Instagram Ad Rollout Will Make It the Top Media Buy: New Research

Are you using Instagram for your business? Have you thought about advertising on the platform? Instagram just began offering paid advertising opportunities through select developer partners. In the coming months the platform is expected to create a Facebook-like self-serve option for any budget. In this article you’ll discover findings from studies about Instagram’s current reach, […]

This post Instagram Ad Rollout Will Make It the Top Media Buy: New Research first appeared on Social Media Examiner.
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Going Global: 22 Growth Hacks & Resources for International Expansion

For a marketer, it’s exciting to see your company grow and transcend the borders of your home country. On the flip side, international expansion can make your job significantly more complex.

Should your international goals vary from your regular goals? How will you handle international communication? What about prioritizing markets? Who comes first? 

If you haven’t heard, we’ve just announced that the HubSpot Marketing Platform is now available in six different languages. Our community of customers now extends into 90 countries. As you would imagine, we’ve learned a thing or two about global expansion in the process. 

So to provide you with some direction and help you give your global marketing a boost, check out these 22 pro tips for international success. And for even more expert advice on gearing up for global expansion, download The Global Marketing Playbook. 

22 Global Marketing Growth Hacks and Resources 

1) Identify your top three growth markets.

Look at your funnel data and map it against the top countries from which you’re already seeing positive indicators – such as traffic, MQLs, higher win rates, and shorter sales cycles. If you don’t have much global data yet, check out GDP and factors specific to your market. Statista offers many resources ranked by country to help you with market selection.

2) Focus on a small number of countries at a time.

Setting country-minded goals makes it easier to go global, and forces you to target more effectively than if you target by language or regional grouping.

3) Determine your “anchor” markets.

If fast, near-term growth is the goal, think about markets that might be smaller and easier to penetrate, so that they can carry you into some of the bigger markets within the same region later.

4) Rally your extended global team.

Tap into partners and contractors in other countries for help with global marketing. If you don’t have any, start developing relationships with freelance content creators, designers, and others.

5) Explore local trends.

Doing some simple research in Google Trends will help you discover the top issues that people are talking about in your target countries. Simply select the country you want to explore in the top right corner to get started.

6) Do your keyword research.

Use Keyword Planner to figure out which keywords offer opportunities in your top markets. If you’re a HubSpot user, you can also conduct keyword research using the Keywords App. Make a note of topics for which you already have content that you could repurpose or adapt.

7) Create country-focused content.

Even if you’re only writing in English, you can attract incredible traffic from a given country by covering country-relevant trends within a blog post. See an example of how Matthew Capala did this for China using a guest writer.

8) Localize top-performing content.

Look at your traffic data to see which blog posts are already performing well for a given country, and localize them into your top languages. Make sure to link to the translations from the English versions and vice versa.

9) Take advantage of customized content.

Improve conversion rates by creating different content, CTAs, and forms depending on the user’s language or country. (If you’re a HubSpot user, learn how to do it here.)

10) Display the right currency for each contact.

Encourage a faster purchase by customizing the currency you wish to display, depending on the country listed in their contact record.

11) Mind your on-page optimization.

Ensure that your focus keyword appears in the title, meta description, alt image tags, header, content body, and the URL itself. Make sure to create localized URLs too.

12) Clone campaigns instead of reinventing the wheel.

Segment your database by country and language. Then, clone top campaigns for each segment instead of creating new ones from scratch. Adapt them and localize them as needed.

13) Choose time zones that make sense for each market.

Once you’ve cloned campaigns, set up emails to auto-send at the appropriate time for each market. Make sure you consider the typical work schedule and local lunch hours, which vary from place to place.

14) Display the right date and time formats for each market.

Take advantage of the feature within your marketing automation software that allows you to easily set up the right date and time formats for each country.

15) Watch out for local holidays.

Make sure you avoid launching campaigns on local holidays in the markets you’re targeting. Bookmark this global holiday calendar to consult when planning your campaigns.

16) Offer local phone numbers.

Thanks to international call forwarding and routing services, such as this one, you can easily get country-specific phone numbers to make it easier for customers to call you. Then, set your re-route rules accordingly.

17) Have an interpreting service on stand-by.

If you can’t handle incoming calls in other languages, you can access a phone-based interpreting service that will connect an interpreter to the line within seconds.

18) Activate chat features in other languages.

Many companies use a live chat feature on their website. If you have multilingual staff available, make sure your chat widget supports multiple languages, like this one.

19) Consider co-marketing campaigns.

Which companies already have a strong presence in the countries you are targeting? Consider joining forces and sharing resources to deliver co-marketing campaigns. Here are some great tips to get you started.

20) Choose localization providers with care.

Avoid using automatic translation tools like Google Translate, as they signal to search engines that your content is low quality. If you need a translation agency, get referrals from colleagues in other companies. If your needs are limited to just one language and your translation needs are less than 2,500 words per day, you can find a professional freelance translator here.

21) Translate commonly used templates.

If you have email templates and automatic messages that go out from your websites or business development reps, have them ready in the primary languages of the countries you are targeting.

22) Think about the global customer experience.

You’ll want to partner with your colleagues in support and services to think through the entire customer experience. See this helpful webinar from ZenDesk on how one company did this in French.

Ready to expand?

Taking on global marketing can seem like a daunting undertaking, but it’s manageable if you set clear goals and think about one country at a time. Start taking advantage of some of the tips and resources above, and share them with your team members to begin weaving them into your current activities.

How does your company approach global expansion? Let us know in the comments section below.

 

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6 Can’t Miss Sessions and Events for Ecommerce Professionals at #INBOUND15

INBOUND 2015 is less than a week away! If you’re headed to Boston, you’ve probably taken a look at the agenda and seen the incredible speaker line up. To make it a little easier to choose, we’ve handpicked six sessions and events that are specifically geared towards ecommerce professionals. They’ll help you take a deep dive into everything from buy buttons to omni-channel personalization, to help you learn how to grow your ecommerce business.

1) How Buy Buttons Are Reshaping Ecommerce

Craig Miller, Chief Marketing Officer of Shopify

 Buy buttons are top of mind in ecommerce and many see them as part of a fundamental shift in how people buy online. In his session, Craig Miller, CMO of Shopify, will address how buy buttons and the shift to discovery vs. search are changing the ecommerce landscape. He’ll also dig into why mobile will become the dominant form of monetization in the next five years and how companies who “don’t sell” can use retail campaigns as an engagement and marketing strategy. You’ll learn about the nature of these changes in commerce and gain actionable steps to leverage the opportunities they provide. 

2) How Two HubSpot Customers Transformed Their Businesses With Inbound

Dmitriy Peredugov, Chief Gift Officer of GiftBasketsOverseas.com | Tom Schwab, Founder & Owner of Goodbye Crutches

Tom Schwab has led the growth of Goodbye Crutches, a direct to patient private pay ecommerce business, from a regional player to a national leader in under 3 years. Dmitriy Peregudov has grown Giftbasketsoverseas.com rapidly, leading to its inclusion on the INC5000 list of fastest growing private companies for the last three years, and bringing the company to #1 in international gifting for the service area. In this deep dive session, Tom and Dmitriy will share how they have transformed their companies and business strategies from top to bottom to follow the inbound model. 

3) Ecommerce Table at the Industry Networking and Happy Hour at HubSpot HQ

Wednesday night during Industry Networking and Happy Hour at HubSpot HQ, grab a drink from one of the bars, then find the ecommerce table to meet other ecommerce experts and share your best tips, tricks and advice about inbound marketing. There will be plenty of HubSpotters, current customers, and general attendees to mix and mingle with. Networking will last from 5:30PM-7PM, before the Seaport Parties.

4) Retention Marketing: The Next Ecommerce Battleground

Steve Deckert, Co-founder of Sweet Tooth

Proven ecommerce strategies like SEO, paid ads, social media, and email marketing have been effective, but competition is growing. With this increased competition comes decreased effectiveness. Because of this, a new ecommerce strategy has emerged: retention marketing. Retention marketing is the strategy of keeping more customers actively engaged for longer, and is the new battleground on which ecommerce brands will fight. In his talk, Steve Deckert addresses how you can continue to keep your customers engaged and win this fight. 

5) The Intersection of Inbound Marketing and Ecommerce

Andy Etemadi, CEO of EYEMAGINE | Daniel Kurt, CEO of Revenue Conduit | Ethan Giffin, CEO of Groove | Steve Haase, Ecommerce Sales Engineer at HubSpot

If your entire business is run online, digital marketing is a no-brainer. This is just one of the reasons that inbound marketing and ecommerce go hand in hand. Whether you’re trying to get started with inbound for your ecommerce business or trying to accelerate your growth, come to this session to learn from some of our partners who have built diverse and robust ecommerce integrations with HubSpot.

6) Omni-Channel Ecommerce Personalization: How to Marry Product and Persona Data to Delight Customers on All Platforms

Steve Haase, Ecommerce Sales Engineer at HubSpot

Personalization is critical to the success of your ecommerce business. How are you personalizing your messages across channels and personas? How are you gathering data on your customers and products? And how are you helping to guide your first-time visitors into becoming new contacts, and your first-time buyers to becoming loyal customers? This session will help you increase the scope and effectiveness of your personalization programs. If you’re new to personalization, this session will give you tips and ideas for where to begin. 

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10 Easy-to-Use Tools for Creating Animated Images and Videos

Even if you’re already on the visual content bandwagon, it can be a struggle to actually start creating it – especially when you’re trying to communicate complex, detailed, and abstract topics. 

So what’s a marketer to do? 

One option that often gets overlooked is animated images or videos. They’re great because they explain a point in the matter of seconds. They also grab attention and help convert viewers into readers and buyers.

An animated image or video may sound like something difficult to create, but in reality, you don’t even need huge budgets to add some to your content marketing strategy. Check out the following tools that let you easily create cool animated images and video.

Animated Flows

If you’re looking for a simple way to instruct someone on how to do something online, the following tool is super handy.

1) WhatFix

Price: Freemium

This tool is actually the one that has inspired the whole article. WhatFix lets you create quick flows showing steps users should take. You can embed the widget on your web page or send your users to the “live” version of the link that will play all the steps on your actual web page.

You can play with the widget below or on the WhatFix website.

You’ll need their Firefox / Google Chrome extension to build those widgets, but other than that, the process is so easy. Just click the links on your page and type in the instructions for each link. The extension will record everything and immediately put together a widget for you.

It also creates YouTube videos on the fly, which is a great re-packaging option. Here’s an example of what that can look like.

WhatFix offers its basic features for free: You can go ahead and try creating those flows right now. It does have a business version that has an option to create private flows, export flows, and more.

Animated GIFs

Animated GIFs have remained a standard in basic online media over the years. Social media platforms like Tumblr thrive on them, and a single GIF reaching viral status can have a big impact on your social strategy and success. They are also great for creating animated instructions that will auto-play the steps on Twitter, Pinterest, and now Facebook.

Here are my favorite GIF image generators:

2) GIFBrewery

Price: $4.99 one time

Mac users can quickly convert sections of their videos into GIFs using GIFBrewery. You just purchase and download the app onto your Mac OSX, and use it from your computer as often as you’d like.

The steps are easy to follow, and the interface rather intuitive. You can edit the GIFs with overlay text and images, apply image filters, and more. It is a great tool for making preview animations for longer videos to post on Pinterest, your blog, Instagram, and beyond. It does cost $4.99, but it is well worth the price if you are planning on regularly making GIF files.

3) Gyazo

Price: Free

While it is technically a screen capture tool, you can capture and save GIFs and videos now using Gyazo. It is a free tool available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. All captures can be quickly shared on multiple platforms, too.

This is a great, if somewhat casual, tool for anyone who takes screen captures and wants to show them off to others. With a bit of creativity, it could be used in other business-related capacities, though it may not have all the tools you are looking for.

4) Recordit

Price: Free

Need to make a fast screencast, such as a simple demo? Recordit is specifically meant for quickie tutorials or examples, rather than those that require longer record times.

Here’s an example that actually took me five seconds to create – it’s quite easy to explain your point.

You simply drag the space you want to capture, hit record, and show viewers what they need to see before stopping the recording. It breaks these down into moving slides and converts the file into a GIF rather than a video recording. If this sounds like something you would like to integrate into an app, they now have an API, too.

5) GIFDeck

Price: Free

Do you share educational content on SlideShare? (Hint: You should!) Then GIFDeck a great way to turn your decks into GIFs. Here’s an example of one I created just recently:

6) Make a GIF

Price: Free

This is a more extensive GIF maker that allows you to choose from a couple options to make your GIF. On Make a GIF, you can create from screenshots, YouTube videos, uploaded videos, or premade GIFs.

It is also a free image hosting site, so once the GIF has been made, you can link to it directly from the Make a GIF gallery. Accounts are free, and if you change your mind about a GIF, you can easily request that it be deleted.

7) GIFYT

Price: Free

YouTube videos are a great source for screencasts. If your users create screencasts of how they use your product, turn those videos into animated GIFs to share with your community. That means original content for you and more exposure for your fans’ videos. 

You can make GIFs from YouTube videos using GIFYT. Just paste in the URL, select the time period you want captured, and convert it to a GIF.

It is very easy to use, fast, and free. The only downside is that you have to be careful you don’t select too long a clip duration. Keep it short and relevant for the best quality GIFs.

Animated Videos

The following tools are actually similar. I tried all of them and was satisfied. They are all easy to use – You don’t need any video editing experience to put together animated video instructions.

You do need to invest some time into a script and some visual elements to make these instructions appealing. The good thing though is that you can then convert them into animated GIFs using the tools above.

None of these tools is free, but they all offer a free trial, so you can play with them all and choose the one you prefer.

8) PowToon

Price: $59 a month; $19 a month if you pay for a year.

PowToon describes itself as an animated video and presentations creator that can be easily exported to YouTube.

9) Video Scribe

Price: $29.00 / month; $16 a month if you pay annually; $665.00 if you pay once.

Video Scribe specializes in whiteboard videos, and it lets you create really nice video animations. It’s a downloadable piece of software that you can take offline if you pay for the PRO plan.

It supports both Mac and PC, and also has mobile applications that I honestly didn’t try (but am definitely planning to).

10) GoAnimate

Price: $79/month or $599/year.

GoAnimate is a web application that can be used to create cartoon videos. It also has a collaboration feature, which comes in handy when you are trying to coordinate with a larger team.

These are just a few tools I’ve used to create animated images and videos – but there are plenty of other options out there. What tools would you recommend?

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How to Optimize Your Social Profiles for Search

Have you thought about optimizing your social accounts for search? Do you know where to use keywords in your social profiles? In social media, there are two search engines you have to optimize for: the search function within each social network and Google search. In this article you’ll discover where to use keywords in your […]

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16 Examples of Awesome Email Marketing Campaigns

If you’re reading this, you probably have an email address (or two, or three …). In fact, you’ve probably been sending and receiving emails for years, and you’ve definitely received some questionable deliveries in your inbox. 

Whether they were unexpected, uninformative, or had a subject line tHaT wAs fOrmAtTeD liKe tHiS, we bet you didn’t hesitate to direct them towards the trash, right?

While email has managed to stand the test of time, many marketers have failed to update their strategies since its inception.

So to ensure you’re sending modern emails that warrant some of your recipients’ precious time and attention, we’ve compiled a list of effective email examples to inspire your next campaign. 

And for help creating effective email marketing campaigns of your own, download our free guide here.

16 of the Best Email Marketing Campaign Examples

1) PayPal

There are a couple things we love about this email example from PayPal. Not only is the opening copy clever and concise, but the entire concept also reflects a relatable benefit of using the service. Think about it: How many times have you been in a situation where you went out to dinner with friends and then fussed over the bill when it came time to pay? By tapping into this common pain point, PayPal is able to pique the interest of its audience. 

2) ModCloth 

Great companies are always evolving, and your customers expect to experience change. What they don’t expect (because too many companies haven’t lived up to this end of the bargain) is to be told about those changes. That said, this email from ModCloth serves as a refreshing change of pace. If you’re going to change the way you communicate with a lead or customer, give them clear, fair warning so, if they aren’t on board, they can make the necessary adjustments to keep their inbox clean.

3) Tory Burch

Did you see that? Did you see it move? Pretty cool, right? This small bit of animation helps to separate this email from Tory Burch from all of the immobile emails in their recipient’s inboxes. They also leverage exclusivity by framing the promotion as a “private” sale. Often times, this type of positioning makes the recipient feel like they’re specially chosen, which encourages them to take advantage of the special opportunity they’ve been presented with. 

4) Zipcar

This example sample comes courtesy of my coworker who started signing up for Zipcar, got busy, and had to abandon the form. As a result, the email calls her back to the website with some lighthearted copy that nudges her in the right direction, and also reminds her of the value of using Zipcar – being economical and helping the planet.

If your site visitors are abandoning shopping carts or landing pages, use your email marketing in this way to remind them they have some unfinished business on your website!

5) RunKeeper

RunKeeper makes an effort to reengage lost users with this friendly, informational email. By highlighting their app’s most recent changes and benefits, the copy works to entice recipients to give the app another chance. Small inclusions like the “Hi friend” greeting and the “You rock” closing makes the content feel welcoming and less aggressive. 

6) Litmus

Here’s another great example from Litmus of animation being used to create more interesting email marketing design. Unlike static text, the swipe motion used to provide recipients with a look “under the hood” of their email tool is eye-catching and encourages you to take a deeper dive into the rest of the content. Not to mention the header does an excellent job of explicitly stating what this email is about.

7) Loft

This email from Loft aims to demonstrate their understanding of your crazy, mixed-value inbox. In an effort to provide you with emails that you actually want to open, Loft asks that their recipients update their preferences to help them deliver a more personalized experience. This customer-focused email is super effective in making the recipient feel like their likes, dislikes, and opinions actually matter. 

8) UncommonGoods 

You’ve heard it a million times (and a few thousand of those times may have been from us): You should create a sense of urgency with your calls-to-action. That’s what makes a lead take action, right? Well, this email from UncommonGoods succeeds in creating a sense of urgency by focusing on the value of acting now. 

Instead of saying, “Order your Mother’s Day gift NOW before Preferred Shipping ends!”, this email asks, “Don’t you think Mom would’ve liked a faster delivery?” Why yes, she would. Thank you for reminding me before it’s too late – I don’t want to be in the dog house because my gift arrived after Mother’s Day.

9) JetBlue

Confession: We have a serious email marketing crush on JetBlue. And they continue to deliver their lovable marketing in this cheeky email campaign that aims to humorously reengage customers. Every element from the header, to the three witty points, to the actionable, contrasting CTA work together to create a lovable campaign that’s promotional without being pushy. 

10) Bonobos

It’s simple: If you want people to engage with your emails, give them a reason to do so. This clean, minimalistic, and easy-to-click email campaign from Bonobos creates an interactive experience that encourages the recipient to take action.

The structure of this email aims to cater to those who don’t have time to waste scrolling through pages of shorts that may or may not be in stock in their size. By providing a direct pathway to what they’re looking for, Bonobos creates a seamless online shopping experience.

11) Amazon Local

This email from Amazon Local is short and sweet, with just one CTA: click through this email to tell Amazon what you like and dislike. That way, the deals they send you going forward can be more in line with what you’re likely to actually want. What’s wonderful about this experience is not just that they asked, but also how consistent the experience is from email to landing page. Take a look at the email below, and the landing page that follows.

Notice how the language in the email above, “like” and “dislike,” mirrors the language in the buttons below? This is a simple way to get feedback from your email recipients to provide more personalized offers in their inbox, thus increasing the chance of a high clickthrough and offer redemption rate.

12) Focus Pointe Global

Focus Pointe Global provides focus groups so regular businesses can get some meaty market research. While research is known for being a little complicated, this email is impressively simple. All of the information you need to know to determine whether you want to participate is called out in bold, and extremely short explanatory copy follows it.

What is the survey about? What do I get for taking it? How long will it take? Where can I begin? You can figure this all out pretty immediately. All emails should aim to provide such clear instruction.

13) Harpoon Brewery

My friends at Harpoon are so thoughtful, aren’t they? This simple, timely email really does feel like it’s coming from a friend, which is why it’s so effective. In an age of email automation, it’s easy for email campaigns to feel a little robotic. And while I’m certain that this email was, in fact, automated, it feels really human.

If you’re looking to strengthen the relationship you have with your existing customers, consider taking the time to set up a quick email like this to let them know you’re thinking of them. 

14) Bonafide

HubSpot customer Bonafide uses this email in one of its lead nurturing email series, and it’s a great example of a principle so many email marketers forget. Your inbox recipients don’t always remember who you are! 

Take a look at the callout in orange – the first paragraph of this email tells the reader why they are being contacted. With the amount of inbox overload we all suffer, reminders of this nature are critical to preventing deletions and unsubscribes. 

15) Rip Curl

“JOIN THE REVOLUTION.”

That’s quite powerful, wouldn’t you agree? Rip Curl, an Australian surfing sportswear retailer, combines urgency and our psychological need to be part of something to create an email headline that jumps off the page. This positioning is designed to lead people to believe that there’s a “revolution” taking place and it’s their turn to get in on the action. At the end of the day, people want to be part of something that’s bigger than themselves, and this email aims to motivate them to do so by purchasing this sleek watch.

16) J.Crew Factory

For many of us, when it comes to wrapping gifts, the struggle is real. J.Crew Factory recognized this problem, and then created this email to serve as a solution for those incapable of pulling off a Pinterest-esque wrap job: gift cards. The email offers up two different says to pick up a gift card – in store or online – in an effort to avoid excluding anyone. 

They’ve also included a map of the nearest store location at the end of the email to lower the purchasing barrier even further. 

There are hundreds of other examples of excellent email marketing. Share some of your favorite campaigns in the comments.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in May 2012 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

 

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