If you’re new to marketing, you might have a skewed perception of it. You might imagine a multimillion-dollar Super Bowl ad or a glowing billboard in Times Square.

Marketing is much more than that. It encompasses a variety of channels, tactics, and formats — and can work for any business at any budget.

The key to getting started is knowing the fundamentals. Here, I’ll walk you through some beginner-friendly marketing channels and how to build your first marketing strategy.

Cost-Effective Marketing Channels

Building Your First Marketing Strategy

Cost-Effective Marketing Channels

If you’re just getting started with marketing, here are a few cost-effective channels to consider:

Content marketing

The entire premise of content marketing is to provide valuable content to your audience. This can be blog posts, videos, podcasts, e-books, and more. Unlike a pop-up ad, this type of marketing isn‘t disruptive. It’s supposed to feel natural, organic, and helpful.

Consider this: you want to market your product, a productivity app. On your blog, you publish articles brimming with tips and tricks for staying productive at work. By providing this type of content, you slowly build awareness around your app.

To take it one step further, you include a sign-up form for a free trial of your app at the top of every article — giving readers a chance to convert into customers.

Content marketing is a long-term investment. But with patience and the right strategy, you can drive brand awareness and nurture customer relationships without significant financial strain.

Email marketing

Email marketing is relatively affordable compared to other marketing channels. Many email service providers offer free plans or tiered pricing to appeal to different budgets. For example, HubSpot’s email marketing software is easy to use, secure, and free.

With email marketing, you‘re reaching people who’ve already expressed an interest in your business. This puts you in a great position to build relationships, promote your products, and share offers. You can also set up trigger emails when someone completes an action, such as making a purchase or downloading a content offer.

Looking to bulk up your email list? Check out this helpful guide.

Social media marketing

These days, consumers expect brands to have an online presence — so if you haven’t already, sign up for a business profile on a few social media sites.

Once you’re up and running, you can begin to share content. Experiment with different types of content until you have a better idea of what gets the most traction. Remember that social media is all about connection, so interact with customers, initiate conversations, and leverage user-generated content. These tactics can help you ​​foster relationships and build loyalty around your brand without spending a dime.

However, if you decide to run paid ads, social media offers incredible reach that can generate immediate results.

Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn provide advanced ad targeting, enabling you to narrow down your audience based on demographics, interests, and behaviors. And with flexible budgeting options, you can allocate your budget strategically and maximize your ROI.

Online advertising

One of the biggest benefits of online advertising is that it’s often cheaper than traditional advertising. Consider TV ads, which cost anywhere from thousands of dollars to even millions.

Now, think of an ad running on social media for $1 a day, and you can see why online advertising is a great option for small businesses.

Online advertising encompasses a few areas, including:

• Display ads: these include banner ads, images, and videos that you can buy on Google Ads.
• Pay-per-click: PPC is an advertising model that falls under search engine marketing. These ads appear at the top of search engine results, and you only pay when people click them.
• Social ads: these are ads that appear on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. You set a budget and specify your target audience.
• Remarketing: this involves tagging your website visitors and targeting them with content after they leave your site. Think of an email from an e-commerce store reminding you of your abandoned cart.

Unlike traditional advertising, online ads offer powerful analytics. You don’t have to wonder if an online ad is effective since you can track metrics like impressions, click-through rates, conversion rates, and more.

Search engine optimization (SEO)

The goal of SEO is to boost your website’s presence in search engines like Google. While SEO trends come and go, the key principles stay the same:

• Create and publish valuable content on your website
• Strategically insert keywords in the content
• Improve your website’s page speed
• Offer a great user experience to website visitors

Like content marketing, SEO is a long-term game. But when you consider 95% of search traffic goes to the first page of search results, it becomes a critical strategy for driving traffic and generating leads.

Building Your First Marketing Strategy

You can think of a marketing strategy as a roadmap, helping you make the most of your marketing. Here are the basic principles of a strong marketing strategy:

1. Start with your goals.

Before you can build a marketing strategy, you first need to set clear goals. What does your business want to accomplish? Are you aiming to increase brand awareness? Generate leads? Or enhance customer loyalty?

Goals provide direction and purpose for your entire marketing operation. Plus, they determine the effectiveness of your efforts.

When defining your marketing goals, ensure they align with business objectives. For example, if your main business objective is to build brand awareness, your marketing goal might be to reach X-number of social media followers in the next six months.

Further Reading:

The 9 Goals to Consider When Creating a Marketing Strategy

Free Template: Determine Your SMART Marketing Goals

2. Know your target audience

Who is your customer? What are their challenges or pain points? Are they price sensitive? Do they shop online?

Knowing your audience is key to building effective marketing strategies. The more you know about your audience, the better you can craft compelling messages that respond to their interests, needs, or preferences.

Your target audience will also play a huge role in influencing which marketing channels you decide to leverage. For instance, suppose you sell home security devices and your target audience is adult homeowners. Based on this information, you might pass on Snapchat, where nearly half the user base is under 25.

Further Reading:

Target Audience: How to Find Yours

How to Create Detailed Buyer Personas for Your Business

3. Decide your marketing mix

In a nutshell, marketing is about promoting the right product to the right audience at the right price and time. That’s a tall order.

To nail this balance, you need to define your marketing mix. Your marketing mix consists of four key components (otherwise known as the “Four Ps of Marketing”): Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.

Product

To state the obvious, your product is key to your business. But in order to market it effectively, you need to know what makes it unique. How is your product different from others on the market? What “problems” does it solve? What are the key features? These questions can help you formulate a unique selling proposition.

Price

Landing on the right price for your product can be tricky. Price too high, and customers walk away. Price too low, and you leave money on the table. A good place to start is by looking at your competitors to see how much customers are willing to pay for a similar product. You can also conduct focus groups or surveys to determine the right price.

Place

Where will you sell your product? Ultimately, you need to meet your customers where they are — whether that’s an e-commerce store or a retail location. Consider where your competitors sell their products and how they differentiate themselves.

Promotion

What tactics will you use to reach your target audience? And on which channels? This could be a billboard on a busy road or a promotional email sent to someone’s inbox. The way you promote your product will depend on your budget and target audience. For instance, if your target audience skews younger, you might prioritize paid social ads over, say, television ads.

Further reading

The Ultimate Guide to Pricing Strategies

How to Write a Great Value Proposition [7 Top Examples + Template]

How to Launch a Successful Multichannel Marketing Strategy

4. Monitor the right KPIs

Establish a system for tracking and analyzing the results of your marketing efforts. If you’re running an email marketing campaign, for instance, you might track open rates, click-through rates, and subscribers. These are known as key performance indicators (KPIs).

Your KPIs serve as benchmarks that reflect your progress toward your goals. By tracking them, you can pinpoint which strategies are working and which need improvement.

Further reading

What is a KPI? How To Choose the Best KPIs for Your Business

Marketing Effectiveness: How to Measure It & Present to External Stakeholders

5. Evolve

The marketing landscape is always evolving. Just in the last decade, we‘ve seen the rise of TikTok, artificial intelligence, and smart devices. All this to say, a good marketing strategy is one that’s adaptable. Be open to testing new ideas, experimenting with different tactics, and adapting your strategy.

Further reading

The Top Marketing Trends of 2023 & How They’ve Changed Since 2022 [Data from 1000+ Global Marketers]

5 Marketing Trends That Might Not Survive in 2023 [HubSpot Research]

Back To You

While frustrating, there‘s no “one size fits all” marketing strategy. What works for one business may not work for another. That’s why experimentation is key, especially when you‘re just starting out. Don’t be afraid to test different marketing channels, tactics, and strategies to find what resonates best with your target audience.

There‘s much more to email campaigns than drafting up some copy and hitting send.

One of the most crucial components is email cadence: the pulse, pace, and playbook of a successful email campaign. In other words, if you can get the right emails to the right customers at the right time, you can get a lot of mileage out of your email marketing efforts.

Let‘s take a deeper dive into what an email cadence is and establish the fundamental principles of structuring a successful one.

The success of an email campaign can hinge upon the effectiveness of its cadence.

If your cadence is too intrusive, obnoxious, or directionless, you can lose out on opportunities to guide leads through their buyers‘ journeys.

If potential customers feel pestered or confused by constant, irrelevant newsletters and promotions, they probably won’t stick around to hear what you have to say.

Email Marketing Frequency

In a recent HubSpot Blogs survey of 300 marketers, a whopping 95% reported their email marketing strategy was effective in 2021. Let’s take a look at where (and when) they’re finding success.

When it comes to frequency, here are a few stats to know:

• Emails sent on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday get the most engagement.
• Marketing emails sent from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Tuesday garner the most engagement, followed by Monday and Wednesday at the same time.
• The weekend is a dead zone for engagement — Friday, Saturday, and Sunday have the lowest open and click-through rates.

Another study by Databox found that 33% of marketers send weekly emails, while 26% send emails “multiple times per month.” In addition, 63% said they adjust their send frequency for less engaged subscribers.

Of course, some marketers send emails more than once a week, while others send less. As you‘ll see later, the “right” email frequency is not an exact formula. Instead, it depends on your business and audience.

Here are some examples and best practices to employ to ensure your next campaign‘s email cadence is the best it can be.

Email Cadence Examples

One example of email cadence is curating the timing of your emails to appeal to a specific demographic. For instance, let’s say you run a sunglasses company and want to appeal to a target demographic of 18- to 25-year-olds via an email campaign. 

Your research indicates that consumers in your target demographic most often check their emails early in the morning, between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. As a result, you send your emails at 5:45 a.m., so they’re among the first your consumers see when they check their inboxes. 

Another example is curating the frequency of your emails to a target demographic. Let’s say you want your sunglasses company to appeal to consumers who are ages 55 and above. 

Your consumer research shows that buyers in that demographic prefer to receive emails less frequently. To boost engagement in your emails, you decide only to send emails every two weeks. 

Understand your goals and your customer’s mindset.

What do you want out of your email cadence? You need to understand where you’re trying to lead your prospects and customers. Are you looking to improve traffic to your blog? Drive e-commerce sales? Schedule meetings? Close deals?

An email cadence guides buyers from point A to point B. You can‘t do that if you have no idea what “point B” is. Your ultimate goal will dictate the strategy behind your cadence.

If you‘re trying to do something like increase traffic to your blog, you can stand to lose more subscribers than you would if you were trying to court a group of sales leads into scheduling demos.

If you‘re sending emails purely for the sake of sending emails, your cadence will be aimless and haphazard. Plus, you‘ll waste a lot of time and resources on email campaigns that go nowhere.

Pro Tip: Consider creating a goal-setting worksheet and laying out SMART Goals for your email campaign to keep yourself on track for success. 

In addition to understanding your marketing goals, you need to understand the minds of your consumers. 

The whole point of having an email cadence is to hone in on messaging that will resonate most with a specific customer at a given point in time. That means one-size-fits-all, “throw everything at everyone,” impersonal emails won‘t cut it.

You need to send your recipients something relevant to who they are as a customer. That often means understanding where they are in their buyer’s journey.

The buyer‘s journey is the process buyers go through to become aware of, evaluate, and ultimately decide to purchase a new product or service. It‘s divided into three stages: Awareness, Consideration, and Decision.

You can‘t expect to target buyers in all three stages with the same message and have it immediately register with them across the board. Different stages — and engagement levels within those stages — warrant different messages.

Additionally, through the wonders of automation, coordinating this kind of strategy is possible.

Several kinds of email and marketing automation software allow you to set up the proper infrastructure to tailor email content and timing to suit different leads’ behavior and interests.

Pro Tip: HubSpot’s free email automation tool allows marketers to create and schedule aesthetically pleasing, personalized marketing emails with ease.

Campaign Assistant is also available to generate email subject lines to capture the recipient’s attention.

Personalize when you can.

Think back on all the targeted emails companies have sent you over the years. How inclined have you been to click through ones addressed to “valued customer,” or “to whom it may concern?” I don’t think it‘s outrageous to assume the answer is “not often.”

Why would your customers be any different? A successful cadence relies on your leads clicking through your emails and progressing through their buyer‘s journey.

In fact, 47.2% of marketers say email personalization is the most effective email marketing strategy for reaching their goals. 

If you‘re sending impersonal mass-email blasts, crossing your fingers, and hoping for the best, your prospects may be suspended in buyer‘s limbo.

Fortunately, there‘s a variety of email software that allows you to personalize your subject lines and email content to cater to specific leads.

Pro Tip: Not sure how to personalize your marketing emails? Here are 23 examples to get some ideas flowing. 

Use A/B testing to see what subscribers prefer.

A/B testing is an excellent way to observe how your customers respond to different email frequencies. For instance, you can send one group weekly marketing emails and another group bi-weekly emails.

Or, you can send emails to one group early in the morning and to another group later in the afternoon. Then you can use the data to determine the best time and cadence to send emails.

Don’t be too shy or aggressive.

When planning an email cadence, you shouldn‘t err too much on the side of “I don’t want to bother you.”

It‘s easy to get anxiety about losing leads by coming off as obnoxious or intrusive, but you have to understand there‘s a difference between being pushy and professionally persistent.

You’re missing out on sales opportunities if you’re not consistently sending out emails. A big part of email marketing is keeping your prospects and customers engaged.

You might become an afterthought if a lead only gets an email from you once every two months.

Email cadences are a matter of strategically striking while the iron‘s hot. You can‘t do that if you‘re too reluctant to strike at all.

Even though you shouldn‘t be too passive, you don’t want to be overly aggressive.

There‘s a movie from the ’80s called Say Anything. It has an iconic scene where the main character stands outside his love interest‘s window and serenades her by blaring a song called “In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel from a boombox he‘s holding over his head.

She swoons over it, and they ride off into the sunset together on a lawnmower ( … for some reason).

It‘s romantic and compelling. But, if he did that twice a day, every day — playing similar, anthemic 80’s rock songs on her front lawn — she‘d be over it pretty quickly. He‘d have to take his lawnmower and Peter Gabriel cassettes somewhere else.

That‘s essentially what sending emails too frequently in your cadence is like. If your leads receive obtrusive, daily reminders and promotions from you, they‘ll unsubscribe from your mailing list.

Pro Tip: Create a consistent email marketing calendar to ensure your emails stay consistent. Also, be sure to communicate with your team and other departments to make sure your organization isn’t sending too many emails at a time.

Hone in on the right frequency for your business.

There‘s no magic figure when it comes to email frequency. It‘s going to vary from business to business. It may take some time to get the right feel for how often you should send your emails.

Studying your industry averages for email frequency can provide a solid place to start.

A prominent fashion brand routinely sending out new promotions and coupons probably isn‘t going to have the same email frequency as a midsize B2B SaaS company looking to set meetings with decision-makers.

Email frequency isn‘t an exact science. It‘s probably going to take some trial-and-error before you find one that best fits both your business and customers‘ interests.

Pro Tip: If you’re unsure where to start when deciding on your cadence, keep in mind that our survey found that most marketers listed Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday as days in which their emails get the most engagement. 

Give your subscribers autonomy.

Always give your subscribers the option to control their own email frequency. Giving them this kind of autonomy can keep them from unsubscribing from your mailing list outright if your email frequency seems like a bit too much for them.

Include a link to allow them to update their email preferences as they see fit at the end of your emails.

Customers don‘t always approach email frequencies in absolutes. Even if they‘re overwhelmed by how many emails you‘re sending them, they still might want to keep hearing from you. Give them the freedom to pump the brakes.

If they don‘t have the flexibility to do that, they‘ll probably just cut you off.

You should always be putting the customer first. Their personal interests take precedence over what you might believe to be your preferred email cadence.

Express gratitude with gifts.

While ‘thank you’ emails are great, none of it means anything unless a culture of gift-giving is baked into your business. Even the most creative thank you emailers feel empty without gifts.

Think of it as a personal relationship. Will your girlfriend like it if you meet her after one or two months with just a nice note? Do you think she will smile and say thanks? Of course, not! Now, what if you give her a personalized gift? Do you get the impact?

When you add surprise and delight mechanisms to your customer interaction strategy, you create a strong bond with your customers and experience an incredible boost in the overall purchase frequency and engagement levels.

For the surprise and delight element to create a ‘wow’ impact, it is crucial to offer well-curated and attractive rewards to your customers. And to get this right, “personalization” is the key.

Don’t believe us? Then read this: according to a McKinsey report, 83% of customers expect personalized experiences from their favorite brands. So, determine what reward combinations work the best with specific customers.

Another significant benefit of the surprise and delight element is that your customers share those experiences with others on social media, building goodwill for your brand.

Add a survey.

Surveys are an easy and effective way to determine if subscribers are happy with your current email cadence. Simply create a survey asking subscribers if they are satisfied.

Surveys can also help you determine the kind of content your audience prefers in their inbox.

Pro Tip: Create unsubscribe surveys to learn while someone might quit your list. 

Monitor analytics.

Of course, you can’t improve your email campaign if you don’t track your progress. Make sure to monitor your emails’ open rates, click-through rates, and overall engagement to determine if your cadence is helping or hurting your campaign. 

Pro Tip: According to our survey, the top three most important metrics for determining an email campaign’s effectiveness are open rate, click-through rate, and conversion rate.

Finding your ideal email cadence might not happen with your first series of automated emails. Still, there are certain actions you can take to take to put yourself in the best position to find the one that works best for your business.

Your main priority should always be your prospects and customers‘ interests.

Try to understand where they’re coming from, where they stand in terms of buying your product or service, and what they might want out of you and your business, and cater your email cadence around that.

 

Jacqueline Schklar is an experienced marketing director with a proven track record in B2B and tech. Her dedication to results in product marketing, leading customer acquisition, and growing nurture programs deliver consistent, increased ROI for her clients—including Microsoft and DocuSign.

How Jacqueline Schklar Builds B2B Buzzword-Less Strategies

Cutting through marketing buzzword noise and delivering big results to companies has earned Jacqueline a reputation as a skilled and dynamic B2B marketer in the cloud and SaaS space.

We had a chance to tap into Jacqueline’s thoughts on winning B2B marketing strategies, the convergence of media and marketing, and more in this interview:

How did you get your start in marketing?

I was the kid with the camera growing up which led to working as a newspaper photojournalist in my teens. It was a great education to see firsthand how all our different personalities and responsibilities come together to shape communities. Next, I moved into commercial photography and video, and television at a CBS affiliate and PBS.

There was a digital revolution happening and I wanted to be part of it, so I started building skills in web design and interactive media production. As I progressed at media project management I wanted to be more above the line with strategy and core messaging, which meant marketing. I had a lot of rejection at first because of my strong background focused on media, but then social media happened, and I dove in head first by creating a popular aggregate site for women in comedy, and grew my SEO and promotion chops.

The year Google AdWords was released my manager asked me to study it for three days and then execute some campaigns. I was hooked on programmatic marketing. Soon after, interactive/display ads were a thing, and I was producing pre-roll campaigns for Turner Broadcasting.

With the rise of online video, social, and content marketing what was seen as a hindrance to a marketing career, having a strong background in media and storytelling, became an asset. From there opportunities in marketing opened and I eventually settled into a B2B focus, primarily in cloud and SaaS. It did not hurt that my brother, Brett, is in tech marketing, and I thought if he can do it, I can. Sibling rivalry is real!

How does Content Marketing fit into your overall marketing strategy?

Content and search are my two pillars of choice for attracting target entities to remarket to and nurture into acquisition.

How has content marketing evolved over the past few years?

• People expect you to cater messaging and content more closely to being 1:1 to them instead of generalized.
• Just as digital became synonymous with marketing a decade ago, video is becoming synonymous as well.
• Although it will always be foremost about knowing the customers and how to help them, AI is bringing new opportunities for content creation, data analysis, and automation that we are just beginning to explore.

What led you to earn NetLine Cadet Certification, and how have NetLine tools impacted your approach to lead generation?

It was my excitement about using the self-serve NetLine platform lead gen tool to test targeting strategies across your 15K+ library of publishers, and the training to get me up to speed to jump in. I was surprised to learn the advanced level of lead filtering available, and with scoring to boot! This training is super easy and informative. I highly recommend it.

NetLine’s Audience Explorer is an incredible free tool for research before setting up targeting in your campaigns. Explorer reports are helpful for sharing with clients to get them on board for approving campaign spend.

To keep up to date on the current state of content marketing I have found no better report than NetLine’s State of B2B Content Consumption and Demand Report for Marketers. I added data and insights from the 2023 report to a recent conference Master Class presentation on B2B marketing, it was the most informative research I could get my hands on to share with my audience. This report is a must-read for all B2B digital marketers.

Describe the normal path a lead follows once it has been captured via one of your gated assets.

Common scenarios are to attend an event, to be added to a nurture stream, remarketing, or a combination of these. I prefer no direct sales contacts until a customer inquiry or request has been made in most cases. However, the closer you get to C-suite level targets, the more likely you are to need sales outreach earlier on.

Of all the marketing approaches available, which one has staying power in your strategy?

For awareness, branding and promo boosting, short-form video ads or display. For consideration and community, in-person and online events. For inbound, a mix of promoted content and search ads >> remarketing >> customer inquiry and/or nurture stream.

In your marketing career, what has been your greatest marketing success? Why?

Some highlights are bringing DocuSign API search ads I inherited from 1.77% CTR to almost 8% CTR with that campaign being responsible for 30% of API adoption for testing. I was most known for producing a popular 12 campaign demo and discussion video series initiative there that was a bragging point for the department. Over the last two years I project managed the multi-channel Developer Editorial Calendar for Microsoft Azure Global, which was no joke.

Which productivity tech app(s) do you rely on the most?

I build out GTM strategies for startups in Trello because new users can easily and clearly follow projects in there. Asana is my tool of choice for working with internal teams and keeping everyone on point. Complex enterprise programs with multiple stakeholders, contributors, and marketing operations workflows can be managed effectively in Jira. I’m just happy to use anything available other than Excel and Outlook to manage projects. My mantra is “Excel is not a project management tool.”

Who are your greatest marketing influences?

Seth Godin, Neil Patel, my friend Toby Bloomberg. Jamie Turner, who has evolved from marketing more toward the leadership space, but I still find his content helpful. The SEMrush team puts out fantastic learning content, too.

When are you at your best?

When I get to contribute to building cool tech wearing the hat of marketer. Bringing out the best of everyone’s contributions by engaging with everyone as part of the campaign team, more than simply using each as resources that I hand a to-do list. This is what leads to building marketing A-teams.

Coffee or tea?

Yes. All the coffees and all the teas. Two cups of coffee and one tea is my daily caffeine routine. I’m into adding mushroom-infused blends lately which hopefully won’t turn me into a Clicker from The Last of Us.

Any last words of wisdom to share with your marketing peers?

• The secret sauce is learning customer needs and how they communicate them, with continual listening and optimization of content, campaigns and landing or product pages in that direction.
• Capture, capture, capture. And retarget, remarket and nurture. Always strategize to have multiple touchpoints with anyone you have invested in engaging with.
• Keep in line with company branding every step of the way, or viewers won’t remember it was you who placed that cool video ad or shared that helpful eBook.
• The “marketing” in “content marketing” is adding spend for reach. Otherwise, you are simply producing media for current followers.

Additional words of wisdom from Jacqueline will drop January 2024 in her book Buzzword Free B2B (working title). Follow or connect with her on LinkedIn for book announcements, to inquire about speaking on the topic of B2B at your event, or marketing consulting services for your company.

Email signatures serve as a powerful way for individuals and businesses to leave a lasting impression on their recipients. 

In this article, we will share valuable insights derived from the feedback of numerous participants and email signatures of thousands of users of the MySignature service in 2023.

Keep reading to uncover the latest trends that will help you enhance your professional branding and boost engagement with recipients.

Top Email Signature Insights

Let’s look at the most basic statistics first and then get into the details.

• On average, users send a moderate volume of business emails, ranging from 11 to 25 per day.
• A significant percentage, 77.8%, of users check their email inbox more than five times a day. On the other hand, 18.1% of users check their inbox 2-4 times a day.
• The vast majority, 89.9%, have a single email signature, while 8.6% use up to 10 different signatures.
• 44.4% of users update their email signatures 2-4 times per year, demonstrating a commitment to keeping their communication fresh and relevant. In addition, 31.6% update their signatures every few years.
• Maintaining corporate consistency (25.1%) and improving branding and awareness (28.7%) are key objectives for using email signatures. These goals underscore the importance of consistent and effective email communications within an organization.
• A significant portion, 36.3%, of users do not utilize email trackers. Of those who do, 25.1% opt for paid trackers, while 14.1% prefer free alternatives.

Now, let’s take a closer look at the detailed statistics regarding the use of email signatures.

How many business emails do people send each day?

28.8% send a moderate volume of 11-25 emails per day. However, 11.7% of users have a high email volume, sending more than 50 emails per day.

For these high-volume emailers, email signatures become a valuable tool for email marketing and brand promotion. After all, why not take advantage of the blank space at the end of every email?

What are the most popular email clients among users in 2023?

Interesting discovery: Gmail is the most widely used email client among users, with a clear majority of 62.2%. Outlook follows in popularity with 28.9%, while Apple Mail comes in third with 17.9%. Thunderbird and Yahoo are less popular, with 3.9% and 3.04% of users, respectively.

How often do people check email?

Knowing how often people check their email can help you manage your time and be more productive. You can also get faster responses and better engagement by choosing the right times to send important emails.

According to the results, the majority of users, a significant 77.8%, check their email more than five times a day. Conversely, only a small percentage, 4.1%, look into their inbox only once a day. These results show that most people use email frequently and regularly.

What are the most popular social networks to include in email signatures?

As you can guess, it’s quite common to add social media links in email signatures. This way, users’ expand their options to connect with their recipients beyond email.

Among the various platforms, Instagram is the most commonly added social media link, appearing in 69.3% of email signatures. Facebook follows closely at 62.1%. Other popular social media links include LinkedIn (42.2%), YouTube (23.8%), Twitter (17.5%), TikTok (11.4%), Pinterest (4.5%), and Reddit (1.85%).

What are the primary goals of using email signatures?

Branding and awareness were the top primary goals for utilizing email signatures.

This was closely followed by the goal of ensuring consistent signatures across the organization, highlighting the importance of maintaining a cohesive image.

The survey also found that email signatures are often used for marketing purposes.

Generating leads (18.8%), promoting social media (15.86%), and building a newsletter email list (10.2%) are the top three marketing uses of email signatures.

They are also employed for upselling new products and features to existing customers (9%), demonstrating their potential as a tool for marketing and sales initiatives.

Which industries have the highest usage of email signatures?

Email signatures are widely used across industries, with marketing and sales professionals leading the way. They make up 14.5% of the top email signature users.

They are followed by real estate and construction professionals and agencies and consultants, both with 9.7%.

The e-commerce sector also shows a significant rate, with 8.1% of professionals using email signatures. Other industries include media and entertainment (6.5%), non-profit (6.5%), education (4.8%), and software and internet (3.2%).

Across these industries, the most likely to have email signatures are C-level and director-level professionals.

How many email signatures do people use?

Most users (89.96%) have only one email signature, while a small proportion (around 8.6%) use up to 10 different signatures.

This indicates that many organizations might be missing out on the marketing potential of email signatures. Using multiple signatures can enhance brand promotion and marketing efforts, offering companies an opportunity to maximize their impact.

How frequently do users update their email signature(s)?

Updating an email signature is important to ensure that the information presented to recipients remains accurate and relevant, reflecting the sender’s current identity or business details.

Based on MySignature’s report, almost half of the users (44.4%) update their email signatures 2-4 times a year. This means they regularly refresh the signatures to make them look fresh and fitting.

In contrast, about one-third of users (31.6%) update their email signatures only every few years, showing a less frequent update pattern.

AI and Email Signatures

As artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly gaining momentum in the digital landscape, more organizations are recognizing its value. This raises questions about its impact on email marketing and the creation of email signatures, and how it will transform marketing practices worldwide.

According to the survey, 45% of respondents believe that AI can play a crucial role in analyzing customer data and personalizing email signatures to enhance engagement and conversions.

Furthermore, 29.4% of respondents think that AI can automate the process of creating and updating email signatures.

However, there is an ongoing debate about whether AI-driven automation truly enhances effectiveness in this context. This suggests that while AI can streamline the process, there may still be a need for human involvement and oversight to ensure optimal results.

Interestingly, 9.7% of respondents hold the view that AI can’t replace the creativity and personal touch that a human brings to crafting an effective email signature. This emphasizes the importance of human expertise and intuition in marketing strategies, even with the advancements of AI technology.

As AI continues to advance, it is expected to bring about significant changes in how marketers operate, offering new opportunities for personalization and automation.

However, the balance between AI-driven automation and human creativity remains an important consideration in leveraging the full potential of email signatures for effective marketing.

Ready to get started with your own email signature? Check out How to Write a Great Email Signature [+ Professional Examples]. 

About the Survey

The survey encompassed the responses of over 250+ participants, including small businesses, entrepreneurs, professionals in marketing and sales, freelancers, and real estate agencies. Additionally, data from 20,000 user accounts on MySignature were analyzed, providing a comprehensive view of email signature usage and trends.

The survey reached participants from various regions, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, and India. This regional diversity contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of email signature practices on a global scale.

“Show me the receipts!” We’ve all heard the phrase, and when it comes to your new job search, those “receipts” are your references on a resume. The difference between snagging that dream job or being left in the dust can sometimes come down to the glowing endorsements of your professional network.

In today’s competitive job market, it’s crucial to stand out, and a cover letter alone may not be enough — but having a well-prepared list of references can be the ace up your sleeve.

In this article, we’ll walk you through the nitty-gritty details of adding references to your resume — from how to notify and list them to formatting them like a pro. 

• Should you list references on your resume?
• Should you say “References available upon request”?
• How to Notify Your References
• How to Ask People to Be Your References
• Email Template for Potential References
• How to List References on Your Resume
• How to Format References on Your Resume
• References on Resume vs. Letter of Recommendation
• Resume References Examples

Should you list references on your resume?

The answer, as you might expect, is not a simple yes or no. It depends on several factors, such as the industry, the job you’re applying for, and the stage of your career.

Let’s break down when you should and shouldn’t include references on your resume.

When to Include References on Your Resume

1. When specifically requested. If a job posting explicitly asks for references, it’s essential to provide them. In this case, including your references shows that you pay attention to detail and can follow instructions.
2. For entry-level positions. If you’re just starting in your career and don’t have much professional experience, including references can help validate your skills and work ethic. In this scenario, consider including references from internships, volunteer work, or even professors.
3. When transitioning industries. If you’re switching industries and your work experience isn’t directly related to the job you’re applying for, references from people who can vouch for your transferable skills or your ability to adapt to new environments can be beneficial.

When Not to Include References on Your Resume

1. When space is limited. Your resume should ideally be one to two pages. If you’re struggling to fit all your relevant experience and skills, it’s best to save that valuable real estate for showcasing your accomplishments and abilities, rather than including references.
2. When not requested. In most cases, employers will ask for references later in the hiring process, while some may list the requirement directly on the job application. Providing them upfront can make your resume look cluttered and may even give the impression that you’re trying too hard.
3. When you have limited or weak references. If you’re unable to secure strong references or your references have limited knowledge of your work, it’s better to wait until you’re asked and have time to gather more suitable options.

Should you say “References available upon request”?

You might have seen the phrase “References available upon request” on resumes or even used it yourself, but is it really necessary?

In today’s job market, this statement is generally considered outdated and unnecessary. Here’s why.

Implied Availability

Employers already assume that you have references and that you’ll provide them when asked. Including “References available upon request” on your resume takes up valuable space without adding any new or useful information.

It’s better to use that space to showcase your skills, accomplishments, or experiences that are relevant to the position.

Focusing on Your Strengths

Rather than using the phrase “References available upon request,” concentrate on making your resume as strong as possible.

Highlight your achievements, skills, and experiences that make you an ideal candidate for the job.

If you’re a strong candidate, employers will naturally want to contact your references to confirm your qualifications.

How to Notify Your References

Notifying your references is a crucial step in the job search process. Choosing the right people and asking them to vouch for you can make all the difference.

In this section, we’ll go over how to select and ask potential references to be part of your job search journey.

How to Choose Your References

1. Consider your relationship. Pick people who know you well and can speak to your work ethic, skills, and accomplishments. The best references are often former supervisors, colleagues, mentors, professors, or even clients.
2. Look for relevance. Choose references who can speak to your abilities in the context of the job you’re applying for, like a direct supervisor. If you’re applying for a managerial role, for instance, a reference who can discuss your leadership skills would be ideal.
3. Select a mix of references. Aim for a diverse group of references that can provide different perspectives on your abilities. Include a mix of supervisors, peers, and subordinates, if possible. Your list can be a mix of personal references, character references, and even former colleagues.
4. Check their availability. Ensure your chosen references are available and willing to provide a positive recommendation. Make sure they have the time and can be reached easily by potential employers.

How to Ask People to Be Your References

Once you’ve identified the ideal candidates to be your references, it’s time to approach them. Here’s how:

1. Ask for permission. Reach out to your potential references, preferably via email or phone call, and politely ask if they’d be willing to be a reference for you. Be sure to provide context about the job you’re applying for and why you think they’d be a great reference.
2. Provide context. Share your updated resume and the job description with your potential references so they have a clear understanding of the role and can tailor their recommendations accordingly.
3. Express gratitude. Remember to thank them for their time and willingness to help. Your references are doing you a favor, so be sure to show appreciation for their support.
4. Be accommodating. Ask them how they would prefer to communicate with the reference check: phone or email. And be sure to tell the recruiter or prospective employer these preferences.

Email Template for Potential References

Subject: [Your Name] – Request for a Professional Reference

Dear [Reference’s Name],

I hope this message finds you well. I am currently in the process of searching for a new position as a [Job Title] and am putting together a list of professional references. Given our positive working relationship at [Company Name] and your firsthand knowledge of my skills and accomplishments, I was hoping you would be willing to serve as a reference for me.

The position I’m applying for requires expertise in [specific skills or experience related to the job]. I believe your perspective on my [mention specific projects, skills, or experiences you worked on together] would be particularly valuable in highlighting my qualifications for this role.

I have attached my updated resume and the job description for your reference. Please let me know if you require any additional information to support your recommendation.

Thank you in advance for your time and consideration. I truly appreciate your help and am grateful for any support you can provide. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Best regards,

[Your Name] [Your Email Address] [Your Phone Number]

How to List References on Your Resume

Although it’s not always necessary to include references on your resume, in cases where it’s required or beneficial, it’s crucial to list them correctly. Part of understanding how to write your resume includes when and where to include references.

Follow these step-by-step instructions to ensure your references are listed in a clear and professional manner.

Step 1: Create a separate reference page.

Instead of listing your references directly on your resume, create a separate document.

This way, you can provide it to the employer upon request or bring it with you to an interview without cluttering your main resume.

This will also save valuable landscape by forgoing a reference section within your main resume.

Step 2: Use a consistent format.

Consistency is key when it comes to formatting your reference page. Use the same header, font, and formatting style as your resume to create a cohesive and professional look.

You can also include your name and contact information at the top of the page, just like on your resume. This is one of the most common mistakes recruiters see on resumes.

Step 3: List your references.

Typically, you should include three to five professional references on your reference page. List them in a clear and organized manner, using the following format:

1. Reference Name: Include the full name of your reference.
2. Title: Include your reference’s current job title.
3. Company: List the company your reference is currently employed by.
4. Relationship: Briefly explain your relationship to the reference (e.g., “Former Supervisor” or “Colleague”).
5. Contact Information: Provide a phone number and email address where the reference can be reached. Make sure to ask for permission before sharing someone’s contact information.

For example:

John Doe – Senior Project Manager at ABC Corporation – Former Supervisor

Phone: (123) 456-7890 Email: [email protected]

Step 4: Organize your references.

Organize your references in a logical order, such as by relevance to the job you’re applying for or the strength of the relationship.

If you have a particularly strong reference who can speak to your most relevant skills, consider listing them first.

Step 5: Double-check your information.

Before submitting your reference page, double-check all the information for accuracy.

Make sure names are spelled correctly, titles are up-to-date, and contact information is current. You don’t want any errors to reflect poorly on your attention to detail.

How to Format References on Your Resume

When it comes to formatting your references, presentation is key. Adhering to best practices will ensure that your reference page appears professional and polished. Here are some essential tips for formatting your references.

Maintain consistency with your resume.

Ensure that your reference page aligns with your resume’s formatting in terms of font type, font size, and layout.

By maintaining a consistent appearance, you’ll create a cohesive and polished look for your application materials.

Use a clear and easy-to-read layout.

Arrange your references in a clean and straightforward manner, making it simple for hiring managers to find the information they need.

Avoid using overly complex or distracting design elements, and opt for a clear layout with appropriate spacing and bullet points.

Organize references by relevance.

List your references in an order that highlights their relevance to the position you’re applying for.

If a reference can speak to your most pertinent skills or experiences, consider listing them first to draw attention to their endorsement.

Include all necessary information.

Ensure that each reference entry includes the individual’s name, job title, company, relationship to you, and contact information (phone number and email address).

This information allows hiring managers to quickly get in touch with your references and understand the context of your professional relationship.

Keep it concise.

While it’s important to provide enough information for hiring managers to understand your relationship with each reference, avoid including excessive detail. Keep your descriptions brief and focused on the most relevant aspects of your professional relationship.

Proofread and double-check.

As with any professional document, it’s crucial to proofread your reference page thoroughly.

Check for any spelling or grammatical errors, as well as inconsistencies in formatting. Additionally, confirm that all details, such as job titles and contact information, are accurate and up-to-date.

References on Resume vs. Letter of Recommendation

While both references and letters of recommendation serve to vouch for your skills and abilities, they are distinct components of the job application process.

Understanding the differences between these two elements and how to use them effectively can give you an edge in your job search. Let’s explore the key differences and when to use each.

References on Resume

References on a resume typically consist of a list of professional contacts who can attest to your skills, work ethic, and overall suitability for a particular job.

These contacts could include former supervisors, colleagues, mentors, professors, or clients. Although it’s not always necessary to include references on your resume itself, it’s a good idea to have a separate, well-formatted reference page ready to provide upon request.

Key points:

• Used for a variety of job types and industries.
• Consists of a list of professional contacts with their titles, company names, relationship to you, and contact information.
• Generally provided upon request or at later stages of the hiring process.
• Aim to include three to five professional references.

Letter of Recommendation

A letter of recommendation is a formal, written document that provides a detailed and personalized endorsement of your skills, accomplishments, and character.

These letters are often written by someone with authority in your field, such as a previous supervisor, professor, or colleague, who can vouch for your abilities and your potential in a new role.

Letters of recommendation are more commonly requested for academic applications, internships, or certain industries and positions.

Key points:

• More commonly used for academic applications, internships, or specific industries and positions.
• Provides a detailed, written endorsement of your skills, accomplishments, and character.
• Typically requested in advance and submitted along with your application materials.
• Aim to have two or three strong letters of recommendation.

When to Use Each

While both references and letters of recommendation can support your job application, they serve different purposes and should be used in different situations.

Here are some guidelines on when to use each:

• References. Have a list of professional references ready to provide when requested by employers during the hiring process. In some cases, such as entry-level positions or when changing industries, you may choose to include references directly on your resume or as a separate reference page.
• Letters of recommendation. Use letters of recommendation when they are specifically requested by an employer or for applications to academic programs, internships, or positions in certain industries. Make sure to ask for these letters well in advance and provide your recommenders with the necessary information to tailor their letters to the position.

Resume References Examples

As you embark on your job search, it’s essential to understand the role references can play in supporting your application.

To help you get a clearer picture of how to present these valuable endorsements effectively, we’ve put together a section dedicated to resume references examples.

Whether you’re new to the job market or an experienced professional, these examples will serve as a valuable guide to help you make the most of your references and ultimately enhance your job prospects.

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Unlock the Power of References 

Adding job references to your resume can be the final touch that sets you apart from other candidates and helps you land that dream job.

By understanding when and how to include references on your resume, you’ll demonstrate your attention to detail and showcase your strong professional network.

It costs more to attract a new customer than to keep an existing one.

Focusing on customer retention is a valuable long-term solution for increased revenue and sustainable growth, and building an email list will help you reach those goals.

Cultivating customer loyalty is not easy, but it is possible by continuing to offer valuable content. While there are many ways to do this, email marketing is one of the most powerful ways to reach your target audience — if done correctly.

We’ll explore:

• Attributes of a Good Email List
• How to Build One
• Email List-Building Tools

Qualities of a Great Email List

Before setting out to build an email list, we’ll need to go over some best practices first. Here are a few qualities to shoot for creating and maintaining an email list. The list should be:

1. Permission-Based

First and foremost, your email list should consist of people who have willingly and explicitly given consent to receive emails from you. Never buy an email list. No one likes spam, so keeping with this basic principle ensures you’re following marketing compliance guidelines and maintain a positive reputation.

2. Accurate and Current

Email addresses should be valid and accurate. To make this happen, commit to regularly removing invalid or bounced email addresses to maintain deliverability and engagement rates.

3. Relevant to Your Audience

Subscribers should have a genuine interest in your products, services, or content. For best results, they should match your target audience who are most likely to engage with the emails you send out.

4. Contain Engaged Users

The best email lists have subscribers that actively engage with the sender — consistently opening, clicking, and responding to emails. These are the subscribers that are most likely to convert, share your content, and provide the most value over time.

5. Easily Segmented

A good email list should also lend itself well to segmentation. These segments can be based on demographics, interests, past purchases, engagement levels, or other criteria. This enables you to send targeted and personalized emails that will resonate with specific segments of your audience.

6. Growing

Your email list should see consistent growth. Try implementing strategies to attract new subscribers, such as lead magnets, social media promotions, or collaborations with other businesses.

7. Easy to Unsubscribe

While you may think it is counterintuitive to allow people to easily opt out of your emails, it’s actually good business. Think about it. No one wants to have to struggle and become frustrated trying to figure out how to unsubscribe from correspondence. Keep your unsubscribe button transparent and easy to locate.

Focus on building an email list that includes relevant and engaged subscribers, and regularly refine your email marketing strategies to improve your list’s quality over time.

How to Build an Email List From Scratch

1. Create a pop-up CTA (call-to-action) for each page of your site.

A pop-up might sound initially bothersome, but I’m not talking about those early 2000s pop-up that pop-up’s that promised you’d “Become a Model NOW”.

Instead, I’m talking about timed pop-up ads, or onsite retargeting. After a user spends a certain amount of time on your page, she can receive a pop-up relevant to the content on that page, or to her behavior. Examples include exit pop-ups, which appear when a user tries to leave the page, or scroll pop-ups, which appear after the user scrolls a certain percentage down the page.

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Digital Marketer conducted a case study to determine the value of onsite retargeting. For one experiment in particular, Digital Marketer introduced a pop-up ad to returning visitors only, which appeared after a visitor spent 15 seconds on their site:

Digital Marketer ensured this pop-up didn’t show up if someone came to the page from the newsletter (in which case, they were already signed up), and also didn’t pop-up on a sales page (which could interrupt someone’s purchasing decision).

As you can see, Digital Marketer also took the time to offer meaningful content, a digital marketing toolbox, in their pop-up ad. With an impressive offer, your pop-up is no longer obtrusive or interruptive — it’s simply helpful.

Ultimately, their campaign generated 2,689 leads in two weeks, and increased their average time on page by 54%. Pop-ups aren’t always gimmicky, and if done right, you’re able to appeal to your visitor with quality content when and where they need it.

2. Create a personalized CTA for each blog or landing page.

HubSpot has found personalized calls-to-action have a 42% higher view-to-submission rate than calls-to-action that are the same for all visitors — that’s almost double your potential email subscribers.

It makes sense: the people who visit your blog post or web page are looking for something specific, so your CTA needs to meet those unique needs. For instance, if you’ve got a ton of traffic visiting your “List-Building Strategy” blog article, why not entice those people to subscribe to your email list by including a simple CTA like this: “Click here to download a free list-building toolkit.”

Of course, personalized CTAs only work if you have the resources to create that quality content in the first place, but that process doesn’t have to be expensive or time-consuming. Instead of a toolkit, you could also offer an ebook, a fun quiz, or an exclusive article from your CEO on list-building strategies.

If you offer content directly related to your visitor’s needs, your email newsletter won’t feel like a gimmicky advertisement. Instead, it will feel helpful and valuable — key principles for a long-term customer retention plan.

3. Use humor or sarcasm in your CTA’s “no, thanks” copy.

We’re so infiltrated with “Yes or No” web offers on a daily basis, we barely see them anymore. To increase your email lists, you might want to try injecting some personality into your CTA copy.

I always pause and laugh when I see a CTA with a small, “No thanks, I don’t want to lose weight,” button underneath a prominent “Yes, sign me up!” link. It reminds me there’s a person behind the button, and, while it’s meant to be a joke, it also incentivizes me to hesitate before clicking “no, thanks”. It’s easy to click “no” when the CTA is “sign up for more emails!”, but it’s a little harder to say no to losing weight or getting richer.

I was reading an Optimonk blog post recently, and this CTA popped up:

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I was all set to click “No” without another thought when I read the “my business isn’t important” part. It gave me pause, made me laugh, and, most importantly, made me reconsider my almost immediate decision to exit the offer.

5. Describe value in your CTA.

We’ve talked a lot about different formatting you might use in your CTA’s (including pop-up ads or personalized offers embedded in blog posts), but what about the language in the CTA itself? You can rely on more than humor and sarcasm to get clicks.

To optimize sign-ups, ironically, you don’t want to use the words “sign up.” Who wants to “sign up” or “subscribe” to more junk emails? Instead, you want to outline the value you can offer upfront, using language like, “Download,” “Featured”, “Exclusive,” “Access.”

For instance, you might write, “Download our exclusive e-book now,” and include an email subscription form, or, you might say, “Access all our exclusive offers.” Both of these CTAs make clear the value you’ll gain from providing your email address.

Your web viewers need to hear how your emails can offer unique and exclusive content that isn’t already available on your website. They want to believe your company is offering something special via email, or what’s the point?

10. Pitch your email newsletter on your social media accounts and email signature.

You might not have a long list of email subscribers, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have a network. If you have a following on Twitter, a fan base on Facebook, or businesses you communicate with via email, why not use those firm and loyal connections to build an email list?

You might try pitching an email newsletter on your business’s Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn accounts. The people who follow you on those sites already know they like you, but they aren’t necessarily the same people who receive your newsletter. Give them the option.

If you’re uncomfortable pitching your email newsletter on social media, or if you don’t have a large following on any of your accounts, you could also include a link in your email signature — that link could go directly to your email newsletter, or it could be a link to a blog post or landing page with email subscription CTA’s.

You communicate daily with a diverse group of people via email, and when they get value from your personal emails, they might want the option to click a link and explore your company in more depth.

11. Create more landing pages.

HubSpot conducted research and found companies see a 55% increase in leads when they increased the number of landing pages from 10 to 15.

It makes sense: individual and personalized landing pages allow you to appeal to a wider demographic. Every person who visits your site needs something different, so the more landing pages you can create to answer each person’s individual concerns, the more sign-ups you’ll gain.

It’s like a restaurant menu. The more you can offer to cater to specific demographics, the more customers you’ll bring in. Someone could be looking for the best gluten-free pizza, while someone else might just want some good sushi.

With all of this information under our belt, it’s time to get started building that list. Luckily there are tools that can help you quickly do this.

Best Email List Builders

Now that we’ve discussed the most effective ways to grow your email list, here are a few tools that can help with the process. As mentioned previously, these tools should only be used to build a list of subscribers who have consented to receive email from you.

1. HubSpot’s Email Tool

Best for: Crafting email templates, designing landing pages and CTAs, and managing the customer lifecycle.

You’ll be happy to know there are solutions for growing your email list without breaking the bank. HubSpot offers both paid and freemium versions of its email tools to help you get started quickly.

Additional Marketing Hub capabilities include:

• Landing page creation
• Pop-up and stand-alone CTA form templates
• All-in-one solution

With HubSpot, you can boost your open and click-through rates, tailor emails to recipients, and segment your list without design or tech help. It’s easy to use, intuitive design will have you mastering email lists and campaigns like a pro.

2. Mailchimp

Best for: Designing marketing campaigns for email and landing pages that convert.

Mailchimp is another option on the market that offers email tools that range from free to paid enterprise level. This tool comes with readymade email templates, scheduling tools, and email automation options.

Its premium offerings will help you focus on and extract the most value out of your most loyal subscribers.

3. Constant Contact

Best for: General email management and building lead generation landing pages.

Constant Contact is known as an all-in-one digital marketing platform, but it does offer a decent selection of email tools that can help your campaigns stand out and get more signups. This paid service allows users to quickly drag and drop selected images and template features into custom emails, run ahead full speed with readymade email templates, send automated welcome and abandoned cart emails, and analyze results with email tracking.

4. Get Response

Best for: Performing segmentation based on user behavior.

Get Response comes with what you’d expect from email marketing software with the added bonus of lead scoring and landing pages built into the platform. However, this platform is not as user-friendly as the others on this list and will require a bit of a learning curve to take advantage of all the software has to offer.

Features include:

• Contact management
• Automation and scheduling
• Industry-specific templates
• Reporting
• Landing Pages and Lead Scoring

These advanced features do come at a premium, so if you’re looking to dive deep into segmentation you’ll need to upgrade from the free version.

5. Optimonk

Best for: Growing email, messenger, and SMS signups.

If you’re looking to upgrade your current marketing tactics for a more personal approach that gets leads, look no further than Optimonk. This platform has several integrations, including HubSpot, so chances are it will work with your existing CRM.

One of the standout features of this tool is its subscriber recognition tool which allows you to target pop-ups only for visitors that haven’t subscribed yet.

Features include:

• Subscriber recognition
• A/B testing
• Optimized for mobile
• CTA and email templates

Best of all they offer a free for forever option so you can build your list on a budget.

More Value, More Sign-Ups

When I think about the brands I like best, like J. Crew, Spotify, and SoulCycle, I know I’m not a loyal brand advocate because of their products alone.

I subscribe to J. Crew’s email list to get their “Flash Sale: Midnight” offers. I subscribe to Spotify’s newsletter to receive special promotions. And I subscribe to SoulCycle’s emails to hear about unique classes happening near me.

In short, I subscribe to their emails to get value.

If you’re starting from zero, building an impressive email list can feel like an impossible feat. With the strategies above, you too can cultivate a loyal email subscriber base by providing value — using email to attract better long-term customers.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in November 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

When you work at a small business with a limited budget, it’s not really possible to shell out $340,000 for a 30-second TV commercial or $10,000 for an email marketing campaign.

Thankfully there are plenty of avenues for online free advertising. It can be frustrating when your budget dictates how many people your business can reach. We’ve compiled some free and inexpensive ways to promote your local business:

• How to Advertise a Local Business
• How to Get Free Advertising
• How to Advertise on Google for Free

1. Use Google My Business to optimize for local search.

One of the most powerful free ways to advertise your business is through Google My Business, which enables companies to manage their presence on Google Search and Google Maps. The tool can bolster your rankings in local search results.

Ranking high in local search shows you’re a legitimate and relevant company: you wouldn’t rank #1 in Google for “pizza places near me” if you’d closed down six months ago. Plus, if you rank high in local search, more consumers will choose your business over a competitor’s. In today’s fast-paced world, convenience is key.

Click here or scroll to the bottom of this post to learn how to advertise on Google for free.

The right video can boost a product’s visibility and push it to its target audience. Therefore, marketers must have a firm grasp of a product video and how to create an exceptional one.

To help you create a video that showcases your product’s unique features and shines a light on your brand, we will explore what a product video is and how to craft one.

Additionally, we have a list of impressive product videos for inspiration.

What is a product video?

Product Videos for Marketing

How to Create Product Videos

10 Promotional Product Videos That Make You Want to Buy

Welcome to Breaking the Blueprint — a blog series that dives into the unique business challenges and opportunities of underrepresented business owners and entrepreneurs. Learn how they’ve grown or scaled their businesses, explored entrepreneurial ventures within their companies, or created side hustles, and how their stories can inspire and inform your own success.

Publishing an ad or working with influencers isn’t the only option to get your business in front of an audience on YouTube. And with 41% of YouTube users being ethnically diverse, this multicultural demographic is eager to watch and support brands and entrepreneurs who they feel represent their culture and life experiences.

Small business owners are starting channels to share videos that connect deeper with their customers, introduce themselves to new consumers, and even earn some passive income. When Azia Anderson, the founder of prty grl beauty, started sharing videos about her Black-owned business, she saw it as a way to educate other aspiring business owners in addition to marketing her brand. “I just felt like everyone could win,” said Anderson.

In this post, we’ll share examples of YouTube videos by entrepreneurs of color who double as video creators and how to become eligible for monetization through the YouTube Partner Program.

Table of Contents

• The Opportunity on YouTube for Entrepreneurs of Color
• YouTube Video Ideas for Entrepreneurs of Color
• How to Join the YouTube Partner Program
• 7 Ways Entrepreneurs of Color Can Earn Money Through YouTube Monetization

The Opportunity on YouTube for Entrepreneurs of Color

Thanks to YouTube, over 70% of viewers are more aware of new brands, and it’s one of the most lucrative social platforms for people to publish content. The YouTube Partner Program now offers several opportunities for channels to monetize their videos.

As channels grow and become eligible for the program, YouTube grants access to new revenue streams. Various metrics impact how much YouTube pays, but on average, YouTubers can earn between $3 to $5 per 1,000 video views.

Tammy Dinh, a clay artist with a shop named Uncomfy Co. and 60,000 YouTube subscribers, shared that since August of 2022, she has earned between $700-$1,000 in AdSense each month and $8,000 in shop sales. With around 20,000 subscribers, Anderson told us she makes $2,000-$3,000 in AdSense per quarter.

Anderson, a mother of two, had an overwhelming interest in how she runs her business and feels she can connect with people on YouTube by showing how much love goes into her company’s products. “It really just feels like a long Facetime call with a friend rather than a sale or an ad,” said Anderson. “Whenever I post tutorials, my sales skyrocket.”

Consumers crave transparency, and entrepreneurs that give viewers more visibility of what happens behind the scenes establish a new layer of trust and loyalty between their brands and clientele.

YouTube Video Ideas for Entrepreneurs of Color

The data shows that YouTube has over 2 billion users and is the world‘s second-largest search engine—after its parent company Google. That’s a lot of curious eyeballs ready to be introduced to you and your business. Optimizing your channel with an SEO strategy will help grow your audience and improve your ranking on both YouTube and Google’s search engine results pages.

This strategy starts with conceptualizing educational, entertaining, and relevant videos. Here are a few examples to kick off your next brainstorming session.

1. Studio and Day in the Life Vlogs

Bring your audience into the inner workings of your business. Whether you’re a solopreneur or have a team, you can casually share your day-to-day planning, operations, and team personalities.

Lauren Strybos, a Chinese-Jamaican ceramicist in Canada, welcomes subscribers to her From Tree to Sea studio, showing her pottery process, collection planning, product photoshoots, and life updates.

2. Tutorials

How-to videos might initially feel like giving away your business secrets, but it‘s also a strategic format. Tutorials can help clients and customers understand how much time, effort, and expenses go into managing a business or producing a product. These videos help justify a person’s investment in your service or goods and increase respect for your craft.

Anderson‘s how-tos for making the best-selling prty grl beauty products are her most popular. Even though she’s teaching people how to make their body butter and sugar scrubs, she said most people still visit her site to purchase a product they watched her make.

3. Packing Videos

Bring customers down the assembly line by documenting how orders are packed and mailed. This type of video fills the time gap between when they click purchase and receive the package at their door.

Natasha Elle, an illustrator and SAD SHRIMPS shop owner based in Singapore uses her channel to promote her Patreon and show her and her assistant organizing, packing, and mailing hundreds of orders.

The XXL Scrunchie & Co team shares relaxing ASMR-style videos of them packing orders from their 4,000 sq. ft. warehouse, where you can listen to the peeling of shipping labels and the crinkle of envelopes.

4. Launch Updates & Product Features

Announce product and service launches or restocks by showing what will soon be available, styling tips, or an informative deep dive, such as launch inspiration, pricing, materials, ingredients, shipping, and more. It’s also an opportunity to host a giveaway to boost engagement and excitement.

Tina Nguyen, the founder of XXL Scrunchie & Co, films try-on hauls to generate hype for new products and help customers make purchase decisions.

5. Office and Warehouse Tours

Give viewers a tour of your office or warehouse to show where you’re building and managing your company. If you’re moving into a new space, take your audience on the journey with you through a moving vlog and the interior design phase.

Angela Jasmina used to run her million-dollar business out of her home and now films most of her embroidery and sublimation videos from her team’s 9,000 sq. ft. warehouse.

6. Q&A Business Chats

Engaging with subscribers in the comment section is essential to further connect with them and answer questions. Q&A videos on different topics are another compelling way to answer frequently asked questions, build trust, and establish oneself as an expert.

Dinh records the occasional sit-down Q&A video to answer audience questions and be vulnerable about her experience as a self-employed clay artist.

How to Join the YouTube Partner Program

In addition to marketing your business with your channel, there is an opportunity for extra earnings. Upload consistency and providing value are vital to growing a channel and becoming eligible for the YouTube Partner Program. With the introduction of YouTube Shorts, there are now two options for eligibility.

1. 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 valid public watch hours in the last 12 months (Shorts views don’t count towards this watch hours threshold)
2. 1,000 subscribers and 10 million valid public Shorts views in the last 90 days

There are a few additional requirements to join the program, including:

• Living in a country/region where the program is available
• Following monetization policies
• No active community guidelines strikes
• An active AdSense account

Again, consistency here is important because you risk YouTube turning off monetization if you don’t upload content for six or more months.

7 Ways Entrepreneurs of Color Can Earn Money Through YouTube Monetization

Once you’re a part of the YouTube Partner Program, you can choose which monetization features fit your channel well.

• Watch Page Ads: Earn revenue from ads that play before, during, after, and around your long-form and live-streaming videos.
• Shorts Feed Ads: As of February 1, 2023, you can earn a revenue share from ads viewed between videos in the Shorts feed.
• Channel Memberships: Offer members-only perks, such as badges, emojis, exclusive videos, and more, for loyal viewers who join your channel for a monthly fee.
• Shopping: Feature shoppable product links in or below videos and live streams by connecting your store to YouTube.
• Super Chat & Super Stickers: For fans who want to show extra support during live streams and premieres, viewers can buy Super Chats to highlight their message or Super Stickers to get a digital or animated image that pops up in the live chat feed.
• Super Thanks: Viewers can buy a one-time animation and post a colorful and customizable comment in a video’s comment section. This function will also be available for YouTube Shorts in 2023.
• YouTube Premium: When a viewer is a YouTube Premium subscriber and they watch your videos, you will earn a part of the YouTube Premium fee.

Over to You

There is no better time than now to start a channel on YouTube and promote your growing business. With the camera quality of today‘s cell phones, fancy equipment is optional to document your journey as an entrepreneur. Anderson wishes she had started posting videos sooner, and her advice is to start regardless of what editing program, camera, or audience you have. “Even if you’re only getting a few views, you never know who is watching,” said Anderson.

Duo, Duolingo’s big green mascot, might be the most famous owl of the post-tootsie roll pop commercial era.

The language-learning app first established a TikTok presence in early 2021 and found its stride by sharing funny videos featuring the sassy owl Duo. Since then, Duolingo’s TikTok account has grown to nearly 7 million followers and accumulated over 147 million likes from various viral videos.

How did Duolingo do it? By embracing “unhinged” marketing.

What is unhinged marketing?

When brands take less of a polished, perfect approach to social, and embrace more chaotic conversational moments, it’s often referred to as unhinged marketing. If you see a social media post and think “How did that get approved?” it can likely be considered unhinged.

This approach was first popularized on Twitter when Wendy’s became infamous for “roasting” social media users and openly shading the competition. Since then, other companies including Popeye’s and McDonald’s found viral moments by sending sassy Tweets.

Unhinged marketing can be particularly effective at winning over Gen Z customers who prefer marketing that feels more real and less salesy. What may have been deemed unprofessional in the past is now considered more authentic and relatable.

With the introduction of TikTok and the rise of short-form video content unhinged content now expands beyond fast food companies sending mean tweets, and Duolingo has capitalized on it.

Duolingo’s TikTok Strategy

Since shifting from investing in TV ad spots to a focus on organic social, Duolingo has found its marketing stride. What has made Duolingo’s TikTok content so viral? Three key strategies:

1. Entertainment Over Selling

The content is funny and aims to entertain more than it aims to sell.

Duolingo’s TikTok started taking off when the content featured Duo, the app’s mascot. The content focused on Duo being a humorous character the audience could connect with, and it has kept people coming back for more to see what Duo would do next.

When using the app is mentioned, it’s done in a funny light, and the audience doesn’t feel overly sold to. In fact, Duolingo’s TikTok content that mentions the app often highlights the free version of the app.

Image Source

2. Hopping On Trending Topics

Scrolling through Duolingo’s TikTok feed, the brand is always on top of using trending sounds and hopping on current topics while they’re hot.

One post from last fall features a cover image of famous rivals Selena Gomez and Hailey Bieber. The post was shared shortly after the photos of the pair (which caused waves on the internet) first dropped and played up Duolingo’s one-sided beef with Google Translate. This video illustrates how the brand can hop on a then-trending topic while reminding the audience that it is still a language-learning app.

Another example is a recent post featuring Duo at the premiere of the Barbie movie dressed as the main character of the film which has been a trending topic on social media in anticipation of the film.

These types of posts keep the brand’s content fresh, which helps build trust with the audience.

3. Consistent Storylines

Duolingo’s account also does a great job of having consistent storylines for the audience to follow. This helps viewers feel more connected to the brand and creates a sense of belonging because consistent viewers are in on the joke. Here are a few examples:

• Duo’s one-sided rivalry with Google Translate: Several videos (including the example above) feature Duo shading Google Translate and those who use it instead of learning a new language on Duolingo.
• Duo + Dua Lipa: Another storyline is Duo’s “crush” on singer Dua Lipa. This gives the brand easy material any time Dua Lipa is trending.
• The Duolingo legal team: There’s another running joke on the TikTok account that highlights Duolingo’s counsel trying to stop Duo from posting (a nod to the unhinged nature of the content).

It’s not all memes and funny videos — the marketing strategy has provided an ROI for the company. Duolingo’s daily active users are up 62% from last year and it continues to be among the top-downloaded Education apps.

When done right, a more relaxed, less corporate approach to social media can cement an authentic connection between a brand and its audience. The content doesn’t (and probably shouldn’t) have to consist of mean tweets and images of the company mascot in a thong to be effective, but a bit of personality and relatability can go a long way.