Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Planning isn’t sexy. It doesn’t trend. No one’s going viral for updating their content calendar or plotting campaign touchpoints.
But here’s the hard truth most marketers won’t admit out loud: the teams that win are the ones who plan. Period.
As CEO of The Go! Agency, I’ve worked with growth-stage startups, international brands and Fortune 500s. And the difference between consistent growth and quarterly chaos always comes down to this — the presence or absence of a plan that actually works.
Yet every August, the same cycle begins. Q4 shows up like a freight train, and suddenly everyone’s scrambling:
Campaigns are rushed
Budgets are misaligned
Messages are muddled
Leadership is confused
Teams are exhausted
And all of it could have been avoided with one thing: a strategic, forward-looking, execution-ready plan.
Why most marketing plans fail before they even start
Let’s stop pretending a planning session is a slide deck with buzzwords or a half-hearted brainstorm led by someone who still thinks “go viral” is a tactic.
Planning is not about checking a box. It’s about building a structure that connects real objectives to measurable actions across every channel. But most teams aren’t doing that.
They’re treating planning as an afterthought — if they’re doing it at all. And when your plan is a vague Notion doc, a disjointed task list or worse, a whiteboard of “cool ideas,” don’t be surprised when your campaigns flop.
The planning process has become a casualty of hustle culture. We’ve been trained to equate movement with progress. But in marketing, unplanned execution is just expensive guessing.
The fall framework that delivers results
At The Go! Agency, we’ve built and tested a framework that cuts through the noise. It’s what we used to help a premium pet nutrition brand drive over $47,000 in email campaign revenue and increase TikTok video views by nearly 500% in a single quarter.
It’s also what helped an international beverage equipment company exceed ROAS goals by 135% — scaling from 9.4 to 14.78 in just four months.
And no, it didn’t require 10 tools or a 92-slide deck.
Here’s how it works:
1. Set goals that actually mean something “We want more engagement” is not a goal, but “We want a 30% increase in demo bookings from LinkedIn in Q4” is.
Start with your business objectives, not just marketing KPIs. Growth only happens when your marketing activities ladder up to tangible business outcomes.
2. Audit your current channels You’re probably doing more than you think: emails, blogs, paid ads, social, events, PR. But how much of it is working — and how much is noise?
Take stock. Know what’s performing and why. Then cut what’s not moving the needle.
3. Lock in messaging that doesn’t suck Your message is your fuel. If it’s generic, recycled or vague, your audience is already tuned out.
You don’t need “clever.” You need clear, compelling positioning that reflects your unique POV and actually speaks to real pain points.
And no — ChatGPT can’t do this for you. AI is a multiplier, not a mind reader. Garbage in, garbage out.
4. Match the message to the market Segment smarter. The same campaign can’t serve every audience. Tailor your messaging per segment and then match it to the right platform.
LinkedIn for B2B thought leadership? Absolutely — it’s still the best platform for building trust and credibility with a professional audience. TikTok for brand storytelling? If your audience lives there, it’s a powerful way to connect through authentic, culture-driven content. Email for conversion? Still king — when it’s targeted, relevant and backed by a strong message.
5. Build around a calendar Themes drive cohesion. A roadmap aligns execution. You need to know what’s happening when — and how your campaigns, content, sales pushes and partnerships sync up.
Planning gives you rhythm. That rhythm gives your team momentum.
Stop glorifying the grind
Let’s kill the myth that planning is rigid. The right plan is a launchpad — not a cage.
It’s what lets you pivot without panic when a new initiative lands in your lap. It’s what helps you say “no” to shiny distractions. And it’s what allows you to build campaigns that scale, not scramble.
You don’t need more meetings. You need direction. You don’t need a productivity tool with 30 integrations. You need strategic clarity.
The ROI no one talks about
Think planning is overhead? Here’s what it really unlocks:
Smarter content with a clear purpose
Faster execution with less firefighting
Scalable campaign architecture
Higher ROI with fewer wasted hours
Cleaner data to prove your impact
And let’s not ignore the internal wins: clearer expectations, tighter collaboration and less burnout.
The brands that scale aren’t guessing. They’re mapping.
You can’t be bulletproof without a blueprint. And planning is your blueprint.
This fall, don’t wait to react. Build your roadmap now. Align your team. Ground your efforts in strategy, not spaghetti.
Because the truth is, in a landscape filled with marketers who are busy, the ones who are intentional will always win.
Planning isn’t sexy. It doesn’t trend. No one’s going viral for updating their content calendar or plotting campaign touchpoints.
But here’s the hard truth most marketers won’t admit out loud: the teams that win are the ones who plan. Period.
As CEO of The Go! Agency, I’ve worked with growth-stage startups, international brands and Fortune 500s. And the difference between consistent growth and quarterly chaos always comes down to this — the presence or absence of a plan that actually works.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Let’s address the elephant in the inbox.
Email marketing isn’t dead. It’s not outdated. It hasn’t been replaced by TikTok, Threads or an army of AI bots. In fact, email is still one of the most reliable, highest-ROI marketing channels in your arsenal — if you actually use it right.
But here’s the inconvenient truth: most businesses don’t. They treat email like a leftover tactic from 2009, not the strategic revenue engine it can be. So when their campaigns fail, the blame is often directed at the platform, the audience, the open rates — everything except the real culprit: a broken system.
I’ve had enough client calls that start the same way to spot the pattern. “We’ve been sending emails for years,” they say. “Newsletters, sales promos, special offers. But it’s just not working anymore.”
Spoiler: The problem isn’t email. It’s execution. Let’s break it down.
Stop sending and hoping
Before you send another message, ask yourself one question: What is the actual goal of this email? If your answer is “generate leads,” great. That’s a start. But leads don’t materialize just because you hit send. Email isn’t magic. It’s a relationship channel.
You need a strategy. Are you building relevance? Segmenting based on interest? Optimizing timing? Tracking behavior across your site and CRM? If not, you’re not doing email marketing. You’re just sending digital flyers and hoping someone notices.
Here’s the harsh reality: most email lists are digital junk drawers. Bloated, unsegmented and outdated.
One client had 25,000 contacts in a single list labeled “Newsletter.” No segmentation. No tagging. Just one-size-fits-all messaging to cold leads, VIP clients and long-lost contacts alike. Their click-through rate? Less than 1%.
Would you hand the same sales pitch to a returning customer, a cold prospect and a lapsed buyer? Then why are you emailing them like they’re all the same person?
Your email platform has segmentation tools for a reason. Use them. Tag based on behavior, purchase history, content engagement and lifecycle stage. And if your list is outdated? Run a re-engagement campaign. Let people self-select. And yes — let them unsubscribe. Because a clean, active list will always outperform a bloated one.
Your platform might be failing you
If you’re still using the free version of Mailchimp from 2017, expecting results is like entering a Formula 1 race on a tricycle.
Email platforms have evolved. If yours doesn’t offer automation, A/B testing, tagging, CRM integration or real-time analytics, it’s holding you back. For ecommerce, I recommend Klaviyo. It connects directly to Shopify, lets you recover abandoned carts, trigger smart automations and — this is key — track actual sales tied to email behavior.
And yes, you’ll need to invest in a platform that can handle more than “send newsletter.” If you’re serious about revenue, stop being cheap about the tool that drives it.
Stop worshiping the open rate
Everyone obsesses over open rates like they’re gospel. But here’s the truth: a high open rate doesn’t mean anything if no one clicks, converts or remembers you. Don’t just design pretty emails. Design strategic ones.
Ask better questions. What KPIs actually map to your business goals? For ecommerce, it might be revenue per email, cart recovery rate or product clicks. For B2B, it may be meetings booked or resources downloaded.
Start there. Reverse-engineer your content. Then test relentlessly. Subject lines. Send times. CTA placement. Message framing. Real marketers test. Lazy marketers send and pray.
Visibility, credibility, engagement — then sales
Email doesn’t operate in a vacuum. It’s part of a journey. You don’t go from “nice to meet you” to “here’s our invoice” overnight. So layer your content.
Visibility gets you seen. Credibility makes you trusted. Engagement builds the bridge. Sales walk across it.
If every email is just a promotion, you’re not building a bridge — you’re shouting into the void. Offer value. Share insight. Deliver relevance. And when it’s time to sell, you won’t have to beg for attention. You’ll already have it.
Most marketers jump straight to tactics — “Let’s send something Tuesday at 10 a.m.” — with no infrastructure underneath.
But if your email doesn’t plug into a system, it’s a short-term stunt, not a long-term strategy.
Here’s what a real email system looks like:
Set up automated workflows for key stages like onboarding, re-engagement and post-purchase to nurture your audience over time.
Build segmented customer journeys that align with specific buyer behaviors so your emails are always relevant and timely.
Integrate your email platform with your CRM and ecommerce systems to enable real-time targeting based on user actions.
Define clear KPIs that are directly tied to business outcomes before you create or send any campaigns.
This is the work most marketers skip. And it’s why their email marketing never scales. Strategy always beats volume.
Want to win Q4? Fix this in Q3
Here’s your reality check: once fall hits, you’re out of time. Black Friday. Cyber Monday. Holiday chaos. End-of-year goals. Your calendar will be execution-heavy and strategy-starved.
So fix it now.
Audit your platform. Clean your list. Segment your contacts. Define your goals. Connect your data. Build the machine. Because when email works, it doesn’t just deliver opens. It delivers ROI. Recurring revenue. Customer loyalty. And a real reason to celebrate when the quarter ends.
Let’s address the elephant in the inbox.
Email marketing isn’t dead. It’s not outdated. It hasn’t been replaced by TikTok, Threads or an army of AI bots. In fact, email is still one of the most reliable, highest-ROI marketing channels in your arsenal — if you actually use it right.
But here’s the inconvenient truth: most businesses don’t. They treat email like a leftover tactic from 2009, not the strategic revenue engine it can be. So when their campaigns fail, the blame is often directed at the platform, the audience, the open rates — everything except the real culprit: a broken system.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
With new social platforms emerging every year, many entrepreneurs wonder if they should leave email behind and look ahead to new avenues. Did you know that email is still the second biggest marketing channel for startups, right behind social media? That’s right! It’s all thanks to its low cost and incredible return on investment (ROI). According to the study by Litmus, it remains one of the best ROIs out there; companies can expect to make a whopping $38 in return for every dollar they spend on email marketing.
As the CEO of Builderall, an all-in-one digital marketing platform that has supported over 2,000,000 small businesses, I often get asked if email marketing is still an effective strategy in this new phase of our digital age. Is it dead in 2024?
I’m here to debunk the biggest myths and set the record straight. Today, I’ll share my insider knowledge to help you see the light.
Defining email marketing
Before we debunk these myths, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page about what email marketing actually is. Many people have misconceptions about this form of digital marketing, which can turn them off — and that leads to missed opportunities.
Email marketing is a direct marketing strategy that sends promotional or informational messages to a targeted audience via email. It goes far beyond blasting promotions or cold outreach. Done right, it builds meaningful relationships between your brand and subscribers. It’s a way to keep them engaged, and ultimately, it’s another way to drive sales.
Some examples include
Newsletters
Promotional offers
Product updates
Even personalized content based on a subscriber’s interests.
Let’s tackle the elephant in the room first. No — email is not dead! In fact, it’s far from it and still going strong.
According to data provided by Oberlo, 80% of businesses rely on email as their primary customer retention channel. That means they’re using email to keep their existing customers engaged and coming back for more.
But that’s not all. HubSpot found that 60% of consumers made a purchase thanks to a marketing email they received. That’s a huge testament to the power of email marketing in driving revenue for businesses.
Myth #2: People don’t read emails
I can’t tell you how often I hear this myth. Sure, our inboxes have gotten pretty crowded over the years, and many of us receive dozens or even hundreds of emails daily. It’s also true that a good chunk of those emails might get sent straight to the trash or spam folder.
However, according to HubSpot, 46% of smartphone users still prefer to hear from brands via email over other channels.
If you establish trust and send relevant content, subscribers will welcome your emails with open arms.
This stat also highlights the importance of putting care in your campaigns by using compelling subject lines and other email elements to stand out in a crowded inbox.
Myth #3: Younger audiences don’t use email
Gen Z and millennials are the next generation that will have some serious purchasing power. It’s only logical for businesses to look for new and innovative ways to approach them, as they’re often portrayed as being glued to their screens and obsessed with social media platforms.
These stereotypes lead many people to assume Gen Z and millennials are too obsessed with TikTok and Instagram for old-school strategies like email. Let me prove them wrong again. According to the Attest U.S. Consumer Trend Report, 53% of Gen-Z enjoy weekly emails from their favorite brands. For millennials, it’s 66%.
Of course, you’ll want to cater your approach to each audience (throw in some slang or a meme here and there,) but don’t count email out. These generation segments still use and prefer it.
Myth #4: Email has low open rates
The next myth I wanted to touch on is more tangible. Some say email performs poorly compared to social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram. For that, we’ll have to look at the open rate.
Open rate is an essential key performance indicator (KPI) in digital marketing because it tells you how many people are actually opening and reading your emails. MailChimp benchmarks tell us the average email open rate across all industries is 34.23%. While that might not sound amazing, it’s definitely not bad either.
With optimization, that number can grow much higher and bring benefits. As reported earlier, that’s why so many businesses still rely on email as their primary customer retention channel.
Finally, allow me to go full circle and return to the definition of email marketing. Too many people confuse general email marketing with a somewhat shady practice: cold outreach.
Cold emails are unsolicited messages sent to people who have not expressed interest in your brand or products. You essentially buy or scrape a list of email addresses (unbeknownst to the recipients) and blast bulk emails, hoping to catch a few leads. They’re often used for prospecting and can come across as intrusive if not done right. That’s because nobody gave you permission to contact them.
On the other hand, email marketing is about building relationships with people who have already shown interest in what you offer. They might have signed up for your newsletter through a lead magnet or opted in to receive your updates. That’s a big difference!
While many entrepreneurs may feel attracted to the latest shiny object or technology, these myths cause many entrepreneurs to overlook email in 2024.
When executed correctly, email marketing remains an indispensable growth lever for startups and established businesses alike. Now that you know the truth, utilize email marketing to boost conversions and retention. With a strategic approach, you may see even higher open rates and ROI than the studies show.
What’s the biggest mistake musicians make when it comes to email marketing?
JUST. NOT. EMAILING.
😱
Most musicians neglect their email lists.
Perhaps out of fear that “marketing” makes us look sales-y, self-centered, or desperate.
Or maybe it’s a fear that we’ll send an email and hear… crickets.
But we ghost our subscribers (our biggest fans, btw!) for weeks or months at a time.
Then whenever there’s important news — like an album drop, video release, or regional tour — we share the details once with our list and act like the job is done.
Not Billie Eilish!
A music marketing lesson from Billie Eilish
Billie is one of the biggest artists in the world. Does she rely on fame, or magazines, or word-of-mouth, or Instagram to get her most important messages out there?
No. She uses email. A lot!
In fact, Billie supported the release of her new album HIT ME HARD AND SOFT with daily emails to her fans, like this:
“But I’m not a megastar like Billie Eilish!”
I hear that.
And normally I’m reluctant to draw too many marketing parallels between independent musicians and household names. For instance, just because Beyoncé releases secret albums overnight doesn’t mean you should too.
But in THIS case, the lesson is worth learning: Successful artists know their fans want to hear from them. And they’re not afraid to send frequent emails and make frequent merch offers.
You should do the same. You need to be giving your audience multiple chances to pay attention.
When you do, consider the following.
Email marketing guidelines for musicians:
Give yourself permission to email daily during big campaigns
Email weekly throughout the rest of the year
Send a dedicated email for each newsworthy item: Don’t send bulk news roundups
Emails can be super short: If you shared a pic on Instagram, share it via email with a sentence or two caption
Re-send important emails to subscribers who didn’t open the email the first time
Ask questions that prompt responses from subscribers; replies help you stay out of the junk folders
Don’t be shy: Tell fans exactly what you want them to do (remix, purchase, stream, view, etc.)
Use a super-signature in every email with clear calls-to-action
You are not imposing on your fans when you send emails.
After all, your subscribers are your most reliable listeners and customers. Talk to them!
How can you create similar results for your business this year?
The effectiveness of email marketing comes down to a few key factors:
Knowing your audience and its pain points and desires.
Creating emails that respond to those specific needs.
Getting your emails in the inbox, where your subscribers can interact with them.
As the CEO of a B2B email marketing company, I often hear from customers about their top challenges. A big one? Creating emails that really engage and drive results. Getting the content, length and audience targeting just right is tough.
If you’re struggling to make your emails more engaging, here’s an aspect you may be overlooking: just make them shorter. Recent data from a ZeroBounce report shows that 66% of consumers prefer short emails, and only 6% favor longer ones.
But keep this caveat in mind: For 28% of people, email length becomes irrelevant if the content is well-tailored to their needs and interests.
It’s no surprise that people prefer shorter marketing emails. When inboxes are clogged with messages, why would you opt for a long message instead of a quick note? Concise and direct emails respect your prospects’ time and have a higher chance of getting their attention. But while most people prefer brevity, the quality and relevance of your emails are what truly capture and retain interest.
The message is clear for the 28% who don’t mind the length: When an email resonates well with their needs or interests, they’re willing to invest more time, regardless of word count. This segment of your audience is receptive to more in-depth content that speaks directly to their challenges.
How to determine the right email length
So, how do you strike the right balance between brevity and substance? The key is to start with understanding your audience. Segment your email list based on behaviors, preferences and past interactions. This segmentation allows you to tailor your messages more precisely. Also, you probably send different types of emails. That aspect alone should guide your approach:
Newsletters can be longer and cover several pieces of information in more depth.
Drip campaigns can consist of a series of emails that gently push your prospects closer to a purchase. Those emails can be short — sometimes, a few lines followed by a call-to-action (CTA) is enough.
Targeted campaigns, such as a discount or free offer, can have an engaging image paired with a couple of sentences and a catchy CTA button.
If you’re still unsure whether your email is too long, here are a few tips to save you time and make things easier.
Start with a clear goal
Every email should have a clear purpose. Whether it’s to inform, increase engagement or drive sales, your goal will dictate the necessary length. Don’t add fluff just to extend an email; keep it as long as necessary to fulfill its purpose.
Choose simplicity and clarity
Use simple language and clear CTAs. Marketing emails rarely benefit from any metaphors. Your email should guide readers smoothly from the opening line to the desired action without unnecessary detours.
Personalize to the last detail
Use what you know about your customers to tailor your emails. When marketing emails feel personal, people care more about the message and less about the length.
Test and adjust to what your audience likes
Studies can point you in the right direction in terms of consumer preferences, but only you can determine what your audience responds to the most. Before sending your next email, consider A/B testing different lengths. Then, analyze your metrics to see what performed best.
Improve your layout
Sometimes, the way information is presented can affect how we perceive the length of an email. Breaking text with relevant images or using bullet points can make longer emails appear more digestible and engaging.
Asking for opinions shows you care about serving your audience better, so why not include a poll in your next newsletter? Allow your subscribers to tell you how long they’d like your emails to be. Nothing beats direct customer feedback in helping you create more effective campaigns.
Bonus tips to increase email engagement
Here are a few extra tips to help your next emails get more clicks:
Try to keep your subject lines between 30 and 50 characters. Not only will your subscribers process them faster, but keeping your subject lines short ensures they display well on all devices.
Check your email list health to avoid bounces and the likelihood of landing in the spam folder.
Also, remember your goal is to connect with your audience genuinely, no matter how many words it takes to get there. If your email ends up longer than you’d planned but addresses a topic many of your subscribers care about, don’t worry. Engaging content can often justify a longer read.
Well then, let’s first assume you’re already using your email list. That’s good, because your email subscribers are likely to be your most reliable listeners.
But that doesn’t mean they’re actually opening all your emails.
Which is why it’s important to take your subject lines and social captions up a notch when you have new music to promote.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
By next year, people around the world will send and receive 376 billion emails every day. Inboxes are jam-packed, so capturing your customers’ attention is only getting harder. Want to stand out and get more clicks? Stop obsessing about your subject lines. Instead, focus on email relevance and quality.
A ZeroBounce report suggests that 47% of people open a brand email not because of the subject line but because they always get relevant messages from that brand. Subject lines come second in enticing someone to open an email, the report shows, based on a survey of American and European email users.
So, how can you make your emails better, deliver constant value and boost your metrics? Here are eight habits to adopt today.
1. Make sure people recognize you
Since email open rates often hinge on trust in the sender, you must be instantly recognizable in people’s inboxes. Make sure your “From” name is consistent across all the different types of marketing emails you send. For instance, if your sales team contacts prospects, their “From” name should reflect your brand, such as “Paul from Entrepreneur” instead of “Paul Jones.”
The value your emails deliver carries the most weight, but it will only make an impact if you send those emails regularly. To determine your sending schedule, be realistic: How many emails can you commit to? If all you can send is one newsletter a month, that’s fine — as long as you show up in the inbox like clockwork.
3. Segment your email list
Sending the same email to all your subscribers is unlikely to drive engagement. Your customers are in various stages in their journey with your business. Some may be new sign-ups yet to make a purchase, while others are regular customers. Use filters to create separate groups and reach out with emails that make sense to each segment.
4. Personalize each message
Segmenting your email list is the first step to email personalization. But if you want to build further trust in your brand, make every subscriber feel as if you wrote that email just for them. Address their pain points and provide easy ways to alleviate them. Offer fresh ideas and content that caters directly to their needs. This approach fosters a deeper, instant connection.
5. Listen to your audience
Want to improve your email content overnight and increase engagement? Dive into your customer support tickets, social media channels and industry forums to find out exactly what people are discussing. If you host webinars, save all the questions people ask in the chat. Gather all this info in a document, and you’ll have a steady stream of relevant topics in your emails.
28% of the email users ZeroBounce surveyed said the length of an email doesn’t matter as long as that email is tailored to them. Once again, we see how important segmentation and personalization are. However, 66% stated they prefer short emails, so if you can make your emails both relevant and short, you’ll get higher open rates. Bonus: you’ll probably spend less time on your email marketing.
7. Infuse warmth into your tone
Before you send your next email, take a moment to read it out loud. Ask yourself, does it sound like a conversation you’d have with your customers in person? Corporate jargon can be a communication barrier. Consider toning it down and infusing your emails with more warmth and personality. In the age of AI, sounding more human helps you stand out.
8. Make unsubscribing easy
Allowing subscribers to leave your email list easily isn’t just sensible; it’s also a critical email deliverability rule. Recent sending requirements from Google and Yahoo emphasize that people should be able to unsubscribe from emails with just one click. Consult with your email marketing platform and test your unsubscribe process. If you don’t follow this rule, you may see a spike in spam complaints, which can relegate your emails to the spam folder.
Bonus tips: ensure your emails arrive in the inbox
Adopting the good habits above will give you a boost in clicks, but imagine putting all this effort into your emails only for them to land in spam. To help them go to the inbox, remember to:
Remove invalid contacts and avoid bounces – your bounce rate should never exceed 2%.
Authenticate your emails to comply with Google and Yahoo‘s requirements.
To prevent spam complaints, avoid emailing people who haven’t given you permission.
Finally, sending emails from a reliable platform is critical to your email deliverability. Choose a trustworthy company and get expert advice if you suspect your emails aren’t landing in the inbox.
If the answer to all three questions is yes, let me congratulate you; you’re obviously nurturing your list and turning fans into repeat customers on a regular basis. In other words, email is a pillar of your profitability.
If you’re NOT one of those artists yet, I have some bad news and some good news for you.
The good news involves you actually SAVING money while achieving better results whenever you email fans. But before we get to that, here’s the problem…
If you answered no to the questions above then the bad news may be obvious: You’re not driving enough revenue through your email efforts to justify the cost of a service like Mailchimp, Drip, or ConvertKit.
Don’t feel TOO bad. Most musicians aren’t.
You may be overpaying for your email tools because:
You don’t schedule your emails
You don’t automate emails (beyond a welcome message)
You don’t create email sequences
You don’t make enough sales offers
You don’t prioritize growing your email list at gigs
You don’t have an undeniable online lead-magnet to grow your list
You don’t segment your list by region, sales history, or interests
Or you don’t … send emails at all
Even in the age of TikTok and Spotify, email is still one of the most reliable ways to drive results for your music. Whether that be boosting streams, video views, or merch and ticket sales.
And yet so many artists underutilize their email lists. And here I’m not even talking about making use of advanced automation, sequencing, and segmentation features.
Sure, you probably SHOULD get around to doing that stuff at some point to maximize the potential of your list. But let’s be real; most artists suffer from a more foundational problem.
Musicians. Just. Don’t. Send. Enough. Email.
Let’s do a little exercise.
Think of a marketing list that you’re on. Some brand, shop, or artist who messages you multiple times a week, yet you’re still content to be on their list. Whether you open every email or not. You’re never offended by the frequency of their emails because you like the personality. You’re interested in the products. You dig the vibe.
Well, your fans probably like your personality and dig your vibe, too. So why are you only emailing them once a month, or twice a year, or… whenever you finally get around to releasing your next album??
It’s NOT an imposition to communicate with your audience more frequently. And it’s not an imposition to ask them to take a specific action: purchase merch, leave a comment, etc.
If the fan remains on your list, they expect to hear from you. If they unsubscribe, they weren’t going to stream your album or buy your vinyl anyway.
So forget fancy email features. Your biggest problem may be the simplest one to solve. Just SEND emails.
And if you can solve that problem, I want to show you how you may be able to cancel your monthly Mailchimp or Drip subscription, and get the same or better email results through Fan Reach, an email feature included with ReverbNation membership — which, depending on your membership tier, is FREE, $12.95/month, or $19.95/month.
Meaning even ReverbNation’s Premium membership is likely less expensive than your monthly email bill. PLUS ReverbNation membership includes plenty of other things besides email that you’ll need to succeed:
global music distribution
promo tools
industry access to pitch your music for radio plays, playlist placement, label deals, festival slots, vinyl pressing, mixing and mastering mentorship, and much more
Let me set some realistic expectations though. Fan Reach does NOT have ALL the advanced email features you’ll find when you use expensive platforms like Mailchimp and Drip.
It’s designed for simplicity.
Fan Reach makes it quick and easy to build your list, and email the right segments of your audience. And as you’ll see below, that may be more than enough to find better results from your email marketing.
The three reasons most email marketing platforms are prohibitively expensive for the average artist
1. The more you use it, the more you pay
The reality is, you don’t need fancy automation and granular segmentation features to simply break bad habits and send more emails.
But with many email tools, the more emails you send, the higher your monthly costs.
That’s not the case with ReverbNation’s Fan Reach.
2. The bigger your list, the more you pay (whether you email them or not)
Another big issue with almost all email platforms? The more people you add to your list, the higher your monthly costs, whether you get around to emailing them or not.
You’re paying just to KEEP people on a list you probably underutilize. Talk about being punished for success.
Again, this isn’t the case with Fan Reach, where you can build your list in a more worry-free way. With a free ReverbNation membership, you can have 500 fans on your list. At the Basic tier, you can have 1000. And, for just a few more dollars a month, you can upgrade to the Premium level, which supports up to 50,000 fans on your email list, AND includes robust music distribution, unprecedented industry access, and promotion tools.
All for less than the price you might be paying to another platform JUST for email.
3. The more features, the more you pay (even if you don’t use ‘em)
Who cares if you’re allowed to have twenty different automated email sequences running if you’ve never even gotten around to launching the first one!
Many email platform tiers are priced as if you’re some enterprise brand with a huge team and endless needs. But more likely, you’re an artist, or a band, with a single list of fans. Plus the need to just write them simple messages once in a while, speak to them like an individual, and then ask them to do something.
You can do that with Fan Reach. No frills. No extra bells and whistles that you’ll never use anyways. Just real-time email messaging to your audience whenever you have news to announce, stories to share, music to launch, or products to sell. And the ability to target that email to the right people based on location, recency, and audience type.
And this gets me to the main point I want to make. That you CAN be MORE successful in driving results from email when you strip away the more intimidating, advanced features.
With email marketing, musicians can do MORE with LESS
That may sound ridiculous to marketing pundits. But here’s why I think there’s merit to the claim: Marketing experts give advice that is designed for the best-case scenario. It’s not grounded in reality.
They’re often addressing a hypothetical entrepreneur with lots of time to build and tinker. Sufficient budget to test products and craft messages. The expertise to tie all the digital components together. The willingness to study results and modify strategies accordingly. They’re addressing someone who view themselves as a business first, with the purpose of selling a product.
Does that sound like you? While you’re driving between gigs, spending hours to shoot a 15-second TikTok, trying to figure out how to sidechain vocal compression on your next home recording, changing the strings on your guitar?
If you’ve read this far, it’s probably NOT you — which is why you’re looking for a simpler and more affordable solution. You are an artist first, and to the degree that involves marketing your artistic products, well, you also have competing responsibilities… to tour, to make new songs, and so forth.
That’s why for a typical independent musician, email is usually an afterthought, something you think to use when there’s obvious news. And besides that it goes neglected. I’ll reiterate that there’s no sense in paying tons of money out-of-pocket month after month for a tool you underutilize.
Streamlining your music marketing with email
But I’ll go a step further. I think that when you strip away the intimidating features (automations and sequences, endless tagging and segmentation, designing an email campaign from scratch), you’re left with something much more intuitive and usable. All you REALLY need, if we’re being realistic, is a way to capture fans’ contact info, automatically deliver a welcome message, have a simple text box to occasionally write your fans, the ability to add a link, photo, or button, and hit send.
Enter Fan Reach! The real-time, streamlined email marketing tool for musicians that is already included in your ReverbNation membership, along with all the things I mentioned above: global music distribution, unlimited pitching for playlists, festivals, label deals, radio spins, vinyl pressing, mixing and mastering mentorship, and much more.
You can literally build and send emails in 2 minutes.
Just select what you want to talk about from the dropdown menu, and Fan Builder will automatically pull that song, album, video, or event into the email.
If you prefer to create a message from scratch, just select “Update to Fans.”
Then write your email.
Add any pics or links, if needed.
If you want to have a special design for your email, you can instantly choose from a list of templates.
Want further customization?
You’ve got it…
Want intuitive and instant list segmentation and email targeting?
You’ve got it!
Select which types of people from your audience you want to contact:
Fans
Artists / Musicians
Labels
Venues
Promoters
Target your message based on location (or send it to everyone).
Choose whether you want to send it to newer subscribers (people added in the last 30 days), or everyone.
Then send it!
And yes, you can send a test email to yourself to check that links are active and the design looks good.
It’s really that simple.
And the simplicity is exactly what makes me suspect you’ll get MORE out of Fan Reach than you will by spending $50 or $75 or $150 every month on a more “pro” email platform.
Because you’ll actually USE this tool more often.
The easier something is, the less time it takes overall, the more you’ll think to use it. Not just for the big news announcements (album launch, new video, etc.), but the little moments too. Those quick messages where it’s enough to snap a picture at a gig, or on tour, and just write a couple quick sentences.
The way people are inundated with media these days,you’ll have an easier time getting someone’s attention if you send them much shorter emails, but more often.
Plus, quick real-time engagement with your list can be more effective because it often feels more personal. Emails sharing what you’re up to in the moment, or what you’re most excited about right now, are more natural to write. They’re easier to compose. And easier to send.
That’s why Fan Reach is perfect for sharing:
A single, album, or video (with automatically embedded play button)
Event details
A story from the road
Fun moments from your studio
The meaning of your song lyrics
A pic, link, recommendation, playlist, or social post
A merch offer
And anything else you can think of
Fan Reach is a foundational email list management and messaging tools to artists, and it’s already bundled into ReverbNation membership. You can easily import lists from other email programs or signup sheets from your concerts.
You can also capture contact info from your website visitors using our HTML 5 widget.
Want to build your list, nurture your relationship with fans, and boost your sales and streams?
Email is one of the most important marketing tools that musicians have. And email marketing doesn’t need to be complicated.
In fact, the easier it is, the more often you’ll communicate with your audience. Giving you more chances to connect, encourage streams, sell merch, and promote tours. Plus, the more you send emails, the better you’ll get at crafting effective messages.
And when it comes to email tools, don’t pay another service for something that comes included with ReverbNation!
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
A recent study says the average worker receives 304 business emails a week. The average employee checks their email 36 times an hour, and 80% of workers simply resort to working with their inbox open all the time. Thereafter, it takes them around 16 minutes to refocus.
We live in a world full of different ideas, people and businesses all vying for our attention. Nearly every app, website and company wants the same thing: your email address. This has turned our inboxes into a battleground between time-sensitive emails, valuable information and occasionally fun but useless messages.
For entrepreneurs, effective communication is vital to the success and livelihood of your business. Receiving a torrent of emails is the new normal. Trying to read each one might feel like trying to drink water out of a fire hose.
Productivity expert Merlin Mann saw this coming in 2006 when he coined the term “inbox zero.” Some have erroneously thought this to be advocacy for constantly checking and going through your emails every time you hear that distinctive ping. But according to Mann, the zero isn’t about reducing the number of emails in your inbox, but the amount of time your brain is in your inbox.
Let’s look at how to reduce the stress brought on by the near-constant onslaught of emails in our modern world.
1. Create a system
The goal of “inbox zero” is to increase productivity. There are few more deadly productivity killers than the practice of constantly checking and replying to emails all throughout the day.
An estimated 62% of all emails are unimportant. Therefore, increasing productivity is a matter of reducing the amount of time you spend sifting through the unimportant. Creating a system for how and when you view your emails is crucial.
Set specific times that you view emails. Perhaps once at 8 a.m., once again at noon and one more time at 4 p.m. You could even designate certain contacts as VIPs to ensure that you receive their critical email ping at whatever time of day it comes in.
As Stephen Covey wrote, “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”
No one knows better what your priorities are than you do. The average worker spends 28% of the workweek reading and responding to emails. As you peruse your emails at those designated times, take note of important emails that require your instant approval or sign-off, and those heftier emails that require thoughtful input and analysis. More on those later.
But then there are the emails scheduling meetings, sending promotional content or simply cc’ing you in. Either move them to another folder, delegate them to your secretary or just delete them. Make the firm decision. Differentiate between what deserves your attention and what is stealing it away. In that same vein, unsubscribing from useless newsletters can make a world of difference.
3. Defer
“It’s not enough to be busy; so are the ants,” says Henry David Thoreau. “The question is: What are we busy about?”
Effective communication boosts productivity. When emails have to consume your time, ensure that it’s worth it.
As we’ve already established, the majority of emails aren’t worth your time. Some are important but don’t need to take up much of your time. But there are a few that demand and deserve your attention. You can usually tell when you receive it. Instead of allowing that sinking feeling to settle and dominate your thinking all day, move them into a designated folder for your most important emails. Reply to them when you can dedicate the mental bandwidth they desire and deserve.
And remember what Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “What is important is seldom urgent, and what is urgent is seldom important.”
I’ve alluded to this already, but here it is plainly: Many newsletters and subscriptions are a waste of time. It’ll take a while initially to achieve it, but going through your inbox and unsubscribing from useless newsletters will go a long way in decluttering your inbox.
One useful way of ensuring that your important mailbox remains unsullied would be to create a spam email address to ensure that all your spur-of-the-moment sign-up emails are redirected to an unimportant email address. An estimated 245 billion emails are sent every day. Make sure you only have to deal with the important ones.
5. Be flexible
“Inbox Zero” is about reducing mental clutter and stress to increase productivity. But only you know what optimum productivity looks like in relation to your business. If the quest to declutter becomes a drain on productivity, then it’s just as bad as a packed mailbox.
Don’t obsess over the minutiae. Instead, create good habits that allow you to be flexible. Create your own schedule, set of labels, criteria for delegation and deletion, and inbox management system that allows you to focus on productivity, eliminate pressure and a false sense of urgency. Set goals for yourself and for your business.
Follow these five tips, and you’ll be well on your way to focusing on the most high-priority tasks, staying organized and managing your mail efficiently. And most importantly, you’ll reduce the amount of time your brain is in your inbox so it can be on other, more important things.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Marketing teams at mature companies aren’t usually tasked to reinvent the wheel. They’re not responsible for driving triple-digit year-over-year growth. They’ve already introduced major initiatives and hired internally and/or found partners to help run them.
This might sound cushy to marketers used to high-growth and startup land. But with most of the fundamental work covered, if not fully optimized, a marketing team’s success comes down to advanced factors like tech integration, analytics, channel expansion and brand marketing.
For those at a mature company (or planning to develop yours into one), I’ll lay out:
If you’ve been in marketing for any length of time, I’m sure you’ve seen this John Wanamaker quote: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” That’s been true for decades past the point Wanamaker first said it, but it doesn’t have to be true today, especially for companies with the resources to do intelligent analysis of their marketing campaigns.
There are a number of areas where I see advertisers spending in 2023 that provide little to no return – and corresponding initiatives that could transform advertising performance.
More governance on programmatic placements. A recent report showing that 17% of programmatic clicks in Q2 2023 were fraudulent, even for the biggest advertisers, should be a huge red flag for brands running programmatic campaigns without insight into and control of placements. I’m not talking about mom-and-pop placements, either – in case you haven’t heard, YouTube’s placement practices are under hefty fire lately.
Assessing marginal return and incrementality. Whether overspending in primary channels without testing new ones or paying to engage audiences who would convert otherwise, even marketers at top brands generally waste tons of spending in a few under-analyzed areas.
Moving up the funnel. With all the tools available in 2023, it continues to amaze me how many smart advertisers turn up their noses at upper-funnel campaigns. Yes, the bottom of the funnel has more measurable return. Still, that gap is shrinking as platforms like Meta introduce native lift tests and branding measurement tools, and martech, like predictive analytics and media mix modeling, gets more accessible. The upper funnel helps advertisers reach net-new audiences less expensively, and it’s easier than it’s ever been to track the downstream effects of those campaigns. For instance, if you’re a Fortune 100 brand, don’t just run a Super Bowl ad and consider that branding box checked; take more precise aim with digital campaigns and start the customer journey with millions of potentially high-LTV new users.
Marketing skills mature companies must prioritize
More and more, I’m seeing premium value in analytics and creative talent (good luck finding that in one person). On the analytics side, marketing teams for mature brands should prioritize finding resources to do incrementality testing, conduct lift tests and cohort analyses, and get into the weeds of media mix modeling and predictive analytics to build action plans for engaging more high-LTV customers. This skill set transcends channels and should be able to spot opportunities to improve your campaigns across your entire marketing landscape.
On the creative side, branding messaging, positioning, and visuals across a range of media can spin gold from upper-funnel initiatives, particularly as you dial in the combinations that work for different audiences that should cascade down the funnel. To do this well, you’ll need both great ideas and the mechanics to scale the delivery of those ideas across ad channels and media formats.
Tech: to build or buy?
In big marketing organizations spending a lot on martech tools, it’s pretty common for someone in upper management to wonder, out loud, whether it might be cheaper in the long run to build the necessary technology in-house. In theory, this has the benefit of being custom-built exactly to fit the brand’s needs, not built for the masses with a bunch of extra features you’ll pay for but never use.
I’m an entrepreneur at heart, and I’ve gone down that road for my agency – and what I’ve learned is that in most cases, it’s smarter to buy from the experts than it is to build something yourself. Why? Well, if you use your existing team to build something, you’re asking them to do something they weren’t hired to do and may not be qualified to do. And if you hire someone else to build it, you might as well buy an established, vetted tool that already exists rather than pay someone to make something that may or may not work as well.
Long story short: let the experts build the tech.
What’s next
A marketer’s job is never done. Fending off challengers and keeping on top of the latest industry developments and releases is a good chunk of work, even for companies at the very top of their industry. (Imagine being Nike’s CMO and ignoring TikTok, for instance.) But beyond that, there are real efficiencies and growth advantages to be gained by being on the ball with your analytics, creative, and holistic positioning. A team that can carve out a competitive edge in those areas will very rarely lose market share – and may just gain enough to earn promotions across the board.
While sending email newsletters and campaigns isn’t brain surgery, it’s easy for bad habits to slip through the back door. Here are 11 common email marketing mistakes — beware of them so that you reap the full rewards of email.
1. Not segmenting the prospective audience
The most effective strategy to boost email results is email list segmentation. This is according to 78% of marketers. It makes sense if you think about your own inbox: Aren’t you more likely to engage with an email that feels written just for you? Before sending another email, analyze customer data and use filters such as location, gender and shopping habits to segment the prospective audience.
2. Not testing emails
Hitting send on an email without testing it is like buying an expensive garment without trying it on — so many things can go wrong. An image may not load correctly, one of the links may be broken, and many other possible pitfalls. Few things are worse than knowing that an avoidable mistake was made. Test every email with your team to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.
Inconsistency is one of the biggest reasons people fail at anything, not just email. There are plenty of stories out there of other business owners who make great money with their emails, but here’s a key point: They show up in their customers’ inboxes regularly. Email takes time to work, so have discipline about creating a consistent schedule. It’s the only way to build engagement.
4. Bombarding people with emails
Emailing that list consistently is vital to building rapport, but consistency shouldn’t be three times per day. Prospects clearly want to hear from a business when they share their email address. However, be mindful of their time and the space that you are taking up in their inboxes. Some emails are daily by design, but never send more than one email per day.
5. Using an old email list
Holding on to customer email addresses from years ago is understandable — growing an email list is challenging. However, email data decays at an average pace of 23% annually, so you must reassess the health of your list regularly. Keeping addresses people stopped checking months — or even years — ago affects your performance.
6. Not removing invalid emails
Many entrepreneurs have no idea that bounces affect their entire email marketing campaign. When more than 2% of emails bounce back, your organization begins to look like a spammer to inbox providers. Due to this, your emails will go to spam as a result. Avoid that by validating your database quarterly. If it grows quickly, verify it more often to help your emails get to the inbox.
7. Ignoring spam complaints
Has someone reported your email as spam? Remove that person from your list immediately — they clearly don’t want to hear from you. Chances are high that if you email them again, you’ll get another complaint. That can have a dramatic impact on your email deliverability. To stay in the good graces of inbox providers, ensure that your spam complaint rate stays under 0.01%.
Writing an email to your list is exciting, right? The inbox is a great place to connect with your prospects. However, you’re not the only company popping into someone’s inbox asking for attention. Be mindful of how many words you use and convey your thoughts succinctly. For in-depth topics, write a short blurb and link to an article instead.
9. An intimidating layout
Let’s say that your newsletter is longer than typical marketing emails. That’s alright as long as it’s engaging. Aside from making every line count, also try to lay out your content in a way that’s easy to digest. Use spacing and images to break up big chunks of text and make longer emails less intimidating.
10. Not including preview text
Sometimes it’s not the headline that gets someone to click on an article — it’s the subheading. The same goes for email. If your subject line isn’t enticing enough to make people click, the preview text can make an email irresistible. Add that bit of copy to every email and also test emojis in your preheader text to see how it affects your engagement rate.
Getting a reply from one of your subscribers is email marketing gold. Whether they’re writing back to share feedback or ask a question, it shows they care and want to further communicate with you. What’s more, replies are good for email deliverability as inbox providers see them as a sign of trust. Ensure you respond to all emails. Ignoring a message from a customer has ripple effects on your brand.
If you’re guilty of these email marketing mistakes, know that you’re not alone. I run an email optimization platform, and my team and I have had some email blunders, too. We’ve learned from them and started seeing better results through the years. You’ll experience that as well when you pay attention to these details and fix errors before they can cause damage.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
With 25 years of marketing experience under my heels, I can tell within minutes of observation what a business is doing right with its marketing and what they are doing wrong.
Most often, it’s simply the lack of a results-based marketing strategy. A marketing strategy is a plan of action designed to promote and sell a product or service. But often, companies I observe have no plan whatsoever — and worse, they aren’t tracking where their leads are coming from.
You need to craft a unique marketing strategy for your company that meets your specific needs and goals. To identify whether or not you need to rethink your current marketing plans, I have laid out 10 things you’re doing right now that show it’s time for change.
If you keep your messaging broad to appeal to everyone, it’s likely you’re failing to stand out with anyone. Instead, identify your ideal customer and appeal to them specifically.
Consider your best current customers and what they have in common. Do they share certain demographics or a specific reason for choosing you over the competition? You can always survey them and ask! The more information you have — and the narrower you can get your market — the better. Go niche to get the most out of your marketing, then slowly expand as you grow and get the hang of it.
2. Your message is the same as your competition
What makes your company different from the rest in your industry? If your branding, messaging and style look similar to your competitors, prospects won’t be able to differentiate you on anything other than price point.
You need a unique selling proposition that sets you apart from everyone else. Why should a prospect choose you over others who offer similar services or products?
Also, keep in mind that your unique selling proposition should be specific. Avoid anything too vague, like saying you have the “best product” or “best customer service” — something everyone claims.
3. You feel forced to lower prices to attract buyers
Are you lowering prices as a last resort to close customers? Consider how you can add more value to your products or services.
How does your business make their lives easier, save them time or achieve their goals? What can you do to make your brand worth the higher price point? Once you have discovered how to add value to your product or service, communicate it clearly to your audience.
4. You spend a lot of money on marketing but have no idea what’s working
Differentiating your marketing channels is always a great idea, however, neglecting to track the performance of all those channels — and which channels lead to the most sales — is problematic. You’ll end up wasting money and resources if you have no idea what is driving revenue.
The first step is to ensure you have a system for asking every new lead how they heard about you. At my company, PostcardMania, we ask every lead more than once — we ask on our website when someone fills out a form, via our live chat operators, and everyone who is a first-time caller. Don’t be afraid to drill this into your staff too, if you have to. We’re human, and we mean well, but we get easily distracted.
Once you understand where your leads and sales are coming from, you can analyze other must-track marketing metrics.
5. Your branding looks inconsistent
Although it can be daunting to update all of your marketing collateral every time you update your website or logo, it’s crucial that your messaging, logo and imagery match. Even your print ads should look like your Facebook ads.
You have a split-second to make an impression on prospects, and if your impressions aren’t cohesive, they aren’t going to help build awareness for your brand, and you’ve basically wasted your money. So, just remember: cohesive = consistency.
Retaining customers should be easier than reeling in new ones. Look at your sales funnel for returning customers, and see where you can trigger them to return, such as sending out emails, postcards using a current customer list and even Instagram ads.
You can also start a loyalty program that rewards customers for regular purchases. Discounts and other offers included in advertisements are also great ways to get people to come back to your website and browse for additional products and services.
7. You have a small online footprint
Believe it or not, there are businesses that still don’t have a website in 2023. If that’s you, get on it ASAP. Your business needs to be trustworthy, so if you have virtually no online presence, that’s going to set off alarm bells for prospects.
If a website isn’t in the cards for you right now, at least get your business on Facebook, Instagram and Google My Business. Build up your profiles there by posting regularly. It’s important that prospects feel like you’re a legitimate business and they have an outlet for recourse (like a place to leave a review) if things don’t work out.
I also suggest offering your services pro bono to a few friends and family at first, to help get you set up with a few good reviews right off the bat.
8. You ignore or don’t solicit feedback
Feedback can come from a variety of different places. As I mentioned, tracking your results and regularly reviewing your analytics will communicate what’s working and what isn’t. Certain key performance indicators like website traffic, phone calls, conversion rates and retention rates will help you get a health check on your marketing.
You also get feedback from word of mouth, Google reviews, in-person conversations and more. Some of this feedback can be prompted, and some of it will come to you naturally. You may have noticed that bad feedback makes itself known more readily than good, so be sure to be proactive about finding the good. I use Podium to manage my online reviews and require that all of our account managers personally ask clients to leave a review after service. With this feedback, I can correct any errors that we may have made, improve my business and also reward staff for rock-star performance.
9. You are missing out on referrals
Imagine if every new customer — or even every other new customer — automatically became two. That would be an immediate 50-100% bump in sales! That’s the power of referrals.
Research shows that 94% of customers will recommend a company they rate as “very good,” so the possibility of referrals is out there … you just have to be willing to go get them. A great way to do that is with a customer referral program that offers something — like a discount, a free item or the possibility of winning a prize like an iPad — to current customers for every referral they send your way.
Just be sure to market your referral program to new customers through email, direct mail, regular newsletters and any other methods you use to stay in touch with clients.
If you aren’t seeing any growth in your sales, it’s time to shake things up in your marketing. Try mailing postcards to prospects who visit your website and leave without converting. It’s a new technology called direct mail automation, and it can make a huge difference in converting leads that might’ve otherwise been lost. I may be biased since I sell postcards, but I also used them to build PostcardMania to a $97 million business. Direct mail works because it’s trustworthy. In fact, neurological research also shows that mail makes a deeper, more lasting impression on people.
Lastly, my best piece of advice to stir up more sales is to increase your marketing. Whatever you are doing, it isn’t enough to change your business’s trajectory. The amount of money you put into your marketing will reflect the return. The greater the investment, the bigger the results.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
In less than two decades, social media has transformed how people communicate. Social media platforms have also dramatically altered how brands reach potential customers and build long-term relationships.
Social media enabled brands to break down barriers and reach their audiences directly. As a consequence of making it easier for companies to reach audiences, more businesses are leveraging social media for growth. Effective social media branding can help companies stand out in busy marketplaces and strengthen their brand identity simultaneously.
Social media platforms may have started as a way for individuals to connect. But as millions and now billions of people have joined them, they have also become powerful marketing tools. The latest statistics at the time of writing showed that more than four and a quarter billion people globally used social media at least once a month.
While that figure is impressive, the power of social media is not limited to user numbers. According to industry experts, nine out of ten people buy from brands they follow on social media platforms. There is no doubt about the strong connection between an engaging social media presence and conversions. Social media platforms are powerful tools to help build brands.
Social media branding combines the strengths of two cornerstone elements of successful marketing strategies — branding and social media marketing. To deliver transformative results for a business, social media branding strategies must do more than add a logo to a post.
Brand teams must integrate the brand’s unique value proposition with its look, voice and feel to craft memorable messages. Some of the most captivating social media branding is focused on encouraging interaction and engagement between a brand and its audiences.
Using social media branding to build brand awareness and reach
Through social media platforms, brands have an unparalleled opportunity to extend their reach beyond their existing audiences. By developing captivating content, companies encourage their existing audiences, or followers, to share it with others. Without additional effort on the side of the business, the audience grows.
Hashtags are another excellent way of reaching new audiences interested in a topic the brand is discussing. As non-followers pick up your company’s content and share it, there is an opportunity for it to go viral and be seen by thousands or even millions of social media users who may otherwise never have known about your company.
Establishing brand identity and differentiation through social media branding
Building awareness and reach are only two components of successful social media branding. As social media use grows, more brands use these platforms for their marketing, and it is becoming increasingly more challenging to stand out from competitors.
Social media branding allows companies to show their audiences what differentiates them from their competitors. Few other channels offer the same level of choice of communication, what to talk about and how to interact with their audience without a barrier. This is why social media platforms are such powerful tools for sharing value propositions and clarifying how brands are different.
Engaging and connecting with target audiences
Connecting with audiences has been somewhat of a side note throughout this article. However, connecting and engaging directly with an audience is perhaps the greatest strength of social media channels.
This immediacy allows brands to listen to feedback from their audience, respond to it directly and build stronger relationships. At the same time, brands can show their personality more easily than on other channels. For example, Taco Bell’s social media content and interactions have a distinct funny and sarcastic tone to them.
But brands can also showcase their values to their customers as Starbucks does with its community-focused Facebook content. One of the keys to maximizing the impact of social media branding is consistency in both verbal and visual messaging to reinforce the brand’s identity.
The next step in building engagement is utilizing user-generated content. For example, by sharing a genuine product review, brands can highlight their unique value propositions through a third-party endorsement. User-generated content is a powerful tactic to build audience trust.
Influencing consumer perception and trust
Consistent social media branding, especially user-generated content, consumer reviews and testimonials, can influence and change consumers’ brand perception. Today, many consumers are skeptical of companies’ statements in their marketing campaigns.
Content that has been created by a product’s or service’s users automatically benefits from greater credibility and helps build trust between the brand and the audience. Brands can reinforce that trust by ensuring their messages resonate with users’ content.
Driving website traffic and conversions
Aside from allowing brands and consumers to connect directly, another strength of social media platforms is driving website traffic and conversions.
Social media posts are an excellent tool to introduce a topic and entice the audience to visit a website and learn more. Clear calls-to-action are imperative to encourage users to click on a link. Without them, it is too easy for content to get lost among competing messages.
Without measuring the impact of different social media branding activities, brand teams cannot know which campaigns have been successful and which need refinement.
Tracking critical metrics like views, reach and conversions is essential. To make analytics even more meaningful, companies can analyze the sentiment underlying reactions and adjust the effectiveness of their activity. Most social media platforms continue to develop more sophisticated metrics and tools to help brands in their journey.
Social media branding combines the reach of social media platforms with the impact of carefully crafted brand messages. Together, these two can help companies build highly effective marketing campaigns. Increased brand awareness, brand trust and audience engagement all drive business growth for years to come.
Who would have ever thought that cheese boards could earn you $1 million?
But that’s exactly what happened to Monisha Mirsa, whogrew her side hustle charcuterie board business, BoardsbyMo, to $1 million in revenue in just three years. Mirsa now runs the business full-time with a team of 7 employees.
She recently appeared on my podcast The Side Hustle Show, part of the Entrepreneur Podcast Network, to tell her extraordinary story.
Photo courtesy of BoardsbyMo
Filling a need during the pandemic
When the quarantine orders were put in place in Boston during the beginning of the pandemic, Mirsa started going a little “stir crazy” at home working for a software company.
She had a lot of friends and family who were essential employees and healthcare workers. Seeing her friends working so hard gave her the idea to prepare some snack platters or home-cooked meals for them. Mirsa started dropping these off at hospitals around Boston for free.
But some of the staff she gave platters to asking if they could buy some. That “planted a little seed,” Mirsa said. She didn’t see this becoming a full-time job though, as she assumed she’d be going back to work in the near future.
A month later a friend reached out and asked if Mirsa would make a cheeseboard for her mom for Mother’s Day. She insisted on paying and also insisted that Mirsa start an Instagram account and think about turning this into a business. On May 5th, 2020, Mirs started her Instagram account, and on May 10th, she had her first order.
“It was never supposed to happen, I just kept thinking this is cool,” Monisha said.
After Mirsa started her Instagram account, she posted what she called, “almost like a fake promotion”, which read:
$40 date night board gets delivered to your doorstep, mix of cheese, charcuterie, fruit, nuts, jams, 2 days only, DM me to reserve yours now!
She admits she had no idea what she was doing. Two hours later she had more than 20 DMs from complete strangers asking for one of these boards to be delivered.
Mirsa said she was being found because she was tagging Boston food bloggers and using hashtags that promoted her boards. In that first year, she grew her account to around 20,000 followers.
Building a Website
Mirsa wanted her own platform where people could place orders and learn more about her business, so she built her site, BoardsByMo.com, on the eCommerce platform Shopify and integrated HubSpot so her orders flowed through.
Starting workshops
Mirsa also offered virtual charcuterie board-building workshops as corporate team-building exercises on Zoom. Given the inbound interest, Mirsa began teaching other aspiring charcuterie entrepreneurs how to start their own businesses.
After consistently hitting her monthly revenue goals for 6 straight months, Mirsa gained the confidence to leave her stable 9-to-5 job and devote herself entirely to her passion.
You can hear my interview with her about that decision and what happened next here.
Since making the jump and committing to BoardsbyMo, she has seen her Instagram following grow to around 120,000+ followers, 6 times what it was when she was working her office job.
While quitting was nerve-wracking for Mirsa, she set a target revenue that made her comfortable stepping away from the reliability of a steady paycheck.
“It was definitely one of the scariest things I think I’ve ever done,” she said. But by focusing on her revenue goals and passion for charcuterie, she took the plunge into full-time entrepreneurship.
Tapping into B2B opportunities
Mirsa has since expanded her marketing to platforms like LinkedIn. With corporate catering now being a huge part of her business, she uses LinkedIn to target prospects planning large conferences, meetings, and events.
She tries to keep it organic—posting about successes but also being open about challenges.
Leveraging Email marketing strategies
Mirsa’s email newsletters highlight upcoming events like public workshops, special deals, and new product launches.
She considers email marketing critical. “I have a fear that one day all these social media platforms are just going to go away,” she said. Email allows her to stay in touch with her audience.
To drive newsletter signups, Monisha positions BoardsbyMo as a thought leader in charcuterie—offering tips, tricks, and expertise. This provides more value beyond just promoting products.
“It just shows people here’s another local business that you can support and that you can frequent and purchase from later on,“ she said.
The co-marketing workshops are free exposure events for both businesses involved. Mirsa and her partner coordinate marketing emails to promote the workshop and bring in new audiences.
Diversifying revenue streams
In terms of revenue streams, catering corporate events is now Mirsa’s biggest moneymaker.
“It’s easier to book when people are spending company budgets rather than their own money,” she said.
Workshops are another major stream, including public collaborative workshops and private team-building events.
Drawing on her software sales background, Mirsa created a small business strategy workshop that quickly gained popularity, even being used by Harvard Business School. She fills a gap by helping creative founders sell their passion projects.
She offers charcuterie board workshops and classes through her business. The workshops are available as online courses on Teachable.
The main course is her sales and marketing strategy workshop, which costs $400 individually or $900 as part of a bundle with other courses. It includes pre-recorded videos and a downloadable workbook.
The secret to her success
Asked why her charcuterie business has stood out amongst the many similar cheese plate influencers that popped up in recent years, Mirsa believes the aesthetically pleasing nature of charcuterie boards gives her an automatic advantage on visual platforms like Instagram.
But she says she started adding more behind-the-scenes, day-in-the-life type of content, showing the “not sexy” parts of running her business. She’ll bring followers into the kitchen, cutting huge wheels of cheese for hours, with salami in her hair.
This depicts “a more organic and realistic depiction of what it’s like to be a small business owner,” she said.
But monetizing your email list takes time, so if you’re not there yet, it doesn’t mean that your email marketing isn’t working. You may just need to get a bit more creative and test some new tactics.
Here are a few ideas you can implement easily, with results guaranteed.
Focus on the health of your email list instead of its size
The more subscribers I have, the more sales I’ll make, right?Many business owners think this way and, to an extent, it’s true. A larger audience allows for higher conversion rates, but this principle is null if your audience isn’t genuine.
On average, 23% of an email list churns annually. While you’re making efforts to gain new subscribers, your existing contacts are degrading. Data decay is natural, but that doesn’t mean you can’t counteract it. Once a quarter, run your list through an email checker to ensure you’re weeding out obsolete addresses. Also, to avoid poor-quality and invalid sign-ups, consider checking all your contacts before adding them to your list. You can do that by using a real-time email verifier and avoid bounces.
Bounces taint your sender reputation and bring down your email deliverability. So, if you want to monetize your email list, make it a rule to check its validity periodically and remove bounces and subpar data. That allows you to get your emails into the inbox and form a real connection with your audience.
Your prospects and customers are probably getting more emails than they can read. What will make them click and open yours?
To answer this question, look in your own inbox and ask yourself what stands out — and why. Chances are the emails that get your attention are tailored specifically to you. Your favorite grocery store may be sharing its weekly deals, featuring the products you purchase most often. Or perhaps you’ve just subscribed to Entrepreneur and you got an email highlighting content you care about.
Segmenting your email list and personalizing every message should be a priority when trying to engage and monetize your audience. To better understand what your subscribers want from you, consider gathering more data via your sign-up forms. An astounding 77% of consumers are willing to share personal information with brands so they can get a personalized experience.
Build familiarity so you can stay top of mind
Launching an email marketing program is exciting. You have a million ideas and can’t wait to see them come to life. But for many business owners, this initial enthusiasm starts to dwindle if results don’t happen immediately.
However, email marketing takes time and consistency to work. You must send emails regularly and nurture your subscribers with helpful content before you can expect anything in return. With every email you send, your brand awareness increases, so even if you don’t make a sale, you’re warming up your prospects.
Sending emails on a schedule also supports your ability to reach the inbox. Your consistency tells inbox providers that you have a legitimate business, so your emails are more likely to stay out of the spam folder.
Consider partnerships and cross-promotions
It’s a tactic many companies employ to expose their brands to new audiences and increase subscriptions. Initiating partnerships with other businesses doesn’t have to involve much effort. Start by making a list of companies in your industry that could promote your products, and vice versa.
For instance, as a software provider, my company, ZeroBounce, partners with more than 15 other businesses with inspiring results. These collaborations can take many forms: blog articles, newsletters, webinars and social media cross-promos. Such win-win projects have allowed both us and our partners to boost visibility and email sign-ups.
Don’t wait — send a few emails today to at least five companies you could partner with. Outline the benefits and emphasize what you’re willing to offer. My own experience has taught me this is one of the most impactful tactics you can use to boost your exposure.
To build an email list you can monetize, you must work on boosting engagement first. Here are a few simple ways to entice more people to interact with your emails:
Avoid sending out an email if you’re not confident in the quality of your content. People tend to engage with your emails more if they know that every time they click to open, they get something worthwhile.
Include your audience in the topics you write about. Be curious, ask questions and spark conversations. Not only do replies help your email deliverability, but you’re also building stronger relationships with your subscribers.
Keep a natural balance between educational and self-promotional content. Every email can’t be a sales pitch. The core of your content should strive to inform, educate and entertain.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Digital marketing in 2023 is like navigating through uncharted waters. With global digital ad spending projected to reach $626 billion by year’s end, cutting through the noise and making an impact is more crucial than ever.
The catch? It’s not about what you spend but how well you blend the art and science in your marketing strategy. So, if you’re all set to master the art of creativity and the science of data in digital marketing, let’s delve into this exhilarating journey of marketing success.
The creative heart of digital marketing
Creativity is the cornerstone of any exceptional digital marketing campaign. Remember the viral success of Spotify’s “Wrapped” campaign? Users eagerly awaited their personalized, end-of-year music stats, transforming Spotify from just another streaming service into a music curator that understood their unique taste.
The takeaway here? The campaign was successful because it touched the heart. It connected with users emotionally, striking a chord with their identity. This brings us to the art of audience understanding, the soul of any successful digital marketing strategy.
A profound understanding of your audience is at the heart of successful digital marketing. Building customer personas isn’t a ‘nice-to-have’ — it’s an absolute ‘must-have.’ A customer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers.
They help you understand your customers better, making it easier for you to tailor your content, messaging, product development and services to meet their specific needs. Developing a deep understanding of your customer personas, interests, behaviors and pain points helps refine your content to resonate better. It’s about offering value that speaks directly to them, in a language they understand, through a medium they prefer.
This personalization is the key to unlocking engagement and conversion. A study by Accenture revealed that a staggering 91% of consumers prefer brands that offer personalized recommendations and offers.
That makes sense, right?
People crave recognition, understanding and brands that tailor their experience to their unique needs and wants. So, remember, digital marketing isn’t just about flashy ads and catchy slogans. It’s about understanding your audience, engaging them personally, and, ultimately, converting that engagement into action. Personalization isn’t just a trend—it’s the backbone of effective digital marketing in 2023.
For all the creative flair we can muster, the undeniable reality is that digital marketing has a formidable analytical core. It thrives on data — numbers and metrics that drive crucial decisions. But why is data so critical?
In 2023, data-driven marketing has taken the spotlight, acting as a GPS for marketers to navigate the complex digital landscape. By leveraging data analytics, companies can understand consumer behavior, predict trends, and make informed decisions.
For instance, Netflix, known for its intelligent use of data, customizes its content based on users’ viewing habits, significantly increasing user engagement.
Underlying this data-driven approach is the dynamic trio of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Big Data. These aren’t just buzzwords; they’re game-changers. AI and ML help analyze copious amounts of data in real-time, helping businesses personalize experiences at scale.
An excellent example is Amazon. Using AI to understand customer behavior, Amazon offers personalized product recommendations, improving customer experience and increasing sales. Big Data is the fuel that powers these intelligent machines. By analyzing vast datasets, companies can glean insights about customer preferences, habits, and behaviors, in turn guiding marketing strategies.
But all this tech talk is meaningless without the right tools.
In 2023, tools like SEO and competitive analysis, HubSpot for CRM and content management and Hootsuite for social media management are vital assets in any digital marketer’s arsenal. There’s also Google Analytics, a fan-favorite for website analytics, and MailChimp for email marketing. In summary, understanding this fusion of technology and data is key to mastering digital marketing in 2023.
Mobile marketing — If there’s one thing digital marketers can’t afford to ignore in 2023, it’s mobile marketing. With over 5 billion people using mobile devices worldwide, a mobile-first approach isn’t just smart; it’s essential. Statista reports that 73% of all retail e-commerce is expected to be generated via mobile commerce by the end of 2021.
Successful mobile strategies are aplenty, but Starbucks stands out. Their mobile app, incorporating a loyalty program, mobile payments, and personalized offers, is a masterclass leading to a 12% rise in revenue.
Influencer and social media marketing — In a world where influencers influence 49% of consumers they follow on social media, influencers have undeniably changed the marketing game.
Today, social media platforms are the new marketplace; each platform offers unique ways to reach audiences. With its visual appeal, Instagram is perfect for lifestyle and fashion brands. LinkedIn, with its professional network, is ideal for B2B marketing.
Understanding the changing digital marketing landscape in 2023, marketers can strategically use mobile, influencers and social media platforms to reach their audience in more personal, authentic, and effective ways.
Conclusion
In the 2023 digital marketing landscape, the interplay of art and science is more significant than ever. It’s not just about crafting creative campaigns but understanding your audience deeply and making data-driven decisions catering to their needs. Starbucks’ mobile strategy and Glossier’s influencer campaign are examples of this blend at work.
So, as we navigate this exciting terrain, I’ll leave you with this: Are you leveraging the right data to fuel your creative efforts? How can you better combine the science of data with the art of understanding your audience to drive success in digital marketing?
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Recently, my in-laws came to visit. While they were here, my mother-in-law mentioned someone’s gumbo she recently tried and how it was different from hers. They’re from south Louisiana (like real Cajuns), so I should mention that in case you’re wondering why I am writing about gumbo in the first place.
She talked about how they had a lighter roux than what she usually makes, they added okra and also went with a seafood combination, different from her usual chicken and sausage staple.
“It was good,” she said, “but it just wasn’t the right combo for her.”
You all know I like to write about food analogies in marketing, so it immediately hit me how similar gumbo and marketing are!
Stay with me for a minute here…
There are tons of different ways to make gumbo. As I mentioned above, you can have a lighter roux (this is where you burn the flour without actually burning it — Google it), and you can have a variety of seafood or chicken with sausage, or both! You can add okra (word of advice — don’t). You can use chicken, beef or vegetable stock instead of water. You can add more liquid to make it thinner or keep the heavy roux. You get the picture.
With marketing, you can use thousands of options to market your small business. The question is, which ones are the best for you and your business? What is going to move the needle quickly? Which channels are your people hanging out on? What kind of content do they like to consume (podcasts, blogs, videos, etc.)?
Let’s dive in before we all get too hungry to concentrate!
This is obvious and simple but so often overlooked.
For gumbo, you’d need your butter (or oil) and flour to make your roux. Cook your roux to your desired color, and then throw in the holy trinity (onion, bell peppers and celery). This is literally the foundation of any gumbo.
In marketing, you need to know who your people are (AKA buyer persona or ideal client), what they’re struggling with and where to find them. This is the holy trinity of marketing, and answering these questions will help you create the strategy that will resonate with your potential and current clients!
Like a roux, go slow and don’t rush mastering this stepping stone of effective marketing.
Again, in gumbo, which ingredients are you going to use? Seafood? Chicken and sausage? Will you throw some (slimy) okra in? What are you trying to accomplish? What do your guests like? What side dishes will you create to accompany your gumbo? (Potato salad is the traditional choice by the way). You will likely craft your recipe and entire meal based on these answers.
In marketing, what channels and tools will you use to achieve your goals? Where are your potential customers hanging out (off and online)? What are they typing into Google to find answers to their problems? What message are you sending them? People want transformation, plain and simple. They have to be able to see themselves where they want to be by using your product or service. So, how can you say that (multiple times and in multiple ways) so that it will grab their attention and resonate with them?
Grab some paper or a recipe card and start brainstorming your unique strategy!
You will get feedback from anyone who tries your gumbo — that’s how it is. They’ll comment on your roux and what ingredients you used, not in a bad way, but in fun, “Huh, I never thought to add XYZ to gumbo!” Or, “I liked how dark (or light) your roux was. I will have to try that next time!” kind of way.
In marketing, this is where you talk to your people and look at your numbers. Both will tell you tons! Numbers tell a story, but entrepreneurs often don’t look at them long enough to see what they are telling us. What is performing well? What is driving traffic? What is converting? Where is traffic coming from? What kinds of content get the most engagement? Call or email your current clients and ask them what they want and need. I promise they will tell you. A lot of times, it’s not what business owners think, and there is another kind of “Huh, I wouldn’t have thought that!” when they look at their numbers and get feedback from their clients.
Once you have figured out what works and what people like, you can keep doing it! This will not only be more effective, but it will save time as well.
For gumbo, you can cultivate your own memorable recipe and do the same with your marketing! People remember a great meal and the feelings that accompany it. When you craft your marketing plan with strategy, creativity, and genuine empathy to help the people that need your product or service, they will remember it!
