What Is A Conversion Funnel? Optimize Your Customer Journey

Conversion funnels are essential for any business looking to maximize sales and drive customer engagement.

By analyzing each step of the funnel, companies can identify opportunities to optimize their efforts and convert more leads into lifelong customers.

Customers take a unique journey through your company conversion funnel as they make their buying decision. Therefore, you must capture their attention, form trusting connections, and motivate them to move forward.

Mastering the customer journey is essential to success in any business – especially online – and conversion funnels are an important tool.

What Is A Conversion Funnel

As a marketer or salesperson, you are helping people along their journey to becoming customers.

Conversion funnels, sometimes known as sales funnels, provide a practical framework for this process by allowing potential buyers to progress through different steps until they take the desired action: making a transaction or purchase.

A good conversion funnel gives insight into where your visitors and target audience come from, their actions while on your site, and what happens when they convert.

You can use this information to optimize your marketing efforts and increase conversions. To learn more about target audiences and how to find them, you can read this article.

Marketers can use conversion funnels to track the path that leads consumers from initial interest to final purchase.

Understanding the clear progression along the digital customer journey allows you to identify opportunities to influence each step.

Creating funnels helps plan out campaigns.

For example, a retailer might want to know whether a particular ad campaign or an organic search led to increased traffic or purchases. With a conversion funnel, marketers can see how many people arrived via different online channels, what steps they took online, and ultimately what happened when they converted.

The Digital Customer Journey

Every customer’s journey with a company is unique.

From the moment they become aware of your brand up until the successful completion of their goal, they take numerous steps – each requiring tailored approaches from internal perspectives for maximum success.

Understanding and optimizing these customers’ journeys allow you to provide an experience that could lead them back, time after time.

More customer journeys are happening online, and 80% of consumers consider the experience as important as products and services. As a result, you must understand consumer behavior online and reward consumers with the right digital experiences.

In particular, the days of linear journeys with sequential touchpoints (from A to B) are over for digital.

Instead, as consumer behavior changes, journeys are often fragmented across different online channels and phases of the buyer’s journey.

Conversion Funnel Models And Analysis

There are many types of conversion funnel models organizations use. They all depend on the type of business and the type of customer.

They can also vary, as marketing and sales sometimes have slightly different models.

The two main types I will explain today are the AIDA model and the Top, Middle, and Bottom (TOFU) model – both are similar.

Marketers mainly use AIDA, and salespeople often use TOFU. However, they are not mutually exclusive.

In this funnel, consumers pass four distinct checkpoints as they prepare to purchase.

Staying in tune with the types of searches and interests that drive them at each step paves the way for meaningful engagements along their path.

In addition, you can form lasting relationships leading up to an eventual sale by crafting content tailored to address customer needs.

Awareness

The first step in any type of conversion funnel is to pull visitors in. This could mean getting someone’s attention, whether it is through SEO, paid ads, or social media posts.

Once you start attracting potential customers, you want to keep them engaged. You might use email marketing campaigns, popups, or even retargeting ads to encourage them to take the next step.

To keep these visitors engaged, informative and comprehensive content is ideal. Articles that explore the topic in-depth, as well as infographics or videos, can help capture their attention for longer periods.

SEO is a great way to discover intent-based queries to help plan digital content that raises awareness and is discoverable.

Interest

Once people are interested in your product or service, you need to convert those leads into sales. This is where things get tricky.

Depending on your business model, there are many different ways to do this.

Desire

You’re trying to convince your prospects to buy at this stage. You might offer free trials, discounts, or special promotions. Or, you might try to sell directly to them.

Either way, once you’ve convinced them to buy something, you need to move them along the path toward making a purchase.

Action

Finally, you need to close the sale. Whether you’re selling physical goods or digital downloads, this is the part where you collect payment and ship out the item.

Suppose you’re selling a subscription plan; you probably send reminders to remind buyers to renew. And, if you offer software as a service, you will likely provide support via phone or chat.

Top, Middle, And Bottom Conversion Funnel – TOFU, MOFU, BOFU

A more simplified version, often used by sales and marketing when tracking and reporting, is the top, middle, and bottom conversion funnel.

Top Of Funnel (TOFU): Awareness

This includes utilizing and optimizing digital assets such as:

• Blog posts.
• Webinars.
• Videos.
• Social media.
• Research.
• Ebooks.

Content at this part of the conversion funnel needs to be informative and helpful to make new prospects aware of your products or services.

Middle Of Funnel (MOFU): Engage And Evaluate

This includes utilizing and optimizing:

• Case studies.
• Social media.
• Paid media.
• Email.

Content at this part of the funnel needs to be focused on engaging consumers to move them to evaluation or consideration.

Bottom Of Funnel (BOFU): Conversion

This includes utilizing and optimizing:

• Demos.
• Sales collateral.
• Testimonials and validation case studies.
• Product sheets.
• Shopping carts (ecommerce).
• Competitive battle cards.

Content at this part of the funnel must be focused on validating your product and services to move them from consideration to conversion.

Read More On SEJ: Here’s Your B2B Multichannel Full-Funnel Strategy In 5 Simple Steps

Optimizing Content For Conversion And The Customer Journey

A conversion is a CTA that invites your prospect to give you some information so that you can deepen engagement with them on a 1:1 basis and progress further in the sales process.

Awareness – Top Of Funnel

Many marketers still measure the effectiveness of content based on its ability to drive website traffic.

However, the best way to measure the success of your content is based on conversion.

Therefore, content needs to drive some form of conversion along the buyers’ journey.

• If you want to maximize conversions, focus your efforts on the areas already driving traffic. Then, create content that can truly capture their attention and make a lasting impression.
• Curate content tailored specifically to your target audiences’ interests rather than going for quantity over quality with generic posts.
• Leverage metrics beyond likes and views to gauge the effectiveness of your content. Monitor comments, shares, time spent on site, and pages visited for an in-depth look at how ultimately engaged audiences are with what you have shared.

Engagement And Evaluation – Middle Of Funnel

Having gained your audience’s focus, the challenge now is to retain it.

Seize this opportunity and make an impact. Despite creating content that resonates with readers, many businesses still struggle to achieve their desired conversions.

Generating, engaging copy is critical; however, taking it a step further and focusing on crafting content designed specifically helpful for the user helps deliver tangible results.

Taking action is not always easy, especially when there are three significant roadblocks.

• People may not have a need for your product or service just yet.
• Finances could be an issue as well.
• Trust needs to be earned before any commitment is made.

A conversion path, no matter how carefully designed, is doomed to failure without helpful indicators along the way.

These markers could include information such as what occurs once a customer takes action or when they can receive their initial communication from you – confirmation emails, newsletters with exclusive offers, or limited stock in terms of urgency.

To create a sense of urgency and motivate people to act fast:

• Consider special discounts or limited-time offers.
• Ensure potential customers trust your product by leveraging reviews from credible third parties and testimonials on how it exceeds the competition.
• Complement this with an honest guarantee that puts their minds at ease.

Conversion – Bottom Of Funnel

At the last step of their journey, this is when customers make a critical decision: to convert or not.

Your BOFU strategies give them that extra nudge they need to become long-term devotees of your brand by delivering tailored messaging based on what resonates with each prospect’s needs and interests.

Capture their attention one final time – use persuasive arguments as clear incentives for why they should choose you over competitors today.

• Give your visitors a chance to get a first-hand experience of what you offer with an opportunity for a free trial or demo.
• Ensure you provide how-to guides to ensure that prospects are well-equipped with all of the necessary information and advice to make a purchase decision.
• Showcase your customers’ success and allow them to do the talking – customer reviews and testimonies are invaluable assets that go a long way in building trust through to close.

Read More On SEJ

Search The Customer Journey And Conversion Funnel

From providing insights into what consumers are looking for and understanding intent for content, SEO helps at all stages of the buyers’ journey.

To effectively reach and engage modern customers, brands must recognize the complexity of consumer intent.

This widens search beyond a marketing tactic to a broad discipline that encompasses funnel optimization and customer experience management,  enabling a more robust connection between a company and consumer – and conversion.

More resources: 

Featured Image: Black Salmon/Shutterstock

Why SEO Pros Need To Master Prompts: The ChatGPT Revolution via @sejournal, @VincentTerrasi

Content generation has grown exponentially in recent years, and prompts have become a must-have tool for SEO professionals.

With these simple instructions, it’s possible to generate articles, images, videos, and more.

For marketers and SEO pros, in particular, mastering the use of prompts is a real asset.

This is because they can teach the AI how to best adhere to SEO recommendations while generating quality content.

AIs have revolutionized content generation by allowing articles to be customized to each user’s writing style, tone of voice, and preferences based on Large Language Models.

Today, SEO experts must master these tools to remain competitive in their field.

In short, mastering prompts, and AIs is crucial for SEO pros concerned with generating quality content and complying with SEO recommendations.

With these tools, they can deliver personalized content that is relevant to their target audience.

Promptology, Or The Art Of Creating Good Prompts

Editor’s note:

What are prompts? These are simply words, phrases, questions, keywords, etc., entered into AI tools to generate results. 

What is promptology? The art of creating the most effective prompts to achieve your desired result.

Prompts To Generate Text

After many, many failed attempts at generating quality text, we can say that 2022 is the golden year of text generation.

While generating texts has never been easier, I have identified the main obstacles you will encounter and their solutions.

“My Text Is Too Short”

Often, the solution is to teach the AI to create a document structure with an introduction, sub-headings, one or several paragraphs per sub-heading, and a conclusion.

The release of DaVinci-text-3 revolutionizes the creation of long content because the AI now knows how to create long content with simple instructions.

Here are the prompts that work best with this new AI :

• “Write a comprehensive guide to [topic].”
• “Create an in-depth analysis of [topic].”
• “Explain the benefits of [topic] in detail.”
• “Describe the history of [topic] and its impact on [related field].”
• “The text is long but I don’t like the repetitive writing style.”

In this case, you will have to give the AI examples of your writing style and use the parameters that allow reducing repetitions. The latest generations of AI can give very good results.

“Is The Text Unique?”

This is a very good question, especially for SEO – and once the text is generated, you need to use tools like Google, where you search for phrases put in quotes with the search engine to detect if the phrases generated are present. 

It is not necessary to take all but a few phrases randomly, there are also paid services like Copyscape to do this.

“The Text Is Full Of Invented Concepts”

Sometimes AI can invent concepts, and the best solution is to reduce the parameter of creativity.

After that, you can also use business rules to ensure that the concepts mentioned are related to your business area.

“Who Owns The Generated Text?”

This question comes up very often, but text generation tools are very clear on the subject: the text belongs to you.

“My Text Is Not Optimized For SEO”

Indeed, the AI has never learned to do SEO, so we must give it examples and teach it the types of optimization to do, such as:

• Include H1, H2, H3.
• Indicate relevant links.
• Use specific named entities such as places and people.
• Use specific keywords.

It is quite possible to generate unique texts optimized for SEO.

Prompts To Generate Images

Regarding image generation, I wrote a full article on SEJ on how to generate images, but let’s dive into the issues you will encounter. 

“The Resolution Is Too Low”

For cost reasons, the generated images are of low resolution.

Many upscale tools will help you increase the resolution of an image generated with AI; I recommend this free tool.

“The Dimensions Are Too Small Or Not Adapted”

Once again, for cost reasons, the images generated are often 512 x 512 px.

There are two main solutions:

You can regenerate the image by specifying your dimensions – here is an example with Dream studio.

Screenshot from DreamStudioLite, December 2022

You can also use the technique of outpainting, which allows you to add new image areas to an image.

Screenshot from Dall-E, December 2022

“Is The Image Unique?

The best way to check your image’s uniqueness is to use Google Photos to check how similar images are. 

“Who Owns The Image Rights”

All of the image generation tools mention in their TOS that you become the image’s rightful owner.

If you ask to copy an artist’s style, the creation being new, the image also belongs to you.

“I Used My Own Photos To Generate Photos”

In this case, the result will be even more original and unique.

The trend at the moment is to send a dozen photos of yourself in close-up, from afar, etc. to generate an infinite quantity of variations finally.

There are paid and free tools, and I recommend you use myheritage.fr if you want to generate an image of yourself in different eras – the result depends mainly on the quality and variety of your uploaded photos.

Now that it is possible to teach  a style or a unique concept to an AI to allow designers or artists to stand out, here are examples of styles that have been learned from existing photos:

• Photos of home interiors.
• Fashion illustrations.
• Concert posters.
• Book covers.

How To Master Prompts For SEO

Test And Learn

The simplest technique is to write the prompt, see what is wrong with it, and modify it by adding or removing instructions until you get the best possible result.

The technique is not at all scalable but allows us to get closer to the ideal result.

Often, it is not about succeeding in one generation but, over time, ensuring that the results are always of consistent quality.

You will also want to have different tools that will check:

• Spelling and grammar mistakes.
• Repetitions.
• Forbidden words.
• Generations that are too short.
• Compliance with your SEO guidelines.

In some cases, more than 20 checks will be necessary. Note that this step can be time-consuming. However, once you have fine-tuned it, you will have a template you can reuse to infinity.

Now, I will introduce some methods that avoid the trial-and-error approach.

Use A Prompt Search Engine

The easiest method, and notably free, is to use a prompt search engine. These are available for all types of content.

The best-known prompt engine at the moment is Lexica.art, which allows you to search based on keywords and identify and extract the prompt for an image you like.

You just have to click on the image and get the prompt that was used to generate it. This is a real timesaver.

Here is an example to make this image with LexicaArt. Type in: “https://lexica.art/?q=typewriter.”

Image from LexicaArt, December 2022

For text prompts, there are several initiatives, but the databases are pretty empty.

At the moment, the most interesting prompts are often shared on Twitter.

Prompt And Negative Prompt

Let’s take the case of image generation.

The image can contain a lot of bias, or undesirable things, so we might as well eliminate it with a negative prompt that specifies everything you don’t want.

Beware that the AI must understand the concept to be able to eliminate it, so you will have to teach it if necessary.

Negative prompting is to specify everything you don’t want to appear in your text and image. 

You have to know that when a student writes an essay, he knows what he has to talk about, but he also knows not to include certain things, as they might negatively impact his grade. The list might include insults, jokes, invented elements, etc.

For humans, it is part of the memory of the experience, but for an AI, it is necessary to provide instructions in that sense.

OpenAi has fixed some biases, for example, that all CEOs were men and all nurses were women.

The prompts allow writing, and the negative prompts are used to avoid bias and offensive content. 

The latest version of GPT-3 allows giving a prompt that indicates everything you want to generate and a negative prompt that indicates everything you want to avoid – for example, repetitions, short paragraphs, and competing keywords.

Ask An AI To Write Your Prompts And Perform SEO

ChatGPT is a chatbot based on artificial intelligence from OpenAI. 

It is designed to provide a smooth and natural conversation by autonomously answering questions asked by users.

This chatbot can be very useful in content generation as it can help create content by automatically answering questions, generating ideas for blog topics, or suggesting headlines for articles.

It can also be useful for generating content for social networks or for online marketing campaigns.

Using OpenAI’s artificial intelligence, this chatbot can provide accurate and relevant answers, which can be very useful for writers and marketers looking to create quality content.

This ChatGPT can therefore be used to help you find your prompts.

Screenshot from ChatGPT, December 2022

The last question is now to know if this AI can do SEO.

I had already tested it in this SEJ article by having it complete an SEO quiz, and it now does a perfect job! It can even create such a quiz in a few seconds.

Screenshot from ChatGPT, December 2022

Now, ChatGPT can optimize the following content to rank in Google for “electric candle warmer” and explain all you need step by step.

The resulting SEO recommendations are better than last time, but still below an expert level. In any case, the progress made in a few months is awe-inspiring.

Screenshot from ChatGPT, December 2022

Screenshot from ChatGPT, December 2022

Conclusion

Now you have all the keys to write quality prompts to generate image and text content. 

You will have to ask yourself if you want to build or buy one of the many tools available on the market and one of the many training courses.

I invite you to discover the most advanced workflows that allow for generating quality content at scale.

More resources: 

Featured Image: Besjunior/Shutterstock

How To Create A Survey Quickly In Google Forms And Microsoft Word via @sejournal, @ronlieback

While we tend to over-complicate SEO with constant algorithmic updates and best practices, the foundation of digital marketing lies in audience and market research.

Many tools, such as keyword research planners and customer relationship management systems (CRMs), assist us in this research, but the best insights often come from the customers themselves.

That’s why, whenever we acquire a new client, we like them to fill out a form identifying products, services, and terms that are meaningful to them and their business.

Thankfully, technology has enabled us to collect customer feedback at scale using tools like surveys, quizzes, and much more.

I find surveys particularly helpful because they are affordable, easy to create, and offer information about customers you can’t find without directly talking to them.

This article will outline the benefits of surveys for SEO, tips to create a killer survey that offers great insight, and how to quickly get started with one using Google Forms or Microsoft Forms.

Benefits Of Surveys For SEO

Affordability

Most online survey tools are free and only charge you after a certain amount of submissions.

Additionally, surveys take very little labor to create and can be used in tandem with any marketing promotion to gather more feedback.

Direct Feedback

Unlike keyword and competitive research tools, surveys allow you to communicate directly with customers to gather feedback about your business or marketing potential.

Use surveys to determine your marketing potential in a particular niche, or to gauge customer satisfaction around a new product or service.

Customizable

Surveys give you complete creative control over the questions and answers respondents can click on.

Design your survey to yield the most valuable results for your business.

Lead Generation Tool

Surveys and quizzes are a great way to engage with customers who are curious about your brand and acquire more leads for drip campaigns or additional marketing blitzes.

Real-Time Analytics

Most survey tools provide real-time analytics so you can adjust your business model to reflect these results.

10 Easy Steps To Create A Survey For Your Business

While creating a survey may be reasonably straightforward, it’s easy to complicate your survey and tank your response rate by asking too many questions or not having a stated purpose.

Below are a few tips to help you create an online survey using any of your favorite tools.

1. State Your Purpose

Before you go out and create a survey, ask yourself a few questions to determine the right course of action for your business, such as: What specific information do I want to gather from this survey?

This question will be the title of your survey and the basis for your questions and answers.

Once determined, write a brief description underneath the title that helps people better understand why they are filling out your survey.

Furthermore, consider whether a survey is the best means to acquire this information digitally.

For example, if you want to launch a new product, a focus group or direct customer feedback may be more beneficial than a survey or quiz.

2. Research Your Audience

Once you determine the purpose of your survey, you’ll need to send your survey to the right audience.

For example, if your survey is to elicit customer feedback, you’ll want to mail your survey to everyone who has ever made a purchase from your business or is enrolled in your online newsletter.

On the other hand, market research surveys may be sent out to a broad email list of cold leads you have yet to engage with.

Use your research to determine the right audience for your survey.

Several tools, such as SurveyMonkey, offer native research tools to help you segment your audience and mail out surveys.

3. Find the Right Survey Tool

Depending on your internal tools and how often you plan to use surveys, it may make sense to upgrade to a paid tool, such as SurveyMonkey, which has a tiered system based on how long your surveys are.

However, there are several free online survey tools available, including the two we’re focused on here:

• Google Forms.
• Microsoft Word.

Most tools provide similar functionality, but I recommend considering the following factors before settling on any tool.

• Price: Are you charged after X surveys or questions are sent out?
• Templates: What templates does this tool offer, and how easy is it to create a custom template?
• Survey logic: Does this survey tool offer conditional logic formatting to help me customize my surveys?
• Integrations: Does this survey integrate easily with my existing email marketing tools and other SEO programs?
• Piping functionality: Does this survey allow me to split questions by responses to get the most accurate data?
• Analytics: What insights does this tool offer, and does it meet my needs?

4. Make Questions Easy To Understand

When it comes down to writing questions for a survey, and their responses, keep your questions simple and relatable.

This means avoiding jargon, run-on sentences, and asking open-ended questions without open-ended responses.

Ideally, each question should be formatted to be asked in a linear order. So, for example, if you’re surveying inflation, don’t jump from asking questions about everyday goods to questions about luxury goods and then back to basic goods.

Keep questions linear so that respondents don’t get overwhelmed or confused. This will ensure your responses are honest and accurate.

5. Keep Questions Limited

To get as granular as possible, it can be very tempting to ask multiple questions about a topic – but you must balance this impulse with the reader’s attention span.

Remember, your survey takes time out of someone’s day, so respect that time. Try to keep surveys to around 10 questions or shorter whenever possible.

Think about which questions will yield you the most relevant responses to your answer. For example, if you’re gathering feedback about a product, consider asking:

• Do you find this product helpful?
• Do you think this product is priced appropriately?
• How likely are you to recommend this product to a friend?
• How does this product compare to our competitors?
• Are you likely to purchase this product again?

6. Ask The Right Type Of Questions

You also need to consider the format in which you ask these questions, as the way you ask these questions will influence the results and accuracy of your survey.

For example, asking yes or no questions reduces the amount of data you can acquire from a survey. So, if you want to know how much people spend on a product, give people multiple-choice answers to gain the most accurate results.

Additionally, matrix or grid questions should be used sparingly to avoid overwhelming respondents.

Besides, matrix questionnaires only make sense in specific cases, such as customer satisfaction surveys.

Image from author, December 2022

7. Use Conditional Logic To Keep Surveys Focused

Most online survey tools offer a broad form of conditional logic that allows you to make your surveys hyper-focused and relevant to your customers.

For example, branching or piping logic allows you to steer respondents to different questions based on their responses.

Additionally, most online survey tools also offer “skip logic,” which allows some respondents to skip questions that are irrelevant to them based on their previous responses.

8. Offer Incentives For Filling Out Surveys

I recommend offering customers incentives to fill out your survey to improve response rates. Discounts and other loyalty rewards are a great way to get people to fill out surveys without pestering them with multiple emails.

This strategy is so popular that there are websites dedicated to helping people earn income by filling out surveys with paid rewards.

Of course, keep incentives light, so that the people who are motivated to fill out your survey are not solely motivated by money and will put down anything in the response box.

9. Use A CRM Or Email Marketing Tool To Send And Handle Responses

While some tools like SurveyMonkey are designed to handle survey delivery and analytics, many tools like Google Forms and Microsoft Forms are not.

Consider integrating these tools with your existing CRM or email marketing account to help disseminate and collect feedback from your survey responses.

Various analytics, such as open rates and click-through rate (CTR), will give you better insight into how you’re distributing surveys and ways to improve marketing on that front.

10. Collect Data and Act On It

Finally, the last tip is to analyze the data found in your surveys and make informed decisions based on your results.

By following the tips above, your surveys should yield accurate results you can use to make valuable changes that bring in revenue to your business.

How To Create A Survey Quickly In Google Forms And Microsoft

Google Forms

Log into Gmail, click the Google Apps icon in the upper right-hand corner, and click on the icon for Forms.

Click the plus (+) icon under Start New Form.

Screenshot from Google Apps, December 2022

Name your form, add a description underneath, and write down your first question.

Screenshot from Google Apps, December 2022

Choose the format of the question and fill in your answers.

Screenshot from Google Apps, December 2022

Screenshot from Google Apps, December 2022

Screenshot from Google Apps, December 2022

Create conditional logic to format your survey based on the responses (optional).

Screenshot from Google Apps, December 2022

Screenshot from Google Apps, December 2022

Add multimedia to your questions for branding and engagement purposes (optional).

Screenshot from Google Apps, December 2022

Send out your survey to your target email list.

Screenshot from Google Apps, December 2022

Editor’s Note: You can add a Google Form to your site by following the steps below.

• Open your Form and click Send.
• Next to “Send via”, click on the Embed icon (<>).
• Highlight the HTML and select Copy.
• Paste the HTML into your site.

Microsoft Forms

For Mac

Log onto MS Word and click the ellipsis next to the print button up top.

From there, click on More Commands at the bottom and then click on the Ribbon tab.

Click the box that says Developer Tab, then click Save Under the Author and Proofing Tools tab, click View, and make sure the box is checked that says Show Developer Tab.

Screenshot from Microsoft Forms, December 2022

Screenshot from Microsoft Forms, December 2022

Screenshot from Microsoft Forms, December 2022

For PC

Log onto MS Word and click the following: File > Options > Customize Ribbon > Main Tabs > (Check) Developer > Ok.

Then click: Preferences > Authoring and Proofing Tools > View > Developer Tab

Write a list of questions on the page and then insert a “Checkbox” or “Combo box.” The check box is for people looking to input a single response, while the combo box allows them to input multiple answers.

Screenshot from Microsoft Forms, December 2022

Right-click or control-click the checkbox to update its properties. Ensure the default value is unchecked and name the box for easy organization.

Screenshot from Microsoft Forms, December 2022

Click Protect Form to prevent people from editing your survey questions.

Screenshot from Microsoft Forms, December 2022

Email your survey to customers in your Outlook Email.

Unlike Google Forms and other services, MS Word provides a basic survey without conditional logic and is best used for a small survey campaign.

Conclusion

Creating a survey is a great way to solicit customer feedback and gather data you can use for your marketing campaigns.

By following these tips, you can create surveys that promote higher customer engagement and serve as a valuable lead generation and market research tool for your firm.

More resources:

Featured Image: VectorHot/Shutterstock

How To Buy An Online Business (& Where To Buy)

It’s no secret that the grind of startup culture can be difficult for many young entrepreneurs to overcome.

Perhaps the biggest challenge for any entrepreneur within the startup world is acquiring financing for your project.

While it may seem more costly to purchase an existing business, it can be more financially advantageous and help you escape debt quicker.

Additionally, purchasing an existing business is a great way for people to get involved in entrepreneurship without the stress of creating a unique or creative idea.

Like buying a franchise, many online businesses are turnkey and allow you to assume operations without making large changes.

With the explosion of ecommerce sales totaling over $5 trillion in retail in 2021, one area I recommend many new entrepreneurs turn to is online businesses.

There are millions of websites, apps, and software programs you can find for little cost and make incredibly profitable with minimal effort.

To help entrepreneurs get started, here’s an outline of the benefits of purchasing an online business and various avenues to find the best deal.

The Benefits Of Purchasing An Existing Online Business

Did you know that 18% of businesses fail in the first year, and almost half of all businesses fail within five years?

Unfortunately, startups are very risky endeavors, which is why many investors are reluctant to finance startups from young entrepreneurs.

While online businesses have the flexibility to reduce some of the risk and costs of overhead associated with a brick-and-mortar store, no startup is entirely risk-proof.

For this reason, purchasing an existing and successful online business can significantly reduce your risk, help you capitalize on your investment immediately, and get your feet wet in entrepreneurship.

The benefits of purchasing an existing online business include:

• Reduced risk: Purchasing an established business with a proven business model takes much of the risk and guesswork out of your business plan. While no business is free from risk, you can rest assured that an established pathway to profitability is open to you if you choose to follow it.
• Increased flexibility: One reason I prefer an online business is the flexibility you get from operating over the web. You can establish your business anywhere, work from anywhere, and hire anyone with access to a computer and the internet.
• Global reach: Online businesses are not restricted by location and can market to people worldwide using online advertisements and traditional SEO strategies.
• Steady revenue: One of the biggest challenges of any business is getting out of the red and overcoming initial debt to become profitable. Fortunately, buying an established business allows you to tap into an existing revenue stream in exchange for a large upfront sum. Of course, some may not have strong or zero revenue, but at least you’ll have some data to improve things.
• Established brand: Another way established businesses reduce risk is by giving you access to an established customer base and branding strategy. You can save time on market research and tap into proven marketing/branding strategies that yield positive results.
• Turnkey team: Not only does an established team reduce the need to build a team from scratch, but the team you inherit should already be familiar with your business model and the products/services you’re selling.
• Proven products/services: Established businesses have the luxury of tapping into existing products that provide value for your customers. While some iterations may be in store, you can greatly save time on market research and expensive product development and testing processes that slow down business development.
• Existing supplier relationships: Finally, having established supplier relationships in today’s global environment is a luxury that cannot be ignored. Between consistent supply chain issues, having an established supplier for all of your business needs can help you get off the ground quickly.

Most Profitable Types Of Online Businesses

After understanding the benefits of buying an online business, the question becomes: what kind of business do you want to purchase?

While this choice comes down to your personal preference, I’ve outlined a list of the most profitable and popular online businesses that anyone can get into.

• Selling domain names.
• Ecommerce stores.
• Online blogs.
• SaaS companies.
• Mobile app and web developers.
• Dropshipping companies/reseller marketplaces.
• Affiliate partners.
• Digital service providers.
• Network security operators.
• Virtual training/education platforms.
• Blockchain-operated businesses.
• Virtual assistants.
• Survey providers.

How To Buy An Online Business: 3 Approaches

Unlike a brick-and-mortar store with a big “For Sale” sign hanging from its window, you might not know where to start looking for online businesses.

Generally, there are three different approaches to finding and purchasing an online business or store.

Direct Purchase

The most straightforward way to purchase an online store is by contacting a store owner directly and making a direct purchase. However, finding an online business directly may be more difficult.

You can use social media, including LinkedIn, to find any business owners who have listed their websites for sale.

Another option may be to contact a site owner of a business you like directly using the contact information listed on their website or this site to see if they are willing to sell their business or website to you.

Online Exchange

Another way to purchase an online business directly is by finding a company for sale over an online exchange.

Exchanges offer you valuable financial and contact information and listing prices so you can make a bid.

These exchanges provide a safe place to buy and sell an online business, though some may be configured as an auction. A few are listed later in this article.

Online Broker

Finally, if you don’t have the time or knowledge to determine what online business is right for your portfolio, you can hire an online broker.

These brokers offer the same services as in the financial industry or real estate, offering due diligence to make the best decision for your bottom line.

You can find brokers using many of the same platforms I list below to shop for individual listings.

Brokers will come with their fees, but they can ensure you find a business that is profitable and right for your financial well-being.

How To Assess An Online Business Purchase

Some business investments are better than others. To ensure you get the best deal for your purchase, I’ve outlined a few considerations to help you evaluate a potential business for sale.

• Business model: Analyze your target business’s revenue model and its profitability. What income streams does this business have, and are they steady for the future? Dig deeper and look at what channels this business markets from, how it processes payments online, and even what laws it needs to follow in foreign countries. Getting a full run down on a business’s revenue model before purchase will reduce any unknowns and help you plan for pitfalls moving forward.
• Expenses/costs: You need to evaluate a business’s balance sheet to see what liabilities can strain future growth or any outstanding debt that needs to be paid off.
• SEO value: Online traffic is a key indicator of a business’s potential future value. However, you need to understand how that business monetizes that traffic and how steady that traffic is. Is this business getting most of its traffic from ads or a few blogs? It may not be a steady long-term investment.
• Brand value: Calculating brand value may require some different formulas, but I recommend calculating a business’s customer lifetime value (CLV) and marketing ROI for a rough estimate of its brand value. In addition, you can run a market or income evaluation to see the potential value of a business according to its fundamentals.
• Online sentiment: Like brand value, online sentiment and reputation may be more of a subjective interpretation. Nevertheless, consulting online reviews and using social listening tools to see how a brand is perceived can indicate its future value moving forward.
• Future earnings potential: Future growth potential is a great way to evaluate whether an online business has the potential to grow and increase its profitability over time. This analysis saves you from buying a business in a dying sector and also allows you to buy underperforming businesses at a discount.
• Terms of purchase: Of course, don’t forget to go over the terms and conditions of purchase with a lawyer before signing a contract to ensure everything is straight.
• Reason for sale: Finally, it never hurts to ask a business owner why they are selling a business. The reason could be innocuous, such as age, or outstanding liabilities could easily cloud any deal.

Tips To Accurately Price An Online Business

Finally, before you purchase a business, you must learn how to value a business appropriately. While deciding to purchase a business may be more of a gut feeling, acquiring it at the right price can be a quantitative decision.

Calculate EBITDA

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) is a neutral valuation formula that analyzes a business’s cash flow without too many inputs.

Essentially, EBITDA tells you how profitable a business is based on its capital structure and cash flow.

However, EBITDA should be used with other valuations and is not a substitute for a business’s net income or gross profit after accounting for taxes, interest, etc.

Use The SDE Valuation Method

The Seller’s Discretionary Earnings (SDE) method is a really simple formula for determining a business’s profitability after expenses are accounted for. The formula is as follows:

SDE = revenue - cost of goods sold - operating expenses + owner compensation

SDE is just as good of a representation of business value as EBITDA but can be more useful for companies with larger corporate structures with many more internal factors, such as owner compensation and benefits.

Multiply 12-Month Trailing Revenues By A Factor

Most businesses will give you a copy of their balance sheet or their 12-month trailing revenue to illustrate their profitability.

Add up the 12-month trailing revenue and then multiply by a factor between 3.5x and 6x, depending on the business’s age, anticipated years of profitability, and other financial metrics.

On the low end, we recommend multiplying your 12-month trailing revenue by 3x for most ecommerce businesses and up to 5x or 6x for more content or information-based websites.

You can also apply this factor to your EBITDA and SDE calculations for a rough estimate of price/value. However, SDE multiples will be lower than EBITDA because SDE accounts for more factors, such as salary and benefits, leading to a higher valuation.

Add A Discount Rate For Lack Of Marketability And Annualized Expenses

While these formulas are great at estimating the total value of a business from its earnings, these values don’t factor in other variables, such as expenses and marketability.

I recommend adding a discount rate for marketability, giving businesses that are harder to market (i.e., B2B and manufacturing) a higher discount rate than retail stores that are easier to market to a large crowd.

Your discount rate could be as little as 3% on the low end for an established ecommerce store and up to 17% or 20% for a small SaaS brand.

Additionally, apply a small discount for any annualized expenses that eat into your revenue, including administrative and banking fees. The higher your percentage of annualized expenses to revenue, the higher your discount should be.

Now that you understand what to look for and how to price an online business, I thought it would be helpful to list a few online exchanges you can look through to begin searching for online businesses in vertical.

9 Platforms To Buy And Sell Online Businesses

Unfortunately, Shopify’s app exchange was recently sunsetted, meaning you will have to turn to other sites to purchase ecommerce stores and businesses.

Nevertheless, these 10 websites and exchanges will allow you to research and find an online business to purchase.

1. Flippa

Flippa is one of the top online exchanges for online businesses, allowing individuals to search through listings like they would on Zillow or Redfin.

Best of all, Flippa provides valuable financial metrics, such as monthly profits, profit multiples, revenue multiples, and the website’s age.

Screenshot from Flippa, December 2022

You can even search for individual categories on the site, using filters, such as “SaaS,” to find a SaaS business for sale.

2. Empire Flippers

Empire Flippers is another great site for individuals looking to purchase a business via a broker or direct exchange.

This platform vets buyers and sellers beforehand and even provides data from Google Analytics and other online sources to help you analyze the value of a business beforehand.

3. FE International

FE International allows you to buy and sell large businesses with investor interest in the SaaS, technology, content, and ecommerce verticals.

Unlike other platforms, FE International provides advisory services for mergers and acquisitions, accounting, exit planning, and much more.

4. Sideprojectors

Sideprojectors is a unique marketplace for people looking to purchase side project business ventures for a little extra cash.

Most of the websites you find will be built with automation for activities, such as crypto staking, drop shipping, advertising, and anything you can think of.

Luckily, this site vets all buyers, and you can purchase a side project for as little as a few thousand dollars.

5. AcquireBase

AcquireBase is a relatively new exchange specializing in startup websites and businesses for low prices.

While these projects may require a little more work, they could provide you with the perfect in-between to snag a successful online business at a low price with an established brand.

6. Motion Invest

Motion Invest is a third-party exchange specializing in content-specific websites.

This exchange provides free valuation services and is a great source to find blogs and informational websites in your niche.

7. BlogsforSale

BlogsforSale is more of a boutique option to find specialized blogs, such as Mommy blogs.

Additionally, this site provides a bevy of helpful tools, such as due diligence research and free valuation tools, to help price any business you’re looking to buy or sell.

8. Business Exits

Business Exits is another standard online exchange designed to help people sell their online business and close on sales quickly and efficiently.

I would definitely recommend this site as highly as Flippa or Empire Builders, especially if you’re selling your business.

9. Latona’s

Latona’s is an online brokerage that can help you acquire online businesses via a wide range of tools and listings.

Search for businesses over listings and use their powerful search tool to help you find an online business that is right for you.

Additional Platforms And Ideas

If you haven’t found an online business that satisfies your requirements, you can always use existing platforms to carve out a business in any niche.

For example, no online business can operate without a domain name, so why not make a business of it?

If done correctly, purchasing domain names is a great way to make money at very little cost.

Additionally, other resources, such as Fulfillment by Amazon, can provide a great source of revenue by doing dropshipping.

And affiliate marketing is a great way to capitalize on an established brand using very little marketing work.

Conclusion

With so many different industry verticals and ways to make money online, you don’t always need a new or unique idea.

Sometimes purchasing an established business and giving it your own spin can be a great way to make instant profits when other people are struggling as startups.

More resources: 

Featured Image: Eakrin Rasadonyindee/Shutterstock

SEO During A Recession (Does It Still Work?) via @sejournal, @tonynwright

It doesn’t take a professional economist to predict the global markets are headed for a downturn.

In the past year, inflation rates in the United States have hovered around 7%, with the IMF predicting the worst is yet to come. People everywhere feel the crunch of high gas prices and rising food costs.

And as expenses rise, many businesses are preparing to tighten their belts, cut unnecessary spending and ride out the storm until the global markets turn back around.

As you’re looking to cut the fat in your own company, it can be very tempting to slash your advertising and marketing budget.

This is a huge mistake.

By eliminating or even scaling down your marketing efforts, you’re hurting the growth and maintenance of your customer base. New customers will be harder to reach while existing customers will be unaware of new products, services, and deals.

Remember, marketing is an investment – not an expense. And in an age dominated by the internet, this is especially true of search engine optimization.

So, if you are considering cutting your SEO budget, DON’T DO IT.

Seriously. Don’t even think about it.

SEO can continue to move the needle for your business, even when other growth initiatives are coming up short.

In this piece, we’ll look at why that happens and show why SEO should be an important part of your marketing plan, no matter the economic conditions.

Why Does SEO Do Well In Economic Downturns?

When times are tough, you need to find a better value for your dollar. Your money needs to stretch further and work harder.

In marketing, few channels work harder than search for most products and services.

How do we know this? Because economies are cyclical, and this isn’t our first recession rodeo.

In the SEO era (i.e., since roughly 1991), we’ve had three significant recessions. During these times, it’s been discovered that SEO still performs. This can be attributed to a few reasons, namely:

• It’s flexible: Even if you’re a small fish competing with an industry-dominating competitor, SEO gives you the flexibility to attract new customers. Long-tail keywords help you target highly specific searches. Local search helps people in your area find you, and a regularly updated website lets visitors know that you’re thriving (or at least maintaining), despite the larger economic environment.
• It’s integrated: SEO fits in with your Facebook, Snapchat, or any other to help your business appear in search results. This creates an inbound marketing funnel just by taking an optimal approach to things you’re probably already doing.
• It’s budget-friendly: Aside from your computer/internet/electricity costs – all of which you’re already paying for – SEO is primarily a time investment. Even if you’re outsourcing your search engine optimization, you’re paying for your expert’s time and not hard costs like billboards, paid digital ads, and television commercials (all of which also require a labor investment).

To reap the benefits of SEO, you don’t need to buy anything; you only need to do your homework, create great content, and optimize your site for web crawlers.

Now that we’ve established that SEO can work in times of economic uncertainty, let’s look at what you need to do to make it work for you.

How To Prepare For SEO In A Bad Economy

Whether you are a freelancer, an agency, or an in-house SEO, there are things you need to do to prepare your decision-makers for an economic downturn.

If you skip this, there’s a good chance you’ll get cut with the rest of the marketing budget.

When the economy takes a turn for the worse, the key to keeping decision-makers on board with search marketing efforts comes down to effective tracking and communication about the value it provides.

The first step is to ensure that you and your client are up to date on how the campaign is performing.

If you don’t already know your customer lifetime value and customer acquisition costs, now is the time to figure them out. This will give you a metric to keep in mind when calculating the value of your SEO work.

You need to adopt attribution modeling if you are still looking at last-click metrics for search.

Your goal is to make your work irreplaceable. This means communicating your value early and often.

You also need to let decision-makers know that even if someone comes in offering to do the job cheaper (and they will), your results will more than makeup for any additional costs of hiring you.

But to do that, you need to be on the same page with the decision-maker.

To be on the same page, you must agree on the results.

Goals Are The Key To Reducing Churn During Downtimes

Once you agree on the results, you can start setting smart goals for what the results will be.

Set the goal and get the decision-maker to agree to it. This helps you set yourself up for long-term success.

And get it in writing (either on paper or digitally), if possible, with both parties signing off.

This establishes in no uncertain terms that the relationship will continue if the goals are met.

It’s definitely a risk if you don’t hit the goals, so don’t set a goal you don’t think you can hit.

If the decision-maker wants to set an unrealistic goal, you need to push back.

Suggest making the unrealistic goal a “stretch goal” and setting a more realistic actual goal.

Don’t get pressured into agreeing to something you can’t deliver.

And make sure your plans are tailored to your specific situation, whether that’s as a freelancer, SEO agency, or B2B marketer.

As A Freelancer: Diversify And Focus On Core Competencies

For people who make a living by selling their services and expertise to businesses, recessions can be scary.

And it’s not just about an inability to find new clients – it could be existing clients who decide to reduce their costs by taking SEO in-house or even old clients who suddenly don’t have the money to pay you.

There’s no guaranteed way to keep your clients, and unfortunately, attrition is part of the game. That said, there are a few things you can do to set yourself up for continued success.

The first thing you should do is diversify your client base. Certain industries are going to be hit harder by recessions than others.

While this can be great if your clients are largely unaffected, it can be downright disastrous if they’re struggling in an industry. And it can be hard to predict which fields will struggle and which will thrive.

You must also find measurable ways to prove your value and expand your core competencies. That means clearly defining your goals (see above section). It also means changing the queries you’re targeting to reflect economy-driven changes in customer behavior.

For more information, we have an excellent article from the COVID-19 recession in which SEO experts gave us their tips for keeping SEO clients when things are rough.

As An Agency: Manage Relationships With Existing Clients

If you’ve been at a digital agency during a recession, you already know marketing budgets are usually one of the first things to get cut. And that makes good client management absolutely vital.

Communication and personal touch can go a long way to demonstrating your commitment to your clients. Of course, getting measurable results doesn’t hurt either.

You should use the recession as a chance to find new opportunity areas. What has changed about the client’s target customer’s behavior because of financial strain? How can you help the client position themselves as the perfect solution?

Focus on enhancing your relationships, offer timely advice, and, when in doubt, over-communicate. These are surefire ways to stay in your clients’ good graces.

You also need to understand where your agency is at risk. If you’re afraid you’ll lose clients, identify specific actions you can take to mitigate that risk.

Review your software subscriptions and other tools to see if you can afford to cut one or more if need be.

Because everyone is worried about their business, it can also be a good time to renegotiate with vendors.

And don’t forget about your team. Your employees are going to be just as stressed as everyone else. Have a tangible plan for keeping them motivated and productive.

For more ideas about how to sustain your SEO agency during a recession, be sure to read this piece.

As A B2B: Prioritize The Right Marketing Strategy And Platform

In a shaky economy, business-to-business (B2B) marketing needs to work harder and do more. And search engine optimization is a key area where you can outwork your competition without stretching your budget.

While you may be tempted to switch all your resources to areas offering short-term results like sales promotions or performance marketing, abandoning your SEO strategy is a big mistake.

For one thing, you’re forsaking all the hard work you’ve already done to get your site to rank on Google, which allows your competitors to swoop in and steal those clicks from right under you.

Not to mention, you risk being forgotten once the recession ends.

Instead of panicking, reevaluate your SEO strategy.

How were you performing before the recession? What keywords were you strong in, and which were you weak in? Are there any related queries you can start targeting that will bring in visitors others in your field may be overlooking?

Give potential customers or clients confidence in your offerings by prominently featuring reviews, testimonials, and case studies on your website. These tend to use the vernacular of your industry, which helps your ranking too.

You should also rethink what platforms you’re using. Obviously, your SEO strategy is going to be primarily focused on Google, adhering to the latest best practices to increase your search engine ranking. Still, it’s also important not to neglect your social media presence.

These are an often-forgotten way to rank in search results for specific keywords, often without much extra work. This is one of the few exceptions where it’s okay to use duplicate content for SEO purposes.

For example, you can share your recent blog post to LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter and generate traffic, all with just a single piece of content.

Be sure to take a close look at your integrated campaigns and how they’re performing.

Are you on the same platform your audience uses? And are you positioned correctly on each one?

For example, if you’re selling scrap metal to industrial companies, posting a video of your employees doing a viral dance to TikTok probably isn’t doing you a bit of good.

For more information on developing a sustainable B2B digital marketing plan, be sure to read this article.

The Bottom Line Is The Bottom Line

Business is all about revenue – and hopefully profit. But in lean times, you can’t adopt the same tactics that you used in the salad days.

You need to make smarter decisions allowing you to operate more efficiently without sacrificing quality. And this is especially true of your SEO strategy.

Just remember, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. No recession will last forever, and neither will any boom period.

That’s why it’s important to consistently find new ways to add value with search engine optimization. Set your goals, identify your strengths and weaknesses, and don’t lose heart.

If you can do these things, you’ll be set to come out of the looming recession even stronger than you went in.

More Resources:

Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal

Email Marketing For Small Businesses: A Guide To Getting Started via @sejournal, @BrianFr07823616

Most forms of marketing are expensive.

Direct mailers can cost up to $1 per target, while billboards could run you $14,000 apiece in major cities. And television commercials can run into the millions, once you include the cost of production and placement.

Let’s face it: most small businesses can’t afford that.

But what if there was a way to reach your desired audience for much less – perhaps as little as $9 a month?

You don’t need a fairy godmother. You just need to harness the power of email marketing.

Why Use Email Marketing For Your Small Business?

When it comes to reaching new audiences, heating up cold leads, or staying top of mind with existing customers, there’s nothing quite like email marketing – and not just because it’s cost-effective.

The main reason you need to be using email campaigns is that they’re extremely effective.

The average open rate for marketing emails in 2021 was a whopping 21.5% – a growth of 3.5% in just one year. That makes it by far one of the most effective ways to advertise.

Professional marketers know it works – that’s why 41.5% consider it a very critical factor in their company’s success.

In 2019, email marketing provided a return on investment (ROI) of an unbelievable $52 for every dollar spent. That means you can’t afford not to use it.

While price and effectiveness are two key selling points for running email marketing campaigns, one that tends to appeal to busy small business owners is that it’s something you can do yourself.

You don’t have to outsource your email campaigns to an agency or hire someone in-house.

With a little elbow grease and the information you gain here, you’ll be able to create and launch your own effective campaign in no time.

Ready to get started? Let’s go.

How To Start Email Marketing For Your Small Business

1. Choose The Right Email Marketing Platform For You

Having the right tools is an essential part of any job, whether it’s carpentry or marketing. And for business marketing, that means selecting the right email marketing software.

You could forgo this step and build all of your lists and campaigns manually in Gmail, Outlook, or whatever other email service provider you’re using, but you have a business to run.

Manual list building is a tedious, time-consuming process that takes your attention and energy away from other areas.

Plus, an email platform gives you the opportunity to personalize your messages while collecting performance metrics. These things alone make it worth the investment.

When deciding between the dozens of programs available, you need to find one that has the right functionality for you.

Some features you should consider are:

• Personalization features – Targets are 26% more likely to open personalized emails. Look for a platform that can parse your list for names and automatically insert them into emails.
• Custom branding – Your customers associate your small business with certain colors and a logo. The software you choose should make it easy for you to customize your emails with your brand.
• A/B testing – Version testing is one of the pillars of modern marketing. You should select a platform that allows you to try different subject lines and other content to find what works best for your field.
• Drag-and-drop – If you don’t know how to code, you’ll want software that lets you create great-looking emails without a thorough knowledge of HTML or CSS.
• Responsive design – 81% of emails are opened on mobile devices; Make sure your email builder automatically scales them to different screen sizes.
• Segmentation tools – To get the best results, you’ll want to target different groups with different messages. Look for a platform with a segmentation tool that allows you to divide your list into smaller groups.

Some of the most popular email marketing platforms include:

2. Build Your List

Successful email marketing depends on getting your messages in front of the right people. To do this, you need a good marketing list.

There are a few ways you can get one.

The first is to build it yourself.

Go through your contacts, pull out the business cards you gathered at industry conferences, and comb the internet for the contact information of the people you want to reach. This can be time-consuming.

To expedite the process, add a signup form to your website. This makes it quick and easy for interested visitors (who are hopefully hot leads) to get on your mailing list.

Consider offering a discount to encourage those who are hesitant. You’ll be shocked by how many new emails you can generate just by adding an interstitial to your site offering a 10% discount in exchange for an email address.

You should also leverage the power of your social media accounts to generate subscribers.

Create interesting, relevant content that will attract the right type of people. Put a link in your profile bio that directs to a signup landing form.

People who are following you on social media are probably already at least a little interested in your offering. It’s up to you to get them on your mailing list.

Another option is to buy a list.

Ranging from $100 to $600 CPM (cost per mille, i.e., cost for 1000 addresses), there are a number of places to buy these lists available with a simple Google search. Just be aware that there can be variable quality to these lists.

Furthermore, it’s very easy to run afoul of spam guidelines when you’re buying lists. In some places, it’s illegal to send people emails without their consent.

You may also end up hurting your sender reputation, which, in some cases, can even result in your IP being blacklisted.

If you’re buying email marketing lists, you do so at your own risk.

3. Plan Your Campaign

Now that you have your targets assembled, it’s time to start figuring out what you want your email campaign to achieve.

What are your goals? Do you want to send promotional emails promoting sales and special offers? Do you want to send transactional emails like abandoned cart messages or upsells? Are you soliciting referrals or reviews from existing customers?

Once you have decided what you hope to accomplish, it’s time to create your campaign. There are five common types of emails that will suit most of your needs:

• Blast emails – used for general announcements to a large audience.
• Monthly newsletters – to keep your business top of mind and update your audience about new developments.
• Welcome emails – For new subscribers or customers.
• Promotional emails – offering sales, benefits, or incentives to encourage transactions.
• Reminder emails – encourage targets to complete purchases or make another.

One of the more common sequences consists of a welcome email after initial signup, one or several promotional emails enticing sales, followed by promotional emails or reminder emails.

Email marketing is also an effective way to re-engage past customers or warm up leads who have gone cold.

A typical sequence for this consists of a reintroduction email, reminding them of your brand, followed by a “we miss you” message that offers a discount or other incentive to use your business again.

There are many other uses for emails, too.

Perhaps you’re hosting an open house and want to invite the recipients. Maybe you have a monthly newsletter that helps establish your credibility and authority.

The beauty of this medium is its versatility. All you need to do is customize your messaging to your goals.

4. Create Your Emails

This is where your emails become reality.

A common mistake many inexperienced marketers make is wanting to add too many bells and whistles. Not only does an overly elaborate design distract from your key message, but it also confuses customers.

Keep your design clean and simple. Some businesses opt for plain text emails, which contain no graphics aside from maybe a logo in the signature.

This may be too extreme for you, however.  It’s okay to brand your emails, just make sure you keep them simple.

Once you have settled on a design, it’s time to focus on messaging.

The first battle is getting your message opened, and that means a compelling subject line.

Try to inspire curiosity or offer some other motivation, e.g., “You won’t believe this deal,” “25% off sitewide,” or “Mistakes that can cost you.”

Now that you have your reader’s attention, it’s time to make your case.

Avoid overwriting and keep it simple. Explain what you’re offering or hoping to achieve, then include a call to action (CTA).

Any salesperson worth their salt will tell you, you have to ask for the sale. CTAs in emails and other collateral are the marketing equivalent.

While writing your emails, keep in mind your target demographic and write to them.

Some people find it helpful to imagine writing to a specific customer they know well.

It’s okay to use industry jargon, but only if it’s something everyone in your field will understand.

5. Send The Campaign And Analyze The Results

The email platform you selected back in step one should provide you with all the information you want about how your messages are performing – and this should give you an idea of where you can improve them in the future.

Are you not getting enough opens? You could have a bad list or maybe you need to try a different subject line.

Are you getting opens, but no conversions? Try changing your content.

Are you seeing a lot of unsubscribes? You could be sending too many emails and becoming annoying.

If your results are poor, don’t worry. Email marketing is an art and no one gets it right the first (or second, or third) time. That’s why you want to take advantage of A/B testing.

But if you put in the work, you’ll get a feel for what does and doesn’t work in no time and start generating the results you want.

Bonus Tips

Here are some additional ideas to help you maximize your email campaigns:

• Focus on quality, not quantity.
• Encourage signups wherever it makes sense (social media, on your website, etc.).
• Segment your list so your messages are more targeted.
• Automate messages where you can. This includes welcome messages, purchase confirmations, and re-engagement emails.

Email Marketing Is A Powerful Tool For Small Business

Email marketing provides the opportunity for a massive ROI, without a lot of upfront costs.

But you can’t just send out messages willy-nilly and hope for results.

Plan your strategy, do the work, track your results and tweak your messages (in other words, follow the tips provided here), and you’ll find your campaigns getting great responses in no time.

More resources:

Featured Image: Billion Photos/Shutterstock