We’ve reviewed the top 10 membership website platforms to help you find the perfect fit based on your goals, whether you’re a coach, content creator, or business owner.

1. Squarespace – Best for Beautiful Designs

If you want a stunning, professional-looking membership site without hiring a designer, Squarespace is the way to go. Known for its gorgeous templates, this platform makes it easy to create a polished, mobile-responsive website with member-only content.

Key Features:

140+ modern templates – Beautiful, mobile-friendly, and optimized for conversions.
Built-in membership areas – Create exclusive content for paid members.
E-commerce and marketing tools – Sell digital products, subscriptions, and manage email campaigns.

Best for: Bloggers, artists, online entrepreneurs, and creatives who prioritize design.

Why Choose It? If you want an all-in-one solution that looks professional right out of the box, Squarespace is a great choice.

2. Wix – Best for Customization & Ease of Use

Want full creative control? Wix offers an easy drag-and-drop editor with 800+ customizable templates, so you can build a membership site your way—no coding required!

Key Features:

Flexible design options – Drag-and-drop functionality with total customization.
Gated content & subscriptions – Restrict access to exclusive pages for members.
Integrations with booking & payment tools – Monetize your site with ease.

Best for: Small businesses, personal brands, and service providers who want custom design flexibility.

Why Choose It? If you love creative freedom and want a site that reflects your brand perfectly, Wix is ideal.

3. ProfilePress – Powerful & Flexible

ProfilePress is a WordPress plugin designed to simplify creating and managing membership sites, e-commerce stores, and online communities. It is known for its powerful features, flexibility, and user-friendly interface, which help users monetize their content and manage memberships effectively.

Key Features:

Flexible Content Restriction: Fine-grained control over access to pages, posts, custom post types, categories, and more.
Seamless Payment Integration: Supports popular gateways like Stripe, PayPal, Razorpay, Paystack, and Mollie for smooth transactions.
Customizable Forms: Drag-and-drop form builder for creating registration, login, and password reset forms without coding.
LMS Integration: Works with learning platforms like LearnDash, Tutor LMS, LifterLMS, and Sensei LMS, making it easy to create and sell courses.

Add-On Dependency: Some functionalities may require purchasing premium extensions.

4. MemberPress – Best for WordPress Users

Already using WordPress? MemberPress is the gold standard for turning your existing WordPress site into a powerful membership platform.

Key Features:

Full WordPress integration – Works seamlessly with existing WP sites.
Subscription management – Control access to content based on membership levels.
Drip content – Schedule when members receive content.

Best for: Bloggers, educators, and online course creators using WordPress.

Why Choose It? If you love WordPress and want a powerful, feature-rich membership plugin, MemberPress is unbeatable.

5. SureMembers – Best for Security & Content Protection

If security is a top concern, SureMembers has strong content protection features that prevent unauthorized access while offering seamless membership management.

Key Features:

Restrict content easily – Protect pages, posts, and files for members only.
Seamless integration – Works with SureCart & major WordPress plugins.
User-friendly dashboard – Simple, intuitive setup.

Best for: Businesses and creators who want strong content protection and security.

Why Choose It? If you need a secure and easy membership plugin, SureMembers is a smart pick.

6. MemberSpace – Best for Platform Flexibility

Unlike other builders, MemberSpace works with almost any website platform (Squarespace, Webflow, WordPress, etc.), making it super flexible.

Key Features:

Multi-platform support – Add memberships to any site.
Customizable member areas – Control access and branding.
No coding required – Simple and intuitive to use.

Best for: Freelancers, agencies, and businesses that want membership flexibility.

Why Choose It? If you don’t want to be tied to one platform, MemberSpace gives you freedom.

7. YourMembership – Best for Large Organizations

Managing a large-scale membership organization? YourMembership provides enterprise-level tools for associations, nonprofits, and big communities.

Key Features:

Advanced member management – Handle thousands of members efficiently.
Event registration & networking – Great for conferences & professional groups.
Built-in payment processing – Automate membership fees.

Best for: Associations, nonprofits, and large-scale organizations.

Why Choose It? If you run a large membership base, YourMembership makes admin tasks easy.

8. MembershipWorks – Best for Event Management

Need to sell event tickets, manage networking groups, or coordinate member registrations? MembershipWorks is built for event-heavy membership models.

Key Features:

Event & member directory tools – Perfect for communities & business groups.
E-commerce support – Sell tickets, subscriptions, and digital goods.
CRM & invoicing included – Manage member finances.

Best for: Clubs, networking groups, and businesses that host events & conferences.

Why Choose It? If your membership involves events, this is a great pick.

9. WishList Member – Best for Content Dripping & Online Courses

WishList Member is a powerful WordPress plugin that lets you release content over time, keeping members engaged.

Key Features:

Content dripping & scheduling – Release lessons or materials gradually.
Works with major payment gateways – Accept PayPal, Stripe, etc.
Member management & tracking – Keep track of subscribers.

Best for: Course creators, online educators, and content marketers.

Why Choose It? If you need a structured content release system, WishList Member is ideal.

10. Memberful – Best for Simplicity & Monetization

Looking for a quick, hassle-free way to sell memberships? Memberful integrates with your existing website and offers a streamlined setup.

Key Features:

Sell memberships with ease – Great for creators, writers, and podcasters.
Works with Stripe, Discord, and WordPress – No complicated setup.
Member dashboard & analytics – Track sales & retention.

Best for: Bloggers, podcasters, and content creators who want to sell memberships easily.

Why Choose It? If you want simple, no-fuss membership selling, Memberful is a great choice.

Final Thoughts – Which Membership Builder is Right for You?

• Best for creatives & stunning design: Squarespace
• Best for full customization: Wix
• Best for selling memberships with sales funnels: Simvoly
• Best for WordPress users: MemberPress
• Best for security & content protection: SureMembers
• Best for large organizations: YourMembership
• Best for event-driven memberships: MembershipWorks

No matter your goals, choosing the right membership builder can help you scale your online business and grow your community. Ready to build your membership site? Pick your favorite and start today!

Being a digital nomad, traveling the world, and working from anywhere can be great. And I use a few essential tools to make my online life even easier.

In this post, I’m going to share with you seven digital tools to make combining travel and work even simpler.

1. VPN

A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is your shield in against the bad guys online. If you have never used one here is how it works.

It helps protect your online privacy via a secures internet connection. So, if you are working in a cafe or hotel, it ensures you have a safe connection so no one can “sniff” your data and steal your passwords or bank details, for example.

On top of that, it can also give you access to geo-blocked content like certain TV channels or videos online. Or, it can help you pretend to be somewhere else when you are buying from certain stores that always seem to redirect you to your location web store.

Options include

• ExpressVPN
• NordVPN,
• CyberGhost

1. E-SIMs

Another one you might not be aware of is the good old eSIM. eSIM stands “Embedded Subscriber Identity Module” or embedded SIM card, might make more sense to you.

It’s a modern, digital approach to traditional SIM cards. And the likes of Apple and other big players have been allowing them on their phones for years (since the iPhone X).

Rather than swapping out physical cards every time you enter a new country, you can simply connect to a local network via an e-SIM.

The benefits are many:

• Ease of Use: With an e-SIM, switching between different network providers becomes a breeze, offering you greater flexibility.
• Space-Saving: As e-SIMs are embedded in your device, they save space and reduce the chance of losing or damaging physical SIM cards.
• Wider Coverage: E-SIMs offer wider global coverage, enabling you to access the internet in almost any part of the world.

I use a variety of Europe eSims when I am moving around the continent. Living in Switzerland means you don’t automatically get data roaming so eSims save me a load of money.

3. Portable Battery Packs

Ever headed out for the day and forgot to charge your phone or laptop?

Power is essential these days. And sometimes you just can’t get to an outlet. But, with a reliable portable battery pack, you will never be out of juice for your laptop, smartphone, or tablet again (and have to bed the barista for a plug!).

Brands like Anker and RAVPower offer high-capacity options that are compact and durable.

4. Cloud Storage

Gone are the days of carrying around a big disk to store everything that won’t fit on your computer. And likewise, running out of space on your computer does not have to be an issue anymore.

As a digital nomad, having reliable, accessible, and secure storage for your data is crucial. Cloud storage services like

• Google Drive
• Dropbox
• iCloud

allow you to store and access your files from any location, across various devices. I also use them to share things with my team and collaborate on various projects we are working on. Plus, they serve as a safety net in case of device theft or damage.

5. Travel Management Apps

If you travel as much as I do then you want to know what the best travel management apps are. Apps like TripIt can streamline your digital nomad lifestyle by

• helping with your travel itinerary
• tracking your flight status
• finding accommodation

And they have all that good stuff right in one interface ready to go on your phone.

6. Productivity Tools

Being as productive as possible is the key to a great life as a digital nomad. After all, you want to do things other than work when you are traveling the world.

So, keeping on top of your tasks is your number one goal. Productivity tools  and apps like

• Trello
• Asana
• Slack

help manage tasks and communicate effectively with your team. For personal productivity, consider tools like Evernote for note-taking, and Pomodoro timers for effective time management.

7. Digital Wallets

Last but not least, digital wallets are a game-changer for making transactions easier and safer when you are on the road. Although I am not a huge fan of it,  PayPal is great for such things. But, ideally, you will be using a built-in app like Apple Pay to pay as fast as possible and keep your credit card secure without having to carry it around all the time.

Conclusion

Being a digital nomad doesn’t mean you have to compromise on your work efficiency or personal comfort. With the right tools, including e-SIMs, you can ensure a smooth, connected, and productive lifestyle, no matter where your journey takes you. So go ahead, pack these digital tools in your backpack, and embark on your next adventure with confidence!

If you want to make some extra money or boost your earnings on your website, then signing up with an ad network is an ideal way to go.

This is on top of the other options we all know and love, like affiliate marketing, direct ads and even selling your own courses or products.

The advantage of an ad network is that they have access to a huge number of ads and suppliers and can maximize your earnings per thousand visitors, way more than, say Adsense ads can ever do.

My Experience With Ad Networks

Just to be honest, right off the bat.

I own and run a range of affiliate websites and also place ads on most of them.

I have tried and experimented with Google Adsense, Ezoic, Raptive and Mediavine. And I have earned decent money with all of them, to a point.

For me right now, it comes down to Ezoic vs Mediavine. Both are top-notch premium ad networks. And each ad management platform has its pros and cons.

And that is what I want to cover in this post.

Application Process

Mediavine and Ezoic have a minimum level they expect to see in terms of quality content and a decent website.

To get website approval, you will also need to be in good standing with Google Adsense, as Google Ads is one of the leading ads suppliers to both networks. However, it is not an issue if you have never been on Adsense before.

Mediavine typically takes a little longer than Ezoic to approve sites, around two weeks, with Ezoic being around a few days. But there is also the approval from Adsense to contend with, which sometimes slows things down. One of my more recent sites on Ezoic has taken over a week.

Minimum Traffic Requirements

When comparing Mediavine and Ezoic, these requirements are vastly different. Ezoic used to have a minimum traffic requirement, but since mid-2021, they have dropped it. So, anyone can apply to use Ezoic ads and get approval within reason of course. You can check out their FAQs here.

Mediavine requires 50,000 unique sessions, its own quality standards and a good Google Adsense standing, as I mentioned above. They will ask you for proof from Google Analytics (GA4 as of July 2023).

They also look at most of the following things to decide if you are eligible:

• Good quality long-form content
• Majority US traffic

They usually work with more quality blogs, with long-form content and excellent quality. So, even if you have 50k sessions, it is not guaranteed. They also typically look for a lot of USA-based traffic due to their ad placements, but I have not tried anything else with them – since the two sites I have with them are both big in the USA.

Winner: Ezoic is easy to get onto, especially when you have a smaller publisher

Ad Network Revenue

Many of you will wonder what you can earn from ads with Ezoic vs Mediavine. Should you wait until you get 50k sessions to get on Mediavine, or jump on Ezoic ASAP and stick with them?

It Varies For Each Website

It is pretty challenging to give exact numbers for ad revenue because each site differs vastly. Advertisers are willing to pay significant money for ads on finance sites, but less for obscure topics.

You will see the same things if you dive deep into the Google keyword tool where the bids on ads for specific keywords are. Product-related keywords tend to get a lot more money than informational keywords, as a general rule because e-commerce stores are fighting each other for traffic.

My Experience With Ad Revenue

Generally speaking, Mediavine ads seem to pay a little bit more than Ezoic. But it is not significant enough to say they are a clear winner. After all, I am comparing different websites, with vastly different topics and content.

Looking at the last few days, you can see the average I got on one website with Mediavine was around $12 for every thousand views.

In comparison, Ezoic was around $10 per thousand. So, there is not much in it when you consider that it is not an apples-to-apples comparison.

Mediavine earnings – For one site

Ezoic earnings – many sites

Lately, I have seen Mediavine earn my sites over $22 RPM, which has perhaps been a result of the recovery in the last years.

A more recent screenshot from Ezoic in 2023 is below

EZOIC RPM

Mediavine Revenue Share

One thing to keep in mind is how Mediavine calculates its revenue share. They start you out with 75% of the revenue, which is certainly fair and means you will earn well.

However, for every year you stay with them, they add another 1%. Up until 80% I believe. Or, if your site hits half a million views, it will go to 80% immediately.

Ezoic Premium Ads

In comparison to Mediavine, Ezoic takes a very different approach. They offer Premium ads to some of their customers, allowing you to earn more money per thousand impressions.

This is an invite-only program, although given my sites are not big traffic sites (15,000 visitors per month max), it is probably not hard to be invited.

Ezoic Ads promises that you will earn more, and they have various levels you can choose from. The only catch is that you have to pay a subscription per month (or year). Which they say will always be less than the extra you learn.

I used this service for a number of months but the earnings never exceeded the amount I had to pay for Ezoic Premium, So, for me it was a waste of time and annoying that you have to pay for the privilege of earning them more money!

Winner: Mediavine earns a higher RPM

Ad Placement

This is one of the key differences between Mediavine and Ezoic – ad placements.

Mediavine Ads

Mediavine ad density

The Mediavine Dashboard gives you a little control over how dense the ads are, and to tweak a few settings such as leaderboard ads, sidebar or bottom of image ads. However, they control the majority of the ad placement.

Mediavine optional ads

They do give you some alternate ad options as well, such as interstitials as well as video ads. Interstitials (ie. popups between pages) earn you big money, but they are not always common (unless you get lots of page views) and they annoy lots of people.

Mediavine opt-out

They also have charity ads, which you can turn on and use leftover ad placements that you are not currently earning on. And, they allow you to opt out of various categories if you are not ok with showing them on your site.

Ezoic Ads

Ezoic ad placeholders

Ezoic, on the other hand, is fully transparent when it comes to ad placements. They give you the exact placeholders they use and allow you to turn them off if you don’t like them.

The upside is control. The downside, like many things with this ad platform, is that it gets a little too technical for some people. I have had a lot of issues sorting out ad placements with Ezoic, and I am a programmer. So good luck to non-techy people!

Ezoic Ad blocking

The Ezoic Platform of course, also gives you control over blocking certain advertisers, categories, placements, and much more. I have not explicitly used these filters, but they are available. They also have charity ads like Mediavine.

Winner: Choose Ezoic if you want control, Mediavine if you want to relax.

Site Speed

When comparing Mediavine vs Ezoic, one of the things you will want to be aware of is how the loading of ads affects your site speed.

Ezoic Leap and Speed optimization

Ezoic Leap

The Ezoic Platform takes a different angle in that they like to help you directly with a tech-focused approach. They prefer to have your site go via their DNS, which gives them more insight into the site behavior too.

They offer a tonne of free features, including a suite of tools called Ezoic Leap. It includes site speed improvements (CSS and Javascript optimizations, minification, script preloading etc), CDN via Cloudflare, Caching, and a page dedicated to helping you improve with tips and tricks. They also have a dedicated Ezoic tool called site speed accelerator to take things to the next level, especially when passing Google Core Web Vitals. (Which I don’t think are as big a deal as some people make out)

Mediavine & Trellis

In comparison, when it comes to site speed, the Mediavine ad scripts are relatively fast right out of the box. They have optimized their script to load later and be as lean as possible. However, when optimizing your site, especially if you are having website speed issues, Mediavine does not have tools built into its platform to help.

Mediavine Trellis

Instead, they have decided to build a WordPress Theme called Trellis. They have been testing it for over a year and it is dedicated to helping bloggers and publishers to blog easily without having to worry about ad integration. Trellis is also designed to be fast, straight from the get-go.

But you have to pay for it.

Honestly, you are always going to lose speed with ads loading, so I would recommend using CloudFlare. It is something I have tested lately and it made a huge difference!

Winner: Ezoic offers more tools and options. However, Mediavine tends to be fast out of the gate.

Ezoic vs Mediavine: Who Should You Choose?

For me, it comes down to a few simple decisions.

Choose Ezoic

If you are starting out and want more control over ads and your site.

The Ezoic Platform focuses more on small publishers. Ezoic accepts websites that do not have a specific number of page views (ie. any number is ok, more or less). So, if you are starting out it is a no-brainer!

They are also great if you like to have a lot more control over how your site runs, the overall site speed, and the ad placements as well.

Choose Mediavine

If you are a more prominent publisher and want the majority of things taken care of for you.

Mediavine is for larger publishers and requires you to have a minimum of 50k sessions a month to apply. And that is also not a guarantee you will be accepted. They also look at where your traffic comes from and the quality of your content.

However, they are far more focused on the customer, probably because they have less of them to deal with. Mediavine support is top-notch, with a fast reaction time. And they take care of most of the setup process for you.

The Mediavine Dashboard is also more straightforward, easier to use and get an overview, and involves minimal tech.

They are more focused on bloggers who want all the load taken from them in terms of their website and ads and just want to get on with earning money. That is why they don’t have as many options and also have a dedicated theme to help publishers.

This means making the websites accessible to those with visual, hearing, motor, neurological, cognitive, or other disabilities. It also implies ensuring that web aspects such as navigation, design, and content are all created in such a manner as to ensure web users can navigate a website in a way easier for them. This includes having assistive technology tools on a website. If these ADA requirements are not met, you may be subjecting your business to possible legal actions, fines, and a negative reflection of your brand.

What Is ADA Website Compliance?

ADA is a federal act enacted in 1990 that forbids discrimination against persons living with disabilities. One of the aims of the Act is to ensure every person has equal rights and opportunities when accessing a website. Compliance with ADA is a requirement in public and private institutions that are open to the public.

The current accessibility standards enforced under ADA are the 2010 Standards for Accessible Design. These regulations require that electronic and information technologies, such as websites and apps, should be made accessible to people with disabilities.

Here’s A 4-Point Checklist For Web Designers

Designing an ADA-accessible website means providing an accessible online presence that accommodates all web users, including those with disabilities. This checklist discusses crucial elements that web designers need to focus on in terms of ADA website compliance.

1. Website Design And Presentation

One of the primary considerations in building an ADA-compliant website is its overall design and layout. How the pages are organized in terms of structure, content arrangement, and page balance is vital for a website’s design. The arrangement shouldn’t be busy or too complex for visitors to understand.

Web users also need to be able to adjust certain design aspects to make the content easier to process. Here are the design and presentation aspects you need to consider.

Website Structure

The web structure is a crucial element of website presentation. In structuring your web content, utilize proper markup techniques, like using the correct HTML and heading tags when creating a list, whether ordered or unordered.

Colors And Audio

Color contrast is required for the text and background at the ratio of at least 4.5:1 for standard text. The contrast ratio for large text is 3:1. However, avoid using colors to highlight errors on a page or convey information. Users who suffer from color blindness might have difficulty determining what message the color is trying to depict.

Audio, videos, and animations need to have an alternative (alt) text and should be capable of being stopped, paused, or muted. Video and audio content shouldn’t be designed to autopay. Animations and flashing content may affect users with neurological disorders, such as epilepsy, by triggering seizures.

Forms And Labels

Filling out online forms can present a challenge for web users using screen readers. Therefore, use the standard formats and make sure to have clear descriptions. Avoid form timeouts as they make it quite difficult for people with cognitive and motor disabilities to complete them. The form labels need to be programmed in a language understandable to the average user.

Parsing And Errors

The HTML code in an accessible web design should be clean and error-free. Broken links, pages, or HTML errors make it challenging for users with assistive technology tools to navigate a website. The whole goal of ADA website compliance is to create an excellent user experience for all users despite their physical or intellectual capabilities.

2. User Access, Navigation, And Control

Accessibility and navigation are essential aspects of any website, and there are features you can include to provide users with some level of control in their experience. For example, your web design should allow users to pause content that keeps on updating or refreshing. Automatic pop-ups for things like subscriptions and offers are a huge navigation hindrance and therefore should be avoided. Check out the following navigation and control elements you need to consider.

Keyboard-Only Navigation

To ensure ADA website compliance, web users need to have the ability to navigate by keyboard only. This function enables users who can’t navigate the website without a mouse to access the content. This includes the ability to navigate back to previous content.

Navigation Links And Consistency

Use a ‘skip navigation’ link that allows web users to jump right to the content and skip the page headings if they need to. Also, ensure the layout is consistent, keeping the same order of elements to make it easy for your users to understand the entire website. Inconsistency in page layouts creates confusion as a user needs to understand each page separately.

Site Maps And Search Bars

Give users enough ways to access information or pages in the website with the help of search bars, sitemaps, navigation menu, and breadcrumbs. One of the best accessibility practices is providing a sitemap at the footer of each web page.

3. Alternate Text And Descriptions

The ADA website compliance guidelines prohibit using text images as an alternative for regular texts, except in logos, infographics, or charts with labels. However, you need to provide an alternative text for infographics, charts, and images. This would allow users with visual impairments to understand the content on a page as described in the text provided. Below are the guidelines on alt text and descriptions.

Alt Text

Every image, except for those you use for decorative purposes, needs to have descriptive alt texts. You must provide alt texts in a way that conveys the true meaning of the images. Optimizing images with an alt text also helps with search engine optimization since web crawlers can’t read images but can read the alternative text provided.

Video And Audio

If a website has multimedia features such as audio or videos, there must be an equivalent text alternative for the same. This is meant to provide access to users with hearing or visual impairments. Screen readers will read to those with visual impairments, while those with hearing impartments can read the transcribed script for the audio or video.

Live And Closed Captions

Videos that contain perceptible voices or sounds need to use closed captioning, while live captioning must be placed in videos. This allows people with hearing disabilities to read along and understand the web content.

4. Language, Titles, And Text

An ADA-compliant website’s default language needs to be readily determinable by accessibility software. If there are any uncommon words or abbreviations, there should be an explanation for them. Every page should have descriptive titles and headings for the content, making it easier for your web users to know precisely where they are on a page.

Descriptive Page Titles

Having descriptive page titles on each page helps web users to understand your web content. It helps them determine if the content is likely to meet their search needs.

Sequential Content Order

You need to design the website in a way that web visitors can navigate content in sequential order. This is to avoid confusing users and help preserve content meaning. This, in turn, makes content more accessible, especially with the use of assistive technology tools. It also makes it easier for users to navigate the different web pages.

Anchor Text

Anchors texts should be descriptive, provide value, and be relevant to the content they link to. Instead of using vague anchor texts such as ‘click here,’ describe where the link leads to, such as ‘follow this link to subscribe to our newsletter.’ Users relying on accessibility software tools need to know where the links described by the anchor texts lead.

Website Language

Language is a crucial part of ADA compliance, and it covers a considerable part of your website. Ensure that the language you use in your website can easily be determined by assistive technology tools or any accessibility software. It also needs to be accessible by the majority of web users expected to use the website.

For instance, a website for a US audience should be in English, while that in Germany needs to be in the German language. This helps persons using screen readers to know the language to expect from the site. However, even though the default language needs to reflect the majority of the web users, consider providing a change of language option to make the site accessible to a larger audience.

Text Resizing

ADA website compliance also requires that the text be in different sizes and can be resized up to 200% of its original size. Moreover, the text should still be legible after resizing. This means text resizing mustn’t affect a user’s ability to interact with the content.

Final Thoughts: ADA Website Compliance

ADA website compliance requires you as a web designer to create websites that accommodate all users. The process might seem like a huge challenge, but it’s achievable and a critical issue for any business with an online presence. An accessible website allows a business to reach a wider audience and meet the needs of all web users.

Many people across the world live with disabilities that don’t allow them to access online content as other users would. As a web designer, enlisting the help of an accessibility compliance consultant in the design process can help you audit the site to ensure that it’s compliant with ADA.

In 2021, search engine rankings can make or break your business more than ever. If you rank high on search engine results pages, you’re more likely to attract more traffic to your website. And every brand knows why increasing web traffic is vital.

When more users visit your website, you have more chances of turning them into paying customers. However, if you don’t rank well on search engines, your potential target may not know you exist. Don’t just wait for them to find your business by chance. Instead, ensure you appear on their search engines by considering the following search engine optimization (SEO) tips:

1. Improve Page Speed

One factor that can affect your SEO ranking is the speed of your website. If you have a slow site, you’re increasing your bounce rate. And search engine crawlers take into account how long people stay on your website.

Having a high bounce rate means more people are exiting from your website. They don’t stay long because of many reasons, and the number one factor is how fast your site loads.

Two seconds or less is the ideal site speed that consumers expect. If it loads for more than three seconds, they’re more likely to close your site. When you lose traffic, you may decrease your potential of making sales.

Moreover, search engines consider your site speed as a ranking factor. That’s why you need to ensure that you have a speedy website.

You may want to use speed optimization plugins on your website to increase its speed. If you’re a WordPress user, there are many WordPress speed plugins you can take advantage of.

These plugins perform caching wherein it stores cached files of the user’s visited web pages. With these, your visitors can easily receive data from the cache when visiting a page as the system no longer has to load it from a server. Thus, loading speed is reduced.

And the best part about speed plugins like this is it doesn’t have to deal with unnecessary server traffic that can reduce your site’s load time. This is especially true when using a shared hosting plan, as there are more users.

2. Ensure Mobile-Friendliness

Aside from site speed, it’s also important to have a mobile-friendly website. Don’t focus solely on making your site load fast on desktops because there are more mobile users nowadays. That means that more traffic will come from mobile users.

Search engines like Google give importance to mobile indexing. That means you can rank well if your site is accessible in various screen sizes.

When people talk about mobile-friendly sites, they’re referring to sites that load fast when accessed through mobile devices. It should run smoothly whatever screen size your user has. Your site should have the following features to ensure that it’s mobile-friendly:

• Mobile Responsive: With this quality, your site will display the same information that’s available on the desktop. However, its appearance should adjust to the size of the device screen. For instance, texts should not appear too small, making users zoom in too much on their screen. Instead, the content of your site should be in ‘mobile view.’
• Button Sizes: Aside from the texts, buttons should be large enough when ‘clicked’ on mobile screens. If it’s too small, pressing the button may be difficult. Moreover, it’s recommended that you place the buttons strategically: at the opposite side of the thumb or at the bottom of the page.
• Pop-ups And Ads: While ads may appear small on desktops, these pop-ups may take up the entire mobile screen. Thus, users may not take the time to minimize the pop-up and simply leave your site.

3. Link To Relevant Websites

Another way to rank high on search engines is to link to authoritative and relevant pages. When you link to other sites, you make your site a more scalable and valuable resource.

Thus, you may want to create content that you can link to other websites. Moreover, when you link to other sites, you’re helping them get tagged as trustworthy, credible, and authoritative. This is similar to voting them as relevant and an authority in the industry. The more links one gets, the more chances they have of improving their ranking.

However, the quality of links also matters—not just the quantity. Search engines evaluate the links if they’re from authentic sites. If search engines identify the links as fake, it can reduce their ranking. Worse, one can get a penalty.

But you may wonder how linking to other websites helps your ranking. Sites can track links from other sites, and they may notice you linking to them. Since you’re doing it for free, they may appreciate such a gesture. As a result, they may also link back to you, especially if you have quality and relevant content.

As mentioned, having more sites link back to you is like getting voted as a trustworthy site. This will help search engines rank you well.

4. Optimize Title Tag

You may also want to help visitors and search engines know what your site is all about by using meta descriptions and title tags properly. Thus, you may want to use ‘<title>’ at the start and end of your title.

That way, search engines will know what your site is all about. They can rank you on keywords that consumers use when searching for relevant content.

Moreover, whatever you write in the title tag is the one that will also appear on search engine results pages.

5. Use Infographics

While images can help your website’s aesthetics, they can also help with your ranking. You can also use infographics to generate backlinks for people to use. It can help increase your conversion rate when done correctly. That’s why using them on your website is essential.

To entice your visitors to use your infographics, you need to make great content and design. It also helps to write high-quality content with at least 2,000 words to help you rank better.

Conclusion

Ranking high on search engines is essential to drive more traffic to your business. Without a high rank, you may not appear on the first page in search engine results. The worst thing about this is that people are unlikely to click on the second and succeeding search engine results pages. That means it’s important to have your site appear on the first pages of search engines to increase your chances of having more leads.

Technological advancement has made it easier to market businesses through digital marketing strategies. By marketing your business online, you could reach out to so many potential customers worldwide. However, the market might be tough due to the various competing businesses out there. Hence, you might need to develop unique methods to beat the competition.

One way you could beat the competition is by supercharging your website or coming up with a well-designed site. A common mistake is creating a complex site, thinking it might look good. However, in a real sense, it could push away potential customers. Having a hard-to-understand site would increase your ‘bounce’ rate. This means users would likely leave your site without browsing through it or even purchasing your product.

The following sections would discuss some of the ways to supercharge your website to attract customers.

1. Content Is King

Content is one of the greatest ways to supercharge your website. It could be available in several formats, depending on your area of specialization.

Some formats could be used in any industry setup, such as social media posts, while others have specific audiences. For instance, if you have a fashion-related business, you’d need to focus more on creating visual content and social networks.

Your aim should be to create high-quality content that could rank high on search engines. The content would be used in search engine results page (SERP) ranking, which would in turn increase your traffic, leading to a higher conversion rate if the customers are satisfied with buying from you.

For your posts to rank high, it would be helpful to work with sites like www.netlocalseo.com and other sites that are experts in search engine optimization (SEO). These firms would help you in matters related to keywords so your posts could rank high and attract more traffic, which may translate to revenue.

2. Create A Simple Website

For a small business, a first impression is crucial for the survival of your landing pages. A site with many tabs, ads, or links would tend to disinterest customers. A potential customer would take a quick glimpse at your page and decide whether it’s worth their time or not.

If the customer feels the site seems to overwhelm them or doesn’t look so encouraging, they would be forced to look up at your competitor page instead. A good website should allow visitors to navigate easily without being influenced directly unless they want to purchase.

It is always important to keep things as simple as possible. Having a hard-to-understand site would increase your ‘bounce rate’.

This means users could leave your site without browsing through to more pages or even purchasing your product. Which is likely your goal!

Concept testing can help you to avoid that kind of disappointment, by helping make the right choices, and move forward with the right ideas. Such testing can help you to learn fast, and iterate over ideas with your customers and at an early stage.

3. Improve On Your Site Load Time

Loading time is a crucial factor when creating your website. For instance, if you visit a site and it takes too long to load, how patient do you think customers would be to wait?

It’s highly likely that a potential customer would leave your site if it takes too long to load. You might have an excellent page, but some people wouldn’t be willing to wait. This could reduce your site traffic, which might translate into a low conversation rate.

Loading time is used in site ranking. It’s an important factor in search engine algorithms. If you improve your loading time, it could increase your chances of moving up in the SERP ranking. A high-ranking site would attract more traffic, leading to a higher conversion rate if the customers are satisfied with your products.

4. Segment Your Audience

Try to avoid using the phrase ‘one size fits all.’ This might not be an appropriate approach when supercharging your website.

Relevancy is a major ranking element in both local and traditional SERPs. If your small business deals with a general audience, it’s recommendable to segment your target audience and develop personalized content for each group, particularly when using direct mails. This would make it easier for visitors to have an easy time when navigating your site.

When there’s no personalized content, potential customers would be forced to go through the entire content to get what they want. This could be a time-consuming activity. And, chances are, your customers would be forced to go to your competitor’s site, reducing your traffic.

5. Ensure Adequate Domain Registration

Proper domain registration would be an important factor for site credibility. Try to have the same domain for a longer period as this would increase business credibility. A more credible site would attract traffic, which in turn would increase your business’ sales.

It’s also important to ensure the contact information provided during the registration matches the one supplied on your site. If you give incorrect contact information, you could increase your chances of being suspended. This may affect your traffic.

6. Offer Instant Chat Heads For Immediate Help

When shopping in a physical store, you’d usually meet several attendants ready to assist you. This may not be different with website shoppers. Talking with your potential customers may play an important role in increasing the conversation rate.

Some chat pop-ups would make it easier for you to convert clicks to customers. These would enable you to utilize features like artificial intelligence technology to interact with customers.

Now, it appears much easier to know customers and what they’re looking for by sending a personalized message in real-time. If a visitor finds it hard to communicate with you, they might be forced to look for another site to shop.

7. Have Your Customers Sell For You, With Testimonials

It’s a common misconception that customers would believe you’re ‘the best’ if you refer to yourself as ‘the best.’ In reality, potential customers are usually skeptical when a business praises itself. Although sales copy and animated explainer videos would be helpful in getting traffic, a genuine testimonial from your customers would attract a great deal of traffic to your page, increasing the conversion rate.

The following are some of the types of customer testimonials:

• Business written testimonial
• Written customer reviews
• Unboxing review (largest boost)

Takeaway

It’d be easier to maintain rankings in SERP if your business is serving a single area. However, you’d be required to have several landing pages if your brand is serving more than one geographical setup. It’s recommendable you have a personalized content in areas having a higher conversion rate.

When creating your website, consider three factors: creativity, simplicity, and practicality. This is a combination that’d make it possible to turn your site into a beautiful page that attracts customers.

If you’re a web publisher, your greatest desire is probably to have your content appear on top of search engine results pages (SERPs) whenever a user types in a query. But given the millions of websites competing for this coveted spot, you realize that ranking high on Google and other search engines is not a walk in the park.

You actually need to work hard and smart on your website to improve its rankings. One way to improve your website is through the use of SEO tools. Some of the best SEO tools you can count on include Ahrefs, Google Search Console, SEMrush, KWFinder, Moz, Ubersuggest, Serpstat, Screaming Frog, Keywords Everywhere, Fat Rank, Siteliner, SEOQuake, Google Trends, Majestic, Woorank, SpyFu, and Answer The Public, among others.

Each of these tools has its own strengths and weaknesses. If you were to narrow down your search to the best three, SEO experts worldwide would advise you to use either SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Moz. To discover why you might want to check out a detailed SEMrush vs Ahrefs vs Moz comparison for further insight.

Meanwhile, let’s look at five ways SEO tools can improve your website:

1. By Checking The Speed And Usability Of Your Website

In this fast-paced world, we’re living in, very few people may be willing to wait for even five seconds for a page to load. Most web users like it when they click on a link and the entire page loads almost instantly. For this reason, search engines rank highly those web pages with the lowest loading time.

You can use SEO tools to check the loading speed of your website and how easy it is for users to navigate it. Good SEO tools like GTmetrix and Webpage Test will even give you suggestions for improvement.

With this report, you can work on improving the loading speed of your website by choosing the right hosting options, enabling file compression and browser caching, optimizing image sizes, as well as using a content delivery network (CDN) and external hosting platforms like YouTube and Vimeo for large video files.

2. By Checking For Duplicate Content On The Internet

Duplicate content can harm your website ranking in two ways. First, assuming you’ve delegated the content writing task to a content writer who largely plagiarizes another’s work, search engines may penalize you with negative search ranking. Secondly, when clever content thieves copy-paste your work to their site, they may confuse search engines to think that they’re the original writers, and thus outrank you.

There are SEO tools designed to detect duplicate content. Use such tools to help you catch your writers for plagiarism and report content thieves to Google.

3. By Studying Your Competitor’s Keywords

One major reason your competitors outrank you revolves around the keywords they rank highly for on search engines. For instance, if you’re promoting your London-based car hire business, your competitors may have a lot of informative articles on their websites that rank highly for keywords such as ‘best car hire company in London.’

Good SEO tools should be able to show you these keywords that propel your competitors to the top position on search engines. You can then tweak your content strategy to make your website equally rich in these keywords, hoping to outrank your competitors in the near future.

4. By Analyzing And Monitoring Your Backlinks

You understand that your website content should have appropriate outbound links to authoritative websites so as to have a better rank on search engines. Also, you need quality inbound links from other websites directing to your website’s pages to improve your credibility and authority in the eyes of search engines.

Internal links are likewise important for your website as they can increase the user’s dwell time, help reduce the bounce rate, increase your website’s page rank and page views, as well as facilitate better crawling and indexing.

With time, the links you included in your content may no longer be valid, in case the content you linked to becomes deleted. In other cases, you may unknowingly link to spamming websites or sites full of malware, so you have to be careful when choosing outbound or external links. Other backlink-related mistakes you might be doing include:

• Lack of do-follow links on your website
• Not using no-follow links for user-generated content (UGC), such as in comments
• Very few backlinks
• Too many backlinks from one site
• Too many backlinks leading to only one website page
• Many outbound links to low-quality sites
• Over-optimized backlinks. For example, having 100 backlinks with the same anchor text
• Other websites deleting backlinks to your site
• Backlinks leading to non-existing pages on your site
• Backlinks from low-quality sites

You’ll agree that manually detecting all these issues will unnecessarily drain your energy. Fortunately, you can use reliable SEO tools to constantly analyze all outbound and inbound links on your website for such issues and get suggestions on how to solve them.

5. By Detecting Technical Issues On Your Website

Common technical issues you may encounter on your website include:

• Broken links
• Non-crawled pages
• Broken internal images
• Permanent and temporary redirects
• Serious server issues
• Under-optimized meta tags: For example, missing meta descriptions, duplicate title tags and meta descriptions, and long or short title elements
• Duplicate content
• URLs with underscores
• Lack of an optimized sitemap
• Empty sitemap pages
• Erroneous source code
• Issues with accelerated mobile pages
• Unminified CSS and JavaScript files

How on earth can your human eye detect all these issues? It’s nearly impossible. What you need is sophisticated SEO tools that can detect these technical problems and advise you on how to rectify them. Fixing these issues will improve your website’s performance and ranking on search engines.

Is That All?

Frankly, this list is but a drop in the ocean regarding the importance of using SEO tools in improving your website. Perhaps a full-length SEO course will comprehensively tackle the use of SEO tools for better website performance and ranking. Enroll in one, if possible.

But, if you need to straightaway get started with one SEO tool for your website, you may purchase one of the top three recommended tools mentioned at the beginning of this article. Ensure you make full use of all the relevant features. Be consistent in applying the recommendations given by the SEO tool of your choice and you’ll soon significantly improve your website ranking.

A great website is essential to almost all industries. Considerations like web designing, navigating, marketing, and brand building should be established to make your site attractive. You need to have a breakdown of the integral parts of a successful website, so you can build a solid platform as quickly as possible.

Here is a list of features your website should have:

1. Purpose And Goal

Your website should showcase the brand’s cause. This may include:

• Selling a product on your site
• Providing informational content
• Building a network

Whatever your goals are, you have to be clear with your reason for creating your website. Its purpose will be the starting point of building a successful platform. Without this, web designers may not customize your website based on your stated goal.

Moreover, without a concrete purpose, you may not know whether to hire a web designer or web developer. One is definitely more expensive than the other, and one is far more technical vs artistic.

Check out this site from laughingsamurai.com to learn the difference between the two. You may think you know one over the other, but sometimes you will be surprised what you can learn!

2. Responsive Website

This is very important if an e-commerce site is what you’re looking for. You cannot have your website unavailable on other devices such as mobile phones and tablets.

People tend to use these devices more often, and you may be missing out on a lot of possible customers for not having a responsive website. Also, if your website doesn’t look good on mobile, you risk the chance of not having a successful omnichannel marketing strategy.

3. Web Design

Humans tend to be more inclined with good aesthetics because they are usually stimulated visually. The same principle applies to websites.

Your website is only as good as its design. Visitors will probably forget about you or ignore you completely if your website looks like trash. If you have a website that’s pleasing to the eye, you’re more likely to attract more people and have them trust your site easier.

4. Logo

The logo acts as the face of your brand, so you must place it in optimal locations along with your site. It is important to have a recognizable logo because it is the primary thing people would remember about your brand.

There are free websites and applications where you can make your logo. You could also outsource logo designers if you have a budget.

5. Key Information

Your website must include basic information about you and your brand. Include information that describes who you are, what your business does, and how you can help your customers.

Visitors to your website should get a clear understanding of your brand identity and the value you can bring to them. It’s also essential to add a story or a feature that sets you apart from your competitors.

6. Domain Name

Creating and registering your domain name is also essential when creating a website. It’s impossible to create a functional website if you don’t have this. Your domain name is how your customers and visitors will find you.

The domain name indicated would also appear in the URL of your website, which they can see in the navigation bar. This would lead your customers to your site after finding you through a search engine.

In creating a domain name, make sure to keep it simple and easy to write. This will enable your visitors to remember you better. Find a domain name that is creative and hasn’t been registered yet.

7. Call-To-Action

No matter how good your website may be, if you don’t tell visitors what the next step is, you might not have any customers. A call-to-action tells your visitors what to do next. You’d be surprised how often they follow it.

Add a CTA on each page of your website. You can even add a call-to-action around the navigation panel. This will make it easy for people to know what they should do next. Also, it will help guide your visitor’s browsing as well.

8. Smooth Navigation

You may have the best aesthetic, but visitors are likely to leave your website for navigational issues. Your visitors should not have a hard time browsing through your website. Instead, they should instinctively know where to go next and how to get to the next page.

You can do this by avoiding too much information on your menu. Only put what’s necessary.

Take note of the three-click rule, which says your users must find whatever they are looking for in three simple clicks.

9. Useful and Relatable Content

Another way to keep your visitors stay longer on your site is to create high-quality content. You might entice your visitors with the looks of your website, but it’s your content that will make them stay.

Content is the real determining factor in how great your website is. This is what will turn visitors into readers and hopefully make them your paying customers.

Ensure you’re producing good quality content. Don’t forget to cater your content to what your readers and customers need. If you satisfy what they came to get, they will come back again for more.

10. Security

Another factor that makes visitors a buying customer is your site’s trustworthiness. Security is everything, and if you’re trying to market your service or products online, you’ll need to ensure your site’s reliability.

Put efforts into acquiring a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate. This will conceal sensitive data you and your clients are sharing from unauthorized people. This will also alleviate your customer’s fear of having their information stolen, prevent identity theft, and make them trust you more.

11. Your Social Media

Lastly, social media is now a paramount aspect in marketing your site. Use them to extend your visibility across the internet.

Having social accounts integrated into your website will enhance SEO and make your footprints more noticeable all around the web, allowing you to increase your following throughout all your platforms.

Conclusion

Your website serves as the window to your brand, and visitors will formulate first impressions based on what they see. Not only does it make you easy to find, but it also shows everyone what you stand for. It lets your readers know who you are and what you can do.

Having a quality website increases your credibility and helps you generate more traffic. Utilizing the checklist above will surely bring the website of your dreams into reality.

What exactly does it take to create emails that will get readers to respond the way you want them to?

This is a straightforward question that is asked by virtually every email marketer and business owner on the planet (well, not all business owners, unfortunately).

If only the answer were so straightforward.

If you’re fairly new to email marketing, there’s no need to be scared. While the answer(s) may not be so simple, it is definitely not confusing, and it is certainly far from difficult, especially with the wide array of email marketing services available these days that make email marketing as easy as making a simple sandwich.

But while email marketing in itself can be convenient to pull off, generating results with it would need a little more concentration than is required to make a sandwich.

Generally, there are several email marketing practices you must put in place if you want your email marketing campaign to have any chance at being effective.

But how about actually putting these strategies into practice and seeing them generate results? How about seeing these strategies in action?

The High-Converting Campaigns

This intelligent curiosity is the exact reason I decided to compile a list of terrific and high-converting email marketing examples that generated results for their businesses.

These email marketing campaigns made use of the best email marketing practices in clever ways to derive conversions and motivate audiences. And if you add an email marketing CRM into the mix, you will be sure to get even better results1

Obviously, that’s what you’re trying to do. To help you achieve your goal easier, I’m going to analyze these examples and explain how they implemented the best email marketing practices to drive results.

This way, you don’t miss out on the effective email marketing strategies you must know for your business (in case you were never aware of them in the first place) and you get to observe how they can be applied practically.

So get your pens ready, and pick what you can (and what you must) from these 11 high-converting email marketing examples:

Starbucks

Starbucks’ email campaign to reward its customers is a great one to start from. Not only does it use the important elements that any high-converting email must have very efficiently, it also boosts customer loyalty, which is a must-have asset for any business.

The content of the email invites customers to partake in a draw with enticing prizes including a chance to win a Starbucks product for life. Hard to resist, don’t you think?

The major plus of this campaign is that it engages customers with a brilliant rewards program with a form of gamification. What’s more, it’s free. So any customer can participate. It’ll be very safe to assume that the campaign generated a lot more loyal customers for Starbucks.

So what best practices can we pick from the email:

Inviting Subject Line

The email’s subject line is pretty appealing and is sure to stand out in an inbox. Few people can see “You can win Starbucks for Life” and proceed not to open it. It sends an immediate message to the brain that the email contains something very valuable you shouldn’t miss. Who wouldn’t want to win Starbucks for life? I should note that Starbucks capitalizes on the power of its brand name to make this subject line effective.

Good Copy

The copy is engaging and very clear in its intent, all the things a good email copy must be. The first paragraph introducing the previous winners of Starbucks for Life employs a witty narrative that immediately catches the reader. The rest of the content clearly describes what will happen if readers interact with the email and also provides proof to seed the reader’s interest.

As an email marketer and business owner, engaging and effective content should be a priority. If you think that is not your specialty, then best employ a freelance professional to do your writing or use the help of a content writing tool.

Social Proof

The inclusion of testimonials from past winners of the draw is a very smart incentive. By reading those testimonials, customers will feel their chances of winning in the program go higher. It all becomes much more believable and real because they’ve seen proof from people like them. The encouraging stories from the previous winners will drive emotional responses and also increase the necessity to participate in the program.

Well-planned CTA

The CTA stands out against the background of the email’s design. It’s immediately noticeable and pretty inviting to click. The copy on it is rather efficient too. “Join Now” is a clear instruction. It also has a subtle sense of urgency to it.

The New York Times

The email campaign is a recipe recommendation the New York Times sends weekly to people who subscribed to its New York Times Cooking newsletter.

This particular email was sent just days to the Atlanta Super Bowl and it graciously made use of this fact. By having a content theme around the Super Bowl, the email was able to add an extra level of relevance and excitement to its message.

High-converting tactics we can pick:

Great Copy

The main weapon of this email is its copy. It is so refreshing and exciting to read. With witty references and a casual, conversational tone coupled with a reassuring expert voice that obviously knows what it’s talking about, the copywriter makes sure the email is a must-read from the beginning to the last word.

The most particular reference is that of the Super Bowl in the first paragraph where the writer makes a play of words that talks about the event but also highlights different recipes and ingredients.

He does this through the rest of the email, adding clear instructions and valuable suggestions. Even as a non-subscriber, I’m sort of excited just reading the email, and I’m even tempted to get a subscription myself! Of course I’m interested in trying out some of those delicious suggestions! As I’m sure a lot of subscribers were.

CTA Links

The next best thing about the email is how links are embedded in the relevant keywords so readers can simply click and try out the recipes or meals. Apart from being a very engaging email, it’s also very actionable. Just looking at the red CTA words highlighted in the copy is inviting enough. Of course, the links lead to actual recipes or landing pages that have more information about the highlighted words, all in the New York Times’ inventory.

I have to say this style of email is particularly useful for advertising several products, services, or information at once.

MyProtein

Myprotein’s email was built to build its customers’ interest in a product and drive more sales for that product.

It was designed as a time-sensitive campaign and it’s no secret that adding a time-limit to your campaigns and offers is one of the most effective ways to drive conversions and clicks.

What to pick out:

Use of FOMO

If it wasn’t obvious already, the use of the element of urgency to trigger readers’ fear of missing out was everything about this email. The countdown format of removing 1% of the discount every 2 hours was particularly unique. That adds an even higher sense of urgency in my opinion. Customers know that the more time they waste, the lower their discounts drop. If this wouldn’t spur them into taking immediate action, I don’t know what would.

The Bump

The Bump is a site that offers services to aid pregnancy and parenting. Its email campaign makes this list because it’s a brilliant example of a very vital email strategy:

Personalization

The email above is a personalized message that describes that particular subscriber’s stage of pregnancy. Once users sign up to the site, they begin to receive regular, personalized emails like this example describing their pregnancy development stages and how they can deal with them. This is a powerful example of personalization.

Personalization entails that you send your subscribers content that are particularly relevant to them instead of sending generic emails. Generic emails would contain content that not all your subscribers might find useful.

Ordinarily, not having a personalization plan in mind for your email marketing campaign is a terrible idea. Because your email list would consist of diverse and different people, with different interests and mannerisms. Constructing personalized emails that are relevant to your subscribers’ interests is incredibly vital if you want any chance at gaining meaningful conversions.

For this reason, it’s important that you collect specific information from your visitors or customers through your opt-in or lead generation platform on your websites. Details like birth dates, age, and gender are info that would be useful when segmenting your lists and trying to construct more personal emails.

Other ways you could collect specific information from your customers include using online surveys, forms, platforms that track browsers’ behaviors on your website, and even your customer service.

Chatbot technology has helped to really simplify the process of improving customer feedback and relationship management. By using survey chatbots for your online survey strategy and adding live-chat software to your website, you would have fashioned a more engaging and convenient process for collecting information from your customers.

If you use an eCommerce platform, you should have or be able to integrate a tool that can track which products buyers purchased or intended to purchase. With cart abandonment software, you can track buyers who left their purchase and immediately remind them about their abandoned products.

With all these personalization tools at your disposal, it becomes a no-brainer for you to construct personalized email marketing campaigns that make your customers feel special and cared for like the email above.

When you send people exactly what they want or what they would like to see, instead of some random message or offer, you increase the chance of making them your loyal customers.

Proof

This is a follow-up email sent by Proof to leads who missed its webinar training.

What email strategies to observe:

Segmentation

Because this is a follow-up email, it means the email was sent to people who already signed up for the webinar. This means they would have already received an initial email to thank them for signing up and provide them with important details. In fact, usually, they would have received at least one or two more emails to remind them about the upcoming webinar.

What’s particular about this follow-up email is that segmentation was used to separate these subscribers from people who did attend the webinar.

Segmenting your list is a form of personalization and a vital part of any email marketing strategy. You can’t possibly send all your emails to everyone on your list without differentiating who actually needs to receive what and who doesn’t.

In the example above, it would have been awkward if people who attended the webinar received that same email.

Plain Text

The entire email is written in plain text. Plain text is proving to be a better conversion tactic than elaborately designed emails these days. Probably because consumers see the former as more genuine and personal and the latter as salesy.

Do understand that this strategy depends on the nature of your brand and products or services. If your brand or product is much visually oriented, or if you’re trying to pass across a message that needs the help of visuals, then feel free to use graphics and media intelligently. Key phrase: Intelligently.

Social Proof

The email certainly has chances of a high conversion rate, not just because it was targeted to interested leads, but also because it added the names of powerful brands to act as proof of the service’s quality.

This will further intensify the interest of readers. Seeing names like AirBnB, Dropbox, and words like “Silicon Valley” directly referenced is a major trigger for the email’s target audience.

American Giant

This retail store sent emails to its customers inviting them to visit its brick-and-mortar location.

How this email boosts conversions:

Omnichannel Strategy

Research has shown that many consumers, especially millennials, prefer to start the buying process online and complete it at an offline location. Based on this fact, it becomes imperative that any commercial service with a physical location implements an all-immersive and streamlined consumer experience with an omnichannel strategy.

This brand capitalizes on that by sending an email that encourages its audience to shop at its offline location. It also showcases this location with quality pictures.

The email advertises the brand’s products along with this invitation and adds CTAs to book the visit or complete some purchasing options. The result? Customers can simply order a product and fulfill the order at the offline store. Sweet and convenient.

It indicates the address and offline shopping hours, both of which are vital information, with engaging and well-outlined copy.

Discount Strategy

Adding discount strategies to improve product offerings in this type of email is a smart and effective strategy.

The most brilliant discount is the option to refer a friend and get $20 off. Getting customers to make a purchase and invite their friends is a great conversion strategy. People are more inclined to buy when a product is recommended by someone they know.

Casper

Casper sends a welcome email to every customer that signs up on its online store.

Welcome emails are a vital part of email marketing for any business. Surely, you don’t want your customers to feel neglected after they’ve expressed an interest in your brand.

A welcome email introduces your business to a new lead or customer and gives them an immediate idea of what you’re all about. A good welcome email will give readers an avenue to immediately engage with your business and purchase your products, like in Casper’s example below.

Related: You can also check out Flodesk’s welcome email templates if you want some great examples on how to do this well.

What’s great about this email:

Great Copy

The descriptions and words are very engaging and reassuring. Each sentence either promises a valuable service provides great proof or uses a witty and humorous reference that employs the company’s image and the reader’s pain point.

With such straightforward, convincing, and hilariously written copy, it’s a given that readers would get to the last word and feel more compelled to engage with the brand.

Well-planned CTA

Naturally, CTAs are required to be as simple and straightforward as possible, but Casper’s slight exception to use a funny, engaging CTA (“Let’s Get Sleepy”) that still passes across the message does no harm. Readers would understand that it’s a link to browse the company’s products since that’s clearly what the email is all about.

What’s more? The CTAs invitingly stand out against the background and are immediately visible.

Social Proof

The title of “America’s #1 Rated Mattress Brand” is proudly included in the content. Great for them, I say, because it doesn’t take a lot more than social proof like this to get customers grabbing your products. The social proof in the first paragraph would immediately assure readers that they’re dealing with a quality brand. Being able to convince your prospects with your first few words gives you a priceless head start.

Unique Proposition

It’s really satisfying how conversion-optimized this email is, because it’s obvious that the major elements that could influence the reader’s decision were carefully thought off and smartly implemented.

Apart from the social proof and motivating copy, the brand also includes special aspects about its offerings that would be hard to miss. The 100-night trial and convenient return policy that they promise eases the decision to buy and adds an extra level of assurance.

The paragraph that name-drops the brand’s in-house staff builds a sense of transparency and quality assurance.

Beardbrand

Over time, in your email marketing campaign, you would observe that there are a couple of inactive subscribers that provide little to zero engagement for your campaigns or business generally.

This isn’t encouraging for anyone. You want your email list to be as active as possible. Yet, those subscribers are no less important. Because they have been dormant for a while doesn’t necessarily mean you should give up on them immediately.

First, you have to try and revive them. They can still be loyal customers that drive quality conversions. Send targeted emails to remind them about your business and even cleverly get them to make purchases. That’s exactly what Beardbrand does with this email.

Conversion tactics in the email:

Subject Line

The subject line is curiosity-piquing and effectively completes the first step to conversion on any email marketing campaign: opening the email.

People get barraged with multiple emails per day these days. With this type of onslaught and stuffy inboxes, it’s not hard to see why so many emails get ignored or simply reported as spam. But with captivating subject lines like “How fast can you grow?”, it’s pretty hard for that to happen.

Generally, your subject line shouldn’t only be interesting but relevant to your brand and the content of your email. You can also test your email subject line to evaluate its efficiency. 

Disregarding this rule would send you to spam mail. Sometimes, in fact, your subject line doesn’t need to be extraordinarily catchy or anything of such, it just needs to be really simple, straightforward, and value-promising. In this case, the former works out for Beardbrand just fine.

Great Copy

From the first readable words after opening the email, the subscriber gets even more curious and interested in what the email is about. That’s a fantastic cue. The picture frame added to support the text format is inviting and explanatory as well.

Scrolling further down, the copy sustains this curiosity by asking a question. It then proceeds to feed the reader with valuable and exciting information, even adding some level of humor and wit to be more engaging.

What’s particularly interesting is the subtle way the email tells that subscribers how long they’ve been away from the website. How do they do this? Let’s dig into that if you don’t already get it:

By sharing the exciting info that human hair grows 0.5 inches per month, the brand calculates the sum of months the subscriber has been away and opens up the email with a sentence that references the number of months.

“Your beard grew 1.5 inches since your last visit.” 1.5 inches sums up 3 months. See how subtle and witty that was? I’m pretty sure that the target audience would have appreciated the effort.

The copy smoothly transitions from reminding the subscriber and solving a customer pain point to introducing the brand’s products as a viable solution.

Framebridge

Unfortunately, some customers can choose to remain dormant even after you’ve sent them a reactivation campaign. Multiple emails later, they could still choose not to engage your brand. It’s at this point that you know you need to let go of them, which I admit can be painful.

I’ve experienced it before. It wasn’t nice. But it had to be done. Your email list has to be fresh and active to prevent a waste of your efforts and resources, and to avoid the risk of being regarded as spam mail by inbox providers. Oddly enough, or not, removing inactive subscribers adds some sort of mental relief, which I think you would agree is always welcome.

Usually, inactive subscribers that haven’t unsubscribed from your list for a long time either don’t check their mail often, or they simply don’t bother to open your messages at all. It could be that they’ve just forgotten you and why they subscribed in the first place, and per some chance don’t get to see your emails (most likely because they’re not frequent email readers).

Either way, they’ve given you no choice but to part ways with them. But before you do that, because of the benevolent and very considerate business owner that you are (I do hope so), you can give them just that one last chance.

After all, there’s still that tiny teeny little chance they can become converts or loyal customers. And you can’t just throw that chance away.

So what do you do? You notify them that you’re about to part ways with them and let them choose if they still want to remain your customer like Framebridge does with their email.

Perks of this email:

Great Copy

The first sentence immediately grabs the attention of the subscriber and gets them wondering “what is ending?”

The rest of the copy proceeds to justify that opener and the email’s purpose by clearly and cleverly pointing out what the brand does, which would trigger a reminder of why the reader subscribed in the first place.

It goes further to explain the intent of the email and why it was sent(to know if they still want to remain on the brand’s email list). It then leaves the choice to the subscriber, but of course, imploring them to stay.

Well-planned CTA

The email ends with a clear CTA that smoothly rounds off the purpose of the email. Of course, they don’t want the subscriber to go, the big orange CTA button proves that.

It’s ultimately up to the choice of the subscriber. If no action is made, then they would be removed from the list. Fair game, don’t you think? Also, a good way to remind people about your business and get them to recommit.

Whiskey Loot

Cart abandonment makes up the highest loss of genuinely potential sales for businesses, eCommerce websites specifically. More than 75% of people abandon their shopping carts online. Why? Oh there are so many reasons, a major of them being that they’re just human beings who can change their minds any time they want, for no particular reason.

But more practically, a stressful checkout process, or an unexpected shipping fee, or even the fact that they didn’t really want to buy in the first place are good reasons why people might abandon their carts.

But 75% is a huge number, and you can’t let all those tantalizingly close conversions go to waste, so you use cart abandonment software to track these customers, and then you send email campaigns to remind them of their forgotten purchase and offer them another chance to buy it.

Or like Whiskey Loot here, give them very good reasons to buy it. And in turn create a very good chance of swiping a nice part of 75% into your conversion metrics

What helps this email convert:

Convincing copy

The email gives the reader 14 reasons why they should buy. A lot of them are humorous, some of them genuinely valuable. But the message is passed across, and the subscriber is pleased with what they read.

Just the fact the email seems to be bothered about their reasons for not buying is enough to get any customer rethinking their decision to abandon the purchase.

The email goes further to provide much more valuable and inviting information by using a Q&A format that describes the product offering clearly along with its nice perks. There’s even an answer that says how to end the subscription, easing the customer’s decision to buy.

By addressing possible questions, the email clears major doubts the customer might have and gives them a very good reason to buy.

Option to Interact

Giving customers the option to engage with your email address is a good move, in any regard. Some people might want to immediately send a message or ask a question without having to click to the site or find wherever your customer support options are.

It’s for this reason I disagree with some businesses that use “@noreply” email addresses for their campaigns. It’s almost like shutting off your business to the customer. They might not be convinced by your email content already. They need to be able to interact with your email if they wish to do so.

It’s the most immediate option to ask any questions they might have at the moment, which is always convenient.

Whiskey Loot doesn’t only make their email available to interact, they even implore the subscriber to ask questions and promise that it’s an immediately responsive customer service option.

Kate Spade

Special occasions and holidays are sale-centric periods you can’t afford to miss as a business owner.

Christmas, New Years, Halloween, Black Friday, etc, even anniversaries and birthdays of your clients, for more personalized emails, are occasions to offer special discounts and drive more sales.

As a result, many companies get into the rush of running email marketing campaigns to capitalize on those periods and inform clients of their special deals.

A better way to engage customers in this regard is to notify your subscribers of exclusive offers in advance of these dates, way earlier in some cases.

It’s something like the “first come, first serve” rule. Usually, some days or even a day just before Black Friday deals for instance is when most businesses start sending their emails on discount deals. Imagine how many emails a customer receives in one day. Imagine how many emails get ignored.

By sending your emails well in advance, like Kate Spade here, who sent this Valentine’s day email to book deals in advance on the 22nd of January, you can beat your competitors, seal sales in advance for early buyers and make your brand hard to forget for your customers.

Of course to make this strategy very effective, your email campaign would consist of several emails in an email marketing flow. For those that don’t book immediately and get their deals in advance, you can continue to remind them even till the last moment, that’s if they’re the type that prefer to wait till the last second and start panic-buying.

The edge you have here is that you appeared first, and if your email marketing flow is well crafted, you will be more easily remembered. Subsequently, customers are more likely to point you out and click your email on a day when they might be receiving hundreds of emails. They might even search for your emails specifically, because, with a good email marketing flow, you’ve left a certain impression in their mind.

What makes Kate Spade’s early email convert:

Value Proposition

I like how the email showcases product recommendations. It’s very easy to be unsure about what you want to get your partner for Valentine’s. Kate’s email solves that for you by suggesting different products that you can buy and under different price ranges.

There’s a CTA button that suggests you “see more” recommendations. If you don’t immediately see your choice, that button assures you still have a chance of finding one. Makes it very clickable I would say.

Also, the free shipping discount made visible at the top gives a strong incentive to make a purchase.

Good Content and Design

The email’s design is well, reminiscent of Valentine’s day. The CTAs are visible, consistent, and have clear instructions.

The copy in a concise sentence states what the email is about. The product recommendations are neatly laid out with nice designs and clear visuals to boot.

The Importance of A\B Testing..

I would have to wrap this up by telling you that several of those strategies may or may not work for your email marketing campaign.

Well, they’re more likely to work for your good than vice-versa but you have to be sure of that possibility.

The reason is simple, your business is unique, with different features and services than other businesses out there, even the ones in your industry, so their practices might not work for you.

And if you’re conversant at any level with email marketing, then you probably already know about using A/B testing to determine if these strategies would work for you.

If you don’t, well it’s simple. With your email marketing tool or an integrated platform built specifically for that purpose, run two test campaigns, one with the original element you’re looking to change, and one with the changes already applied.

Whatever result comes with the higher numbers is your winner. This example from Campaign Monitor tested their CTA buttons.

Campaign B (the one on the left) turned out the winner by at least 10% more conversions.

It’s not much more complicated than that. A standard testing platform or email marketing tool makes the process understandable and straightforward.

What’s important to note though, whether you’re familiar with the idea of A/B testing or not, is knowing what to test.

Your testing strategy becomes more effective when you outline what you need to test because of course, your emails consist of separate elements that each generate their own effect. You surely were not thinking of testing whole emails were you?

Major elements that affect the conversion rates that you can test include:

• Your Subject Lines: Of course, these should be the first things to test. They constitute the first definitive action. If your emails are not opened, they’re useless. What you should look for would be the open rates. You could also test with help from people to determine if your subject line lands you in the spam or any other folder by checking how it delivers in their inbox.
• Your Copy: This hugely determines if your email will get readers to take action or if they will even read through at all. To test for effective copy, test selling points, key descriptions, even entire messages, and the length of your emails.
• Your CTAs: The subtle yet very definitive part of your email. Any number of minor changes in your CTA can affect your conversion rate, sometimes in a drastic manner. The words on the CTA, its placement, the design, the amount of CTAs, etc. All these would determine if a CTA is effective or not. Test and identify how these changes increase or decrease your conversions.
• Your Media: Images affect to a great extent how people absorb and interpret content. Good images will boost the motivation to engage with your content, bad images will cause misinterpretation and likely turn them off. Test the images to determine how they affect your conversion rates. If you ever plan to use videos in your campaign, you can test different versions of these too.
• Your Design: Of course, the layout of your email can have a subtle but influential effect on how people accept your email. You could have great copy but have a bad design that ruins the effectiveness of that. The design elements you want to test could be minor or wholesale changes, understanding that either could be equally and hugely important.

So it is accepted I hope, that while the high-converting email marketing examples described in this article are very good inspirations and useful as frameworks on which to build your own strategies, you have to be sure to a certain level of their effectiveness before sending them off into the wild.

Then of course you could always simply just ask your customers directly what they will prefer to see from you, like Bespoke Post here:

Straight from the horse’s mouth. Pretty touchè, don’t you think? This way you boost your personalization strategy since several customers will definitely have different preferences. And you don’t have to waste time and effort on irrelevant emails.

This goes without saying, but getting your subscribers’ preferences doesn’t mean you can disregard your testing strategy. That stays vital as ever. There are some subtle changes you couldn’t possibly ask your subscribers about, like if they want the CTA button on the left or on the right of your page.

That strategy applies to their inner psychology. They really are not sure about it. They are not likely to be conscious of why a CTA’s placement influences their behavior. That is for you to discover.

An email preference message like Bespoke Post’s will target more obvious changes like the type of products they want to receive offerings on and even how often they like to receive their email.

So at the end of the day, you still have to find out what your consumers want, even if they are not very sure of it. Sounds strange? Well, welcome to business in the 21st century.

Ok, so you are using Elementor to create your stunning new website, but now you are stuck trying to add a contact form!

I have been building quite a few of my client’s new sites with Elementor, so I had the same problem and asked myself

“How Can I Add A Contact Form Using Elementor?”

Ready for three different options to do this. All of them are easy but depends on if you want or need extra plugins. Including Elementor Pro.

1. Elementor Pro Contact Form: The Simplest & Cleanest Solution

It is not surprising that I would tell you to use Elementor Pro Contact Form because it means less plugins.

I always teach my clients best practices and try to hold them back from blowing up their websites.

And one of my biggest mantras is “fewer plugins.” The fewer plugins you need to use, the fewer updates you will have: the less hacking potential, the fewer conflicts, the fewer problems.

So, when faced with more plugins or less, I always go with less.

And if you are using Elementor, the obvious, most compatible plugin option you have is Elementor Pro.

If you want to thoughtfully and thoroughly design your website (header, footer, blog pages, and add lots of stunning elements) then this is an easy choice. It is pretty cheap for what you get, and you get Elementor Forms.

This enables you to add anything from a simple contact form to a more complex email signup form.

Check Out Elementor Pro 2.0 Here

The Elementor Pro Contact Form includes an insane range of features, starting with the simple contact form and taking it to the next level from there.

You can adjust all the usual Elementorsettings like:

• Style
• Layout
• Size

But on top of that, you can do the following with the Contact Form from Elementor Pro:

• Add custom fields to your contact form
• After form submit actions
• Collecting the form data on your website
• Analysing your form data
• Submitting your form data to an email service
• Multi column forms
• Multi-step forms

Savings With Elementor Pro

This list is quite extensive. So, you can forget about having to buy another form like Ninja Forms (which you normally need for many of these features) and you might not even have to buy a specific email conversion package like OptinMonster or Thrive Leads.

It is quite an amazing set of features for a page builder plugin!

The Elementor team show you how great the Elementor Pro Contact Form is in the video below:

2. WPForms Plugin – Integrates Easily With Elementor

Another option I have been checking out is WPForms. One of my clients loves this form builder over the usual Contact Form 7 (more on that below – as it is probably the number one plugin for such things).

Although they have a lame bear as a mascot (just seems cheesy to me) their builder and integration is really powerful.

1. First let me show you what their simple contact form (A default template they have) looks like:

WPforms simple contact form (default out of the box in the plugin)

You can load this from their starting page and then just name your form (or accept the default) and then hit Save in the top right (orange button).

2. You can also easily set up the message that goes to your email via the form (something I find really complex and confusing in Contact Form 7).

Below is what that looks like out of the box, which should be about right for 99% of you. But you can easily customize it (change the subject, the email – which defaults to the WordPress Admin email in the Settings page).

Customizing the email in WPForms

3. Now you have the form created and are ok with all the settings. All you need to do is add it to the Elementor Page.

Just choose the WPForms element in Elementor and drag it into place.

Elementor WPforms widget

Note: Yes! There is a built-in Element from WPForms, not always the case with other plugins.

4. With the element in place, now choose your contact form from the dropdown list (it will have the name you gave it when you created it.

Now click Apply below the dropdown. Easy as pie! You have a contact form.

I know, it seems like a lot of steps, but if you accept the defaults (which are normally fine) it’s dead simple.

Here is what it looks like:

3. Contact Form 7 – The Hardest Option

Is this option impossible. No.

It’s just not the simplest. So, unless you absolutely have to use Contact Form 7, I don’t suggest going down this path as it requires either messy shortcodes or another plugin.

And even then it’s not the cleanest or simplest plugin to use. I use it a lot, so I should know. But remember, I am a programmer by trade, so messy is something I am used to :>

1. First thing you need to do is grab the plugin

2. Now you need to create your first form.

This is what it looks like – a simple contact form with name, email, subject and message.

It’s probably enough for most people, but if you need to add elements, you can use the buttons at the top of the text field. And then cut and paste them into the right spot.

The problem with this form builder is that it is text based, messy and prone to error. Unlike WPForms above, which is a visual builder and far easier to work with. Unless you are down with HTML that is :>

3. If you are happy with the form, I recommend you now check the Mail tab to ensure the email and other mail settings are fine. Especially the To Email.

4. Now you have to paste the shortcode into an Elementor text element. This is the cleanest way of adding your form.

You will find your shortcode in the blue bar above the form editing area (see below). Copy this and then paste it in the elementor element.

Optional: Contact Form 7 Plugin For Editing The Form in Elementor

Because this method above is so messy and hard to edit, there are some plugin developers out there helping us. They have created a plugin to connect Elementor with Contact Form 7.

Rather than walk you through them all and how to use them, I am just going to list the ones that I have found below. You can then investigate and work out if you want to use them. They are not necessary, but are helpful if you want to style your form.

1. Contact Form7 Widget Plugin (Void Themes)
2. Contact Form 7 Styler Plugin (Elementor Addons)
3. Contact Form 7 Widget Plugin (Premium Addons)

There might be a whole lot more but just be aware that not all of them are always maintained, so be sure to check the Last Updated date on the right (if you are on the WordPress plugin page) to see when it was last updated. Why? Because unmaintained plugins can be bad for the health of your website :>