After paying $6 billion to Iran, how will Biden prevent future ransom grabs?
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About us:
We’re a digital caregiver that helps older & disabled adults avoid retirement communities and age well in their own homes. We tailor on demand APIs from companies like Uber and Instacart to the needs of people living with cognitive, visual, mobility and dexterity impairments. We’re operating profitably with millions in revenue and growing quickly. Our company is remote first. Total engineering headcount, including this position, is eight.
The position:
FULLY REMOTE | Full-time | US, UK, or able to work 4+ hours overlap with mainland US
Build high-quality, robust engineering at the rarest of things – a Silicon Valley startup that is both wholesome AND profitable. We have 7-figure revenue, are YC-backed, and growing fast.
Tech stack (required): Back-end heavy (Node, Typescript, MySQL, REST*+GraphQL), front-end (Vue), deploy (AWS, Docker/K8s)
Minimum 4 years experience (with Node). If full-stack, you must be strongest on the backend.
2-stage interview process.
If you want to help older adults and people with disabilities, send your LinkedIn/CV to william@gogograndparent.com (keep it brief) or apply at https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/gogograndparent/jobs
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A body found on the bank of an eastern Kentucky creek has been identified as a missing flood victim, a coroner said.
Nancy Cundiff, 29, was one of two people still missing after historic flooding in July killed dozens and left hundreds without homes. Cundiff’s body was found Saturday near Troublesome Creek, which overflowed its banks during the floods, Breathitt County Coroner Hargis Epperson told the Lexington Herald-Leader. Cundiff lived with her mother, who also died in the flooding.
“The water overcame them in the house so quickly they just couldn’t react and it swept both of them away, house and all,” Epperson has said previously.
KENTUCKY FLOODING: 2 PEOPLE STILL MISSING AS RESCUE EFFORTS CONTINUE
Another Breathitt County woman, Nancy Baker, 60, remains missing.
KENTUCKY FLOOD LEAVES RESIDENTS SEARCHING FOR DRINKING WATER
A full recovery from the devastating floods is expected to take years in the hardest-hit areas.
Everyone has ideas. Some of them may be worth running with, while others are probably not so good.
However, even if your project looks awesome on paper, there’s a big difference between that and creating a successful startup company.
Do you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur?
If your answer is yes, then you need a detailed guide on how to start a startup.
For those of you who haven’t launched a business before, it can sound like an intimidating task.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying that getting your startup off the ground is an easy mission.
It takes hard work, dedication, money, some sleepless nights, and, yes, some failures before you succeed.
Nearly 20 percent of businesses fail in the first year, and just because you make it beyond 12 months doesn’t mean your startup is going to continue to thrive.
According to government stats, 30.6 percent of businesses fail after their second year, 49.7 percent fail after five years, and 65.6 percent fail after their tenth year.
Once you get your company off the ground, it doesn’t get any easier: you need to work just as hard to keep it going each year.
With that said, it’s useful to have a guide and a set of instructions to follow to learn how to launch a startup.
When I write about launching a startup, I’m talking from personal experience. I’ve created several startup companies like Crazy Egg, Hello Bar, and NP Digital.
I’m happy to share my knowledge and experience to help make things a little easier and less stressful for you as you go through this process.
Realistically, it takes hundreds of stages to launch your company, but I’ve narrowed down the top 7 steps into a blueprint for you to follow if you want to learn how to start a startup and learn how to create and develop your own business.
In the following article, I outline and discuss each step in detail so you have a better understanding of what I’m talking about.
Let’s begin with the basics.
Have you heard the saying ‘if you fail to plan, you plan to fail?’ That was the thinking of Founding Father Benjamin Franklin.
Well, research appears to back that up. Study after study shows that businesses with a plan are more likely to succeed. In addition, you can find many articles spelling out the importance of a business plan.
However, the Small Business Development Center at Duquesne University explains it most succinctly:
“A business plan is a very important and strategic tool for entrepreneurs. A good business plan not only helps entrepreneurs focus on the specific steps necessary for them to make business ideas succeed, but it also helps them to achieve short-term and long-term objectives.”
It’s pretty straightforward, really. Having an idea is one thing, but having a legitimate business plan is another story.
A proper business plan gives you a significant advantage, but what should you include in a business plan? It helps if you think of it as a written description of your company’s future. Basically, you outline what you want to do and how you plan to do it.
Typically, these plans outline the first three to five years of your business strategy and detail your business’s purpose and aims. Ideally, your document should outline your business goals, strategies, and your plans for achieving them.
Here are the key steps to writing a successful business plan:
If you need some help with your plan, the Small Business Administration has an easy-to-follow guide, along with some templates.
Without adequate funding, your business won’t launch or stay afloat long-term. According to Statista, in 2021, there were nearly 840,000 businesses that had been in operation for less than a year. Many of these startups won’t survive because they underestimate the cost of doing business.
Perhaps you’re wondering what level of financing you need? When it comes to raising cash, there’s no magic number that applies to all businesses. The startup costs vary from industry to industry, so your company may require more or less funding depending on the situation.
Costs also vary depending on whether you’re a brick-and-mortar store, e-commerce enterprise, or service business. If you’re unsure how much you might need, try the SBA’S startup cost templates to get a better idea.
Once you’ve got a clearer picture of the costs, where do you get the funding? These days, most startups get their funding from:
Let’s circle back to our business plan for a minute.
All business plans contain a financial plan. This usually includes a:
You use these financial statements to determine how much funding you need to launch successfully. Additionally, you may discover that the number is significantly higher than you originally anticipated.
For example, I’m sure you’ve heard someone say, “That would make a great app,” or “I should make an app for this.”
Do you know how much it costs to make an app? Depending on the complexity, you’re looking at anything between $40,000 – $300,000, and that’s just to make it.
It doesn’t include the cost of running it or customer acquisition costs.
This is the point I’m making: to secure the appropriate funding, you need to find out how much money you need.
To find this number, you must research and predict realistic financials in your business plan.
Let’s say you discover that your startup needs $100,000 to get off the ground.
What if you don’t have $100,000?
You’ve got some options, like bank loans and commercial lenders, and that’s the way many small businesses go. With this said, banks are less likely to give large amounts of money to new companies with no income or assets to default on, which may make it hard for your typical startup to get the funding they need.
Don’t worry, your dream isn’t dead yet. You can find investors. They could be:
However, whichever method you use, proceed carefully because you don’t want to start giving away significant equity in your company before you launch.
Then, if you get lucky and find a potential investor, you need to know how to pitch your idea quickly and effectively. Here are some tips to help you do that:
One more thing: It’s imperative that your business plan has a proper executive summary to entice busy investors.
Once you secure the appropriate funding, you can proceed to the next step of how to start a startup business: finding the right people.
No one makes it on their own. William Proctor might not have been a high-profile, successful businessman if he hadn’t met James Gamble.
Where would we go for advice if Larry Page hadn’t met Sergey Brin? Not Google, that’s for sure.
Then what if Ben Cohen never met Jerry Greenfield? We would’ve been denied one of the world’s most famous ice cream brands.
Even if you’ve already got a co-founder in place, you need some core staff.
Where do you start? According to Business News Daily, there are eight people your startup needs:
However, your business structure depends on the industry, so look at the above as definitive.
When you’re just starting up, hiring an entire team often isn’t realistic, and you find yourself wearing several business hats. That’s OK, to an extent. Just remember to play to your strengths and outsource if you can’t afford to recruit.
That said, there are some experts you should consider essential, including a:
Unless you’re an expert in law, finances, and accounting, these three people can help save your business some money in the long run.
They can explain the legal requirements and tax obligations based on how you structure your business. For example, it could be a:
While your lawyer, accountant, and financial advisors are not necessarily employees on your payroll, they are still important people to surround yourself with.
Finally, for this section, don’t forget the fundamentals for starting any company:
Now that you’ve got staff, you need to start work on a website and find a place to base your business.
Now you’re ready for the next stage of your how-to start a startup plan: finding a physical location and setting up a website.
Whether it’s offices, retail space, or a manufacturing location, you need to buy or lease a property to operate your business.
Unless you’re working from a home office, your two main options are leasing or ownership. Leasing usually works as out more expensive long term; however, don’t just base your decision on costs. Leasing and ownership both have their pros and cons. Look at the whole picture before making a decision.
I appreciate that it may not be realistic for all entrepreneurs to tie up the majority of their capital in real estate.
Strategize for this in your business plan and try to secure enough funding so that you can afford to buy property. It’s worth the investment and can save you money in the long run.
Let’s move on to setting up a website.
Today, your company can’t survive without an online presence. Don’t wait until the day your business officially launches to get your website off the ground, either, and remember, it’s never too early to start promoting your business.
If customers are searching online for a service in your industry, you want them to know that you exist, even if you’re not quite open for business yet.
The beauty of an online presence is you can even start generating some income through your website before you find premises. If it’s applicable, start taking some pre-orders and scheduling appointments.
For those of you who aren’t convinced about the pre-orders business model, many startups are succeeding with it.
Here are some tips about how to launch and promote a successful website:
Finally, make sure that your website is fast.
I can’t stress this point enough.
I’ve got a video tutorial that explains how to speed up your website.
All of these items combined may sound tough, but it’s really not that difficult. Just focus on one task at a time, and you’ll get there.
Once your website is up and running, you need to expand your digital presence. To do this, use social media platforms like:
Your prospective customers are using these platforms, so you need to be on them, too. However, when choosing a platform, ensure you go where your core audience is. For instance, if you’re targeting a younger market, TikTok may be ideal.
If you’re not a marketing expert, you need to become one.
You might have the best product or service in the world, but if nobody knows about it, then your startup can’t succeed.
To start spreading the word, you must learn how to use digital marketing techniques like:
However, if you’re starting a small business in a local community, some of the traditional methods can still work well. Think:
While some would argue that outbound marketing efforts are not as effective these days, research shows that methods like cold emailing and calling still work well.
For those of you who aren’t efficient marketers, there is no shame in hiring a marketing director or even a marketing team, depending on the size of your company.
Your marketing efforts will be one of the most important, if not the most important, components of launching your startup business. To improve your chances of success:
Take these numbers into consideration before you spend your entire budget on something like banner ads.
The bottom line is this: Marketing needs to be a top priority for your startup company.
If you’re following this plan in order, the good news is that you’re already on the right track to building a customer base.
Starting a website, growing your digital presence, and becoming an effective marketer are all steps in the right direction. However, now it’s time to put these efforts to the test. That means:
There are three keys to customer retention:
It’s no secret. The customer needs to be your main priority. They are the lifelines of your business, and they need to be treated accordingly.
Once you establish a steady customer base, you can use it to your advantage.
You’ll get more money from your existing customers than from new ones.
It’s a more effective method than cross-selling.
Less than 0.5% of customers respond to cross-selling.
Over 4% of your customers will buy an upsell.
These strategies both double back to having effective marketing campaigns.
Overall, establishing, building, and maintaining a customer base will help you get your startup company off the ground.
Expect the unexpected.
Launching your startup company won’t be easy, and you need to plan for some hurdles along the way.
Don’t let these speed bumps become roadblocks.
You can’t get discouraged when something goes wrong.
Preserve and push through it.
The difficulties that you face while launching your startup company help prepare you for the tough road ahead.
Even after your business is up and running, it won’t necessarily be smooth sailing for the entire lifecycle of your company.
As illustrated above, you face peaks and valleys while your company operates.
Mistakes and setbacks happen.
Some of these things will be out of your control, like a natural disaster or a crisis with the nation’s economy.
Employees will come and go.
You’ll face tough decisions and crossroads.
Sometimes, you’ll even make the wrong decision.
That’s OK.
Part of being an entrepreneur is learning from your mistakes.
It’s important to recognize when you’ve done something wrong, move forward, and try your best to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Pay your bills.
Pay your taxes.
Operate within the confines of the law.
As long as you’re doing these things, you’ll be able to fight through any obstacle your startup company faces in the future.
Check if your idea is viable. Do some research and ask around. Are people looking for a business/service like yours? Then ask yourself: How are other businesses in your sector performing? Have you spotted a genuine gap in the market?
Then you’re ready to start drawing up a business plan.
There are several sources, including personal financing, banks, crowdfunding, friends, family, angel investors, and venture capitalists.
In the vast majority of cases, yes. You also need a social media presence that is applicable to your audience. After all, social media is a free, efficient way to reach a huge volume of people that you couldn’t otherwise target.
It depends on your budget. Begin with strategies like social media, free press release distribution, and content marketing. As your business grows, you can allocate a budget for affiliates, email marketing, SEO, online ads, and influencer campaigns.
Let’s recap.
Launching a startup company is not easy.
First, you need to determine if your idea is worth turning into a business, then you must determine if you have what it takes to become an entrepreneur.
The percentage of entrepreneurs in the United States is growing strong, and each one of them is going to face challenges along the way.
With that said, having a proper blueprint to follow helps simplify the process. You can get learn the basics of how to start a startup by following the seven steps, and adapting them to suit your individual needs.
With that said, most successful businesses start with validating an idea, creating a comprehensive business plan, and raising adequate funding. Without proper financial planning, your startup doesn’t stand a chance.
Then, surround yourself with the right people and play to your strengths.
For instance, if you’re great at organizing and motivating, focus on that; If marketing just isn’t you, outsource it to a professional who excels in that area.
Don’t forget about lawyers, insurance agents, and accountants to keep your business in order, and make sure you have essentials like an online presence.
Launching your startup is an imperfect journey, and you must prepare for unforeseen circumstances. However, proper planning and execution help limit these hurdles and get your business off to a flying start.
How will you raise funding to get your startup company off the ground?
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Knowing your domain authority is key to help you create or improve your marketing plan. But how do you know what your domain authority is?
Let’s dive into what this metric is and some tips for picking the perfect domain authority checker for your business.
Domain authority (DA) refers to the number of relevant backlinks—links to your website from other reputable sites—your site has. The relevance of those backlinks also contributes to your score.
Moz created the Domain Authority metric to help businesses figure out where they may rank on search engine results pages (SERPs). They estimate a page’s possible ranking via several channels, “including linking root domains and the number of total links, into a single DA score. This score can compare websites or track the ‘ranking strength’ of a website over time.”
Some brands are authoritative without even seeming to try. This is because the keywords that naturally exist on their websites will carry some weight.
For example, movie site IMDB has a high DA because relevant keywords are naturally integrated throughout the site. Secondary related keywords are also prevalent.
When you have a better idea about the terms for which you’re deemed authoritative, you’re able to optimize your site better.
But it’s not just keywords—the better your backlinks are, the better your chances are at increasing in DA.
Domain authority is determined on a logarithmic scale. This means solo metrics won’t always increase or decrease the score to the same degree. The more important a metric is, the greater effect it’s likely to have.
Although Google doesn’t use domain authority in their rankings, but a study by Ahrefs found a correlation between DA and SERP ranking.
The results of this study suggest DA may be a useful metric by which to gauge how much organic traffic you may receive from Google.
If you want to grow your SEO rankings, consider ramping up your domain authority strategy. However, it can take a while to develop authority, so don’t worry if you don’t see results right away.
Domain authority scores range from one to 100. When you have a greater domain authority score, it’s more likely you’ll see increases in web traffic and SERP rankings.
When you debut a new website, its domain authority is one. Moz points out sites with many external links are usually higher when it comes to DA, while small business sites and those with fewer inbound links generally have a lower DA score.
A strong gauge for your site is to measure it against other comparable or similar sites. Your DA can fluctuate over time and, with so many moving parts, identifying why it changed can be challenging. But don’t give up.
Moz highlights several factors that can influence your score.
One could simply be that your link profile growth hasn’t been seen by their index yet.
Another occurs when higher-authority sites experience massive growth in link numbers, which may skew the scaling process. This kind of fluctuation may more significantly impact domain authorities on the lower end.
You may also have earned links from sites that don’t contribute to ranking on Google. If Moz crawls a different amount of link domains than it did last time it went through your site, results may be affected.
Raising your DA is a long-term process, but there are several ways to go about it.
First, conduct a link audit. This process involves making sure that links to your website are valid and don’t include black-hat SEO tactics. Try Ubersuggest to get insight into your domain score, the current number of backlinks, and referring domains.
Backlinks, which are links from other websites to yours, affect SEO rankings—though backlinks aren’t all created equal.
Do you know how to go about getting high-quality links? Try our free backlink tool, Backlinks, to get started. Among other things, it’ll show you which sites are linking to your competitors rather than to you.
Various filters make it easy to assess which opportunities are best suited to your needs.
It’s also beneficial to search for local directories or “best-of” lists that could feature your business. These sites are often adding new businesses.
There are several link authority tools out there. How do you know which one is right for you?
SEO Review Tools has a basic domain authority checker. It looks at authority (based on backlink quantity and quality) and content.
Other metrics measured by this tool include website age and social media score. Your social media score relates to how active your social profiles are and how many shares your content receives.
Page authority is also measured. This metric is like DA, except it looks at a specific page rather than entire sites. Page authority is also calculated on a one to 100 logarithmic scale.
If you want to check several sites at once,Linkgraph’s Free Bulk DA Checker may be the perfect option. This tool allows you to check DA and spam metrics for up to 10 URLs at a time.
If you want to check even more domains, Rankz’s SEO Rank Tracker lets you check hundreds at once. They also offer a backlinks checker, backlinks monitor, and domain availability checker.
Moz has a comprehensive free domain SEO analysis tool. It showcases top pages by links, discovered and lost links, top linking domains, and keywords by estimated clicks. Of course, you can also find some of this information using Ubersuggest as well.
For example, when you search for the DA of neilpatel.com on Moz, it’s revealed it is 88, and there are 69,900 linking domains (i.e., backlinks). There are also over 269,000 keywords for which the site ranks, and the spam score just 1%.
The tool then breaks down the site’s most important pages based on page authority and other top-linking domains. You can also find metrics like top-ranking keywords, keywords by estimated clicks, top featured snippets, branded keywords, and more.
You can also see a breakdown of competitors using your keywords. You can then take the competing domains and plug them into a bulk checker like the ones noted above.
Once you’ve determined your domain authority score and the factors influencing it, what should you do next?
Start with backlinks. You want to give other sites a reason to link to yours.
If you specialize in something unique or offer a new option for a product or service, that could be a great start. Work to provide better information on your niche than your competitors do.
It may also be wise to collaborate with small businesses with whom you could forge mutually beneficial partnerships.
Reach out to companies with whom you already have relationships, too. See if there are ways you can support each other’s online presence. Swapping testimonials is just one of the many tactics you could employ.
You should also explore your existing content for opportunities to add links. For example, if you mention a coffee shop, link to their website. If they’re monitoring their web traffic, they’ll see you linked to them and may feel inclined to return the favor.
Of course, you want to make sure all the backlinks you receive are of high quality. It’s better to have a few quality backlinks than a ton of ineffective ones.
Guest posting on other sites may also help get your name and site out there. However, some sites are better suited for this than others.
When assessing which blogs to guest for, check if their links are “follow” or “nofollow.” This may impact how much value the link has, though all links will help users get to your website, so also think of links as a branding and referral traffic tool as well.
You should also look at their DA and PA for target pages, how long their posts are, and who their audience is. If their goals aren’t similar to yours, guest posting may not be worth the time.
This aspect of growing your domain authority overlaps with your content marketing strategy. Most companies now have blogs or similar outlets on their websites—so, if you don’t, consider starting something like this.
The more content you create regularly, the more likely you are to rank.
Domain authority is a metric created by Moz to determine how reputable and authoritative a domain is. It takes a lot of factors into account, including backlinks, traffic, and more.
More backlinks and better traffic can help increase domain authority. It’s important to focus on being a great resource for users.
Go to Moz’s domain authority checker tool to determine the number of your current domain authority.
Usually, once a month is a good cadence to check your domain authority.
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Domain authority may seem complicated at first. Many factors contribute to your ranking, and analyzing them all may seem daunting.
Nevertheless, once you get the hang of DA, it’s worth monitoring and optimizing for it.
Adding this to your SEO toolbox may allow you to have a more comprehensive understanding of your overall digital presence and website health.
Have you had success in improving your domain authority? Tell us in the comments.
The Tampa Bay Lightning are on the verge of an Eastern Conference final for the third consecutive season as they beat the Florida Panthers on Sunday.
The United States ordered family members of Kyiv Embassy personnel to leave Ukraine starting Monday, and authorized other U.S. employees in the country to leave as well.
Buying a car can be an exhilarating experience, especially if it’s your first car, first new car or the first car you’re buying without help from your family. Unless you can buy your car with cash, you’ll probably need an auto loan. Before any auto lender decides to give you a car loan, they’re going…
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What are your goals with email marketing?
If you’re going to achieve those goals and see a return on investment, then chances are you’re not going to be able to do it without some level of automated email marketing.
Automated email marketing is a series of emails you automatically send to your prospects or customers. Using an autoresponder, you can schedule emails to send based on your audience’s interactions with your business.
For example, when someone signs up for your newsletter, you can automatically send out an automated welcome email.
Don’t let the automated part fool you, though.
To be effective with automated email, what you’re producing should be far from spam. Instead, it’s high-quality, personalized content that your audience has signed up for.
This may all sound a little bit complicated, but the great thing about modern automated email marketing is that the software is simple to use and offers you some powerful capabilities.
The key here is scale. If you’ve got thousands of people in your sales pipeline, it’s impossible to write out individual emails for everyone that signs up.
Instead, automated email marketing allows you to create email series that are perfectly tailored to your audience’s needs and send them out at a specific time. Rather than spending all your time writing and sending out individual emails, you can focus on creating the perfect copy that inspires your audience to take action.
That’s great, but don’t you lose the personal aspect?
If you’re writing everyone individual emails, then switching to automated email marketing reduces your level of personalization. Each email won’t be unique, but it can still be personal.
Email responders allow you to segment your audience based on their interests and behaviors.
Say someone signs up for my email newsletter from a page titled “Link Building 101.” I can put them into a link-building segment so they receive handy tips on how to improve their backlink profile. Someone who signs up through a page titled “50 Content Ideas for Niche Websites” will go into a different segment and receive different emails.
Segmentation means there are endless ways you can personalize your automated emails, so you’re getting both convenience and personalization.
This combination clearly works because email automation is the most popular form of marketing automation, with 64 percent of businesses using it. With email marketing offering an average ROI of $42 for every $1 spent, this gives you plenty of reasons to automate your emails.
Automated email marketing can bring big results, but it’s not always the best option. Here are a few of the times when automated emails can help you make the right impression with your target audience.
Abandoned carts are highly frustrating.
The person has gotten so close to making a purchase, yet you’ve lost them at the last moment. There are many reasons why people abandon carts, but a common one is that they’re not quite ready to buy yet.
Just because someone isn’t ready to buy today doesn’t mean they won’t be soon, and an automated email is a perfect way to keep them engaged.
When someone abandons their cart, you can schedule an email to go out to them, prompting them to return and complete their purchase.
The average cart abandonment rate is estimated to be 77.13 percent, so bringing people back to your checkout page through well-timed emails can be invaluable.
Once someone leaves your website, you may never see them again.
If you’ve got their email address, you’ve got an opportunity to keep the connection alive and build a relationship (hopefully until they become a repeat customer). Just having someone’s email doesn’t achieve this, though, and instead, you’ve got to be able to offer something valuable.
In the case of a newsletter, you’re offering your amazing content to grow the relationship and keep bringing people back to your website.
One of the key things with email marketing is providing value to the customer. It’s no good spamming them with links to your product all the time because they’re simply going to treat it as spam.
That being said, we’re here to market our businesses, and sometimes that means sending promotional emails.
To get the maximum value from this, you want to make sure your promotions are part of a carefully planned email series, and it’s almost impossible to do this without automated emails.
When someone signs up for your email communication, it’s a good idea to send out a welcome email.
Of course, you can’t be on your computer all the time, monitoring the moment everyone signs up for emails, so this is something that is best to automate.
It allows you to set expectations and explain the value proposition of receiving your emails. Once someone has a good idea of what they’re going to receive from your emails, they’re more likely to open them and interact with your content.
When someone has a complaint, they want to be assured you’re taking it seriously. The longer they wait for a response, the more their frustration builds.
You can’t be monitoring your inbox 24/7, so it’s just not possible to be able to respond to each complaint right away. What you can do is set up an automated email that explains your complaint process and ensures you’re working on fixing the issue.
This gives people confidence that you’re taking their complaints seriously, and they can expect a response in due course.
We talk about personalization a lot in marketing, and it’s something that’s very important when it comes to automated emails.
You can personalize automated emails, but there’s a limit to what you can do. With automated email marketing, you’re reliant on segments to personalize your communications. While putting someone in a segment means they’re not just any person, it still doesn’t mean they’re an individual.
In many cases, segmenting email subscribers works because it’s an effective way of offering them personalized content. However, there are times when you need to treat people as an individual, and automated emails don’t work in these cases.
Take our previous example about replying to customer complaints. The immediate response might be an automated email, but the follow-ups should be personal.
This is something you need to keep in mind when setting up your automated email marketing. In what situations does it pay to address people as part of a segment, and when do you need to address them as an individual?
The farther people progress through your customer journey, the more likely it is they will need personalized communication.
How can you get started with automated emails? The key is finding the email marketing tools that best fit your needs.
There’s a lot of competition in this space, which is great for the consumer because it means there are some powerful tools available to us.
Here are some of the best automated email marketing tools.
Drip gives you all the tools you need to run successful automated email marketing campaigns. It’s all about streamlining the process, and that’s exactly why people turn to automated emails in the first place.
This is a straightforward tool to use, but it’s also powerful. Attract more customers with high-converting forms and schedule creative emails with ease.
Sendinblue combines email marketing services with SMS messages to offer a complete marketing tool.
It allows you to easily segment your audience, meaning you can work on personalizing your emails to your audience. When you create your content, the drag-and-drop feature makes it quick and easy to produce high-performing emails.
Mailshake offers excellent automated email tools, especially if you’re doing cold outreach. With lots of plugins, it allows you to build out your mailing list, clean it to make sure you’ve got live emails, and schedule the perfect email sequence. It’s also got great social integrations!
The A/B testing and scheduling features are extremely easy to use, which means you can keep testing your emails until you find the right formula.
Mailchimp might be the biggest name in email marketing, and for good reason: It offers some great tools.
This is an all-in-one marketing platform that allows you to send drip emails, segment your audience, A/B test, and much more.
Emma is a great tool for large businesses with big marketing teams. Its tools allow for easy collaboration between team members and make the process of automating emails much more seamless.
With lots of handy integrations and great personalization options, it’s a professional email marketing tool that can bring in serious results.
There are plenty of automated email marketing tools out there, but what should you be looking to achieve with your campaigns?
Here are some great examples of automated email campaigns.
The welcome email is the first step in what will hopefully be a long and prosperous relationship. It’s all about introducing your brand, setting expectations, and showing the value of what the person has signed up for.
Asana does this well in its welcome email.
It focuses on the idea of teamwork, neatly showing you how its features can make your day that bit easier. It finishes with actionable tips, encouraging users to take the first step and engage with their software.
Your goal is clear with an abandoned cart email: You want people to come back and complete their purchase.
Marketing isn’t always that straightforward, though, and you often have to put the customer’s goals before yours. This means finding ways to help the customer make a decision, not just telling them to buy.
The first step is typically sending a reminder that they have left items in their cart. Casper does this well in the following email.
It’s not pushy but has tons of character and playfully engages with the customer, highlighting the items left in the cart.
You’ve now reminded the customer that they’ve got an open cart, so it’s up to them whether they return and make a purchase. Some will, but there will still be some people who aren’t convinced.
The next email is an opportunity to overcome people’s doubts by answering their questions and showing how your product solves their pain points, as this email from Dollar Shave Club does.
Sometimes an abandoned cart is just an abandoned cart, and there’s no way to get people back. However, there’s one last tool you have at your disposal: People love a good promotion. Try sending one to see if you can tempt them with a discount.
There are lots of ways you can use your newsletters to engage with your audience. How you approach it depends on your goals.
If you look at my email communications, you’ll see my goal is pretty simple. I want to give people quick access to information that will help them achieve their goals, and I want to bring them back to my site.
To do this, I use an engaging subject line and keep things extremely simple.
Your email campaigns will differ based on what you’re trying to achieve, but the key is understanding what your target audience wants.
You can automate marketing emails using email marketing software, which allows you to set up email sequences and auto-responses to streamline your email marketing campaigns.
There are lots of different automated email tools. Some of the best include Drip, Sendinblue, Mailshake, Mailchimp, and Emma.
You can automate almost any type of email. Automated email marketing works especially well for abandoned cart emails, welcome emails, lead nurturing, and newsletters.
The timing of your emails is an important factor. You want to keep them updated without being overly pushy. A good way to find the right balance is through A/B testing.
It’s just not feasible to create individualized emails for each person on your mailing list. Automated email marketing gives you the best of both worlds, allowing you to give your followers consistent updates while still offering a good level of personalization.
This is important because email marketing is still a valuable digital marketing tool. It helps drive people to your website, nurture leads, and boost conversion rates, so it’s something every business should consider.
Luckily, there are some great automated email tools out there, and with a bit of hard work, they should allow you to maximize your email marketing campaigns.
How have you used automated email marketing to help your business?