Robotic Marketer Blog Posts from June 2022
How To Create Marketing Newsletters People Will Actually Read
Amongst marketers, there is a consensus when talking about the distraught feeling of when so much effort and time is put into a piece of work, only for it to be put in the bin or not even looked at for more than a second. Marketers would much rather have bad reviews than no reviews, implying that their piece of work acknowledged.
If the thought that marketing newsletter aren’t important, well- reconsider. Marketing newsletters are great for readers, updating them on current trends and announcements, promotions or any tips and tricks. Allowing marketers to focus on niche content, further enhancing engagement and knowledge of viewers.
However, the content isn’t the issue- well, sometimes. It’s jumping over the hurdle of viewership, what drives a person to want to open and read a newsletter once they received it.
What is a Marketing Newsletter?
Marketing Newsletters are ways companies distribute information and product-oriented content via e-mail, this is comprised of existing customers, subscribers or those that would be interested.
The focal point is to continue educating and updating consumers, by providing entertaining and engaging content, which compels them to further read.
First things First…
Before I get into ways to make effective marketing newsletters, hear me out. Let’s be honest, a lot of marketing newsletters are simply not engaging… boring if you want to phrase it bluntly.
What exactly makes marketing newsletters join the long list of unopened emails?
Most marketers forget the newsletter is not a diary, going from one topic to another, and even if it is just about the one topic, it’s way too long. In other words, GET TO THE POINT.
The newsletter should be fun, insightful, engaging, and spontaneous, not, well- anything except for those four. Trying to balance too many things at once never work out, even if you are the great marketer of all time.
Don’t be afraid to spice it up, make the newsletter as carefree and enjoyable as possible. Remember, you are demanding for the viewers time and effort, the least you can do is make it worth every minute of their time.
Finding your niche
When writing your marketing newsletter, what is the one important thing you are trying to give to the reader? What do you want them taking away from the newsletter?
The desire to delve deep about the intricate details behind a product is known, but people don’t simply have time for that. The average attention span of a person ranges from 8-10 seconds, so if you can’t grab the reader’s attention within that time, I think we all know how that goes.
A great way to find your niche is ensuring your content is relevant, ensuring you’re incentivizing the viewer for reading from start to finish. Speaking of incentives, we’ll go into that very soon.
It really comes to this, what message are you trying to convey, how does a new or existing customer benefit from this, and what can they do with this new piece of information… it’s as simple as that.
Consumer Value
Marketing newsletters are great for consumers who want to remain updated on relevant news, or products. It’s a great way to expand and personally reach a larger audience. They’re a great way to put a company’s flare into the text, showing the effort to detail and desire to inform the consumer.
As previously mentioned, most people just type up a page of nonsense that ends up in the rubbish, correct? These letters provide no value to the consumer, and even if they did, you failed to intrigue the consumer.
Demonstrate the reasoning behind creating the newsletter- why you decided to send the mail to them personally, what you want to achieve out of this. It may not be the best, but anybody can appreciate the value behind anything that’s personalized just for them.
Format
Remember who your audience is, if the demographic is of much older age, then don’t put in hundreds of Gifs and colors in the middle of your text, you’re appealing to nobody.
A key balance between humor, formality and just the right amount of color will do you justice. If you are going thoroughly into a product or other related news, remember to break it up, make it as easy of a read as possible
Mobile Formatting
There is no excuse as a marketer to not be aware of mobile phone web traffic, however, if you don’t know, that number is nearly reaching 90%.
Ensuring your newsletter is accessible on multiple devices, predominately mobile phones is a MUST if you want to increase viewership.
Call-to-Action (CTA)
You ever heard the saying don’t put all your eggs in one basket? Remember, you have already done a great deal of work creating a newsletter for the viewer. Give them a reason to sit on the edge of the seat, something to further investigate.
Using a CTA at the end of the newsletter is a great way to achieve this. Not only has the viewer gained what they needed but prompt them to go explore more products/services on the site.
Remember the incentives we mentioned? Another great way to generate more traffic, offer a discount or early access code for new-line products. In doing so, you have managed to inform the viewer around a topic, encourage them to go into the site rewarding them with something intangible. There is 100% the next marketing newsletter you publish and send out, they will have never of clicked on an email faster in their lives (Don’t be afraid to tease).
All in all, if you want your marketing newsletter to be read by people, then you need to reconsider quite a bit. Remember to keep your newsletter centralized around a theme, keeping it concise, fun, and spontaneous. In addition to this, incentivize the viewer for reading the letter- with both discounts and knowledge.
Image Source: Shutterstock_1995267494
The Biggest Challenge In Marketing Is You
Marketers are always having to learn, adapt, adjust campaigns, and address a range of challenges. Today, marketing is so fast paced that it can be difficult to identify which areas you want to develop to facilitate stronger growth in 2022 and the future. If you’re a marketer who sees the same challenge every year, it might be a barrier worth putting on your radar. However, some challenges can be industry wide.
8 Digital Media and Advertising Predictions for 2022 – Part2
We are all looking for the next big thing, as we’ve seen a digital reform throughout all industries and how vital it is to have a presence in the digital space. It is easier said than done however, as much as we were collectively blindsided by the pandemic, we were also unprepared for the changes to come.
Fast forward to this point in time, marketing is vastly different in comparison to the past few years. Marketing is one of the nimblest industries, as it always finds new ways to stay ahead of the game. I’m going to tell you 8 Digital Media and Advertising predictions and trends to look out for in 2022.
- Facebook Wi-Fi
Facebook Wi-Fi is a service that offers customers free Wi-Fi, in which they are to log in and check in within a business page. This may seem overlooked currently but will prove to be beneficial over the next coming year. Bad reception, low battery or running out of data, Facebook Wi-Fi is the solution, that both the consumer and business benefit from this.
Businesses who utilize this maximize visibility, increase web traffic, and increase conversion rates. Facebook Wi-Fi will be employed by many local/big businesses, and we highly recommend jumping on it early before it explodes. Read here for more on Facebook Wi-Fi.
- AR/VR Marketing Campaigns
AR is the future, even if it is a slow adoption process, it is what marketing is going to look like. Whether you have come to terms with it or not, it’s going to be the basis of operations and interactions in years to come. How does this impact Marketing? Let me tell you.
AR/VR work hand-in-hand with the Metaverse, which we will talk about later, is an infinite world of possibilities. Brands are already taking advantage of this, allowing users to gain a further understanding of behind-the-scenes operations and the intricacy of perfection that goes into the product.
It has been clearly stated that the AR/VR platforms plan to monetize their services with mass marketing and advertising. This is great news for businesses, allowing them to reach a larger market. AR/VR continues to unravel its true potential and you don’t want to miss out on the ample opportunities it has to offer.
- Web 3.0
There is a consensus on how powerful and ever-changing the online space is. What people don’t realize is how close we are to another great change to the web. Web 3.0 allows smaller projects to challenge large corporations like Google, Amazon and Facebook. Web 3.0 is described to give a “much greater level of freedom, decentralization, and democracy for individual users, content creators, and projects.” – Mason Nystrom from Messari.
What does this all mean for everyone? It allows individuals and businesses to gain full ownership and control of the content they create. Ultimately allowing marketers to control their data and privacy with the removal of centralized authority. This may be a little overwhelming to understand now but read here for more on Web 3.0.
- AI Content Generators
AI evolution isn’t confined to capabilities, but its ability to mimic human behaviour. AI is being programmed to understand the psychological and emotional aspects of humans; our triggers, likes, dislikes etc.
There may be a possibility that AI is beginning to generate efficient content, based on recent popular posts. By not only being able to identify millions of posts at once but the keyword, designs and all the elements that go into successful posts. Could this be detrimental to the longevity of Marketers? All we can say is this could be a huge game-changer if we deem so.
- Metaverse
Mark Zuckerberg has done what people have been prophesizing for a very long time; the creation of a digital interactive world. If you don’t know about the Metaverse, allow us to catch you up. Metaverse is a digital space that allows you to virtually explore and interact with almost anything. From playing basketball in the Bahamas or playing chess with people from across the globe, the possibilities are endless.
Metaverse has plans to add virtual shopping with big and small brands across all industries and has already begun trials. The Metaverse is something marketers MUST get on board with, as the benefits far outweigh any outliers. If you think the Metaverse is just a fad, well guess again. It isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, so if you are a marketer looking to break barriers for your brand/business, this is the place to be.
- Interactive content
An advertiser’s dream is to give the consumer a 100% understanding of what message they’re trying to convey. Even then, it may not be enough. Thanks to our forever adapting world, we have figured out a way to achieve this, interactive content.
We have seen social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok create advertisements that allow users to interact with the content. Whether it’s a filter, virtual mini-game, assessing clothing options etc, this is only the beginning, and several brands are already investing and exploiting this opportunity.
- Ad Optimizing
Advertising platforms like Facebook are adapting to the pace of the market. With these changes, advertisements and websites are automatically optimized. This smart optimization can pick up on Google’s algorithm and any changes/trends that arise. From this data, it can suggest or even make the changes necessary.
This level of technology will drastically budget on SEO and Marketer costs, allowing more time to be invested in other aspects like content creation rather than site maintenance. We could potentially see this be deployed further down the year.
- Short Form Videos
Short videos will eventually take up the entirety of the internet, as lengthy written posts/videos are slowly dying out. TikTok skyrocketed the trend of short-form videos and has seen Instagram and Facebook make efforts to replicate the idea.
Short-form videos have significantly higher views, replays and completion rates than a video that would go longer than 15 seconds. We are seeing major high-end brands like Gucci and BMW create short 8-second videos. 2022 is the year we will see a seismic increase in short-form videos from a range of brands and businesses.
- Podcasting
In addition to short-form videos and blogs taking up the majority of the content of businesses and brands, we are witnessing the rise of podcasting. Strict lockdowns globally during the pandemic resorted to people working remotely. As a result, people explored the innovative and extraverted side of themselves, speaking about diversified issues to the full extent on their podcasts.
We have seen people investigate topics including social controversy, brands/businesses that are a must-visit or merely simple interests. Podcasts are a great way to engage with a larger audience that is normally difficult to reach, allowing for monetization, advertisements to be promoted and even new products/services available. Many partnerships are being made between brands and podcasters, which is expected to escalate as the platform will continue to increase in popularity.
The digital space is perpetually growing, and new opportunities are constantly arising businesses that adopt new practices first are at an advantage. Something helpful today may be irrelevant tomorrow, therefore the digital space offers boundless opportunities for explorations and therefore we cannot stay complacent. The current market refuses to sit still, so these mentioned trends in our near future are a must if you want to stay lucrative and agile.
Written by Costantino Papamikroulis
5 end of financial year marketing ideas to boost sales
It’s the time of year when you may have noticed a few EOFY signs in stores around you. The end of the financial year presents businesses with an opportunity to gain new customers and increase sales. It’s an ideal time to implement new marketing ideas to help improve sales. It may be overwhelming for businesses, especially small businesses, to navigate this time of the year. Whether it’s your businesses first time in the season or after hitting a wall with ideas after many years in the game, here are a few marketing tips your business can use this EOFY season to help boost sales.
New year, new website
Right before the EOFY is an excellent time to make an audit of your website and assess its traffic. Are the contents up to date? Is it up to par with the latest digital trends? How is the SEO of the content on your website? Note anything that might need to be changed, including layout or design changes. A new website can help boost traffic, which can convert to sales.
You could promote the new changes on your social media and perhaps introduce a promotion that could drive customers to your new revamped website. Remember to highlight any EOFY promotions on your website and that they have a compelling call to action. Placements of these promotions and calls to action on your website are also crucial to get customers’ attention and turn them from passive customers to active ones.
Sneak peek into the year ahead
The EOFY season is a great opportunity to get rid of old stock while also introducing new stock. While it presents itself with a chance to have sales on the old stock, it is also the best time to promote the latest products. Social media can be used to tease these new products and encourage customers to sign up to your business’s mailing list to get a heads up about the upcoming products that will be available soon. Having incentives to join a mailing list could also be established, such as having pre-orders for the new products or having discount coupons for signing up.
An ideal way to present the new products is to not reveal all of them at once. Build a social media campaign that spans over a few days, teasing or revealing each product; once that is done, open pre-orders or introduce the discounts. This results in customers returning to your website or social media, which establishes better traffic and customer retention. However, be careful not to overwhelm your audience with the campaign; the idea is to keep them intrigued for long enough that they will still be excited and or curious enough to return, which will more likely turn into actual purchases.
Rewards with purchases
Customers love to be rewarded, and there are multiple ways to make a customer feel like they’ve received value for their money. A great way to achieve this and boost sales is by offering gifts or redeemable coupons on purchases. There are different ways to go about this. One could offer a free product (or from a choice of products) with purchases above a specific value. Another could be offering a discount for the next time the customer buys from your business, which is an added way for customers to return in the future.
EOFY is also an ideal time to introduce offers such as ‘Buy One Get One’ (BOGO) or ‘Buy Two Get One’ deal.
Apart from keeping customers happy and feeling like they are being rewarded with a gift, it is also an opportunity to clear out any unwanted stock, which helps with the stock takes for the financial reports for taxes. Most small businesses struggle to carry out year-end audits on stocks and must conduct them manually rather than use expensive technology, which is time consuming and could lead to errors. Therefore, the BOGO type incentives have multiple benefits to keep customers and employees happy while helping your business grow.
Loyalty pays
Many customers look forward to the EOFY season because of the number of sales by different businesses they want to participate in; this provides a good opportunity to introduce a loyalty point program that can be used not only to boost sales but also for customer retention. The guarantee of a loyal customer buying from you during a sale is always much higher, and you are highly likely to gain new customers during this time too. When there is this kind of traffic to your business, it’s a great time to introduce a loyalty program. Loyalty programs allow you to capitalize on the present ongoing sale while future proofing and creating revenue in the future.
Optimization and visibility
Remember that your business will not be the only one vying for a customer’s attention. It’s a season where all businesses will put their best foot forward, so you must ensure your business stands out above the rest. With whatever might be left off your financial budget at the end of the year, invest it in digital marketing tools such as Google Ads or professional SEO marketing help from an expert. In recent years, countless pieces of evidence have proven the benefits of these strategies resulting in high ROIs.
Running paid advertisements during the EOFY season will help boost traffic to your website at the best times. As it is, many customers already have an incentive to make the most of the sales during this time, so they will now need to be guided to your business with the right visibility. SEO marketing also has the added benefit of helping a business in the financial year ahead by appearing on the first page of searches when a new product launches. SEO marketing helps you in identify the specific keywords that people are searching for during the EOFY season which can help you optimise your content accordingly to boost your websites visibility further.
Author: Jenny Varghese
Image Source: Shutterstock
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