Month: November 2019

Personas are also pivotal in crafting effective email marketing campaigns. Highly targeted emails get more opens, clicks, and engagement. Targeted emails are also more optimized for lead generation and likely to result in increased conversions.

Speaking directly to a buyer persona’s pain points is key when it comes to the strategy and messaging of an email campaign. Consider their buying stage, demographics, role at the company, etc. This way, when it comes to crafting the bigger picture strategy, or something smaller like a subject line, you’ll know what to say and how to say it.

Here are a few actionable ways to apply this targeted approach to email marketing:

Developing personas for your email marketing

If you work in marketing, chances are good that your team or company has developed personas at some point. If you haven’t, it’s a fairly easy exercise to knock out. Simply put yourself in the shoes of your customers and determine each persona’s role, goals, challenges, etc.

Defined as “fictional, generalized representations of your ideal customers” by Hubspot, personas distill the information you already know about your audience with the goal of reaching them in more targeted ways. When developing personas for your email audience specifically, you’ll want to develop those same generalized representations for people who have subscribed to your email list in one way or another. A few elements to consider:

• Is this person a lead, prospect, customer, or former customer?
• How did they sign up for your list?
• What resources have they downloaded?
• What web pages have they (or have they not) visited?

Campaign Strategy and Goals

Every great email marketing campaign has an overarching goal and, ideally, is based on where your typical buyer is in the buying process.

If a typical buyer hasn’t heard of your company before, you are better off sending an email campaign that focuses on brand awareness. The further they get down the funnel, the transition to a more lead-focused strategy.

Collecting the right data for each persona

Once you’ve decided on the qualification criteria for the personas you’d like to target, you need to gather the data you’ll need to segment your email list appropriately.

The easiest way to do this is to include the data you need from the get-go in your email signup form. Many marketers shy away from asking for a lot of fields on their signup form but never fear: Most people are willing to part with more information if they know it will mean receiving content and offers that are actually relevant to their needs and interests.

Or, if you’d rather reduce signup friction by avoiding a lot of form fields, including an email in your welcome series that asks subscribers to update their preferences, along with the promise that they’ll receive emails catered to their interests. You’ll be shocked at the kind of response rates this kind of email gets – especially if you keep things simple, focused, and direct the CTA to a mobile-optimized form on your website.

Write Compelling Copy

This should go without saying, but steer clear of listing of your company’s services. Instead, envision your buyer persona’s everyday problems…how can your company help solve them? Take into consideration a buyer’s biggest concerns and struggles, and then write copy that will address those concerns.

Also, consider word usage and particular phrases. The words used to market to a Millennial are going to be different than those used to speak to a Baby Boomer. So take into consideration things like age and educational background. Would the reader respond well to complex words or a colloquial approach? All of these considerations can help hone in on a message that will speak to the persona.

Relevance is everything in email marketing

The concept of “relevance” has become a bit of a cliché in the marketing industry, but it’s only because it can’t be said enough: Today’s savvy consumers both expect and deserve personalized experiences, and if they don’t get it, they’re gone. In fact, 56% of people unsubscribe from emails due to content that’s no longer relevant to them (Chadwick Martin Bailey). The good news is that when you get that subscriber experience right, it leads to major results. Relevant emails drive 18x more revenue than broadcast emails (Juniper Research).

The Benefits of Using Buyer Personas for Email Marketing

Creating buyer personas for email marketing can help you stay on track with your marketing strategy.  Ensure that all of your marketing materials are designed specifically for your target audience by using buyer personas.  As inboxes are becoming increasingly overcrowded, you need to produce emails that catch the eye of the recipient.  Making emails more personal and tailored to your recipients is an excellent way to improve email performance.

References:

Birch, A. (2018, February 27). Creating Buyer Personas for Email Marketing Campaigns. Retrieved from https://www.wiredplus.com/hub/creating-buyer-personas-email-marketing/.Ross, L. (2018, April 11). How to utilize personas for more effective email marketing. Retrieved from https://www.invespcro.com/blog/how-to-utilize-personas-for-more-effective-email-marketing/.Using Buyer Personas in Email Marketing Campaigns. (2019, March 7). Retrieved from https://gimmemojo.com/2018/01/15/using-buyer-personas-email-marketing-campaigns/.

How many advertisements have you seen in your life? The average person sees between 280 and 310 advertisements per day. Advertisements are a great way to make people aware of products, issues, and more. But has advertising become a problem for society? Everyone has seen those ads where advertisers try to convince the consumer that a product will make your life five times better and their life won’t be better until they buy the product. The advertiser’s intentions are to try to get into your mind and influence your thoughts and decisions. Advertisements like the car, insurance, medicine, beverage, and political commercials often try to influence the consumer. Advertising is harmful to society because of its strong influence.

If let me rate the current online advertising risks, I would probably give 3 points. They have already posed a threat to our society, but they are not irreparable.

So what exactly are the main negative effects of advertising on society?

Let’s find out…

Advertising makes us feel that we’re not good enough as we are.

We have an economic system in which people have to make money in order to survive, no matter how manipulative techniques they use to achieve that — and this can be clearly seen in the advertising industry.

To sell your stuff, advertisements first make you feel like crap. How do they achieve this? By showing you what the ideal life is supposed to be, and then making you compare your ordinary life to it. This way they slowly lead you to believe that you’re not beautiful, intelligent, confident, and so on, until they fully convince you that you basically suck. The reason? To make you feel insecure so that they can then emotionally manipulate you.

Advertising makes us think that everything we need is for sale.

Another serious ill effect of advertising is that it feeds us with the wrong impression that everything we need can be bought, and hence that money should be our measure of success and prime goal in life.

Without shopping, advertisements tell you that you can’t find contentment. Thus, advertisements are fueling your desire to work like a slave, just so you can spend your hard-earned money on things that will ultimately leave you disappointed and dissatisfied.

Advertising makes us associate happiness with consumerism.

After they’ve achieved to ruin our self-esteem, advertisements are trying to fool us into thinking that only products and services can make us feel better. In other words, advertisements create a problem and then offer us a solution to it. What is it? You guessed right: Shopping.

Once they achieve to make you feel ugly, they sell you beauty products so you can improve on your ugliness. Once they manage to make you believe that you are not important, they sell you expensive clothes so you can attract the attention of others. And so on and so forth.

In short, advertisements promise you happiness, provided that you spend money in return. The result? Consuming stuff you don’t even need and supporting the production of unnecessary waste that is polluting our planet.

I have listed a few ethics for digital marketers：

1. Never Compromise On Privacy

Privacy is a very sensitive domain as it is the top concern of the internet generation. If you are doing some marketing via social media, make sure you do not violate privacy rules. Some companies extract Facebook and LinkedIn data to build their email campaigns. This is a cutting-edge sword and requires attention to core concerns. Just a promise of not spamming might not be enough, you need to give unsubscribe option with every message you deliver.

2. Speak Truth

If you have some interest or affiliation in something being discussed, you need to politely communicate your affiliation. It does not require that you explain your interests but tell as to why are you supporting a particular thing. Another important element here is to be true to yourself as well as the audience.

3. Commit To Sustainability And Human Rights 

Ethical consumerism is becoming a bigger priority for many customers. People want to feel assured that what they are purchasing is sustainable and ethically produced. Be honest about your ingredients, product components, and your supply chain.

4. Respond Meaningfully To Consumer Concerns

If customers have safety concerns about a product or service, then this should be seen as a company’s top priority. Always seek to protect consumer rights and immediately investigate any complaint.

5. Don’t Exploit Emotions

Getting an emotional reaction from consumers is one of the most effective ways to generate interest. However, if you evoke negative emotions such as rage, fear, sadness in a tasteless way, this could be seen as exploitative. Customers want their emotions to be sympathized with, not manipulated.

6. Use the Word “Sponsored”

This is a quick and easy way to ensure your digital media is always covered. Using the word “sponsored” on all your digital campaigns and other media will alert your audiences it is a sponsored post from your brand.

7. Open the Lines of Communication

When using digital media, it is best to maintain an open-door policy and communicate with your audiences on a consistent basis. This not only helps build brand integrity but can help in the event of a mishap. When audiences trust you, it is easier for them to forgive a mistake, rather than having disgruntled customers that make things worse by sharing their experiences on social media.

8. Don’t Exaggerate

When you exaggerate the benefits of a product or service, you are making a false claim. You are promising a customer a level of quality that cannot be delivered.

References:

10 Principles Of Ethical Marketing. (2019, February 28). Retrieved from https://www.figarodigital.co.uk/article/10-principles-of-ethical-marketing/.Akbar, T. A. T., & Israyelle. (n.d.). 7 Fundamental Ethics of Social Media Marketing. Retrieved from https://www.business2community.com/social-media/7-fundamental-ethics-social-media-marketing-01571504.ProfileTree. (2019, August 30). Ethics and Legalities of Digital Marketing. Retrieved from https://www.profiletree.com/ethics-and-legalities-of-digital-marketing/.