Email marketers are constantly asked to do more with less. So, how do you increase campaign frequency and put more advanced email techniques into practice without reducing quality? One way to address both challenges is by adopting an Agile email marketing process. Originally designed to accelerate software development, applying an Agile methodology to email marketing can boost efficiency and leave more time for strategy.
Traditional campaign development workflows are linear. First you strategize, then write copy, get feedback, and finalize assets—all before building out the actual email campaign. This process prevents the majority of email teams from shipping campaigns in less than two weeks, according to our recent State of Email Report.
Agile email marketing, however, allows teams to work on different parts of a project in parallel. Instead of making your developers wait a week for final copy and graphics, they can build campaign wireframes based on in-progress drafts.
Inside our Agile process
Agile email marketing breaks down large tasks into smaller ones and incorporates reusable tools and templates to create more efficient workflows. Here’s how we apply Agile practices for email production—the actual writing, designing, and coding of emails.
Create content
Unlike static planning documents that don’t include the actual content deliverables (and often aren’t referred to after kick-off meetings), our email briefs combine campaign objectives and tactical updates, including copy revisions. We share campaign briefs with the team during early campaign planning and add details as it progresses. Our email brief and planning template includes:
The campaign goal, targeted personas, and key performance indicators (KPIs)
Relevant URLs and tracking information
Sender information
Subject lines and preview text
Campaign body copy
By centralizing campaign information and sharing it with everyone on the project, multiple team members can work on different campaign elements in tandem. The content team collaborates on copy in the document while designers use the brief to develop graphics in parallel. Also at the same time, the demand generation team sets up landing pages and implements tracking capabilities while other materials are reviewed.
Shared design tools are similarly helpful. We use Figma for design work, which enables multiple graphic designers to work in the same file. It allows developers to pull out assets needed for coding, and we have shared libraries for photography and iconography to simplify access to core brand imagery.
Develop and code
Developing email campaigns—the actual production of coded emails—can be time-consuming if you start each email from scratch. That’s why we rely heavily on a software library to accelerate development.
Templates, snippets, and partials—collected in Litmus’ Design Library—allow us to build emails from a common structure and enable developers to swap content and components for each campaign rapidly. Here’s how they work:
Templates are fully coded emails that are pre-tested for optimal rendering across email clients. Each template has a specific purpose (e.g., transactional, promotional, etc.).
Snippets are smaller bits of code that can be pulled into an email and customized for that email. We use snippets for everything from article sections to CTAs.
Partials are similar to snippets because they both are specific email modules. But partials are universally consistent across all campaigns and aren’t customized for individual emails like snippets. We use them for email parts that change infrequently, like our header, logo, and footer information.
Templates and modular email development can enable non-developers to create campaigns. Additionally, WYSIWYG editors like Visual Editor inside of Litmus Builder let anyone build campaigns without coding experience.
Agile email marketing is empowered email marketing
The Agile email marketing methodology emphasizes testing small updates quickly and learning along the way. By breaking down traditional email processes, simplifying each step, and adopting more efficient tools and techniques, you can do more with less and rapidly adapt to market changes.
These changes can create a better experience for your team and your subscribers. For additional tips and insights, download our Agile email marketing ebook.
For more information about email marketing, check out:
People don’t always “search” for what they are looking for.
When I buy shoes I typically just go directly to Nike because I am familiar with their brand and their products. I don’t think I have ever Googled for shoes.
The same goes with ads, yes, I have been shown ads for shoes on Facebook and Google, but it’s never led me to purchase a shoe.
Now that doesn’t mean marketing or SEO doesn’t work. All of that helps you build a brand, which is what causes the majority of purchases.
And when you look at Nike’s brand, they generate more searches on a monthly basis than people just typing in the word “shoes”.
It’s roughly 5 to 1… for everyone person typing in “shoes” into Google, 5 type in “Nike”.
That’s the power of building a brand.
Time solves all problems
Because you are here, you are probably somewhere familiar with marketing and you may even be an expert on it.
But let me ask you this question… have you heard of the following brands?
Isobar
Wunderman Thompson
Huge
Performics
Grey
Those are all ad agencies that have thousands of employees. But yet most of us, even though we are familiar with marketing have never heard of them.
And it doesn’t mean they don’t have a small brand, they more so have a large brand within a very specific audience segment.
And that audience is their ideal cliental”. If you are a large company that can spend $25,000,000 or more on marketing each year, you probably are familiar with those companies.
So the key isn’t to just build a big brand like Nike, it’s to build a big brand with your target audience.
Now if your product or service targets everyone, kind of like Nike does, then of course you’ll want to build something everyone knows.
What you’ll also find is your brand will naturally grow over time.
Even though you probably haven’t heard of the ad agencies above, their brands have grown to be large by just being in business for enough years.
I thought it would be fun to share with you some numbers on the power of time.
As I mentioned above, I am focused on growing my company NP Digital. It’s currently on its 4th year in business.
That’s not a long time in the grand scheme of things, but it is something.
But here is what’s cool when we first started out in year 1 all of our business was generated through SEO, content marketing and social media marketing.
Those were the channels we leveraged to generate sales.
Fast forward to today, we still leverage those channels, but now 27% of our sales are generated through word of mouth, referrals and brand recognition.
It’s not the biggest percentage, but just imagine what happens when you are in business for 20 years or even just 10. It’s a massive compounding effect, assuming you provide a good product or service.
So, if you really want to grow your revenue you just have to be patient and keep doing good work and of course do good marketing as that is what will kick start the natural growth.
So, what’s your plan Neil?
I already spend a lot of my time on marketing, but I am doubling down in ways you probably won’t have guessed.
More social media – I’m now producing content on a daily basis for social media (nothing revolutionary here, but it gets the brand out more).
Maintain SEO – even though I am big on SEO… you can only rank for so many keywords. I’ve been doing it long enough where it is mainly on maintenance mode.
Podcasting – been doing this for years now. Averaging over a million downloads a month. Podcasting hasn’t really kicked in yet as it hasn’t been widely adopted.
Speaking at conferences – towards the end of the year I will be back on the speaking circuit. You can’t touch as many people as you can through content marketing, but at conferences people pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars for a ticket, so they are the right audience.
But what else?
Those marketing tactics are just the standard ones that we all know about and use. I am now starting to go after channels that we take for granted…
TV ads – within 30 days I will have TV ads going on stock channels like Bloomberg and CNBC. A lot of the people viewing those channels are my ideal audience. It’s unconventional, my competition won’t touch it due to poor ROI, but I believe TV is one of the best channels if you want to build a massive brand. Plus it’s not much more expensive than Facebook.
Awards – we’ve already gotten a lot of awards for our work. We will keep applying for more. It hasn’t driven any business yet, but I do think it is great for brand building in the long run.
PR – we hired a PR agency last month. They recently got me interviewed on CNBC. It only drove 7 visitors, but it is a start. Eventually the goal is to be consistently interviewed on TV.
Research firms – there is an age old saying in the business world… “you don’t get fired for buying IBM”. In the marketing world, getting in Forrester and Gartner can create a similar effect. It takes a long time and costs a lot of money to get in, but in the long run you generate leads from large corporations. As they turn to Forrester and Gartner to figure out which marketing agencies to hire.
I’ll add more to the mix as we grow. For now, just adding the 4 new channels to the mix above is already a lot of work.
And compared to the digital channels I started with, I bet the new additions won’t have as high of a conversion rate or even return on investment.
But that’s alright. The goal is to build a big business and sometimes you have to invest even when no ROI can be made because you know in the long run building a brand with your ideal audience will pay off.
Conclusion
Most marketers that I know of focus on ROI. For every dollar they spend they want to make 2 or even 3.
I look at things differently. I focus on building a brand and a reputation. Even if it doesn’t produce an ROI directly, I believe it can help you become a leader within your industry.
And if you can become a leader, eventually the numbers will work out, but of course it is a gamble.
It’s the same reason I got into blogging back in 2005 when others weren’t willing to. I believed that if you educated and helped others out, eventually it would pay off. But for the first 8 years I was in the hole and couldn’t show a return.
I’m experience the same currently with producing videos for YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. But in the long run I believe it will pay off.
Now the real question is, are you willing to play the long game and invest where others aren’t willing to?
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Having multiple-location SEO enables businesses to attract website traffic from various states or countries across the globe.
It brings a lot of benefits to e-commerce businesses that offer worldwide or international shipping. If you have it in place, you can expand your customer base and quickly grow your business.
How to do multiple-location SEO? Here are some of the tips you need to know.
What Is Multiple-Location SEO?
To attract locals from various locations, you probably need to adopt a local SEO strategy.
Imagine your business has franchises or branches in various cities or countries. You can serve multiple areas or ship products internationally or worldwide.
How do you attract traffic from consumers based on a particular location? The solution is multiple-location SEO.
Multiple-location SEO helps you improve your search traffic from various locations. This way, locals who make searches related to your niche or services can see your website at the top of search results.
For instance, a search for McDonald’s in New York leads to Google search results with information on nearby branches in the city.
If you were traveling to Las Vegas, you’d also find branches and website results about McDonald’s that are related to your location.
In short, multiple-location SEO lets search engines differentiate between multiple locations. Hence, local customers can get relevant information on the products and offerings available in nearby outlets.
If you want more in-depth information about how this works, check out my definitive guide to SEO.
What’s the Benefit of Multiple-Location SEO?
What makes multiple-location SEO good for business? Here are some of the benefits you need to know.
1. Boost Local Marketing Results
Taking advantage of Google’s multi-location SEO features can boost your marketing efforts.
Google offers location-based data, such as drop pins on digital maps with information on your business’s exact address, opening hours, and other relevant information. First-time customers can also use the “Street View” function to find your outlet easily.
For example, when a tourist searches “Starbucks near me” on Google, you’ll get a map with information on nearby outlets, links to their website, and directions.
2. Attract Local Customers
Of course, multiple-location SEO can attract more local customers within the vicinity of your outlet.
According to website design company Go Gulf, 46 percent of all Google search results pertain to local information. Also, 72 percent of consumers that conducted a local search visited a store within five miles from their current location.
These numbers show incorporating a multiple-location SEO strategy is good for business.
When customers search for a local establishment offering a specific product or service, the search results will present the local businesses that specialize in it.
Food enthusiasts based in Washington, D.C. looking for a restaurant can conduct a search for “restaurants Washington.” Popular restaurants in the area will be displayed in the search results.
3. Boost Brand Awareness
Multiple-location SEO can raise awareness of your product or service by increasing traffic to product pages.
When customers use keywords related to your business’s offerings, your product pages could appear in the top search results.
Imagine a new resident browsing for items for his apartment in Washington, D.C. He conducts searches like “mattress Washington,” or “furniture Washington.” Businesses that are optimized for SEO within these locations will appear at the top of search results.
The bottom line is adopting a local SEO strategy can increase sales. Businesses who want to improve their visibility in a local area can improve their local presence.
Should E-Commerce Businesses Optimize for Multiple Locations?
More consumers have shifted to e-commerce because it is fast and convenient.
The unique advantage of e-commerce is its ability to cater to consumers from various locations, states, or countries.
Even if your e-commerce business is based in the U.S., your online shop will be viewable to consumers in countries like France, Italy, or Germany. All you need to do is enable international shipping, and you’re all set.
Sadly, international customers won’t be able to find your business if they can’t find you on the search engine. Hence, adopting a multiple-location SEO strategy is crucial for your business’s profits.
Multiple-location SEO is not merely about attracting traffic to your website. You can also use it to attract customers to your regional website and create unique pages and content for a particular location.
Let’s say you’re a clothing retailer catering to international customers.
Online stores in Singapore may offer different products compared with your e-commerce store based in the U.S. As a result, you can build a multiregional site to accommodate consumers within these locations.
An example is clothing retailer Uniqlo, which has an online website for Singapore.
With multiple-location SEO, Singaporean consumers will be redirected to your Singapore website. They’ll be able to view products which they can purchase and ship to their homes. Likewise, consumers based in the U.S. will also enjoy these same benefits.
Furthermore, you can adjust to local trends and create exclusive product lines that interest local consumers. When consumers search for these products, they’ll view them on your local website.
Steps to Optimize for Multiple Locations
How can you optimize your store for multiple locations? Here are some tips you need to know.
1. Create a Page for Each Location on Your Website
The first step is to create pages based on your business’s or consumers’ location.
You can get this done by building a logical site structure to make it easy for search engines to find landing pages dedicated to a particular area.
For example, if your e-commerce store had various locations, then you can adopt the following URLs:
yourecommercestore.com/locations/newyork (for a specific state)
yourecommercestore.com/locations/newyork/manhattan (for a specific district)
Let’s say you have a store at East River Plaza in Manhattan. Then, you can use the following URL:
Google won’t know your page is for a specific location unless you make an effort to optimize it.
This involves including the location in your title tag and meta description. Consider this search result for restaurants in New York City. The title, URL, and description have the keywords “restaurant New York City,” which helped it earn a top spot in the search results.
3. Create Localized Content for Each Location
Next, you’ll have to create localized content based on the products and services available in a particular location.
E-commerce stores with distinct products and services based in each region could consider creating the following landing pages:
Store location: Create dedicated landing pages with information about your physical outlets (if any). Ideally, this should include your opening hours, address, map with your location pinned, and directions.
Images: Add photos of your physical outlets (if any).
Product pages: For products available in a particular location only, create product pages optimized based on location. For example, the McDonald’s Korea website has a menu page based on their current location.
Service pages: Describe the services you offer in the particular location.
Blog posts: Create blog posts designed to attract local customers based in a particular region.
These efforts ensure local customers will find information that is relevant to them when they check out your website and make a purchase.
4. Sign Up for Google My Business
Create a Google My Business account with listings for each location of your business.
A good listing should include basic business information, product photos, reviews, and social media pages. According to BrightLocal, 5 percent of Google My Business listing impressions lead to calls, clicks, or inquiries about the direction.
Take, for instance, this listing for Miyako Sushi based in Pennsylvania. The listing includes reviews from the web, popular times, website link, address, contact information, and any other pertinent facts to consumers.
This Google listing has all the information that consumers need to learn about the business. They can make an order, read reviews, and visit the website with the click of a button.
5. Showcase Reviews
Consumers regularly search for reviews before considering a purchase from an online store.
According to the State of Online Reviews by Podium Market Research, 93 percent of consumers said online reviews could influence their buying decision.
A Bright Local study found transitioning from a 3-star to a 5-star average rating on Google can lead to 25 percent more clicks. Businesses that achieved a 5-star rating also took around 69 percent of clicks in the local search, beating other competitors by a large margin.
Customers can easily write a review by clicking on your Google My Business listing.
Let’s use the previous example on Miyako Sushi and look at the reviews.
Shortly after, you’ll be able to view a pop-up with an option to “Write a Review” in the upper-right corner.
To get more reviews, create an email asking customers to leave a review after making their purchase. You can also share reviews or testimonials to encourage customers to share their experiences with your business.
For better results, you could give customers a small incentive to leave a review, such as coupons or freebies.
6. Create Local Business Listings for Each Location
Besides Google, you can create local business listings on sites like Yelp and Bing to improve your local search results.
Similar to Google My Business listings, this should include relevant business information such as location, hours, and directions.
As you can see, there’s crucial business information, such as links to reviews, health and safety measures, website links, and contact info. This information will help you attract local customers or tourists researching breakfast restaurants in the area.
As we’ve mentioned previously, consumers love businesses with reviews, so ask consumers to leave a review on these listing websites. In case there are any negative reviews, be sure to respond so you can satisfy frustrated customers and increase your average review rating.
You can also add links to these listings on location-specific pages on your website. This way, customers will be able to get the information they need with the click of a button.
Businesses who want to improve their rank across multiple locations will need to build backlinks to individual pages for each location on their website.
You can get this done by reaching out to bloggers in your community.
If you own a restaurant, consider getting in touch with a food blogger so they can write a blog post or review about their experience. You can also get in touch with vloggers in your area to post video content about your restaurant online.
Host or participate in events within your community to get featured on local websites. Partner with organizations that can help you make an impact and build connections with locals. Network with journalists who can get you involved in newsworthy events and get you published in local publications.
The more backlinks you earn, the more likely you will boost your rankings in local search results.
Conclusion
Multi-location SEO can bring a lot of benefits to your business.
Not only does it provide you with an opportunity to increase brand awareness, but you’ll also attract local consumers. Since many people conduct local searches, you can even improve your customer acquisition results.
To reap the benefits of this SEO strategy, you’ll have to create a page for locations relevant to your business and optimize the page. Afterward, get reviews and create local business listings so customers will have a good evaluation of your business.
Follow the steps in this post, and you’ll be on your way to increasing local traffic to your website.
How will you do multiple-location SEO for your business?
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This question is more challenging than you think. And how a company answers it has a major impact on the size of the audience it’s able to reach with that message.
That’s because transactional messages can be sent to all customers for whom you have email addresses. This includes those who haven’t opted in to receive your promotional messages, as well as those who have unsubscribed from receiving your promotional emails. Under the United States’ anti-spam law, the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act, these emails also don’t need to include an unsubscribe link.
Let’s start with a closer look at what these laws say.
How laws define transactional emails
While their definitions vary slightly, generally speaking, CAN-SPAM, CASL, and GDPR define transactional messages as necessary:
To complete a transaction or facilitate an ongoing subscription or membership.
For the performance of a contract or compliance with a legal obligation.
As part of an employment relationship.
To alert recipients to safety and security issues related to their purchase or account.
For “relationship messaging” or for the communication of “legitimate interests.”
That umbrella covers a wide range of messaging that’s necessary for your email marketing and cross-channel strategies, including purchase receipts, shipping and delivery notifications, and much more.
However, many companies mistakenly believe that umbrella covers other types of messages that don’t actually qualify. Much of the confusion stems from the “relationship messaging” referred to in CAN-SPAM and the “legitimate interests” clause in GDPR. Another thing that can make the lines even fuzzier: mixed messages.
‘Mixed messages’
Businesses know a 100% promotional email when they see one, but what if you add a little promotional content to a transactional email? Is it still considered transactional?
Here, the laws offer fairly clear guidance, says Heather Goff, Strategic Director of Email Deliverability Services at Oracle Marketing Consulting.
“CAN-SPAM allows for ‘mixed messages’,” she says, “and marketers have generated great results by adding cross-sell messaging to their transactional messages. With open rates on transactional messages being exceptionally high—25-35% or higher on average based on our experience with clients—the opportunities to upsell or cross-sell are much higher and more profitable.”
Brian Sullivan, Strategy Director of Email Deliverability Services at Oracle Marketing Consulting, adds that while promotional content can be included in a transactional message, the primary purpose of the message must be transactional. To avoid overdoing it on the promotional content, he recommends:
Focusing the subject line 100% on the transactional content.
Always positioning promotional content after the transactional content.
Limiting promotional content to no more than 20% of the total email content.
While the U.S. allows mixed messages, Canada does not, says Goff. “CASL has a zero tolerance for any content that has a purpose of garnering more commerce or profit within transactional messages. Senders can only include details about the specific transaction. And if they chose to include a navigation bar, for example, the message might be considered commercial and have to be sent as promotional.” Plus, CASL requires senders to have a promotional email unsubscribe link in transactional messages.
How email marketing experts define transactional emails
With CAN-SPAM allowing mixed messages and the term “relationship messages” being part of the legal definitions, it’s no wonder some companies struggle to properly identify their transactional messages.
To hopefully bring some clarity to things, here’s how our consultants talk about transactional emails with our clients:
“If you’re wondering if a message is transactional,” says Daniel Deneweth, Head of Email Deliverability Services at Oracle Marketing Consulting, “ask yourself this: Would a person call to complain or separately request the information if they didn’t receive the email message?”
That’s the very definition of critical and essential messaging, which is the spirit of what a transactional email is supposed to be.
Goff suggests to her clients marketing inside the U.S. to ask themselves if a “recipient reasonably interpreting” the email would think it was transactional. That’s how CAN-SPAM talks about mixed messages. “In the U.S., brands must strike a balance with transactional messages between tapping the sales potential of these emails and the risk of legal action,” she says. “If a reasonable recipient doesn’t feel a message is transactional, it most likely isn’t.”
Don’t let that definition give you false comfort because consumer expectations for email marketing have shifted dramatically over time. After all, over the past two decades, consumers have expanded the definition of spam to include email they no longer want from brands for which they opted in to receive promotional messages.
Which messages are most often misclassified as transactional
While companies correctly classify most of their messages as either promotional or transactional, some messages routinely mix them up. Here are some promotional messages that our consultants have found routinely misclassified as transactional:
Abandonment triggers. These messages are triggered when a person abandons a web session, shopping cart, or checkout process.
Welcome messages. When someone signs up to receive promotional campaigns from a brand, the welcome message that follows is by its very nature promotional—or at least it should be. These welcomes should be asking subscribers to do something that’s high-value, not simply confirming that they signed up successfully.
Product review requests. While this clearly is about a transaction, there’s little to no benefit to the customer, and it’s not required to complete a transaction. These emails are promotional.
Short-supply, re-order, and replenishment campaigns. While these are triggered based on a past purchase and how much time it takes for the consumable product to be used up, the purpose of these campaigns is to generate additional sales, not to service the previous sale.
“Often, the reason to send those emails as transactional is to avoid including an unsubscribe link in order to reduce list attrition,” says Sullivan. “This can have the opposite effect, aggravating users who want to opt out of promotional messages, forcing them to use the complaint button in the absence of an unsubscribe link. And if there’s any chance a message could be legally ruled as promotional when it was sent as transactional, the fines can be significant.”
A list of common transactional emails
While some transactional emails are broadcast, many are triggered. Transactional emails are well represented in our Automated Campaign Ideas to Explore checklist. In fact, 50 of the more than 110 automated campaigns identified in the checklist are transactional, each of which are flagged with an asterisk.
Use that checklist to help build out your automated campaigns within Oracle Responsys, which gives you powerful and intelligent tools to help you react to your customers’ behaviors and guide them along their customer journeys.
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Need help with your transactional emails or other email marketing needs? Oracle Marketing Consulting has more than 500 of the leading marketing minds ready to help you achieve more with the leading marketing cloud, including a Database Management & Compliance Services team to help you follow the law and a Campaign Automation Services team to help you optimize your triggered campaigns. To learn more, reach out to us at CXMconsulting_ww@oracle.com.
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Memorial Day means many things to many people. At its heart, it’s a day to commemorate the brave American soldiers who died fighting for this country. For many, the Memorial Day weekend also marks the start of summer and a chance to grab a deal in the annual holiday shopping event.
The shopping event is no longer the preserve of brick-and-mortar stores. Research by Namogoo shows e-commerce fashion sales soared over Memorial Day 2020, up 380 percent compared to the year before. Conversions increased by 335 percent, too.
These kinds of figures don’t happen by magic, however. Marketing plays a crucial role in your store’s success.
That’s why I’m going to show seven strategies to send your Memorial Day sales soaring.
7 Tips for E-Commerce Memorial Day Sales
A record-breaking Memorial Day doesn’t happen by luck. By using one or several of the following tips, you give your store a better chance of getting noticed, winning new customers, and having a great weekend.
1. Run a Paid Ad Campaign Showcasing Your Sales
Succeeding over the Memorial Day weekend is all about standing out. Big brands may do this with television commercials or billboards. Smaller brands often stick to social media. I recommend combining the two via a paid ad campaign on social media.
While few brands can afford to go all out on a TV ad, many e-commerce brands can afford a short paid ad campaign, especially if it’s optimized for conversions.
There are two crucial factors you need to get right: The channel you advertise on and the creative you use.
I recommend sticking to Facebook or Google for your paid ads. These platforms offer the greatest reach and the best targeting tools to help make sure your paid media budget goes the furthest.
When it comes to ad creative, it’s all about standing out. Using red, white, and blue, and an American flag are a given. But also consider including summer-related imagery that so many consumers relate to the holiday.
It’s essential to remember that, unlike Independence Day, this is a day of remembrance. Keep your tone respectful of the fallen and their loved ones, even if you’re focusing on summer fun. This ad from My Mind’s Eye does a great job of finding this balance: It’s eye-catching, positive, and still reminds viewers of the reason for the holiday.
Use Memorial Day hashtags on social media platforms, but be careful about the kind of content you post. Some people may be using these hashtags to search for information around the holiday itself and may be offended by overly promotional material.
2. Tease Your Sales on Social Media Without Revealing What They Are Until Memorial Day
Teasing your Memorial Day sales on social media is a fantastic way to drum up anticipation and build a potential customer base well before the big day. By running it on social channels, you have the chance to pick up thousands of new users who have never shopped with you before.
Get your social media calendar in place well ahead of the holiday. The more time you have to post, the more anticipation you can build. This is as true for your email marketing campaign as it is for your social media posts.
For example, The Pampered Iggy—an artist who makes outfits for Italian Greyhounds—teases their upcoming Memorial Day sales in this simple but effective image:
3. Run a Flash Sale
Unlike the winter holiday shopping season, Memorial Day sales last for a couple of days at most. This makes it ripe for flash sales.
These sales typically come with substantial discounts and are all about encouraging consumers to make impulse purchases. They’re also a great way to grab some press attention and make sure customers visit your store over your competitors.
Focusing on your new summer products is the best strategy here. Many consumers wait until Memorial Day weekend to make their spring and summer purchases, so they’re on the lookout for this season’s items. Make the discounts too good to avoid.
Getting the word out about your sales will be just as important. Consider using a paid ad campaign as I described above to promote your sales, but don’t forget about your email list or social media followers.
4. Sell Winter Items at a Deep Discount
Everyone loves a discount, especially on Memorial Day. Price drops between 20 percent and 90 percent are common. There’s no better time to get rid of leftover winter items while attracting new customers than to sell them cheap.
These sales can run alongside your standard Memorial Day sales events, or they can stand on their own. It all depends on what products you stock for summer. Brands that tend to do well during the summer months may prefer to emphasize their new line of products. On the other hand, winter sports stores may just want to make their steep discounts the center of attention.
5. Honor Veterans and Their Families
Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for fallen soldiers. This is why it’s essential to stay positive but not too celebratory about the unofficial start of summer.
Remembrance and relaxation both play important roles in our lives, but they should occupy separate spheres…When brands forget to respect that separation, and when executives who don’t understand the true meaning of Memorial Day are in control of a company’s marketing and social media outreach, insensitive—even offensive—things happen.
In particular, he recommends against potentially exploitative imagery of military funeral services, families in mourning, and so forth. Many companies juxtapose these images with messages of “FLASH SALE!” and “Happy Memorial Day!” which can ruffle feathers.
Not all veterans and families want to hear “thank you for your service” on Memorial Day and want the day focused on those who have been lost. That said, honoring veterans, active duty military, and their families can be done tastefully and well, without drawing focus away from the meaning of the day—chances are many of them have lost someone in the line of duty.
There are many ways you can honor veterans and active service people. One option is to give them early or preferential access to your sale. Another is to offer them discounts or special offers. You could even give away small items as gifts.
But a particularly special thing you can do to show your understanding and gratitude? Donate a portion of your proceeds from your Memorial Day sale to a charity supporting the families of fallen soldiers, like the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) or the Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation. Mention this plan in your Memorial Day marketing materials, but keep the focus on those who need the help, not how awesome you are for doing this.
6. Contact Websites Running Sales Roundups to Get Your Store Featured
The Memorial Day weekend is a fantastic source of content for new publications, many of which include roundups of all the best sales. It’s not an accident when brands get included in these roundups. More often than not, it’s the result of a lot of outreach work.
Start by finding publications in your industry that have produced Memorial Day roundups in the past. If they did a roundup last year, there’s a good chance it will be on the editorial calendar this year.
You can also target bigger, broader publications that aren’t necessarily tied to one industry. Here are just a few websites that have created Memorial Day sales roundups in the past:
Next, draft an email to send to each of these publications. Personalize it a bit, but you can keep the bulk of it the same. Highlight what you have on sale over the Memorial Day weekend, the kind of discounts customers should expect, and why your deal is better than your competitors.
7. Set Up a Virtual Event With a Live Sale Segment
You don’t have to have a brick-and-mortar store to run a live sales event.
There are even some pretty significant benefits stores can realize by running virtual sales events. They are way more accessible for one. You’ll be able to accommodate significantly more attendees (which means more customers), and they’ll be able to tune in from anywhere in the world, too.
It will also be much cheaper to run a virtual sales event than an in-person one. Webinar software and a high-quality camera will cost a few hundred bucks at the most. That’s pretty much all you need. It will be much cheaper for customers who don’t have to travel to your store, too, meaning more money to spend on the sale.
You’ll want to make your sales event as fun and inclusive as possible. To this end, make sure to run games and activities and not just showcase your products. You could even run giveaways and competitions to give away some of your newest products for free.
Make sure that you devote a good chunk of time to your sales products, though. The whole point of running this kind of event is to increase sales, so it makes sense to spend at least the latter half of the event modeling your new clothing range or showing your new products in action.
After the pandemic, you may be facing more competition than usual when it comes to online events. It will pay to get the word out early and promote your virtual event as much as possible. Social media, email campaigns, and your website are all great places to start.
Memorial Day Sales FAQ
Which channels should I run paid ads on?
Facebook, Instagram, and Google are three of the best platforms to run paid ad campaigns on this Memorial Day weekend.
How long should my flash sale last?
It can last as little as a few hours, but don’t let it go on for longer than the weekend.
How can I avoid looking like I’m cashing in on an important holiday?
You can incorporate both summer and solemnity. Don’t overdo it on the joy, but keep the message positive. Consider donating proceeds to relevant organizations.
What should I include in my outreach email to publications?
Keep your email as short as possible, but try to stand out. State how much consumers can save, what products are on sale, and any other essential details.
Which platform should I choose for my virtual event?
Facebook or Zoom are two popular platforms that are relatively inexpensive (if not free) and stable to run events on.
Conclusion: How to Increase Memorial Day Sales
Memorial Day weekend is one of the biggest shopping events on the calendar. You can’t just launch a sale and expect customers to turn up, however, especially if you’re an e-commerce store.
Running ads, making the most of social media, and reaching out to online publications are vital to get the word out. Making sure your sale strikes the right tone with customers will be key to increasing conversions.
But don’t stop there. The best e-commerce stores use the Memorial Day weekend as a jumping-off point and do everything they can to keep holiday sales high after the Memorial Day spike.
Which tactics are you going to use this Memorial Day?
from Blog – Neil Patel https://ift.tt/3fq0e1d
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If you can get your client’s website to the top of user search, you’ll have a much easier time improving their ROI.
Of course, mastering SEO is no easy task.
There are so many things to consider, from on-page SEO to off-pageSEO, copy, content, and even technical SEO.
A truly effective SEO strategy includes all of these strategies, plus regular optimization to ensure consistent returns.
This post dives deep into technical SEO and how you can use it to increase organic traffic, show up in search, and improve your overall site experience.
What Is Technical SEO?
Technical SEO is an area of SEO that covers optimizations that improve search engine ranking by making your site easier for search engines to crawl. For example, improving site load time, checking robot.txt files, and making redirects work properly.
Essentially, it’s the process of ensuring your website can be seen, crawled, and ranked by search engines.
Search engines, such as Google, give preference to websites that meet their webmaster guidelines. The basic principles state your website content should be accurate, easy to access, and user-friendly.
If your website loads slowly, has an unresponsive design, or lacks a secure connection, your content will not meet these guidelines.
This is where technical SEO comes in, as it can help you improve the technical characteristics of your website to improve organic traffic.
Why Is Technical SEO Important?
Imagine you wrote the most amazing content in the world. It’s content that everyone should read.
People would pay buckets of money just to read it. Millions are eagerly waiting for the notification that you’ve posted this new, incredible content.
Then, the day finally comes, and the notification goes out. Customers excitedly click the link to read your article.
Then, it takes over 10 seconds for your web page to load. Readers are annoyed and they don’t want to wait.
For every second that it takes for your web page to load, you’re losing readers and increasing your bounce rate.
It doesn’t matter how great that piece of content is—your site isn’t functioning well, and you’re losing precious traffic.
That’s just one example of why technical SEO is so critical.
Without it, Google and other search engines are incapable of finding, crawling, and indexing your site.
Even if your site can be found, user experience issues, like page load times and confusing navigation, can still negatively impact SEO.
Other issues like mobile optimizations, duplicate content, and site security can cause search engines to rank your site lower.
Elements of Technical SEO
While crawling and indexing are important factors in SEO, there are many more aspects to consider when performing a technical SEO audit. These include:
mobile optimization
page load speed
link health
duplicate content
schemas
crawl errors
image issues
site security
URL structure
404 pages
301 redirects
canonical tags
XML sitemaps
site architecture
At a minimum, a technically sound website should be secure, quick to load, easy to crawl, have clear and actionable navigation, and not contain any duplicate links or content.
It should also have systems in place to engage users even if they do hit a dead end, such as content created for 404 errors and 301 redirect pages.
When conducting a technical SEO audit, be wary of over-optimizing your website. Too many improvements can work against your best intentions and actually damage your SEO rankings.
What Is an SEO Audit?
An SEO audit is the process of evaluating your website to see how well it is performing on search engines.
SEO audits are a great way to create actionable plans to outperform your competitors, identify opportunities within your website, find and fix exit points, and create better customer experiences.
You should perform technical SEO audits, on-page SEO audits, and off-page SEO audits regularly.
As you go through your audit, you’ll find places where you can improve or optimize your website performance to improve performance and keep site visitors happy.
You may not be able to fix every error at once, but you can figure out what’s going wrong and make a plan to fix it.
What Are the Key Elements of a Technical SEO Audit?
There are three key factors to look at during an SEO audit:
back-end factors, such as hosting and indexing
front-end factors, such as content, keywords, and metadata
link quality and outside references
Sometimes, you won’t have the time to address each pain point. So, when deciding which audit insights are worth taking action on, use the 80/20 rule.
The most important part of your site’s SEO is the part that your incoming traffic actually sees.
That’s all washed away if your site isn’t mobile-friendly, though.
With the introduction of the mobile-first index, you need to make sure you understand how your site performs on mobile to ensure proper placement on SERPs.
What does the mobile-first index mean?
Due to 52.2 percent of global web traffic coming through mobile, Google has adjusted its algorithm to crawl the mobile version of websites.
It boils down to this—if your site doesn’t perform well on mobile devices, you are not just losing traffic; your site also looks bad to Google. That can result in lower rankings, and even less traffic.
How to Perform a Technical SEO Audit
SEO guidelines are constantly changing. Every time a major search engine significantly updates its algorithm, SEO has to adapt.
The good news is the frequency of changes in technical SEO tends to be lower.
After all, it’s not like search engines or readers will suddenly decide they’re okay with slower speeds.
If anything, you will see the average acceptable speed continue to drop. Your site simply has to be faster if you want to keep up with SEO demands.
Your website has to be mobile-friendly. This is only going to become more important over time, too.
It has to work without errors, duplicate content, and poor images.
Search engines also have to be able to crawl it successfully.
These things are all crucial to your success on search engines and site visitors. If you want to prioritize your SEO efforts, make sure you tackle the technical aspects first.
Before you do anything else, start a crawl of your website. You can use Ubersuggest to make it a simple process. Here’s how you do it:
Step 1: Enter your URL and click “Search.”
Step 2: Click “Site Audit” in the left sidebar.
Step 3: Run the scan. Upon completion, you’ll see this:
Crawling is useful for identifying problems such as duplicate content, low word count, unlinked pagination pages, and excess redirects. Ubersuggest will even rank issues in order of importance, so you can focus on what matters most.
If you find anything here, click on it for more information and advice on how to fix it. For example, our website has 32 pages with a low word count.
You can then review these pages to determine if you need to add more content.
What does this all mean?
In short, it gives you a glimpse into how the Googlebot is crawling your site.
If you don’t use Ubersuggest for your technical SEO audit, you can also search your site manually. We’ll explain that below.
2. Perform a Manual Google Search
A few Google searches can tell you approximately how well your website is ranking. This will help you figure out where to start your technical SEO audit.
How many of your pages appear in relevant search results?
Does your site appear first when you search for it by name?
Overall, where does your site appear in the results?
To figure out which pages are actually being crawled, you can use a “site:rootdomain” search to see what shows up.
Here’s what this looks like in action:
Missing pages don’t automatically mean that your site is un-crawlable, but it’s useful to understand what’s happening behind the scenes.
Your website doesn’t need to be at the very top of your searches, either. By using the site search, it will show you only pages on your own site.
3. Make Sure Only One Version of Your Site Is Browseable
If your website has multiple “versions” of itself, you send search engines a mixed message about how to crawl your site.
Basically, the crawlers don’t know which one is the right one.
If search engines don’t even know how to show your site to prospective traffic, your site’s SEO ranking will be negatively impacted.
The impact of HTTP vs. HTTPS on a site’s SEO is debated in the SEO community. Some sites using AdSense saw a decrease in revenue after making the switch to HTTPS.
With this change from Google, it seems you will need to make sure that your website only uses “https.”
4. Conduct On-Page Technical SEO Checks
When evaluating your site and the results from your crawl, there are tons of things to check. Don’t get overwhelmed! Start by looking for duplicate pages, headers, and title tags.
If you’ve published a lot of content with similar themes, like me, some seemingly unrelated content will show up in your crawl.
That’s okay. You’re looking for duplicates of the same content.
You can use a tool like Copyscape to assess potential technical SEO problems arising from duplicate content.
From there, closely examine a few key criteria that Google evaluates in their rankings.
You’ll want to make sure these are relevant to the content on your page. The content should also answer the questions your users are asking as fast as possible.
Essentially, you want to make sure the placement of pages makes sense—all your service pages should be under your “services” tab, for example. Make sure users don’t have to click through four levels of pages to find best-selling products. The goal is to make it easy for Google —and users—to find the information or products they are looking for.
Keyword Placement
Every page on your site should have a focus keyword included in the first 100 words.
Overall, on-page SEO checks are incredibly important, but they are only one part of your overarching technical SEO strategy. There are also other SEO checks to consider.
5. Manage Your Internal and External Links
Sites with logical hierarchies have improved SEO rankings. That’s why it’s important to check your internal and external links—to make sure visitors can navigate your site intuitively.
Pages might be deleted or moved, which can result in broken links and annoyed site visitors.
Don’t worry; you don’t have to do this manually.
Integrity and Xenu Sleuth can help you identify your broken links on your site. (Note: Integrity only works for Mac.)
While both tools are straightforward to use, I’ll use Integrity as an example.
Once you download it, add your URL in the text bar at the top of the page and click “Go.”
Then the tool will begin testing all the links found on your site and provide you with the results.
In the top-left corner, you see a snapshot of links and how many are bad.
Depending on the size of your site and how many links you have, you might consider viewing the results by link, page, status, or flat view to understand the results.
You’ll want to change any links marked in red with the “404 not found” label. These dead ends can negatively impact your technical SEO.
There are three different aspects of SEO, and technical SEO is the most important of the three.
It won’t matter how amazing your on-page SEO is if you fail at technical SEO.
It also won’t matter how great you are at off-page SEO if you’re horrible at the technical stuff.
Don’t get overwhelmed by the idea of it being “technical” or complex. Start with the big, critical aspects discussed above and tackle them one problem at a time.
How have you found success with technical SEO on your site?
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