How getting Email Marketing Certified went.

Email marketing is important in this day and age, learn to use it a little better.

Mobile emails need pre-text.

What did it entail?

The email marketing certificate was a fairly simple but very informative certificate to complete. It consists of 8 lessons which vary from 19 – 35 minutes with visual information. The test took around 5 hours to complete and even gave a review-like exam at the end, what made it stand out was that there were individual quizzes through each lesson. This is important because it helps give a small review of what you learned and reintroduces what they have taught you.

What was informative about it?

The certificate is great for anyone trying to learn a little more about how to create better email marketing strategies. It’s really informative on what to use in order to bring in more open and click-through rates. Another area that is really great about this is helping create an email template that works on any screen. Mobile viewing is really important in this day and age and this certificate shows you how to make your emails more accessible for those who tend to view their emails on their phones. The final lesson had a video that didn’t have captions which makes it hard for people who are hard of hearing to understand. Almost all videos have captions to them which helps get a better understanding of what is going on as well.

What do you learn?

The lessons talk about segmentation, email template, how and when to access your consumers, and when to rule out those who don’t need to be part of your email list. Learning to understand when a person is not of benefit to anyone and should be taken off the email list. This is important because you shouldn’t want to create a negative view of yourself, especially when unadding a person is simple. Another important area that is taught is about consent to send emails to people. Purchasing a list of people can be really harmful to your business if you start sending unwanted emails to people. This looks bad because they have had no interaction with your company, which shows they do not want what you are selling.

Why should you take it?

This certificate is a great way to learn more about email marketing strategies and can help marketing professionals understand what they can and should do when sending out marketing emails. It teaches a lot of gray areas that are difficult to understand or people do not think about when sending out emails because the ROI seems more important than the brand’s reputation. There are some areas that weren’t covered, which I have learned in other areas but overall this email marketing certificate seems to be a rate of four out of five stars.

I would recommend this to anyone that wants to learn more about email marketing since it is still an important part of marketing in the business world. It helps you find and understand where there are still a lot of flaws in your email marketing and how you, yourself can improve. It is also a fresh view into what others might be doing compared to you. Being open to this experience is important and anyone with the opportunity to take it doesn’t lose anything.

What To Do When Your Webpage Doesn’t Rank.

Competition comes from everywhere, learning to stand out is important so people can see what you are selling.

Webpage ranking tells you where you stand.

Be provocative.

In order to gain attention for your webpage you need to be provocative. If you advertise in a passive way, other more aggressive marketing tactics will get the attention of the consumer’s your brand is seeking. People want an incentive or a reason to shop at a place, it could be because you’re the best, the cheapest, or another area that fits with your brand’s identity.

Keeping things up to date is one way to be provocative since people want to see the current trends and what is going on rather than what has happened in the past. Updating content also allows for people to stay connected and engaged with the web pages. Sites that are visually appealing and have provocative phrases or words that keep one’s attention will lead more people to go to the webpage and raise its rank. Use provocative words, incentives, images that correlate to your brand and it will raise your web page ranking and attraction.

Use Social Media.

Social media is the way that brands are being discovered and people are keeping connected. This is a great strategy to work on keeping your web pages up to date and creating more attraction to them. Keeping your social media up to date with links and keywords helps push future and current consumers to the areas you would like to be seen.

In an article on Forbes written by Henry DeVries, he says that “social media counts pages all count as additional Google pings”. This means that this is a great strategy to market in order to raise your web page ranking. This helps with SEO ranking and attractions since people spend so much of their time on social media. Social media is a great platform for every use so might as well get a use out of it when trying to reach a certain ranking with your web pages. It is free to use so it doesn’t cost anything to sign up and you get a much larger benefit from it than what the cost to use it is.

Keywords are your Best Friends.

This all connects to keywords used in all areas you decide to take. If no keywords are used then there is no way to attach and attract any consumers. In the article written by Michigan Tech, they mention that when using keywords you need to “be natural and user-friendly”. It is also mentioned that answering questions with the keywords could be essential to the response you receive from consumers. Keywords can be tracked so be sure to look them over and keep updating them depending on the traffic they are creating. If some are too expensive and are creating little to no traffic there is no point in keeping them.

Finally, Larson and Draper talk about ways to optimize your web pages. One thing they mention that connects all these areas is that they need to be short and precise but most importantly they need to match what you are saying and selling on your web page. If there is a disconnection between the keywords and websites chances are they will visit but leave when they don’t see what they need, therefore making sure everything matches is the best way to get your ranking up.

The End.

These are all steps you can and should take in order to create more traffic for your web pages. It is important to stay up to date, be provocative, use social media, and find the right keywords. Taking these steps and taking your time will allow you to create the profits and revenue you are seeking.

The Emotional Side of Email Marketing

There are many types of email marketing, the emotional side of it can bring in as many customers as it can push away. This is why there are many things to take into consideration when sending out email in a large amount. Some people might not be the right people to email to about special moments. Finally, finding the persona you want is what is most important and should be accomplished before sending out your marketing message.

What do they need that you offer?

Email Triggers

One of the most important things to bring back customers is to create triggers. There are many different types of triggers you can create. One trigger the book Digital Marketing Essentials mentions is one way to trigger people is to remind them that they have things in their shopping cart. This reminds people that they want something and it’s available for purchase when they are ready. At times certain companies even add a special discount in order to incentivise the consumer to make the purchase as soon as possible. This can either push or actually bring in the consumer depending on how much they wanted the outfits.

Another type of trigger we will talk about is the emotional side trigger. This is used when reminding someone of a special event coming up or just hitting the spot where the call to action stands out. The only reason this trigger might not result in the action the company wants is that when sending out an emotional email you have to know and understand your targeted people.

Wrong Emotional Triggers

In an article written by Rachel Treisman on NPR, she talks about how certain emails affect people differently. In the article, In A Grief-Filled Year, Brands From Etsy To Pandora Let You Skip Mother’s Day Emails, they talk about how brands are becoming more aware of certain people’s life aspects. Mother’s Day and Father’s Day emails remind people that they are almost out of time with their shopping. But what about those that do not have someone special to shop for?


This could cause a lot of emotional triggers for the consumers but for all the wrong reasons. Triggers are important but it depends on how they are taken by certain people. The article talks about an emotional breakdown Mackenzie Walton faced because of some emails she received marketing Fathers Day. When in the wrong context it might come off as judgemental which Rachel also points out. The subject line might look like it is just a friendly reminder but not many people might take it like that. This is why consumer relationship management is important to build the right steps to create a persona and figure out those who don’t fit it.

Figuring out your Persona

One of the most important quotes I heard in a video, cited down below, was that as marketers “customized messages so the persona feels like it resonates with them”. Email marketing is an important part of marketing since it is still fairly popular. The only downfall is that you can start going into the spam folder if you do not fit or have similar products to what the consumer needs. 

In order to not end up in this situation finding your persona is of utmost importance and should be figured out quickly. When doing this you need to look into what your brand personality is and what you want to attract. You need to figure out the following:

  • Needs 
  • Wants
  • Experiences
  • Goals
  • Behavior

Finding these out will help you target the right people with the right message. If their experiences, like the one mentioned above, harm a consumer they will be less likely to want to buy from your company. Personalized emails make a person feel a connection not only with the email, but possibly with the company as well. This could lead to your persona shopping for more than what you presented, creating a larger profit. Your brand personality should somewhat match what you are trying to sell, as you are not only selling your products but your brand too. 

Their goals need to match or be similar to yours, this creates an understanding between the both of you. It makes sending out emails in mass simpler with a smaller chance of going to spam and an increased chance of having more of them opened. Engagement will be higher and possibly bring those you attracted once when their needs change and become more similar to what you are selling. In total, your marketing will become more effective and you will have a bigger chance at selling to those who want to buy when you look into what persona fits your goals.

Sources

Ecampus, director. MRKT 484 Ashley on Personas. Oregon State University Media, Oregon State University, 2 Nov. 2018, media.oregonstate.edu/media/t/0_gdmjk9hb.

Larson, Jeff, and Stuart Draper. Digital Marketing Essentials. Edify, 2019, Stukent, edify.stukent.com/app/publication/d801ea3f-55b7-4374-ac5a-03d0e2cff93f/a5de3747-e9fe-4d3d-94a0-1a173ee578dd/3dfa16e5-c0d9-4f14-97a5-6ee4ce0c1ccb/b356a62e-6057-451a-ae10-032c0bb676de/view.

Lofgren, Lars. “The Power Of Emotional Marketing.” QuickSprout, 18 Apr. 2019, www.quicksprout.com/emotional-marketing/.

Treisman, Rachel. “In A Grief-Filled Year, Brands From Etsy To Pandora Let You Skip Mother’s Day Emails.” NPR, NPR, 7 May 2021, www.npr.org/2021/05/07/994197864/in-a-grief-filled-year-brands-from-etsy-to-pandora-let-you-skip-mothers-day-emai.

Potential Hazards of Online Marketing

Online advertising has changed a lot in the last years, the more important it becomes the more dangerous it becomes to society.

How dangerous is the new style of online advertising?

On a scale from 1-5, online advertising seems to be a 4. Although it might seem harmless, the way some companies gain information on others is one that might not be as obvious as it seems. In an article written by the American Marketing Association they talk about a breath of privacy Facebook committed. They talk about how they had users take a quiz and that “only 305,000 people participated” but “their friends also had their profiles scraped, bringing the estimated number of those affected to 87 million” (Steimer, 2019). Facebook didn’t disclose this but shared the information to others, having their ads target individuals that didn’t even sign up for it.

Marketing connects everyone.

How do we fight against this? Create a code of ethics.

In order to protect peoples privacy we have to implement a code of ethics for marketing and advertising. One of the best outlines to follow is the American Marketing Associations code of ethics.

Creating no harm is the most important thing to do so we should implement the rules as follow.

  1. Be honest with what you want to gain.
  2. Make those decisions which you will be willing to take responsibility for.
  3. Be fair and balance what the seller is trying to gain versus what the consumer wants.
  4. Understand that we are all human; stakeholders, consumers, sellers, and yourselves.
  5. Create the trust you would like to have towards others.
  6. Create a marketing/advertising space where you will benefit the world, not the companies or yourself only.
  7. Listen to the constructive criticism provided by both consumers and stakeholders. Don’t just act on what you want, but think about others.
  8. Do no harm. This applies to yourself and your reputation, the consumers and their livelihood, and the sellers and their wishes.

Understanding we are all human will help create a more safe space for marketing.

The code of ethics provided above is one that will help people create better people with better ethics and values. On an article written on Investopedia by Adam Hayes they talk about how important having value and a code of ethic is. They touch lightly on how every career has different ones but they all do have a set of rules to follow. They say “Promote the integrity and viability of the global capital markets for the ultimate benefit of society” (Hayes, 2021). This is because at the end of it all, we are trying to create a better world for everyone not just ourselves. The marketing techniques used in this current age are dangerous but by setting standards and implementing rules we can create a more safe space.

CITATIONS

Codes of Conduct: AMA statement of ethics. (2019, October 24). Retrieved May 09, 2021, from https://www.ama.org/codes-of-conduct/

Hayes, A. (2021, May 07). How codes of ethics work. Retrieved May 09, 2021, from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/code-of-ethics.asp

Steimer, S. (2019, December 12). The murky ethics of data gathering in a POST-CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA WORLD. Retrieved May 09, 2021, from https://www.ama.org/marketing-news/the-murky-ethics-of-data-gathering-in-a-post-cambridge-analytica-world/

Overview of the AMA Code of Ethics. (2016, January 18). Retrieved from https://study.com/academy/lesson/overview-of-the-ama-code-of-ethics.html.

5 Ways to Improve Landing Page Conversions

Landing pages are a way for a customer to see what you have to offer and interact with your website.

Ryan Osman from Obility said that landing page conversion does not mean it will turn into sales. Conversions are information gathered from the clicks of a button or search a potential customer might make. Landing pages are meant for consumers to scroll through for a while and hopefully convert and make a purchase but their attention is what is most important. In order to obtain this, we must learn to use the right attractions in order to get potential customers to interact with the website.

1.
Make it Long

In order to get people to interact and get more knowledge of what you have to offer make it the sub-heading longer. People will read what you have to offer and the information you are giving them. This could be a selling point or even make them look into your website longer, which is exactly what you want. When researching for a certain product or service people have a specific goal in mind. Convincing them you are the correct website by making it longer will help accomplish that.

2.
Give a Unique Selling Point to Build Trust

Many websites have interactive and explanations for their products. Create a unique selling point that ties with what you are trying to sell that helps create trust between you and the consumer. The unique selling point will get your consumer to look into what you are selling by adding some trust to it, they might find some type of loyalty to your company. Companies sell many products but the emotional connection you make with a person is what helps push a decision.

3.
Make it Concise

Making a landing page longer will give you space to create a more comfortable atmosphere for your consumers but creating too many distractions might push them away. Creating a concise yet long page might seem impossible but giving the users the information they need is important. We want consumers to interact and learn more about what they are looking for and how you are the right company. Therefore choose what you add carefully.

4.
Run A/B Test Regularly

Learning what is working and having a wide variety of changes can be important depending on what you are selling. When running different videos or ads on your landing page running this test will help improve conversion rate. A/B test allows you to see what ads are working and who did they work on specifially. This also helps you learn a little more about your consumer’s behavior and what they like to see.

5.
Hone in on Mobile Landing Pages

Smartphones are what people have started to use more than ever with changing times. When on the go or even at home, researching things on their smartphone has become the most accessible. Making a landing page more accessible for mobile pages is a great way to increase conversion rates.

Landing pages are essential when you want to gain attraction from potential consumers. Learning more of them and what they want to see helps build a relationship, even if it feels one sided. People act on emotions and visuals. Learn to show them what they want to see and increase your conversion rates.

Citations

Dopson, Elise. “23 Ways to Improve Your Landing Page Conversion Rates: Databox Blog.” Databox, 1 Apr. 2021, databox.com/improve-your-landing-page-conversion-rate#23.

Zehra, Nida. “How to Build High-Converting Landing Pages.” VWO Blog, 31 Mar. 2021, vwo.com/blog/build-high-converting-landing-pages/.

Ecampus. MRKT 484 Ryan on Testing Landing Pages. OSU MediaSpace, 24 Sept. 2018, media.oregonstate.edu/media/t/0_j1xoorhb.