Email Marketing: An In-Depth Guide via @sejournal, @BennyJamminS

Email is as a highly effective direct marketing channel and could be considered the modern version of direct response marketing.

Email marketing campaigns are core strategies in modern digital marketing, with entire businesses successfully built on the communication channel.

The real benefit of email marketing is the direct relationship you can build with your audience that you can control without the threat of a third party closing an account. A qualified email marketing list is priceless!

At a time when search platforms are getting more aggressive with advertising, generative AI is taking away organic traffic and some social media platforms are unstable, email is a way that brands can engage with their users and nurture trusted relationships.

Keep reading to understand how you can use email marketing to connect with your audience.

What Makes Email Such An Effective Marketing Channel?

Email marketing can be highly effective due to a variety of factors:

• Opt-in: Because automated emails must be opt-in and have opt-out options, email audiences are often highly engaged.
• Engagement data and segmentation: With the right email marketing platform, you can leverage data to improve how you create and target emails. You can also ask users for their preferences and organize campaigns around responses.
• Push marketing: Rather than waiting for users to input keywords, you can deliver experiences to them based on their activity history or a set of stated preferences.
• Personal and professional distinction: People will often sign up for emails using the most appropriate email address for the use case. This is great for B2B businesses because it enables you to reach people while they’re in a professional environment and mindset.
• Advanced automation: Email marketing platforms can help you create automated campaigns and customized experiences based on what you know about your customers. You can deliver different communications and email types to different user groups and move users into different automated tracks based on their behavior.
• Testing: It’s incredibly easy to test messaging, subject lines, segmentation, etc., with email marketing platforms.

This combination of advanced functionality and a strong connection between your audiences and your brand enables powerful marketing campaigns for many different types of businesses, whether you’re a publisher or an ecommerce store.

How Email Marketing Fits Into Your Campaigns

Email is one channel among many. Even email-only newsletters need other channels to acquire subscribers.

Generally, email is a channel for audiences who are aware of you in some way. They might have purchased a product, downloaded a document, signed up for a free trial, signed up for a newsletter, or set an alert.

Email audiences have usually taken action to end up on your mailing list. This makes it a critical channel for cultivating relationships, moving users through consideration stages in a sales process, or re-engaging users who took previous actions.

In combination with organic discovery strategies like social media, SEO, and paid advertising like search engine marketing, email campaigns can improve how well you can reach and convert audiences.

Building An Email Marketing Campaign

Your email list is a powerful tool. If you use the opportunities it presents you, you can enhance not only your marketing campaigns but how well you understand your audience and the effectiveness of your tactics.

With an email list and the right platform, you have access to:

• Information that people give you about themselves when signing up for offers or curating their experiences.
• Information about the emails they open and actions they take in those emails.
• The ability to connect actions that people take on your website to their email so that you can understand their needs and motivations, follow up on incomplete actions, and provide personalized experiences.
• The ability to segment your audience into personas and tag them based on specific needs, situations, and demographic information.

Email campaigns are your opportunity to put timely and focused offers in front of the right people at the right time, as well as cultivate their interest and trust.

For a campaign to be successful, you need to know what you want from your audience and what problems they come to you to solve. To build an effective email campaign, you need:

1. A compelling offer to sign up for emails and provide you with information.

To find this compelling offer, you need to know what offer is valuable enough to trade for information and inbox access. This could be:

• A downloadable report.
• A newsletter.
• The opportunity for exclusive or unique offers.
• Updates on a specific product or release.

2. Tracking and tagging. Tagging is the true power of email marketing.

Ask people to submit basic information like their age, interests, or company size when they sign up.

But you should also look for an email platform that allows automated tagging, for example when someone completes or begins but does not complete an action on your website.

3. Custom campaigns and “tracks” based on information and behavior.

Based on the data you gather, you can create custom campaigns for different types of users. This should include:

• Different email cadences are based on their level of engagement so that you don’t risk turning people off by communicating too frequently or too little.
• Customized offers and reminders based on interests and behavior.
• Unique content for different segments of your audience to focus on their specific needs.
• Automated responses to action and inaction that change a user’s experience. For example, moving users who don’t open emails to a specific campaign designed to reengage them.

4. Testing and experimentation. Email is one of the best ways to test your messaging.

You can test subject lines, different offers, and ads, your conversion optimization, etc., and the right platform will give you all the engagement data you need to refine your campaigns.

Separate a group into different test campaigns to compare performance so that you’re always improving and gaining insights about your audience.

Email mailing lists are your engaged audience. Take the opportunity to get to know them.

Different Types Of Emails In Email Marketing

Depending on your business model and your audience, you may need different types of emails – and different combinations – in your campaigns.

Some campaigns will be more directly promotional, while others will focus on information.

You need to understand why someone signed up to receive emails in the first place to determine what kinds of emails to send them. You can do that by tracking how they signed up. Was it through an offer page? A digital download? A social media promotion?

You should also collect people’s preferences as they sign up and through welcome emails to better understand their needs.

Once you understand the intent behind an email signup and the user’s preferences, you can choose the best types of emails to send.

An email marketing platform should be able to do this for you automatically, entering users into different segments to receive types of emails based on their preferences.

Promotional Emails

Promotional emails are focused on conversions. They’re for audience segments that you’ve identified as likely to make a purchase but maybe need a little more enticing.

For example, it might be a user who has items in their cart but didn’t make a purchase. Or a user who went through the process of customizing a product but didn’t add it to their cart.

You might have identified them as someone waiting for a sale or shopping around.

It’s helpful to add incentives to promotional emails so that users get additional value for being on the mailing list.

Remind them of a discount code, or reward them for following through on an abandoned purchase by promising a future discount.

It’s important to be careful and intentional with these emails because they often get shunted into promotion-specific inboxes and lost in a sea of other promotions.

Running a nurture campaign to convince audiences to whitelist these emails could be an effective tactic.

Newsletters And Service Emails

Newsletters and emails containing news and information can be a service or business model themselves.

Alternatively, you can use this service to keep connected with audiences and keep them engaged with your brand, even if your business model isn’t newsletter-based.

Putting true informational value in people’s inboxes is difficult, and not all businesses are set up to do it effectively. These types of emails work best for companies that already invest in educational content or news.

If you don’t have an existing mechanism for content production, be aware that these emails are high-effort!

The tradeoff is that audiences are more likely to engage with emails regularly if they get genuine value from a newsletter.

You can build strong trust with audiences, and if the newsletter is successful, open a new revenue stream with in-email advertising.

Company Information And Update Emails

You can send emails with information about your company, although the audiences that respond well to them may be limited.

Investors are an example of an audience group that would be highly invested in company update emails.

Be careful with the cadence of these because they can get lost, just like promotional emails.

Welcome Emails

Welcome emails are important for setting expectations, gathering information, and beginning nurturing campaigns.

In a welcome email, you can give users information about the track they’re on, the cadence of emails, what information they can expect, etc.

You can also use welcome emails to guide users through the next steps and instruct them on how to customize their experience.

Nurturing Emails

Nurture emails take a slow and gradual approach to engagement and winning conversions.

They are critical to any email campaign because they create touchpoints with users and can help lead them to an eventual business goal like a conversion or sale.

These emails attempt to move users into consideration stages in a journey or assist them with their consideration and comparison activities.

They might include reminders, information about free services or information, or check-ins to ask users to update their communication preferences.

Re-Engagement Emails

Re-engagement is very similar to nurturing but occurs when a user is colder.

If they haven’t interacted with an email in a while, you can move them to a re-engagement campaign that presents them with specific reminders or offers to try and get them to become an engaged user again.

It’s important to keep email lists clean by removing users who haven’t engaged for a long time.

If you’re gathering data from your email list or selling advertising, this ensures that you don’t have inflated data. However, before you kick users off an email list, you should enter them into a re-engagement campaign to see if you can pull them back in.

Feedback, Survey, And Review Emails

Direct feedback is one of the best ways to get information about your audience.

Surveys can be used to create content with first-party data, and feedback surveys can help you further customize user experiences. Reviews can be used as social proof.

These types of emails can also be combined with sales and nurturing campaigns to increase retention and conversions. Offering people rewards for providing their feedback can lead to additional conversions.

Choosing Your Email Platform

Consider the functionality and your needs, and growth potential when you’re choosing an email platform.

Some of the core functions you should look for are:

• Tagging and segmentation: You need to be able to work with the data you have about your list and separate users into groups. This helps you create customized campaigns.
• Automated campaigns and timing: Email platforms should give you the ability to create a set of rules and emails and apply them to a group. This includes all of the emails to be sent, the timing of the emails, and tracking results.
• Website event tagging: You may need a platform that allows you to connect website behavior with email accounts. This can be critical for understanding user behavior and creating effective nurturing and re-engagement campaigns.
• Email behavior analysis: The platform should report metrics like open rates and in-email conversions and follow conversions from email onto the website to see what actions users take.
• Testing capabilities: Your email marketing platform should enable you to test different campaigns, different messaging, subject lines, images, and offers within specific audience segments and report on the compared effectiveness.

Email Marketing Is A Powerful “Middle” Strategy

Between awareness and a sale, there’s often an email. Or two or three. Or more.

Email lists are so valuable because they’re a direct source of information about who your audience is, what they want, and what they respond to. It’s also a relationship that you have a lot of control over.

The right platform with the right capabilities combined with a strong content strategy can increase the rate at which you gain conversions from audiences that are already aware of your brand.

With automation, you can set these processes to occur automatically.

More resources:

Featured Image: one photo/Shutterstock

Future Trends In B2B Influencer Marketing Across Industries

This edited extract is from B2B Influencer Marketing by Nick Bennett ©2024 and is reproduced and adapted with permission from Kogan Page Ltd.

Just a few years ago, B2B influencer marketing was a niche concept, reserved for selective people. Well, those days are long gone!

Today, the landscape is buzzing with activity, as brands and creators alike embrace the power of collaboration to reach targeted audiences and achieve their goals.

But what does the future hold for this dynamic field? Buckle up because we’re about to embark on a journey into the crystal ball to see what trends are shaping the future of B2B influencer marketing.

Predictions For The Future: What Lies Ahead In B2B Influencer Marketing

Let’s peer into the future and explore some of the exciting trends that are likely to shape the B2B influencer marketing landscape.

The Rise Of Interactive Content

Forget passive consumption – the future belongs to interactive content.

Imagine engaging your target audience with quizzes, polls, and assessments – or taking them on virtual tours and product demonstrations through VR and AR technology.

Interactive content promises a deeper level of engagement and knowledge retention, making it a powerful tool for B2B brands.

Beyond Sponsored Posts

Collaboration in the B2B influencer marketing space is about to go beyond the traditional sponsored post.

Long-term partnerships will allow brands and creators to build trust and develop deeper relationships, resulting in more authentic and impactful campaigns.

Additionally, we’ll see the emergence of new collaborative formats, such as co-created content and exclusive access to influencer communities, fostering a more collaborative and mutually beneficial environment.

LinkedInfluencers Take Off

While Instagram and TikTok have long dominated the influencer marketing scene, LinkedIn is quietly emerging as a powerhouse platform for B2B brands.

With its professional audience and focus on business-related content, LinkedIn presents a perfect opportunity to connect with industry leaders, decision-makers, and potential partners.

Imagine collaborating with a renowned LinkedIn influencer to share your brand’s expertise and thought leadership, reaching a highly targeted audience of potential customers. Who wouldn’t want that?

AI Takes The Wheel

Gone are the days of relying solely on human influencers. AI-powered bots are rising to the forefront, offering unparalleled opportunities for personalized engagement and content delivery.

Think of a virtual spokesperson, perfectly tailored to your brand voice and values, interacting with your audience in real-time and answering their questions with uncanny accuracy.

This new breed of influencers promises a future where brand messaging resonates with each individual, fostering deeper connections and amplifying your brand’s reach.

Multi-Platform Nomads

Consumers today are like nomadic tribes, constantly exploring the diverse landscapes of various social media platforms.

To reach them, we must become multi-platform cartographers, charting a course that encompasses the unique features of each digital territory.

We need to identify and collaborate with creators who hold sway over these ever-evolving communities, ensuring that your message reaches the right audience at the right time.

Affiliate Programs

Historically, the realms of marketing and sales have remained distinct entities. However, in the dynamic world of B2B influencer marketing, they are converging, forging a collaborative spirit that benefits both brands and influencers alike.

Affiliate programs act as treasure maps, leading brands to new audiences and potential customers.

Influencers, in turn, become trusted guides on this journey, promoting your offerings and sharing the spoils of success.

Immersive Brand Experiences

Virtual and augmented reality are no longer just science fiction – they’re becoming integral parts of the B2B marketing landscape.

Imagine immersing your target audience in virtual product demos, taking them on guided tours of your facilities, or even hosting interactive workshops and training sessions.

VR and AR offer unparalleled opportunities to create immersive and engaging experiences that resonate deeply with your audience.

TikTok Takes Center Stage

TikTok has transcended its initial hype, evolving into a powerful platform for B2B brands seeking to connect with younger audiences.

Its unique format of short, engaging videos offers a compelling opportunity to capture attention and deliver impactful messages in a quick and concise manner.

Imagine creating captivating narratives that unfold within seconds, leaving a lasting impression on potential customers and propelling your brand to the forefront of their minds.

Data-Driven Decisions

As the B2B influencer marketing landscape matures, data-driven decision-making becomes increasingly crucial.

Predictive analytics will allow brands to anticipate audience behavior and tailor their campaigns accordingly, while big data will provide valuable insights for precise audience targeting and engagement strategies.

By leveraging data effectively, brands can optimize their influencer marketing efforts and ensure they are reaching the right people with the right message at the right time.

Diversity And Inclusion

The B2B world is no longer a monochrome landscape. Consumers demand authenticity and representation, urging brands to embrace the richness of diversity and inclusion.

We must actively seek partnerships with creators from all walks of life, weaving a tapestry of perspectives and experiences into our marketing campaigns.

This not only ensures that your brand resonates with a wider audience but also fosters a sense of belonging and inclusivity within your community.

The Rise Of Specialized Influencers

Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all influencers. Today, we see the rise of specialized influencers who possess in-depth knowledge and expertise in specific niches and industries.

These “micro-influencers” may have smaller follower bases compared to mainstream figures, but they offer unparalleled reach and engagement within their targeted audience.

By partnering with specialists, brands can ensure their message resonates deeply with the right individuals, maximizing the effectiveness of their campaigns.

Future B2B Influencer Marketing Trends Across Industries

While the core trends of B2B influencer marketing resonate across industries, each sector faces unique opportunities and challenges.

Let’s delve into the crystal ball and forecast some industry-specific trends poised to shape the future.

Tech And SaaS

These days, the tech and SaaS industry is moving at lightning speed, and when it comes to B2B influencer marketing, it’s important to stay nimble and creative to keep up with the pace.

Imagine partnering with tech influencers who are early adopters of emerging technologies, showcasing your latest innovations through engaging demos and reviews.

This will help you reach a highly targeted audience and build brand awareness among tech enthusiasts and decision-makers.

Challenges:

• Technical expertise: Ensuring influencers have the technical knowledge to accurately represent your product or service.
• Competition: High saturation of tech influencers, making it crucial to choose the right fit for your brand.

Case Studies:

• Microsoft’s #SurfacePro campaign: Partnered with creative people from various professional backgrounds to showcase the Surface Pro’s capabilities through creative video content, driving significant sales and brand engagement (Green, 2022).
• IBM’s #ProjectDebater campaign: Collaborated with AI experts to create a debating AI program, generating widespread media coverage and thought leadership in the AI space (Stetka, 2024).

Healthcare And Pharma 

B2B influencer marketing in healthcare faces stringent regulations and ethical considerations. Transparency, compliance, and building trust are paramount.

Imagine collaborating with healthcare professionals who are active on social media, sharing valuable educational content and addressing sensitive topics with accuracy and empathy.

This can help you raise awareness about your healthcare solutions and build trust among medical professionals and patients alike.

Trends:

• Rise of micro-influencers: Partnering with healthcare professionals who have smaller, highly engaged communities can be more effective than collaborating with celebrities.
• Emphasis on patient stories: Sharing real patient experiences and testimonials through influencer content can build trust and emotional connection with the audience.

Challenges:

• Regulatory compliance: Ensuring all influencer content adheres to strict regulations and ethical guidelines.
• Sensitive topics: Navigating sensitive health-related issues with accuracy and sensitivity.

Finance And B2B Services

In the world of finance and B2B services, trust and authority are essential.

Imagine partnering with industry experts and thought leaders who can share their insights and expertise through webinars, blog posts, and social media content.

This can help you position yourself as a credible and reliable partner, attracting potential clients and expanding your reach within the industry.

Trends:

• Focus on long-term partnerships: Building long-term relationships with influencers fosters deeper trust and creates more impactful campaigns.
• Content diversification: Utilizing a variety of content formats, such as infographics, videos, and podcasts, to reach a wider audience and cater to different learning styles.

Challenges:

• Overcoming skepticism: Building trust and overcoming potential skepticism in a traditionally conservative industry.
• Maintaining compliance: Ensuring all financial information and claims are accurate and comply with regulatory standards.

These industry-specific trends offer just a glimpse into the exciting future of B2B influencer marketing.

By understanding the unique challenges and opportunities within each sector, brands can tailor their strategies and collaborate with the right influencers to achieve their goals.

Beyond The Numbers: Measuring The Impact Of Creator-First

The success of these campaigns extends beyond traditional metrics like clicks and impressions.

Creator-first strategies focus on deeper engagement, brand affinity, and, ultimately, driving business impact. Here are some key KPIs to consider:

• Social media engagement: Likes, comments, shares, and mentions are indicators of audience interest and interaction with creator-generated content.
• Website traffic and conversions: Analyzing the impact of influencer campaigns on website traffic and conversions helps measure effectiveness in driving leads and sales.
• Brand awareness and sentiment: Tracking brand mentions and sentiment analysis provides insights into how audiences perceive the brand and its message.
• Sales and revenue growth: Ultimately, the success of Creator-First partnerships is measured by their ability to contribute to the brand’s bottom line.

By focusing on these KPIs, brands can gain valuable insights into the effectiveness of their creator-first campaigns and demonstrate the tangible impact they have on their business objectives.

To read the full book, SEJ readers have an exclusive 25% discount code and free shipping to the US and UK. Use promo code SEJ25 at koganpage.com here.

More resources:

Featured Image: Accogliente Design/Shutterstock

25 Of The Best Examples Of Homepages via @sejournal, @LWilson1980

For most websites, the homepage represents your brand’s first interaction with your audience on your website.

As the catch-all landing page where people will be sent by default, your homepage needs to cater to a breadth of user needs and intent.

Consider your homepage as your shop window. It showcases your most valuable content, positions your brand so that it stands apart from the competition, and leads the user to take an initial action to enter the site and see more.

Your homepage sets the tone for your brand identity and communicates the brand messaging, company values, and personality of your business.

From your homepage, you have the first opportunity to establish positive brand recognition and clearly define the company’s value proposition to new and repeat users.

A homepage has many practical functions, too, such as:

• Making an impactful first impression.
• Driving user journeys into conversion funnels.
• Helping people discover content assets, products, and services sooner.
• Showcasing new incentives to buy and leading people to click.
• Reinforcing trust, expertise, and authority.
• Catching all topic areas that do not currently have dedicated destinations on the website.
• Resonating with your audience through your brand positioning.

Here are 25 of the best examples of homepages. I’ve looked to include a wide variation of homepage examples, so you can see practically where you can refine your own homepage for increased performance.

1. So Cosy

This homepage example combines setting the perfect tone through distilled messaging, imagery, and color scheme.

Everything is simplified so the user can relax, discover, and enjoy the website.

Often, so many conflicting messages are crammed into a home page that the brand and purpose of the site become lost in the noise.

This example is the perfect reminder that, in many cases, simplicity pays off for the user and for search.

Screenshot from socosy.co.uk, November 2024

2. Toby Carvery

Homepages should reflect changes in your audience’s interest areas, industry trends, and broader seasonality.

This enables tailored messaging and ongoing servicing of intent to the full. This requirement becomes even greater in certain industries such as food, travel, and hospitality.

Your homepage sets the scene, showing what resonates with your key audience types, and should be proactively updated based on changing data sets.

All of this is reflected in this homepage example.

Screenshot from tobycarvery.co.uk, November 2024

3. Safetec

Certain industries, from financial services to safety supply companies, have a stigma and preconception attached to them as needing to be positioned in extremely formal ways. It can become an easy trap to fall into, assuming people expect a certain tone and positioning.

In this homepage example, the tone is relaxed, friendly, and welcoming.

Tonality includes statements like “it’s ok” when accepting cookies, and “we are here” to encourage chatbot interaction.

This subtle messaging, combined with audience-aware images and related content positioning, is a fantastic way to see how your homepage can set the tone and reinforce brand positioning from the outset.

Screenshot from safetecdirect.co.uk, November 2024

4. Post Office

In some cases, the homepage can be the fastest way for people to achieve their search goals.

In this example, the homepage facilitates the four core functions that the users of the website look to complete most frequently without the need to go through additional pages/clicks.

Widgets on the homepage service immediate action completion in a fast, fun, and intuitive way.

While the task of paying a bill, sending a parcel, or tracking postage may not seem a fun task, this website presents a light tone and an easy way to complete your intended actions as quickly as possible, so you can get back to your other activities.

Screenshot from postoffice.co.uk, November 2024

5. TED

The TED homepage embodies the company’s mission of sharing information, ideas, and interests in an easy-to-digest, accessible fashion.

Content is themed into playlists, the latest, creative ideas, and other taxonomies such as “small world.”

The website taxonomy supports fast access to information topics and facilitates an easy and intuitive approach to information architecture at scale.

Screenshot from ted.com, November 2024

6. Pandora

When it comes to associating the brand with the audience, Pandora does a fantastic job.

There is instant clarity, alignment of messaging, and impact of images that enable fast user engagement and establish trust and brand awareness.

Screenshot from uk.pandora.net/en/, November 2024

7. Davy Wine

An important aspect of homepage success comes down to the use of evidence (data) to drive decision-making.

The ordering of information displayed for the home page, content segmentation, and CTAs are arguably more important than any other page on your website.

For ecommerce sites, this necessity is becoming increasingly important.

This homepage example showcases the application in data to drive optimized user journeys from the moment they land on the homepage.

Screenshot from davywine.co.uk, November 2024

8. Under Armour

This entry into the top 25 homepage examples warrants its place, based upon well-planned information architecture and scannable content, which gives users an enjoyable experience.

Function and “fit for purpose” are understated homepage virtues that this site brings to the fore.

There is also the seasonal aspect of tapping into changing needs, wants, and pain points effectively.

The “Spotlight” segment also works well for presenting new/fresh information to returning users to expand the type of purchases being made.

Screenshot from underarmour.co.uk/en-gb/, November 2024

9. BMW

Many car sales and dealership websites have similar approaches to homepages.

The dominant key model image is supported by quick filtering options to drive users to convert.

The stand-out item from this BMW homepage example, however, is the simplicity of messaging combined with minimal conflicting CTAs for the user.

There is no excessive sales content, and the homepage enables natural next steps rather than the excessive pushing of deals and related commercial CTAs often seen in this space.

Screenshot from bmw.co.uk, November 2024

10. UCFB

This website also appeared in the best examples of FAQ pages.

The key feature of this homepage offering is that by pre-scroll, the user has full access to everything they need without taking any further action.

They can see trust signals, get in contact, explore the main sections of the website, and receive a myriad of positive reinforcement specific to their lifestyle choices.

Screenshot from ucfb.ac.uk, November 2024

11. Productive

Software companies need to compete in extremely crowded places where the research time and tolerance of the target market are often very limited.

This places increased emphasis on clarity in messaging, CTAs, and value proposition – all of which are present in this example of a best practice homepage.

Screenshot from productive.io, November 2024

12. Skype

One of the greatest challenges for homepages is to resonate with a varied audience effectively.

Skype handles this dilemma extremely well through a dominant audience message, supplemented by very clear and distinct alternative audience content assets.

Varying this based on trends and related data ensures every core persona receives initial verification to remain actively engaged on the website.

Screenshot from skype.com, November 2024

13. Uber

It takes a strong brand and confidence in user trust to present a homepage that is dominated by action-taking over value proposition.

Uber pre-scroll is 100% action-orientated, enabling the quickest route to booking prior to any conflicting messaging or related distractions.

The assumption is that if you land on the Uber site, the only thing that matters is getting you from “A to B” and servicing that intent to book above all else – and it works.

Screenshot from uber.com, November 2024

14. Dropbox

The simplicity of design and clarity of messaging are consistent throughout many of these examples. For a homepage, that is often a core challenge, as well as an aspirational goal.

In this example, headlines are emotive, and supporting statements are clear.

Mixed media walkthroughs of the service provide a trial of the solution without the need to sign up for one. It’s a great example of shortening the distance to purchase/use.

Screenshot from dropbox.com, November 2024

15. Allen Carr’s Easyway

When it comes to Your Money Your Life (YMYL) industries, homepages have additional challenges.

First, trust needs to be ever-present and supported by statistics without detriment to the brand’s style and tone.

Next, direct reinforcement of success, case studies, and audience associative needs are higher. And providing a positive outlook on tougher topic areas is far from easy.

This homepage example manages to cover all these areas plus more.

Screenshot from allencarr.com, November 2024

16. NineFeetTall

When companies provide transformation and change, like in this example, you have to balance data and justification from the outset.

The homepage acts as the roadmap from now to the near future and requires expert guidance without information overload.

Every segment of this homepage example contributes toward this journey, empowering people to learn fast and take action sooner.

Screenshot from ninefeettall.com, November 2024

17. NHS

Websites that provide emergency help and support must reinforce trust, provide immediate access to contact, and solve problems from the first meaningful homepage interaction.

Visually, the homepage needs to drive action-taking and fuel the right choice to minimize already stressful situations.

Considering the vast array of people using emergency services like the NHS, intuitive and simple design comes into play with clear, concise content.

Screenshot from nhs.uk, November 2024

18. WeChat

Named one of the world’s strongest brands, the app’s homepage shows the opportunities to change the status quo with design and focus on brand-led power and positioning.

The navigation placement and impact on the page versus the streamlined and dominant CTA  is an interesting approach.

Screenshot from wechat.com, November 2024

19. Colgate

For established and traditional brands, the homepage can present a complex range of choices.

One of these is how to remain relevant with existing audiences while looking to grow visibility with new people in fresh ways.

Colgate achieves this with a combination of trust and visual reinforcement.

Screenshot from colgate.com, November 2024

20. Basecamp

The Basecamp homepage jumps straight into solving the main pain point of its audience.

This is then supported by segments that all actively contribute to the purpose of Basecamp as a service and nudge the user towards purchase.

This journey is without added clicks or engagement required – it’s a complete conversation on a single page:

• The headline positions the brand and service.
• The segmented homepage tells the story of why you may invest in the service.
• The dominant CTA jumps out of the page.
• Homepage screenshots provide an instant demo of the solution in action.

Screenshot from basecamp.com, November 2024

21. Time

A media site’s user base has high standards and expectations for creative, fast, and functional websites.

This homepage example from Time supplies easy-to-digest content while keeping text levels to a minimum.

The active use of white space is refreshing, as are the limited CTAs and removal of advertising.

The use of image, media, and text interaction supports audience preference and all device action-taking.

Screenshot from time.com, November 2024

22. Ocado

Large retail sites have to cram in many potential and often competing triggers to drive action and speed up access to the endpoint.

User tolerance levels for online shopping are very tough to meet, plus you are catering to a variety of audience awareness and trust.

Ocado manages to build in quick access CTAs, clear trust signals, and simple steps to purchase without cluttering the page or pulling the user into conflicting directions.

Screenshot from ocado.com, November 2024

23. Trivago

Comparison websites can feel like a bombardment of CTAs and promotional offers.

The Trivago homepage provides a relaxed, easy, and intuitive approach to booking that removes some of the complexity and time for the user.

Screenshot from trivago.co.uk, November 2024

24. eBay

From a data-driven and personalization stance, sites like eBay need to be present in the best examples of homepages.

Data is at the center of the design choices and content provisions and is frequently refined to bring the user closer to their perfect next buy, whether they are aware of it yet or not.

Screenshot from ebay.co.uk, November 2024

25. Imgur

Everything on this homepage shouts out fun, interaction, and enjoyment. Its core functionality is to make things simple to click, watch, and engage.

Yes, there is some quite intrusive advertising, but there is also an element of new audiences meeting nostalgia here with the early age of the internet ad space.

Screenshot from imgur.com, November 2024

What Should A Homepage Include?

First and foremost, the homepage needs to represent your brand values and proposition. Reinforcing the unique culture of your business and supporting brand recognition.

This is achieved through every piece of content, imagery, and prioritization of messaging on the page.

As your shop window, you need to present the most relevant messaging and CTAs that will resonate with your audience and drive them to click further into your website content and their unique conversion journey.

Visual elements should be of high quality, not competing with other on-page items, and making it simple for people and search engines to understand the core purpose of your site and what your brand represents.

Trust should be set from the outset. This includes star ratings and brand narrative through case studies and related social proof.

Your homepage needs to set out the key content assets and products/services that are the cornerstone of your business.

As with all pages on the site, the user experience is of even greater importance to the homepage. Their engagement should be fast, intuitive, and accessible for all content and devices.

And while there are other areas too, don’t forget to have readily available contact details that reinforce the brand identity, personality, and company values.

A Homepage Is A Showcase And A Signal Of Trust

The homepage is often the first interaction users have with your brand, serving as a critical entry point for visitors.

Your homepage is your shop window, showcasing your most valuable content and differentiating your brand from competitors while guiding users toward taking their first actions on your website.

There are many key functions that a homepage plays, including:

• First Impressions: Creating an impactful introduction to the brand.
• User Journeys: Drives visitors into conversion funnels.
• Content Discovery: Helps users find products and services fast.
• Incentives: Highlights promotions to encourage clicks and engagement.
• Trust Building: Builds expertise and authority through social proof and related trust signals.
• Comprehensive Coverage: Addresses topics without dedicated pages as a catch-all for search and users.
• Audience Resonance: Reflects brand positioning and core values.

There are many essential components of a successful homepage, lots of which can be seen in the 25 best examples of homepages shared in this post.

To recap them, you should be thinking practically about:

• Brand Representation: Clearly showcase your brand values and unique culture through the content and imagery you provide.
• Relevant Messaging and CTAs: Prioritize calls to action that resonate with the audience, but limit them to a maximum of three to avoid conflicting attention demands.
• High-Quality Visuals: Make sure that all visuals enhance understanding without competing for attention, and that they are unique and of high quality.
• Trust Signals: Include reviews and ratings, case studies, and social proof from the outset so people can see a clear association with your existing and target audience types.
• Key Content Assets: Highlight essential products and services that are cornerstones of your business offering.
• User Experience: Focus on fast, intuitive, and accessible navigation and content in all its forms and for all devices.
• Contact Information: Give easily accessible contact details to reinforce brand identity.

More resources:

Featured Image: eamesBot/Shutterstock

Demand Intelligence: Empower Your Strategies With Actionable Data via @sejournal, @alexanderkesler

In the context of B2B marketing, demand intelligence is a consolidation of data from various sources filtered through an actionable lens to provide critical insights.

This data can be utilized to anticipate client demand and implement targeted strategies to engage key stakeholders.

Simply put, demand intelligence enables marketing and sales teams to identify who is interested, why they are interested, and their likelihood to convert. Obtaining this data, however, can be challenging.

In this article, I will share best practices for sourcing, analyzing, and applying demand intelligence to maximize your return on investment (ROI).

The Importance Of Collecting Actionable Data And Leveraging It Effectively

The cost of missed opportunities due to outdated or incomplete data can quickly reach millions. Consider the time and resources invested in campaigns that target obsolete leads or contacts with limited information.

With prospect data averaging a lifespan of just nine months – often due to frequent job and title changes – relying on old data is a waste of both time and effort.

Only 16% of the marketers interviewed for our own 2024 market research utilize advanced buyer and account intelligence to inform their sales and marketing strategies.

This reveals a significant opportunity to leverage data to pinpoint the right accounts and personas – those who are truly qualified for your solutions – for more effective outreach.

To drive demand performance, sales and marketing teams need up-to-date, actionable data that accurately reflects the buyer’s behavior and preferences in their purchase journey.

Without this insight, nurture campaigns will fail to hit the mark, leaving prospects to disappear from your sales funnel entirely and, often, cause them to switch to a competitor.

What Is Actionable Data?

Consider actionable data as real-time insights that reveal prospect intent, behavior, and preferences, while also supporting predictive analytics.

This type of data provides valuable takeaways about prospects, helping you identify their pain points and tailor your outreach effectively.

With accurate and timely information, you can craft messaging that resonates with current prospect challenges and drive engagement for your solutions.

Sources of demand intelligence include:

• Technographic data: Identifying prospect technologies to uncover opportunities for increasing your tech wallet share.
• Engagement data: Insights from website interactions, blog activity, social media, and email communications.
• Buyer personas and key account profiles: Detailed profiles of existing target audiences, decision-makers, and key accounts.
• Buyer intent data: Behavioral cues, such as frequent searches or downloads related to specific solutions, indicating a readiness to purchase or, at least, buyer interest in your solutions.
• Analysis of successful conversions: Examining the behaviors and patterns of successful conversions to inform future demand intelligence.
• Average deal size and revenue: The average deal size can act as a benchmark for future sales opportunities.
• Client lifetime value (CLTV): Client success teams can identify the common characteristics of prospects that generate the highest long-term revenue.

The key is to unify these diverse data sources into an intelligent demand system – one that reveals where engagement is happening in the funnel and via which channel, in order to predict where it is likely to occur in the future.

This approach holds immense potential for organizations to fuel precise and timely engagement strategies that drive meaningful results – because they can engage the appropriate buyers with the most relevant messaging at the optimal time.

How To Collect Demand Intelligence Data

Building your proprietary database enables you to track market behaviors and trends, and develop strategies to address them effectively.

The best sources of information for your database include:

• First-party data: Information collected directly from your channels, including your website, social media, events, and customer relationship management (CRM) analytics.
• Data partners: Verified data partners can provide access to valuable first-party intent, behavioral, and technographic data.
• Client-facing teams: Insights from your sales, marketing, and client success teams offer valuable first-hand perspectives on existing clients.
• Community engagement: Utilize social listening and sentiment analysis tools to understand what clients say online and gather insights from reviews.
• Surveys and feedback: Directly ask clients about their needs and pain points to inform your outreach and refine your solutions.

Enhance these insights by analyzing industry benchmarks and competitor reports that align with your target audience. If your budget permits, consider investing in the expertise of external specialists.

Combining these resources will help you develop a comprehensive demand intelligence profile.

How To Build A Framework For Collecting, Analyzing, And Applying Demand Intelligence

Below is a three-step framework to develop your demand intelligence strategy:

1. Build A Database Primed For Demand Intelligence

Your first step in leveraging demand intelligence as a growth driver is to gather insights from across your organization and create a secure, centralized dataset in a tool like your CRM or data warehouse.

The goal is to establish a unified view of your prospect and account data that can be easily accessed by your client-facing teams.

Focus on essential campaign-driving information like pain points and intent data, which can be tested to refine your demand intelligence.

Intent signals can be a valuable addition because they help marketers understand prospect behavior to enable the tailoring of services more precisely to buyer needs.

Before testing your dataset, you will need to perform some housekeeping:

• Leverage automated data cleansing software or AI to identify duplicates and errors.
• Set up filters and criteria to highlight actionable factors, such as budget range and buying group size.
• Enrich your data with synthetic, or stand-in data, where necessary.
• Ensure your data practices comply with regional privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA.

2. Launch, Analyze, And Adjust

Launch a short-term campaign to test your first dataset and validate your existing demand intelligence sources, filters, and criteria. For example, this can be in the form of an awareness campaign via email and social media.

You will need to set up processes to ensure data flows into your analytics, not only to measure the results but to enable continuous assessment and improve the quality of your demand intelligence.

This can be done by:

• Gating content with forms.
• Creating UTM tracking links.
• Using heatmaps to measure website engagement.
• Sending email touches through your CRM.

Once your test campaign is complete, analyze the results to refine your data further. It is also worth adopting processes to gain feedback directly from your audience, such as through surveys or sales team outreach.

Focus on KPIs and metrics that will help the organization achieve its GTM and growth goals, such as:

• Conversion rate.
• Engagement metrics such as downloads, click-through rates, web traffic, bounce rate, and social engagement.
• Buying group engagement on an account level.
• Opportunities generated.
• Sales or demo bookings.
• Satisfaction scores (NPS, CSAT).

3. Continuous Optimization

Once you have your campaign results, translate them into actionable insights to inform ongoing marketing and sales strategies.

Processes that can be adopted for this purpose include:

• Keyword and topic analysis: Identify the themes and discussions that generate the most interest among your prospects.
• Engagement timing and frequency: Track engagement to understand interaction patterns and plan strategies accordingly.
• Buyer’s journey assessment: Analyze the buyer’s journey and evaluate how prospect behavior aligns with it. Consider potential areas for improvement.
• Effective content touchpoints: Identify which touchpoints are most effective in driving discussions among decision-makers in buying groups.

Adjust your strategy with targeted changes to your messaging and UVP, tracking the impact to refine further. It is better to make select, strategic changes that can then be monitored to assess performance.

Three areas of improvement to prioritize are:

• Maintaining an updated database: Regularly assess the quality of your data and its relevance to your organizational goals to ensure it remains current and useful.
• Refining buyer intelligence collection: Continuously improve your data collection methods based on insights gained, feedback received, and any changes in your objectives or technology.
• Fostering organizational alignment: Share and align data across teams to promote collaboration and innovation within the organization.

Done well, demand campaigns have immense potential to amplify an organization’s bottom line. The goal of demand intelligence is to optimize strategies to better engage, nurture, and convert buyers – no matter where they are in their journey.

Businesses focusing on demand generation are better equipped to navigate the complexities of the evolving B2B landscape and drive sustained revenue growth.

Key Takeaways

• Prioritize first-party data: Actionable data from owned channels and partners will help you to better understand and anticipate client demand.
• Gain feedback from client-facing teams: Unique and timely client insights can be sourced from your own teams to guide your demand strategies.
• Build a clean database: Focus on essential campaign-driving insights, such as client pain points, intent, and account information, while avoiding unactionable data points to not bloat your database.
• Test, analyze, repeat: Continuously update your database to reflect evolving audience needs and the value of your demand intelligence.

More resources:

Featured Image: Viktoria Kurpas/Shutterstock