Many businesses struggle with marketing on Instagram as the algorithm seems to be not in their favor, in this article we will be talking about how to use Instagram as a marketing tool for your business.

Why Use Instagram For Business?

Instagram For Business

With about one billion monthly active users, Instagram is the most popular social network worldwide. From gathering awareness to selling products, the app keeps introducing tools to help business owners succeed.

Is it beneficial for your business? Here are some of the reasons why small businesses should adopt this social media app-

1. Give a Face to Your Brand
2. Serves as a Trust Signal
3. You Can Reach a Lot of People
4. Networking with Like-Minded People
5. Boost Your Sales
6. Useful for Feedback and Insights

1. Give A Face To Your Brand

Your online reputation is crucial to your business, and because of this, you have to be vigilant about what comes up when a customer searches for your business or brand’s name online.

An eye-catching Insta feed can reflect your brand’s uniqueness and differentiate it from other businesses. A customer might search for your brand or business by name, or by hashtags relating to your business. In such a case, not finding you will be a bad experience and can lead them to a competitor’s page.

2. Serves As A Trust Signal

Having an Insta account for your business – especially a verified account – will help the customer to believe that your business is reputable, authentic, genuine, and transparent.

3. You Can Reach A Lot Of People

With millions of monthly users on the platform, Insta offers businesses a large potential audience. With the help of relevant hashtags, you can reach your target audience. You can even create targeted ads to reach your potential customers.

4. Networking With Like-Minded People

With the help of an Insta account, you can find people who share similar interests which, in turn, would expand your social network by collaborating with a brand or influencer to reach more users.

5. Boost Your Sales

With the help of Insta, you can promote your product or services on a large scale and drive more traffic to your website.

Even if you are launching a new product you can use this to provide a sneak peek into your latest launch.

6. Useful For Feedback And Insights

Your Instagram presence can help you keep track of your mentions on forums, blogs, and other social media platforms. People are probably posting pictures of the products they buy from you and recording videos about your brand. You can utilize this feature by getting feedback on your product and using them to improve.

Considering the above points, we can identify Instagram as an undeniably powerful tool to spread brand awareness.

Here’s how you can make the most of this tool:

1. Create a Business Instagram Account
2. Set Goals and Objectives
3. Advertise on the platform
4. Create a Content Calendar
5. Enhance Your Profile
6. Explore other Features
7. Post consistently
8. Use the Appropriate Hashtags

1. Create a Business Instagram Account

Set Up Your Instagram Business Account

Steps to create an Instagram business profile from scratch-

• Download the app for Windows, iOS, or Android.
• Open the app, and tap on ‘Sign up.
• Enter your e-mail address. You can also log in with Facebook if you already have a business account there.
• Choose a username and password and fill in other info.

By following these steps, you can create a “personal” account that can be further converted to a business profile. Below are the steps to convert your account into a business account.

• Go to your profile and press the three bars in the upper right-hand corner.
• Tap Settings, and tap on the Switch to Business profile option. You can also connect your business profile on Instagram with your business’s Facebook page. Add details about your business, including your name, username, profile picture, website URL, and a short bio.

2. Set Goals and Objectives

When using any marketing channel, it’s important to decide what goals you want to achieve by its use. The same goes for Instagram.

Common business goals are-

• Increasing brand awareness;
• Showcase company culture and values;
• Sell products and services.

Write your goals down and continuously monitor them which would encourage you and your team to create more engaging and relevant content.

3. Advertise On Instagram

Sell Directly On Instagram Using Your Business Account

Like other social platforms, Meta also provides businesses with the option to advertise. There are three formats for advertising on Instagram:

• Photo ads: An Insta photo ad looks similar to a post from any of the accounts you are already following but it includes a “Sponsored” notation in the corner to let people know they are looking at an advertisement.
• Video ads: These look like regular video posts, but with a Sponsored label on top which allows businesses to give users a closer look at their brand, products, and services.
• Carousel ads: Carousel ads make it easy and seamless to showcase more products by using more than one image or video.

All three ad formats appear in users’ home feeds.

4. Create a Content Calendar

A well-planned Instagram content calendar ensures that you do not miss important dates and events and allows you to make creative content with enough time.

Post your content when users are online. The algorithms consider “regency” a significant ranking signal, which is why posting when people are active on Instagram is one of the best ways to increase organic reach.

With a business account, you have the option to check the most popular days and hours for your audience:

• Go to your profile and tap on Insights.
• Beside Your Audience, click on See All.
• Scroll down to Most Active Times.

5. Enhance Your Profile

1. Write a great bio
2. Add a recognizable profile photo
3. Use Story Highlights and covers

1. Write a great bio

You get 150 characters with which you need to showcase your brand voice. It should include:

• A short and straight-to-the-point description of what your company does;
• Your category (Shopping, Retail, Restaurant, etc.);
• A tone that shows off your brand’s culture Contact information (phone number, email, address, etc.); and
• Add a CTA. You can keep a static link to your homepage.

2. Add a recognizable profile photo

It’s an important aspect that people instantly recognize your profile picture when they visit your Instagram profile. Most brands use their logo as a profile picture which is a great option to aid recognition.

3. Use Story Highlights and covers

It is one of the most popular features.

By organizing stories and highlights you can convert them into saved collections of your products, reviews, tips, frequently asked questions, etc. You can also easily interact with your users with the help of Instagram stickers for polls, questions, and sliding bars and get feedback. One such sticker says “Ask Me Anything”, which is a fun way to answer common questions.

6. Explore other Features

The app started as a simple photo-sharing app and now provides everything from live broadcasts to Reels. Here’s an overview of some of the formats that are great for your business advertisement:

• Reels: Reels are short videos on Instagram, where one can express their creativity and bring their brand to life.
• Stories: Insta stories can help you give a small behind-the-scenes as well as help redirect you to different websites using their link share tap.
• Live Stream: Up to four people can broadcast live on Instagram which can be used to display your products to your followers.
• Guides: It is a great way to organize your products based on bestsellers, new releases, categories, or demographics, for your users.

7. Post consistently

It’s not enough to just post quality content every once in a while. You need to post it consistently, so your audience knows that your brand is worth following.

According to the algorithm, posting regularly helps you show up in people’s feeds which gives them more chances to engage with you. The more constant you are with your content, the more often they’ll see it in their feed.

8. Involve in influencer marketing

Marketing With Instagram

This goes without saying how much Instagram influencers affect your branding. Making a list of micro, small, and large influencers whose personal branding compliments yours. for eg. Finance influencers are the best suited for you if you are an accounting software like ProfitBooks or provide other fintech solutions.

The collaboration will give you brand visibility the companies which are wholeheartedly using this technic are Skillshare, Netflix, etc.

8. Use the Appropriate Hashtags

Using hashtags make your content easier to find. Captions on the platform can not be searched, but hashtags can be. When someone clicks on or searches for a hashtag, they see all the connected content. You could start by adding hashtags like #instagood (used in over one billion posts), or #tbt (Throwback Thursday). If you are in an IT-related business, the hashtag #IT or #tech will be a good fit.

Conclusion:

With the help of the right marketing strategy, businesses can promote their products and services, boost their brand awareness, and increase sales on Instagram. But building up a business account and tracking your analytics isn’t as simple as it appears.

Are you starting your business completely from scratch?

Know what’s going on with your business with just a few clicks & take better decisions with ProfitBooks, an amazingly simple-to-use online accounting software that lets you create beautiful invoices, track expenses, and manage inventory without any accounting knowledge.

Find out how ProfitBooks can help you with your accounting needs.
Create your account for free today.

FAQs

1. How can Instagram help my small business?
   Instagram is a powerful platform that can help small businesses reach a wider audience, build brand awareness, engage with customers, and drive sales. By creating high-quality content, using relevant hashtags, and engaging with followers, small businesses can establish a strong presence on the app and attract new customers.
2. What types of content should I post on Instagram for my small business?
   Small businesses should focus on creating content that is visually appealing, engaging, and relevant to their target audience. This can include product photos, behind-the-scenes glimpses, customer testimonials, and industry news or trends. It’s also important to mix up your content and incorporate different formats like videos, Stories, and Reels.
3. How can I measure the success of my Instagram marketing efforts?
   To measure the success of your Instagram marketing efforts, you can track metrics such as engagement rate, follower growth, website traffic, and sales. Insights provide valuable data on your account’s performance, including reach, impressions, and profile visits.

Also Read:-

• Top Financial Mistakes Small Business Owners Make
• How To Fix Marketing Problems In Your Small Business
• Email Marketing for Small Businesses
• Top 10 YouTube Channels for Business Owners
• Facebook for business: everything you need to know
• How To Use Linkedin For Business Marketing

The post Instagram For Business – Ultimate Beginner’s Guide appeared first on ProfitBooks.net.

With over 2. 11 billion active users per month, Facebook is a social media platform that gives small businesses several ways to promote their products and services, increase customer support and boost recognition in the market.

Having a presence on Facebook is a must if you want your business’s content and products to your desired target audience.

Benefits of Facebook for Business

Facebook presents prominent marketing opportunities for businesses of any size and type. It has many potential benefits, some of which are listed below-

1. Low-cost marketing strategy
2. Publicize your business
3. Provides customer support
4. Targeted advertising

1. Low-cost marketing strategy

When compared to other social media platforms, Facebook offers relatively low-budget marketing tactics. This makes it the best fit for small to medium businesses with a limited marketing budget.

2. Publicize your business

A Facebook page can serve as a place where you can promote your business name, address and briefly describe your products and services. You can share your customer reviews and feedback with pictures and videos that are likely to attract other Facebook users and convert them into your customers.

3. Provides customer support

With the help of Facebook, you can communicate with customers and potential customers and acknowledge their feedback. Customers can post their questions on your Facebook wall which can, later on, be answered by your team.

4. Targeted advertising

Facebook analyzes all the information that millions of users enter into their profiles. You, being the owner of a business page, can pay to use this information and can further target your ad delivery. Your ads will be automatically visible to people who are most likely to find them relevant.

To use your Facebook page most effectively, you need to optimize your Facebook presence. The below-mentioned points will explain to you how to set up a Facebook page for your business, and how to use that page to engage with customers.

Creating a Facebook page for business

The first step is creating a Facebook Page for your business. And the best part is – Setting up a Facebook Page for your business is completely free!

To create a page you must have a personal profile(Your info won’t appear on your Business Page.)

Set up the page

1. Go to facebook.com/pages/create

2. Choose your page type:- Business/brand or Community/public figure and Enter your business details

3. Upload your profile and cover photos:- Remember you use images that can be easily identified as your business. The best way to go is to use your logo as your profile photo.

4. Click on Edit Page Info:- Here you can add a short description, contact details, opening hours, and other relevant information. Always maintain up-to-date information.

5. Click on Create Page:-  Add your username in this step. It can be up to 50 characters long. Try to use your business name as your username.

6. Set up a call to action:-  Click Add a Button under your cover photo to set up a call to action like “Shop” or “Contact Us.”For example, if you are a restaurant you can add the button ‘Book Now’.

7. Organize your page tabs:- You can rearrange and turn certain tabs on and off. Go to the settings, and click on ‘edit page’. Here you can prioritize which tabs you want customers to see first as they visit your page.

After setting up your Facebook Business page, you are all set to put in some valuable content on it.

You can create different types of posts on Facebook, depending on your social media strategy and objectives.

Types of Facebook Posts

1. Facebook text post
2. Facebook Image Post
3. Facebook Video Post
4. Facebook Live video
5. Facebook Stories
6. Carousel ads

1. Facebook text post

Text posts are direct and to the point.

You can use a text post to ask a question, call for feedback, or share important information that your audience might search for on your page like opening hours and product launching date.

2. Facebook Image Post

An eye-catching image post is an excellent way to attract a potential customer by scrolling through their news feed. Especially for product-based businesses, image posts can serve as a very significant way to display their products.

3. Facebook Video Post

As compared to Image posts, Video posts see even higher engagement rates. Your video post or ads need not have only filmed video footage. On Facebook, video plays automatically in the news feed which increases the chances to engage your audience.

4. Facebook Live video

Facebook Live video is a live-streamed broadcast on your Facebook Page. It is a great way to interact with your audience. You can share behind-the-scenes tours and product demos, and the viewers can ask questions and post comments on life itself.

6. Facebook Stories

Exactly like Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories are photos or short videos that disappear after 24 hours. They appear at the top of the News Feed and give an intriguing sneak peek of the business’ content to the users.

7. Carousel ads

A carousel ad is used to show up to 10 images or videos displaying your product or service. In such ads, you can add the “Shop Now” button below them that goes directly to the sales page.

Advertising on Facebook can be an easy and effective way to increase your reach but to use it most effectively, you need to build a solid strategy for Facebook marketing.

Tips for an Effective Facebook Marketing Strategy-

1. Know your audience
2. Post at the best times for your audience
3. Set goals
4. Choose Your Budget
5. Create your Group.
6. Track and optimize performance

1. Know your audience

To engage your audience, you must have an idea of what kind of people will be interested in your page’s content and then take a look at Facebook Audience Insights to gather information on things such as Age, Gender, Past purchasing activity, etc.

2. Post at the best times for your audience

You must post your content at times when your audience is online. For getting an idea, check out the post analytics in your Facebook Page Insights. Click on ‘Insights’ on the top menu bar and then click Posts in the left column, and select ‘When your fans are online.

3. Set goals

It is very essential to define a strong goal that relates to your business objectives. Every business should mainly focus on –

• Generating leads
• Increasing conversions on your website
• Improving customer service

You can create a Facebook mission statement and Facebook-style guide that defines a consistent tone of your content.

4. Choose Your Budget

The budget is the amount of money that you want to spend on your ad. There are two types of budgets-

• Daily Budget: Your ad will run continuously during the day, and Facebook will measure your spending per day.
• Lifetime Budget: The ad will run at a specified length that you choose. Facebook will measure your spending for this set period.

5. Create your Group.

Create your own Facebook groups where you can add members, publish articles, carry on discussions, etc. You can also use them to showcase your expertise to your fans.

6. Track and optimize performance

Facebook Insights helps to determine which types of posts work best for your Page so that you can make adjustments wherever necessary.

Conclusion

Facebook is an easy marketing tool for small businesses to develop their brand on a budget. Facebook features like Facebook groups, Facebook ads, Facebook pages, etc. Will not only give you online visibility but also help you create a community around your brand.

Free tools are a blessing for business owners. As it helps you to put your capital where it is needed the most, which is in improving the quality of your product and service. We here at ProfitBooks understand the importance of free tools, hence we have a “forever free plan” for startups and small business owners. In this plan, you can create beautiful invoices as well as carry out other accounting activities for your business with ease. Our software is developed with the business owners in mind, so even without any experience in accounting you can use our software to carry out your accounting-related activities.

Visit our website for more information.

FAQ’s

Can I create a business page on Facebook for free?

Yes, creating a business page on Facebook is free of charge. However, if you want to run Facebook Ads or boost your posts to reach a larger audience, you’ll need to pay for advertising.

How can I increase my followers and engagement on my Facebook business page?

To increase your followers and engagement, you should post regular updates, use high-quality visuals, respond to comments and messages promptly, use Facebook Ads to reach a wider audience, and join relevant Facebook groups to network with other businesses and potential customers.

Can I sell products or services directly on my Facebook business page?

Yes, Facebook has a built-in feature called Facebook Shop that allows you to set up an online store on your business page. You can list your products or services, add prices and descriptions, and allow customers to make purchases directly through the platform.

How can I track my Facebook business page’s performance?

Facebook provides detailed analytics on your page’s performance, including insights into your reach, engagement, and audience demographics. You can access this data in your Facebook Insights dashboard.

What are the best practices for using Facebook for business?

Some best practices for using Facebook for business include creating high-quality and engaging content, responding to comments and messages promptly, using Facebook Ads to reach a wider audience, analyzing your page’s performance regularly, and staying up-to-date with Facebook’s policies and guidelines to avoid any violations.

Also Read:-

• Top Financial Mistakes Small Business Owners Make
• How To Fix Marketing Problems In Your Small Business
• Email Marketing for Small Businesses
• Top 10 YouTube Channels for Business Owners

The post Facebook for Business: Everything You Need to Know appeared first on ProfitBooks.net.

1. Respona
2. Google Analytics
3. Mixpanel 
4. Dashclicks
5. PersistIQ
6. Marketo
7. ProfitBooks
8. Buzzstream
9. Beacon
10. Content snare
11. HubSpot CRM + Sales pro
12. Moz Pro
13. Ahrefs
14. Hootsuite
15. Buffer
16. Tube Buddy
17. Grammarly
18. Canva
19. Fotor
20. Drift
21. Nickelled
22. ContactOut
23. Mailchimp
24. Unless
25. IntentData.io
26. Proof
27. Upfluence
28. Screaming Frog
29. Trello

1) Respona

2) Google analytics

3) Mixpanel

4) DashClicks

• Agency Website: This in-built tool helps you design your agency website within minutes and customize it as per your requirement, eliminating the need for month-long coding and development processes.
• InstaSites: Through InstaSites, you can build websites for your clients with no explicit coding knowledge or hiring website developers. You can even make them in bulk, saving you a lot of time and money.
• InstaReports: This fantastic tool helps you create campaign reports for potential clients to help them see why they need your agency’s services for their business to grow.

5) PersistIQ

6) Marketo

7) ProfitBooks

• Professional invoices: Invoices are an essential financial element of any business to maintain a steady cash flow. With ProfitBooks you can create professional invoices with a few clicks and send them to your clients to keep your AR on track. Timely invoice reminds also facilitate your cash flow.
• Inventory management: Another financial aspect that ProfitBooks can take care of is your inventory and sales tracking. You can track the inventory in each step of your manufacturing process efficiently even at multiple production sites and product batches.
• Chat support: Another essential feature that makes ProfitBooks one of the best software in the market is that it provides online chat support to help you out when you get stuck somewhere. 

8) BuzzStream

9) Beacon

10) Content snare

11) HubSpot CRM + Sales pro

12) Moz Pro

13) Ahrefs

14) Hootsuite

15) Buffer

16) Tube Buddy

17) Grammarly

18) Canva

19) Fotor

20) Drift

21) Nickelled

22) ContactOut

23) Mailchimp

24) Unless

25) IntentData.io

26) Proof

27) Upfluence

28) Screaming Frog

29) Trello

30) Creatosaurus

Summing up!

Read Next:

The post Top Digital Marketing Software Tools appeared first on ProfitBooks.net.

To open a sales email, or not to; this is a common question that every person (including you and I) faces every single day.

B2B buyers receive hundreds of emails regularly. They only open a small fraction of sales emails, read even fewer, and act on a very small percentage of them—whether by sending a response or clicking on a link.

While the question lingers, the answer to this one can make a huge difference in your paycheck, when the reader of your email is a potential client!

How can you ensure that your sales e-mails are not just opened and read, but also acted upon?

In this post, I’ll show you the ways to write the best sales emails that people would want to read and that will generate sales for you!

How To Create Sales Emails That People Would Wanna Read

According to research, the average person receives over 100 e-mails every day, only opens 23% of them, and only clicks on 2% of them.

If you’re sending a sales email, you need to be part of that 2%.

But how can you get someone to not just read but also respond to your e-mail? The trick is to craft a persuasive sales email that they won’t be able to ignore.

Writing and delivering a successful email needs significant consideration and planning. You’ll need a good opener, closing, and body.

Here are the steps to creating e-mails that will grab your reader’s attention:

1. Write a gripping subject line
2. Begin your message on the right foot
3. Make a connection with the reader through the e-mail body
4. Close your e-mail on a strong note
5. Leave a mark with your signature

1. Write a gripping subject line

The first hurdle you must overcome is the subject line.

Gripping Subject Line For Your Sales Email

Source: Salesmate

47% of individuals read e-mails only based on their subject line. That means that no matter how amazing the content of your email is if the subject line fails to get them to open it, it won’t be read.

The subject line of your e-mail should capture the reader’s curiosity and encourage them to click.

“Quick query,” “Thoughts on,” and “Have you considered” are all possible phrases to use.

Some tips for writing good subject lines:

? Personalize your subject lines
? Keep your subject lines short
? Ask questions
? Create a sense of urgency
? Maintain a consistent message that your brand sends
? A/B test different subject lines to know what works best for you

Here are some examples of the subject lines that get opened:

? John, check out these hand-picked offers just for you
? Do you have 5 minutes to jump on a call, Ryan?
? Rachel here’s the free eBook you requested
? A resource to help with the POS system [Or any issue you want to highlight]
? Jay, want to learn more about data mining?
? A special discount just for you, Jason
? Brandon, I have a personalized deal for you!
? I can solve your lead generation issue in 2 weeks!

2. Begin your message on the right foot

You’re missing a significant chance if you start your sales email with “Hello, my name is…”
You must establish a connection with the prospect right away. You can achieve this by talking about them.

“You can make more friends in two months by being interested in them than you can make in two years by making them interested in you,” Dale Carnegie

Before contacting your prospect, do some research on them and their firm. Check to see if there’s anything you can say that will catch their attention, such as a recent announcement they’ve made.

Here’re the best practices for the opening paragraph:

? Connect your opening line with your subject line
? Get straight to the point
? Don’t waste your readers’ time
? Build the right context

Sales Email Opening Paragraph

3. Make a connection with the reader through the email body

After you’ve piqued the prospect’s interest with the subject line and opening phrases, you need to entice them further by describing the value your business can bring.

Consider talking about a typical problem they’re encountering and how your organization can help them solve it. Share tangible evidence, such as success stories or data, about the impact you’ve had on other businesses.

However, ask yourself what you want to accomplish with this e-mail before you sit down to compose your pitch. Different stages of the sales process need different approaches while creating sales emails.

Make a list of the main objectives you want to achieve from your sales e-mail:

? Is it to get a click on a link and make a sale?
? Is it to pique the prospect’s curiosity and schedule a meeting?
? Is it to entice people to try your product for free?

Here are some tips to keep in mind while writing your e-mail body:

? Give enough information about who you are. Start your email body by stating some more facts about yourself since your introductory lines don’t say anything about you. This can also help you develop your credibility and give the prospect greater faith in your service/product and company.

? In one easy sentence, state the problem you’re solving. Use that one pitch that summarizes your offerings in the fewest possible words, and if you don’t have one, now is the moment to write one!

? Emphasize the advantages that you can provide to your prospects. To emphasize what the one-line summing-up pitch was about, use bullet points.

? Use particular use cases that prospects can relate to so they won’t be able to ignore the benefits they’ll receive if they invest in you.

Sales Email Body Writing Tips

4. Close your email on a strong note

If you’re sending a sales e-mail to a prospect, you’re probably expecting a response. While drafting your e-mails, ask yourself a few questions:

Why are you sending this email?

What are your expectations?

To drive the sale along, you must present the prospect with the next steps. Request a meeting, a phone call, or a demo.

Their answer will also reveal the success of your sales email.

Closing statements are not as straightforward as they appear.

If you end your sales email with a direct CTA button, it’s clear that you expect the prospect to act immediately.

As a sales rep, it is your responsibility to take your prospect through the steps of entering the sales funnel and becoming a customer.

If you’ve done everything right from the start, you’ll want to be careful with this final step, especially if you don’t want your email to end up in the trash.

Here are some tips when you’re adding CTAs to your sales e-mail:

? Multiple CTAs will not boost your conversion rates; in fact, they will confuse and even overwhelm your prospects. In a cold email, ask for as little as possible so that you can get what you need on time.

? Be very clear with what you want from the prospect. If you want to set up a call, give your number on the CTA. If you want to schedule a demo, give your calendar link. It’s simple!

? Put the CTA in the right space. Putting it in between two sentences is wrong. Putting it after your pitch is right.

? There can be multiple CTAs and not necessarily profit-driven. Your resource link is also a CTA because it encourages prospects to take action. If you’re putting multiple CTAs, make sure you understand the importance of each.

The best CTAs are the polar opposite of what we’ve explored thus far. It’s a plain, easy, and sensible request for a sales e-mail.

Add A CTA To Your Sales Email

5. Leave a mark with your signature

Your e-mail signature should not overshadow the call to action in your conclusion, but it should provide more information in case the prospect needs it.

This could contain information such as your phone number, email address, social media profiles, and corporate website.

Don’t make the reader’s eyes glaze over with an excessively busy signature. Remove the photos and motivational words. To avoid the reader being too distracted, keep it straightforward and concise.

Some tips for writing impressive email signatures:

? Include press articles
? Add recordings from webinars that your company holds
? Link case studies
? Link YouTube videos

Trial And Error With The Timing Of Sending Your Emails

When should you send these magnificent emails? There are some studies. But to be honest, any sales rep cannot afford to send all of his e-mails in a 2-hour window.

The best time to contact someone depends on a variety of factors, including who you’re contacting.
There are numerous studies devoted to examining sales and marketing email scheduling, as well as numerous competing viewpoints, but it all boils down to your specific contact list. Experiment with different sending schedules to determine what works best for you.

Email Open Rate By Time Of Day

Source: Seopresser

To write the best sales emails that get opened, read, and acted upon, you need to make sure that you get every component of the sales email right!

Remember to double-check everything before sending your sales email, create email segments, and manage your lists mindfully.

For example, ensure that your contact’s name is valid and there are no spelling errors. Also, send a test email to get a sense of how your customers would react to it.

Finally, if you want to give your Sales Email a personal touch, use a phrase that will catch your customer’s attention.

Always keep in mind, in the end, it all comes down to your copy.

Conclusion

Crafting effective sales emails requires careful attention to detail and strategic planning. To maximize the chances of your emails being opened, read, and acted upon, there are several key elements to consider. First and foremost, the subject line plays a crucial role in capturing the reader’s curiosity and encouraging them to click. Personalization, concise messaging, and a sense of urgency can greatly enhance the effectiveness of your subject lines.

By following these guidelines and continuously refining your approach through trial and error, you can increase the effectiveness of your sales emails and ultimately generate more sales.

But to manage the increased revenue resulting from these sales, you will need trustworthy accounting software that has been in the game for a decade.

ProfitBooks is one of the fastest-growing, leading, and most reliable online software in the world of accounting. With ProfitBooks, you can’t just track expenses but also manage inventory, create invoices and do a lot of things online.

And that too for free!

What’s amazing about ProfitBooks is that it is user-friendly, full-featured, and also has a simple and beautiful interface.

Moreover, it has a mobile application too, which makes your accounting on the go!

Find out how ProfitBooks can help you with your accounting needs!  Create your account for free today.

Also Read:-

Best FREE Email Marketing Tools For Smal Businesses

5 Kickass Cold Email Software

What is Cloud Accounting, And How it Will Help Your Business

Email Marketing For Small Businesses

The post How To Write An Ideal Sales Email To Get Responses appeared first on ProfitBooks.net.

Businesses are looking for effective ways to boost their presence and engagement with a limited budget, ensuring the money is well spent.

Email marketing has experienced huge growth in the past decade. Besides, 73% of customers prefer email as a marketing channel between businesses and consumers.

With more organizations adopting emails in their marketing, small businesses are no exception. Multiple advantages can be seen from email marketing as it can bring a potential return on investment of up to 41 times! 

If we haven’t convinced you enough, keep reading as we are about to give you complete guidance on how this technique can be used for your business.

Email Marketing: What Is It?

What is email marketing?

In simple terms, email marketing is showcasing, advertising, and promoting your business via email. When successful, this brings you financial results and builds relationships between brands and their customers.

With email being two-way communication, businesses need to understand that it is not only about pushing promotions and getting spammy. This will not bring the organization any long-term results or relationships.

Consistency is key in this technique, so if you are looking for lasting success, you should get to know your subscribers and communicate with them.

You should also keep them up to date with the relevant information, respond to their comments and concerns, evaluate your performance, and create strategies that will contribute to successful business growth.

Benefits of Email Marketing

Email marketing can be very resourceful for Businesses. Its ability to target different segments and reach large numbers of people allows growth.

So let’s look into some great advantages and see how this could benefit your organization.

• Brand recognition: Emailing for business lead generation allows you to brand your emails. You can put logos or any other brand-related attributes which you will consistently use in the emails. After a while, the readers will be able to recognize the company online and offline, but of course, your branding needs to be consistent everywhere.
• Segmentation and personalized content: Email marketing enables you to segment your audience into smaller groups based on the information you have about them (age, gender, location, purchasing behavior, etc.). With the segments and information you have about the subscribers, you can tackle customized emails that are more personal and based on the recipients’ preferences.
• Website traffic: Once you send your emails, you can include the links to the blog or website for people to follow. When sending an email campaign to the subscriber, you should always add a call-to-action button. A link directing your clients to the website is an excellent opportunity to increase traffic and get people interested in the product or service you are offering.
• Relationship building: This is an excellent way to tackle the relationships between a business and its customers. Once you have information on your subscribers, it is easy to provide them with the content they need and want. You can also pay special attention to loyal customers by sending personalized birthday coupons or any other special offers to show your appreciation.
• Evaluation and analytics: Business emailing has excellent analysis methods that help businesses learn from their mistakes and do better. You can monitor opening rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, or any other information which can help you evaluate your progress. With some testing and performance review, you will tackle the campaigns that won’t be denied.

Small Business Email Marketing: The Steps

Now you know the benefits and cannot wait to try this technique out. However, there are a few steps you have to follow to successfully enter the game:

• Email List: Before the entire email process, you must gather the data. To do that, you need to collect email addresses to send the email campaigns and, if possible, some other information for segmentation and personalization. To do that, you should create a sign-up form that you could use on your social media platforms, website, or blog. Ensure that your sign-up is easy to understand, so people are fully aware of what they will get. Also, make it simple as people will not be filling out long sign-up forms where they have to fill in tons of fields before they can subscribe to your email.
• Content: Once you collected the list of people you can send the emails to, it is time to think about the content. Decide on what type of emails you will be sending and of course, think about your organization’s goals and strategies that need to be implemented.
  
  Here is a list of emails you might want to consider for your small business:

1. Welcome Emails
2. Purchase Confirmation Emails
3. Abandoned Cart Emails
4. Seasonal Messages (Christmas, Easter, birthdays, or any other holiday)
5. Loyalty Programs for VIP Customers
6. Promotional and Sales Emails
7. Weekly/Monthly/Quarterly Newsletters 

• Email Design: After deciding on the type of emails you will send to your subscribers, the email design process should start. But before you begin, you should always keep your goals and strategies in mind to ensure that you can evaluate and analyze the performance later on.
  When creating emails, ensure your text is nicely spaced, and there are some supporting visuals within it. Images, GIFs, and videos can also be added to attract attention. Seasonal or brand colors should also be incorporated. Also, do not forget about the subject line, as it is the first thing your recipient will see – an engaging start would be beneficial.
  Lastly, your email should always include a call-to-action button that will ask your subscribers to take a particular action (go to your website, blog, make a purchase, download a file, etc.).

Email Marketing Tools

5 Cold Email Solutions Logos

Email marketing would not be available without tools that help you create stunning email campaigns that deliver. An email marketing tool will help you with design and creation as most of the platforms have inbuilt library templates you can look at and adapt to your emails.

Moreover, you will have segmentation opportunities, where the data about your subscribers can be stored and, later on, applied to personalize the campaigns. 

Also, the tools have integration abilities so that you can connect your e-commerce store or any other site to your email marketing platform. Automations are essential, too, since you will be able to set automatic emails which will be sent after a customer has taken a specific action.

All business emailing tools also have excellent performance evaluation and analytics options so you can review your results efficiently, and adjust and adapt your content, strategies, or goals if required. 

Lastly, it is important that email marketing tools would be budget-friendly as small businesses do not have much funds to invest. The majority of the platforms offer a free plan or at least a free trial with some of the features included.

Email Marketing Tool – Sender

Luckily, one email marketing platform offers a free forever plan that includes all of the features mentioned above! Sender allows enjoying the benefits of email marketing by supplying all the functions free of charge so you can tackle your email campaigns without stressing about the finances. 

Summary: Email Marketing for Small Businesses

Whether the business is big or small, email marketing can help to tackle the strategies and goals. By including emails in your marketing, you will benefit from better brand recognition, increased website traffic, and stronger relationships with your clients. Besides, you will have an opportunity to provide your subscribers with personalized content, especially for them!

Before you start the sales email journey, you should build an email list, decide what types of emails are needed for the business, and start creating content and designing the layouts. Once you send your campaigns, it is necessary to evaluate the performance and check what could be improved to step up your game even further.

Lastly, to give you a helping hand, an emailing tool is a must! It will benefit you with many features that will ease your work. There are many free options to use so that you could save the funds of your small business for another matter.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1. What NOT to do in email marketing?

A1. Make sure to avoid these at all costs:

• Avoid spamming or sending irrelevant emails to prevent unsubscribes and negative reactions.
• Always obtain permission before adding individuals to your email list.
• Personalize your content to engage subscribers and make a meaningful connection.
• Use honest and accurate subject lines that reflect the email’s content to maintain trust.
• Optimize emails for mobile devices to ensure easy readability on any screen.
• Test and analyze your email campaigns regularly for continuous improvement and better results.

Q2. What is a safe list in email marketing?

A2. A safe list, in the context of email communication, is a predefined list of trusted email addresses or domains that are exempted from spam filters. When an email sender is added to the safe list, their messages are more likely to bypass spam filters and reach the intended recipient’s inbox directly.

This ensures that important and desired emails from trusted sources are not mistakenly flagged as spam and end up in the spam folder. By maintaining a safe list, recipients have more control over the emails they receive, ensuring that legitimate messages from approved senders are delivered promptly.

Q3. Is emailing for a business lead generation still relevant?

A3. Yes, Email marketing continues to be relevant in today’s digital landscape. It offers a cost-effective way to engage with a targeted audience, deliver personalized content, and drive conversions. With measurable results and integration capabilities, it remains a powerful tool for businesses to nurture customer relationships and achieve marketing goals.

Also Read:-

Best FREE Email Marketing Tools For Small Businesses

5 Kickass Cold Email Software

How To Write An Ideal Sales Email To Get Responses

How To Boost Your Email Marketing Using Videos

The post Effective Email Marketing For Small Businesses appeared first on ProfitBooks.net.

In the business world, ‘It’s not about what you sell but how much and how well you sell it,’ states Brian Halligan, CEO & Co-Founder, of HubSpot.

And marketing is the key to increasing your sales in the business world. However, marketing in the traditional sense of the word no longer exists.

In the digital era, marketing is incomplete without digital marketing strategies, so businesses spend more and more on their digital marketing strategies.

As of 2021, firms are expected to use 50% of the total marketing budget for digital marketing strategies.

Keeping up with the industry changes and incorporating digital marketing into your marketing strategies is essential; however, that doesn’t mean that you will succeed every time. Only 58% of marketers feel they are often successful with their digital marketing strategies.

I’m sure you must be investing a considerable amount of time and money in your digital marketing efforts.

Do you feel that your digital marketing strategies do not provide you with the desired results?  Then follow our 8-step guide to improve your digital marketing efficiently.

In this article, we explain our tried and tested techniques that will help you get the best returns on your digital marketing efforts.

Hubspot CEO Quote – Digital Marketing

1) Redefine your marketing strategy as per your goals

People believe that one of the significant benefits of switching to digital marketing is that it is simpler than traditional marketing, which is true.

However, that does not mean you can simply implement a strategy and forget all about it. Just like traditional marketing, digital marketing also requires setting specific goals and timeframes to achieve goals. Understand your audience base and revamp your digital marketing goals and strategies accordingly.

Doing so is essential because the digital world is fast-paced, and market trends change frequently. Therefore, you need to know what’s relevant now and how your audience responds to a particular strategy. 

2) Create/hire your digital marketing team

The urge to do everything by yourself can be pretty tempting, especially if you run a small business. The motivation may be the feeling of independence or saving up on costs.

However, it is best to hire a professional third-party agency that can take care of all your digital marketing management.

Here are the experts you need to look for in your digital marketing team.

• Marketing storyteller: Storytelling is one of the most compelling ways to communicate with people. It has been used for generations in marketing effectively, and it remains a winning sales pitch even in the digital era. Every brand has a story that helps them connect with their audience, and you need to hire a storyteller who can create unique stories to reach out to your audience that has the essence of your brand.
• Content curators: Your content creators need to create a lot of original content for every campaign. However, using the existing content on the internet and portraying it in a new way can help reduce the workload. And this is where content curators come into the picture. They use the existing content to get the best out of it for your brand.
• Data managers: Another crucial element of any digital marketing team is the people who manage the data. A data manager will analyze the data from your various digital platforms, such as your social media platforms, websites, and other channels, to get insights into your performance.
• Customer service liaison: Customer experience plays a vital role in marketing. You need to ensure that your customers can communicate and interact with your businesses seamlessly to provide a better user experience in the long run. And for that, you need to have a customer service liaison in your marketing team.

Just make sure that the team you choose understands the brand requirements and resonates with its values.

3) Focus on SML

SML for digital marketing

Here SML stands for social media, mobile, and local as these three elements act as the frames in which you need to fit your digital marketing strategies.

They give you the best results. Here’s why:

• Social media: It has become the most common platform where your audience will look for you to know what your business represents. It is a means of interaction and communication. Its reach is so vast that it also affects your SEO strategy, so you need to enhance your social media marketing efforts.
• Mobile: Almost 90% of the population now uses the internet through mobile, which is why you need to optimize all your marketing channels like SEO, social media, and paid ads for mobile.
• Local: Most businesses rely on the local audience for revenue, but they go national or international when creating digital marketing strategies and rarely get the desired results. Therefore, you need to focus on your local SEO and focus on local regions while targeting your audience for other channels.

4) Create multi-channel campaigns

A lot of businesses focus on just one channel to generate results in digital marketing. This practice reduces their engagement levels and conversions, as studies show that customers check at least six mediums before trusting a brand or business and using their services.

Having multi-channel campaigns helps you create more engagement levels and conversions through your digital marketing channels. You should also diversify within the channels to increase your reach.

For example: When creating a campaign for your social media, target multiple social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Instead of just focusing on one with the most extensive audience base.

5) Develop an exceptional content creation strategy

In the digital world, content is king, and it is valid for all your digital marketing channels. Therefore, you need to have exceptional content that is unique, engaging, and relevant to your audience. And the challenge is you need to keep doing it again and again for each campaign.

That’s why you need to have a foolproof strategy for content creation.

Here are five tips you can follow to create exceptional content:

• Define the objective: We design each content with a purpose in mind. Identify that purpose first. It can be to build brand awareness, generate leads, or increase sales.
• Learn from the data: Creating a content strategy is all about using the available information and gathering insights to understand your audience and create the content accordingly.
• Formulate a plan: Always have a plan as to how you will move with the execution part. Who will do what, and how the result will look? It will help you simplify the process and get the best results.
• Set the tone: Even if you are creating something unique and new every day, it is essential to set a tone that resonates with your brand and to implement it in all your content
• Repurpose: Use the existing content and repurpose it in a new manner to save time and effort. It is best if you use the content that had the most engagement level in the previous form.
• Be open to ideas: Content is all about creativity, and thinking out of the box is a must-have to succeed in the digital world. Never forget to enhance your content with visuals, audio, and videos.

6) Optimize the content

Often businesses create content and publish it and forget about it. And this mistake leads to a loss of conversions and leads. Therefore keep optimizing your content by adding relevant links, high-quality images, videos, and other elements that offer value addition.

Set up a mechanism to check existing content on a quarterly or yearly basis and make optimizations.

Remove old and broken links and replace them with relevant ones. 

7) Rely on automation

All this can seem like a mammoth task when you get to it, and it is if you don’t work smart. Working smart entails using automation to eliminate repetitive tasks that take up time and resources.

Use free automation tools whenever you can reduce the workload and streamline the process. It will help you save time and focus on things that require your attention more. 

Some of the best automation tools in the market include:

Marketo: It is a digital marketing automation tool that can take care of all your engagements at every platform, including email marketing and social media management. The personalization and visualization features make this tool one of the best in the league.

DashClicks: Another automation tool that is in a league of its own. It is designed explicitly for B2B businesses that want to focus on scaling. It has innovative inbuilt tools such as Agency Website, InstaSite, and InstaReports that help you grow your business.

ProfitBooks: It is an automation tool for all your accounting needs. Whether it is bookkeeping or keeping track of inventory or managing other financial aspects of your business, ProfitBooks can take care of everything without you having to hire someone with accounting knowledge.

ProfitBooks – 100% FREE Accounting Software

HubSpot: This tool has various digital marketing tools for CRM, sales, and inbound marketing to make all your digital marketing platforms. With HubSpot, you get a one-stop shop that offers all the functionalities avoiding the need for multiple tools.

HubSpot is a powerful platform that revolutionizes digital marketing efforts. With its suite of integrated tools, it enables businesses to streamline and optimize their marketing strategies. HubSpot provides comprehensive solutions for lead generation, email marketing, social media management, content creation, and analytics.

Its robust CRM system allows businesses to track and nurture leads effectively. The automation features save time and effort, enabling marketers to focus on strategy and creativity.

HubSpot’s user-friendly interface and extensive educational resources empower marketers to master digital marketing techniques.

By leveraging HubSpot, businesses can enhance their customer engagement, increase conversion rates, and drive sustainable growth in the digital landscape.

Hubspot to aid Digital Marketing

Omnisend: If you are into e-commerce, then Omnisend is an automation tool that you must have. With its pre-created workflows, powerful data collection methods, and templates for every category of products, Omnisend can make your e-commerce marketing a breeze.

8) Continuous improvement is the key

Applying digital marketing strategies is a continuous process, and you need to develop,  control, and measure it. Measure your outputs and compare them with the goals you had set before starting.

Analyze the data and identify what went wrong. Then take those insights and implement them in your next strategy to get better results.

Wrapping up

Not a concluding note, we want to say that digital marketing is becoming highly competitive with each passing day. To survive, you need to stay ahead of the game and use the tools you have to get the best outcomes.

However, the best part is there is always scope for more growth if you just keep working on your goals.

Hope you liked these tips. Please share your thoughts or queries in the comments section below.

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