Thursday, January 29, 2015

Innovation in Thought Leadership a Coveted 2015 Business Goal

In the New Year, it’s not just good enough to be innovative in your day-to-day business – nor is it enough to innovate internally with business practices in either creativity or productivity. The new frontier of innovation is thought leadership.Related Articles

  1. The New Direction of Leadership: Cultivating the Non-Linear Thinker

  2. Thought Leadership: Why Companies are Ditching Ivy League for Corporate Universities

  3. The Art of Leadership: 2 Lessons You Can’t Lead Without






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Wednesday, January 28, 2015

In 2015, the Challenge is Increasing Productivity without Losing Your Soul

The challenge we’re faced with is to perform the impossible, to prioritize our time and optimize tasks when there just aren’t enough work hours in the day.Related Articles

  1. The Creativity-Productivity Paradox: Productivity Pitfalls

  2. The Creativity-Productivity Paradox: Cultivating the Creative Thinker

  3. Playlist: Chicken Soup For the Neo-Soul






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Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Monday, January 26, 2015

Key Rules to Email Success (via Agent Gibbs From NCIS)

Agent Gibbs from NCIS may never have developed an email marketing campaign, but his rules certainly can be applied to the industry.





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Thursday, January 22, 2015

Benchmark Email PayPal Integration

For those Benchmark users out there, you now have the option of adding your Paypal customers to one of your existing contact list.Related Articles

  1. Putting the "Great" in Integrations: WordPress Plugin

  2. Benchmark PayPal Integration

  3. PayPal: A Friendly Button






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9 Ways You Can Become An Affiliate All-Star

awesome-affiliate-blogimg


Affiliate marketing has become a trending topic in the digital marketing community, and for good reason! This low-risk, high-reward opportunity is great for those who want to monetize their love of a product.


Despite some claims, affiliate marketing won’t make you an overnight millionaire. But that doesn’t mean you can’t make a serious profit. Successful affiliates are advocates for the products they’re referring – and they’re reaping the rewards!


Keep reading to find out if affiliate marketing is right for you – and tips on how you can become an affiliate all-star.


What Is Affiliate Marketing?


Think of affiliate marketers as the middlemen between clients and brands. Is there a product or service you don’t hesitate to recommend to family or friends? Partnering with these brands is a great way to get rewarded for your endorsement.


Affiliate marketers earn commission by referring traffic and sales to a retailer’s website through their own promotional efforts. Prospective affiliates can join a program through a merchandiser directly or a network that manages multiple affiliate programs.


What Are The Benefits Of Affiliate Marketing?



  • Low-Risk, High Reward: Becoming an affiliate usually doesn’t requires no start-up fees or investment.

  • Advanced Tracking Tools: A good affiliate program provides you with the tools to measure your campaign’s effectiveness.

  • No “Selling” Experience Required: It’s as simple as creating good content.

  • Not Your Average Job: Create a steady flow of income by promoting a company’s products and services.


Choosing A Niche


When choosing an affiliate marketing program, first ask yourself a few questions:



  • Are you knowledgeable in the topic?

  • Is the content something people are searching for?

  • What problem are you trying to solve?

  • Is there room for growth? Can you add value to the content?


Your answers will help you identify if a niche is right for you.


How Do You Drive Traffic?


When you sign up, you’ll receive a unique affiliate commissions code. This is used to track the visitors and sales that were directed from your efforts. But how do you drive traffic to a merchandiser’s website in the first place?


Some common affiliate promotional strategies include:



  • Blogging

  • Building up an email list

  • Social Media

  • Videos + Podcasting

  • Writing reviews

  • Word-of-mouth

  • Paid advertising

  • Banners

  • Email Marketing

  • Social media ads

  • Contests


Don’t be afraid to get creative in your approach! Blogs like Affiliate Tip, AM Navigator, ShareASale and ABestWeb are great resources for campaign inspiration.


How Do You Build An Audience?


There are a number of tracking tools that give you the power to track the reach of your campaigns. Some frequently used services include:



  • Google Analytics is a free service that lets you measure your advertising ROI, track your social reach and manage your applications. With its suite of features, you can analyze visitor traffic and ensure you’re getting the most out of your marketing efforts.

  • Page Insights provides information about user activity on your Facebook page. You can view metrics, identify your most engaging posts and gather information on your audience.

  • YouTube Analytics lets you monitor the performance of your channel, with up-to-date metrics and reports.


9 Ways To Be An Awesome Affiliate


9-ways-to-be-an-awesome-affiliate


What’s Next?


Have a passion for email marketing? Consider becoming an AWeber affiliate! You’ll receive 30% recurring commission for every referral that signs up for our service. And we provide you with the tools you need for success. Visit our Partners page to get started.






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Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Lend Us Your Ears and We'll Give You a Podcast

Steve Lankler is the Senior Vice President of Marketing at Direct Capital Loans. He dismissed as cliche the fact that they make dreams come true for small business owners, but we think he was being humble.Related Articles

  1. Will iCloud and iOS 5 Change Your Email Marketing?

  2. Club Email Marketing: Capture Your Youth Audience with “Say-Whaaa?”

  3. Coupling Direct Mail with Email Marketing






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Monday, January 19, 2015

Hockey, Email, and Content: Turning Prospects and Customers Into Fans

It's not enough to just send interesting email marketing materials anymore. You must make an effort to wow your consumers with your content.





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Friday, January 16, 2015

The award goes to…

Travis Buck


This email from Kate Spade wins the most creative email in my inbox today award. The creative is reminiscent of mad libs in a way. But instead of words, images are used to fill in the blanks. The message itself is also clever given many of us are stuck in the middle of a very cold winter. In any case this email accomplished its mission because it grabbed my attention and compelled me to read it. Well done.







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Building Engagement on Twitter is as Easy as 1-2-3

Twitter is a fast-moving social network that can connect you with thousands of potential customers, or people who could help spread your message. However, engagement, which is vital to your success on Twitter, doesn’t occur naturally. You have to put yourself out there, especially if you’re new to the site. Use these three tips to help build your connections and encourage engagement with others.


1. Share Other People’s Content and Tag Them


First, you want to share content that relates to your own business or industry created by other people or businesses. This can be in the form of a retweet, using social sharing icons, or simply copying and pasting a link. Then, look up the twitter handle of the content creator or business. Include that Twitter handle in your tweet, and give the author/business props for creating great content. Here’s an example in which we shared an article from Dasheroo and included the author’s Twitter handle as well:



When sharing your own content, also try including the Twitter handles of your internal content creators (but ask for permission first).


Building Engagement on Twitter is as Easy as 1...2...3!


Authors or businesses of the content you’ve shared appreciate this extra effort. They may repay the favor and share your content as well, getting it in front of a whole new audience. This is also a great starting point to building a relationship with someone who could have a positive impact on your business.


2. Thank People When They Share Your Content


If someone shares or retweets your content, reply back and thank them for doing so.


In our example above, we shared a blog post written by Dasheroo. Here, Dasheroo takes our advice and thanks us back for sharing their content. This then results in a dialogue and engagement.




3. Comment on Other People/Business’s Tweets


Like yourself, everyone else is also seeking out engagement on Twitter. Lead by example and get the ball rolling by replying, asking questions, or commenting on posts you find interesting or helpful. This often piques interest, or results in a dialogue.


In the example below, Social Media Examiner posted an article on Twitter that we found handy. Instead of just retweeting the content, we commented, thanked Michael Stelzner, owner of Social Media Examiner, and he replied. Voila! Engagement.


Building Engagement on Twitter is as Easy as 1...2...3!


Building Engagement on Twitter is as Easy as 1...2...3!


Building Engagement on Twitter is as Easy as 1...2...3!


These are just three of our favorite and easy engagement-generating Twitter tips. Have any others to add to our list? Share in the comments or reply back to us on Twitter.


Get more email and social media marketing tips by subscribing to our weekly email newsletter.


© 2015, VerticalResponse Blog. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.


The post Building Engagement on Twitter is as Easy as 1-2-3 appeared first on VerticalResponse Blog.



Thursday, January 15, 2015

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

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The 3 Heads of a Viral Marketing Strategy

Consider viral as the three-headed dog in Greek mythology, known as Cerberus. It’s a bold image but it’s also an important one. If you envision viral as Cerberus, it will help you understand that something as powerful inherently has three key heads that you need to feed.Related Articles

  1. How Email Marketing Will Evolve In 2010

  2. The Marty McFly Nikes: How a Successful Viral Campaign Is Created

  3. Viral Marketing: How to Create a YouTube Hit






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2015: The Year Email Goes Mobile-Only?

Is this the year that we should start designing not only our individual emails but our entire email marketing programs for mobile?





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Tuesday, January 13, 2015

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Climbing to New Heights with Sasha DiGiulian

Sasha DiGiulian is a World Champion rock climber. While Sasha was too humble to let us call her that, she admitted that on the day of that competition she was in fact tops.Related Articles

  1. Introducing the Heart of Business

  2. Weekly Wrap: Heart of Business Has Arrived!

  3. Heart of Business: Bantering with the Beer Expert






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Action/Reaction: Triggered Messages and Newton’s Third Law of Motion

In order to best engage with your customers, first determine which kind of triggered messages will provide the most value and then work backward to find the best technology.





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Monday, January 12, 2015

Feature Spotlight: Inbox Checker

Inbox Checker lets you see how your email campaigns will appear on any device and/or inbox client.Related Articles

  1. New Feature: Inbox Checker

  2. The Top Ten Email Opens By Client

  3. A Fan-test-ic Episode with Justine Jordan of Litmus






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Friday, January 9, 2015

Benchmark Email Zendesk Integration

Utilize the Benchmark Email Zendesk plugin to segment all your Zendesk into one contact list.Related Articles

  1. Putting the "Great" in Integrations: WordPress Plugin

  2. Introducing The Benchmark Email API

  3. WordPress and Facebook Plugins Can Help Grow Your Online Business






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2015: The Year of Multiplying Best Practices

Those who win in the email marketing world are devising different sets of rules and tactics for every segment of consumers. By the end of the year there won't be one set of best practices - there will be many.





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Thursday, January 8, 2015

5 Ways to Achieve Email Awesomeness in 2015

As you solidify your email marketing plans for the year, make sure to focus on these five areas, including smarter segmentation and mobile-first campaigns.





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Wednesday, January 7, 2015

6 Tips for Writing Your Own Copy in 2015

You don’t have to have a degree in English to be a good writer (though it certainly does help), so we’ve put together a few tips to get you started writing your own copy.Related Articles

  1. A Simple Assessment of Your Marketing Copy

  2. How Lifestyle Content Builds Companies’ Online Branding

  3. How to Naturally Integrate Keywords into Your Online Content






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Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Scaring Up a Great Conversation with DJ Spooky

When your show producer sets up an interview with a DJ, you prepare for conversation about music, the music business and topics along those lines. That is not what we wound up discussing with DJ Spooky.Related Articles

  1. How a Small Business Can Improve Its Word of Mouth Advertising

  2. The Future of Marketing: Trends in Crowdsourcing

  3. Taking Responsibility for Your Social Media Actions






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Monday, January 5, 2015

New Year's Resolution: Make it a Series






Megan Ouellet


image


Many retailers are sending out messages that include merchandise to help their customers keep their New Years Resolutions. But The Grommet is taking it further with its creative series. This message was received 12/31 with the subject line “Resolution #1: Make your next party cooler!”


image


The next day, 1/1, it sent this message with the subject line “Get healthy in MMXV (That’s Roman for 2015)”


image


And, two days later on 1/3, it sent this message with the subject line “Marathon training or just a bit of stretching? We can help.”


I love how it kept the theme going instead of just sending a single message. I also love how it worked the New Year’s Resolution theme into its regular messages - on Jan. 2 and 4 it sent emails offering new products.


As you plan your 2015 campaigns, it’s time to think about daily deployments. Last year saw a big increase in the number of retailers that email daily. In fact, 12% of the Internet Retailer Top 500 send daily, with another 12% sending between 20 and 29 emails per month. Those retailers are seizing the opportunity to engage customers daily. Are you?











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Friday, January 2, 2015

Top 5 Failed Business Resolutions in the New Year

If you’re at the point where your team is about to meet internally or with clients to assess a 2015 strategy, make sure that none of your efforts mirror the following list of the top 5 failed resolutions.Related Articles

  1. New Year’s Resolutions for the Savvy Email Marketer

  2. Free Holiday Email Templates

  3. Customize a New Year’s Day Template to Share the Love






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#AWeberLife: December 2014

Email Marketing: What Parts of It Are Dead and What Parts Are Very Much Alive

As we kick off the new year it's time to look at email marketing as a whole and realize that although some parts are changing and dying off, most facets of email marketing are here to stay.





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