The Found Gen

Marketing That Works.

Search Results for: email

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Social, Blogging, Email – Oh My

You have about 1,001 things to do for your business. We get it. You’ve got orders to fill, clients’ demands to meet, emails to respond to and make sure you don’t forget to eat all day.

Multitasking is just the beginning of your business juggling act.

And then you’ve got the content to create, post and coordinate in a seamless content marketing plan. How can you possibly make it all work?

Well, no one ever said running a business was easy, but we have some tips that will make your content campaign run a little smoother and more effective. And, most importantly, lighten your workload.

How’s your content marketing plan, really?

What’s your content achieving without an overarching strategy to create and disseminate your message? It’s time to take a good, hard look at your content marketing plan. Answer some of these questions about your mission and goals: Who is your target audience? What content and what platforms will you use to reach them? What problems are you solving for your target audience?

Then you need a way to measure your success. Set your key performance indicators (KPIs) to gain evaluative measurements on how your strategy is performing.

Lastly, you need to know where to place that great content to get the best results. Find out where your customers are. Think strategically and identify the channels and resources available to you to best amplify your content.

Outsource

The most important thing you can do to take some of the weight off of your shoulders is to outsource. There are literally thousands of companies and individuals that specialize in content generation and meeting your marketing needs. Of course, finding the right content marketing strategist can be easier said than done.

You need to find someone who can speak in your brand’s voice, understand your industry and write content that provides provide value. When content provides value, it doesn’t feel like a marketing ploy. It’s communicating authentically, building trust along the way. And people do business with people they trust.

Unless you have the time available to create all your business’s content (which is full-time job and then some), you should absolutely, unequivocally outsource your content creation.

Schedule it out

Got a content calendar? You better. Without a detailed and fully fleshed out content calendar, you’re essentially tossing your content into the void and hoping for the best. You’re running the risk of wasting all your content with haphazard scheduling. Plus, you’re making the management of your entire strategy more difficult than it needs be.

A content calendar creates organization, consistency and quality, plus it gives you a way to further improve your strategy through metrics. You can better predict the seasonality and trends of your industry and set your business up for long-term success.

Synchronize

A content calendar will help a ton with coordinating your various content marketing campaigns by fostering an underlying strategy of synchronizing your content. Blogs can build off of each other and create a system for internal links that are great for SEO and keep the customers spending time on your site. Your social campaign can be fueled by your blogs and vice versa. Newsletters and blogs can boost and add to each other’s content. All those blogs you’re writing could build up to an eBook, case studies or white papers.

Creating all this content in a vacuum is not effective. Let your content come together to create an overarching strategy. This saves time and makes for a more effective campaign.

Sometimes managing your content can feel overwhelming. Take it off your plate. You have more important things to do. You should be focusing on the things that you do best, the things that bring you joy.

Let us help you create a content marketing strategy and manage all your content. You’ll breathe easier knowing that your content is in caring and professional hands. And you’ll free up time to focus on building up other aspects of your business.

Let us show you how we can help.

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How to Write an Email for Maximum Impact

Your inbox is waiting for you the minute you wake up in the morning and it doesn’t stop until you turn it off at night (and not even then, really). If it feels like you’re submerged in a deluge of email messages, you’re not alone. We too know what it feels like to be inundated with irrelevant messages and sub-par subject lines.

But as you swipe through your inbox, every now and then you may notice something that gives you pause, begs you to ponder, and maybe, just maybe, click open. Yes, those are the emails we’re going to talk about. Those are the emails that make an impact, and shouldn’t every message you send to your clients or potential clients make an impact?

Here’s a simple formula for giving your emails the edge they need to get opened, get read, and get them across the finish line:

Get your email newsletters opened

Your emails can’t make an impact if they are not even opened. So, step one is to craft a compelling enough subject line that intrigues your readers to take the next step and open your message. But it’s not just the subject line that matters, it’s also the combination of having a trustworthy and familiar “from” name and email address combined with that captivating subject line.

Get your emails read

Start your email with maximum value – get to the point right away and give them a reason to continue reading your message. When you offer a relevant message and write it in a way that connects with your readers, you are much more likely to get them to take action.

Get them take an action

At the end of each email, it’s your turn to ask something of your reader. A smart and simple call-to-action is just what it takes to nudge them along. Maybe it’s something like, “Let’s Do It!” or “Sign Me Up.” Your call-to-action should be clear and impactful. Buttons work well, bold or different colored fonts do too – anything to stand out from the rest of your message and force your reader to take notice.

Writing an impactful email doesn’t have to be hard, but you do have to be smart about it. With short attention spans and stiff competition in your readers’ inboxes, taking the time to write a careful email can be the difference between your message ending up in the trash bin (or worse – spam!) and securing a new lead.

For help with email and all of your content marketing needs, we’ve got you covered. Contact us today at The Found Gen or hit us up on Instagram @thefoundgen.

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Is Email Marketing Really as Good as We Keep Preaching?

Yes!

Social media seems to rule everything around us. Online channels appear to be taking over the minds and hearts of consumers (and politicians) across the globe. With the landscape of marketing changing so much, and our attention spans getting shorter and shorter, is email dead?

Not even close.

Email marketing is still alive and kicking and it remains an indispensable tool for drawing in new customers, retaining old ones and building brand awareness. Email marketing is one of the simplest, most direct and most effective forms of marketing. Sorry TikTok, but you’re not monopolizing the marketing world just yet.

Let’s take a look at some of the top reasons why email marketing trumps so many other marketing strategies. We’ll start with the staggering number of email users across the globe. In 2019, there were 3.9 billion email users and by 2024 that number is expected to rise to 4.48 billion users. That’s more than half the people on the planet!

Top reasons to use email marketing

In email marketing the big idea is that you are speaking to a base of subscribers that has already invested in your brand. Rather than speaking to a bunch of strangers in a crowd, you’re talking directly to people who are already sold on your product or service, or are in the process of converting.

For all these reasons and more email marketing is effective because it’s: targeted, measurable, cost-effective and invites engagement.

  • It’s targeted to reach exactly who you want to reach. If your email list is robust enough, you can target by lead status, demographics, location, etc.
  • It’s measurable because you can gage the success of your campaign with key metrics like open rate, bounce rate, click-through rate, etc. With these kind of analytics at your fingertips you can measure and modify your campaigns to make them the most effective.
  • It’s cost-effective as heck! Want the most bang for your marketing buck? Email marketing has an average return of $54 for every $1 you spend. That’s a 5300% increase. That kind of ROI is almost unheard of in marketing.
  • Finally, email marketing is great for engagement. On Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, the engagement rate averages at less than 0.6%. The average open rate of emails is 22.86% with a click-through rate of 3.71%. Yeah, social media can’t touch this…

While nothing in marketing is foolproof or guaranteed, email marketing ranks high among the most effective forms of communication and sales. That’s why we preach it. That’s why we will keep singing its praises.

Long live email marketing!

And, hey, if you need help with your email campaigns or newsletters we’ve got you covered from seriously great design to automation, personalization and deliverability – oh and not to mention, dynamic content that’s sure to tickle the fancies of your audience. We put the “Eeee!” in email.

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Email Newsletter vs. Email Blasts

“Newsletters are boring. My mom is the only one who reads them.”

Well, you have a point. Kind of. See, old-school newsletters with line after line of squeezed-together text telling you everything and anything that seems important but truly isn’t, in the same exact font and with the same exact artwork as last month’s…well, you have a point. Kind of.

Here at The Found Gen, we’re not interested in making your mom’s newsletter. (Unless she’s super current and wants to be inspired at a rapid-fire clip. That’s our kind of mom.)

Here’s what an email newsletter should do:

  • Our newsletters grab you by your shoulders and shake you a little bit and persuade you to try a new thing we’ve just made – just a taste, you’re going to love it!
  • Our ultimate goal is to have people see our clients’ newsletters in their inbox and clap their hands. Too much? Okay, then. A smile and an immediate open will do.
  • Send your reader somewhere else. No, literally send them somewhere else. A link to an article you’re sure your audience will find useful, an exciting event you’re hosting, an update on your latest (and greatest) project to date, or straight to your booking site.
  • Prompt your customers to action. We want them to think, “I’ve got to do this,” and “I want in on this,” and “Sign me up.”

“But what about an email blast?” you may be thinking. “Should I send one of those instead? They sound quite exciting”

If an email newsletter is a four-course meal that’s satisfying in every flavor, an email blast is simply an amuse bouche. By definition, this petite delicacy is served to both prepare the guest for the meal and to offer a glimpse into the chef’s approach. It’s a mouth amuser. And so, an email blast is exactly that: an amuser, a morsel, and just enough to give your customers a taste of what’s possible.

Here’s the trick: An email blast’s job is the same as a newsletter’s intent. It should inspire, entertain, send your reader somewhere else, and prompt your customers to action. Just a little faster and a lot shorter in format. Hence, the blast part of its name.

At The Found Gen, we know when to send a newsletter and when to send a blast. More importantly, we know what to include in both to elicit the response you want: business, business, and more business.

Call us to schedule a consultation. You can bring your mom, if you’d like. She’d love us.

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Luring Business Travelers? This Is How to Focus Your Email Content

It’s common for hotels to see a lot of business during the weekend, but unfortunately, some may remain pretty quiet during the week. Increasing visits from business guests is a great way to improve your occupancy during the week—you just need to let them know you have their needs covered.

Business travelers are looking for an office-away-from-home, as well as a home-away-from-home. It’s important to offer your business guests a comfortable and convenient stay as well as the amenities and services that will help them work efficiently. You probably already have conference rooms, wi-fi and efficient transportation, but you need to spread the word about why your offerings are the best in town.

Business travelers are a great target audience for any hotel to cater to, because they often turn into repeat business. So, how do you keep them coming back? Here’s how hotels should focus their content to lure in business travelers:

Take them to your site

A solid online presence will help you increase bookings from business travelers. All of your email and web content should eventually lead them to your site. Your website should highlight your property’s location and the amenities and services that business travelers care about, including business equipment, meeting space, dry cleaning services, transportation, dining options and anything else that’s unique about your property.

And, if your site isn’t mobile friendly, you need to put that at the top of your to-do list. Businesspeople are busy and will appreciate anything that saves them time and lets them access the information that they need really quickly.

Help them be productive

Each time a business traveler sets foot on your property, be sure to collect their email addresses so that you can stay in contact through email newsletters. Constant communication is key when it comes to maintaining relationships with your business guests. Tell them about what will help make their stay more productive and efficient before they arrive. Give them details about how to reserve the meeting rooms, request an airport pick-up, or make restaurant reservations through your email content.

Post-stay communication with business guests is just as important as the communication before their arrival. Send special business packages and discounts through email for their next stay. And, always encourage them to tell you what services or amenities will help improve their future stays and then inform them of any new changes made.

Generic emails or those that promote amenities and services geared more toward leisure guests will seem irrelevant and unhelpful to most business guests. And, always focus on convenience, efficiency, and smooth-running technology.

Need some help focusing your email content? Let’s talk.

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Why You Should Embrace Email Marketing in 2018: Target customers where they are

Apps, push notifications, and social media have taken the business world by storm. But lately, the space has become overcrowded, making it tough for customers to sift through the information overload and pick out what’s truly important. It’s almost impossible to consistently reach the same customers through your app or social media newsfeed these days.

So, why not try email marketing?

Emails were once the most effective means of marketing online…until social media and push notifications arrived. In a digital world that demands all of our attention, people are beginning to ignore their push notifications when they pile up. We want to reach and relate to our customers, not annoy them.

Here are a few reasons why you should embrace email marketing in 2018:

It generates solid ROI

Return on investment is one of the most important elements of marketing. If it requires an investment, it should produce an outcome that justifies that investment, as well as creates profits. Email marketing doesn’t cost much at all: no postage fees, no advertisement fees, no mobile app, and no printing costs. All you need is someone who has the talent for creating relatable content with the right graphics for the right people and a platform to send emails.

 

An extremely important stat for using marketing emails for businesses: 320% more revenue is attributed to welcome emails on a per-email basis than other promotional emails.

 It’s shareable on social media

Nearly 105 billion emails are sent each day.  Emails are easily shareable to social media. Other forms of communication, like in-app messaging or push notifications, are completely private and your customers can’t share them with their friends through social media platforms. You can also post your email marketing content on your social media pages or blog to reach existing and potential customers at once.

It’s completely measurable

No matter which email marketing tool you decide to use, it will provide you with all kinds of details about your emails: total link clicks, people who unsubscribed, time with the most opens, subscribers that opened the email the most number of times, and most popular links from emails. Whatever you want to know, it will tell you. Deep analytics like this enable you to make well-balanced, strategic decisions to make sure your email marketing campaign is effective. Keep in mind that video emails see click-through rates 96% higher than non-video emails, so consider adding video to some of your content.

It’s personalized

Customers prefer companies that they know, trust, and like, which means blasting your emails to everybody and hoping it reaches a ton of people that like your offers and content isn’t going to cut it. Pinpointing information aimed at your target audience is going to achieve much better results because the information will be personalized and specific. You don’t want your customers to start ignoring your emails like they do others’ push notifications and newsfeeds, so focus and divide your users according to demographics, interests, and behaviors so they will act on your emails every time. Segmented email campaigns see 100.95% more clicks than non-segmented campaigns.

Email marketing allows the customer to look at the content when they choose, instead of accidentally ignoring it because they feel bombarded. If you don’t know where to start to create relatable, personal content for your email marketing campaign, get in touch with us. At the Found Gen, we can help you create valuable content that will make a change for the better in your marketing strategy.