In this article, I’ll cover the definition of transactional emails and explain how they differ from marketing emails. I’ll share examples of how and when to send transactional emails and list some the best transactional email services.

• What Is Transactional Email?
• Transactional Emails Vs. Marketing Emails: What’s the Difference
• Transactional Email Examples: 4 Common Use Cases
• How to Send Transactional Emails: Use a Transactional Email Platform

What Is Transactional Email?

A transactional email is a type of automated email triggered by a website user’s specific action. That action is usually related to a purchase, registration, or other account activity on a website or app, and the emails are usually sent in real-time. Common transactional emails include:

• Order confirmations
• Shipping updates
• Password resets
• New device login notifications
• Notices about expiring subscriptions
• Account creation confirmation
• Invoices or receipts
• Payment failure notifications

Transactional emails are a vital aspect of eCommerce. Customers expect to get immediate notifications for these important transactions, and these notifications create a seamless user experience (UX) and help build trust in your brand.

For example, here’s a transactional email I received recently. It’s an order confirmation from the Art Institute of Chicago:

The email also included a receipt of my payment and a PDF attachment of my tickets. I received this email within seconds of purchasing admission tickets on their website. The email let me know that my purchase had gone through, and it also included everything I needed to visit the museum. With this one transactional email, the Art Insitute created an easy experience for me as a first-time customer.

Transactional Emails vs. Marketing Emails: What’s the Difference?

Your inbox likely contains plenty of transactional emails like the one above. However, the same brands probably send you even more marketing emails. So what’s the difference between transactional and marketing emails? The difference lies in how they’re sent and their primary goal.

How Transactional Vs. Marketing Emails Are Sent

The first difference between transactional and marketing emails is how they’re sent.

Transactional emails, by definition, are triggered by a user’s action or by activity on their account. Once the emails and triggers are set up, the messages are sent automatically. They’re sent one at a time, and they’re personalized to each user based on their account information. For instance, they often contain the details of a recent purchase, shipment tracking codes, or order numbers.

Marketing emails, on the other hand, are scheduled by the company’s marketing team. They’re usually sent in bulk, either to entire subscriber lists or to specific email segments. Marketing emails contain messages intended for a large number people, as opposed to sending specific information to individuals.

The Primary Goals of Transactional vs. Marketing Emails

Transactional emails are information-driven. Their primary goal is to improve UX by quickly delivering important information to users.

Marketing emails, on the other hand, are promotion-driven. Their primary goal is to get recipients to take an action, such as buying a product, visiting a blog post, or registering for an event. Marketing emails almost always contain at least one clickable call-to-action (CTA).

However, you may notice that I used the term “primary goal” rather “only goal.” That’s because both marketing and transactional emails can have multiple objectives. In fact, it’s a good idea to include a promotional CTA at the bottom of some transactional emails.

To illustrate this point, I’ll share examples of 2 different emails I recently received from the skincare brand Remedy.

First, here’s a marketing email I got from Remedy:

The goal of this email is clear: To encourage me to click that “Shop Now” button to buy one of their products.

Second, here’s a transactional email that also came from Remedy:

The primary goal of this email was to let me know that my order had shipped and to provide a tracking number.

However, when I scrolled down, the email also contained promotional messaging and links:

The second half of the email encourages customers to stay engaged with the brand by reading some of their blog posts. While the email’s main purpose is the shipping notification, Remedy used the opportunity to build brand loyalty and get customers to browse their site again. Remember, you can only add this sort of message if it’s legal in your country.

In short, transactional emails are focused on providing information and are triggered automatically by a user’s action. Marketing emails are primarily promotional and are sent in bulk to encourage subscribers to take a specific action.

Transactional Email Examples: 4 Common Use Cases

1. Account Confirmation Email From HubSpot

Let’s start with the basics. This is the transactional email HubSpot uses when you sign up for their free account. It has a professional and simple design, isn’t distracting, and has one goal: to get you to confirm your email address and complete the sign-up process.

2. Password Reset Email From Slack

Slack’s transactional email, like HubSpot’s from the first example, is super simple and stripped down. This email is triggered when the user tries to reset their password. All you need to do is click Choose a new password.

3. Order Confirmation Email from Amazon

I got this order confirmation email from Amazon after I purchased a melodica for my nephew’s birthday. The email not only confirmed my purchase but also gave me an estimated day for my order to arrive.

Of course, Amazon never misses an opportunity to encourage you to shop more. The bottom of the email featured links to 2 products I had recently viewed on their site:

This Amazon order confirmation is a perfect example of how marketing messages can be included in transactional emails in the United States. Just make sure that promotional links are secondary to the email’s most important information.

4. New Device Login Notification From Etsy

Here’s an example of a more advanced transactional email. This email was triggered when I signed in to my Etsy account from a new device. To keep my account protected, Etsy immediately notified me about the login, so I could change my password if necessary.

How to Send Transactional Emails: Use a Transactional Email Platform

It may sound complicated to set up all of these different emails to send out automatically. Thankfully, there are plenty of transactional email platforms to make the process simple.

For a full list of services, along with reviews of each one, check out this article:

9 Best SMTP Services for Reliable Transactional Emails

Here are 3 quick suggestions for transactional email services:

1. SendLayer: My top recommendation if you want a dedicated service for your transactional emails.
2. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue): The best choice for an email marketing platform that can also handle your transactional emails.
3. WP Mail SMTP: If your site is built on WordPress, you’ll need an SMTP plugin so your transactional emails can work properly. This one will make sure all those important messages get delivered.

Grow Your Business Today!

Transactional emails are a required part of doing business online because they’re so pivotal to the customer experience. A few well-designed emails can keep your users informed throughout the customer journey.

Of course, one of the best ways to get users to make transactions in the first place is to send marketing emails. Here are some resources to help you succeed:

• Email Marketing: The Easiest Way to Grow Your Business
• How to Get More Email Subscribers (17 Proven Tips!)
• How to Create an Email Campaign (Step-by-Step Guide + Examples)
• Email Copywriting That Sells: 17 Genius Tips to Write Better Emails

If you want to build a better email list, OptinMonster is the very best way to do it. Learn how in this video:

Ready to get started? Sign up for OptinMonster with our 14-day money-back guarantee.

This comprehensive guide will cover the 14 most important steps of a successful product launch plan. I’ll walk you through each stage, including steps like market research, product marketing, and post-launch analysis.

Whether you’re starting a brand new business or adding to your existing product line, this product launch checklist provides a clear path to success.

• What Is a Product Launch?
• Importance of Having a Product Launch Strategy
• Product Launch Checklist: 14 Steps to Successfully Launch a New Product
  • Pre-Launch Stage
  • Launch Stage
  • Post-Launch Stage

What Is a Product Launch?

A product launch is the introduction of a new product into the market. It involves strategic planning to fine-tune your messaging, gain maximum visibility, and build excitement among the target audience. A successful product launch drives initial sales, creates brand momentum, and sets the foundation for long-term success.

Overview of Product Launch Stages

To create a comprehensive product launch plan, you need to understand the 3 basic stages involved:

1. Pre-Launch: This stage involves market research, product development, and creating a launch strategy. Activities include identifying the target audience, setting goals, building buzz through marketing campaigns, and ensuring that all technical and operational aspects are in place.
2. Launch: The launch phase is when the product is officially introduced to the market. It includes executing marketing campaigns, engaging with potential customers, and monitoring the initial response. This stage builds brand awareness and generates sales momentum.
3. Post-Launch: After the product is launched, the focus shifts to customer feedback, analyzing performance metrics, and making necessary adjustments.

Importance of Having a Product Launch Strategy

When starting an online business, you don’t just make it up as you go along. Instead, you create an eCommerce business plan, as well as a digital marketing plan. You need a similar plan every time you launch a new product.

It’s not enough to simply create a great product. You have to introduce it to the market in a way that captures attention, generates interest, and drives sales. Without a clear strategy, even the most innovative products can fail to gain traction.

Successful Product Launch Example: Golden Monkey Gummies

For an example of a successful product launch, let’s look at NielsenIQ’s case study on Golden Monkey, a candy manufacturer. Using extensive market research, Golden Monkey decided to launch a new gummy candy product. Their team spent months identifying a target audience, developing the product, and planning a marketing strategy.

All this work paid off at launch time:

Over the course of six months, the 30-year-old manufacturer was able to identify a growth opportunity, develop a new product, and enter a new market. And the success of the new Gummy product was clear from the get-go, eventually achieving $1.4 million in sales in the first month after launch.

In short, if you want your new product to be profitable, you have to invest in research and planning well before your launch.

Benefits of a Strategic Product Launch

A strategic product launch offers numerous benefits, including:

• Increased visibility: A well-executed launch can create buzz around your product, ensuring it reaches a wide audience.
• Customer engagement: By engaging with your target audience through marketing campaigns, you create excitement for your product release, leading to higher conversion rates.
• Competitive advantage: A clear strategy lets you position your product effectively in the market. You can differentiate it from competitors and highlight its unique value proposition.
• Measurable goals: Your product launch strategy should be based on research and include measurable goals. That way, you can track your progress and make adjustments along the way.

Product Launch Checklist: 14 Steps to Successfully Launch a New Product

Now, I’m going to share the 14 steps involved in launching a product. Of course, every business and product is different, but this checklist will provide a basic template for your product launch strategy. I’ve separated the steps for the 3 stages of launching a product.

Pre-Launch Stage

1. Conduct Market Research & Product Testing
   • Identify Target Audience: Conduct surveys, interviews, and focus groups to define and understand your target market. This process will help you create buyer personas.
   • Analyze Competitors: Review competitor products and strategies to identify gaps and opportunities.
   • Validate Product-Market Fit: Test your product concept with potential customers to ensure it meets their needs.
     
2. Develop Marketing Messaging & Branding
   • Unique Value Proposition (UVP): Clearly articulate the unique benefits and value your product offers. Need some help? Check out our guide to writing value propositions.
   • Key Messaging: Develop consistent messaging that resonates with your target audience across all channels.
   • Branding Elements: Finalize product name, logo, and branding guidelines.
     
3. Define Goals & Success Metrics
   • Outcomes: Set goals for benchmarks such as marketing reach, pre-orders, and sales.
   • KPIs & Metrics: Define the key performance indicators (KPIs) you’ll track to measure the success of each launch stage. These could include web traffic, social media engagement, email list growth, revenue, and more.
     
4. Develop a Launch Timeline
   • Set Key Milestones: Outline major activities and deadlines leading up to the launch, including content creation, marketing campaigns, and internal training.
   • Assign Responsibilities: Designate team members for each task to ensure accountability and smooth execution.
     
5. Create Marketing Content
   • Website Popups: Use OptinMonster to create popups, floating bars, and other onsite campaigns to announce your new product to website visitors.
   • Landing Pages: Develop optimized landing pages with clear calls-to-action (CTAs). If you’re new to landing pages, check out our landing page how-to guide.
   • Email Campaigns: Draft and schedule pre-launch email campaigns to build anticipation. Email marketing is one of your most powerful tools for product promotion.
   • Blog Posts: Write announcement posts as part of your larger content marketing strategy.
   • Social Media Posts: Prepare posts for all of your social channels.
   • Videos: Create video announcements, tutorials, how-tos, and testimonials. Learn tips on creating videos in our complete video marketing guide.
   • Public Relations Assets: Create press releases and media kits to send to journalists and influencers.
     
6. Prepare Sales & Customer Support Teams
   • Training Sessions: Educate your sales and support teams on the product’s features, benefits, and key messaging.
   • Internal Documentation: Provide teams with detailed product guides and FAQs.
     
7. Generate Pre-Launch Leads
   • Grow Your Email List: Use website popups and special offers to grow your email list ahead of your product announcement.
   • Offer Early Access to Subscribers: Build excitement and FOMO (fear of missing out) by letting customers sign up for exclusive early access to your new product.

Need some help generating new leads for your product launch?

OptinMonster is the #1 tool for turning your website visitors into email subscribers and customers. You can use OptinMonster’s popups, floating bars, slide-in scroll boxes, and other campaigns to build excitement for your new product. You can even add features like countdown timers and coupon wheels to increase engagement.

OptinMonster has 700+ premade templates, which you can customize in our easy drag-and-drop builder. Here’s our basic product launch template, which you can edit to fit your product announcement:

Visitors who click the “Yes! I want early access” button will be prompted to enter their email address. Then, you can continue marketing to that new lead with your promotional email campaigns.

Launch Stage

8. Execute Marketing Campaigns
   • Email Blast: Send out launch announcement emails to your entire list.
   • Social Media Blitz: Launch coordinated social media campaigns across all platforms.
   • Paid Advertising: Place targeted ads on Google, social media, and relevant websites.
   • Influencer & Partner Promotions: Collaborate with influencers and partners to promote the product.
     
9. Engage With Media
   • Press Release Distribution: Send out your press release to media outlets and industry publications.
   • Media Interviews: Schedule interviews or guest appearances on relevant podcasts, webinars, or blogs.
     
10. Monitor & Respond to Customer Feedback
    • Social Listening: Monitor social media channels for customer reactions and feedback. The best social media management tools will make it easy to see what people are saying about your product.
    • Customer Support: Keep track of any questions and problems that come through to your customer support team.
    • Collect Customer Feedback: Ask customers to rate and review your new product. You can also use your website to collect customer feedback.

OptinMonster can help you with feedback collection. We offer multiple templates for customer feedback surveys, such as this one:

11. Track Early Performance
    • Real-Time Analytics: Monitor KPIs like website traffic, conversion rates, and sales figures.
    • Adjust Strategies: Be prepared to tweak marketing tactics based on initial performance data.

Post-Launch Stage

12. Evaluate Performance
    • KPI Assessment: Compare actual performance against your initial goals and KPIs.
    • Customer Feedback: Compile and analyze your customer surveys.
    • Sales & Support Processes: Identify any areas for improvement.
      
13. Continue Marketing & Engaging
    • Content Marketing: Continue publishing blog posts, videos, and case studies to maintain momentum.
    • Email Nurturing: Keep marketing to your email list to move subscribers through the customer journey.
    • Social Media Engagement: Keep the conversation going on social media with updates, user-generated content, and customer testimonials.
    • Special Offers on Your Website: Many website visitors won’t make a purchase the first time they visit. Use OptinMonster’s Exit-Intent® Technology to show a special offer to visitors who abandon their online cart. You can also use OnSite Retargeting® to show new offers to returning visitors.

Here’s an example of an Exit-Intent® popup we’ve used on our own site:

OptinMonster’s Page-Level Targeting lets you show a cart abandonment popup just to visitors who exit your site from a cart or checkout page. Alternatively, you could also target a popup to visitors exiting from the product page for your newly-launched product. These visitors have shown a high level of interest in your product. A special discount might be enough to win that sale.

14. Plan for Future Launches
    • Post-Mortem Analysis: Conduct a detailed review meeting with your team to discuss what went well and what could be improved.
    • Document Findings: Compile insights and lessons learned into a report to guide future launches.
    • Plan Next Product Updates or Launches: Use your launch data to optimize the next phase of product development and marketing efforts.

Create a Product Launch Plan & Grow Your Business!

If you follow this 14-step product launch guide, you’ll be on the right track to meeting your business’s goals for your new product.

Want to learn even more about promoting new and existing products? Here are a few resources:

• Product Promotion: How to Market a Product to Get More Sales
• How to Market a Digital Product: 11 Proven Strategies
• WordPress Coming Soon Pages: Examples & How to Make One
• 17 Ingredients for High-Converting Product Pages

No matter what kind of product you’re launching, OptinMonster can help you convert more of your website visitors into customers. There’s no better way to build your email list, offer exclusive discounts, and build excitement for your new product.

Get Started With OptinMonster Today!

Sales promotion is a powerful tool that eCommerce businesses use to increase conversions, boost brand awareness, and generate leads.

Whether you’re a small business or a large corporation, sales promotions can help you achieve your marketing goals.

In this blog post, I will share 23 real-life sales promotion examples of successful campaigns with you and explain how you can copy those examples for your own sales promotions.

1. What Is Sales Promotion?
2. Importance of Sales Promotion
3. Types of Sales Promotion Strategies
4. Other Common Types of Sales Promotions
5. Sales Promotion Examples

What Is Sales Promotion?

Sales promotion is a strategic marketing tactic designed to boost short-term sales and encourage immediate consumer action by offering limited-time incentives, discounts, or special offers.

It is a popular marketing tactic because it create a sense of urgency (FOMO) and exclusivity, encouraging customers to take advantage of the offer before it expires.

Importance of Sales Promotion

Sales promotion is important for several reasons:

Stimulates sales: Sales promotion offers such as discounts, coupons, and free shipping can attract customers and encourage them to purchase. This can stimulate sales and increase revenue for a business.

Attracts new customers: Sales promotions can attract new customers who may not have been interested in the product or service before. A business can entice new customers to try their product or service by offering a discount or free trial.

Builds brand loyalty: By offering promotions to loyal customers, businesses can strengthen the bond between the customer and the brand. This can lead to repeat business and positive word-of-mouth advertising.

Clears inventory: Sales promotions can help businesses to clear out old stock and make room for new products. This can reduce storage costs and generate revenue from products that may have been on the shelves for too long.

Creates a sense of urgency: Sales promotions are typically time-limited, creating a sense of urgency among customers to purchase before the offer expires. This can increase sales in the short term.

However, it’s important to use sales promotion strategically and not rely on it too heavily, as overuse can reduce the perceived value of a product or service.

Types of Sales Promotion Strategies

The following are, but not limited to, the most popular sales promotion strategies. Let’s look at each strategy with a classic sales promotion example for better understanding.

Discounts and Coupons

One of the most popular sales promotion strategies is offering discount codes and coupons.

One sales promotion example of a business using discount codes and coupons is the clothing retailer H&M. H&M is, a famous fashion brand that sells affordable and trendy clothing for men, women, and children.

H&M regularly offers discount codes and coupons to their customers through various channels. For example, they may offer a discount code to customers who sign up for their email newsletter or download their mobile app. The discount code can be used for a percentage off the customer’s next purchase or free shipping.

Buy One Get One (BOGO) Offers

BOGO offers are another effective sales promotion strategy.

An example of sales promotion using a Buy One Get One Free (BOGO) strategy is the online retailer Beauty Bay. Beauty Bay is a beauty and cosmetics retailer that operates exclusively online.

Beauty Bay frequently uses BOGO promotions to encourage customers to purchase and increase sales. For example, they may offer a free eyeshadow palette with the purchase of another eyeshadow palette or a free lipstick with the purchase of another lipstick.

Limited Time Offers

Limited-time offers create a sense of urgency and exclusivity, encouraging customers to take advantage of the offer before it expires.

Amazon is an example of a business using Limited Time Offers (LTOs) as a sales promotion strategy. Amazon is an eCommerce giant that sells a wide range of products, including electronics, home goods, books, and more.

Amazon frequently uses LTOs to promote products and increase sales. For example, they may offer a discount on a specific product for a limited time period, such as 20% off a popular tech gadget for a weekend only.

Free Shipping

Offering free shipping is an excellent way to attract customers and increase sales and the best example of it would be Zappos. Zappos is an online retailer specializing in shoes, clothing, and accessories.

Zappos offers free standard shipping on all orders with no minimum purchase requirement. Customers can purchase any item on the website and have it shipped to them for free, one of the most successful examples of sales promotion.

Cashback

Cashback offers are another popular sales promotion strategy.

An example of a business using cashback as a sales promotion strategy is Savyour. Savyour is an online marketplace that connects shoppers with retailers selling various products, including electronics, home goods, and more.

Savyour offers cashback to customers who make purchases through their platform. Customers can earn a percentage of their purchase amount back in cash, which is deposited into their account.

Referral Programs

Payoneer has an excellent referral program. It’s a payment platform for cross-border digital business.

Payoneer offers a referral program where users can invite friends to join Payoneer, and they both can earn money when their friend signup. The referral program incentivizes current customers to refer new customers to the platform, as you make 25$ just by telling your friends about Payoneer.

Contests and Sweepstakes

Contests and sweepstakes are an effective way to engage customers and create brand awareness.

Dove held a selfie contest, with the grand prize being a spa experience for two people.

Facebook Users were required to take a picture of themselves holding a Dove Beauty Bar. Then submit that picture in the comments section of the giveaway post.

Loyalty Programs

Loyalty programs reward customers for their repeat business and encourage them to continue shopping with the company.

Sephora’s Beauty Insider program is an example of a sales promotion loyalty program.

It’s a tiered loyalty program that offers customers a variety of benefits, including access to exclusive products, birthday gifts, free beauty classes, and early access to sales.

Customers can become Beauty Insiders by signing up for the program on Sephora’s website or in-store. Once customers become members, they earn points for every dollar they spend on Sephora’s website or in-store, which they can redeem for various rewards.

Other Common Types of Sales Promotions

A few other types of sales promotion ideas that brands typically use are:

• Percentage or dollar discounts
• Redeemable vouchers
• Free gifts or giveaways
• Rebates
• Free samples
• Free Trial

Retailers also offer:

• Pre-launch or exclusive offers
• Bundles
• Seasonal offers
• Regular daily, weekly or monthly deals

Watch out for those offer types in the examples below.

Sales Promotion Examples

Now, let’s get to those sales promotion examples. If you like a particular campaign, you can easily recreate your own version with OptinMonster.

OptinMonster is the best conversion optimization tool. It allows you to create eye-catching popups for your sales promotions easily.

OptinMonster comes with multiple eCommerce campaign types, like fullscreen mat, lightbox popup, floating bar, and countdown timer.

You can use OptinMonster’s prebuilt sales promotion templates to:

• Share discount offers
• Reduce cart abandonment
• Promote flash sales

And more.

You’ll also get to choose from special eCommerce targeting to control when and where you show your sales promotion.

Just follow our instructions for creating your first campaign, then customize it at will!

1.Macy’s

Let’s start the ball rolling with this email sales promotion example from Macy’s. It’s pretty simple, but effective.

It uses information about the site visitor to show them sales promotions they’re more likely to be interested in. In this case, the site visitor has already viewed printed dresses.

You can do this in OptinMonster with our Smart Tags feature.

Here are some of the things you can use to personalize sales promotions on your website:

• Site visitor’s name
• Date
• Country
• City
• Previous pages visited

And more.

Copy this example:

Here’s how you can implement Smart Tags with OptinMonster.

You might also want to check out 5 creative ways to personalize your optins to boost conversions.

2. Christmas Lite Show

This coupon campaign is a great sales promotion idea from Christmas Lite Show.

The beautiful background evokes the atmosphere of the annual show, and the headline highlights the company’s experience. It all adds up to a compelling reason to click the button. When visitors do, they see a coupon code with a countdown timer.

Christmas Lite Show converted 30% of visitors with this campaign.

Copy this example:

To do the same, create a countdown popup in the OptinMonster campaign builder. Then use a MonsterLink to create a clickable link on your web page or in your menu.

3. Cosmetic Capital

Cosmetic Capital saw an 300% increase in leads daily, using this floating bar sales promotion. The free shipping offer immediately tackles one of the biggest reasons for cart abandonment.

The timer adds urgency, and the shopper knows they need to act soon if they want to grab this deal. The button includes the word “exclusive”, making the visitor curious about the offer.

Copy this example:

You could create something similar in OptinMonster by using the floating bar campaign type and editing the colors to match your branding. Here are some more floating bar examples to inspire you.

4. Chamaileon.io

Chamaileon.io was able to increase conversions by 200% using this sales promotion, and here’s the main reason why this example worked so well.

They included a Yes/No form, and these are proven to increase conversions by as much as 18%. Why are Yes/No forms so effective? They’re based on a psychological concept called the Zeigarnik Effect. The idea is that people are more likely to finish an action they’ve already started. So, once they click the Yes button, they’re more likely opt in.

Copy this example:

If you wanted to achieve this with OptinMonster, you could enable our Yes/No forms in the campaign builder, as shown in the video below.

Then you can redirect visitors to a signup form when they click the Yes button. Here are some more creative ways to use Yes/No forms.

5. Stays.net

Here’s another example of an effective two-step optin from Stays.net.

Stays.net increased monthly sales by 10% using an on-click sales promotion. So, once the site visitor clicks on the link, they’re presented with the popup to start a free trial.

Copy this example:

You could easily include the shareable MonsterLink I mentioned earlier. Include it anywhere on your site to trigger a popup when customers click.

6. Fastrack

Fastrack managed to recover 53% of abandoning visitors with a simple sales promotion idea. The lightbox popup is a white box with matching the brand colors. This puts the offer on center stage, making it a no-brainer for people to sign up.

Fastrack showed this sales promotion popup as visitors were leaving their site.

Copy this example:

You could easily recreate this in OptinMonster and follow Fastrack’s example by choosing when the popup appears. By default, OptinMonster popups appear after 5 seconds, but you can change it using the Exit-Intent® rule.

You could also change that so they appear after visitors have scrolled. To do that, go to Display Rules and set the condition If distance scrolled.

7. Win in Health

Next on our list of sales promotion examples is Win in Health. The retailer keeps it simple with a green and white popup, making it easy for visitors to focus on the 10% offer. It matches their website colors perfectly.

The copy is clear and straight to the point. Even though it’s not explicit, there’s a sense of urgency here. Adding the words “Today’s Promotion” tells the customer the deal isn’t going to be around forever.

Copy this example:

To create appealing campaign copy, check out our list of copywriting templates.

8. Scott Wyden Imagery

How do you know you’re showing your sales promotions on the right pages?

Scott Wyden Imagery only show this 2-step optin on the cart and checkout pages when the shopper tries to leave the site. It recovers 21.06% of abandoning carts.

Copy this example:

You can get similar attention for your OptinMonster popups by adding the Exit-Intent® and Page Targeting rule.

9. Kennedy Blue

Kennedy Blue is another example of the effective use of OptinMonster’s countdown timer theme. This floating bar picks up one of the logo colors while contrasting with the site as a whole. That makes it super visible and very effective, and that’s helped by the white countdown block and the yellow discount block. This popup helped Kennedy Blue increase sales by 50%.

Copy this example:

If you’re using OptinMonster, you can easily set the countdown from within the campaign builder. Click on the countdown timer in the live preview to bring up the editing tools, the set the desired end date and time.

10. KnivesShipFree

Even if you’re not into knives, you’ve gotta love this giveaway popup campaign from KnivesShipFree. I like it because both the pictures and text make it clear what you can win. Plus, the CTA is crystal clear. This campaign ran on both desktop and mobile, giving the company more than $10,000 in additional sales.

Copy this example:

You can easily create this by using one of OptinMonster’s templates, then edit the text and the CTA button to create your own offer.

11. Maca Team

Here’s an example of referral marketing, which eventually leads to more sales. I know that people trust recommendations from friends and influencers more than ads, so this is a smart move by the Maca Team.

Here’s what I like. The background image is of the source product, with an overlay showing the offer. Plus, they have made it easy by including a button so visitors can copy the referral link easily. I also like the inclusion of social sharing buttons.

Copy this example:

To do this with OptinMonster you could easily create your own custom campaign using the Canvas theme.

12. Nashville Pedal Tavern

Party bike company Nashville Pedal Tavern has a sales promotion example with a difference. They’re not offering discounts. In fact, this innovative campaign earned them $2300 in just two weeks, simply by promoting gift certificates. Here’s the campaign.

This campaign works because it’s helping people feel good about themselves by giving others a fun experience. Simple as that.

And the genius of it is the Nashville Pedal Tavern only showed it to people who were really interested in their site. They set it so only visitors who’d been there for 30 seconds or more could see the campaign.

Copy this example:

You could do the same by adjusting the timing as described earlier.

13. Padstows

In this example, the image of happy customers inside the restaurant makes for a winning combination for Padstows. The optin campaign is beautiful and inviting, and the voucher is an added bonus. One thing the company could do is experiment with split testing the call to action. More compelling button text such as “Enter to Win” may boost their conversions even more.

Copy this example:

If you’re using OptinMonster, you can change the image on any campaign simply by clicking the image button. That’ll help you make an appealing optin campaign for your visitors. Check out our list of free image sites to find the right image.

14. Baublebar

Baublebar’s sales promotion is bright and in your face, so visitors won’t ignore it. Plus, it’s offering a discount, which is another win.

Copy this example:

I’ve already mentioned how easy it is to change text and colors in the OptinMonster campaign builder. You could also follow our guide to get your CTA right.

15. AutoAnything

Here’s another discount promotion, this time from AutoAnything. The image clearly conveys the brand, and there’s no mistaking the bold 20% discount offer.

AutoAnything increased email revenue by 20% using this sales promotion.

Copy this example:

Want to do something similar with OptinMonster? Use our lightbox popup, and upload an image.

Then you can edit the text and set display rules as usual.

16. Spinsterz

This sales promotion is the first thing people see when they land on Spinsterz’s website. These colors also contrast so they stand out.

Copy this example:

You could create something similar with a custom welcome mat in OptinMonster. This’ll appear as visitors land on your site and is a great way to introduce them to what’s on offer. See the video below to learn more about welcome mats.

17. Skates

Sometimes you want to target people who aren’t doing much on your site, in the hope that they will. That’s exactly what Skates.co.uk did and it resulted in an extra £2000 in daily sales. The popup itself is simple. It’s red to match the brand colors, with white writing, and the discount code in black. They showed it to inactive users with OptinMonster’s InactivitySensor.

Copy this example:

You can enable InactivitySensor by going to Display Rules and setting the condition If visitor inactive time.

18. Snack Nation

More leads means more sales, right? The next in our list of sales promotion examples are focused on lead generation. SnackNation offered free sampler boxes to people who signed up. That resulted in 1200 new subscribers each week and 15-25 additional daily sales.

Copy this example:

Snack Nation used a fullscreen campaign with a yes/no form to achieve this. I described how to enable both of those earlier.

19. Sportique

This is a really attractive fullscreen optin. Sportique has used the screen space to include a stunning image that fits with its active mission. I also like the informative wording in the email field, plus the accurate CTA. Those who sign up will have no doubts about what they’re getting. This campaign converts 4.9% of visitors and helped the brand triple its email list.

Copy this example:

You can edit the fields in any OptinMonster campaign. Just click on the email field to bring up the editing tools.

20. Urban Southern

Who doesn’t love a handbag discount, am I right, ladies? Urban Southern used a stark black and white color palette to offer a 10% discount to people who signed up. This campaign uses our Coupon template, and all they did was change the colors. The result? A 400% increase in sales.

Copy this example:

You can keep it just as simple as Urban Southern did. Create a new campaign using the Coupon theme. Then change the colors as described earlier to match your own branding.

21. Crush Empire

Crush Empire generated 460 sales using this coupon sales promotion.

You can choose to deliver the discount at another URL or via OptinMonster’s Success theme.

Copy this example:

An easy way to do this in OptinMonster is to edit the success message that appears when people opt into a campaign. You can easily add a coupon link to the success theme itself, or simply redirect visitors to a new page with the coupon.

22. Logic Inbound

Finding the best sales promotions for your business might require some testing.

Let’s look at one example.

This is a free trial offer, this time from Logic Inbound and ATLAS workspace. The optin converted at 25.71%.

Before using the above sales promotion, Logic Inbound was showing the below offer. But it only converted at 2.67%.

Copy this example:

Identify your best performing sales promotions using split testing. With OptinMonster, you can find the best performing designs, offers, copy, targeting, and more.

23. Cracku

Cracku increased conversions 300% using countdown timers. Countdown timers add urgency and encourage your customer to make a purchasing decision.

Copy this example:

You can easily add a countdown timer to any sales promotion using OptinMonster.

That’s it!

Now you have lots of sales promotion examples to use to fuel your own creativity.

As we’ve explored various successful examples of sales promotion, one common thread emerges: the strategic use of tools to optimize these promotions.

OptinMonster stands out as a premier solution in this domain. With its diverse range of features, from eye-catching popups to countdown timers, it offers businesses a unique edge to craft compelling sales promotions.

Whether you’re looking to share discount offers, reduce cart abandonment, or promote flash sales, OptinMonster provides the flexibility and efficiency to achieve your goals.

In a world where capturing a customer’s attention is increasingly challenging, it’s tools like OptinMonster that can make the difference between a missed opportunity and a successful conversion.

Ready to create a sales promotion that will win you more customers? Get started with OptinMonster today. It’s risk-free with our 14-day money-back guarantee.

Also checkout: 

• Email Marketing Made Simple: A Step by Step Guide [+ Examples]
• 5 of the Best eCommerce Marketing Strategies to Explode Your Sales
• How to Create a Live Sales Notification for WooCommerce
• 12 Ways to Use OptinMonster Follow Ups to Boost Engagement and Sales

It’s important to collect feedback from your customers and leads. That feedback can be related to the user experience (UX) on your site, market research, customer interests, the quality of your product, or the performance of your customer support.

With the right survey app, you can easily create, distribute, and analyze feedback surveys to improve your business strategy.

That’s why, in today’s post, I’m excited to share six of the best survey apps on the market.

• What to Look for in Survey Apps
• 6+ Best Survey Apps
  • 1. WPForms
  • 2. UserFeedback
  • 3. SurveyMonkey
  • 4. TypeForm
  • 5. Google Forms
  • 6. Jotform
  • BONUS: OptinMonster
• What is the Best Survey App?

What to Look for in Survey Apps

What you need in a survey app will depend on your business’s type, size, audience, and goals. However, there are a few universal characteristics you should expect in your survey app:

1. Ease of Use: The software should have an intuitive interface that lets you create and distribute surveys quickly. Look for drag-and-drop builders, customizable templates, and straightforward navigation to save time and effort.
2. Advanced Features: As your survey needs grow, advanced features become crucial. These features include conditional logic, diverse question types, and integrations with other platforms, such as CRMs (customer relationship management) and email marketing software.
3. Powerful Analytics: Creating a survey is just the first step. You also need to carefully monitor and interpret the results. Choose software that offers real-time reporting, visual data presentations like graphs and charts, and easy export options.
4. Scalability: Your survey tool should grow with your business. Whether you’re starting small or expanding rapidly, the software should support increasing response volumes and offer scalable pricing plans.

Fortunately, the online survey tools in this list check all these boxes.

Best Survey Apps

Apps	What This App is Best for	Free Plan?	Premium Pricing
WPForms	WordPress sites with a wide variety of survey and form needs		Starts at $49.50/year
UserFeedback	WordPress sites that need a dedicated survey plugin		Starts at $49.50/year
SurveyMonkey	Businesses that only need occasional basic surveys		Starts at $25/month
TypeForm	Businesses that need advanced surveys and extensive integrations		Starts at $25/month
Google Forms	Users who want surveys that seamlessly integrate with other Google tools		Starts at $6/month (Google Workspace)
Jotform	Feature-rich surveys with a top-notch visual builder		Starts at $34/month
BONUS OptinMonster	Precisely targeting your surveys to the right website users		Starts at $9.97/month

1. WPForms

WPForms is hands down the best WordPress form-building plugin available. The Pro plan includes a powerful and easy-to-use Survey and Polls addon that makes it the #1 survey app on our list today.

You can combine the Survey and Polls tools with other features like multi-page forms, email integration, and conditional logic to create highly engaging and detailed questionnaires.

We use WPForms regularly here at OptinMonster. I also installed WPForms on my own WordPress site and was able to create a form in minutes. You can build your survey from scratch or get a head start by using a premade template. The easy builder lets you drag and drop survey fields into place, including:

• Drop-down menus
• Multiple choice questions
• Single-line and paragraph text answers
• Name and email fields
• Advanced fields like file uploads, Likert scale, and more

Once you’ve placed the field, simply click on it to customize the Field Options in the left menu settings:

One of the things I love most about WPForms is its robust survey reporting features. Once you’ve published your survey, it’s easy to track the results. Here’s an example of the results from a survey that OptinMonster used for some of our customers:

I chose a horizontal bar graph to display the results, but you can also view the results as a pie, line, or vertical bar chart.

With WPForms, you get useful, real-time reports and graphs based on survey responses. This helps you collect and analyze your survey data to make smarter, data-driven decisions about your business.

You can also download these reports in an Excel spreadsheet or CSV file to import to 3rd-party marketing tools, such as a CRM platform like Salesforce or Hubspot.

And with their addons for offline surveys and form abandonment, WPForms ensures that you collect user data no matter what. It’s this type of functionality that makes WPForms the best survey app for WordPress.

You can also use a shortcode to display the survey results on any page of your site. You can even embed your WPForms survey inside an OptinMonster popup. Check out our instruction video:

Best for: WordPress sites with a wide variety of survey and form needs.

Is WForms Free? There is a free plugin that you can use for basic surveys and forms.

Premium Pricing: Starts at $49.50/year. For full survey functionality, choose the Pro plan at $199.50/year or higher.

2. UserFeedback

UserFeedback is a WordPress plugin dedicated to helping you collect feedback from your website visitors.

This software lets you easily build surveys, display them anywhere on your website, and monitor the results.

In my testing, I decided to create a website feedback survey. It was incredibly easy to get started with the Website Feedback template. It’s 1 of the 20+ templates available in the Additional Templates Add-on, which is included with the Pro plan or higher.

I added a question to the template, and I could choose between checkboxes, radio buttons, email capture, single text field, long answer, star rating, and Net Promoter Score.

Conditional logic is available for each question in your survey. I just turned on the Enable Conditional Logic toggle and chose my Display Logic settings:

UserFeedback provides 2 easy ways to display the survey form on your website: You can either embed it using a shortcode, or you can use the Targeting rules to determine when and where your survey will pop up for your website visitors.

The Targeting rules include:

• Which page or pages you want your survey to display on
• When the survey displays, such as immediately, after a certain number of second, after the user scrolls halfway down the page, or when a visitor leaves your site
• How many times each user will see your survey
• How long you want to run your survey
• Whether you want to start your survey minimized on the page

Best of all, UserFeedback even integrates with Google Analytics, providing you with further insights into your survey’s completion rate and audience.

Best for: WordPress sites that need a dedicated survey plugin.

Is UserFeedback Free? Yes, there is a free version with limited features.

Premium Pricing: Starts at $49.50/year

3. SurveyMonkey

No list of survey makers would be complete without mentioning SurveyMonkey. This free online survey tool lets you create and distribute unlimited surveys. I’ve used SurveyMonkey multiple times over the years, and it has continued to be an easy way to gather feedback.

It’s an easy-to-use, comprehensive, and all-around excellent survey app. SurveyMonkey’s dashboard is attractive and intuitive. You simply select the type of question you want to add and then edit it in the builder:

I logged in and was given 3 options to create a survey:

1. Start from scratch: Start with a blank slate and add the questions you want.
2. Use a quick template: Get a head start by customizing a premade survey.
3. Build with AI: Enter a prompt, and SurveyMonkey will use AI to build your survey for you.

These features are all free, but you’ll need to upgrade to a premium plan to use advanced options like conditional logic and accepting payments. You also must have a paid plan if you want to embed SurveyMonkey surveys as popups on your website. If you use their free tool, you’ll have to share the survey link with your audience.

Best for: Businesses that only need occasional basic surveys.

Is SurveyMonkey Free? Yes, it’s free to create basic surveys without conditional logic or website embedding.

Premium Pricing: Start at $25/month

4. TypeForm

TypeForm is a robust survey app that lets you create in-depth surveys. You can create interactive surveys to get more responses, turning boring surveys into friendly conversations.

In my testing, I was impressed by just how powerful TypeForm’s survey features are. For example, I was able to add videos, images, and GIFs to a survey in just a few clicks. I also created a survey using their Qualify Leads option. TrueForm’s AI technology used information from OptinMonster’s website to create an Ideal Customer Profile, which I could add to and edit. Then, it built a lead-qualifying survey for me:

The survey was far from perfect, as the AI didn’t fully understand OptinMonster’s features. However, it gave a great starting point and included some useful questions I hadn’t thought of. For instance, TrueForm suggested asking new leads whether they prefer webinars, tutorials, or case studies when learning about software. With this survey data, our email marketing and sales teams can send more targeted and helpful information to each potential customer.

What else sets TypeForm apart from tools like SurveyMonkey? Its extensive integrations. You can connect Typeform to:

• CRMs like Hubspot, Salesforce, and Zoho
• Email marketing platforms, such as Brevo (formerly Sendinblue), Drip, Mailchimp, and ActiveCampaign.
• Payment platforms Stripe and Square
• Tracking software, such as Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and Facebook Pixel
• And many more

Keep in mind that this advanced functionality comes at a higher price. At first glance, the pricing looks in line with SurveyMonkey’s paid plans. However, TypeForm severely limits the number of monthly responses allowed on its lower-tiered plans. For instance, the $25/month Basic plan only includes 100 responses per month, and you have you pay extra to increase that number.

Best for: Businesses that need advanced surveys and extensive integrations.

Is TypeForm Free? There’s a free plan, but you only get 10 responses per month.

Premium Pricing: Starts at $25/month

5. Google Forms

Google Forms is an excellent online survey tool like SurveyMonkey, and it’s completely free.

I’ve used Google Forms to create surveys, registration forms, applications, and more. It even includes basic conditional logic.

It’s an especially great choice for Google Workspace users, as it connects to Google Drive and Sheets. For instance, I’ve created forms that included a file upload field and was able to access those files in Drive.

I can view the results under Responses, or I can click Link to Sheets to sync the survey with a spreadsheet that will automatically update as new results come in:

You can build simple surveys, require users to enter an email address (to grow your email list), and gather the results quickly.

You can also use the embed code to add your form anywhere on your website or within an OptinMonster popup campaign:

Best for: Google Workspace users who want surveys that seamlessly integrate with other Google tools

Is Google Forms Free? Yes.

Premium Pricing: Starts at $6/month per user for full Google Workspace

6. Jotform

Jotform is a comprehensive form builder that you can use to create online surveys. It has an extremely easy drag-and-drop builder and high-quality templates to help you get started.

I was impressed by Jotform’s exceptionally clean and attractive user interface (UI). In fact, it may be the smoothest, least clunky experience of all the online survey tools on this list. That’s because you can edit your questions and options right in its visual builder:

Similar to TypeForm, Jotform offers a wide variety of integrations and advanced conditional logic. Jotform has the additional feature of letting you build fillable PDFs or convert your survey into one.

Best for: Feature-rich surveys with a top-notch visual builder

Is Jotform Free? The free version includes all features, but limites you to 5 forms and 100 montly submissions.

Premium Pricing: Starts at $34/month

Bonus App: OptinMonster

OptinMonster is the best lead generation software on the market. Our popups, floating bars, and other onsite campaigns make it SUPER EASY for you to encourage your visitors to fill in surveys. This means OptinMonster is a great online survey app that can be used in many different contexts.

Let’s take a look at 4 ways OptinMonster can help you create, collect, and promote surveys on your site:

• Embed forms within a campaign: Easily embed survey forms in your popups, floating bars, slide-in scroll boxes, and more. Then distribute and promote the survey across your site to a targeted audience.
• Create short surveys directly in OptinMonster: If you only need to ask a few basic questions, you don’t even need a dedicated survey app. You can add fields like dropdowns, radio buttons, checkboxes, and text fields right in our drag-and-drop builder.
• Redirect traffic for longer surveys: Create exit popups, fullscreen welcome mats, or other optin campaigns with a button that redirects users to your long-form survey. This lets you get more responses from your organic traffic.
• Target your audience: Create a unique user experience by personalizing your messages and targeting them to the right people. This gets more people engaged with your survey form.

OptinMonster’s Page-Level Targeting and Exit-Intent® Technology can detect when a visitor has completed their purchase and is leaving your site. You can then trigger a popup to ask them to take a short feedback survey to tell you about their experience before they leave.

Check out how Kennedy Blue increases sales by 50% using OptinMonster’s Exit-Intent® popups to promote their customer surveys and get valuable feedback.

At the end of the day, OptinMonster is a great survey app because it encourages the right people to take your survey.

And since you can integrate OptinMonster with your email marketing service, you can use your survey data to segment your email list and send more targeted email campaigns.

Want to try it out? Click below to start using the best survey app to get more survey responses.

What Is the Best Survey App?

WPForms is the best survey app for WordPress websites.

WPForms is flexible, easy to use, and loaded with features. It makes survey design a breeze. You can embed it with OptinMonster to create powerful survey popups on your website.

Plus, it does more than just create surveys. That means you can use WPForms to make any form on your website, such as:

• Newsletter signups
• Event registrations
• Payment collection
• And much more.

If you don’t use WordPress, then your specific needs will determine which tool is best for you. If you need to create robust online surveys with lots of integrations, then I suggest TypeForm.

I hope this list helps you choose the best survey app for your business, so you can start collecting important data right away.

Want to learn more about online surveys? Check out these resources:

• Survey Best Practices: Everything You Need to Know
• 9 Ways to Collect Customer Feedback on Your Website
• How to Create a WordPress Survey Popup

These posts will have everything you need to increase survey response rates, learn about your audience, and increase profits.

Want to target your surveys to the right people at just the right time?

Get started with OptinMonster today!

Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) has revolutionized the way businesses communicate.

For small businesses, in particular, choosing the right VoIP phone service can be the difference between seamless communication and missed opportunities.

Rest assured, I’ve got you covered! I’ve thoroughly reviewed the top VoIP phone services to help you select the one that fits perfectly with your needs!

Below, I discuss what VoIP is and why it’s a good choice for small businesses. Then, I’ll compare the best VoIP options for 2024, so you can select the best internet phone system for your business.

• What Is VoIP?
• Why Do Small Businesses Need a VoIP Provider?
• How to Choose the Best Business VoIP Service?
• 11 Best VoIP Providers for Internet Business Phone Systems
  • Nextiva
  • RingCentral
  • Ooma Office
  • Grasshopper
  • GoTo Connect
  • Phone.com
  • Vonage
  • 8×8
  • Microsoft Teams VoIP
  • Google Voice
  • CallHippo

What Is VoIP?

VoIP (Voice-over-Internet Protocol) lets you communicate via phone and messaging using an internet connection. These systems have unified communications, such as phone, chat, and file sharing.

Even with all these functions, VoIP can cost less than traditional landline phones.

Why Do Small Businesses Need a VoIP Provider?

Switching to VoIP isn’t just a tech trend; it’s a smart business move. Here’s why:

• Cost Savings: Traditional phone line systems come with hefty bills. VoIP services often offer competitive rates, saving businesses money in the long run.
• Scalability: As your business grows, so can your VoIP system. No need for extensive hardware upgrades.
• Enhanced Features: Think call forwarding, voicemail-to-email, and even video conferencing. These advanced features can streamline operations and improve customer interactions.

Here’s what to look for in a VoIP service for small businesses.

How To Choose the Best Business VoIP Service?

Choosing the best VoIP service for your needs is important, and there’s no one-size-fits-all version.

To help you make the right decision, here’s what to look for in VoIP phone service for small businesses:

• Reliability: Dropped calls can mean lost business. Ensure the service boasts high uptime and clear call quality.
• Features: Includes the features your business needs.
• Local versus International Calls: Ability to choose plans for domestic or international calls.
• Mobile App: Fully-functioning mobile app to make and receive calls on the go.
• Third-Party Integrations: Connects with other tools like CRMs, email marketing services, and more.
• Support: Access to 24/7 customer support. Can you rely on them when things go south?
• Security: With cyber threats on the rise, a secure VoIP service is non-negotiable.

11 Best VoIP Phone Systems

Here’s my list of the best business internet phone services for 2024.

Note: Features listed may not be available at all subscription levels. Providers may also have more options not included here. Check each site for all the details and for the latest pricing.

1. Nextiva

Nextiva is the #1 rated business phone service. It offers an easy-to-use, powerful VoIP system. Moreover, you don’t need an annual contract, and Nextiva is quick to set up.

It has a simple web-based admin panel to manage your business communications platform. Nextiva also has CRM tools, live chat, online surveys, and more.

Nextiva Features:

• Auto-attendant
• Call analytics, forwarding, recording, and routing
• Caller queue
• SMS Messaging
• Easy transfers to unique extensions
• Faxing
• HD voice calls cut background noise if using headphones
• Option to add a toll-free number or keep your number
• Conference calls
• Visible, thorough details about callers (screen pop)
• Voicemail to text or email

Best for: Business owners wanting an easy-to-use VoIP

Nextiva Pricing:

Starts at $21/month per user (discounted from $30) using this link.

2. RingCentral

RingCentral is another contender for best VoIP service. They provide an onboarding specialist to help you set up your VoIP in minutes.

Whether you have 10 employees or over 1,000, RingCentral has plans for your needs. This gives small businesses bandwidth to create robust contact centers that improve UX.

This VoIP solution integrates with Salesforce, Microsoft Office 365, Canvas, and more. It also has a cloud-based portal for simple administration.

RingCentral Features:

• Call management and phone system administration
• Device status alerts and reports
• Document sharing
• SMS messaging
• HD video and voice
• Mobile apps for iOS and Android
• Multi-site admin and management
• Real-time analytics
• Team messaging
• Unlimited storage
• Voicemail to email or text
• Backend API available for customization and scaling

Best for: Businesses that need a comprehensive, scalable solution

RingCentral Pricing:

Starts at $20/month per user.

3. Ooma Office

Ooma provides all the tools you need to run your business, including video conferencing, advanced call blocking, a virtual receptionist, and more.

The setup couldn’t be easier and lets you connect with your team and clients from all devices.

Ooma Features:

• Desktop App/Softphone
• Extension-to-extension dialing
• SMS messaging
• Faxing
• Forward calls during device outages
• Intercom
• Multi-device ring
• Multi Extension Dialing
• Smartphone app
• Video Conferencing
• Virtual extensions
• Voicemail with audio email attachments

Best for: Businesses wanting a no-contract option

Ooma Pricing:

Starts at $19.95/month. Request a quote.

4. Grasshopper

Grasshopper is a great VoIP for small businesses because it uses your existing handset or cell phone, giving it both a business and personal line.

This program comes with call transfers, incoming call control, custom greetings, and more.

You can use Grasshopper’s mobile or desktop apps for outgoing calls. The web-based and app-based portals are easy to use to manage your telephone system.

Grasshopper Features:

• 24/7 support
• Call and text
• Simultaneous call handling
• Desktop, Android, and iOS compatible
• Vanity phone number available
• Virtual phone system with greetings, extensions, etc.
• Works with your current phone

Best for: One-person businesses/Solopreneurs

Grasshopper Pricing:

Starts at $14/month for a single-person business.

5. GoTo Connect

GoTo Connect refers to itself as a “customizable cloud phone system.” Few talk about customizability, which is why this is one of the best business VoIP platforms.

They offer a phone tree directory for your company and can send these calls to any device the user prefers.

GoTo Connect provides real-time analytics and supervisor access. This gives your team the flexibility you need to serve customers better.

GoTo Connect Features:

• Agent Effectiveness Reporting
• Hot Desking
• Calling features such as international calling
• Listen, Whisper, & Barge modes for call monitoring
• Real-Time Analytics
• Smart Call Routing
• Supervisor Dashboard
• Team Messaging
• Unlimited Extensions
• Voicemail to Email
• Integrations with GoTo Webinar, Google Workspace, Microsoft Teams, and more.

Best for: Hybrid and remote teams & international calling.

GoTo Connect Pricing:

Starts at $24/month per user. Request a quote.

6. Phone.com

Phone.com is on our best business phone service list for many reasons, the biggest being the flexibility to mix and match plans according to individual employee needs. Why pay for a full suite of features for every person when some may need only the basics?

At the basic level, Phone.com users get the essentials and then some. But, you still aren’t breaking the bank to get all the great features this program offers.

Phone.com Features:

• Business text messages
• Call Analytics
• Call Recording
• CRM Integration
• HiFi transcription
• HIPAA Compliant
• IP Desk Phone Compatible
• Mobile and Web apps
• Video Recording
• Whiteboard

Best for: Businesses needing a low-cost VoIP that is customizable and scalable

Phone.com Pricing:

Starts at $12.74/month per user.

7. Vonage

Vonage is a robust business phone system. It allows unlimited calling and SMS text messages in the United States and Canada. Additionally, Vonage has over 50 possible features and a ton of integrations.

Users get unlimited calls, texts, team messaging, and Vonage apps at the basic level.

Vonage Features:

• Call Blocking
• Do not disturb mode
• Manage system from one portal
• Reroute calls in emergencies
• See the status of every phone on the system
• See statuses of all users in real-time
• Spam blocking
• Team messaging
• Transfer calls between devices
• Visual voicemails
• Microsoft Teams integration

Best for: Businesses wanting the most mature and developed VoIP on the market.

Vonage Pricing:

Starts at $13.99/month per line.

8. 8×8

8×8 offers unlimited calling in the US and Canada, as well as globally with upgraded plans. It takes pride in its reasonable prices, so they make sure you don’t miss out on lower subscription levels.

8×8 Features:

• 30-day trial
• Call handling and attendant automation
• Call forwarding and hold music
• Choose between your current or a new number
• Customer chat on various messaging platforms
• HD audio and video conferencing
• Instant messaging
• Apps for mobile devise and desktop
• No IT expertise needed
• Works with all devices

8×8 Pricing: Businesses wanting unlimited U.S. domestic calls.

Request a quote.

9. Microsoft Teams VoIP

Microsoft Teams has replaced Skype as Microsoft’s official VoIP for business system. This is one of the best business VoIPs because it looks like the popular internal Teams program so many users are already familiar with it.

It’s also one of the best business phone services because it increases revenue. It offers streamlined, time-saving communications, low deployment and management costs, and flexibility in necessary devices, among other things.

Microsoft Teams VoIP Features:

• Admin center adds, monitors, and manages calls
• AI routes calls using availability, time, and location
• All-in-one program for internal and external work
• Call queues with greetings and hold messages
• Cloud voicemail for use on all devices
• Compatible with tons of devices, including headsets
• Records voice or video calls
• Screen sharing

Best for: Microsoft 365 users who need a low-cost internet business phone service

Microsoft Teams Pricing:

Starts at $4/month per user.

10. Google Voice

Google Voice is a scalable VoIP business phone system and part of Google Workspace. It’s one of the best internet business phone services because it was built to work with Google Meet, Calendar, and more.

Unlike many other VoIPs, it functions with more than computers, tablets, and phones. It also integrates with some headsets.

Google Voice Features:

• Global use
• Instant deployment
• Little tech knowledge needed
• Made for businesses of all sizes
• Part of Google Workspace
• Spam blocker
• Straightforward customization for your daily needs
• Unlimited SMS within the US
• Voicemail transcription
• Works on most devices from any location

Best for: Google Workspace users needing a low-cost VoIP

Google Voice Pricing:

Starts at $10/month per user for business use.

11. CallHippo

CallHippo is on our best internet business phone service list because of its admin functions. CallHippo integrates with over 85 popular programs, such as Hubspot, Slack, and WooCommerce.

CallHippo Features:

• 3-minute setup
• Dashboard with all necessary administrative info
• GDPR compliant
• Get caller insights to identify prospects (caller ID)
• HIPAA compliant
• ISO certified
• PCI-compliant
• Phone numbers available in over 50 countries
• Real-time monitoring
• Send pre-recorded messages to many people

Best for: Sales & support teams and call centers

CallHippo Pricing:

Starts at $18/month per user for offices and $16/month per user for call centers.

What VoIP Service Is Best?

After researching VoIP phone services, I am confident Nextiva is the best VoIP service. It offers awesome features, is very easy to use, and has an attractive and modern interface.

Boost Engagement With a VoIP Service Provider

The best business phone services help you bring in leads. At first glance, VoIPs may not seem like they can’t do this. But, they’re actually perfect for running “click-to-call” campaigns on your website.

Click-to-call lets inbound and outbound calls occur with one click. This avoids dialing wrong numbers and allows leads to reach your business by clicking on a “call now” button.

OptinMonster is the best lead generation software on the market, and it can help you build a click-to-call campaign quickly. You can add a “call now” button to any OptinMonster popup, floating bar, slide-in box, or full-screen mat.

See how easy it is in this video:

From there, you need to show your click-to-call campaign to the right people at the right times. For that, you can use OptinMonster’s powerful targeting rules, like the following:

• Exit Intent® Technology: Display messages as users leave your website.
• Geolocation Targeting: Show your click-to-call popup based on your visitor’s physical location.
• OnSite Retargeting®: Make new offers to returning visitors to avoid “popup fatigue.”

Click below to start your 100% risk-free OptinMonster account today:

Beyond the Best Business VoIP Systems

We hope you found this post on the best VoIP phone services helpful.

If you did, check out the following resources to learn more about improving your phone setup:

• How to Collect Phone Numbers on Your Website Using Popups
• 11 Ways to Get More Phone Calls from Your Website

If you join us here at OptinMonster, we’re always happy to help as well!

Scarcity marketing works because it increases the perceived value of a product. When something feels rare or exclusive, we tend to want it more. This can lead to higher sales and a competitive edge for businesses that use it effectively.

In this article, we’ll share 34 scarcity examples to help you boost conversions.

What Is Scarcity Marketing?

Scarcity marketing is a strategy that leverages the fear of missing out (FOMO) by creating a sense of urgency through limited availability or time-sensitive offers. It’s a powerful technique for increasing perceived value and driving immediate action.

Here’s how it works:

• Limited Supply: This could involve limited quantities of a product, exclusive collections, or limited-time offers.
• Time Pressure: Countdown timers, flash sales, and “only a few left” notifications create a sense of urgency and encourage people to buy before it’s too late.
• Exclusivity: Making a product or service feel exclusive can make it more desirable. This could involve VIP access, limited edition releases, or high-end products.

By using these tactics, scarcity marketing aims to:

• Increase Demand: When something feels scarce, people are more likely to want it, leading to higher sales.
• Boost Perceived Value: Limited availability suggests a product is more valuable or desirable, making people more willing to pay a premium.
• Drive Action: The fear of missing out encourages people to make a purchase decision quickly before the opportunity disappears.

Scarcity marketing can be a powerful tool, but it’s important to use it ethically. If done wrong, it can come across as manipulative or inauthentic.

Let’s take a look at 34 examples of scarcity marketing.

Scarcity Marketing Examples

We have curated these scarcity examples from real-life brands that have used the scarcity principle in their online campaigns. The examples offer several ideas on how to apply the scarcity principle in your marketing.

1. Cracku: Urgency Through Countdown Timers
2. Wildist: 50% Discount for 2 Days
3. Tinder: Fear of Missing Out
4. Booking.com: Book Before It’s Too Late
5. Chemical Guys: Beat the Clock Sale
6. Bud Light: Limited Edition Pack
7. JACK1T: Only 2 Pieces in Stock
8. Clubhouse: Invite-Only Sign-Ups
9. Amazon Prime: Discount While Supplies Last
10. Bed Bath & Beyond: Top Deals Are Scarce
11. BookMyShow: Seats Filing Fast
12. Netflix: Only On Netflix
13. Tesla Apparrel: Notify When Available
14. MasterClass: BOGO Meets Limited-Time Offer
15. Coke: Share a Coke
16. Airbnb: Rare Find
17. Float: Request Access
18. Moto Z: Limited Time Offer
19. HappySales: Join the Waitlist
20. Nokia: Black Friday With a Twist
21. Amazon: Today’s Lightning Deals
22. Ninety9: Happy Hour Deals
23. Best Buy: Flash Sale
24. iHerb: 13 Sold in 24 Hours
25. Fleet Feet: Clearance Sale
26. Thread Up: End-of-Year Sale
27. Pulp & Press: Abandoned Cart Email
28. Asos: Black Friday Deal
29. Catalina Crunch: Early Access SMS Marketing
30. Jeffree Star: A Different Take on Scarcity
31. G Fuel: Giveaways Worth $10,000
32. Eightvape: Christmas Holiday Offer
33. Udemy: Sale Ends Today
34. Growth Marketing: Last Chance to Register

1. Cracku: Urgency Through Countdown Timers

Countdown timers are the best scarcity examples in marketing. Cracku, an online student coaching portal, used OptinMonster to create countdown timers on its website.

They combined it with a limited-time offer and increased conversions by 300%.

2. Wildist: 50% Discount for 2 Days

Wildist offers people to sign up for its workshops at half price, but only for 2 days.

Notice the testimonials from past customers on the top-right of the page. Social proof earns you trust and improves website conversions by 34%.

Pro-Tip: Check out this list of social proof notification apps you can use to add credibility to your site! We recommend TrustPulse. It’s the best social proof notification tool out there.

3. Tinder: Fear of Missing Out

Tinder uses a push notification for its mobile app users to improve product adoption. They notify inactive users that their profiles won’t be visible to possible matches if they don’t start using the app.

The clever use of scarcity triggers fear of missing out (FOMO) in buyers. Research suggests that about 69% of millennials experience FOMO, and 60% make impulsive purchases because of it.

In other words, FOMO works wonders in convincing people to take action.

Pro-tip: Want to create push notifications like Tinder’s? Take a look at PushEngage. It’s the world’s best push notification software that’s easy to install and set up.

4. Booking.com: Book Before It’s Too Late

Scarcity examples are more common in marketplaces with fluctuating supply and demand of goods and services. For instance, the travel and hospitality industry.

Booking.com is a master at scarcity marketing. Take a look at how they imply that this deal on a hotel won’t be available for very long.

5. Chemical Guys: Beat the Clock Sale

Car detailing company Chemical Guys creates urgency for website visitors with multiple limited-time offers.

The sooner buyers book a service, the more discounts they get.

6. Bud Light: Limited Edition Pack

Bud Light collaborated with the Philadelphia Eagles to launch a special edition commemorative beer pack to celebrate the team’s Super Bowl victory.

The beverage company produced 20,418 packs to honor the victory date: 02/04/2018. Special edition marketing also allows brands to sell products at higher prices. Fans don’t mind buying limited quantities of special merchandise at a premium.

7. JACK1T: Only 2 Pieces in Stock

JACK1T lets you know when they are running low on a particular item. This is a good scarcity example that highlights how creating urgency in marketing can improve conversions.

8. Clubhouse: Invite-Only Sign-Ups

Remember when Clubhouse was a rage? One of the reasons it became so popular in such a short time was because it created an illusion of exclusivity.

Only people who had an invite from existing Clubhouse members could join the social audio platform. This drove a huge demand for Clubhouse sign-ups.

Clubhouse had another level of scarcity baked into its platform. Initially, it was available only in iOS. A year later after its launch, it was launched on the Android platform.

Although the craze for the platform has died down, it remains a shining example of how to use a sense of scarcity and exclusivity to increase sign-ups.

9. Amazon Prime: Discount While Supplies Last

Amazon Prime Now has a weekly ad with a time-sensitive discount.

For more examples like these, read our post on how to use discount codes to increase conversions.

10. Bed Bath & Beyond: Top Deals Are Scarce

Bed Bath & Beyond uses a unique promo offer for each product category in its website’s Top Deals section. All deals have footer text to create urgency in buyers:

• Limited time
• Valid thru 2/2
• While supplies last

This is to let the buyers know they’ll get the most value for their money if they buy sooner.

11. BookMyShow: Seats Filing Fast

India’s largest online movie and events booking platform BookMyShow uses a popup to convert movie lovers to buy its most expensive tickets.

Let’s see how it works.

The most expensive seats have better reclining, extra leg room, and the best view of the screen. The booking page suggests that people might lose out on the premium experience if they don’t act fast.

They also use ember color text for the fast-selling seats. This is an example of demand-induced scarcity. What color you choose for CTA buttons can impact conversions.

12. Netflix: Only On Netflix

Netflix knows that movie lovers will go to any extent to watch their favorite movies and shows. It buys the copyright of high-demand content like Kill Boksoon and Money Heist.

It even has an entire genre called Only On Netflix for non-subscribers to browse. Netflix drives new subscriptions by making high-demand content available only on its platform.

13. Tesla Apparrel: Notify When Available

Tesla has an eCommerce shop that sells vehicle accessories, battery chargers, and apparel. The website has a functionality for buyers to receive an email notification for out-of-stock items.

This is a genius scarcity marketing example on many levels.

• First, it implies that out-of-stock products are scarce resources. People are more likely to opt in for notifications if they think it’s going to fly off the shelves.
• Second, it’s also a lead generation technique. Buyers who optin for a notification will also start getting marketing emails from Tesla for other products in the future.

Pro-tip: Want to target and convert website visitors based on their past interactions? Use OptinMonster’s Onsite Retargeting®. It lets you optimize campaigns for returning visitors and boost your eCommerce sales.

14. MasterClass: BOGO Meets Limited-Time Offer

Buy one get one (BOGO) is a great way to convert customers and increase your average order value.

In this scarcity example, MasterClass offers 2 memberships for the cost of 1. It combines the discount with a holiday offer that’s ending soon.

Product bundling like this gets buyers to convert faster because they get a 2x return on investment (ROI) on their purchase.

15. Coke: Share a Coke

The world-famous beverage company Coca-Cola’s Share a Coke campaign was a hit when it came out. The campaign allowed customers to buy Coke bottles with the names of their friends and family members.

The campaign sold 1.25 million drinks in the U.S. and improved sales by 11% in a year.

Coke ran the campaign at the expense of replacing its brand name from the bottles. It’s a classic example of scarcity advertising coupled with emotional intelligence.

Depending on where you live, you can still order personalized Coke bottles from their website. Notice not 1 but 2 website notification bars on the website.

The company sure knows how to create multiple sale opportunities on a website!

16. Airbnb: Rare Find

Airbnb makes its customers feel lucky to find properties that aren’t sold out. It’s the company’s way to highlight resource scarcity for their premium property listings.

17. Float: Request Access

Float asks new users to request access to the app instead of handing out free signups. This means their platform isn’t easy for everyone to sign up for.

The message is clear: you might not be allowed if you don’t fit the bill. The scarcity of access makes it immediately appealing.

18. Moto Z: Limited Time Offer

Moto Z offers its customers a scarce opportunity to buy its new smartphone for only $200.

Limited-time offers convert like crazy.

An online clothing company ran an experiment offering one of its products with and without a limited-time next-day shipping offer. The one with the relative scarcity offer increased sales by 226%.

19. HappySales: Join the Waitlist

HappySales is a business-to-business (B2B) sales technology software that’s yet to launch. Its website allows users to join the private beta. When you click the CTA button, it takes you to a sign-up form.

But instead of asking users to sign up for free, Happysales encourages joining privately. This implies that they don’t entertain everyone. It’s an exclusive circle of users.

20. Nokia: Black Friday With a Twist

Nokia sent this marketing email to its customers a few years back. Instead of offering instant discounts or pre-orders, Nokia made it easy for customers to create a personalized wishlist.

This is among the best Black Friday-related scarcity examples.

21. Amazon: Today’s Lightning Deals

Amazon’s “Lightning Deals” are offered daily for only a few hours.

22. Ninety9: Happy Hour Deals

Protea Hotel in Kampala uses happy hour discounts to drive traffic to its retro bar. You can get amazing discounts on a limited variety of drinks, but only between 5-7 pm.

23. Best Buy: Flash Sale

Best Buy’s flash sale offers multiple scarcity examples rolled into one.

The sale is live only for 48 hours. The website notification bar lets users know the exact time and date when the sale will start and end. This heightens the sense of scarcity.

Best Buy also reminds buyers of the limited availability of products. And that they won’t accept rainchecks.

24. iHerb: 13 Sold in 24 Hours

iHerb’s website has multiple cues to convert visitor traffic. It uses a notification bar to offer a 20% discount, While also reminding buyers that the offer ends on a specific date.

Further down, iHerb lets people see the number of products other buyers have bought in the last 24 hours. If you don’t act on time, the product might run out of stock.

The limited availability of resources is one of the causes of scarcity.

Pro-tip: Are your customers dropping off of your website due to out-of-stock products? Read our guide on how to win more sales with out-of-stock pages.

25. Fleet Feet: Clearance Sale

A lot of online retailers use clearance sales to sell surplus products at reduced prices. Online apparel stores especially have clearance sales because they are closing down or need to clear old stocks to make room for new product inventory.

In any case, a clearance sale implies that the discounted offering is going to run for a short time. Here, Fleet Feet has an entire product category called Clearance with discounted products.

26. Thread Up: End-of-Year Sale

End-of-year sales are similar to clearance sale campaigns. Thread Up, a second-hand apparel store, combines its year-end sale with multiple other promotions.

The copy on the website offers a discount code and free shipping. It also reminds customers about the sale ending date and time to trigger buyers’ scarcity mindset.

27. Pulp & Press: Abandoned Cart Email

Pulp & Press sends buyers a limited-time discount on their orders to reduce cart abandonment. This is a great way to create artificial scarcity and convert lost opportunities into sales.

28. Asos: Black Friday Deal

Asos offers a Black Friday discount code. It follows its promotion by reminding people to stay safe and be ahead of the surge.

This is among the best scarcity examples that explicitly communicate the limited resources and time.

29. Catalina Crunch: Early Access SMS Marketing

Catalina Crunch offers users early access to its Black Friday deals. When visitors click on the signup button, the website asks them to enter their phone number.

These kinds of optin campaigns are trade-offs between what buyers want and what sellers can offer.

30. Jeffree Star: A Different Take on Scarcity

Jeffree Star has a different take on creating scarcity.

Instead of creating scarcity with limited-time offers or discounts, they do it with delivery times.

Jeffree Star uses a website alert banner to let customers know that orders after 12/19 will be delivered after Christmas. This means the earlier people place their orders, the earlier they will receive them.

Nice way to evoke scarcity!

31. G Fuel: Giveaways Worth $10,000

G Fuel runs a giveaway contest on its website for visitors to enter a chance to win 1 grand prize. Or, they can enter to win 10 runner-up incentives.

Either way, G Fuel’s scarcity example is not based on time. It’s built on the probability of winning by participating in the sweepstakes and answering a simple question.

Pro-tip: Do you want an easy way to run giveaways in WordPress? Get RafflePress. RafflePress is the best plugin that lets you run successful giveaways in WooCommerce.

32. Eightvape: Christmas Holiday Offer

Eightvape displays a banner on its website hero section, offering customers tempting Christmas offers for a limited period.

The website also uses a Yes/No campaign to convert visitors into leads. Yes/No campaigns offer people a no-brainer choice: to choose an easy option or skip it for an opportunity cost.

33. Udemy: Sale Ends Today

Udemy has a one-day flash sale for visitors to enroll in one of its online courses. The website also offers a discount code and has a notification bar with a countdown timer.

34. Growth Marketing: Last Chance to Register

Growth Marketing’s email uses an image of a clock to suggest the need to act fast and create urgency. The CTA adds to the sense of scarcity further.

These CTAs work well both on your site and in your email marketing copy. Read our guide to creating the perfect call to action for more tips to improve conversions.

Time Is Running Out: Use These Scarcity Marketing Examples Now

See what we did there? Scarcity can be a great incentive for buyers to act sooner. Take inspiration from the examples in this post to apply in marketing your business.

If you’re new to marketing, you may also want to check out our comprehensive lead generation guide. Lead generation is the starting point for most things in marketing.

If you’re already running lead generation campaigns on your website, get started with OptinMonster. OptinMonster is the #1 lead generation tool that helps you build marketing campaigns to capture leads through popups, floating bars, sidebar optins, and more.

These days, it seems like everyone wants to add digital products to their business offerings, and for good reason. Selling digital products is often much cheaper and simpler than selling physical products. But how do you decide what sort of digital product to sell?

In this article, we’ll go through some of the best digital products to start selling today. It’s a long list, so feel free to jump to the section that most interests you.

What is a Digital Product?

Digital products are intangible items consumed or accessed digitally. Examples include ebooks, music, software, online courses, video games, apps, and movies. Unlike physical goods, they don’t require physical inventory and can be accessed anywhere via email, stream, or download.

Why Sell Digital Products?

There are several reasons why selling digital products can be a good idea:

1. Wide reach: Digital products can be sold and delivered to customers anywhere in the world with an internet connection.
2. Low overhead costs: Unlike physical products, you don’t have to worry about manufacturing costs, shipping expenses, or storage space for digital products. This keeps your profit margins high.
3. Easy to scale: With digital products, you can easily reach a large audience without having to increase production costs. In most cases, the same digital file can be sold over and over.
4. Versatility: Digital products can take many forms, such as e-books, courses, software, music, and more. This allows you to offer a variety of products to your customers.
5. Continuous income: Digital products can generate continuous income through recurring billing, such as yearly software licenses or monthly membership fees.
6. Passive income: Once you create a digital product marketing funnel, that funnel can earn money on autopilot without any further effort from you.

Because of these advantages, digital products are a great way to start your own online business. You can sell digital products as a side hustle alongside a job or other responsibilities, or grow it to a profitable full-time career.

Digital products are a useful lead generation strategy for service-based businesses. For instance, a wedding planner could sell a digital wedding planning template. Customers who buy the template are most likely planning a wedding, and thus the target audience for the wedding planner’s services.

Now let’s look at the different types of digital products

Types of Digital Products

There are 5 main categories of digital goods that business owners can sell online:

Documents & Files

These digital products can be static, like an eBook or how-to guide, or interactive like an Excel spreadsheet template.

Software

These are programs that can run on a computer or mobile device. Apps, plugins, and themes are popular digital products.

Digital Media

Podcasts, video content, stock photography, audiobooks, and other digital media can be sold or licensed.

Online Courses

E-learning courses, workshops, and webinars are a highly profitable type of digital product. They’re especially good for generating leads for higher-ticket services.

Communities

If you have a talent for bringing people together, you can create online spaces where people with similar interests or roles can meet and discuss interesting topics and ideas.

Next, we’ll go through some specific ideas from each category for different industries and markets.

42 Best Digital Product Ideas and Examples

Digital Product Ideas for Bloggers

1. eBook: Write a book about a topic you’re passionate about and sell it as a PDF or on Amazon Kindle. You can even collect your most popular blog posts that you’ve already written into an eBook.

Example 1: Blogger Mandarin Mama has an eBook related to one of the topics on her blog.

Example 2: The food blogger Just One Cookbook has eBooks of her favorite recipes.

2. Printable: Create printable worksheets, checklists, or wall art related to your blog’s theme and sell them online.

Example 3: The Making Frugal Fun blog sells printable planners for many areas of life.

3. Online course: Teach your readers something about your blog topic by creating an online course with video lessons, quizzes, and interactive elements.

Example 4: Play Learn Thrive has online courses for creating a workable play space for children.

4. Audio or video series: Share your knowledge in audio or video format and sell it as a series of lessons.

5. Webinar: Host live webinars on topics related to your blog and sell tickets to attend.

Example 5: Lifestyle blogger Christina Galbato hosts a webinar on turning your blog into a business.

6. Coaching or consulting: Offer one-on-one coaching or consulting services to help your readers with specific challenges or goals.

Example 6: The Decor Fix provides home decoration coaching services in addition to free blog articles about home decor.

7. Newsletter or membership site: Create a paid newsletter or turn your blog into a paid membership site that offers exclusive content, tools, and support to your readers.

Example 7: Stratechery has plenty of free content but even more is available when readers upgrade to Stratechery Plus.

8. Product bundles: Put together a bundle of digital products related to your blog’s topic and sell it as a package deal.

Best Digital Products for Artists & Creatives

9. Digital art prints: Sell digital versions of your artwork that can be printed by your customers at home or at a print shop.

Example 8: Etsy has plenty of digital prints for sale in a variety of different styles.

10. Vector files: Sell vector versions of your illustrations or designs that can be scaled and used for a variety of purposes.

11. Stock graphics: Create and sell a collection of graphics, icons, and elements that other artists and designers can use in their own projects.

Example 9: Black Illustrations has a large collection of stock illustrations featuring Black people.

12. Lightroom presets: Create custom Adobe Lightroom presets for photographers and sell them online.

Example 10: Mastin Labs was founded by a photographer to offer presets that make photo editing easier.

13. Video tutorials: Teach others how to create digital art, design, or photography and sell access to your instructional videos. You can sell these individually or as part of a bundle or membership site.

14. 3D models: Create 3D models and sell them to animation studios, game developers, or online marketplaces.

15. Graphic design templates: Create and sell templates for websites, landing pages, business cards, PowerPoint presentations, or other design projects.

Example 11: Creative Market features tons of graphic design templates, fonts, and more.

16. Music or sound effects: Compose music or create sound effects and sell them for use in films, games, or other projects.

17. Stock photos: Offer a collection of high-quality stock photos that your readers can use on their own websites or social media.

Example 12: Death to Stock offers unlimited use of stock photos and videos for a membership fee, with new content every month.

18. Theme or plugin: If you know how to code in addition to your design skills, create a custom WordPress theme or plugin. You can sell it on your blog or on a marketplace like CodeCanyon.

Example 13: Easy Digital Downloads is a digital product that lets you sell digital products!

19. Fonts and brushes: Design your own custom fonts or Photoshop brushes for other professionals to use.

Example 14: Behance has a wide variety of Photoshop brushes for sale.

Digital Products to Sell for Kids

20. Kids’ mobile apps: Create an educational or fun app that is designed for kids and sell it on the App Store or Google Play.

Example 15: Cosmic Kids has a children’s yoga app as well as a variety of printables and class plans available in their online store.

21. Online games: Build and sell online games that are designed for kids and that teach them new skills or knowledge.

Example 16: Adsumudi has a free online version of their card game for kids and families to try out.

22. Kids’ printables: Create printable activity sheets, coloring pages, or puzzles related to your theme and sell them online.

Example 17: Blossom and Root sells printable homeschooling curriculum materials.

23. Kids’ music: Compose or perform music that is designed for kids and sell it as a digital download or on streaming platforms.

24. Kids’ stickers or emojis: Create and sell a set of stickers or emojis that kids can use in messaging apps or on social media.

Example 18: These custom emoji packs are available on Etsy.

Digital Products for Coaches

25. Workbooks: Create worksheets or workbooks that help people work through their goals and objectives step by step.

Example 19: This workbook coaches business owners in writing their own case studies.

26. Group coaching program: Offer a group coaching program where you guide and support a group of people through your specific process.

Example 20: The Like a Boss mastermind is a group program that teaches freelance copywriters how to build their businesses.

27. One-on-one coaching: Offer one-on-one coaching sessions either in-person or through video conferencing.

Example 21: This career coach offers a 1:1 coaching package for job seekers.

28. Virtual summits or conferences: Host virtual conferences where you bring together experts in a specific field to provide education and inspiration.

Example 22: This leadership coach hosted a virtual summit for sports organizations and team leaders.

Digital Product Ideas for Fitness & Wellness Professionals

29. Online workout programs: Create an online workout program that people can follow from home, with videos, instructions, and printables.

Example 22: Fitness Blender has standalone workout programs as well as a subscription-based memberships for beginners to advanced exercisers.

30. Meal plans: Create meal plans that people can follow to achieve their health and fitness goals.

Example 23: Fitness Blender also has meal plans available to support users who are strength training or too busy to spend a lot of time cooking or working out.

31. Workout challenges: Create and sell workout challenges that help people get in shape and reach their fitness goals.

Example 23: Blogilates offers free workout challenges as a way to build their email list, but you can also create paid workout challenges.

32. Virtual classes or training sessions: Offer virtual classes or one-on-one training sessions where people can work out with you from the comfort of their own home.

Best Digital Products for Authors & Writers

33. Digital books: Sell digital copies of the novels and other books that you’ve already written. This is easy if you’re self-publishing your book. For traditionally published books, talk to your publisher about selling digital copies.

Example 24: Author Lyn South has digital copies of her book available in multiple formats.

34. Writing courses: Create an online course that teaches people how to write, or teaches a specific aspect of writing.

Example 25: Dr. Stephanie Han offers a variety of live writing classes in addition to her own works.

35. Editing or proofreading packages: Offer editing or proofreading services to help writers improve the quality of their writing.

Example 26: Writer Joanne Machin also provides developmental and copy editing services for other authors.

36. Writing prompts or exercises: Create writing prompts or exercises that help writers get inspired and develop their skills.

37. Writing coaching: Offer one-on-one writing coaching sessions either in-person or through video conferencing.

Example 27: Writing coach and ghostwriter Maggie Frank-Hsu offers a group coaching program for business owners and thought leaders working on their books.

38. Book templates or formatting services: Create and sell book templates or formatting services to help authors get their work published.

Digital Product Examples for Freelancers

39. Freelance job board or marketplace: Create a job board or marketplace where freelancers can find work and clients can find freelancers.

Example 28: Freelancing Gems is a paid membership that includes a job board, freelancing templates, and more.

40. Freelance management tools: Create and sell tools that help freelancers manage their work, such as project management software, time tracking tools, or invoicing software.

Example 29: Wethos allows freelancers to scope projects and invoice clients, all in one platform.

41. Freelance mentorship program: Offer a mentorship program where you work with freelancers to help them improve their skills and achieve their goals.

Example 30: Tom Hirst offers a 1:1 freelance mentoring program for freelancers at all stages of their careers.

42. Templates: Sell the templates you use for copywriting, social media, or web design. This can convert some of the leads you have who may not be able to work with you one-on-one.

How to Sell Digital Products Online

Selling digital products is a great way to make money online. Here are the steps to get started:

1. Choose a product: Pick a product that you know about and can create easily. It could be an e-book, online course, printables, audio program, or any of the other ideas from this list.
2. Build your audience: Build your audience by creating content and promoting it on your blog, social media, or other online channels. You can also join online communities related to your product to reach more people.
3. Create your product: Use tools like Canva, Adobe Creative Cloud, or other software to create your product. Make sure it is high-quality and provides value to your customers.
4. Choose a platform: Choose an eCommerce platform to sell your product on, such as Gumroad, Sellfy, or Shopify. These platforms allow you to easily manage your sales and payments.
5. Set a price: Determine the value of your product and set a price that reflects its worth. You can also offer discounts or promotions to encourage people to buy.
6. Start marketing: Start marketing your product by promoting it on your blog, social media, email list, or other online channels. You can also offer a free trial or sample to help people understand the value of your product.
7. Start selling: Once you start marketing your product, people will start buying it. Make sure your eCommerce store has a secure payment process in place and that you deliver your product promptly.
8. Provide great customer service: Make sure your customers are happy by providing great customer service. Respond to their questions, provide support, and offer refunds if necessary.

By following these steps, you can successfully sell digital products and make money online. Remember, success takes time, so be patient and keep promoting your product. The more you promote your product, the more sales you will make.

Also, make sure to continuously improve your product and offer new and updated versions to keep your existing and potential customers interested.

Summary: Most Profitable Digital Products to Sell Online

We hope this list of digital products gives you some inspiration for your own business. The best type of digital product depends on your industry and target audience, but generally here are the most high-demand ones:

• Online courses and other educational products
• Licensed digital media
• Membership sites
• Plugins and apps

If you’re ready to start selling your digital downloads, check out our list of the best digital download plugins for WordPress.

To sell more digital products on any platform, get started with OptinMonster!

Flash sales are a proven tactic to boost conversions quickly.

Marketing expert Neil Patel says that flash sales “typically come with substantial discounts and are all about encouraging consumers to make impulse purchases. They’re also a great way to grab some press attention and make sure customers visit your store over your competitors.”

In this article, I’ll explain the definition of a flash sale, discuss the benefits, and provide examples. Then, I’ll dive deep into flash sale strategy by sharing tips for planning and promoting your flash deals.

• What Is a Flash Sale?
• Is a Flash Sale a Good Idea? 5 Top Benefits
• 4 Flash Sale Examples
• Tips for Running a Flash Sale
• How to Promote a Flash Sale on Your Website
• How to Plan a Flash Sale Email Series

What Is a Flash Sale?

A flash sale is a time-limited promotion offering huge discounts on a limited selection of products. This creates a sense of urgency, encouraging customers to make immediate purchases.

Flash sales can boost your sales in a matter of days if not hours, making them a popular choice for eCommerce stores.

Is a Flash Sale a Good Idea? 5 Top Benefits

If you search your email inbox for “flash sale,” you’ll likely get a lot of results, unless you’re not subscribed to many eCommerce email lists. Top brands love flash sales because they get results. Let’s take a look at a few of the benefits.

1. Flash Sales Boost FOMO

Ultimately, the goal of a flash sale is to entice online shoppers into impulse buying, netting a large influx of sales in a short period of time. It’s effective because it leverages the power behind the fear of missing out (FOMO).

FOMO is a psychological phenomenon that occurs when people think they may miss an opportunity. It’s often associated with comparing yourself to others on social media.

But clever marketers know that FOMO extends to sales.

By creating a sense of urgency around your product or promotion, people are more likely to take action and make a purchase.

2. Flash Sales Can Clear Excess Inventory

If you sell physical products, you know how difficult it is to predict how much inventory you need. Sometimes, you may undershoot your goals and get stuck with excess inventory.

That’s where a flash sale can save the day.

Flash sales are an extremely effective method of quickly selling off excess inventory, turning a negative situation into a positive one within a few hours.

3. Flash Sales Move “Out of Season” Products

Flash sales are also a great way to move items that are out of season.

If you’re selling to a market that goes through all four seasons, having a flash sale can help you get rid of that last bit of winter inventory to make room for fast-selling spring/summer items.

This helps you lower operating and inventory costs on the back end.

4. Flash Sales Increase Brand Awareness

Hosting a flash sale presents an excellent opportunity to grow brand awareness. With limited-time deals, you can create time-sensitive posts for your social media platforms.

You can even turn those posts into paid ads, so you can reach potential customers who don’t already follow your business.

Some of the people who see your posts will buy right away. Even more will follow your page so they can stay up-to-date on your products and special offers.

5. Flash Sales Make Money Quickly

Finally, a flash sale can lead to a quick lift in transaction rates. That means more money, fast.

Even though flash sales reduce the profit margin of each item you sell, the overall impact of your promotion can more than compensate for that.

It’s the same mentality that drives Black Friday sales: make less profit on each individual product, but earn more overall profit.

Then, you can invest that extra cash into your company by buying more inventory, purchasing marketing tools, or hiring new talent.

At any rate, flash sales create quick revenue far beyond what your products would have gained while collecting dust on the shelf.

4 Effective Flash Sale Examples

Next, I’ll share 4 examples of flash sales by top brands. I’ll discuss the format of each sale so you can better understand the types of flash sales that are possible for your business.

1. BoxLunch Flash Sale: Sitewide Discount

A common type of flash sale is a sitewide discount. In this promotional email from BoxLunch, the eCommerce retailer advertises 30% off sitewide. The sale is for 1 day only.

2. Planet Fitness Flash Sale: Exclusive Deal for New Members

Is your business membership-based? Flash sales can help you get a large number of new members quickly. Here, the gym Planet Fitness offers a limited-time deal to join for just 25¢, followed by a monthly fee $10.

3. Maurices Flash Sale: Special Event Deal

Clothing retailer Maurices took advantage of the excitement for the 2024 solar eclipse. They offered a flash sale on “sun-loving styles.”

4. The New Yorker Flash Sale: Discounted Subscription + Free Gift

Flash sales for subscriptions can be particularly enticing for customers. After all, they’ll be saving on an entire year of membership, rather than just a one-time purchase. This flash sale from the magazine The New Yorker offers a discount on a subscription. They also sweeten the deal by giving a free tote to new subscribers during the flash sale.

Tips for Planning a Flash Sale

As you get ready to run your flash sale, these best practices will help you bring in revenue and avoid common pitfalls.

• Set clear goals: Before you launch, decide what you want to achieve. Do you want to clear out inventory, boost sales of a specific item, or attract new customers? Knowing your goals will shape your entire strategy.
• Choose the right sale products: Select flash sale items that will benefit from a discount and generate excitement. Consider including slow-moving inventory or past-season items. Flash deals can also give a boost to new products and best sellers.
• Make it a time crunch: Flash sales thrive on urgency. Aim for a short window, like 24-72 hours, to encourage customers to act fast and not miss out on the deal. If your marketing usually reaches your audience quickly, you can even limit your sale to just a few hours.
• Offer a compelling discount: Deep discounts can entice customers to buy, but you also have to consider your profit margins. Your discount should catch attention but not be so high that you don’t earn a profit. Possible flash sale discounts include a percentage off, a fixed dollar amount, or free shipping.
• Prepare your website: Ensure your website can handle a surge in traffic. Test all functionality beforehand, and have clear calls to action so customers can easily find the sale items.
• Manage inventory accurately: Avoid stockouts that can disappoint customers. Have a realistic idea of how much inventory you have for each sale item, and monitor your stock levels in real-time throughout your sale period.
• Promote, promote, promote: Prepare your marketing well before the sale starts. Use your website, email marketing, and social media channels to build excitement and reach your target audience.

For the rest of this article, I’ll focus on the last tip on this list: promotion. Specifically, I’ll show you how to use your website and your email marketing campaigns to ensure the success of your flash sale.

Flash Sale Tools11 Best Flash Sale Apps for Shopify to Skyrocket Revenue

How to Promote a Flash Sale on Your Website

Your website is one of your greatest tools for promoting your flash sale. When you promote your sale on your site, you are able to reach:

• Loyal customers who visit your site regularly
• Shoppers who are already planning to buy from you
• First-time visitors who found your site through a search engine
• Potential customers who’ve heard about your brand from friends or social media

For your biggest online sales, like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you’ll likely update your entire homepage to focus on those sales. But that’s a lot of work to put in for smaller flash sales, especially if you’re a small business.

There’s an easier way to make sure every website visitor knows about your flash sales: add popups, floating bars, and other onsite campaigns with OptinMonster.

OptinMonster is the world’s best lead generation software. We have 100+ pre-made templates that you can customize in our easy drag-and-drop builder.

We even have a whole suite of templates specifically designed for flash sales. For instance, there’s a lightbox popup:

For a more interactive experience, we have a gamified flash sale template that includes a coupon wheel:

And finally, there’s also a floating bar template. You can set this flash sale campaign to float at the top or bottom of your webpage, and it will stay in place as users scroll:

These templates are ready to go for your flash sale, with minimum edits needed. But you can also create a campaign from scratch or edit any of our template designs to fit your needs.

For example, here’s an example of a customized floating bar that we used recently to promote our own flash sale:

Thankfully, you don’t have to know coding or be an expert designer to create a beautiful marketing campaign for your flash sale.

OptinMonster’s drag-and-drop campaign builder makes it easy to edit any template to work with your brand and for the details of your online sale.

Once you have your flash sale campaigns designed to your liking, you can use our Display Rules to determine which visitors see your campaign and when.

Our robust targeting and triggering rules help you show your campaigns to the right people at the right time. Some of these rules include:

• Exit-Intent® Technology: Remind visitors of your flash sale just as they’re about to leave your site. You can also offer a bigger discount in exchange for their email address.
• Page-Level Targeting: Show visitors customized offers based on the content they’re looking at on your site
• Geo-Location Targeting: If you have physical locations, show special in-store deals to people who live in cities where you’re located. Or, customize your message based on the visitor’s climate.

Here’s a use case example. Let’s say your Cyber Monday flash sale is approaching. In the days or weeks leading up to Cyber Monday, you can create an exit-intent popup with a timer counting down to the start of the sale. In fact, we have a template just for that:

This template offers an extra 10% off the upcoming Cyber Monday deals in exchange for the visitor’s name and email address. Coupons are effective lead magnets to encourage website visitors to sign up for your email marketing list.

With OptinMonster, you can have this popup up and running on your site in mere minutes, and you’ll be able to:

• Capture the attention of abandoning website visitors.
• Notify users of your upcoming flash sale.
• Offer an extra incentive to shop the sale, in the form of an additional discount.
• Build your email list so you can nurture those potential customers. You’ll be able to send them the coupon code, remind them of the flash sale, and continue marketing your products and sales.

Because OptinMonster campaigns are so quick and easy to create, you can add new ones to your site for even your quickest, one-day flash sales.

Whatever approach you decide to take for your flash sales, OptinMonster helps you convert your website traffic into customers.

Bonus Tip: If you want to win as many sales as possible, make sure you optimize your checkout process. That way, you won’t lose sales due to poor customer experience.

How to Run a Flash Sale Email Sequence

You probably noticed something about the flash sale examples I shared earlier: they were all screenshots of promotional emails. Email campaigns are vital to promoting any flash sale because they:

• Target subscribers who want to hear about your sales
• Attract attention to your limited-time offer
• Generate buzz around your brand
• Drive traffic to your sale

I’ve touched briefly on how OptinMonster can help you get more email subscribers. In fact, building a great email list is perhaps the core benefit of our software.

For instance, Cosmetic Capital used an OptinMonster floating bar to capture over 18,000 email addresses:

Read the Full Case StudyHow Cosmetic Capital Increased Leads by 300% With OptinMonster

Once you have a robust email list, you can create a series of flash sale emails that will drive subscribers to your website and encourage them to buy.

A Typical Flash Sale Email Sequence

There are 4 parts to the typical flash sale email sequence:

1. Announcement
2. Launch
3. Last day (for multi-day sales)
4. Last call

Let’s examine each of these steps more closely.

Flash Sale Email #1: Announcement

The purpose of the first email is to announce your upcoming flash sale to your email list. It’s often a great idea to include the phrase “flash sale” in your subject line, as you saw in the examples we shared earlier. Other options are phrases like “today only” or “tomorrow.”

Here’s a flash sale announcement email from Bath & BodyWorks. They often announce their flash sales a day in advance, as you can see in this subject line:

The content of the email then gives more details:

Some other things to include in the flash sale announcement email are:

• The discount amount
• Which items are going on sale
• The date or length of the promotion

Bath & BodyWork’s announcement email provides all of this information:

• The discount is 40%.
• The sale includes everything in their online store, with certain exclusions.
• It starts the next day and is 1-day-only.

The email also includes an attractive graphic to catch attention. It’s common for eCommerce businesses to create graphics like the one above for their marketing emails.

If you don’t have a professional designer, you can always use visual content creation tools like Canva or Adobe Express.

Now that you have your announcement email ready, it’s time for the next step: the launch.

Flash Sale Email #2: Launch

This is the email that your customers have been waiting for. It lets people know that the sale has started.

Launch emails should be short and sweet. You can add a little bit of information about your offer, but the main focus should be getting people to click the link to your site.

Let’s continue with the flash sale email series from Bath & BodyWorks. On the morning of the sale, they sent out their launch email, with a subject line beginning with “today only”:

Within the email, they add to the excitement by including an extra deal in the sale, before repeating the main announcement:

If you’re offering a store-wide sale, you can also include links to all of your categories to make navigation easier:

Navigation links help visitors make purchases faster and also improve user experience (UX).

Flash Sale Email #3: Last Day

If you’re running a multiple-day flash sale, you should send a “last day” email.

People will always look for reasons to put off a purchase, especially if they know they have a couple of days to get to it. Last-day emails remind them that time is running low, but they still give subscribers enough time to redeem the offer.

Because Bath & BodyWorks’ sale was 1-day-only, they didn’t need a last-day email. But here’s an example from Belk. The subject line lets users know that they only have 1 day left to get 40% off:

The email content is simple, providing a link for the coupon as well as category links to shop the site:

Once you’ve gone through your last-day email, you’re ready to push a little harder with a last-call email to create more urgency.

Flash Sale Email #4: Last Call

Scarcity-based campaigns are successful for one reason: people need to be pushed into action. A final email lets customers know that your sale is going to end soon, and it will convince many of them to act now.

Your last call should be sent 4-6 hours before the flash sale ends. People tend to procrastinate until the last minute, so this final reminder will convine many to take advantage of the deal.

Bath & BodyWorks’ last-call email was similar to the first 2 in their flash sale series, so let’s look at a different example from a different industry.

Amy Porterfield, a digital marketing expert, does 2 things to create more urgency with her last-call email:

• She puts “Final Hours” in the subject line.
• She begins the email by informing users there are only 3 hours left to get the deal.

She also includes the same link for her product in 3 separate locations. That makes it easy for people to transition from this last-call email to your sales page or product pages.

Plan Your Own Flash Sale Email Series

The exact number of emails needed for your flash sale may vary.

For instance, if you’re planning a 1-day sale, you won’t need a last-day email. Additionally, you may not always want to give advanced notice of a sale. After all, that might stop people from going ahead and making a purchase at full price.

In that case, you might only need 2 emails in your series. However, if you’re running a 2 or 3-day flash sale that you want to build excitement for, you should send 4 emails, covering:

• Sale announcement
• Launch
• Last Day
• Last Call

By this time, your clients will be itching with FOMO and ready to buy.

Want to learn more about creating great marketing emails? Here are some resources to help:

• Email Copywriting That Sells: 17 Simple Ways to Write Better Marketing Emails
• 10 Killer eCommerce Email Examples to Impress Your Subscribers
• 14 Common Email Marketing Mistakes You Need to Avoid
• 50 Email Segmentation Strategies You Need to Use

Did You KnowOptinMonster helps you create a high-quality email list, so your email campaigns will reach the people who are ready to buy. Get started with OptinMonster today!

Are Flash Sales Worth It?

Flash sales are a great way to make a lot of sales in a short period of time. Some companies will run them to clean up their inventory, but the primary benefit is that you can quickly boost your bottom line.

So should you run flash sales on your online store?

If you have a large number of products sitting on your shelves, then you should absolutely run a flash sale.

A successful flash sale can create exposure, grow your email list, and make money. What’s not to love about that?

Just make sure that you space your flash sales throughout the year to avoid flash sale fatigue.

If you run too many back-to-back promotions, you may train your customers to ignore the deals or kill the sense of urgency you’re trying to create. You also risk lowering the perceived value of your products.

But if you’re strategic, running a flash sale can be one of the best business decisions you can make!

Want to learn more tips for your eCommerce business? You may find these articles useful:

• The Ultimate eCommerce Optimization Guide: 13 Steps to Instantly Boost Revenue
• eCommerce Email Marketing: Email Types, Examples, & Tips
• eCommerce Best Practices: Set Up Your Business for Success
• 15 Tips to Improve Your eCommerce Marketing Strategy (& Win More Sales!)

No matter what type of eCommerce company you run, OptinMonster is a vital tool for your marketing strategy. Our software makes it easy to optimize your website to get more sales and generate more leads. Then, you’ll be able to reach your target market with your flash sale promotions.

After all, your best marketers are happy customers.

So why not reward those customers for being vocal about how much they love you? If you set up affiliate program for your online business, you’ll be doing just that: letting your most loyal and enthusiastic clients share in your success. And you only pay when you make a sale.

Creating an affiliate program may seem complicated, but we’re here to help!

In today’s article, I’m going to share tools and tips to help you create affiliate marketing program. By the end, you’ll know exactly how to start an affiliate program that grows your business, builds customer loyalty, and increases revenue.

• What is an Affiliate Program?
• The 2 Sides of Affiliate Programs
  • The Affiliate
  • The Business
• How to Create an Affiliate Program
  • 1. Determine Your Goals & Choose Products
  • 2. Decide on Your Commission Structure & Rate
  • 3. Choose Your Affiliate Management Software
  • 4. Get Affiliates on Board
  • 5. Track and Pay Your Affiliates
• How to Set up an Affiliate Program with AffiliateWP
• How to Set up an Affiliate Program with Easy Affiliate
• Promoting your Affiliate Program

What Is an Affiliate Program?

An affiliate program is a system in which an online business partners with content creators and websites. These partners, known as affiliates, promote the business’s products through their content. The affiliates receive a commission when their promotion results in a sale or achieves another goal, such as driving traffic to your site.

How does creating an affiliate program help you increase sales? An affiliate program’s success depends on 2 major factors:

1. Expanded audience: Blogs, YouTube channels, and social media influencers all have their own built-in following. Affiliate programs let you reach those audiences with ease.
2. Social proof: Consumers look to customer reviews and testimonials to help them make purchasing decisions. Affiliate programs encourage high-quality content creators to boast about your brand, which will gain you new customers.

How is this all possible? Affiliate links are the backbone of any affiliate marketing program. Each affiliate uses unique links to your website or product pages. This lets you track what traffic and sales come from each affiliate, so you can pay out commissions.

Amazon is probably the world’s most well-known affiliate network. You know those gift guides that news sites publish every holiday? The ones that are full of links to Amazon products? Those are all affiliate links, and the news site earns revenue by getting you to click those links and purchase those products. It’s all part of the Amazon Associates Program, which is the retail giant’s affiliate platform.

Here’s an example from The Strategist, which is New York Magazine’s shopping guide website:

The 2 Sides of Affiliate Programs

An affiliate program has 2 sides:

1. The Affiliate

First, you have affiliate marketing from the affiliate side. Those are partners who earn commissions by promoting another company’s products in their content.

For example, let’s say you’re a travel blogger.

In one of your blog posts, you recommend that people book their airline tickets through an online booking service called “TravelMonster” (no, this isn’t a sister company to OptinMonster):

If you’ve signed up for TravelMonster’s affiliate program, you’ll get a commission from any sales that come from your blog’s affiliate link:

For these content creators, affiliate marketing becomes a stream of passive income. Once they’ve shared their affiliate link and optimized their SEO, they can continue to make money off a single blog article or video,.

Want to learn how to make money as an affiliate? Check out this guide:
What Is Affiliate Marketing? How to Make Money While You Sleep

2. The Business

But now let’s turn the tables and look at affiliate programs from the business’s side.

If you’re an eCommerce merchant who has generated enough traffic and business for your own website, you may want to start an affiliate program to reward content creators for talking about you.

In this case, you would start an affiliate marketing program, provide customized and trackable links to other content creators, and you’d be responsible for paying commissions on sales made using your affiliate links.

In short, your users are incentivized to advertise your product, and you get more sales. It’s a genuine “win-win” scenario.

For the rest of this article, we’ll be focusing on affiliate programs from the perspective of a business wanting to promote its products.

How to Create an Affiliate Program

Create an affiliate program in the five steps mentioned below:

1. Determine Your Goals & Choose Products

Any successful affiliate marketing program must start with clearly defined goals. Here are a few examples of goals that can help you get going:

• Drive traffic to your eCommerce to reach X number of daily hits
• Increase sales of a specific product by X%
• Gain traffic from X number of active affiliates within 1 year

You’ll also need to determine which products you want to ask your affiliates to promote. If you’re a small business or are new to affiliate marketing, you may want to begin with just 1 or 2 affiliate products. If you have a flagship product, that’s a smart choice to start with.

2. Decide on Your Commission Structure & Rate

Next, you’ll want to decide how much you’re going to pay your affiliates.

Here are 3 common commission structures:

• Percentage of sales: Pay affiliates a percentage of any sale made through their affiliate link. These rates usually range from 5% to 25%.
• Flat fee: Pay a set amount for every sale or conversion. Flat fees are especially common for high-ticket items or for subscription services.
• Tiered commission: In this commission structure, affiliates who make more sales will earn higher commission rates. This strategy encourages your affiliates to really optimize how they promote your products.

3. Choose Your Affiliate Management Software

Before you can start approaching affiliates, you’ll need to choose what software what affiliate management software you want to use. Your software will generate your affiliate links, take care of affiliate tracking, and manage your payouts.

If your online store is built on WordPress, there are some excellent plugins that will handle all of this for you.

Here are the best affiliate management WordPress plugins that are perfect for beginners:

1. AffiliateWP

AffiliateWP is the best affiliate program plugin for WordPress. It’s a powerful and easy-to-use solution packed with features. All you need to do is install and activate the plugin, and you’re ready to start.

You can add your affiliates manually or let them register themselves. You can have unlimited affiliates and creatives to promote your products, service, or website faster and more effectively.

AffiliateWP also comes with an integrated payouts service, which quickly and directly pays your affiliates.

Managing your affiliate is just as simple. In your dashboard, you easily monitor the performance of your affiliates.

Finally, AffiliateWP can be used seamlessly with other popular eCommerce tools such as WooCommerce, PayPal Buttons, MemberPress, and more.

Price: AffiliateWP plans range from $149.60-$299.60 per year.

2. Easy Affiliate

Easy Affiliate is an all-in-one affiliate program plugin for WordPress. With Easy Affiliate, you can set up a completely self-hosted affiliate program by simply launching the setup wizard and following the easy steps.

It comes with a built-in affiliate dashboard that lets users get trackable links, monitor their commissions, and view their payment history. Easy Affiliate also autogenerates other important pages you need like affiliate applications and logins.

When it comes to starting an affiliate program for beginners, Easy Affiliate makes the process just about as easy as can be.

Price: Plans range from $99.60-$199.60 per year.

4. Get Affiliates on Board

Next, the fun part starts: finding content creators to promote your brand! You want to look for content creators who have an audience that overlaps with your target audience. Examples include:

• Blogs related to your niche
• YouTube channels that post video product reviews in your industry
• Social media influencers, such as popular TikTok users, who promote products like yours

If you sell physical products, contact these content creators and offer to send them a review copy of your product. If your product is digital, you can send offer them a product key or free trial.

Then you can start seeing you’re products promoted on blogs and social media platforms.

Here is an example of a YouTube review of OptinMonster. The video description includes an affiliate link:

Here are some ways that you can go about finding affiliate marketers to use your program:

1. Reach out to people in your personal network: If you’ve been in your career field for a few years, you’ve probably made friends in the same space who aren’t direct competitors. Let them know you’ve started an affiliate program.

If they already have a content marketing plan in place, they’ve likely built an audience that would be interested in your product, too.

2. Reach out to others in your niche: Perhaps you don’t know anyone in your domain firsthand, but with social media, you can always reach out to influencers in your space.

Explain to them what makes your product so unique and why your affiliate program is worth checking out.

4. Rely on your email list: This is crucial. Having a robust, active email list will do wonders for your affiliate marketing program (not to mention what it will do for your entire eCommerce site). In this way, you can use Affiliate Royale in conjunction with OptinMonster, the world’s #1 lead generating toolkit on the market.

5. Track and Pay Your Affiliates

If you have your affiliate management program set up, then then this last step is a breeze! Your software will help you keep everything running smoothly, so you can pay your affiliate commissions.

Speaking of, let’s look at how easy it is to use the 2 affiliate plugins we recommended.

Method 1: How to Start an Affiliate Program with AffiliateWP

The first step to starting an affiliate program is choosing the platform you’d like to work with. The two listed above are great options so we’ll show you how to create an affiliate program with both, starting with AffiliateWP.

Step 1: Install AffiliateWP on WordPress

Visit the AffiliateWP site and click the Start earning more button.

Choose one of AffiliateWP’s plans and follow the checkout process to complete the purchase.

Once you purchase the plugin, you should receive an email with some installation instructions (don’t worry, we’re going to go through all of those):

This email is super important for two reasons. First, it gives you the latest version of AffiliateWP to download (this will be your plugin).

It also has your license key which you’ll need in order to activate the plugin later. Once you’ve downloaded the latest version of AffiliateWP (from above), you can head over to your WordPress dashboard.

Find Plugins in the right-hand column and click Add New:

At the top, you’ll have the option to Upload Plugin:

Simply upload the .zip file from AffiliateWP and then click Install Now:

Finally, click the Activate Plugin button to make it start working.

And you’re all set! Like we said before, AffiliateWP makes the process of starting your own affiliate program about as easy as can be.

Step 2: Set Up Your AffiliateWP Program Settings

Now that your AffiliateWP plugin is installed, let’s look at how to use it.

Immediately after activating the plugin, go to Affiliates » Settings to enter your license key (you can find it in the installation email we mentioned earlier or in your AffiliateWP account).

After activating your license key, on the same page, you can select a page to be used for your Affiliate Area. AffiliateWP automatically creates one for you but if you want to change it, you can choose a different page from the dropdown menu.

You can also create a “Terms of Use” page and set the page here as well.

After that, scroll down to configure other settings for your affiliate program such as the referral rate type (percentage or flat rate), cookie expiration, currency, and more.

Don’t forget to click the Save Changes button when you’re finished.

Now you can select the integrations you want to enable on the Integrations tab. You can connect AffiliateWP to popular plugins like WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, MemberPress, WPForms, and more.

Simply put a checkmark next to the plugin to enable the connection and click Save Changes.

Next, head to the Emails tab. With AffiliateWP, you can easily edit the emails sent out to affiliates. On this page, you can upload your logo, create a custom email template, add a professional email address the emails will be sent from, and more.

Click Save Changes to move on to the next step.

On the Misc tab, you can configure other advanced settings for your affiliate program. This includes choosing whether users require approval before becoming affiliates or automatically registering new users as affiliates.

You can also enable ReCAPTCHA from this page which prevents bots from registering as affiliates.

Once you’re done configuring the settings, click Save Changes.

That’s it! You’ve set up your own affiliate program with AffiliateWP.

Step 3: Manage Your Affiliate Program with AffiliateWP

Now that your affiliate program has been set up, we’ll show you some of the things you can do with AffiliateWP.

Your affiliates can log into the dedicated Affiliate Area that AffiliateWP creates automatically. On this dashboard, they can track their referrals and payouts, access creatives, and generate referral URLs with the built-in referral link generator.

You also have the option of purchasing the Affiliate Portal addon, which will automatically give your affiliate area a more modern look.

AffiliateWP offers a ton of free and paid addons you can use to extend your affiliate program.

To view affiliates that have joined your program, you can head to Affiliates » Affiliates page. Here you can see a full list of affiliate partnerships, their earnings, rates, paid and unpaid referrals, and visits.

You can also get an overview of how your referral program is performing by going to Affiliates » Reports.

Here you can see powerful insights like paid earnings, average referral amount, and more. You can filter the reporting period by time and specific affiliate partner names. In addition, you can view reports for affiliates, payouts, visits, and campaigns.

AffiliateWP makes it easy to run a successful affiliate program and these are just a few of its powerful features.

Next, we’ll show you how to create an affiliate program with Easy Affiliate.

Method 2: Starting an Affiliate Program With Easy Affiliate

Now, we’ll guide you through to process of getting started with Easy Affiliate.

Step 1: Install Easy Affiliate

To create an affiliate program with Easy Affiliate, head to the Easy Affiliate website and purchase the plugin.

Then, install and activate the plugin by following the same process listed in step 1 of our first method.

Step 2: Configure Easy Affiliate

Now that your Easy Affiliate plugin is installed, let’s look at how to use it. Immediately after activating the plugin, you’ll be redirected to the Easy Affiliate tab in your WordPress dashboard.

On the Easy Affiliate page, scroll down a bit and click on the Launch the Wizard button. The setup wizard will walk you through setting up your affiliate program step-by-step.

The first step is to enter your Easy Affiliate license key (you can find it in the installation email we mentioned earlier or in your Easy Affiliate account).

Copy your license key and paste it in the field provided.

Once the key is verified, hit the Save and Continue button.

Next, Easy Affiliate will check for any existing affiliate program you have installed and offer you an option to migrate. If you don’t have one, simply click the Save and Continue button to move on.

Now you need to choose what eCommerce plugins you want Easy Affiliate to track affiliate sales with.

Easy Affiliate seamlessly integrates with most popular shopping carts such as WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.

Click the toggle button to enable the options you want. For this tutorial, we’ll enable WooCommerce. Then, click Save and Continue.

After that, simply type in your business information including the name, address, and other details.

Again, click Save and Continue to move on to the next step in the setup process.

Now it’s time to set up the affiliate program registration process. Easy Affiliate gives you three options to choose from:

• Application
• Public
• Private

We recommend choosing the Application option so that you can learn more about applicants before accepting them as affiliates for your brand.

You can also enable other options like when to collect affiliate addresses and tax information as well as displaying an affiliate agreement on the registration page.

Once you’ve enabled the options you want, click Save and Continue.

Next, you’ll want to set your commission type. You can either pay your affiliates a flat rate for purchases made on your site  or you can set up a percentage of sales.

Before moving forward, select your payment method as well and choose whether you want to pay commissions on all sales or just on the first sale only.

Hit Save and Continue to go to the next step, which is adding creatives for your affiliate program.

Creatives are marketing materials that you can provide to affiliates such as website logos, product photos, banner ads, text documents, and so on.

Simply click the +Add button to upload your creatives. If you don’t have any creatives yet, you can click the Skip and Continue button and add them later.

That’s it!

Your self-hosted affiliate program is all set up. Just click the Finish Setup & Exit Wizard button.

Step 3: Manage with Easy Affiliate

While there are many things you can do in Easy Affiliate, today we’ll focus on the basics.

Easy Affiliate autogenerates the important site pages you need for your affiliate program including the application page, login, and affiliate dashboard.

This will help you automate most of your affiliate program.

To view your pages, go to Easy Affiliate » Settings from your WordPress dashboard. In the General tab, you can preview and edit any of these pages.

You’ll now have a link to give potential affiliates that allows them to sign up to your program:

They can then log in to their dashboard at any point.

And in their dashboard, they can review their commissions, links/banners, stats, and payment history.

Your users now have everything they need to start promoting your business.

On your end, you can manage your affiliates from your WordPress dashboard and track important affiliate stats across your site:

You can also change settings like commission structures, marketing integrations, click history, transaction history, etc.

In other words, you can manage every aspect of your affiliate program through the Easy Affiliate menu on your WordPress dashboard in a way that is intuitive and user-friendly.

Again, this article has simply scratched the surface of what you can do by starting an affiliate marketing strategy. In the future, you’ll want to create marketing materials (like banners) and sync Easy Affiliate with your email list.

Promote Your Affiliate Program

The best affiliate marketers to add will be those people that are already loyal customers of your store. In fact, this is probably the most crucial group you can use to promote your store.

But how do we get the word out to them? If they are already on your email marketing list, simply send an email.

Otherwise, you need to get an email list together and spread the word on your website.

To do that, we recommend using OptinMonster, the world’s #1 lead generating toolkit on the market.

OptinMonster is a premium WordPress plug that helps you continually grow your email list and promote your new affiliate program in several ways.

As you gain emails through your lead magnet and 2-step optin forms, you can start advertising your affiliate marketing program to your current customers.

Sure, reaching out to your networks is excellent for getting new affiliates. But using your company’s email list means you’re reaching out to people who have actively expressed an interest in what you are doing and the content you are producing.

It’s just one of the many benefits of having a solid email list to grow your business.

Promote With Popups

OptinMonster gives you the tools and tricks you need to create a hard-to-refuse popup to promote your affiliate program or add emails to your marketing lists.

With over 100 stunning templates and 9+ campaign types, you will be sure to catch your visitors’ attention.

And with its drag and drop builder, you can customize everything about your campaign, including the text, images, and color. It also lets you add advanced elements like countdown timers, photos, videos, buttons, and more.

Here’s an example of a full-page popup created by OptinMonster to collect emails for a business email list.

But what about those powerful targeting features we mentioned?

OptinMonster allows you to customize which visitors see your campaign and when. So if you want to promote your affiliate program to use existing customers, you can do that with OptinMonster.

Otherwise, you can target your audience based on their activity, interests, and behavior on your site.

Like tracking your affiliate marketing sales, you can track how well your campaigns work with an easy-to-understand dashboard. A/B testing will also let you test different campaigns in real-time.

And, with OptinMonster’s powerful Exit-Intent® technology, you can send abandoning users to the affiliate’s product pages.

In fact, OptinMonster and affiliate marketing is how AdamEnfroy.com skyrocketed affiliate sales to over $20,000 a month.

Now, it’s time to get the same results for your website.

And that’s it! You now have everything you need to start an affiliate program.

For information regarding the latest trends and growth opportunities in this industry, explore these Affiliate Marketing Statistics All Marketers Must Know.

If you enjoyed this post, you’d find these articles helpful:

• How to Grow Your Email List FAST: 80+ Proven Methods
• Earnings Per Click: How to Win Big at Affiliate Marketing
• How to Make Money While You Sleep With Affiliate Marketing
• Easy Affiliate Marketing Tips to Increase Your Income

These articles will help you convert more visitors into leads and provide more tips and tricks for your affiliate marketing program.

A strong SMS marketing strategy lets you send your best offers right to customers’ cell phone screens, where they’re likely to click, engage, and buy.

However, if you handle your text messages poorly, you risk annoying your subscribers. And you may lose them as customers forever.

How can you thread that needle? In this ultimate guide to SMS marketing, you’ll learn everything you need to know to start an effective text message marketing campaign. Along the way, we’ll share tips and examples to help you optimize your texts to get great conversion rates and more sales.

• What is SMS Marketing?
• Benefits of SMS Marketing
• SMS Marketing Best Practices
• SMS Marketing Examples (+ What You Can Learn From Them)
• SMS Marketing Software & Tools
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is SMS Marketing?

Short message service (SMS) marketing is a direct marketing channel that uses text messages to reach customers with promotional offers, updates, and time-sensitive information. As a form of direct marketing, an SMS strategy fits in seamlessly with a business’s email marketing and direct mail efforts.

SMS refers to the text messages we send and receive on our mobile devices. Text message marketing is a powerful tool for notifying customers of special offers and announcements.

The Top 3 Benefits of SMS Marketing

So, is SMS marketing effective? Let’s take a closer look at some of the benefits:

1. Lightning Fast Delivery

SMS marketing is lightning fast. When you send out a text message, it gets delivered immediately. This allows you to send real-time notifications.

Because of this, you can send time-sensitive messages like flash sales and event-related promotions. For instance, eCommerce businesses could send users a message on Cyber Monday to maximize sales for that single day.

So, once you press that “send” button, hundreds or thousands of users will instantly get your message.

Plus, most people always have their phones with them, increasing the chances that your message will get seen as soon as it’s delivered.

In fact, 90% of SMS messages are read in the first 3 minutes.

2. Much Higher Open Rates

When you send out an email marketing campaign, subscribers have to check their email before they even see your subject line. Users have to see a notification, open up their email app or log in on desktop, and scan through the messages in their inbox. Only then do you have a chance of them opening your email.

With so many email and social media notifications on a daily basis, users are more likely to ignore them.

But, with SMS marketing, users will be instantly made aware of a new message with a text notification. Since people usually get texts from their friends and family, those notifications are less likely to be ignored.

Plus, most phones display a snippet of text messages right on the lock screen. SMS marketing is more personal and stands out from other notifications, causing SMS message marketing to have high open rates.

What are SMS open rates?

Sources around the web cite the average SMS marketing open rate as 98%.

Just like with email open rates, which can range from 20.77% to 45.49%, there are likely to be a lot of variables depending on industry and other factors.

A survey by Shift, a communications agency, sought to determine SMS open rates by asking users a simple question: “Do you read every SMS text message sent to you?”

Out of 1030 responses, 82% said that they read every single text message they receive.

The takeaway here? SMS marketing has a lower barrier to being seen than other direct marketing messages.

After all, people throw away junk mail and ignore promotional emails every day. But they usually read all of their texts.

3. More Engagement, Clicks, and Sales

Of course, open rates aren’t the final goal of SMS marketing. You need those text messages to convert into website traffic, in-store visits, and sales.

Insider Intelligence and eMarketer conducted a series of surveys in 2023 related to SMS marketing.

Here are the key points from these surveys:

• 60.5% of US marketers cited higher customer engagement as their leading reason to use text message marketing.
• 53.5% of US marketers cited higher open and clickthrough rates (CTR) as a leading reason
• 37.5% of US adults prefer native SMS/text for their mobile messages from businesses. They’re more likely to prefer text over messages through social media apps or a brand’s own app.

Essentially, customers prefer to get mobile marketing via SMS, so they engage more with those messages. That means they’re more likely to click your links, view your coupons and discounts, browse your website, and buy.

The result? 75% of consumers make purchases as a result of SMS marketing.

SMS Marketing Best Practices

Now you have an idea of how SMS marketing can help your business. Next, let’s explore some best practices that will help you succeed in your text messaging strategy.

1. Get Permission

Just because you have a contact’s phone number doesn’t mean you can go ahead and use it. Texting people without permission isn’t just rude. It’s actually illegal.

Companies must get explicit permission from users before texting them. You can do this in 2 ways:

Create an optin campaign. OptinMonster is the world’s best lead-generation software. We help you use your own website to grow your email list and your SMS marketing list.

How? With optin campaigns like lightbox popups, floating bars, and inline forms.

You can use OptinMonster to create a killer SMS campaign just like this!

With our pre-made templates, it only takes a few minutes to have a campaign like this up and running on your site.

Require customers to check an optin box, similar to how users sign up to your email list.

When a user makes a purchase on your website, your checkout page can include a checkbox to sign up for text messages.

It’s also important to tell users what type of text messages they can expect to receive from your business and how often. For instance, signing up for SMS order confirmations and shipping updates is different than agreeing to receive marketing texts.

Be clear about what messages you’ll be sending, and keep your promise to users.

2. Use SMS Marketing Tools

Don’t bust out your personal cell phone and start texting customers. Instead, use SMS marketing tools.

SMS marketing software handles the task of processing texts to large subscriber lists. It also lets you automate your SMS marketing. For instance, you can set up automated texts to go out when a user signs up for your SMS list, makes a purchase, or shows interest in certain products.

Learn more about marketing automation workflows.

SMS marketing software also makes it easy for you to track your results. You can see how many people opened your message, how many times the link was clicked, and so on.

We’ll cover the best SMS marketing tools a little later in this article.

3. Make it Valuable

When users optin to receive text messages from you, they expect those messages to be worth their while. So, don’t send text messages just because. Instead, you’ve got to make them valuable.

One of the easiest ways to make your text messages valuable is by offering up something amazing, like a special deal or a coupon that’s exclusive to your SMS marketing list.

Exclusive offers will make your customers feel like VIPs.

Take a look at this example from Avenue. They include the phrase “Just for you” to create a feeling of exclusivity.

Even if your deals aren’t as exclusive as they may seem, if the user feels special, they’ll be more likely to appreciate the offer and take action.

4. Always  Include a Call-to-Action

A strong call-to-action (CTA) is important in any type of marketing campaign. A CTA encourages users to take the next step, moving them along in the buyer’s journey.

Your customers aren’t mind readers, so if you want them to do something, you have to ask them.

Including a call-to-action in your SMS marketing campaigns is as simple as adding phrases like:

• Sign up for free!
• Click the link to see what’s on sale!
• Use this code at checkout for 20% off!
• Complete this survey for a chance to win!

In this SMS marketing example from BoxLunch, they let users know that they have a sale on bags. Before the link, the CTA text reads “Shop Now!” This CTA lets subscribers know that the link will take them to a webpage to shop their bag sale.

5. Include Personalization

When customers get messages that are tailored specifically to them, they’re more likely to pay attention and take action. In fact, personalized CTAs convert 202% better than basic CTAs.

So, be sure to include personalization tags in your SMS marketing. Some eCommerce personalization examples include

• Addressing each recipient by name
• Sending offers/information based on the user’s geolocation
• Mentioning recent activity with your company, such as recent purchases, cart abandonment reminders, shipping updates, and more.

For instance, I received this personalized text from Instacart, asking me to rate and review a recent order:

6. Keep it Short

A text message is not the appropriate format to send users an entire novel. In fact, you only have about 160 characters to work with. So, keep your text messages short and simple.

Start off with something attention-grabbing, like the amazing offer you have to share. Adding a phrase like “SPECIAL OFFER” near the beginning of your message will pique the interest of users, encourage them to keep reading, and drive them to take action.

7. Consider Timing

Imagine this: it’s the middle of the night, you’re sound asleep in your cozy bed, and you’re suddenly awoken by a text message from a business. Can you think of anything more annoying?

It’s also not fun to get texts from businesses early in the morning, on a holiday, or during dinner with your family.

To avoid this type of situation, which could cause you to lose even your most loyal customers, you need to consider timing with your SMS marketing.

Pay attention to the time zones your customers are located in and send messages during appropriate times.

According to SMSGlobal, the best time of the day to send general marketing messages is between 10:31 am–11:29 am or 2:34 pm–3:27 pm.

8. Identify Yourself Right Away

Have you ever gotten an anonymous mystery text message? Did you answer it? Probably not.

Remember that when sending text messages to customers.

If a customer receives a text message without knowing who it’s from, they’ll likely consider it spam or suspect it’s been sent to the wrong number.

Just as you would when you meet someone in person, introduce yourself. When customers know that it’s your business that’s communicating with them, they’ll be more likely to respond. Plus, repeating your company name helps improve brand recognition.

For example, look at the text below from Starbucks. They introduce themselves right away.

9. Don’t  Send Too Many Texts

People get bombarded with an overwhelming number of marketing messages day in and day out, whether by text, email, direct mail, social media ads, and so on.

It’s important that your business doesn’t add to that stress by sending too many texts. If you don’t have anything important to say or offer, it’s best not to send a text at all.

In fact, 71% of US consumers say that too many texts will make them no longer want to hear from a brand.

By sending out only your most exciting texts, you’ll avoid annoying customers. Plus, when they do see that they’ve gotten a text from you, they’ll know it’s something good.

10. Give Instructions for Opting Out

As we mentioned earlier, it’s illegal to text your customers without their permission. It’s also illegal to not give users a way to opt out of receiving your messages.

You should always give users a way to unsubscribe. At the very least, your first text message must include your opt-out instructions. Some brands even include it at the end of each message. This gives any user the chance to opt out easily if they subscribed accidentally or no longer want texts.

For example, Dominos instructs customers to text “STOP” to unsubscribe, and they also include the standard “text messaging rates may apply” disclaimer.

Reminding users that they can unsubscribe at any time will help you avoid annoying them. It will also ensure that your SMS marketing list is filled with people who are actually interested in getting your messages.

SMS Marketing Examples for Inspiration

Let’s look at a few examples of SMS marketing messages from different brands. We’ll discuss what you can learn from each of these text campaigns.

1. Offer a Coupon or Reward Like Buff City Soap

Buff City Soap sends texts as part of their marketing efforts to drive traffic into their physical stores. Here, they offer a $10 rewards bonus with any $50 purchase made in-store.

Notice that Buff City Soap includes a graphic with this text message. This is a strategy you shouldn’t overuse due to factors like data usage. However, an occasional photo, graphic, or GIF can catch subscribers’ attention. Note that these inclusions can cost more than text-only messages.

2. Promote a Sale (With a Deadline) like Abercrombie & Fitch

Text messages are a great way to notify your SMS list subscribers about a sale event. Abercrombie & Fitch also creates a sense of urgency by saying the sale is “Tonight only.” Other phrases to use include “Last Chance,” “Limited-Time,” and “Ends Soon.”

Subscribers can click the links to visit the Men’s or Women’s clearance pages, as seen on the right.

3. Announce a New Product like Local Eclectic

Local Eclectic, an online jewelry store, sends regular promotional texts about sales and special offers. In this SMS marketing example, they notify subscribers about a new line of jewelry boxes.

What better way to announce a new product than to send an announcement directly to your customers’ mobile phones?

4. Feature Enticing Content like Food52

Is content creation a big part of your business? If so, you can include that content in your text message marketing.

I received the above text from Food52 after I signed up for their SMS list. Most of their marketing texts promote the products they sell, but this one focuses instead on their huge library of recipes.

5. Offer Free Shipping like Alex and Ani

Shipping costs can often be a barrier to making a purchase. And so can shipping times, especially before a holiday. This text message from Alex and Ani tackles both of these objections. It offers free shipping and tells subscribers the last day they can order to receive Valentine’s Day gifts in time.

SMS Marketing Software & Tools

In order to send promotional SMS messages like the ones above, you’ll need the right tools.  Let’s take a look at a few different options for SMS marketing software.

1. OptinMonster: Build Your SMS List

OptinMonster is one of the best lead-generation tools available. It allows you to create eye-catching website popups using stunning, ready-to-use templates and our visual drag-and-drop builder.

What’s more, OptinMonster offers seamless integration with SMS marketing platforms.

Plus, you’ll get to choose from multiple campaign types, like popup, fullscreen mat, and floating bar.

Our customers use these campaigns to grow their email and SMS subscriber lists. Then, they can boost sales with exclusive deals for SMS subscribers.

Here’s an example of an SMS marketing optin built with OptinMonster:

For more, check out this article: How to Collect Phone Numbers on Your Website Using Popups

Pricing: $9-$49 per month

2. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue): Email & SMS Marketing in One

Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) is one of the best email and SMS marketing service providers. Brevo lets you segment your target audience and send personalized texts in bulk.

With Brevo’s SMS marketing features, you can easily promote time-sensitive discounts and special events. It comes with built-in analytics, so you can see which messages perform the best.

Pricing: Brevo’s free plan offers limited SMS marketing. Paid plans range from $25-$65 per month. However, you have to buy SMS credits separately for all plans.

3. ActiveCampaign: An Omnichannel Marketing Platform

ActiveCampaign is an omnichannel marketing platform. That means it seeks to offer a single platform for all marketing channels, including email, social media, and SMS marketing.

Like Brevo (formerly Sendinblue), ActiveCampaign lets you automate your SMS marketing campaigns.

ActiveCampaign’s SMS marketing features let you automatically send flash sale notifications or appointment reminders. It comes with form-building tools so you can collect phone numbers on your website.  Plus, if anyone wants to leave your list, they simply need to reply with “STOP” or “UNSUBSCRIBE.” This helps you keep your list filled only with your most engaged subscribers.

Pricing: The SMS add-on is available in the Plus plan and above, with plans ranging from $49-$259 per month. Like Brevo, SMS credits cost extra. Monthly SMS plans range from $21 for 1,000 credits to $1,221 for 101,000 credits.

4. EZ Texting: SMS Marketing for Beginners

EZ Texting is a simple, standalone SMS marketing tool that lets you send bulk texts.

Within EZ Texting, you can organize your contact list and track your SMS marketing analytics. You can use this service to send SMS updates about contests, coupons, and online promo codes. It also comes with marketing attribution tools to see your conversion sources.

This platform takes the “EZ” label seriously. It has thorough onboarding and easy-to-understand documentation.

Pricing: $20-$3,000 per month.

FAQs

1. Is SMS marketing illegal?

No, SMS marketing is not illegal as long as you follow the laws of your country and/or state. There are 2 main rules for legal compliance:

1. Subscribers must have explicitly signed up to receive text messages from you. Just because you have someone’s mobile number doesn’t mean that you can send them promotional texts.
2. You must always offer an easy way to unsubscribe. Usually, the subscriber can just reply “stop” or “unsubscribe” to be removed from your SMS list. You have to include opt-out instructions in your first text.

Most SMS marketing platforms will help you maintain legal compliance by offering 2-step optins and easy opt-outs.

2. Is SMS marketing effective?

Yes. If done well, text messages can be a vital part of your digital marketing strategy. According to 2023 data from Klaviyo, their clients’ SMS campaigns saw a click rate of 10.14% across all industries. Compare that to their email marketing data, which shows a click rate of 1.44% for email campaigns.

And those clicks translate to sales. The mattress company GhostBed generated over $77,000 in revenue from an SMS welcome series for new subscribers.

3. How much does SMS marketing cost?

You’ll need to purchase 2 types of tools to get started with SMS marketing:

• An optin tool to build an SMS subscriber list
• A platform to send and manage your marketing texts

To build your list, OptinMonster starts at just $9 a month. If you already have an email marketing service, check to see if your plan already includes SMS or if it’s available as an add-on. If not, a small business can start with a service like EZ Texting for as little as $20 a month to send 500 monthly texts.

As you build your SMS marketing list, you can expect each text to cost between 1 and 5.5 cents. With most platforms, your per-text cost will go down as your volume increases.

4. How can I collect phone numbers for SMS marketing?

To build your SMS list, you can use several strategies:

1. Include a phone number field and an optin checkbox on the checkout page of your eCommerce site. It should be very clear that by clicking the checkbox, customers are signing up to receive marketing texts.
2. If you have physical stores, allow customers to sign up for texts at your point of sale (POS).
3. Use popups, floating bars, and other on-site campaigns to encourage website visitors to sign up for your SMS list. OptinMonster makes it easy to offer visitors irresistible offers in exchange for an SMS signup.

Get Started With SMS Popups Today!

More SMS Marketing Resources

If you want to learn even more about SMS message marketing, check out these articles:

• How to Grow an SMS Marketing List on Your Site (5 Ways)
• How to Create an SMS Popup With OptinMonster (Step by Step)
• 7 SMS Marketing Plugins for WordPress (Compared)