Sponsored content presents bloggers and website owners with the rewarding option to monetize their material and work with sponsors. However, it can carry the risk of sacrificing editorial integrity and alienating some readers. This should always be taken into account. In this post, we’ll examine the benefits and potential pitfalls of this well-liked marketing tactic as we weigh the pros and cons. 

What Is Sponsored Content and Why It Matters?

So how does sponsored content work?

It’s simple, really. Someone pays you to publish a post on your website, and you do.  But if you want a solid definition, here it goes:

Sponsored content is a kind of advertising in which businesses pay bloggers and other content producers to produce articles that advertise their goods or services. Videos, podcasts, blog articles, and posts on social media are all common formats for this material.

A brand often approaches a blogger or content producer with an invitation to cooperate as the first step in the process. The brand may have certain content concepts in mind, or it may leave it to the blogger to come up with content that supports the brand’s messaging.

Even your favorite YouTuber’s 10-second mention of a product falls under the category of sponsored content.

As a blogger or website owner, you can either receive a flat fee for your services, or you can be paid an affiliation commission per sale that comes from your audience. All of this is great; however, It’s important to note that sponsored content should be clearly labeled as such in accordance with advertising regulations. 

This helps readers or viewers understand that the content is promotional in nature and can help maintain the trust between the content creator and their audience.

The Pros of Sponsored Content

• Increases your cash flow: Sponsored content gives content producers the chance to monetize their platforms and profit from their labor.
• Gives you exposure: Sponsored content may bring new goods or services to a blogger’s readers who might not have known about them otherwise, boosting exposure for both the business and the blogger.
• Allows for artistic freedom: Content creators frequently have the ability to generate material that supports their own brands and interests while also supporting sponsors.
• Helps build relationships: Sponsored content partnerships may result in long-lasting bonds between brands and content producers, which may open up new options for cooperation and employment.

The Cons of Sponsored Content

• Poses a risk of content blur: Sponsored material may occasionally blur the distinction between editorial and commercial content, putting the blogger’s editorial integrity and audience confidence in jeopardy.
• May alienate your audience: An unduly commercial may push readers or users away, which can result in a decline in audience engagement and trust.
• It’s more time-consuming than simply running ads: Producing sponsored content might take a lot of effort because it frequently involves more preparation and organization than creating regular content.
• Comes with legal considerations: Sponsored material must adhere to advertising standards, and doing so may subject both the company and the blogger to legal repercussions.

What Are the Best Practices for Sponsored Content Posting?

When you’ve already built an established audience, they know you. The last thing your audience wants from you is to change. Be transparent with them, and if you mention anything that is sponsored, make sure it is clear right from the start that you are profiting from it.

That way, people would know what you genuinely promote and share with them for free and what is simply an advertisement. 

Aside from being 100% transparent, it’s a good idea to make sure the sponsored material is consistent with your brand and the interests of your audience. Work with companies that share your beliefs and don’t promote contentious or objectionable topics.

And another very important thing to do is to never prioritize sponsored content over your own. Keep a healthy ratio of promotions and real content on your website. Because eventually, you might drown in your own promotions. 

Disclose your affiliate links, and never accept all propositions that come your way. Some of them will have a bad effect on your followers. Rule them out, it’s your business, you are the boss!

Create the Best Experience 

Sponsored content is a good way to go after you’ve built a great audience that trusts you. However, losing that trust is never an option. Be careful. Before you dive into sponsored content, there are many other safer options to go for like subscriptions and subtle ad optimization that can generate a great and steady cash flow that doesn’t rely on partnerships. Make sure to check Publir’s solutions for these.

The post What Are the Pros and Cons of Sponsored Content? first appeared on Publir.

Benefits of Monetization

There are several benefits of monetizing your business in addition to making a monetary profit:

1. Increased Prestige – Monetizing your content can make your readers feel more important. Readers get a sense of exclusivity if some of your content is behind a paywall. Oftentimes, they are happy to pay for exclusive content. Additionally, even a small charge for your content makes it seem higher in value in the eyes of the readers.

2. Higher Quality Content – If you are charging money for your content, you have constantly strive for better quality. People can quickly cancel their subscriptions if they find the content sub-par. When you start monetizing your content, you have to invest more time and energy into content quality. Subscribers usually get exclusive access to quality content and premium perks which makes the subscription more attractive to them.

3. Increased Income – Monetizing your content creates multiple streams of revenue. Instead of just relying on advertisements on your website, creating a subscription-based or membership model can help you diversify your revenue sources.

4. Increase Reader Loyalty – By switching to subscription-based paid models, you can actually increase your readers’ loyalty. Readers who invest their time and money in a business are more loyal to it than those who don’t. Readers who have paid for your content want your business to do well.

Planning and Providing High-Quality Content

As mentioned above, subscription-based businesses have to commit to high-quality content to sustain the interest of their readers. Content is an asset for your business, so you must invest in high-quality content writers and editors. Good content should be clear, consistent, user-centered, concise, useful, and supported by references. Here are some things that you should keep in mind while creating content:

1. Having a Purpose – Your content should have a clear purpose, i.e., why are we creating this content? If you can’t answer this question, you might need to re-evaluate your content strategy.

2. Having a Measurable Goal – When you have a purpose for your content, you can measure the effectiveness and ROI of the content.

3. Keeping the Audience in Mind – It is important to keep your audience in mind. You need to understand whom you are creating this content for. You might have to use customer research, drive personas and conduct user analysis.

4. Using Specific Channels – You should know what channels your audience is using to create content tailored for that specific channel. Rather than just creating one type of content and sharing it across different channels, you can cater to your audience’s needs better if you tailor your content according to the channel.

Structuring Your Subscription Model

Building a subscription model is a multi-step strategy that requires prior planning. Consider the following:

1. See if Your Business Will Benefit from Subscriptions – Before switching to a subscription-based model, figure out if it is actually beneficial for your company and content. For instance, is your content something that readers have to access continuously within a period of time?

2. Choose a Pricing Strategy – There are different kinds of pricing strategies to choose from, like tiered, flat-rate, usage-based, module-based, and per user. You should choose the strategy depending on your goal. You can create different levels of subscription packages and levels.

3. Focus on User Experience – Improve the user experience by making the sign-up process easy and fun. You do not want your users to get confused about how to sign up once they browse your website. The sign up option should be clear and bold.

4. Simplify the Billing Process – You should have a robust billing process to make sure that it is set up to accept recurring payments. Your payment gateway should be simple and clear so that customers do not have to navigate a number of links to make a simple renewal. Make the interface as simple as possible. Offer the payment gateways your customers prefer, including various international and local payment methods. 

Marketing Your Content 

In modern times, there are a variety of avenues for marketing your content. For instance, you can offer a “freemium” option for your customers, i.e., they can access the basic version of your content for free, but they have to pay to get access to premium content. For example, Spotify uses such a subscription model. Utilize email marketing to reach your customers. Start making an email list if you do not have it already. Regularly post on your social media platforms to remind your customers of the value of your content. Finally, you can partner with trusted influencers to create mutually beneficial partnerships. You will gain more popularity and trust when a reputed influencer talks about your content. 

Nurturing Your Audience

There are many tactics to nurture your audience to your subscription-based content. For instance, you can reach your audience with uniquely targeted content that leverages their personas. Use multi-channel nurturing tactics that go beyond email marketing. Modern marketers use a combination of different social media channels, dynamic website content, email marketing, paid retargeting, and direct sales outreach. 

Building a paid readership is not a simple process; it is a multi-step, complicated strategy, as described above. However, the transition to this model is inevitable in the current economy. As experts in the programmatic advertising market, Publir offers a one-of-a-kind unified platform specifically built to maximize earnings for digital content creators. We provide complete solutions for Ad Optimization, Subscriptions, Crowdfunding, QuickShop, and AdBlock Recovery.

The post How to Build a Paid Readership? first appeared on Publir.

According to various sources, between 13% and 30% of all Internet users are presently blocking advertisements, with the percentage rising in recent years. Furthermore, it is continually increasing on a daily basis, so whether you are an advertiser or a website owner, adblockers are harming your company as well. 

There is no guarantee that your advertising will always be visible to all people you wish to reach; nevertheless, if you are a website owner or administrator, there are several strategies that can help you reach individuals who use adblockers or monetize your AdBlock traffic.

What is AdBlock Monetization?

According to the prediction of eMarketer, by 2021, 27% of internet users in the United States would have blocked advertisements on at least one of their internet-connected devices, while 32.8% of internet users in Germany would have banned ads in 2019. Ads are banned more frequently on PCs/desktops and laptops than on mobile devices, making the AdBlock plugins for Chrome and Firefox the most widely used Adblockers. 

These developments can be ascribed to the annoyance of web users with online offers that are loud, invasive, and unpleasant. According to a GlobalWebIndex study, users who choose to use AdBlock Plus or other adblocking software complain that there are too many ads. They also find internet advertising to be irritating, irrelevant, or overbearing.

Because online advertising is the principal revenue source for most websites, Adblockers have far-reaching effects from the publisher’s standpoint. Adblockers rob publishers of revenue that could otherwise be spent on developing additional high-quality content for their audience and upgrading the website’s UX/UI. But the good news is that there are various ways available to assist you in earning money from AdBlock traffic. This is referred to as AdBlock traffic monetization, and the strategies used a variety of methods to benefit the publishers.

How do I monetize AdBlock traffic?

When it comes to monetizing AdBlock traffic, there are a few tactics to follow. The following are some of the most important strategies: 

1. Convincing users to whitelist your website: You might persuade your readers to whitelist your blog or website so that they can access additional high-quality material. Make use of their emotions to persuade them to whitelist your website. Users that appreciate and profit from your material will gladly pay to see more and will gladly support your website. Thank your readers for taking the time to read your information, and then explain how adverts on your website help you enhance the quality and frequency of your outputs. If you’re mixing advertisements with affiliate marketing, you might say that if customers buy the ads on your site, you’ll get a commission that has no bearing on the pricing or quality of the items.

2. Blocking content from AdBlock users: This strategy is similar to politely requesting them to whitelist your website. You, on the other hand, are acting more forthright this time. You gently inform them that you’ve discovered they’re using an Adblocker and that they won’t be able to see the content unless they whitelist your site. Only non-AdBlock users will be able to see the material this way. They won’t have a hard time whitelisting your website if you have a track record of providing quality material. Here, valuable material makes a big impact.
   
3. Use in-page push advertising or direct links: Direct links are URLs that publishers can place anywhere, including in text, making them difficult to monitor by adblocking software. The links might be included in the body of your content. Native advertisements, on the other hand, mix in seamlessly with online content and do not cause any bother to your users. Native advertising can let you monetize AdBlock traffic on both desktop and mobile devices.
   
4. Keep changing your ad formats: Adblockers identify ad material using a variety of technologies. Changing your ad settings and distribution strategy on a regular basis may assist you to avoid some adblocking scripts and reclaim your well-deserved money. The main drawback to this strategy is that AdBlock firms try to modify their software on a frequent basis in order to keep consumers safe. So, keep up to date to understand how to avoid each update. Adblocking is used by 20.5% of internet users across all devices. Mobile ad blocking is expanding at a higher rate than desktop ad blocking, with an increase of 89% year over year.
   
5. Including a subscription model or a paywall: This technique entails directly profiting from your content. You can experiment with a combination of ads – native ads, banner ads, or direct links – and a subscription/paywall model because advertising is one of the most successful methods to monetize your audience. The latter restricts access to your website content to serious visitors who are prepared to pay a minor fee to avoid viewing ads. Of course, the quality of your material persuades customers that it is worthwhile to pay for. To stimulate their attention, try offering them some interesting tidbits. Micropayments for content are acceptable to interested users as long as they receive the required value. It’s best to limit your adverts to a minimum while using paywalls. 

Conclusion

Adblockers were formerly viewed as posing an existential threat to the internet advertising paradigm. Allowing customers to opt-out of advertising on their own would make it impossible for publishers to completely monetize their content. Other forces have exerted pressure on the advertising model in recent years, but they’ve also shown something important about the nature of our viewers.

It is feasible to profit from AdBlock traffic, but it needs concerted work and the testing of numerous solutions. There is no single monetization approach that works for all AdBlock users, but if you employ the appropriate strategies, you may recover as much revenue as possible. If you are looking at recovering revenue that you are losing because of Adblockers, try our Adblock Recovery tool and amplify your revenue by a minimum of 15% right away!

The post Adblock Monetization Made Easy first appeared on Publir.

Publishers could earn revenue simply by adding adverts on their websites just five years ago. It made no difference whether or not visitors viewed the advertisements. Visitors never saw up to 56% of the adverts that were shown. With the development of digital advertising, however, advertisers are bidding on visible impressions at a higher cost. Advertisers will only pay in vCPM rather than CPM once viewable advertising is in use.

What is vCPM?

vCPM is a marketing measure that stands for Viewable Cost per Mille. It counts the number of times a user sees an ad rather than the number of times the seller places it. The normal CPM measures the cost per thousand impressions, but the vCPM measures the cost per thousand viewable impressions.

An ad impression is defined as visible by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) when a seller can certify that a user saw more than 50% of the display ad for more than 1 second. Video advertising sold on a vCPM basis functions similarly, requiring consumers to see more than 50% of the video ad for more than 2 seconds before the impression is counted as viewable.

For instance, if an ad is loaded near the bottom of a webpage but a person does not scroll down far enough to see it on their device, the ad impression is not considered visible. Advertisers will have to pay for these ineffective impressions under CPM pricing. But on the other hand, advertisers are not paid for these non-viewable impressions when using vCPM.

How to calculate vCPM?

CPM is a measure used by advertisers. In other words, advertisers use CPM to determine how much money they will spend on an ad campaign. As a result, vCPM is now an advertiser-side statistic.

Advertisers use CPM to pay for all of the adverts that appear on a web page. Advertisers, although, only pay for those that were active and visible on a user’s screen while using vCPM.

The following are the formulas for calculating vCPM:

vCPM = 1000 x Cost / Viewable impressions

vCPM = CPM x Total Impressions / Viewable impressions

vCPM = CPM / Viewable impressions %

What is the difference between CPM and vCPM?

CPM stands for ‘cost per thousand impressions,’ as you may know. Advertisers should pay for a thousand served impressions when employing CPM. Advertisers would pay for what they bought at the auction, whether it is displayed or not.

On the other hand, vCPM is the cost per thousand viewable impressions. This implies that advertisers are charged based on 1,000 visible impressions of the ad placed rather than the ad served. The ad’s viewability is a crucial factor in deciding the campaign’s cost. Buyers that want to raise brand recognition are more likely to employ vCPM.

Viewability isn’t taken into account at all in CPM. Publishers with 20% ad viewability will be compensated at the same rate as those with 80% ad viewability. In other words, if one of your pages has 20% ad viewability, the RPM will be the same as if the page had 80% ad viewability. However, there are certain exceptions. Advertisers will only bid on 80% ad viewability pages/publishers when using third-party viewability partners to evaluate placement-level ad viewability, even if the CPMs are greater than the normal range. Furthermore, most DSPs can bid on more visible placements to increase campaign ROI.

Although, when it comes to vCPM, it will grow when ad viewability is low. For example, if ad viewability is 20%, an advertiser must purchase 5 times to achieve one complete viewable impression. When the viewability is greater than 50%, simply purchasing an impression is sufficient.

How to improve vCPM?

As we are well aware of the fact now that vCPM is dependent on ad viewability data, here are some pointers and recommendations for publishers looking to enhance ad viewability and thus vCPM:

• Experiment with different ad styles and locations to increase your chances of getting better results.
  
• Don’t take it for granted that advertising above the fold is always visible. Compare the results of different ad locations (above the fold vs. below the fold) to see which ones perform better.
  
• To maximize viewability, do not place too many adverts, since this will result in a poor user experience.
  
• Experiment with different ad kinds and styles to find which ones perform best. Vertical advertisements outperform horizontal ads, according to Google.
  
• Improve viewability and engagement by including the most popular ad types and layouts on your web pages. For example, the position directly above the fold is regarded as the most visible.

Final Thoughts

To witness a rise in vCPM, publishers should always focus on ad viewability strategies. Use heatmap tools to identify the most user-interacted areas of the website. Try not to reduce the amount of space available for content in order to make your adverts more visible. Publishers’ earnings may suffer as a result of vCPM. In the long run, however, effective use of ad viewability indicators may lead to a stronger ad placement system that benefits the whole ad ecosystem.

Working on the viewability of your web pages will not reduce your earnings. On the bright side, a good marketing campaign may actually help marketers by raising market demand for your inventory.

Read More

In-App Advertising – All You Need to Know

What Are In-Feed Ads – How Can You Make The Best Use Of Them?

The post Importance of Understanding vCPM for Publishers first appeared on Publir.

Tips To Create An Awesome Email Newsletter

But how do you craft an interesting newsletter in an age when hundreds of emails find their way into consumer’s inboxes daily? Do you yourself religiously read every promotional email or newsletter that comes your way? Well, whether you do or don’t, here are some steps to creating an engaging newsletter that people actually read. 

Figure Out Whether You Actually Need One 

Do you really need an email newsletter? If it doesn’t fit into your marketing scheme of things, don’t force it. Do industry-wide research first, and see whether there are successful newsletter case studies. Comb them for resources. You need to then examine your business goals. Do you want more leads? More sales? Get more customers or retain existing ones? 

Now, if your industry isn’t heavy on newsletters, or if your organization’s objectives don’t line with the offerings of a newsletter, then your time might be wasted. It would be wise to collate data and create a POA before plunging into creating an email newsletter. You need to truly decide whether you really need one. 

What Kind Of Newsletter Would You Like To Send

If a newsletter isn’t structured well, or if it’s ambiguous, cluttered, or without focus, it isn’t really helping your cause. Since newsletters focus on every business aspect, they tend to become spread thin. Product news, customer success stories, blog posts, events, everything comes together in one large mess. Stick to specific topics in newsletters. One specific newsletter for people who are interested in a niche topic has the opportunity to get you more engagement than a more generic newsletter catering to a wider audience. 

Don’t Be Too Promotional 

Your newsletter content needs to be 90% educational and 10% promotional. Your subscribers will get fed up if you keep saturating them with information about your company, product, or service. There’s only so much company and product-centric content that you can keep pushing out. For example, if you are looking to buy a laptop, and have decided on one website that sells them, consequently subscribing to their email list, you will get fed up if they send you 2 or 3 emails daily, persuading you to buy their company products. Sure, some educational emails regarding the latest laptop processors or the best machines for gaming and coding might be useful, but nothing beyond. Don’t carry out excess self-promotion in your emails, and concentrate on sending out relevant, educational, and timely information. Unless you have some big news about your product or service, leave out unnecessary promotions. 

Be Clear With Expectations On Your Subscribe Page 

After narrowing down on your email newsletter’s focus areas, and content, make sure you communicate this point clearly on your subscriber landing page. Potential subscribers should know what to expect in the newsletter, and how often your company will mail them. Giving potential subscribers a preview link is a great way to present a teaser and get them hooked to your campaign. 

Have An Interesting Subject Line 

Just having your subscribers on a list, and your email in their inbox is not enough. Your subject line needs to capture their attention so they open your email in the first place. Many marketers keep the subject line the same, every day, week, or month, and this gets old for subscribers, fast.

Choose A CTA, And Stick With It

Nothing’s more confusing or irritating than multiple CTAs in the same email. You might have multiple pieces of content, but don’t have too many CTAs. Have one main CTA, that you’d have your subscribers click on. The rest of the options you present, if any, should be just links to blogs, or options to forward the email. A clear CTA is especially important if you’re running a discount campaign, and are looking to increase your subscribers by way of on-site registration. 

Content, Content Content 

Let’s get to the heart of the matter. The content in your newsletter is of primary importance. Nothing, not the subject line, or the imagery, serves any purpose if the content is poor. Ensure your content is concise, clear and the information is original and useful. 

Content needs to be thought-provoking and creative, so users actually have a reason to be interested in what you have to offer. Sparking an interest may seem tough, but sustaining it over a period of time is even tougher. Your newsletter content quality must be consistent to draw in readers interested in that particular topic over a span of months. 

Ensure it Looks Good 

An email newsletter’s design is a vital part to ensure readers click, read, and return to your newsletter. Your written content, as mentioned above, needs to follow a consistent style. Your layout and imagery too should be visually engaging, highlighting your creativity. Use high-resolution photos, appealing color palettes, and illustrations to grab your audience’s attention. With over half of all emails read on mobiles, ensure your newsletter reads properly on smartphones (Source). 

Market What You’ve Made 

Creating a newsletter, sending it out, and not marketing it effectively again cuts the newsletter’s benefits. People need to sign up for your newsletter. To ensure they do, market its existence. Invest in banner ads on social media channels for starters. 

Be In Touch Consistently 

It would be a great idea to stay in touch periodically with your subscriber base. Keep your readers satisfied over a long period of time by scheduling content way in advance. Sticking to a said schedule can help you build a large content pool, from which you can use ideas. Select and stick to a schedule, as this helps build reader trust. 

Draft, Review, and Test 

Create multiple drafts in the names of different people. This can be someone you know or a persona you’ve created. Write the email as if you’re writing to them. This exercise will make your newsletter campaign feel more personal. Consumers love being addressed individually via tailored email messages. 

Final Thoughts

The above tips might help in crafting an email newsletter your subscribers find interesting. Nurturing a loyal pool of readers is essential. Over time, they may translate into buyers, and in the future might become product authorities – giving great testimonials on your behalf through their social media pages and other channels, content which you can repost to boost your firm’s credibility. A customer always loves feeling special, and a well-crafted email newsletter that offers them something without sounding sales-ey and cliched does just that.

Read our blog on email marketing terms so you can reach your existing subscribers more effectively, and onboard new ones.

The post How to Create an Email Newsletter People Actually Read first appeared on Publir.

What are the Best Email Newsletter Practices

The most prevalent email type in email marketing is email newsletters. As the name implies, they frequently feature news and updates to keep the public involved. Some marketers say that newsletters are not much a step in the right direction but that newsletters prepared with great attention to detail certainly pay off. An e-mail newsletter might play a leading position in your general e-mail marketing plan. Email is still used by about 70% of the companies, yet email marketing is one of the oldest marketing platforms.

Brands send their subscribers email newsletters to notify them of news and updates. These email messages have nothing to do with the selling – it is about creating client loyalty with good content. Sending a content-based email newsletter regularly not only helps your business keep up to date but also displays the knowledge of your sector. As per a study, for the purpose of monetization, 64.6 % of B2B publishers and 48 % of B2C publishers rely on website banner advertisements or newsletter sponsorships.

Optimizing Newsletter 

If we look at the statistics regarding email-marketing uses, an email newsletter is at the top with 66%, followed by promotional content at 54%, and welcome email series at 42%. In other words, email newsletters are a good instrument to improve the marketing of your products or services. Whether you create a whole new email newsletter or revitalize your present publication, some ideas come in handy to optimize your newsletter.

When current and potential customers sign up for your newsletter for the first time, make sure they understand what to anticipate. Besides, let the subscribers know the kind of content and offer they will receive. It is also important to inform them how often they will hear from you.

The most effective email newsletters contain around 90% instructional content that is relevant to your target audience. You’ll have around 10% of your area to spend completely on marketing your company.

In your email newsletter, avoid using large, wordy full-length content that may overload readers. Instead, create a one-page email with succinct, intriguing, and enticing introductions that direct readers to your website or blog. Furthermore, ensuring that there is enough white space within the overall newsletter design to assist make the newsletter look clean and simple to read, is an email design best practice to follow. Additionally, try creating graphic images for your company to use in newsletters.

5 Elements of an Effective Email Newsletter 

Even if their long-term ambitions are uncertain, publishers will need to invest in email. And delivering a better email newsletter is one of the only sure-fire methods to safeguard deliverability and ensure your message reaches the inbox rather than the spam folder. 

In order to get the most out of your newsletter, make sure it includes the following aspects:

• Be brief

In today’s age of technology, we are overwhelmed with information, and yet another long newsletter will not assist anyone. Instead of cramming everything into your newsletter, try to keep it to one page. Deliveries that are shorter and more regular are preferable to the occasional volumes of books.

2. Tell a story

The greatest newsletters employ traditional story-telling strategies. To entice your reader, use a conversational tone. Share some insider information about your industry. Keep in mind that you’re writing a letter, not merely reporting news.

3. Focus on content

Don’t try to make it a journal. Your audience will be interested in how you can help them rather than hearing about all of your triumphs and dramas. More readers are attracted to content-focused email newsletters. The newsletter isn’t only for you; it’s also for your consumers.

4. Clear call to action

We wouldn’t take time out of our hectic schedules to compose a newsletter unless we expected something in return. Every newsletter should have a clear call to action. This can take the form of a discount, event registration, or even a request to join your Facebook page. Make certain that you are asking your audience to accomplish something.

5. Attractive design

While many email services include design templates, you may have your newsletter professionally created for a nominal charge. A visually appealing newsletter, whether in print or by email, will increase readership and support for your company.

Length of a Newsletter 

The length of your newsletter, as well as the information contained inside it, are important considerations. When deciding what to put in your email, keep your target audience in mind. Make sure your newsletter is worth reading, regardless of its length.

Your writing style and the length of the newsletter are determined by the goal of your newsletter. This marketing information tool can help you reach a variety of objectives. Initiating frequent communication with prospective clients, notifying them of fresh blog material, and inviting them to new learning opportunities such as webinars and online courses.

The general rule of thumb for most experts is to have around 500 words in a newsletter. As a result, a page length would be appropriate for the reader to swiftly scan over. Remember that current audiences have extremely short attention spans. Don’t expect them to sit for hours reading and re-reading your newsletter. Make your writing succinct and to the point. Nonetheless, it has to be fascinating and entertaining.

Necessary items in your Newsletter 

It is very important to have a few necessary items in your newsletter to engage your users and create a good impression of your brand. Some of those items are:

A good theme: For each email newsletter it is preferable to have a certain theme or topic in mind so that ideas do not become confusing for the readers.

Creative subject line: It is advisable to devise informative and unique subject lines in order to be attractive for the readers.

Informative content: The content must be informative as well as entertaining. It will be better if the content will be educational but will also be brief.

Guidelines: There must always be a section in the newsletter where guidelines for the users are written in case, they want to get more information.

Contact information: Never forget to include your business and contact information in your newsletter. After all, you are trying to make a brand name through it.

Final Thoughts 

An email marketing plan often entails sending newsletters, trigger emails, and transactional emails in addition to advertising emails. This implies you should carefully arrange the number of campaigns you plan to send so that you don’t turn off your audience.

One of the most effective ways you have to interact with your clients and prospects is through your newsletter. We strongly advise building an email marketing schedule if you want to send emails on a regular basis without going overboard. Sign up for our Newsletter and get daily monetization updates right in your inbox!

The post Best Email Newsletter Practices for Small Businesses first appeared on Publir.

Email Marketing Glossary Made Easy

Trying to make sense of email marketing begins with learning all the terminology and jargon associated with it. 

The jargon is intense, and it’s important to get the basics right as there are many terms with legal implications and others that represent trends and best practices. In order to help you become a better email marketer, here’s a list of email marketing terms to get you started. 

ESP – Email Service Provider

To start off with, you need an ESP. Think Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit, AWeber, and more. An email service provider is essentially a software service that facilitates the sending of email marketing campaigns to subscribers for the business. A good ESP can host email marketing services for innumerable clients and businesses, worldwide. Email service providers should –

• Create and maintain email subscriber lists 
• Provide customizable email templates 
• Send emails either manually or automatically 
• Give you detailed campaign analytics 
• Allow for testing 
• Permit dynamic content and give personalization options 
• Give you capabilities like list segmentation and more 

Email Automation

Automation is a key factor in saving time with your email marketing and enabling you to customize content based on what your subscribers are looking at on your website. Automation refers to the features that help email marketing software send campaigns to customers according to certain predefined settings. For example, how much money a subscriber spends, whether they make a purchase, etc., will impact what emails they receive from you. Marketing automation is great because it gives email marketers the opportunity to reach more customers in a targeted and personalized way. 

Click-Through Rate

This metric measures how many people have clicked on an image, hyperlink, or the call to action button in an email. Measuring the CTR is an effective way to determine just how good an email is. CTR rates may vary, but a rate between 20% and 30% shows an email is doing very well. If CTR rates fall below this range, you may want to change up your emails to encourage more clicks. Any good email service provider should give you consistent reports about your CTRs so you can carry out the necessary modifications to your email campaigns. 

Hard Bounce

This happens when an email is returned to a sender for permanent reasons, such as the email wasn’t deliverable because it used an incorrect domain name, an incorrect email address, or the recipient is unknown or not real. Hard bounces can affect deliverability rates which is why you need to remove invalid email addresses as soon as possible. Any email service provider should be able to remove hard bounces from your email subscription list. 

Soft Bounce

This is similar to a hard bounce, but the difference is that in the case of a soft bounce, the email is not delivered due to temporary reasons. This happens either because of the large file size or if a recipient’s inbox is full. They aren’t as bad as hard bounces, because your ESP will try to re-send these soft bounces automatically. However, if the emails continue to bounce, it is worth it to look further into the issue. 

Acceptance Rate

This refers to the emails that are accepted by your recipient’s email servers. Also known as deliverability rate, this is a good way to check whether the emails are being delivered or are bouncing back. This doesn’t tell you whether the email made it to the recipient’s inbox or spam folder. 

CAN-SPAM

According to the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM) of 2003, all businesses need to follow strict guidelines while engaging in email marketing campaigns. The CAN-SPAM rules are enforced by the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, which specifies that all recipients should easily be able to unsubscribe from your mailing list, as well as other rules. 

Sender Score

Your sender score refers to your IP address’s reputation, scored on a scale of 0 to 100. This operates similarly to a credit score, and the higher your sender score, the more reputable your IP is considered. Email services depend on this score to determine what emails make it to recipients’ inboxes and which ones don’t. 

The A/B Split Test

This method compares the results of two different emails and gives you a detailed analysis. Suppose you prepare two or more variants of an email, and name them A, B, C, etc. You can then send it to different people and compare results, to find out which email is the most impactful. Usually, the test compares two different subject lines, however, you can also change up the format or call to action inside the email to compare success. The trick is that you choose one variable to test in the emails.

Multivariate Testing

This refers to testing different variables in an email to see what works best. The email content, images used, font, offers mentioned, all matter toward making a successful email. Marketers can use multivariate testing to see which combination suits them best. This is different from A/B testing in that multivariate testing includes many variables. For instance, if you have one test email with a Times New Roman font, and one CTA while another has a better font like Calibri, and two CTAs, the tester can find out which one of these is more effective at achieving a better CTR. 

Email Harvesting

Email harvesting is when a user procures a list of email addresses that have similar interests to send a mass email. Special harvesting tools make this job easier. However, many countries have deemed this illegal, so marketers may need to check before implementing it. 

Transactional Email

This is an automated email that is triggered by a purchase. This is significant because these emails are opened much more often than traditional marketing messages. High-end ESPs allow users to create, edit and optimize transactional emails so they’re customized to exactly what you want to deliver to your new customer. A simple example is a thank you email after a purchase, or a follow-up discount coupon. 

List Segmentation

List segmentation is simply the act of personalizing your contact list and separating it into distinct groups or categories. Usually, these segments fall in the same phase of the email funnel, and this can help a user send more targeted and relevant content to their subscribers. 

Double Opt-In

To ensure you get only genuinely interested subscribers, you can utilize the double opt-in. If a user chances upon your website blog and signs up for your newsletter, you can ask them to verify their email address by sending them a test. This helps keep your list clear of uninterested subscribers, but it also makes it more difficult to grow your email list. 

Sender Policy Framework

This email-authentication technique helps marketers avoid spammers from sending emails on another domain’s behalf and helps with domain authentication. Certain filters show that your email is not spam, and serves a specific purpose. 

HTML Tags

Tags inside your emails can help you personalize your emails for individual recipients. For example, if you use the tag <firstname> in your email, and send it to your list, it automatically writes each individual’s name on each email. Most email providers offer this, however, you have to ensure that you’re collecting this information from subscribers. 

Conclusion

Email marketing is a classic that has been around for a long time and will continue to be a safe bet in the future’s fast-paced digital marketing world. Read our blog on the resurgence of email newsletters, to see how they stack up against social media as an effective form of communication.

The post The Ultimate Email Marketing Glossary – Terms Marketers Must Know first appeared on Publir.

The return on investment (ROI) for content marketing is essentially how much revenue you generate from a piece of content vs. how much it cost to create it. While content success is frequently linked to revenue goals, the ROI of content marketing and content success is not the same thing. Nowadays we can see the evolution of content marketing as well.

Steps To Maximize Your ROI

The thing is, every piece of content you generate will not earn you money directly. Some content is developed to nurture leads who are still in the marketing funnel and aren’t ready to purchase. This form of material will not generate direct income, but it will assist get the lead closer to making a purchase. As a result, it has a hand in generating money, but it can be very difficult to track.

Content marketing ROI should not be your sole metric, but it is important to consider when attempting to gain a comprehensive picture of how your content is functioning and how it ties to the ultimate objective of generating revenue.

Maximizing ROI with Content – Top Ways

When marketers plan their content strategy, they consider the long term. It takes time for content marketing, and especially SEO, to work its magic. If you create high-quality material as part of your content marketing initiatives, you should see your ROI grow over time as more people are exposed to your material.

There are a few different ways to maximize your ROI with content:

Identify a Few Channels
Different audiences on different channels and platforms within those channels have a tendency to behave differently. Content that is really popular on one channel may not necessarily perform well on another. You should, ideally, identify which channels work best for the content you’re delivering and where your audience is consuming information before you start creating your content. Then you can tweak everything for those individual audiences, including the topic, viewpoint, and title. Be careful not to spread yourself too thin by trying to be everywhere, especially if you’re new to content marketing.

Keep Updating Your Content
Fresh content, delivered consistently is essential to engage and retain your audience. It’s also important to ensure that anything you’ve produced in the past is up-to-date as the market changes. When you make updates, make sure your audience knows about it by sending a brief tweet or email to individuals who have previously loved the content. You’ll get more shares and links as a result of this. Visitors will have no issue sharing your material long after it was initially published if you maintain updating it on a regular basis–and it will remain relevant to new audience members.

Keep Promoting the Content
The majority of your ROI will come from content promotion. While quality content is a fantastic start, it won’t get you anywhere without letting people know that the content is there, ready for them to consume. Some elite marketers, such as Derek Halpern, spend as much as 80% of their time promoting content and only 20% on developing it. You’ll probably need to spend more time promoting and advertising your previous material if you want to optimize your ROI.

Make Better Content than Your Competitors
Your content should outperform all of the content of your rivals. The higher the quality of your material, the more it sticks out from the crowd. Readers judge your content’s quality in part by comparing it to that of others. There won’t be a substantial change in your return if there isn’t a major variation in perception. So do your research and take your time and, if necessary, hire help to develop the best content possible. Alternatively, you might just improve your content as others catch up, hoping that no one else comes out with a guide like this that you can’t match.

Promote Through Outbound and Inbound Marketing
You’re missing out on a lot of reaches if you simply rely on organic traffic on most social platforms. However, many marketers, particularly newer ones, despise advertising because of the cost and the fact that it can be confusing to get started. If you typically use inbound marketing, you may be averse to outbound marketing, but a combination of the two can give you great results; they don’t have to be mutually exclusive. You may utilize both of them to promote a piece of content at the same time. And when you find the correct mix, your return on investment may skyrocket.

Optimize Your Sales Funnel

A sales funnel is what will funnel your new followers into engaging with your content and, eventually, buying from you. It’s critical that you have a sales funnel in place, with a product (or another monetization mechanism) for visitors and subscribers to purchase at the end. Make sure there’s a clear path for people to take so they know what you offer and how they can buy it. Doubling your conversion rate at any stage at the bottom of your sales funnel is a simple method to double your content’s ROI.

Measure Your ROI
You must first learn how to calculate your ROI and then track it for each piece or type of content you create. There’s no way to test alternative content production and promotion tactics to discover which ones genuinely boost your ROI unless you quantify it. Content marketing techniques should be refined and improved on a regular basis by good marketers.

Generate Better ROI With Content

When it comes to selling, appealing to the public, and generating a return on investment, content is critical. One cannot expect a website or even a business to succeed without accurate, high-quality content that attracts and engages potential buyers. This is why content is so important in digital marketing initiatives.

These content ideas will improve your ROI:

• Create Content Through Variety
  The majority of marketing initiatives are centered on written content ideas such as blog posts, articles, and copywriting, which has the benefit of generating greater market returns. But people are also increasingly turning into audio and video content. Know what your audience prefers and then deliver it to them, consistently.

• SEO and Social Media
  Content must be focused on specific keywords in order to produce a large number of leads and make an impact on customers. This makes the content more searchable, so audience members can find exactly what they need. Using search engine optimization is most important on your own website when posting blogs, video summaries, or podcast show notes. But keywords and engaging content are also important on social media.
  
• Writing White Papers
  White papers have a higher level of trust among the target audience; thus, marketing strategists should make effective use of them to get a strong return on investment. Creating content like this necessitates skilled analysis and a thorough understanding of the product or service in question. Like other content, white papers will provide the best ROI when they are carefully researched and well-written.
  
• Writing Case Studies, Testimonials, and Surveys
  Case studies, testimonials, and survey results offer social proof that your offer is high quality. Because consumers connect and react more on these platforms, social media sites are critical for promoting this sort of content. Talk to your customers, ask for their input, then publish it–on your website and on social media. Video is extremely valuable when producing testimonial posts, but written content works well here too, and infographics serve case studies and survey content well.

How Do You Calculate ROI In Content Marketing?

Content marketing now accounts for a significant portion of most organizations’ marketing budgets, so it’s important to determine whether your actions are working. In fact, marketers set aside 27% of their marketing spending for content creation and dissemination.

There are four steps to calculate ROI in content marketing:

Step 1: Figure out how much money (and time converted to dollars) you spend on content creation. Don’t forget to factor in the cost of work done by other departments, as well as other content creation costs like photographs, videos, and infographics.

Step 2: Calculate the amount of money spent on content distribution and publication. You can figure out the campaign’s entire cost by adding the costs of content production, delivery, and publication. When determining your content marketing ROI, this will be your investment.

Step 3: The total revenue earned in return for expenditure must be calculated. This may not be a neat and tidy calculation, especially if you’re relying on organic (free) content and not advertising, but it is possible to get close. Look at a specific campaign or content series and then determine the number of sales made during the promotional time. Content and sales might have a direct or indirect relationship.

Step 4: Finally, you must calculate the return on investment. Follow this easy formula to compute the content marketing ROI from direct sales:

ROI Percentage = (Revenue-Investment)/Investment X 100

This, however, is merely the observable aspect of ROI. The direct ROI isn’t the sole factor in content marketing success. Many other factors come into play, such as lead quality, website traffic, social media, exposure, engagement, and SEO returns. 

If you don’t want to become overwhelmed, don’t track too many metrics for a single project, and don’t try to track metrics for a single piece of content. Setting clear goals and selecting a few measurements that are related to that aim is preferable. 

How Do You Guarantee An ROI With Content?

Experienced marketers understand the importance of having a strategy in place before beginning any campaign. However, just 37% of companies have a written content marketing plan. 

You must evaluate your existing situation, including website traffic, page views, social shares, click-through rates, conversion rates, and so on, and set objectives to achieve. Also, make sure your key KPIs are in line with your overall marketing objectives and keep track of them over time. You’ll only know how you’re doing if you keep track of your progress. It’s critical to review your content marketing strategy on a frequent basis to verify that it’s still effective.

Want to get better results? Consider your audience’s point of view while creating material, and it will resonate with them more. To get and keep their attention, back it up with strong research and relevant examples. When done correctly and properly, the combination of SEO with content may provide outstanding results. Amplify your content properly and invest in an app that will help you harness the power of social proof and gain the business of the 77% of people who suggest businesses to their friends and family.

The post Top Ways to Maximize Your ROI from Content first appeared on Publir.