If your company inadvertently causes the leak of protected health information (PHI), you could be in a situation that’s much more damaging than a fine. It could result in a loss of trust among your patients, reputational harm that causes other healthcare companies to avoid partnering with you, and ultimately even bring down your business. 

Naturally, this makes HIPAA compliance a top priority for every company in the healthcare industry. Part of what makes it so challenging is that it affects many aspects of your operations, including how you structure your healthcare premises to ensure patient confidentiality, how to protect your information system from hackers and cyberthieves, and even how you communicate through email. 

HIPAA email compliance requirements are not complicated, but they can feel overwhelming at times. To help you maintain a robust HIPAA compliance posture, here are five aspects to keep in mind. 

1. Compliance Assessment and Policy Development

The first fundamental step in ensuring HIPAA email compliance is to meticulously assess how HIPAA applies to your organization, so you can understand your regulatory obligations and develop appropriate policies. This primarily involves examining which types of patient data are handled by employees. 

Once you know the scope of your HIPAA commitments, you can develop robust access control, email usage, and additional compliance policies that address your specific needs. These policies should delineate who has access to sensitive patient information, how it is transmitted securely via email, and protocols for PHI storage and retrieval. 

Bear in mind that this can’t be a one-and-done activity. You’ll need to regularly review and update your policies to make sure that they keep pace with evolving HIPAA mandates, changing operational practices, and technological advances. 

2. Email Infrastructure and Security

Healthcare organizations also need the right tools and infrastructure for HIPAA-compliant emails. 

It’s vital to choose an email service provider that prioritizes HIPAA standards, with features such as strong encryption protocols and secure transmission methods like Transport Layer Security (TLS). Only work with a provider that signs a business associate agreement (BAA), which establishes a legal framework mandating HIPAA compliance and accountability for safeguarding patient data. 

At the same time, you need stringent security measures for inbound email, and the storage of and access to sensitive information that it may contain. These should include spam filters, antivirus software, and authentication protocols, as well as advanced email security solutions capable of detecting and blocking phishing attempts, malware infiltration, and other malicious activities. 

3. Staff Training and Awareness

In the ever-evolving landscape of healthcare, HIPAA email compliance is not merely about implementing technical solutions; it’s also about cultivating a culture of awareness and responsibility among staff members. Regular staff training sessions equip healthcare professionals with the knowledge and skills necessary to navigate HIPAA regulations, understand email security best practices, and handle PHI safely. 

These training programs should encompass both email security best practices and recognizing and responding to email-related security threats and incidents. Topics should include data encryption, secure email protocols, and the proper handling and transmission of PHI via email. 

In addition, it’s a good idea to train your team on how to recognize common phishing scams and other suspicious activities, and what to do in the event of a security incident. Prompt reporting can mitigate the potential impact and minimize the risk of data breaches.

4. Risk Management and Assessment

Regular risk assessments are essential for robust HIPAA email compliance. By conducting a thorough evaluation of your email system, you can gain insight into potential weaknesses such as outdated software, inadequate encryption protocols, or gaps in access controls. 

This proactive approach allows you to address vulnerabilities before they are exploited by malicious actors, reducing the risk of data breaches and HIPAA violations. Proactive risk mitigation needs to go hand in hand with risk assessment. Measures should include upgrading software to the latest versions to prevent vulnerabilities, hardening access controls on the principle of least privilege, and adopting stronger encryption protocols. 

Additionally, steps should be taken to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of PHI, such as regular backups and disaster recovery plans.

5. Incident Response and Documentation

Last but not least, every healthcare provider needs an incident response plan to ensure that any mistakes or breaches are addressed swiftly and effectively. It should outline the roles and responsibilities of key personnel, the procedures for identifying and containing security incidents, and the steps for investigating and remedying the situation. 

A well-defined incident response plan can minimize the impact of security breaches and mitigate potential harm to PHI. All your compliance measures, including your incident response procedures, training sessions, policies, and risk assessments, should be fully documented. 

This demonstrates your adherence to HIPAA regulations in the case of audits and investigations, provides transparency and accountability, and reduces the risk of penalties and legal repercussions.

Stay Ahead of HIPAA Email Compliance 

While HIPAA email compliance should be a serious matter, there’s no need for it to become a cause of stress. Taking care of these five issues should go a long way to ensuring compliance and verifying that your employees, your systems, and your policies are all aligned to protect PHI, guard patient privacy, and prevent data breaches. 

Understanding Generative AI: Revolutionizing Content Creation
Generative AI represents a significant leap forward in content creation. By leveraging vast datasets, algorithms can generate new content across various formats, including text, images, audio, and video. This innovation streamlines the creative process, empowering marketers to produce large-scale, personalized content.

The Rise of Predictive AI: From Prediction to Creation
Before delving into generative AI’s role in email marketing, it’s essential to differentiate it from predictive AI. While predictive AI focuses on forecasting outcomes based on historical data, generative AI is about content creation. This distinction is crucial, as it underscores generative AI’s potential to transform the email marketing landscape by automating and enhancing content generation processes.

Why Generative AI Matters: Efficiency, Personalization, and ROI
The benefits of integrating generative AI into email marketing are manifold. Firstly, it saves time by automating repetitive tasks such as drafting subject lines, writing body copy, and designing visuals. With generative AI handling these aspects, marketers can focus on strategy and creativity, driving innovation and differentiation in their campaigns.

Secondly, generative AI enables hyper-personalization at scale. By analyzing vast datasets and user behavior patterns, algorithms can tailor content to individual preferences and interests. This personal touch enhances engagement, fosters brand loyalty, and ultimately drives conversions.

Furthermore, generative AI facilitates optimization through iterative testing and data-driven insights. Marketers can experiment with different content variants, analyze performance metrics, and refine their strategies accordingly. This iterative approach leads to continuous improvement, ensuring email campaigns remain relevant, impactful, and effective.

The Human Touch: Balancing Automation with Creativity
While AI streamlines content creation, it’s essential to maintain a human-centric approach. Marketers play a crucial role in guiding AI algorithms and ensuring that the generated content aligns with brand values, tone, and messaging. This “human in the loop” approach combines AI’s efficiency with the creativity and intuition of human marketers, resulting in compelling, authentic campaigns that resonate with audiences.

Integrating Generative AI with Email Marketing Platforms
One of the most exciting developments in email marketing is the integration of AI into existing platforms such as Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud. With tools like Salesforce Einstein, marketers can harness the power of AI to create personalized, data-driven email campaigns effortlessly.

Einstein leverages customer data, behavioral insights, and predictive analytics to generate subject lines, body copy, and visual assets tailored to each recipient. By automating these processes, marketers can deliver relevant, engaging content to their audience, driving higher open rates, click-through rates, and conversions.

Looking Ahead: The Future of AI in Email Marketing
As AI technology evolves, its role in email marketing will only become more pronounced. Advancements in natural language processing, image recognition, and machine learning will enable even greater personalization and customization. By embracing AI-driven strategies, businesses can stay ahead of the curve, delivering compelling, relevant email experiences that captivate audiences and drive business growth.

In conclusion, integrating generative AI into email marketing represents a paradigm shift in how brands engage with their audience. By combining AI’s efficiency with human marketers’ creativity, businesses can create impactful, personalized email campaigns that resonate with customers on a deeper level. As AI matures, its potential to revolutionize email marketing is limitless, offering marketers new opportunities to innovate, differentiate, and succeed in an increasingly competitive landscape.

This article is based on expert advice from the Social Media Marketing Podcast:

Instead of focusing solely on specific words or phrases, successful subject lines often share common characteristics:

1. Relevance: Your subject line should be relevant to the recipient and the content of the email. Generic or misleading subject lines will only lead to disappointment and disengagement.
2. Clarity: Keep it clear and concise. Your subject line should give the recipient a clear idea of what the email is about without being overly long or cryptic.
3. Curiosity: While clarity is essential, a little intrigue can go a long way. A subject line that piques curiosity or teases valuable information can compel recipients to open the email to satisfy their curiosity.
4. Personalization: Personalized subject lines, including the recipient’s name or other relevant information, can increase open rates by making the email more tailored to the individual.
5. Urgency or FOMO (Fear of Missing Out): Creating a sense of urgency or scarcity in your subject line can motivate recipients to open the email to avoid missing out on a time-sensitive offer or opportunity.
6. Value Proposition: Communicate the value or benefit of opening the email. What’s in it for the recipient? Whether it’s a special offer, valuable information, or exclusive access, make it clear why they should open your email.
7. Testing and Iteration: What works for one audience might not work for another. That’s why testing different subject lines and analyzing the results is essential. Don’t be afraid to experiment and iterate based on what resonates most with your audience.

Remember, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to subject lines. What’s important is understanding your audience, experimenting with different techniques, and continuously refining your approach based on data and feedback.

In conclusion, while subject lines are crucial to email marketing success, there’s no magic formula for guaranteed results. Instead, focus on creating relevant, clear, and compelling subject lines that resonate with your audience and drive them to open your emails. And remember, testing and iteration are key to continued improvement and success in email marketing.

Dave Gerhardt, VP of Marketing at Drift, was recently interviewed on the B2B Growth podcast by John Rougeux who is VP of Marketing at Skyfii. Gerhardt discusses conversational marketing as a new B2B product category and how it is changing marketing from reaching out to you later to a conversation that is happening now:

Conversational Marketing is About Connecting You Now

Conversational marketing is a whole new way of thinking about marketing and sales. The traditional way of doing marketing and sales is all about later. Come to my website and fill out this form and somebody is going to reach out to you later, when it’s convenient for them. The big shift that is happening in marketing and business over the last five to ten years is customers have all the power today. You can’t make people wait. Information is free now.

I can find anything I want to know about a company without ever having to go to your website. It’s crazy to think that you are going to force people to go to your website, fill out a form, wait three days to hear back from your sales team, and then get a demo. Conversational is all about connecting you now with the people who are ready to buy now while they are live on your website.

B2P – Marketing to People

It’s not about buyers. It’s not about sellers. It’s not about sales. It’s not about marketing. It’s about people. That’s how people all communicate online today. I pressed one button in my car and I got a list. I ordered something from Amazon while I was here this morning to send back to my house and it’s going to be there tomorrow when I get home. There are countless examples of that. That is how we all behave online in our real lives today.

But then something happens weird happens. We go to our jobs in B2B and none of the tools that we use match how we actually buy as real people. That’s the most exciting thing to me about conversational marketing. It’s really closing the gap between B2C and B2B. We just call it B2P, marketing to people.

What Ties Our Products Together is Conversation

We have an email product and we have a landing page product. Black and white versions of those people would say everybody has email, everybody has landing pages. The thing that ties those together is conversation. That forces us to think about what is conversational email? What is conversational landing pages? What is conversational whatever? That one word forces our product team to think about how can we change this? If our fundamental stance as a company is that the internet should be one conversation, then how does that weave into everything that we build?

Ultimately what we care about is that email becomes a conversation. Meaning, the way that marketers have had to use email the last decade is a one-way channel. Email is meant to be a two-way channel. Marketers have been using it as, “John come to my webinar.” What happens if you actually respond to that email? Most of the time you can’t because it’s donotreply@ or it just goes to some inbox where nobody is answering it. That is a terrible experience. Our belief is that if you reply, “Hey actually I can’t make it. Can you reregister my colleague?” That should get handled. We are thinking of that from an evolution standpoint.

The same thing with landing pages. Most landing pages today are static. You go to the landing page, put a bunch of info in and you are gone. What if that was a real-time conversation on the page? That one topic has to weave itself into everything we do from a product perspective.

>> Listen to the complete interview with Drift Marketing VP Dave Gerhardt on the B2B Growth podcast.

You can reach your audience through email. The commercial messages may provide information about your brand or product or advertise them. You can use this communication channel for advertisement and driving leads or sales. However, a successful outreach depends mainly on emails landing in recipients’ inboxes.

Factors Influencing Email Deliverability

Recipients will likely open, read, and act on your email if it gets to their inboxes. However, all messages don’t reach the inboxes. Several factors can cause them to end up in the junk folders. Recognizing and resolving these issues help your emails get delivered in the intended folder. 

Sender Reputation

The credibility of senders determines the folder mailbox providers place emails sent to recipients. The messages may also bounce. Emails from senders with high reputation will get delivered in the inbox. However, they will bounce or end up as junk if your credibility score is low. Of course, this can be avoided with a good deliverability tool like Mailreach. The reputation results depends on several factors:

IP Address

Mailbox provider’s algorithm rejects emails from IP addresses it didn’t trust or directs them to spam folder. Following good practices when sending messages using a particular device increases their deliverability rate. 

Blacklists

Emails from blacklisted domains will not get delivered to their intended recipients. The messages will land in the spam folder. 

Spam Complaints

Recipients also damage your reputation by marking your emails as spam. Individuals who didn’t authorize you to send emails to them will likely regard them as unwanted messages and move the emails to the spam folder. Also, recipients who expressly permitted you to email them may regard the messages as junk while decluttering their inboxes.  Likewise, your consequent emails will land in the same folders.

Engagement

A recipient’s action upon receiving your commercial messages influences your reputation. If the person opens, reads, or forwards the email or follows links in it, the engagement is good. It can enhance deliverability rate. Contrarily, our credibility score reduces when a recipient leaves your mail unopened or deletes it. 

Bounce Rate

Undelivered emails negatively impact the sender’s reputation. Your messages will bounce if sent to invalid email addresses. Besides, they won’t be delivered to a full inbox. An increase in your email volume may trigger the ISP to flag the messages as suspicious, damaging your credibility.

Email Content

Crafting messages with superior content increases email deliverability. It would help if you cautiously choose relevant words and images for your emails and don’t over punctuate the text. Avoid spam filter triggers like “act now” and “free.” They will hinder your messages from reaching their destination. Also, ensure you create engaging emails.

Email providers frown at content that contains unacceptable codes, including embedded tags. Your emails should have clean codes and add closed tags. Links to trusted websites are acceptable, but you shouldn’t shorten the URL. 

Deceptive subject lines leads to poor deliverability. You can use a title that aligns with your content. Besides, you should add your data (name and physical location). Including an easily identifiable email address and sender name enhances deliverability. 

Email Authentication

Email service providers verify the domains and IP addresses individuals use to send messages. Authenticating emails proves the senders’ legitimacy and improves the messages’ deliverability. It will also safeguard your domain from being used for fake sender addresses.

Email Engagement

Mailbox providers observe user behavior, which helps them determine whether the recipients want to receive your emails. High spam reports or unsubscribe rates can damage a sender’s reputation. However, you will have high open rates if your emails are relevant to the recipients. Work on your email warmup to make it engaging and personalized.

Get Your Emails Delivered to Inboxes

Recipients are more likely to open and act on messages received in their inboxes. Getting your commercial messages delivered to inboxes ensures the success of your business outreach. Here are tips that will help you improve email deliverability.

Use a Dedicated IP

Use an IP address that you are the only user to have better control of your IP reputation. Unlike using shared IP, the poor practices of other senders will not affect your email deliverability.

Seek Intended Recipients Consent

Ensure you build an email list of individuals who have permitted you to contact them. Such recipients are less likely to ignore your emails, delete them, or mark them as junk.

Declutter Your List

Regularly delete inactive contacts from your email list to enhance engagement rates and sender reputation.

Include an Unsubscribe Option

Offer your subscribers an easy opt-out to prevent marking your emails as unsolicited messages. Even a few spam complaints can hinder your emails from reaching the inboxes. It also helps to activate an email spam test solution.

Avoid Bounces Due to Increased Volume

You should maintain an even pattern, sending the same amount of emails regularly. However, you can slowly increase the volume weeks before a massive email campaign.

You should use reputable email providers and adopt best email practices to avoid blacklisting. Besides, high-quality content can prompt recipients to engage with your emails.

Email Deliverability is Necessary

Subscribers interested in your content may not receive your emails in their inboxes. Mailbox providers separate emails they consider spam from genuine ones using filters. Unfortunately, some relevant messages will also end up in the junk folder. You must adhere to best practices and improve your sender reputation to boost the deliverability rate. Besides, proper authentication of your emails and tracking of the engagement metrics contribute to the success of email marketing outreach.

Nirosha Methananda, Vice President of Marketing at Bombora, discusses the challenges of marketing without annoying your potential customers by bombarding them with marketing messages in an interview with Logan Lyles on the B2B Growth Podcast:

Marketing Is Really About the Customer Experience

As a B2B marketer, I get marketed to a lot. It’s something that I have increasingly noticed and I’m probably not the only one. That’s just becoming part of the experience in terms of being inundated with different messaging and different calls and this, that, and the other. Use this, do this, buy this, whatever it is. It’s really not a great experience. It doesn’t necessarily provide value. Marketers are so busy as it is, and I know that is applicable across the board with everyone we are marketing to. Being able to cut through the noise and having an understanding of all these different things is very challenging. 

Having on top of it being inundated with this constant flow of messaging like meet me, meet me, meet me, is not very helpful. That’s one of the things that I’m passionate about. It’s really about customer experience. I think that is something fundamental to marketing. I feel like we have gone down this path of almost over automating and having to constantly pounce on people without necessarily being conscious and mindful of what their experience is on the other end. From my experience, it’s leading to me switching off and ignoring messages. I’m sure I’m not the only one. 

Create a Marketing Strategy That’s Not Annoying

It also leads to this annoyance and irritation which leads to distrust of brands and that’s not great for this industry. From a customer perspective those bad experiences, unfortunately, more than good experiences, they stay with you for longer and you remember that. Another thing that we don’t necessarily think of is that it’s wasteful. It’s wasteful of time and it’s wasteful of money especially for marketing and sales where money is a precious resource. It’s not something to be wasted. That’s basically why I’m passionate about creating a marketing strategy that’s not annoying.

As an example, our Intent Event was our first flagship event that we did last year. It was a closed event so we did have limited numbers and we were limited as to what we could do with promotion. What we did was try to have mindfulness around what we were sending out and ensuring that it was helpful. Making sure that the recipients, the people that we invited, were given all the relevant information, but there was brevity in the communication as well as encouraging them to participate without forcing them to be there. 

There was certainly some urgency around some of our communication but it wasn’t you need to attend this and this is why you must attend this. It was more about being a bit more subtle in presenting them the idea and the concept of what it was, why it would help them, and exactly the information that they needed. What that meant was not sending out multiple emails, being very controlled around it, really thinking about what the experience was before the event, to during the event, to after the event. We were really focused on the customer and making sure that all of the content and communication was educational and helpful.

A significant amount of email campaigns are unsuccessful, which underscores the importance of getting it right. No matter which email marketing services you use, this article is here to help you use them better.

1. Craft compelling subject lines

Your subject line is the first thing people see and use to decide whether or not they’ll open your email. Nearly 70% of your recipients will report it as spam after reading it if it comes off as too salesy or it isn’t relevant to them. Here are a few ways you could personalize your email subject line to seem human and connect with your readers:

• Use emojis, puns, and questions to pique their curiosity.
• Include a benefit that the recipient will get from reading your email.
• Keep it short (maximum of five words).
• Include a keyword or phrase that explains exactly why you want them to open your message.

Put yourself in your recipient’s shoes. Think of all the “spammy” emails you receive and what they say. Typically, they ask a generic question or seem to be trying to sell you something. Avoid these words and phrases in your subject line instead.

2. Segment your email list

Segmenting your email list is one of the best ways to optimize your email marketing strategy. It makes it easier to identify who you should target with specific mailers, as well as what content is most effective for different types of people within that segment. This makes it easier to focus on what each segment cares about and deliver personalized messaging. If you’re a retailer, this means you could segment your list by:

• Location
• Customer type (new, frequent, VIP)
• Product categories
• Purchase history
• Demographics

The email marketing software you already use (Mailchimp, Constant Contact) will already have segmentation built in, so you can create, test, and run campaigns on different segments with just a few clicks.

3. Use free tools to your advantage

There are plenty of tools available that help you streamline your workflow and design better campaigns and landing pages. Here are a few of our favorites:

• Image conversion: A PDF to JPG converter makes it easier for you to take design examples and implement them in your visual email builder.
• Template management: A template manager allows you to create custom templates that can be reused for email campaigns, making maintaining consistency and brand recognition easier.
• Email campaign visualizer: If you run sales email campaigns, a visualization tool like Lavender can help you see what your email will look like to the recipient. That way, you can optimize your subject line and body text for readability and appearance.

4. Optimize for mobile

Today, over 80% of emails are opened on mobile devices. If your emails are too long, complicated, or have images that don’t fit properly on mobile, they’ll be hard to read and won’t perform as well. To make sure your messages look great no matter what device your recipients are using, follow these tips:

• Keep it short: Write concise subject lines and limit the length of your emails to three or four sentences.
• Make it scannable: If you’re designing a visual campaign, take web design principles (e.g., using a grid system) and run with them.
• Have one clear message: Having multiple CTAs in your email can be confusing, especially for mobile users who won’t read through your entire message. Use eye-catching text to convey this message.
• Keep your CTA button above the scroll: This way, people can take immediate action without reading the rest of your message (if they don’t want to).
• Optimize your website for mobile: Your site will likely be the next stage in the conversion funnel, since it is where they will eventually make a purchase. In that case, you’ll want to make sure it loads fast and is accessible to mobile users.

5. Personalize email content with dynamic variables

Dynamic content is the easiest way to personalize, and it lets you create contingencies within your email marketing platform, then send one email to multiple segments with a personalized message to each recipient.

Let’s say you want to blast an email about a new product launch. Instead of sending the same email to everyone on your list, you could use dynamic variables to include their first name in the greeting and offer them specific discounts based on their purchase history or interests. If they’ve purchased from you before, you could even add a few sentences about their last purchase to make it more relevant.

6. Leverage email automation sequences 

Email automation lets you send automated emails at specific times or when certain conditions are met, such as after a customer signs up for your newsletter or a shopper leaves something in their cart. This allows you to nurture leads, deliver product updates, drive sales, and optimize your campaigns without manually sending emails every time.

You’ll have to test the right amount and frequency of emails for your individual campaigns, but most email automation services have reporting features to help you analyze your performance and adjust things accordingly.

7. Write conversational copy.

The best way to sell is to write how you talk. Casual but relevant language is the way to go when you’re trying to connect with your audience. Anything too rigid or formal will immediately throw them off. Here are a few tips:

• Use contractions to sound less robotic.
• Address your buyer as “you.”
• Don’t be afraid of acronyms, abbreviations, filler words, and slang (if your target audience also uses them).
• Tell stories, make references, and use analogies (pop culture references, sports metaphors).

At the very least, your emails will make your customer smile or connect with your content, which could lead to a purchase later on.

Endnote

Optimizing your email marketing strategy takes time and effort, and there are seemingly endless ways to do it. Ultimately, you’ll have to figure out which tactics work best for you, but the tips above are a great place to get started. There isn’t any universal approach, so don’t be afraid to experiment and test what works best for your audience.

Partially due to the increasing scams and oversaturation of ads on social media, eCommerce email marketing is many consumers’ preferred form of advertising. While you do want to use marketing mediums that fit your team members’ expertise, your consumers are the ones who are ultimately exposed to the finished product. Moreover, if you or your team members are struggling considerably with writing creative email copy, it may be worthwhile to invest in an eCommerce email marketing agency. But why is email marketing such a preferred advertising method by employees and consumers alike? What makes it superior?

What is the Difference Between eCommerce Email Marketing and E-Marketing?

Before exploring the ways in which eCommerce email marketing can improve your business, it’s essential to understand what eCommerce email marketing does. Any company can use email marketing—that is, sending product information or ads for new products via email. It’s becoming increasingly rarer for a store to have a physical shop without an online shop, but those stores that do can still make sure of email marketing. If you have a business, you can send out marketing emails. Similarly, if you have an online store, you can send out eCommerce marketing emails. This means that a non-profit can use email marketing but not eCommerce email marketing. E-Marketing, on the other hand, refers to any online marketing medium, including social media platforms and email. eCommerce email marketing can include general emails about upcoming sales in an online shop or emails that are tailored to a shopper and the items in their cart.

Consumer Control

Unlike social media marketing, email marketing allows consumers more control over the advertisements, coupons, and deals that they receive. Because consumers are required to subscribe to your company’s mailing list or newsletter in order to receive emails from you, consumers are less likely to receive emails from brands that they don’t know and trust. Any scam emails are directed to spam, and consumers have the freedom to unsubscribe from a mailing list in order to stop receiving product information.

More Trustworthy

While it may seem counterintuitive to allow consumers to stop receiving product information from your company, it is imperative to win their trust. In fact, 77% of consumers prefer to receive marketing information via email. It makes sense that emails are the most trustworthy. We’re already using our email addresses for work and networking so it feels professional whereas social media ads are fun, but a little too casual to be legitimate. Email marketing feels trustworthy and professional, but how can it work for your business? How do you ensure that your emails are being opened and your content consumed?

High Open Rates and ROI

It’s more likely than you think that consumers will open your marketing emails. According to Forbes, 65% of small businesses report that between 11 and 50% of their marketing emails are opened. It’s easy to track open rates using tools like Cirrus Insight. Even if a customer doesn’t open your email as soon as they receive it, there is a potential that they may do so later. Social media posts, on the other hand, disappear as soon as someone refreshes their feed—meaning they might never even see it. It’s also hard to beat the price and return on investment of marketing emails.

Forbes tells us that you earn $42 for every dollar you spend, and most email marketing campaigns cost very little. You might find that your open and click-through rates become even higher when you put effort into the design and layout of your emails. As long as you don’t flood your consumers’ inboxes (40% of small businesses send marketing emails weekly while 30% send them at least once a month), your clients are sure to appreciate a thoughtfully made email with memorable colors and graphics. Cleverly worded subject lines that include slang and emojis are especially popular with more “hip” brands like skincare lines and fashion companies.

Conclusion

Even with the rise of social media, eCommerce email marketing is still a trustworthy form of marketing—and, in fact, one that is usually preferred by consumers. The return on investment and ease of content creation makes email marketing a no-brainer for your next campaign.

There’s no denying that collaboration and teamwork are two of the most important drivers of business success. Having a well-oiled machine where team members communicate efficiently and are always on the same page can make a huge difference when it comes to productivity since it means you are getting the most out of your human resources.

On top of this, the rise of remote work has made collaboration and teamwork even more important in the modern workplace. With team members now spread out across the world and face-to-face interaction becoming less frequent, it can be difficult to keep everyone in sync.

Fortunately, with Microsoft Outlook, businesses can leverage the power of collaboration and teamwork while still staying secure, no matter where team members are located. On that note, here are the main advantages of using Outlook for collaboration and teamwork:

Increased Productivity

One of the most significant advantages of using Outlook for collaboration is its ability to help teams stay productive and organized. By harnessing Outlook’s powerful tools such as shared calendars, task reminders, and automated scheduling services, team members can not only keep track of their assigned tasks but also stay on top of deadlines, follow up with colleagues, and ensure that all projects move along smoothly.

Moreover, by integrating with Office 365 suites like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, team members can collaborate on projects in real-time without the need for cumbersome email chains or other slow-moving systems. This helps keep everyone in sync while still allowing teams to work remotely or from different offices around the globe.

Improved Communication

Outlook makes it incredibly easy for teams to stay connected in real-time without the need for lengthy in-person meetings. Through its chat and messaging features, team members can quickly share ideas, updates, and questions – helping them to stay cohesive while working apart.

Additionally, Outlook’s voice calling feature lets users make calls directly within its interface – allowing them to get answers faster no matter where they may be. And with the ability to create a custom Outlook email signature, team members can maintain a professional image and streamline communication with clients and colleagues alike.

And perhaps most importantly, Outlook helps create a people-centric environment by making it easier for everyone to interact with each other regularly. This fosters stronger relationships between colleagues which can help increase morale and productivity, leading to more successful collaborations all around!

Streamlined Collaboration

When collaborating on projects or reports within Outlook users can easily share comments with one another within a shared document or project which makes gathering feedback simpler than ever before. When changes have been made they are synced automatically so there’s no need to copy/paste files back and forth between team members anymore.

Additionally, tasks assigned within this shared environment are tracked in real-time meaning that everyone knows who is responsible for what at any given moment – helping increase overall efficiency.

Enhanced Security

One of the biggest concerns in today’s modern workplace is security – especially when dealing with sensitive data exchanged over multiple devices.

Fortunately, Microsoft has taken steps to ensure that Outlook remains secure at all times by implementing TLS encryption (Transport Layer Security) as well as two-factor authentication methods. This requires users to enter both a username/password combination as well as another form of identification such as an SMS code sent directly from their mobile device before being allowed access to their account.

Flexible Scheduling Tools

Outlook also provides incredibly useful scheduling tools that make it easier for remote teams to adequately manage their workloads even if they are spread out over multiple time zones. Shared calendars allow team members from across the globe to view upcoming tasks and events together so no one misses out – ensuring efficient workflow throughout all operations regardless of physical location.

Additionally, task reminders help keep everyone informed about deadlines and upcoming assignments – further simplifying project management.

Integrations With Popular Business Tools

Finally, Outlook integrates with some of the most popular business tools available today, making it easier than ever to collaborate with the tools you already know and love. This includes applications such as:

• Salesforce
• Dropbox
• Adobe Creative Cloud
• Microsoft Teams
• Asana
• ClickUp

With the integration of these tools, users can stay up-to-date with projects and calendar events without having to switch between multiple applications or tabs. As an example, if you have an important meeting today, you can sync your Outlook calendar with Slack so that everyone on your team receives the event invitation in real time.

Conclusion

Outlook remains one of the most versatile platforms available today due to its capabilities around facilitating collaboration and communication while still maintaining a high level of security throughout operations. With helpful scheduling tools such as shared calendars and task reminders, those using Outlook can effectively work together regardless of location while staying organized and productive along the way – ultimately resulting in greater efficiency during all stages of any given project.

Microsoft unveiled Viva Sales in mid-2022, touting it as “a new seller experience application.” The app is designed to work with various CRMs and integrate their data with Microsoft’s suite of apps.

The company is now integrating ChatGPT into Viva Sales so salespeople can use the AI to write emails for them. According to Bloomberg, the software “will cull data from customer records and Office email software. That information will then be used to generate emails containing personalized text, pricing details and promotions.”

Microsoft is investing heavily in ChatGPT and its creator, OpenAI. The company is planning to unveil a version of Bing that utilizes a new and improved version, and has invested billions in OpenAI.

The company clearly sees potential for ChatGPT to help it in its efforts to take on Salesforce’s dominance in the CRM market.

Hence, the significance of email marketing is no surprise for your business to influence your target audience. Moreover, utilizing the power of artificial intelligence to optimize your email marketing strategy further enhances the impact on your target audience.

Businesses that use AI to drive email marketing are likely to grow by US $1.2 trillion annually.

In fact, 49% of marketers are already implementing automation in their email marketing strategy.

Artificial intelligence can be used for smart segmentation, optimization of email subject lines, and email automation workflow, which can help you to increase click-through rates and open rates.

Let’s deep dive into how you can leverage AI to optimize your email marketing strategy.

1- Write Appealing Subject Lines

With the help of AI, you can optimize your subject, body copy, and CTA.

The subject of the email is one of the most crucial parts of the email content. More than 35% of email recipients open an email based on the subject line alone.

By integrating artificial intelligence, you can analyze the performance of past emails and determine which subject lines have performed the best in the past. It also assists you by recommending a subject line that can be engaging and interactive. You can also find spam words that can be avoided while writing subject lines.

2- Optimize Your Body Copy and CTA

Similarly, the main content of the email can be tailored based on the past behavior of users. AI evaluates the content explored by users on your website and changes the e-newsletter from week to week when the user begins to explore a new category of content. 

Moreover, provide a unified company-wide email signature to brand every message that you send to your subscriber. Focus on Office 365 email signature management to centrally manage and sync your company email signatures.

For optimizing CTA, utilizing AI helps you to find the change in user behavior and interest and present the next CTA accordingly.

For example, a user was not checking the technical document on your website. But gradually started showing interest and became engaged in your technical content. Taking it as a signal, AI prompts to offer a technical whitepaper in the next email CTA. 

3- Create a Segmented Email List

You can win customers through data segmentation as it enables you to send targeted emails to the audience. However, manually segmenting your data requires a lot of time and effort.

Therefore, by AI it is more stress-free and an easy task. Using AI, you can easily segment users based on:

●  Demographics, such as age, location, or gender.

●  Past purchase behavior of the users.

●  Email behavior, such as open or click activities in their mailboxes.

After evaluation, AI-powered apps come up with a segmented list, allowing you to boost email marketing efforts to the fullest. It also enables you to create real-time and accurate marketing segments based on customer insights drawn from cross-channel activities.

Moreover, it helps you to segment your subscriber based on their position in the sales funnel. Thus, AI-powered techniques allow you to target users individually for hyper-relevant marketing.

4- Personalize Your Emails

Integrating AI in your marketing strategy enables marketers to study the behavior of users and predict the perfect time to send them an email.

It also helps you to reduce the spillage and reach a definite audience based on their locations, interest, likes, preferences, and search patterns. Using this data, marketers can predict the type of content that their users would like to see. Thus, making it possible to personalize your email.

In addition, you can use professional and personalized templates that will increase the chances that your subscribers will open and read your mail.

Utilize AI-powered email marketing tools, such as ConvertKit, Sendinblue, or Moosend, that help you create more personalized emails.

5- Automate the Workflow

AI-based data insights enable marketers and strategists to schedule the mail at regular intervals. If you have a wide range of users from multiple time zones, then it is better to set and optimize delivery times as per their time zone.

AI helps you to figure out the time when your users are actively looking at their emails based on their past behavior. 

Therefore, with the help of AI, you can optimize the send time and send sales or limited time offers when your subscribers are active and more likely to click on it.

6- Better Reporting and Actionable Analytics

Traditional methods of reporting included capturing statistics, such as opens and clicks. However, it can be improved with the help of AI. It enables you to generate data that can be utilized to get better insights and achieve the intended goal.

Some of the improved techniques that you can use to get detailed insights into user behavior and create better emails are funnels, cohorts, and churn analysis.

●  Funnel analysis: It analyzes the actions taken by the users before reaching the desired goal. Funnel analysis helps marketers to determine where they are losing the most users and where they are converting them. With the help of this information, you can implement necessary steps to drive traffic, encourage subscribers to take action or entice them. 

●  Cohort analysis: It helps you to find out a group of subscribers that share the same characteristics. For example, some users signed up for emails in February and opened their emails in the following months of March, April, and May. Using this data, you can understand what products, promotions and marketing initiatives attract your subscribers.

●  Churn analysis and prediction: It helps you to identify signals that a subscriber is about to unsubscribe you. An example of such a single is subscribers that stopped interacting with your emails. Thus, it enables you to take action in advance to retain your subscribers. 

Final Thoughts

Your emails must be distinctive, specific, and target-oriented to stand out of the clutter in the mailbox of your target audience. It is because a common emailer with a repetitive message will not fetch you the desired click-through rate. You can easily achieve that by integrating AI with your email marketing strategy.

It helps you to provide more customized, targeted, and personalized emails to the subscribers. It is one of the effective strategies to deliver quality and insightful campaigns. It uses a combination of automation and advanced tools to synchronize and create appealing email campaigns. Thus, it is advantageous to incorporate AI technology to witness exceptional growth.

The whole point of marketing is to get the attention of your audience. If your emails no longer do that, it’s time to rethink your strategy.

To solve this issue, you need to start re-engagement campaigns.  71% of marketers believe that these campaigns are an effective way to win back inactive subscribers. However, only 57% use this type of marketing technique.

So, if you’re among that 57% and still exploring your marketing options, read on to find out the importance of a re-engagement campaign and how you can execute one for your brand.

Importance of Re-engagement Campaigns

Email marketers can fix the inactive status of their email subscribers, ignore it or remove those subscribers from the list. Unfortunately, the ones who ignore the inactive status of their subscribers continue sending the same old emails in hopes of different results.

On the other hand, those who remove these people from the email list lose a significant number of potential customers. Studies reveal that, on average, the value of an inactive subscriber is 32% of an active subscriber.

The most effective way to deal with inactive subscribers is to win them over with a re-engagement campaign. Unfortunately, even though the first two options seem more straightforward to execute than this and require minimal effort with minimum resources, they will multiply the risk of damage.

One of the most significant troubles of emailing inactive subscribers is that your open rates get impacted. A drop in open rates of your emails can negatively affect your email reputation, as your internet service providers (ISPs) will note it.

This ultimately means that ignoring inactive subscribers instead of winning them back can cost you loss of a significant sum of revenue.

3 Effective Ways To Re-engage Subscribers

Here are a few ways you can re-engage subscribers.

Make Your Emails Relevant

Most businesses usually make the mistake of only sending sales and offering emails to their list. But, unfortunately, these monotonous emails can lose the interest of your subscriber. So, it would help you run an effective email marketing campaign if you made your emails more relevant.

You can base your emails on current news or points that might interest your subscribers and be relevant to your brand too. Providing them with something new every time will compel them to open your email. If it becomes predictable that you’ll always send them offers, they will stop opening the emails.

So if you want to hold the attention of your subscribers, come up with eye-catching content. For example, if you are creating a Shopify newsletter, find the right layout and use striking visuals to grab your readers’ attention and ultimately direct them to your Shopify store.

Moreover, the click-to-open rate has dropped to 18%. This could be attributed to the fact that Americans receive 121 marketing emails per day, making it very unlikely for them to open all of them. Only the ones that manage to win the attention of the user will survive. So, make your email worth opening.

Rebuild the Relationship

The broken relationship between your brand and your subscribers needs to be mended. There are many ways you can do that. Running a campaign that references the lack of engagement of your subscriber can be a great idea. State it as the purpose of your campaign, something like, “(brand’s name) Misses You!”

This campaign will make your subscribers feel noticed and appreciated. Moreover, its transparency provides them all the reasons to engage with it.

Send Personalized Emails

It is crucial to make your subscribers feel important. One way to do that is by sending personalized emails. When they recognize the effort, you seek their attention. They will most likely want to open and respond too.

For example, you can sort the purchase history of your subscriber, their web behaviors, or product usage. Then use this information to provide recommendations regarding similar products or birthday/anniversary discounts through your marketing campaign.

This re-engagement campaign will shoot your click-to-open rates, making your email marketing successful.

In Conclusion

Spending massive sums on your marketing campaigns that don’t bear results can be a disappointment. Unfortunately, inactive subscribers can be a primary reason for the campaign’s failure. To eliminate this liability, you need to try some new and novel tactics to win them back. Make it your ultimate priority, and you’ll start receiving engagement from them in no time.

While they are the first choice for communicating with your customers, spice your content to make it one of the most effective mediums to reach your prospective customers. There is no secret ingredient to make your emails stand out, but certainly, you’ll need to employ a few tricks to make your emails more captivating.

Below we are listing some of the practical tips that, as an entrepreneur, you can try to implement in your email marketing and deliver some powerful effective emails to your customers.

Create Enticing Subject Lines

To create engaging emails, you need to make sure your subject lines are creative and unique to stand out from the crowd. You need to develop your subject line so the message resonates with the audience and people don’t judge your email content with its cover. This aspect will spark genuine interest in your clients and make them engage in your emails considerably.

Prepare Useful Content Strategy 

With the increasing popularity of emails, plan your email content wisely. Keep them illustratively captivating and relate them to the needs and desires of your readers. From adding CTAs to educational resources, connect your email content with the reader in a personal way. This approach, in return, adds value to your business and enables you with potential buyers. Moreover, never talk only about your company or product and cut through the noise by offering engaging content.

Keep it Personal to the Recipient

The secret to delivering enticing emails is by targeting the emails in a personalized way. By adding dynamic content specific to your reader, you can greet them with their name and develop a personal connection to the brand. Everything you do as a business needs to lend value, and thus, ensure to provide them something to gain by encouraging them to open your emails.

Make Them Interesting

To make your email resonate with your audience, you need to bring in some visually appealing content. Ensure to keep the email layout enjoyable to read with a mixed balance of images and texts. The right flavor can quickly grab your subscriber’s attention. So, enhance the overall design while staying on-brand, creating relevant, high-converting emails, and boost engagement for your email campaigns.

Make it Easy to Unsubscribe

To facilitate your emails with maximum growth, allow your emails to have a visible unsubscribe link in your email footer. Don’t keep the link hidden, and ensure to complete the process with two-step clicks. By configuring this facility, you don’t have to force your readers to be in your contact lists and hurt your engagement level. For more tips to ask people to sign in, you can take help from a reputable email agency. Also, check the email marketing agency pricing before you hire them for your customized services.

Ensure Mobile-Friendly Layout

If you want to connect to a vast audience and hope to improve your email open rates, create mobile-friendly emails. With an estimated mobile user climbing in numbers every day as a business entrepreneur, you need to create emails that have high open rates on every type of mobile device.

Get Your Frequency Just Right

If you are a start-up, then at the beginning, do not bombard your readers with emails. Create a sense of bond and faith between yourselves and send enough emails to stay consistent. By this, you can uphold your brand’s presence and develop that balance of customer engagement. Maintain the frequency of sending your emails just right by understanding the customer’s interactive pattern. Additionally, depending on your industry or campaign objective, you can fluctuate the frequency and allow the open rates to grow.

Analyze and Improve

Last and foremost, by sending a variety of emails, analyze the performance of your email. This aspect can enable a high success rate and help you to plan and improve future campaigns. You can even test different emails to determine which styles perform better through A/B testing. Thus, with well-researched and insightful material, you can develop patterns of success for improvement and adjust your overall strategy.

In Conclusion

From the above content, you may have an idea of how email marketing campaigns can work by creating effective emails. These tips are necessary to develop your email content on point and ensure that your emails are not termed spam. Thereby the emails are developed and crafted wherein they get opened and acted. By doing this, you can add significant value to your business and adjust your strategy seamlessly. So, use this powerful marketing tool wisely and ensure to drive customer retention and acquisition.

Email newsletters can lend a great deal of help in client retention, communication, and revenue-building. Many newsletters provide readers with coupons, exclusive offers and products, as well as membership perks and discounts. As a result, experts have found shoppers to spend nearly 137% more with a business after receiving email offers. To the benefit of the brand, a $45 return is seen for every $1 spent on email marketing.

In other words, the key to successful email marketing is getting your content seen and engaged with without getting flagged as spam. Luckily, this is achievable in various ways.

One of the easiest things you can do to raise your email open rates is to replace any irrelevant text or uninteresting subject lines. When crafting an email, be personal. Feel free to use the recipient’s name or location as a conversation-builder. Continuing on, be brief. As a general rule of thumb, keep email subject lines under 10 words – and/or 60 characters. However, remember to keep your subject line friendly, as this personable method also increases email open rates. With this, be sure to use no more than 3 punctuation marks and 1 emoji.

Of course, there are many methods to messaging targeted recipients. A/B comparison methods can assist as they allow for testing across various subject lines. With its results, you can learn which outreach variant your customers prefer.

You can also categorize your contacts into interest groups and geolocation to ensure content is relevant to all receivers. Geolocations can be as specific as time zones or regions.

On the other hand, you can increase your click-through rates using hacks just as easy. For example, change your hyperlink’s text, and avoid using “click here.” Remember: not many email recipients click for more. Instead, take the opportunity to embed multiple links to the same content, and create descriptive and concise link text when doing so. You can also use A/B style testing here to test out content blocks.

When conducting outreach, one of the most important keys to remember is not getting marked as spam. Recipients rarely flag marketing emails as spam; but when they do, it’s because they’ve grown stale of the marketer’s content, their contact information has been purchased, they have been contacted without permission, or something else along these lines.

As a human courtesy, ask customers to opt-in to receiving your emails before auto-blasting them with content. In fact, take the time to explain the benefits such as coupons or other exclusive offers when asking them to op-tin. Regardless of what you, never purchase email addresses. Similarly, never hide the unsubscribe link from your emails. It’s always important to keep emails and campaigns professional – so stick to any email frequency expectations you have set for your team.

Overall, all marketers want consumers to engage with their content. The best way in doing so may be through email marketing. Do you know the best tactics for engaging with the public?

Nirosha Methananda, Vice President of Marketing at Bombora, discusses the challenges of marketing without annoying your potential customers by bombarding them with marketing messages in an interview with Logan Lyles on the B2B Growth Podcast:

Marketing Is Really About the Customer Experience

As a B2B marketer, I get marketed to a lot. It’s something that I have increasingly noticed and I’m probably not the only one. That’s just becoming part of the experience in terms of being inundated with different messaging and different calls and this, that, and the other. Use this, do this, buy this, whatever it is. It’s really not a great experience. It doesn’t necessarily provide value. Marketers are so busy as it is, and I know that is applicable across the board with everyone we are marketing to. Being able to cut through the noise and having an understanding of all these different things is very challenging. 

Having on top of it being inundated with this constant flow of messaging like meet me, meet me, meet me, is not very helpful. That’s one of the things that I’m passionate about. It’s really about customer experience. I think that is something fundamental to marketing. I feel like we have gone down this path of almost over automating and having to constantly pounce on people without necessarily being conscious and mindful of what their experience is on the other end. From my experience, it’s leading to me switching off and ignoring messages. I’m sure I’m not the only one. 

Create a Marketing Strategy That’s Not Annoying

It also leads to this annoyance and irritation which leads to distrust of brands and that’s not great for this industry. From a customer perspective those bad experiences, unfortunately, more than good experiences, they stay with you for longer and you remember that. Another thing that we don’t necessarily think of is that it’s wasteful. It’s wasteful of time and it’s wasteful of money especially for marketing and sales where money is a precious resource. It’s not something to be wasted. That’s basically why I’m passionate about creating a marketing strategy that’s not annoying.

As an example, our Intent Event was our first flagship event that we did last year. It was a closed event so we did have limited numbers and we were limited as to what we could do with promotion. What we did was try to have mindfulness around what we were sending out and ensuring that it was helpful. Making sure that the recipients, the people that we invited, were given all the relevant information, but there was brevity in the communication as well as encouraging them to participate without forcing them to be there. 

There was certainly some urgency around some of our communication but it wasn’t you need to attend this and this is why you must attend this. It was more about being a bit more subtle in presenting them the idea and the concept of what it was, why it would help them, and exactly the information that they needed. What that meant was not sending out multiple emails, being very controlled around it, really thinking about what the experience was before the event, to during the event, to after the event. We were really focused on the customer and making sure that all of the content and communication was educational and helpful.

Dave Gerhardt, VP of Marketing at Drift, was recently interviewed on the B2B Growth podcast by John Rougeux who is VP of Marketing at Skyfii. Gerhardt discusses conversational marketing as a new B2B product category and how it is changing marketing from reaching out to you later to a conversation that is happening now:

Conversational Marketing is About Connecting You Now

Conversational marketing is a whole new way of thinking about marketing and sales. The traditional way of doing marketing and sales is all about later. Come to my website and fill out this form and somebody is going to reach out to you later, when it’s convenient for them. The big shift that is happening in marketing and business over the last five to ten years is customers have all the power today. You can’t make people wait. Information is free now.

I can find anything I want to know about a company without ever having to go to your website. It’s crazy to think that you are going to force people to go to your website, fill out a form, wait three days to hear back from your sales team, and then get a demo. Conversational is all about connecting you now with the people who are ready to buy now while they are live on your website.

B2P – Marketing to People

It’s not about buyers. It’s not about sellers. It’s not about sales. It’s not about marketing. It’s about people. That’s how people all communicate online today. I pressed one button in my car and I got a list. I ordered something from Amazon while I was here this morning to send back to my house and it’s going to be there tomorrow when I get home. There are countless examples of that. That is how we all behave online in our real lives today.

But then something happens weird happens. We go to our jobs in B2B and none of the tools that we use match how we actually buy as real people. That’s the most exciting thing to me about conversational marketing. It’s really closing the gap between B2C and B2B. We just call it B2P, marketing to people.

What Ties Our Products Together is Conversation

We have an email product and we have a landing page product. Black and white versions of those people would say everybody has email, everybody has landing pages. The thing that ties those together is conversation. That forces us to think about what is conversational email? What is conversational landing pages? What is conversational whatever? That one word forces our product team to think about how can we change this? If our fundamental stance as a company is that the internet should be one conversation, then how does that weave into everything that we build?

Ultimately what we care about is that email becomes a conversation. Meaning, the way that marketers have had to use email the last decade is a one-way channel. Email is meant to be a two-way channel. Marketers have been using it as, “John come to my webinar.” What happens if you actually respond to that email? Most of the time you can’t because it’s donotreply@ or it just goes to some inbox where nobody is answering it. That is a terrible experience. Our belief is that if you reply, “Hey actually I can’t make it. Can you reregister my colleague?” That should get handled. We are thinking of that from an evolution standpoint.

The same thing with landing pages. Most landing pages today are static. You go to the landing page, put a bunch of info in and you are gone. What if that was a real-time conversation on the page? That one topic has to weave itself into everything we do from a product perspective.

>> Listen to the complete interview with Drift Marketing VP Dave Gerhardt on the B2B Growth podcast.

There’s no denying that collaboration and teamwork are two of the most important drivers of business success. Having a well-oiled machine where team members communicate efficiently and are always on the same page can make a huge difference when it comes to productivity since it means you are getting the most out of your human resources.

On top of this, the rise of remote work has made collaboration and teamwork even more important in the modern workplace. With team members now spread out across the world and face-to-face interaction becoming less frequent, it can be difficult to keep everyone in sync.

Fortunately, with Microsoft Outlook, businesses can leverage the power of collaboration and teamwork while still staying secure, no matter where team members are located. On that note, here are the main advantages of using Outlook for collaboration and teamwork:

Increased Productivity

One of the most significant advantages of using Outlook for collaboration is its ability to help teams stay productive and organized. By harnessing Outlook’s powerful tools such as shared calendars, task reminders, and automated scheduling services, team members can not only keep track of their assigned tasks but also stay on top of deadlines, follow up with colleagues, and ensure that all projects move along smoothly.

Moreover, by integrating with Office 365 suites like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, team members can collaborate on projects in real-time without the need for cumbersome email chains or other slow-moving systems. This helps keep everyone in sync while still allowing teams to work remotely or from different offices around the globe.

Improved Communication

Outlook makes it incredibly easy for teams to stay connected in real-time without the need for lengthy in-person meetings. Through its chat and messaging features, team members can quickly share ideas, updates, and questions – helping them to stay cohesive while working apart.

Additionally, Outlook’s voice calling feature lets users make calls directly within its interface – allowing them to get answers faster no matter where they may be. And with the ability to create a custom Outlook email signature, team members can maintain a professional image and streamline communication with clients and colleagues alike.

And perhaps most importantly, Outlook helps create a people-centric environment by making it easier for everyone to interact with each other regularly. This fosters stronger relationships between colleagues which can help increase morale and productivity, leading to more successful collaborations all around!

Streamlined Collaboration

When collaborating on projects or reports within Outlook users can easily share comments with one another within a shared document or project which makes gathering feedback simpler than ever before. When changes have been made they are synced automatically so there’s no need to copy/paste files back and forth between team members anymore.

Additionally, tasks assigned within this shared environment are tracked in real-time meaning that everyone knows who is responsible for what at any given moment – helping increase overall efficiency.

Enhanced Security

One of the biggest concerns in today’s modern workplace is security – especially when dealing with sensitive data exchanged over multiple devices.

Fortunately, Microsoft has taken steps to ensure that Outlook remains secure at all times by implementing TLS encryption (Transport Layer Security) as well as two-factor authentication methods. This requires users to enter both a username/password combination as well as another form of identification such as an SMS code sent directly from their mobile device before being allowed access to their account.

Flexible Scheduling Tools

Outlook also provides incredibly useful scheduling tools that make it easier for remote teams to adequately manage their workloads even if they are spread out over multiple time zones. Shared calendars allow team members from across the globe to view upcoming tasks and events together so no one misses out – ensuring efficient workflow throughout all operations regardless of physical location.

Additionally, task reminders help keep everyone informed about deadlines and upcoming assignments – further simplifying project management.

Integrations With Popular Business Tools

Finally, Outlook integrates with some of the most popular business tools available today, making it easier than ever to collaborate with the tools you already know and love. This includes applications such as:

• Salesforce
• Dropbox
• Adobe Creative Cloud
• Microsoft Teams
• Asana
• ClickUp

With the integration of these tools, users can stay up-to-date with projects and calendar events without having to switch between multiple applications or tabs. As an example, if you have an important meeting today, you can sync your Outlook calendar with Slack so that everyone on your team receives the event invitation in real time.

Conclusion

Outlook remains one of the most versatile platforms available today due to its capabilities around facilitating collaboration and communication while still maintaining a high level of security throughout operations. With helpful scheduling tools such as shared calendars and task reminders, those using Outlook can effectively work together regardless of location while staying organized and productive along the way – ultimately resulting in greater efficiency during all stages of any given project.

However, you need to have the right email marketing infrastructure in place to adequately reach new customers and loyal subscribers and build better relationships that generate more leads and consequently increase sales. These platforms even come with email analytics and optimization features that enable you to improve your email marketing campaigns and increase your conversion rates. Luckily, there are multiple email marketing platforms to choose from. To help you navigate the market, we outline some of the top email marketing platforms for businesses:

1.    Constant Contact

Constant Contact is undoubtedly the top email marketing platform for startups and small businesses. It’s also the fastest-growing email marketing provider worldwide, while it remains beginner-friendly and easy to use. Using Constant Contact, you can conveniently manage your contacts, email lists, email templates, marketing calendar, and more. Your account comes with unlimited email access for easy tracking and subsequent reporting. It also has built-in capability for social media sharing, list segmentation, a free image library, integration for Facebook ads, and a powerful Shopify eCommerce integration.

Constant Contact’s Plus Package comes with additional features such as powerful email automation, online donations, drip campaigns, subject line A/B testing, coupons and surveys, and polls, which will help you broadcast targeted emails to maximize your open rate.

2.      HubSpot

HubSpot is also a popular marketing platform with all the necessary tools to accelerate your business growth. Email marketing, however, is just one feature of their CRM plan, which also comes with other tools such as the meeting scheduler, live chat and bots, form builder, and landing page builder. For instance, you could set up your landing page with a simple signup form that will enable you to capture new users’ email addresses in your CRM. However, the real utility of HubSpot email marketing is the CRM’s ability to log your contacts automatically and record all your business interactions to help you create and send deeply personalized emails.

3.      Moosend

Moosend is one of the most affordable email marketing platforms for startups and small businesses. Its offering comes with powerful email marketing automation features, email-building tools, landing pages, and more. Using Moosend, you can easily and quickly customize your email newsletter that matches your brand in a few minutes by utilizing their numerous pre-built email templates.

The good thing about Moosend is that email marketing automation features are available across all plans. They also allow you access to their automation workflow designer, who will help you personalize your newsletter for new subscribers. More importantly, Moosend uses detailed analytics of important email metrics, including email opens, bounces, clicks, custom event tracking, product views, purchases, and even demographics data.

Endnote

Despite the common belief that email marketing is dead, it remains a crucial tool for businesses of all types and sizes. This is mainly because it’s a cost-effective means to quickly reach a mass audience and generate leads more efficiently while also sharing crucial market information and trends. Additionally, email marketing software is typically easy to use, enabling you to create customers for life through personalized connections to your client base.

To respond better to emails and enhance customer satisfaction, companies must sync their devices across the board. Enterprises use emails across different platforms, and syncing them on the business’s daily functioning improves accessibility and response time. Email syncing avails both current and historical email communications in a company. 

What does email syncing mean?

To sync means to back up data from multiple sources or devices and to avail it on multiple devices at the same time. The data can be in various forms, such as calendar events, emails, videos, or photos. When emails are synced, it is availed from different platforms or servers into a single platform. 

Syncing helps streamline a company’s email processes. The top beneficiary of email syncing is the sales or marketing team because they can manage all incoming and outgoing emails from one place. It helps improve the team’s productivity and boosts sales in a company. 

The syncing process combines different sets of tools, software, and systems that create a seamless marketing strategy. One of the main tools used in email syncing is the Salesforce plugin for Gmail integration. Revenue Grid automatically updates your Salesforce by capturing all activities from your Gmail inbox. Its auto-capture feature allows your marketing team to collect all information from the meetings, emails, and tasks and update them in the Salesforce records at the same time. 

Why is email syncing in a company important?

Email syncing provides an instant update of your inboxes in real-time. Bringing your emails into one place provides the marketing team with multiple benefits. 

All communication can be viewed from one place

It is harder to track communication when it is coming from different sources or devices. The sales/marketing team has to keep switching from one device or platform. It takes more time to check all emails and respond to each, which could lead to lost business opportunities. 

Syncing brings all your communication to one place, making it easier to view different communications from clients. The sales team can easily respond to emails according to priority and customize responses according to customer needs. 

It is easier to develop detailed email lists

Building email lists is beneficial to marketing teams in different ways. It makes it easier for them to segment customers and create marketing content unique to each segment. This type of content can be newsletters, marketing videos, and product suggestions. The syncing tool integrates all emails from different channels into one platform. The marketing team saves time by making sure every important piece of information needed is in one place. The team enhances productivity which helps increase sales. 

Sending automated emails

Creating different content for each market segment and sending it to individual recipients takes more time. When the email lists are long, some of the customers may fail to receive their emails in time, or they may receive the wrong content. Automating email workflows ensures each recipient gets the right content at the right time. Email automation has several benefits for a company. 

• The marketing team nurtures leads into customers, which increases sales.
• Automation doesn’t need human intervention. All that the marketing team needs to do is to create the content and set up the lists according to recipients, time, and day. The system automatically sends the emails to the right recipients when needed. 
• The marketing team can easily view email engagements. Some of the tools allow the marketing team to view who received emails and the action they took. That way, they can make product suggestions to the customer and increase sales opportunities.
• Raises brand awareness. Email automation ensures a consistent marketing strategy. The company appears better organized to clients, which increases brand reputation. 

Better return on investment

The marketing team must generate a report on the performance of each marketing campaign. Syncing allows the team to see how each campaign performs, and they can use the information to improve marketing strategies for each market segment. Email syncing positively impacts a company’s return on investment. 

Mailchimp is a popular email marketing platform, and was recently acquired by Intuit. The deal was based on Mailchimp rounding out Intuit’s suite of tools and products aimed at small businesses. Unfortunately, it appears Intuit also inherited a security issue.

According to TechCrunch, Mailchip has revealed it was hacked in late March. Fortunately, the company quickly identified the breach and took action while the perpetrators were still working.

“We acted swiftly to address the situation by terminating access for the compromised employee accounts and took steps to prevent additional employees from being affected,” Mailchimp CISO Siobhan Smyth said.

Unfortunately, the hackers were able to download audience data for 102 accounts before Mailchimp personnel were able to lock them out and secure their systems.

“When we become aware of any unauthorized account access, we notify the account owner and immediately take steps to suspend any further access,” Smyth told TechCrunch. “We also recommend two-factor authentication and other account security measures for our users as added measures to keep accounts and passwords secure.”