Work smarter not harder. Let Mailchimp do the work for you with automations. Automations (and journeys) can look very different based on your needs, but, simply put, they help streamline communication with your audience in the background automatically. It’s like magic. An automation can be a single email or a series of emails that send based on triggers that you first have to set up. What’s a trigger? We’ve rounded up a glossary of terms, including the difference between a classic automation and a customer journey. Classic automation: automated emails that are targeted to send when a specific action is…

Let’s review: You know your audience. You’ve organized them. You’ve learned how to craft a personalized message. And you know all of this works together to send targeted campaigns.  What’s next? You’re ready to craft the perfect email! Let’s start with the perfect blueprint.  Begin with your marketing objective–the WHY? What are you trying to accomplish? What message do you want to say? Jot down a bulleted list of goals, or one to two sentence statements that remind you of the purpose of your campaign. After you have your goals figured out, you’re ready to build your campaign.  Mailchimp’s 5…

Put yourself in your audience’s shoes. If you wouldn’t want to read it, why send it? We have all been victim to generic, uniform emails that have nothing to do with our interests. After one too many of those, who even bothers opening them anymore? They go straight to the trash or are simply ignored.  Personalization is integral to engagement and preventing message fatigue. If you have done your homework from the earlier Mailchimp blogs, then you have taken the time to get to know your audience and organized them appropriately.   What’s next? Give your audience the content they want…

Piggybacking on our last blog let’s talk about organizing your audience. Tags, groups and segments are the best way to do that.  Tags: what are they? Tags are simply labels that can be applied to your contacts, and they are one of the best ways to organize your audience. These are custom and can be whatever you want them to be. Tagging helps you note personal preferences or data that you have learned.  Let’s run that down. For example, if you run an e-commerce clothing store and a customer, Kristin, buys multiple sweaters, tag Kristin as ‘sweater lover’. The next…

Building relationship with customers is a long game. One big lesson from 2020 is the importance of connecting with audiences online. But, social reach is controlled by the mysterious algorithm and search-engine ranking is competitive. Do not squander the holy grail of connection that is the inbox.The inbox is a guaranteed place that you connect with your audience with consistency. You just need to make sure your are following best practices. Let’s start here.   More than an email marketing platform, a full CRM.  A lot of people know that Mailchimp is an email marketing system, but oh it’s so much…

The (Not So) Magical Secret to Nonprofit Website SEO Most people think there is some sort of magic involved in having a nonprofit website with good SEO (Search Engine Optimization – aka making your site show up on Google). I’d love to say that P&P possesses a collection of secret tricks that will guarantee to get your website to the top of the Google search results. Unfortunately, the reality is much less exciting. The key to getting your organization’s website to show up in search results really comes down to focusing on three simple things: audience, accessibility, and analytics. Audience…

Podcast Fanatic to Podcast Host P&P is launching a new podcast For over a decade, I’ve been a podcast fanatic. I have learned business and life lessons. I’ve found community. I’ve been entertained and intrigued.  In fact, one of my very first blog posts was about my favorite podcasts…I really need to update that post.  Back in 2006, I was tuning in to Debbie Millman’s “Design Matters”. This was before the mainstream podcast popularity brought on by iPhones. Back then, I was daydreaming of a design career in NYC while working my day job in Eastern Kentucky.  At that day…

TikTok Made Me Rethink Social Media Strategy It’s March 16th, 2020. The office shut down, and P&P weathered the first wave of panicked uncertainty brought on by COVID-19, not knowing we were in for the long haul. My semi-social city existence went on hiatus. I moved into my childhood home so I’d remember other people exist. All of a sudden, my parent’s kitchen table was my work desk and time was meaningless. After client work, zoom meetings and bourbon with Beshear, I’d settle in for a night of scrolling. Yes. Like many fellow millennials, my quarantine escapism was diving headfirst…

Vital Steps You Don’t Want to Miss When Rolling Out Your Rebrand Congratulations! You have a shiny new logo, brand message and a bunch of collateral material to match.  You’ve had the a-ha moments – YES. This is who we are!  and Wow, I didn’t know we could look this good!  You’ve navigated the approvals – slight color change here, formatting change there.  It’s time to put all those pieces into action. We know it’s tempting to change your profile photo the second you receive your logo package. But you’re missing an important opportunity to nurture your brand in its…

Facing Fear and Setting Intentions with my 2021 Word of the Year How does one go about setting an intention for a year that follows 2020? This question kept me frozen, looking for inspiration for weeks. I mean what’s the point, right? 2020 proved that life can take our intentions and toss them out the window.  I have been in business since 2013, and was side-hustling hard for several years before that. To say I have been on a decade-long sprint is an understatement. So, at the end of December 2019, I declared FLOW as my focus for 2020. I…