In today’s digital age, email marketing remains a proven technique to generate leads and maintain audiences. Though, it is also no secret that some of the campaigns still seem to be spammy which is why it’s imperative to be able to come up with the right approach. Successful campaigns require much preparation and time investment.

You must be content with starting small, slowly improving your current results as you genuinely connect with your readers to promote your brand. There are several ways to do this, especially when there is an email marketing guide for real estate, retail, insurance, and almost any other industry which could also help you increase your sales.

Despite the increasing popularity of other messaging platforms, email continues to be the main channel of communication with potential and existing clients. You get to lead them through the whole marketing funnel, encouraging them to subscribe or buy what you have to offer while being efficient in retaining them. To effectively utilize email marketing, here are some tips to remember when devising a successful email campaign.

Plan ahead and set a goal. This is the most crucial step as you’re basically operationalizing the big idea of email marketing. You should first answer the important questions such as what your goals are, target audiences and their benefits, and reasonable ROIs to expect. Identifying these will allow you to determine the kind of email campaigns that you need to send out.

You should take into account the number and frequency of your emails before loading them into an autoresponder. This would allow you to sustain the delivery of your email even for the new subscribers as it is already a planned series. Meanwhile, if you intend to do an email blast, it will be sent at the same time to everyone regardless of how long they’ve been subscribed. Doing this is especially useful when promoting a sale. There are basically two main considerations when creating email campaigns. This includes your email recipients and the templates you will be using.

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let us zoom into defining a goal for your email campaigns. They could either be content-oriented or conversion-oriented which are both handy in improving your online presence. You only need to remember that a content-oriented email should be able to drive your reader to the desired action which is achievable through a compelling execution. On the other hand, a conversion-oriented one is more focused on attaining a certain ROI which should be strategically planned upon gathering useful consumer insights. After defining your audiences and goals, you should also be able to clearly communicate where potential customers can sign up before deciding how to do your content and scheduling them.

Establish a solid email list. It has been mentioned that you can either do an email series or an email blast when communicating with your subscribers. What you should do next is to ensure that you’re sending them out to the right audiences by segmenting your email list based on their customer journey or demographic location. You will be assured that your customers will only receive emails that are relevant to them which can improve overall campaign performance.

You can simply create a signup form on your website and even drive your audiences to it through social media to build your email list. It’s a pretty straightforward process so the way you present it must be enticing. You can also consider some marketing resources to help get your name out there, leading people to sign up.

Make your email look good. The way you phrase your subject line can make or break your email campaign. It is crucial to make an intriguing subject line in order to achieve the first goal which is for your email to be opened. You will then need to make sure that the rest of your content is balanced with the design. Do not overdo either of them.

Personalize your templates based on the kind of campaign you will be sending out. It’s important that your email structure is comprehensive and not overwhelming. You can be more creative with the main email body which is embedded in the template you’ve chosen. It’s alright to use various text formatting, photos, and GIFs among other things. Though, most importantly, do not forget a call to action which is the bottom line of all that you’ve come up with. While you use your brand voice in crafting your email content, always consider what would be relevant to your audience in the most engaging way.

As for the design, keep it direct so you can emphasize your message. Consider making a hierarchy of all the elements to be included with the most vital information on top. You can also code your own template if you want to have more control over your design. Lastly, make sure that your email is optimized for viewing on every device, especially when people are mostly on their mobile phones.

Test and analyze. It is a given to do A/B testing when executing an email campaign to ensure that you will be delivering only the most preferred content to your subscribers. This is part of your due diligence as a marketer as you analyze your metrics and audit your email to improve future campaign performances. You can also send your test email to your friends to get some feedback before testing in different email clients. It might be a lot of work to come up with a couple of versions of your emails but it will be worth it with the insights you can gather.

These are only some of the tips you should employ when running an email campaign. Research which software can help you and your company best before anything else. A good email marketing app will certainly be a good investment as long as you are properly prepared with a clear understanding of how it works and a well-defined goal. Don’t be afraid to run experiments and improve your results!

Author: Kat Sarmiento

Organization Tips For Project Managers

Project Managers are the key players in managing, organizing, and planning a business, team, or company project. If you are a project manager, it is essential to understand that having excellent management and organizational skills will help you handle the work. A messy and unorganized system will only cost you and your team’s time, effort, and energy. Keeping neat and organized project management will reap benefits as you can avoid stress, overwhelming workload and keep yourself productive and protected from burnout.

Here are six ways that other project managers do to stay organized in their work and management.

1. Use a Project Management Software/Tool

Using a project management tool to help you manage projects you need to work on will improve your system and handling of the tasks. These tools will aid you to become more organized in all of your files, data, projects, and works need to assign and delegate. It is best to research and use the most comfortable software you think you can work with to help you. Use project management software to let you manage and monitor all the projects you and your team need to do. Learning other organization tools and ways such as email organization tips can assist you in maintaining a systemized communication with your team that can allow you to assign projects better to them.

2. Set Objectives and Milestones To Meet

There are no better ways of working than having concrete goals to accomplish at the end of the day. Like other project managers, you need to set definite and realistic objectives to achieve. It would always lead you to assess your reasons and priorities in work. This will help you create decisive decisions in your management, determine which should come as the top priority among your projects, and ultimately assess if you have landed an achievement or milestone in your progress. Break down these objectives into smaller milestones to keep the motivation and sense of achievement ongoing.

3. Set clear schedule and deadlines

No project should take forever to achieve, and no project should have sacrificed quality to complete. Based on your decided priorities and goals, it should now be clear to you which projects must take precedence. This would help you to become more organized as setting clear schedules and deadlines are possible. Schedule and deadlines will guide you better in your project management. It will let you and your team if you’re behind or ahead of time in your work.

4. Track the progress

One way of keeping organization as a project manager is to track your entire progress. This is not limited to the progress of the projects you’re handling but also the progress of other workers under your supervision. Time tracking among your projects and team members will let you assess if everything is right on track or how long or close you are to meeting your objectives. It will also help you become aware of any measures to take in case a problem arises in the process.

5. Maintain communication

Working remotely should not hinder establishing communication and connection among the team regarding the projects as a project manager. You must communicate with other employees regarding the status of the project you assigned to them. Organization among work is impossible to attain without solid communication and understanding of everyone under your management. As a project manager, it is best to have a channel that everyone can use to communicate with each other to have an easier and more efficient way of reporting. It could also help you track the progress of every project that you delegated to your members and deliver the ideas and expectations you have for each work.

6. Ensure that everything is within expectations

There will always be problems arising at work, and it is something inevitable most of the time. One key of organization in project management is expecting completed projects following certain expectations. This can avoid workload or problems like a necessary re-evaluation of projects or delays in deadlines and schedule. You check and ensure that there are no conflicts that hinder the team members regarding projects they are working on, such as misunderstandings. Project managers are hands-on in managing and delegating tasks. There are set expectations and criteria in each work, and everything in the management should proceed smoothly as expected.

Conclusions

Organization is vital for project managers. As planning, managing, and controlling the workflow of projects are central to being a project manager, keeping a neat and organized system is crucial. There are various ways and combinations you can use to supervise projects and be able to organize them. Each procedure in project management should be organized, from setting the objectives and schedules down to managing the team members and entrusting certain tasks to them.

Author: Kat Sarmiento

Regardless of the type or size of a business, marketing is important. It helps to get your name out there, increase your brand awareness and ultimately, increase revenue. More often than not, this means combining traditional resources with some innovative technologies.

Fortunately, marketers nowadays have a seemingly endless supply of marketing tools available, so the only question remains which of these are the best to use. Here are some of the most effective marketing resources from which every marketer can benefit.

1. Email Subscriptions

While some might consider them old-fashioned, emails still continue to be one of the most effective tools to give and receive information related to customer engagement.

A customized email subscription list is an excellent way to interact with potential customers and provide them with regular updates on your sales, promotions, and so on.

Whether the messages are generated on the company’s website or through an online email marketing platform, they should be designed to be used on all types of devices.

2. Social Media Platforms

Even if you have your own website perfectly optimized for customer engagement, social media can make content distribution much easier. As a marketer, you want to make sure you are reaching as many potential clients as possible.

Through social media platforms, users can react quickly, and you can track their responses in real-time. This can help gauge the effectiveness of your campaign and make any improvements in it if needed.

While creating a Facebook page is an obvious starting point, it’s best to focus your energies on the 2 to 4 social media outlets that are most relevant to your business.

3. Traditional Resources

Even though online marketing has become a necessary component of any marketing strategy, traditional marketing channels still are helpful for many businesses. Radio stations, newspapers, and other media channels can also be employed successfully for these purposes, even if used in innovative ways.

Similarly, the use of business cards is greatly appreciated as well, and they can be easily made here. These have the convenience of having a tangible form of promotional material, yet they also appeal to the younger generations.

We may be living in a modern age but people still like marketing materials such as posters, leaflets and business cards that they can touch and feel.

4. Project Management System

The best project management systems allow a marketer to delegate tasks to other members of the marketing team. With this method, they can track all the steps that need to be taken a lot more effectively. With the latest project management software, such as Monday.com, this task has become more streamlined than ever.

A unified marketing system that provides more control makes it possible for everyone on the marketing team to be aware of the overall goals. It also helps prevent any mishaps that can occur during the planning stages of a marketing strategy.

5. Marketing KPIs

The effectiveness of a marketing strategy is measured through its key performance indicators (KPIs). A marketer needs to establish a couple of predetermined metrics and measure the campaign’s performance against those.

These metrics can include all the data from occasionally recurring revenues sources, monthly sales records, and even the number of contact form submissions. These ready-made indicators are designed to work on a wide variety of businesses and still provide a truthful picture of the marketing strategy they have in place.

Conclusion

A proper marketing tool used at the right moment can take any advertising strategy to a whole new level. When developing your marketing strategy, it’s important to look at which marketing tools can help you to achieve your goals.

Author: David Fletcher

Setting up a promotion plan for a new small business can be tricky. You are low on money, having spent any budget on your product, stock, or web design. You probably had no idea how much promotion would be needed to get yourself out there. Plus, you’ve spent a little on tentatively targeted ads and they got you absolutely nowhere. If this sounds familiar, don’t worry -we’ve got this! Here is how you can promote your new small business for free.

Brand, Brand, Brand

Branding your business is something that can cost no money and boost your following dramatically. It should be at the forefront of your mind before anything else. Take your business idea and write a brand plan that is designed to appeal directly to your target audience.

Create a business name that stands out, but that states clearly what you offer. Do not overcomplicate it and ensure that the name is not used by another business. Check social media to ensure your name is free to use, so that all your social handles match. Remember to also check the availability of your chosen domain name. You can check this for free at Google Domains.

Design a logo for free online. Keep it clean-cut and ensure it shows off your business. Be selective over the colours and style you use for your logo, as this design will be incorporated into all your future branding.

Create a branded business card online for free at BusinessCards.co and print them at home to save money on extortionate printing costs. Distribute your cards to local businesses, friends, family and colleagues.

Promote Your Brand

Using your brand to promote your business is rule number one in free promotions. When you use a logo on all your content, it enables your audience to start to recognize that the content they are enjoying is brought to them by your business. They might read a few of your articles or watch a few videos before they click on your link. This is normal. By adding your logo and handle, you are letting consumers know who you are and where to find you.

Collaborate

A great free way to promote yourself is to collaborate with other businesses. Be creative and bold about this. The best way is to direct message the business you are interested in and let them know what you want and what you can offer.

Many new business owners are hesitant to do this. But having the confidence to go for what you want is a major factor in entrepreneurial success.

Collaborations do not have to involve money. Think of it as a bartering system. If you share three of their posts in a month, they share three of yours. Or if they add your website link to their bio for a week, you do the same for them. If you both have the same target audience but offer different services, it can be a fantastic win-win all-around.

Talk Loudly

Go out and tell people what you are doing. Let them know how much you love your business. If you go to a family barbeque, tell them all you’d love a follow on social media for support. Or if you take your children swimming, wear your branded t-shirt and spark some conversations.

Speak about your business online too. Join all the Facebook groups and forums related to your business and tell people what you are doing. Many of these groups do not allow advertising. Be casual about it; drop it into conversation or in a comment under another person’s post. You don’t have to add a link to your business. Just let them know what you offer and use the keywords that are related to your business in what you write.

Get blogging and write about your business. This costs nothing but time and can be a great way to promote yourself. Ensure that you learn a little about SEO before setting out and optimize what you write for best results.

Promoting your small business for free is all about letting people know you exist. Get your audience involved in your business and create a positive space where every day is like an event.

Author: Harvey Dunn

Recently there’s been a huge buzz about the digital industry thriving in the UK, with countless of digital marketing agencies and tech startups such as self-storage comparison site like WhatStorage. Now is the most popular time for starting a digital agency in the country, especially in Bournemouth and Poole of Silicon South. Thinking of starting a digital business in Bournemouth? That seems to be the trend! Graftene, a Bournemouth based web design digital agency explain what they’ve learned while setting up their web development and digital marketing business.

Bournemouth, a coastal British town, is home to a number of creative digital agencies that provide services and products such as website design, app development and digital marketing services. It is the top emerging cluster of the digital industry with 24 percent of the start-ups created within 2013 and 2014. The digital industry has played the most important role in the UK’s economic recovery with new sectors and businesses emerging continuously. The first Tech Nation report has provided amazing insights of the current and ongoing situation of the digital economy in the country.

“12.4pc of our GDP is attributed to technology and digital business, that’s the highest in the G20. We are the most digital nation in the world and it is important that government policy makes the most of this enormous potential.”
-Baroness Joanna Shields, Chair, Tech City UK

What is Tech Nation?

Tech City UK is a Government supported Cluster Alliance dedicated to helping the digital entrepreneur and accelerating digital growth thus creating the ‘Tech Nation’.

“The digital sector is growing and creating jobs, economic growth, and national prestige. “ Says Baroness Joanna Shields, Chair of Tech City UK.

According to Gerard Grech CEO of Tech City UK, now is the right time to shine the spotlight on this exciting network of digital clusters, and map out the prospects for professionals and investors.

The Tech Nation Report analysed 47,200 digital companies in the UK and 2,000+ of them were surveyed. The results were fascinating. Even though the public had a partial idea of the flourishing digital economy in the country it wasn’t clear until now that it is the nation’s booming industry. But the research that shows how one of the top clusters of digital is Bournemouth is even more astonishing, no one was expecting that.

Bouremouth statistics-1

A closer look at numbers and facts

A cluster is an economic phenomenon formed of digital companies in a region. This is why the Tech Nation Report focuses on clusters as the core focus of the research. The nations digital companies are 98 percent small businesses, 50 per cent of them were formed from 2008 and onward. The largest increase being between 2010 and 2013 where Bournemouth took the lead with a high 212 per cent of emerging start-ups. Last year 56 percent digital companies in the UK saw a rise in their revenue, whereas this year 90 per cent are expecting a blast in sales.

The digital industry is outrunning traditional industries and new sectors of the digital are being born, creating a larger demand for new skill sets and more employment opportunities. It is expected to outperform the traditional industries in job creation by 2020; today, 7.5 percent of the UK workforce is employed in the sectors of this industry. In the Dorset area, 7,272 people are a part of a digital business.

Currently there is a skills shortage in some of the digital sectors, which is why agencies and initiatives such as the Bournemouth Silicon Beach festival and Digital Day Bournemouth are engaging in discovering potential employees and talented students from Bournemouth University. In fact,a major part of the digital businesses that were interviewed for the Tech Nation report stated that the reason of growth of the digital cluster in Bournemouth is due to the availability of talented individuals with key skills in the top growing sectors of the region.

What makes Bournemouth so special?

The most notable growth of the digital economy in Bournemouth is in the ecommerce sector. Last years revenue growth was 55 per cent, but this year this number has risen to a stunning 77 per cent.

According to the Tech Nation Report, the key benefits of the Bournemouth cluster are access to social networks and access to talent.

“Bournemouth has a vibrant network of meet-ups and events, feeding off its community of creative and app development agencies.”-Matt Desmier, Founder Silicon Beach

The top three digital industry sectors in Bournemouth:

• Marketing and advertising
• Ecommerce
• Games development and production

The top five capabilities of the Bournemouth cluster:

• UI and UX design
• Mobile and tablet development
• Visual and audio design
• Content and media production
• Digital marketing

Bouremouth statistics-2

Creative start-ups of Bournemouth

Graftene, as well as a number of the creative emerging start-ups of Bournemouth are part of these sectors. This digital agency provides services such as web design and development, logo and graphics design, digital marketing services such as SEO and mobile app development. It is a small business of five members, but this creative team could be the next little digital star of Bournemouth. Since their establishment they’ve kept their success rate on a high level, providing their clients from local and international locations with high quality websites and mobile applications. But what makes Graftene stand out from the crowd are the affordable prices they provide in the sector of growing competition.

So you want to be the next digital start-up in Dorset?

You’ve probably already thought about starting your own digital business if you haven’t maybe you should think about it. Whatever the case, now’s the right moment to go digital because the UK is blooming with the digital industry and it will continue for years to come.

But before deciding to start your own digital business there’s a variety of things to consider. Read on for some great advice that will help you start off.

Specialists and experienced entrepreneurs will agree that there is a series of steps that should be followed in starting your own business.

The core of these steps boil down to the following actions:

• Define your idea
• Define SMART goals
• Research the market
• Plan your business
• Find sources of funding, suppliers and possible partners
• Register and set up your company

Common mistakes and things that you should be aware of when starting a business:

• Risks and failures are a part of having your own business
• You must be ready to face all kinds of challenges and obstacles
• A major part of business failures is due to lack of planning, especially financial planning
• Hiring the wrong people can often be very harmful
• Inadequate research, especially of competition

Get help and support from other organizations and initiatives:

The Dorset Growth Hub is a business support programme founded by WSX Enterprise, the Dorset Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Bournemouth Borough Council and Dorset LEP, and funded by the Regional Growth Fund. The web portal offers extensive information and support for starting and growing a digital business. These include educational courses, online information and financial support in the means of finding grants or loans.

http://www.wsxenterprise.co.uk/

http://www.dorsetgrowthhub.co.uk/

http://www.dorsetlep.co.uk/

http://www.bournemouth.gov.uk/

Other government organizations that provide help and support services for business start-ups:

https://www.gov.uk/starting-up-a-business

http://www.poole.gov.uk/business/business-support-and-advice/starting-and-growing-a-business-in-poole/business-advice-and-networking/

Tech City, the authors of the Tech Nation report whose mission and vision is to create a Tech Nation of Digital Business in the UK:

http://www.techcityuk.com/

Schofields Online are the go to for finding an accountant:

http://www.schofieldsonline.co.uk/

Start Your Own Business is a very informative web portal with lots of resources and information for new and growing businesses:

http://www.syob.net/

Outset provide free business start-up support programmes:

http://www.outsetbournemouth.co.uk/

When you build a company or a brand, everything you hear about the logo and its importance is true. And yet still fall to the trap of having friends doing it for you than letting an expert doing the design.

To further highlight how important the logo is, think of it this way: your logo will be your image. Its by far the image that will mark in your customers subconscious if not yet conscious of your existence (for customers that haven’t yet bought your product). Imagine an image that that pops into your head the moment you hear a name of a company or service. Its the first thing that customers think of first before saying your company name.

When a graphic designer creates a logo that precisely represents your company brand, your products, services, works that will brand at all the vast majority requires artistic professional eye, attention to detail, knowledge of different platforms and dedication of process.

Whether the logo is for a corporate established business or a start up, logo can withstand test of time and build the name with the business. Once you have decided on a logo and have started the business and getting clients, there is no changing it. Its yours for life and becomes your representation of your brand. If ever you do get board with your logo, you logo can always have an update depending on the milestone or the holiday celebration.