Category: Marketing Automation

When I started HubSpot, I was a trained engineer with little writing experience. In the early days of the company, I could not create software. Instead, I spent a lot of time writing articles for our Marketing Blog. As an inexperienced writer, I was pleasantly surprised by how well it performed. Today, the blog has over 500,000 subscribers and over 10M new visitors each month.
The success of the blog convinced me that I suppressed brilliant writing skills for the last 20 years! My excitement led me to send a Thank You note to my eighth-grade teacher, Tom Brown, who helped me learn to write.
Emboldened with my newfound writing confidence, I wrote the Inbound Marketing Book with my co-founder Dharmesh Shah. When we submitted the final draft to a professional editor, I was confident she would send it back with minimal edits and high praise. Wrong. The document she returned had more red lines than anything I had ever seen in my life.
After many weeks of language crafting, we got it close to perfect. Upon its release in 2014, it was ranked #200 out of the 8 million books currently available on Amazon — a list led by notable writers such as Dan Brown and Stephen King.
I learned that you do not have to be a great writer to have a great book. The same goes for blogs. Non-writers can develop new skills and practices that turn your words and message from mediocre to excellent, and in this post, I’ll tell you how.
Blogging Tips for Non-Writers
Non-writers and great blogs are not mutually exclusive. If you have no formal writing education or experience, join the club. English is not the most popular Bachelor’s degree. There has been a 26% decrease in English degrees conferred by postsecondary institutions since 2011 while blogging has seen a 12% growth since 2015.
With the number of professional writers decreasing and the number of blogs increasing, we can deduce that the number of non-writers who blog is likely increasing.
Formal education, or the lack thereof, won’t stop you from running a successful blog. You’ll just need a few skills in your toolbelt.
When writing your blog, you need to:

Select your audience and topics.
Have a conversation.
Include links to reputable websites (including your own).
Make your content easy to digest.
Use online writing assistants.

Let’s cover each of these in-depth.
1. Select your audience and topics.
Who is your audience? It is significantly easier to speak to someone when you know who they are, but it’s impossible to know every person who reads your blog posts. This is where your buyer persona comes in. A buyer persona is a representation of your ideal customer. Once you establish your audience and their needs, you can figure out your topics of conversation.
Keyword research should determine the content you share with your readers. Keywords are words and phrases people type or speak into search engines. There are multiple ways to conduct keyword research, but a typical place to start is by evaluating monthly search volume (MSV) for industry-related terms.
Monthly search volume is the total number of searches performed for a particular keyword in a month. An easy example could be the keyword research of a greeting card store. November searches would unsurprisingly tell you that the search volume for the keyword “Thanksgiving cards” is higher than the keyword “Easter cards.” These results, combined with research on keyword difficulty, will lead you to your target keywords for the month.
Once you establish your buyer persona and keywords, you can begin a conversation with our audience.
2. Have a conversation.
Your blog is not an opportunity to bring your high school English term paper to life. Trust me, you do not need to reference a thesaurus and pull out the longest words in the dictionary to get your point across. Been there, done that. Instead, imagine you are talking to a friend when you write a post. Be knowledgeable yet personable. Be authoritative yet relatable. Your readers don’t want to be talked down to. They want quality information they can understand from a credible source, and it is you’ve been granted the responsibility to provide it.
3. Include links to reputable websites (including your own).
As you can tell, there’s no one rule for writing a great blog. Most of the rules about blogging aren’t even associated with writing. One example of this is link building.
Link building can boost the quality of your content and the credibility of your blog. Focus on interlinks and backlinks.
Interlinks
Interlinks are links that guide readers back to the content on your website. This gives your other content more exposure in a relevant way, plus it helps search engine site crawlers index more pages on your site. That’s great news for your SEO efforts! Another rewarding benefit is extending the time readers spend on your website. When you use interlinks, you provide your readers with relevant resources to increase their knowledge on the subject. It boosts your credibility as a source, and the more credible your visitors find your blog, the more successful it will be.
Backlinks
There are endless amounts of information on the internet, but not all of it is credible and accurate. You can help readers find other great content by giving backlinks to reputable sites.
A backlink is a link from one website to another. If your blog links to another website, they have a backlink from you. If a website links to your content, you have one from them. But you might be wondering, why would you want to take traffic away from your blog?
In short, search engines like to see websites giving credit where it’s due. Backlinks are a great way to substantiate your blog article so that the reader can learn more about your point of view.
The key to a strong backlink strategy is to prioritize quality over quantity. Build your content around information from reliable sources. Getting backlinks from other websites is not guaranteed, but you can increase your chances by creating quality content with the tips on this page.
4. Make your content easy to digest.
What you write is valuable — we know that. You also need to pay attention to how you write and present your information. No one wants to open a webpage to a sea of never-ending words trickling down the page. The important information will easily get lost. So will your reader. The amount of time spent on your blog is limited. Your goal is to keep their attention while giving them the information they want as easily as possible. To accomplish this, use:
Headings and Subheadings
Many readers do a visual scan of a webpage before they decide to dive deeper into the content. Here is where you will see the importance of headings and subheadings. Treat them as an outline or summary of your blog post. Use them to make your most significant points so readers can quickly determine the value of your information.
Lists
When presenting information to your readers, use lists wherever possible. Elaborate on your main points, and break up your text to make your content easier to comprehend and retain. Vary between using numbered lists and bullet points. Use numbered lists to prioritize the order and bullet points when there is no order of importance.
Visuals
If your content allows it, use tables and charts. There are reasons for commonly adding these visuals to presentations. One, you can present the same information in a different, more exciting way. Two, you’re able to accommodate visual learners. Hundreds of words could be necessary to build your point, but a table will either supplement or summarize your information and break up the monotony of your text.
5. Use online writing assistants.
Fifteen years ago, the most writing assistance we received was from the red and green lines appearing in a Microsoft Word document. Now, there are plenty of tools to help improve your writing. Available options for free writing assistant software include Writefull, 1Checker, and Grammarly.
Grammarly, a popular spelling and grammar check tool, offers suggestions based on correctness, clarity, engagement, and delivery. The platform breaks your writing down into overall performance, readability, and vocabulary. Are you constantly confusing ‘than’ with ‘then?’ Do you need to double-check your use of ‘affect’ and ‘effect?’ Tools like Grammarly easily catch these minor mistakes to elevate your content.
The content written on your blog is not the only help you might need. Your blog content is strategic but so is optimizing your blog for SEO. While SEO is a long conversation that needs to take place for all content you put on the internet, another aspect where you can get help with your writing is your SEO title tag. The title tag appears as the name of your webpage on a search engine results page (SERPs) and is clickable to the link destination. CoSchedule, a marketing resource, offers its Headline Analyzer as a tool for creating better headlines that can result in increased SEO value, traffic, and social shares.
Great blogs don’t need great writers.
You don’t need a degree in English or creative writing to have a successful blog. You need identity and value. Establish who you’re writing to and what you have to say. Identify yourself as a knowledgeable and reliable source who brings value with your content and relevant content on the internet. Boost your blogs with visuals when necessary, and if you can’t proofread your content, have someone (or something) else do it for you.
Blogs need to be written with strategy. Use these tips to create yours.

First impressions are everything, especially when it comes to web design. A landing page is a great way to get visitors to interact with your site by engaging with your calls-to-action, making a purchase, contacting you, or sharing your content.
A landing page should be informative and direct, but also attention-grabbing and welcoming. It may seem like the content of your landing page is the focus, but the design is equally as important.

Landing pages are critical to converting your visitors into customers. They broker the exchange of information between you and your audience. Combining an eye-catching offer button with an effective landing page design can turn what was once just web traffic into a steady stream of leads for your sales team.
What makes a good landing page?
A strong website is essential for reaching your business goals. And the landing page provides important information for your audience along with a clear call to action. These seven elements will help your landing page be as effective as possible.
1. Structure & Design
Unfortunately, not every visitor will make it to the bottom of every page. So, keep the important features, such as lead intake forms and calls-to-action, above the fold to ensure that they’ll be seen. Additionally, remove the navigation from the page to avoid distractions in the form of other links.
2. Compelling Headline
The largest text on your landing page should be something that makes your visitor want to learn more. Saying “We are Georgia’s largest marketing agency” isn’t as captivating as “We helped businesses earn $10 million in profit this year.” Any additional copy on your landing page should maintain the momentum of interest initiated by the headline.
3. Call-to-Action (CTA)
What do you want visitors to do when they come to your site? Your design and copy should inspire them to take action. You have their attention, so strike while the iron is hot and put a Contact Us Now or Join the Family button right on the landing page.
4. Testimonials and Case Studies
A first-time visitor to your site may not have done any business with you before. They will be more encouraged to take action by seeing what you’ve been able to accomplish for a similar client and not just a general description of what you do.
5. Trust Symbols
A well-designed website isn’t enough to prove to visitors that you’re a credible organization, especially in today’s world. Social proof builds credibility, while elements like trust seals and a privacy policy create trust with your visitors.
6. Media
A headline can be a powerful motivator, but a photo or video can also communicate your desired message. Choose a media that promotes either what you do or what you want your audience to feel when they land on your page.
7. Quick Loading Pages
Be sure to optimize any images or videos on your landing page to avoid slowing down your page speed. If your page takes too long to load, visitors may abandon ship before even seeing the whole page.
7 Landing Page Best Practices
Follow these landing page best practices to ensure a high-converting, easy-to-navigate webpage.
1. Pass the blink test.
Visitors to your site will often make the decision of whether or not they’re going to fill out your form before the page even finishes loading. Make sure where you’re sending folks appears immediately professional and easy to fill out. In other words, make sure they can understand the offer and what you’re asking for in the time it takes them to blink.
2. Keep it simple. 
Every visitor to your landing page clicked on something to get there, like a CTA button for a free trial, webinar, or other offer. So, theoretically, you already know something key about these folks. If they clicked to download a whitepaper on blue widgets, for instance, then you will know they are interested in blue widgets. Armed with that information, you should be able to plan your page layout accordingly. Use that knowledge to your advantage and keep everything about this page simple.
3. Keep it concise. 
Pinpoint the most important things you want to communicate with your landing page. Avoid including a long company history or elaborate explanations that can go on a different page. A visitor should be able to take a quick look at your landing page and receive your desired message.
4. Graphics and endorsements matter. 
Remember, you’ll be asking people to submit information they may consider sensitive. Before doing so, building credibility will be key. Make sure you have all of your trust-building material — like testimonials, social proof, and privacy promises — placed prominently on the page.
5. Go naked. 
Your landing page visitors are a few keystrokes and a click away from becoming a bonafide lead. In other words, you’ve got them right where you want them! The last thing you would want to happen is for them to get distracted. “Going naked” refers to the practice of making your landing page deliberately sparse. Customize the page so that it has zero navigation, that is, no menu, no link back to the homepage, and no other places to click. This page needs to be devoid of any and all hyperlinked distractions. Let the form and “submit” button be their singular point of focus, and usher them through to completion.
6. Restate value. 
The landing page will be hyperlinked to the CTA button on your website, but make sure the two are also logically linked. Use a simple, bulleted list near the top of the page to restate what you’re offering and why it’s valuable. Doing so will ensure your prospect knows exactly what they’re getting and will ensure a qualified lead for your sales team.
7. Eat your own dog food. 
Before publishing the page, ask yourself a few questions, like: Would I fill out this form? Would I find this page confusing? Would I feel comfortable sharing my information with this site? Use these questions to ultimately perfect the look and feel of your landing page before going live. And of course, test, test, test!
The Landing Page is the Takeoff Point
The warm welcome that your landing page provides is the jumpstart to your visitor’s interactions with the rest of your site and your organization. Establish a few precise goals for your landing page, and then take action to publish the elements necessary to accomplish them. Ask yourself, what do you want a visitor to understand and feel in the first few seconds of landing on your page? The answer will lead you in the right direction for personalizing your page for the optimal user experience.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in May 2010 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Since 86% of consumers rely on the internet to find local businesses, having a website is a no-brainer regardless of your business type.
Although building a website is great for business, you’ll want to avoid making common mistakes that will stop you from getting the most out of your investment. All of these mistakes are easy to identify for free using a handy tool called Website Grader.
In this post, I’ll show you the most common website mistakes we’ve seen here at HubSpot and exactly how to fix them if they apply to you.

1. Lengthy Page Title
A page title, like the one in the Google search result below, tells visitors what a page is about.

Search engines and browsers may cut off your page title if it’s too long. From a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) perspective, a concise page title yields the best reader experience. If your page title is too long, it will dilute the importance of each term in the title. This might even prevent you from ranking well on the search engine results page (SERP).
It’s best practice to keep your page title under 70 characters so that the reader can see the entire title and make a decision to click through to the post.
Website Fix #1: Use a Headline Analyzer Tool to Write Concise Headlines
Use a tool like Coschedule’s Headline Analyzer to draft a concise and keyword-rich description of your page. It’s a great idea to test several variations of a headline before choosing the best one. Amanda Sellers, manager of the historical optimization team at HubSpot, recommends a score of 70 or above from the Headline Analyzer tool for most headlines.

2. Long Meta Descriptions
Meta descriptions are essential for drawing in visitors from search. The meta description is the text under a page title in search results. Like page titles, meta descriptions will get cut off and replaced by “…” if they are too long.

Website Fix #2: Use a Word Counter to Check Your Characters
You can use tools like WordCounter and SERPsimulator to count the number of characters in our meta description so you don’t go over the limit.
SERPsimulation, for example, shows you what your title tag and meta description would look like on the search engine result page.

3. Keyword Stuffing
We’ve seen many people make the mistake of stuffing their page title with keywords or targeting unrealistic keywords. For example, it’s often a futile effort if a new website in the online marketing space is trying to rank for a keyword like “inbound marketing.”
Sometimes websites target keywords that would attract a ton of traffic but fail to convert.
From a user’s standpoint, using too many keywords in your content creates a bad user experience and makes it hard to read your website. As for search engines, Google Search Central mentions that keyword stuffing can harm your site’s rankings.
Website Fix #3: Conduct Proper Keyword Research
Start by creating a list of all the relevant terms used to describe your business. Then, you can break these terms up into content or topic buckets. For example, here at HubSpot, we have topic buckets like “inbound marketing,” “blogging,” and “social media marketing.”
The next step would be to fill these broad topic buckets with keyword phrases your potential customers might use when searching for that type of content.
If you already get a bit of traffic from Google, you can dig into your Google Analytics instance to find the keywords people use to get to your website.
Aside from Google Analytics, you can also use SEO and keyword research tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush for more keyword ideas.
4. Keyword Cannibalization
Keyword cannibalization is when two or more pages on your website are targeting the same keyword.
The problem with keyword cannibalization is that your web pages targeting the same keyword would be competing against each other on the search engine results page. This could result in a low click-through rate and cause a decrease in the value of each page.
Each page on your website is a new opportunity to get found online. You don’t want to waste all these opportunities by reusing the keywords.
Website Fix #4: Try the Pillar Cluster Model
With tools like Moz Keyword Explorer and SEOScout Cannibalization Checker, you can easily identify pages competing for the same keywords on your website.
Once you’ve identified these pages, you can try the pillar cluster model to reorganize your website. The pillar cluster model involves grouping related blog posts into specific topic areas instead of long-tail keywords.
With this model, the individual blog posts link back to the pillar page and share hyperlinks.
5. No Image Alt Text
Search engines do not “read” images. Instead, they scan primarily for text. Fortunately, with the alt tag, you can associate text with an image.
Considering that around 33% of Google’s search results now show an image pack — a snippet display of horizontal rows of image links appearing in any organic position — you’d be losing out on a ton of traffic if you don’t add alt text to your website images.
Alt text also helps you make your content accessible to users and improves the user experience in addition to helping you gain more traffic.
Website Fix #5: Add Alt Texts to All Your Images
Assign ALT text to pictures whenever possible by adding something like this to your HTML:
alt=”David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox batting from home plate at Fenway Park”

Image Source
When writing alt text, use proper sentence structure and be as specific as possible when describing the image.
6. Too little (or Too Much) Text
Search engines read text better than anything else. So, it’s important to have text on your web page. Knowing this, some people cram as much text as possible into a page. As a result, search engines then struggle to extract the relevant text.
Website Fix #6: Focus the Page on One Topic
Make sure your page is readable and contains the keywords you are targeting. However, don’t add unimportant text just to hit a specific word count.
7. Not Using Analytics
Even after you’ve created engaging content on your website, optimized, and converted traffic into leads, your work is not done! You still need to track your website’s analytics.
Web analytics are essential because they help you better understand your visitors and how they interact with your site. Without proper tracking, you won’t be able to tell what pages on your website get the most/least traffic, which devices visitors are using to access your site, and so on.
Without access to these vital metrics, you’d be left in the dark when making decisions that affect your website.
Website Fix #7: Track Metrics That Matter
It’s going to be a waste of time to track all the analytics on your website. Instead, focus on the metrics that align with your business objectives. For starters, you should track and analyze website metrics like unique page views, bounce rates, number of returning visitors, and traffic sources.
You can then analyze the data you collect to make informed business decisions that’d drive your business’ growth.
Web analytics tools like HubSpot’s Marketing & Analytics Dashboard and Google Analytics can help you track all the metrics you need.
8. Slow Load Times
Nobody enjoys waiting in a queue, especially not when they have other options to choose from. You can say the same of your website visitors. They’re not going to wait around if your website takes forever to load when they could hop on the next website that loads almost instantly.
If your website loads slowly, it could be because your hosting is insufficient, you have large images across your site, you have too many redirects, or you’ve installed too many unnecessary plugins.
Website Fix #8: Increase Your Website Loading Speed
You can use simple tools like Pingdom Website Speed Test, GTmetrix, Google PageSpeed Insights to check your website’s speed.
To improve your website’s speed, follow these best practices:

Choose a web hosting platform that’s designed for speed
Compress your images
Embed videos instead of uploading them directly to the site
Reduce redirects
Enable cache browsing
Leverage a content delivery network (CDN)
Uninstall any unnecessary plugins

9. Unresponsive Website
Mobile devices account for over 54.8% of global website traffic. Since most people use their handheld devices to access the internet, it’s in your best interest to make your website responsive on mobile screens.
Unfortunately, many website owners make the mistake of only optimizing their websites for desktop devices, thereby leaving out the larger chunk of their audience and traffic.
Website Fix #9: Optimize Your Website For Mobile
You should avoid including content that is only accessible on desktop. Avoid large header sections so that mobile users get to the content quickly. You should also ensure the font size is not too small to read.
Google Search Console has a neat feature that lets you test how mobile-friendly your website is. Here’s the test result for HubSpot’s website.

10. Poor Internal Linking
Links are essential for improving website authority on search engines. However, many website owners make the mistake of either using too many or too few links.
If there are too many links on a page, it can become distracting. And too few links could make the article or web page look less authoritative.
Another poor linking mistake is when you don’t use anchor text for internal links. You’ve likely come across websites with a “Click here” or some other generic text. Did you click it? Likely not.
Website Fix #10: Create an Internal Link Structure
With a tool like SEMrush, you can run a site audit to identify internal linking opportunities across your website.

You could also create a link structure that helps you naturally include internal links to existing content whenever you’re creating new blog posts or web pages.
However, as much as you want to build internal links between your web pages, don’t go around linking to everything just for the sake of it. Instead, emphasize link quality over quantity. Finally, use relevant keywords in the anchor text for your internal links to help the search engine infer a relationship between the posts.
11. Poor Website Security
You probably wouldn’t sleep well at night knowing your home is vulnerable to a break-in. Like you, online shoppers (or website visitors in general) also feel edgy whenever they try to navigate or shop on an insecure website.
The recent rise in personal data breaches and website hacks also makes it necessary for your website to be secure.
Now, web browsers like Chrome and Firefox show a warning, as seen in the photo below, to alert users whenever they visit an insecure website.

Website Fix #11: Enable an SSL Certificate
You can protect your customers and gain their trust by installing a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate on your website. SSL is a security protocol that creates an encrypted link between your web server and your visitor’s browser.
To know if your site is protected, check its URL to see if it starts with “HTTP” or “HTTPS.” If it’s “HTTPS,” your site is secure. If not, you need to purchase an SSL certificate from your domain provider or a site like Let’s Encrypt.
12. Lengthy Website Forms
Website forms are crucial for converting traffic into leads, but the leads will only convert if your form is done right.
Most website forms today require a lot of work from visitors to fill out. These forms might ask for unnecessary information and have several “required” fields that look pushy, leaving visitors confused or frustrated.
Website Fix #12: Ask For Only the Essential Details
Limit the content of your forms to only the information you need. For example, use only 3-5 fields in each form. Also, reduce the number of required fields, and add help text in the field’s default.
This form from Hubspot’s Marketing Grader shows how simple a form can be to optimize conversions.

13. No Calls To Action
Another common website mistake people make is not including a CTA on their website. You’ve probably spent lots of time and effort directing people to your website. But what happens once they arrive on your website? Do you want them to buy a product? Sign up for a newsletter? Share what they’ve read?
Whatever you want them to do, you have to ask them for it.
Website Fix #13: Add Specific Calls to Action
If you are selling a product, make purchase buttons stand out and guide visitors on the next step to take. If you want them to sign up for a newsletter or something similar, create a sign-up form available as soon as possible before they leave your website.
It’s also good practice to place your calls to action above the fold.

14. No Search Box
A search box is a simple feature many websites lack today. Without a search box, it’s more difficult for visitors to find the specific web pages they’re looking for on your website.
The absence of a search box causes a poor user experience and reduces users’ time on your website.
Website Fix #14: Create a Search Box
If your website has multiple pages, you should include a search box. Then, as your website gets larger, visitors can use the search box to find what they’re looking for within seconds.
To add a search box on a content management system (CMS) like WordPress, simply place the widget where you’d like your users to see it. The home page is a great place for a search box.
15. Contact Info is Hard to Find
This is a mistake that’s especially costly for ecommerce websites. If potential customers find it difficult to get in touch with you, they might lose trust in your product or service.
Website Fix #15: Make it Easy to Find Your Contact Information
Make it easy for visitors to reach out to you by including your contact information like email and phone number on different pages on your website.
You can also link to social media accounts to give visitors a way to engage with your business. If you’re stuck, you can find helpful templates, information, and inspiration from HubSpot’s guide to contact forms.
16. Using Stock Images Throughout Your Website
Stock photos make it hard to differentiate your website from many other sites that use the same free images. These stock photos also don’t feel original and may create a poor experience for your visitors.
Website Fix #16: Use Original Images or Graphics
Whenever possible, take and use original photos that showcase your products or your work culture. If it’s too expensive to take new images consistently, you can use a design solution like Canva to create engaging graphics that leave a more lasting impression.
Fix Your Website the Right Way
Despite your best intentions, you could be making some mistakes on your website that cause you to lose leads, but it doesn’t have to stay that way. Now that you know these common website mistakes, test out these simple solutions to optimize your site for traffic and conversions. Examine this list of mistakes against your website and see what changes you can make to improve how well your website works for your business.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in June 2010 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Like many others – I’ve been tasked with choosing between these two. I’m not unfamiliar with either of these platforms (I’ve worked in marketing ops for 8 years). However, my entire team is for Marketo and I have more positive experiences with Pardot. Please help me out with the issues you’ve had with either platform – I’m open to being swayed to Marketo, but need to explain why. TIA!
submitted by /u/martechstar [link] [comments]

Besides Upwork and Freelancer.com, Where can I best find part-time/freelance marketing automation jobs that accepts a remote set up? I have 2 years Marketo experience and passed the Marketo associate exam but I feel like my skills aren’t still enough. I want to improve my skills in Marketo and try other marketing automation software like Salesforce/pardot.
submitted by /u/astralgunner [link] [comments]

 

Zero-party data is the best way to engage audience groups to interact with your brand. The information your customers give you about their preferences, interests, or demographics is the perfect foundation for marketing activities that will really matter to them. Here are 5 robust examples of how to turn zero-party data into marketing gold.

 

Currently, marketing efforts are an ongoing balancing act between irrelevance and invasion of privacy. As the Accenture Interactive Research showed, nearly 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. The same study brings top 5 creepiest advertising techniques as cited by consumers :

 

Receiving an ad for something you talked about near a voice assistant but never searched for (73%)
An ad that follows you across devices (69%)
A chatbot that has access to your past online shopping (not just purchases) (66%)
An ad on a social media site based on a recent shopping visit on another site (66%)
A chatbot that has access to your past customer service interactions (64%)

 

Events over the past few years, including the much-publicized Cambridge Analytica scandal of 2018, have forced brands to examine their data ethics, and consumers to rethink the way they use the internet and question online security. Legislation like GDPR came into effect as a natural consequence, followed by a gradual shift away from third-party cookies that enabled such actions.

 

Challenges of a world without third-party cookies

 

Many ad publishers relied on third-party cookies to reach potential audiences on ad networks. However, those days are slowly coming to an end. Wild marketing based on not-quite-ethically-sourced information alienates customers from brands and causes a huge drop in trust. It may seem like a no big deal, but bear in mind that acquiring a new customer is incomparably more expensive than keeping an existing one. This is just the beginning of the changes that the future holds. What challenges will it bring?

 

Some 88% of marketers say collecting first-party data is their top priority for 2021, according to a Merkle study. The report also points to the need for marketers to increase zero-party data acquisition. (Merkle 2021 Customer Engagement Report)

 

What’s more, as many as 93% of consumers agree that it’s important that every interaction they have with a brand is excellent, whenever and wherever they make a purchase decision. (Accenture Interactive)

 

Other digital marketing challenges cited in the reports include:

 

transparency about how data is acquired and used,
providing a consistent digital experience,
maintaining a comfort level of interaction similar to that with an experienced salesperson.

 

Read 20 expert tips on marketing in a post-cookie world >>

 

What is zero-party data?

 

Zero-party data is a term coined by Forrester that refers to all information about oneself that a consumer knowingly, actively and voluntarily provides to a company. “’Zero’ party data is gold… When a customer trusts a brand enough to provide this really meaningful data, it means that the brand doesn’t have to go off and infer what the customer wants” – said Fatemeh Khatibloo, VP i main analyst in Forrester. The concept seems to have hit the bull’s eye!

 

Why does zero-party data allow you to better engage consumers?

 

The huge advantage of zero-party data is the certainty it gives brands about a consumer’s intentions for an interaction. If someone provides personal information, it means they are consciously interacting with a brand, and they want to find something that matches their preferences.

 

Gradually building up each consumer’s preference sets and modifying them in real time at their request strengthens the relationship with the brand.

 

Examples of zero-party data

 

When collecting zero-party data, you can ask your audience just about anything. Of course, the right thing to do is to make the information relevant to your business. Examples of data in this group include:

 

name,
gender,
pronouns,
language,
interests,
child’s age,
dog’s name,
favorite color
clothing size,
ailments,
company,
phone,
city,
favorite brick-and-mortar store,
preferred communication channel,
preferred frequency of communication,
product categories.

 

This is but the first step. The data will change depending on the industry or type of business. The bottom line is that the customer makes a conscious decision to share it.

 

5 examples of how to use zero-party data to create better relationships with your audience

 

Here are some examples of how you can strengthen the relationship with your audience using zero-party data.

 

#1 Campaign targeted at users who prefer Web Push channel

 

Target audience description: This group will include people who at any point in their relationship with the brand:

 

have agreed to receive Web Push notifications through a consent form,
have indicated Web Push as their preferred channel.

 

How to identify them: You can ask about one’ s preferred communication channel in a number of ways. A simple method is to prepare a survey, which can be displayed as a pop-up on a website or sent in an email campaign. The information obtained this way can be passed to SALESmanago as a detail or tag and then translated to a proper, detailed segmentation.

 

Why it works: Such segmentation allows you to prepare, for example, a special offer for a selected group of recipients and send information about it through the channel they find most convenient. It increases the chance that they will decide to use this opportunity. What’s more, it will strengthen their belief that you are listening to what they say without overstepping their boundaries.

 

#2 Campaign for users interested in kitesurfing

 

Target audience description: This group consists of users who indicated kitesurfing as an interest in surveys, or indicated the kitesurfing category as a product preference.

 

How to identify them: You can ask about interests during registration, for example, by attaching this question to the form.

 

Why it works: Particular sports are quite specific, as they require certain equipment and often show a certain seasonal character. Considering these factors in your recommendations, marketing calendar and layout allows your recipients to feel special. They will know that you recommend products just for them according to your best professional knowledge.  A campaign aimed at such a specialized group can and should be further personalized and stand out.  Prepare colors, banners, and content specifically with kitesurfing fans in mind. This personalized approach is reminiscent of a professional advisor in a sporting goods store. It will certainly translate into a good perception of the store by customers, followed by their loyalty and sales results.

 

#3 Campaign for Berlin-based entrepreneurs

 

Target audience description: To be in the group a contact should meet 2 conditions: 

 

working in your own company,
company location: Berlin.

 

How to identify them: You can ask about the company, city and other data in the progressive form on the website. Using SALESmanago filtering you can easily select a group of people that meet both conditions.Why it works: Extended waits for materials ordered for a company can impact its operational efficiency. A location-specific offer will allow you to target the right people with a campaign containing products that are available in the specified location and can be easily transported. In separate campaigns for other cities, you can present a regional offer linked to the stock of local stores.  This is beneficial for both the company and the recipients.

 

#4 Campaign for people with shoe size 35 interested in stilettos

 

Target audience description: Different people (not just women) can wear high heel shoes. So in this case, you can go by gender, shoe size and product preference, or preference and size alone.

 

How to identify them: You can ask the user about gender early in the relationship with the brand, and the size and favorite type of shoes can be asked in the progressive form. The actionable combination of all conditions is possible through the filtering available in SALESmanago (user with segment X, also having tag Y and detail with value Z).Why it works: Certain groups of items are harder to sell than others. This applies, for example, to shoes in unusual sizes. Items of this kind stay in stock, generating costs and taking up space. Prepare a special offer for such situations for people who may be interested in buying the unusual product. If you add some kind of gratification, users will surely react with great interest to the offer sent to them, at the same time having a feeling that someone is taking care of their needs.

 

#5 Campaign for new moms in Eindhoven interested in sleepwear, for 3-month-old babies

 

Target audience description: This is a fairly narrow audience. It will include women who have recently given birth/adopted an infant who is 3 months old at the time of the campaign and live in a particular city.

 

How to identify them: You can ask for information such as your child’s gender, city, age, and favorite category in a progressive form on the website, or a survey sent by email.

 

Why it works: A precisely targeted campaign to a narrow group of users will allow you to reach a smaller, but very interested audience. This will significantly increase the chances of conversion. Of course, in addition to the tailored offer, you can also personalize email content by, for example, including the age of the child and offering collection of the order in selected stores in the customer’s place of residence.

 

Engagement built with zero-party data: a few words at the end

 

The aforementioned Accenture Interactive report provides a simple summary of what clients are dreaming about:

 

What many consumers ultimately want is for digital advertising to have the same social intelligence as a familiar salesperson in their favorite store—one who can tell from the expression on their face that they’re in the mood to splurge or that they’re in a hurry because it’s a Tuesday night and they need to get home to dinner. That salesperson has the social intelligence to avoid certain missteps, such as suggesting the consumer might need a new bathing suit for an upcoming Hawaiian vacation that the salesperson overheard the consumer mention. The brands that approximate that human touch best (using automation) will stand out and win consumer loyalty. Brands that can’t pull it off will feel sterile.

 

Zero-party data allows you to achieve just this level of personalization. What’s more, they make all actions ethical and based on the informed consent of the customer. This is the right direction for marketing. As you can see, it provides very interesting and wide possibilities for personalizing the message that have a real impact on sales results. If you are interested in applying similar personalization in your eCommerce, be sure to reach out to your account manager at SALESmanago.

 

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What led you to make your most recent purchase? Were you wishing for something for a while and decided to just go for it? Were you casually browsing a store and saw something you liked? Or were you browsing and an advertisement from a business convinced you that you need to buy it right then and there?
If it was the latter, the business used a form of outbound marketing to convince you to take an immediate action after seeing one of their marketing materials. It can be a very effective strategy, especially if done correctly.  
In this post, learn how businesses can use direct response marketing to drive conversions, best practices for creating these types of campaigns, and examples from real companies to use as inspiration.

What is direct response marketing?
Direct response marketing, sometimes called push marketing, is when you present your target audience with an offer in an attempt to persuade them to take immediate action, like completing a lead gen form, downloading an ebook, or making a purchase.
This strategy is popular with marketers because it can drive quick results for time-sensitive campaigns.
What distinguishes direct response marketing from traditional marketing is that it desires an immediate response for immediate ROI rather than traditional brand awareness. Below we’ll discuss more elements of these ad campaigns.
Direct Response Marketing Strategies
Direct response marketing strategies are customer-centric, targeted, offer-centric, and urgent. Here’s what that means for your campaigns:
Customer-centric
To elicit a response, your direct response ads must be customer-centric and directly related to the value you can provide them if they follow through with your desired action. If your audiences can’t tell why your offer matters to them, they won’t take action.
Targeted
Not all of your customers have the same needs, so your ads must be hyper-targeted to specific audiences with personalized messages that speak to their pain points. Statistics show that this practice is worth it, as Epsilon found that 80% of consumers were more likely to purchase a brand that offers personalized experiences.
Offer-centric
Direct response ads prompt users to do something, so they usually feature an offer or CTA that tells the user what your desired action is, whether it’s signing up for your newsletter or making a purchase. When creating these offers, mind copywriting best practices to ensure they’re clear and concise, focused on one specific outcome, and personalized.
Urgent
These ads all present a sense of urgency in addition to a CTA to entice quick action, so leveraging language like “As supplies last” or “Buy one get one free” is common. For example, maybe you’ll send a direct response ad to remind consumers about an event before it happens, so they quickly decide to sign up for it instead of missing it.
Active voice and power words are well suited to direct response ads.
Direct Response Campaigns
Below we’ll go over some common direct response campaigns businesses use.

Social Media Ads: Social media is a powerful tool for running direct response campaigns due to the sheer number of users and the targeting options that many platforms offer marketers. On this platform, ads need to use short and to-the-point copy that displays urgency and a CTA that directs the action you want your audience to take.

Referral Programs: Referral programs are an excellent tool for direct marketing, especially since you can easily track their effectiveness. Consider giving your current users a promo code or URL and ask them to share it with a friend or family member in exchange for something, like a 10% discount. If they successfully refer someone, you’ll be able to track it through the unique code.

Email: Direct response campaigns run over email typically make users aware of flash sales, upcoming events filling up, or things like abandoned cart reminders. We’ll cover an example of a direct response email below.

Display Ads: Display ads, like banners, are in an area on a website or channel dedicated to paid ads. They usually contain short copy that shows a sense of urgency and a CTA to inspire action.

Direct Mail: While it may seem outdated, direct mail is a popular channel for direct advertisements. Things like brochures, coupons, digests, or newsletters are used for direct marketing, but be mindful of not having your assets seem like junk mail.  

Direct Response Marketing Examples
Let’s go over some high-quality examples of direct response marketing that you can use to guide your own strategy.
New York Times
The New York Times, a newspaper, used Instagram to run a direct ad campaign to promote a limited discount for unlimited access to the newspaper.

Grailed
Grailed is an online marketplace where individual users can resell different products, from clothing to collectible items. Their form of direct response marketing is via email, where they notify users when an item they have favorited has dropped in price.

Scribd
Scribd is an online ebook and audiobook subscription platform. Like The New York Times, it uses social media, Facebook specifically, to run direct marketing campaigns to notify audiences about a limited-time discount offer.

UberEats
UberEats is an online food delivery service that uses email for direct marketing campaigns to prompt users to follow through with a purchase after they have abandoned their cart.

Direct Response Marketing Metrics and Tools
Below we’ll discuss critical metrics that will help you understand your direct response marketing success and the tools that help you collect this data.
Conversion Rate
Conversion rate is an essential marketing metric for direct response ads as it tracks the number of users that have taken the action you want them to take, a.k.a converted.
You’ll get a sense of how successful you were, helping you learn about the effectiveness of your copy and the content you offer when it comes to providing value and prompting action. Let’s go over some specific tools that will help you track these conversions.
1. Promotional Codes
Promo codes can be unique per user or unique per campaign, so you can see how specific ads successfully prompt action. Make sure that you track the number of codes you give out so you can get an exact sense of how many people converted based on how many you gave out.
2. QR Codes

QR codes are similar to promotional codes as they’re unique to the specific campaign you use them on, helping you see how many users actually converted from that specific ad. QR codes also typically lead to landing pages, so you can further track if customers took action on your landing pages or simply landed on them and bounced.
3. UTM Codes

UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) codes are snippets of text placed at the end of a URL that helps you track where website traffic comes from. For direct response marketing, you can attribute your specific site traffic to your direct ads, like those who visited your site and made a purchase after receiving a promo code.
Here’s what a sample UTM code could look like for this use case: utm_campaign=20percentpromocode.
All-in-all, direct response ads have similar outcomes as regular marketing ads, but they want a user to take action right now. Be mindful of being customer-centric and use concise, urgent, and compelling copy, and you’ll find ads driving conversions.

See the list of 17 best real estate marketing tools of 2021, including contact management and lead generation software.