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How to Optimize Messages for Clicks in a Post-iOS 15 World

JANUARY 26, 2022

With updates like the iOS 15 release straying from tracking email opens, marketers have to shift gears. Focusing on how to improve your clicks and CTR is the best way you can keep your email campaigns successful. Omnisend put together some advice on their “Opens are Dead” blog series.

Here are 6 ways to improve CTR

Add interactive elements: Encourage recipients to actively engage with your email with something different. This works especially well if you give readers an incentive. Some email platforms offer scratch cards, reveals, or other games either within an email or through a landing page.
Ask questions: Most people can’t resist answering a question in quizzes or opinions. Make sure your questions are clear and you give them an effortless way to answer. Wanna build it into your email system? Scalemail Polls can help ya with that for more engagement with your emails.
Include recommendations: Product recommendations are great when they are highly relevant to a reader. The level of personalization in product recommendations is critical here.
Insert social proof: User-generated content is a powerful thing because it’s real people sharing your brand/product/service. Previewing social media UGC, product reviews, and testimonials with the option to see more of the pridtcs being reviewed encourages a click journey.
Ask for product reviews: Back to answering questions, people love to share opinions. Asking for a review in your emails can prompt your customer to click through and participate in sharing their thoughts.
Improve your design templates: Every now and again, you should be reviewing the visual journey your email design creates. Design elements should to draw recipients’ attention to specific CTAs.

Check out their full post for real email examples.

How To Audit Your Backlink Profile (Link Vetting)

JANUARY 25, 2022

Backlinks are great boosters for a site’s searchability and credibility. You can usually get them from syndicated content or reliable guest posting. But not all backlinks are created the same. So, how do you check the quality of one?

Daryl Rosser has a great YouTube channel for SEO education. He put together a 23-minute video on how to audit your backlink profile and screen potential links.

Here’s your helpful checklist to qualify the metrics and value of a link:

Basic link qualification – Daryl used Ahrefs to check out links on a snapshot level by seeing if the domain rating is over 30 and if it has strong traffic numbers.
Checking backlinks on backlinks – Not only do you want to see backlinks for your own site, you also want to do this for the sites you are acquiring links from. Usually, you can tell from a list of sites that are “spammy,” irrelevant, or legit just from their URL. If you are seeing huge jumps in backlinks, it’s time to investigate where they could be coming from (comment bots and spammy guest posts being the usual suspects).
Understanding traffic consistency – To get into the weeds of vetting a new link, you’ll need to see where its traffic is trending. If it’s down-trending, hold off on acquiring that link. If there are wild spikes, even up-trending ones, there might be something fishy going on.
General site must-haves – If you are looking to get syndicated content from a site, make sure they have a quality site that isn’t a private blog network site (PBN) or has been repurposed.

Check out Daryl’s full video for all the little link deets.

100 FREE Resources for Graphic Designers in 2022

JANUARY 24, 2022

Who doesn’t love a freebie?? It’s a natural law that free things make us happier and free food samples taste better. We don’t make these rules, we just follow them.

When you’re a designer, marketer, developer, anyone using software and technology for design, tools can be pricey. Luckily, you don’t have to break the bank if you need design templates on the fly, fresh stock photography, or some heavy-weight graphic design work.

Creative Boom has put together a list of 100 FREE design resources. We wanted to share our favorites from the list that we use as an agency:

Humaaans: For customizable illustrations of modern, blobby peeps (FREE with the option to donate).
The Noun Project: For a seemingly endless library of vector icons.
DaFont: For fonts. We’re big fans of their retro font collection.
Figma: For vector design. It’s our FAV for UX and graphic design, but it’s also amazing for online collaboration.
Unsplash: For free stock photography.
Nappy: For free stock photography with an emphasis on black and brown people.
Vecteezy: For doubling as a content resource with editable illustrations online.
Canva: For social media and then some. How could we not mention this essential favorite that keeps evolving with features?
Smartmockups: For ALL KINDS of mock-ups that you can also edit online.

Check out Creative Boom’s full list of resources to see what freebies can help out your design work!

7-Step Checklist for Product Launches (Using the Power of Social Media)

JANUARY 23, 2022

Product, website, and brand launches can be stressful.

Luckily, Sprout Social has you covered with a seven-step product launch checklist that helps you make your next product launch as smooth as possible through social media.

Your seven-step product launch checklist:

Define your audience: Research this by making personas or investing in social listening tools.
Position your product: What makes your product stand out? That will be your selling point. So you’ll need to do some competitor research, too.
Set your launch goals: Know what KPIs you need to quantify the type of success you want.
Time your launch: Knowing your audience also means knowing when they are most likely to be reached by your organic media.
Prepare for customer support: New things = new questions. Manage potential inquiries by making FAQ content or using chatbots for fast responses.
Schedule your content: Don’t leave your strategizing at pre-launch. Plan your post-launch content ahead of time with it.
Analyze your product launch: After you’ve set your goals, track your progress towards them. Where can you adjust your post-launch strategy?

Check out the full post from Sprout Social to get the details on how you can use social media marketing tools at each step of the way for your next product launch.

What is a Sitemap, and Why Does Your Website Need One in 2022?

JANUARY 19, 2022

Websites have a lot going on behind the scenes and something that can be both in the background and front-and-center at the same time is a sitemap.

What is a Sitemap?

Simply put, a site map is a list of pages of a website within a domain. It is a file where you provide information about the pages, videos, and other files on your site. It also tells search engines which pages on a site are important, helping with ranking.

Types of sitemaps:

An XML sitemap is the most common and usually automatically generated by your CMS or plugins like YoastSEO. XML stands for Extensible Markup Language and these sitemaps are in a textual data format.
An HTML sitemap is an HTML page on which all subpages of a website are listed. They usually resemble a site’s navigation bar.
A news sitemap helps search engines to parse and understand news content on your site.
A video sitemap helps search engines understand your site’s video content.
An image sitemap assists search engines in finding the images hosted on your website.

Why Do Sitemaps Matter?

Sitemaps serve as a reference point for identifying relevant internal linking opportunities.
They’re a ‘pathway’ between your site’s content, which is how Google locates and understands it as a whole.
Helping you fill any gaps in your site’s content catalog, or identify older pages that need updating.

How Do I Make One?

As mentioned, most website builders and CMS will generate one and even submit your sitemap to the search engine for you. But you may also use plugins, online generators, or build one from scratch. Building one yourself might take some advanced tech know-how.

Wanna learn more about sitemaps and how to use them? Check out the full WebBuilderExperts article.

How to Prevent Emails from Going to Spam Folders

JANUARY 18, 2022

Email is changing in the marketing world as far as goals. A lot of it comes from the shift in privacy and tracking (we’re looking at you, iOS 15). But as far as best practices go, there is a lot you can do actively and behind the scenes to avoid going into junk folders.

No. 1 – Get Technical

Ensure that you have the technical fundamentals down to increase your email deliverability. Things you can do to fine-tune your email:

Use domain extensions like “.com,” “.io,” and web address abbreviations used in your country.
Treat your domain name like a real name in some cases (“FirstName.LastName@CompanyName.com”).
Use identification protocols for email service providers: SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance)
To secure your reputation from the actions of other email marketers, set up a custom tracking code and URL.

No. 2 – Your List Means Everything

The lists that you send emails to influence your sender reputation. So here’s how to ensure your lists are clean, reputable, and likely to be active:

Gather more than an email address. Have a subscriber or lead provide their first and last name as well, making it easier to tell if it’s fake from a bot. There are tools to help source this if needed. The more relevant contacts, the better.
“Risky” and undeliverable addresses should be deleted often. Use a spam tester or manually remove your bounces (you want to shoot for less than a 2% bounce rate overall).

No. 3 – Creating “Non-Spammy” Content

Content that shines can all depend on your industry and audience but here are ways to avoid “spammy” content:

Keep it personal but straightforward.
Use reliable, secure, HTTPS links.
Don’t rely solely on visuals.
Keep preferences easy to find.

Check out the full how-to from Folderly, especially to learn more about email protocols.

10 Social Media Trends That’ll Be Huge in 2022

JANUARY 17, 2022

Later is a pretty cool content scheduler and they know their stuff about social media. To help marketers out everywhere, they put together a helpful list of where they think social media trends are at and where they are going in 2022.

The Creator Economy Will Boom: Many platforms have already heavily invested in creator marketplaces and creator tools.
More Streamlined Social Commerce: 2021 saw e-commerce tools pop up on every platform, and it’s gonna get easier from here.
Short-form Vertical Video Is Here to Stay: And we’re excited to see the new ways of creative editing that come with it.
An Emphasis on Mental Health & Burnout Prevention: We all know that breaks are important, but more brands are driving that home.
A Renewed Focus on Accountability & Diversity: The past two years brought reflection on important social issues. 2022 is a time to revisit those promises of change.
Memes, Memes, Memes: Can’t stop. Won’t stop. And they’re only growing thanks to TikTok and Reels memes from audio.
Social Media Posts as Currency: Remember when it was a simple “like for like”? Now you could get a free burger for a TikTok (aka intimate brand awareness).
Rise of the LinkedInfluencer: WFH culture gave LinkedIn a resurgence, and it’s showing.
The “No Filter” Feed Takes Over: We’ve known for years that people want content that keeps it real. Dedicate your feeds to real stuff only.
Brands Let Loose on TikTok: It’s a chaotic content playground and chemistry lab – and brands are ready to get weirder with it this year.

Check out the full blog post by Later for all the social media deets. They even put together this helpful infographic:

How to Apologize for an Email Marketing Mistake

JANUARY 12, 2022

It’s something that gives marketers nervous sweats – email mistakes. Human error will always be a thing, and there’s no undo button for a sent email. As a daily newsletter, we’re no stranger to goofs. We get it.

So what do you do if you make a big email mistake? You have to apologize. The best formula is to acknowledge the mistake, take full responsibility, and make it right. Here’s how to do it:

It all starts with the subject line: Make sure the tone is right. If it’s one of those mistakes people can laugh at, laugh at it, too! Be mindful if you need to be more formal.
Personalize it: Receiving an apology email from a no-reply inbox might not cut it. Sometimes you gotta get personal and specific.
Acknowledge your mistake: Admitting is the first step, and it’s essential to a genuine, clear apology.
Clarify any intention: Let your audience know that it was not your intention to cause offense, confusion, or distress.
Empathize with your audience: For some mistakes, you may have to show some empathy and make your audience feel valued.
Keep it positive!: No one wants to see someone put down, so try to explain things in a positive light. It also helps to explain what you will do to prevent future mistakes.
Add some humor (when appropriate): If you think there is a possibility that making a joke could make things worse, don’t test it. But like we said about subject lines, some mistakes can be laughed off.
Make it up to your audience: Because who doesn’t like a little incentive to help forgive?

Check out the full post by MailerLite for subject line ideas, real brand examples, and instances where you don’t have to apologize. They even provide a template for you (just in case).

16 Brands That Are Killing It With Brand-Driven Storytelling

JANUARY 11, 2022

Storytelling is always at the forefront of content creation and brand messaging. Sometimes that can be hard to deliver if you don’t know what that looks like. So let’s learn from brands doing it best.

Sujan Patel is a digital marketer with a great blog on branding and growth strategy. He gave a list of 16 companies that are killing it with brand-driven storytelling.

We can’t fit all of them, so here are our top 3 from the list (and why we love them):

Warby Parker sees the people:

These guys are champions of being a fun brand for an otherwise straightforward retail industry of eyewear.
Their goal is to offer designer eyewear at a great price while simultaneously being a socially-conscious business.
They keep people (customers and employees alike) at the core of their decision making and that extends to their stories and services.

Burt’s Bees uses their philosophy:

Burt’s Bees has had a grassroots story since their origin. In 1984, the stars aligned when its founders Roxanne (an artist) and Burt (an avid beekeeper) met during a chance hitchhiking encounter and started making wax candles together.
Their philosophy has held strong as creating natural products, maintaining company transparency, and loving the heck out of bees.
That philosophy has run through the veins of their taglines, content, educational initiatives, and, of course, their products.

Chobani doesn’t stay in their lane:

Sometimes you have to take a product that is a small part of a large industry and use it as the main character of a bigger picture.
Chobani does this well by not just focusing on a singular path for their yogurt like health benefits.
Choboni positions itself in everything! Multiple uses and multiple lifestyles, plus a whole lot of video content to facilitate it.

Check out the full post for brands big and small telling their stories to get inspiration for content channels and how-to in different industries.