Category: Marketing Automation

In the beginning of my marketing career, I remember being confused that I was tasked with writing ads or creating ad materials.
Since I fell into this industry accidentally (as one does), I didn’t study marketing in school. I wasn’t aware that advertising and marketing work together and aren’t mutually exclusive.

Now, as a marketing professional, you understand that. But that doesn’t mean that you’ve never been unsure about how these two industries interact.
In fact, marketing and advertising have a lot in common. They even have the same goal: increase awareness of your company and products, and then make a sale.
While they share the same goal and have a lot in common, there are differences between marketing and advertising that can help you organize your strategy and maximize your acquisition efforts.
Below, let’s explore the similarities and differences between marketing and advertising.

Overall, marketing and advertising share the same goal. But marketing has a bigger scope than advertising. Marketing creates the tone, personality, and voice of a brand or company as a way to attract its target audience. This can be done through paid, owned, or earned media channels.
Advertising, on the other hand, has a much more narrow goal, which is to get the word out about a specific product or service.
To visualize the differences, marketing is the umbrella term for brand positioning and awareness, while advertising is just one of the tactics that’s used to get that done.
With advertising, you can use social media, search engines, TV or print, podcasts, radio spots, billboards, and more. Depending on your audience, you’ll probably use a mixture of the best channels that will bring success.
As you can see, advertising is a step of marketing. Marketing prepares products for the marketplace, works on overall brand messaging and positioning, while advertising then gets the word out about specific products or services.
Most successful marketing strategies use advertising at different levels of a campaign, in various types of media.
While marketing can be paid, owned, or earned media, advertising is the component of marketing that focuses solely on the paid media aspect.
Marketing will convince potential customers that you’re the brand they want to use, that this product will help them, and advertising focuses on communicating a product exists and is the best way to achieve a goal.
You can think of marketing as the strategic decision making process that helps companies understand how a product or service will align with the target audience. This helps companies figure out how they want to sell the product and position it in the market. And then advertising makes a product or service known to the target audience through paid means.
These two concepts aren’t at odds with each other. In fact, advertising is almost always meant to benefit a marketing plan and communicate the marketing message.
Additionally, the way you calculate success for these two industries is different as well.
With advertising, you might focus on return on ad spend, and actual sales. Marketing success can be measured differently. Brand awareness and impressions are just some of the ways that companies measure success of a marketing campaign (in addition to return on investment).
Now, let’s get into the nitty gritty details about different types of advertising and marketing and how they’re similar or different.
Native Advertising vs. Content Marketing
Native advertising is a way to make paid ads appear more organically in a person’s day-to-day. Ads, in general, are interrupters. They interrupt your day and say “Hey, look at me.” However, people have ad blindness, and might not even notice an ad, especially in the digital space.
That’s why native advertising became popular. With native advertising, you can purchase ad space online and work in collaboration with a media network to make an ad not interrupt, but work in tandem with other organic materials.
For instance, this might look like a promotion or collaboration, which is definitely paid, but appears more native in someone’s feed. It could be a paid post on Instagram, or a paid blog article.
Content marketing, on the other hand, isn’t paid, and is usually the process of creating your own media materials and publishing them yourself. For instance, a company blog is content marketing. Your email newsletter is content marketing. But, a paid collaboration for a blog on someone else’s site is native advertising.
The main difference between these two is that one is paid and one is not. And that content marketing is usually used by your own company, while native advertising will take place on another site.
Now that we understand more about that niche, let’s dive into another area of marketing and advertising that might be confusing.
Mobile Marketing vs. Mobile Advertising
Mobile marketing is the process of creating marketing materials that are meant to be used in the mobile space. That could be an app. It could be location-based services, text marketing, or messenger marketing. It could be making sure your marketing assets are mobile responsive and are designed for the mobile experience.
On the other hand, mobile advertising, again, is the process of paying for ad space that will specifically show up in the mobile space. That could be an ad that comes up in an app or an ad that shows up when people are searching on their phone online.
The difference between these two concepts is similar to the overall difference between marketing and advertising.
Mobile marketing is the process of creating strategies that will reach audiences and increase brand awareness in the mobile space. Mobile advertising is a tactic to get that done.
This framework can be applied to any area of marketing and advertising, whether that’s content marketing, mobile marketing, or social media marketing.
Ultimately, you’ll need both marketing and advertising to have an effective strategy. If advertising is all you’re doing, then you’re missing out on a lot of other marketing tactics you can use to increase brand awareness, connect with your audience, and drive sales.

You know the saying, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”
Well, event promotion is similar. If you put on an event but don’t promote it, will it even happen? Without promotion, you probably won’t get any attendees because no one will know it’s happening.

While event promotion is simple in theory, actually planning a successful marketing strategy and promotion plan is not.
Of course, you’ve seen large-scale event promotions. But you’re probably thinking, “We don’t have that kind of budget” or “What are more creative ways to increase brand awareness and lead generation?”
Well, that’s what we’ll discover in this post. Let’s review some of our favorite ways to creatively promote your event without breaking the bank.

Free Event Promotion
1. Offer early bird registration.
A great way to promote your events is to offer early bird registration. This will incentivize your audience to sign up for your event early.
Additionally, this will give you a good idea of how to continue promoting your event — are people interested? What are their objections? Is your current marketing plan working?
With early bird registration, you’ll be able to gauge your audience’s interest and your marketing tactics. Plus, it incentivizes people to buy tickets as soon as possible for the discount.
2. Place a sign outside your business.
Of course, good old-fashioned banners are a great way to increase local awareness of an event.
You can post these outside your business or if you don’t have a brick-and-mortar business, then you can post banners throughout the local area where you’ll be holding the event.
3. Product a creative landing page.
The landing page for your event is the primary way to communicate information about your event. You should post all the details about the event — the day, time, location, topic, goals, etc.
Additionally, you can post an agenda so people know what the content will be like at the event. You can also use this page to post about speakers or influencers you have attending.
It’s also a good idea to include photos or videos from your last event and have an FAQ page that answers any repeating questions.
And of course, you’ll want to link to your social media pages and place a call to action on the page for people to purchase tickets.
4. Participate in content marketing.
Before your event, it’s a good idea to start posting about it throughout your content marketing channels.
You can post CTAs in your YouTube videos, discuss the event in your blog posts, talk about it in a podcast, or post on social media.
Whatever channels you use to post content marketing assets can be used as a way to promote your event.
5. Have event-specific branding.
Another great way to get the word out about your event is to have event-specific branding. Make your event a brand in and of itself. This is the way that HubSpot promotes the INBOUND event. INBOUND is a separate brand from HubSpot. It’s not just an event for our customers. It’s an event for any marketer, sales, or service professional who wants to learn more and educate themselves.
To do this, separate the event brand from your company brand. Have a different website, different colors, different messaging, etc. This will help attract people who don’t know about your company and are just coming across the event.
6. Use email marketing to reach your audience.
Of course, email marketing is a major way to reach your current audience. You should promote your event via email to different segmented audiences.
This will help let everyone who knows about your company know about the event. Plus, you can offer email subscriber discounts to incentivize current fans of your company to attend.
Social Media Event Promotion
7. Post pre-event behind-the-scenes posts.
Social media is another major way that you can promote your events.
One of my favorite event promotion strategies to follow as a consumer is to watch behind-the-scenes posts. I love a good BTS Instagram story or post showing how a company is preparing for an event.
Leading up to your event, post about it on social media. Post about the people you have coming to your event, or any cool decor items. This will get your followers excited about the event and could persuade them to buy a ticket.
8. Retargeting ads on social media.
We all know that social media is where people spend a lot of their time. If they’ve come across your company or other event promotion, social media retargeting ads are a great way to stay top of mind.
You want people to come across your brand continuously and to remind them about the event. Even if someone thinks an event is a good idea, they might not buy a ticket right away. Retargeting is a great way to get those customers at a later date.
9. Create an event hashtag.
While you’re promoting your event, a great way to talk to attendees or people who are thinking about registering is through an event hashtag. This will help you track mentions and stay in the conversation with people who want to attend your event.
This could also help get you trending and increase the number of people who are aware of and see your events.
During the event, again, this is a place for people to ask questions and for you to interact with attendees.
10. Work with keynote speakers, influencers, other brands, and sponsors.
Collaboration is one of the best ways to promote your event. Consider having event sponsors that will want to promote the event for you.
You can also have brand partnerships where you work with other companies who will tell their audience about your event.
Additionally, promote the heck out of your keynote speakers or any influencers that you’re working with. This is a great way to tap into their audiences to get the word out about your event even more.
It’s important to take advantage of other people’s following so people outside of your audience hear about your events.
11. Run a social media contest.
If you’ve run social media contests before and have had success, a social media contest or giveaway might be a good way to get the word out about your event.
You can host a contest where the winner will get tickets. Maybe they have to like your posts or comment and tag some friends. Either way, social media contests will help you garner awareness.
12. Create a social media filter.
A fun way to promote your event is to use a social media filter. You can create one especially for your event and showcase it on your social media.
If you get other people to use the filter, then you’ll be promoting your event to their audiences automatically.
13. Advertise on social media.
We can’t discuss event promotion without talking about social media ads. Again, people spend a lot of time on social media. Running ads with lookalike audiences on Facebook is a great way to advertise to a cold audience.
14. Post on Facebook and community groups.
Social media communities and groups are also fantastic places to promote an event. It could be a Facebook group or a subreddit.
Additionally, you’ll want to create an event page on social media so that you can share it in different groups or communities.
15. Host a social media challenge or takeover.
Social media challenges and takeovers are a fun way to engage your audience. With a social media challenge, your audience can directly engage with your company or brand. If you host a social media takeover with an influencer, again, you can reach their whole audience.
Social media posts, challenges, live streams, and takeovers are excellent ways to promote your events.
Now that you have a few ideas for how to promote your event, it’s time to start thinking about the timeline. When will you do these things? How close to the event should you promote? Let’s discuss below.
Event Promotion Timeline
3-4 months before your event

Email marketing: Email previous attendees, give an early bird discount, etc.
Post in social media groups
Create a Facebook event
Promote influencers/speakers/sponsors
Launch website/landing page
Create event-specific branding
Post banners locally

6-8 weeks before your event

Promote influencers/speakers/sponsors
Set up search engine campaigns and any online ads
Produce content marketing assets
Run a social media contest
End early bird promotions

3-5 weeks before your event

Email marketing drip campaigns
Retargeting ads on social media
Have partnering brands/sponsors post about your event
Create a social media filter

1-2 weeks before your event

Create social media hashtag
Post behind-the-scenes content on social media
Use “last call” messaging

2-6 days before your event

Send an email reminder to those who are interested
Promote on social media
More BTS content

Day of your event

Run your hashtag
Be active on social media
Take photos/videos and post them online
Engage with your attendees online

After the event

Thank everyone for coming
Look at the success of your event promotion

Were people talking about your event? Did content marketing help? Did social media traffic result in ticket sales?

Send a survey — to employees and customers alike — ask how they liked the event, what they liked, what they think could be improved, etc.

Promoting an event is a lot like juggling. There are a lot of moving parts to manage. This list, although it’s not exhaustive, should help you get started brainstorming about the best ways to promote your event.

Sometimes I like to say that no one purchases Pardot because they want a security solution; they do it because they want a secure solution.
One of the attractive features of our cloud model is that Salesforce engineering experts manage the security and trust of the software and its infrastructure. This frees you from maintaining servers, firewalls and security patches so you can focus on growing your business on a platform you can trust, with your data and your reputation.
What’s the difference between security and privacy?
I think of security as the protection of assets against deliberate attacks and inadvertent failures. Security is a prerequisite for privacy — it’s necessary, but not sufficient.
Privacy takes security a step further by implementing practices that protect personal data through mechanisms such as:

minimizing collection and retention of personal data
using data only for the purpose for which it was collected
giving data subjects control over their personal data

Here’s another way to differentiate the two: Security concerns itself with technical controls that protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information. Privacy includes technical and non-technical aspects of personal data protection.
For example, privacy laws like CCPA enforce technical security measures because privacy is breached when security fails. But not all privacy breaches are due to technical failures — a breach can also result from mistakes such as mishandling personal data.
Who’s responsible for security and privacy?
Pardot customers’ main security need is for data to remain available and protected. By protected, I mean that data remains accessible only to parties who are authorized to access it, and the integrity of data is safeguarded from illicit modification.
Cyber attacks compromise the integrity of customer information. If you’re a Pardot customer, this could happen in two ways:

attacks on the Pardot cloud infrastructure
attacks on your account

At Salesforce, we go out of our way to protect the cloud infrastructure, relieving you of this burden. But what about the security of your individual account?
The short answer is that, on both the privacy and security front, it’s a cooperative effort between Pardot and you.

On the security side: While Salesforce identity management goes a long way in protecting user accounts, you still have a responsibility to protect your computers and passwords. This goes a long way in preventing cybersecurity incidents. But we can help with that, too! Pardot security features like multi-factor authentication via Salesforce Single Sign-On help to protect your account and keep information safe.
On the privacy side: Security needs and requirements for customers tend to be uniform: “Keep my data safe and help me keep hackers out of my account!” Privacy is different because customers operate in different compliance environments, and privacy and consent requirements vary around the world.
To allow you to meet your particular requirements, Pardot provides rich consent management options. We also provide tracking features that allow you to manage tracking based on your specific compliance environment. Going beyond compliance minimums, Pardot adheres to some baseline standards, such as never aggregating data across customer boundaries or selling customers’ data.
Part of my job as a security and privacy product manager is to understand trends so we can proactively offer features that allow you to establish trusted, compliant privacy practices for your organization. I’ll be speaking more about privacy with a focus on the web ecosystem at a webinar on April 15.
Register today for Pardot Release Highlights: ABM, Privacy, and More
Where can I learn more about Pardot’s security and privacy promises?
When it comes to security and privacy, it’s our job at Salesforce Pardot to give you what you need to do your job. Here are a few references you may find helpful:

Pardot Trust & Compliance Documentation: This is one of the best resources for learning about the security and privacy promises we’ve made to our customers. These documents describe guarantees about how we keep your data secure. Customers refer to these often during auditing and compliance reviews.

Data Protection and Privacy Knowledge Article: Learn more about data protection, privacy and how to implement workflows for privacy compliance.

Pardot’s Permission-Based Marketing Policy: Trust is our number one value. This is a key example of how we protect our customers by maintaining a trusted, compliant product.

Do you have questions, needs or stories to share? Join our Trailblazer Community, where we can collaborate together.
This blog post is part of our security, privacy, and technology series.

How can you make your blog more profitable? This is a question most of us are searching for an answer to. And while advertising and affiliate links will bring in some money, what if you could generate more?
If you have a loyal following and are producing great content, you might consider creating a membership site to offer your audience exclusive content and perks while also boosting your profits.

Membership sites can be customized in a myriad of ways, but here are some of the most common models you’ll come across.

1. Paywall
If you often read the news online, you’ve likely come across a paywall. A paywall blocks content until a reader is logged into their account and has a paid membership to access the content.
You can offer some of your most premium content behind a paywall to earn more money and create better engagement with your most loyal audience members. After all, they are paying to access exclusive perks, meaning they are likely to be invested in what you are offering.
2. Communities
Most of us love finding a group of people online with common interests or goals. If your audience is always engaging with your content, and with each other in the comments, consider creating a community membership model where users can create profiles and have a platform to interact with one another.
This could mean access to an exclusive app, a Facebook group, or a forum on your website.
3. Courses
If your audience can’t get enough of your content, they might also have an interest in learning about your topic of expertise from you directly. By creating membership courses, you can offer some of your knowledge for a fee.
You can offer courses for a one-time, upfront payment or an ongoing subscription for access to a library of courses that generates a steady stream of profit from your membership site.
4. Products
Outside of knowledge, what do you have the talent to create and sell on your website? Perhaps you can create WordPress plugins or blog templates, or maybe you can offer social media graphic templates or unique budgeting spreadsheets.
Whatever you’ve decided to create, you can earn money for your creativity and hard work. You can sell products individually to members, or offer them via a subscription model where users can access the product as long as they have an active, paid subscription.
5. All-in-One
The all-in-one model is exactly as it sounds. This means your membership site includes most, if not all, of the standard membership model options.
While this could mean multiple streams of income from people subscribing to various parts of your site, it can also become a lot of extra work for you.
Creating exclusive content and perks for varying memberships could be hard to do alone, meaning you might need to spend more money hiring others to help you. Also, it might be off-putting for a user to visit your site and see they have to sign up — and pay — to access nearly anything on your site.
Pros of Starting a Membership Site
Starting a membership site can create a secure, steady stream of revenue for your blog. If your audience already enjoys your content, it’s a logical next step to offer them more for a fee.
Once they’ve started investing money to access your content, you might also find them engaging more, too.
Cons of Starting a Membership Site
Because memberships are so customizable, there aren’t many negatives to starting one. But if you are already strapped for time creating your normal content and managing your site, you might find it hard to create exclusive content as well. This will also add another component to your site to maintain.
Once you’ve decided to turn your blog into a membership site, you can follow these simple steps to get started.

1. Choose your model.
Select the model that works best for your site from the list above. With an active and engaged audience, a community model might be the perfect fit. If users are always asking for your advice, you might consider creating products or courses with a subscription attached.
Or maybe your content is increasing page views so you want to create more in-depth content to offer behind a paywall. Weigh these options carefully to find the right fit for your brand.
2. Find a membership plugin.
If your blog is operating on WordPress, you can add a membership plugin to make your work easier. There are many options available, and you’ll want to find one that will work with the model you’ve chosen. Some of the top picks by bloggers include MemberPress, Restrict Content Pro, and Teachable.
Once your plugin is downloaded, you can configure it by visiting your WordPress dashboard menu, selecting your plugin, choose ‘Options,’ and adjust settings as needed.
3. Set up payments, levels, and rules.
In your WordPress dashboard, go to the menu and select your plugin. From there, you can find payment, levels, and rules settings. Under ‘Options’ > ‘Payments,’ set up the payment amounts and types (such as credit cards and PayPal) for each membership level.
To set levels, go to the plugin, select ‘Memberships’ then ‘Add New’ for each level. You can name each level as well as define prices and restrictions.
Finally, it’s time to set the rules. Go to the plugin in the WordPress menu, then select ‘Rules’ and ‘Add New.’ This is how you shield your exclusive content from non-paying members. Just be sure to mark your exclusive content as ‘paid’ in WordPress as you create it.
Save all of your settings as you go before moving on to the next step.
4. Create content for launch.
Your paid subscribers will likely expect immediate access to some exclusive content right after signing up. Be sure to prepare whatever written content, videos, audio books, templates, or other perks you’ll be offering before launching your membership site to avoid frustrated subscribers.
5. Add a membership page to your site.
This can also be easily handled via the plugin settings on your dashboard, but you’ll need to create a page where your website users can view pricing and membership models, sign up, and log in to access the content.
Once this page is ready, you’ll be ready to launch, and users can start signing up and accessing your content or products from your blog.
Boost Blog Revenue By Adding a Membership Site
A membership site can be tailored to fit your needs and generate more money for your blog. Once you’ve evaluated whether or not a membership site is right for your brand, you can review the different models to find which path is the best for your blog.
Plus, you’ll be able to exercise your creativity and offer the best content possible to your most loyal and engaged followers.

Big Idea or Enduring Question: How do you provide a way to clone Chatter group with members to your users?  Chatter Group is primarily geared towards boosting collaboration among users within an organization. Similar to a public group, a Chatter … Continue reading →
The post Getting Started with Salesforce Flow – Part 59 (Clone a Chatter Group with Members) appeared first on Automation Champion.

 

 

According to Harvard Business Review, acquiring a new customer is 5 to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one. That’s why keeping your customers close pays off not only in terms of maintaining loyal relationships but also in economic terms. With that in mind, I guess the question you should ask yourself, is how do you keep your customers coming back? 

 

In this article, I’ve highlighted the Top 7 reasons why your customers don’t return, even when you do your very best.

 

1. The product is causing dissatisfaction

 

As hard as it may be for you to admit, your product may just be unsatisfactory. Either it’s a service or an item that for some reason doesn’t meet your customer’s expectations. The good thing is that it is really easy to deduce what is causing the dissatisfaction by checking the reviews on various websites. 

 

Now, if it is an issue with the quality of the product delivered, you don’t want to cut corners on it. With the enormous competition and market expansion, it is crucial to provide the highest quality when it comes to products or services, otherwise, you will face a huge churn of your customers. 

 

Another reason might be that the product does not do what is expected of it. For example, someone buys a winter hat, and it turns out not to be as warm as it should be in the customer’s mind.

 

3. Disintegration with brand values 

 

Customers inevitably have their own preferences when it comes to certain views, and now more than ever they look for brands to validate their opinions. As an example, numerous customers are switching to a more sustainable way of living, as 67% of them now identify as environmentally aware. But when the brand previously chosen by those who care about the ecosystem does something against their values, they simply switch to the one that is closer to their perceptions. 

 

It’s obvious that not every brand can meet the needs of every customer, whether it’s political, environmental, religious, or even ideological beliefs, but listening, calculating, and analyzing the needs of your target audience is a real milestone for keeping them with you for the long term.

 

3. Blatant lies

 

Lies are bad, we all know that at least I hope we do. But there is one more very common sentence, saying: Everybody lies. Everybody, but companies should not, to maintain the trend of returning customers. Sadly, companies often abuse their customers’ trust by saying only half-truths or just dodge the facts. Need an example?

 

One of the clothing brands wanted to simply trick their customers by promising t-shirts of the best quality, sewn locally from high-quality materials.  Fortunately, the truth will always come out and customers realized that the shirts were actually store-bought from a very popular, cheap company, using materials that are poorly sourced.

 

So yes, just be careful with your promises, and if you do make them, make sure you fulfill them.

 

4. Annoying shipping fees and slow delivery

 

One of the advantages of online shopping is that it uses fewer resources than traditional shopping, so it is often chosen over shopping at local stores. Although customers realize that it will take some time to deliver their purchases, they expect it to be faster rather than slower. 

 

Buyers have a general understanding that shopping for a product online involves shipping charges and delivery time, but their patience is wearing thin. Make sure you don’t charge extra for delivery and that the shipping time is not exceeded. If there is no way to skip the extra charges, at least make sure package arrival will be on time, otherwise customers will switch to shops with cheaper and faster delivery.

 

Tedious return policy

 

While on the topic of shipping, let’s stop here and talk about returns. A customer wants to return a product they got from you, no matter the reason. When they tumble upon almost a minefield they have to cross to return the purchase and in fact, it seems much easier to just buy another one, you can be sure you’ve earned yourself a churn.

 

6. Customer Service is simply bad

 

Customers often have questions, and who better to answer them than good old-fashioned customer service? Just a quick phone call, a question, an answer, and done! Another customer is happy, and the world seems to be a bit better place. 

 

Well, easier said than done. In fact, customers with questions sometimes spend hours on the phone trying to reach any available consultant, and when they finally hear a voice from the handset, it turns out to be an automated “no consultants available at the time, please try again later” message. 

 

Trust me, that drives people crazy. Crazy enough to turn away from your business.

 

7. Ignoring the feedback

 

This one might as far be the absolute worse, since ignoring customers’ feedback is a clear statement that their opinion is simply irrelevant to you. The thing is, statistics clearly show that customers love the personal approach. 68% of customers expect brands to demonstrate empathy. Therefore, if you see the feedback, that something could be conducted better, take it into account and don’t ghost your customers.

 

Conclusion

 

These examples are the most common when it comes to why customers don’t return. If you consider yourself a reliable entrepreneur with a reputable company, surely you know how to handle things, to keep both, you and your company pleased. But if you want to skip some steps by ignoring customers’ opinions and engagement as well as their needs, be careful! You might end up as an example in the next list of why customers do not return.

Hey! What new good automatic tools/bots are in the market? Are they useful when working on various social networks with multiple accounts? Also, how well do they perform while using social media proxies? I currently work with social marketing tasks and want to expand my possibilities.
submitted by /u/Internationalsoap2 [link] [comments]

An email list is one of the most important assets a company can have. Unlike social media, where you depend on algorithms that sometimes seem like a fortune wheel, with an email list, you have ownership over what you share and when. 
A few years ago, the Internet was flooded with headlines about the death of email marketing. But one thing is for sure: Email marketing still works flawlessly today. In fact, it’s one of the most effective tools. As research shows, email newsletter subscribers:

Arrive onsite from direct links at a higher percentage than search engine results or social media
Spend 80% more time at a site than other visitors
Are twice as likely to buy a product or service  

However, before you can reap these benefits, you must build your email newsletter distribution list. And the easiest way to capture emails is using signup forms. 
Why should you use an email signup form?
When done right, email signup forms can bring significant advantages. Before we get into the ways to implement a signup form with no coding experience, let’s talk about the reasons why you should use it in the first place.
First and foremost, when people are filling a signup form, they’re welcoming you into their inbox. As a result, you get more opens and clicks. 
The average unsubscribe rate for an email list is 0.1%. However, with permission-based signups, you can build a list of subscribers who want to hear from you. This way, your attrition rate decreases, your open rates increase, and your conversions are more meaningful and robust. 
Besides this, a well-designed, catchy signup form will directly contribute to increased subscription rates. So, instead of chasing readers that don’t want to receive your emails, you can attract the right audience. 
Bottom line: Email signup forms can help you balance out attrition rates and grow a list of permission-based, engaged subscribers.
How to build your newsletter list with no coding experience
For many business owners, signup forms are like a black box. They seem complicated and daunting.
But what if you can build your newsletter list with signup forms that don’t require any coding experience? 
Let’s look at a few.
Attract website visitors to sign up
There’re many ways to implement a newsletter signup form on your website. From a pop-up that opens the moment visitors land on your website to signup forms from the side or at the bottom of your page, you can easily create a form that will help you grow your newsletter list. If you’re not sure what is the best decision, you can always A/B test your signup form placement.
With Campaign Monitor creating a signup form is simple and straightforward, and it doesn’t require any developer skills. You can easily customize the headline, add a logo, change the background color, button text, and decide what fields you want to include. After the basic settings, add a thank you text, and you’re ready to go.

Create a separate page
Signup pages are standalone web pages with a unique URL you can share online or add to an email signature to attract new subscribers. Same as signup forms, you can easily create and customize a signup page with no coding experience. You don’t need a server to host a signup page because Campaign Monitor hosts it for you.
After you customize the signup page using the editing tools, you can click Save and generate a link.

Turn followers into subscribers
Why limit yourself to gathering email subscribers on your website only? If you have significant social media followers, you can use that opportunity to convert followers into subscribers. 
With 2.74 billion monthly active users, Facebook is still the most popular social network in the world. You can encourage Facebook fans to sign up for your email list by posting a link to your list’s signup form directly to your Facebook page. Besides this, you can use third-party integrations such as Facebook Lead Ads by Zapier, Leadsbridge, and Integromat to connect your Facebook audience to Campaign Monitor.

Source: SXSW
Get customers to sign up in-store
We live in an omnichannel world. Instead of relying only on digital channels to grow your email list, think outside the box and use your store to engage customers in conversation and ask them for their email address. You can turn a regular iPad into an email collection point and have customers enter their information while the cashier rings them out. 

Source: (screenshot from a CM demo)
Best practices for high-performing signup forms (with examples)
Now that you know how to create signup forms in just a few clicks let’s talk about the basic principles that will help you make them more effective.  
1. Keep it simple
Clear is better than clever. From the number of fields asking for information to color schemes and even vocabulary, your form should be straightforward without being boring. The fundamental mistake many companies make is trying to get all the information in a single email signup form. Rather than adding too many fields, keep your focus on the goal — getting the email address. 
The British jewelry brand Monica Vinader has a simple, minimalist signup form that promises subscribers to share style tips, exclusive sales, and private events in exchange for their email address. 

Source: Monica Vinader
2. Get the context right
You would be surprised how many businesses bury their signup pages somewhere on the “Contact us” page or at the bottom of their website. Instead of playing hide-and-seek, place your signup form in the upper part of your website, where visitors can easily find it. Have a clear call-to-action and try not to make it too intrusive. 
The coffee roaster and retailer Blue Bottle Coffee uses a simple signup form. It’s the first thing you notice when you open their website, it’s in-line with their brand, noticeable but not intrusive. Visitors can add their email address or decide to scroll without having an unpleasant user experience. 

Source: Blue Bottle Coffee
3. Tell them why should they subscribe (and deliver on the promise)
Transparency is a sign of respect. Clearly state what information you’ll be sending out as well as its frequency. Set expectations right from the start and always deliver on the promise. If you want to build a future-proof newsletter list, you want people to subscribe for the right reason. If you promise one thing and then deliver on something completely different, expect frustrated subscribers and a high attrition rate. 
The manufacturer and retailer of cool socks, underwear, and swimwear, Happy Socks gives visitors all the reasons they should subscribe. Besides the 10% discount on the first purchase, they promise to share special promotions and early access to new collections. 

Source: HappySocks
4. Offer an incentive 
People love free stuff, discounts and gifts. It’s human psychology. If you want to grow your newsletter list, offer your new subscribers something tangible for signing up. It can be a discount or a gift. In some cases, it’s free content. From ebooks and guides to checklists and printables — offering something in exchange for an email address can help you grow your list faster. 
If you decide to use this approach, make sure to follow up with a strong email nurture program to keep subscribers engaged and turn them into loyal readers (and customers).
The DTC underwear and loungewear brand MeUndies gives visitors a 15% discount if they sign up. The form is simple yet in-line with the playful brand identity, so it doesn’t go unnoticed. 

Source: MeUndies
5. Include social proof
The first thing we do when buying a product is navigate to the review section for reassurance. We want proof that we’re making the right decision. The same is true for newsletter subscriptions. Showing that others found value by joining the list or buying the product or service encourages people to do the same. 
This behavior is rooted in psychology and the so-called bandwagon effect. In other words, a person’s tendency to adopt some attitude because everyone else is doing it. Being part of a community of like-minded individuals gives people the affirmation they’re constantly looking for. 
The project management tool monday.com uses the power of social proof to convince people to join for a free trial. The fact that more than 100,000 teams rely on monday.com for their project management needs can be the spark that will urge people to sign up.

Source: monday.com
6. Use a catchy call-to-action
Standing out from the crowd and getting people to give you consent to email them can be challenging nowadays. You need something catchy. Something to draw visitors’ attention and make them eager for what they’ll receive.
Having a teasing call-to-action intrigues people or makes them laugh. Either way, you reach your goal: a new email address on your newsletter list. 
The delicious protein bars RXBAR makes their signup form hard to resist by offering customers an exclusive new offer for signing up. Instead of lengthy forms with unnecessary fields, they focus only on getting the customer’s email address.  
 
Source: RXBAR
7. Respect user privacy
User privacy is one of the biggest concerns in today’s digital-first world. This is key to building trust as well as following General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) guidelines for user information privacy and use.
When asking subscribers for personal information, you should be able to answer a simple question: why? Why do you need the information, and how do you plan to use it? 
If you visit the website L’Oréal Paris, you’ll notice a signup pop-up form that asks for your first and last name, email address, and birth date. Before entering the details, visitors can read the Privacy policy L’Oréal states that they collect information to provide tailored and personalized content, services, advertisements, and offers to customers.

Source: L’Oréal Paris
For more tips, tricks, and best practices to power your email marketing strategy, watch our webinar on how to get the most out of a signup form.
Wrap up
Email marketing is one of the best ways to find customers who are interested in purchasing. In order to effectively reach out and grab the attention of potential subscribers, it’s essential to have a strong email signup form.
Use the tips in this post to create the most effective signup form and set the foundation for future business growth.
You don’t have any more excuses. Create a newsletter signup form and start building your list today.
 
The post How to Create a Signup Form with No Coding Experience: 7 Best Practices to Get More Subscribers appeared first on Campaign Monitor.

Looking for the best email validation and verification tools? Check out these top performers that integrate with GetResponse’s all-in-one marketing platform.

A webinar is a video presentation, seminar, lecture, or workshop delivered over the internet.
Although once declared dead and outdated, webinars are very much still relevant. Many businesses are now rethinking the benefits of a virtual event, especially during the time of social distancing. In fact, ON24, a virtual platform, hosted 19,292 webinars in April of 2020 alone, which amounts to roughly 640 webinars per day.
Given their popularity, you may be interested in getting on board. In this post, we’ll give the most heavy-hitting statistics about webinars that make a case for using them in your marketing strategy.

Webinar Stats To Know
General Webinar Stats

67% of marketers in 2020 were increasing their investment in webinars. (LinkedIn)
The global webinar market is estimated to reach 800 million by 2023, up 253 million from 2015. (MarketWatch)
Marketers say that webinars are cost-effective as they help lower the cost-per-lead. (ON24)
95% of survey respondents said webinars play a key part in their marketing efforts, and 38% consider webinars critical to their digital communications. (ON24)
53% of marketers say webinars are the top-of-the-funnel format that generates the most high-quality leads. (Demand Gen Report)
Professionals say that video-based learning is their preferred learning format, and 85% prefer the video to be webinars. 94% of respondents also report viewing webinar content monthly. (BrightTALK)
Viewers in 2020 watched three times more webinar content than they did in 2019. (ON24)
91% of webinar marketers in 2020 say they’ve been successful, which is a 10% increase from 2019. (Wyzowl)

Webinar Conversion Stats

76% of marketers say that webinars help them reach more leads, 75% say it extends brand reach, 69% say it helps scale marketing efforts, and 49% say that it helps them reach targeted accounts. (ON24)
A survey from April of 2020 found that webinars had a 61% registration to attendee conversion rate, up from 55% in 2019. (ON24)
Webinars hosted on a company domain generate 3x more audience participation. 91% of professionals who watch webinars say their next step is to visit a website for more info. If they’re already on your site, you’re increasing the probability of conversion. (BrightTALK)
Communication webinars have the highest conversion rate (67.05%). (ON24)
Email is the top promotional channel for webinars. Up to 57% of registrations come from that channel, and the conversion rate is 27% higher. (GoToWebinar, BrightTALK)

Webinar Content Stats

81% of marketers use Q&A as an engagement tool during webinars, 69% provide resources for download. (ON24)
When asked what they’d most like to see in their webinars, consumers reported that they would most like (22%) to see a host or presenter that takes questions from the audience. (HubSpot)
Survey respondents rate webinar video integrations as a 7.8 in importance on a scale of 10. (ON24)
60-minute webinars attract more attendees than 30-minute webinars, and the average attendee viewing time is 57 minutes. (WorkCast, GoToWebinar)
Thursdays are the best days to host a webinar. (MegaMeeting)
Marketers prefer webinars that are live and on-demand. (Statista)
Consumers reported being most likely (27%) to sign up for a webinar that teaches them something about a hobby or passion, and 18% would attend a webinar that taught them something about their career or industry. (HubSpot)
Consumers report that the most engaging webinar format is a presentation that teaches them how to do something specific. (HubSpot)

Webinars Are Here To Stay
As these statistics demonstrate, webinars are not dead; they are here to stay. Case in point, 53% of marketers say that they plan to include webinars in their 2021 video strategy, up 11% from the previous year.
If you’re interested in learning more about using the channel in your marketing, read this guide to understand how to create compelling webinars and learn from experienced marketing HubSpotters on their best practices for taking webinars from good to great.