Meet the Team: Lindsay Lanahan

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Lindsay Lanahan is an empathetic, intuitive, and creative problem solver with a heart for helping others. Combining these natural strengths with her diverse experience working in financial, entertainment, and nonprofit industries make her an ideal Client Relations Specialist for Green Apple Strategy. In her role, Lindsay helps strategize and execute effective marketing initiatives for clients across various industries. Her ability to connect how customers think with a client’s overall goals gives Lindsay incredible resourcefulness to identify new opportunities for our clients.  “I love learning about the psychology of marketing and the user experience,” explains Lindsay. “I also love the process of identifying a problem or opportunity, creating an approach, implementing it, analyzing what worked and what didn’t, and adjusting. It’s exciting, and I love that we’re able to adapt to find a solution that truly makes a difference!” As an Enneagram 4 who grew up in the Midwest, Lindsay has expressed her creative, empathetic, hardworking, and diligent spirit throughout her career. After graduating from college, she spent two years working in development for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in Nashville. From there, she went on to work at Creative Artists Agency managing tour logistics and finances for world-renowned pop and country music artists. She later combined her nonprofit experience and love of the arts to serve as the Development Manager for OZ Arts, a non-profit contemporary arts center.  After learning about Green Apple from a friend, Lindsay knew it would be the perfect opportunity to serve clients in a way that aligns with her natural skill set. “I was immediately drawn to Green Apple when I recognized how they took the time to understand each employee and client—whether it was through diving into the Enneagram or taking the Culture Index Survey to learn about each person’s natural behaviors. When I met Sam, and the rest of the team during the interview process, I knew I was in the right place.” Personally, Lindsay loves spending time with family and exploring Nashville with her husband Patrick. On any given weekend, they can be found enjoying one of their favorite restaurants, seeing movies at the Belcourt, or taking a day trip to attend a music festival. Lindsay bright and adventurous spirit resonates with everyone who knows her.

4 Signs Your Email Campaigns Aren’t Working (And How to Fix Them)

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email campaigns not workingEmail marketing is one of the most effective ways to engage with your audience and turn subscribers into buyers. However, simply having a strategy and sending regular emails to your intended audience doesn’t mean email campaigns are working. The only way to know if your campaign is working is to track it. If you want to elevate your email campaigns, it’s important to evaluate each of the factors that determine your success. In order to help, we wanted to highlight a few of the common reasons your email campaigns might not be working and provide some quick ideas for how to fix them. Here are four areas to evaluate and improve if you’re looking to generate better results from your email marketing campaigns.   

1. Your Emails Are Ending Up in Spam Folders

Your audience will likely never see your email if it ends up in their spam folder. How do you measure this? Check the deliverability rate of your campaigns. Deliverability measures the rate at which emails reach subscribers’ inboxes.  If you notice your deliverability rate is low, here are a few things you can do:
  • Make sure you’re using a reliable email service provider and avoid spam triggers.
  • Delete old or inactive email addresses from your list and keep only people who are engaged.
  • Check which email addresses bounced and remove those email addresses from your list.

2. Your Emails Aren’t Being Opened 

As the old “tree falling in the woods” adage teaches us: if an email is never opened, will anyone read the message? The answer is no. The two biggest factors for determining open rates are often the subject line and send time.  That’s why your subject line is one of the most important aspects of elevating your email marketing campaigns. If you’ve struggled to increase open rates: 
  • Consider tweaking your subject line strategy to find more effective ways to capture attention and inspire your audience to open the email. 
  • You can also test the day and time that you send your email to see what works best.
  • Use A/B testing to try out several versions of an email campaign to determine which is the most effective at increasing engagement. 
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3. People Aren’t Clicking Through or Taking Action

Clickthrough rate (CTR) is the percentage of people who click on your calls-to-action (CTAs). This is the ultimate goal of any email campaign. The email is the vehicle you use to inspire your audience to take the next step. Taking the time to create UTM codes that track post-visitor engagement is a great way to determine the effectiveness of every single email you send.  If you’re experiencing lower clickthrough rates than you used to generate, you might consider:
  • Segmenting your emails to create more personal and targeted campaigns for your various target audiences.
  • Optimizing the format of your content to ensure it’s easy for people to read.
  • Testing different CTA formats to see what generates the greatest response, including buttons, links, images, and questions.
 

4. People Are Unsubscribing

An unsubscribe rate measures the number of people who opt out of your email list once they receive an email from you. If someone unsubscribes from your list, you’ve lost your chance to engaging with them through email. So how do you avoid people unsubscribing from your email campaigns? Here are a few ideas:   You spend a lot of time and energy crafting emails for your audience. The last thing you want is for the work you do to be ignored. Constantly testing and tweaking your emails is essential for keeping up with customer demand and ensuring the work you put into your campaigns generates the results you want. If you’re looking for ways to stay on top of the latest email trends, subscribe to our newsletter. We’ll provide helpful insights you can use to reach more customers. 

7 Creative Ways to Thank Your Clients and Customers

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Thanksgiving is a time we all stop and reflect on the things we’re grateful for. More than likely, your clients or customers are somewhere on that list (if they’re not, they should be—they’re the reason you’re in business). But, do your customers know just how much you appreciate their business? According to a small business study, 68% of customers leave cease doing business with a company because they feel that company is indifferent to them. As we spend time this week thinking and celebrating what we’re thankful for, here are seven creative ways you can say “thank you” to the clients and customers who are keeping your company in business:

1. Create a Loyalty Program or “VIP Membership” for your best customers.

This is something Robbie Baxter unpacks in her book, Membership Economy. Your rewards program doesn’t have to be complex. It can be as simple as offering customers an annual discount on their anniversary.

2. Make a donation to a cause you know your customers care about.

Reach out to a select set of valued customers and let them know you’d like to make a contribution in their honor to their favorite charity.

3. Listen to the suggestions customers provide and actually implement them.

There is no better way to communicate with a customer than to show them you were listening. Your customers are a great source of areas you can improve as a business. Reach out to customers and tell them how you’ve implemented their suggestions.

4. Give your loyal customers a discount or special promotional price, just because.

Sending a note telling a customer you’ve taken $50 off their December bill as a way of showing appreciation for their loyal and continued service is a great way to keep their business in the future.

5. Send customers your favorite business book that you know they’ll enjoy.

This is a great idea for B2B companies. This gesture offers customers insight into your company culture and opens the lines of communication for future discussion about the ideas that you use to help shape your products, services, or strategies.

6. Help teach customers something valuable that’s related to your industry or area of expertise.

Two huge benefits come from thanking customers this way — customers trust you, and they have a greater appreciation for your products. It’s the ultimate win-win.

7. Refer people you know to your customers’ businesses.

B2B businesses should make every effort to say thanks by sending business to their customers. Look for opportunities to refer your customers to other clients or link them to your network.  I’d love to know what some other creative ways you’ve let customers know how thankful you are in the past! As always, don’t hesitate to contact Green Apple today if you need some marketing guidance or assistance to go the extra mile for your clients and customers.