Here’s what they had to say:

Katie Miller

Is it sometimes difficult to stay focused knowing that it’s warm weather outside? Yes, the sun makes we want to just be outside.

Does the Core3 environment offer anything that helps you stay motivated? Having the warehouse doors open is awesome, it’s nice to walk out there and feel the breeze (on days when there is one) and see the sun. However sometimes it gets super-hot and I’d rather avoid it.

If you’re the type that enjoys outdoor summer activities, how do you stay focused and motivated while at work? I try to get through my work faster in the summer. Knowing I can leave when it’s done motivates me to  stay focused during the day so I can get out and enjoy the weather.

In what season do you typically request the most days off? Summer for sure. I generally bank my vacation time and take a few days off throughout the summer to have some long weekends.

Are there a summer activities that Core3 doesn’t currently do but you wish we would? Boating trips. I’m not really sure exactly what I wish we did on the boats, but just being out on the water during the summer would be cool in my book.

Tom Choske

Is it sometimes difficult to stay focused knowing that it’s warm weather outside? Nope; it just makes me want to work outside more.

Does the Core3 environment offer anything that helps you stay motivated? Being super mobile and able to work from almost anywhere is a major plus.

If you’re the type that enjoys outdoor summer activities, how do you stay focused and motivated while at work? Proper time management and taking breaks to go outside. We’re not chained to our desks, and sometimes it’s hard for us to shut the laptop and take a minute to go out and enjoy the fresh air.

In what season do you typically request the most days off? N/A

Are there a summer activities that Core3 doesn’t currently do but you wish we would? Nope, I love a good barbecue, and we’ve definitely got those.

Jason Schnaidt

Is it sometimes difficult to stay focused knowing that it’s warm weather outside? Definitely, luckily we have the warehouse where we can work with the garage door open, and enjoy the breeze and weather as much as we can.

Does the Core3 environment offer anything that helps you stay motivated? The ability to work anywhere is definitely a perk. If we wanted to work from Starbucks, the warehouse or home, it's never looked down upon. All of us are passionate about what we do and want the best for our clients, and sometimes the change of scenery is a nice change of pace. Not to mention the warehouse full of games can be a nice break — though we rarely play the games. However, now that we have Dance Dance Revolution, that will be changing.

If you’re the type that enjoys outdoor summer activities, how do you stay focused and motivated while at work? I try and work out in the warehouse to enjoy the weather as much as possible. Also, frequent trips to Starbucks throughout the week help to take in as much of the outdoors as possible.

In what season do you typically request the most days off? I don't really request time off… seriously. I don't. 

Are there a summer activities that Core3 doesn’t currently do but you wish we would? I'm still waiting for that volleyball court, water slide and pool on the roof.

Jennifer Cline

Is it sometimes difficult to stay focused knowing that it’s warm weather outside? At times. I always joke that I’m going to go work on the grassy knoll in front of the office. Unfortunately, I don’t think the geese that frequent that area are willing to share it with me.

Does the Core3 environment offer anything that helps you stay motivated? The fact that I can work from almost anywhere is a huge perk. From time to time, Jason and I will lock ourselves in the conference room to really cram out large projects together. I usually just live in denial that summer is happening outside.

If you’re the type that enjoys outdoor summer activities, how do you stay focused and motivated while at work? Honestly, I haven’t turned on the A/C at my home yet so I’m kind of taking advantage of the air conditioning in the office right now so that helps keep me motivated. On the other hand, it puts a bit of healthy pressure on getting work done on time to ensure I can leave on time so that’s motivation in itself.

In what season do you typically request the most days off? Definitely summer! My family and I go camping a lot and I try to take a small vacation each summer.

Are there a summer activities that Core3 doesn’t currently do but you wish we would? Well, you see, spring and early summer are kitten season. So I think we should have an activity where we go to the shelter and pick out a Core3 kitten. But in reality, I love that we BBQ frequently and have a zoo trip planned later this summer!

How do you and your company stay motivated and focused throughout the summer? Tell us in comments!

1.  Are your staffers in the right positions?

It can become common practice to hire a person for a particular position and their duties to stay virtually the same until they retire or move onto another job. However, to encourage business growth and stay competitive, it’s a good idea to evaluate each person’s responsibilities and determine if they are still the best person for the job, if there are things they’re interested in learning, and if there are tasks that person doesn’t enjoy (and perhaps someone else in the office would prefer to do those less-desired tasks). For example, if a person has always written your press releases but there is another solid writer in the office, it might be helpful to give that person a chance at writing the content. Switching up a person’s responsibilities can give a fresh angle to the project, encourages new ideas and allows people to determine what they’re passionate about. For encourage constant growth, each person needs the opportunity to proactively try new things and challenge themselves.

2. What can we do to challenge our team?

To stay competitive and encourage business growth, your team needs to think outside of the box when possible. If you’re doing the same exact things year after year, potential clients and customers will not be excited about working with you. When possible, push your team to challenge themselves. Examine what your competition is doing, consistently identify areas that can be improved on and work as a team to become better each day. Even if you’re already a great company, find ways to become even greater. One interesting way to go about this is to think -- What have I done for this customer that will encourage them to refer us to someone else? Business growth becomes easier if your clients and customers are telling everyone how awesome you are.

3. What are your core values? Does your work and environment reflect them?

Unfortunately, a lot of companies start without even considering what they stand for. They simply recognize the company’s purpose and analyze how they’ll reach their goals. However, before you can sell yourself or seek business growth, it’s vital that your company understands who it is, what it stands for and how to represent those values in the work and atmosphere. At Core3, we have outlined our core values as accountability, teamwork, honesty, passion and innovation, and we do everything we can to ensure these are constantly recognized and displayed in our work and culture. Concentrating on these values allows us to better understand who we are, but it also offers a reference point to where we’re going.

4. What is your long-term plan?

Incremental goals help companies stay on track, but if you’re seeking ways to encourage business growth – a long-term plan is vital. It’s fine to have some big-picture items that are more light hearted (at Core3, we’d love to have an indoor slide at some point), but try to determine where you want your company in three years, five years and beyond. You don’t have to get in the nitty gritty, but think of generic ideas you have for your company and share those ideas with the team. This will not only encourage business growth, it'll also ensure that everyone is on the same page and has the same vision. How many employees would you like to have? How would you like your services and products to change in the coming years? What would you like your revenue to be? Once you’ve determined that answers to some of those business growth questions, determine how you hope to accomplish those things and how each team member can contribute.

5. How is the communication at your company? 

Quality community is the backbone to any successful business, and we’ve written a blog with ways to improve office communication. Though you might have the impression that the office communication is flawless, you might find your staffers feel differently when it comes time to work on business growth. Talk to each staffer individually and get their insights on how well the communication process is working. If there are problem areas, take some time to work with your team to identify potential solutions that will work for everyone.  

6. What does success look like?

This is an imperative question to ask yourself regarding your business and to also ask each and every client and customer. There is no way to encourage business growth if you don’t know what you determine successful. Additionally, there’s no way to assist clients if you don’t have a clear vision for what success means to them.

If you’re looking for ways to increase your business growth, let’s chat! Our digital marketing services can help you bring your brand to the next level. 

 In eCommerce, one of the major areas overlooked by many eTailers is their checkout process. What’s the point of investing tens of thousands of dollars into a new website design and hundreds of thousands into marketing if your users just aren’t converting? What if you could grow your sales not by paying to attract new users to your page, but by simply getting a higher percentage of visitors to complete their purchases?

For example, one client of ours brought users to a checkout page with three strong, competing calls-to-action on it: one encouraged people to call, another to use Pay-Pal to checkout, and yet another to complete a ‘credit card’ purchase. The page had worked in the past; the site was generating a fair amount of online revenue, and no one had complained at the company.

However, by analyzing their checkout funnel, we found out that they lost 60% of their shopping carts at this page. We knew that this was the ticket: if we could make this page easier to use, we could grow their sales by up to 60% without spending a dime in marketing or going through a complicated redesign process. We set to work identifying pain points and created a plan to address this.

In one day, we were able to come up with simple changes to clean up the page. We relocated the checkout buttons to be closer to the shopping cart subtotal, changed the wording to make them more user-friendly, changed the color scheme to make them stand out and relocated the phone number to the footer. We then implemented these changes in an A/B test with the original version, and waited for the results to come in.

After a two-week test, our simple changes allowed the client to increase their sales 40%. They were ecstatic, and we looked (even more) like rockstars. However, none of this would have been possible without collecting the data and interpreting what it’s telling us.

So, if you’re looking to move your business forward, skip the rest and go with the best: Core3 Solutions. We’ll look at the data and tailor the right solution for you, then test it to confirm that our plan really worked. With Core3, you’re getting a partner who believes in accountability and quantification as much as you do.

The introduction of the Internet quickly added new competition for brick-and-mortar stores. The benefits with online sales seemed to be endless, and ecommerce websites continue gaining popularity. Online shopping provides easy price comparisons, a buying experience that can happen in your PJs, allows better tracking of customer behavior and new Internet practices of showrooming and dynamic pricing.

As described in our blog earlier this year, showrooming has become a popular technique used by shoppers in which they visit stores to seek out desired items then go online to locate the item at the cheapest possible price. Dynamic pricing is a term used to describe when an online store watches your searches and notes the items that you’ve looked at. They then take that information to fluctuate prices accordingly, randomly changing prices of items that you’ve recently looked at. Pricing bots analyze customer behaviors and other factors to determine increases and decreases for the cost of items.

With ecommerce sales surpassing $1 trillion in 2012, according to a recent report from eMarketer, and the many advantages online stores have over their on-location competitors, it’s no surprise that brick-and-mortar retailers are fighting back. States have also expressed concern about the loss in potential tax revenue. The National Conference of State Legislatures estimates that $23 billion was missed out on last year due to states’ inability to collect taxes from out-of-state sales.

The loophole in the online sales tax laws allowed customers to avoid paying sales tax, unless the retailer had offices or distribution centers in that state. For example, Amazon does not have a Michigan location for offices or distribution. Thus, Michigan customers buying from Amazon would not pay any online sales tax.

As it stands, and if the online sales tax bill passes in the House, the law would require online companies with profits larger than $1 million to collect sales tax from customers on each purchase. That money would then go directly to the state where the shopper resides.

There is some opposition to this bill, with eBay leading the pack against the possible sales tax bill. Some folks believe that this new sales tax bill could harm small businesses that do not have the proper resources to collect sales tax from out-of-state customers. eBay and other online retailers believe that the the new online sales tax bill should exempt companies “businesses with up to $10 million in sales or fewer than 50 employees,” according to the Washington Post.

Social media customer service is becoming a necessary form of communication for most brands. Customers expect open and quick communication to both their complaints and praise. This is requiring many companies to create a separate department specifically designed to handle social media customer service efforts.

I’ve had some great experiences with social media customer service. Last year, I blogged about my excellent experience with the social media customer service I received from Kohl’s. After I forgot to enter a promotion code for my order, the customer service rep on Facebook stated that they could help me out if I simply sent my order number and promotion code to an email they used specifically for Facebook-driven conversations. That is exactly how social media customer service should be handled. However, as I stated, some brands need to fix their communication tactics and I’m learning this firsthand with Dell.

A few months ago, I started having trouble with my laptop’s WiFi. I attempted to get support through Dell’s warranty support. However, at the time the chat support option was offline and given my busy schedule in which I typically attempt to multitask, calling them wasn’t the best option. I then went to the email support option and an annoying message came up stating that my product did not get email support. Really? Isn’t email one of the less invasive, easier forms of communication? Surely Dell doesn’t think so.

So, I tweeted them asking when chat would come back online. In response, I got a Direct Message on Twitter with a representative trying to troubleshoot my problem. Trying to troubleshoot a Wifi issue via Twitter in 140 characters per message is not at all desirable. My Wifi has since gone between functional and nonfunctional, and it recently stopped working completely two weeks ago. In that two-week period, I’ve been avidly communicating via Twitter with a Dell representative, and still my laptop remains broken. This form of social media customer service has been nothing but frustrating, and if brands want to retain their customer base, it’s important they understand the proper tactics in using social networks.

Things to do when utilizing social media customer service:

Respond Quickly. Quickly might be a relative term, and everyone has a different understanding of what it means. I have gotten responses in as little as a half hour, but I’ve been pleased when replies come in twelve hours. The goal should be to answer customers in the same business day they comment or message your brand.

Use live chats. If there’s a live chat feature available and operating properly on your website, many folks will use this option rather than utilizing Facebook or Twitter. Check out our blog on the advantages of using a live chat feature and how to properly utilize a live chat system on your website.

Identify the customer service representative. If you’re going to have conversations on social networks, try to be as personable as possible. Dell actually does this pretty well. Each message is signed with the initials of the representative sending the message. Signing with initials or a name reminds patrons that your customer service team is actually made up of people rather than automated messages.

Move the conversation to another format for easier communication. Good social media customer service reps, like those working for Kohl’s, will take the conversation to a new medium immediately. Social networks are a very constraining place to fix problems, and there’s usually a better place to conduct that conversation. Facebook is very open, allowing everyone to see your conversation. Twitter depends on the 140-character limit. If a person has a complaint, ask them to use a live chat, email or phone number designated specifically for folks coming from social networks.

If used correctly, social media customer service can be great to retain and attract customers. However, brands should employ people that are skilled in operating the networks properly with a plan of action in place.

7 Marketing Techniques Worth Trying on your B2B Website

1. Create better Calls to Action 

The call to action that you include on your B2B website can make or break the entire process. These should attract buy attention quickly and immediately identify what they need to do. Give the calls to action some sense of urgency, so it will increase the likelihood that people complete the process. For example, if you are offering a discount – give it a clear expiration date so customers know they must act promptly to take advantage of it. Additionally, if your call to action is located on a landing page, it should be in the top half of the page. Customers are more likely to complete calls to action if they can be seen as soon as the page loads.

2. Provide Testimonials and credentials

Customers are more likely to make a purchase and trust a company if others have given their stamp of approval. Providing reviews and testimonials can help gain the trust of potential customers. Additionally, if your company has earned industry-related awards, certificates or credentials, it’s important that website viewers can see them easily.

3. Give them a reason to care

After you’ve spent some time flattering your B2B website with positive commentary from previous customers, concentrate on how you can benefit potential customers. How you go about doing this is dependent on the specific services and products that you offer; however, there are many ways to offer extra incentives to potential customers. For example, if you are a consulting firm and part of your job is to set up presentations with larger firms – try offering free pizza along with your presentations. Or perhaps your company relies heavily on referrals, mention on your B2B website that you will give cash rewards or gift cards if referrals are given.

Potential customers want to know what makes your company stand above competitors, and your B2B website is exactly where you need to tell them this information. Website visitors need to understand what problems you can fix for them, how your business can benefit their lives and precisely why they should select your company.

4. Consider A/B Testing

This marketing technique can help you determine the layout, working, colors and more that are more effective in driving conversions on your B2B website. By testing a single variable, for example the placement of a call to action, you can determine if Page A or Page B is more effective.

5. Rethink Forms

Many B2B websites have flawed forms; they either ask too little or too much. Determine exactly what information you need to collect from potential customers to determine the quality of the lead. Many forms go unfinished because people think they are too long or too intrusive, so keep this in mind when creating the forms on your B2B website. If you don’t actually need the potential customer’s phone number, don’t ask for it. Also, analyze the position of your forms.  If they are located on a landing page, consider moving them to the top half of the page to increase completion.

6. Expand Content Marketing Efforts

Many B2B websites attempt some sort of content marketing, but they don’t really take the time to dive into the specifics. It’s important to understand what is working and what is a waste of your time. If you have a blog, is that blog leading to conversions? If you are using social media, are you driving traffic to your website with content? If it’s fitting for your industry, are you utilizing videos? There are tons of marketing techniques that you could use for your B2B website, take a few hours and analyze what could be useful for your company.

7. Identify Potential Risks 

A flaw with some B2B websites is that the information presented on them simply sounds too good to be true. Think like a potential customer and identify things they might worry about. Are there potential flaws in the process you offer? Are there possible mistakes that could happen on your team? Are there things that might make potential customers apprehensive to trust your brand?  Identify and explain the potential risks on your website and explain how you will work to avoid them. It’s good to give customers a well-rounded explanation of your company, services and solutions. Immediately identifying potential risks can increase their trust in your products or services.

Interested in learning more about marketing techniques to increase the traffic on your B2B website? Let’s chat! Our marketing team can help bring your B2B website to the next level!

Look how excited Adam is in this picture! ... And then there's Paul Chambers who is making silly faces.

Hey Michigan developers – or those looking to become Michigan developers – we’re very proud to announce that our very own Adam Stogdill will be teaching a two-part Girl Develop It Detroit course: Intro to PHP and MySQL .

Class will take place on Monday, May 13 and Wednesday, May 15 and will run from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Included in each four-hour session will be food to give your brain the energy it needs to absorb all of the great information Stogdill will be presenting.

In this course, attendees will have the opportunity to learn the basics of MySQL, database manipulation as well as learn advanced PHP. Attendees should have a basic understanding of HTML and CSS; this class will help take those skills to the next level. The curriculum is a collaborative effort with Stogdill and Girl Develop It to create the most effective learning session possible.

“The goal is to make this information easier to digest. I want to take away that sense of fear some people get. After this class, I want people to have the empowerment that they need to do anything they set their mind to,” Stogdill said.

With only 20 spaces available and half of the class already filled, we anticipate a full house for this event. We’re also very pleased to be sending Kristi Pietryka, Core3’s helpdesk technician, to this event to further her knowledge.

“I haven't done a lot of Web programming, and that's what the class is all about! It will also be good to learn more about PHP. Even though it is similar to other languages I've worked with, I haven't had much experience with it at all,” Pietryka said

Girl Develop It is a nationwide project that works to empower women and create comfortable learning environments for those working in the technology industry. However, gentlemen who are interested in learning more about PHP and MySQL are also welcome to join this event. Girl Develop It organizes a variety of Meetups in several cities throughout the country including Boston, New York, Seattle, Detroit and more.

It’s understandable that programming and developing can be an intimidating talent to learn. However, this environment welcomes any and all questions you might have. Even if you are new to the technology industry, Stogdill has a way of relating even the most complex topics to almost anyone.

“Adam is an awesome teacher and, since our time during office hours is limited, I figured I'd take advantage of any opportunity I could to learn from him outside of the office!” Pietryka said

With his enthusiasm for teaching, Stogdill previously taught a WordCamp Detroit class last year. Stogdill helped attendees get a better understanding on how they could use the WordPress Loop.

“I’ve always been interested in teaching, and I’ve considered working with colleges and what not… I like these smaller sessions. It’s nice to make things relatable for people.”

No worries, no cheese was harmed in the taking of this picture. Adam actually loves cheese.

• What: Intro to PHP & MySQL class
• Where: Atomic Object {1407 Randolph St., Detroit, MI}
• When: 6 p.m. – 10 p.m. on Monday, May 13 & Wednesday, May 15
• How much: $80/ per person

Are you interested in attending? Limited space is still available.

5 SEO Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

1. Not following basic SEO practices

Utilizing the basics of SEO digital marketing can do a lot for your website. These simple digital marketing practices get your website to a higher page in search engines and attract new people.

Things to always do:

•  Optimizing blog photos should occur each time you make a post.
• Ideally, pages (including blog posts) should include 400-800 words. Anything less than 300 words is generally frowned upon by the Google Gods. Sometimes pages simply cannot contain any more information, but do your best to have this many words on a page. That isn't to say that you should fill pages with nonsense words, however.
• Measure your content marketing. If you continue to use SEO techniques and they aren’t working, yet you aren’t checking up on things – you’ll just keep wasting your time.
• You need a blog. If you don’t have one, find a way to start one. It’s the most basic way to increase your SEO.
• Use the right language in your blog and website. This includes SEO techniques, making it readable for your audience and including personality in posts.
• Ensure that the URL of your page has been changed to include your keywords.
• Fill out your meta description and keyword sections in the backend each website page.

2.  Using Blacklisting Techniques

You can try to cheat the system and increase your page rank by doing various blacklisting techniques, but beware – Google will eventually figure it out and your website will then be ignored by the search engine. It’s always best to do things the right way. Quick results can be purchased, but the longevity of their success is usually minimal. Avoid keyword stuffing, buying links or joining the wrong link directories.

3. Using only images for headings

Images might look better for headings and menus, but they sometimes aren’t great for SEO techniques. Search engines like text, so include keywords in your headings when possible.  

4. Writing boring content

We cannot stress this enough. Boring content is a digital marketing mistake that will lose you visitors. Writing a bunch of boring blogs might increase your page rank, but your bounce rate will be sky high, which won’t get you any conversions. You want people to read your content and enjoy it enough that they’ll explore other areas of your website. Also, don’t use duplicate content and simply switch out the keyword. This is another SEO technique that Google dislikes.

5. Performing SEO techniques once and never again

Digital marketing is an ongoing process, thus your SEO techniques should be maintained. Keep up with keyword trends, pay attention to your traffic and note what is and is not working, optimize new pages as they are created and check SEO throughout the site if you conduct updates to the website. SEO digital marketing is not a set it and forget it practice. To continuously see results, you have to continuously work at it.

Worried that you’re doing some SEO digital marketing mistakes? Let’s chat!

5 smartphone and tablet stats to make you think about making a mobile website:

• In 2009, a mere 1% of Internet traffic came from mobile devices. In December of last year, 13% of Internet traffic came from smartphones, according to Forbes.
• Just 2% of Americans owned a tablet three years ago. Now, almost a third of adults own one. {Tweet this}
• Nearly 80% of smartphone owners take a gander at their mobile device within 15 minutes of waking up, according to Business Insider.
• Mobile data usage has increased a whopping 89% from 2011 to 2012, according to Nielsen.
• Experts anticipate that mobile Internet use will be used more frequently than desktop by 2014. {Tweet this}

7 stats about ecommerce behavior to convince you it’s time to go mobile:

• Nearly 70% of smartphone-using mothers made a purchase on a mobile device in 2012, according to emarketer.
• In 2013, 15% of retail sales conducted online will happen through mobile devices.  {Tweet this} EMarketer estimates that this will rise to 25% by 2017.
• This year, 51% of folks that shop online will do so through a mobile device, according to eMarketer.
• 18% of females  use their mobile device to research products before purchasing them. Compare this to the 6% of women that will browse stores and 5% who ask for recommendations from friends. Though PC and laptop research surpasses mobile, with 71% of ladies using this method, mobile research continues to increase.
• More than 50% of women use a mobile device to find locations and hours of locations before visiting them.
• In 2011, PayPal did $4 billion in mobile transactions. In 2012, it completed $10 billion in mobile payments, according to Mashable.
• 73% of mobile shoppers reported they were satisfied or very satisfied with the mobile purchasing experience. 

To stay competitive and attract purchasers, it’s important to go where consumers are. It’s clear that mobile shopping continues to increase in popularity. Grab your smartphone or tablet; how does your website look on that device? If font is tiny, browsing is difficult or making purchases can’t be conducted easily, it’s time to think about making a mobile website.  Not sure where to start? No problem. We’d love to help. Let’s chat!

Some quick stats to keep in mind when constructing an email strategy:

• Within the B2B market, 40% of companies rated email marketing as a high-quality source for lead generation, according to Hubspot.
• The highest open rate falls in the retail apparel industry followed by business publishing and media in general, with 39% and 34% respectively. Travel and hospitality services came in third with a 31% open rate.
• Subject lines in emailing are very important, with 35% of people determining which messages to open simply based on the title, according to Convince & Convert.
• Promotional emails lead to 44% of recipients making a purchase within a year of receiving that message.
• Eight out of 10 smartphone users regularly check emails on their mobile device, according to PRDaily.
• It is anticipated that money invested in email marketing will grow 10% annually for the next five years.
•  More than half of people will unsubscribe because of receiving emails too frequently.

With that information in mind, it’s clear to see that email marketing is not dead. There are still email subscribers out there that you can attract, there are still ways to construct an effective email strategy and the bottom line is – emailing is probably worth your time.

Some pointers on constructing an effective marketing strategy for your brand:

Get an email list gathered

There are several ways of doing this. If you are starting from scratch, it’s important to understand that effective email marketing takes time and email lists don’t grow over night. Some beginning steps include adding an opt-in option on your website, share information on your social networks and include a link in the signature of emails to individuals that will allow them to easily sign up for your email newsletters. If people don't know you have a newsletter available, they can't subscribe. So, spread the word!

Pick the email marketing service that is right for you

There are tons of email marketing services out there that can help you construct and send a professionally designed message. Each has unique features, varying cost and can help with different aspects of an email strategy. Do some research and identify which will work for you.

       A few that we recommend:

• Mail Chimp
• Constant Contact
• Boomerang
• EmailBrain

Determine goal

What is it that you hope to accomplish with your email strategy? Before attempting to create an effective marketing, you must determine what your end goal is.

    Questions to consider:

• Do you hope to drive traffic to your website?
• Are you looking for sales conversions?  
• Do you want to spread the word about promotions?
• Do you want to keep your customers informed about company updates?

Integrate social media

Social media is undoubtedly a powerful tool; embrace that power and use it to help create an effective email strategy. Include “Share This” buttons within your email, embed email sign-up forms in social networks and encourage fans across all of your networks to subscribe to your newsletters.

Don’t bore them

Seriously, don’t bore them. No one wants to read a boring email. And if they do read a boring email once, they’ll likely ignore it from that company in the future. Provide some kind of incentive for people to actually check out your newsletters. It might be contests, promotions, email-only information – there are plenty of options; get creative.

Use relevant, concise information that will truly mean something to your audience. Don’t overfill it within information. Included in this, it’s imperative that you understand who your audience is. Some email services will break down demographics, genders, etc. of your email subscribers. Use this information to construct the messaging in your email strategy. Some brands will even tailor information to specific groups, and send a couple versions of the email designed to each group. This ensures that readers enjoy what they see and will continue reading your messages.

Your design is also important to intrigue your readers. Don’t overload it with images or text – use a nice balance of the two. Offering a plain-text only version can also increase your conversions. Some people simply don't want, or can't, see images in their email. 

Sending nonsensical emails will also bore potential customers. Determine a schedule on the frequency of your emails and stick with it. For instance, at Core3 Solutions we send emails once a month. It depends on your industry and your goals for how often emailing is necessary or welcomed by email subscribers.

Change things up

Many companies use one template and stick with it through their entire email strategy. Though it’s great to identify something that works and staying with it, it can also be helpful to switch things up and attempt get a higher open and conversion rate. A/B testing your strategy can increase the possibility of creating an effective email campaign. Something as simple as changing where a button or link is located can increase your conversions.

Mobile friendly

As stated above, email subscribes often check messages on a mobile device. To get your message across, you must go where they are and adapt to the mobile age.

Want to learn more about how we can help create an effective email strategy for your brand? Let’s chat! Also, don’t forget to sign up for our monthly newsletter.