases the chances of your marketing emails being flagged as spam. Cleaning up your email lists gives you a better chance to reach and engage your audience.

You also want to consider the number of subscribers coming in every quarter — if it’s high, you might want to check your lists more often. If you’re seeing a high number of bounces, then that’s an indicator that it’s time to clean your email list.
Every company is different so clean up can happen monthly, quarterly, bi-annually, or annually but it should be done at least once a year.

1. Identify disengaged subscribers.
Before you scrub your list, you’ll want to identify whether a subscriber is truly inactive or simply disengaged. The former could mean you’ll need to remove them, while the latter might mean you still have a chance to win them over. A disengaged subscriber might just need some more targeted marketing to refresh their interest in your emails. After all, they did subscribe to your list at some point.
To do this, you’ll need to set some criteria for what “disengaged” means. Have they not opened an email in three months? One year? Have they not engaged with any campaigns? Have they not clicked on any links in six months?
Once you’ve identified your disengaged subscribers, you’ll want to place them in a separate list, filter for common themes, and identify a strategy to pique their interest. That could mean a discount code, a personalized subject line, or some other engagement strategy. The point is: before you write off these subscribers, give reengagement your best shot.
If reengagement doesn’t work, then you can truly mark the subscriber as disengaged and inactive.
2. Identify reasons for bounces.
Bounce rates are terrible for email deliverability, but not all bounces are created equal. There’s a difference between a hard bounce and a soft bounce. The former is a permanent issue, like an inactive email, and the latter is a temporary problem, like a full inbox.
You’ll need to remove emails that have a hard bounce, but keep an eye on soft bounces, as the problem could resolve over time.
3. Check for spam filters.
You’ll want to remove any subscribers that mark your email as spam immediately. Spam filters hurt your deliverability and your reputation. If a subscriber no longer finds your emails helpful, or worse, sees them as spam, then it’s best to part ways by removing them from your list.
4. Clear out inactive subscribers.
The final step in cleaning out your email list is to create separate lists for all the categories above and remove the emails from your list that are no longer active. It might be hard to part ways with these emails, but, in the end, you’re doing your deliverability and engagement rates a huge favor.

1. Make sure your list has good hygiene.
The key to a squeaky clean list is to have a great routine and stick with it. Create a schedule for cleaning up your lists by looking at your data quantity and quality. This will determine how often you will have to clean your list. No matter how big your list, if most of your subscribers are not interacting with your emails, it is time to assess why.
When looking through your email lists, check for duplicates, typos, and email addresses that have the word “spam” in them so that your emails are getting sent to the right person and are not bouncing. ”
2. Consider using double opt-ins.
A double opt-in is a way to ensure that your subscribers truly want your email. Here’s how it works: once a user submits their information to a form on your site, an email is sent to confirm their subscription. This does a few things: it gets them used to opening your emails, it signals to their email provider that your emails should not be automatically marked as spam, and it gives you an opportunity to ask them to save your contact info so emails don’t get lost. All around, a win.
3. Manage bounce rate.
Bounced emails happen when there is a typo in the email address, if the email no longer exists, or for a number of other reasons. Checking for bounced emails can increase your deliverability and email ROI. Email bounces are broken down into two categories: soft and hard bounces.
A soft bounce is a temporary deliverability problem, such as a full inbox or a server that is down. Resending emails to these addresses can be beneficial because they can go through eventually.
A hard bounce happens due to permanent deliverability problems, such as an invalid email address. When you have hard bounces it is imperative to remove these addresses from your lists to keep your Email Service Providers (ESPs) happy. ESPs track the number of bounces you generate with each send and use it when determining your email credibility. Getting too many hard bounces is equivalent to people automatically putting your emails in the Spam folder.
4. Use automation.
Marketing automation is for emails, too. You can have your CRM automatically send subscribers to certain lists (or tag them) based on their actions. Remember when we discussed moving inactive subscribers to a separate list? Well, instead of doing this manually, you can set up an automation that does this for you and triggers a reengagement campaign. Another way you can use automation is to remove subscribers from email workflows or campaigns that are no longer applicable to them.
5. Provide an “opt down” option.
Have an “opt down” option in addition to an “opt out” option. An “opt down” option lets your subscribers choose how often and which emails they want to receive from you. Unfortunately, subscribers can forget that they subscribed to your email lists, increasing the chance that they will delete, unsubscribe, or put you straight in the Spam folder — all undesirable outcomes. Providing an “Opt Down” option provides an opportunity for the subscriber to stay on your list without the overwhelm of receiving correspondence they don’t want.
6. Understand your email audience.
Before cleaning out your email list, take stock of how much your current audience aligns with your ideal audience. Look for ways to re-engage inactive subscribers by separating them into lists based on their interests and demographics. For example, you could create engaging welcome emails for new subscribers or whip up a discount campaign for older subscribers. Having multiple lists helps you to create campaigns that’ll drive conversion rates up.
All in all, the success of email marketing campaigns should not be measured by the number of subscribers but by the quality of the subscribers and the actions they take as a result of your email. Therefore, it’s better to deploy campaigns to 20,000 active and engaged people than it is to blast the email to 30,000 people if half of them don’t care, will delete it, or worse, report it as spam.
7. Remove inactive subscribers.
Inactive subscribers are those who do not open, click, or engage in your emails in any form. Having engaged subscribers will always be beneficial to your conversion rates, so by removing inactive subscribers you will drive up your open and click through rates for your campaigns.
Before you remove inactive subscribers permanently you can try sending them one last email campaign that could be a feedback campaign to see what will re-engage them. If all fails you’ll need to permanently delete them as subscribers to not hurt your email deliverability and conversion rates.
Start Cleaning Out That Email List
Email marketing is essential to any industry and doing a routine clean up can be beneficial to your company’s data reports and conversion rates. As long as you’re performing routine clean ups, maintaining your open and click through rates, managing bounce and spam rates, and engaging your lists with targeted emails of their interest, you will always have a squeaky clean email list.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in October 2011 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Welcome emails are a simple, easy, and effective way to give each new subscriber to your email list a warm, personal welcome. Here are some amazing welcome email examples to inspire your own.
You never get a second chance to make a first impression.
That’s true of just about anything, but it’s particularly true in the world of email marketing. In a time when people are being bombarded with more marketing messages than ever, it’s important that your brand stands out. Otherwise, you risk becoming completely forgettable.
Welcome emails are a great opportunity for a first impression. However, just the act of sending one isn’t going to guarantee anything. Most marketers are using marketing automation like welcome email campaigns nowadays, so if you want to stand out, the key is to be memorable. 
We’ve hashed out the what and how of welcome emails before, but in this post, we’ll go over why welcome emails can be so effective, tips for how to make a memorable one, and then look at 11 incredible welcome email examples.
Why welcome emails are such an effective email marketing tool
As a marketer, the moment when someone gives you their email address is pivotal. Whether they signed up for a free trial, a special offer, or created an account for your service, they’re clearly interested in your product or brand at that moment. And it’s up to you to make the most of it.
By sending an automated welcome email, it gives you the chance to interact with this person in a friendly, personal way. It also gives you the chance to guide their experience with your brand. Rather than hoping they find the right page on your website, or your best-selling product, you have the chance to deliver it directly to their inbox.
It’s the timing of it all that makes the welcome email so pivotal, and it’s important for marketers to capitalize on it.
Welcome email best practices
We’ve gone pretty in-depth on this topic before, so we won’t rehash everything we know (for more you can check out this post). But here are some quick, easy tips to keep in mind before looking at the welcome email examples below.
#1: Be timely
Like we mentioned, time is of the essence here. With that in mind, you want to make sure that your welcome email arrives shortly after they sign up for your list. A welcome automation will be useful here, and we’d recommend you send the email within a few minutes of the person signing up.
Note: we just launched a new pre-built welcome journey recipe inside of Campaign Monitor, making it incredibly easy to get your automation up and running. Log in or sign up to get started.
#2: Have a goal in mind
The worst thing you could do with your welcome email is send a confusing message. Think about what action you want this person to take after opening your email, and start building around that.
 If you’re working for a software company, your goal might be to get the person using your product. If you’re an eCommerce brand, you might want to guide a customer toward their first purchase. Whatever the goal is, make it easy for your subscriber to take that next step.
#3: Use a friendly greeting
If you asked for your subscriber’s name or other information when they signed up, now is the time to use it. Greeting your subscriber by name sets a more personal tone.
And whether you use their name or not, it’s always nice to simply welcome new subscribers. Spend some time thinking of some friendly, clever copy to start the email and make sure that you send a welcome message right from the start.
#4: Make sure to craft a great subject line
Email subject lines are an important part of the success of your campaign. A well-crafted subject line will leave a good impression on the reader, and likely increase your email’s open rate. For welcome emails, average open rates are usually around 50%.
You’ll want to make your subject lines clever, topical, and relatively short (about 7 words or 41 characters is ideal!). And don’t be afraid to add emojis, as they can help boost open rates.
For more on subject lines, be sure to check out this post for best practices, and this one for welcome email subject line examples.
11 of the Best Welcome Email Examples
Now that you have the why and the how, let’s take a look at these amazing welcome email examples.
#1: British Tennis

Image source: Really Good Emails
This email from British Tennis stands out for its cleverness. If you’ve ever watched a tennis match on tv before, you’ll recognize that the image at the top of this welcome email is meant to replicate the replay process when a shot is being reviewed in tennis.
This is effective in that it’s instantly recognizable by tennis fans, and it further boosts their perception as an insider — someone who gets tennis.
They also have a clear CTA button at the bottom, so you know exactly what to click next.
#2: Loom

Image source: Really Good Emails
If you’re not familiar with Loom, it’s a software tool that lets you easily record quick videos of your computer screen and/or yourself. It’s particularly useful in a remote/hybrid work setting, when you need to communicate with coworkers via video, but might not have time to jump in a meeting together.
Their first email does a handful of things really well, but the thing that stands out is their use of the product in the email. By including a video recorded with Loom in the email, they’re showing you the product in action, making it easy to imagine how you’d use it for yourself.
They also give quick, actionable steps for getting started, which we’d highly advise for any welcome email geared toward product adoption.
#3: Mollusk Surf Shop

Image source: Really Good Emails
Mollusk is a surf-inspired clothing brand based out of San Francisco, CA. Sustainability and comfort-minded, their brand is centered around creating high-quality, laid-back clothing that’s in it for the long haul. They also have a big focus on working with local vendors, which brings us to what they do well here.
Mollusk does a great job of telling their brand story in this email. They quickly get to the point of letting you know they’re not a fast-fashion company. They work with their “friends and neighbors” and create with “comfort and durability in mind.”
While it’s easy for brands to get carried away with their brand stories and have a tendency to talk too much about themselves, Mollusk strikes the balance well here. Tell your story, but in a way that’s engaging and communicates value to your audience.
Their coupon for 15% off is also likely to help boost conversion rates.
#4: Bombas

Image source: Really Good Emails
Sticking with the retail space, let’s take a look at this beautiful welcome email from Bombas, a clothing company designed around building simple, comfortable essential clothing products.
This email starts with some striking imagery of the products organized neatly, then offers new customers 20% off their first order, which is a great way to get people in the door and try your product.
Mollusk did that in their email above, but what Bombas does to make theirs even more effective is add a number of clickable elements that make shopping easy. Right under the discount code, there are links to their products. Making it easy to redeem the code is likely to increase click-through rates and conversion rates.
Want to build your own stunning welcome email, but don’t have a designer’s help? Try one of our pre-made welcome email templates!
#5: Asana

Image source: Really Good Emails
Shifting gears to the B2B world, let’s look at this wonderful welcome email from Asana, a project management tool.
Typically, if you’re composing a B2B welcome email, you have two main goals:

Greet your new user in a warm, friendly way
Make sure they have first steps to take in using your product

The first time this new user is interacting with your product is hugely important. At this point, they’re still deciding to commit to using your product or choosing another solution. So, guiding them toward how to get started is key.
Asana does both of these wonderfully with some warm, welcoming copy, and three easy action items to get the user started using their product. 
And bonus points for the lovely gif of an item being checked off the list. Who doesn’t love that feeling?
#6: The New Yorker

Image source: Really Good Emails
This welcome email from the New Yorker to subscribers who sign up for their daily email newsletter, The Daily, is a great one for publishers and media companies to look to for inspiration.
The two things this one does really well are:

Sets expectations. You’ll notice up at the top of the email, they tell you how often you’ll receive their newsletter, and what kinds of content to expect. This helps get users excited for what they just opted into, and anticipating your next newsletter.

Cross-promotes other New Yorker content. Odds are, if they signed up for the Daily, they’ll be interested in other New Yorker content as well. This is a great place to cross-promote content and include a CTA for a subscription in a way that sounds helpful, not disingenuous.

Pair all of that with the New Yorker’s signature visual style, and you have all of the ingredients for a great welcome email.
#7: Help Scout

Image source: Really Good Emails
Help Scout is a customer support software tool for small to mid-sized businesses, and they are obsessed with providing excellent customer experiences.
Their welcome is an excellent case study on showing, not telling. How many times have you read We value customer service or The customer is always right on a company’s values page? And how many times have you actually believed it?
Rather than telling about their award-winning support, Help Scout implies it in a handful of ways. With the “We’re here to help!” line, the email directly at the bottom, and the smiling faces, you get the sense that Help Scout would love to answer any of your questions. 
While this email could benefit from some action steps (like Asana’s), it does enforce Help Scout’s core brand message very well. And who knows, maybe future emails in their email sequence include onboarding steps!
#8: Zapier

Image source: Really Good Emails
Zapier has a very interesting challenge on their hands in the sense that, unless you’ve used Zapier before, you might have no clue what they do. 
Zapier is an automation tool that moves information across different apps automatically, taking the busy work out of a lot of day-to-day tasks. They’re one of the first products like that in their space, and when you have a category-defining product like that, one of your biggest marketing challenges is going to be educating potential customers on what, exactly, your product even is.
This email tackles that challenge head-on, and it does so rather effectively. With the lead header of What’s a Zap? they start to answer exactly what a potential customer needs to know. Then, they go on to give them visual examples of what, exactly, you can do with Zapier. They also include a video introducing the product. 
This is a masterclass in product education, and there’s no doubt his email campaign has served the Zapier team well.
#9: Redfin

Image source: Really Good Emails
A rule of thumb I have for any marketing email I’ve ever sent is to make sure I have a reason to be in their inbox. Emails that are sent for the sake of sending emails are just annoying. But emails that are helpful and provide value are the ones that stand out, and this one from Redfin does exactly that.
One of the first questions anyone thinks about when buying a home is “What can I afford?”, and Redfin helps email subscribers answer that question immediately. 
The home buying process can be confusing. Redfin knows that, and by positioning themselves as a helpful recourse, they build trust with their subscribers right from the get-go. 
Plus, by sending five different helpful resources, they’re likely to increase the engagement rates of this email.
#10: Harry’s

Image source: Really Good Emails
Harry’s is the DTC men’s razor company out to make shaving cool. Clever, cool, and minimal are essential to Harry’s brand, and they check every single one of those boxes in this short, simple email.
They’re not pushing for a purchase right away (which would be uncool), they give you an interesting (clever), clever fact, and it’s all packaged in a clean, minimalistic welcome email design.
It comes off as cool but not approachable-y cool, and piques your curiosity about the brand just enough to want to know more. That’s a hard line to walk, but Harry’s does it really well here.
#11: The Sill

Source: The Sill
The Sill is an online plant shop that makes buying plants (and learning how to keep them alive) really easy and approachable. By educating you on how easy or hard a plant is to keep alive — and even letting you sort that way while shopping — the Sill is a great solution for someone who just wants to not kill their plants (it’s me, I’m that person ).
I don’t always advocate for having more than one CTA in an email because things can start to feel crowded and unclear. But the Sill includes three equally important CTA’s in this one without losing clarity.
Their goals are clear — to get someone to shop online, to get someone to a store, or to get someone to read their plant-related content. Though they have multiple CTA’s, the email content is clear and they make it easy to do any/all of those things.
And hey, if they can teach me how not to kill plants, it makes sense that they can craft a stylish, informative welcome email, too.
Wrap up
Welcome emails are an important part of email marketing. Rarely will your subscribers ever be more engaged or interested than they are when they give you their email address, and it’s up to you to make the most of it.
And hopefully, after looking at these stunning, informative, and effective welcome email examples, you feel equipped to do just that.
The post 11 Incredible Welcome Email Examples (and Why They Work) appeared first on Campaign Monitor.

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