Post Content
Wolfpack Media
The right decision for your social media marketing strategy
BIGGEST MISTAKE Young Designers Make
Post Content
How to Clean Up Your Desktop Icons for a Productive and Streamlined Workstation: 10 Helpful Tips
Digital clutter can leave you feeling stressed, make your devices slow, and create roadblocks throughout your workday. That’s why it’s essential to maintain a clean desktop.
If your digital space is organized, you can quickly accumulate important documents, projects, and pictures. This can be especially helpful if you use the same computer for both your professional and personal life.
The good news is that keeping your computer’s desktop clean and organized is easier than it seems. This post gathers tips to help you create a clean, organized desktop that supports productivity.
10 Computer Desktop Organizing Tips
These organization tips will help you turn a cluttered desktop into a clean and productive workspace. Don’t hesitate to test different methods to see what works best for your typical workflow!
1. Create a folder system.
Be honest: How many files do you have on your desktop right now? 10? 20? 100? Have you lost count? If your desktop looks anything like the image below, start by moving everything into one folder to clear the air.
Creating a Folder on a Mac
To create a new folder on a Mac, right-click on your desktop and select “New Folder” from the menu.
You can also press Shift + Command + N. The folder will appear on your desktop instantly.
To change the folder’s name, double-click on “untitled folder.” Then, you’ll be able to edit a text box with a new name.
Creating a Folder on a PC
To create new folders in Windows, right-click on your desktop.
Select New > Folder from the menu or press Ctrl + Shift + N.
To rename the folder, click on it, enter a new name, and then press Enter.
Once you have your folders created, you can divvy up your files. How you organize your folder system will depend on your specific role.
For example, I frequently write blog posts containing many visual examples. To simplify the process and keep a record of what I’ve included in the past, I’ve created two folders: “Current Examples” and “Example Archive.”
When I’m rounding up examples for a new post from the web, I drop them in the “Current Examples” folder. This way, I can easily locate them when I write the post. After scheduling the post, I move the images to the “Example Archive” folder to make room for my next post.
2. Choose a naming convention for your files.
One of my biggest worries about implementing a folder system was that it would be too difficult to find my files once I got organized — ironic, right?
Between documents, screenshots, and other files for the multiple posts I work on, there are a lot of different items I’m dropping into folders. Files can get lost in the shuffle. That’s why I started using a naming convention to organize my files, which would allow me to locate them quickly.
Choose a naming convention for types of files, topics, projects, or any other way that makes it easy to search for them. For example, when I’m creating files for HubSpot Marketing Blog posts, I use this naming convention:
MKTG-Draft-OrganizeDesktop
MKTG-Screenshot-OrganizeDesktop
MKTG-GIF-OrganizeDesktop
This way, it’s easy for me to find files by typing Command + F (Mac) or Control + F (Windows) and typing in the naming convention to narrow my search.
This way, I don’t have to click into my perfectly organized, but likely very full, folders to find exactly what I need. Instead, I can search for and immediately find files using my naming convention.
If you’re on Windows, search through your files faster by selecting the correct category. You can use the search bar at the bottom of your screen on Windows 10 or click on the search icon if you have Windows 11.
Once the search window opens, you can select one of the tabs underneath the search field. The documents tab will narrow down your search. You can also include the keyword “documents” in the search field.
MacOS has a similar feature. When typing a search term in Spotlight or a Finder window, you’ll see a + button next to the search field.
Click this button, and you’ll access different search criteria. You can specify the type of file you’re searching for or the file extension.
3. Experiment with a sectioned wallpaper.
Want to take your folder organization a step further?
While your desktop wallpaper is a great place to display a photo of your dog or your latest vacation, a ton of wallpaper options can help you stay organized. These wallpaper designs — in combination with your folder system — make it easy to corral specific sections of your work.
To get you started, we’ve included a few options below.
[Download here via Wallpaper Safari]
[Download here via Moritz Fine Designs]
Alt Text: Lifehacker Organized Wallpaper Design
IMG name: clean-desktop-sectional-wallpaper-4
I like using a sectioned wallpaper because it helps you visualize your workday. I’m partial to using Kanban boards to track my different projects, and I’ve found that using a sectioned wallpaper is a great way to keep organized.
For instance, you can create a wallpaper with different columns for your backlog, upcoming projects, WIPs, tasks you want to prioritize, and finished work.
I’ve also seen people use sectioned wallpapers on different days of the week to keep track of their next due date. I highly recommend this approach if you struggle with deadlines!
4. Use a Chrome extension to pre-organize your screenshots.
Screenshots are one of the biggest contributors to desktop clutter. When you capture a screenshot on a Mac (Command + Shift + 3) or PC (Alt + Print Screen), the image is saved directly to your desktop.
If screenshotting is something you do a lot, you’ll notice that it doesn’t take long to make a mess of things.
To avoid having your screenshots automatically saved to your desktop, you can use a screen capture tool such as the Awesome Screenshot extension for Google Chrome.
Not only does this tool provide you with more advanced screen capture capabilities — annotations, selective capture, delayed capture, etc. — but it also aims to simplify the way you store your shots.
With Awesome Screenshot, you can manually choose where you’d like to save your file or create an account where you can save files for specific projects. Here’s how it works.
1. Capture an image by clicking the extension and selecting an option from the menu.
2. Select your desired saving option from the right menu. For example, if you’d like to save the image to a project’s folder on Awesome Screenshot, select Save on Awesome Screenshot at the top.
3. Insert a name for your file and identify which project you’d like to save it to by selecting an option from the menu.
4. To access your file, visit the appropriate project folder in your account dashboard.
If you’re on Windows, you can also automatically save your screenshots to OneDrive. Instead of going to your desktop or a customized folder, your screenshots will go to a cloud storage account. This solution doesn’t use any storage on your device and allows you to access your screenshots remotely.
Here is how you can configure this setting:
Click on the OneDrive icon in the bottom right corner of your screen.
Look for the OneDrive Help and Settings icon.
Go to Settings, then Account.
Scroll down to Screenshots. You’ll have the option to save screenshots to the cloud automatically.
MacOS doesn’t have a similar feature, but you can adjust where your Mac saves your screenshots by opening the Screenshot app. Go to the Options, and you’ll be able to choose where your screenshots go.
5. Get inspired by a motivational wallpaper.
Not a fan of the sectioned-off wallpaper? No worries. Other wallpaper options can give you the motivation to stay organized.
According to psychologist and motivation expert Jonathan Fader, inspirational or motivational messages often motivate us to try harder.
“There’s a little bit of implicit coaching that’s happening when you’re reading it. It’s building that self-efficacy in that kind of dialogue that you’re having with yourself,” he explains.
So if you’re looking for a little coaching to help you stay organized, adding an inspirational message to your desktop can serve as a friendly, daily reminder.
Want to create your own motivational wallpaper? Follow the instructions below to learn how to use Canva.
1. Click “Use custom dimensions” in the top right-hand corner and add your dimensions. Some of the most common desktop wallpaper resolutions are 1024 x 768, 1280 x 1024, and 1920 x 1080.
2. To add a background image, click on Elements > Photos. You can also choose a plain color or pattern background by selecting Background.
3. Select a photo and adjust the size using the resizing points around it.
4. To add text, click on Text and choose a heading or template from the options listed. Adjust the template text by adding your quote of choice. (I chose a quote from Barbara Hemphill on clutter.)
5. To save your creation, click the Download button in the top right-hand corner and select Image: high quality (PNG).
To set this image as your wallpaper on a Mac or Windows computer, refer to the following tutorials:
Changing wallpaper on Mac.
Changing wallpaper on Windows.
Changing wallpaper on Chromebook.
6. Invest in a storage solution.
If you’re constantly managing and organizing a lot of files, invest in an application like Dropbox to manage your assets better.
The file-hosting service Dropbox offers cloud storage and file synchronization. Users can create a folder on their computers that syncs with the service, making it easy to access the content no matter what device you’re using.
Rather than dragging everything onto your desktop, simply store it in Dropbox, where you can quickly and easily search for it whenever you need it.
You can also share folders with other users to create a central space for your shared files. Having others wait on you to locate a specific file prevents bottlenecks.
For Mac users, syncing content to your iCloud Drive is easier to back up important files. You can save time when decluttering your desktop since all your files and folders will remain in the cloud. Plus, you can sync different Apple devices and store all your documents in one location.
Microsoft OneDrive offers a similar service for Windows users. You can activate automated syncing to have your computer back up all your files to the cloud. The free basic plan includes 5GB of storage, but you can upgrade with a paid subscription.
If you use productivity apps like Microsoft Word, Excel, Publisher, and more, you should know that Microsoft offers a bundle that includes the 365 suite and 1TB of cloud storage. Plus, you can link to files stored in OneDrive in your emails instead of uploading attached files.
Google Docs can be a great fit for those who often share files with other team members. You automatically get 15GB of free storage with your Google account and can easily upload important documents to share or access them remotely.
Clean desktop. Organized files. It’s a win-win for everyone.
7. Schedule a weekly or monthly cleaning.
As shown by the example we used back in the first tip, it’s easy for your desktop to get kind of, well… scary.
To ensure that you’re keeping up with desktop maintenance regularly, set a recurring event on your calendar to remind you to get rid of anything unnecessary. This can be a weekly or monthly event, depending on how much damage you typically do.
Alt Text: organizing desktop calendar event
IMG name: clean-desktop-calendar
Besides keeping your desktop clean, scheduling weekly cleanups ensures you don’t keep potentially sensitive documents longer than you have to.
Data breaches went up by 37% between Q3 2021 and Q3 2022. It’s a serious threat. A lost or stolen device can jeopardize personal records and valuable IPs.
You can significantly mitigate this risk by getting into the habit of deleting files you no longer use every week.
8. Delete or pin app icons.
Did you know that businesses often use over 200 apps? It’s easy to end up with a cluttered desktop when your employer requires you to use so many different tools.
You can take control of your app icons by installing Toggl and creating a free account. It’s a productivity app that tracks your time on different tasks. There is a built-in feature that will tell you the time you spend on specific apps and software so you can boost your productivity.
After using Toggl for a couple of weeks, you should know which apps you use the most. If there are apps you didn’t use at all, it’s time to delete their desktop shortcuts.
Once you know which apps you use the most, pin them to your taskbar or dock:
On Windows 10 or 11, click Start, look for the app, and right-click on it. Select More and Pin to the taskbar.
On Mac, open the Shortcuts app. Click on a shortcut, select File, and Add to dock.
9. Customize your icons.
You don’t have to limit yourself to the default icons on your computer. You can use clean desktop icons to make important files and documents stand out or create a color-coded organization system.
Here is how you can change icons on Windows:
Right-click on the desktop icon you want to change.
Click on Properties, then Shortcut.
Look for the Change Icon.
You can look through the Windows icon and choose one that stands out or select Browse to import icon files.
With some graphic design skills, you can download icon packs or make your own icons. You’ll need .ICO files in 16 x 16, 24 x 24, 32 x 32, 48 x 48, and 64 x 64.
Changing icons is also available on Mac:
Select the file or document.
Select File and Get info on the menu bar.
A new window will open. Click on the custom icon at the top.
Click on Edit and Cut.
10. Organize your desktop with automated flows.
Why do all the hard work when you can automate your weekly desktop cleanup session?
You can use tools like Power Automate Desktop on Windows and Mac Automator on macOS to automate desktop organization.
These tools allow you to create automated flows. If you set file names, formats, or creation dates as variables, it’s possible to create flows. With these file flows, your computer will automatically move specific files to a folder, replace their default icon with clean desktop icons, and even delete old ones.
You can run an automated flow by launching it via a desktop icon or create a weekly routine in the Windows Task Schedule or Mac Automator Tool.
Note: This method is best for advanced users. With this helpful video tutorial, you can start creating organizational flows with Power Automate Desktop or learn how to organize your desktop with Mac Automator.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in December 2015 and has been updated and for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.
How to Build a Market Development Strategy [Free Planning Templates]
Your business is getting by just fine – but still, the questions remain: Could you be selling more? Is there an opportunity to increase market share? Is there any way you could further your product diversification efforts?
Companies hoping to increase revenue can do so in many ways — such as increasing advertising budgets, expanding sales teams, and investing in product development. However, one often overlooked way to strengthen your gross sales is a purposeful and expertly executed market development strategy.
In this article, we’ll explain what market development is and how you can employ it to grow your business. Then, we’ll take a look at some examples of market development strategies that work for top businesses today.
Each category rests upon two axes — one for market and one for risk. A company can expand its efforts into new or existing markets. Each poses more or less risk to the business.
Market Penetration
When businesses want to expand within their existing markets with low risk, they might attempt a market penetration strategy.
In this scenario, TAM increases because by offering a new product or service, a business can effectively increase the maximum amount of revenue it can attain from its existing customer base. A product launch is an effective way to execute this strategy.
Product Launches
A company may release new iterations of a product they already sell successfully within the market. These iterations could include an improvement to the product that makes it a better fit for customers’ needs, an improvement to the performance of the product, or any other changes you can reasonably market as added value.
The purpose of launching a new product is to generate excitement and buzz around the brand to increase sales.
Product Development
A more high-risk way to expand within an existing market is through product development. Even with its risk, make no mistake — this market development strategy can be rewarding.
Developing new products is a delicate process. Businesses should be keenly aware of their market, as market interest is a driving factor for product development.
If the audience isn’t receptive due to a lack of education about the product, a poor marketing campaign to promote the product, or even poor timing of launching the product, this strategy can be difficult to execute. However, companies that have failed at developing new products usually have in-depth learnings to apply to their next market development strategy.
When it comes to creating new products, consider the category of your product. Entering a space with many competitors will be a different experience than building something in a disruptive category.
“If you launch a product in an existing category with existing competitors, you’re playing by their rules and competing on their terms,” says Adrienne Joselow, director of product marketing at HubSpot. “If you instead launch a disruptive product that changes the category, you’re competing on new benefits where you clearly win — you change the game.”
Beyond making new products, product development comes in many forms. Here are a few examples.
Rebranding
If a business has been around for a long time or has been in hot water, it’s possible that the market has become disconnected from the brand. This can happen due to a lack of advertising around the brand itself, outdated positioning of a product, or distrust within the market.
Companies can rebrand themselves to reconnect with their existing market while positioning themselves as a viable option among the competition.
Adjusting the packaging of a product, offering a new size, flavor, or color, or even changing the name can help a company rebrand a product to have a better position within its existing market.
Repricing
Another way to gain traction within an existing market is for a business to make its products more accessible or desirable through its pricing.
Repricing doesn’t necessarily mean lowering prices, although that is one way to execute a product development strategy. It could mean shifting the brand within the market to showcase value or luxury, thus justifying a rise in prices to capture those consumers.
Market Development
It’s possible to take a less risky approach when expanding into new markets. To develop a market, a business may offload some of the risks.
In this example, TAM increases because a business is adding more people to its target market — thus being able to service new customers without investing in a new product line. Here are a few ways a business can develop a new market.
Geographic Expansion
Research can reveal markets that are suitable for a business to thrive within based on where the business currently operates. Geographical expansion can work for both brick-and-mortar as well as online businesses.
Franchising
Giving individual business owners the right to use the brand and trademarks associated with a company is another way to expand into a new market without high risk.
In franchising agreements, the franchisee usually pays an upfront fee to the franchisor to obtain the rights to operate the business.
Diversification
Occasionally, a business may step out of its normal operations and market to create a product for a completely different industry and market. For this reason, diversification can present a major risk to the business, but it can be very rewarding if it’s carried out effectively.
Similar Product Diversification
A company may realize that the raw materials or byproducts of the goods they sell can be repurposed into a completely new product that can be marketed to a different audience than the one currently purchasing its products.
Unique Product Diversification
Rather than using existing products, a company may take a completely unique approach to penetrate a new market by offering a product or service that is different from anything offered in its industry.
The decision of when and how to develop your existing market should be a methodical process. Just because your business has struck lightning once does not mean your new expansion plan is a guaranteed success.
Because of that reality, follow these steps and use these resources to determine if you should develop your market, how it should be developed, and whether or not the initiative is successful.
Step 1. Research your development opportunities.
It’s always tempting to go after the hottest trends — whether that means adding more areas of focus to your consulting business or adding more items to your restaurant menu.
However, before you spend time, money, or resources on developing your market based on trends, take these steps to determine if the expansion is worthwhile.
Review Your Buyer Personas
Featured Tool: HubSpot Buyer Persona Templates
When expanding your market, you face the potential need for net new or revised buyer personas, which are semi-fictional representations of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers.
Consider the motivations, demographics, and backgrounds of your new target market to help you decide whether or not the development initiative makes sense.
Research Your Market
Featured Tool: HubSpot Market Research Kit
Understanding your hypothetical positioning in a market is key before attempting to enter it. To that end, conduct market research exercises like Porter’s Five Forces Analysis or a SWOT Analysis to determine your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, the threat of substitutes, or other attributes compared to competitors in this new market.
Additionally, you’ll want to calculate market penetration before moving forward with any plans to expand.
Survey Your Customers
Featured Tool: Customer Satisfaction Survey TemplatesImage Source
If you’re hoping to expand your current product line to generate more revenue from existing customers, make sure your intended expansion will be warmly received. Asking yourself why this development makes sense coming from your organization is a good first step.
However, talking to and surveying your customers to see if your proposed expansion is beneficial to their lives is a necessary proof point before expanding your offerings as a business.
Step 2. Set your growth goals.
A successful market development will come with added sales, profit, employees, customers, products, users, locations, or some combination of these criteria.
Because there’s so much on the line, develop goals for which facets of your business you intend to grow, in addition to what your growth goal for each criterion is.
For example, by adding one more location, you may set the following growth goals:
Increase customers by 90%.
Increase revenue by 100%.
Double annual profits after recouping the initial investment.
Increase employee headcount by 20 people.
During this stage, you should also consider the requirements needed to help you hit your growth goals, such as initial funding, tools, and software to help you get the initiative successfully up and running.
Lastly, the most important metric to measure before attempting to expand or develop your market is ROI. In this step of the process, compare the upfront costs of developing your market as intended with the projected revenue numbers of a successful expansion.
If the ROI is not encouraging enough to move forward with, you may need to go back to the drawing board and determine a new growth strategy.
Featured Tool: Growth Strategy and Planning Template
Using the template above, outline your growth goals and strategy to lay the foundation for your market development initiative. This template will help you plan out the steps necessary to achieve your goals and help you determine whether or not they are realistic for this project.
Step 3. Create your marketing plan.
An increased market means an increased need for effective marketing.
To generate demand — or to capture existing demand in your market — make sure your marketing plan is up-to-date and reflective of the initiatives it will take to grow your market share to its desired level.
You’ll also need to make sure each of your offerings is differentiated. Customers should know what makes your products different from each other and from other products in the market.
“Messaging, messaging, messaging,” says HubSpot’s Adrienne Joselow. “Create a narrative that establishes a sense of urgency. Lean into what makes your product special — and how you can help your customers get that magic.”
Featured Tool: HubSpot’s Marketing Plan Template
Document your marketing plan supporting your market development with the template above, and make adjustments to it as needed to ensure you’re reaching your market in an accurate, appealing, and consistent fashion.
Consider all of the following initiatives and how they’ll play a role in generating more revenue in your newly developed market.
Email Marketing
Will you communicate with existing prospects via email to alert them of your initiative? Do you have a list of saved contacts who expressed interest in what you sell, were unable to make the purchase, and might now be able to purchase from you?
Social Media
Do you have organic and paid initiatives to generate buzz and spread the word to grow awareness on social media?
Local Marketing
If you’re developing your market on a regional level, are you working with local publications, PR agencies, or advertising platforms to appeal to nearby potential customers?
Content & SEO
Do you have website and blog content planned to capture the interest of website visitors hoping to learn more about what you’re selling?
When building your blog, consider the range of topics you’ll cover. If you cover many subjects, have experts devoted to managing different sections of your content, suggests HubSpot Marketing Manager Clint Fontanella.
“Group your content together so that an expert in one or a few related topics can focus their efforts on growing that type of content,” Fontanella says. “This way, they can pay closer attention to the nuances of that SERP landscape and tailor the content to the specific needs of the audience.”
Step 4: Go to market.
The time has come: Your research and planning are complete, and you’re ready to formally enact your development strategy, whether it’s opening the doors of your new location or making your new product available for purchase on your website.
But before you start collecting revenue, there are a few final steps to take — specifically, aligning your team on the best way to conduct this go-to-market launch.
Go to market successfully by managing three imperative internal tasks, all of which can be done with this Product Go-to-Market Kit:
Campaign Planning
The campaign plan should be a one-stop shop for anyone who has a stake in the success of this project. It should provide a general purpose for the market development project in addition to the tactical and strategic elements team members need to adhere to in order to see the project go off without a hitch.
Sales Planning
The sales plan should provide more specific insights for the sales team – especially regarding overall projections, team or individual goals, and strategies for how the organization intends to meet these goals
Team Email Updates
For the company at large, particularly for individuals who need to be informed but may not have set tasks to complete, team email updates are a staple of communication during market development.
This messaging should contain a status check for the launch timeline and outstanding tasks, and any notifications the company should be aware of during their day-to-day work.
Featured Tool: HubSpot Go-to-Market KitImage Source
To centralize your internal planning and communication efforts during your market development process, use the HubSpot Go-to-Market Planning Kit.
Step 5: Analyze your results.
Once you’ve taken the necessary actions to develop your market, the work has only begun. After launch day, you’ll need to be sure customers are satisfied, products and services are high-quality, employees are retained, and, most importantly, goals are met.
Start collecting sales data as soon as possible so that you can begin analyzing whether or not you’ll meet your projections. If not, you may have to determine a plan to either adjust your goals to become more realistic or adjust your strategy to ensure your goals are met.
Once data is available, make sure you’re presenting your findings accurately and clearly so that stakeholders can fully understand what the results are, how you achieved them, and what the next steps of your market development strategy are.
“Test and iterate on your way to launch, through launch, and beyond. Stay agile. Figure out what works, what doesn’t, and what could be with adjustments,” Joselow advises. “Don’t be afraid to pivot.”
Featured Tool: Marketing Reporting Templates
Available in PowerPoint, Excel, and Google Drive, these templates will help the project driver communicate the results of your market development strategy to your team.
The Benefits of Building a Marketing Development Strategy
It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of extending to new markets. However, to be successful, you must innovate with intention and organize the chaos from the outset.
“Marketing’s job is never done. It’s about perpetual motion,” states Beth Comstock, Former CMO and Vice Chairman of GE. “We must continue to innovate every day.”
With thorough planning, you can create a robust strategy that can better take advantage of new and emerging opportunities.
Other benefits of refining your marketing development strategy follow.
You can get an edge over competitors.
Creating a market development strategy that attracts a new audience means you may end up the only supplier in the game.
By getting creative and adjusting your marketing to prove a fit for new buyers, you’ll have less competition and more market share before other producers wise up to what you’ve accomplished.
You’ll reduce risk through preparation.
One of the known risks of moving to new markets is the unpredictability of reactions to your offerings. Knowing this, your market development strategy can include tactics that pave the way for success. One effective tactic to try is A/B testing. This presents two variations to your target audience, tracks the results, and determines which variation is more effective. Surprisingly, only 17% of marketers use landing page A/B tests to improve conversion rates.
One example of A/B testing beyond the landing page could be creating more than one billboard design to present in new geographic locations. Some communities react more favorably to reds vs. blues, or straightforward ads vs. clever ones.
Having a few prepared as part of an A/B strategy to analyze the results can provide insights into how best to invest future marketing dollars in that region.
You can brave the unexplored.
Confidently open doors for new opportunities to develop by folding an experimental budget into your market development strategy. Making a safe space for leaning into creative or unorthodox ideas is smart innovation toward a big payoff.
Baking in the financial risk from the beginning enables you to control financial losses and take bigger, bolder leaps.
Market Development Strategy Examples
1. Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s — Geographic Expansion
Although these two companies started as separate restaurants — Carl’s Jr. on the west coast and Hardee’s on the east coast — they merged in the late 1990s to become one company under two names.
From a high-level perspective, this might seem like a branding and marketing nightmare, but within their respective geographic markets, the different names have been successful.
Carl’s Jr. took the opportunity to acquire Hardee’s, thus expanding the burger chain across the country, becoming one of the largest burger chains in the United States.
2. Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen — Market Penetration
Sometimes, a market development opportunity can appear when you least expect it. That was the case with Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen.
The company’s brand was so well-integrated into its marketing operations that a simple tweet in response to Chick-Fil-A prompted a tumultuous beef over which brand had the best chicken sandwich.
Once the Tweet gained traction, Popeyes quickly capitalized on the opportunity to sell more of a product they had recently launched.
Although some logistics issues caused supply and demand imbalances, the brand was able to maintain a stronghold on the market once the sandwiches were back in stock.
In Q2 of 2021, Popeyes was still running TV ad campaigns for the chicken sandwich — more than two years after the incredibly successful product launch. By Q3 of 2022, however, the buzz around their chicken sandwich buzzed off. They shifted their strategy to become more convenient for customers to access, and to create a more consistent experience for those using online ordering.
This is a solid example of what our CTO and Co-Founder Dharmesh Shah meant when he said, “Many companies have forgotten they sell to actual people. Humans care about the entire experience, not just the marketing or sales, or service. To really win in the modern age, you must solve for humans.”
Popeyes plans to add 200 more locations split between the U.S. and Canada.
3. The Lash Lounge — Franchise
Since 2010, The Lash Lounge has been scaling its presence across the United States through franchising. As of 2020, the company has grown to 108 locations, most of which opened around 2019.
Franchising helped this company expand into new markets with relatively low risk. The Lash Lounge team trains the new franchisees on their techniques and immerses them in the culture to create one cohesive team that doesn’t feel disjointed.
4. Unilever — Diversification
Today, we know Unilever as the parent company of some of the most notable brands like Dove, Breyers, and Hellmann’s. However, the company initially went into business selling soap.
After realizing that the ingredients for making soap shared similarities with those needed for making margarine, they diversified and expanded into a new market with a new product. Over time, Unilever created and acquired new brands in the soap, cosmetics, butter, and ice cream industries, essentially diversifying its product line and market.
Developing Your Market
Before you follow the latest trend in marketing, take a moment to analyze your strategy thus far to forge a path that will yield success.
By planning a market development strategy, you’ll have the opportunity to assess your company’s risk tolerance and understand where your business stands within the market. You can then turn your market development idea into a reality.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in November 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
15 Best Bulk Email Services for 2023
You’ve seen that email marketing works wonders for your business. So you doubled down and built a massive email list. However, you’ve now hit a roadblock. You can’t send bulk emails through providers like Gmail or Outlook.
Enter: Bulk email service providers.
These bulk email services are equipped to manage large volumes of email while offering features to track performance. Read on to discover the key features to look out for in a bulk email service and the best bulk email services in the market.
Table of Contents
What is a bulk email service?
Reasons to Send Bulk Emails
Best Bulk Email Services
Top Features in Paid or Free Bulk Email Service
A mass email service helps you reach a large audience and nurture them one email at a time. In addition to getting direct access to your customer base, you can track how your emails perform and test various methods to increase clicks and conversions.
While traditional advertising methods, such as print ads and direct mail, can have a high return on investment (ROI), it can be challenging to understand how consumers interact with your materials. With a bulk email service, you can find out what attracts consumers and what elements lead to more conversions.
Furthermore, many bulk email services offer automation tools — think workflows and sequences. You can more easily move leads down the funnel and retain your current clients.
Using a personal or business email can work in the first few months of starting a business but will quickly become ineffective as you grow. Bulk email services offer a long-term solution.
Reasons to Send Bulk Emails
Not sure if it’s the right time to try a bulk email service? The first question you should ask is, “Is our brand investing in email marketing this quarter/year?”
If the answer is yes, that’s your sign to invest in an email service.
Here are specific examples of when you would send out a mass email to your subscribers:
Sales promotions. Say you want to promote discounts on specific products or services. Sending a mass email to your subscribers is a great way to generate sales.
Newsletters. Do you want to send out exclusive content to your subscribers? Then a newsletter is the way to go.
Product updates. A great way to announce a new product feature or line is via email. You can include previews to build up excitement and include calls-to-action (CTAs) for conversions.
Announcements. Are you updating your hours, prices, or services? Or perhaps there’s been a change in your policy. Notifying your subscribers in an email blast is an effective way to spread the news.
With every email you send to subscribers, you’ll want to remember your goals, audience, time and day, personalization, and compliance with data protection laws.
Best Bulk Email Services
1. HubSpot’s Email Marketing Tool
With HubSpot, you can create, customize, and optimize your emails without coding or design experience.
You can send up to 2,000 emails monthly, which doesn’t include test emails to check functionality. In addition, the platform offers a user-friendly interface, tools like drag-and-drop to design your email easily, tokens to personalize every email, and an a/b testing feature.
In addition, you can create custom reports based on the data you want to collect and analyze.
Pricing: The best part? It’s free.
2. ConvertKit
As their name suggests, the platform is designed to help you earn more conversions and generate more revenue. ConvertKit is known for its advanced automation tools, including custom email funnels, smart filters, and link triggers.
Furthermore, the platform has a 98% delivery rate, ensuring that your emails will always reach your subscribers. In addition, the average open rate for ConvertKit emails is an astonishing 30%, according to their website.
Pricing: ConvertKit offers a free version of its platform, and custom pricing for enterprise-level businesses with over 365,000 subscribers.
3. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is an excellent email service for those just starting in email marketing. The platform offers a user-friendly interface and over 100 templates to choose from.
With their free plan, you can send up to 10,000 emails monthly to 2,000 contacts — an ideal option for small to midsize businesses.
Then, as your business grows, you can scale to the premium version. Here, you’ll have unlimited audiences, multivariate testing, and advanced segmentation with up to 200,000 contacts.
Pricing: A free plan is available. Paid plans range from $11 to $299 per month.
4. Drip
If you have an ecommerce business, consider Drip for your email marketing. The platform offers pre-built email templates that you can customize and a user-friendly workflow builder for automation.
In addition, you can schedule automation based on actions your subscribers take (like viewing a product, abandoning their cart, and making a purchase).
With Drip, you can easily integrate your online store (like Shopify, Magento, and WooCommerce) to make gathering data easier.
Pricing: Prices start at $19 and go up based on your number of subscribers.
5. Insycle
Insycle doesn’t fall under the email provider list. However, this software does work in tandem with providers like HubSpot and Mailchimp to keep your contact list clean.
One of the downsides of having a subscriber list is the potential for duplicate contacts. This can impact your metrics and make it difficult to tailor your emails. Insycle allows you to clean your contacts in bulk, merge duplicate ones, and avoid overwriting data.
Pricing: Pricing starts at $5 per month and scales up to custom pricing based on the services you want.
6. Sendinblue
Sendinblue is one of the best bulk email services for small and large businesses. A drag-and-drop editor is one of the must-have features for a good email service, and Sendinblue features one of the most powerful editors on the market.
Aside from that, the service has segmentation features that let you send emails to a targeted audience. This feature helps to improve overall engagement with customers.
Pricing: Sendinblue has free and premium plans. The free plan lets you send up to 300 emails daily, albeit with the Sendinblue watermark. The premium plan begins at $35 monthly.
7. Constant Contact
Constant Contact is a bulk email service that’s great for small businesses and individuals. We love its simplicity and ease of use, features that make it great for beginners.
The service features inbuilt social media sharing tools, easy tracking and reporting, and integrations with ecommerce centers like Facebook and Shopify.
Its advanced features, like coupons, surveys, and event marketing automation, make it one of the best bulk email services.
Pricing: This bulk email service offers a 30-day free trial, which you can upgrade to a premium plan. Paid plans start at $10 monthly and can be further upgraded to the Email Plus plan for $45 monthly.
8. Mailmodo
Mailmodo offers a free plan that allows you to send up to 10,000 emails monthly, making it an ideal choice for individuals and small businesses. However, if you want more, you can choose from four premium plans which let you send more emails monthly.
Mailmodo’s no-code, drag-and-drop editor, makes crafting emails a breeze. Additionally, this bulk email service offers users several customizable templates.
If you ever run into problems while using the service, Mailmodo offers 24/7 customer support.
Pricing: A free plan is available. Premium plans start at $99 monthly.
9. AWebe
AWeber is a flexible service that only charges users based on their number of subscribers. This flexibility is one of the reasons some users prefer this service.
AWeber also has one of the most extensive libraries of customizable, mobile-responsive email templates. These templates allow you to create and send emails very quickly and easily.
The platform offers sales tracking and lets you check out the performance of your emails and subscriber information.
Pricing: The free plan allows you to automatically create emails from blog posts and send them to hundreds of subscribers at a go. AWeber then charges users based on their number of subscribers.
10. Mailgun
Mailgun’s email solutions for email marketing, tracking, parsing, and more make it one of the best bulk email services. In addition, Mailgun’s email API allows developers to easily integrate it into their apps.
Furthermore, Mailgun’s email analytics feature ensures email delivery. There’s also an email validation feature to ensure your emails are sent without typos.
Pricing: Mailgun offers a free plan that allows sending up to 10,000 monthly emails. You can opt for its premium plans which start at $35 monthly if you want even more features.
11. SendPulse
SendPulse allows you to send emails, web push notifications, Facebook messages, and more.
When it comes to emails, this service allows you to create responsive emails without writing a line of code. And if you prefer, you can use any of the 130+ templates available on the platform.
Additionally, SendPulse has a drag-and-drop editor that lets you design subscription forms that can then be integrated into a website. Aside from regular websites, SendPulse also supports integration with PipeDrive, WordPress, Zapier, and other tools.
Pricing: SendPulse has a free version available, while paid plans start at $8 per month.
12. Stripo
Looking for an all-in-one email design platform? Then you should consider using Stripo.
This service offers hundreds of easy-to-use email templates that make your emails look better and help improve conversion rates.
Stripo gives users the tools they need to create all types of emails. After creating the email, Stripo lets you test how it’ll look on different platforms. You can also have colleagues or clients view potential emails before sending them off to subscribers.
Pricing: Stripo has four plans, from free to $95 per month, priced according to the number of recipients and features.
13. SendGrid
SendGrid is the go-to choice for users looking to create and send transactional emails. It allows you to add contacts via CSV upload, signup forms, or APIs.
In keeping with its focus on transactional emails, SendGrid has features like anti-spam regulations to protect you and your subscribers.
Pricing: SendGrid has a free plan that lets you send up to 40,000 emails in the first month and 100 emails daily. For more features, you’ll need to upgrade to either the $19.95 or $89.95 monthly plans.
14. Mailjet
Our penultimate choice is a user-friendly bulk email service best for marketers and development teams. Mailjet has a drag-and-drop email builder that lets you quickly create emails and templates.
Mailjet also features an interactive design so you can give team members access and let them work on it individually.
Email tracking lets you monitor how your sent emails are doing. You can check metrics such as email delivery, bounce rate, and open rate.
Pricing: If you decide to use Mailjet, you can choose between a free plan that lets you send up to 6,000 emails or any of the four premium plans starting at $15 monthly.
15. Omnisend
The last but not the least bulk email service on our list is Omnisend.
Omnisend combines emails, SMS, and other channels. You can also create customizable forms for collecting information from website visitors.
Omnisend makes it easy to divide subscribers into segments, improving the ability to send the right emails to them. With its all-in-one features, automation, and numerous template options, Omnisend is one of the best bulk email services of the year.
Pricing: New users can use this service for free. However, to fully enjoy the tool, you’ll need to subscribe to a premium plan which is priced based on the number of email recipients.
So you’re ready to invest in an email marketing service. These are the key features you should look for in a bulk email service. Some of these features will only be available in a premium package. Others will be included in the standard or free versions.
Here’s your complete guide with factors to consider.
1. User Behavior Tracking
Reporting capabilities will be the number one tool you’ll need in any bulk email service you select. Because what’s the point of investing your time in designing and sending emails if you can’t see how they perform?
You should be able to track key email metrics, such as:
Open rate.
Unique clicks.
Click-to-open rate (CTOR).
Clickthrough rate (CTR).
Unsubscribe rate.
List growth rate.
Bounce rate.
Email providers with advanced reporting features also allow you to track revenue per subscriber and revenue per email.
2. Drag-and-Drop
A drag-and-drop tool makes designing your email easy. This intuitive feature allows you to select an element from the sidebar, like an image, quote, or button, and drag it to a section of your email.
This will save you time as you determine the best flow for your email and move things around.
3. Email Segmentation and Personalization
Segmentation ensures that your emails are reaching the right people at the right time.
You should look for a bulk email service that allows you to segment your subscriber list based on the following:
Location
Actions taken in the email
Purchase history
Type of subscriber (e.g., prospect versus current customer)
You can get higher engagement rates when you segment your list, as the content will be more relevant to your recipients.
Furthermore, personalization is one of the key factors to improving email engagement and advancing customer relationships.
4. Split Testing
Split testing, also known as A/B testing, is a great way to understand what resonates with your audience.
AThis feature is beneficial if you need help generating high open rates and converting subscribers.
By testing out different subject lines and elements within the body of your email, you can determine what works best.
5. Automation
When you’re scaling your email list, the name of the game is automation.
Say you have a content offer and want to send an email sequence to leads after they download the offer. With an automation tool, you can pre-select which emails will go out, in what order, and after how much time for each email.
Once you complete the setup, the automation does all the work for you — nurturing your subscribers and moving them through the buyer’s journey.
This hands-off approach allows you to focus on strategy instead of the tedious work of sending out emails. With automation, you can take the guesswork out of the process.
6. Design Templates
If you’re like me, designing isn’t your forte. So, when designing an email, you’ll take all the help you can get.
A design template based on the type of email you want to send can save you time and ensure you’re following email best practices. This is particularly helpful if you have limited experience designing emails and are just starting out.
What’s great about having a template is that it’s a foundation. You can customize it to fit your needs, but it provides a blueprint from which to work.
7. High Email Delivery Rates
Imagine you work so hard on an email campaign, and it never reaches your subscribers’ inboxes. Frustrating, right?
That’s why verifying your provider’s email delivery rates is essential. You’ll want to select a service with high email delivery rates. You want something as close to 100% as possible.
Grow Your Business
Knowing what to look for in an email service is half the battle.
Now that you have a list of key features and a few tools to choose from, you can find a platform to grow your email list and generate revenue.