The goal of any email marketing campaign is to achieve your business objectives and marketing goals. To do that, you need to create emails customers want to open, read, and engage with. One important way to run a successful campaign is to ensure that you’re conducting ethical email marketing. Ethical email marketing means creating strategies that bring true value to your audience while maintaining the moral principles your business subscribes to. Choosing your language carefully is a key aspect of ethical email marketing. Here's how to do it:

Use Ethical Language in Email Marketing

The language you use in email marketing affects how your communications are received. Avoid using language that could be perceived as manipulative or spammy. Emails that don’t adhere to ethical marketing standards may be caught by spam filters, meaning they might never reach customer mailboxes. Even if they do, they could create negative feelings in readers, causing them to distrust your company. If your words come off as manipulative, exaggerated, unethical, or desperate, your brand’s voice and integrity are at risk.

Use Ethical Language

Building trust with your audience is crucial. Use genuine language that aligns with your brand’s voice. Select phrasing that’s conversational and makes your customers feel comfortable. Avoid using time-sensitive words and phrases that create unnecessary urgency. For example, “10% off inside” is more enticing than “URGENT: Act Now.”Words to avoid that may trigger spam filters:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Act now</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Apply now</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Urgent</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Exclusive deal</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Important information regarding</li><li class="ql-align-justify">This won’t last</li></ul>

Use Trustworthy and Honest Language

Be clear and straightforward about what your email offers. If it’s an extra 50% off sale items, state that directly. Your audience doesn’t want to feel misled. Avoid exaggerated or hyperbolic phrases that could be seen as deceptive.Hyperbolic phrases to avoid:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Best offer ever</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Fantastic deal</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Free money</li><li class="ql-align-justify">No catch</li><li class="ql-align-justify">No fees</li></ul>

Be Truthful About What You’re Offering

Ensure your language adds value to your audience. This gives them a reason to open and engage with your email. Avoid desperate language that makes it seem like you are begging for their attention. Instead, use phrases that show you have the audience's interests in mind, such as “we think you’ll like this” or “we made this with you in mind.”Desperate phrases to avoid:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Please read</li><li class="ql-align-justify">We need your help</li><li class="ql-align-justify">You need to see this</li></ul>

Use Language That Adds Value

Most people don’t intend to send spam emails, so it can be frustrating when emails end up in spam folders. Save yourself that frustration by using trustworthy and honest language, being truthful about what you offer, and using language that adds value. If you’re unsure whether your language is ethical, test different approaches and analyze the results to see what your audience responds to best.

Key Takeaways

In the competitive world of digital marketing, email remains a powerful tool for engaging customers. However, the success of email campaigns depends heavily on the language used. Ethical email marketing is about using honest and trustworthy language that adds value to your audience, helping to build trust and avoid spam filters. This ensures that your communications are well-received and effective, maintaining your brand's integrity and fostering long-term customer relationships.

productivity

Productivity

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

strategy

Strategy

business

Business

startup

Startups

Ethical Email Marketing: Choosing the Right Language

Consider the political issues or events across the markets you serve:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Political Unrest: Is there unrest in a new market you’ve entered?</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Legislation: Have new laws passed that could impact your business?</li></ul>

Political

Analyse the economic factors in different geographic locations:<ul><li>Spending Priorities: What are the spending habits of customers in different regions?</li><li>Economic Trends: How do economic conditions affect your product relevance?</li></ul>

Economic

Be aware of social factors and cultural trends:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Cultural References: Stay updated with popular cultural trends and social media usage.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Demographics: Consider factors like population growth, geographic location, cultural aspects, age, and education levels.</li></ul>

Social

Stay informed about technological advancements:<ul><li>Emerging Technologies: How are new technologies affecting email marketing?</li><li>Smart Devices: Consider how customers use smart devices to read emails aloud.</li></ul>

Technological

Understand the legal framework in your markets:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Laws and Regulations: Be aware of regional legal restrictions and requirements that could impact your marketing tactics.</li></ul>

Legal

Consider environmental factors that may influence your strategy:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Climate Change: How does climate change affect your business?</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Sustainability: What sustainable practices can you incorporate?</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Natural Disasters: Plan for natural disasters that could impact your operations.</li></ul>

Environmental

A PESTLE analysis is crucial for understanding the external context of your marketing strategy. By examining these factors, you can craft a more effective and responsive marketing strategy, ensuring that you are prepared for external influences that could impact your campaigns.

A PESTLE audit helps you analyse the external factors that influence your marketing strategy. PESTLE stands for Political Economic Social Technological Legal Environmental

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Human Resources

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

PESTLE Analysis/ Audit

Identify the aspects that make your company's marketing stand out. Consider:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Marketing Resources: What unique tools or platforms does your team excel in using?</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Team Qualities: Is your team known for its creativity, innovation, or exceptional copywriting?</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Design and Innovation: How does your design capture attention and differentiate your brand?</li></ul>Take note of any internal strengths that your company excels in.

1. Strength

Determine where there is room for improvement. Reflect on:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Areas Needing Focus: Is there a lack of strategic planning due to an emphasis on design and copywriting?</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Resource Gaps: Are there any tools or skills your team lacks?</li></ul>Document areas where your company and marketing team could improve.

2. Weakness

Identify external opportunities that could enhance your marketing efforts.Look into:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Resources and Contacts: Are there events, tools, or networks that your team can leverage?</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Growth Potential: Is there a chance to expand your brand's presence internationally or tap into new markets?</li></ul>Consider how these opportunities can be turned into significant advantages.

3. Opportunities

Recognise potential challenges that could harm your brand. Analyse:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Competitors: Are there new competitors offering similar products?</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Market Dynamics: Are there changes in market trends that could impact your campaigns?</li></ul>List any threats that could pose risks to your marketing efforts.

4. Threats

After conducting your SWOT analysis:<ul><li>General Insights: What did you learn about your team’s strengths and weaknesses?</li><li>Strategic Planning: How can you leverage your strengths and opportunities while addressing weaknesses and threats?</li><li>Team Collaboration: If everyone on your team conducts an analysis, compare results to get a comprehensive view.</li></ul> A SWOT analysis is a valuable tool for understanding the internal context of your marketing team and resources. By reflecting inward, you can create more effective campaigns, capitalizing on strengths and opportunities while mitigating weaknesses and threats.

Conclusion

Conducting a SWOT audit is essential for identifying the internal context of your company. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Its application is versatile for various marketing strategies, including overall campaigns, social media, and SEO.

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Corporate Culture

entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

SWOT Analysis/ Audit

Specifying exactly what you want to achieve helps you determine when you've achieved it.<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Are you aiming to increase your number of followers or are you striving to increase likes, shares, and mentions?</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Which platform are you targeting?</li></ul>Answering questions like these will help you make your goals more specific.

Specific

A goal is measurable when you can determine objectively that it has been met. You can tell if a goal is measurable, if you can answer how much, how many, and how will I know when it's accomplished.To make your goal measurable, determine what metrics you want to use.Going back to our brand awareness goal, let's say the metric you want to track is the number of followers you have on Instagram. An example of a related measurable goal might be to increase your followers on Instagram by 15% over the last quarter.

Measurable

An attainable goal is realistic given any constraints. Is there anything that could get in the way of increasing your Instagram followers by 15%, such as a lack of time, budget, or other resources?Remember, you want to set goals that are a little challenging in order to encourage growth.

Attainable

Does it make sense to try to reach this goal? Think about how the goal lines up with your company's other marketing goals, priorities, and values. A relevant goal will benefit your business. For example, if you're a company that wants to attract a younger demographic, then it makes sense to try to increase your followers on platforms like Instagram, whose largest audience is between the age of 25 to 34 years.

Relevant

This means your goal will have a deadline.Making your goal time-bound, helps you plan your schedule and set milestones.

Time-bound

SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

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Personal Development

timemanagement

Time Management

SMART Goal

This indicates value to a searcher. They're more likely to respond to ads that include concepts important to them. Think about what the searcher wants from your ad. Is it reliability and trustworthiness?You may want to use language such as '"official site." Or do they want a wide selection of products? You may want to include "view our inventory." This is a great time to put those customer personas to use. Review the persona's goals and consider adding them to your ad.

Craft your messaging to focus on user needs and benefits.

Remember, the headline is the clickable link at the top of your ad.The description is below the headline, Google will automatically test combinations of headlines and descriptions, so be sure any combination will read well. It's important to include text from keywords, because that's what potential customers are thinking about.If your ad connects with what they're searching for, they may be more likely to click on it. Also, there are a couple of advanced tools that place the keyword in the headline in certain customizations for automatically tailoring ad Copy.

At least one of the keywords in your ad group in your headlines

Phrases like "call us today" create a false sense of urgency. Keep the user benefit in mind.
If there really isn't a benefit to the user, well, why would they even call today? Non-specific or generic calls to action, such as "'sign up today" or "book today" often show decreased engagement with ads.
Imagine you're writing copy for a property management company. Instead of writing "book now" in the ad, write "book your dream vacation rental." This is more specific and relates more closely to what the potential customer desires.

Avoid generic sales language. Use specific and relatable calls

Ad extensions are additional pieces of information that enhance search ads, making them more appealing and prominent. They provide helpful details such as location, call options, and app installs, especially beneficial for mobile users.Including multiple extensions can increase visibility and competitiveness on Google Ads. And when possible, try to enable at least four. Google Ads determines the best combination of extensions on an auction-by-auction basis.

Implement all ad extensions that make sense.

The ad and landing page work together to provide a great user experience.You should compare your keywords to the copy on the landing page and its overall user experience. The exact keywords don't need to be on the landing page, but the relevancy should be clear right away.Like, ask yourself questions such as,<ul><li>How useful is the landing page to someone who clicks on the ad?</li><li>Is the page well organized?</li><li>Does the text relate to someone's search terms?</li><li>Is the landing page clear in its directions?</li></ul>Ensure it loads quickly. If page loads take too long, users may get frustrated and leave the page.

Optimize your landing page.

An effective ad can appear higher in search results pages and generate more clicks and more conversions, sometimes even at a lower cost per click than your competitors.

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Remote Work

creativity

Creativity

artificialintelligence

Artificial Intelligence

Best practices when creating a Google Ad in Search

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">To consider the buyer's journey</li></ul>When do they first experience the brand? How do they experience it? And what do they do after their first experience?These types of questions helps really better understand the brand and the business from the customer's perspective.<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">To optimize your marketing strategy</li></ul>All marketing strategies have gaps, and the funnel helps you recognize and fix them. e.g display ads aren't connecting with potential customer, webpage loads slowly<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Increase the conversion rate and drive more business results</li></ul>e.g. you may track the % of potential customers that become paying customers.

Benefits of a marketing funnel

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Awareness Stage</li></ul>When a potential customer encounters a brand for the first time.<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Consideration Stage</li></ul>When the person starts to think about doing business with the brand, and actively searches for more information about it.<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Conversion Stage</li></ul>When the person decides to make a purchase.<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Loyalty Stage</li></ul>When the customer decides to purchase from the brand again and brand advocate.

Stages in the marketing funnel

GOALCapture your audience's attention. You want to get people to remember your brand and try to learn more about you. STRATEGIES<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Search engine optimization</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Search engine marketing</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Display ads</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Social media marketing</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Social media advertising</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Video marketing</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Influencer marketing</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Content marketing</li></ul> TACTICBy targeting key phrases you can pinpoint the topic your target audience is searching for. Then you can create social media contents such as guides, videos, and blogs around those topics. At this stage, you should keep things brief and simple just to gain your audience's interest.

Awareness

GOALProvide your potential customer with more detailed information to set you apart from the competition and help build their trust and confidence in your brand. STRATEGIES<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Unique selling proposition</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Customer testimonials</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Case studies</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Product reviews</li><li class="ql-align-justify">In-depth product tutorials</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Re-marketing ads</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Webinars</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Email marketing</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Social media marketing</li></ul> TACTICConsistently sharing case studies, testimonials, reviews, and detailed tutorials can build trust in your brand. Remember the "rule of seven": potential customers often need to see a message seven times before taking action.

Consideration

GOALCapitalize on the interests people have already shown. STRATEGIES<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Optimize the checkout process</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Add better photos</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Strengthen the copy</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Add live chat</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Pursue abandoned carts</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Increase website speed</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Offer a trial or money back guarantee</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Experiment with A/B</li></ul> TACTICUse paid remarketing campaigns to reach people who have already shown interest in your brand. Remarketing or retargeting, is a strategy in which you use paid ads to target customers who have visited your website, app, or social media profile. You can also gently encourage people to make a purchase by offering discounts or free shipping.

Conversion

GOALContinue to nurture relationships with your customers so you can remain in their minds. STRATEGIES<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Rewards programs</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Email marketing</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Social shares</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Remarketing customers</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Encourage reviews</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Birthday and anniversary offers</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Freebies</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Amusing confirmation messages</li></ul> TACTICRemarketing ads to existing customers on social media is a great way to encourage them to make a repeat purchase. You can also stay connected with your customers by making them feel like they are part of your brand community. One way to do this, is by developing social media content that relates to the purchase that they have made.

Loyalty

A graphic representation of the process through which people go from learning about a brand to becoming a loyal customer

The Marketing Funnel

Strategies support the plan to achieve the goal and tend to be more general ideas.Tactics are actions taken to make the plan happen. For example,Social media marketing would be a strategy. It's a general idea.An actions on social media would be the tactics. These support the strategy.

Marketing Strategy VS Tactics

“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”_ Sun Tzu

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Motivation & Inspiration

Strategy VS Tactic

THE 5 PILLARS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Know who is your audiance is and which social platform they use</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Understand your goals</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Create effective, relavent content</li></ul>Posting the right content in the right places can save both time and money.E.g. If you want to build community around your brand, you might focus on interactive content like polls or question and answer sessions. But if your goal is to promote a new product, running a contest and giveaway might get better results.

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Ensures consistent presence</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Scheduling (When to post content)</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Timing & Frequency (How often to post content)</li></ul>The goal is to engage followers enough so that they remember you, but not so often that you overwhelm them.Social media scheduling tools can help you publish your content automatically at your preferred times.

Planning & Publishing

Social listening - Track and anayze social conversations and mentions related to your brand.Engagement- how your audience interacts with your brand on social media. WHY ?<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Understand what people think about brand</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Inform marketing decision</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Learn what content resonates best with audience</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Increase people's positive experience with your brand</li></ul> Eg. If someone posts about how helpful they find a particular tool, like a habit tracking app, the brand could respond with thanks and encouragement. But if they post that the app isn't working correctly, they could share troubleshooting tips instead.

Social Listening & Engagement

Social media analytics is a process of collecting data from your social media platforms and analyzing that data to make business decisions. <ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Tell you how your campaign is performing.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Drive social media marketing strategy</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Share social media reports with stakeholders</li></ul>A social media report is a document that presents relevant data and analysis about your social media activities.Setting up different reports on social media platforms allows you to monitor metrics like followers, comments, and clicks. This helps improve campaign performance over time with insights from built-in analytics tools.

Analytics & Reporting

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Control and target your marketing</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Reach a wider audience</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Grow your brand on social media</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Re-market products</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Serve ads to highly specific customer groups</li></ul> Social media ads targets to highly specific customer groups than than search engines.By linking ads to email sign-up forms, business can contact their followers directly and send them special offers.

Paid Social Media

Social media marketing is the practice of creating and publishing content for social media platforms in order to drive engagement and promote a brand or product.

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Technology & The Future

5 Pillars of Social Media Marketing

When you set your goals, you’ll want to refer to the acronym SMART. SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Ensuring your goals meet these criteria will help keep you organized, give you a sense of direction as you move through your campaigns, and provide you with a time frame to work within.

What are SMART goals?

Specific: What do you want to accomplish?Measurable: What are the success metrics that will determine whether the objective has been met? Attainable: Is this a realistic goal that you think you can meet?Relevant: Is this specific marketing goal aligned with your company’s overall objectives? Time-bound: What is a realistic time frame that this goal can be met within?

SMART considerations

You know the company wants to focus on increasing scrapbook sales for this next quarter, so you start thinking about goals. You decide to set a SMART goal to give you something to compare your progress against. You come up with: We aim to increase scrapbook sales by 15% by the end of the next quarter through a robust social media campaign where we focus heavily on influencer marketing.This goal fits all of the SMART goal criteria, which means you’ll be able to easily track your progress and make adjustments as the social media campaign progresses.

Example scenario

<a href="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1N5SSJ-3U2WBssRHJsfsPFiXw7bM9pbQCgka4eD7g008/edit?usp=sharing">SMART Goal Setting PPT</a>

Bonus

Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound

habits

Habits

education

Learning & Education

allāhu lā ilāha illā huw, al-ḥayyul-qayyụm, lā ta`khużuhụ sinatuw wa lā na`ụm, lahụ mā fis-samāwāti wa mā fil-arḍ, man żallażī yasyfa'u 'indahū illā bi`iżnih, ya'lamu mā baina aidīhim wa mā khalfahum, wa lā yuḥīṭụna bisyai`im min 'ilmihī illā bimā syā`, wasi'a kursiyyuhus-samāwāti wal-arḍ, wa lā ya`ụduhụ ḥifẓuhumā, wa huwal-'aliyyul-'aẓīm

Allah! There is no god ˹worthy of worship˺ except Him, the Ever-Living, All-Sustaining. Neither drowsiness nor sleep overtakes Him. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. Who could possibly intercede with Him without His permission? He ˹fully˺ knows what is ahead of them and what is behind them, but no one can grasp any of His knowledge—except what He wills ˹to reveal˺. His Seat encompasses the heavens and the earth, and the preservation of both does not tire Him. For He is the Most High, the Greatest.

Ethical Email Marketing: Choosing the Right Language

PESTLE Analysis/ Audit

SWOT Analysis/ Audit

SMART Goal

Best practices when creating a Google Ad in Search

Salman Ali