Categories
Text (SMS) Marketing

What is SMS Marketing?

what is sms marketing

What is SMS marketing? Well, it’s a touchy subject. It’s the message marketing channel that gets a 98% open rate. But it’s a tight rope to walk.

Before you get excited and launch a text marketing campaign, you must learn the do’s and don’ts of this effective yet somewhat perilous marketing channel.

What is SMS Marketing?

Mobile phone technology has come a long way. Today the iPhone has a built-in camera that rivals top of the line camera quality. But still, the most used feature on smartphones is texting.

It’s no surprise that marketers are now cracking into your mobile inbox with marketing messages. SMS marketing is a quicker and easier way to send marketing messages straight to a user’s mobile phone.

Be warned: people are very wary of brands using their personal space as a marketing opportunity. Just look at the raging success of the do not call register in Australia which has over 11 million subscribers.

So, how can you leverage SMS marketing for your business without accidentally damaging your brand?

Make Your Offers Shine!

People are much more likely to feel aggravated when they receive SMS marketing messages, so make it worth it for them. Your SMS offers should make your email offers pail into insignificance with value.

Make it Short and Sharp With a CTA

It’s good practice to keep your marketing txt’s no longer than 160 characters, so get straight to the point. The contents of your text shouldn’t include any information apart from your (stunning) offer and CTA.

Timing = Make or Break 

Imagine how you would feel if the mechanic that serviced your car a fortnight ago started sending you marketing texts at 3 am? No matter how good the offer is, the experience is going to be overwhelmingly negative.

Think about your target persona and what time of day they will be most responsive to marketing texts. Consider time zones as well if you happen to have customers abroad.

Don’t Text Too Often

Another thing that will put a damper on your marketing messages is if they come too frequently. Remember, this is your customer’s personal mobile phone and they don’t want to be bombarded with advertisements. 

While research shows an overwhelming unsubscribe rate being linked to overly frequent texts, finding the sweet spot for your business depends on your industry. It’s safest to start with a few messages a month and experiment cautiously with increases or decreases to your text frequency.

Write Effective Texts

It’s tempting to take advantage of as much text slang as possible to make the most of your characters, but keep this to a minimum. Not everybody understands what ROLF, LMK, and YOLO mean. Too much abbreviation can make you look unprofessional.

Also, remember to make it clear who you are in your text, like “hey, *insert store name* is having a 50% off clearance sale”. Nobody likes getting a text when they have no idea who it’s from.

Looking for Help With Your Marketing?

Did you ask “what is SMS marketing?” to discover that it’s a little more involved than you thought? Now that you know how to leverage this marketing channel in a positive way you can add it to your marketing mix.

If you’d like support with your marketing efforts, schedule a call with our team today and make your digital marketing easy.

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Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing: Pros and Cons of Social Media Marketing

Did you know that one in three people in the world uses social media platforms?

Social media has, indeed, become a huge part not only of digital marketing but of everyone’s daily life. This is a great opportunity for any business.

If you’ve been considering joining a social media platform with your brand but want to know the pros and cons of social media marketing first, today’s article is just what you need to read!

Pro: It’s Affordable

It is a fact that organic reach on social media is on the decline and that means that, unlike a few years ago, it’s almost required that brands spend money on their social media presence to create targeted ads and campaigns.

However, when you compare this with other marketing strategies, it becomes clear that social media marketing is a lot cheaper.

Pro: It Offers Great Targeting Options

Before, brands would promote their products or services through the TV, radio, or press. Those were – and, in some cases, still are – very effective marketing channels.

However, when a brand created a TV ad, they’d reach their target audience and… everyone else who had a TV. There was no specific targeting. With social media, you can choose the type of consumer you want to reach with each campaign and customize it accordingly.

Pro: It Helps Foster Strong Relationships

Through social media, you can build your brand’s personality like never before and, this way, create a stronger, more authentic connection with your audience. Ultimately, this can result in more brand loyalty and customer retention.

Con: It Can Damage Your Brand’s Image

You’ll only post positive things about your brand, of course. However, we have to remember about the comment section on each of your posts, the online reviews and the personal posts by customers.

Anyone can say whatever they want online and you never know how that might affect your brand. However, a good social media manager will know how to deal with any negative comments you receive.

Con: The ROI Is Difficult to Measure

If you’re a business owner, you know that what matters, in the end, are the numbers behind the marketing strategy and the truth is, when it comes to social media marketing, those numbers (that is, the ROI) can be tricky to measure.

The good news is that, once again, an efficient social media manager will be able to present you with comprehensive reports of your campaigns, which will give you an idea of your social media success.

Con: It’s Time-Consuming

Contrary to popular belief, social media marketing is about more than creating a couple of posts a week. There’s a lot of creativity, strategy, and monitoring involved and all of that can be very time-consuming, which is why hiring a social media manager or outsourcing this type of task is often a good idea.

Pros and Cons of Social Media Marketing: Now You Know!

Using social media to promote your business comes with many perks and challenges. However, it’s important to remember that you want to be where your target audience is and, right now, that’s probably on one or two social media platforms.

Now that you’re familiar with the pros and cons of social media marketing, it’s time to find an agency that will help you get the most out of the first ones and deal with the second ones. Schedule a call with us today!

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Business Tip

5 Rules For Writing Professional Emails

The average worker spends around 28 percent of the working day writing and reading emails.

Email remains one of the most important ways of communicating with each other. And yet, people frequently misuse emails.

By following our rules, we can ensure that we prevent any time being wasted unnecessarily reading or writing emails.

Check out our email etiquette training tips below. Let’s get started!

1. Always Include a Clear and Simple Subject

The subject line is an important (and neglected) part of the email. You may miss it out entirely. Or, you may write long and boring subject lines.

If you’re sending really long subject lines with your email, it won’t even display on the email until the receiver clicks on it.

But, if you don’t include a subject line, your email could even be ignored. Just include simple and clear subject lines.

This could be “question regarding meeting” or “inquiry about the proposal.”  

2. Avoid “Reply All” Whenever Possible 

When you’re about to send an email, think carefully about whether to click “reply all.” This can lead to many people receiving emails that do not concern them.

Everyone suddenly gets a notification to read the email. This can undermine productivity and get on people’s nerves.

If you’re going to hit “reply all” ensure that everyone on the mailing list needs to see your email.  

3. Review Your Email Before Sending 

You may think that a little spelling mistake or grammar error in your email doesn’t matter. But, you’d be wrong!

Surveys have found that the receiver certainly judges you for typos. That’s especially the case when it’s only a short message anyway.

You shouldn’t depend on automatic spell checkers. You need to review your email a couple of times before sending it.

4. Don’t Play Around With Fonts 

If you’re sending professional emails, you shouldn’t be playing around with different fonts. You need to stick with the classic font typefaces.

That rules out Comic Sans and American Typewriter. You need to remain with the fonts that are easy to read.

These include anything like Times New Roman or Arial. Obviously, also keep the font size 10 or 12.

Finally, ensure that you keep your font in black. Nobody wants to receive an email in bright orange.

5. Always Reply to Your Emails

Do you ever ignore an email when you receive it? We receive many emails every day that it’s difficult to answer each one. 

While the average American worker receives more than 88 emails per day. They only ever write 34 emails.

Therefore, that’s more than half of emails going unanswered. But, you should be responding to every email.

Even if you’re simply replying to inform the sender that you have received the email. You don’t want to keep your colleague guessing.  

Email Etiquette Training

Now you know the rules of sending and receiving emails. By following these rules, you’ll save time and increase productivity. Everybody benefits when you uphold email etiquette. 

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Email Marketing

Email Marketing 101: Everything You Need To Know About Email Marketing For Your Small Business

It’s no secret that the Internet is one of the most powerful tools that entrepreneurs can take advantage of. In particular, email marketing is a tactic that most businesses should utilize.

But, not everyone knows how to go about it, or the benefits it provides. Not sure where to start? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

Let’s take a look at everything you need to know about small business email marketing. 

Know Your Audience

Before you can properly communicate with your audience, you’ll need to properly define who you’re speaking to. A major attribute of effective email marketing is a feeling of personalization in the email you’re sending.

For example, let’s assume you own a company that sells athletic apparel for men and women. You’ll likely benefit from changing your message’s tone and copy depending on whether the recipient is male or female.

While messages about store-wide sales can be universal, promoting discounted apparel for either gender will likely need to be worded differently. 

The better you understand the person you’re speaking too, the better your results will be.

The Subject Line

As you may expect, your subject line will often determine whether or not the recipient will even open the email. So, you’re going to need to put some time and effort into crafting the perfect one for your message.

A general tactic is to create a sense of urgency so that readers feel compelled to see the rest of the message. Phrases like ‘ends soon’ or ‘don’t miss out’ are common ways you can convey that your offer requires them to take action in the near future.

Similarly, showing the value they’ll receive can encourage a response. A subject line of an email that the aforementioned apparel company would send might be something like ‘30% off All Clothing This Weekend! Ends Saturday 3/14!’

This subject line is straightforward and immediately tells readers why they should open it.

The Copy

When it comes to copy for email marketing, simplicity is key. Oftentimes, you’ll find that most marketing emails have only one line per paragraph. This is done in order to make the message as straightforward and easy to read as possible.

A call to action (CTA) is also crucial since readers are far more likely to act how you intend them to if you guide them toward doing so. When possible, incorporate CTA buttons (ones with bright colors are a plus) that your readers can click in order to take advantage of your offer.

Utilizing Small Business Email Marketing Can Seem Difficult

But it doesn’t have to be.

With the above information about small business email marketing in mind, you’ll be well on your way to generating leads and increasing conversions like never before.

Want to learn more about how we can help? Feel free to get in touch with us today to see what we can do.

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Marketing Strategy Website Development

A Look at the Future of SEO: What Is Coming in 2020?

It’s no secret that having a strong online presence for your brand is crucial if you want to keep up with your industry’s competitors. But, you won’t get very far without ensuring that your audience can find you on their own.

So, you’ll need to stay informed on contemporary SEO trends as well as the future of SEO.

Not sure where to start? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

Let’s take a look at everything you need to know about what to expect in 2020.

1. Website Security Is Crucial

With cybercrime expected to become a multi-trillion dollar industry, there is a greater need than ever to protect your site against hackers.

Not only are you at risk of getting your intellectual property stolen and lapses in productivity, but you’ll also deter potential customers from using your site if there is a noticeable lack of security.

People these days are often very vigilant of where they input their personal info. As such, you’ll need to ensure that your website incorporates HTTPS protocol to both protect your website from attacks and convey to your users that their information is safe.

2. Prioritize Video

By 2022, nearly all Internet traffic is anticipated to come from online video. While this isn’t to say that people won’t have the desire to read blog posts and informative articles, it will highly benefit your brand to incorporate video content.

This also applies to Facebook and Instagram, as well. If you’re having trouble thinking of ideas, things like product reviews, behind-the-scenes looks, and product/service announcements are solid video concepts.

3. Incorporate Voice Search

As our access to information gets faster, people often become lazier. Voice search will see a rise in popularity due to the convenience it provides.

What this means for brands is the need to incorporate keyword phrases that reflect how people would speak to their phone when searching.

For example, most people are likely to type “Mexican restaurants Los Angeles” but are likely to speak“where is the best Mexican restaurant in Los Angeles?”

So, keep this in mind when creating your content and SEO tags to optimize how many people will reach your site.

4. Quality Mobile UX Is Key

Mobile traffic is expected to experience a sharp increase up until 2021. This means you’ll need to start preparing for it now.

Optimizing mobile UX on your site includes:

  • Appropriately-sized icons and links
  • Formatting
  • Minimalist design to reduce loading times
  • Social media buttons to make sharing content simple

If you have a store on your site, you should also ensure that navigating through it is as simple as possible. Similarly, the ‘search’ option should be easy for your site’s visitors to find and use.

The Future of SEO in 2020: Final Thoughts 

With the above information about the future of SEO in mind, you’ll be well on your way to making the best decisions for your company online.

Want to learn more about what changes to expect in social media in 2020? Check out our article about social media trends that you need to know! 

Categories
Social Media Marketing

2020 Social Media Trends: 4 Things to Keep an Eye On

Social media has become incredibly important to our contemporary culture. Whether you’re an influencer, a small business, or a social media manager, looking ahead into the trends of the new year is a must.

Keep reading for our guide on the top 2020 social media trends you should know about. 

2020 Social Media Trends: Our Top 4

Some things stay the same, but most change in the fast-paced world of social media. Here’s our list of the main things to be on the lookout for. 

1) Video Content: It’s Everything 

If you haven’t already, it’s a good idea to start integrating video content onto your platform now. With platforms like TikTok and Youtube, video content is more important than ever. This engaging media form can be implemented onto your Instagram or Facebook through stories, live video, as well as IGTV. Figure out what kind of video content would best engage your audience, and try it out. You may be shocked at the high results and interactions. 

2) Influencer Marketing: Not Going Anywhere 

Influencer marketing has blown up in the last few years, with influencers helping to sell products for the big guys, from Amazon to Target. If you’re an influencer, don’t worry, you will still be in high demand in 2020. If you’re a small business or a social media manager, consider using an influencer to sell your product.

When looking for the right influencer for you, consider your brand. Does this influencer seem like your customer? If so, make sure they have a high level of interaction on their posts and a large audience. Influencers can help market your product to people outside of your companies current audience.

Teaming with an influencer is great for driving online traffic. Consider giving the influencer you’re working with a discount code to share with your customer, this can give their audience an incentive to purchase from your site and make the sale traceable to a particular initiative.

Another plus to advertising with influencers is that they are generally much cheaper than the ads you can launch with Instagram and Facebook while generating much more authentic followers. 

3) Cracking down in 2020: More Privacy on Social Platforms

Privacy issues such as data security have risen this past year, especially with Facebook. This issue caused tons of people to leave the platform, in fear that their data was in unsafe hands. Aware of this issue, platforms are tightening up to make sure users feel safe on their sites. Look our for regulations and restrictions in 2020 as social media platforms change their security and privacy norms. 

4) Still Selling: Social Media Commerce Still Rules 

As you’ve probably noticed, brands use social media platforms to sell their products to consumers. This isn’t going anywhere, which is great for the companies selling products but can be irritating to users who don’t want to use these social platforms just to be advertised to. 

If you have an E-Commerce, consider setting up a Facebook and Instagram store that is linked to your site. This can help users easily access your store and purchase your products. 

Keep up with Social Media Trends to Stay Successful 

Whether you like it or not, social media is here to stay, and marketing on it is more important than ever. 

Keep these 2020 social media trends in mind this next year, and for more tips on marketing, visit our blog. 

Categories
Social Media Marketing

The Best Ways to Increase the Social Media Presence for Your Business

Are there any reliable ways to increase the social media presence of your business?

There are several ways, but most of them are rather expensive. Here are some of the more moderately priced ways you may increase your social media presence.

Paying For Advertising

All of the social media networks have their own advertising platforms to financially support themselves.

You can set your own budget and manage your daily costs very precisely. Also, the minimum spend per platform is rather low.

The easiest place to start is with Facebook Ads; specifically with a Facebook Boost.

Increase Your Social Media Presence With Influencers

Some people are great at charming influencers so that they offer up support for free, and others resort to paying influencers.

Do not go for the biggest. Simply hunt the social media influencers who attract your target audience and then pay them to throw a little support your way.

Learn As Much As You Can

Do not take your social media endeavor lightly. Become an expert in your chosen social media platform. For example, if you are tackling Instagram, then become such an Instagram expert that you can write your own Instagram guides.

Use Scheduling Tools Moderately

Social media scheduling tools are brilliant because they enable you to post regularly without having to worry about letting your social media accounts go cold, which is not something you want to happen if you are trying to spread your brand message. They enable you to disseminate content on a regular basis even on days when you are not working.

However, for accounts to be deemed “Active,” you need to be visiting your social media account manually from time-to-time, interacting with people, and gauging their reactions to your content. Remember the rule of reciprocity, when you start liking and commenting on other people’s posts, they tend to return the favor making your posts more visible.

Interact With Your Followers

Relating to the tip given above, being an active member of the social media network also means getting to know things about the groups you are in and the people who follow you.

Being part of an “in” crowd is very powerful on social media. You are making a mistake if you ape the social media terms people use without truly understanding why they exist, why they are effective, or why they are used.

Build A Following Rather Than Getting Followers

There is a subtle psychological difference. You do things because your followers will like it and not because it will make followers like you. You are giving happiness rather than seeking approval. Also, remember to cross-promote your posts over your other social media accounts, websites, and your email list. Distributing your content across different media really gets the best bang for your buck.

Know When To Apply The Brakes

It seems counter-intuitive, but there are some social media networks that are harder to crack than others, especially for certain business types and marketing methods. For all the social media presence tips seen in this article, the most important may be learning when to back off.

If you are not getting the penetration required in a certain social media network, then refocus your energy on another network and work on getting a bigger return on the time and effort you are putting in.

If you are interested in accelerating your business marketing, check out what our Marketing Coach can do for you.

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Email Marketing

Before You Hit Send: Email Marketing Rules You Need to Know

Email marketing is one of the most successful ways to reach a consumer. Email provides a quick, inexpensive, and effective way to share information with your consumers and clients.

Email marketing can help you grow your client base and increase business.

While getting started with a campaign may seem daunting, there are a few email marketing rules that are easy to follow and will help make your campaign a success.

This guide to email marketing will provide you with all the tools you need to launch your own successful email campaign.

Email Marketing Rules

When it comes to email marketing, there are some basic rules you can follow to help better your chances for success.

You’ll want to start with the basics when it comes to defining your audience and laying out the goals you have for the campaign.

Maybe you want to get more people to redeem a coupon in-store or maybe you want more traffic to your website. Whatever your goals are for using email to market your business, know that a successful campaign can do wonders for your business and online presence.

Think of these rules as a recipe for success.

Email Marketing 101: Define Your Audience

Defining your audience is the first place you should start when it comes to launching an email marketing campaign. It will be hard to know what to send if you don’t know who you’re sending it to.

Sometimes you may want to cater an email to a certain client base. If you’re a clothing store, for example, and you carry clothes for people of all ages, you might want to target parents for a back to school campaign.

Let’s say you’re coffee shop who wants to offer a deal to early risers, you can target your campaign to deliver the night before so people will see it first thing in the morning.

Defining your audience will help make your campaign a lot more successful. The more intimate and targeted your campaign is, the more focused it will be.

How to Create Email Marketing: Defining Your Goals

Once you’ve established your audience, you should determine what your goals are.

Goals can be anything from getting more website traffic, getting more foot traffic, or more online sales. Your goals will help you tailor the content.

Goals will also help you with measurement after the campaign has launched.

Create an Easy Way For People to Sign Up

The email marketing process should always include an easy way for people to sign up or to engage with your brand. You want to make it easy for consumers to be able to sign up for your emails on your website or at your location.

You can put a sign-up button on your homepage, on a check out screen, and on your social media.

Remember that you’ll also need to include a place for people to opt-out of your email database if they need to. 

Choose the Type of Campaign

Next, you’ll want to think about the type of campaign you’d like to send. Some find it helpful to send a weekly newsletter, others may only send promotional emails.

It can be very helpful to create a schedule for yourself when marketing via email.

Track Your Results

The final rule you should always try to follow is to track your results. Tracking your results is one of the most important email marketing rules.

Tracking your results will help you see how successful your campaign was and what you can improve on. If something was successful, take note and do it again.

If you’re ready to work with a professional on your next dynamic email marketing campaign, get started here.

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Text (SMS) Marketing

Sending Mixed Messages: The 5 Worst Text Marketing Mistakes You Might Be Making

In 2017, 37 million people opted into receiving SMS messages from brands, with that number estimated to grow to 49 million in 2020. With the rise of text message marketing, it’s important that as a company you utilize this channel to the best of your abilities.

Text Message Marketing Mistakes

Below we’ll go over five of the worst text message marketing mistakes you could make and how best to avoid them.

Spell, Grammar, Punctuation Check

It’s such a simple and often overlooked task. You’d be surprised at the number of companies that forget to double or triple check the spelling and grammar of their text messages in their text message marketing campaigns. 

If you get it wrong, it can erode a consumer’s trust in a brand and deem them unprofessional. Do your company a favor and make sure that the messages you send them are properly formatted with correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar (unless you’re purposefully using “txt speak”).

Too Many Texts

This can be another off-putting mistake. Texting too much can be extremely overwhelming. Some people like to keep all of their notifications on their phone clear, and if you keep blowing up their phone they’re more likely to unsubscribe.

It’s important to set expectations from the get-go and let them know how often on average you’ll be getting in touch with them. Providing a phone number is one of the most intimate things someone can provide, and texting too much can put your company in the deleted messages column in a hurry.

Generic Content/No Personalization

If you are just sending generic messages to everyone on your SMS list you’re missing out on a big opportunity. Specificity is key when sending out messages. It’s important to have their first name in the message and your own brand name. Another idea would be to include any local events, seasonal or national holidays.

Try to give off the impression that you picked out a deal specifically catered to that customer. If you can collect data in the beginning about what they purchased, and text them an accompanying coupon for a service related to what they purchased, that’s even more powerful.

This customization can all be done at scale with the countless number of SMS marketing software available to you.

No Call To Action

There needs to be a reason you’re texting them, otherwise, there’s no point in sending the message in the first place. The key, as with the points above, is specificity. You want to tell them in the message what exactly it is you want them to do, and to make it as easy as possible for them to do it. 

That might mean making a custom link(which can double as a link tracker) and getting them straight to the coupon that they can screenshot. If you can remove any extra steps to get your desired action, the more effective it will be. 

Poor Timing

Similar to email, timing is everything. While it’s common practice for text messages to be sent between 8 and 12 pm or 5 and 9 pm for campaigns, this all depends on who you’re looking to target.

For example, a lot of people wake up around 5-6am to go to the gym. If your product or service is geared towards maybe supplements, massage therapy, or something similar, it might make sense to get them right as they start or end their workout. If your target audience is gym-goers, you might want to look at the habits that they have.

Text Message Marketing Can Be Powerful When Done Right

Hopefully, we’ve helped clear up some of the worst text message marketing mistakes. If you’re looking for more marketing tips, check out our marketing blog here.

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Email Marketing

Reach Your Audience: How to Create a Winning Email Marketing Strategy

Over half of American consumers check their email accounts more than 10 times a day, plus it’s their preferred method of communication regarding brand updates. If you don’t have an email marketing strategy in place, then you’re missing out on a good amount of potential sales.

Here are some ways you can create a winning email marketing strategy to help you land those customers.

Establish Your Target Audience

If you’re selling high-end luxury watches, then chances are, your target audience isn’t high school teenagers. When you don’t have a tight, focused email list, you’re wasting your communication efforts on people that have zero chance of buying your products or using your services.

Once you’ve established your target demographic, then you can hone in on your email marketing tactics.

Find Effective Ways to Get Your Target Audience to Opt-In

With the GDPR and other data protection laws, things are getting more stringent when it comes to email marketing. You need the recipients’ permission to send your marketing emails.

Because of this, you need to motivate your audience to opt in your emails. Some good incentives include free products (such as ebooks and whitepapers) and coupons.

Practice Segmentation for Your Emails

Blanket emails may be easy to send out, but they’re definitely not the most effective way to get people to read and respond. Segmentation may take a little more work, but the payoff is worth it.

When you use segmentation in your email strategy, it allows for you to personalize messages more. Not only does this lead to higher open rates, but it lowers your unsubscribe rates too.

Consider Lifecycles for Emails

The people who are exposed to your brand aren’t always going to be at the same stage of their buying cycle. You want to ensure that you’re sending them emails that are relevant to their buying stage and facilitate their progress in the cycle.

Lifecycles are similar to segmentation since you don’t rely on bulk emails. Instead, you put together a chain of emails that address each stage of the customer buying cycle.

You can then assign the prospects to the right stage of the lifecycle emails, depending on which touchpoint they entered your database with.

Find the Optimal Schedule

Everyone doesn’t want to be spammed, so you shouldn’t be sending your emails out whenever you feel like it. If you put together an email marketing schedule, then you and your team know exactly when things need to be ready and when they need to be sent out.

Scheduling doesn’t just involve how often you send emails out; when you send them matters too. Studies show people check their emails right after waking up and before they go to bed so email blast times of 6:00 am and 10:00 pm may be good to try.

An Email Marketing Strategy That Works

With an email marketing strategy that works, you’ll see your conversion rates skyrocket. So ditch your old strategy if you’re not seeing results and put our tips to good use.

Want to grow your business further? Then get in touch with us today.