Marketing Automation Archives - Swift Digital Australia's best marketing automation platform. Fri, 11 Aug 2023 06:53:00 +0000 en-AU hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.3 Key Benefits of Using Event Management Software To Run Events [Free Checklist] https://swiftdigital.com.au/blog/benefits-using-automation-software-event-management/ Sun, 14 May 2023 20:00:39 +0000 https://swiftdigital.com.au/?p=16093 The post Key Benefits of Using Event Management Software To Run Events [Free Checklist] appeared first on Swift Digital.

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5 | Minute Read 

What is Event Management Software?

An Event Management system is a solution to facilitate the planning of an event. An event management system can create and manage event invitations, tickets and confirmations, event payments and overall event marketing and management including attendee check-in, attendee engagement and the creation of event landing pages.

Key Benefits of Using Event Management Software To Run Event

If you’ve not considered investing in event management software, it’s time to find out why now is the right time.

1. Event Management Software Industry Benefits

Event management systems can provide a number of benefits to a range of organisations. We look at how event management software can automate those laborious and manual tasks in 5 key industries.

Educational Organisations

Australian universities, schools, and other educational establishments use event management platforms to automate their academic, social, and cultural events.

From creating an invitation to checking in attendees, it is important to your users that your event registration process is seamless. This can help to increase registration rates, and reduce the workload of busy in-house marketing teams.

An event automated system for bookings and cancellations results in fewer double bookings and data entry errors, resulting in more accurate data and more professional user experience,

Using an event planning system means the education sector can ensure their payments integrate with their banks and payments can be easily managed and tracked.

Government Departments

Privacy and security is among the most important factors for Australian Federal or State Government departments and government-funded organisations.

It is important when using event automation software for Government events, the event platform you are using is fully compliant with anti-spam and privacy laws and stores information on secure servers located in Australia.

The Swift Digital platform hosts all data locally within Australia and provides one central hub for all your events, including; workshops, conferences, seminars, and more.

Super and Investment Companies

Superannuation, investment, and retirement firms can use event management software to automate bookings and marketing communications for conferences, seminars, webinars, and other on and offline events to assist with the marketing of their services. 

Events are a highly effective way to engage with your audience, and you can increase your attendance rate and gather feedback for continual improvement by using an event automation platform to send out personalised email invites, track registrant status and check in attendees in real-time.

Banks & Financial Organisations

Banks and other financial institutions can use event management automation software to arrange events specific to their industry, such as conferences, seminars, public speaking events, and training for customers, partners, and staff. 

Holding these events is not only informative, but they are a very effective part of the overall marketing strategy. However, it can be a drain on the marketing and event teams.

Event management and automation software take the hard work out of managing your event attendees, dealing with sending out invitations, managing registrations and cancellations, taking payments, and sending out post-event surveys.

Download Now -> Free Event Planning Checklist

Legal & Accounting Firms

The Legal and Accounting Industry use event management software in a slightly different way from some of the above. This industry likes to have the opportunity to meet face-to-face with clients and partners, to create a deeper, longer-term partnership. Arranging face-to-face events can sometimes turn out to be a logistical nightmare. 

An event appointment calendar can help manage the organiser’s time and provide a more professional overall user journey.

Healthcare

The healthcare industry can operate online or offline with its audience. Using event management software helps industries like healthcare manage their appointments using an appointment booking calendar. They also use an event planning system to arrange for consultations for upcoming appointments.

2. Reduce Costs of Event Planning‎ with Event Management Software

No matter how important your event is to your marketing strategy, it is important that you keep within the budget that has been outlined for the event, but that is easier said than done!

Sticking to your event budget can be challenging. Even the most basic event planning tasks can take up a lot of time and resources.

Promotion and marketing of your event can be expensive. However, using tools such as email marketing and social media as part of your overall plan can make it easy for you to promote your event, even if you only have a small budget. 

Use social media and an event management system to engage your attendees in the run-up to your event as well as during the event.

Event management and automation software allow you to manage your event admin efficiently, saving you time and money, it can also automate your promotional activities, helping you to increase attendance rate and scale up interest and create that needed event buzz prior to your event.

3. Manage Bookings Efficiently

The administrative tasks of event organisation can be highly time-consuming. Sending out invitations, manually taking bookings and payments, dealing with cancellations and refunds, and handling check-ins at the event are easily a full-time job.

This is where an event automation system is worth its weight in gold. 

The Swift Digital event automated management system allows you to send out emails, track open rates and registrations, process payments, send out reminders, process cancellations and refunds, send thank you emails and feedback forms, and more.

All of this is simply and easily managed from one central digital marketing platform, which takes only minutes each day to manage. As the majority of management tasks are completely automated, you don’t need to overburden your marketing team or take on additional staff to deal with the admin, and you’re free to concentrate on putting on a great event.

Download Now -> Free Event Planning Checklist

4. Improve Attendee Experience

Personalise the registration process and maintain effective communication around event changes, updates, promotion etc.

Streamlined Registration Process: Event management software allows attendees to register online quickly and easily. They can access registration forms from any device and complete the process at their convenience, eliminating the need for manual paperwork or long queues.

Personalised Communication: Event management software enables organisers to send personalised emails and notifications to attendees based on their preferences, interests, or registration details. By tailoring communication, organisers can provide relevant information, updates, and reminders, enhancing attendee engagement and satisfaction.

Real-time Updates and Notifications: Event management software enables organisers to provide real-time updates, announcements, and notifications to attendees. Whether it’s changes in the schedule, venue updates, or important announcements, attendees can stay informed and adapt their plans accordingly. This helps to minimise confusion, improve attendee satisfaction, and ensure a seamless event experience.

Agenda and Session Management: With event management software, attendees can easily access the event agenda and customise their schedules based on their interests. They can view session details, and speaker profiles, and make informed choices about which sessions to attend. This empowers attendees to create a personalised agenda that aligns with their needs, maximising their overall event experience.

5. Powerful and Valuable Data

While event management platforms are great at preparing and managing an event, they are also invaluable AFTER an event, a well built event management platform will provide amazing insights after an event that can help you plan and improve future events.

Registration and Attendance Data: Event management software collects data during the registration process, including attendee contact information, demographic details, and registration preferences. This data provides valuable insights into the attendees’ profiles, allowing organisers to understand their target audience better. It helps in segmenting attendees and tailoring event experiences to specific groups.

Engagement and Interaction Metrics: Event management software tracks attendee engagement and interaction throughout the event. It can capture data such as session attendance, session ratings, survey responses, interactions with exhibitors or sponsors, and participation in interactive features.

These metrics help organisers gauge attendee satisfaction, identify popular sessions or activities, and assess the overall success of the event.

Feedback and Surveys: Event management software enables organisers to collect feedback and conduct surveys before, during, and after the event. This data helps in understanding attendee preferences, gathering opinions on specific sessions or speakers, and identifying areas for improvement.

Analysing feedback data can inform future event planning and enhance the overall attendee experience.

Automate Your Next Event to Save Time and Money

Event marketing automation is a proven and effective way of scaling and improving your marketing efforts and is an integral part of your overall marketing strategy.

Swift Digital can help you to develop a professional and creative event automation strategy that will save you time and money and ensure your event is a success. Marketing automation is a powerful tool when used to its full advantage.

For more information on using marketing automation, check out our complete guide to marketing automation best practices.

We have the skills and experience to help you create the perfect event management campaign. Our marketing automation platform ensures everything runs smoothly from initial promotion to final follow-up.

To find out how your business can get the best out of Swift Digital’s platform, contact our team.

Event Planning Checklist

  1. Be on top of every task of event organisation
  2. On the go checklist that you can easily download, print and save
  3. Don’t plan your event without it!
Event Planning Checklist
Download Event Checklist

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6 Key Email Marketing Metrics You Should Be Tracking [Free Email Design Guide] https://swiftdigital.com.au/blog/email-marketing-metrics-made-simple/ https://swiftdigital.com.au/blog/email-marketing-metrics-made-simple/#respond Mon, 08 May 2023 06:34:20 +0000 https://swiftdigital.com.au/?p=4916 The post 6 Key Email Marketing Metrics You Should Be Tracking [Free Email Design Guide] appeared first on Swift Digital.

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5 | Minute Read

Opens, clicks, CTR, CTOR…these are email metrics. The list of what email metrics to track can be never-ending, and so are the acronyms!

Email marketing, like cricket, has a statistic for everything.

The big question is, what do the email metrics actually say about your email marketing and content?

Tracking the email metrics and email campaign metrics is important, but understanding what the numbers and metrics really mean will empower you to make informed, confident improvements to your campaigns and communications.

-> Download Now -> Free Email Newsletter Best Practices Guide

What are the Key Email Marketing Metrics?

The key email and engagement marketing metrics to monitor include; open rates (the number of people who have opened the email versus the total number of recipients).

CTR (the Click-Through Rate, the number of clicks versus the total number of recipients).

Then CTOR (the Click-Through to Open Rate, the number of clicks versus the number of opens).

Email Newsletter Best Practices Guide

  1. Plan and design the best newsletters
  2. Use fonts and colours that complement each other
  3. Write content that your readers want to read
  4. 20 content ideas!
The Complete Email Newsletter Best Practices
Download Guide

But whilst these might be the main email engagement metrics to track, there are other metrics for email marketing that you really need to keep a close eye on.

We take a closer look into the email campaign metrics and email marketing metrics you should be monitoring and look into what the most important metric in email marketing really is.

6 Email Metrics to Track

1. Click-through Rate (CTR)

CTR stands for “Click-Through Rate.” It is an email marketing metric used to measure the effectiveness of an email marketing campaign. Adding a CTA (call to action) to your email will encourage recipients to click through and help to increase your conversion rate. CTR is calculated by dividing the number of clicks an ad receives by the number of impressions (or views) it receives and then multiplying the result by 100 to get a percentage.

A higher CTR indicates that your readers are paying attention to your emails, helping you to meet your email KPI metrics.

2. Click-through to open Rate (CTOR)

CTOR stands for “Click-To-Open Rate.” It is another email campaign metric used in email marketing to measure the effectiveness of an email campaign in terms of generating engagement and interaction with the email content.

This email metric is often ignored and sometimes treated as the poorer cousin to CTR. But this is one email metric you want to track and should be paying attention to.

CTOR is calculated by dividing the number of unique clicks by the number of unique opens and then multiplying the result by 100 to get a percentage.

How to calculate CTOR

CTOR = (Unique Clicks / Unique Opens) * 100

Unique clicks represent the number of recipients who clicked on any link within the email, while unique opens represent the number of recipients who opened the email. CTOR provides insights into the level of engagement and interest among those who actually opened the email.

It is a valuable metric for assessing the effectiveness of email campaigns, as it measures the engagement of the audience who interacted with the email content rather than the entire recipient list. By monitoring and optimising CTOR, email marketers can improve the relevance and impact of their email campaigns.

-> Download Now -> Free Email Newsletter Best Practices Guide

3. Open Rates

An email open rate refers to the percentage of email recipients who open an email out of the total number of recipients who received that email. It is a metric commonly used to measure email campaigns in capturing the attention and interest of recipients.

How to calculate the open rate

Email open rates are typically calculated using the following formula:

Open Rate = (Unique Opens / Emails Delivered) * 100

An email open rate can provide insights into how engaging and compelling the subject line, sender name, and preview text of an email are. A higher open rate generally indicates that the email content and the initial impression captured the attention of recipients, prompting them to open and read the email.

Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP)

Most of you have probably heard about it, but what is it and what does it mean for your emails and email marketing campaigns.

How Does MPP Work? When a user opts into Apple’s MPP they are allowing Apple to fetch and download their email and email’s images (preloading). This will always happen whether or not you have opened or not opened the email.

What Does MPP Mean For Your Email Metrics? With the introduction of MPP it is inevitable that open rates will become less accurate since all email service providers measure email open rates by the number of times that an image pixel is loaded.

Segmentation. This update will also likely affect your email campaign segmentation strategies. For example, if you segment based on email opens, this will no longer be as accurate as before, which means you will have to rethink some of your segmentation strategies.

Geographic Targeting. Geographic targeting is also affected as the Apple update will start to mask each user’s IP address meaning your location tracking for these devices will become less accurate.

It’s probably fair to say email open rates aren’t as useful as they once were. Boo.

4. Bounce Rate

Email bounce rate refers to the percentage of emails that were not successfully delivered to the recipient’s inboxes. It indicates the number of emails that “bounced back” or encountered an error during the delivery process.

How bounce rate is calculated

Bounce rate is calculated by dividing the total number of bounced emails by the total number of emails sent, and then multiplying the result by 100 to get a percentage.

Bounce Rate = (Bounced Emails / Total Emails Sent) * 10

What are High Email Bounce Rates?

Having high bounce rates and low email engagement metrics (opens, CTR and CTOR) in your emails will ultimately alert servers that you are not maintaining your lists and keeping good overall list health and could damage your email sender reputation and email sender score as well as affect your list growth rate.

Maintaining your lists will ensure you don’t get flagged by servers and end up in the junk folder.

5. Unsubscribe Rate

An email unsubscribe rate is an email metric that measures the percentage of recipients who choose to unsubscribe from an email list or campaign after receiving an email. It indicates the number of individuals who actively opt-out or request removal from future email communications.

How unsubscribe rate is calculated

Unsubscribe Rate = (Number of Unsubscribes / Number of Delivered Emails) * 100

6. Social Share

Social sharing is when a recipient of one of your emails opens your emails and chooses to share the email or an element of the email with another person or platform. This can be either via social media channels or can also be classified as somebody forwarding your email.

This is really one of the hardest email metrics that you will satisfy as part of your overall email performance metrics. It is one of the key metrics you should keep an eye on because it is one of the most authentic and transparent of all email metrics.

Not only does it mean they want to be associated with your content, but it is also a chance for you to grow your list and reach a potentially wider audience.

You have a brand advocate in the making!

5 Common Email Marketing Metric Examples

Example 1: Plenty of people opened the email, but no one was really interested in the content. Make sure your subject line accurately reflects your content, you don’t want to be misleading.

Example 2: An exciting subject line has tempted lots of recipients to open, but they’re still not clicking. Engaging, relevant content with strong calls to action will help you out here.

Example 3: You’re crushing it! Engaging subject line, and content tailored to your target audience. What a champ!

Example 4: Your content has garnered plenty of click action, and those who opened it loved it! You might want to consider segmenting and targeting your mail groups, however, as the low open/high click rates suggest you haven’t quite found your niche.

Example 5: Oh, boy! Back to the drawing board. Use these stats to inform future campaigns. Take a look at our subject line guide and tips for writing online content, and give it another shot! Keywords to keep in mind: timely, engaging, relevant.

-> Download Now -> Free Email Newsletter Best Practices Guide

Paying Attention to the Right Email Metrics is what counts!

The email and campaign metrics you choose to monitor come down to what conversion rates and email KPI metrics your organisation has set.  Some organisations may need to pay particular attention to their unsubscribe rate and soft bounces.

Your email service provider should be able to assist you with ideas to ensure you and your team are meeting your email API metrics and keeping your unsubscribe rate low and addressing any hard of soft bounce issues you may have,

Once things for sure, everybody should be paying attention to their spam complaints and ensuring they are providing valuable, worthwhile content and sending communications that are targeted and relevant.

-> Download Now -> Free Email Newsletter Best Practices Guide

The Preferred Email, Events and SMS automation Software For All Australian Government Departments

Swift Digital’s templates help you effortlessly create stunning newsletters using our drag-and-drop email builder.

You can raise engagement with embedded images, videos, and maps, and schedule messages to send at the right time.

All of the unique marketing requirements of government departments are covered, and full compliance with all anti-spam and privacy laws is guaranteed. Swift Digital is also ISO 27001 certified.

Swift Digital is Australia’s leader in marketing automation software, working with organisations like the NSW Government, ATO, and companies like Westpac Bank and Qantas.

Find out why we’re the Australian government department’s number one choice for their professional communications and events.

To find out how your business can get the best out of Swift Digital’s platform, contact our team today.

Don’t forget to share this post!

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Why Email Marketing is Not Dead & Why It Works [Free Email Design Guide] https://swiftdigital.com.au/blog/email-marketing-dead/ https://swiftdigital.com.au/blog/email-marketing-dead/#respond Tue, 21 Feb 2023 01:00:34 +0000 https://swiftdigital.com.au/?p=12203 The post Why Email Marketing is Not Dead & Why It Works [Free Email Design Guide] appeared first on Swift Digital.

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5 | Minute Read

Is Email Marketing Dead?

Is Email Marketing dead? “What do you mean? When did it die?”

 No, email marketing is not dead. Email marketing as a marketing tool is on course to stick around for a very long time. Thanks to the arrival of new technologies, and increasing demand for more sophisticated tools in marketing communications, email marketing isn’t dead.

is email marketing dead

Does Email Marketing Still Work?

Good question, does email marketing still work? 

Critics have claimed that email marketing is dead and sometimes question whether email marketing does still work or is it on its way out.

According to some, email marketing is becoming redundant; people no longer pay attention to what’s in their inboxes. You have probably heard all the predictions, social media is the new email marketing, amongst others. But is it true?

-> Download Now -> Free Email Newsletter Best Practices Guide

Email Marketing Is Not Dead

With the introduction of social media and the dominance it has had on the market, some claimed email marketing is dead and no longer the ‘go to’ tool for marketers to use. 

If marketers and organisations use email marketing best practices, they typically see amazing results.

Experts claim that email is experiencing somewhat of a revival; it is generating a lot of money, and many companies are once again having it feature within the core of their marketing strategies.

Email Newsletter Best Practices Guide

  1. Plan and design the best newsletters
  2. Use fonts and colours that complement each other
  3. Write content that your readers want to read
  4. 20 content ideas!
The Complete Email Newsletter Best Practices
Download Guide

How do we know Email Marketing Works?

13 Statistics that will Make you See why Email Marketing is not Dead

  1. In the B2B industry, email is the third most influential source of information sitting behind only colleague recommendations and industry-specific thought leaders

  2. 59% of B2B marketers say email is their most effective channel for revenue generation

  3. 73% of marketers say email is their number one digital channel for ROI

  4. 61% of consumers say they enjoy receiving promotional emails weekly (don’t overdo it!)

  5. 92% of adults use email, with 61% saying they use it every day- that’s a huge reach

  6. For every $1 spent on email marketing, $44 is made in return

  7. 306Bn emails were sent in 2022

  8. In 2023 nearly 4.3 Billion email accounts in the whole world. 2.7% increase on 2022

  9. 73% of millennials consider email as their favoured method of business communication.

  10. 99% of people check their emails everyday

  11. More than half of all marketers say email is the channel that generates the most ROI for their companies.

  12. 1.7 Billion people check emails on their phones in 2023

  13. Email is one of the most cost-effective marketing solutions

How Has Email Marketing Changed?

Over the years, email marketing has become more and more sophisticated and new demands from marketers have kept the product development teams on their toes.

As a result, email marketing platforms and software have been built with more powerful technology, giving marketers greater flexibility in what they can do with their email communications, seeing an overall increase in engagement levels and a quality ROI.

Some of the more popular email marketing tactics to have come out of the rebirth of email marketing are listed below- go ahead, give them a go.

-> Download Now -> Free Email Newsletter Best Practices Guide

5 Key Email Marketing Tactics To Help You Succeed

  1. Using Personalisation in Email Marketing

  2. Test Your Emails For Success

  3. How to Create Beautifully Designed Emails

  4. Add Polls, Emojis and Feedback Widgets

  5. Maximise Email Deliverability

1. Using Personalisation in Email Marketing

Marketers demanded it, the product specialist gave it to them. Improved personalisation was something that had been discussed over and over, it is often at the top of every marketers wish list.

Personalised emails rely on everything from demographics and birthdays, to purchase/browsing history and a subscriber’s engagement with previous email campaigns. Collecting the right data, and using it correctly, is the key to creating an email campaign that converts them into customers. But knowing where to begin can be difficult, to figure out.

Below are 5 ways to personalise your emails and why it’s critical to your success.  

  • Behaviour-triggered emails (CTR, CTOR, Opens, Clicks etc)
  • Custom field data

  • Location-based emails

  • Identity based campaigns

  • Automate ‘direct’ emails from familiar senders

Embrace Integration

However, personalisation for personalisation’s sake just won’t cut it. Using sophisticated tools such as dynamic content and applying dynamic rules will improve your overall engagement figures.

Another tip here is ensuring that your subject lines are diverse. In other words – shake it up. Or your audience will soon get bored and become blind to your communications that you worked so hard on.

Don’t let your efforts go to waste.

2. Test Your Emails For Success

The rebirth of email marketing has resulted in more accurate testing methods for various parts of your email campaigns.

These include your content, design, fonts, layout, etc – the possibilities are endless.

There are a range of tools you can use for email testing, such as simple A/B testing and heat maps.

A/B testing is great way to test variations of your emails and a heat map is an excellent tool for gaining insight into what’s hot (literally) and what’s not in your email. Heat maps allow you to analyse where the user is more drawn to in your emails, which buttons they click and how long they spend on certain aspects of your email.

3. How to Create Beautifully Designed Emails

The flexibility users have with the design of their emails has made leaps and bounds since the early years of email marketing.

Not only are designers able to create beautiful templates with the introduction of new technologies, including HTML5, but marketers now have even more choice when it comes to building their email templates.

With the introduction of WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors, as well as drag-and-drop functionality for embedding videos, and images, and easy tools for tweaking font and other design elements – email marketing has never been so creative.

-> Download Now -> Free Email Newsletter Best Practices Guide

4. Add Polls, Emojis and Feedback Widgets

Polls can be used to gather quantitative data, while emojis can be used to gather qualitative data. You can ask a question and provide multiple-choice answers for people to choose from. This can be a great way to get feedback on specific topics or to gauge overall opinions.

Using feedback widgets such as article and general feedback takes you one step closer.

Emojis can be used to gather quick reactions from your audience. When using polls and emojis, it’s important to remember that they are not always representative of your entire audience.

5. Maximise Email Deliverability

Ensure your email deliverability components (DKIM, SPF, DMARC) are set up correctly on your sending domain. This is the domain you send your emails from.

Keep a consistent email frequency and email volume when sending emails, this will tell your email service sender that you are reputable and reliable, increasing your chance of landing in the inbox of your recipients.

Maintain good list hygiene. Good list hygiene is maintaining your mail groups and lists that you send your emails. This includes monitoring bounce rates, weeding out the un-engaged and removing invalid emails.

Follow these tips on email deliverability and you will see that email marketing works!

An Insiders Tip

Tips are cool. 

The Preferred Email, Events and SMS automation Software For All Australian Government Departments

So, does email marketing still work? Yes, it does. Email marketing is certainly not dead and has never been more alive and is here to stay.

Make sure email marketing is part of your wider marketing strategy. Use our Email Marketing Best Practices handbook to make sure you master the art of email marketing.

Swift Digital’s templates help you effortlessly create stunning newsletters using our drag-and-drop email builder.

You can raise engagement with embedded images, videos, and maps, and schedule messages to send at the right time.

All of the unique marketing requirements of government departments are covered, and full compliance with all anti-spam and privacy laws is guaranteed. Swift Digital is also ISO 27001 certified.

Swift Digital is Australia’s leader in marketing automation software, working with organisations like the NSW Government, ATO, and companies like Westpac Bank and Qantas.

Find out why we’re the Australian government department’s number one choice for their professional communications and events.

To find out how your business can get the best out of Swift Digital’s platform, contact our team today.

Don’t forget to share this post!

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Best Way to Manage Federal Government Stakeholders [Free Template] https://swiftdigital.com.au/blog/best-way-to-manage-federal-government-stakeholders/ https://swiftdigital.com.au/blog/best-way-to-manage-federal-government-stakeholders/#respond Wed, 07 Dec 2022 22:42:12 +0000 https://swiftdigital.com.au/?p=1312001 The post Best Way to Manage Federal Government Stakeholders [Free Template] appeared first on Swift Digital.

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5 | Minute Read

What’s the Best Way to Manage Federal Government Stakeholders?

Amazing marketing automation platform really works for the public service.

What do the Australian Taxation Office, Hobson’s Bay City Council, and NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet all have in common?

They’ve all used Swift Digital’s marketing automation software to connect with their stakeholders.

That might surprise some readers; however, the same powerful tools businesses use to effectively communicate with customers can also serve government agencies of all shapes and sizes.

Local, state, and federal government departments may not require traditional marketing tools. After all, what good will email marketing do them? They don’t generally need to grow their brands or sell more units

Stakeholder Comms Plan Template

  1. Improve communication on projects
  2. Reduce resources
  3. Make decision-making easier!
stakeholder communications plan template download
Download Template

The public interacts with most government departments on a needs-only basis. Nonetheless, a marketing automation platform remains an important tool for internal and stakeholder communication.

Swift Digital offers a communications solution that includes powerful, simple, and straightforward automation features across multiple communication channels.

One of the features that government users appreciate is the eye-catching templates that allow them to incorporate images, video, maps, and other exciting interactive elements in their emails.

You may be thinking, ‘What difference does it make what a government department’s email looks like?’

That’s simple: it’s to stand out in a crowded communications environment, in addition to projecting a level of professionalism and trustworthiness.

You wouldn’t bother sending a messages if you knew it was going to be left unread.

Yet so many people in the public sector do that very thing. Government organisations can level-up their emails’ looks by using Swift Digital’s marketing automation platform to ensure every message looks professional, with appealing copy and interactive elements.

It’s the best way to seamlessly engage with stakeholders, increase enrolment rates and performance, automate engaging email campaigns, and nurture relationships.

One Swift Digital user from the University of Sydney uses interactive elements to see how well their communications are performing, saying, “The tool is really fabulous to use and makes our communication look professional,” s/he adds, “And importantly, means we can track engagement.”

How exactly can Swift Digital make everything so much simpler?

The all-in-one stakeholder and internal communications platform has been developed and upgraded over the course of 15 years of close collaboration with businesses such as Qantas, Westpac, RACV, and multiple organisations associated with the Australian Federal Government.

Over this time, Swift Digital has helped create countless forms of communication between internal employees, and assisted local, state, and federal government departments in integrating stakeholders into internal communications systems.

Within the context of the stakeholder management platform, you have access to all of the tools that you might require, whether you are organising a series of events, developing sophisticated email marketing campaigns, or writing regular monthly internal and external newsletters. 

The platform makes it easy to:

  • Create stunning custom branded emails from templates

  • Automate common user journeys to save time 

  • Personalise otherwise impersonal messages 

  • Keep employees and stakeholders informed with regular newsletters 

  • Filter databases so people only receive messages relevant to them

  • Keep everyone’s messages and data safe

  • Free up time for other marketing activities

The Preferred Email, Events and SMS automation Software For All Australian Government Departments

The ability to set and forget common user journeys is a time saver.

By automating campaigns, email programmes, and SMS campaigns, you can ensure that your messages reach the right people on a consistent basis, with the desired impact, and without consuming your time. 

Swift Digital is the market leader in marketing automation software in Australia. In addition to email marketing, the platform includes tools for event management, landing pages, surveys, SMS, automation, engagement scoring, and more.

All of these tools integrate seamlessly with your CRM software. 

Swift Digital is a 100% Australian-owned company, and all data is hosted onshore in accordance with Australian privacy laws. We offer live local support, certified data security, and customised integrations.

With simple reporting and analytics, you can keep track of how your messages are performing. Most importantly you can be confident that your data is safe and secure with Swift Digital’s enterprise infrastructure and APP compliance. 

Given the ability to customise and create anything from email marketing campaigns and landing pages to event management and online surveys, it’s no surprise that Swift Digital is used by many of Australia’s largest companies and government departments.

The platform’s wide range of features and integrations ensure your internal and external communications are as effective as possible.

To find out how your business can get the best out of Swift Digital’s platform, contact our team today.

Don’t forget to share this post!

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Top 7 Risks of Hosting Marketing Automation Data Offshore [Free Data and Security Platform Checklist] https://swiftdigital.com.au/blog/hosting-marketing-automation-data-offshore/ https://swiftdigital.com.au/blog/hosting-marketing-automation-data-offshore/#respond Mon, 07 Nov 2022 06:45:54 +0000 https://swiftdigital.com.au/?p=1311982 The post Top 7 Risks of Hosting Marketing Automation Data Offshore [Free Data and Security Platform Checklist] appeared first on Swift Digital.

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5 | Minute Read

Data has become one of the most valuable resources in the modern world.

With increased reliance on technology, we’ve seen more options and complexity available within the cybersecurity world.

With this, comes increased risk as cybercriminals become more sophisticated in their attacks.

That’s why it’s essential to ensure your data is as secure as possible.

We believe one of the first steps in securing your data is to make sure it is hosted onshore.

Although it may be cheaper to host your data offshore, it exponentially increases the risk of your data being breached.

Keep reading to learn more about the top 7 risks you face when hosting your marketing automation data offshore.

Data and Security Platform Checklist

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  2. Ask the right questions to your security team
  3. Highlights internal security procedures you should be looking for
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1. Marketing Automation Privacy Laws

When hosting your marketing automation data in Australia, your provider is required to abide by Australia’s privacy laws.

Here at Swift Digital, we notify all our clients as to what is done with their data and are also legally obligated to ensure its protection. When your data is stored in a cloud that is hosted offshore, it is classified as ‘resident’ in that particular country.

This means that it is subject to that country’s privacy laws and Australia no longer has any jurisdiction over that data.

2. Customer Trust

When a data breach occurs, customers look to their provider to ensure it is being dealt with promptly and efficiently to ensure their data remains secure.

Even when following all the proper steps to secure your offshore data, it’s no secret that security breaches at offshore locations can be harder to detect and harder to deal with.

Therefore, offshoring poses a major risk in terms of your reputation and level of customer trust. If a breach occurs and your marketing automation data is compromised, if you aren’t able to deal with it promptly, your customers can lose faith in you as a provider.

3. Marketing Automation Compliance Standards

If data is hosted offshore, it is not always possible to know what standard your offshore provider complies with.

Global interoperability standards don’t require all countries to follow the same frameworks.

Instead, it allows for bridges to be built across international frameworks to abide by each country’s laws, meaning that your marketing automation data can be used according to that country’s legal framework rather than abiding by Australia’s compliance standards.

4. Reliable Infrastructure

When storing data offshore, you are exposing yourself and your clients to a lack of security protocols on those offshore devices and unreliable systems.

With systems in place such as the Digital Government Strategy, Australia has outlined a defined approach to security systems and infrastructure standards for onshore data.

When these systems are available to you, it’s best to have them working in your favour.

Hence why hosting your marketing automation data onshore is the most reliable option.

-> Download Now -> Free Data and Security Platform Checklist

5. Lower Price, Lower Quality

When hosting your data offshore, you get what you pay for.

One of the main attractions of offshore data hosting is the reduced price.

Businesses have taken advantage of lower labour costs in exchange for reduced performance and increased risk. At Swift Digital we’ve worked to provide our clients with the best rates possible while keeping marketing automation data safe with a trusted onshore provider.

6. Higher Risk

As a stable country with technology and laws in place to safeguard your data, Australia poses much less risk.

Keeping your marketing automation data onshore allows greater privacy and more robust protection for you and your clients.

Not only do the chances of a breach decrease, but the chances of data remaining safe after a breach increases exponentially. For these reasons, many Australian companies have policies in place to ensure data is kept on shore.

7. Lesser Data Integrity

Referring to data integrity as accuracy and consistency of data, an offshore provider will often not have the required resources to maintain the highest level of data integrity.

It can be difficult to access the same standard of technology and human resources we have here in Australia when hosting your data offshore, Meaning that there is not only an increased risk of a security breach, but also an increased risk of your data losing its integrity and accuracy when hosted offshore.

Data is the Lifeblood of Your Business

Data is the lifeblood of your business, which is why it’s essential to ensure it’s safe. At Swift Digital we are an Australian-based marketing automation platform, that prides itself on keeping your data secure.

We use state-of-the-art web servers, and our servers are geo-locked to Australia – meaning Australia’s privacy laws bind your data. Contact us today if you want to learn more about our services and security.

-> Download Now -> Free Data and Security Platform Checklist

The Preferred Email, Events and SMS automation Software For All Australian Government Departments

If you’re looking for an easy way to create engaging emails for your customers or internal stakeholders, check out Swift Digitals drag and drop email composer.

Swift Digital is Australia’s leader in marketing automation software, working with organisations like the NSW Government, ATO, and companies like Westpac Bank and Qantas.

Find out why we’re the Australian government department’s number one choice for their professional communications and events.

To find out how your business can get the best out of Swift Digital’s platform, contact our team today.

Don’t forget to share this post!

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The 4 Types of Marketing Emails and How To Use Them [Free Cheat Sheet] https://swiftdigital.com.au/blog/marketing-emails/ https://swiftdigital.com.au/blog/marketing-emails/#respond Thu, 29 Sep 2022 02:12:42 +0000 https://swiftdigital.com.au/?p=1311975 The post The 4 Types of Marketing Emails and How To Use Them [Free Cheat Sheet] appeared first on Swift Digital.

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5 | Minute Read

It’s general knowledge that the most common type of marketing email is an email newsletter. Most of us receive multiple company newsletters a day, but email newsletters are only one of four pillars of a healthy email marketing strategy.

If you’re wondering what we’re talking about, chances are you haven’t been using email to its full potential. Along with newsletters, there are 3 other forms of marketing emails:

Think of your email marketing strategy as a rectangular dining table; you have 4 legs, each a different type of email but all essential to keeping the table upright, steady, and ultimately effective.

If you begin to fall short in one area, the table gets wobbly and isn’t doing its job as efficiently, and if you leave a leg out altogether, your table is basically useless.

That’s why it’s essential to make sure you’re capitalising the marketing potential of all four types of marketing email.  So what are email marketing’s 4 pillars really all about.

Email Marketing Cheat Sheet

  1. Get yourself out of an email pickle fast
  2. Tips to avoid email emergencies
  3. Avoid common marketing automation mistakes
email marketing cheatsheet
Download Cheat Sheet

Email Newsletter

As mentioned before, this is the most common and popular email marketing campaign. Newsletters examples include helpful knowledge and tools relating to your business, announcements about new services and products, and updates on staff and hiring processes.

Not to get confused with an internal communications newsletter, when using email newsletters as part of your marketing strategy it is essential that it adds value – think how-to’s, products and services, or maybe even a fun game to participate in. Make sure you stay away from puff pieces.

Acquisition emails

This is where we start to go to the next level of email marketing. Moving past your company newsletter, acquisition emails can help you grow your business and acquire new customers.

These are sent to people who have signed up to your mailing list but may have not converted to a customer yet. Think of offers such as 10% off your first purchase, or important information such as “we have free shipping!”

These emails are designed to show the reader the value they receive when they become a customer. They are a great way to push leads through your sales funnel and target readers who have already shown an interest in your business.

Retention Emails

There’s nothing worse than losing customers, which is why retention emails are so important. These allow you to ask for feedback from a customer and maybe find out why they haven’t made a purchase in a while.

Maybe you even want to offer your subscribers something to entice them to come back to your business and make a purchase.

Either way, retention emails are a great strategy to ensure you aren’t losing your hard earned customers. People want two way dialogue with a business.

Gone are the days where you could speak at your customers, now it’s more important to speak to them. Ask for feedback, be curious, and show them what they are worth to your business, that’s what makes a successful retention email.

Promotional Emails

Promotional emails are targeted at your existing customers to entice and encourage them to make a purchase.

Whether you’re looking to drive sales or sign ups, promotional emails need to have a hook to them. Maybe you’re rewarding your engaged customers with an exclusive offer, offering a first chance purchase on a new product, or advertising a last chance item – your customer should get excited when they open this email.

When it comes to promotional emails, less is more. You don’t want to be overcrowding your customers’ inbox with weekly promotional emails, that’s how they become tired and lose their spark. Keep it minimal, that way they’re still sparking excitement for your customers.

Harnessing Email Marketing Automation is the Future

Email marketing can be tricky, especially if you’re not 100% sure what you’re doing. But one of the most essential parts to a successful strategy is to ensure you are utilising all four types of email marketing.

Think back to that table, a successful strategy means you have a stable, high quality dining table. Make sure you have all four legs and that none are falling shorter than the other.

The Preferred Email, Events and SMS automation Software For All Government Departments

If you’re looking for an easy way to create engaging emails for your customers or internal stakeholders, check out Swift Digitals drag and drop email composer.

Swift Digital is Australia’s leader in marketing automation software, working with organisations like the NSW Government, ATO, and companies like Westpac Bank and Qantas.

Find out why we’re the Australian government department’s number one choice for their professional communications and events.

To find out how your business can get the best out of Swift Digital’s platform, contact our team today.

Don’t forget to share this post!

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What Is The Best Email Marketing Software In Australia? https://swiftdigital.com.au/blog/best-email-marketing-software-australia/ https://swiftdigital.com.au/blog/best-email-marketing-software-australia/#respond Thu, 29 Sep 2022 00:31:02 +0000 https://swiftdigital.com.au/?p=200344 The post What Is The Best Email Marketing Software In Australia? appeared first on Swift Digital.

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5 | Minute Read 

The best email marketing software in Australia is the one that delivers a full suite of email marketing (and automation) features, and aligns with Australia’s data and privacy laws.

We know shopping around for an email marketing software can be an overwhelming and confusing experience

Add in having to consider your country’s data security laws (such as the Australian Privacy Principles), and comparing software becomes even more difficult.

So, we’ve made a list of the best email marketing software to use, have pointed out which ones store data in Australia, and have listed out the pros and cons of each option.

Email marketing is amongst some most cost-effective strategies that can help you take your business to the next level.

Whether you are a small business or a large organisation, email marketing can do wonders for you.

For those who don’t know what email marketing is and how it is so effective, email marketing involves sending marketing messages to your loyal customers, website visitors who have opted to receive emails from you, and even to a cold audience.

Marketing messages can be the reward for your loyal customers, announcements about new products and services, exclusive discount offers and anything else your audience might love.

There are several email marketing softwares available out there, that reduce the time and efforts required for email marketing otherwise.

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A List of Best Email Marketing Software Australia

We will be comparing these email marketing software options based on the following variables:

Does the software offer a full suite of features?

  • Does it provide automated journey builders?
  • Is it easy to design fully branded emails?
  • Does it have good reporting and data analysis capability?

Where is data stored?

  • Depending on your business, and whether you operate in the private or public sector, where your data is stored may be of the utmost importance.

Cost to use

Software usually costs money to use. We’ve clarified the cost of each application in the table below. Ranging from free to $$$.

Application All features? Where is data stored? Cost
Swift Digital Yes Australia $$
Campaign Monitor Limited USA $$
Marketo Yes USA & Australia $$$
Mail Chimp Limited USA Free – $
SendInBlue Limited European Union Free – $

Swift Digital - Secure Australian Marketing Automation Platform

Swift Digital is an email marketing software made in Australia, with data stored securely in Australia as well – making it a favourite with the Australian public sector. It’s not just an email marketing software, but offers automation across multiple marketing channels (such as events, SMS, and surveys). It also offers custom training, personable support and 1 on 1 account management.

Top 3 Pros

  • Australian-based (APP compliant, with local, state and federal government customers)
  • Custom, live account management and Australian support
  • Strong automation features across multiple communication channels

Bottom 3 Cons

  • Multi-channel marketing tools means more to learn
  • Live Support only available during Australian working hours
  • As a marketing platform, does not replace the need for a CRM
best email marketing australia

Campaign Monitor - Easy-to-use email marketing for business

Campaign Monitor is a simple-to-use email marketing application hailing from the USA. This software enables you to build beautiful, branded emails, and publish them to managed lists.

Top 3 Pros

  • Comprehensive email marketing tools
  • Easy to use API (accessible integration options)
  • Strong email testing capability

Bottom 3 Cons

Marketo - Complex marketing automation

Marketo is a marketing automation tool suitable for larger organisations looking to send communications in bulk. It offers a full suite of sophisticated automation tools. It’s a bit on the pricier side, with subscription starting at $895USD a month.

Top 3 Pros

  • Easy to use
  • Accessible customer support
  • Quick account set up

Bottom 3 Cons

MailChimp - Accessible, free email marketing software

MailChimp probably needs no introduction. As one of the only email marketing software on this list that offers a Free Account, it’s used by amateurs and professionals alike. There are shortcomings though, mostly related to limited features, and a lack of depth in reporting analysis.

Top 3 Pros

  • Easy to use drag and drop email editor
  • Free to use! (with limitations)
  • Simple, understandable reporting

Bottom 3 Cons

SendInBlue - Free and easy, best for small groups/business

SendInBlue is another affordable and accessible application. Whilst it has most of the features you need without asking you to break the bank, there are limitations for email design. SendInBlue also includes SMS marketing capability, making it a multi-channel communication application. With monthly plans starting at just $25, you may find SendInBlue has enough features to meet your company’s needs.

Top 3 Pros

  • SMS functionality included
  • Free trials available
  • Affordable

Bottom 3 Cons

Pardot - Paid, B2B Marketing

Pardot is a marketing automation solution that helps companies create meaningful connections, generate more pipeline, and empower sales to close more deals.

Top 3 Pros

  • Integrates well with Salesforce
  • Ongoing technical support via email
  • Unlimited access to the Pardot Knowledge Base

Bottom 3 Cons

  • Clunky User Interface
  • Basic Reporting
  • Overpriced

Harness the Power of Email Marketing

When it comes to the best email marketing software Australia, your business needs to weigh up your needs and balance them against your country’s data security laws. 

It’s one thing to commit to a piece of software that has all the functionality and features you desire, but it’s another thing completely to find software that stores your data legally and securely. 

Marketing automation is a powerful tool when used to its full advantage. We hope our comparison helps you find the best email marketing software in Australia for your business and your goals.  

For more information on using marketing automation, check out our complete guide to marketing automation best practices.

Is your business currently using email as part of your marketing strategy? Do you need help with the creation and automation of your emails, or would like to increase engagement?

Here at Swift Digital, we can help you with your email marketing by providing tips on email marketing best practices to make your email campaign a success!

To find out how your business can get the best out of Swift Digital’s platform, contact our team today.

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10 Ways Email Marketing Automation Solutions Help Governments and Organisations to Connect with their Stakeholders https://swiftdigital.com.au/blog/connect-government-stakeholders/ https://swiftdigital.com.au/blog/connect-government-stakeholders/#respond Tue, 19 Jul 2022 02:16:44 +0000 https://swiftdigital.com.au/?p=1311888 The post 10 Ways Email Marketing Automation Solutions Help Governments and Organisations to Connect with their Stakeholders appeared first on Swift Digital.

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5 | Minute Read

Despite the increased adoption of smart devices, social media platforms, and other digital communication technologies, email remains one of the most effective means of interacting with any audience, including local and federal Governments providing essential news and information to citizens and stakeholders.

Since Australian Governments frequently deal with extensive data lists, the mass email system is valuable for delivering various types of content and communications.

There are numerous Government agencies with strong protection and privacy regulations.

They can link their email marketing automation platforms to their CRM.

As a Government communicator, you are mindful that working in the public sector always entails working with a limited budget.

In light of this, you must check the compilation of CRM tools and select which one best fits your organisation. Utilising CRM tools and email marketing software can improve customer experience and drive better critical outcomes for Government agencies.

Email Marketing Cheat Sheet

  1. Get yourself out of an email pickle fast
  2. Tips to avoid email emergencies
  3. Avoid common marketing automation mistakes
email marketing cheatsheet
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10 Benefits of Email Marketing Automation Solutions for the Public Sector

1. Catch People On-the-Go

People live in a fast-paced environment. The days of leisurely coffee intake and newspaper reading are over. As the value of time has increased, more people are receiving news and updates while commuting to work or running personal errands.

According to Statista, there are currently 6.65 billion smartphone users in the world, and over 80% of the world’s population owns a smartphone.

With this data, it is crucial to consider how you will reach your target audience.

Incorporating email marketing into your communications strategy can enable you to contact more citizens regardless of their location.

2. Enables the Implementation of Tailored Marketing Plans

The marketing team will have more time to develop tailored marketing strategies if automation frees up additional worker capacity.

This may mean having more time to evaluate a particular government initiative or program and determine its intricacies, such as creating its target audience persona, building data lists, and conducting omnichannel marketing campaigns.

With email marketing automation tools, you can develop a communications strategy and create automated ad campaigns to attract your stakeholders at all stages, including awareness, interest, desire, and action.

3. Offers Inexpensive Communications

Email is a less expensive marketing method than text messages if you attempt to contact community members via their smartphones. Emails are free for your citizens to receive; however, text messages may incur a cost. Emails can also contain more information than text messages, giving you a more significant investment return.

Even if you use an email marketing platform like Swift Digital to send your emails, you can send emails for a little cost per message, whereas sending texts to the same group can be extremely expensive.

Email marketing is also less costly than internet or print advertising. According to HBR, “Direct email costs more than $600 per thousand pieces. With email, there are almost no costs at all.”

Plus, email has a higher ROI with an average of $36 for every dollar spent—higher than any other channel.

4. Provides Effective Communications

Small business owners identified email marketing as the second-most effective channel for boosting brand awareness.

The public sector’s mission differs significantly from a business seeking to attract and retain loyal customers. But ultimately, your objective is to effectively communicate your message, promote involvement, and evoke community engagement. 

Even if you’re promoting an e-waste collection program or a new food waste initiative, your objectives are comparable to those of a business seeking to sell a service or product.

For this reason, building compelling email communication is not just an excellent tool for enterprises but also for local and federal government agencies.

5. Encourages Actions and Engagement

The best tool to promote action and assist the public sector in achieving its objectives is email marketing automation solutions. The support and actions of the community are not simply influenced by the emails you send.

Create a snappy CTA to encourage the most engagement. Most email marketing automation examples feature a strong call-to-action that motivates people to take action.

Your call to action (CTA) might be as straightforward as “Read More” or as compelling as “Vote to control the future.”

6. Complement Other Marketing Endeavours

Email can be used as a standalone e-blast or newsletter, but it is most effective when combined with other communication tools and platforms.

You may, for instance, utilise an email campaign to promote your agency or group’s blog site or social media profiles. Add a direct sign-up box to your website or a partner’s page to increase your email subscriber list.

Your outreach would be more effective the more content you could cross-promote through various methods and networks.

7. Utilise Email to ask For Feedback

To achieve success, your community must communicate with its citizens. Email automation is an efficient method for soliciting citizen opinion via polls.

For instance, request community opinion on a planned development initiative or summer activities they would want to see at your summer youth camp.

With a well-established email marketing automation flow, you cannot only directly target citizens and provide them with a handy venue for responding, but the very act of requesting their feedback communicates that your government values their viewpoint.

8. Provide Links to Additional Information

According to research provided by Blue Core, 59% of millennials and 67% of Gen Z use their smartphones to check their inbox. This means that if your citizens are reading their email on the go, they may not have the time to read extensive information.

In your email, summarise the essential elements of your correspondence and include a link to your municipal website for additional information.

For instance, if the objective of your email is to announce the start of ski season in your local government area, include links to your tourism website, a link where they can download your route map, and a link to your recreational page to explore schedules and upcoming events.

9. Promote Community Partners and Stakeholders

Another email marketing tip for engaging citizens while developing critical community connections is to send automated emails highlighting partner efforts.

For instance, work with your local public school to send email reminders on school student council voting or work with companies in your neighbourhood to advertise their forthcoming events or outreach programs.

10. Enable Citizens to Establish their Communication Preferences

Modern constituents desire the ability to select what and how they obtain their information.

Adopting an email production and distribution solution with a built-in subscription preference centre allows residents to choose the communications they wish to receive, such as community events, employment notifications, and current news, without manually managing many distribution lists.

Harnessing Email Marketing Automation is the Future

Governments may be able to provide exceptional levels of customer service through automation if they adopt technologies.

Email marketing automation solutions can be a potent instrument for enhancing the effectiveness and calibre of customer contact, freeing up government employees to address people’s issues and improve their lives, and eventually boosting public confidence in the institution of government. 

Government agencies can adopt cutting-edge automated services that give a customer experience similar to that of lean start-ups or top private-sector firms.

These automated services help satisfy the citizens’ growing demand for dependable, user-friendly, and individualised assistance from the public sector.

The Preferred Email, Events and SMS automation Software For All Government Departments

Swift Digital has you covered whether you are sending broadcast emails, business bulletins, preparing corporate invitations or sending critical public messages.

Swift Digital works with over 300 public and private sector companies – including Government AgenciesLocal governmentsUniversities, Healthcare and the Financial sector– to improve their communications and stakeholder management.

Find out why we’re the Australian government department’s number one choice for their professional communications and events.

To find out how your business can get the best out of Swift Digital’s platform, contact our team today on 02 9929 7001.

Don’t forget to share this post!

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Marketing Automation Specialist: The Job Role Explained [Free Checklist] https://swiftdigital.com.au/blog/marketing-automation-specialist/ Thu, 27 May 2021 07:47:36 +0000 https://swiftdigital.com.au/?p=360478 The post Marketing Automation Specialist: The Job Role Explained [Free Checklist] appeared first on Swift Digital.

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6| Minute Read

Are you thinking of working as a marketing automation specialist? 

It’s a good idea; more and more businesses are catching on to the benefits of marketing automation.  

Google Trends shows an ever-rising interest in the topic, and the number of automation tools on the market grows by double-digit percentage points year on year.

Download Now – > Marketing Automation Checklist

marketing automation specialist timeline

Marketing Automation Checklist

  1. Don’t miss a thing when comparing platforms
  2. Break down the sales jargon
  3. An easy way to keep on top of what you need from your provider
Swift Digital Marketing Automation Checklist
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As a result, companies of all sizes require skilled marketing automation specialists to plan and manage automated marketing campaigns. 

If you’re thinking about this exciting career, this post delves deeper into the role of the Marketing Automation Specialist.

Download Now – > Marketing Automation Checklist

What is Marketing Automation?

Marketing automation is the practice of using software to automate mundane, repetitive marketing tasks. Businesses leverage automation to find leads, make sales, and nurture customer relationships. 

Before marketing automation, when a business needed new sales leads, they advertised in the press, TV, and radio. Then, a sales team would make telephone calls, go door-to-door, and post out promotional mail to find new prospects.

Once the sales team identified a prospect, they could begin the process of converting them into a paying customer. 

The internet brings automation

The internet’s revolutionised marketing and sales. Now, B2B and B2C companies can find new sales leads online. Businesses use websites, social media, and online advertising to funnel prospects to web pages to capture their email addresses. 

Once a business has permission to send individuals promotional emails, they use marketing automation software to nurture the prospect into a paying customer.

The customer journey

Imagine your business sells a $3000 consulting package. Potential customers won’t buy the package on impulse; they need guiding through a sales process. 

The goal of marketing automation is said to be the practice of:

Getting the right content
in front of the right customer
at the right time. 

Imagine your business sells a $3000 consulting package. Potential customers won’t buy the package on impulse; they need guiding through a sales process. 

  • First, they need to gain awareness your product exists. 
  • Next, they need to understand what benefits it might bring to them. 
  • Then, they may need some information to help them satisfy any objections they have about the product. 
  • Finally, they might want to see reviews and testimonials from previous buyers. 

In marketing, this is called the customer journey. And at each stage, a prospect needs different information to move them along.

marketing automation specialist stages of a customer journey

Marketing automation performs the day-to-day tasks of delivering the right information to move prospects along the customer journey.

After the sale

Once businesses gain a customer, marketing automation doesn’t stop there. It continues to nurture the relationship by providing after-sales service. And if the company has other products to sell, it can use marketing automation to encourage repeat business and grow revenue.

Download Now – > Marketing Automation Checklist

What is a Marketing Automation Specialist, and What Do They Do?

Marketing Automation Specialist handles the day-to-day duties of running automated marketing campaigns. 

The role of a marketing automation specialist is a varied one. On any given day, they may find themselves:

  • Designing and building automated email marketing flows and email campaigns.

  • Brainstorming with colleagues for fresh marketing ideas.

  • Writing and scheduling upcoming social media posts.

  • Interpreting campaign analytics to measure performance and spot weaknesses. 

  • Creating A/B split tests of marketing assets to improve campaign performance. 

  • Other associated digital marketing duties.

The demand for skilled marketing automation practitioners is growing. Emailmonday says 51% of businesses use marketing automation tools, and 58% say they plan to use the technology in the future. 

Long-term prospects are healthy for people entering the marketing automation field.

What Are The Marketing Automation Specialist Skills To Master?

Marketing Automation Specialists need to develop a wide range of marketing and technical skills and qualities. The role is ideal for people who are both analytical and creative.

A Marketing Automation Specialist needs left-brain analytical skills to interpret campaign performance data. Marketing automation specialists should be comfortable working with spreadsheets and graphs to review and interpret a campaign’s success.  

At the same time, the specialist needs right-brain creativity. They will need to help develop ideas and fresh marketing concepts for campaign creation. 

A marketing automation specialist also needs management and communication skills. They may work alone or as part of a team, and they could be managing multiple projects. They’ll need to hit deadlines and goals set by management.

Marketing Automation Specialist Skills

  • Tech savy

  • Communication skills

  • Content creation

  • Creative writing

  • Data Analytics

  • Marketing automation processes 

  • Project Management and collaboration skills

  • Data-driven decision making

  • Setting up workflows

  • Understanding of the used database

Download Now – > Marketing Automation Checklist

What Marketing Automation Platforms Are Commonly Used?

There are hundreds of marketing automation tools on the market.

Marketing automation platforms combine all the marketing automation tools a business needs into one solution. They are primarily used by enterprise businesses with large marketing teams working across many locations. However, smaller companies use them as well. 

More typically, small businesses combine several tools to manage their marketing automation. The combined toolset is referred to as the marketing stack or Martech stack. 

Tools Commonly Found in a Marketing Stack

Email autoresponder. For sending drip email sequences. 

Social media marketing software. For automating the company’s social media presence. 

Keyword research tools. To identify the words potential customers use to search the internet. 

Content management systems. For creating websites and blogs. 

Marketing analytics tools. For understanding campaign effectiveness. 

Customer relationship management software. For storing customer data.

Swift Digital is the leading Australian-owned marketing automation tool. It helps Government departments and businesses automate email marketing, manage stakeholders, build campaigns and deliver online surveys. 

What Does a Marketing Automation Specialist’s Job Description Look Like?

We’ve compiled the following duties from recent job adverts, to show you the typical activities of a marketing automation specialist.

  • Devise new marketing strategies and campaigns on your own or in a team. 
  • Monitor campaign activity against agreed standards.
  • Build automation maps.
  • Amend email templates.  
  • Develop nurture programs to move customers along the sales funnel.
  • Analyse campaign data to produce insights, and adjust campaigns accordingly. 
  • Ensure the marketing strategy fits the brand’s ethos.
  • Write and schedule social media updates. 
  • Maintain customer segment databases.
  • A/B test marketing materials to improve results.

Marketing Automation Specialist Duties

The duties of a Marketing Automation Specialist are wide-ranging. The size of the organisation they work at plays a part too.  

If you worked at a company with a dedicated marketing team, your duties are likely to be more focused. But if you work for a smaller company, you may find yourself with sole responsibility for all digital marketing automation tasks. 

Along with the marketing automation specialist jobs skills, employers also look for people that have the following qualities. 

  • Work well with or lead a team.
  • Communicate effectively with senior management and stakeholders.
  • The ability to manage several ongoing projects. 
  • Attention to detail with data hygiene.
  • Flexibility to work with other marketing teams or departments as required. 
  • Content management and creation.
  • SEO and SEM optimisation skills

Download Now – > Marketing Automation Checklist

How Do You Become a Marketing Automation Specialist?

There are college courses and university degrees that help prepare you for a job in marketing automation. Many university-level Business and Commerce degrees offer a marketing major.

But if you are already working full-time and want to shift careers, there are online courses to study marketing automation. Here are some examples: 

The University of Sydney — Marketing Automation and Email Marketing Course

Open Colleges offers a range of digital marketing courses.

You can also learn about marketing automation on the usual online learning platforms. There are dozens available, covering beginner to advanced levels, on LinkedIn Learning and Udemy.

Ultimately, marketing automation is a results-driven job. If you don’t have any marketing qualifications but can demonstrate success and experience, you might enter the field on track record alone.

What is The Salary of a Marketing Automation Specialist?

The online salary site Payscale says the average base salary for a marketing automation specialist in Australia is $77,210.

Workers making this salary have, on average, between one and four years of experience. An entry-level wage is approximately $56,000.

Marketing automation is a business practice that’s going through a rapid growth phase.  

Businesses are catching on to the value of marketing automation as an efficient way of increasing revenue. 

The people who work in this field as Marketing Automation Specialists can look forward to a varied, challenging, and rewarding role.

Harness the Power of Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is a powerful tool when used to its full advantage. We hope that you now understand how you can use its marketing automation’s powerful potential to level up your marketing in your business.  For more information on using marketing automation, check out our complete guide to marketing automation best practices.

Is your business looking to leverage marketing automation as part of the wider marketing strategy? Or are you simply looking to change your marketing automation platform?

Swift Digital can share more resources and best practices relating to your industry and how they successfully use marketing automation.

The Preferred Email, Events and SMS Automation Software For All Australian Government Departments

Swift Digital’s templates help you effortlessly create stunning emails and events communications using our drag-and-drop email and event builder.

You can raise engagement with embedded images, videos, polls, article feedback, and emojis and schedule messages to send at the right time.

Government departments’ unique marketing requirements are covered with Swift Digital, and full compliance with all anti-spam and privacy laws is guaranteed. Swift Digital is also ISO 27001 certified.

Swift Digital is Australia’s leader in marketing automation software and event management working with organisations like the NSW Government, ATO, and companies like Westpac Bank and Qantas.

Find out why we’re the Australian government department’s number one choice for their professional communications and events.

To find out how your business can get the best out of Swift Digital’s platform, contact our team today.

Don’t forget to share this post!

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Should You Consider Investing in Marketing Automation? https://swiftdigital.com.au/blog/consider-investing-marketing-automation/ Sat, 22 May 2021 20:00:55 +0000 https://swiftdigital.com.au/?p=20861 The post Should You Consider Investing in Marketing Automation? appeared first on Swift Digital.

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6 | Minute Read 

Is it possible to grow, cultivate and convert leads on a web page while not using marketing automation?

Of course, it is; however, is it the best practice?

At Swift Digital, as well as many other marketing experts we say ‘why would you?’ If you’re on the fence, here are 5 tips to help you take the leap.

5 Reasons Why You Should Consider Investing In Marketing Automation

1. If your website isn’t generating any leads

You’ve set up your contact us page, but you’re still waiting for any prospects to reach out – the only people who reach you seem to be spammers.

People who are still in the investigating stage need to be offered some awesome content and in return, you can ask for a few details.

What you need to be doing is capturing information from clients as soon as they reach your website. An easy-to-use landing page with a call to action generator is a sure-fire way to grab their attention.

2. If your leads aren’t becoming customers

Even though you’re using a landing page and an awesome call to action, your follow-up isn’t quite as smooth as needed.

With a simple software package that’s designed to streamline marketing automation, you can very easily design an email that sets up the direction you want your customer to go in.

This gives you the ability to use the sale funnel you’ve designed, whether that’s direct to a sale, signup or commitment.

3. Your focus has become too wide and nothing gets done properly.

Marketing automation is a great tool, but it is only a tool. It relies on human interpretation, and no one has time to sift through everything. A great platform has all the details in one place, and all the stats just waiting to be manipulated for the better.

4. You have leads and lots of them, but your organisation skills aren’t great.

Having ‘smart lists’ that have customers in segmented categories will make your campaigns run to their best potential.

This makes the customers happier because they only receive emails and social updates on the stuff they like, or rather, relevant material.

This only works when you run a data collection campaign as well.

5. You’re unsure about where your leads are coming from.

ROI (return on investment) is a very important aspect of any business. If you’re spending dollar after dollar on marketing but are unsure what return you’ve received, this is not great! With marketing automation, you can work through this issue and it will give you the data you so sorely need.

Do you need help with the creation, automation, or increasing engagement? Here at Swift Digital, we can help you with your email and social media strategy and can provide tips on email best practices to make your email campaign a success!

To find out how your business can get the best out of Swift Digital’s platform, contact our team today on 02 9929 7001.

Harness the Power of Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is a powerful tool when used to its full advantage. We hope that you now understand how you can use its marketing automation’s powerful potential to level up your marketing in your business.  For more information on using marketing automation, check out our complete guide to marketing automation best practices.

Is your business looking to leverage marketing automation as part of the wider marketing strategy? Or are you simply looking to change your marketing automation platform?

The Preferred Email, Events and SMS Automation Software For All Australian Government Departments

Swift Digital’s templates help you effortlessly create stunning emails and events communications using our drag-and-drop email and event builder.

You can raise engagement with embedded images, videos, polls, article feedback, and emojis and schedule messages to send at the right time.

Government departments’ unique marketing requirements are covered with Swift Digital, and full compliance with all anti-spam and privacy laws is guaranteed. Swift Digital is also ISO 27001 certified.

Swift Digital is Australia’s leader in marketing automation software and event management working with organisations like the NSW Government, ATO, and companies like Westpac Bank and Qantas.

Find out why we’re the Australian government department’s number one choice for their professional communications and events.

To find out how your business can get the best out of Swift Digital’s platform, contact our team today.

Don’t forget to share this post!

The post Should You Consider Investing in Marketing Automation? appeared first on Swift Digital.

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