How to Accept Payments Online for Free [7 Top Payment Providers]

If your ecommerce business isn't offering your customers multiple ways to make payments online, you're leaving money on the table.

While there's no way to escape some transaction fees and currency fees, there are ways to reduce payment processing costs and receive payments online for free.

In this post, we'll talk about the software options available today for accepting free online payments as well as details about how to actually go about accepting those payments.

But first, let's review some additional reasons you'd want to use a payment processing software.

Why should you use payment processing software?

Here's a look at some of the advantages payment processing software will bring to your business.

1. Convenience

Convenience is one of the main factors that influence conversion rate. The more steps a customer has to take to make a payment, the more likely they are to abandon their purchase and go elsewhere.

2. Speed

Payment processors can transfer most payments between shoppers and sellers instantly. On the other hand, transfers to and from bank accounts can sometimes take 24 hours or more.

3. Trust

Many payment processors are brands that are globally recognized. If a customer already uses payment software, they're more likely to trust your payment system.

4. Security

Payment processing companies add an extra layer of protection to online transactions. You can set limits, flags for activity on your account, and sometimes even a time frame to recall payments.

5. Record-Keeping

With payment processors, you'll have access to your account online and can manage your contacts, recurring payments, and other account activity via desktop or mobile.

Top Online Payment Processing Providers

Once you've developed a strategy for accepting payments online, you'll need to decide which payment processing provider to use. Here are seven of the most popular options:

1. PayPal

Price: 3.49% plus $0.49 per transaction (as of August, 2021).

PayPal is one of the most trusted and widely recognized payment processing companies. It's free to join and they provide all the tools you'll need to integrate PayPal payments into your website and set up a secure payment gateway for visitors. Additionally, comprehensive coverage makes the platform a good choice for international companies.

2. Stripe

Price: 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction.

Stripe offers a wide range of options for online businesses such as customizable checkouts as well as subscription management and recurring payment features. Stripe supports all major credit cards, mobile paying apps, wallets, and more.

3. Square

Price: 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction.

Square entered the payment processing space by introducing a dongle that sellers could insert into a mobile phone to accept credit card transactions.

They've since expanded their software to cover all the major payment processing options and have included some useful tools for online businesses as well as high-street stores.

You can even create a basic website for free and integrate all of their point-of-sale (POS) solutions at the same time. They also have paid options for a custom website.

4. Google Pay

Price: Google Pay doesn't charge any fees — merchants only pay transaction fees as usual with credit/ debit sales.

Google Pay has a payment tool for businesses, websites, and apps. Google Pay's APIs work to create a delightful checkout and payment experience for your customers.

If you use Google Pay on your website, you'll gain secure and easy access to hundreds of millions of cards saved to Google Accounts worldwide so customers can pay for your products safely and at the touch of a button.

5. Apple Pay

Price: Apple Pay doesn't charge any fees — merchants only pay transaction fees as usual with credit/ debit sales.

Apple Pay can be used on websites, in stores, by app, and via Business Chat or iMessage. It allows Apple users to quickly and safely input contact, payment, and shipping information during checkout.

Rather than having your ecommerce customers look around for their credit cards, Apple Pay allows them to checkout at the click of a button within apps and websites. On a website, an Apple users will simply click "Apple Pay" as their payment option, confirm the payment with one tap (via their iPhone, Apple Watch, etc.), and they're good to go.

6. Venmo For Business

Price: 1.9% plus $0.10 of the payment.

Venmo For Business is a mobile payment software and app owned by PayPal. You can choose to allow users to pay via your mobile app or your website.

You can set up a business profile on Venmo so users can quickly find your profile on the app. And if you add Venmo to your website, it'll appear as a payment option right next to where it'll give customers the option to pay with PayPal.

Once a customer selects the Venmo option at checkout, they'll be directed to their Venmo app to complete the transaction. The Venmo payment option can be added to any of the pages of your ecommerce site that would also show the option to pay with PayPal, including your product pages, shopping cart page, and checkout page.

7. Helcim

Price: 2.38% plus $0.25.

Helcim is an online payment solution for ecommerce businesses — you can choose to start an online store from scratch or add a payment solution to your current website.

The easy-to-use and secure online payment system integrates on your website, shopping cart, billing system, and/or app, thanks to Helcim's API. In addition to in-app and via website, Helcim works over the phone, in person, and by invoice, and it integrates with your accounting tools to save you time when it comes to bookkeeping.

Next, let's cover the steps involved in receiving payments online for free.

1. Create a secure online payment gateway.

There are a couple of ways you can approach creating a secure online payment gateway. You can hire an outside developer or use your website development team to create a bespoke gateway. Or, you can use third-party software.

Setting up a secure gateway is essential. You're also putting automated processes in place, which will save time on manual processing, especially as you scale your business and handle more transactions.

The more payment methods you make available within your payment portal, the wider the audience, and the easier it'll be for your customers to send you money.

2. Facilitate credit and debit card payments.

Although it may change as mobile payments become more prevalent, using debit/ credit cards is still the most popular way people pay for products and services online.

You can easily facilitate accepting card payments through established payment providers such as PayPal or Stripe. These will accept the most-used credit cards worldwide -- Visa, MasterCard, and American Express.

3. Set up recurring billing.

If you offer subscription plans or ongoing monthly services, the most efficient and reliable way to invoice and receive payments is via recurring billing.

Most of the major payment processing software also includes recurring billing features. For example, Growth Marketing Pro built an SEO tool that charges subscribers on a monthly basis and they used Stripe to set this up.

Sites like Paysimple also offer a suite of tools to set up custom, automated recurring billing if you already have a payment processing system in place.

Using automation is essential. It removes most human error and the stress of keeping track of invoicing and payments.

Your customers can commit to recurring payments with just a few clicks, and you won't have to worry about manually managing your customer base.

4. Accept mobile payments.

These days, people are often more likely to have their phones on hand than debit cards — plus, mobile payment apps are more convenient than ever.

For instance, Apple Pay has quickly become one of the most popular mobile payment systems in the United States. With an estimated 43.9 million users, you'd miss out if you didn't accept Apple Pay.

Google Pay, Venmo, and PayPal also have mobile apps with a decent market share.

5. Accept cryptocurrency payments.

If you're okay with handling cryptocurrencies, it's a way you can extend your reach to a broader online audience.

Sites like Bitpay provide all the tools you need to accept crypto payments online, send invoices, request payments, and receive money on the go-through apps.

Because they're a decentralized exchange, cryptocurrencies offer some unique benefits for businesses. You can accept payments from anywhere in the world without incurring currency exchange fees or bank handling fees. There's also a reduced risk of fraud.

6. Use email invoicing.

Email invoicing is a proactive way to request payments. You can share a payment form through email or add a link redirecting the recipient to a payment portal.

However, there are a couple of issues with this method: Email isn't the most reliable form of communication, and customers can have trust issues making payments via email.

Expect a failure rate, but it's a vital part of payment processing for a lot of businesses.

7. Accept electronic checks (eChecks).

To accept eChecks for payment, you need a form where the user can input their information, which you can see using payment processing software.

It's basically a way to pay by check online. It's a quicker and more reliable way than sending a paper check through the post, so offering this to your customers will make the process run smoother.

Start Accepting Payments Online For Free

No matter which payment processing software you choose, the most important part is making it easy for the customer to pay. And the more ways they can pay, the more likely your customers will follow through on a purchase.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in April 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

How to Accept Payments Online for Free [7 Top Payment Providers] was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

What Is Guerrilla Marketing? 11 Examples to Inspire Your Brand

The word "guerrilla," in its written form, seems very intense. It conjures images of rebellion and conflict. Put it next to the word "marketing," and it makes a lot of people ask, "Huh?"

But guerrilla marketing isn't some sort of combative form of communication. In fact, it's actually a very unconventional form of marketing in that it raises brand awareness among large audiences without interrupting them.

The term itself was created in the early 1980s by the late business writer Jay Conrad Levinson, who wrote several books about guerrilla tactics in a number of professional areas. Of course, at that time, marketing in general looked very different, and while guerrilla marketing is still used today, the ever-growing digital landscape is changing what it looks like.

Roots of Warfare

When we hear the term “guerrilla marketing,” it’s hard not to think of guerrilla warfare -- which makes sense, since that’s where this style of marketing got its name. In the warfare context, guerrilla tactics depend largely on the element of surprise. Think: “Ambushes, sabotage, raids,” according to Creative Guerrilla Marketing.

But how does that translate into the work we do every day? In marketing, guerrilla techniques mostly play on the element of surprise. It sets out to create highly unconventional campaigns that catch people unexpectedly in the course of their day-to-day routines.

Budget-Friendly

What marketers really enjoy about guerrilla marketing is its fairly low-cost nature. The real investment here is a creative, intellectual one -- its implementation, however, doesn’t have to be expensive. Michael Brenner summarizes it nicely in his article on “guerrilla content,” where he frames this style of marketing in the same context as repurposing your existing content, like taking certain segments of a report, and expanding each one into a blog post. It’s an investment of time, but not money, per se.

In a way, guerrilla marketing works by repurposing your audience’s current environment. Evaluate it and figure out which segments of it can be repurposed to include your brand.

Types of Guerrilla Marketing

As niche as it might seem, there are actually a few sub-categories of guerrilla marketing, as outlined by the firm ALT TERRAIN:

• Outdoor Guerrilla Marketing. Adds something to preexisting urban environments, like putting something removable onto a statue, or putting temporary artwork on sidewalks and streets.

• Indoor Guerilla Marketing. Similar to outdoor guerrilla marketing, only it takes place in indoor locations like train stations, shops, and university campus buildings.

• Event Ambush Guerilla Marketing. Leveraging the audience of an in-progress event -- like a concert or a sporting game -- to promote a product or service in a noticeable way, usually without permission from the event sponsors.

• Experiential Guerilla Marketing. All of the above, but executed in a way that requires the public to interact with the brand.

We know -- without context, the whole idea of guerrilla marketing can be a little confusing, so let’s see how it’s been executed by a few other brands.

Guerrilla Marketing Examples to Inspire Your Brand

1. Bounty's Giant Popsicle

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By installing life-sized "messes" throughout the streets of New York -- a giant, knocked-over coffee cup and a gigantic melting popsicle -- Bounty found a unique way to advertise its product and the solution it provides, with minimal words.

You might ask, "Wouldn't a concise billboard ad accomplish the same thing?" Well, not really. Culturally, we're starting to opt for every possible way to eradicate ads from our lives. That's why we love things like DVR and ad-free options on streaming services like Hulu and YouTube. This campaign, unlike an ad, isn't as easy to ignore. After all, if you stumbled upon a melting popsicle the size of your mattress on your way to work, would you stop and look? We would.

The big takeaway: Identify the biggest problem that your product or service solves. Then, find an unconventional way to broadcast that to the public -- preferably without words.

2. Deadpool's Tinder Profile

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Some Tinder users were surprised to see none other than comic anti-hero and legend Deadpool showing up on their Tinder. With "cheeky" pics and witty profile copy, Deadpool broke the fourth wall and met potential movie-goers ahead of the movie's Valentine's Day release.

If the Tinder user "swiped right" and matched with the character, they received a link to purchase tickets.

While Tinder isn't the best way to generate buzz -- it's limited in its reach to a small subset of users, and you're technically not allowed to use the platform for promotion -- screenshots of this gag quickly made it to social media, garnering a ton of attention.

The big takeaway: Promotions that use "interruptive" techniques aren't frustrating if they create unexpected delight.

3. Childish Gambino's Ice Cream Pop-Up

 

 

 

 

 

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Have you ever seen how powerful of a motivator free food can be? Make it a sweet treat, and you have yourself a winning combination.

Childish Gambino likely had this in mind for his "Summertime Starts Here" pop-up events where free ice cream was given away. As people queued up in the heat for some delicious ice cream, Gambino's two singles played on a loud speaker.

It was a great way to expose listeners to his EP, Summer Pack.

The big takeaway: Sometimes you have to draw an audience in with incentives to earn attention.

4. The GRAMMYs Singing Posters

Okay, this one might not be entirely fair, since it wasn't pulled off "in real life." But how cool would it be if it was? To promote the nominees for its Album Of The Year category, the GRAMMYS music awards show created a video to show what would happen if posters for the nominated artists just began singing.

It might sound impossible to actually carry out something like that. But imagine -- what if you could create musical posters for your brand? Again, it's different than a billboard ad because, when we walk by a wall of paper advertisements in, say, New York City, we don't expect them to start moving. Now, we'll admit that this idea isn't exactly a budget-friendly one, as it might require some technical work to bring to fruition. But even if you could include a single moving or digital image among a sea of still ones -- in a place where it would come as a surprise, like a brick wall -- it would catch people off guard and, therefore, get their attention.

The big takeaway: Think about the things that your audience might just pass by every day -- and make those things do something that's both unexpected and interactive.

5. Frontline's Interactive Floor Ad

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When I first saw this photo, I'll admit that I fell for it. "Someone, get that dog away from those flies!" I frantically thought. Then, I realized that the dog wasn't real, and neither were the flies. The former was a photo, and the latter were actually humans.

That's because Frontline, the makers of flea and tick prevention products for dogs, were able to fill the entire floor of this large, public space with this image. The brand knew that many people walk across that space every day, and that a good number of people would also see it from the building's upper levels, creating the dog-and-insect illusion. It's hard to miss -- and to not look twice.

Again, this campaign is different than traditional marketing because it's not just plastering a single message somewhere that's likely to be ignored. It creates a form of accidental human interaction that reminds the viewer what the product does.

The big takeaway: Figure out how humans might involuntarily interact with your marketing messages. While your product or service may not address the issue of, say, insect removal, there are ways to make people part of the campaign.

6. Public Breakup on Burger King's Instagram

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Breaking up is hard to do in person, let alone when it's publicly played out online. That's what happened -- allegedly -- when one Instagram user left a comment on one of Burger King's Instagram posts sharing a tale of his "girl" procuring food from Burger King. There was just one problem. This guy does have a girlfriend, but she was nowhere near a Burger King. So, who was he referring to? The drama ensued, via Instagram comments:

After the comments began to make headlines, many speculated that the entire exchange may have been staged by Burger King. And if it was, we can't help but salute them -- what a way to get your brand into the zeitgeist.

Burger King has roughly one million followers on Instagram. And while we're not sure how many followers the former had before this famous breakup, it makes sense to assume that this at least drew more attention to its social media presence, at least on this particular platform. People may have already been observing the brand on Instagram, but before now, were they actively discussing it?

The big takeaway: Guerrilla marketing has gone digital. Think about where your audience already exists digitally -- then, give 'em a show. While we can't condone lying, we can applaud creativity, so don't be afraid to use the comments to get people talking.

7. UNICEF's Dirty Water Vending Machines

I'm as guilty as anyone of wasting money on bottled water. I have no excuse. I have a reusable one. My workplace offers filtered water from a machine, not a traditional cooler, and yet, it remains a bad habit.

That's why this guerrilla marketing campaign from relief organization UNICEF resonated with me. It posed the question, "What if those bottles of water you waste money on were filled with dirty water?" It was a way of reminding the privileged masses that in too many parts of the world, entire populations have no access to clean drinking water.

So instead of frivolously spending that money on bottled water, UNICEF suggested putting it toward efforts to bring clean drinking water to these areas. It did so by creating makeshift vending machines that sold bottled dirty water, with each button labeled as a disease caused by a lack of clean drinking water.

The big takeaway: Guerrilla marketing works in the not-for-profit sector, too. And while scary, saddening images are often an impactful way of communicating your mission, there's a way to convey it by creating something less in-your-face and interactive for the public.

8. GoldToe's Giant Briefs

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Are you an underwear company looking for an unconventional way to market your product? Why, just try placing an enormous pair of briefs on an iconic charging bull statue.

Really, we can't make this stuff up.

It's so simple, in theory, that it sounds like fiction. But when the GoldToe brand needed a way to tease and promote the launch of its new undergarments, that's exactly what it did -- casually placed these new items of clothing on statues throughout New York. And while we can't be sure that it's the route GoldToe took, we sincerely hope that those bull-sized briefs were made with leftover manufacturing fabric, helping to make this campaign even budget-friendlier.

The big takeaway: Don't overthink it. Sometimes what looks like your silliest idea might be the best one.

9. Fiji Water's #FijiGirl

How is this real? #FijiGirl #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/Fko3XMmupa

— Daniel Howat (@howatdk) January 7, 2019

Strategic product placement is one guerilla marketing tactic to gain attention in subtle ways. One such example includes Fiji Water's presence at the 2019 Golden Globes where models wore blue and carried trays of water for thirsty attendees.

It didn't end there, though. One model -- Kelleth Cuthbert -- positioned herself in the background during photoshoots, effectively photo-bombing high-profile celebrities.

When the photos started appearing on social media, people began noticing Cuthbert as a common denominator, dubbing her #FijiGirl. Ultimately, she became one of the highlights of the evening, winning over fans and drawing attention to Fiji Water's brand.

The big takeaway: Your brand doesn't need to be the focus of an event for it to stand out.

10. Greene King's Candid Videos

When pub and brewing company Greene King feared that small, neighborhood establishments -- notably, the pub -- would start to be overtaken by large corporate retail, it launched a campaign to communicate just how important these local businesses really are. Even better, the content was almost entirely created by those who understand this predicament best: Pub owners, bartenders, and patrons.

These individuals were given cameras to capture video of the most meaningful moments and gatherings they've experienced inside these local pubs -- from weddings, to funeral receptions, to birthdays. These videos were shared on Greene King's YouTube profile and posed the question, "Without these neighborhood meeting places, where would we share these moments?"

The big takeaway: It's okay to get a little sentimental with guerilla marketing. Think about the emotions invoked by what you offer. Then, invite your audience to create content around what your brand means to them.

11. BBC's Dracula Billboard

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When I think of Count Dracula, I conjure the penultimate villain synonymous with everything that goes bump in the night. The BBC wanted to capitalize on this feeling to promote their show, Dracula.

By day, their billboard was designed to be minimalistic with red text on a white background with a few bloody stakes. However, like its subject, the billboard changed completely every time night fell.

The stakes were actually strategically placed -- to cast a shadow of Dracula himself.

The installation ended up being featured in Adweek and had some viral success for its creativity and skillful implementation.

The big takeaway: Think outside the box for your advertising materials. In this case, light and shadow were enough to convey the message and capture attention.

Guerrillas in the Wild

Starting to make a little more sense?

Hopefully, you'll be inspired by these examples, especially if you're promoting a smaller brand. Don't be afraid to crowdsource the content for these campaigns, for example -- after all, it's creative approaches to your work that help maintain guerrilla marketing's budget-friendly, inbound nature. Remember: Catch people where they are, and insert your brand there. Don't interrupt, but invite them to participate.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in July 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

What Is Guerrilla Marketing? 11 Examples to Inspire Your Brand was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

How to Search an Entire Website in Google in 3 Steps [+ Example]

Google's pretty good at surfacing relevant content based on your search query. But sometimes you need something so specific that a general keyword phrase doesn't really do it for you, especially if you're a marketer on the hunt for a particular piece of content.

That's where a site search comes in handy.

A site search is performed on a search engine and allows you to search one domain – not the entire internet – for a term.

We'll talk more about why site searches are helpful and how to perform them in the sections below.

How to Google Search Within a Website using Site Search

1. Go to Google.com.

2. In the search box, enter site:www.website.com with your search term.

Make sure you consider the domain and subdomain when performing a site search. For instance, if I search the term "SEO" on www.hubspot.com and www.blog.hubspot.com/marketing, I'll get two different sets of results.

The first will show results that include all the subdomains while the latter will only show results pertaining to the blog subdomain.

The same goes for the path: www.hubspot.com/about will provide different results than www.hubspot.com/pricing.

With this in mind, it's important to know where you're looking for your search term.

3. Refine your search.

For instance, in Step 2, I searched our blog for a broad topic: SEO. Various subtopics came up, ranging from SEO blogging strategies to tips from SEO experts.

From there, I can filter my results by topic or even date.

In the example below, I added "2021" to my search time to refine my results and get more recent data.

Site Search Best Practices

When it comes to a site search, a good rule of thumb is to start wide and narrow down little by little.

This will make it easier to find what you're looking for and avoid narrowing down too early. For instance, say you want to search a competitor's site for SEO-related content.

Start by looking up SEO to see the range of subtopics they cover. From there, you can dive into each subtopic and examine which ones they cover more and which ones they don't cover much.

This method will help you find ideas for your own content and get competitive on the SERP.

Now, say you're on the opposite end – you have a website and want to make site searches easier for your visitors.

In ecommerce in particular, site searches are very important, as they help consumers find the products they're interested in.

In this case, here are a few tips:

• Categorize your content on the backend to make search results more accurate.
• Use autocomplete and autocorrect to assist visitors when typing into the search box.
• If the query yields no results, offer related queries the user may be interested in or direct them to elsewhere.
• Optimize the terms on your site to reflect the language of your target consumers. For instance, say you sell baby items and your core audience resides in the UK, your website would likely use the term "cot" instead of "crib."

How Site:Search Can Make Your Life Easier as a Marketer

There are many use cases for this tool, but here are the most common ones.

• Search for data – I like to use data to support and strengthen my content. With a site search, I can quickly find a stat I had read in an article weeks or months earlier. I can perform a search on our own blog or other sites I visit, like eMarketer, for instance.
• Search for new topic ideas – Let's say you want to pitch an article idea and verify that your angle hasn't been covered before on your site. You can do a site search and read all the articles relating to the topic. If you're a freelance writer, you can also take this approach before you pitch a story to a publisher to make sure it's original and aligns with their content strategy.
• Surface related content to link to – If you want to link to a piece of content within your own content, a site search is a great way to resurface it or even find some new pieces of content you didn't know existed.
• Conduct competitive analysis – Reviewing your competitors' content is plays a big role in developing your content strategy. A site search will allow you to see how your competitors are covering specific topics, from the angle to the length and use of media.

How to Search an Entire Website in Google in 3 Steps [+ Example] was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

Lead Generation: A Beginner's Guide to Generating Business Leads the Inbound Way

Let’s set the stage: I’m about to dig into the best darn pile of spaghetti and meatballs I’ve ever seen. Just as I twist my fork in the pasta, spear a mouth-watering meatball, and go in for my first savory bite...the phone rings. "May I speak to Lindsay Kow-low-witch?" asks the telemarketer on the other end. "This is an important message regarding your oven preferences."

This frustrating interruption is why we’re here to discuss inbound lead generation — a solution that can save your business or organization from being that annoying, disruptive cold caller that is ruined by spaghetti night.

Let's start with defining a lead, and then we'll cover what online lead generation is, why you need lead generation, how you qualify someone as a lead, how to label lead types — such as sales qualified leads, how you generate leads, and why inbound lead generation is much more effective than simply buying leads.

What is a lead?

A lead is any person who indicates interest in a company's product or service in some way, shape, or form.

Leads typically hear from a business or organization after opening communication (by submitting personal information for an offer, trial, or subscription) … instead of getting a random cold call from someone who purchased their contact information.

Let's say you take an online survey to learn more about how to take care of your car. A day or so later, you receive an email from the auto company that created the survey about how they could help you take care of your car. This process would be far less intrusive than if they'd just called you out of the blue with no knowledge of whether you even care about car maintenance, right? This is what it's like to be a lead.

And from a business perspective, the information the auto company collects about you from your survey responses helps them personalize that opening communication to address your existing problems — and not waste time calling leads who aren't at all interested in auto services.

Leads are part of the broader lifecycle that consumers follow when they transition from visitor to customer. Not all leads are created equal (nor are they qualified the same). There are different types of leads based on how they are qualified and what lifecycle stage they're in.

Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)

Marketing qualified leads are contacts who've engaged with your marketing team's efforts but aren't ready to receive a sales call. An example of an MQL is a contact who fills out a landing page form for an offer (like in our lead generation process scenario below).

Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)

Sales qualified leads are contacts who've taken actions that expressly indicate their interest in becoming a paying customer. An example of an SQL is a contact who fills out a form to ask a question about your product or service.

Product Qualified Lead (PQL)

Product qualified leads are contacts who've used your product and taken actions that indicate interest in becoming a paying customer. PQLs typically exist for companies who offer a product trial or a free or limited version of their product (like HubSpot!) with options to upgrade, which is where your sales team comes in. An example of a PQL is a customer who uses your free version but engages or asks about features that are only available upon payment.

Service Qualified Lead

Service qualified leads are contacts or customers who've indicated to your service team that they're interested in becoming a paying customer. An example of an service qualified lead is a customer who tells their customer service representative that they'd like to upgrade their product subscription; at this time, the customer service representative would up-level this customer to the appropriate sales team or representative.

 

These lead generators are just a few examples of lead generation strategies you can use to attract potential customers and guide them towards your offers. (We talk about more strategies later.)

Whenever someone outside the marketing world asks me what I do, I can't simply say, "I create content for lead generation." It'd be totally lost on them, and I'd get some really confused looks.

So instead, I say, "I work on finding unique ways to attract people to my business. I want to provide them with enough goodies to get them naturally interested in my company so they eventually warm up to the brand enough to want to hear from us!"

That usually resonates better, and that's exactly what lead generation is: It's a way of warming up potential customers to your business and getting them on the path to eventually making a purchase.

Why do you need lead generation?

When a stranger initiates a relationship with you by showing an organic interest in your business, the transition from stranger to customer is much more natural.

Lead generation falls within the second stage of the inbound marketing methodology. It occurs after you've attracted an audience and are ready to convert those visitors into leads for your sales team (namely sales-qualified leads).

As you can see in the diagram below, generating leads is a fundamental point in an individual's journey to becoming a delighted customer.

Lead Generation Process

Now that we understand how lead generation fits into the inbound marketing methodology, let's walk through the steps of the lead generation process.

1. First, a visitor discovers your business through one of your marketing channels, such as your website, blog, or social media page.
2. That visitor then clicks on your call-to-action (CTA) — an image, button, or message that encourages website visitors to take some sort of action.
3. That CTA takes your visitor to a landing page, which is a web page that is designed to capture lead information in exchange for an offer.
   
   Note: An offer is the content or something of value that's being "offered" on the landing page, like an ebook, a course, or a template. The offer must have enough perceived value to a visitor for them to provide their personal information in exchange for access to it.)
4. Once on the landing page, your visitor fills out a form in exchange for the offer. (Forms are typically hosted on landing pages, although they can technically be embedded anywhere on your site.) Voila! You have a new lead. That is, as long as you’re following lead-capture form best practices.

See how everything fits together?

To sum it up: Visitor clicks a CTA that takes them to a landing page where they fill out a form to get an offer, at which point they become a lead.

By the way, you should check out our free lead generation tool. It helps you create lead capture forms directly on your website. Plus, it's really easy to set up.

Lead Generation Marketing

Once you put all of these elements together, you can use your various promotional channels to drive traffic to your landing page to start generating leads.

But what channels should you use to promote your landing page? Let’s talk about the front-end of lead generation — lead gen marketing.

If you’re a visual learner, this chart shows the flow from promotional marketing channels to a generated lead.

There are even more channels you can use to get visitors to become leads. Let’s go into depth on these and talk about a few others.

Content

Content is a great way to guide users to a landing page. Typically, you create content to provide visitors with useful, free information. You can include CTAs anywhere in your content — inline, bottom-of-post, in the hero, or even on the side panel. The more delighted a visitor is with your content, the more likely they are to click your call-to-action and move onto your landing page.

Featured Resource

• HubSpot Ebook Templates

Email

Email is a great place to reach the people who already know your brand and product or service. It’s much easier to ask them to take an action since they’ve previously subscribed to your list. Emails tend to be a bit cluttered, so use CTAs that have compelling copy and an eye-catching design to grab your subscriber’s attention.

Featured Resource

• The Beginner's Guide to Email Marketing

Ads and Retargeting

The sole purpose of an ad is to get people to take an action. Otherwise, why spend the money? If you want people to convert, be sure that your landing page and offer match exactly what is promised in the ad, and that the action you want users to take is crystal clear.

Blog

The great thing about using your blog posts to promote an offer is that you can tailor the entire piece to the end goal. So, if your offer is an instructional video on setting up Google Search Console, then you can write a blog post about how to select your marketing metrics … which would make your CTA highly relevant and easy to click.

For a quick video overview on the HubSpot Blog's expert lead generation tips, check out our video guide.

Featured Resource

• 6 Free Blog Post Templates

Social Media

Social media platforms make it easy to guide your followers to take action, from the swipe up option on Instagram stories to Facebook bio links to bitly URLs on Twitter. You can also promote your offerings on your social posts and include a call-to-action in your caption. Learn more about social media campaigns in this post.

Product Trials

You can break down a lot of barriers to a sale by offering trials of your product or service. Once a prospect is using your product, you can entice them with additional offers or resources to encourage them to buy. Another good practice is to include your branding in your free versions so you can capture other potential customers, too.

Referral Marketing

Referral, or word-of-mouth, marketing is useful for lead generation in a different way. That is, it gets your brand in front of more people, which, in turn, increases your chances of generating more leads.

Whatever channel you use to generate leads, you’ll want to guide users to your landing page. As long as you’ve built a landing page that converts, the rest will handle itself.

Why not just buy leads?

Marketers and salespeople alike want to fill their sales funnel — and they want to fill it quickly. Enter: The temptation to buy leads.

Buying leads, as opposed to organically generating them, is much easier and takes far less time and effort, despite being more expensive. But, you might be paying for advertising anyway … so, why not just buy leads?

First and foremost, any leads you've purchased don't actually know you. Typically, they've "opted in" at some other site when signing up for something, and didn't actually opt into receiving anything from your company.

The messages you send them are therefore unwanted messages, and sending unwanted messages is intrusive. (Remember that disruptive call I got when I was trying to eat my spaghetti? That's how people feel when they receive emails and other messages from people they didn't ask to hear from.)

If the prospect has never been to your website and indicated an interest in your products or services, then you’re interrupting them ... plain and simple.

If they never opted in to receive messages specifically from you, then there's a high chance they could flag your messages as spam, which is quite dangerous for you. Not only does this train to filter out emails from you, but it also indicates to their email provider which emails to filter out.

Once enough people flag your messages as spam, you go on a "blacklist," which is then shared with other email providers. Once you get on the blacklist, it’s really, really hard to get back off of it. In addition, your email deliverability and IP reputation will likely be harmed.

It's always, always, always better to generate leads organically rather than buy them. Read this blog post to learn how to grow an opt-in email list instead of buying one.

How to Qualify a Lead

As we covered in the first section, a lead is a person who has indicated interest in your company's product or service. Now, let's talk about the ways in which someone can actually show that interest.

Essentially, a sales lead is generated through information collection. That information collection could come as the result of a job seeker showing interest in a position by completing an application, a shopper sharing contact information in exchange for a coupon, or a person filling out a form to download an educational piece of content.

Gauging a Lead’s Level of Interest

Below are just a few of the many ways in which you could qualify someone as a lead. Each of these examples shows that the amount of collected information used to qualify a lead, as well as their level of interest, can vary.

Let's assess each scenario:

• Job Application: An individual that fills out an application form is willing to share a lot of personal information because he/she wants to be considered for a position. Filling out that application shows their true interest in the job, therefore qualifying the person as a lead for the company's recruiting team — not marketing or sales teams.
• Coupon: Unlike the job application, you probably know very little about someone who has stumbled upon one of your online coupons. But if they find the coupon valuable enough, they may be willing to provide their name and email address in exchange for it. Although it's not a lot of information, it's enough for a business to know that someone has interest in their company.
• Content: While the download of a coupon shows an individual has a direct interest in your product or service, content (like an educational ebook or webinar) does not. Therefore, to truly understand the nature of the person's interest in your business, you'll probably need to collect more information to determine whether the person is interested in your product or service and whether they're a good fit.

These three general examples highlight how lead generation differs from company to company, and from person to person. You'll need to collect enough information to gauge whether someone has a true, valid interest in your product or service — how much information is enough information will vary depending on your business.

Let's look at Episerver, for example. They use web content reports for lead generation, collecting six pieces of information from prospective leads.

Episerver provides a great example for what to ask for in a lead gen form:

• Full Name: The most fundamental information needed to personalize your communication with each lead.
• Email: This serves as a unique identifier and is how you will contact your lead.
• Company: This will give you the ability to research your lead’s industry and company and how the lead might benefit from your product or service (mainly for B2B).
• Role: Understanding an individual's role will help you understand how to communicate with them. Every brand stakeholder will have a different take and perspective on your offering (mainly for B2B).
• Country: Location information can help you segment your contact by region and time zone, and help you qualify the lead depending on your service.
• State: The more detailed information you can obtain without sacrificing conversions, the better. Knowing your leads state can help you further qualify them.

If you'd like to learn more intermediate-level tips on information collection and what you should ask for on your lead gen forms, read our post about it here.

Lead Scoring

Lead scoring is a way to qualify leads quantitatively. Using this technique, leads are assigned a numerical value (or score) to determine where they fall on the scale from “interested” to “ready for a sale”. The criteria for these actions is completely up to you, but it must be uniform across your marketing and sales department so that everyone is working on the same scale.

 

 

A lead’s score can be based on actions they’ve taken, information they’ve provided, their level of engagement with your brand, or other criteria that your sales team determines. For instance, you may score someone higher if they regularly engage with you on social media or if their demographic information matches your target audience.

Borrowing from the examples above, you might give a lead a higher score if they used one of your coupons — an action that would signify this person is interested in your product.

The higher a lead’s score, the closer they are to becoming a sales-qualified lead (SQL), which is only a step away from becoming a customer. The score and criteria is something you may need to tweak along the way until you find the formula that works, but once you do, you’ll transform your lead generation into customer generation.

Lead Generation Strategies

Online lead generation encompasses a wide range of tactics, campaigns, and strategies depending on the platform on which you wish to capture leads. We talked about lead capture best practices once you have a visitor on your site … but how can you get them there in the first place?

Let’s dive into lead generation strategies for a few popular platforms.

Facebook Lead Generation

Facebook has been a method for lead generation since its inception. Originally, companies could use outbound links in their posts and information in their bios to attract strangers to their websites. However, when Facebook Ads was launched in 2007, and its algorithm began to favor accounts that used paid advertising, there was a major shift in how businesses used the platform to capture leads. Facebook created Lead Ads for this purpose. Facebook also has a feature that lets you put a simple call-to-action button at the top of your Facebook Page, helping you send Facebook followers directly to your website.

Get some lead generation tips for Facebook.

Featured Resource

• 50 Facebook Ad Examples We Actually Clicked

Twitter Lead Generation

Twitter has Twitter Lead Gen Cards, which let you generate leads directly within a tweet without having to leave the site. A user's name, email address, and Twitter username are automatically pulled into the card, and all they have to do is click "Submit" to become a lead. (Hint for HubSpot users: You can connect Twitter Lead Gen Cards to your HubSpot Forms. Learn how to do that here).

Learn some lead generation tips for Twitter.

Featured Resource

• How to Use Twitter for Business (+ Follower Tracking Template)

LinkedIn Lead Generation

LinkedIn has been increasing its stake in the advertising space since its early days. When it comes to lead generation, LinkedIn created Lead Gen Forms, which auto-populate with a users profile data when they click a CTA, making it easy to capture information.

Get tips from our experience using LinkedIn ads.

PPC Lead Generation

When we say pay-per-click (PPC), we’re referring to ads on search engine result pages (SERPs). Google gets 3.5 billion searches a day, making it prime real estate for any ad campaign, especially lead gen. The effectiveness of your PPC campaign relies heavily on a seamless user flow, as well as your budget, target keywords, and a few other factors.

Learn more about how to setup successful PPC ads.

B2B Lead Generation

B2B is a particular business model that requires a particular approach to lead generation.SmartInsights found that referrals are the top source for capturing business leads. Not to mention, effectiveness varies by channel.

Learn the B2B lead generation techniques for every channel.

Tips for Lead Generation Campaigns

In any given lead generation campaign, there can be a lot of moving parts. It can be difficult to tell which parts of your campaign are working and which need some fine-tuning. What exactly goes into a best-in-class lead generation engine? Here are a few tips when building lead gen campaigns.

Use the right lead generation tools.

As you saw in our data, the most successful marketing teams use a formal system to organize and store their leads. That's where lead generation tools and lead generation software come into play.

How much do you know about the people visiting your website? Do you know their names or their email addresses? How about which pages they visited, how they're navigating around, and what they do before and after filling out a lead conversion form?

If you don't know the answers to these questions, chances are you're having a hard time connecting with the people who are visiting your site. These are questions you should be able to answer — and you can with the right lead generation tools.

There are a few different tools and templates out there that'll help you create different lead gen assets to use on your site:

• CTA Templates: 50+ free, customizable call-to-action (CTA) templates in PowerPoint that you can use to create clickable CTA buttons to use on your blog, landing pages, and elsewhere on your site.
• Lead Generation Software Tools: This free tool from HubSpot includes lead capture and contact insights features, which will scrape any pre-existing forms you have on your website and add those contacts to your existing contact database. It also lets you create pop-ups, hello bars, or slide-ins — called "lead flows" — that'll help you turn website visitors into leads immediately.

Example of a slide-in lead flow.

• Visitor Tracking: Hotjar has a heatmap tool — a virtual tool which creates a color-coded representation of how a user navigates your site — that helps you understand what users want, care about, and do on your site. It records visitors and tells you where they spend the most time on your site. You can use it to gather information on your lead generation forms, feedback forms and surveys, and more.
• Form-Scraping Tool: A form scraping tool that collects submissions on your website's existing forms helps you automatically consolidate all your leads into your contact database, regardless of which form visitors submitted on your website. HubSpot customers can create and embed forms using HubSpot, which automatically populate into your CMS. Non-HubSpot customers can use a form creation tool like Contact Form 7, JetPack, or Google Forms, and then use HubSpot's free collected forms feature to automatically capture form submissions and input them to a contact database.

Create amazing offers for all different stages of the buying cycle.

Not all of your site visitors are ready to talk to your sales team or see a demo of your product. Someone at the beginning of the buyer's journey might be interested in an informational piece like an ebook or a guide, whereas someone who's more familiar with your company and near the bottom of the journey might be more interested in a free trial or demo.

Make sure you're creating offers for each phase and offering CTAs for these offers throughout your site.

Yes, it takes time to create valuable content that teaches and nurtures your leads down the funnel, but if you don't offer anything for visitors who aren't ready to buy, then they may never come back to your website. From checklists to templates to free tools, here are 23 ideas for lead generation content to get you started.

If you want to take personalization a step further — which will help boost your conversion rate — try using smart CTAs. Smart CTAs detect where a person is in the buyer’s journey, whether they're a new visitor, a lead, or a customer, and display CTAs accordingly. Personalized CTAs convert a whopping 202% better than basic calls-to-action.

Keep your messaging consistent and deliver on your promise.

The highest-converting lead gen campaigns are the ones that deliver on what they promise and create a seamless transition from ad copy and design to the deliverable itself. Make sure that you’re presenting a consistent message throughout the process and providing value to everyone that engages with your lead capture.

The aspects of your lead gen campaign should mirror everything else on your website, on your blog, and within the product that you will eventually try to sell. If not, you’ll have a difficult time getting your lead to the next lifecycle stage. Your campaign should be about more than just obtaining an email address — it should be about developing a new customer.

Link your CTA to a dedicated landing page.

This may seem obvious to you, but you'd be surprised how many marketers don't create dedicated landing pages for their offers. CTAs are meant to send visitors to a landing page where they can receive a specific offer.

Don't use CTAs to drive people to your homepage, for instance. Even if your CTA is about your brand or product (and perhaps not an offer like a download), you should still be sending them to a targeted landing page that's relevant to what they are looking for and includes an opt-in form. If you have the opportunity to use a CTA, send them to a page that will convert them into a lead.

If you want to learn more about how to build and promote high-converting landing pages, then download our ebook on optimizing landing pages for conversions.

Get your sales team involved.

Remember when we talked about lead scoring? Well, it isn’t exactly doable without your sales team’s input. How will you know what qualifies a lead for sales without knowing if your defined SQLs are successfully sold? Your marketing and sales teams need to be aligned on the definitions and the process of moving a lead from MQL to SQL to opportunity before you even begin to capture leads.

Also, be open to evolving your relationship with sales and how you guide leads along your funnel. Your definitions will likely need to be refined over time; just make sure to keep everyone involved up-to-date.

Use social media strategically.

While marketers typically think of social media as best for top-of-the-funnel marketing, it can still be a helpful and low-cost source for lead generation as shared in the lead gen strategies above. The key is using social media strategically for lead generation.

Start by adding links directly to the landing pages of high-performing offers within your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media posts. Tell visitors that you're sending them to a landing page. That way, you're setting expectations. Here's an example from one of our Twitter posts:

Image Source

You can also do a lead generation analysis of your blog to figure out which posts generate the most leads, and then make a point of regularly linking social media posts to them.

Another way to generate leads from social media is to run a contest. Contests are fun and engaging for your followers, and they can also teach you a ton about your audience. It's a win-win. Read our step-by-step guide for growing your email list using social media contests, which covers everything from choosing a platform, to picking a winner, all the way to analyzing your results.

Remain flexible and constantly iterate.

Your lead generation strategy needs to be as dynamic as the people you’re targeting. Trends change, behaviors shift, opinions morph … so should your lead gen marketing. Use A/B split testing to see what CTAs perform best, which landing pages convert better, and which copy captures your target audience. Experiment with layout changes, design, UX, content, and advertising channels until you find what works.

Lead Generation Trends & Benchmarks

So ... you're getting web traffic and generating leads. But how are you doing compared to other companies in your industry? Read on to discover what other marketers are doing with lead generation in 2021, along with important stats to consider.

Lead generation is the top marketing priority.

HubSpot State of Marketing Report 2021 found that marketers report that their top marketing priorities for the next 12 months is generating more leads. Converting these leads to customers is another top priority, according to SmartInsights.

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Marketers are making use of digital automation tools for lead generation.

Digital lead generation spend is expected to reach 3.2 billion by the end of 2021. Forbes predicts that automation will play a large part in this increase, as automation will become a large part of lead generation strategies, specifically when it comes to streamlining the lead qualification and predictive scoring. If you’re looking to automate your processes, discover high-quality lead generation tools in this blog post.

Most B2B leads come from referrals.

B2B marketers say that 65% of their leads come from referrals, 38% from email, and 33% come from Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

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If you’re interested in getting in on this trend, it’s worth considering revamping your referral strategy and helping existing customers bring you new leads.

Content marketing helps drive leads.

Marketers also report that content marketing has helped themsuccessfully generate demand and leadsover the past 12 months. To get in on this trend, readthis helpful blog poston creating content for different stages of the buyer's journey.

Grow Better with Lead Generation

There you have it, folks. Now that you know more about how to generate leads for your business, we recommend you try HubSpot's free lead generation tool. Use it to add simple conversion assets to your site (or scrape your existing forms) to help you learn more about your site visitors and what content prompts them to convert.

The basics we've gone over in this blog post are just the beginning. Keep creating great offers, CTAs, landing pages, and forms — and promote them in multi-channel environments. Be in close touch with your sales team to make sure you're handing off high-quality leads on a regular basis. Last but not least, never stop testing. The more you tweak and test every step of your inbound lead generation process, the more you'll improve lead quality and increase revenue.

Lead Generation: A Beginner's Guide to Generating Business Leads the Inbound Way was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

The 5 Best E-commerce Advertising Campaigns Of All Time!

E-commerce and its advertising campaigns are booming! Fuelled by the pandemic, hundreds of thousands of shoppers across the globe have turned to online shopping.

And it’s big business. In 2020, global e-commerce sales rose to $26.7 trillion with the Chinese, UK, US, Australian and Canadian markets leading the way. In fact, in less than six years the total share of global retail sales from e-commerce has nearly tripled – rising from 7.4% in 2015 to a projected 19.5% in 2021.

It’s why some of the biggest brands on the planet are levelling up their e-commerce marketing campaigns and doubling-down on online e-commerce advertising.

So what makes great e-commerce marketing and a successful campaign? What do the best examples look like? How do they capture the hearts and minds of customers before converting them into sales?

In this article we look at the current state of online e-commerce advertising, and some of the best e-commerce advertising campaigns of all time (and one of the most notorious). Plus, the essential strategies for getting more out of your e-commerce marketing campaigns. Including:

• The current state of online e-commerce advertising

1. Allbirds
2. Dollar Shave Club
3. Gymshark
4. Patagonia
5. Elko

• The most notorious e-commerce marketing campaigns
• Essential strategies for e-commerce advertising

The current state of online e-commerce advertising

More people are buying online than ever before. Since the pandemic began, 46% of UK consumers purchased a product online that they had previously only ever purchased in store – with the biggest growth coming from consumers aged 45-54.

As the popularity, accessibility and ease of e-commerce grows so do the number of ad campaigns.

Like any form of advertising, the best e-commerce marketing campaigns are relevant, engaging and put the right message in front of the right person at the right time. They combine great creative with the power of data to serve up compelling ads – like dynamic display ads.

Mobile and video are huge (and still growing) in e-commerce advertising right now. It’s predicted that by the end of 2021, 73% of e-commerce sales will be made on a mobile device. So having a mobile-friendly e-commerce advertising campaign is essential.

After a decline in 2020, video banner ads are making a resurgence which makes perfect sense given people are twice as likely to take notice and share video content than any other type of content.

Retailers have been swift to embrace digital technology in the wake of the pandemic. Indeed, thet are increasingly looking to be able to deliver a unified, omnichannel experience to their customers. With cross-channel shopping becoming increasingly popular, any ad campaign needs to work seamlessly across all channels and platforms.

Finally, we continue to see significant spikes in e-commerce sales around shopping dates like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Prime Day and Singles Day.

Let’s take a look at what we think are some of the best e-commerce campaigns of all time and see what we can learn from them:

1. Allbirds

Eco-friendly footwear and apparel brand, Allbirds, were formed from a Kickstarter campaign in 2016. And three years later were a $100 million dollar company! A combination of celebrity endorsements, a cult following, great products and extremely savvy advertising have helped make Allbirds one of the hottest brands around.

Their display and social ads blend creative copy, vibrant visuals and their core messaging in an enormously powerful way. Their ads tend to have a colour palette that mimics the shoes they are promoting. Thus they use a simple and effective CTA, and highlight one of their USPs.

Allbirds have garnered a reputation for limited releases and their ads are always aligned with these. For example, when there’s a new product launch.

Allbirds set out to disrupt a traditional industry. And they’ve done just that with their online advertising playing a crucial role in their success.

2. Dollar Shave Club

“What is DollarShaveClub.com? For a dollar a month we send high quality razors, right to your door.”

Dollar Shave Club pioneered the success of subscription based services. They did so off the back of viral video campaigns. The video above (which has been viewed 27 million times) secured 12,000 new customers in two days when it was first launched.

Their banner ads play on the same quirky, nonsense, comedic messaging. Designed with clear CTAs and combining the brand’s value proposition, their ads support and supplement their video strategy.

3. Gymshark

Gymshark’s success has been nothing short of phenomenal. From the bedroom of two students in 2012 to a $1.3 billion valuation in 2020! A large part of Gymshark’s success has been attributed to two factors. Firstly, they don’t deviate from their target market of 18-25 year olds. Everything they do is aimed at this demographic. Secondly, they were one of the first brands to leverage the power of influencer marketing.

It hasn’t all been plain sailing. In 2015 the Gymshark website crashed on Black Friday. As a result, the founder personally hand-wrote 2500 apology letters to customers giving each one of them a discount.

Gymshark have also built a reputation for mega sales which they use their display adverts to push. Again, strong visuals, great copy and simple CTAs combine to great effect.

4. Patagonia

Outdoor clothing brand, Patagonia, have always had an unorthodox approach to marketing and advertising. They famously put ‘purpose before profit’ to the extent they once ran an ad in the New York Times on Black Friday which read ‘Don’t buy this jacket.’

Their mission is to build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, and implement solutions to the environmental crisis. This mission resonates with their customer base and is echoed across all their advertising.

Their display ads also embody this ethos with messaging like ‘Buy less, demand more’ and ‘Can these shorts help prevent climate change?’

Patagonia is a brand centred around purpose. With e-commerce marketing campaigns designed to amplify this, Patagonia ensure they are always speaking in a language their customers want to hear.

5. Elko

Icelandic brand Elko is one of the leading lights when it comes to inventive display advertising. They use Rich Media and HTML 5 to produce great display advertising quickly and simply, time and again.

 

For example, they utilised the feature of a slider to help promote Samsung’s Frame TV. It was an innovative way to easily show the capabilities and placement of the TV in a real-life setting.

With all ads being created in a creative management platform (CMP), production of all the sizes of ads is fast and can be easily scaled. In fact, using the platform means Elko have been able to reduce the time it takes them to create new ads by half.

The most notorious e-commerce marketing campaigns

For every great example of e-commerce marketing campaigns, there are countless more where brands have well and truly dropped the ball.

From 2008-2015, clothing brand American Apparel regularly courted controversy. This resulted in a series of ads banned in countries across the globe for the overtly sexual nature of their content. After going into administration in 2016, American Apparel re-launched in 2018, replacing their previous male-led marketing team with an all-female team. Since then their ads have been much more tasteful.

They are far from alone. In 2017, skincare brand Nivea came under-fire for their ‘White is Purity’ campaign. The only positive attention the ad received was from the alt-right. In a similar vein, H&M came under fire in 2018 when they released an e-commerce ad featuring a child of colour wearing a hoodie with the words ‘The Coolest Monkey in the Jungle’ emblazoned across the front of it.

And finally, Sprite’s #brutallyrefreshing banner homepage takeover of the Irish website joe.ie was both crass and thoughtless. The banner ads displayed slogans such as “She’s seen more ceilings than Michelangelo” and “A 2 at 10 is a 10 at 2!”. Coca-Cola were forced to apologise for the ad after it was swiftly taken down due to complaints of misogyny and sexism.

Essential strategies for e-commerce advertising: production automation and campaign management

The common factors in all of the best campaigns we’ve seen are relevance, simple messaging and effective CTAs.

It’s the personalised ads – delivered at the right time – that generate the highest click-through rates and conversions. This is why preparation is key. With click-through rates soaring on display adverts around key events like Black Friday, it’s vital you plan your campaigns in advance and can easily execute them.

Production automation and campaign management are some of the best tools to help you plan and execute your e-commerce marketing campaigns. As we saw with the example above from Elko, solutions like a CMP make it simple and straightforward to automate and scale creative production.

The same solutions also make it easy to add interactive elements and video to your display advertising. They also give you the power to optimise, tailor and test your ads without the need for coding.

Furthermore, combining the use of product feeds, retargeting, and scheduling tools enables you to create ads that are more impactful and compelling. This form of creative automation means you stay consistent across devices and platforms, speaking directly to customers wherever they interact with you.

Conclusion

The best e-commerce advertising campaigns combine immediacy with powerful messaging and a proposition that’s too good to ignore. They perfectly combine data and creativity to drive conversions and increase ROI.

A digital advertising platform like Bannerflow can help you create advertising campaigns like this at scale and at speed. This means you’ll always reach the right people with the right message at the right time and drive sales as a result.

If you want to find out more about how Bannerflow can help power your digital advertising, then get in touch for a demo and let us open the door to a new world of possibilities.

The post The 5 Best E-commerce Advertising Campaigns Of All Time! appeared first on Bannerflow.

The 5 Best E-commerce Advertising Campaigns Of All Time! was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

Square's Co-Founder on How Innovation Stacks Helped His Then-Startup Take on Amazon

It's rare that a smaller brand can go up against a big company like Amazon and win. But that's what Square did when Amazon launched an almost identical card reader for a fraction of Square's price.

Without undercutting the price of its biggest competitor, Square still went on to completely disrupt the digital payments and finance industry and earn 4.68 billion in revenue in Q2 2021.

Why? Its co-founder, Jim McKelvey attributes Square's success to its "innovation stack."

In HubSpot's first episode of The Shake Up, Alexis Gay and Brianne Kimmel sat down with McKelvey to learn about how Square navigated its competition with Amazon and dive more into his book, The Innovation Stack: Building an Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time.

How to Beat Competition Like Square Beat Amazon

Below, you'll find just a few highlights from McKelvey as well as the podcast where you can listen to the full conversation.

 

What's an innovation stack?

[20:13] Alexis Gay: Before we dive in a little bit, can you tell us what is the innovation stack?

[20:20] McKelvey: The innovation stack is this thing that I discovered while I was trying to answer a question that was plaguing me, which is how Square survived an attack by Amazon. … The Square was attacked by Amazon when we were a startup.

At the time, every company that had been attacked by Amazon, whether they were a startup or not died. There was a 100% mortality rate or it had been absorbed into Amazon, which I would also consider. … death or worse.

… We were looking at this very dire situation and we did some kind of crazy stuff and it worked and, and then after it worked, I thought, “Why  did it?” And I couldn't answer that question.

… I'm a sort of nerdy engineer and I went on this research quest looking for other companies that had lived through similar situations. So I studied historical businesses. ... Technology was not the major force, but there was this thing that kept showing up in my research and it was a thing that I labeled an innovation stack. And it's just this very simple idea that invention is not one or two things. It's usually this messy conglomeration of 10, 20, 30, 40 things.

Amazon takes on Square

[23:02] McKelvey: [In a board meeting], Jack [Dorsey] was dressed in all black and he announced that Amazon had copied our product and was going to undercut our price, which is what they always do. And he told the board what was happening -- and we have very intelligent people on the board and we have a lot of experienced folks -- and we were stopped.

… We started iterating through the questions of, "What could we do?" One of the most basic ones was Amazon was undercutting our price. We could lower our price and match Amazon. And then here's the thing. Those are priced to be as low as it could be and still serve our customers.

… We didn't actually even do anything. That was different, which was the amazing thing. We wanted to do something because if you're being attacked, the hardest thing you can do is to not react or maybe not overreact.

[24:56] McKelvey: It was terrifying. And this made it even more interesting when we won for me to answer the question, "Why?" What the heck happened because I was so happy we won, but then I was like, "Why did we win?"

Square Beats Amazon

[27:02] Gay: So Jim, let's talk a little bit about Halloween in 2015. You got some pretty big news on that day. Can you tell us a little bit, well, first actually, let me ask you this: Were you dressing in costume?

[27:16] McKelvey: I was dressed as the Joker. My wife was dressed as Catwoman and my son was dressed as Batman. The best treat I got that night was Amazon announcing that they were going to discontinue their competitor to Square. And not only that, they were going to mail one of the little white square readers. The thing that I designed.

Why Building an Innovation Stack is Uncomfortable

[34:43] McKelvey: The big insight of the book is that the process of innovation is fundamentally different and it feels different and here's how it feels. What I tell my readers, or potential readers is, “Look, the reason you read the innovation stack is that at some point in your life, you are going to run up against the edge of human knowledge.”

… When you're in the process of building an innovation stack, it is so darn uncomfortable. So I want people to have recognition. So first of all, recognize the boundaries. That's hugely helpful. Secondly, understand when it's appropriate to copy and when you need to.

[36:28] McKelvey: If you step across that line between the known and the unknown, it's going to get unpleasant. It will not kill you. It might be really wonderful on the other side eventually, but … your focus is to figure out something that nobody else has figured out.

… How many pieces do you have to come up with before you've got an innovation stack that actually works? And by the way, there's no guarantee that you're ever going to reach that limit, but you do. And if you do. The world changes. Like it's just amazingly powerful if you build [an innovation stack].

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