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Promotion and Advertising
9/11/2016 3:07:53 AM
Marketing Automation vs Email Marketing

Email marketing and marketing automation are terms that are used somewhat interchangeably, causing confusion for small businesses who are trying to decide which solution they need. This confusion stems from the fact that both solutions are based on using email as a primary way to communicate with your leads in the hope that some leads will convert into customers. In addition, many email marketing platforms are adding marketing automation features, closing the gap between the two solutions, but making it more difficult for small businesses to decide.

But in reality, the terms marketing automation and email marketing are not interchangeable and these products are designed to do different jobs.

Small business owners know they need to do something proactive with their inbound leads in order to increase the return on investment they make to attract these leads. The question is which one is the right solution for their needs? For some businesses, they will absolutely need marketing automation. For others, email marketing will be sufficient.

It’s important to understand the difference between email marketing and marketing automation and when you may want one solution over the other.

Is Email Marketing Enough?

Most small businesses understand the value of communicating with their prospects and customers. When you regularly provide educational information, special offers or news, you build trust and strengthen your relationship with people on your list.

But the challenge of email marketing is that everyone on your list receives the same content, treating all people on your list the same. Even if you use an auto-responder series of emails that are timed based on the person’s last action, such as signing up for your list, the content is generic and not personalized to their needs.

Email marketing is best used for:

  • Newsletters
  • Blog post distribution
  • Special promotions
  • Webinar invitations
  • Series of timed emails after subscribers opt-in to your list

So although using email marketing to communicate to your subscribers works just fine, if you want to tailor your emails based on actions people take using content-based marketing triggers, it becomes nearly impossible without a lot of manual intervention.

What is marketing automation?

Marketing automation, sometimes also referred to as funnel marketing, is software that automates marketing processes to better communicate with your target audience across multiple channels and build long term relationships. It gives you the tools to manage, measure and optimize your marketing funnel.

As more businesses are employing inbound marketing to attract higher quality leads, marketing automation has become an important process to properly nurture these leads and turn them into customers.

Being able to customize your communication based on the actions someone takes, such as sign up for your list, download an eBook, take a quiz or fill out a form, enables you to stay engaged and visible to today’s buyers.

The demand for marketing automation software is getting stronger because businesses need better data to understand what the buyer needs so they can deliver it to them at the right time. With the greater demand comes more options, many targeting the small business.

How does marketing automation differ from email marketing?

Although marketing automation is based on email as the primary means of communication, a marketing automation system adds the following features on top of the email distribution platform to enable you to:

  • Build out campaign specific landing pages and forms
  • Track your website visitors
  • Capture, score and nurture your leads
  • Automate marketing activities based on marketing triggers
  • Analyze and report your results
  • Built in or integrated CRM capability

  • Do you need marketing automation?

    Marketing automation platforms take your email communications further. When using inbound marketing, your goal is to attract unique visitors, turn them into leads and then nurture them into customers.

    And this process takes content that satisfies the needs of the customer depending on where they are in the buying cycle.

    • Awareness – whitepapers, guides, ebooks, checklists, templates and videos
    • Consideration – free webinars, case studies, free samples, catalogs, buyer’s guides and FAQs
    • Decision – complimentary assessment, estimates or quotes, demo, free trial


    The best of both Marketing Automation (FollowLike ~ Over a 1,000 new members weekly for several popular social communities ... networking ... over 23,000,000 transactions and counting) and Weebly (send up to 1,000 emails daily from your Weebly site)

    Both are excellent for the beginner and will enhance established marketers. Both are available in my community signature below.

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    RE: Promotion and Advertising
    9/11/2016 3:28:09 AM
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    RE: Promotion and Advertising
    9/11/2016 3:05:41 PM
    Should You Care If Your Startup’s Website Is Mobile-Friendly Or Not?

    A website is a big aspect of any marketing plan. When setting up a new business, it’s vital to have one before you launch. You will, no doubt, already know the reasons why it’s important to have a website.

    What you may not know is the importance of making it accessible. In 2016, most people that go online do so from a mobile device. We typically browse the Web using a smartphone like the Apple iPhone or a Samsung Galaxy. Some of us will even go online with a tablet device.

    As you can imagine, mobile devices are convenient ways of using the Web. You might be wondering if there’s any point on tailoring your site towards a mobile audience. Did you know that Google says most people using its search engine do so from a mobile device?

    Whenever the Big G says something, everyone listens. That’s because they are an authoritative figure in the search engine and SEO world. Still, there’s plenty of independent analysis to confirm what Google have already said.

    Now that you know most people search from a mobile, it’s clear you should make your site mobile friendly. So, to answer the question posed in this blog title, yes you should care if your site works on mobiles!

    Still not convinced? Perhaps you might be thinking few mobile visitors will visit your site anyway? Let me share with you some facts to help emphasise the importance of sites that work well on mobile devices.

    Mobile commerce is big business

    It takes just minutes to set up an online store on any website. Thanks to services like Shopify, you don’t need to be a web design expert. Nor do you need to have lots of technical know-how.

    There is a direct correlation between mobile users and items bought via mobile devices. The mobile commerce industry is booming and isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. Regardless of how you plan to sell online with your startup’s website, it’s a fact you need to bear in mind.

    According to Statista, the global m-commerce market was worth around $315 billion in 2015. Analysts are predicting that figure will rise to $429 billion by the end of 2016. And $669 billion by 2018!

    If your website doesn’t work well on mobile devices, few people will buy anything online from you. So, if you’re planning to grow your business through online sales, pay attention. You MUST have a mobile-friendly website!

    Google gives extra SEO authority to mobile-friendly sites

    When you create a new website, it’s not as simple as being a case of “build it, and they will come.”

    A lot of SEO work needs to get carried out to start driving targeted traffic to your site. At the time of writing, there are over a billion websites on the Internet. That means there is plenty of competition for your site. Even if you class it as being in a micro-niche category.

    The Web is full of hints and tips on how you can boost your SEO efforts. Those online guides will tell you the on and off-site activities that offer the best returns. But, what you may not know is the ins and outs of Google’s search engine ranking algorithms.

    One fact in particular that you may not know is that Google ranks mobile-friendly sites high. For years, the Big G has told us how mobile Internet is the future. Today, that future is here.

    It doesn’t make sense to put all that effort into SEO and not build a site that works well on mobiles. The good news is that it’s easier than you think to create a mobile-friendly site. For instance, you can apply a “theme” to your site that offers a responsive design. That means the site will change the layout and font sizes according to the device you use.

    You can usually tell if a site has a responsive design by just resizing your browsing window on a computer.

    A mobile-friendly site is a must if you use Google AdWords

    As you know, AdWords is an advertising platform owned and operated by Google. It’s a powerful system used by millions of advertisers each year. Google AdWords is also the perfect way to grow a new startup’s site as part of a targeted marketing campaign.

    Each year, the search giant makes some significant changes to enhance the AdWords platform. And this year is no exception. There are several Google AdWords changes for 2016, but some, in particular, will be relevant to you.

    One of them is responsive design ads. As you may already know, AdWords lets you target mobile and desktop users (or a combination of them). Let’s consider the scenario where one of your ads shows up on someone’s smartphone. They tap on it and get redirected to your website.

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    RE: Promotion and Advertising
    9/12/2016 6:14:54 AM
    21 Revealing Statistics About Content Marketing in Asia Pacific in 2016

    Do you know how your content marketing efforts stack up compared to other companies in Asia, Australia and New Zealand?

    To make content marketing work for your company, it’s useful to have some idea of how other businesses are succeeding.

    more
    It helps you find and fix gaps in your own approach to content strategy, content creation and content promotion, and helps you to develop a realistic view of how you should budget and plan.

    To help out fellow marketers in Asia Pacific, our Australian and Singaporean teams dove into some data on the state of content marketing in APAC. Alongside SurveyMonkey, we surveyed over 700 marketers across Asia, Australia and New Zealand to see where they've been focusing their efforts, where they're struggling, and what their plans are for the remainder of 2016 and beyond.

    To learn about these findings in more detail and get access to insights and tips from local content marketing experts, download the full Asia Pacific Content Marketing Report 2016 here.

    21 Revealing Statistics About Content Marketing in Asia Pacific in 2016

    1) Key Statistics Revealing the State of Content Marketing in Asia Pacific in 2016

    Marketers in Asia Pacific believe in the power of content marketing to generate ROI.

    • Marketers in APAC believe content marketing to have the most commercial impact on their business. Tweet this stat Twitter_Logo_Blue-6.png
    • 49% of businesses in APAC intend to increase their content marketing resources during the rest of 2016. Tweet this stat Twitter_Logo_Blue-6.png

    Businesses in Asia Pacific are doing content marketing, but haven’t quite cracked it yet.

    • 70% of APAC businesses feel their content marketing efforts are limited, basic, or inconsistent. Tweet this stat Twitter_Logo_Blue-6.png
    • 62% of APAC businesses are creating more content in 2016 than they did in 2015. Tweet this stat Twitter_Logo_Blue-6.png
    • 50% of businesses in APAC are doing content marketing, but have no strategy. Tweet this stat Twitter_Logo_Blue-6.png

    The key issues with managing content marketing in this region are the creation of quality content and developing a strategy.

    • 57% of APAC marketers say producing quality content is an obstacle to their success. Tweet this stat Twitter_Logo_Blue-6.png
    • 56% of marketers in Asia Pacific struggle with content strategy. Tweet this stat Twitter_Logo_Blue-6.png
    • 53% of marketers in APAC struggle to produce enough content. Tweet this stat Twitter_Logo_Blue-6.png

    APAC marketers are finding success with blogging and paid promotion on Facebook.

    • 47% of marketers in APAC have the most success with blog posts and articles. Tweet this stat Twitter_Logo_Blue-6.png
    • 35% of APAC marketers rate e-newsletters or online magazines as effective forms of content marketing. Tweet this stat Twitter_Logo_Blue-6.png
    • 37% of marketers in APAC find Facebook advertising to be the most effective form of paid promotion. Tweet this stat Twitter_Logo_Blue-6.png

    Asia Pacific marketers are focused mainly on top-of-funnel when it comes to measuring the success of their content marketing.

    • 69% of APAC businesses use website traffic to measure of content marketing success. Tweet this stat Twitter_Logo_Blue-6.png
    • 62% of APAC marketers measure their content success using social shares. Tweet this stat Twitter_Logo_Blue-6.png

    2) Key Statistics on the State of Content Marketing in Australia & New Zealand 2016

    • 52% of businesses in ANZ are convinced of the value of content marketing & can measure its ROI. Tweet this stat Twitter_Logo_Blue-6.png
    • 71% of businesses in ANZ said they are producing more content in 2016 than in 2015. Tweet this stat Twitter_Logo_Blue-6.png
    • Almost a quarter of marketers in ANZ are planning to increase resources to assist with content marketing. Tweet this stat Twitter_Logo_Blue-6.png
    • 68% of marketers in ANZ plan to increase investment in promoting their content via earned media (PR & social sharing).Tweet this stat Twitter_Logo_Blue-6.png

    3) Key Statistics on the State of Content Marketing in Asia 2016

    • Only 40% of businesses in Asia are convinced of the value of content marketing & can measure its ROI. Tweet this stat Twitter_Logo_Blue-6.png
    • 62% of businesses in Asia struggle to create sufficient volumes of quality content. Tweet this stat Twitter_Logo_Blue-6.png
    • 51% of marketers in Asia plan to increase investment in promoting their content via earned media (PR & social sharing). Tweet this stat Twitter_Logo_Blue-6.png
    • 58% of marketers in Asia struggle to define the best content & influencers to build reach and support conversion. Tweet this stat Twitter_Logo_Blue-6.png

    Want to see more data on the state of content marketing in Asia Pacific alongside commentary from some of the region’s best content marketers? Check out the full report here: The Asia Pacific Content Marketing Report 2016.


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