Category: Marketing Automation

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Hello everyone! Does anybody know any automated tools to write cold emails? It takes me a lot of time to come up with good personalized subject lines and emails. And I was wondering if there’s any tools/software to help me with it? submitted by /u/John-Libel [link] [comments]

I’m currently working on a research assignment for my course entitled “How performance marketing agencies working with online retailers use first party audience data in digital advertising” I’ve created a survey for the research – https://forms.gle/TjsdcYQP3LkC9H449 If you work at an agency and with online retailers, your response would be greatly appreciated 🙂 It will take around 5 minutes to complete. As a token of appreciation, I’ll share the findings from my research with those who fill the survey. Thanks in advance! submitted by /u/Organic_Bag4355 [link] [comments]

This post is a part of The Crisis of Disconnection, a thought leadership series examining the latest research and insights to uncover how businesses can meet their growth goals, even amidst unprecedented changes to the way we work.
Despite our hyperconnected world, reaching customers and target audiences has never been harder. And, as we continue to see a shifting economy, evolving platforms, and constantly changing audience preferences, unless we take action the Crisis of Disconnection will only grow in 2023.
In this blog series, we’ve brought you up to speed on the Crisis of Disconnection, while outlining how the growth challenges ahead for your business won’t be your average walk in the park. Now, with the daunting stuff behind us, let’s turn our attention toward the light at the end of the tunnel.
If you’ve been following along, we’re glad you’re back. If you’re just joining us now, we’re glad you’re here.

How We Got Disconnected – And Why Fixing It is Vital
Before we go any further, let’s recap the disconnection challenges that have been giving business leaders pause:

Point solutions are expensive, incomplete, and create more complexity than clarity. 74% of CRM buyers feel their teams have to switch between too many tools to get the job done
People feel disconnected from each other — whether they’re at home or in the office. Only 49% of flex workers in the U.S. felt their team was working effectively in a hybrid environment.
Strategies that once worked to connect with customers are no longer working. More than 30% of marketers say that they are experiencing average-to-no returns on their digital marketing investments.

It’s true that disconnection between your business and your customers — fueled by disconnection among employees and systems — is slowing growth.
If there’s a topline takeaway from our Crisis of Disconnection series, it’s this: connection can no longer be an afterthought.
Scaling companies need to place connection at the center of their business growth strategies. Otherwise, navigating the ever-evolving consumer landscape in the coming years will feel like an uphill battle.
Luckily, our research demonstrates that businesses are up for the challenge. The question is — how can you forge stronger connections across all facets of your company?
How to Re-align and Re-Connect Your Brand for Growth in 2023
1. Focus on Customer Connection, Not Customer Management
Suffice to say, we believe that the flywheel is pretty important when it comes to growing your business. The purpose of the flywheel is to accelerate growth, and spinning the flywheel (and achieving that growth) is only made possible through a strong connection to your customers. Not just to the ones you already have, but also to the ones to come.

In a world where 68% of companies are selling remotely, meeting your customers where they are has never been more important. But modern consumers feel like they’re being overloaded with an abundance of content, which only works to push them away from forging meaningful connections with businesses:

65% of google searches end without a click
The average blog growth rate is -1.6%

Overcoming digital fatigue and distrust is no small feat, but working to build a connected business growth strategy is well worth the time and effort. This starts by optimizing every stage of the buyer’s journey to foster greater connection and purposeful communication.
2. Let Data Take the Guesswork Out of Advertising
Work to advertise in the places where your target customers are spending their time. When data tells you that your audience is primed to make purchasing decisions on a given platform, put more eggs into that basket versus wasting advertising spend elsewhere. It also doesn’t hurt to partner with trusted influencers in the space who’ve already built a connection with your target customers that you can leverage.

93% of all online interactions start with a search engine.
58% of millennials agree that social platforms are better than online searches for finding new products.
60% of marketers believe influencer marketing is the most effective marketing trend.

Clearly, even though the search engine experience may not be a perfect one as consumers are overwhelmed with content and often give up the search before clicking on anything, it remains an important place to be since most people who do end up interacting with a business online start on a search engine.
However, that may change in the future as the experience continues to suffer and both consumers and marketers are shifting their focus to social media as a channel for discovery and connection.
Of course, these are general trends, and advertising performance will vary depending on your specific audience. We always recommend doing your own research before committing to an advertising plan.
The key thing to remember here is that data should be driving these marketing decisions. Guessing isn’t good enough anymore — do your research to learn which channels and platforms your customers are spending the most time on. You can accomplish this by simply asking customers, followers, and prospects for their two cents. Don’t be shy! This is where first-party data can be your best friend. Lean on it to gain a better understanding of customers and their purchasing decisions.
While the question used to be, “How many channels are you active in?”,  the more important question to be asking yourself today is, “How unified are those channels and are they providing a consistent, personalized customer experience?”. In order to give your organization the information it needs to develop deep connections with customers, you must connect:

With the right customers using segmentation based on real-time, clear, and clean data.
In the most convenient place using an omni-channel approach
At the optimal time – whether that’s now, later, or somewhere in between
With the right context using first-party data to add personalization to all of your interactions.

Once you’ve nailed down where your customers are, it’s time to figure out how to attract and delight them. 62% of consumers say a brand will lose their loyalty if they deliver an unpersonalized experience, so make sure you’re offering something that is relevant and valuable to each specific consumer. Remember — what works for one buyer persona may fall flat with another.
In the past, businesses looked backward to get a sense of what worked. We believe the future is about looking forward, finding ways to analyze real-time data to understand not only how well you’ve connected with customers up until now, but also how to optimize those customer connections in the future.
3. Make it Easy to Buy
Buyers expect their experiences discovering and buying B2B and B2C goods and services to feel the same, regardless of who they’re buying from. Naturally, you want to provide easy payment solutions and options for how your customers buy.
But just like it’s important to personalize content for each buyer persona, so too is it important to cater purchasing options to the particular needs of your audience. Whether that means working through a sales representative or buying through an online portal, understand what your consumers want so you can give them the experience they desire.

Just over 50% of SMBs still rely on disparate solutions to manage payment data, averaging five tools per purchase transaction.
83% of buyers say convenience while shopping is more important compared to five years ago.
Only 19% of consumers prefer to message a company’s chatbot when reaching out to a company online. 45% prefer a human representative.

Updating your old go-to-market strategies for the new world requires you to connect with your customers on a more meaningful level. Of course, building those connections hinges on the connectivity of your people.
4. Near, Far, Wherever You Are: Help your Teams Connect
As you can imagine, it’s much harder to connect with customers when you’re having a hard time connecting with the people across from you — whether that be in the office or over Zoom.
Disconnected teams create silos within your organization, and a disconnected business is one that’s not able to reach its full potential.
23% of businesses cite difficulties with communication and collaboration between teams as one of their top business challenges. 45% of workers say that the number of people they interact with at work decreased, and 57% of people say that they engage in fewer social activities these days. All that’s to say, connecting with one another isn’t as easy as it used to be. However, a fully remote or hybrid work model doesn’t necessarily have to equal disconnection between your teams.
Take HubSpot, for example.
Even before the global pandemic, we believed in building a company where people could do their best work. For some, that’s in an office building. For others, that’s from a home office. With the goal of making work-life harmony a reality, we committed to being a flexible, hybrid company that ties culture to our values, people, and mission, not locations.

In the words of our Director of Culture, Eimear Marrinan, “Culture does not need four walls to thrive.”
While the old ways of working may never return, it doesn’t mean it’s the end of company culture as we know it. The key is to ensure teams can buy into a common goal, and are able to work together as one to reach it.
Build a social connection that motivates your teams and enables them to foster better working relationships, even if it’s in a remote setting. 59% of people would like to keep working remotely as much as possible going forward, so building a culture that thrives in a hybrid work environment should be top-of-mind for businesses.

The times may be a-changin’, but the craving for community is still consistent throughout every workforce. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to being a hybrid company, and getting it right may take some time.
At HubSpot, we’re always learning how we can improve the way we work. Focusing on the critical ingredients — flexibility, empathy, communication, and inclusion — when building your work environment will inevitably put you on the path toward growth and success.
With all that said, we still haven’t gotten to another central, and sometimes overlooked, element of connection when it comes to your business — your systems, tools, and data. Pulling off all the above won’t be possible if you don’t have connected solutions in place to keep people and processes working in harmony.
5. Spend Less Time Configuring, and More Time Connecting
The average scaling company has 242 SaaS tools today. If that sounds like a lot, you’re right!
Expecting better relationships with customers and greater connection between teams when this many tools are in play is wishful thinking. In reality, less is more.
You need more than data. You need context.
You need more than content. You need connection.
You need more than contacts. You need community.
Hitting these goals largely depends on the connectedness of your internal systems, data, and tools. Your teams should be able to move away from focusing on building connections in a technical sense and towards fostering more meaningful connections on a human level.
Trying to make your myriad of disparate systems work together can feel like you’re swimming upstream. Instead, turn around and invest in a connected platform that streamlines and seamlessly connects your data.
Putting in the time and effort upfront to integrate a connected platform is well worth the long-term savings. One in four businesses today believe disconnected data and systems are among their chief concerns as they grow. And the ever-popular point solution approach brings with it its own set of problems.

Point solutions end up exacerbating silos across teams, which is ultimately not the point of implementing new tools and software. In reality, your teams work together closely, and giving them the means to connect and collaborate seamlessly largely hinges on the systems you put in front of them.
The time is now to prioritize “best-in-connection” solutions versus best-in-class tools. A platform that has connection at its core enables your teams to access data, collaborate with one another, and work through their responsibilities with no bumps along the way.

The trickle-down effect of disconnected systems negatively impacts your people, which ultimately impacts the customer experience. Making customer connection a central pillar of your business growth strategy starts by prioritizing a best-in-connection, all-on-one platform that delights employees and customers alike.
Time to Get Connected
That’s a wrap on our Crisis of Disconnection blog series! We want you to know that this is a concept we’re still deeply investigating, so while this is the end of this particular blog series, we’re just getting started talking about connection and how to optimize your business for it. Stay tuned for more on how HubSpot is actively working to address the Crisis of Disconnection!
In the meantime, be sure to check out HubSpot solutions, like our Free CRM or our Marketing, Sales, Service and CMS Hubs, which can help connect your team and grow better in 2023.

Influencer marketing has become more integral to marketing campaigns as brands try to reach audiences on platforms geared toward community building and creating content than companies. When you think of influencer marketing, you probably think of influencers with large followings collaborating with brands; however, smaller influencers (also called micro-influencers) are gaining traction among marketers.

HubSpot recently surveyed 1,200 global marketers and found that 64% of marketers listed micro-influencers among the creators they worked with throughout 2022. 53% of marketers said they plan on working with micro-influencers in 2023. So, why are marketers shifting their focus toward micro-influencers, and should you do the same? To answer these questions, here are four data-driven reasons to work with micro-influencers on your next campaign.

What are micro-influencers?
Our survey defined micro-influencers as creators and influencers with a follower/subscriber count ranging from 10,000 to 99,999. Micro-influencers are very well known within their niche and have a close relationship with their followers, resulting in high engagement.
Why Companies Should Work with Micro-Influencers
Here are four reasons your company should consider working with micro-influencers.
1. Micro-influencers have excellent engagement rates.
Our survey found that 33% of marketers reported having the most success with micro-influencers compared to nano, macro, and mega-influencers. As I said before, micro-influencers have very high engagement, so it’s no surprise that a third of our respondents reported great success working with them.
Micro-influencers boast high engagement because it’s easier to connect with and build a bond with fewer followers versus millions of followers.
A recent study by Later x Forh shows that the fewer followers an influencer has on Instagram, the higher their engagement rate. Instagram users with less than 1000 followers also receive likes from up to 8% of total followers, while users with 10 million+ followers receive only 1.7%.
2. They are more cost-effective than macro-influencers.
According to Shopify, micro-influencers with 5,000 to 30,000 followers charge between $73 and $318 per social media post. Specifically, Shopify says businesses can expect to pay micro-influencers around the following prices:

$172 for an Instagram post
$219 for an Instagram video
$73 for an Instagram story
$318 for a Facebook post
$908 for a YouTube video

This is less than influencers with more than 500,000 followers. These influencers typically charge between $2,085 and $3,318 per post. For these influencers, companies can expect to pay:

$2,085 for an Instagram post
$3,318 for an Instagram video
$721 for an Instagram story
$2,400 for a Facebook post
$3,857 for a YouTube video

If you’re a smaller business looking to tap into a more targeted audience online without exceeding your budget, micro-influencers would be a worthy investment.
3. They account for almost half of all influencers.
Micro-influencers with 5,000 to 20,000 followers account for 47.3 percent of influencers. Mid-tier influencers make up 26.8%, and nano-influencers make up 18.74%. Macro-influencers are rare in the influencer marketing landscape.
With micro-influencers making up such a massive portion of the market, finding one who fits your niche, shares your vision, and can tap into your audience is highly possible.
4. They foster authenticity and trust within their niche.
As mentioned earlier, micro-influencers can form a close bond with their audience, which leads to higher engagement than macro-influencers. Suppose you’re able to get a micro-influencer to support your product. In that case, that influencer will likely boost your reputation and build confidence regarding your business.
5 Brands Who Collaborate with Micro-Influencers
The following brands have included micro-influencer marketing in their marketing strategy:
1. La Croix
Sparkling water brand La Croix has collaborated with multiple micro-influencers to showcase its products. To encourage influencer collaborations, the brand sends vouchers for free cases of their drinks to micro-influencers with as little as 1000 followers. For example, the following Instagram post shows micro-influencer and journalist Andrea Albers holding a can of La Croix next to a Christmas tree.

2. Daniel Wellington
Daniel Wellington is a Swedish watch brand that started its global ambassador community to foster collaborations with micro-influencers. The company’s daily #DWPickoftheday contest challenges influencers to create exciting content to be featured on the company’s main account. Micro-influencers like Melanie Vaclavikova are often featured on the company’s Instagram.

3. Asos
Online retailer Asos works with micro-influencers via its Asos Insiders program. Through the program, Asos finds influencers of all follower counts to promote its clothing and beauty products. One micro-influencer the retailer has worked with is Lauren Nicole, a fashion influencer and editor with 74.6 followers on Instagram.

4. Coca-Cola
Even huge, long-standing brands like Coca-Cola have leveraged micro-influencer marketing in campaigns. Coca-Cola’s #Cokeambassador campaign welcomes influencers to post photos and videos of themselves with Coca-Cola products.

5. Sperry
Boat shoe brand Sperry frequently collaborates with micro-influencers on its social media. Sperry will grant influencers a budget to engage their community and audience. The company also launched OpenSponsorship to connect athletes with the brand, resulting in over 6,000 athletes from 160 sports working with Sperry.

In short, micro-influencers have excellent engagement and a close bond with their followers. Leveraging micro-influencers in your next marketing campaign is an effective and budget-friendly way to tap into your target audience on social media or community-based platforms. Now that you know the benefits of micro-influencers, you’re ready to collaborate with those whose work aligns with your vision.

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Like so many founders who are facing the daunting task of learning yet another new social media platform, I was overwhelmed by the idea of starting a TikTok for my business. Coming from the world of finance, I don’t have a background in content creation, and I wouldn’t even consider myself a particularly creative person. The thought of coming up with fresh and interesting content day after day that would compete with people who literally do this for a living felt impossible.And yet, I had a hunch that my company—Tandem, an app that helps couples manage their shared finances—could connect with new users on the platform. As a D2C mobile app, we’ve seen that the best way to acquire users is when they’re already on their phones and therefore have the highest intent. And with a target market of 25-35 year olds, I knew that a good chunk of that phone time was now spent on TikTok. (For some context, TikTok users in the U.S. spent an average of 25.6 hours per month on the app as of January 2022, and the majority of those users are 34 or younger.)So, I took the leap and launched Tandem’s TikTok account in August 2022. Within just a few weeks, the account had amassed over 13,000 followers and over 1 million organic impressions and, months later, that number keeps on growing. It’s been so successful that I recently added a second account—@missmoneymichelle—to become a finance influencer in my own right and bypass expensive influencer marketing for my brand. In just a few weeks, I gained over 17,000 followers.Better than followers, though, are the business results. While I’ve been mindful of not pushing Tandem too hard in the early days, instead opting to bring value and build a trusting relationship with my followers before I start selling to them, I’ve already seen some videos translate into new website visitors and app users. I also know that in the long run, having our own audience is crucial in a world where digital advertising is increasingly expensive. Plus, learning from the content that most connects with people will inform Tandem’s product roadmap as we consider new offerings to help couples master their finances together.Of course, I’ve been doing all of this while also running my business. For any other founders who feel like TikTok is a mystery or that they simply don’t have time for it, here’s the exact schedule and strategy I’ve used to build up our accounts so quickly.I learned from other successful TikTokersI should start by saying I didn’t plot out a successful strategy all on my own. To kick off my TikTok journey, I spent a few weeks immersed in the Secret Socials course, which helped me learn the ins and outs of the algorithm and best practices for making engaging short form video.One of my key learnings was that each video needs to have an initial “hook.” Essentially, the TikTok algorithm pays attention to engagement metrics like how long users are watching your videos, likes, comments, and shares to determine what to share more widely. But you’re not going to get traction on any of those metrics if people don’t watch your video long enough to even figure out what it’s about. Those first few seconds are crucial, and I learned to talk quickly, add a headline with text on screen, and be a bit dramatic with my titles to really catch a viewer’s attention. (For instance, “three things that saved me $1,000 that no one knows about,” is much more eye-catching than “three money-saving tips.”)I also learned how to use TikTok’s data to inform my content. Using the app’s search bar, you can browse topics related to your niche, and then filter by recent, most liked videos. I’ll look up everything from generic “finance” videos to more specific topics like “Black Friday” or “Cyber Monday,” scroll through what’s working for other creators, and then consider how I can put my own spin on that topic to jump on a trend and create something valuable for my audience.Michelle used TikTok’s filter function to grow on the platformI used a series to help me experiment and gain tractionIn addition to following TikTok best practices, the strategy that’s most helped my profiles grow is striking a delicate balance between quantity, consistency, and quality. Quantity is important because, in order to grow a following quickly, you need to give yourself as many chances to go viral as possible. I decided to aim for posting three times a day, seven days a week, so I could rapidly understand what’s working and what flops. Consistency, in both type of content and frequency, is important so that people know what to expect from you. If someone lands on your profile and sees 20-30 videos on a topic they’re interested in, versus a few disjointed posts, they’re much more likely to follow your profile. I found that launching with a series—in my case, financial tips for couples under the umbrella of “Things Power Couples Do”—helped me keep that consistency early on. @use_tandem Power couples get a shared email address for all of their combined stuff #couplesfinance #couplestok #financetips #bettertogether #powercouple ♬ SynthWave Blade Runner – 21bff51528b0485e8f0fed49572d930a.png Finally, to grow an engaged following, it’s essential to put out quality content that provides real value. I’ve had a few purely funny or entertaining videos go viral, but they’ve rarely translated to followers or new users. Meanwhile, I’ve found that the most successful videos are when I share unique tips that have made a real impact in my relationship, such as creating a shared email address or getting on each others’ insurance as domestic partners.Now that my accounts are more established, I use a five-video series to experiment with new topics, especially ones that are more time bound. For instance, I created a short series about winning the lottery when the major Powerball was happening, and one about Travel Tuesday deals during Black Friday weekend. Creating a few videos for each topic allows me to try slightly different hooks and cover more information without any one video getting too long. Usually at least one or two within a series will go viral, but I can rarely predict which, so it’s crucial to try multiple approaches.I created a schedule and looked for shortcutsContent creation can take up a lot of your time if you let it—and as a founder, I don’t have a lot of it. I’ve found the best way to consistently post at my ideal frequency is to batch my content creation efforts. Typically, I reserve Monday afternoons for brainstorming and ideation. I’ll look at trending TikTok data and metrics from my own posts to see what type of content is performing well. I’ll also think about upcoming holidays or current events. Then, I’ll list out all of the topics I want to cover that week and what the hooks will be. Sometimes I’ll loosely script out a video, and other times I’ll plan on just talking on the fly, depending on the topic. Then, on Tuesdays, I spend 4-5 hours doing my filming for the week. This is doable because I’ve found a few key shortcuts to be more efficient. For one, I’ll always use the green screen feature, which allows me to drop in any background I’d like. This helps create some variety even if I’m filming all of my videos in the same place, and also means I can create from anywhere if I need to be out and about on filming day. (I’ve definitely recorded videos from my car!.) I also invested in a mini microphone to ensure high-quality sound no matter where I’m filming. And a final weird hack: I wear big sunglasses in all my videos so I don’t feel pressure to do my makeup. It saves me time and has become part of the brand look. I also try to edit on Tuesdays so I’ll have a full lineup of finalized videos to post throughout the week. I typically spend at least a few hours making edits to ensure the posts are engaging, including things like cutting out dead space and adding in captions.I’m not going to lie—TikTok is still overwhelming to me sometimes. Consistently putting out new content isn’t easy, and it requires showing up even when I’m not feeling it. Plus, since TikTok is always changing, I can’t just find what works and stick with it. I have to constantly be paying attention to the data along with what’s working for other creators, experimenting, and iterating. But, with some simple strategies and a schedule I can follow week after week, I’ve found a way to make TikTok work for me. And the result—a deep, ongoing connection to my audience—makes the effort more than worth it.

Before I tell you all about the awesome ways to use marketing calendars and planners to boost your marketing strategy – how about we play a quick game? I’ll give you a 100%-real existing holiday, and you try to guess the date when it is celebrated. If you answer correctly – consider you’ve had yourself […]

Coordinating your marketing activities and tying them back to your business goals helps maximizes profit and amplifies your chances for success. In a nutshell – that’s the job of your business’s marketing strategy. Irrespective of the marketing strategy you employ, email marketing is a key channel for overall success. It consistently delivers an impressive ROI,…
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