Category: Marketing Automation

Ever click on a website, take one look and say “Hm, that’s going to be a no” while you look for the exit button?
For me, it’s usually because of three reasons: the site looks outdated, crowded, or hard to navigate.
Bad design can keep your target audience from gaining any interest in your brand.

That’s why it’s important to understand the key design principles that will help you draw your audience in, keep them on the page, and generate conversions.
Here’s an easy guide on a specific design principle: visual hierarchy. We’ll cover all the elements that contribute to visual hierarchy and look at good and bad examples.
Visual hierarchy affects what you look at and focus on in a design, whether it’s an image, graphic design, or web design. It’s a key player in ct (i.e., how information is organized and displayed for easy understanding and navigation) and can greatly impact the user experience (UX).
When thinking about visual hierarchy, you want to ask yourself a few questions:

What do we want to draw attention to?
What actions do we want our users to take?
Where does the eye naturally go to and where do they land?

Asking these questions will help you use the principles outlined below to create a clear visual hierarchy.
What constitutes bad visual hierarchy?
When it comes to visual hierarchy, there’s a golden rule: If every element appears important, nothing will seem important.
Visual hierarchy serves as a way to rank the information you’re consuming. If there is no way to differentiate between the elements, that is considered poor hierarchy.
Take this example:

On the left, there’s a lot much going on. The two main elements are the same size, there are many different colors. It makes it hard to know where to look. Your eyes glaze over everything, creating some uneasiness and lack of direction.
On the right, your eye is automatically drawn to the main blue box on the left, then naturally goes to the elements on the right before landing on the orange call to action (CTA).
A poor visual hierarchy:

Confuses the user.
Makes it unclear where to look.
Creates a bland design.

Instead, create a visual structure that facilitates understanding and guides the user.
1. Consider reading patterns.
When designing, you want to note your target audience’s natural eye patterns.
Across all cultures, we read top to bottom. However, there is some variation in how we read horizontally. Western cultures tend to read from left to right, while some Semitic and Indo-Aryan languages, such as Arabic, Hebrew, and Urdu are read right to left.
With this in mind, it impacts how we scan and understand designs. For instance, Western users usually follow an F or Z reading pattern.

Knowing this information will help you design projects that convert, particularly in landing pages.
2. Users notice bigger elements more easily.
Size plays an important role in visual hierarchy. It’s one of the main ways to rank elements in a design.
Take this example from Netflix.

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The first thing you’ll read when looking at this image is “Unlimited movies, TV shows, and more.”
Then you’ll read the next line, and then the next before you explore the other elements on the page.
Size signifies importance. The bigger an element is, the more attention it draws, and then more likely you’ll look at it first.
As you design your webpage, consider what you want your audience to look at first and use that to guide your strategy.
3. Color and contrast draw the eye.
The second principle to keep in mind is color.
We know that color can evoke emotion and can have certain cultural and social connotations. Just look at logos by industry, and you’ll notice a trend. Food brands tend to have reds and yellows, while financial institutions tend to be in blue.
In design, color is great at drawing attention.

In the example above, you’ll see that the elements that stand out the most are in orange. It’s only after looking at them that you’ll scan the other elements on the page.
On a website, you can use this to draw focus to your CTAs.

In the example below, the CTA that stands out the most is in the middle. The brand likely wants users to choose this option. The other CTAs are still visible but muted compared to the orange.
To create the most visual impact with color, use it sparingly. That will make the elements stand out more, as seen in the above example.
4. White space creates emphasis.
White space refers to the empty space within a design.

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Sometimes, there is a desire to fill the space with as many elements as possible. However, this goes back to the concept of importance: If they all seem equally important, none of them are perceived as important.
This is why adding white space to your web design is key in pulling in your visitors.
Apple is also well known for its use of white space.

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The brand offers a simple user interface, which creates more emphasis on the elements on the page. Apple’s use of white space also reflects a brand’s identity.
5. Proximity and repetition create unity.
When you put several elements together, it tells the user the concepts are related.

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This design offers many examples of proximity.
Take the elements under “Master The Basics.” By having these boxes all grouped closely together, the visitor can understand they fall within the same category.
The same goes for the icons under “Follow Us.” If the icons were all spread out randomly on the page, it would be difficult for users to understand their purpose.
If you’re not sure how to group certain elements, you can employ certain UX research strategies, such as card sorting, to group elements based on your audience’s expectations.
Examples of Good Visual Hierarchy
1. Visme.co

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Visme.co has a striking pop-up that encourages users to sign up for their newsletter.
The brand successfully uses white space, color, size, and contrast to make key elements stand out. You’ll also notice that the elements are designed following the Z-pattern, making it more likely that users will convert.
2. Studio 8AD

In designing their website, this brand leverages white space to focus users’ attention on three key elements: the image and the two CTAs located on the bottom left.

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3. Predominantly Black

This brand offers a great example of proximity to create visual hierarchy.
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By organizing all products under the main title and leaving little space in between, visitors quickly understand that these products fall within the same category.
Visual hierarchy is all about ranking your elements by order of importance. Once you narrow down what you want to focus on and consider your audience’s needs, you can create designs that produce the desired impact.

In 2019, DoorDash was losing money on the average order and reported an operating loss of $616 million on $885 million in revenue. By the end of 2020, their revenue jumped to $2.89 billion — a 226% gain.
Why the sudden success?

For one, the global pandemic spiked the demand for food delivery. But DoorDash also responded to customers’ needs right from the start. They delivered COVID test kits and launched the #OpenforDelivery campaign to support restaurants by the end of March, made it easier to filter customer ratings in April, and released a Gifting feature to send loved ones food over the holidays.
Simply put, they figured out what customers desired and rapidly delivered.
Now more than ever, customers expect brands to understand and respond to their needs. In a survey of global consumers, 58% of people remembered a brand that quickly pivoted and 82% ended up doing more business with that company as a result.

But a lightning-fast response only happens if your team can handle abrupt change.
Agile marketing is a strategic approach that focuses on quickly executing projects by working in short sprints. It makes room for marketers to shift their focus, adapt to customer needs, and change priorities alongside expectations.
With Agile, what once took months to deliver can take weeks.
Adopting this approach takes work, but this post shares how to get started with Agile marketing by explaining the process, sharing examples, and showing you how to automate your efforts.
What is Agile Marketing?
Agile marketing is a strategic marketing approach that prioritizes creating high-value deliverables, working in short, intense bursts to achieve goals, and rapidly iterating.
By the end of each burst — often called a ‘sprint’ or an ‘iteration’ — teams complete their outlined deliverables and begin testing so they know how to improve during the next iteration. Data collection and analytics allow teams to incrementally refine and improve the results over time.
Agile marketing embraces failure. It also requires teams to learn from their mistakes and make adjustments to continuously get better. This mindset isn’t always easy for teams to instantly adopt. That’s why it’s important to understand the core values outlined in the Agile Marketing Manifesto before switching to this approach.

Validated learning over opinions and conventions.
Customer-focused collaboration over silos and hierarchy.
Adaptive and iterative campaigns over Big-Bang campaigns.
The process of customer discovery over static prediction.
Responding to change over following a plan.
Many small experiments over a few large bets.

When these values play out in real-world projects, the impact can be massive.
Research by McKinsey found that digital marketing organizations using Agile have seen a 20-40% increase in revenue. Agile has also cut down the time it takes for companies to turn an idea into an offer — from multiple months or weeks to less than two weeks.
You may think this acceleration leads to sloppy deliverables and disappointment. It’s the opposite. Agile marketing can improve performance and quality by creating space for clear goals, frequent feedback, continual testing and iteration, on-time deliverables, and inevitable impact.
To get those results, you have to dive into the nitty-gritty details.
Agile Marketing Process
No marketing team follows the exact same Agile approach. Some stick to the traditional frameworks while others pick and choose which parts work for them to create a hybrid method.
The method you choose can depend on the goals you want to accomplish. While its roots are in web and software development, 77% of companies using Agile rely on it for creative services, content creation, and operations.
The main methodologies for Agile marketing teams are Scrum and Kanban.
Scrum
The Scrum framework revolves around sprints. Each sprint lasts for two to six weeks and is organized by the team doing the work. Depending on the size of your project, you may need to break it up into multiple smaller sprints to tackle it bit by bit.
The goal of each sprint is to rapidly deliver small projects that can be combined into a larger project over time. Once a sprint is set, the team shouldn’t change its goals or reprioritize until the sprint is complete.
To make sure your sprints stay on track, you need to establish a few key roles and meetings.
Roles
1. Scrum MasterThis person is responsible for keeping the team on task. They know the Scrum framework and use it to facilitate meetings, remove roadblocks, help team members use the framework, and make sure everyone on the Scrum team is collaborating and communicating.
2. Product OwnerThis person understands the reason for the work and makes sure the process is being done at the right time. They understand the customers better than anyone else, and they collaborate with the stakeholders and team to ensure the deliverables provide value to the business and to customers.
3. DeveloperEveryone else on the team falls under the Developer role. Ideally, the people in this role are cross-functional and contribute a unique set of skills needed to accomplish the sprint. You want to choose at least one person from each department that your project touches.
Meeting
1. Planning
A planning meeting kicks off every sprint to decide what the team can achieve. Everyone looks at the priorities the Product Owner has put together and agrees on which to include in the sprint.
The project(s) are divided into tasks, given deadlines, and assigned to individual team members so people know exactly what to work on when they leave the meeting. These meetings take time, so dedicate at least one hour per week of the total sprint time (i.e., a three-hour meeting for a three-week sprint).
At your first planning meeting, emphasize that Agile is a new way of working and the typical rules don’t apply. Reiterate the need to focus on the customer above all else and highlight the need for speed, collaboration, data, and accountability.
2. Stand-up
The daily stand-up gets your team together for a brief (15 minutes or less) check-in. The aim is to make it very clear where everyone is on progress, roadblocks, and tasks. Everyone on the team answers:

What they accomplished yesterday
What they plan to do today
Any blocks in their way

3. Review
The review is the time to show off what your team has achieved during the sprint. It’s open to anyone interested in the results and is a good time to show off campaign materials, demo content, or share early testing data.
Make note of feedback and add or adjust your priority list as needed, but don’t get wrapped up in additional approvals or new ideas. The point is to share insight into what your team is working on and highlight the impact.
4. Retrospective
Headed by the Scrum Master, this meeting is a chance for the Scrum team to reflect on work from the latest sprint. Everyone shares what went well, what didn’t, what can be improved, and lessons learned. Make sure people don’t point fingers in the meetings, and assign action items as a way to continually improve before the next retrospective.
Kanban
If your marketing team is full of visual learners or does work that won’t fit well into a predetermined sprint timeline, Kanban may be the Agile framework for you.
Kanban is made up of three main components: visualizing workflow, setting WIP limits, and meeting cadences.
1. Visualizing workflow
Unlike Scrum, Kanban uses visual cues to track progress. A Kanban board is how people track the progress of user stories (i.e., tasks) to be accomplished. The board is divided into columns, each their own stage in a workflow.
The simplest boards have To-Do, Doing, and Done columns, but the more complex your workflow, the more columns you may need. (One of my favorite tools for building boards and tracking progress is Miro).
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Each card on the board represents a task to be completed. For example, if you’re planning a social calendar for the upcoming quarter, you would list each task that needs to be accomplished on its own card (i.e., choose topics, assign copy, write copy, schedule posts, and so on).
As the task is being completed, you move the card into the corresponding column. A quick glance at the board and everyone on your team knows how the project is progressing and what still needs to be done.
2. Setting WIP limits
When people have too much on their plates, nothing gets accomplished. This is why Kanban uses WIP limits — boundaries that outline how people will work on the tasks within each column on the Kanban board.
Placing limits on how many tasks can be in one column or how much time people have to accomplish a task. Let’s say you want your social coordinator to schedule the posts for each month before they begin reviewing posts for the following month. That rule means they can’t move the “Review posts” task into the “Doing” column before the “Schedule posts” are in the “Done” column.
Setting ground rules helps people focus on finishing a specific goal or task before starting another one. In a world of context switching and mental burnout, limitations are a way to achieve your goals without juggling too many tasks at once.
3. Meeting cadences
Similar to Scrum, Kanban is designed to help teams work better and accomplish their goals. It incorporates planning meetings, daily stand-ups, and retrospectives to make sure a project is on task and continually refined.
The one meeting that’s different from Scrum is the delivery meeting, a time to plan when to release the content or project. Since Kanban works on longer timelines than Scrum, the delivery meeting is the place to bring in other groups that may need to help get the work out.
While a small team may own a project, a successful Agile marketing strategy relies on everyone. It’s helpful to bring in outside team members to collaborate on timelines, share feedback, and assist in launching the work your team accomplishes.
Agile Marketing Examples
Most Agile marketing efforts break down into a few simple steps.

The team makes a list of priority projects to work on.
The steps to tackle a project are planned out in a sprint.
The team checks in every day in a stand-up meeting.
Everyone accomplishes their specific tasks and testing begins.
Data from the testing is collected and used to improve the project.

Let’s look at how this process can play out in real-world Agile marketing examples.
1. Scrum Example
The United Kingdom-based Santander bank struggled to produce efficient marketing campaigns due to long production lead times and expensive creative costs. In an effort to increase efficiency, they adopted an Agile marketing method for their “Unlock you London” campaign. The bank’s goal was to convince customers to download and use their mobile app.
They “put everyone together around shared objectives, shared KPIs, and a budget in the middle of the table” and agreed to tweak the campaign on a weekly basis. Instead of dedicating a massive spend working with a creative agency that would take months to develop everything needed for the campaign, they began spending a few thousand pounds at a time. This swap allowed them to make changes quickly and test an idea on customers.
If something resonated, they’d keep it. If not, they’d make a small change and test again.
The new Agile approach produced incredible results. By the end of the campaign, the bank saw a 12% increase in loyalty, a 10% increase in account satisfaction, the highest Net Promoter Score in 17 years, and the highest positive sentiment (90%) among customers.
2. Kanban Method Example
A technology startup recently revamped its brand and wants to update essential marketing materials. The creative team puts together a small Agile team to revamp the website and create new marketing materials.
They include a designer, copywriter, sales rep, creative director, product lead, content coordinator, and a member of the legal team. The team chooses tasks to be completed, decides on a six-week timeline, and lays out the work in a Kanban board.
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The team lays out the individual tasks associated with each task in a project management tool and tracks the progress of each project in a Kanban board.
Six weeks later, the Agile team has designed five new web pages, six one-pagers, and two decks. While more complex projects like the website will need another sprint or two in order to build out simpler materials — like the one-pagers — for the sales team to use. What once took an entire quarter to complete has been condensed into several weeks.
Agile Marketing Automation
Having the right type of technology for Agile marketing automation is crucial for collecting data and conducting analytics.
A well-designed CRM platform can help you collect, organize, test, and manage data about your customers and sprint iterations. It can automate campaign delivery and send messages to customers, feeding tracking and performance metrics back to you.
Above all, automation improves your ability to react to customer requests. In a survey of C-suite executives, 41% said they hoped to implement more digital technology in order to respond quickly to customer needs. So if you need to convince your boss that automation technology is worth the investment, explain how it’s essential to collect data that allows you to share the most relevant messages and offers.
Let’s say you decide to turn an idea for an email campaign into reality using your newly established Agile marketing team. You gather a copywriter, designer, analyst, developer, operations lead, and email lead. Before starting the sprint, you’ll want to make sure you have the following tools to automate your efforts.

A collaboration tool
A tool to review copy, design, and development
A way to collect feedback
An email marketing tool
A way to gather data and analyze it

Look into the following Agile marketing automation tools to see which one works for your team. Evaluate the features, user interface, customer support, integrations, resources, reviews, and pricing.

HubSpot
Marketo
Agile CRM
NetSuite
Pardot

Once you have the technology you need to automate your Agile efforts, you can focus on the tasks at hand and make sure every sprint or board stays on track.
Switching from a traditional project management approach to Agile marketing may seem intimidating. But the switch will be simple if you keep a few rules in mind. Start with what you want to accomplish (your goals), get buy-in from the senior marketing leaders who can advocate for you with the rest of the team, bring together a small group of people, and explain this new way of working to them. Finally, set up the technology you need to collaborate, collect feedback, and analyze data.
Soon, you’ll be finished with your first project — and gaining momentum that lets your Agile marketing efforts stay focused, grow faster, and get better results than ever before.

In more ways than one, branding is a pillar of success.
It helps you develop a set of features unique to your business, like a logo and brand name, which allows customers to come to know your brand and associate it with what you have to offer.
Branding is impactful in and of itself, but co-branding brings additional opportunities and benefits to businesses that engage in it. In this post, discover the advantages that come from generating brand individuality for your business, and the added benefits that come from co-branding with a partner.

1. Branding is often the deciding factor for consumers making purchasing decisions.
Branding is often the deciding factor for consumers when making a purchase decision. In fact, consumers report being more likely to buy from brands that they know or know and already have a positive experience with.
This is especially true for social media, as 89% of consumers say they’ll buy from a brand they already follow and recognize over a competitor. Given this, having a recognizable and unique brand gives you a leg up with customers, as they would feel safer buying from a business they already know.
2. Branding gives your business an identity.
Branding gives your business an identity beyond just the products and services you sell. You become more than just a name, especially if you develop a brand mission separate from your products.
For example, if your brand is committed to social responsibility, you’ll become associated with those interests in addition to your products. Your business develops a personality outside of your sales, which consumers appreciate.
3. Branding sets you apart from competitors in a saturated market.
There’s no way to quantify how many brands there are globally, but there are certainly a lot. Given this, branding helps you stand out from the crowd and gain an edge in an increasingly competitive market.
Your brand identity differentiates you from your competitors, especially in industries where it’s not easy to stand out because you offer similar products. If you have a unique identity, you can still offer those similar products, but your unique brand personality and reputation are what seals the deal.
4. Branding makes your business memorable.
Strong branding makes your business memorable and recognizable to consumers.
They’ll be able to quickly discern that content you create belongs to you, especially if they see it on channels you don’t own, because it looks like and is in line with the content and content style they know you create.
Being memorable is also helpful when it comes to ad spend. A memorable brand can devote more resources to product promotion and less to brand awareness because consumers already know who you are. For example, Coca-Cola doesn’t need to get the word out that they exist because their brand already has universal awareness. Instead, they can focus marketing efforts on advertising a new drink.
5. Branding supports your marketing efforts and promotes consistency.
When you have consistent branding, future business efforts always have a clear path to follow. You’ll spend less time coming up with ways to present yourself and more time ensuring that you’re consistently delivering high-quality content, products, and experiences that customers desire.
Here are some stats that support the benefits of branding consistency:

Uniformly presented brands are 3.5x more visible to customers.
Consistent brand presentation has been seen to increase revenue by 33%.
Inconsistent branding damages a company’s reputation and credibility.

Consistency also helps build trust with your audience, which we’ll discuss further below.
6. Branding builds credibility and trust.
Inconsistency confuses, but strong branding does the opposite.
Customers don’t have to guess how or why your content and products relate to your business because it’s clear. This helps build credibility because you show consumers that you stick to your word and don’t engage in practices that seem misaligned with what you stand for.
When you build credibility, you also increase trust in your business, which influences consumers making purchasing decisions. As mentioned above, a customer is more likely to do business with a company they recognize and trust because they already know who you are and what you stand for.
7. Branding inspires customer loyalty and retention.
Branding increases trust, and trust is a pillar of customer loyalty.
Your identity attracts customers because they can tell what you stand for, which helps them feel connected to you. When customers feel connected to a business, they’re more likely to be loyal. Loyal customers, in turn, drive revenue, as they’re more likely to make repeat purchases and draw in new clients to your business.
8. Branding encourages word-of-mouth marketing.
Having consistent branding makes customers loyal, which makes them more likely to practice word-of-mouth marketing.
Word-of-mouth marketing is when consumers promote you to their friends, family, and even strangers online. This is highly beneficial for all businesses, as people trust other consumers more than marketers because they believe they have an agenda. Consider these statistics:

39% of consumers build trust in a brand from peer-to-peer conversations compared to 23% from a brand’s paid ads.
Consumers report that a person like themselves (another consumer) is 14% more credible than a brand employee.

When you build a following of loyal customers, they provide your business with free marketing to draw in new clients and increase revenue.
9. Branding helps you share your values.
Customers are more interested than ever before in buying from companies that share their same values, so having a consistent message to share is critical. In fact, if customers believe you’re making a positive impact on the world, they would pay 31 to 50% more for products and services.
Branding helps you appeal to this new consumer interest, as it goes beyond just a recognizable logo — it enables you to communicate your brand mission and values.
10. Branding builds internal employee morale and pride.
Branding is beneficial for outward conceptions, but it also impacts internal employee retention, morale, and hiring processes. Consider these statistics from LinkedIn Business on the impacts of strong employer branding on hiring and retention:

Well-regarded brands can bring down training expenses by as much as 50%.
72% of recruiting leaders worldwide say that the employer brand has a significant impact on hiring.
50% of employers report more qualified applicants.
Strong branding is associated with a 28% reduction in organizational turnover.
Inconsistent branding has been found to embarrass employees and lower morale.

The statistics show us that branding helps you position yourself as a reputable source, making employees feel like they’re working for something big and authentic. They’re proud of representing your brand and business, ensuring that everyone is continually working to satisfy your customers.
11. Branding helps you easily introduce new products.
Branding helps you easily introduce new products to market and drive sales for those products.
Firstly, you already have consistent branding, so it doesn’t take much legwork to market a product, so it aligns with your existing products and brand message. You don’t have to sit at a table and figure out how everything will fit in or rebrand your business; there is already a path for you to follow.
When you launch these new products, customers already loyal, familiar with, and appreciative of your quality of service will be eager to try what you have to offer, generating sales and driving revenue.
12. Branding brings a high return on investment and increased profits.
Being profitable is the ultimate goal as it allows you to keep your business running, continuously innovate, and provide the delightful experiences that customers expect and desire.
As branding is a significant factor in achieving high ROI, it makes sense to invest in the practice.
The benefits discussed above are relevant to all businesses, regardless of size or maturity. Co-branding can bring about additional advantages, which we’ll discuss further below.
Benefits of Co-Branding
Co-branding is a partnership between two businesses where one company’s success contributes to the success of the other. Co-branding partnerships are most impactful when they involve two similar companies working together, as audience members obtain unique value from their relationship. An example of co-branding that you may already be familiar with is a sports company partnering with an athlete.
1. Co-branding is exciting for consumers.
When two businesses work together, the partnership is exciting for consumers. They may have never expected your collaboration, so they’re eager to see what’s to come.
Co-branding attracts interest and increased attention, as it is not a common practice. You may have customers refreshing your social media feeds or checking your websites on launch days because they’re incredibly excited about what’s to come.
2. Co-branding brings exposure to new audiences
Although you may operate in the same industry, you and your partner likely target different audience segments. When you work together on a co-branding campaign, you gain exposure to their audience, they gain exposure to yours, helping both of you increase brand awareness, draw in new clients, and grow your overall reach.
3. Co-branding helps you generate trust with new audiences.
When you’re advertising alone and emerging into new markets, it is your responsibility to build trust with your audience. However, a benefit to co-branding is that your partners vouch for your credibility.
Your new audiences may not trust you 100% off the bat, but the trust that they have in your partner tells them that they wouldn’t expose them to a brand that they disagree with or don’t find credible. Essentially, your partners are telling their audience that they can trust you because they trust you.
4. Co-branding is cost-effective
When you work with another brand, you’re both committing to sharing resources and putting money into your advertising efforts. This means that you can save money and spend more than you may have had access to with your individual budget.
For example, if you and your partners agree to share ad costs, you can use double the money to access resources to create your campaigns. If you’re a small brand, this can be highly beneficial, as you have the opportunity to branch out in ways you couldn’t do alone.
At the end of the day, your business’ branding, regardless of whether you’re working with a partner, is the first thing consumers will see about your business. If you take the time to prioritize strong branding for your individual business, you’ll find sales growth, and retain new audiences when your co-branding campaigns go live.

When it comes to the important elements of an email, lots of brands and professionals underestimate the power of their signature. Your email signature tells your recipients who sent the message, of course, but it also lends legitimacy to your content and/or your request. And if you really take the time to do it right,…
The post 10 Ways to Take Your Email Signature to the Next Level appeared first on Benchmark Email.

Hello all – I am looking to connect with US based Marketing Automation experts (Eloqua and Marketo). My current need is to fill a long term contract for a fortune 500 company. Should be US based, open to remote contract work. 40 hours a week for 6-12 months.
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In just about every type of business, you can find countless small, repetitive tasks. As a business owner, you do them yourself, at first. Later, as your business grows, you start delegating them to employees. You get to focus on more important things, while your workers handle the more mundane, repetitive tasks. This was the old way. Today, with the advance in Artificial Intelligence, we have moved into the age where machine algorithms can go beyond our own capabilities in a broad range of tasks. Some repetitive tasks you can automate include:
Repetitive physical labor Customer service Payroll and purchase orders Collecting and processing data
Nowadays, AI is able to perform these tasks faster, better, and at a more affordable price than humans. Machines can manipulate tools, extract data from files, send purchase requisitions for approval, automate your payroll management process, and allow business owners to have more of the most limited resource of all — their personal time. The more repetitive tasks you automate, the more time you’ll have for the important stuff, such as growing your business, handling key clients, planning, and strategizing for the future. What Does the Research Say? According to PwC and McKinsey’s research, we are able to automate around 20% of all business activities just with today’s tech. PwC predicts that the automation trend will continue to rise during the 2020s and it will even encompass 30% of all current positions by the mid-2030s. Based on McKinsey research, we are likely to automate around 18% of all tasks. This is based on an estimate that we can automate 30% of activities in around 60% of all jobs. Additionally, McKinsey projects that we will be able to automate around 5% of all jobs with today’s AI tech. These include:
Graders, sewing machine operators, and sorters of agricultural products (they can be 100% automated). Travel agents, watch repairers, and stock clerks (they can be 60-80% automated). Web developers, chemical technicians, and nursing assistants (they can be 30-60% automated).
Three Main Phases of Automation PwC predicts that we will have automated 20% of all occupations by the 2020s and 30% by the mid-2030s. They’ve divided this transformation of automation into three distinct phases:
The algorithm wave which will last until the early 2020s. The augmentation wave which will last until the late 2020s. The autonomy wave which will continue until the mid-2030s.
Automating simple computational tasks and analyzing structured data is part of the algorithm wave we’re currently experiencing. In the second phase — the augmentation wave — we will automate lots of repetitive tasks and dynamic interactions. Moreover, semi-automated tasks like robots moving products in a warehouse are part of this wave. Ultimately, we will experience the complete automation of physical labor — the autonomy wave. The main focus here will be on automating dynamic, real-world cases that need responsive actions., such as transportation and manufacturing. Although PwC predicts that automation tech will reach its full maturity on a nationwide scale during the 2030s, 30% of all occupations in every sector will have been automated by then. Currently, automation enables us to increase productivity growth by 0.8-1.4% yearly. This is because the existing AI-powered automation tools reduce mistakes, as well as increase speed and quality. They even achieve outcomes that go above human abilities in some situations. All of this means that if you’re looking to improve your productivity, automating tasks is the way. Start Small with Automation Before you decide to automate anything, you’ll first need to identify repetitive tasks in your business. To begin with, look for routine manual activities that use up a considerable amount of resources and time. The more repetitive the task, the more you will benefit if you automate it. Next, you should start small. Large and complex tasks come with more challenges when you try to program them. This is why you should first begin with small, predictable tasks before you try to completely automate all activities that are necessary for your company. You should also completely understand every part of the task you’re trying to automate. This allows you to easily break down the activity into smaller steps that are easier to program, implement, and optimize later on. Ultimately, you should save your time for the tasks you do best. This means that it’s better to automate tasks that aren’t directly tied up with the core competencies of your business. This way, you can allocate much of the workforce to profitable tasks. Moreover, this will enable you to focus more on how to make your business grow and plan to thrive in the market. Don’t Automate Everything This is where the majority of companies get off on the wrong foot with automation. It’s not the point to automate everything. Rather, you have to comprehend how automation works and what it can actually do. Even though you can automate most of your tasks, you’d better not. There are numerous tools for automating web design, translation and copywriting, but the majority of them can’t accomplish these tasks efficiently. For instance, translation tech can’t replicate the complex mental processes of human translators making it mostly useless for your business purposes. What you want to automate are the tasks that take time, that are repetitive, and easy for AI to handle with precision without your input: These include:
Manual labor Sending invoices Collecting data Processing data Automating email responses for different lead scores Chatting with customers
What you shouldn’t automate are the tasks that require lots of human input and creativity — copywriting, design, or problem-solving. For example, instead of importing spreadsheets between Google Sheets and Excel several times a day, you could automate this process. Once you get a hand of what automation can’t and can do, you can begin coming up with various ambitious strategies that not only save you cash and time but change your company entirely. Set Your Automation Goals You shouldn’t spend money on automation and invest in developing new workflows if they don’t increase the profitability of your company which means that before you develop any new workflow, you should ensure you have particular targets that you’ll utilize to measure success and optimize your processes. In some situations, your objective could be to simply match the performance of your department and then utilize that time elsewhere. For instance, you can automate your social post scheduling so that your blog posts are automatically published on Twitter a couple of times a day weekly. If your employees are already doing this, automating it won’t improve results, but simply free up more time. It’s also crucial that you know what you are going to do with all this free time. Since the objective of automation is to enable you to do something else, define this. Identify your objectives and ensure they’re measurable so you can observe the effects of even small automation and how they all add up. This will happen naturally for some of your workflows. For instance, when you’re developing an automated lead generation process, you’ll select a target number of leads and various KPIs while your sales automation will place targets for closing more leads and retaining more clients. Be accurate, select targets for every quarter, and utilize these as milestones to measure success. What Tasks Should You Automate? Some tasks are better to be automated than others. For example, lots of small companies have inefficient procurement and purchase order processes. These businesses waste valuable time on repetitive tasks they could easily automate, regularly producing accidental task repetition. Why not streamline your procurement and purchase order tasks so you save time, increase productivity and avoid errors? On the other hand, we all know how much time is wasted on managing the payroll of full-time employees. You have to consider a lot — state and federal laws, compliance, etc. This is where automating the payroll process can develop more effective systems. Automation can also let you provide improved customer service. Small companies have a limited consumer base, which means that ineffective customer support can negatively impact their whole business. That’s why it’s key that you have the best level of customer support. How? Keep track of customer complaints and address them in a timely manner. This is where automation comes into play. It lets you set up ticketing systems for managing customer queries more effectively. Not to mention it helps you make pre-formatted replies for often asked questions, leading to faster responses. For instance, AI-enabled customer assistants can give your buyers information about their orders or where they can find the product they’re searching for based on keywords. Predictable manual labor is also perfect for automation. This includes occupations like machine operators and assemblers. Machines perform predictable activities better than us since they don’t get tired or bored. However, unpredictable tasks that require the human level of agility in adapting tasks aren’t suited for automation. Note: this article is longer than I can fit here, however I will leave you the link here in case you wish to keep reading 🙂 ⬇️ https://www.etrellium.com/automation/how-to-automate-repetitive-tasks-as-a-small-business-owner/
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The number of podcast listeners in the United States is expected to reach 100 million by 2024. (For context, there are 82.7 million listeners in 2021.) 
Podcasts provide a source of convenient and intimate entertainment that’s only continuing to grow in popularity. While today’s
most popular podcasts
might vary significantly in terms of their content and hosts (
among other things
), they all share at least one thing in common — they each have their own website where fans can check out their latest episodes and seasons, info about live shows, biographies about the podcast’s hosts, and more details.
If you’re a host or producer, chances are you’re busy managing your podcast — and building your own WordPress website may sound like a daunting task. However, creating your site can be quite simple with a WordPress podcasting theme that allows you to share your episodes, seasons, host bios, and any other content you want to provide your visitors and fans.

We’ve curated this list of our favorite podcasting themes to help you share your content on your site and make lasting connections with your fans. To determine which theme best suits your needs, review these 15 options, their unique features, and our key takeaways. Afterward, check out the WordPress Theme Directory if you’d like to explore more podcasting themes.
1. Viseo

Viseo is a podcast theme with a “latest show” section for your site pages so your fans can quickly locate and listen to your newest content. You can also easily upload and add high-quality videos to the theme’s Locally Hosted Video Player feature. Customizing your site pages and sections requires no coding knowledge due to the theme’s drag and drop builder.
Key Takeaways:

Visitors can browse the “Latest show” section for new content
Share high-quality video content with the locally hosted video player feature
Customize your site with the built-in drag-and-drop page builder

2. Audonic

Audonic supports several commonly-used audio players so importing your podcasts is a hassle-free process. The theme offers dark and light-colored layouts and audio players to help you achieve your desired look. Your visitors can also check out your site while on the go since the theme is mobile-friendly.
Key Takeaways:

Upload several audio players to showcase your podcasts
Customize dark and light layout and audio player designs
Experience better responsiveness with the mobile-friendly layouts

3. Podcaster

Podcaster is specifically made for broadcasting and managing podcasts — it has an unlimited number of podcast episode archive pages so you can maintain your shows and seasons over long periods of time. The theme’s homepage contains an audio and video player feature that allows visitors to experience your latest content the moment they enter your site. There are also a variety of color palettes to customize your site with to match your branding.
Key Takeaways:

Add unlimited podcast episode archive pages
Utilize an audio and video player feature on the site’s homepage
Access a variety of color palettes to customize pages

4. Tusant

Tusant is compatible with all major podcast plugins to make managing and designing your podcast’s site as straightforward as possible with increased functionality based on your specific needs. The theme is compatible with the Elementor plugin which allows you to edit and update your site pages and review the changes in real-time prior to publishing them.
Key Takeaways:

Integrate your favorite major podcast plugins
Design your pages with the Elemntor plugin
Display content in multiple layouts

5. Promenade

Promenade’s homepage offers two types of formats: a static web page where the same content remains in one place unless you manually change it and a dynamic web page in which your latest content is moved to the top of the page so your visitors automatically see your latest posts. The theme has grid layouts for your audio and videos to keep your content organized.
Key Takeaways:

Format your pages with two homepage format options — static or dynamic
Organize your audio and video using the grid layouts
Arrange your site with custom navigation and menus

6. Life Coach

Life Coach is a podcast theme with an ecommerce store where you can sell your merchandise — the theme has WooCommerce integration to make managing your store simple. It includes an events calendar feature where you can highlight the dates for your latest episode releases, live shows, and more. Life Coach also offers MP3 (coding format for digital audio) support so you can easily import and manage your podcasts.
Key Takeaways:

Integrate your podcast site with WooCommerce
Notify visitors of upcoming events with the calendar feature
Leverage MP3 support for your audio files

7. Vice

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Vice gives you the ability to incorporate video backgrounds on your web pages to create an interactive and fun experience for your visitors. The theme’s responsive design automatically changes your site’s format to fit the screen it’s being viewed on, whether that’s desktop, mobile, or tablet. Vice also has pre-made podcast page templates with players that support Soundcloud, MP3, and Mixcloud audio so you can import and share your podcast in a matter of seconds without having to change its format.
Key Takeaways:

Incorporate video backgrounds on site pages
Change your site’s format depending on the device it’s being viewed on
Make changes quickly with podcast page templates that support audio players

8. GeneratePress

GeneratePress is a free and open-source theme — speed, usability, and accessibility are the features that set it apart. There is an unlimited number of custom color combination options to achieve any look you desire on your website. Performance and design aren’t mutually exclusive with this theme, GeneratePress prides itself on providing podcasters with both to bring an immersive experience to their listeners.
Key Takeaways:

Get started easily with an open source theme
Customize your site pages with unlimited custom color options
Integrate this theme with the top audio plugins

9. Satchmo

Satchmo is ideal if you’re looking for a podcasting theme where you can also share blog content in addition to your audio. Whether you’re an experienced blogger or someone who simply wants to share information about your podcast in a personal and accessible way, then Satchmo’s blog template pages will come in handy.
You can add icons in your headers and footers that direct your visitors to your social media accounts to promote your content and increase your follower base. There are also over 700 different Google Font options for you to choose from and customize the typography on your pages.
Key Takeaways:

Choose a podcast or blog theme for your site
Attract more followers with the social media account icons in headers and footers
Customize your typography with 700+ Google Font options

10. Castilo

Castilo has a contact form template that you can add to a site page so your visitors can easily get in touch with you. The theme offers a podcast stats feature to help you determine the short and long-term success and popularity of each of the podcasts on your site as well as monitor who’s listening to your podcasts. Your custom logo will also be placed in the header and footer of your pages to make for a professional and branded look and feel.
If your theme does not come with a contact form plugin and you’re looking for a simple way to add a form to your site, check out HubSpot’s WordPress Contact Form builder.
Key Takeaways:

Add a contact form to capture visitor data using the available template
Capture podcast data with the statistics feature
Add your custom logo in the header and footer of your site

11. Sonus

Sonus has a customizable audio player that you can design to include buttons that fast-forward and rewind episodes, skip episodes, share episodes, change episode speed, or skip to a specific time in an episode. The theme’s pages are all formatted in a grid to keep your audio and written content organized. Sonus has responsive audio players that automatically change formats to match any screen and device.
Key Takeaways:

Include customizable audio players
Design site pages with a grid format
Add a responsive audio player that changes its format to work for any device

12. Castpod

Castpod includes a MailChimp integration so you can manage all of your email-related content for your fans and subscribers in an organized fashion. With Castpod you can submit your podcast to an external service such as iTunes or Google Play with the click of a button. The theme’s Retina-ready design ensures all of your images are high-definition and look professional.
Key Takeaways:

Integrate MailChimp on your site to manage emails
Submit your podcast to external services like iTunes and Google Play with one click
Get a high-definition and professional look with the Retina-ready design

13. Onair2

Onair2 is a podcast and music theme with an ecommerce store feature where you can sell your merchandise to fans. Managing your online store is also straightforward due to the theme’s WooCommerce integration. There is a customizable podcast page template that you can implement on your pages with an audio player that’s integrated with YouTube, Mixcloud, Soundcloud, and more. Social sharing icons are customizable and give your visitors the ability to find and follow your accounts in a matter of seconds.
Key Takeaways:

Use the podcast and music theme with ecommerce store feature
Design your podcast page template with YouTube, Mixcloud, and Soundcloud integration
Increase your social media presence with social sharing icons

14. Audioatro

Audioatro has a unique, full-width audio player, called the “Audio Visualizer,” that’s placed on top of a full-width, background image on your page. The audio player includes a bunch of 3D bars that run across the bottom of your page to show listeners their timestamp in the podcast. These bars also rise and fall with the podcast’s volume levels to add another entertaining and interactive visual element. Audioatro also has two podcast-specific templates to choose from and expert customer support in case you run into a challenge that you need help troubleshooting.
Key Takeaways:

Incorporate the unique, 3D, video-like audio player
Choose from two podcast themes

15. Megaphone

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Megaphone supports multiple shows, episodes, seasons, as well as videos and music content. The theme requires no coding knowledge so you can quickly and simply design your sections in any way you want. To give your visitors the full listening experience before they download your podcast, Megaphone includes a sticky audio player that follows them as they browse the site.
Key Takeaways:

Upload multiple shows as well as videos and music content
Build faster and easier without coding
Keep the visitor listening to a podcast preview with a sticky audio player

Back To You
WordPress podcast themes will help you share your hard work on a website that you’re proud of. These themes make it easy to manage your seasons and shows, include descriptions about your hosts, stay in contact with fans, and share the latest information about live shows and events all in one location.
With a wide variety of features, layouts, and customization options, you can achieve virtually any look and design you want with podcasting themes on your WordPress website no matter your level of web development knowledge. Download and install a podcasting theme today so you can begin sharing your content and building lasting relationships with your fans.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in December 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Today, video can help marketers do a lot of things — it can help you explain your product or service, it can increase traffic to your website, and it can even convince people to purchase a product.
94% of people watch explainer videos to learn about a product or service. Even if you have a powerful written content strategy, if you don’t use video, you’re losing traffic to more video-heavy competitors.
Your business is probably already using video marketing, but are you planning your videos for optimal success using storyboarding software? Or are you drawing shots by hands or writing a script and winging the rest?
In this post, we’ll go over what storyboarding is and cover some of the best storyboarding tools you can use to make better marketing videos.

Storyboarding isn’t just for filmmakers and animators. Marketers can leverage storyboards to craft engaging marketing campaigns and advertisements.
The best part is that you don’t have to do it manually. A storyboarding software tool typically provides premade images and characters for you to bring your idea to life.
Whether you use video for training, sales, or demo purposes, storyboarding can alleviate the time-consuming nature of video preparation, while also increasing your video’s overall quality and decreasing production errors.
If you’re looking for a tool to take your video production process to the next level, take a look at our list of the best storyboarding software out there — no matter your budget.
Best Storyboard Software
1. Storyboarder by Wonder Unit

Storyboarder is open source and free, making it one of your best options if you’re working with a smaller budget. The program has a clean interface with all the necessary tools at your disposal, so it’s easy to quickly draw shapes and characters. You can also write dialogue, and enter timing information and shot type.
Storyboarder works collaboratively with Photoshop, which means you can edit your board in Photoshop for more precision, and it will automatically update in Storyboarder. This software lets you export to Premiere, Final Cut, Avid, PDF, or Animated GIF.
Pricing: Free
2. Plot

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Adrian Thompson made animated videos for seven years, and “came to despise how tedious it was to edit a basic storyboard template.” His frustration led him to create Plot, a free and fast storyboard creator with impressive users such as Vistaprint and Workday.
Each feature aims to make your process as quick and efficient as possible. You can add and delete scenes without copying and pasting text, incorporate images from anywhere on the web to visualize scenes faster, and collaborate with coworkers from within the software. Plot is a solid option if your team often works under tight deadlines and needs software to create storyboards quickly.
Pricing: $10/month
3. FrameForge Storyboard Studio

With impressive users including HBO, Netflix, and BBC, FrameForge is the real deal, but your team can still benefit even if you don’t have animation, drawing, or highly technical computer skills.
FrameForge offers Core and Professional versions of their product. The Professional option allows you to plan where you’ll place dollies and cranes (down to the inch). The software lets you import a script from any scriptwriting program. Plus, the storyboards include movement arrows, framing notations, angle of view, focal length, and more, so everyone on your video team, from preparation to production, is on the same page.
It works on any mobile device, and the export functions make it possible to download the final product as a PowerPoint presentation. FrameForge is a good option for teams that aim to create more full-fledged and lengthy videos for entertainment purposes.
Pricing: $498.95 one-time fee or $12.99/month (Core Edition); $799 one-time fee or $24.99/month (Professional Edition)
4. Studiobinder

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Studiobinder lets you customize every aspect of your visualization, and offers tools to filter columns, adjust the order of your scenes, upload images, change aspect ratios, color code shots, add notes, and more. Studiobinder also makes collaboration easy, with project management features to assign tasks and add comments.
Plus, if you want to preview your project from within the platform to show your team, there’s a nifty presentation mode. It touts impressive clients including BuzzFeed, ESPN, and CBS Interactive. This option is good for teams who need to collaborate on various stages of the video production process, and prefer customizable tools.
Pricing: $29/month (Indie); $49/month (Professional); $99/month (Studio)
5. Boords Storyboard Creator

This online storyboarding software allows you to easily collaborate with your team in a user-friendly web app. You can add images to each storyboard card and jot down quick notes for each progressive step of your video. Specify sound, action, lighting, and camera details — all without any advanced technical knowledge.
The power of this tool lies in its ease of use. While Storyboarder and FrameForge have a slight learning curve, Boords is one of those tools that you can simply access and start using straightaway.
What we love most about this tool is its notes at the bottom for each card. If you ever forget what you’re supposed to achieve scene-by-scene, Boords gives you a brief and helpful tip on what you should achieve in the shot. It also offers a unique Animatic Tool, and when you’re ready to share your animatic, you can share it online for feedback or export to Boords’ After Effects plugin. Plus, you can share your storyboard with coworkers or clients and let them comment within the platform.
Pricing: $36/month (Studio); $60/month (Company); $120/month (Company Plus)
6. makeStoryboard

If you’re not necessarily interested in the fancier movie-making options in the list, makeStoryboard is a simple, user-friendly interface for quickly uploading camera shots, drawing stick figures in its built-in drawing tool, and incorporating text for scene details. The marker, pencil, and pen tools respond to any drawing tablet.
You can also add custom text fields for any additional details that are unique to your team and use case. When you’re happy with your storyboard, you can export it as a PDF to pitch your idea. Alternatively, you can send a private link so that stakeholders can review it without needing an account. Best of all, it offers a free subscription tier, making it a fantastic option for teams working with a smaller budget.
Pricing: Free; $12/month (Professional); $36/month (Team)
7. PowerProduction Software

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PowerProduction offers a variety of tools for storyboarding, varying from simple to more robust and all-inclusive. StoryBoard Quick, for instance, offers a library of artwork for characters, props, and locations, and allows you to design and share your ideas easily. StoryBoard Artist, on the other hand, offers a full-featured timeline, frame transitions, and 3D characters, and is more appropriate for animated video presentations.
PowerProduction also provides iPhone and Android app versions of their products, so you can visualize and create from anywhere. These products are used by big brands, including Disney, Universal, and 20th Century Fox, so if you choose this software, you’re in good company. If your team is interested in creating lengthy, high-quality, and even animated videos, this could be a good option.
Pricing: $129.99/year (StoryBoard Quick); $169.99/year (StoryBoard Quick Studio); $269.99/year (StoryBoard Artist); $399.99/year (StoryBoard Artist Studio)
8. Canva

Creating a storyboard doesn’t have to stress you out, and Canva makes it especially easy, with a library of templates to choose from, one million stock images (or the option to upload your own), and grids and frames to organize your scenes. You can choose font types, customize colors, and include headers and subheaders.
If you’re working with someone else on the script or design, you can grant access for collaboration, and when you’re finished, you can share the design with your team through email or as a PDF file. If your team needs a simple and easy tool for simpler projects or to get your feet wet with the process of storyboarding, this is a good option.
Pricing: Free
9. PanelForge

PanelForge offers an all-in-one pre-production storyboarding software, with drag-and-drop tools and flexible frames. With both a free public beta and a suite of paid plans, there’s no reason not to try it if you’re interested in using storyboarding for animatics and more complicated projects.
With PanelForge, you can create both 2D drawings and 3D layouts. It also allows you to create an animatic, and you can export and import files from Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro. PanelForge is ideal for experienced storyboarders and marketers who know their way around complex visualization tools.
Pricing: Free (Public Beta); $7.31/month (Pro); $1,411/year (Studio)
10. StoryboardThat

StoryboardThat is an intuitive, easy-to-use tool for creators who’d rather not draw (or who don’t know how to). The tool comes with hundreds of backgrounds and characters for you to build your storyboard.
On the free version, you can create two storyboards per week and choose between three- or six-cells storyboards. When you upgrade to the paid versions, you’ll be able to create unlimited storyboards, access hundreds of different layouts, and record audio.
Pricing: Free; $9.99/month (For Fun); $8.99/month (For Teachers); $14.99/month (For Work)
Use a Storyboarding Tool to Make Better Marketing Videos
A storyboarding tool can help you plan every shot and scene of your marketing video before you invest in production. The best part is that you can get started for free — and many times, you don’t have to draw anything at all. Using a storyboarding tool can improve your marketing videos exponentially, increasing the ROI from your video marketing strategy.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in June 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

The dilemma that organisations and in-house HR managers grapple with before deciding to build an in-house team of recruiters or partner with an external recruitment marketing agency can be resolved by mapping out the pros and cons of both approaches.
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