The most efficient way to deliver high fidelity personalization in your daily email, and drive over 11x return on spend (works seamlessly with your existing email service provider).
Infinitely expand your brands photography with Curator™ AI. Generate new product photography that’s indistinguishable from the originals, and combines multiple products together.
Create, manage, deploy, and target an unlimited number of personalized messages. Deliver any of the messages from your pool through a single image URL and link embedded within email, SMS, mobile, or on your website.
Zembula connects with any enterprise data source. If you don’t see a specific data source here or have a custom data source, we will always connect it for free.
The most efficient way to deliver high fidelity personalization in your daily email, and drive over 11x return on spend (works seamlessly with your existing email service provider).
Infinitely expand your brands photography with Curator™ AI. Generate new product photography that’s indistinguishable from the originals, and combines multiple products together.
Create, manage, deploy, and target an unlimited number of personalized messages. Deliver any of the messages from your pool through a single image URL and link embedded within email, SMS, mobile, or on your website.
Integrations
Connect with 100+ integrations
Zembula connects with any enterprise data source. If you don’t see a specific data source here or have a custom data source, we will always connect it for free.
Personalization and Interactivity: Why you should be using this perfect pairing
Every email marketer out there is looking for ways to get more opens, clicks, and conversions.
After all, even a modest lift in your most important email marketing metrics can translate to real returns on the bottom line.
So with all the tactics and techniques out there, two strategies have emerged.
One is using personalization in email. That just means trying to segment and focus emails on groups of people vs. sending one email to everyone on your list.
In a situation like this, a simple way to use it is to send all your Chicago based subscribers a Chicago-centric email. This type of content is a great way to get people interested and engaged with your emails because it speaks directly to them.
The other popular strategy is to use interactive content. This is content that gets your subscribers to actively engage with what they see.
Interactive content tends to get more clicks and conversions vs. static content. It gets readers excited about what they’ve got popping up in their inbox.
Where email marketers continue to focus
Litmus recently conducted a survey where they asked marketers about the top email design trends of 2019.
These were the five most popular responses:
Notice anything that relates to what we were talking about before?
Including personalization as dynamic content and interactive content in emails were the top two answers. The fourth most popular response also plays into this, and that’s having more live content in emails.
You can probably notice a pattern here.
Consumers want emails that appeal to them and their specific wants and needs are visually appealing and drive them take action, and are dynamic.
Now, here’s what you should be doing to start capitalizing on these trends.
Combine personalization and interactivity into one.
This paring can offer you a massive advantage over your competitors because in one email you’re giving your subscribers the best of both worlds and driving engagement.
Let’s take a look at it in action.
Revealing content
Take a look at this spa example.
This sort of email can be segmented to a specific subset of customers who are frequent buyers, especially in the summer months.
Now, lots of retailers can send out a SALE email, get some clicks, and call it a day. But by taking it just a step further and making this content more interactive, it intrigues the reader into participating.
They have to take an actual action beyond just clicking to reveal what the summer savings program is. The simple act of ‘scratching’ helps to trigger the reader’s brain to become more emotionally invested and take ownership of the results.
Using reveal marketing, you can tap into both personalization and interactivity to get people more interested in your products or services.
Interactivity in many forms
Another cool feature that brands are tapping into is using geo-location to personalize emails.
Check out the email below.
For a hotel, this is a clever use of both location and personalization.
Imagine it’s the dead of winter and one of your target customers, Karen, lives in Minneapolis. She’s surrounded by three feet of snow and gusting winds.
It’s more than likely she’s a bit fed up with her local weather. As an email marketer, you can use that. You can create an email that shows her what she could be enjoying in sunny California, where the weather is lovely this time of year, and entice her to book a trip.
Now, this email probably isn’t going to work if Karen lived in Miami or Phoenix, but because the personalization is targeted to a specific location, it’s speaking directly to the psychological and emotional needs of the target audience.
Weather and location are becoming increasingly popular methods of combining interactivity and personalization in emails.
Here’s another more practical use:
Transactional emails, like this shipping one, see some of the highest open rates out there. After all, who doesn’t want to know where their stuff is?
But with interactive and dynamic content in your transactional emails, you can start giving your customers much more specific and up to date information on what stage in the cycle their products are and when they will arrive.
That’s a much more transparent way of showing customers the shipping process, and it helps them have a much better sense of when things are going to arrive.
Even seemingly small details like this, if you choose to level them up, can make a really big positive impact on your customers.
Combining personalization and interactivity makes a difference
If you want to start standing out from the crowd and appealing to your customers in a way that targets the needs, wants, and even weather patterns proactively, this is the way to go.
Start learning how you can make your emails more personalized and interactive, so they better serve your customers and subscribers.
Liz Froment
Liz Froment is a content writer at Zembula. A graduate of University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Liz is a travel aficionado, Boston sports fan, and maple syrup connoisseur.
If you’re reading this, there’s probably a really good chance your inbox is overflowing with emails.
And, you probably only read a fraction of them.
Notes from friends or co-workers, shipping confirmations, a handful of newsletters you love, you read those.
The rest?
Good luck. Maybe if you have time, or if something happens to catch your eye.
Now, as an email marketer, that info, while common, might make you cringe a bit. How many people are doing that exact same thing with your emails?
Unless you have a 100% click to open rate, the answer is at a minimum a few hundred and more likely thousands.
That’s thousands of potential customers missing out on really good products or services because they just aren’t that engaged with your emails.
So how do you turn that around?
There are a few ways, but a big one we’re going to cover here is personalization.
Creating personalized emails is a great way to start standing out from the competition in the vast sea of boring emails littering your customer’s inbox.
We’re going to explore personalized emails more here.
Personalized emails: what they are and why you need them
There’s an old saying that you probably heard from your grandparents, but still holds today: everyone’s favorite topic is themselves.
Well, according to one study, talking about oneself activates the same areas of the brain that light up when eating good food, taking drugs and even having sex. Simply put, self-disclosure is gratifying. It gives us a neurological buzz.
That same buzz applies to emails.
When you personalize the emails, you send your readers all you’re doing is finding ways to provide the information that matters to them. These emails also lead to higher levels of engagement — something that matters to most marketers.
That’s why you always read a shipping confirmation email, right? It’s because you want to know where your package is in the supply chain. That information matters to you.
A lot of brands are embracing the concept of personalization in emails, especially in ways that move beyond the standard stuff you see. Now, you can send emails that highlight specific geographic locations, even down to a neighborhood, weather, likes, activity, and more.
How about a few examples of really good personalized emails in action?
Learn from these personalized emails
Grammarly is a great example of a company that sends out highly personalized emails.
Each week, premium users get an email that highlights their writing streak along with any new badges. Plus productivity, mastery, and vocabulary as compared to other users and some personalized tips on fixing errors.
If you don’t think people love opening up emails highlighting their grammar errors, think again.
What’s the first thing you think about once you get home from vacation?
For most people, it’s trying to figure out when they can go back on vacation again! British Airways knows how people thing and do a really good job on both ends of a trip sending out personalized emails.
Before the trip starts, they send out one that offers information about what you need to prepare for your trip. But this one, which comes a few days after you’ve landed is super simple but very clever.
Peloton is another brand that is able to send really personalized emails to their users. These emails pull in all sorts of information, including geolocation and past behavior to make them hyper-targeted to your specific needs.
These are the classes you are either already into or classes that Peloton thinks they can get you to sign up for based on your past visits.
By showing the instructor as well as the dates and times of your local studio, it makes it very easy to sign up for more.
GasBuddy is an app that tracks the gas prices in your area. It also has a feature that lets it track your driving habits.
If you choose to use it, GasBuddy will send you a monthly personalized update that shows you all sorts of information about your diving habits compared to others in your geographic area.
It’s similar to Grammarly in that it also offers you a few tips on how to improve based on your behavior.
As you can see just from a few of these examples, there are all sorts of cool things you can do to your emails to give your readers a much more personalized experience. So what are you waiting for?
If you want to know more about how Zembula does live, personalized images in email, just click here!
Liz Froment
Liz Froment is a content writer at Zembula. A graduate of University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Liz is a travel aficionado, Boston sports fan, and maple syrup connoisseur.
Email marketing is a critical part of your marketing strategy.
No news there, right?
But where people and brands struggle is getting beyond the basics of email marketing and into the next level stuff.
You know the email marketing tips and strategies that can help boost your open, click, and conversion rates.
That’s the good stuff that really makes a difference between a successful email and one that gets archived never to see the light of day again.
In this post, we want to give you some of those really actionable email marketing tips that help move you beyond the basics and help you see some real results.
Ready to dig in?
1. Understand your numbers
One of the best features of having so much data about customers at our fingertips today is it opens up a lot of opportunities to see where your readers are responding.
To benefit, know your numbers and what they mean. That way you can craft a strategy that impacts them in a positive way.
2. Always be testing
See email marketing tip #1. The advanced data you can get from your email service providers allows you to experiment with the content you send out.
Always test from the simple things like headlines to the more complex including offers, coupons, and even design style.
3. Send at the right time
When it comes to scheduling your emails to go out, don’t pick a time at random and call it a day. There have been many studies, including this one from CoSchedule, that have figured out the best days and times to reach your customers.
It might not seem like a big deal, but even a small lift in the number of people who see your emails can result in higher open and click rates. So why leave it to chance?
4. Include multiple call to actions
You know what you want your readers to do, right? But are you both telling them and giving them plenty of chances to actually follow through?
The standard marketing advice is to often include a nice shiny call to action button at the bottom of your email. But try featuring a number of different ways for your readers to click including images, buttons, and text links.
5. Think about your design
Of course, the copy of your email matters, but let’s face it, the look of your email should too. Having an email template design that is visually appealing, on brand, and jumps out to your reader can go a long way.
Don’t forget to make your designs mobile responsive too.
6. Get your readers involved
An easy and effective way to do that is through interactive content. Content that gets your readers to actively engage with tends to see higher click through rates. Plus, people love it.
Use scratch-its, smash-its, spin-its, and pull-its and other kinds of kinetic emails to engage your readers and get them to click. Seeing the bonuses and prizes they can get through interactive emails will plant a positive feeling in their brains that can only mean good things for your brand.
7. Send survey emails
All too often, brands aren’t creating multiple email campaigns. Remember, you can get a ton of information from your customers through your email, all you have to do is ask.
That’s where the survey email comes in. It’s one of the many types of emails you should be sending to your readers. This doesn’t have to be complicated, even 3-5 question 30 second surveys can provide you with tons of great information on the things that are going to matter to your readers. From there, you can craft emails that promote those messages.
8. Utilize white space
Have you ever opened the email app on your phone only to discover a giant wall of text staring at you? Yea, that’s not great.
Most people, when they see that, are going to close the app — or worse, delete the email. When about half of all emails are opened on mobile devices, you have to take that into account when writing copy. One way to do that is to make sure there is plenty of white space that invites the reader to keep scrolling.
9. Don’t forget about email capture forms
The actual emails are no doubt the biggest part of email marketing, but you also have to get people on your email list. That’s why your sign up forms should be a really important part of your overall email strategy too.
Figure out the best places to put these capture forms on your site. Use pop-ups and slide in forms to target readers, grab their attention, and entice them to get on your list with a great offer.
10. Segment your audience
This is one of the most common email marketing tips you’ll find but lots of brands still aren’t doing it. Segmenting your list has a ton of benefits for your brand:
Makes it easier to personalize content
You can run new tests and trials on specific segments
You can identify your 1,000 true fans and early adopters
Makes it easier to see where your readers are signing up
And so on.
Even if you have a small list, you can start segmenting and glean some great insights.
11. Reward loyalty
Loyal customers are a magical thing in business. But all too often marketers are spending most of their focus on finding new customers versus getting current customers to come back for more.
When you segment your list (see what we mean) to highlight your current customers, you can use your emails to give them special treats. Send them discounts, coupons, and special offers — and don’t forget to make those emails interactive!
12. Reactivate readers
It doesn’t matter how amazing you are at email marketing, there will be a point in the life of ever email list where a percentage of readers have fallen away. This happens for a number of reasons; they aren’t interested anymore, your emails might have gone to spam, they’ve just forgotten to click.
Use reactivation emails to get some of these unengaged readers back into the fray. You can use a coupon or discount or simply ask them if they want to be unsubscribed.
Plus, with a cleaner list, you’ll have more accurate stats too.
13. Give your copy a boost
It never hurts to review your email copy every few months. Sometimes, things get stale, or a joke that tied in with a particular pop culture event is now yesterday’s news.
Take this time to also really think about not only your messaging but how the people on your list are reading it too. Today, a much more casual and friendly approach is what is getting on people’s radars, if your emails feel a bit stuffy, now is a great time to tweak your copy and give it a refresh.
14. Use psychology
You don’t need a PhD in psychology to understand how to best use it in your email marketing. In fact, we’ve got a whole guide on it.
Understanding the basics behind the motivations of your readers and how to trigger responses can go a long way in getting some real results from your email list.
15. Set up your email calendar in advance
There are a few days every year where a perfectly themed email can land. We’re talking about New Year’s Day, the 4th of July, and Black Friday to name a few. But in your industry, there might be other days that you can send out a great email and grab your readers attention.
The last thing you want to do is scramble the night before a holiday email trying to come up with something clever. So make sure you put these dates in your calendar now to get a head start on coming up with a killer idea.
Final thoughts
These advanced email marketing tips should be enough to get you started in your next strategy meeting. As you move beyond the basics, think about what you can do to keep improving your emails and engaging your readers.
Liz Froment
Liz Froment is a content writer at Zembula. A graduate of University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Liz is a travel aficionado, Boston sports fan, and maple syrup connoisseur.
Why Using a Scratch-Off in Email is Your Best Bet in 2019
The battle over attention has been raging since, well, since forever. Technology and the incredible amount of content being created every day hasn’t helped in terms of getting people to focus.
That can be seen in the decline of email open and click-through rates. As of early 2018, Epsilon found that “email click rates in North America have failed to increase on a year-over-year basis for 18 consecutive quarters.”
Yikes.
So how to combat that?
Going all in on interactive content
One way is through interactive content. This type of content is sticky. It keeps bringing readers back to your site again and again.
Plus, interactive content works. In a poll from Litmus, creating interactive email experiences is one of the most commonly cited trends that marketers are focusing on — now and into the future.
It helps build brand loyalty with readers, it produces higher click through rates, and it gets people actively engaging in your stuff.
And that’s exactly what you need right now to combat lagging attention spans and content shock where you only have a few seconds to grab a reader.
Today, we’re going to look at one specific type of interactive content using scratch-off in emails. You’ll see why this is a really cool way to get readers invested in your brand.
Diving into scratch-off emails
First, the basics.
What is a scratch-off email?
If you’ve ever gotten a lottery style scratch card or needed to get the pin number off a gift card, then you’ll be familiar with the experience. Basically, you take your fingernail or a dime and scratch a box that has a thin layer of coating over it revealing a prize or number underneath.
Part of the reason why scratch-offs are so popular is that they tap into the psychology behind reveal marketing.
When you have one of those cards in your hand you’re curious, very few people are going to put it down because they don’t want to miss out on the prize. And the kinetic nature of physically having to perform an action to get a result makes you emotionally more attached to the process.
Now, take all of those same concepts and apply it to email marketing. With scratch-off emails you can.
How Scratch-It Emails Work
You’ve got the basics down, so let’s take a look at a scratch-it email in action.
Here’s what it would look like to your reader in their inbox.
Pretty cool, right?
This type of email is something that is going to catch the attention of a lot of readers. And you can use scratch-it style emails for all sorts of different interactive experiences including offers around discounts and savings, coupons, and even gifts.
Now here’s the fun part, actually scratching for a prize.When your email reader clicks and scratches away that first layer, a hidden message appears beneath, just like if it was on a scratch card in real life.
Check it out. The results are displayed right there. And, unlike with most lottery cards, you’re always going to be a winner when it comes to scratch-off emails!
With this type of email, you’re accomplishing a lot of tasks at once.
First, you’re grabbing the attention of readers right from their inbox. It’s hard to resist a fun or interesting email that really stands out in a sea of seeing the same stuff over and over.
Next, you’re encouraging your readers to get active. To get the full benefits of the email you are sending out they have to actively engage to get the results, even if they don’t end up acting on them. That starts building conditioning right from the very start.
Finally, scratch-it emails can help improve click through rates which can lead to more sales over the long term.
When you add all those up, these type of emails can really be a winning combination that your organization can deploy to your next email marketing campaign.
Putting it all together
Now that you’ve got a good handle on what scratch-off emails are and how they can benefit your brand, what are you waiting for? Give these a try and get people on your list excited to check their inbox.
Liz Froment
Liz Froment is a content writer at Zembula. A graduate of University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Liz is a travel aficionado, Boston sports fan, and maple syrup connoisseur.
There are tons of different types of emails you can send out to your readers; you probably already know that.
But the reality?
Well, that might be slightly different.
It’s pretty easy to get a weekly newsletter out, but when it comes to setting up other campaigns or trying to decide what exactly to send, things can get a bit more complicated.
Here’s the thing though, there is a ton of value in these other types of emails. They can still be used to educate your customer, motivate them to take action, and build trust with you.
So if you haven’t been focusing too much on these other types of emails, now is the time.
These are the emails you should include in your email marketing mix.
1. Welcome email
Your welcome email should go out within the first 24 hours after someone joins your mailing list. Ideally, this number should be a lot closer to just a few hours.
What is in the welcome email is all in the name. You’re welcoming this new reader to your business, and you’re telling them what’s happening next. So this could be the spot where you say, every Monday at 11 am you’ll get our newsletter and every Friday we send out special offers.
A lot of companies also include things like discounts, coupons, whitepapers, guides, etc., in this welcome email too.
It just sets the stage for building the foundation of your relationship.
2. Newsletter
That brings us to…the newsletter!
A newsletter is a regular update that lets your readers know what’s happening with your company, store, industry, and more.
Now, when it comes to newsletters, what matters is making your newsletters interesting. A lot of newsletters follow a similar format or style, but there are some that jump out to readers and get shared a ton.
These newsletters usually have something in them that makes the subscriber feel special. They are getting some insider information or out of the box tactics that they won’t see anywhere else.
3. Reactivation email
Over time, lists get stale. That’s the way it goes for pretty much any business out there.
But, that doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. With so many emails pouring into our inboxes every day, it’s easy to have a few fall between the cracks.[mk_image src=”http://zembuladev.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/reactivation-email.png”]Reactivation emails help try and fix that problem. Send these emails out to that portion of your list that hasn’t engaged with your emails after a set amount of time.
The goal here is to spark interest and remind people why they loved you in the first place.
This is a perfect spot to think about using interactive content because it’s a great way to stand out from the crowd and get readers actively engaging with the email you sent. That makes them more likely to get back into the mix.
4. Surveys
One of the best ways to understand what’s going on in the mind of your customer or reader is to ask them.
Simple as that.
That’s where survey emails come into play.
Survey emails can be a vital tool for marketing because you can learn so much from them. Here’s where you can use them:
Ask customers how they would rate a product or service they bought
Ask people who didn’t convert why they didn’t buy
Ask readers what they’d like to see more (or less) of on your site
Ask readers or customers to rate your business or brand
Ask customers if they’d be willing to recommend you to others
All of that is incredibly valuable information you can use in other areas of your marketing as well. Use that data to improve your check out process, offer new services, or improve your website copy — just to name a few.
5. Surprise and delight
Have you ever opened up an email from a brand only to discover they’ve given you a special treat?
It could be a bonus coupon or discount or a free guide or free shipping or 15-minute strategy session, there are tons of small things you can offer that won’t impact you all that much but can impress your reader.[mk_image src=”http://zembuladev.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/rewards-member-email.png”]Chances are, something as seemingly small as a coupon for a free cup of coffee can end up establishing a real sense of loyalty with your customer.
These sorts of things start to build positive feelings with your readers and, more importantly, keeps establishing that base of trust that’s so important in an email dependent relationship.
So don’t be afraid to send these out from time to time, and track to see what gets a good response.
See the power of email?
These five types of emails are going to put you in a great spot. You’ll be able to have more insights into the mind of your readers, get their feedback, surprise them with cool stuff, and improve your open and conversion rates all at the same time.
Liz Froment
Liz Froment is a content writer at Zembula. A graduate of University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Liz is a travel aficionado, Boston sports fan, and maple syrup connoisseur.
As the founders of many startups have learned, failure to plan ahead and craft a customer acquisition strategy can mean the failure of your company. It’s well known throughout the marketing world that without a solid base of new customers, it’s almost impossible to boost conversions or create brand loyalty.
Throughout the digital era, we’ve seen viral customer acquisition strategies that have helped create the digital giants which rule the web today. From Amazon to Shopify and Dropbox to Instagram, customer acquisition comprises a huge focus of the marketing efforts these massive companies put forth.
You know customer acquisition marketing is important, but how do you get started? We’ve compiled 5 of the best examples of customer acquisition we could find to get your creative juices flowing.
1. Use a Referral System like Dropbox
One of the most ubiquitous customer acquisition marketing methods is the referral system. A well crafted referral system campaign will incentivise your existing customers to invite their friends by offering some time of reward for doing so. The reward can contain monetary or digital value, and helps create a reciprocal relationship with your customers by inviting them to participate with your brand. One of the most successful examples of this strategy can be found when examining Dropbox. Dropbox offers customers a referral system that offers 500mb of additional storage once you’ve invited a friend. Not only that, but your friend gets 500mb of storage as well. By allowing both parties to gain value from a simple referral, Dropbox maximizes the likelihood that you’ll invite a friend to join. Customer acquisition at its most simple and streamlined!
2. Generate Leads With Custom Interactive Content Like Shopify
Another amazing customer acquisition strategy comes in the form of custom interactive content. Since the early days of the internet, people have enjoyed using simple generators and taking short quizzes. Your brand can capitalize on this need for digital entertainment by offering a custom built generator that will help your clients. The key here is creating a relevant tool that will generate leads. Shopify has one of the best examples of this method with their “Business Name Generator.” This tool allows Shopify’s customers to brainstorm a potential business name and check to see if it is registered. Since the tool provides value to the customer as they try to structure their new business, it boosts feelings of brand loyalty and therefore drives conversion rates.
3. Craft Thoughtful Personalized Email Campaigns Like Amazon
We all know Amazon is the king of interactive personalized emails. Consumers like to receive messages that are relevant to their lives and don’t feel like an intrusion in their inbox. Amazon has mastered this approach with a slew of personalized triggered email campaigns that remind a customer to finish up their purchase if there’s an item left in the shopping cart or asks them to renew their Prime membership. One of the most effective of these emails is the “Leave a Review” email campaign. After a consumer has purchased and received a product, Amazon sends a triggered email that prompts the user to return to their website and leave a product review. With a strong call to action, and a link through to Amazon’s home page, it’s easy to see why this method keeps users engaged. I mean, how often have you ended up accidentally online shopping when you thought you were just browsing? Amazon capitalizes on this trend and drives customer acquisition by re-engaging existing users.
4. Focus on Community (At First) Like Instagram
By now, if you haven’t spent time on Instagram, you’re way behind the trend. Sure, there are ads all over the social networking platform now, but it didn’t used to be that way. In the beginning, Instagram focused on building a community of engaged users. That marketing strategy worked out big time in their customer acquisition as the platform grew and grew. Despite such astronomical growth, Instagram started out with less than 20 employees. By focusing on building a digital community, the brand was able to foster feelings of investment in their customers by providing value in the form of entertainment. No frills approaches to community building like this will increase brand loyalty, and give you a foothold to monetize your services once you’ve built a strong base of users.
5. Use Marketing Psychology and Free Trials Like Amazon
Are you really surprised Amazon is on our list twice? This online shopping giant has excelled at utilizing marketing psychology since day one. One of their most successful customer acquisition methods comes in the form of the free trial, which utilizes marketing psychology like the Endowment Effect to create feelings of brand loyalty. Once you’ve invited a customer to interact with your brand and products, they’re more likely to experience feelings of ownership which therefore lead them to assign a higher value to the information you serve up. You can get their foot in the door by offering a free trial, much like Amazon does with their coveted Prime services. I mean, once you’ve purchased something online and had it at your doorstep in less than an hour, are you really likely to go back to a basic Amazon experience? The numbers prove that, no, you’re not. After being offered a free premium trial to your services, customers are more likely to purchase further services. Amazon has always had a good grip on what customer acquisition strategies are the most effective, and free trials are no different.
Now that we’ve examined these 5 stellar examples of customer acquisition, you’re ready to get out there and craft your next campaign today!
nicolecordier
Nicole Cordier is a Marketing Intern at Zembula. A Journalism graduate from the University of Oregon, she is a Portland native who loves coloring, dogs and all things outdoors.
Interactive content can take so many shapes and sizes in today’s digital world it can be hard to keep it all straight! Not only does interactive content provide 2X more conversions than static content, it’s also as limitless as your imagination. Check out these 20 inspiring interactive marketing examples to get your creative juices flowing for a new campaign that invites audience participation.
This quiz from MarketWatch uses a type of interaction that’s on the rise in today’s Tinder Era… the swipe! This quiz, along with other interactive marketing examples, works because it uses a format that we’re all familiar with to invite us to participate.
Ah, HubSpot! Every marketer’s friend and easily a company creating some of the most cutting-edge interactive marketing examples. This quiz grades visitors websites across a variety of categories and offers tips for improving your online strategy.
The most annoying part of getting your cell service or internet fixed is always dealing with the carrier’s customer service process. In this interactive marketing example, AT&T strove to eliminate that hurdle in customer relations by creating a dynamic help center.
Something as simple as a dynamic image or GIF on your page can improve your ability to capture customer’s attention and create conversions. Instapage did a great job with their streamlined moving images in a blog post.
Gamification to increase customer knowledge is big strategy among interactive marketing examples in the banking world. BBVA’s games Jubidreams and Jubigame allowed customers to learn more about saving for their goals through a fun interactive experience.
A few years ago, when searching for examples of interactive content, infographics were all the rage! Snips proves that more comprehensive interactive guides perform better now, with today’s digitally savvy audiences.
Despite the hype awhile back about newspapers and magazines going out of business, they’ve managed to adapt to our new interactive world. The Guardian’s article on gun violence demonstrates how interactive maps and clickable elements drive traffic and customer participation.
Even more than just swiping left or right and clicking, customers crave highly developed ways of interacting with their marketing content. In the New York Times “You Draw It” article, and many of their other interactive marketing examples, they adopt an approach that invites to the customer to directly interact by adding data or entering text.
These days, your content must not only be interactive but also omnichannel. Ion Interactive dove into this dichotomy with their lesson on connective interactive marketing that spans across channels.
Much like the interactive marketing examples from MarketWatch early, The BBC has repurposed a common touch screen interaction for their content. The slidable maps in this article on the Middle East use the same muscle memory as opening our smart phones or deleting our emails, giving us the motivation to interact.
Adapting to today’s digitally overloaded world can be difficult. In this interactive marketing example, Adobe breaks down how to respond to content fatigue with a dynamic and intuitive design.
Another interactive marketing example that utilizes the age-old “slide” is the Financial Times Infographic on Bank CEO Compensation. Allowing the reader to slide through time and compare the changes in compensation over a matter of years with a simple slide really drives the article’s main points home through interaction.
If anyone appreciates spot-on interactive marketing examples, it’s the developers that make it all possible. This whitepaper on creating the next developer workforce brings interaction to the table to keep the audience engaged and participating.
The New York Times has really set the bar for interactive marketing examples. Their second inclusion on our list explores the future of music through 25 current songs and keeps readers engaged by utilizing interaction of all types through the article.
No one knows the importance of visual representation and memory more than marketers! Gum Gum’s quiz, styled after old school memory games of childhood helps encourage marketers to pay closer attention to visual details.
Goldman Sach’s interactive content example is their attempt to unravel the complicated millennial generation and understand what that means for the investment industry. By adding interaction to their examination of millennial trends in marriage, homeownership and more, they bump up their content’s attention grabbing power!
Of course a company in the interactive content industry is going to model their website after current interactive marketing standards! Our interactive solutions page allows you to explore all the different types of interactive content we offer!
With this tongue in cheek interactive marketing example, Vox uses the data to prove that today’s teens smoke less marijuana, complete more schooling and watch less TV than their older counterparts. A slidable timeline allows the reader to pick their year of birth and receive statistics personalized for them.
This interactive marketing example is being used to promote a documentary currently in the works about Bosch. By allowing visitors to interact with this classic painting in a digital way and learn more about Bosch while doing so, it helps build excitement and anticipation around the release of the documentary.
Assessments are among one of the most underutilized interactive marketing examples, but this call center assessment from Five9 proves they’re a valuable tool. Assessments allow you to gain data from your recipients while providing value to them in the form of feedback on their marketing strategies.
From quizzes to whitepapers, assessments to games, and everything in between… interactive content boosts engagement and invites audience participation in a way static content can’t compete with. Hopefully, these 20 interactive marketing examples got you inspired to brainstorm your own interactive campaign today. For more inspiration and more interactive content examples, check out our resources page!
nicolecordier
Nicole Cordier is a Marketing Intern at Zembula. A Journalism graduate from the University of Oregon, she is a Portland native who loves coloring, dogs and all things outdoors.
Memorial Day is about more than using a day off to BBQ on the beach with friends and family. This historical holiday, honoring those who have died in battle, can be traced back to 1866, although it wasn’t made a federal holiday until 1967. In the 50 years that have passed since its inception, Memorial Day has become a driving force of many holiday marketing strategies. Let’s break down Memorial Day marketing by the numbers and see why how it has become such a crucial day to summer holiday marketing.
Time to Travel
We all know that summer holidays mean travel plans. In fact, 39% of us take a trip around Memorial Day. Your brand can capitalize on this trend by offering incentives and discounts for travelers. Try sending an email or SMS campaign inviting your recipients to interact with your content and extending a discount to be used on the holiday. The contact will help build rapport with your customers and showing that you’re keyed into their travel plans will make the contact feel personal. Be sure to use interactive content of some kind: a poll, quiz, GIF or Zembula Experience, to grab their attention and stand out in the inbox.
Don’t Diss the Discount
Most marketers know that nothing grabs a consumer’s eye like a steep discount on quality products or services. While interactive content and personalization can help boost open rates for Memorial Day campaigns, recipients are used to seeing discounts of 20-90% on home goods and spring clothing. This sales frenzy will be hard to beat if you’re not offering a deal of some sort surrounding the holiday. One great way to deepen consumer relationships while offering the customer real-world value is to incentivize their participation in a survey or loyalty program by gate-ing their discount behind interactive content. Once they participate, you gain data and they gain access to the discount being offered.
Make the Most of Memorial Day Spending
As a holiday that has become synonymous with the discount, Memorial Day carves out a sizeable chunk of shopper’s summer holiday spending. According to reports from The U.S. Travel Association, consumers nationwide are expected to spend a total of $12 billion this Memorial Day. Ensure that your brand has an interactive campaign planned to capture your share of that spending. By interacting with customers on social media or in their inboxes, you’ll remain top of mind this Memorial Day. No matter what you sell and no matter if your brand is composed of e-commerce or brick and mortar locations, you can benefit from a Memorial Day campaign! Try sharing an interactive experience GIF on Twitter or Facebook and watch the engagement roll in.
Beef up Brick and Mortar Preparations
While Memorial Day can be a good marketing holiday for any type of brand, it becomes especially important for retail stores with brick and mortar locations. In fact, you can expect to see a 73% increase in retail traffic over Memorial Day weekend. That huge jump in volume means your physical storefronts need to be ready to accommodate the surge of shoppers. Make sure that your display ads onsite accurately represent your holiday sales and use this as an opportunity to gather data from your shoppers, like emails or phone numbers for your future marketing efforts. Offering a small discount at the point of sale can be an effective method to incentivize shoppers to share their data with you.
As the statistics prove, Memorial Day kicks off the beginning of summer and signifies the start of summer spending. Ensure your brand doesn’t get left behind by planning ahead for a Memorial Day campaign! Keep your content relevant and interactive to foster engagement and make the customer feel like they’re establishing a personal connection with your brand. Keep your eye on spending trends and market with holiday travelers in mind to stay extra-relevant. Most of all, make sure you leave time for yourself to enjoy a nice BBQ with your family or friends!
nicolecordier
Nicole Cordier is a Marketing Intern at Zembula. A Journalism graduate from the University of Oregon, she is a Portland native who loves coloring, dogs and all things outdoors.
Interactive ads are a great way for marketers to really engage with consumers directly. Interactive content as a whole and interactive ads are a great way for brands to tell stories, enhance word of mouth, and get personal in ways that they just haven’t been able to do before.
Here are 7 examples of interactive ads that highlight the power and success of using this type of marketing in your own strategy.
Let’s take a look:
Volkswagon
Volkswagon, the German car company, has always been known for creativity in advertising, even from it’s earliest days. So, it shouldn’t come as a big surprise that they’d be a brand to really embrace interactive advertising.
In this interactive ad, inside a conventional magazine, readers were asked to download an app and take your phone for a test drive along a ‘road’ fold out in magazines.
Reebok
Trying to compete with a brand like Nike means you have to get pretty creative. Reebok decided to do just that in Sweden by creating an interactive campaign that really got consumers excited.
Reebok installed a combination speed cam and a shoe display in the center of town. Then they told people that whoever ran past the display the fastest would get a free pair of shoes.
Domino’s Pizza
Ok, who doesn’t love pizza? Well, Domino’s the brand that really helped innovate ordering pizza online has taken it a step further in recent years. Now, Domino’s give fans and followers the ability to order via both Messenger (through a Chatbot) and over Twitter.
When Domino’s announced the move, they showed just how simple it was for consumers, just Tweet a slice of pizza (that you pre-set on their website) and you’re good to go.
Serena Williams
There’s little doubt that Serena Williams is one of the greatest tennis players ever, so it’s no wonder brands love partnering with her in ads. Few have done it better than Gatorade and Snapchat with the Match Point game.
Users who played on the ESPN channel were able to interact with a 22 level ad that brought players through each of her victories.
New York Times
Anyone who has considered themselves somewhat clever has tried their hand at the famous New York Times Crossword Puzzle.
This Instagram ad was tailor-made for millennials. Not only does it call back to a show most in that generation watched, but it makes it really easy to download the fun and interactive crossword app right on their phone in seconds.
Verizon Wireless
The Star Wars movies franchise is one of the most popular in the world. So, it was a very smart move for Verizon Wireless to partner with them to create a truly interactive Twitter campaign.
Using the hashtags #TheForceAwakens and #TheoryWars, users were encouraged to submit their own theory in order to get a chance to win tickets to the movie.
Spotify
As one of the biggest brands out there in the music industry, Spotify has millions of users who listen to their platform every single day. With the long and contentious Presidential election in the US, Spotify took advantage of a trend and made the best of it.
Seeing that “move to Canada” as a search time spiked, they created a side project that allowed users to “Canadify” their playlist, recommending Canadian singers that were most like their favorites.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, interactive ads can take many shapes and forms. Their strength is in getting consumers to engage with a brand which can create a stronger and more memorable connection.
The Growth of Video Marketing: More Important Than Ever in 2017
How much video marketing is your brand doing right now?
If the answer is zero, well it’s time to start. Because if you don’t, then you’re going to be missing out on one of the biggest marketing trends set to skyrocket in 2017.
In fact, according to Entrepreneur, by 2019 80 percent of online content will be video. That’s a pretty incredible stat. So, it shouldn’t go unnoticed.
But, you might be asking, since when has video become such a big thing? After all, there’s still no shortage of written content and social media being produced.
Great question. And in this post, we’re going to cover why video marketing has been such a big growth engine over the last year or two, and why it’s set to be the biggest distribution channel marketers can use in the coming year.
Let’s get started.
Time Spent Online
It shouldn’t come as a big surprise that the amount of time people are spending online has grown quite a bit over the years. Now, with the advent of smartphones and tablets, plus the extreme growth of streaming sites like Netflix and Hulu, more and more people are watching online content than ever before.
When you look at the numbers, you can really see just how much of this breakdown leans towards video. Take a look at this graph from eMarketer:
Now, the average user is spending just shy of 2 hours per day watching video online. While every medium has seen growth since 2011, none have grown as much as digital video. It beats social networks, digital radio, and even Facebook.
This is great news for marketers who are looking to find new channels to reach their customers that make a big impact and aren’t incredibly expensive.
And, more and more sites are incorporating video within them. Look at the social media sites. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram all feature video options on their sites. Twitter has spent much of the fall of 2016 experimenting with live streaming events from Thursday night NFL games to news.
Then, of course, there is the massive growth of Snapchat. With 10 billion video views each day by users, it has helped revolutionize video content for consumers. It’s about time brands have decided to follow along.
Video content, especially on social media channels like Instagram and Snapchat has provided marketers with an amazing way to reach their consumers. Video feels much more personal to potential consumers on these channels. Thus video content on social media can have a much higher level of engagement than other types of marketing.
The Rise of YouTube
The growth of YouTube has helped push the dramatic rise of video content as well. Just take a look at some of these incredible YouTube statistics:
YouTube has over a billion users
On mobile, the average viewing session is now more than 40 minutes.
More than half of YouTube views come from mobile devices.
YouTube overall, and even YouTube on mobile alone, reaches more 18-34 and 18-49 year-olds than any cable network in the U.S.
Currently, the only channel that sees more daily hits than YouTube is Google. In fact, YouTube is also the #2 search engine in the world.
Unsurprisingly, because YouTube has been such a growth channel, both brands and individual people have been able to benefit from it. Just this month, YouTube star Casey Neistat announced that his video app Beme had been acquired by CNN and he would begin to make content for them.
Marketers are Taking Notice
In Hubspot’s recently released State of Inbound 2016 report, video was set to play a large part of the strategy plan for brands and marketers in 2017.
When asked: What content distribution channels do you plan to add to your marketing efforts in the next 12 months?
This was the breakdown of the responses:
48% YouTube
39% Facebook video
33% Instagram
20% Messaging apps
15% Podcasts
13% Snapchat
Notice a trend there? Beyond the heavy social media presence here, every single one of these distribution channels have a large (or solely) video component with the exception of podcasting.
The majority of marketers are looking to add channels that support video in their marketing efforts in 2017.
Of course, there’s a reason why marketers are starting to love video, because video provides results.
The conversion rates on video are incredible. Users are more likely to buy products online, call vendors, visit marketer’s websites, boost engagement, and increase click-through rates.
The important thing to note about video marketing is that now because it’s everywhere, it’s not limited to just the ‘big’ brands. Small and local businesses can and should get into video marketing because they can dramatically increase traffic and conversions with something as simple as a 2-minute video shot from a smart phone. Massive amounts of technical knowledge or equipment aren’t needed.
Final Thoughts
It’s easy to see why video is getting huge. The real question is, what is your brand going to do to jump into it? Right now is the best time to do it, because any brands that aren’t already jumping on the video marketing bandwagon now are only going to be left behind in the next year.
Is your brand already seeing success with video marketing? Let us know in the comments!
