Tag Archives: deliverability

5 Best WordPress Email Plugins

Posted on July 16, 2019 by Hosting

The post 5 Best WordPress Email Plugins appeared first on HostGator Blog . It’s 2019, and email still rules when it comes to marketing. No other channel can match email’s 4400% return on investment , which means email campaigns earn an average of $44 for every dollar spent. And email marketing is more accessible than ever for businesses and blogs of all sizes.  When people can give you their email addresses right on your site, it makes a lot of marketing functions easier. These include building your list , targeting your email marketing to different segments of your list, and growing your business. All these things are possible with the right WordPress email plugin. The Best Email Plugins on WordPress Right Now Let’s look at some of the most popular options to see how they can help your business or blog. 1. MailPoet MailPoet lets your site visitors sign up for your newsletters, set up automated welcome emails to new list members, build newsletters right in your WordPress dashboard, and automatically notify your list when you publish new posts. Not sure how to design your newsletters? MailPoet has dozens of templates you can use. You can also set up automatic updates on a daily, weekly, or monthly cadence to keep your list members engaged and drive traffic to your site.  A few of MailPoet’s newsletter templates You can segment your list in MailPoet for targeted updates and promotions. If you have subscribers in the EU, you’re covered—MailPoet is GDPR compliant. Deliverability is a plus for MailPoet, too. The team tracks every message sent to optimize your deliverability and open rates. The premium version integrates with WooCommerce for opt-in at checkout, automated personalized recommendations, and easy product promotions. The optional sending service lets you send out as many emails as you wish each day, which can be helpful if your hosting plan caps your daily email traffic.  Pricing: MailPoet Premium plus sending service is free for accounts with under 1,000 subscribers. For larger lists, monthly rates start at $13. For MailPoet Premium alone, site licenses start at $149. 2. Newsletter Newsletter is another all-in-one email marketing plugin that’s consistently popular with WordPress users. Like MailPoet, Newsletter lets you build your list, manage it, and create newsletters in your dashboard. Drag-and-drop tools make it easy to create a good-looking newsletter using media from your site. You can customize Newsletter’s themes for your email campaigns, too.  Newsletter’s drag-and-drop composer tool The free add-ons for Newsletter give you useful extras, like premium content settings that only unlock for subscribers and an automatically generated archive page with a list of all your newsletters.  Pricing: Free. For automation and reporting add-ons and integrations with platforms like Facebook, WooCommerce, and Google Analytics, Newsletter Premium subscriptions start at $65 per year for a 3-site license.  3. SendInBlue SendInBlue goes above and beyond. The Paris-based WordPress plugin gives you GDPR-compliant email building and personalization tools, along with list management, real-time reports on your campaigns, and marketing automation tools. You can choose from more than 70 responsive templates, and then preview your messages to see how they’ll appear on different devices and with different email clients before you hit send.  A sample SendInBlue drag-and-drop email template With a SendInBlue account and a paid plan, you can also build landing pages for your website and manage your marketing, live customer service chat, and Facebook ads all in one place. Advanced segmentation tools let you get granular with your targeting. For example, “contacts who are less than 45 years who clicked links in my last 3 campaigns.” Pricing: SendInBlue’s free plan lets you send up to 300 emails each day and build an unlimited contact list. Paid plans with additional features start at US$25 per month. 4. SendPress With SendPress, you get a lot of features in the free version, including a simple newsletter editor in the WordPress dashboard, customizable templates, email tracking and reporting, unlimited subscribers, unlimited newsletters, customizable opt-in widgets and forms, and scheduled sending tools.  SendPress email editor With a personal paid SendPress plan, you can also get advanced reports with subscriber-level detail, automated post updates for your subscribers, tools for managing bounced messages, and tools for custom HTML-based templates and form fields. With a standard plan, SendPress users get easy spam testing tools to raise deliverability rates. They also get Autocron service from SendPress’ servers to check your newsletter delivery speed and help you get your messages out faster.   Pricing: Free for basic features. Paid plans start at $39 per year for a personal, one-site license. Plans that include all pro modules and services start at $99 per year for one site. 5. Sumo Sumo combines email subscription pop-ups, GDPR-compliant email marketing tools, and e-commerce integrations to help you reduce cart abandonment, increase your typical order value, and convert more customers. Sumo’s free tools include customizable, automated welcome emails for each new subscriber. You can create one-time email blasts as well as pre-scheduled email drip campaigns to create more touchpoints with your list members.  Sumo’s share button tools let your visitors raise your WooCommerce store’s visibility on social media. And Sumo offers free customer support, including one-on-one help when you’re just getting started.  Sumo pop-up form builder Pricing: Sumo’s free plan covers an unlimited number of email subscribers and up to 10,000 emails each month. Sumo’s pro plan ($39 per month) adds A/B testing tools, advanced site visitor targeting, e-commerce design templates, and advanced analytics.  Not Sure Which WordPress Email Plugin to Choose? You can try them all out for free. That way you can decide which interface you like best and which tools you’d prefer to work with. (For security and site management best practices, be sure to uninstall the plugins you decide not to use.) Ready to step up your email marketing game? Start with super-fast WordPress Hosting that includes advanced security tools, free site migration, and a free SSL certificate to protect the information your visitors share with you. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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Customer Appreciation Guide: How to Show Your Customers You Are Thankful For Them

Posted on November 17, 2018 by Hosting

The post Customer Appreciation Guide: How to Show Your Customers You Are Thankful For Them appeared first on HostGator Blog . For many businesses, the holiday season starts with Black Friday. Or, really the season starts far ahead of Black Friday, as you’ve likely spent months planning your holiday sales strategy. Thanksgiving may seem like your last moment of calm before the storm. But don’t fall into the trap of missing the purpose of the day before Black Friday – giving thanks. Spend time reflecting on all the blessings and opportunities in your life, and also remember the people who make your business possible – customers. Without customers – especially loyal customers – your business wouldn’t be able to thrive. Here are some ideas for how to show your customers that you are thankful for them. 1. Do a customer spotlight. One way to show that you are thankful for your customers is to prove that you know who they are. What better way than to talk to your customers personally? Consider doing a monthly customer spotlight to showcase the people who make your business great. Start with your most loyal or frequent customers. Conduct a short interview with them and get permission for a quick spotlight for your website or social media. You can learn valuable insights by meeting your customers, learning more about what they like, and what they expect from your business. Added bonus? The customer spotlight can also act like a review or customer testimonial so potential customers can read about why customers like your business. 2.  Hold a monthly giveaway for customers that subscribe to your email list. One way to show your customers you appreciate them is to reward them for being loyal. Costa Del Mar offers a unique customer appreciation – they do a weekly drawing for a pair of sunglasses, exclusive to their email subscribers. Not only is this a great way to encourage customers to sign up for your emails, but it gives them a reason to stay engaged and encourages them to continue opening your emails. In turn, increasing your email open rate will boost your deliverability and decrease your odds of showing up in a spam inbox. 3. Offer a “next purchase” discount. Before purchasing something online, many customers go to their email inbox first to look for coupons. Check out this example of a next purchase coupon that was sent after a customer’s first purchase on the Dick’s Sporting Goods website. Offering a “next purchase” coupon is a great way to let customers know you are thankful for their purchase and will encourage them to become repeat customers. 4. Send a handwritten thank you note. Who doesn’t love receiving “snail mail”? With the convenience of email, the act of sending a handwritten note in the mail is no longer common place. However, a handwritten note can go a long way to show that you are thankful for someone and took time out of your day to pause and think of them. Imagine how much more surprising it would be to receive a note from your favorite store after a recent purchase! Small businesses can really capitalize on this idea by sending a quick note after a customer visits the store for the first time in several months. Or if a customer makes a large purchase tied to a specific life event. For example, you could send a short note to say: “Thanks for letting us style you for your new job. We wish you all the best and hope you love wearing these new clothes at work!” 5. Host an in-store social event. Throw a party for your customers! Consider a grand re-opening party or a launch of a new product line or menu. A fun event with free drinks and food can encourage customers to come in, chat with you, and see new products for the holiday season. Try to host this event early in the season before your customers get busy. Or, better yet, as a new year’s party! Either way, make the event about appreciating our customers rather than sales. Offer free giveaways for attending, early launch discounts, pre purchase exclusives, and more. If the event is about fun and appreciation, sales and customer loyalty will follow naturally! If you don’t have a storefront, you can still take advantage of the event idea. For HostGator’s 16th birthday, we hosted an online event celebrating our customers and our success as a small startup. To honor the “moment” we held a birthday sale celebrating and supporting customers. You can create an online event for anything – consider a cyber sale, preorder event for a new product launch, celebrate your new website redesign, or simply create a customer appreciation sale. 6. Make their to-do list shorter. Holiday shopping can be overwhelming. It seems like there are never enough hours in the day to accomplish everything on the to-do list, especially when it comes to finding the perfect gift for everyone. You can show your customers that you appreciate them by making their shopping process easier. Maybe you can offer free in-store gift wrapping. Or offer call-ahead curbside pickup for orders purchased online.  Or simply have extra staff on hand during busy hours of the day so customers spend less time in line. You can even create an online gift guide so customers can quickly shop by categories based on who or what they are shopping for. 7. Tell them. This may seem like an obvious one, but sometimes we get so caught up in “doing” that we forget to simply say – “Thank you. I appreciate you. You’re important to me.” Customers that feel appreciated and valued will always find ways to return to the businesses that treat them well. Create a greeting of appreciation that your staff can use when interacting with customers. And always tell your customers “thank you” when you can. What do you think? Has a business or store made you feel appreciated in a unique way? What other “ways to say thank you” would you add to this list? If you try one of these ways to say thank you, email us at hg-blog@hostgator.com and let us know how your customers responded. Oh. And thank you for being part of the HostGator community! Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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