The Daily Carnage

The savvy marketer's hub for industry news, insights, resources, and culture.

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Elbow Grease 💪

How to clean your lists.

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10 of the Best Email List Cleaning Services

NOVEMBER 3, 2021

You could have the sickest-looking email, with the best content you’ve ever written…but it could go to waste being sent to a junk list. Email lists need to be cleaned and reviewed pretty often for a lot of reasons. The top reasons being:

Lower bounce rate
Protect domain and improves sender reputation
Increase email ROI and save your spend
Lowers spam complaints
Improves click rates and open rates

So to make sure you’re getting your best possible list of emails, here are some tools and our favorite feature about them:

Bouncer: Also protects from fake sign ups and spam attacks.
ListWise: They specialize in high volume lists.
Bouncify: You can customize veritification results.
ZeroBounce: Solid monthly subscription and pay as you go options.
Email Verifier by SendPulse: The best email accuracy tool!
DeBounce: Easy integrations, and for smaller lists, 500 emails for free!
Snov.io: Tons of integrations across sales and marketing tools.
Data Validation: Also great or smaller lists with 500 emails for free.
NeverBounce: One of the fastest services in the game.
Bounceless: Some really affordable packages!

MyWPLife takes it even further for you by breaking down each service’s pricing (plus a few honorable mentions), so check out their full list.

How To Use Wikipedia as a SEO & Content Marketing Tool

NOVEMBER 2, 2021

Wikipedia is one of the top resources for information online. It has a huge pull on Google, too, for general SEO and especially for Google Knowledge Panels. Wikipedia pages also rank for half of all searches, often because people link to them so often.

Here are the main ways your business can use Wikipedia as a content and SEO tool:

Topic Research: Google has been moving away from phrase matches and keywords in favor of topics. You can still gauge interest based on Wikipedia article traffic. Try it out for yourself with http://stats.grok.se/
Keyword Research: Now hold on, keywords still have their SEO value. Wikipedia is known for being a rabbit hole, and that goes for all of the related terms that can come with a given article as well. It’s perfect for marketers trying to figure out the most-used terms for related keywords.

Wanna use Wikipedia to your SEO advantage? Here are two ways how, but let’s keep it ethical out there, guys (everyone wants to keep Wikipedia as promotion-free as possible):

Help a Wiki Out: You can add links to your content for broken and missing citations. Do this by searching Google for “site:wikipedia.org [keyword] intext:“dead link” (or “citation needed”)” and see if your link is relevant.
Make a Company Wikipedia Page: Does every business need a page on Wiki? No. But if you think yours does, there are a lot of advantages to using it for overall awareness and search crawls. And as we mentioned, Wikipedia is a major source for Google Knowledge Panels.

Shivar Web gives a whole lot more details on Wiki links, content strategy ideas, and how to use Wikipedia with Keyword Planner in their full post, so check it out!

The Litmus 2021 State of Email Report

NOVEMBER 1, 2021

2021 is a big year for data. After Covid-19, metrics that marketers held near and dear to their hearts are nearly irrelevant. The pandemic shifted the shopping and consumption habits of the world, and 2021 was the year of adapting to those changes.

Litmus, the top dog of email data and testing, has been a guiding light to navigating privacy changes and best practices moving forward. So we just gotta share their 2021 State of Email report. The report explores personalization, privacy, adaption, and overall successful emails.

Here are some stats that we are keeping in our minds for a while:

Over 90% of survey participants said that email marketing is critical to the overall success of their company.
Over 40% of companies intend to increase their investment in email marketing in 2022….but on the other side of that coin, only 60% said they have a full grasp of their email ROI.
BIMI, or Brand Indicators for Message Identification, is becoming increasingly important to markets with over half of the responders saying they plan to incorporate them in 2022.
Almost 60% of marketers want to expand their email automation efforts.
Over 60% of responders say they use email threads or comments for proofing as opposed to messaging apps or video calls.

Litmus also covered how to prepare for privacy and tracking changes in the near future. If you want to see how to get your emails ready for Apple Mail’s Privacy Protection, see their post here.

Check out the full report for yourself to see where your brand lands among the surveys.

Tips from a Pro Copywriter

OCTOBER 31, 2021

The Digital Marketing Institute had copywriting expert Kate Toon on their “Ahead of the Game” podcast to discuss everything on good copy. We broke down the takeaways from the discussion so you can start cranking out your best copy and content (and yes, they discuss the difference between the two).

1:45 Copywriting’s Place in the Marketing Funnel: So at its core, copywriting is about persuasion, and persuasion involves relationship building. Copywriting really is at every stage that involves trust and CTA’s (and “micro-copy”), but it’s definitely essential to customer consideration.
10:00 That Tricky Tone of Voice: Think of what you stand for, and what you don’t. Now take that and think about how you want those values to be talked about, and literally write it down. Then break it down into smaller pieces. The big thing to know is that Tone of Voice documents are living, breathing, and not set in stone.
35:30 Tips for Hiring Copywriters: For the business owners and agencies out there needing writers, this is for you. Be clear in briefs on deliverables, but more importantly the “why” behind those deliverables. Stalk the work! Get examples from a writer, but also get the briefs behind them to see if they understood the assignment.
40:15 Five Things to Improve Your Copywriting: 1) Don’t get stuck in formal writing. 2) Talk it out, write it all down, and read it back. 3) Try turning your “we’s” into “you’s.” 4) Kate loves the Hemingway app to take a pulse on your writing. 5) Push the fun boundaries and don’t let mistakes get you down.

Check out Digital Marketing Institute’s full 45-minute podcast for more writing tools and industry tips.

12 of the Scariest Things for Marketers

OCTOBER 27, 2021

Based on true stories…

Spooky season is in full swing. And what better way to celebrate than to talk about the things that make marketers wake up in cold sweats and quiver in fear? For the most part, we are strong freaks of nature that can handle tight turnarounds in an always-changing industry. But we can still get the scaries.

Here are the top horrifying things marketers are afraid of:

Unreasonable Asks: Clients or bosses that ask for the impossible (on tiny tiny budgets).
The EOD Deadline: It’s so far, yet so close…
Internet Issues: Please, we are begging for mercy.
Failed Jokes: You win some, you lose some.
The Red Pen: Getting your work thrown to the slaughter with copy changes.
Shifting Directions: “Back to the drawing board” can make anyone scream internally (or out loud).
Social Media Comments: Did you know the comment section is actually a circle of Hell?
Missing Data: Messed up data tracking? We hope you’re not afraid of being in the dark.
The Budget: The scary dollar signs that disappear like ghosts in the night.
Zero Conversions: A nightmare you wish wasn’t real.
Grammar: Unless you have a copy editor with mad skills, grammar is terrifying.
The Witching Hour: Late-night emergencies make us shudder.

What are your biggest fears? Propelrr’s list came with some spooky gifs and examples, so check it out!

Notes Marketers Can Take from Horror Movies

OCTOBER 26, 2021

Movies teach us a thing or two. They’re huge sources of entertainment and are marketed like crazy. Horror movies especially are prime examples of products with a super-saturated market, so they have to think outside the box to attract attention.

Here are strategies used by horror movies to learn from to build killer content of your own.

SHARE IT: bit.ly/carnagehorror

A Guide to Effective Marketing Campaigns

OCTOBER 25, 2021

Semrush has put together a FULL how-to guide on all things marketing campaigns. If you don’t know where to start, we’re taking it step by little step. Here ya go:

Start with the Strategy:

Objective + Purpose + Target Audience + Team + Budget + Timeline + KPIs

Next, Identify the Campaign Components:

Tactics + Tasks + Roles + Deadlines + Budget + Metrics

Ask These Big Q’s:

What’s Your Objective?
Why This Objective?
Who Do You Want to Connect with Along the Way?
Who will Help You Get There?
How Much will It Cost to Get There?
When Do You Plan to Get There?
What Does Success Look Like?
What Needs to Be Done?

Now it’s Time to Make the Decisions:

Choose your distribution channels to focus on: Owned, Earned, Paid, and Shared.
Choose the type of content like blog posts, email, paid ads, video, infographics, webinars, press releases, testimonials, podcasts, etc.
Start developing messaging and CTA’s.
Map out the steps of your customer journey (this will go hand and hand with the content and channel decisions).
Make it look goooood. Design the look and feel of the campaign.
Assign roles and deadlines to your team.
Decide on the metrics that matter to you the most.

This is the skeleton framework to get your campaign started. The rest is up to your brand goals for where you want to take it. Check out Semrush’s full post for more examples and tips on efficient marketing campaign planning.

7 Benefits of GA4

OCTOBER 24, 2021

Google Analytics is essential to anything involving websites and links. But the next generation of GA is here, and it’s bringing in some new features for tracking data. Let’s get into the distinct benefits of the new GA4 over Google Analytics Universal Analytics.

App + Website Data Collating: GA4 lets you use the same GA property for all of your website, app, and mobile traffic so you can get the whole view of your data.
Easier Tracking, Less Set Up: GA4 reduces the amount of manual tracking you have to set up with predesigned actions and events. There’s no longer any need to set up cross-domain measurement code.
Enhanced Data Visualizations + Reporting: “Real-Time” visualizations have been enhanced. The “Analysis Hub,” includes a template gallery with different types of charts (funnel analysis, exploration, segment overlaps, path analysis, etc.).
It’s Ready for a Cookie-Less World: In an upcoming cookie-less world, GA4 still allows you to track users on your website. Fill the gap from the removal of cookies through the use of machine learning and AI.
A Focus on the User Journey: The new GA4 has a stronger focus on users and user interactions, not sessions like in GA UA.
Improved ROI: Get more reliable data concerning your ad spend ROI. GA4 automatically joins together the app and website journeys carried out by the same visitor instead of recording them as separate visits.
Getting the Best of Both Worlds: Now, it’s still under the best practice to keep your GA UA in addition to a GA4 property. Currently, it’s not possible to track historical data using GA4.

Check out ReadWrite’s full post for more details (and some of the disadvantages) of GA4.

Marketing to Generation Alpha

OCTOBER 20, 2021

(note: we’re not in charge of what generations are named.)

Even if you don’t have a full grasp of Gen Zers, you have to start thinking of Generation Alpha, too. Generation Alpha are kids born from 2010 through 2024. And by 2025, they will have numbers in the billions…the largest generation in the history of the world.

Why they matter/are going to matter: