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    Best Email Marketing Tools

    Posted on by Albert Astillero

    Email Marketing has been around for quite some time now. Some people are starting to question its relevance in today’s world, where there are thousands of alternatives, including social media. Does email marketing still work? Yes, it remains one of the most effective marketing strategies for small to large businesses if done correctly. Once you build that quality email list, you’ll be surprised by how much traffic, brand awareness you’ll get by consistently sending quality emails.

    Statistics show that emails are expected to go even higher, at least for the next three years, which means more opportunities for business owners. However, with so many companies trying their luck on the email marketing strategy, it has been crucial to practice the best methods proven effective in helping your businesses stand out from the rest.

    In this blog, we’ll share some of the best email marketing tools to try and ensure that your email strategy is top-notch and will undoubtedly get you some hot leads. Before that, let’s discuss some of the criteria for choosing the best tools to use for your email marketing.

    Things to consider in choosing email marketing tools?

    Before we go straight to the best tools we recommend, we’ve had some criteria that help us gauge whether these email marketing tools are worthy or not. 

    Easy to Use

    Usability is essential, especially in today’s world. There’s no reason to use complicated tools if you can get the same results using simple basic tools, right? This allows you to have a more efficient workflow and smoothly integrate it into your marketing systems.

    Affordability

    With so many free marketing tools, it’s essential to know that you are getting your money’s worth if you plan to pay for a particular tool. You don’t want to spend loads of money on something that you can get somewhere for free.

    Features

    Last but not least, you want to find something that has features that would allow you to do things you couldn’t do before, which is the purpose of using a tool. Email marketing will seem a lot more fun, more manageable, and effective once you use these tools that we’re about to mention.

    Best Email Marketing Tools

    Here are some of our most recommended tools that you should use for the best email marketing strategy!

    ActiveCampaign

    As marketing goes larger than numbers and more on to customer satisfaction and experience, so is the goal of ActiveCampaign when it comes to developing their systems. It remains one of the leading email marketing tools out there. They conveniently provide a seamless approach to email marketing tackling on all cylinders, whether for e-commerce, B2C, and B2-B companies.

    Suppose you’re looking for a comprehensive toolkit. In that case, ActiveCampaign is very promising as they can provide a holistic approach without complicating each step to garner as much traffic as possible. Their set of tools aims to reach, nurture, convert, and grow, which is what it takes to grow a business in today’s world. Easily manage your sales, live chat, email marketing, and more features delivered all in one place with ActiveCampaign!

    You can try them for free with no credit card required as they offer an instant setup of a 14-day trial.

    MailerLite

    As we mentioned a while ago, money’s worth is a huge thing to consider before jumping on some online tools, and this email marketing tool is truly worth the investment. Whether your focus is on email marketing, automation, newsletter editors, or even personalized email to build customer relationships, MailerLite has all those problems taken care of.

    MailerLite does an excellent job catering to a wide range of needs, whether for personal, small businesses, or even large businesses, in helping them improve their email campaign across all cylinders. Give them a shot and see for yourself by signing up for their 30-day free trial with access to their premium features.

    Mailjet

    Email Marketing is consistently taking leaps, even faster than ever before. You’ll also have to kick it up a notch in your email marketing strategies, as many other companies are trying to push for the same thing. This is why you’ll love Mailjet and what it can offer to improve your marketing efforts.

    Sending generic emails won’t cut it in today’s market, so you’ll benefit a lot from the features of Mailjet. They provide email builders, contact management, segmentations, and comprehensive analytics so you can analyze your data and gradually optimize them to create the most effective email campaign. Having an integrated platform into your CRM and the ability to manage your mailing list all in one dashboard is also one of the many cool things about Mailjet.

    Omnisend

    Getting more than in less time is what you want if you’re planning to grow your business, and this is exactly what Omnisend is trying to offer. Email Marketing isn’t just about sending emails to random people, segmentation and finding the right people for your message is a huge game-changer. You could do this using Omnisend features. 

    What’s impressive about Omnisend is how easy it is to integrate with your existing strategy. They even provide email templates focused on lessening cart abandonment and driving more sales to your business. Any brand that focuses on e-commerce could undoubtedly benefit from using this fantastic tool, and it deserves to be in the best email marketing tools. Their pricing includes added features, privileges, and other info that varies in each plan.

    Drip

    Drip is taking all the proper steps when it comes to growing brands. They focus on running sophisticated email and SMS marketing systems that are proven to drive more sales without the need for coding skills.

    Easily integrate Drip on any mainstream e-commerce platforms known, such as Magento, Shopify, woo commerce, etc. Using Drip is almost a no-brainer as they offer many valuable tools effective for email marketing, such as built-in revenue analytics, customer engagement across multiple channels, and many more, with fair pricing that starts at $19/month.

    Mailchimp

    If you’ve been searching for marketing tools for quite some time now, there is a big chance that you’re already familiar with Mailchimp. They are one of the leading email marketing tool providers online, which features automation, scheduling, intelligent recommendations, and audience insights to offer you an all-around gear in improving your marketing strategies.

    You could also conveniently store images and files by using their content manager feature, which could be very handy so you’ll quickly go back to it when you need it. Mailchimp indeed turns emails into revenue, and you as a business would get so much more from this tool!

    Final Thoughts.

    With all the available tools in your arsenal, it’s an excellent time to own a business as there are tons of different ways for small and even large companies to grow and flourish organically. We hope that you’ll find what works for you in these email marketing toolkits and turn your emails into cash in no time!

    Why is email marketing so important for small businesses?

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    While email marketing for small businesses differs from email marketing that’s used by large corporations, it’s equally strategic. You start by setting goals, picking the necessary tools to determine your target audience, building a list of tactics, optimizing, formating, creating, and scheduling your content. The only defining detail that separates each email marketing strategy is the tactics used to do all of the above and the scale at which it is done.

    How can small businesses take advantage of email marketing? 

    If you haven’t already, as a small e-commerce business, you need to start reaping the benefits of email marketing. This digital service allows companies to build trust with local customers and is a huge advantage that they can hold above larger corporations who fail to resonate within these smaller communities. That said, transparency and honesty with your clientele are key, which is why unsolicited or generic emails will easily lose ground in favour of more modern approaches. 

    Before you can plunge into sending emails, you must first get customers to subscribe and agree to be a part of your email list. Not only is this a requirement for legal purposes but it allows you to ensure that your list is filled with potential buyers that are interested in your products and brand. To capture lots of emails, be sure to make the signup easy to find with minimal steps involved. While growing your list might take time, this will allow you to prepare your digital marketing goals and speak with an agency that offers email marketing services. Professional email marketing will ensure that your newsletters are of higher quality and filled with exclusive, eye-catching content to promote your brand and assert you as a knowledgeable member of your industry. Instead of screaming for attention, you’re strategically generating a buzz that helps to cement strong customer relationships. 

    How do small businesses measure email marketing success?

    There are many ways that a small business measures the effectiveness of its campaigns. Success rates can be measured with several metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, time spent on pages, and conversion rates. You should keep track of the number of emails that get marked as spam and also those that are forwarded. Then, compare that with the number of emails that were deleted before or after they were opened. All of these metrics yield valuable insights for future emails and further develop your email marketing strategy. 

    How do you improve the efficiency of your email marketing?

    Many effective methods ensure email marketing success, including:

    • Optimize emails for good display on mobile phones
    • Create a schedule for sending emails and adjust it according to metrics 
    • Cater content to a targeted audience
    • Divide your mailing list into segments and build tactics to appeal to each audience
    • Test your emails before sending them
    • Monitor their performance reports and develop ongoing changes to your email marketing strategy

    Do you have any more questions about email marketing for your small business? Drop a comment below for a prompt response.

    How to create attractive and engaging content

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    Content marketing has quickly become a strategic approach for businesses looking to share valuable and relevant information with customers within their industry. While it may be easy to share content on your blog, social media accounts, and through email, developing great content that stands out on a consistent basis to your audience is the only way to develop your content marketing strategy. Listed below are some steps you can take to help your produce content that will reach and engage with your target consumer. 

    Know your audience

    Identifying your target audience allows you to look beyond the basics. Things like their demographics, psychographics, and behaviours help to understand the type of content that may interest them. Content creators visualize their audience before adapting marketing personas that help to establish a composite of the reader. Whether it’s the topic of a blog, a social media post, or an email, knowing your audience before creating the content will do wonders in attracting them to it. 

    Ensure that your headline is powerful 

    The headline of your blog, social media post, or email is the hook that catches and lures in the customer. While it needs to be consistent with the information that you want to present, it should also exhibit actionable keywords that help with your search engine optimization (SEO) while also utilizing language that’s attractive to the audience. 

    Tell a story

    Part of creating engaging content is using a series of words to tell a story. You shouldn’t just jump into your piece without first setting the stage nor should you simply stop writing because you’ve reached your minimum word count (unless it’s a social post, of course). All content should have a beginning, middle, and end if you’re hoping to attract and engage with your audience.  

    Provide useful information that’s quick to read

    Online shoppers are time-crunched and may have just come across your digital marketing efforts while aimlessly perusing the web. All that matters to them at that moment is what your content is doing to educate, inform, or entertain them. Many customers are consuming content while on the go, in short spurts of time between other activities. Be sure to use simple words, write direct sentences, and use an active voice in your content. 

    Are you in need of a content creator? Trek Marketing offers a wide range of digital marketing services that work to develop your business’s content. 

    What type of content attracts you as an online shopper? Drop a comment below to share with our readers. 

    Want to set digital marketing goals for your business?

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    Do you need help setting actionable goals related to digital marketing for your small business? There’s a range of measures that can assist in the control of performance across all your digital efforts, growing your sales and engaging with your audience are essential elements of a dynamic online business, and they’re easier to implement when you know how to do so. 

    Grow your sales

    While revenue is an obvious goal among all e-commerce businesses, your online transactions must lead to profits. Fortunately, there are many ways that you can strategize digital marketing techniques to sell physical goods and services, increasing your online sales performance quicker. 

    Below are some ways that you can use digital marketing to grow your sales for your small business: 

    • Ensure that your content is written using SEO-friendly tactics and that it’s honest, straightforward, and approachable to build a foundation of trust with the consumer. 
    • Invest in click ads to assist with your click-through rates.
    • Create a sense of urgency such as a time-sensitive offer or access to a limited-edition product. Target consumers respond well to positive incentives, especially if they feel pressure to commit to purchasing. 
    • Appearance is important, which is why investing in high-quality product images over simple thumbnails helps people to envision their need for the product before buying. 

    Engage more with your audience

    Brick and mortar stores achieve face-to-face interactions with their clientele daily, whereas e-commerce businesses must utilize online communication channels to engage with their audience. If your digital marketing goal is to better engage with shoppers, you can build your brand and influence sales through an assortment of online channels like Facebook, Instagram, and e-newsletters. While conversions are always at the forefront, communication with no-strings attached is more inviting and likable for customers, giving them the freedom to ask questions and make comments with an expectation to buy. This creates a trusting relationship between business and buyer. 

    Below are some ways that you can engage more with your audience:

    • Respond to queries on social media services.
    • Respond to comments on social media services.
    • Accept blogging comments and ensure that you thank visitors for leaving their input.
    • Check direct messaging on social media for questions, feedback, or comments.
    • Scan through emails to see if any are customer-related.

    What other goals have you set for 2022? Drop them below to share with our readers.

    How to promote your services online as a home contractor

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    With the housing market booming these past few years the need for home improvement projects has skyrocketed, as has digital marketing for small businesses. With homeowners undertaking complete or partial renovations in place of having a holiday, home maintenance services such as HVAC, roofing, electrical, plumbing, and/or landscaping, need to be taking a more aggressive marketing approach to their promotion. After all, these projects need a professional home contractor and the best place for homeowners to search for reputable companies is online. 

    Update your website

    When promoting home contracting services, your website should be where you start first. After all, why rely on word-of-mouth representation when you’re living at the peak of a digital era? While there are potential customers that enjoy visiting a physical brick-and-mortar store to get the feel of a company and ask their face-to-face questions, most prefer websites as a hub for their first glance at a service. So, if you’re a home contractor who’s offering up your tradesmen services, consider creating a website or simply updating the one you have. We recommend going beyond an online portfolio to ensure that your site is equipped with the tools that allow you to promote your specialized skills. Added pages containing your mission statement, a bit about your team and how the company started, and an up-to-date blog with topics surrounding your industry are great ways to add content to your website and instill trust with consumers. Don’t forget to have a reviews page as well highlighted prominently on your website!

    In terms of digital marketing for small businesses, there’s a lot an agency can do for your website. A professional content writer and/or search engine optimization (SEO) expert can work together to ensure your website’s copy is engaging, click-worthy, and gaining traction and traffic with a variety of other services like email marketing and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, which link back to your website. 

    Boost your online presence and traffic

    Although simply having a website is better than nothing, as a home contractor that is competing in a heavily saturated market, you need ways for your potential clients to pick you out of the vast competition. To stand out in your industry, digital marketing services like SEO and PPC campaign must come into play. While an SEO campaign optimizes your website by producing relevant content and important links, a PPC campaign allows you to display ads on search engines. Together these types of campaigns allow you to rank, and with every successful click comes an opportunity to get noticed and gain business. Ultimately, if coordinated professional, both digital marketing strategies will help to increase your online visibility and website traffic.  

    Employ email marketing and social media marketing

    Ask an e-commerce business and they will tell you that both email marketing and social media marketing have proven to be effective and beneficial to their businesses. That said, as a home contractor, you likely already have lists of past and current clients. As such, you can use them to create a list that can then be selected wherever you want to offer promotions, describe new services offered, or simply wish them a healthy and happy New Year! On the other hand, an up-to-date social media platform also has its perks. We recommend managing a Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn account and utilizing them for business all while showcasing the more edgy side of your company. Post ongoing or finished projects, highlight members of your team, and network with potential clients all with your smartphone in hand. 

    The key to promoting your tradesman services is through digital marketing for small businesses. Consider the marketing strategies recommended above or contact a member of our sales team to look at other means for boosting your profits.

    What type of home contracting business do you own and/or operate? Let’s compare in the comments section below. 

    3 ways holiday shopping has changed since the beginning of the pandemic

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    Now that we have been living amid a pandemic for almost two years, there is less uncertainty around what might happen. Most people are understanding that measures taken are to keep them safe and are on board with following these recommendations and presumptive measures to avoid the need for business closures. We’ve also adapted to the world of working-from-home, virtual appointments, and opting to get back to activities through a pre-booking system. Needless to say, one thing that hasn’t slowed down is holiday online shopping! 

    Shoppers are spending more

    At the beginning of the pandemic, many businesses were forced to close which means employers laid off working staff to front the costs until they could reopen. Now that we know more about how this virus is transmitted, we know that masks and social distancing do wonders for keeping people well, which has allowed brick-and-mortar businesses to reopen alongside in-person meetings, conferences, and events. That said, customers who enjoy online shopping have continued to do so, and those who learned how to make purchases online to avoid contact in stores, have also continued to rely on e-commerce businesses as a method of convenience. 

    In 2021, both e-commerce and brick-and-mortar stores are booming once again, and with a regular paycheck, and appreciation for hugs and gathering, shoppers are spending more, especially on their holiday online shopping. Whether they’re making up for lost times or simply eager about seasonal festivities, consumer spending is on the rise and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. 

    Shoppers are carrying out purchases with time to spare

    While e-commerce businesses and their digital marketing teams begin prepping for the holiday season before the end of summer, shoppers too, are prepping their lists early. If COVID has taught us anything, it’s to expect shipping delays and stocking issues. These supply-chain shortages have prompted earlier holiday online shopping, giving gift-givers a greater opportunity to find the items they want to wrap up this season. While last-minute shopping habits die hard for some (partially due to the flexibility of shopping in-store for more generic items), many people relish finishing their shopping early, and we expect this trend to continue. 

    Shoppers are willing to hunt around

    Before the pandemic, if their favorite chain store or small business was out of the desired item, many consumers would opt for an emailed reminder when the item became in stock. However, with some businesses unable to restock inventory must-haves for weeks, shoppers question their loyalty and are willing to look elsewhere to fulfill their checklists. 

    We’re sincerely hoping that this issue becomes gets buried for 2022! Although, we recommend that you use your email and social media platforms to keep customers updated if you’re experiencing a shipping or supply issue. Honest transparency is a great way to maintain customer loyalty. Also, be sure you pass on the savings by setting up a promotion code schedule to offer a meaningful way for shoppers to return to your online store. 

    Have you noticed any ongoing changes in your industry since the start of the pandemic? Please drop them in the comments section below to spark a conversation.   

    Why your business website needs a blog

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    A blog might not seem like the most important investment for your online business, but it has the potential to benefit your brand in a variety of ways. So, if as an e-commerce entrepreneur you’ve been wondering about whether your website needs a blog, the answer is a yes! Posting industry-relevant content, how to’s, and generic information reads frequently help businesses improve their search engine optimization (SEO), drive traffic to their online storefronts, build a roaring audience, engage with consumers, and ultimately, drive conversions. 

    How does blogging work to improve your SEO?

    When someone searches for a key term, phrase, or set of words in the hopes of finding more information on that item or service, your e-commerce business must appear high on those online search engines so that customers can find your websites organically. When you possess a company blog, each post that’s published creates additional pages for search engines to index. In addition to valuable content and relevant keywords, internal links are also helpful to include in your blog entries, as they help bots to crawl your website more effectively. So, be sure to invest in an SEO strategy that will help you to achieve a favourable ranking. 

    Bring your website some added traffic

    Now that you understand how SEO works to attract shoppers, you can also recognize how your blog will help you to bring in some additional traffic. When your e-commerce website has an active blog, the helpful, high-quality content gives shoppers a reason to peruse your website and may even encourage them to return regularly or subscribe to your online e-newsletter if they like what you have to say. It’s always best to use your blog to assert yourself as an industry leader by providing tips, tricks, and trends, rather than just sales content if you want to attract high-quality traffic.  

    Build up your audience

    Having an e-commerce blog that features a variety of excellent content will help you to build a reputation with your brand, which in turn, builds a sense of credibility and trust among consumers. So, as first-time shoppers and long-standing customers continue to read and comment on your blog, they may even make a point to consider you for future questions they have or even better, trust in your blog to provide them with some feedback you need. 

    Engage with your consumers’ long term

    Some business owners consistently experience a variety of diverse shoppers while others build a rapport with returning customers that have grown to know and love their product. Whichever side of the business spectrum you specialize in, there’s no arguing that blogging is an invaluable tool that will continue to share important information about new arrivals and established products, events that your company may be hosting, expos you will be attending, promotional offers for consumers to snag, and even tips about the industry that may interest your audience. Also, don’t forget to include a thoughtful call-to-action at the bottom of your piece to invite customers to comment and start some dialogue with other readers. 

    Does your e-commerce business have a blogging strategy? Since Trek Marketing specializes in creating SEO-friendly content for businesses of all sizes, we encourage you to reach out and contact us with any questions you might have. 

    What are the best PPC strategies for your e-commerce website?

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    If you’re looking for an easy way to improve your digital marketing strategy while keeping the costs down, we recommend driving shoppers to your website by using pay per click advertising. This form of online exhibition only charges business owners once prospective customers find the ad using various search engines and click upon it. This means that payment is processed after traffic is achieved, as opposed to using other organic, digital marketing methods such as SEO. It’s 2020 and about time that you increased your business conversion rates using the power and effectiveness of pay per click advertising! 

    Carefully choose your advertisement platform  

    Just like traditional advertising, part of orchestrating successful pay per click advertising lies with carefully selecting the right platforms to distribute your announcements. There are plenty of ad placement options such as Google Shopping, Bing, Amazon Advertising and Facebook. Thus, ensure that you understand the trends of your ever-growing, dynamic industry before allocating a budget to any of the above platforms. Keep in mind that Google and Facebook shared 58.5% of the total US digital ad spend in 2019. 

    Review and utilize industry keywords

    If boosting the awareness of your e-commerce business is a huge part of your PPC strategy, then it’s important to research, review, and utilize previously generated search queries that are relevant to consumer purchases from your business. Through this PPC optimization process, you’re able to profile them into high converting search queries and terms, which can later be merged and used among your branded terms, model names, part numbers, and even SKU codes. Also, when time permits, you must next make a list of negative keywords in your pay per click advertising campaigns. This is because when you bid high on PLAs (product listing ad), it exposes your products to a wider range of searches instead of just improving Google rankings. As a result, you get to bid higher while also averting a lot of unwanted search traffic.  

    Expand your PPC spend 

    It can be difficult for business owners to manage personalized user experiences, which is why when they’re navigating the hard terrain of pay per click advertising, they often seek help from industry experts. In terms of communication, every consumer responds to something different, so it can be challenging to grow and build your brand loyalty and create new, meaningful relationships with your customers. That being said, be sure to look for a super-flexible and responsive ad platform that will allow you to showcase your products and services using an easy-to-navigate layout. 

    Quality content is the key 

    A good way to get your customers excited about what your business has to offer is by providing them with high-quality, well-written content. Since creating some flashy PPC ad copy won’t be enough to get yourself noticed, you’ll need to compliment your intuitive text using enticing colours, engaging videos, graphics, seamless navigation, and descriptive product information.

    Do you have any other feedback for pay per click advertising? Drop a comment below to share.