PPC

What Is Organic Traffic? (+5 Ways to Drive It Fast)

Published

4 months ago

August 3, 2023

What Is Organic Traffic? (+5 Ways to Drive It Fast)

When it comes to driving traffic, leads, and revenue, online advertising gets the glory. And for good reason. Pay-per-click is still, pound-for-pound, the fastest way to drive qualified prospects to your small business. Target the right keyword, set your bidding strategy, write your ad copy, and bang: people actively searching for your product or service are going to start seeing your business at or near the top of the search results.

That’s all well and good. But what about scale? Sure, plenty of businesses scale really effectively with paid media. But it’s sort of like a faucet. You have to keep the faucet running (i.e. continue injecting capital) to keep getting results. And aside from having a solid ad strategy, you better hope you have a strong product-market fit, strong margins, and a strong CAC (customer acquisition cost), or your bottom line is going to suffer.

The remedy to this problem of scale? Organic traffic. Investing in organic traffic is like investing in a retirement account. It’s not sexy, but if you put in the work now, you set yourself up for some serious dividends down the road. And while SEO (search engine optimization) isn’t quite as simple as “set it and forget it,” it is, in my opinion, the most sustainable way to scale a small business–this year, and beyond.

In this post, I’m going to walk you through the art of driving organic traffic to your website, broken down into five basic steps. By the end, you’ll have a good understanding of the kind of investment you need to make to set yourself up for long-term organic growth.

Let’s rock and roll.

What is organic traffic?

Organic traffic is any unpaid session that occurs on your site. Typically, when we talk about organic traffic, we’re delineating between two types: organic search, and organic social. Organic social traffic comes from unpaid posting on social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, etc.), while organic search traffic comes from search engines (most notably, Google and Bing).

what makes up organic traffic - social and search traffic sources

For the purposes of this post, we’re going to be focusing on organic search traffic driven through SEO. When businesses are able to achieve high organic rankings in the search results, they set themselves up to drive high-intent clicks for the long term without continuously spending money on ads.

Benefits of organic traffic

Before we dive into some top strategies for driving organic traffic, let’s look a little closer at the importance and benefits of organic traffic and discuss why it’s such a crucial channel to invest in.

Benefit #1: Free, evergreen clicks

We’ve talked a little bit about the “free” nature of organic traffic, but what exactly does that look like?

Let’s say you’re a brand that sells crochet kits. You want to drive as much traffic as possible to your high-converting product pages, but you don’t have the budget to consistently outbid your competitors on keywords related to crochet kits.

paid ads for popular crochet kit keyword to target

In your keyword research, you notice that the keyword “best crochet kits for beginners” is a bit more informational in nature (vs. commercial), and that it has a pretty good monthly search volume.

keyword research results for best crochet kit in wordstream keyword research tool

You think it would make a good blog post. So, adhering to SEO best practices, you write a blog post targeting that keyword, making sure to link to your best-selling crochet kits throughout the post.

example of blog post to drive organic traffic

Bloggers find your “best of” list, think it’s useful, and start linking to it across the web. Soon, you see your listing climbing to the top of the search results.

example of blog post ranking in search results to drive organic traffic

This is the magic of SEO. By creating one quality piece of content that is genuinely useful to users, you now have essentially a free billboard for your product living at the top of the search results. The 480 or so people that search for that keyword on a monthly basis are going to see your brand. Many of them will click. And probably about 2-5% of them will make a purchase. All for the low, one-time cost of creating a blog post.

Benefit #2: Trust and authority

Depending on the nature of their search query, a user is often going to find both paid and organic listings in the search results. Why, you might be asking at this point, would a user click on an organic listing over a paid listing?

Trust and authority. Many people don’t know the difference between a paid and an organic listing. But many do. And those that do, know that any brand can pay to play. It’s a lot more challenging to have a listing rise to a prominent ranking based on quality and merit, and therefore, a lot more trustworthy. Especially with Google doubling down on signals around expertise, authority, and trust, and especially when people today get blitzed with multimedia advertising pretty much from the moment they wake up in the morning until they go to sleep at night.

google eeat graphic

Benefit #3: Traffic quality

We talked a little bit about intent already. When a user finds your website via a search engine, they are actively searching for keywords related to your product or service. Whether that is via an informational search (like “how to tie your shoes”) or a commercial search (like “buy shoes near me”), showing up organically for a search query means meeting your customer at a moment in which they need you.

keyword intent chart

Compare that to display advertising or social media advertising, and it’s easy to see the difference. Marketing via those channels means using audience targeting to try to find users that most closely resemble your ideal customers. But even if you find them, there’s no guarantee they’re in the mood to consume the thing you’re promoting. Often, they’re just passively browsing, and your ad is more an interruption than an asset.

With organic traffic, there’s no danger of that. And that’s why traffic quality, which you can measure via metrics like average time on site or engagement rate, is consistently stronger from organic search than it is from most other channels.

5 ways to drive organic traffic to your website

Okay. Now that we’ve defined organic traffic and discussed why it’s important, let’s walk through five time-honored strategies you can use to drive organic traffic to your website.

1. Update and optimize local listings

If you’re a local business, local listings are, for my money, the most efficient way to generate immediate results organically. There are a number of online directories that local customers can use to find and evaluate your business–Google Business Profile, Apple Maps, Bing, Yelp–but Google Business Profile is the most visible and crucial.

Having (and optimizing) a Google Business Profile ensures that when a potential customer for your plumbing business searches for a “plumber near me,” your business shows up.

drive organic traffic - listings results in google for plumber near me

64% of consumers have used Google Business Profiles to find contact details for a local business. So, taking steps to set up and optimize your listing, using the following strategies, can make a real difference:

Fill out all the required fields in your profile, including your business name, address, phone number, website URL, business category, hours of operation, etc.
Make sure your business description is concise, engaging, and highlights your unique selling points.
Using a keyword tool, make sure to identify and incorporate relevant keywords. This is a huge component of making sure you show up for high-intent searches.
Upload high-quality, compelling photos.
Collect and respond to as many reviews as possible. Solicit reviews from happy customers whenever possible, and respond to bad reviews when they inevitably occur.

2. Create quality, keyword-targeted content

There are a ton of factors Google takes into account when ranking content in the index. But the most important thing you can do, time and time again, to make sure your website outranks the competition, is create quality content.

If you’re writing a blog post, make sure it is as long or longer than other blog posts in the search results (and more helpful and useful for searchers!).

report in ahrefs that shows thin content--may need to be longer for an effective blog post

You can check for content with a low word count you may need to beef up in a tool like Ahrefs.

Make sure you use plenty of compelling visuals. If you outsource to another author, make sure they have definitive expertise in their field. And above all, make sure you are definitively targeting a high-volume keyword, and that that keyword makes an appearance throughout your post or web page.

3. Follow on-page SEO best practices

On-page SEO concerns the factors that you, as the website owner or business owner, can directly influence when optimizing for search engines. You can’t always control whether or not other websites link to you, which is the crux of off-page SEO. But if you create quality content, and you follow on-page SEO best practices, you will be giving yourself a big leg up.

Here are some key on-page SEO best practices:

Keyword optimization. As mentioned above, identifying a keyword is only half the battle. You need to make sure your keyword appears throughout your page: in your title tag, meta description, H1, H2s, and throughout the body content.

different heading tags for seo with a tip for how to use it to drive organic traffic

Including keywords throughout these different page elements tells Google that your page is relevant for a given search query.

Optimize meta tags. Your meta title should be under 60 characters to ensure it displays fully in the search engine. Your meta descriptions should be around 150-160 characters, and include an enticing call-to-action. Both should contain your target keyword, and should be relevant and compelling.

Optimize URL structure. Create clean and descriptive URLs that provide a clear indication of the page’s content. Avoid using long and complex URLs with unnecessary characters or numbers. Instead, use hyphens to separate words and keep the URL concise.

We also put together a full on-page SEO checklist you can use here:

on-page SEO checklist from wordstream to drive organic traffic

4. Optimize page speed

Google made page speed a ranking factor in 2020 when it released its Core Web Vitals. If your website has a slow load time, not only will users hold it against you by leaving at a higher rate, Google will actually rank your site lower than your competitors’ sites.

The first step in optimizing site speed is understanding whether or not you have a speed problem. Sadly, the majority of websites do. You can use tools like GT Metrix and PageSpeed Insights to quickly diagnose how effectively your site is loading.

google pagespeeds insight tool to help drive organic traffic

Overwhelmingly, the most common area of improvement you’re going to see on these reports concerns images. Uncompressed images, or images with old formats (JPG, PNG, etc.), will really slow down your site speed.

Many CMS platforms have bulk compression tools that you can use to compress images across your site. If they don’t, you can use a tool like tinypng.com to do the job. But the gold standard in today’s SEO world is WebP.

When you convert and re-upload your images as WebP, you are ensuring they are at the smallest possible file size. Making this change across your site can give you a massive lift–taking speed scores from mediocre to solid, and enhancing organic traffic along the way.

5. Guest posting

We’ve talked a bit about the importance of off-page SEO, and how, when it comes to generating backlinks, it’s not always in your control. The problem is that, in order to get a link, you typically need to give the other website something significant. If your content is good enough, businesses will link to it naturally. But it’s not always the easiest thing to do.

Guest posting is a natural solution here.

guest posting example to drive organic traffic

When you write a guest post for another brand, especially one that has good authority in a given space, you not only give your brand exposure with a new audience, you (typically) will be able to link back to your website multiple times. And because the brand you’re working with receives the benefit of a quality piece of content, they’ll be happy to share the wealth.

An investment in organic traffic is an investment in scale

Everyone wants that one hands-off investment that pays off in perpetuity. In marketing, as in business, it doesn’t exist. SEO is no different. In order to see results, you need to constantly create fresh, quality content, update content, and make sure your site is clear of technical inefficiencies.

But, when done correctly, no other channel offers the ability to produce evergreen output with relatively small upfront input. And that’s what makes organic traffic so valuable.

Here are the five best ways to drive organic traffic to your website:

Update and optimize local listings
Create quality, keyword-targeted content
Follow on-page SEO best practices
Optimize page speed
Guest posting

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Related Topics:Drive fast Organic seo Traffic Ways

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The Easy Guide to Facebook Video Ads for Any Business

Published

2 days ago

December 8, 2023

Max

The Easy Guide to Facebook Video Ads for Any Business

Social media platforms are focusing more and more on video content. Facebook used to be a place for folks to upload their photos into albums to keep them organized and share what they’d been up to, but with the increase in popularity of TikTok and Instagram Reels, users are now so much more accustomed to scrolling through endless videos designed to make them laugh, cry, or stay informed. With this change in user behavior, it’s now more important than ever to be sure you’re creating engaging content that cuts through the noise and stands out.

An example of a Facebook video ad.

Video ads on the Meta Business platform (which reaches Facebook and Instagram) is a great way to do this. Although the ability to churn out video ads regularly was reserved for brands with big budgets in years past, new tools and AI have helped democratize this and now any brand can advertise using high-quality videos without spending much at all.

In this post, I want to talk through some best practices for Facebook video ads and show you some tools you can use to execute those strategies.

Facebook video ads best practices

Follow these Facebook video ad tips to squeeze the most out of your Facebook ad costs.

1. Create videos in all aspect ratios

If you’ve used Meta Ads recently, you probably know there are tons of different placements your ads can show up on the network. The good news is that to cover this vast list of placements, you only need to come up with three distinct aspect ratios for your video ads:

Having videos in each of these aspect ratios ensures you’re eligible to show in all the placements you’d like to.

We’ll talk later about how you can make these aspect ratios if you don’t have a dedicated creative team, but in the ad creation process, you’re able to select different video files to fit into each aspect ratio. Facebook will then automatically serve the creative with the right sizing for each spot to ensure you have the best-looking ads.

Now, while it might not seem like a huge deal to have all three ratios, I think it’s actually one of the easiest things you can do to help make sure your ads look good and stand out. In the image above, you can easily see how different an ad will look in the vertical and horizontal placements if you only have a square image. They’re not bad, necessarily, but they certainly don’t have the high-quality, professional look that most users have become accustomed to in recent years.

🛑 Want to know how your Facebook ads are really performing? Find out with our free Facebook Ads Performance Grader!

2. Be prepared for all sound options

If you’re a Facebook or Instagram user, you’ve likely visited the platforms in all sorts of scenarios. With full sound while sitting on your couch or in your bed. Maybe you have your headphones in while out in public, or maybe you’re even one of those crazy people with their sound up on the subway. But odds are, there have been at least a few instances where you were on those platforms and didn’t have the sound on at all.

For each of these instances, you were bound to see ads and the level of volume you were using likely had an impact on how sticky those ads were for you. Designing your ads to be digestible regardless of a user’s sound level is highly important.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself while crafting Facebook video ads sounds:

Do you have an engaging/entertaining voiceover?
Is there music you can choose to fit the mood of the ad?
Do you have subtitles for the voiceover in case someone’s sound is off?
Is the voiceover clear and easily understandable even in a loud environment?

3. Get your main message across in the first 3 seconds

No matter what the original purpose was for someone to visit social media, the main point is that they’re not there to view your ads. I feel very confident in saying that for the majority of people visiting Facebook or Instagram, they’re not there to see what product or service you’re selling.

Similar to ads on YouTube, users are pretty easily able to skip and scroll past the ads on Facebook and Instagram. That is, unless you run non-skippable ads, but those are pretty rare. So, you need to make sure you’re making a big impact in the first few seconds of your ads…before the remainder of it is skipped. If you do a good job of creating a compelling hook in that short time, you can certainly draw their attention for longer, maybe up to 15-30 seconds, some even longer. But odds are, your views will be short so you need to be front-heavy.

In this time, it’s important to get your business name and core brand messaging across so that even if a user does scroll past you, you’ve at least made that much of an impact. They’ll have a higher chance at brand recall later if they’ve heard your name in that brief intro. This can include text, voiceover, business logos, and more, so be creative, engaging, and entertaining.

4. Blend into the platform aesthetic

In my experience, the best ads on Facebook or Instagram (I’m typically an Instagram user) are ones that blend into the platform aesthetic. The ads that typically entice me the most are the ones I don’t really know are ads until I look down to see the Sponsored messaging down at the bottom.

The best way to discover this is to become a user of the platform itself. For Instagram, go to the Explore tab and type in some of your key terms, maybe the same ones you use for search or maybe some terms that mirror the interest or behavior targeting you’re using for your campaigns.

See what the grid looks like. What shows up? What brands are there? How are they marketing to people? While you may not want to become just part of the noise, blending in allows you to make a greater impact and feel more natural to the audience.

For example, I have a renewed interest in landscape photography and am in the market for a new camera. If I were a camera brand (or someone selling camera-adjacent things), either of the two grids above could help give an idea of what my ads can/should look like to blend into the platform. Then, make sure you follow the other best practices above to get your message across.

💡 Ready to improve your Facebook ads? Get 16 effective strategies for Facebook ads to try now!

5. Retarget users who engage with your videos

I might be biased, but one of the biggest mistakes I think advertisers make is not retargeting people who watch their Facebook videos. Sure, they might find their way to seeing you again through prospecting or they may remember you enough to come back to your site, but why would you target people (who you seemingly thought were valuable) once, then not work to target them again? Especially after they are already aware of you?

On the Facebook ads platform, you can make audiences of users who have engaged with your videos in many different ways. Just head to the Facebook ads audience manager and choose Video as your source for an audience.

From there, you can choose how they have interacted with those videos. Did they watch the whole thing? A certain percentage of it? Think about where your value propositions and messaging hits in those videos and be sure to include that in your audience filters.

Next, you can choose the videos you want to retarget people from. Yes, you can select only certain videos if you think they’re more impactful, part of a separate campaign, etc.

Lastly, you can choose how long you want to reengage with someone who watched those videos for that amount of time. One error I see is always setting the time frame to the longest possible setting. Now be honest…if you saw a video ad once 180 days ago, do you think you’re still a hot prospect for that brand? Probably not. Make sure you keep that in mind when making these audiences. Higher engagers can likely stick around longer, but lower engagers probably should be let free from your retargeting grasp a bit sooner.

Helpful Facebook video ad tools

Now that we have some best practices out of the way, I want to talk about how to make the Facebook video ad creatives. Not every Facebook video ad has to be done by a hugely expensive creative shop. Some can be done just as well with your own means, and sometimes for free! Here are some of the top Facebook video ad creative resources your business can take advantage of:

Yes, phone cameras are acceptable

A big expensive camera only makes world-changing videos when there’s an amazing photographer or videographer behind the lens. For most people, a camera phone will do just fine. In many cases, they’ll do better than if you tried to use an expensive camera due to all the ways the tech companies are making them easier to use.

Next time you need to put together a video, take a shot with your phone first. Many times, those videos will turn out great, and will help fit you into the platform aesthetic naturally as much of the content on Facebook and Instagram is also shot on a phone.

Facebook’s cropping tool

Once you have a video, there are options in Facebook ads to adjust your creatives for different sizes.

In the image above, you can see we have a square video that needs cropped to vertical. Granted, this would be a terrible user experience, but if your video does lend itself to this easy cropping, there is an option directly within Facebook to do that for you.

Facebook video builder

If you don’t already have any creatives and you need to build something almost from scratch, Facebook also has a video creation tool you can use to put together videos.

You can use existing images combined with Facebook’s video ad templates to make a video for your account. There are tons of templates that allow you to control for colors, text, timing, and more. Just lead on the user-friendly builder and you’ll end up with a platform-ready Facebook video ad in no time!

Canva

While there are some paid in-platform upgrades, Canva is a great tool to get just about any type of creative made (video or otherwise).

There are countless free templates you can customize to help promote your brand. Canva also includes easy options to convert one theme into a new aspect ratio, helping you to cover all the video sizes as I mentioned above. In short, if you’re a novice to video marketing but need to get something done, you should check Canva out.

Create great Facebook video ads today

Facebook and Instagram video ads are a great way to interact with your customer base and are only getting more necessary as other platforms lean into video. It doesn’t take any particular expertise or deep pockets to get your Facebook video ads up and running. Just a bit of patience and some guidelines and you’re on your way!

When you want to improve your results, follow these Facebook video ad best practices:

Create videos in all aspect ratios
Be prepared for all sound options
Get your main message across in the first 3 seconds
Blend into the platform aesthetic
Retarget users who engage with your videos

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PPC

How to Make a Click-Worthy YouTube Thumbnail (+Free Tools!)

Published

3 days ago

December 7, 2023

Max

How to Make a Click-Worthy YouTube Thumbnail (+Free Tools!)

With millions of videos vying for attention, your YouTube thumbnails serve as the first point of engagement for potential viewers. These seemingly small images carry significant weight in attracting clicks and views.

YouTube thumbnails provide a snapshot of your video content, setting expectations for what viewers can expect. A well-crafted thumbnail not only piques interest but also conveys the essence of the video.

In this article, I’ll share everything you need to know about YouTube thumbnails, including tools to create them, tips to keep in mind, and other lessons I’ve learned from running my own YouTube channel.

What is a YouTube thumbnail?

A YouTube thumbnail serves as a visual snapshot of what a video contains. It appears as a small image next to the title of the video on YouTube’s search results page, related videos section, or the recommended videos section.

This image plays a crucial role in attracting potential viewers and encouraging them to click on the video. The design and content of this thumbnail often influence the decision of a viewer to watch the video or not. Therefore, it holds significant importance in the world of YouTube content creation.

YouTube thumbnail size

The best YouTube thumbnail size is 1280×720 pixels. This is an aspect ratio of 16:9. The minimum width you should shoot for is 640 pixels.

You should also shoot for a relatively small file size—under 2MB. YouTube thumbnails can be saved as JPGs, GIFs, or PNGs.

YouTube thumbnail tips

Your YouTube journey begins with a single image—the thumbnail. This seemingly small, but critically important element is the initial gateway for your viewers.

“If people don’t click, they don’t watch. So, you want to give them something to click,” said YouTube star MrBeast.

Here are some tips to create effective YouTube thumbnails.

Make them engaging

Think of your thumbnails as digital hooks to capture your audience’s attention. Make them visually striking, vibrant, and engaging.

💕 Want more tips and ideas? We’ve got 130+ for you! Get the guide >> 130+ of the Best Online Marketing Tips for Generating More Traffic, Leads, & Sales

Be consistent

Building a recognizable brand on YouTube starts with consistency in your thumbnail design. A uniform style helps viewers easily identify your content. In addition to consistency in your thumbnail design, keeping a close eye on others in your field who share your audience is a smart strategy.

Checking out what your competitors are up to can give you helpful clues about how many people click on their stuff. This helps you see how your channel’s look, content, titles, and colors stack up, so you can ensure you’re putting your best foot forward.

As you can see below, MrBeast’s thumbnails are visually striking and attention-grabbing, featuring bold colors, expressive facial expressions, and compelling imagery. He maintains a consistent style in his thumbnails, making them instantly recognizable to his viewers and helping build a strong brand presence on YouTube.

Represent your video accurately

Your thumbnail should provide an honest representation of your video. Misleading thumbnails can lead to viewer frustration and backlash.

Create an emotional impact

It’s well known that emotions are contagious. This means that watching someone else have an emotional reaction to something can cause you to have the same reaction.

Humans react to other human faces, and it’s an easy trick to get more people to click on your YouTube videos. Humans will naturally assess the emotional state of the face. When their mouth is open, it’s usually to show that they are surprised. When someone sees this surprised reaction, they are enticed to see what is so surprising.

🚨 Speaking of emotion…get our free guide >> 135 of the Best Words & Phrases for Marketing with Emotion

Learn and adapt

Continuously analyze your analytics to adapt your content and strategy based on audience feedback and changing trends.

The thumbnail below was my first to go well (in relation to my other videos). The simple title in the thumbnail, the upward arrow, society’s current fascination with ChatGPT, the length of the video, me in it—smiling and wearing something that matched the color scheme of the thumbnail. These are things I took note of as potential drivers of success for future videos and thumbnails.

Source

Free YouTube thumbnail makers

Here are a few YouTube thumbnail creation tools to try, including the one I use for all my thumbnails.

1. Fotor

I use an app called Fotor to create my thumbnails. Fotor is a fantastic all-in-one platform that makes thumbnail creation a breeze. It’s an easy-to-use photo editing and graphic design tool, available in web, desktop, and mobile versions. It provides a full suite of tools that cover most image editing needs, including face retouching and image-generative AI.

Fotor also includes advanced AI-powered tools such as background remover, image enlarger, and object remover, which make complex edits simple.

I created a super simple video walkthrough where I use it to create a YouTube thumbnail. Check it out here.

2. Canva

Canva is a design tool (with a free option) that can help you create impactful YouTube thumbnails. Simply navigate to the site, choose YouTube thumbnail as your design option, and find an already-created template to customize or create your own design.

Within Canva, you can adjust colors, add your own images, and brand your YouTube thumbnail with your business logo.

3. Visme

Visme is another online design tool that makes it easy to create YouTube thumbnails. Like Canva, Visme has already created templates that you can choose and customize according to your branding.

Simply choose your template, customize it, download it, and you’re all set!

Start making effective YouTube thumbnails with ease

Creating a great YouTube thumbnail is only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to effective video marketing on the site. But the right YouTube thumbnail strategy can help you build consistency, attract people to click on your videos, and increase engagement with your content.

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PPC

12 Holiday Emails for Customers (Templates & Examples!)

Published

5 days ago

December 5, 2023

Max

12 Holiday Emails for Customers (Templates & Examples!)

How to put your customers into a holiday slumber 😴 :

To our valued customers,

As the end of the year draws near, we’d like to take this opportunity to extend a heartfelt thank you to all of you for your support. Thank you for choosing us and we wish you a wonderful holiday season and happy new year!

sleepy bored face

Want to send an authentic holiday email this year that your customers will actually want to read? This is your cheat sheet!

How to use these holiday email templates

This post contains both the copy and creative you can use for your holiday customer appreciation emails. These emails are longer and more personalized—great for your most loyal customers or for businesses with a small client base. If you want shorter, more general copy, head on over to my holiday greetings and messages.

The copy is also pasted into some templates I made in Canva, which you can access with a free Canva account!

Here’s the link to the templates in Canva.

free holiday email templates in canva

Holiday customer email tips

In such a short piece of content as this, small details have big effects. Here’s how to get it right.

Express gratitude! Customer appreciation is the goal here.

Keep it short and use a conversational tone. This is an e-toast, not a live journal.
Be inclusive of all holidays, and be warm and positive, but not overly hyped—the holidays can be difficult for many people.
Make it visual with creative graphics or a team photo.
Share your growth and achievements to give customers a reason to stay confident in your business. BUT make it about them—the growth you achieved with their support. What you achieved together.
Connect it back to your mission (NOT your value prop).
Focus on the future. Speak to an ongoing relationship, but not through a CTA or sales promotion. Save that for your year-in-review email.

Words & phrases to make your holiday email message authentic

Take a gander through these words and phrases you can use that the other gajillion businesses out there aren’t using:

Instead of ‘valued customer’

Don’t call them valued, make them FEEL valued through your messaging.

Dear customers
To our awesome customers
To our customers near and far, old and new
To all of you
To each and every one of you
To the Baker & Co. family
To the SparkLife community
To you and your families
Dear customers, partners, and your families
Friends
First name (if you have a small list and can MANUALLY do it).

Instead of ‘exciting year’

It’s been a…

Lively
Rewarding
Exhilarating
Electrifying
Wild
Awesome
Zestful
Refreshing
Bustling
Bright
Spirited
Rousing
Rigorous

….year!

Instead of ‘as we approach’

Any “as we.” As we approach, enter, wind down, you know them all. How about:

Every year, I/we
If you’re like us, you are…
As the saying goes…
One of my favorite quotes is
Ask a question
Whether this email finds you ___ing, ____ing, or ___ing, we hope it finds you well!
As I sit here listening to [unique/meaningful/inclusive song name]
Exactly 11 months ago, we were…..
When we started out this year we _____. Little did we know…
Here at ___ we believe in ____, so…
One of our core values here at ____ is ____.
As I write this email, I’m watching the snow falling outside my window for the first time this year.
As it turns out…

Instead of ‘take this opportunity to’

Take THIS opportunity to remove yourselves from the mileu by using phrases like:

Words can’t describe our…
We’re reaching out to say…
We want you to know that…
We extend our deepest…
It is with pride and joy that we…

Instead of ‘thank you for your support’

Nothing wrong with this statement, but make it better with specifics.

Thank you for…

Trusting us with your ____
Using ____ for your ____ needs.
Confidence and loyalty to _____
How much you’ve [taught us, inspired us, encouraged us, etc..]
Choosing us as your ____ provider
Giving us a reason to come into work each day
Showing up to our events
Your reviews, social shares, votes
Positive vibes, enthusiasm

5 holiday email templates any business can use

To make your life easier, I’ve compiled some templates that incorporate the tips and words and phrases above. Check’em out.

If you want to You can also customize them in Canva