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While the practice may seem outdated or low in value, you might be surprised at how much your business can benefit from a solid email marketing strategy. In fact, the email marketing market is projected to be worth an impressive $ 17.9 billion by 2027.

But here’s the key: You can’t just send out a few emails here and there and hope for the best. By “solid email marketing strategy,” we mean one that’s thoughtful, strategic, consistent, and targeted. While there are many brands that attempt it, few actually reap the full benefits.

In this article, we’ll take you one step closer to being in that second category of brands that get results. We’ll look at 10 of the top email marketing best practices, from email subject lines to welcome emails to segmenting your target audience.

10 email marketing best practices

1. Start with a welcome email

The first email is important for setting the tone of your email campaigns and starting to build the relationship with your email subscribers. 

In your welcome email, introduce yourself and tell them exactly what to expect, like how often you’ll be emailing and the types of things you’ll be talking about. It also …

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Doing Well by Doing Good: How Fair Trade Benefits Brands, Retailers, and Foodservice

Fair trade is not just a way to do good – it is a way to transform businesses, meet sustainability goals and build resilient and transparent supply chains. Fair trade products are found across several industries including coffee, consumer packaged goods, produce, floral, seafood, apparel, and home goods. 

What is fair trade? 

Fair trade is a global movement that puts people and the planet first. It helps connect suppliers and buyers who want to source products from farms and factories that operate with the best social and environmental practices.

The people who produce our food and products face numerous health and safety issues. Fair trade standards help keep workers safe by providing health and safety protections such as eliminating forced and child labor, mandatory training to reduce repetitive stress injuries and pesticide exposure. 

In addition, adhering to fair trade standards comes with added benefits to producer communities. For every Fair Trade Certified™  product sold, the farm or factory workers involved in its production earn an additional amount of money that goes into a worker controlled community development fund at origin to spend on projects that meet their social, economic, and environmental needs.  These community development projects can include clean water, …

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TikTok Creator Fund: How It Works and How to Join

The TikTok Creator Fund is a way to support and reward creators for their content and creativity. 

But even after three years of the Creator Fund running, TikTok users still aren’t sure whether it will benefit them, if it’s worth joining, or if there is a better way to monetize their content.

We’ll explore these topics so you can decide whether the TikTok Creator Fund is right for you.

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What is the TikTok Creator Fund?

TikTok launched the $ 70 million Creator Fund in July 2020 as a way to support and compensate creators who meet certain criteria for their time and effort spent creating TikTok videos. 

TikTok introduced the Creator Fund as an alternative way to earn money and incentivize content creation on the app rather than using an ad-revenue-sharing program.

The company also announced plans to increase the fund to $ 1 billion in the US, with hopes to double that amount for the world.

How do I join the Creator Fund?

It’s easy to apply to the Creator Fund via the TikTok app. 

However, only certain TikTok users are eligible to join. These are the current requirements …

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In: Retailing Tips|Last Updated:

Graham Firrell is a visionary entrepreneur who has carved a niche for himself in the health and wellness industry. As the founder and CEO of GoWild Australia, he has introduced the world to the Kakadu Plum (aka gubinge), a superfood native to the coastal outback of Northern and Western Australia. Under his leadership, GoWild Australia has become a global supplier of the gubinge fruit and has developed all-natural liquid extracts, whole fruit powders, and process solutions from Indigenous Australian traditions.

The ‘Koala-fications’ of the Kakadu Plum

For over 60,000 years, Indigenous Australian communities have wild-harvested and used the Kakadu Plum as a medicinal, nutritious, and tasty food source. Today, this amazing superfood is recognized not only as the world’s richest source of natural Vitamin C, but also for containing over 50 various identified nutritive compounds. GoWild Australia sources the Kakadu Plum exclusively from native communities and cooperatives across Northern and Western Australia. These communities grow and supply this special ‘super fruit’ from sustainably managed and naturally wild forests or semi-wild plantations under their direct control. 

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GoWild Australia’s product applications can include foods, supplements, medicinals, nutraceuticals, skin care, hair care, body care products, and beverages …

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Want to Build Long-Term Retail Partnerships? Try Holistic Negotiations

During one of my recent leadership share groups, I noticed that almost every company in the room struggled with the same challenge. Their most important partners and customers are narrowly focused on short term results, rather than long-term relationships and mutual gain. Simultaneously, most of the top companies are investing in higher-level negotiation training, resulting in more tension, frustration, and relationship angst. 

It’s natural to lose track of your script and become bogged down in the transactional nature of some relationships, but it’s essential to remember the humanity of the other party. Mutually beneficial negotiations create a sense of trust which carries into the future.

The literature shows that the best relationships are rooted in “seeking to understand” another’s agenda with higher-level diplomacy, shared interests, and co-creation. Recently, I conducted research with a group of senior sales leaders which focused on the health of their retail partnerships. This survey aimed to uncover the factors hindering their engagements and profitability with their largest partners. I discovered that one-third of the manufacturers surveyed are struggling with profitability, desire more access with their top customers, and are looking for more creativity from these customers. How do you think your organization is fairing?

Developing

…
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Brand Values: What Are They and How to Define Yours (+ Examples)

What makes one brand stand out in front of its competitors? What about a brand that grabs a customer’s interest and leaves them curious to learn more? What inspires brand loyalty, keeping customers coming back consistently? There are tons of factors at play when answering this question, and brand values are one of them.

In today’s hyper-competitive consumer landscape, more and more customers are looking to shop with companies that share their ideals, beliefs, and values. They want to know that your company is standing for the same things they are.

So how do you establish your own brand values and show them to the world? That’s just what we’ll cover in this article. We’ll also show you some examples of brands that have mastered their own brand values of their identity in the marketplace.

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What are brand values?

Brand values are what a company believes in and stands for. They’re the key principles that shape the customer experience and how the company operates from a foundational level, typically from an ethical and humanitarian perspective. Brand values can impact every aspect of a company, including how it:

Designs its business …
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