Tier5 Partnership Program - The Ultimate Software Program

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗼𝘁 𝟭𝟬𝟬% 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗲?
Wouldn't that be like an Affiliate Marketers Dream?
Here's what you get as a Tier5 Jr. Partner

✅ Access to all current and future Tier5 Software, there are 12 in the market right now, and 30+ full time software engineers on staff.

✅ Agency Accounts. Get 25 accounts on all Tier5 Software, sell at the price you want and keep 100% of the revenue you generate


✅ Advanced training – Tier5 will provide advanced training in using the software, automation, chatbots, affiliate marketing, and many other things.

✅ Networking opportunity. Network with the guys you see in the videos, and many more Tier5 Partners.

Does that sound like “The Ultimate Affiliate Business Program”?
How much is it? $97/month
What can the software do?
Generate Leads
Increase Conversion
Collect Payment
Ringless Voicemail
2 way calling
IVR's (press 1 campaigns)
SMS Marketing
SMS Chatbots
Email Autoresponder
Drip Campaign

Watch the videos from people I'm sure you know of in the Clickfunnels space (they are also partners)

If you want to learn more, you can visit the link below an offer that you will literally lose money if you pass it up.

 >>>>>>>   Tier5 Partnership Program 


Spots are limited. You don't have to act now, but if you wait the spots will run out and you will miss a Passive Income opportunity. 

Tier5 builds amazing software that people love to buy. 

Watch the videos and you will see what people are saying about the Company and the Software

 >>>>>>> Tier5 Partnership Program   

This post contains affiliate links which we receive a commision if you make a purchase using the link. You are not charged anymore using the link to make your purchase.

9 Reasons Your Emails Get Rejected

It’s email dating 101: there’s nothing worse than waking up, checking your email, and find that annoying email from last night – trying to get back into your inbox for a second round.

As with dating, a lot can go right in an email. The person you’re currently sharing your message with might just be the perfect customer for your brand. Your email might appeal to their needs and build a lifelong relationship. Or your recipient may discover that while you two have no chemistry, your product would be a perfect match for one of their friends.

But (also like dating) a lot can go wrong. If you’re striking out in your email campaigns, you’ve got to tweak your pitch. Here are nine reasons that marketing emails get rejected – any of these sound familiar?

1. Your subject lines made a bad first impression.

Your recipient’s experience with your email starts before it’s ever opened – with the subject line. A lot is riding on these 50 characters or less. Some classic subject line “don’ts” include boring copy, ALL CAPS, excessive exclamation points, and – of course – deceiving messages. The subject line “Warning” or “Re:” might earn you opens, but it won’t earn you customers.

What to do:  A/B test all your subject lines. Make sure they reflect your email’s intent.

2. You bored them to death.

Are your emails dry, long, and/or monotonous? Imagine that the recipient is looking for her shoes, her dog is barking to be let out, and she’s late for a meeting. She does not have a year to spend on decoding and analyzing your jargon. This is your chance. Don’t waste it.

What to do: Don’t be afraid of a little “edge,” a human touch, or even a fun, unusual inclusion. And don’t write a novel – the faster you get to your CTA (when you ask for a second date), the better.

3. You forgot to test your display.

You wouldn’t show up to a date in a stained shirt, or with toilet paper stuck to your shoe – which is why you check out your appearance before you arrive. Email is similar. Don’t show up in your buyer’s inbox without testing your display.

What to do: Before you send out an email, test it on all email clients – and don’t forget mobile.

4. You advertised a bigger, better, or cheaper version of yourself.

Don’t exaggerate your height in your online dating profile, and don’t make false promises in your emails. Are you a car dealership? Splendid – I’m in the market for a car! But don’t claim your deals are “once in a lifetime” if you’ll be holding the exact same sale next weekend.

What to do: You’re looking for a long-term relationship, not a one night stand. There’s no need to advertise your challenges, but if you highlight qualities you don’t really have, your customer will eventually find out.

5. You forgot his/her name.

During my worst date in college, the girl admitted she’d forgotten my name. She explained that she’d gone on a lot of dates recently, but the damage was done. Guys and girls, you need to personalize your emails – at the very least, don’t use the wrong name.

What to do: When you email your database, use first names if you’ve got them.  This is easy if your marketing automation allows you to use “tokens” in your emails.

6. You brought up money too soon.

Email is not the place to ask for a sale – it’s like asking your date to buy your dinner while you’re still eating appetizers. Many people read emails while they’re rushed, busy, or waiting in line for coffee, which is why an email is a great place to build relationships with your customers or to educate them on your product or deals. Don’t address your greed – address their needs.

What to do: Don’t mention pricing in your email. Mentioning a free trial or referral program is fine, but don’t overdo it.

7. You overshared. Again.

Your audience doesn’t need emails about how you’re remodeling your building, or how your company recently celebrated its fourteenth month in business. Save these kind of updates for your blog or social…or for a phone call with your mom.

What to do: Keep your emails about the reader. They should be interesting and entertaining to people who aren’t already 100% invested in your brand.

8. You came off as insecure.

Making fun of the competition just makes you look insecure. And if you’re saying this to customers of your competitor, it’s even worse – they hear, “Everything you own is terrible, and ours is better.”

What to do: Take the high road. If you are truly better than your competitors, the proof will be in the results.

 9. You didn’t listen.

Email marketing is about conversations. Don’t send multiple emails on a topic your audience isn't interested in; don’t send the same email twice; and – if you have the technology – don’t offer them content they’ve already viewed on your website or on social.

What To Do: Use marketing automation to listen and respond to your audience’s preferences and behaviors. Set up a subscription center. Run a survey. Listen.

Ok, supernova: you are now prepped and ready to make it past the spam filters, past your audience’s apprehensions, and into their hearts. Still wondering why your emails are getting rejected? Drop me a line in the comments below. 

Source

4 Ways Automation Develops Real-Life Relationships with Buyers

A lot of people make assumptions when they see the word “automatic.”
They imagine it means less human, less engaging, and less insightful.
But the opposite is true for marketing automation.
The “automatic” aspect doesn’t cheapen your brand, it makes your voice stronger.
With digital marketing automation technology, you can develop consistent, spot-on communication that builds authentic relationships with your target buyers.
Here are four specific ways that marketing automation goes the extra mile to develop real-life connections with consumers:

1. Communication Is Consistent

When you make a new friend, the consistency of your day-to-day communication dictates how the relationship grows or fizzles.
You’re more likely to appreciate a friend who responds to your daily texts than someone who blows you off.
The same goes for marketing: buyers expect consistent interactions with a brand.
Instead of failing to juggle relationships with thousands (or tens of thousands) of potential buyers, use automation to connect consistently with your audience via email.
Expert Tip: Always send your email marketing at the same day and time — it sets up a positive expectation for your customers. 

2. The Focus Shifts To Your Brand Voice (Instead of Logistics)

Sending regular emails through an automated marketing program creates the opportunity to emphasize and hone your brand voice.
Instead of managing a ton of email addresses in Gmail, you can use that extra time to work on creating copy that resonates with buyers.
Marie Forleo, for example, personalizes her automated emails with brilliant humor and warm enthusiasm.
A recent email from Marie read, “So thanks, truly, for allowing us to travel along your side as you continue to create and expand your life.”
You can feel how genuine that connection is for her.
Automation, more than any other technology, allows those warm-and-fuzzy sentiments to reach a growing pool of readers.
Expert Tip: When you write marketing emails, ask yourself the question, “What emotion or feeling am I trying to evoke in my buyers?” 

3. Keeps You Relevant with Buyers

Marketing automation enables you to scale your business exponentially without losing your niche as a company.
As your business grows, you can stay relevant with your audience by breaking a group into multiple segments that draw on your strengths.
Let’s say you own a chain of local taquerias with two primary sets of buyers: local Spanish-speaking families and young college students.
Email automation allows you to send one email to each group rather than bunching everyone together.
You keep the conversation relevant by only including the information that benefits each one.
Expert Tip: If your target audience includes native speakers of multiple languages, consider sending out separate emails in different languages to segmented groups.

4. Seals the Deal With Personalization

Personalizing your marketing campaign develops a one-on-one dialogue that goes a step beyond segmentation.
To simulate the same experience of interaction at a brick-and-mortar store, automate your marketing to send triggered emails in response to consumer actions.
If a prospective client clicks on a guide you wrote or reads an email about a special offer, you can follow-up with a planned, automated email.
Here’s a great example:

“Hey there!
I saw that you expressed interest in our May offer. Is there any more information I can give you to help make that decision? Feel free to reach out to me on my cell phone (xxx) – xxx – xxxx with any questions.
Warmly,
Dan”

Expert Tip: Don’t trigger every customer action with an email. Too much of a good thing is just too much!

Marketing Automation and Buyer Relationships: Final Wrap Up

Let’s face it.
Anything you can do to increase productivity without losing your personal touch is worth considering.
With marketing automation, you do just that!
By supporting consistent and personalized email marketing, marketing automation technology strengthens the impact of your messages.
So, before you hit send on your latest campaign, consider these 4 tips.
Try to implement at least one today and reap the benefits!
Can you think of any more reasons to consider automating your communication?
Please share in the comments below so everyone can benefit from your insight!



Source

How to Make Sure Automation Is a Game-Saver Not a Deal-Breaker

THE concept of automation refers to the usage of tools or software to help marketers with their daily tasks, which can often be repetitive and time consuming. As such, automation in internet marketing represents a perfect way to handle more tasks in less time, which makes marketers more efficient and more focused on some other creative tasks.

However, one can never be too careful with automation, as it’s a thin line between automation being a game-saver and becoming a deal-breaker. While online tools help you automate tasks that can help you save the day and do much more than you would have been able to without the usage of the tools, the reality is that this can quickly turn into a missed opportunity to generate leads, as you fail to establish a personalized relationship with your target audience.

Be careful about the types of tasks you optimize

The most common types of tasks that are automated include social media marketing, email marketing and lead generation. Since the tasks involve a lot of repetitive activities, performed daily, it’s completely reasonable to use software that will do the tasks on your behalf. Using various types of automation tools and software available online, marketers get an opportunity to significantly reduce the time they spend on daily tasks, time that can be better invested into other creative processes and into development of company goals. In this sense, marketing automation has lately become a strategy most marketers turn to when they get overwhelmed by the extensive amount of daily tasks.

What some marketers tend to do is to automate most of the process, which is where the problem might occur. Automation helps you save a lot of time, but a task that is completely automated can soon start to seem out of context. For example, automation helps you share your blog content on social media regularly, where the automation software can share the content automatically for you based on the schedule you have set up. However, there is no way to automate the replies and interaction with social media users. If you focus your social media strategy solely on automated tasks and neglect establishing your presence through interaction, this can soon become a strategy that doesn’t generate results. This is why it is necessary to establish a perfect balance between automated and manually handled tasks.

Set up a plan of action

In order to make sure that marketing automation is profitable investment for your company, you need to set up a plan of action and decide which types of tasks you want to automate and which tools you want to use to achieve those tasks. Therefore, determining the goals you want to achieve through marketing automation is a necessary step in order to be able to analyze the performance you achieve through this process.

Some marketers choose to integrate automation process in their social media marketing, some choose email marketing as the best place to start, but regardless of the assignments, every marketer needs a plan in order to integrate automation into these processes successfully and really notice valuable gain from implementing automation into this activity.

Monitor the automation process

When you automate a certain task, such as email marketing, it is important to monitor this process on a regular basis. This means that you should go through the email templates and make sure everything is perfectly fine with the content inside the template, that your content is up-to-date, as well as that the message is in accordance with the overall business strategy. By doing so you increase the chance of users getting a message that is truly relevant, and this relevance of content will determine if you’ll be able to generate conversions or leads in your campaign.

In this case, you should consider automation a tool to help you reduce the time spent on email marketing, not as a way to avoid doing it completely, as this is the kind of approach that leads marketers into the situations where the strategy will fail to bring results and they are left wondering whether automation was even worth their time in the first place.

Analyze the performance of automation

Apart from monitoring, analysis of the automation process is also a crucial part of making this process a game-saver. The analysis of the performance you gain through automated activities helps you determine whether and to which extent they are paying off. If you notice great performance and considerable amount of conversions and leads generated through automated tasks, this means that you’re doing a great job, and this is a strategy that really suits your business model and the approach is perfectly aimed at your target group.

On the other hand, detecting poor performance is a signal that something is off and you need to act on it, as poorly designed automation process can be a deal-breaker, causing you not only to lose potential customers, but to potentially gain negative feedback from the online community. At this point, the next step is to determine why automation is failing for you. Perhaps you’re not sharing relevant content. Perhaps you’re not successful at engaging the audience and you struggle with poor click-through rate. Perhaps your timing is off. All of these are potential issues that might be causing poor performance.

Successful marketing automation

Finally, you need to understand that successful marketing automation is about concentrating on your customers and recognizing the fact that marketing automation is simply a way to scale success, which is necessarily based on a personalized approach and connection you are able to establish with your audience. Leveraging automation process in the purpose of learning more about your potential or current customers and being able to recognize their need is a step toward realizing that need and successfully fulfilling it. Once you’re able to do that, marketing automation becomes a game-saver and a way to fully exploit the potential this type of strategy provides.

Source

How Automation Can Boost Your Content’s ROI

Marketing, with all the planning and strategies, the smallest details such as email subject lines to the biggest campaigns – can get overwhelming at time.
Chances are a lot of your effort gets wasted on unnecessary tasks just because you don’t know it’s unnecessary in the first place.
Eliminating the waste and removing the manual work is what using automation is all about. It helps you weed out low-quality leads, improve your social media content by helping you personalize it, gives you all kinds of data to track every tiny detail and that’s only the beginning.
From the experience of running my own startup, I found that marketing automation is the best thing that can ever happen to your ROI.
Here’s why:

Source

1. Centralizes your data

Marketing automation brings all of your marketing data at one place. You will have a centralized data warehouse which contains all that you will need for making marketing decisions.
It makes it easy to analyze data and trends, monitor activities, draw inferences based on the results etc. I personally feel that this helps you make holistic decisions which address all the weaknesses and strengths in marketing.
Here are some of the important areas of marketing on which you can gather data using marketing automation:

• Web visits
• Campaigns performance
• Landing pages
• CTAs
• Emails and videos
• Social media
• Ad campaigns

This data can help you eliminate wasted efforts in a particular area or help you understand which segments are worth your time and effort. Decisions such as these can boost your ROI through the roof.

2. Helps gain insights on the performance and drive action accordingly

I think this is one of the most helpful aspects of marketing automation. You don’t have to wait until the end of the month to gather all the data and then decide how your performance. You can track it every hour if need be and make necessary changes to cope with the results you see.
Automation not only helps your track real time but also automate workflows that are triggered by these metrics.
Here are a few examples:

• You can track the user’s search history on your website and trigger a workflow to send recommendations accordingly.
• You can automatically create a list of ‘Hot leads’ when the websites visits of the lead hit a certain threshold and trigger a series of emails which can help convert them.
• You can track to see which type of content is bringing in more results and invest time and effort accordingly.
• You can monitor your marketing campaigns and depending on the results you can decide whether to continue or pull the plug.
• You can also use tools to capture the contact information and build email lists. Also, it allows you to prioritize and segment these lists according to the user activity stats.

3. Allows for efficient and effective content promotion

Automation tools help you get additional information on already established leads and using this information you can customize your promotional content to their needs and requirements. Personalized content drives more results than shooting generic emails at your leads.
You can also implement social media automation; it helps you maintain a consistent and strong social media presence. For example, by automating to retweet your tweet after a week, there are chances some more people will view the tweet the second time around, increasing your exposure.
You can, in fact, have a variety of social updates to promote your content. For example, every time you post a new article on your website, you can automate such that a tweet, a Facebook post promoting your new post goes live. This will bring in more traffic and hence, more prospects.
At Hiver, we use automation to promote our blog content. We run an algorithm to decide the category of post that would appeal the most to a user based on their behaviour on our website, and send them similar posts in our newsletters that follow. This has helped us improve our newsletter click rates by 150% in the last one year itself.

4. Helps formulate lead scoring system and smart lead forms

I found that automation can be extensively helpful in designing a scoring system that helps you define what a quality lead is.
Once you determine the quality of the lead, you can target your marketing efforts accordingly, thereby helping you focus more on leads which have a higher probability of converting. Another big boost to the ROI, I must say.
While designing a scoring system in the traditional way, you can only include a few important parameters. For example, for B2B marketers it includes parameters such as company size, industry, etc. But, when you use automation, you can set as many advanced parameters as you like, such as content downloaded, website visits, social media interaction, and the list goes on.
This will help you determine highest quality leads and take necessary actions to convert them.
Being able to use smart lead forms to build the customer profile in your database is another great advantage. Instead of designing lead forms which have tens of columns for prospects to fill, you can use what Hubspot calls ‘progressive profiling’ to slowly gather additional information about your leads and improve conversion rates.
This will, again, eliminate unnecessary effort, improving your content’s ROI.

5. Determine a well-optimized strategy using A/B testing

The real-time monitoring of results using automation allows for us to use A/B testing extensively on various aspects of marketing such a content promotion, email marketing, CTAs and more.
You can run an A/B test to show one version to some users and another version to the rest. You can automate the process and monitor the results to see which one is bringing your a higher conversion rate.
For instance, you can boost your email marketing performance using testng. According to the Direct Marketing Association, 68% of digital marketers rated the ability to test new campaigns as having the greatest impact on their email marketing efforts. This is not exactly surprising because testing lets to try new tactics while simultaneously reducing the risk.
In short, A/B testing automation workflows will help you test out new ideas without impacting the results too much. Tracking these testing results can help optimize the marketing strategy to bring in the most results for the least effort.

Final thoughts

Remember that although there are gazillion marketing automation solutions and tools out there, you don’t have to overwhelm yourself by investing in all of them. Systematically try out some tools and figure which ones work best for you; this will help you get the most out of automation.
Additionally, like they say, automation is here to assist humans, and not take over – the human instinct is still the real driver of change.

Have thoughts to add? Please share on social media and comment below!

Source

The very embarrassing #fail I made with MY OWN newsletter

I made a Big mistake.

What happened? Much like the plumber with leaky pipes…. I didn’t send out an email to my list for a very long time.

It was bad. No… it was terrible. and I feel like the worst marketer that ever lived because of it. (maybe not the absolute worst, but it felt too close to call.)

Honestly, I am *quite* embarrassed about it.

Everyone subscribing to my newsletter either knows me personally or loves email marketing / making a lot of money. And I am supposed to give advice on how to combine the two (being an email marketing consultant and all). Then I turn around and display the absolute worst example.
So bring out the pitchforks, townspeople!



Trying to redeem myself.. I sat down and wrote a down all ideas I had to start sending again after being away for a long time. It is called re-engagement and it’s a thing. Here are my best, and I think you will like #3 most (because it gives the most value).

1. Ignore that it was a long time ago and just start sending again

That might be a valid option for a company – especially if there is enough other things to highlight. Might get a few strange looks though, as people wouldn’t remember signing up. And get a bunch of unsubscribes. For me, though that would be missing an opportunity to address a common problem amongst email marketers – getting out of touch or on a very low frequency. What is a good email frequency anyway? (It won’t be 6.21 emails per week for me).

2. Start building anticipation for next emails

This is actually quite good. Step over the past and look at the future, there is a lot coming up. Because if someone is opening the email they are already “re-engaged”, in part. As X (still have to look up who said that, who was that again?) says “Your goal for your newsletter is to make them open the next one”.

So what is there to look forward to? There are plans for:
* Offering more email marketing whitepapers through this site (!)
* Some very cool start-up tactics you can use for your email marketing.
* Send an invitation to take a trip around the world with me.
* Online email testing and optimisation Masterclass.
* How I gathered more than 500 new opt-ins in 3 minutes. (yes, that is more than 2 per second)
* New, unique research and stats on consumer email behavior.
* An article on Augmented reality and email
* Next to helping you select email and automation software, also giving some pretty hefty discounts on them.

At the same time, you want a “teaser” to be more than a flat announcement of what is coming up. And there is more than enough to share from the last months…. so

3. Give the Best of what you got, a reverse we missed you.

This is the reverse of a “We missed you” type reactivation email. Create an email with the articles they have missed. Sort of like a “best of” album. Of course, you have to have a few best of articles up your sleeve. Not like the best of would actually be just one song (called Ice Ice baby). I like the idea of overloading subscribers with value.
 


So here are the great articles and resources you probably missed:
The ultimate marketing automation guide

This pretty awesome collection of 60+ full-length articles with the answers to Marketing Automation Questions you never knew you had.
How to grow a resilient email list 

and Email marketing and Branding (both at SAP)

Outlook & Interview on what is next for email marketing (at MailUp)

Driving Maximum Customer engagement (at Sleeknote)

Email customer journey success (at Pipedrive)

Radical article on email segmentation
 
Want more? Ok, but these aren’t my own. (but I wish they were)

http://www.emailaudience.com/psychological-hacks-better-email-marketing/
https://blog.chamaileon.io/email-newsletter-design-best-practices/
https://blog.autopilothq.com/warmer-funnier-personable-copy/

 

4. Do a mea-culpa and explain why

There wasn’t actually any good reason to not send any mailings for me (and most people), to be honest. It is not like sending a newsletter takes a lot of time to create. Pam can write a newsletter in 90 minutes. The problem wasn’t content either. I have been publishing content, blogs and articles.
But most importantly – I think Nobody is actually going to care about the reasons and fake rationalization, next to a “I-feel-so-bad-for-you-shared-emotion” so that is a terrible idea.

 

5. Set low expectations – retroactively

Setting lower expectations will allow you to wow your audience. But does that work with frequency as well? Something like: The new normal is one email per year, haven’t you heard? Chris Penn does this with his “Almost timely newsletter” – I think that is quite a great name. But shouldn’t you set expectations beforehand? Turns out you don’t. But my intention is not to lower expectations, that would just be an excuse for lagging.

6. A reference to fact that I was thinking of sending my newsletter, personalised

Something like (a photo of) a ridiculous long to-do list or even an email marketing bucket list.
Another idea would be a dynamic image with their own name on it, inside the email, post-it on the wall next to my desk.

 

7. Make the whole email with articles about re-engagement

That would be pretty meta, and I kind of like the idea. There are quite some good articles about re-engagement, mostly showing examples.

You can check out:
the Monks
the GetVero
the Myemma
the PostUp
the SendLane
that plays to the point, you are able to create a very good newsletter through curated content.

8. Segment and conquer

To make the message better, more impactful, we could look at how to best make use of email marketing segmentation . So if I am talking about the lack of sending newsletters/reactivation the power-play would be to only select the people that didn’t interact with for a while. So, for instance, they just signed up the other day, there wouldn’t be any “noticeable problem” and could send a different email.

But also engagement on social or website would count. So that can be seen as an eRFM. Engagement, Recency, and Frequency, Monetary value and interactions on other sites with articles or meeting them at a conference. If it was for a company, interaction like purchases (the monetary) would work. The other side of the coin: Just be inclusive and make the content of the email interesting for a bigger group

9. Offer a bribe

This seems to be a trend in marketing, bribing people into liking you (again) or at least try to. I don’t know. What would it take to make you happy?

10. Ask for a re-opt in

That would just be silly. All the addresses are double opt-in and the moment someone is actually opening the email, they are already – partially – engaging with your email. The re-optin would be a consideration if you were planning to say goodbye to a part of your email list. Like a Hail Mary message and/or if it needed to be vetted because quality is a concern. Nope. Definitely on my list of email marketing no-no’s.

11. Write down all the ideas I had and make it into a blog post, then mail that to my list

See what I did there?



Source

25 Tips for Maximizing Email Marketing Success

New to email marketing, but aren’t sure what you should and shouldn’t do? Don’t worry, it’s pretty straightforward once you get the hang of it.

There are several things you should keep in mind when you start an email campaign to generate the best results: building your list, crafting your content, and cultivating client relationships.

With that in mind, this post will be full of ways to increase the chances of your emails being opened, read and acted on.

Keep reading for a list of 25 tips for maximizing your email marketing success.

1. Have a permission-based email list

Want to increase your return on investment (ROI)? Permission-based email marketing is the way to go. It has a higher ROI than unsolicited mail or traditional advertising. Without permission, your emails are more likely to be reported as spam or end up in the trash and recipients are less likely to engage with your campaign.  Keep your list permission-based and your email campaigns will improve sales, generate leads, bolster customer-brand relationships, and boost website traffic.

2. Use links wisely

It’s pretty easy to promote a product and talk all about its benefits when you’re speaking to someone in person, but it’s much harder when you’re emailing someone you don’t know. That’s why it’s critical that you use links wisely, so people understand exactly what type of service and/or product you are offering. Linking to your product/service allows the reader to check it out and get a feel for the advantages of going with your brand.

Studies show “triggered” or transactional emails have a higher engagement rate than other types of messages, a rate that only seems to be increasing. By placing a link to your page within this type of message you can generate far more leads and website traffic. Make sure these links are noticeable and standout so readers are more likely to click.

3. Check out the competition

One of the best ways to make sure you are all up-to-date on the latest email marketing trends is to check out what others in your industry are doing. Take some time to sign up for newsletters from other businesses. This will help you see what formulas they are using, and get a feel for what strategies they are employing. You can take the best parts of all of them, and apply them to your own email marketing campaigns.

4. Keep it brief and readable

In this day and age, attention spans are short. In fact, a study done by Microsoft Consumer Insights found that the average attention span is only 8 seconds.

So, word to the wise – people will open a short blurb or daily advice tip, but they generally won’t be too enthused about getting long emails every single day.

It’s also important to remember your font can significantly affect the response you get from your customers and readers. Avoid lots of capitalization, since that just looks unprofessional and is a pain in the butt to read.

Stick to the usual fronts. If it’s a lot of effort for them to just read your email, they’re going to view your product or service in the same light.

Avoid excessive italics, underlining, or colored fonts, since these will all distract from the core message of your email. Instead, keep things brief, easy to read and professional.

5. Automate and optimize

Use marketing automation software to cut down on time, reduce expenses, optimize your campaign, and increase results.

Not only will marketing automation make your campaign run more smoothly, but it also increases customer retention. Since it also makes it easier to manage leads and optimizes your marketing, this software will also bring about an increase in return on investment (ROI).

Looking for an automation solution for your emails? We highly recommend Sendlane, an Email Marketing Platform that has tons of helpful automation features!

6. Focus on building relationships

Yes, email marketing is great for boosting revenue, generating leads, increasing website traffic, and bringing awareness to your brand. However, it’s also great for strengthening and building customer-brand relationships.

Keep your message casual, yet professional, and personal. Don’t make it obvious that you’ve sent the same email to 1,000 people – each recipient should feel special.

Write in a conversational tone, since this adds a personal feel to your message. People are more likely to trust brands that feel authentic, as opposed to the brands of faceless, sterile corporations. Keep your voice consistent as well, so your recipient feels like they are talking to just one person. This builds trust and strengthens your brand’s personality.

Finally, be generous with the word “you.”

This one word goes a long way to closing a sale and creating conversions. When you use “you”, you are making the reader feel like you are talking ONLY to them. They feel special, important, and valued. Over time, this builds trust and a strong client-brand relationship.

7. Use a catchy subject line

The subject line of your email is the first thing your recipients will see and as such, makes all the difference in it being opened or deleted. If they don’t open it, there goes your sale. If you send out 1,000 emails a day, and none of them get opened, your email marketing strategy needs a lot of help. The most likely cause? Your subject lines.

Avoid using the word “FREE” anywhere in your subject line. This will get your email flagged as spam, and just looks sketchy and suspicious. Read here for more on avoiding a spam complaint.
Make sure your subject line clearly describes what is inside. Add an incentive to your subject line – what is the value in opening your email? What’s in it for them? Not only does this make your email seem relevant, but it also makes it feel like they will be missing out if they don’t read it.

Be specific, but don’t be boring. Use a subject line that grabs attention at first glance. Something like “Newsletter June 2016” looks boring and makes people think of yawn-inducing staff meetings. Nobody likes staff meetings.

Instead, use something interesting: “Surefire Strategies for Mind-Blowing Email Marketing” or “Inside: Exclusive Content Strategy Workbook!”

8. Personalize the content

Consumers are far more likely to buy from retailers or businesses that send out personalized emails (as opposed to generalized, impersonal emails).

Include personalized product recommendations based off of consumer data such as demographics, lifestyle choices, purchase history, and geographical locations. These variables help businesses identify great cross-sales opportunities and will help your customers find new products or services. Not only does this boost sales, but it also demonstrates your brand’s value.

Use the recipient’s name within the subject line, opening (“Dear___), and within the content itself. This makes the email personal and relevant, and comes across less like virtual junk mail.
Sendlane has tons of integrated personalization tags to make this process easier:



Simply add the tag into your message and the system will auto-fill the details from the subscribers profile. Just like that!

9. Format is key

It’s important to format your email campaigns in a way that offers the most convenience and readability to your recipients.

HTML and rich media messages with audio, video, and animations do bring in high response rates however, it’s important to have a text-only version for those who are unable (or unwilling) to receive anything other than text. For these text-based emails, it’s best to set the font at 10-point Courier going 60 characters (about 5 inches) across.

Double-check your formatting by testing the messages through several email accounts. This way, you can see what they will be looking at, and can ensure it looks good in all mainstream email accounts.

10. Make it easy to scan

People are in a hurry. They often check their email on their downtime, or during a specified time at work. They don’t have tons of time to click through a bunch of pages, or scroll through a super long email with solid blocks of text. They want to scan, get the gist of it, and then click the link if they are interested. Here are some great ways to increase your scan-appeal:

• Use bullet points with plenty of white space.
• Avoid using ALL CAPS LIKE THIS or Italics, since they are difficult to read.
• Keep your columns of copy narrow, since this will make it easier to read.
• Use large, bold fonts that can be read quickly and easily.

The more work you do for your readers, the more likely they are to read and interact with your messages. Make it easy and convenient for them to do so and you’ll see great results.

11. Conduct A/B testing

Testing allows you to figure out what is working, what isn’t, and what needs a bit of work.
Segment your email list, and then use A/B testing to test out different subject lines, sales copy, promotions, designs, etc. Refine according to what works, test again, and then send the most successful email campaign to your larger email segments. This is likely to yield better results, and the larger segment means more chance of a higher response rate.

12. Make sure your brand is clear and consistent

It’s important to make sure your emails are on brand. While proper branding seems like a no-brainer, it should still be revisited and tested. Your emails should fit in with the rest of your content, and should be immediately recognizable as mail coming from your brand and your business.

Want to learn more about how to focus your brand? Click through to take a look at our 2-part series on great email branding.

13. Encourage response

Include contact details so people can get in touch with you, and include clickable links. Make sure to double-check that they work, though! You don’t want any dead links out there in your campaign.

Ask your readers for feedback. Not only does this add a personal feel to your brand, but it also helps you get an idea for what people like and don’t like about your campaigns.

14. Send regular emails

It’s great to send regular emails, but you want to be careful that you aren’t being obnoxious about it.
One way to find this balance is to send out a daily newsletter with links to your site’s latest blog posts. The frequency depends on your audience, obviously, but it’s a great way to keep your readers interested and informed of things going on with your company. Additionally, it also increases the amount of value you provide, since you are consistently offering helpful advice and useful information.

15. Manage your subscribers

Greet each and every new subscriber with a “welcome” email. Not only is this courteous and adds a personal feel to things, but it also means there is no confusion about whether or not they actually signed up to your list.

You can use this message to tell your subscribers what they can look forward to reading in future emails. Provide contact information, clickable links, and consistent branding.

Make it easy for your subscribers to unsubscribe whenever they want to and clean your list regularly by removing any dead-end or incorrect email addresses.

Sendlane makes list management super easy with easy to access statistics, list cleaning features and unsubscribe buttons within every email.

16. Send merchandising emails

Merchandising emails combine CRM data and product attribute data to create real-time engagement. For example, if a potential customer looks at, or carts, a $35 item from your shop, and the item ends up going down to $25, then you have the perfect chance to re-engage that customer. These types of emails can also be automated, saving time and money.

17. Don’t forget the P.S.

There is a sense of urgency that comes from a deadline. There is an even stronger sense of urgency if the person feels they will lose out if they miss that deadline. This is where the P.S. comes in.

The P.S. is basically a summary of your email. It should explain what the reader is going to lose (what the customer’s problem is), what the reader is going to gain (your solution to their problem) and that there is an urgent need to take action. This could be a deadline, a limit on the number of items in stock, or anything else that gets the reader to take action RIGHT NOW.

18. Play on the Zeigarnik Effect

The Zeigarnik Effect is defined as “the tendency to experience intrusive thoughts about an objective that was once pursued and left incomplete.” So, basically, we get uncomfortable about things that we haven’t finished. This could be the cliffhanger of the final episode in the latest season of a popular TV show, or that To-Do list your spouse keeps nagging you about.

Not only is it easy to understand, since you experience it all the time, but it’s also easy to apply to email marketing. There are several ways to leverage the Zeigarnik Effect, and all of them are highly effective in getting consumers to take action:

• Progress bars – This shows where they currently are, and how much they have left to complete.
• Telling consumers there is a problem with their account – They have something they need to fix, and they need to do it NOW
• # out of # – Sending emails with the subject lines “1 out of 5”, “3 out of 5,” and so on give a sense of progress, but also shows they have more to read. Their task isn’t finished, so they will anticipate the next email – and are far more likely to open and read it.

Want to learn more about how to harness the Zeigarnik Effect to create demand? Grab Urgent Timer (our solo email countdown tool) or our complete email marketing suite, EmailTools and then take a look at our blog post to capitalize on that strategy!

19. Add exclusivity and a personal feel

Not only should the subject line include the word “you”, as this post previously mentioned, but it should also make it clear the content of the email will be directly relevant to the reader’s interests. Pinterest is great at this: “News topics you might love.”

This subject line feels personal, relevant, and interesting. It makes the reader want to click on it to find out what other pins they would love. After all, these were picked just for YOU!
Once you open the email, you receive something like this:



Just as the subject line stated, the following pin topics were (mostly) relevant to the reader’s interests. It also shows how many others are interested in the same things, which gives a sense of community and rapport with other Pinners.

20. Send emails during prime times

One of the best ways to ensure your emails are opened and read is to send them during prime times. While there are some exceptions, there are some nearly universal times that most digital marketers agree are prime for email campaigns:

• Weekdays are the best, especially when sending B2B emails
• If you only want to reach a small segment of your subscribers, go with Sunday.
• The best time to send them out is 10 AM in the recipient’s time zone (pay attention to this!). If your audience is in the college age range (18 to 25), wait until 1 pm. This is especially true during the summer, when they’re going to be sleeping in later.

Need a quick reference guide? Use this handy chart from CoSchedule:



Another tip? Research has shown that most messages that will be opened, are opened within the first 60 minutes after it hits their inbox. So, schedule accordingly and make sure your message always gets to them within that window.

Timing is key, so you want to be sure you’re on-point, especially when it comes to sending emails.

21. Optimize for mobile

More and more people are reading almost, if not all, of their emails on their phones now. If your email marketing content isn’t optimized for mobile, you’re going to be losing out on tons of opportunities. In fact, mobile email makes up 15% to 70% of all email opens, depending on your audience, product, and type of email.



With that stat in mind, there is little doubt it’s important to make sure your email looks great on both PC and mobile.

Convert your content into templates with one column, increase your font size, bold your fonts, and make sure your buttons are at least 44 x 44 pixels. You also want to place your calls-to-action above the fold, since that helps them stand out the most, and by placing them smack in the middle where they are most likely to be clicked.

Remember, the easier it is for someone to take action, the more likely they will do so.

22. Don’t forget to use power words

When you get about 47 emails in a single hour, they all start to sort of blur together. Nothing really stands out until, that is, you see a subject line that is just impossible to ignore. This type of subject line uses exciting, emotive words that make you want to read that email and find out more.

Power words include:

• You
• Amazing
• Shocked
• Value
• Bargain
• Free
• Easy
• Discover
• Proven
• How to
• Instant
• Secret
• Hot

23. Remain short and concise

You’re sending a quick email, not writing the next great American novel. You don’t have to be Victor Hugo to send out an effective email newsletter.

You will lose your reader’s interest if you prattle on and on, so keep your email copy short and concise. This will ensure the most important points of your email stand out, and that your CTA button is easily found.

24. Automate your re-engagement emails

Automating a post-purchase email campaign for 7 days, 30 days, and 90 days post-purchase is likely to boost your sales. Determine at which point your readers tend to purchase something from your business again, and start from there to personalize the re-engagement dates even more. The same goes for the time when readers disengage from your brand.

25. Connect your channels

Invite your readers to “like” your brand on Facebook, to follow your board on Pinterest, to retweet a line in your email or whatever call to action used for your choice of social media channels.

Connecting your social media channels with your email campaigns will not only increase your brand awareness, but it will also give you a better idea of how many people are actively reading all of your emails and taking action.

Final Thoughts

When carried out correctly, email marketing proves to be far more effective than any other type of marketing. To get it right, though, you’ll need to keep these 25 tips in mind when crafting your next newsletter or campaign. These tips will ensure you’re sending valuable, actionable emails that grab attention, engage your readers, and get them to take action.

What are YOUR tips for email marketing success? Share your top tip with us in the comments below!

Source

44 Thought Leaders Reveal Their Top Marketing Automation Tools and Software for B2B and B2C Marketing Pros

Marketing automation tools are all the rage, offering busy marketing executives valuable, time-saving resources that streamline marketing efforts. Any B2C or B2B marketer knows how time-consuming even the most basic marketing tasks can be, from staying in touch with prospects to nurturing leads, managing email campaigns, and coordinating social media marketing efforts.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE STATE OF MARKETING PRODUCTIVITY REPORT 2016

Fortunately, there are tons of tools that can make these time-consuming and tedious tasks much simpler. From streamlining email marketing with autoresponders and drip campaigns to tools that totally automate your social media efforts, editorial calendars, and apps like IFTTT which connect multiple platforms to automate pretty much anything, there are hundreds of tools that can make the lives of marketers simple and less stressful.

To find out which tools today’s top marketers rely on to simplify their daily tasks, we reached out to a panel of leading marketing experts and asked them to answer this question:

“What’s your number-one, go-to tool for automating your marketing efforts?”

We’ve collected and compiled their recommendations into this comprehensive guide to the best marketing automation tools for busy marketers.

Meet Our Panel of Top Marketing Experts:


Emma Kirby
Nevyana Karakasheva
Joel Stein
Kevin Moses
Anton Doos
Matan Ravid
Sherrin Bull
Sean Si
Christina Nicholson
Marc Prosser
Jonathan Spektor
Trent Erwin
Dan Fuoco
Xand Griffin
Adam Johnson
Laura Nunemaker
Meagan Nordmann
Louise Hendon
Erika Goldwater
Ian Aronovich
Justin Handley
Blair Nastasi
Addys Guerra
Susan J. Campbell
Yuimi Vashum
Adelaida Diaz-Roa
Jeff Kew
Walter Wise
Christopher Gaudreau
Scott Kennard
Tali Raphaely
Saurabh Nangia
Owen Powis
Steve Susina
Michelle Brammer
Ronnie Deaver
Don Uhlir
Lisa Baker-King
David T. Scott
Arthur Colker
Michael Peggs
Sandy Arons, MBA
Justin Fishaw
Valentin Valov

Emma Kirby

@letssoapbox

Emma Kirby is a Marketing Manager at Soapbox App, which is a new social platform for bloggers. Emma has been working in Marketing since she graduated in 2014 and has a huge amount of knowledge for the beauty, fashion, and tech industries.

“My number-one, go-to marketing automation tool is…”

My number one, go-to tool has to be Buffer.

It is great for social media marketing and allows me to plan and deliver social media posts and campaigns weeks in advance. I can link Soapbox’s multiple social channels in one place and ensure that each message is circulating consistently through. This leaves me room to spend time on creating organic, as-it-happens content too, which is very important, especially for a beauty- and fashion-related app.

Buffer has built-in analytical tools so I can really see who is liking my posts and what the thousands of people who follow Soapbox really want. I can also track certain keywords and set alerts for when people are searching for certain topics, e.g ‘Soapbox App’ or anything related to the industry. This in turn helps me plan topics and campaigns as well as making sure I am keeping up to date with relevant news changes and consumer shifts. I can also keep up with conversations easily so I do not miss anything and can give consumers that all-important, one-to-one engagement, which can be a struggle if you have 10k+ followers.

This tool also allows me to see the times when my followers are most active, so I can target and get my messages seen for optimal engagement. There is no point in posting great content if it is not optimized for your particular time zone, and Buffer allows me to do this. This is extremely important for me due to Soapbox being a London-based organisation, while our consumer base is in the U.S. Buffer’s tool allows me to schedule posts for U.S time zones without me having to work out the time difference.

Overall, Buffer is perfect for optimizing social media marketing and, more importantly, the basic version of Buffer is FREE and still has everything you need to run successful campaigns. This is great for start up businesses or for those who don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on ‘premium’ tools.

Nevyana Karakasheva

@OptiLocal

Nevyana Karakasheva is an SEO Specialist at OptiLocal, offering a one-stop quality service to clients who want to dominate their local presence.

“In terms of my favorite tools for automating B2B marketing activities…”

As much as I love tools, I’ll be honest and admit that I am reluctant to blindly trust a tool, no matter how highly praised and widely used it might be in the industry. I love when a tool can make my life easier by saving me time and automating a technical process that I’d otherwise have to do manually, but I don’t rely on tools that do the thinking for me.

As basic as it might seem, the Moz toolbar is my first choice. Whatever I do online: expanding content promotion horizons, looking for new blog contribution opportunities, quickly assessing a site’s value, strength, or worth, assessing blog guidelines and editorial practices, verifying for a risk of Google penalty, and so on, I always use the nofollow filter.

Whatever the keyword I enter in Google, I always get a preview peek of each website’s basic worth while still in the SERPs. This is extremely helpful when looking for authority resources and guest post prospects.

When your routine includes some of the actions above, it is normal to get used to reading those metrics and having them within your eyesight all the time. So even if the Moz toolbar is as basic to marketing as the mouse is to a laptop, I find it much quicker and more efficient to trust this tool for process automation in my daily routines.

Joel Stein

@ComputerLovers

Joel Stein is the Search & Media Manager at the award-winning digital agency Code Computerlove. He is also Editor and Co-Founder at Manchester La La La, a Manchester United blog.

“My go-to tool for automating my marketing efforts is…”

My go-to tool for automating my marketing efforts is Zapier. It’s brilliant because it lets me hook up different apps and make them talk to each other, creating seamless workflows across multiple tools. This is particularly great because, working across different internal teams and clients, people don’t always want me to use the same app to log my work, for example. Zapier allows me to record my activity in the right place for the right people without changing my normal routine. I feel like I’ve only begun to scratch the surface of what’s possible with Zapier, but with so many integrations available, I’m sure I’ll be using it more and more.

Kevin Moses

Kevin Moses runs That Truck Needs a Mudflap, a small windshield repair company in Houston, TX.

“My top B2B marketing automation tool is…”

The tool I love is Circlescope. If I sound like an advocate, that’s because I am. Circlescope is probably the single best marketing tool for managing Google+ users and their interests.

Anton Doos

@battery_bro

Anton D. is one of the co-founders of 18650 Battery Bro. Battery Bro, based in Hong Kong, is a wholesale distributor of lithium-ion batteries to emerging industries like electric vehicles.

“My secret for automating marketing efforts is…”

Using a site like Freelancer.com.

There is no real way to remove the ‘people’ from most marketing processes. The next best thing is having accessible freelancers. I have personally hired over 100 freelancers online for absolutely everything. Lead research, copywriting, graphics design, cold-calling, you name it, and you can find a freelancer who can get the job done well. If you can automate human resources with sites like Freelancer or Reddit.com/r/forhire, you are free to focus elsewhere, which is the whole point of marketing automation.

Matan Ravid

@SimblaOfficial

Matan Ravid is the product manager of Simbla, the most modern, responsive website builder. Simbla has created an amazing, working, and profitable product in the last year and a half, but the company is about to reveal the second layer of its system, which is dealing with business applications and databases. Simbla believes it has the power to change the established web industry, again.

“When it comes to marketing automation, I turn to…”

Personally, I love the content recommendation systems, which can help me reach a lot of people who are already interested in what I am writing about. After I write something that I think it is interesting for a big crowd, I can use these systems to spread my content in news sites and niche blogs. All I need to do is add a URL, choose my keywords, and set up a budget. They will do the rest.

There are two main competitors in this area: Taboola and Outbrain, both of which are doing a great job. However, I prefer Outbrain, since you can register to their software immediately online.

Although these systems may sound expensive, it is really not that bad. Their pricing is very similar to other CPC service providers.

Sherrin Bull

@devheroes

Sherrin Bull is a Senior Web Strategist at Development Heroes. Bull is a top-performing digital marketing expert with experience in SEO, SEM, social media, e-commerce, email marketing, and content management for enterprise-level clients.

“My top secret to automating marketing activities is…”

My recipe for B2B marketing automation is a combination of Infusionsoft for automating lead capture and follow-up and Buffer for social media publishing and reporting. Infusionsoft is simple enough to get started right away and can handle more complex, segmented campaigns when you are ready. The visual Campaign Builder makes setting up email automation easier than most systems. Infusionsoft also has a marketplace, so you can integrate it with the other software you are already using. Buffer handles the social side of marketing automation with suggested content, scheduled posts, and robust reporting.

Sean Si

@SEO_Hacker

Sean Si is the CEO and Founder of SEO Hacker and Qeryz, and a start-up, data analysis, and urgency junkie who spends his time inspiring young entrepreneurs through talks and seminars. Check out his personal blog, where he writes about starting up two companies and life in general.

“My favorite marketing automation tool is…”

I can’t lie. The one tool I really love (aside from Qeryz) is Socialoomph, for the simple reason that it’s able to recur tweets in a super easy way.

Twitter is my #1 referrer of traffic last year, and its because of the recurring tweets of my most viral articles that Socialoomph managed for me.

You just can’t beat that level of automated marketing.

Christina Nicholson

@_mascaramaven_

Christina Nicholson is a former TV reporter and anchor turned media relations and social media specialist. In addition, Nicholson is a freelance writer, blogger, and Younique presenter. You can visit her blog at MascaraMavenAndMore.com and her professional site at ChristinaNicholson.weebly.com.

“For marketing automation, my go-to tool is…”

As a social media manager, I love to use Hootsuite for posting to social media. Obviously, posting is just a small part of running a successful social media campaign, but scheduling posts takes a big weight off my shoulders because I can cover myself when I’m on vacation or ensure a post isn’t forgotten at a specific time slot when it is most likely to be seen. This is step one of many that makes the job more efficient. It’s almost like a backup plan that is always in place. It’s my security blanket.

Marc Prosser

@FitSmallBiz

Marc Prosser has been involved in many businesses as an executive, advisor, and investor. Prior to starting Fit Small Business, Marc Prosser was the first employee and Chief Marketing Officer of FXCM. During his ten years at FXCM, the company grew from a small business to over 700 employees.

“My preferred tool for marketing automation is…”

Email campaigns remain our go-to tool for marketing automation. Drip campaigns especially are a great, timely way to stay in touch with people. They allow you to apply relevant content to a potential customer’s buying process; for instance, the first email would provide a general overview of buying considerations for the product, the second might be an invitation to demo your product, and the third could show off how your product compares to the competition. Every step of the way, you’re addressing where the reader is in the buying process.

Email campaigns are also highly customizable. It’s easy to fill in a person’s name. In a more advanced campaign, you can match an email to someone’s specific interests. It’s the perfect level of customization, enabling the user to do things on a large scale while still meeting people’s individual needs.

Jonathan Spektor



Jonathan is a co-owner of Long Live The Internet. Long Live The Internet helps people start their online businesses and grow them organically with limited resources, sharing successes and failures along the way to help others reach their success quicker. Jonathan also owns and operates a software development company, has half a dozen online businesses, and author of How To Start An Online Store.

“My go-to tool for automating marketing activities is…”

One of the best tools we have our clients and students use is IFTTT.com (If This Then That). In simple terms, it allows you to easily automate your social networking. We work with e-commerce sites, and they are swamped with work. We generally tell them to pick their favorite social network and concentrate on that one. From there, they can setup automated processes through IFTTT to post the same message to other social networks. For example, if they just want to post on Instagram, they can automatically post to Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook, as well as save the images to their Dropbox.

There is only so much time in the day, and this allows them to be present on all social networks, while actively managing only one.

Trent Erwin

@TrentErwin

Trent Erwin is a 23-year old entrepreneur, co-owner of Genesis Net Development, and graduate of Auburn University’s journalism program.

“My #1, go-to tool for marketing automation is…”

HubSpot. Why? Because it integrates everything I need to pull off a killer online marketing strategy. I can control social media, blogging, email, SEO, and sales all in one place. Not only can I control so much in the hub, but everything is synced, so I can see where leads and sales are coming from with each marketing effort. I can track from the very first impression to the final sale and throughout the individual customer’s journey. I can determine which strategies are generating the most leads and deals and which don’t deserve my time. And the best part: There’s so much that can be automated and working for me when I’m not working, such as automated social media, emails, and email workflows. Once a person signs up for something or drops their contact info, I have workflows setup to keep in contact with them and make sure they’re always engaged. This automation keeps me in the loop without consuming all my energy, all while the lead is being nurtured and satisfied.

Dan Fuoco

@DanFuoco

Dan Fuoco is the Interactive Marketing Manager for the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau (@VisitDetroit) and is responsible for building and engaging with the community via social media. Dan redesigned the Visit Detroit leisure newsletter, visitdetroit/NOW, in 2012 and has consistently seen open rates of about 20 percent (double the industry average). Under his direction, Twitter has reached a milestone 25,000+ followers and Facebook has reached 10,000+ likes. Dan is active in two groups that he co-founded: Social Media in The D and Tour Michigan. These groups of professionals practice social media both in metro Detroit and statewide.

“When it comes to automating marketing activities, I turn to…”

I just found Zapier this year and I LOVE it! Zapier’s trigger-action methodology automates daily social tasks, saving my time for strategic overview efforts. For example, I’ve set up Zapier so that every time we publish a new blog post, that headline and link are promoted on our social media channels (Facebook, Twitter and Google+). With one click, I am promoting on three different channels. I also use Zapier to monitor social mentions by setting up a hashtag (trigger) to pull tweets into a Google spreadsheet (action). When it comes to reoccurring tasks like coordinating our monthly leisure newsletter, Zapier comes in handy by populating my Trello, my daily to-do list manager, with a timely checklist that guides me through the process of organizing each newsletter.

Xand Griffin

@XandGriffin

Xand Griffin is the Brand Evangelist from PeopleMetrics. This means that she is responsible for pulling back the curtain on the mystery of measuring experiences and getting people excited about creating action from their customers’, buyers’, and employees’ opinions. When she’s not doing that, she’s probably walking her two dogs.

“My favorite marketing automation tools are…”

Hands down, my favorite marketing automation tool is HubSpot. It’s kind of ridiculous how easy and accessible they make things for inbound marketers.

Not only do they have an amazing software system that is easy to use, but they have massive libraries on how to use and apply their software in the correct ways. There is a methodology they teach with the adoption of the software that is unlike other marketing automation software. Everything you could want is included, from social tools, to a content management system, to prospect monitoring, and more.

One of the things I applaud constantly is their flexibility in developing their product to become better everyday. They have all types of feedback methods, from in-app product help to beta testing group to customer feedback surveys. And they listen. No other software has let the users decide what it needs to become.

I’m also super impressed by IFTTT everyday. If you aren’t familiar, IFTTT is a connection tool for the internet. Working in one technology and need it to be connected to another? IFTTT is your answer. I mainly use IFTTT to automate the repetitive tasks that robots could surely do for me. It could be anything from searching through Craigslist resume postings for new marketing talent to monitoring our competitors’ new YouTube videos.

Another way I use IFTTT is to automate sharing specific Twitter messages I post to a certain channel on our internal Slack. That way, I can keep my team informed about the newest marketing trends.The possibilities are virtually limitless, so make sure to browse their Recipes section for ideas of the automation you might need.

Adam Johnson

@QuoteWizard

Adam Johnson is the SEO Specialist at QuoteWizard.com, where he brings expert knowledge in lead generation and search marketing for the insurance industry.

“When I need to automate my marketing activities, my go-to tool is…”

My go-to automation tool is Socedo. Socedo is a social lead generation tool that discovers prospects by leveraging Twitter bio keywords. My target audience is insurance agents, so I select bio keywords like ‘insurance agent,’ ‘State Farm,’ and ‘life insurance’ to discover and prospect agents. When I approve a prospect, it starts a series of automation to begin a conversation and qualify the prospect as a lead. When an approved prospect sends his next tweet, Socedo automatically favorites that tweet on my behalf. An hour later, I will automatically follow the approved prospect. If the approved prospect follows me back, Socedo initiates an automated direct message. My automated message looks like this:

Hey I’m Adam. Wanted to connect with you to see if our lead programs could help grow your agency. Is your focus on P&C or Life?

With a few back and fourth messages, I’m able to qualify and collect contact info and get it sales rep-ready.

I love Socedo because it automates social selling, which I previously spent hours on everyday. When I get in the office, I approve 100+ prospects, and the next morning I’ll have 5-10 direct message responses and two to three leads per day coming from it.

The main purpose is lead generation, but a side effect is that it grows your Twitter following. QuoteWizard’s Twitter following went from 100 to 1,400 followers. The increased following has made our content marketing efforts more effective in nurturing the prospects that failed to convert into a lead.

Laura Nunemaker

@socialforsmallb

Laura Nunemaker has 13+ years experience in email marketing, social media, and content development. A former retail bakery owner, Nunemaker is presently an online marketing specialist with Social Media for Small Business, Inc. She loves cycling and scuba diving and is a Vegan and a cat magnet.

“My #1 tool for marketing automation is…”

My number one marketing automation tool is Buffer. I started with the free version when I only used it for one business, and now I’m on a mid-sized plan managing accounts for five different entities. Its ease of use is probably its best feature. It’s robust enough to use for my business, but easy enough for a client to use. Once you determine your posting schedule, you can set it and forget it if you like. It just makes it easy to spread out your social media efforts without having to put thought into the scheduling on each post.

Meagan Nordmann

@MegNordmann

Meagan Nordmann is a social media marketing specialist with over 18K Followers on her personally branded Twitter page.

“My preferred marketing automation tool is…”

I love using SproutSocial to schedule my tweets. There’s a small cost to using it, but it’s worth it to be able to schedule a tweet to post multiple times. I use TweetDeck (which is free) for other reasons, but no longer for automation because its scheduler limits a tweet to post only once, which can slow me down. With SproutSocial, I can craft one tweet and have it scheduled to go out several times throughout the next six months if I wanted. (I do keep them spaced out though, so I don’t bore Followers with the same tweet.)

Louise Hendon

@AncestralChef

Louise Hendon is the co-founder of Paleo Living Magazine.

“My go-to tool for marketing automation is…”

Infusionsoft. It’s an affordable tool that does everything from sending out automatic emails to your customers to managing your products and shopping cart, and it also provides you with affiliate software.

Erika Goldwater

@erikawg

Erika is the VP of Marketing for ANNUITAS, a leading demand generation and marketing change management firm for B2B enterprise companies. Erika has over 15 years of B2B marketing, public relations and demand generation expertise. She manages all aspects of marketing, including demand generation, content marketing, social media, and public relations.

“My go-to marketing automation tool is…”

My go-to tool is Hootsuite because of its ease of planning and coverage from a social media standpoint. I don’t believe in using automated tools for all social media, because the beauty of social media is that it should be real-time engagement. However, in terms of driving programs, promoting specific content, and ensuring consistent communications, Hootsuite is an invaluable tool that enables me to manage and report on social media engagement.

Ian Aronovich

@GovtAuctions

Ian Aronovich is the president and co-founder of GovernmentAuctions.org, a site that compiles and provides information about government auctions of seized and surplus merchandise from all over the country.

“When it comes to marketing automation, I turn to…”

The best tool that we use at our business to automate marketing efforts is Hootsuite. It’s a great social media platform that we use on our desktop computers, iPads, and Android phones, because it allows us to monitor all of our conversations and email threads, neatly displaying them on a dashboard. It’s fundamentally an easy-to-use message system that allows us to observe our networks and accounts. It saves our business a lot of time and effort, making it very efficient to use. Since implementing Hootsuite at our company, our social media locations’ subscriptions increased by over 15 percent. Small businesses like ours really value Hootsuite because it continues to be really beneficial to marketing efforts and overall business growth.

Justin Handley

@justinbhandley

Justin Handley is an online marketing consultant and automation expert, as well as the founder of ManagedWP.Rocks, a full-service WordPress management company and WebMissionControl.com, a high-speed, stable, and secure WordPress hosting service. He lives in Puerto Rico and likes to surf and hang out with his family in the free time that marketing automation creates in his life.

“My top tool for marketing automation is…”

I’ve been working in online marketing for 15 years and have watched the rise of marketing automation. As a marketing consultant for literally hundreds of clients, I’ve had the opportunity to view and use most of the automation tools on the market today. To clarify, I work in the small- to mid-sized business range, so I’m not talking SAP here. Out of what is available to the average business owner, Infusionsoft has consistently been leagues above the competition. Every couple of years, I’ll watch a competitor get good at their game, and maybe excel in a single feature set in a way that makes them an attractive possibility, but no one has come close to offering the all-in-one automation suite that is Infusionsoft. The core of the platform is the Campaign Builder, which makes incredibly complex marketing logic as simple as drag-and-drop, including many campaigns that you can simply choose from, install for free, and edit the copy on. Need an affiliate recruiting system? How about a powerful follow-up strategy to garner referrals? These things can be set up in a matter of minutes, which, for a small company simply looking to get maximum leverage out of marketing automation, is a huge plus.

Blair Nastasi

@MediaMogulsPR

Blair Nastasi is the CEO & Founder of Media Moguls PR and Co-Founder of Kickass Business Cruises. She’s been featured on ABC News (three times), Bplans.com, Wrike blog, Docurated, and CEO Blog Nation. She’s also the #1 Marketing & Business Columnist on Examiner.com. Nastasi is on the board of directors for three Non-Profits and is the marketing committee chair for SCORE Salt Lake City. Nastasi has helped successfully launch more than two dozen startups.

“My favorite tool for automating marketing activities is…”

Hands down, Hootsuite is my favorite marketing automation platform. I can see streams from all my social media profiles in one place, as well as schedule my posts for several weeks (or more) in advance. It saves me 5 to 6 hours per month by automating. I also like that it’s insanely affordable and it allows me to schedule social media posts based on peak engagement times, so I don’t have to put in guesswork on the best times of day to schedule things.

Addys Guerra

@TforBB

Addys Guerra is a successful social media manager with years of experience. Guerra has managed accounts for Animation Shops, Angry Gut, and now currently Toys for Big Boys.

“My top tool for automating marketing activities is…”

My number one tool for automating my marketing efforts is primarily Hootsuite. I schedule posts for all days of the week and I answer comments and messages. It helps me keep track of how many products I’ve promoted that week, and I can cross-reference with my promotions calendar. I also use the ‘save drafts’ feature to save social media updates for the upcoming weeks. This saves me so much time and energy, especially when we have a holiday coming up and I need to promote a particular product on that day. For example, I can schedule a Father’s Day post weeks in advance, which ensures that I will NOT forget to address it. Finally, in keeping conversations, I can save different Twitter hashtag streams and tweet to users that are tweeting about targeted topics. I can also keep track of their replies in our conversation. I love Hootsuite!

Susan J. Campbell

@marketingsjc

Susan J Campbell is the President and Founder of SJC Marketing, a full-service marketing firm that helps businesses create their brand and then identifies the right mix of tools to communicate that message to the right audience.

“When it comes to marketing automation, I turn to…”

At SJC Marketing, we are big fans of blogs. Not only do they drive a ton of traffic to a website, they are also completely customizable. You can share your company’s environment, stories about your employees, executives or people you serve, and become transparent to your readers. You’ll never run out of things to write about, and it’s a platform where you can be seen as an expert in your industry.

Yuimi Vashum

@YuimiDemi

Yuimi Vashum is the Content Analyst and Outreach Manager at Wisecalvin.com, a digital marketing firm.

“My top tool for marketing automation is…”

My number-one tool is Buzzsumo. Why? Because it does all the work for me, from digging out the right content that is trending to the uncovering the blogs that are most trusted. Not just that, it shows me the backlinks and the number of shares, and I do not need to go digging out my competitors’ performance elsewhere.

If anyone is into digital marketing, especially working on content, marry Buzzsumo!

Adelaida Diaz-Roa

@ruffit_usa

Adelaida Diaz-Roa is the Co Owner at Pawliday Inn and Ruffit & Villy Customs.

Instagram has grown to be one of our biggest and most important marketing outlets and my number-one tool to automate that has been Instagress.com. I love it because it gets us new followers every single day, and it goes out and likes and comments on relevant pictures for you 24/7. I used to do this in my free time before, but that was only one or two hours each day and I couldn’t reach very many people. It has been a huge help spreading the word and getting more people to know about our product. It also has many features to fit all types of businesses, such as certain times to like posts, certain locations to look at, and certain hashtags, along with other helpful options.

Jeff Kew

@YouDiscoverUs

Jeff Kew works for Youvediscovered.us (YDU), a company started by a small team of digital marketing professionals who believe in doing things quickly, using the newest and most efficient tech, and keeping overhead low. YDU makes sure to use tools that are readily available, accessible and affordable, no matter your size.

“My #1 tool for automating marketing activities is…”

Mautic Marketing Automation: It’s open source, disruptive, and affordable, which makes it available to everyone.

Mautic.com offers a hosted SaaS, providing comparable feature sets to Hubspot, Marketo, Pardot, and similar SaaS products today. With those big-name, old-school services, you’re paying hundreds to thousands of dollars per month to make use of their tool sets. Mautic.com does the same and only charges $12 per month if you have over 2,500 leads. If you have less than 2,500 leads, then Mautic.com is free.

If you would rather it be free for over 2,500 contacts, you can self-host on your own VPS or shared hosting site, then you can download the Mautic installer and implement it that way. Head over to Mautic.org or Mautic.slack.com to learn more about self-hosted instances. BUT, given the cost and effort related to self-hosting, I’m encouraging clients to only use the hosted model.

At YDU, we’re in the process of moving some clients with 100K+ leads over to Mautic from Mailchimp. This is kind of ironic, since we’re listed on the Mailchimp Expert Directory and use Mailchimp quite extensively for our clients. No doubt, Mailchimp is a great tool and offers some very good automation tools. But for some clients whose needs require a more sophisticated marketing automation solution, Mautic is a cost savings and gives us far better campaign tools.

Walter Wise

@BPIStrategy

Walter Wise is a Marketing Strategist, Lead Generation Specialist and Executive Coach at BPI Strategy Group, and the author of the highly acclaimed book, Getting Back to Basics, Effective Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business in Today’s Brutal Economy.

“When it comes to marketing automation, I rely on…”

My number one tool is my autoresponder system. There are many different flavors, from simple to complex, and they each have their own set of features and functions.

On the low end, there is Constant Contact, Aweber, and GetResponse. In the middle, you will find ActiveCampaign, Hatchbuck, Sendlane, and SalesNexus, among others. At the high end and also the most complex, there is Ontraport and Infusionsoft. And there are many others in each category, but these are the ones I am familiar with.

I currently use GetResponse and Hatchbuck. I have them set to send out my weekly newsletter and various keep-in-touch email messages to those that sign up for one of my reports or webinars, or people I meet at networking events, conferences, etc. All on autopilot once everything is set up.

Christopher Gaudreau

@contentshow

Christopher Gaudreau is a marketing professional and host of the Content Show.

“My favorite tool for automating marketing activities is…”

Lately I’m really loving LeadPages. It simplifies my workflow so much. They have so many great templates to choose from and I can sort them by highest converting. They have the exact sales funnel from Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula, a system that thousands of marketing professionals have been using for over a decade now. It works, and now most of the work is done for me already. I just connect it with GetResponse, an email marketing client, and set up some autoresponders. I can have a whole new marketing campaign and high-converting sales funnel in just a few hours.

Scott Kennard

@FreshStart_SRK

Scott Kennard is a PR Specialist at 911 Restoration, a company that repairs houses nationwide after disasters. In addition to PR, Kennard is often involved with other marketing decisions, ranging from SEO tactics to Social Media contests.

“The #1 tool I use for marketing automation is…”

The number-one tool we use here for automating our marketing efforts is the Google Analytics add-on with all of our Google Docs. Being able to quickly and easily formulate reports and manipulate raw data is priceless in the ever-quickening, ever-advancing world of marketing.

Tali Raphaely

@ArmourTitle

Tali Raphaely is the President of Armour Title Company, a nationwide real estate title company. Raphaely is also an Attorney, the Founder & Executive Director of a great charity, and the author of a book on negotiation.

“My top solution for automating marketing activities is…”

My favorite marketing automation tool is Salesforce because it is so robust, allows for collaboration among my sales staff, enables me to run informative and easy-to-understand reports, and provides excellent time saving templates and other tools that allow for optimal efficiency.

Saurabh Nangia

@nagia5

Saurabh Nangia is the founder of TargetingMantra. He helped develop personalization systems at Amazon.com and its subsidiaries like IMDB, Lovefilm, Audible, Shopbop, and Zappos.

“The marketing automation tool that tops my list of go-to tools is…”

The automation tool that is topping my list is Brand24. It makes monitoring my brand and product on the internet so easy! I can check my site mentions on social media, the sentiments, and the reach as well. It also shows the most influential person on the site with their reach statistics. The best thing about it is that it makes it easy for me to discuss with my marketing team as they give real-time infographic, PDFs and data exports. Definitely a must-engage tool for marketers.

Owen Powis

@mailflowteam
@wordtracker

Owen Powis is the Founder and CEO of Mailflow and CEO of Wordtracker. With a strong focus on digital marketing throughout his career, Owen has worked across both agency and client side, creating and leading campaigns for companies ranging from international brands and household names to SMEs.

“When it comes to marketing automation, I prefer…”

We are an email marketing platform, so we obviously have a big focus towards email automation. For us, the magic happens when we link several different tools together. This opens up automation opportunities where onsite actions can trigger different email messages. Automation must be used carefully, though, as it simply isn’t advantageous when used to blindly send out message after message (be it email, social or any other channel). The real advantage for both the marketer and his audience is when it is instead used to segment and target audience members in far greater detail than otherwise possible. In this way, your audience can receive more and more nuanced messaging that they are, in return, more likely to engage with.

Steve Susina

@LyonsConsulting

An electrical engineer by education and marketer by choice, Steve Susina uses data and analytics to help firms generate demand, establish thought leadership, and strengthen the company brand. He currently serves as Marketing Director for Lyons Consulting Group (LYONSCG), a full-service eCommerce digital agency. He is a Marketo Certified Expert with more than five years of experience using marketing automation.

“My first choice among marketing automation tools is…”

Marketo is my number-one, go-to marketing automation tool. I started using it six years ago because it was a cost effective replacement to the agency I was using for outsourced landing page development. I quickly realized that it provides me, the marketer, with a comprehensive set of marketing tools. When combined with Salesforce.com, I can manage our contacts as they migrate through various marketing campaigns to qualified leads. The lead-scoring tools give me the ability to target prospects that match our needs, while prioritizing our efforts towards those that demonstrate a readiness to buy. Marketo gives me great insight into attribution and marketing performance, easy-to-use tools to build responsive emails and landing pages, and new, built-in features such as social media marketing, a new marketing calendar, and even SEO tools.

However, the best part of Marketo isn’t the platform; it’s the company’s commitment to building a community of like-minded marketers they call Marketing Nation. These are people who share a common approach to the profession, who, together, form a strong personal and professional network. This network provides an added resource where I can go to get insights, ideas, and assistance. Through Marketing Nation, I get the sense that Marketo takes an interest in my personal success.

Michelle Brammer

@eZangaInc

Michelle Brammer is the marketing and PR manager for the online digital marketing firm, eZanga.com.

“My favorite marketing automation tool is…”

Hootsuite’s Hootlet Chrome extension is my go-to! It makes it easy to pre-schedule tweets that I think are valuable for my followers right from my browser, without the added steps of opening up the platform.

Ronnie Deaver

@ICTAsset

Ronnie is a Marketing Manager for ICT, a small electronics recycling firm in Boston, MA, and a Marketing Consultant in his free time. His views mostly represent that of local small businesses and tools applicable towards making their lives’ easier.

“The best tool for marketing automation is…”

As a small business specialist, I find the one thing that every business owner or marketing team lacks is time. That said, social media marketing is an extremely time-consuming and difficult task to handle, but is an important piece of a full marketing campaign. With multiple platforms to operate and tons of content to sift through, most teams don’t effectively use social media to engage and market to their customers. That said, the number-one tool in my playbook to handle this and save time is Buffer. Buffer automatically shares content at scheduled times on every platform. Additionally, adding content to be shared and posted is only a click away and really couldn’t be easier. Within minutes, a marketer can have a week’s worth of content scheduled for five or more platforms. Buffer is an irreplaceable tool.

Don Uhlir

@OneArmDon

Don Uhlir is Founder and President of Extremely-Sharp.com, a family-owned company that sells survival, outdoors, and hunting supplies. Don has been an entrepreneur for over 20 years, starting a number of retail stores, hitting his stride when he partnered with his brother.

“My #1 tool for marketing automation is…”

Our number-one tool for automating marketing is Sideqik. They have an incredible platform that allows us to automate all of our marketing with our brand ambassadors, the blogs we know, and even other companies. We’re a family-owned business and produce some great content about survival and getting outdoors, but we had difficulties sharing that content and reaching new people. Sideqik lets us provide that content to our partners, highlight them, and authentically reach new audiences.

Lisa Baker-King

@zebecs

Lisa Baker-King is a nationally recognized and televised family author and relationship expert who is creating a movement to connect families and celebrate children. She is passionate about helping children to find their voice while giving parents and adults the tools they need to recognize what is RIGHT about them.

“My go-to tool for automating my marketing activities is…”

After test driving several marketing automation tools and feeling like a serial tire kicker, I have finally decided on Hootsuite as my go-to tool. The new car smell is gone and I am still happy with my purchase for three primary reasons:

1. Hootsuite allows me to not only be very strategic in my social media marketing, but also provides visible insight into the performance of my strategy with custom reports.

2. Some of the tools I test drove had limiting size constraints on videos and even images. Hootsuite allows me to post large videos and images.

3. Lastly and most importantly is the ability to manage ALL my social media platforms in one place. Not only is this simply convenient, but it is strategic. I can manage all my marketing campaigns at one time, across multiple platforms, in a way that targets the different audiences on social media and their unique social behaviors.

David T. Scott

@ScottOnMktg

David is a marketing guru with 20 years of experience in the field. On top of being CMO at Gigya, David is also an author. His book, The New Rules of Lead Generation, is a tell all guide for marketers young and old for all things Lead Gen.

“My go-to tool for marketing automation is…”

My go-to tool is Marketo, which is a marketing automation tool. Marketo is valuable because it gives you all the tools you need to convert interested parties into marketing leads and then nurture the marketing lead all of the way through to purchase. It gives you tools to score your potential customer based on how engaged they are. It gives you the chance to put them into an email stream based on important criteria, such as their job title or industry. Marketo also allows you to track conversion rates across multiple lead generation tactics.

Arthur Colker

@Hotelied

Arthur is the Director of Growth at Hotelied, the first hotel booking website where travelers can unlock exclusive discounts based on their social media influence, travel loyalty status, and industry. Prior, he ran digital acquisition and engagement at Softcard, AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile’s NFC mobile wallet, which was ultimately acquired by Google.

“The number one tool I rely on for marketing automation is…”

My number-one, favorite tool for automating marketing is Mixpanel’s notification tool. Mixpanel’s notification tool allows us to easily segment our customer base and sent them targeted, personal emails. These email notifications can be set up to send automatically when a customer reaches a certain set of criteria. They can be A/B tested, and Mixpanel enables you to measure the notification’s actual impact on the desired metric in a statistically significant manner.

Michael Peggs

@MichaelPeggs

Michael Peggs is the founder of Marccx Media, a content marketing agency based in New York City. Michael helps small business owners and large companies plan, produce, and promote content that drives traffic, generates more qualified leads, and increases business for your brand.

“My preferred tools for automating marketing activities are…”

Two of my go-to tools for automating my marketing efforts include:

1. We all know that content is king, but it’s also confusing! When you have to create so much, how do you keep it all organized? A content calendar is your best bet, and I use CoSchedule. Not only can I schedule content and invite members of my team to contribute, but CoSchedule integrates directly with WordPress and my social media profiles. I can schedule, publish, and post all in one web app.

2. When it comes to creating engaging content, a picture really is worth a thousand words. I use Canva to create blog and social media covers from scratch. You can also use their many templates to customize beautiful graphics for your brand.

Sandy Arons, MBA

@SandyArons

Sandy Arons is president and Founder of Arons & Associates Divorce Planning. She educates couples about financial issues of their divorce so they understand the numbers, are less fearful, have confidence in their decisions during negotiations, and avoid unnecessary conflict for their children and family. Arons does not sell investments or manage money. She is an educator.

“My top tool for automating marketing activities is…”

I love love using Emma for my email marketing because I am empowered to be independent with my marketing campaigns. and I can create my own marketing campaigns when I want to. That may be Sunday morning at 7:00 a.m. or Wednesday night at 11:00 p.m. No more working with a marketing company and waiting two days to hear back from them with the finished product. For example, if I want to send a mailing on Thursday, I can create it Wednesday night and schedule it to be sent at 9:00 a.m. Thursday, while I am flying to Chicago. The fact that I live in Nashville and Emma is also based here is another plus. Their rates are reasonable and have customer service available from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Emma is an entrepreneur’s best friend.

Justin Fishaw

@HighLevelMarket

Justin Fishaw is the Marketing Director at High Level Marketing, a fast-growing website design & SEO company based out of Metro Detroit. Aside from geeking out over inbound marketing tactics, Justin owns and operates SMPLFD, a clothing brand & design house in Detroit.

“When it comes to marketing automation, I turn to…”

In my experience, Hubspot is my absolute number one go-to when it comes to marketing automation software. While it’s not perfect, I’ve used their platform for more than four years in multiple companies. Hubspot’s platform has provided me with the tools necessary to create highly impactful inbound marketing and lead-generation programs. Aside from its software, what really sets Hubspot apart in my eyes is the company’s customer support and vast library of content resources. It has allowed me to learn the ins and outs of inbound marketing, all while being able to see it come to life using the Hubspot platform. An added bonus: They throw a killer conference every year in Boston.

Valentin Valov

@vlnt

Valentin Valov is a Digital PR Strategist for Hop Online. Valentin helps people and brands better understand the new age of communicative & interactive driven marketing.

“My favorite tool for automating my marketing efforts is…”


My favorite tool to automate our outreach efforts is Buzzstream. Not only can you schedule your outgoing communication, but you have every prospect categorized. Every single detail beginning with your initial research is in one place, and that’s gold. When pitching to journalists and bloggers, it is essential to learn about them and get to know their habits and writing style. Buzzstream lets you keep track of hundreds of prospects at a time. After all, you can’t always remember everything. In addition, automating your responses and reminders is awesome, since it lets you focus on other important tasks.

Source