The List Building Strategies That Grew 251,000 Subscribers
In any marketing discipline, it's easy to get swept up in the trivial details instead of focusing on the essential stuff that matters, and that's as true for list building as it is for anything else.
If you’re a bit new to email marketing, leave the complex remarketing campaigns alone until you’ve gotten your feet wet. Instead, start by following the basic best practices.
In this guide, we'll walk through some simple — and some more complex — list building practices you can use to build a massive list of engaged subscribers and turn your newsletter into a conversation machine.
Armed with information and a very feasible gameplan, you’ll be ready to put an effective email strategy in place that benefits your subscribers, customers, and bottom line. Why email marketing is better than social media
Why email marketing is better than social media
In building a “minimum viable audience” online, an important question that you need to consider is what to do with the traffic you receive. While email is a comparatively old, un-sexy technology compared to social media, the rallying cries of “Email is dead!” are simply inaccurate and undoubtedly hurting the bottom line of those businesses who listen.
Email marketing provides the most direct line of communication for turning leads into sales, which is why the savviest entrepreneurs have no intention of giving it up any time soon.
The truth is that you don’t even need to be on social media to make use of it.
Social networks thrive on the sharing of good content, and your only job is to give people something to share.
When they get to your site, your job is to continue communicating with them, and for that, email is the superior choice, avoiding just another update in an overcrowded Twitter stream.
In order to convince you that email should be your first choice when it comes to communicating with customers, it’s time to bring out the statistics and data to examine how and why email use lends itself to better engagement.
In the sections below, we’ll discuss just how much more effective email marketing is than social media marketing, with a particular focus on these three points:
Email is more popular than social media.
People guard their email accounts, so engagement is much higher.
You’re competing with “fun” on social networks.
Ready to find out why these matter?
1. Email is more popular than social media
According to a recent study by OptinMonster , "60% of consumers subscribe to a brand’s email list to receive promotional messages, compared to 20% of consumers who will follow brands on social media to get deals."
Email is universal, widely used, and still the de facto place where business is conducted online.
Worse yet, by using multiple social networks (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest), you’re spreading your audience across multiple platforms. Comparatively, a powerful email list can be a singular distribution channel for content and updates.
2. Engagement is much higher via email
As an AWeber user, I’m regularly checking my open and click-through rates on recent broadcasts (it’s just as addicting as checking Google Analytics!).
After compiling an average of some data from my newsletter, it was apparent that reader engagement via email was incredibly strong.
Better still, since we began heavily focusing on email marketing at Help Scout , we’ve regularly seen open rates of greater than 21 percent.
To put these numbers into context: a myriad of data compiled on Twitter shows that the average click-through rate rarely tops 1.64 percent. Without paying for promotion, the average Facebook post is even worse . This is compared to email open rates, which hover around ~20% for many industries and can go up to as high as 40, 50, and 60 percent (and beyond!).
According to data compiled by Litmus , an email marketing analytics company, email regularly offers better value per dollar spent than even search and paid ads:
Email: $40 for every $1 spent
Keyword Ads: $17 for every $1 spent
Banner Ads: $2 for every $1 spent
Email also has higher conversion rates per session than search and social combined:
Email: 4.16%
Search: 2.64%
Social: 0.48%
It’s easy to see that an engaging newsletter is a win-win. You get to send out valuable content to current customers and prospects who have an interest in your industry; in return, you’re able to maximize one of the most powerful, personal marketing channels available on the cluttered mess that is the internet.
Perhaps best of all, however, is that you don’t have to compete with a myriad of distractions that are present on social networks. I’ll outline a few of these problems in the section below.
3. Email is made for business
An explanation that many miss when evaluating why social media updates, ads, and even promoted posts are so ignored is the fact that you are competing with fun on social media.
When the average user logs into Facebook, they want to see new pictures from last Friday night (so they can un-tag any unsightly evidence), updates from family members who are out of state, and witty status updates from their friends.
Thus, not only does email trump social media in both quantity (more users) and quality (better engagement), it also has another factor going for it — it’s a platform that was made for business.
Social media streams are filled to the brim with items users don’t mind being seen publicly.
Email as a communication channel is personal.
As consumers, we are therefore naturally more receptive to things in our inbox — which most of us tend to guard like mother bears guards their cubs — because they are filled with things we elect to see with some privacy.
This more intimate medium of communication lends itself to more honest decisions; that’s an important reason why people will always be “warmer” to being sold on their interests via email, and just another reason why email will always beat social media marketing.
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Simple tweaks to convert one-time visitors into subscribers
We’ve established that email marketing is most certainly not dead, but one of the most popular questions posed by startups is how to increase the size of their email list, specifically through their company blog.
While content marketing has proven itself to be the best strategy for bootstrapped startups, the problem is that most company blogs are poorly designed for conversions, focusing on featuring useless items like social media banners and category links.
You won’t have to fall into that camp, though, because we’re going to go over how to take your startup’s blog and refine it into a conversion building machine. And the best part is that simplicity is the foundational element, so you won’t have to worry about coding up a ton of random features.
When it comes to must-use tactics, there are two main elements that you must structure correctly to fine-tune your company blog’s conversion potential:
Place opt-in forms where they count.
Assemble “hub” pages with your best content.
Let’s continue on to look what simple tweaks can be made to help maximize the potential of new email signups through your company blog.
Identify the best locations for opt-in forms
Many company blogs don’t convert well simply because they don’t have opt-in forms placed in popular, easy-to-use locations.
Most business’ blogs are far too conservative in where they place their opt-in forms — worse yet, some don’t have them at all!
To strike a balance that promotes harmony between the user experience and your business blog’s goals, place opt-in forms in the four high-converting locations detailed below.
1. Feature box or pop-up box
The denouncement of pop-ups has become an availability cascade ; people love to point out why they “won’t work” despite the fact that the data shows most people aren’t really (all that) averse to pop-ups.
Both the AWeber blog and the Help Scout blog run pop-ups, and we’ve never had someone complain that it was intrusive or annoying. As a matter of fact, a large portion of Help Scout’s newsletter subscriptions are generated by that pop-up!
The point is, they work. If you are still apprehensive about using one, consider another amazing alternative: the feature box .
First proposed and popularized by Derek Halpern of Social Triggers , a feature box is a large box that sits above your company blog’s content, presenting a snapshot of what the blog is about and why people will benefit if they subscribe via email.
The feature box works extremely well for the following reasons:
It describes what your site is about. A good feature box provides a 10-second pitch of what your site is about. This means visitors won’t have to review your website’s navigation or even your content to decide if your blog is right for them.
It’s eye-catching without being annoying. If you’re not a fan of popups, rejoice. Since the feature box is front and center when your site loads, it will grab a reader’s attention without impeding their ability to read.
You can pitch the benefits of your newsletter. Few other places on your blog will give you the ability to explain why your site is worth signing up for.
2. Top of the sidebar
This is the classic location, and for good reason — it works . People expect to see an email opt-in on top of the sidebar.
A great example of the sidebar sign-up form from the Buffer blog
In similar fashion to when sites place their navigation in strange locations, users are confused when they don’t see an opt-in form in this space.
You have lots of options to test here, including a freebie, adding social proof to your opt-in form, creating a “long” form, or keeping things relatively minimal.
3. Bottom of article
If someone reads through one of your 2,000+ word blog posts, it’s safe to assume that they were pretty engaged with the content and likely enjoyed it.
The ending of an article provides a classic example of the “What’s next?” phenomenon experienced by web users. The time invested in that activity has ended, leaving users without a clear cue on what they should do next.
Post-footer signup forms should let readers know that if they enjoyed what they just read, they can join the newsletter to get notified of future posts. Whether you keep it super simple...
...or go for a fancier approach, make sure this form highlights that they can expect more great content to come by signing up for free email updates.
4. Dedicated newsletter or resource page
An entire web page devoted to this endeavor may seem like overkill, but trust us on this one — the Help Scout resource page is responsible for a huge majority of our new email leads!
If you don’t currently have any downloadable guides to offer (more on that later), it’s best to stick with a traditional newsletter page like this one . A page like this offers an opportunity to outline the benefits of joining your newsletter, letting you reach current blog readers who need that little extra nudge to sign up.
If you do have some resources cooked up, make them accessible by email (via an auto responder ) so they can be delivered safely to a new signup.
Create hub pages
This is the step almost everybody seems to miss, so pay attention!
As you produce more content, your older stuff is likely to get pushed back further and further into the abyss (and let’s be honest, it’s rare for people to dig 5+ pages back into your archives).
To highlight your best content, rank well in search engines on the topics that matter most to your business, and generate qualified email leads , you need to create hub pages.
Before getting into hub pages’ structure, let’s take a quick look at a few examples of what finished pages look like:
Moz’s “Learn SEO” page
Copyblogger’s “Content Marketing 101” page
Help Scout’s “Leading a Support Team” page
You can create your own hub pages by following the three simple guidelines below:
1. Address an important topic in your industry
The first requirement of a resource page is that it needs to address a cornerstone topic that is regularly relevant to your industry.
Copyblogger does these pages very well. Let’s take a look at one of their examples:
Because Copyblogger is all about online marketing, having a hub page dedicated to landing pages — an important subject in the online marketing community — is a very smart thing to do.
It gives readers a starting point if they are specifically interested in the topic of landing pages, and it lets a passerby reader know that Copyblogger talks regularly about this subject. This hub page also allows the Copyblogger editorial team to recycle and breathe new life into their previously published content on landing pages.
Speaking of which, these pages are perfect for highlighting your blog’s “greatest hits.” Next we will go over how to do just that.
2. Link to 5-10 pieces of your best content (on that subject)
Categories pages are an inefficient way of showcasing your greatest content since they put things in chronological order rather than highlighting the must-reads of your blog.
Hub pages, however, will be prominently featured on your site, visited often by people who want more on the topic, and give you the ability to place the spotlight on your most exceptional articles.
On our pages, we call out the most pertinent articles and include a quick description as to what the article is about:
This allows interested readers to really zero in on the best content on your site about a topic that they enjoy (a win for both of you).
But wait a minute ... what does this have to do with building your email newsletter? Guideline #3 below will walk you through this linkage.
3. Include an opt-in box for continual updates
Now that you’ve established the important topic on your site that this hub page will address, showcased your best pieces of content on that same topic, and piqued your readers’ interest, it’s time to leverage the opportunity to build your email list.
The final item on your hub page should be an email opt-in form that lets readers know how to get updated on this kind of content in the future.
An Added Bonus:
These pages often rank well in search engines since you can aggressively link to them from guest posts and other features because they serve as a content hub on a popular topic within your industry.
Copyblogger ranks on the first page of Google for searches like “content marketing,” “internet marketing,” “copywriting,” and, yes, “landing pages” — all from using this exact style of resource page.
Your business may be targeting ecommerce terms or other industry-specific searches. If so, make sure you take advantage of the opportunity that hub pages provide to help you build your email list!
Increase email leads with content and features
We’ve discussed the power of email and the benefits of an easy-to-navigate blog. Now let’s move on to content.
Though content marketing should be the backbone of any bootstrapped marketing strategy, many companies find themselves in the “content creation rat race,” as Derek Halpern calls it.
Drive-by traffic can come in swarms from all over the web, but it isn’t sustainable if no effort is made to convert one-off visitors over to email.
That’s why in this chapter, we will highlight some key ways marketers and entrepreneurs can revamp their strategy content and off-site features. Instead of a small bump in Google Analytics that quickly dissipates, you’ll be ready to get people on an email list to extend the communication.
Even if you don’t have a content marketing strategy in place, this chapter will position you to be more prepared than 90 percent of startups out there, so get ready to take some notes!
Integrate email into your product
One of the smarter ways to gather email leads online is to simply integrate email into your product’s usage. The most basic technique here is requiring an email to sign up (which most companies do), but this is also an opportunity to get creative.
Ruben Gamez, founder of Bidsketch proposal software, integrates email into his product by requiring your email address to see a sample copy of an assembled proposal.
This results in qualified leads signing up via email, thereby capturing an audience that has already shown interest in the product’s capabilities.
The important thing to keep in mind here: Be straightforward with your potential signups. This means being completely honest and transparent about what handing over their email means for them.
If you plan to include them in your newsletter after the signup, notify them. Many people will not object to this, but if you try to sneak them into an email campaign when all they wanted was to sign up, you’ll create a lot of discontent (not to mention kill your credibility).
Integrate email into your offering
Email leads are most effectively captured through landing pages. Since landing pages focus on a single outcome, they are fantastic for conversion rates in general. This also applies to acquiring more email addresses, so don’t get skimpy on creating them!
Create a landing page for each downloadable resource to explain why your newsletter is worth signing up for.
If the desired outcome of any webpage is an email signup, the structure of the content should be styled as a landing page; in other words, no sidebars, no footer, a subdued header, and plenty of single-column copy that dives right in to what the page is about.
If you need more advice on creating landing pages that work, check out the advice featured on Unbounce .
Create free downloads
Downloadable resources can be an incredible source of new email leads. They also provide prospects with useful information that helps them get more use out of your product — so they’re a win all around.
The reason to put them behind an email opt-in (besides the obvious benefit of growing your list) is to qualify the people signing up; only the most interested customers will bother with an email form to access the content that suits their needs.
These resources can come in a variety of formats, for example:
A video series
Downloadable ebooks
An archive of content
An audio download
A free template
Founders and marketers always ask what these guides should be about. The best answer we can give you is to create resources based on your customer personas and your “affinity” interests .
Promote your resources far and wide
Resource-style content such as white papers, ebooks, and infographics is made for promotion. While blog posts and traditional articles are a great way to reach out to people (“Hey, thought you might like this recent piece we did on...”), you can get a lot more mileage out of a broad set of evergreen resources.
One way to promote this content is to take an already existing resource and transfer it to a new medium.
Slideshows are pretty much the perfect platform for this. For example, we took our “ 75 Customer Service Facts, Quotes, & Statistics ” ebook and created a set of slides for use on SlideShare.
The call-to-action at the end of the presentation leads to our resource page where visitors can download the ebook in exchange for their email address. This process is effective because it lets you work with content you have already created and turn it into something that generates leads on an entirely different platform.
Additionally, there’s always the old-fashioned way to promote your resources: Reach out to fellow entrepreneurs, bloggers, or even journalists and shoot them a personal email with your latest resource attached.
You provide them something for free, which starts the process of reciprocity, and in turn, they may write about your latest creation and drive new visitors to your site.
Guest post with a purpose
Guest posting is always benefited by a laser focus on generating new email signups.
You’ve heard how great companies like Buffer have benefited from guest posting (especially in the early days), but what many entrepreneurs and marketers don’t realize is readers are suffering from byline blindness — the result of an over-saturation of guest bloggers.
Since so many guest posts are now floating around the web, bylines are getting ignored. So in order to maximize the return on your guest post, you need to get strategic.
The best way to do this is to integrate step #2 (landing pages everywhere!) with your guest blogging efforts. In other words, create a landing page for each “big” guest post that you write.
For the readers who do click through on your byline, seeing something like “Welcome (Guest Blog’s Name) Readers!” is surprising in a good way. This headline is personal and attention getting, and now that you’ve captured their attention, they’ll likely read on to see what your site is about.
Srini Raos, founder of BlogcastFM, does a great job with this technique following a recent feature he guest wrote on Copyblogger.
You don’t have to dip your toe into custom graphics, but you should be liberal in creating these pages for all of your notable guest posts.
Maximizing newsletter engagement rates
Building an email list is a fruitless exercise if your subscribers aren’t responsive. A six-figure newsletter distribution list means nothing if nobody is opening your emails!
Newsletter engagement is best measured by open rates and click-through rates. I’ve worked with some of the best lists out there: The Help Scout newsletter regularly reaches over 21%+ open rate, a tough number to crack in our industry.
So how do the most engaged newsletters keep their open and click-through rates so high? The secret boils down to using proven psychological principles that invoke curiosity, grab the reader, and compel them to take action.
Below, we analyze five different studies that offer proven tips for helping you improve engagement.
1. The information gap
All marketers should be familiar with the work of George Lowenstein, a neuroscientist at Carnegie Mellon University. Lowenstein’s research on information gap theory reveals powerful insights for creating email broadcasts that people will actually read and click through.
His findings show that when we encounter things that pique our interest but don’t reveal “the goods,” we have a strong desire to delve further in so that we avoid the dissatisfaction of not knowing the outcome.
We’ve all encountered this before; it’s really just a scientific take on suspense . Research in this area (such as those studies around the Zeigarnik Effect ) show that human beings hate leaving things incomplete if they’ve had a strong start.
According to one study , when subjects were interrupted while doing brain-buster tasks that they were making progress on, nearly 90 percent carried on working on the puzzle anyway!
The takeaway: Creating suspense in your newsletter will make readers want to see it through to the end, which means clicking through to wherever you are sending them.
Do not use suspense in the subject line, though!
This creates a subject that is too vague — and one that might be construed as spam. Instead, be sure to create this need to “close the gap” early in your broadcast through the introductory paragraph by revealing the ending first (“We tripled our sales!”) or by creating intrigue (“There are 5 common diet mistakes that...”).
2. The less-is-more approach
Columbia University psychology professor Sheena Iyengar made waves with her research on why choice is demotivating, which was later expanded into her book, The Art of Choosing .
Her famous study shows how people react to an abundance of choices and explains why action paralysis seems to occur when we are presented with a lot of options.
Iyengar conducted the study by selling jam at an upscale supermarket, testing shoppers’ interaction with jams while displaying six types on some days and 24 types on other days.
While she noted an increased interaction from customers with the 24-jam display, only around 3 percent of customers actually BOUGHT the jam, whereas more than 30 percent purchased from the 6-jam display!
Having more options increased engagement, but FEWER people actually made a choice and purchased a jar of jam! So if people who are overwhelmed with choices often opt to do nothing, what is a marketer to do?
You can specifically apply this to email marketing by following the one email, one goal rule: Each email should only have one desired outcome (view a blog post, see a new feature, hear about an update, etc.).
If you are asking for multiple things, you are really asking for ZERO things, because multiple choices often cause people to take no action.
3. Using urgency the smart way
Social psychologist Howard Leventhal conducted a study on urgency by testing how people responded to pamphlets of information about tetanus. His goal was to see how he could convince more people to get vaccinated.
He tested two types of pamphlets:
One pamphlet just had information about the dangers of tetanus.
The other pamphlet had the same information and minimal instructions on where subjects could get vaccinated.
Leventhal found that even though the follow-up information in packet #2 was minimal, around 23 percent more people who received packet #2 got vaccinated. He concluded that when urgency is invoked without instructions, we tend to mentally block it out by convincing ourselves, “Well, I don’t need to worry about that anyway.”
Thus, it is harder to ignore the warning signs when you’re armed with information on what to do next. You can use this information in your newsletter by creating a crystal-clear call to action after you’ve invoked a sense of urgency.
We use phrases such as “Click here to read XYZ.” This may seem obvious, but we’ve found that trying to be less clever with calls-to-action and speaking more directly to subscribers has really boosted click-through rates in newsletter broadcasts.
4. Utilizing everyone’s favorite word
MRI scans have shown that there is one word that is guaranteed to pique your attention every single time you hear it.
Can you guess what it is?
According to recent research examining brain activation , few things light us up quite like seeing our names in print or on the screen. Our names are intrinsically tied to our self-perception and make up a massive part of our identity.
It’s no surprise, then, that we become more engaged and even more trusting of a message in which our name appears.
Making use of these research findings in email marketing is dependent upon gathering a subscriber’s name.
For sidebar opt-ins and pop-ups, it’s best to keep things simple and just ask for an email, but on segmented lists and specific landing pages, gathering a name lets you use this tactic to create strong, personal connections with subscribers.
5. Keep them on their toes
Reciprocity is a powerful force.
And social psychologist Norbert Schwarz revealed that is especially powerful!
Schwarz found that unexpectedly finding as little as 10 cents (this was in 1987, but adjusted for inflation, the amount is still small) was enough to put people in a good mood.
Remember that this is perceived value, so giving people things that cost you anything (except time) can still have this same effect. Apply this to your email marketing efforts by surprising subscribers with free stuff. Blog posts don’t count, because there is no surprise there; people EXPECT them to be free.
We’re talking about things like free guides, unpublished videos, or webinars — collateral that will create engagement with your email subscribers.
7 ways to fine-tune your open rates
Need even more proven methods to keep engagement rates high?
The following tips have been proven in the field by a variety of companies. So if you’re looking for some of the most efficient ways to keep newsletter engagement high, then keep reading.
1. Favor clarity over creativity
In a great case study published on AWeber (and echoed through numerous other tests), a clear picture is painted for what it takes to write a successful subject line — clarity trumps creativity when it comes to open rates.
While creative and “mysterious” headlines can work well for blog posts (since they create curiosity), people have less patience for mystery in their inbox, and they may even confuse the message for spam.
Save your creativity for article headlines and keep subject lines obvious and relevant to your subscriber’s interests.
2. Find the perfect time of day
There has been a variety of data published on timing via email marketing. The general takeaways are that early mornings seem to be ideal, weekends are severely underrated, and it’s best to send 1-4 emails per month (as a rule of thumb).
All of these data points are highly reliant on your industry and on your business, though, especially for email timing.
The best way to find out the perfect time of day to email folks is through testing , and we’ll cover more on how to conduct split-tests in a later chapter.
3. Avoid the spam filter
Besides using a personal sender ID (discussed below), you should avoid hitting the spam filter by staying away from these mistakes as highlighted here by Boris Demaria :
Avoid spam trigger words. There is a huge list here that you can browse. They are by no means auto-flagged, but too many may set off some alarms (and make your copy look very cheesy).
Prominent calls-to-action may be confused for spam (CLICK HERE FOR SAVINGS!!!).
Bad HTML coding could be the source of a spam trigger. Demaria also recommends you avoid converting Microsoft Word files to HTML.
The use of ‘Re’ and ‘Fwd’ subject lines is not only misleading to your subscribers, but it may also be flagged as spam (mass spam mailers tend to do this to trick people).
Avoid using one large image as the entire email (especially if the image includes text). The reason: “Spam filters cannot read images, so sometimes emails trick spam filters by embedding text in images.”
Never purchase an email list or use a purchased list . Not only will it not work (bound to get caught in spam), it’s just a very unprofessional thing to do.
In other words, don’t send emails that look/sound like spam, and you should be able to steer clear of all spam filters. Most importantly, always set up a double opt-in email list to protect yourself and your subscribers.
4. Personalize sender information
When possible, you should try to personalize who your email is coming from.
I’m more likely to open an email from "Rick" than I am from "DO NOT REPLY." At the very least, have the email coming from your company name, rather than listing updates@xyzcompany as the sender.
5. Avoid "ignore" triggers
According to this research on open-rates, there are four words that will trigger your recipients to ignore your email. Be sure to keep these out of your subject line:
Percent Off
They tend to cause people to glaze over or file away the email for later, so be sure to send them to the cutting board when writing email copy.
6. Beware email half-life
If you keep sending out the same subject line to your subscribers, your open rates are bound to begin decreasing.
An easy solution for the most likely culprit (a regular content newsletter) is to simply have a shortened version of the post headline as the subject.
That’s not to mention the fact that subscribers in general tend to become less engaged over time, according to Mailchimp’s data.
Make sure you’re spicing things up with frequency, topicality, etc., or you may start losing people.
7. Get to the point
For most inboxes, you have about 50 characters or less to get your point across to people, so if your subject line ends up longer than a Tweet, you’ve done something wrong!
According to this study conducted by the Nielsen Group, people scan emails very quickly (51 seconds), and the only areas they give any appreciable amount of time to at all are the initial copy and headlines.
Therefore, if you want people to open your emails, cut to the chase and give them a reason to engage as quickly as possible (e.g., choosing “Our lowest prices ever” vs. “Now is the time to shop for the lowest prices we’ve offered all year!”).
Using split-testing to improve your bottom line
The marketing world is prone to using a lot of “what-ifs,” especially when it comes to optimization. Entrepreneurs and marketing strategists often ask, “What do you think would happen if...”
The standard response to these queries should always be:
Don’t think, just test.
Split-testing your email broadcasts is one of the best ways to answer the nagging “what-ifs” on what would perform better.
Fortunately, any email marketing service worth its salt has these split-testing features at your disposal. This chapter will show how you can get started with split-testing your emails for higher conversions.
Different variables to test
As with your website’s design or persuasive copy, there are a number of elements that can be tested in email broadcasts and extended campaigns.
To get started, below is a universal list of components that can be easily tested (and provide significant results) in your email marketing campaign:
Time of Day: Timing is heavily dependent on location, industry, and the type of subscribers who are on your list — there is no ‘right’ answer for which hour of the day is best — but you can come close by testing it via your broadcasts!
Day of the Week: As with hour of the day, it’s hard to come by best practices for timing in this regard. For some lists, weekends will be amazing, and for others they will be so dead you could swear you just saw a tumbleweed roll by. The answer again here is to test it and see which day(s) work for you.
Subject Lines: Open rates can always be maximized by sending out variations to small segments of your list to see which one resonates the most.
Body Copy: There is never a time that copy isn’t important on the web, and it’s no exception for email marketing. Getting people to read your emails is quite a feat, but split-testing how you craft your copy can go a long way in teaching what sort of persuasive writing works best with your audience.
Layout: Especially important for HTML emailers, we found out this lesson ourselves when we saw better newsletter engagement from going from three calls to action in one broadcast down to only one. Those selling a variety of products (a la ecommerce) will also want to closely experiment with this variable.
Calls to Action: Should you tell people to click right away or save the CTA for further along in the email? Should the button/link say “Click Here” or “Find Out More”? When it comes down to getting people to take action (the most important part of marketing), you simply must test a variety of elements to improve conversions, as this is one of the worst elements to leave to guesswork!
Design: The single column vs. dual column debate will arise here, but there are also a ton of other design elements that can be tested in an email, such as the images included (if there are any), the color scheme, the styling of the text, etc.
Personalization: Since it will be important in some cases to gather a subscriber’s name from a sign-up form, you’d be wise to test to see if this has a significant impact on open-rates and click-throughs. In some instances, seeing a name in the subject line (or intro) will do wonders; in others it may confuse people into thinking your message is spam.
The Offer: Finally, if/when you send out those “money” emails (especially for re-marketing purposes, which we will discuss later on), you need to test out offers. An extra 90-days to try the product, or a $10 discount for being on the newsletter? Should you offer an incentive to those who have signed up but haven’t gotten started with your product, or just send a reminder? Find out the answers with split-testing!
Now that we’ve covered what elements can be tested, let’s run through an example split-test so you can see how this stuff impacts your bottom line!
How split-testing can improve conversions
A split-test can be incredibly useful in increasing the performance of a brand new email broadcast.
Let’s say you’re running a deal over the weekend because from previous tests you’ve found that Saturday actually works really well for your list.
You want to offer your “Free Plan” customers a chance to upgrade, so you propose a 20% off coupon be sent to their inbox, but you have three pretty important things to test that you know will impact how well the email does.
For simplicity’s sake, let’s use the following splits:
Time of Day: 8 a.m. or noon?
Subject Line: “Get 20% Off” or “Upgrade Today for a Discount”?
Call to Action: “Click here to get your discount” or “Click here to save 20% today”?
Now that you have some variables to test, it’s time to test the waters by sending out the different broadcasts. Again, for simplicity’s sake, keep this to an A/B test (two different types of emails).
You’ll want to send these tests to reasonably large segments of your lists.
As Ashley Zeckman highlights in this great article , the following formula works well for many email lists:
After comparing key metrics like open rates and unsubscribes, you’ll be able to have an idea of which email performed better. Once you do, you can email the second half of your list with the winning email.
A split-test can end up looking something like this :
You can see that “Email A” was the clear winner. Now that we know which one performs better, we can email the rest of our list with the best-performing email.
While this is a relatively simple example, it still exemplifies the standard split-test for a majority of early-stage startups. Sending out a test with four different variants to 1/8 of your subscribers doesn’t make much sense if you only have 300 people on your list!
Until your list size is big enough to warrant more in-depth multivariate testing (which will still follow the same guidelines), conducting smart A/B tests like the one outlined above will go a long way toward helping you create an email list that converts.
The awesome power of segmentation
Justin Premick is the director of education at AWeber , the email marketing software for small business owners. Below, Justin will outline how companies with modest email lists can use segmentation for better performing email campaigns.
After getting your feet wet with some of the essential practices in email marketing, you’ll start to get excited as you see better and better results.
This encourages you to send more emails, but without any sort of strategic thinking, these emails may start to level off your previous success: You’ll see more unsubscribes, spam complaints, and fewer people taking action.
How can you break through this plateau and continue to maintain a very effective email marketing campaign even with tens of thousands of subscribers?
Use smart segmentation tactics to better cater to subscriber interests and needs.
If you’re unfamiliar with how segmenting an email list works, you’re in luck because we are going to cover that right now!
Below, you’ll get a step-by-step look at what segmentation is (and why it works), as well as some simple yet powerful pieces of advice on segmenting subscribers to maximize the impact of your email list.
What is segmentation? Why bother?
At its core, segmentation is about sending unique messages to groups of subscribers within your database or list.
Sometimes these subgroups are created from many criteria, but often they’re based off a single, simple criteria such as, “Have these people already purchased a product from me?”
In many ways, segmentation is the secret sauce behind the world’s most successful email marketing campaigns.
It’s what separates Amazon’s laser-focused “here’s that exact product you looked at on our website — and 10 others like it” emails from the countless untargeted, low-response generating “batch and blast” style emails that so many other businesses send.
Segmentation is what makes customers feel like you care about them — not about their money (which in turn makes them like you and want to spend their money with you!). In fact, according to MarketingSherpa, click-through rates on segmented emails can be as much as double the rate for unsegmented emails.
Need more proof? Consider the following...
Thirty percent of email revenue comes from segmentation. So by not segmenting you’re throwing away, on average, 30 percent of the value of your email marketing campaigns.
Only 15 percent of email marketers do not segment their lists.
Segmented email campaigns produce 30 percent more opens and 50 percent more click-throughs than untargeted email campaigns.
Many solo entrepreneurs or small teams don’t tackle segmentation because they fear they don’t have the time or resources to take it on.
While segmentation is something that big companies with big budgets do, the good news is that you don’t have to have a gigantic list to reap the benefits of basic segmentation.
How to know if your segmented emails are working
Segmenting is easy, but it’s not 100 percent costless. It takes time and effort to determine how to segment your list and what to send to each segment. You’ll want to make sure that your segmented email campaigns are indeed performing up to their potential.
Before you start segmenting, benchmark your previous campaigns and determine how well your typical campaign performs. Benchmarking just means looking at your past campaigns and determining how well they perform on average.
The metrics you choose to benchmark will vary based on what would determine success for your campaigns. To help you get started, here are a few metrics you might include:
Click-through rate
Dollars of sales generated per subscriber
Average order value
Unsubscribe and complaint rates
Once you’ve determined your benchmarks, you’ll record the results for your new, segmented email campaigns and compare them to the benchmarks of your past campaigns.
Tips for doing segmentation right
There are tons of ways that you can segment your list to offer different groups of subscribers tailored content.
Below are four ways that businesses have used segmenting to improve their email response rates and, ultimately, sales.
1. Treat new subscribers differently than old subscribers
The experience a subscriber has with your emails in the first couple of weeks will set the tone for the rest of their time on your list(s).
You might have good content going out to your more established subscribers, but is it the right content for someone who’s just getting to know you? If not, consider this two-part strategy for onboarding new subscribers and maximizing engagement and conversion:
Create a welcome series of automated emails specifically designed for new subscribers. This is a great place to answer common questions, deliver free and valuable education, and make subscribers fall in love with your company and emails.
Only send your regular newsletters and promotional emails to subscribers who have finished the welcome series.
2. Re-engage subscribers who have become inactive
Have you ever noticed that when you first join an email list, you tend to read almost every email? But then, over time, you start to lose interest and read less and less — even if you don ’t unsubscribe?
You’re not the only one. This scenario of subscriber fatigue plagues all email marketers. Fortunately, you can address the problem via segmentation. A few ideas:
Use a reactivation campaign to gauge whether non-responsive subscribers are still reading (just not clicking through or tracking open rates) or if they’ve truly decided to opt out. The language you choose can play a big role in how successful these campaigns are, so be sure to split-test a few versions to maximize response.
Send an email asking subscribers what you can help with or what they’re most interested in these days. You can collect replies via surveys or by having people reply to you with their answers (if you can handle a decent volume of incoming mail, this is a nice personal touch that makes people feel appreciated).
3. Resend a broadcast to non-responders to increase results
What’s your average open rate for a typical email?
Let’s say you came in well above the average ... say 30 percent. Sounds great, right?
It does, until you realize this means that 70 percent of subscribers — who asked to be on your list — didn’t respond. Ouch.
It gets worse when you think about this in terms of sales. What’s your sales conversion rate on a given email ... 5 percent? So that means 95 percent of respondents don’t buy. Double ouch.
It’s okay. These figures happen to the best companies out there. The good news is that there’s tremendous opportunity in that 95 percent if you don’t write them off after one broadcast.
Resending the email can yield big gains since you can potentially reach subscribers who might have missed your first email. You could try a different subject line or slightly different content in the body. You’ll also want to segment out the responders — that could be just people who ordered or everyone who opened or clicked.
4. Send a broadcast to responsive subscribers to reward or thank them
Your most responsive subscribers are arguably your biggest fans. They are more likely than the average subscriber to want more email from you, and they’ve proven that they tend to act on those emails.
There are many ways you can use segmenting your biggest fans to grow your sales and business. Here are a few to get you started:
Run a special “thanks” promotion/offer just for your most loyal subscribers (those who have opened the past X broadcasts, for instance).
Give your fans first access to new products, events, and content.
If you’re promoting a new social media channel or post, send it to your biggest fans first; they’re more likely to share, comment, like, and so on. As a bonus, when you email the rest of your list and they click through to the post/page, they’ll see the activity from your fans, which makes it easier for them to share/like/comment as well.
Ready, set, broadcast
Now that we’ve reached the end of the guide, allow me to say that I sincerely hope you’ve been inspired by the pure potential that is an effective email marketing strategy.
Before you go, I wanted to offer some words of encouragement that I wish someone would have told me when I began with email: When you encounter a ton of information like what’s been shared in this guide, it is all too easy to get caught up in “bike shedding,” otherwise known as Parkinson’s law of triviality .
If you’re a bit new to email marketing, leave the complex remarketing campaigns alone until you’ve gotten your feet wet. Instead, make sure the following basics are primed and ready to go:
Have you made sure that you company blog has enough opt-in forms?
Have you tried creating a simple auto-responder message greeting new subscribers?
Have you attempted your first basic A/B test to your current list?
Once you’ve dipped your toes in, you’ll feel far more confident trying out the more complex advice in this guide like segmenting subscribers.
Like what you see? Share with a friend.
Eli overbey.
Eli is the Director of Revenue Operations at Help Scout, where we make excellent customer service achievable for companies of all sizes. Connect with him on Twitter and LinkedIn .
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7 List Building Case Studies By Experts To Grow Your Email List
One of the primary goals of a large percentage of websites and blogs is to build their email list. Whether your website is geared toward selling your own products, or is an affiliate advertiser – a list of subscribers are part of your audience, potential customers, and loyal readers.
In this article we’ll look at 7 list building case studies that can help grow your subscriber list. Scroll away!
Case study #1 : More is better
Stuart Walker and his team at nichehacks.com performed a simple experiment, at the end of which their subscription rate increased by 147.5% in just 30 days.
They started with only a 100-150 subscribers in early 2014. Then they began performing one small change at a time, the aim being to build their email list. By April they had 280 subscribers, so they continued doing so. In the next 2 months, the subscribers jumped to just under 700 per month.
The website changes were simple. Adding 1 additional opt-in box brought in some additional subscribers. Adding even more optins, in various locations on the website, brought in a far more subscribers.
Nichehacks.com shows how in the case of optins, more is better. You can view nichehacks case study here .
Case study #2: Ask aggressively
Noah Kagan of AppSumo.com, in his Copyblogger blog post, explains an experiment he did in the early days of his website. Initially, Noah just did not want to bother people with emails. Lists were the furthest thing from his mind, until his subscribers started requesting more info.
Noah realized building subscriber lists was an important part of owning and running a website. He decided to make an aggressive effort towards having a bigger list.
It worked. Using several such techniques, Noah found his subscription rates skyrocketed. Here’s what he did:
- Added a sign up form at the end of his articles, offering something for free.
- Installed a home page lock-gate. To be able to view the content, the site visitor has to provide their email address.
- Offering more within the content. An example may be an article that is a top 7 list, but you can receive another 7 just for signing up.
Noah found these to show substantial results. Here’s Noah’s article on Copyblogger .
Case study #3: The 30 day list building challenge
A simple list building challenge created by Nathalie Lussier. She challenged herself to do nothing but building her subscriber list, for 30 days. Selling products and other such tasks take a backseat.
What Nathalie didn’t plan for when posting this on her blog, was the number of bloggers who wanted to join in on the 30 day challenge. The case study turned into an “Iron Blogger Marathon.”
In doing so, Nathalie did not reach the goal of 15,000 new subscribers, but she did get 3,000 new subscribers. Other bloggers also made big strides in their subscription rates.
From Nathalie’s experiment, it could indeed do what it set out to do. Read Nathalie’s words about it here .
Case study #4: Exit pop-up list building case study
Matthew Woodward notes how pop-ups on websites can help build lists, if done properly. His case study consisted of finding out why some helped gain subscription sign-ups, while others just annoyed the visitor.
What Matthew found in this case study was – to develop creative touches. When a visitor is about to leave your website, the pop-up ought to provide something that is so tempting, that a majority of visitors should buckle and provide their email.
Matthew cites masterful pop-up technicians who use this technique on their websites. You can see for yourself by visiting Matthew’s blog here .
Case study #5: The overlay case study
In the last case study, Matthew speaks about pop-ups, and in this one, Justin Rondeau performed another experiment on pop-ups. Justin wrote about these studies on econsultancy.com ‘s blog.
Studying different systems of overlay techniques, Justin shows the results from a series of tests. He studied A/B testing on:
- Overlay headlines
- Overlay sizes
- and Overlay time appearance
The results of these list building case studies are surprising. Before viewing the results of each A/B test, we recommend that you predict the winner. I will admit that I was correct only about one of them.
Using overlays are a proven list building technique. Go ahead, read Justin’s article to know how best to use overlays.
Case study #6: The skyscraper case study
Brian Dean’s ( backlinko.com ) famous, thorough case study about increasing search traffic can’t be left out.
The study focuses on the content of other top-rated websites and blogs. Brian found the articles receiving the best attention on those websites, and he planned on how to make them bigger and better.
For example, an article on the 10 Biggest Skyscrapers, getting many views and shares. Brian’s idea meant writing a similar article, on the 50 Tallest Skyscrapers. He’d use similar keywords and phrases and would essentially climb and expand the other article.
So how can you use this in list-building?
Search engines will send more traffic to your site, and using the previous case studies, you can capture the emails from the huge amount of traffic that comes to read your content.
Go read Brian’s article at Backlinko here.
Case study #7: Launch eBooks to your social fans
Ahfaz Ahmed launched a free eBook to his fans on Facebook. He ended up getting 200 subscribers in 48 hours.
The case study shows how easily you can convert your audience who are not in your email list by providing a free incentive.
Content upgrades are good but now they aren’t enough to convert visitors and when your website traffic is low, using content upgrades or using traditional list building methods will not bring significant results.
The steps used by Ahfaz to launch an eBook were very simple:
- Create a highly valuable eBook your audience would love to read.
- Start promoting your eBook before launching it
- Launch your eBook and make the conversion journey as smooth as possible.
He got around 360 pageviews within 48 hours of launch and managed to get 200 subscribers with a conversion rate of 51%.
The benefits of launching an eBook to your social fans are:
- They already follow you and read your content. That makes it easy to convert them.
- You don’t have to spend any money on ads.
- Your list growth will depend on the number of followers. So, the higher followers you have, more people will subscribe to download your eBook.
Using free incentives like an eBook on social media can help you explode your list growth. Go ahead and read this list building case study .
Final Thoughts
Building a subscriber list is so very important, in and of itself. Also because subscribers who convert to customers, can refer more customers. Gladly, the people in this list have carried out experiments with list building, so that you can learn from them.
Try the techniques they shared and if you find great results, please do share your experience with us.
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Copytactics
Viral list building case study: how one blog gained 3,200 subscribers in 7 days.
Today, I’m going to show you how one blog nearly doubled their email list in just one week.
You will learn:
- The dead simple list building technique that made this campaign go viral.
- How to optimize your website to capture email addresses.
- The 9 promotion strategies that lead to its success.
It’s a list building case study of epic proportions.
(And almost anyone can follow the exact same steps I’m about to show you to get more email subscribers.)
Let’s jump right in!
Yours FREE: Download the “Viral Giveaway Master Checklist” and take your next list building campaign viral.
The Results
Before we get into how this feat was accomplished, let’s break down the results.
Check out this growth:
The blog managed to convert 3,200 subscribers in just 7 days (457 emails/day).
That’s a 73% increase in subscribers overall.
(The huge spike is from those emails being uploaded to HubSpot.)
But here’s the kicker:
Just one of these tactics contributed to a whopping 2,661 subscribers.
Here’s how:
The List Building Strategy That Took This Campaign Viral
I had been working with this blog for a while, and we were able to gradually grow our email list through social media, referral, and search engine traffic.
( Learn how to drive 34,000 search engine visits in 60 days (for free) in my 5,000-word SEO case study . )
We started off collecting a couple emails per day and eventually got up to a daily rate of 50+.
But that’s nothing compared to the 457 emails/day we got from this strategy.
This campaign went viral for one reason:
A giveaway.
We set up and promoted a product giveaway . People could enter the raffle by submitting their email address, and they could get more entries by referring people using their unique URL.
(Almost like an affiliate link.)
Contestants could share it on social media, email it to friends, promote it in online communities — anywhere on the Internet.
And that they did!
The more people they referred, the higher their chances were to win.
That’s what made this campaign go viral.
We then optimized the rest of the site to capture any runoff traffic that didn’t enter.
It became an extremely high-converting loop.
Who Is This Blogger?
The blog is called UAV Coach , a fast-growing site in the recreational and commercial drone space.
(Which is taking off right now.)
Alan Perlman is the head honcho. He’s a drone enthusiast with a background in digital marketing.
Combining his passion with his marketing skills, Alan is gradually building UAV Coach into one of the top sites in the space.
How We Set Up the Campaign
Normally, setting up a giveaway like this would take complex coding that’s above both of our heads.
Thankfully, there’s a plugin that makes it really easy:
KingSumo Giveaways .
KingSumo allows you to set up a page on your own domain to host the giveaway, including all of its viral components.
(Note: Keep reading to learn the 9 promotion tactics that helped us propel this campaign’s success.)
Here’s how you can set up a campaign like this:
First, download and install the KingSumo Giveaways plugin .
Then decide what to give away. Here are a few ideas:
- A free subscription to your product or service (you could offer a month, a year, lifetime access, etc).
- An item from your product inventory.
- Work with a company in your space to offer a version of their product or service for free.
Whatever prize you choose, make sure it’s something your audience would crave.
Luckily, because UAV Coach had gotten a lot of exposure in recent months, Alan got some drones sent to him for free.
So we offered one of those.
“The more valuable your giveaway is, the more likely it is to go viral.” #ListBuilding Click To Tweet
Here’s why it’s important to pick the right prize:
When we did our first contest, we gave away a free ticket to a drone convention in Las Vegas.
It was extremely valuable (which is important), but there were barriers to taking advantage of this prize:
- People might not have enough time to go to Vegas.
- They may not be able to afford the hotel and travel costs.
- They may not like crowds, which come with Las Vegas’ atmosphere.
That campaign converted a little over 400 subscribers.
One of the main reasons our latest one did so well is because literally anyone in our audience could take advantage of the prize.
(I mean, who doesn’t want a free drone? :D)
So consider your prize carefully.
After you’ve chosen a prize, it’s time to set up your campaign, which will be hosted on page like this…
Head into the plugin and create a new giveaway. Then start filling out the description.
Your description should explain the contest completely.
- What prize could they win?
- How do they enter?
- How will the winner be chosen?
- How will they receive their prize if they win?
- How do they get more chances to win? (<– very important)
Thanks for sharing!
Here’s a description you can use as a template:
Been looking to pick up one of the UAV industry’s hottest new drone models?
You’re in the right place!
In this limited-time raffle , we’re bringing you a ready-to-fly GHOST Aerial Drone from Ehang, valued at $799.
(Note: Big discount over at Value Basket for $469.99)
Ehang just raised $42M in funding and is making waves in the UAV industry. We’re beyond excited that they’re letting us raffle off their GHOST Aerial Drone.
GHOST Aerial Drone (Android Version):
Equipped with a detachable 2D Brushless Camera Mount Gimbal, fit for all GoPro editions and similarly sized cameras.
Easy to fly: one-click commands via your Android smartphone or tablet.
Control height and orientation through the app by sliding bars, and the rest is taken care of.
Wind/Water resistant: moderately windy and rainy weather can’t stop you from flying!
Night mode: LED lights to track drone in the sky
Flight time: an impressive 30 minutes (20 minutes with a gimbal and GoPro attached)
…more specs here.
Is this a brand-spanking new drone?
No, not quite. I may have brought it into the air a couple of times. You know, for testing purposes.
Seriously though, it’s an impressive set of autonomous features, and if you’ve got a GoPro or similarly-sized camera laying around, a fun tool for aerial photography / videography capture. Make sure you have an Android device to fly.
The raffle winner will receive two boxes, one with the quadcopter and its components, the other with the gimbal.
Both boxes are padded and come with clear instructions about how everything fits together. This model is well-structured and ready-to-fly!
Enter the raffle below (and share this offer to increase your chance at winning–details on next page).
Enjoy the rest of the article!
(Hint: KingSumo chooses a winner randomly.)
Then scroll down and choose a start date, end date, and when the prize will be awarded.
I suggest making your giveaway run 7—9 days.
Any less, and you don’t have as much time to promote it. Any more, and you start to lose your scarcity factor.
Next is the rules section (or disclaimer).
It should be pre-populated with default rules. Go through and customize it with your site’s name and anything else you’d like to include.
Then choose how many entries each contestant gets for a referral:
Fill out your prize details in the next section:
Then scroll down and create a question with different answers. This is to minimize spam entries:
(Make the correct answer really obvious.)
Finally, scroll down to the last section and choose an attractive template for your page and any images you’d like to include.
That’s it! Your giveaway is fully set up, and it will start on the date you selected.
KingSumo will store the emails you collect. After the contest, simply download the file and upload it to your email marketing service of choice .
Now, let’s make your giveaway go viral 🙂
Step 1. Build Up Pre-Giveaway Anticipation
There’s nothing like a little pre-promotion to get people excited for your raffle.
First, send a teaser to your current email list, like this:
This will make sure it’s not a surprise when you send the official launch email. People will start telling their friends/acquaintances about your contest as well.
You can also push out social media teasers at the same time.
Step 2. Optimize Your Website to Capture Emails
Here’s the thing:
Even if people don’t enter your raffle, many of them will still check out your website to see what you’re all about.
This is a prime opportunity to capture some of the runoff traffic from your campaign.
So, just like any traffic generation campaign, make sure your website is optimized to capture emails before driving traffic.
( Freebie: Download chapter 10 of The Content Marketing Guidebook to learn some of the most powerful strategies to build your email list .)
Here’s how to optimize your website:
We used two main methods to capture emails:
- Pop-up forms
- Content upgrades
These are tried and true techniques to grow your email list.
First, we have a site-wide pop-up form set up:
Which converts at a solid 5.12%. It’s our biggest source of email conversions:
Campaign Conversions: 394 emails (in 7 days)
Next, we have content upgrades set up on our most visited pages.
Content upgrades are simply post-specific lead magnets that you deliver through a pop-up lightbox.
Here’s an example:
This lead magnet is just a pdf version of the article. When people click that box, an opt-in form pops up, like so:
When clicked on, this baby converts at 20% to 50%+:
Campaign Conversions: 145 emails (in 7 days)
Finally, we have opt-in forms in both the sidebar and at the end of our posts. These attempt to capture traffic that doesn’t convert through those two forms.
Now that everything is set up, it’s time for the fun part:
Promote your giveaway and build your email list.
(Want to learn even more ways to capture emails?
Read my 12,000-word tutorial, 13 Free Online Lead Generation Tactics , which breaks down how to optimize your site, drive traffic, and capture leads.)
Step 3. Announce The Giveaway
This is the official announcement. It’s your job to get people excited about the possibility of winning.
And, most importantly, they need to understand how to get more entries (which helps your giveaway go viral).
The key is to get your audience to help you get other people, who aren’t following you, to enter the raffle and join your list.
So send an email to your list that gets them excited and tells them how to get more entries.
After the initial email, we also published a blog post announcing the giveaway. Our posts automatically get syndicated to other websites and shared on social media, so this helped us attract the initial wave of entries.
And the entries and shares started rolling in…
Step 4. Promote Your Giveaway on Social Media
As we all know:
When things go viral, they go viral on social media.
After your immediate subscribers and followers, this is the natural next place to promote your contest.
First, promote your giveaway on any social media accounts you own.
These could be:
- Your Facebook fan page
- Your own LinkedIn group
- Pinterest Account
- Twitter account
- Google+ page
- Any other accounts you own
After promoting it on your social media accounts, move on to these three communities:
- LinkedIn Groups
- Google+ Communities
- Facebook Groups
These groups are chock full of people who would love a piece of the action.
The best part? It only takes minutes to promote your contest to literally thousands of potential subscribers.
I do this type of promotion for anything and everything related to my blog.
Learn more ways to drive traffic from online communities in my 8,000-word guide to free traffic generation .
Here’s how to expose your contest to thousands of people in minutes:
First, head over to LinkedIn and use the search bar to find groups related to your niche:
Join them and promote your contest.
Next, head over to Google+ . Use the left navigation menu to find “Communities.”
Then enter a keyword related to your niche and join as many as you like.
Before promoting your contest, go to your account settings and scroll to the bottom. Make sure “Show your Google+ communities posts on the Posts tab of your Google+ profile” is unchecked.
This will make sure your posts don’t get shared repeatedly on your profile as well.
(Hat tip to Logan for that trick.)
Then go into each community and announce your giveaway:
Finally, head over to Facebook and search for groups related to your niche:
Join as many as you like and promote your giveaway:
Don’t worry about being considered a spammer or overly-promotional. You’re giving away something of massive value for little in return (on their end).
And they have the freedom to unsubscribe any time if they don’t want to be a part of your list long term.
(Don’t worry, a high percentage will subscribe.)
So be shameless in your promotion.
Then move on to Step 5:
Step 5. Funnel Your Current Traffic to the Giveaway
So far, you’ve promoted the contest to your current subscribers and followers and to thousands of people through social media communities.
That’s huge!
But what about the traffic you’re already getting? How will they know about your giveaway?
Well, you can promote it in your sidebar or on your home page. Those are useful tactics.
But I’ve got a better one:
Funnel people to your giveaway using a header-bar.
What’s a header-bar?
It looks like this:
It’s simply a bar that pops up (like a pop-up form) at the top of your visitors’ screens. You can use them to capture emails, grow your social media following, and much more.
But you’re going to use it to send people to your giveaway.
First, install the free SumoMe plugin. Then install the Smart Bar app.
Go into the app, create a smart bar, and change the “Bar Mode” to “Call to Action.”
Then set the “Call to Action URL” to the URL of your giveaway:
Save it and let it rip!
The bar will start funneling your regular traffic over to the contest.
Our bar sent 304 people to the giveaway who otherwise wouldn’t have known about it.
Viral List Building Case Study: See how one blog gained 3,200 emails in just 7 days Click To Tweet
Step 6. Use Reddit to Your Advantage
This was the #1 biggest factor that lead to our giveaway going viral.
Reddit is a massive online community made up of different subreddits. Each one is filled with hundreds or thousands of people enthusiastic about one topic.
We searched Reddit for as many drone and UAV-related subreddits as we could. Then we posted either a text post or a direct link promoting the giveaway.
(Text posts performed WAY better.)
That post stayed near the top of this subreddit for the duration of the giveaway. It got exposed to almost 6,000 people for multiple days.
The same thing happened in a few other subreddits:
Here’s how to take advantage of subreddits to promote your giveaway:
First, do a search in Reddit for subreddits related to your niche.
Go into each one and submit either a link or text post. (I suggest text posts, because Redditors trust them more.)
An example:
Which will come out like this:
Then wait for people to check out your post, upvote it, and comment on it.
Make sure to respond to any questions they might have, and you’re all set to drive a ton of potential subscribers for very little work.
Step 7. Forum Promotion
Just like social media communities and subreddits, forums are packed with potential subscribers for you to tap into.
Do a Google search for forums in your niche, join any that are active, and start a thread to promote your raffle.
Remember, you’re giving away something of extreme value. Don’t be ashamed to promote it.
Step 8. Run Facebook Ads
Facebook advertising is one of the best ways to reach a lot of people in a short amount of time.
(Which is exactly what you need to do to maximize subscribers from your giveaway.)
Our Facebook campaign got some FANTASTIC results:
- 2,327 visitors
- 931 conversions
- A cost-per-click of $0.13
- A cost-per-lead of $0.32
Each subscriber only cost us 32 cents!
To put this into perspective, if we had an average subscriber value of just $7, that’s an ROI of over 2,087%
I strongly suggest setting up a Facebook campaign for your giveaway and running it for the duration of the contest.
Create multiple ads with different images, copy, and calls to action. Then pause the poorly performing ads midway through and keep the high performing ads running:
Step 9. A Final Email List Promotion
As your contest starts winding down, you want to pick up any stragglers on your list who might’ve missed your first emails or forgot about the giveaway.
Simply send them an email 48 hours and 10-15 hours before the raffle ends to remind them.
Why Giveaways Are So Powerful
In just 7 days, we were able to increase our entire email list by 73%.
3,200 subscribers is no joke. People wait months to build that kind of an email list.
And we were able to do it in one week by strategically creating and promoting a free giveaway.
So why are they so powerful?
Because you’re giving away something for free that offers a ton of value. And you’re packaging it in a way that takes advantage of the scarcity factor.
This gets people to take action fast.
They don’t have time to wait around, because the clock’s ticking.
Thanks to KingSumo, you also get to add an inherent viral component to the giveaway.
It’s one of the best list building strategies I’ve ever come across.
How You Can Do The Same Thing
To help you take full advantage of this strategy, I’ve put together a step-by-step “Viral Giveaway Master Checklist.”
This checklist will keep you on track and organized to take full advantage of this strategy’s immense list building power.
Download your “Viral Giveaway Master Checklist” below:
Yours FREE: Download the “Viral Giveaway Master Checklist” and take your next campaign viral.
What do you think are the top list building strategies out there? What do you think of this one?
Share your knowledge in the comments below.
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16 Comments
Great post Michael but also fantastic results
I like how you didn’t just run the giveaway but you also promoted the heck out of it, which is more valuable and often missed!
May I recommend running an email campaign featuring an aff link for the drone perhaps to that warm list
I’ve found that if someone enters and doesn’t win, in their mind they’ve already envisioned owning the item…its very easy to move them towards making the purchase after that 😉
Hey Daniel, thanks for the comment.
Solid idea. I’ve seen Matthew Woodward do that but totally forgot for this campaign.
I’ll definitely include an affiliate promotion in the next one and probably try to negotiate a limited time discount.
Big fan of the psychology you add to everything. Keep it up.
Awesome post man!
Always toyed with some ideas of running giveaways but never really had the chance – didn’t feel like many of the businesses that I’ve worked with were a good fit.
This is a great opportunity because just like with content marketing, running a giveaway gives you an excuse to pop into tons of communities and places to get exposure that you usually wouldn’t be welcome.
For instance if I were to pop the link to my website homepage in any one of those subreddits I’d likely get run out of town, but since you’re doing the giveaway there you get a warm welcome and go a little viral for a ton of exposure. Nice!
Have you ever done this with software/downloadable products and if so, how are the results? I could imagine that the response might not be as good as something as exciting as a brand new drone
Thanks Travis!
Totally agree with how giveaways let you promote in communities where you usually wouldn’t be welcome. Nice connection.
I haven’t done it with software or downloadable products, but I have seen it work well for SEO and list building tools. Usually the host will strike a deal with the company to offer it at a discount after the giveaway (like a consolation prize) and keep some affiliate commission.
But yeah, an $800 drone to that market was extremely valuable (since most beginners usually start with a drone that’s $20-$60), so that response might be atypical.
But I think this strategy leaves a lot of room for innovation and creativity when applying it your own business.
Could help you build relationships with people/companies in your niche as well.
Extremely well executed (and dense) post Michael (sorry for my brevity) … off to twitter it goes 🙂
@Vic_Maine https://twitter.com/Vic_Maine
Cheers Vic! Appreciate the share as always.
Thanks for stopping by 🙂
Fantastic stuff, Michael.
I have been thinking doing giveaways for a while now, but never actually got started. Though, I do run giveways on posts to get more social shares & comments.
Will going to give this a try next month. Thanks for the great resource.
– Dev
Awesome, let me know how it works out for you! This is definitely one of the most powerful strategies I’ve come across, and I think there are lots of ways for people to innovate cool ways to apply it to their sites.
Thanks for stopping by!
Hi Michael,
Getting these many subscribers in 7 days is very impressive, I just checked Kingsumo plugin price it is costing nearly 200$ for personal use, I think it’s very expensive.
Facebook ads really helpful in getting the targetted audience, can you tell me how many people are unsubscribed after the giveaway is over.
Thanks for sharing good case study, see you soon with another article, have a great weekend
Hi Siddaiah,
Yes it is quite expensive. But you can do a Google search to find coupons that will bring the price down a bit. And so far I haven’t found any cheaper alternatives.
For unsubscribes, I would have to talk to my client but I don’t believe it was more than 10%. The 3,200 are after the unsubscribes.
And you’re welcome :). I’m glad you liked it.
Let me know if you end up trying out a giveaway.
I started a giveaway as soon as I got 5 posts up! Not a large gathering, but decent enough for my first one! Thank you so much for sharing.
Nice! If you run another one let me know how it goes
Awesome stuff man! very impressive when you have time please backlinking strategery:)
Thanks Abdul.
It’s funny you mention that. I have an seo case study coming out very soon.
Hop on the email list and you’ll be notified when it’s live (plus another one I did as a guest post).
Hi Michael, I really enjoyed this post. Great content! So much so that I am thinking of creating a product around it, list building using viral giveaways. Just wondering if you would allow me to use this information in my Ebook, explaining to people how to use this method. I would be quite happy to give a shout out to your blog, in return.
Let me know what you think?
Hey Michael,
This is indeed a useful list building case study. I completely reckon that the more valuable one’s giveaway is, the more likely it is to go viral. And the more one gets subscribers. I personally grew a large email list with the help of a gated offer and a content upgrade.
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Success Stories
3 List Building Case Studies from Our Users
Author Shane Melaugh 28
Updated on December 23, 2019
We recently challenged our Thrive Leads users to really put the plugin to use and show us the results they achieved with it. You've already seen one of the resulting case studies and in today's post, we present three more examples of how Thrive Leads users accelerated their list growth.
60x List Acceleration
Here's a graph from Francisco's Thrive Leads dashboard, just a few days after he installed the plugin:
Francisco runs a Spanish website called Academia de Inversión and for more than two years, lead generation was something he did in theory more than in practice. He tells us:
Before Thrive Leads I only had got 375 subscribers in total in more than 2 years. Now, after setting up Thrive Leads I got over 100 subscribers in 3 days . That’s amazing.
In other words, his site went from converting less than 0.5 visitors per day to converting 30+ visitors per day . To accomplish this, Francisco is making use of opt-in forms on all fronts. A combination of a large lead generation form on the homepage, a form in the sidebar and a timed lightbox ensure that all visitors get a clear and compelling offer to get on his list.
Here's an example of a form design he's using on his homepage:
Francisco also dove right in and started making use of the A/B testing feature from the get go, telling us:
…the best part is that the conversion rate can be improved a lot with A/B tests.
The main lessons you can learn from this impressive result are:
- Don't be shy about advertising your opt-in incentive and mailing list. Make sure that every visitor is aware of your offer and can easily find a way to subscribe.
- Start A/B testing right away. Even if it seems like your list is growing far too slowly right now, you might just be an experiment away from a dramatic turnaround.
159% Improvement with Targeting
Leelo runs the PCCCA website and lead generation has been an integral part of the site's strategy for many years. In the 2 month period before switching to Thrive Leads, 129 new email opt-ins were captured on the site. In the 2 month period after the switch the Thrive Leads, that number increased to 334 opt-ins.
How was it done? An important factor is that Leelo is running more than one offer on the website, making it possible to appeal to different segments of visitors. This results in better overall conversion rates than can be typically accomplished with a single "catch-all" offer:
Leelo says about her experience with using Thrive Leads:
…over the years, we have tried many ways to capture visitor information. A few have not worked at all, most have worked to some degree… but none as well as Thrive Leads.
Here's an example lightbox design Leelo is using on the site:
As you can see, Leelo is using vibrant colors and has made the whole design very visually striking. There's a much greater emphasis on images than on copy in this design and, looking at the conversion rates above, it's clearly working. It goes to show that you can sometimes say everything that needs to be said about your offer with just a few words.
A few lessons from this case study:
- Lightbox forms (sometimes also called 'popups') often get a bad rap because they are an intrusive form of advertising and they can be annoying. But time and time again, the data shows that they simply work.
- Less is more: in your next A/B test, try a version with fewer words and less text and more of a visual emphasis instead.
43+ Leads per Day With Multiple Offers
Laura from Intuitive Journal got a great result and a great list acceleration that she sent in.
After switching to Thrive Leads, she almost doubled her average conversion rate, going from 23 leads per day to 43 leads per day . Here's an example of a daily snapshot from her dashboard, showing the sitewide conversion rate of more than 3%:
Laura made use of the fact that you can easily run different opt-in offers in different locations on your site, using Thrive Leads. She created 2 new reports to offer as opt-in incentives and set up campaigns to show them to relevant segments of her audience.
Like we mention in our Next Generation List Building training , your offer (a.k.a. lead magnet) is one of the greatest leverage points for increasing conversions. Creating more than one offer and getting the most out of them by targeting and testing is the way forward.
Laura told us:
The best part about the additional functionality of this plugin is being able to see what is working and what is not working . Some of the A/B split tests showed marginal improvement while others were runaway winners.
Here's an example of a lightbox design Laura is using on the site:
This shows that you don't have to reinvent the wheel to make list building work for you. The classic opt-in form structure of large heading, some text, an image and the opt-in form is very effective at describing an offer and persuading visitors.
Laura's case study reinforces the lessons from the previous two cases:
- Don't be shy about advertising your offer - go to Laura's site and there's no way you'll miss the opt-in offer .
- Use a large, attention-grabbing lightbox - it may be annoying, but it usually works really well.
- Make use of the power of multiple offers, targeting and A/B testing. The difference these can make to how fast your list grows can be dramatic!
Over to You...
I hope these examples inspire you to take action and prove to you that anyone can build a mailing list (without having to be a rocket surgeon). Here's my question to you:
Which of the lessons from the above case studies will you apply to your site, to grow your list faster?
Leave a comment below with your answer!
I also want to send another big thank you to everyone who participated in our Accelerate Your List! challenge and sent in their results. It's very inspiring for the whole Thrive Team to see how you're putting everything we build into our products into action.
Finally, if you aren't using the best WordPress list building plugin of all times yet, click here to learn more about Thrive Leads.
by Shane Melaugh May 4, 2015
Disclosure: Our content is reader-supported. This means if you click on some of our links, then we may earn a commission. W e only recommend products that we believe will add value to our readers.
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I was wondering if offering multiple lead magnet would increase my conversion rate. This post answered it! Thank you!
Yes, I definitely recommend creating multiple lead magnets for testing and targeting.
Great case studies Shane!
My question is this though: what if someone opts in to multiple lead magnets on your site, e.g. free Facebook course and free Twitter course.
They’ll get customised sequences with each to begin with but (in my case, anyway) they’d eventually end up being presented with my core offer.
Is there any way to avoid them being presented with the core offer twice (once on each list), or is this just something we need to live with and hope they just unsub from one of the lists?
My understanding is that what you describe could be taken care of via “marketing automation”, which is a step above basic autoresponders.
It’s ‘smart’ in that it can tell (or you tell it) that if someone signs up for two separate things, only send them down path A. Then if during path A they signal that they’re ready for something more (via a click or other action), you can move them to path B.
And so forth.
I don’t use this now, but am looking at it (Active Campaign is what I’m checking out).
I think Shane uses Infusionsoft, but of course he can answer that!
Thanks for reinforcing that this stuff works. I just need to get it going and take action one day at a time!
Thanks for your detailed reply, Tommy!
Tommy got it exactly right in his answer. You can do this, but that’s up to your autoresponder/marketing system. Many services you can use to send follow-up emails also let you set up automated rules such as “if this lead already purchased product x, don’t send this sequence of emails”.
Must take action… Must take action…
I would be interested to see the results of a poll of which email service people use. I hear so many good things (and bad) about all of them, I am not sure which to go for!
It seems to me that there is no “best” solution. I’ve tried many and they all have their advantages and issues…
This is really exciting stuff here!
My new website using Thrive Themes (Pressive) went up the day before the Google ‘Mobile Friendly’ deadline (21 April 2015) – that’s just over two weeks ago, and it is already building a small but significant list using Thrive Leads. ( http://www.HideawaysInHay.co.uk )
We give away up to six weeks holiday a year in holiday competitions to those who enter from our list – and Trip Advisor Travellers have voted our cottages the Nº 1 Romantic Holiday Cottages in Wales, so our prizes are well sought after – and of course the odds are very high for anyone to win a free holiday with us, form a relatively small list. So that’s the incentive….
My experience is that when I run a competition, I grow my list easily – but to grow the list from people who are actually interested in our offering (rather than just interested in winning something for nothing) i.e. those who by definition have self-selected themselves to visit our website, adds a more targeted list for me to work with. And this is what’s really valuable.
From the info you give us here Shane, I now see how I can really go to town on growing not only a more targeted list, but also working out what display works best. And not only that, but where on my site they work.
This is a really magnificent and valuable tool… And it is easy to use and implement.
I had never built a properly functioning WordPress site before, and I was able to do all this with Thrive Themes, and your really great training modules, in two weeks from a zero start! I don’t know what you think, but from where I’m sitting, that’s impressive.
From zero to a fully functioning website for our business in less than 14 days tells me just how easy Thrive Themes makes building a site on WordPress. But to find everything I need to know to learn WordPress from scratch, in one place on your site, is something else. And your support service is outstanding.
Thanks for giving us Thrive Themes – and this great adjunct – Thrive Leads! I will now be using it in all my businesses.
It is such a buzz to be at the front end of the curve with you guys!
Thanks for your comment, Michael! It’s great to see that you’re getting value out of our products and our training and that you’re also putting it all into practice!
How do I create these beautiful lightboxes?
Start here: http://thrivethemes.com/tkb_item/thrive-leads-quick-start/
Then look here: http://thrivethemes.com/thrive-knowledge-base/?section_id=2377&parent=602
And there is more here: http://thrivethemes.com/thrive-knowledge-base/?section_id=602
It won’t take you long to be up and running…
Hello, our new website with ThriveThemes, Thrive leads and many improvements have been brought online today. Check it out … http://online-marketing-site.de We got immediately 4 new leads on the first day. That’s so impressive
Good result!
I already own Thrive Leads, I love it and you can now see an awesome sidebar opt-in form on my site. Thank you for that! 🙂
Now, what I want to know is which option do I choose if I want to make an opt-in form that’s after every article on my blog? In other words, not a post footer, as that has to be done manually for each post. Instead, how to create the code for a post footer type of opt-in, so that I can then add it to my actual theme’s code.
I just want it to look the same for every post so that if I edit it, it edits on every post as well.
Thanks! Right now I’m making an awesome pop-up, so I’m exited to lauch that as well. 🙂
Keep up the awesome work,
Hello Eduardo,
What you describe is exactly what the post footer form type is for. 🙂 It will automatically insert at the end of each of your posts and if you edit it, it will change everywhere, instantly.
Pre-purchase question.
Coul I add form fields for thrive leads? Other fields in addition to just the name and email (like phone and address etc.) for lead gen.
Hello Jerry, Using the HTML integration, you can create the form in your autoresponder, copy the HTML over to Thrive Leads, and it will match the fields in the code. Short answer – yes!
Thanks for the case study. lets check the tool with my website. hope it would help me to generate some conversions.
Thanks for your comment! I’d love to hear how it works for you.
any plans for infusionsoft api?
There’s already a version of the Infusionsoft API in the plugin – we’re working on improving it so haven’t mentioned it in this post.
Thrive Leads is still kicking butt for me. I wanted to sink my teeth in for the contest but the client I was doing work for pulled the plug on my ribbon campaign. He’s staunchly anti-popup or anything else that interferes with the user despite having opt in forms at the top of the sidebar, in the footer, and after each post. All of those opt-in forms are more of an eyesore to me than any little ribbon could ever be but some people are stuck in their ways. He did however have me implement a pop-up on a pet project of his and this site averages 100 signups monthly but this month it hit 300 after implementation. The results prompted him to rethink his previous stance and not only gave me the go ahead to turn TL back on at the main site but rather than the little ribbon let me go full-blown screen filler. He hit 600 signups on a site that normally averages 400 and that is only running 15 days out of the month and with no lead magnet. Now…only if I could get him to let me remove some of those other forms…wishful thinking perhaps.
Wow, that’s a great result! Thanks for this comment, it’s always great to learn about users who are putting our tools to good use. 🙂
These case studies are inspiring us to go for the new level of building email lists and after reading this post i understood how much using this email subscription form is important. Thanks.
Thanks for your comment, Avnish!
A friend told me about Thrive Themes, so I’m checking out all of the features and the blog. In the content builder video, you demoed some content boxes with buttons…it looked like the buttons were limited in the colors that were available.
My website redesign has 6 core colors I’ll be using, so I need to ensure that all elements I’ll be adding, like buttons, links, and backgrounds of smaller elements can be any color. Is that a feature that’s currently available with the drag-and-drop or would I need to know how to do custom CSS?
Hello Dawn,
You can use a color picker to select the exact colors you need and you can also save those colors for quick access later. In a button, you can edit every color used and once you’ve created the perfect button for your site, you can save it as a content template and re-use it again with just a click, anytime you want.
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Understanding Architecture Case Studies
History teaches us many things, and it can carry valuable lessons on how to move forward in life. In architecture , when we are faced with a project, one of the first places we can look is the past – to see what worked, what didn’t, and what we can improve for our own projects.
This process comes in the form of architecture case studies, and every project can benefit from this research.
Here we take you through the purpose, process, and pointers for conducting effective case studies in architecture.
What is an architecture case study
A case study (also known as a precedent study ) is a means of finding relevant information about a project by examining another project with similar attributes. Case studies use real-world context to analyze, form, support, and convey different ideas and approaches in design.
Simply put, architectural case studies are when you use existing buildings as references for new ones.
Architects can conduct case studies at nearly every stage of a project, adapting and relating applicable details to refine and communicate their own projects. Students can use case studies to strengthen their research and make a more compelling case for their concepts .
Regardless of the size or scale of a project, case studies can positively impact a design in a multitude of ways.
How do you select a case study?
There are more than a hundred million buildings in the world, and your project could have similarities with thousands of other projects. On the other hand, you could also have a hard time finding buildings that match your specific project requirements.
Focusing your search parameters can help you find helpful references quickly and accurately.
The architectural program includes the spatial organization , user activity, and general functions of a building. Case studies with comparable programs can give you an idea of the spaces and circulation required for a similar project. From this, you can form a design brief catering to the unique requirements of the client or study.
Scale can be a strong common denominator among projects as it can be used to compare buildings of the same size, with a similar number of occupants or volume of visitors. Scale also ensures that the study project has an equivalent impact on the city or its surroundings.
Spaces and designs vary greatly between standalone structures and large-scale complexes, so finding case studies that emulate your project’s scale can give you more relevant and applicable information.
Project type is crucial for comparing spaces one to one. Common types include residential, commercial, office, educational, institutional, or industrial buildings. Each type can also have sub-categories such as single-family homes, mass housing, or urban condominiums.
Case studies with the same project type can help you compare occupant behavior, building management, and specific facilities that relate to your design.
Some case studies can lead you to specific architects with specialty portfolios in certain sectors such as museums, theaters, airports, or hospitals. Their expertise results in a body of work ideal for research and comparison, especially with complex public or transportation buildings.
You may also look into a specific architect if their projects embody the style and design sensibilities that you wish to explore. Many renowned architecture firms have set themselves apart with unique design philosophies and new approaches to planning.
Finding core theories to build on can help steer your project in the right direction.
Project Location
If possible, you’ll want to find case studies in the same region or setting as your project. Geographically, buildings can have significantly different approaches to planning and design based on the environment, demographic, and local culture of the area. There are also many building codes and regulations that may vary across cities and states.
Even when case studies are not from the same locality, it’s important to still have a relevant site context for your project. A tropical beach resort, for example, can take inspiration from tropical beaches across the world.
Likewise, a ski lodge project would require a look into different snowy mountains from different countries.
How are they used?
Whether it’s for academic, professional, or even personal use, case studies can offer plenty of insight for your projects and a look into different approaches and methods you may not have otherwise considered. Here are some of the most common uses for architectural case studies.
Case studies are most commonly used for research, to analyze the past, present, and future of the project typology. Through case studies you can see the evolution of a building type, the different ways problems were solved, and the considerations factored into each design.
In practice, this could be as simple as saying, “Let’s see how they did it.” It’s about learning as much as we can from completed projects and the world around us.
Inspiration
When designing from scratch, it’s common to have a few blank moments here and there. Maybe you’re struggling to develop a unified design , or are simply unsure of how to proceed with a project. Senior architects or academic instructors will often suggest seeking inspiration from existing buildings – those that we can explore and experience.
Throughout history , architecture is shown to have evolved over centuries of development, each era taking inspiration from the last while integrating forms and technologies unique to the time. Case studies are very much a part of this process, giving us a glimpse into different styles, building systems, and forms .
A study project could serve as your entire design peg, or it could add ideas far beyond the facade. The important thing about using a case study for inspiration is beginning with a basis, instead of venturing off into the great unknown. After that, it’s all up to the designers to integrate what they see fit.
As Bruce Lee once said, “absorb what is useful, discard what is not, and add what is uniquely your own.”
Design justification
Case studies help architects make well-informed decisions about planning and design, from the simplest to the most complex ideas. A single finished project is often enough to show proof of concept , and showing completed examples can go a long way in getting stakeholders on board with an idea.
When clients or jurors show skepticism or confusion about an idea, case studies can help you navigate through the hesitation to win approval for your project. Similarly, as a student, case studies can bolster your presentation to help defend your design decisions.
Communication
Unless your clients are architecture enthusiasts themselves, you’re likely going to know a lot more about buildings than them. Because of this, certain ideas aren’t going to resonate with the audience immediately, and you may need additional examples or references to make a convincing presentation.
Case studies help to make connections to existing projects. Beyond the typical sales talk and flowery words, case studies represent actual projects with quantifiable results.
With a study project, for example, you can say “this retail design strategy has been shown to increase rentable space by 15% in these two projects”, or “this facade system used in X project has reduced the need for artificial cooling by 40%, and we think it would be a great fit for what we’re trying to achieve here”.
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What to look for during your research.
Each case study should have a specific purpose for your project, be it a useful comparison or a key contribution to your ideas. Sometimes a case study could look drastically different from your project, but it can be used to communicate a wide variety of features and facets that aren’t immediately visible to the eye.
Here are a few things to look out for when doing your research.
If you’re looking to build a museum, the first kinds of buildings to look out for are other museums from around the world. A building with the same typology as yours is almost guaranteed to have similar aspects and approaches. You’ll also be able to see how the building works with its surroundings.
In the case of a museum, you’ll see if the study projects stand out monumentally, or blend in seamlessly, and from there you can decide which is more applicable for your design.
Function is another important aspect that will inform your research.
If for example, you’re comparing two museums, but one is a museum of modern art and the other is a museum of military equipment, they’re going to have vastly different spaces and functions. Similarly, schools can take inspiration from thousands of other schools, but an elementary school’s functions are going to vary greatly from a college campus.
Finding case projects that function more or less the same way as yours will give you more relevant information about the design.
There are also study projects that work well together despite having slightly different functions, such as theaters and concert halls, or bus stations and train stations. These projects, though not exactly the same, still share plenty of similarities in spatial and traffic requirements to be used as effective case studies.
If you’re exploring a certain style, you can find projects with a design close to what you’re trying to achieve.
However the forms don’t necessarily need to look the same.
For example, if you’re planning a museum with a continuous experience from one exhibit to another, you might use the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York as a case study – being one of the earliest and best examples of such style with its round, gently ramped design. But your design doesn’t need to resemble the Frank Lloyd Wright landmark.
The main purpose for finding similar styles is to see how it’s been executed with comparable planning considerations, and to see the effect the style has on a particular project type.
Whether your project is relatively small or large, it’s good to consider how projects of the same scale fare when built. Even if a building has nearly identical features and functions as your project, if it operates on a completely different scale the same principles may be far less effective on your site.
Site conditions can hugely influence the architectural design of a project, especially when working with extreme slopes or remote locations. You’ll often want to study projects that are in a similar part of the world geographically, with comparable site conditions and nearly identical settings.
Check if your site is in a rural or urban area , if it has generally flat or rolling terrain, and if the lot is a particular shape or length.
Environment
Similar to the site itself, environmental considerations will have a large impact on the way case study buildings are designed.
It’s important to know the climate, weather, and scenery of study projects to fully understand the challenges and opportunities that their designers worked with. Buildings in tropical, humid environments use very different materials and elements than those in arid or icy environments.
Circulation
Circulation is a crucial aspect of projects as it directly affects how a building is experienced.
With case studies you’ll need to look out for the flow of people, the ingress and egress areas, and how people and vehicles pass through and around the building. Circulation will determine how the design interacts with the users and the general public.
Accessibility
Though often overlooked, accessibility is becoming increasingly more important, especially for large-scale projects in dense cities. This involves how people move from the rest of the city to the site. It includes traffic management, road networks, public transportation, and universal design for the disabled.
If the target users can’t get to your building, the project can’t be used as intended. When doing case studies, it’s important to consider what measures were taken to ensure the sites were made open and accessible.
Landscape architecture encompasses far more than vegetation and trees. Each project has a unique way of approaching its landscape to address specific goals and tendencies on site.
How does the building integrate itself with the site and surroundings? How are softscapes and hardscapes introduced to create a desirable atmosphere, direct movement, facilitate activity, and promote social interaction?
Government buildings, for example, are often accompanied by wide lawns and open fields. This conveys a sense of openness, transparency, and public presence. It also frames the buildings as significant, monumental structures standing strong in an open area. These are the subtle aspects that can shape your building’s overall perception.
Construction
Construction methods and structural systems are vital for making our buildings stand safe and sound. Some systems are more applicable in tall buildings, while others are more suited for low-rise structures, but it can be interesting to see the different techniques used throughout your case studies.
You can explore systems like cantilevered beams, diagrid steel, thin shell construction, or perhaps something new entirely.
Materiality
If you’re thinking of using certain materials like stone or wood, and you’re curious to see how it was executed elsewhere, case studies can offer some great examples of materiality and the different ways a single material can be used.
The Innovation Center of UC by Alejandro Aravena is a good illustration of how a particular finish – in this case raw concrete – can be used in an unusual way to the benefit of the overall design.
Building services
Building services are one of the many aspects that make architecture a science. Understanding how a building handles things like energy, ventilation, vertical transportation, and water distribution can help you see beneath the surface to get a better idea of how the building works.
Although there are common practices, buildings can deal with services and utilities very differently. A prime example of this is the Centre Pompidou in Paris, which famously turned the building inside out to expose its services on the facade while opening up the interior space for uninterrupted volumes of light and movement.
This style became known as bowellism , and it was largely popularized by the late Richard Rogers .
Some building types are much more demanding when it comes to building services. Airports, for example, have to deal with the flow of luggage, heightened security, and all the boarding and maintenance requirements of the airplanes themselves.
The final thing to analyze while doing your case studies is the building program. This is how the composition of spaces works in relation to the building requirements. It’s helpful to see what makes the building look good, feel good, and function well.
If your study project is accompanied by a program diagram , it can be an excellent way to see how the architects were thinking.
For instance, OMA’s big and bold diagrams show how their designs are organized in a simple and logical manner. It’s become a signature and memorable part of their work, and it communicates the program in a way that everyone can understand.
A building’s arrangement of spaces can often make or break a design. It can be simple and easy to navigate, or complex and intriguing to explore. It can also be confusing or at times, troublesome to get around. Spaces can feel spacious, cozy, or cramped, and each space can evoke a different emotion whether deliberate or unintentional.
The building program is a fundamental aspect that must be considered when conducting case studies.
How do you write and present an architectural case study?
Select the most applicable projects.
There are often hundreds of potential case studies out there, and you can certainly learn from as many projects as you want, but sticking with the most relevant projects can keep your study clear and concise. Depending on the focus of your research, limit your case studies to those most suitable for communicating your ideas.
Stay on topic
It can be tempting to write entire reports about certain buildings – especially if you find them particularly interesting, but it’s important to remember you’re only mentioning these projects to help develop yours. Keep your case study on topic and in a consistent direction to keep the audience engaged.
Use graphics to illustrate key concepts throughout your projects . Even before preparing refined, colorful graphics, you can sketch visual representations as an alternative to notes for your own personal reference.
In addition to making diagrams, you can present multiple examples of similar or dissimilar concepts to compare and contrast the core ideas of different designs. Offering more than one example helps people grasp the ideas that make a building unique.
Strategic Visuals
If the visual speaks for itself, your verbal explanation will only need to describe the essence of it all. When presenting, your speaking time is valuable and it’s best to prepare your slides for maximum engagement so that you don’t lose your audience along the way.
If you carefully select and prepare your visuals, you can optimize your presentation for attention, emotion, and specific responses from the target audience.
Create a narrative
Creating a narrative is a way of tying the whole study together . By using a sequence of visuals and verbal cues, you can take the audience through a journey of the story that you’re trying to tell. Instead of showing each case study differently and independently, you can uniformly relate each project back to the common themes, or back to your project’s design.
This helps to make the relevance of each project crystal clear.
What if your project is unique?
If you’re struggling to find relevant case studies for your project, it could be a good sign that you’ve created a typology that hasn’t been done before – a first of its kind. New building types are important for shaping society and expanding the boundaries of architecture.
Innovative buildings can make people’s lives better.
As far as case studies go, you’ll likely need to gather a handful of reference projects that collectively represent the idea for your project. You can also present a progression, explaining how current and past typologies have evolved into your proposed building type. New-era architecture requires creativity, not only in the ideas but also in the research.
Case studies show us – and our clients – the many great success stories and mistakes of the past, to learn from and improve on as we move into the future. They serve an essential role in guiding our decisions as we design the buildings of tomorrow.
From school , to practice , and everything in between, case studies can be made as the foundation on which we build upon.
For a deeper dive into how case and precedent studies can build upon and influence your conceptual design approaches, we cover this and other key determining factors in our resource The Concept Kit below:
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FAQ’s about architecture case studies
Where can i find architecture case studies.
There are many resources where you can find architectural case studies. Here are some examples:
- ArchDaily : This is one of the largest online architecture publications worldwide. It provides a vast selection of architectural case studies from around the globe.
- Architectural Review : An international architecture magazine that covers case studies in detail.
- Dezeen : Another online architecture and design magazine where you can find case studies of innovative projects.
- Detail Online : This is a great resource for case studies with an emphasis on construction details.
- Divisare : It offers a comprehensive collection of buildings from across the world and often includes detailed photographs, plans, and explanatory texts.
- The Building Centre : An online platform with case studies on a variety of topics including sustainable design, technology in architecture, and more.
- Harvard Graduate School of Design : Their website provides access to various case studies, including those from students and researchers.
- El Croquis : This is a high-profile architecture and design magazine that offers in-depth case studies of significant projects.
- Casestudy.co.in : It is an Indian platform where you can find some unique case studies of architecture in India.
- Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) : They have an extensive database of case studies on tall buildings worldwide.
In addition to these, architecture books, peer-reviewed journals, and university theses are excellent sources for case studies. If you’re a student, your school library may have resources or databases you can use. Remember to make sure the sources you use are reputable and the information is accurate.
What is the difference between case study and literature study in architecture?
A case study and a literature study in architecture serve different purposes and utilize different methods of inquiry.
- Case Study : A case study in architecture is an in-depth examination of a particular project or building. The goal is to understand its context, concept, design approach, construction techniques, materials used, the functionality of spaces, environmental performance, and other relevant aspects. Architects often use case studies to learn from the successes and failures of other projects. A case study may involve site visits, interviews with the architects or users, analysis of plans and sections, and other hands-on research methods.
- Literature Study : A literature study, also known as a literature review, involves a comprehensive survey and interpretation of existing literature on a specific topic. This could include books, articles, essays , and other published works. The goal is to understand the current state of knowledge and theories about the topic, identify gaps or controversies, and situate one’s own work within the larger discourse. In architecture, a literature study might focus on a particular style, period, architect, theoretical approach, or design issue. It’s more about collating and synthesizing what has already been written or published, rather than conducting new empirical research.
In short, a case study provides an in-depth understanding of a specific instance or example, while a literature study provides a broad understanding of a specific subject as it has been discussed in various texts. Both methods are useful in their own ways, and they often complement each other in architectural research.
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Free Email Marketing: 30 Day List Building Challenge Case Study
That’s where the idea for the free email marketing training 30 Day List Building Challenge was born. It was really just going to me focusing for a whole month on list building activities, like guest posting, being interviewed, trying my hand at running ads, hosting more webinars, and so on.
But then I realized that I could invite other people to focus on growing their lists with me. I would share what I was doing, and they could give it a try too. I also decided to offer up some prizes to encourage people to participate and share what was working for them, along with sharing the challenge itself.
All of this was free, and it felt good to be able to share and help people who might just be starting out with list building.
30 Day List Building Challenge Round 1
The first time I ran the challenge, I was writing emails to the group as I went along, and I was also trying to do all the activities I was talking about… while traveling abroad and juggling a few holidays, and some email delivery issues from our tech platform.
So while my original goal for my personal challenge was to go from 15,000 subscribers to 30,000 in 30 days… it didn’t happen. Instead I got close to 3,000 new subscribers which brought us up to 18,000.
Not bad. But the interesting thing that came out of the challenge was that I loved running the challenge itself, and seeing other people’s results as they took action too!
So I listened to the people who took part in the first round, who said they wanted more emails (preferably daily) and more videos, too. I liked the idea of making the program even more robust, so I went into the recording studio and shot 30 days of videos in one day, after re-writing and re-organizing all of my ideas.
I also decided that I didn’t want people to miss out on any of the previous days if they joined the challenge late, because each day built upon the next. So we set up the 30 Day List Building Challenge so that you can join it anytime, and get started on Day 1 with each subsequent video and email being unlocked 24 hours later.
From there, we created a free email marketing support group that people could join, and we also created a members-only area so that everything could live in one easy to maintain place.
In this iteration of the 30 Day List Building Challenge , I knew I wanted to encourage people to invite others and to get accountability partners too. So in each video I ask people to share the challenge and to report back to the group. I know that this little tweak is responsible for the challenge’s success and growth, too.
At this point we had built something worth sharing, that was getting people amazing results. Some rebellious list builders were doubling or tripling their lists. Others were adding 1000’s of new subscribers!
Beyond The Original Challenge – More Free Email Marketing Training Added
I wanted to get the word out even more about the challenge, on different platforms other than my social media networks. So I packaged up all the trainings into a Kindle book , that people could buy on Amazon.
This additional educational marketing asset helped us spread the word about the challenge to new audiences who might not read blogs but who are looking to grow their email lists.
We had so many people tell us that they wanted to go through the 30 Day List Building Challenge at their own pace, to get even more accelerated list building results. So that’s when we introduced the 30 Day List Building Fast Track option, which you can decide to upgrade to if you’re serious about building your list fast. You also get some other bonuses when you take the Fast Track option, like other trainings and more easy-to-implement content.
Now the totally free 30 Day List Building Challenge is still available, and the community of rebellious list builders is both supportive and kicking butt. If you haven’t joined us yet, you can do so by clicking here .
I have to say that co-creating this challenge with all the participants has been one of my best and most rewarding business decisions yet. Not only has the 30 Day List Building Challenge helped build my own list to over 26,000 today, but it has helped me to deliver even more useful trainings.
It made me bring my A-game, and so many people have told me that this free email marketing training is better than most paid trainings on the topic of list building.
We’ve even been able to understand what people who want to build their list need more of when it comes to the technical side of things… and we’re building out software tools that are designed to support our crew of 30 Day List Building challengers.
And we’re going to be making these available as both free and paid options, because we understand what it’s like when you’re just getting started – and when you want to have full control over how your website and business works, too. You can grab our free WordPress popup plugin here .
30 Day List Building Challenge Findings
Now since this is the 30 Day List Building Challenge case study, I want to share more findings from all of our testing and research.
I will tell you that most people don’t share these types of numbers or insights for free on their blogs, but I am so grateful to everyone who has joined the challenge taken action, and shared it with their friends, that I want to be transparent here in the hopes that you can apply some of these things to your business.
The Results Of Split Testing Our Opt-in Page
Since we were offering 30 days of videos for the challenge, we also recorded an introductory video that told people about the challenge. Originally when we launched, we had this video on our opt-in page that told people about the 30 Day List Building Challenge and asked them to opt-in.
When we split tested this original page with a simpler opt-in page that just had a photo of me and a bit of copy asking people to join, we saw a 132% increase in conversions.
So we stopped using the video on our opt-in page, and as of right now our average conversion rate on this opt-in page is 43%.
What Percentage Of Opt-ins Are From Shares Of The Challenge?
Since we have a lot of people sharing the challenge with their friends, we’re also tracking how many people are coming through these links. This isn’t a perfect science since people can link directly to the challenge, but if they use one of the share buttons in our members area then we’re tracking it.
The percentage as of right now stands at: 12%. This might appear like a really small number, but we also have a lot of people joining directly from my website and from social media without the tracking links, too.
How Many People Take Us Up on The Fast Track?
Another question you might be asking yourself is how many people are upgrading to the paid Fast Track option? Since this is still a new offering, we can’t say for sure where our numbers will even out at… but as of this writing we’re averaging a 3-4% conversion rate. This is considered high for most offers, and we’re very grateful that people are seeing the value that we’re providing them.
Opening Up The Challenge To Affiliates
Now that we’re offering a paid Fast Track upgrade option, we’re starting to welcome affiliates who want to promote the challenge to their email lists or friends. Not everyone is going to take us up on the paid version, but even if only a few people do, it can still start to add up.
If you have a targeted list of subscribers or fans who are looking to build their lists more in the next 30 days than they have in the last month… then we’d love to have you on our ambassador list, and get you your own tracking link so you can earn commissions on the sale of the Fast Track and future programs we’re offering, too.
Common Email Marketing Questions
Now I want to answer some of the most common questions I’ve received around the whole topic of list building. So here goes!
Is there a trend of fewer people opting in?
No. Definitely not. See my answer for the next question, I think it will help you see things differently. I know more people are joining my list on a regular basis.
Are people getting numb to opt-in offers?
Potentially. I think people are getting tired of seeing the same stuff delivered in the same way. It’s all about what my friend Kendrick Shope calls doing the common things uncommonly well. If you can get creative, put your heart into your own expression of an opt-in gift, and be confident when you put it out there… then nothing can stop you.
I’m finding that people want more experiences and less plain jane information. They can google information, but if you’ve created an experience into your opt-in, that’s something that can’t be recreated outside as easily.
That’s why my 30 Day List Building Challenge is so successful, and why so many people gush about it. It’s also why I’m so proud that I was able to focus on something like this and do it with high production value to boot.
But you don’t need to start with something perfect. The first time I ran the challenge, I didn’t have videos in each email, and the ones I did have were just me talking over a slide or browser window.
Should you have an opt-in gift or not?
Some people have asked if it’s necessary to offer something in exchange for a name and email to grow their lists. They point to my website and say that I don’t have like a PDF or download that I offer for my main email list.
And while that is true, I do have the 30 Day List Building Challenge, and I had the Website Checkup for many years as well. So while you can get away with not having something to give away as a bribe on your main website, I do recommend having some sort of offer that you can share on social media that’s specific is awesome.
How can you increase your opt-in conversion rate?
This is a biggie! Like you saw in my case study, playing around with different opt-in pages made a big difference in our conversion rates. I was sure that video would work better because that’s just what I was used to using on an opt-in page. But in reality, people were intrigued enough to opt-in without watching a 1.5 minute video.
So what’s going to be the thing that increases conversions for you? It might be something else entirely… like changing your offer, changing the design, or as simple as changing the headline.
The Big 30 Day List Building Challenge Take Away
Now the 30 Day List Building Challenge looks totally different from when I first got the idea for it. It’s taken on a life of its own, it’s responsible for new products, revenue streams, and connections that I wouldn’t have even imagined before starting. All of this came to be because I trusted my intuition, took action, and set something into motion.
But also because I kept going. There’s something to be said for persistence and staying with something that’s working, even if you’re not getting exactly the results that you’re looking and you don’t quite know how it’s all going to pan out.
That’s the essence of the challenge itself, so if you want to grow your list more and you enjoyed this behind the scenes look… then go ahead and sign up for the 30 Day List Building Challenge . It’s free email marketing training just for you. :)
I’m the founder of a tech startup called AccessAlly , a powerful course and membership platform for coaching industry leaders.
I’m also the creator of the free 30 Day List Building Challenge :
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Living Building Challenge Resources
Living Building Challenge resources
Essential resources, ilfi building certification process.
This document provides an overview of Registration, Coaching/support, and Certification phases for all projects.
The Living Building Challenge Standard
The Living Building Challenge Standard is the core document that project teams use to guide a path toward certification. Download the pdf to learn more about the regenerative design framework and program requirements.
documentation requirements
Project teams should refer to this document periodically throughout every phase of their project, from predesign through the end of the performance period, in order to prepare for the audit.
LBC 3.1 Guidance Handbook
This Early Guidance Handbook is a free addition to the LBC Petal Handbook series, a critical resource for project teams pursuing the Living Building Challenge 3.1. There is one Petal Handbook for each of the seven Petals, and those handbooks define the requirements for each Petal as of their date of issue.
LBC/Core 4.0 Early Project Guidance
This Early Guidance Handbook is a free addition to the LBC Petal Handbook series, a critical resource for project teams pursuing the Living Building Challenge 4.0. There is one Petal Handbook for each of the seven Petals, and those handbooks define the requirements for each Petal as of their date of issue.
LBC and Core Project Success Guide
The LBC and Core Green Building Certification require a non-traditional approach to project design, development, and construction. Deep collaboration, communication, and commitment are required from all project team members for a project to succeed in achieving the certifications. This guide is intended for project teams considering registering for Core or LBC at the Living or Petal level. It is a guide to understanding critical project milestones. The guide only includes the Core requirements, and those specific requirements within each Core Imperative identified by ILFI as critical path items for project teams to consider. Project teams should not rely on this guide alone, but should refer to the Standard handbooks for more detailed requirements.
Zero Carbon Pre-Registration Success Guide
This guide is intended for project teams considering registering for Zero Carbon Certification. It is a guide to understanding critical project milestones. Project teams should not rely on this guide alone, but should refer to the Standard handbooks for more detailed requirements.
Tracking Tables
+ Energy Production & Demand Table (all versions of LBC, ZE, and ZC)
+ Energy Submetering Tracking Table
+ Water Supply & Use Table
+ 4.x Materials Tracking Table
+ 3.x Materials Tracking Table
+ 2.x Materials Tracking Table
+ Policy Tracking Table
Petal Handbooks
Dive into the details of the Living Building Challenge’s seven performance areas with the Petal Handbooks. Petal Handbooks include critical information for projects pursuing every certification type, including:
- Technical guidance
- Clarifications and exceptions
- Terms and definitions
The current LBC 4.0 Petal Handbooks, along with previous versions (3.0, 3.1) are AVAILABLE ONLY TO ACTIVE LIVING FUTURE MEMBERS . Join as a member or login to your Member Dashboard to access. Email [email protected] if you have any questions.
ARE YOU TEACHING OR LEARNING ABOUT LBC FOR SCHOOL?
You can purchase discounted Petal Handbooks. Contact [email protected] with the following: Professors + Students: Please include the below to get a code for your class:
- Professor name
- Class (title and type)
- Time period of class (which months)
- Number of students (approximated) Professors only
- Date publication needs to be available to students Professors only
Request for Ruling
The Request for Ruling (RR) process replaces the online Dialogue process as of July 10, 2023. Rulings related to LBC 3.1 or earlier versions of the standard that are approved for use by all 3.1 or earlier project teams will be published on the Institute’s LBC 3.X Previous Dialogue Records site. For LBC 4.0 (and later), Core and ZE and ZC projects, approved Rulings related to these standards that are deemed to be broadly applicable will be incorporated into the Standard’s online Handbook under the relevant Petal and Imperative (for Core and LBC), or requirement (For ZE and ZC) during the quarterly Handbook updates in January, April, July and October.
Water Petal Guidance
Water petal permitting guidebook.
This guidebook is a reference for project teams that are pursuing the Water Petal, or for any project team that is implementing on-site water capture, treatment, and reuse systems of any type or scale. This guidebook provides general guidance for the permitting process for each category of water system that your project may incorporate in pursuit of the Water Petal, as well as tips for working with local jurisdictions and regulators.
WATER POLICY AND PERMITTING CASE STUDIES
To explore the regulatory successes achieved by 20 project teams and regulators around the country, check out ILFI’s Water Policy and Permitting Case Studies . Their accomplishments are crucial steps forward in the story of restorative integrated water management, and their lessons learned can assist future projects in their own regulatory partnerships.
On-site Water Systems: Financial Case Studies
To explore the return on investment, first cost, and maintenance cost data from a variety of different building types and sizes using on-site water capture, treatment, and reuse systems, see ILFI’s On-Site Water Systems Financial Case Studies Report .
materials Guidance
Declare product database.
ILFI’s Declare database hosts detailed information on all materials and products that have registered with the Declare program.
+ View the Database
Materials Petal Database
Healthy Urban Places is a third-party website with information about various building materials, listed by CSI division.
This resource can be a starting point for teams pursuing the Materials Petal of the Living Building Challenge.
Important: Materials in this database do not automatically meet the requirements of the Living Building Challenge. Project teams must still vet each material and gather their own documentation.
The REd List
The Red List contains twenty-two classes of chemicals. Each chemical class contains a multitude of individual chemicals, identified by their Chemical Abstract Services Registry Number, or CAS RN. Taken together, these classes comprise nearly eight hundred individual ingredients.
Use this resource to show manufacturers precisely which ingredients are prohibited from inclusion in Living Buildings.
+ Download the full Red List
FSC Sourcing Guide
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Sourcing Guide provides an overview of the Living Building Challenge requirements for wood and includes sourcing tips.
+ Download the FSC Sourcing Guide
FSC Supplier Database
FSC, in conjunction with the Northwest Natural Resource Group (NNRG) has created a new supplier database that helps project teams search for specific products by region, providing supplier contact information and predicted turn-around times.
+ FSC Supplier Database
Sample materials lists
Several project teams have made their materials lists publicly available. Project teams must still conduct their own research to ensure that the materials from these lists comply with the current materials requirements.
Important: We don’t guarantee the compliance of listed products: these lists have not been reviewed by ILFI and are not sufficient for materials documentation.
+ Bullitt Center – Seattle, WA (LBC version 2.1)
+ Brock Environmental Center – Virginia Beach, VA (LBC version 2.1)
+ Certified 3.x Projects Materials
Living Building challenge Specification Resources
These resources were developed to help project teams customize their project specifications for Living Building Challenge product requirements for the Materials and Health and Happiness Petals. The use of these sample specifications is not required and the information should be incorporated into the Construction Documents at the project team’s discretion. These sections are intended to serve as a guide and should be modified to meet the specific needs of the project. ILFI is collecting project team feedback using the published Spec Resource Feedback Form and will incorporate feedback into the final LBC Specification Resources. Documents include:
+ Living Building Challenge Specifications Guidebook – a narrative explanation of the resources and some instructions
+ Section 01 74 19-Construction Waste Management – Editable Division 01 language
+ Section 01 81 13-Sustainable Design Requirements – Editable Division 01 language
+ Section 01 81 14-Construction Indoor Air Quality – Editable Division 01 language
+ Living Building Challenge Performance Requirements – Editable sample text for Divisions 03-50 to aid in compliance with LBC Exceptions
Biophilic Design Resources
Biophilic design guidebook.
ILFI has developed this guidebook to help Living Building Challenge project teams develop more biophilic projects and comply with the requirements and intent of Imperative 09 – Biophilic Environment. The guidebook includes a general overview, as well as recommended topics, content and tips.
Technical Assistance
Charrette facilitation.
We’re here to help you find feasible solutions for their Living Building Challenge projects. Charrettes are optional kick-off meetings to help your team define fundamental and strategic goals.
We design the agenda, facilitate the session, and provide a follow-up summary.
DESIGN DEVELOPMENT GUIDANCE
Spends a day with ILFI staff to discuss how your project accounts for each Imperative of the Living Building Challenge. Following a review of the project documents, we will issue a report outlining our guidance that will help your team achieve certification. Guidance can be focused on the Imperatives within a single Petal, select Petals, or all seven Petals of the Living Building Challenge.
IN-HOUSE WORKSHOPS
Customized training is available as an optional service for organizations and project teams to ensure that project team members have a shared understanding of the Living Building Challenge or particular Petal area. The most common workshop requested is a full-day introduction to Living Building Challenge. During these workshops, we’ll discuss contextual information such as development patterns and density, and regulatory, financial, behavioral and technological barriers and incentives. We also offer customized technical assistance for teams working on projects currently in the design phase.
PRODUCT CONSULTING
We support manufacturers as they embrace transparency and investigate how their products meet the Living Building Challenge requirements. We’ll examine your manufacturing process, supply chain, and product performance requirements in order to identify Red List chemicals and possible alternatives.
Email [email protected] to schedule technical assistance.
ILFI Certification Crosswalks
Zero energy & passive house (phi) crosswalk.
This document addresses the International Living Future Institute’s (ILFI) Zero Energy (ZE) certification and the Passive House certification of the Passive House Institute (PHI). ILFI and PHI consider these certification programs to be highly complementary. The energy efficiency requirements of Passive House provide a targeted pathway focused on high energy efficiency for pursuing Zero Energy. The 12-month performance requirements of Zero Energy certification, in turn, provide a mechanism to validate the outcome of anticipated energy savings from Passive House.
ZERO ENERGY & PHIUS+ CROSSWALK [NEW]
This document addresses the International Living Future Institute’s (ILFI) Zero Energy (ZE) certification and the PHIUS+ certification of the Passive House Institute US (PHIUS). ILFI and PHIUS consider these certification programs to be highly complementary. The energy efficiency requirements of PHIUS+ certification provide a targeted pathway focused on high energy efficiency for pursuing Zero Energy. The 12-month performance requirements of Zero Energy certification, in turn, provide a mechanism to validate the outcome of anticipated energy savings from PHIUS+.
LIVING BUILDING CHALLENGE 3.1 & GREEN STAR-DESIGN & AS BUILT
The Green Building Council of Australia and the International Living Future Institute have agreed to work collaboratively to promote the design, construction and operations of positive and restorative buildings in Australia. This document provides assistance for new buildings seeking to obtain both a certified Green Star – Design & As Built rating and a Living Building Challenge Certified rating.
LIVING BUILDING CHALLENGE 3.1 & WELL BUILDING STANDARD
The International Living Future Institute (ILFI) and the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), have agreed to work collaboratively to promote the design, construction and operations of healthy and restorative buildings. The two organizations will work together to identify opportunities to align the two rating systems, coordinate events and education offerings, and promote building practices that significantly raise the standard of what green buildings should be.
Previous Versions of the Standard
+ Download the LBC Standard 3.0
+ Download the LBC Standard 2.1
+ Download the LBC Standard 2.0
+ Download the LBC Standard 1.3
RECENT CHANGES TO THE STANDARD
+ Download “3.1 to 4.0 Upgrade Guide”
+ Download “What’s New in 3.1”
+ Download “What’s New in 3.0”
TRANSLATIONS OF THE LBC STANDARD
+ Download the LBC Standard – Spanish
- Design Objectives
- Building Types
- Space Types
- Design Disciplines
- Guides & Specifications
- Resource Pages
- Project Management
- Building Commissioning
- Operations & Maintenance
- Building Information Modeling (BIM)
- Unified Facilities Guide Specifications (UFGS)
- Unified Facilities Criteria (UFC)
- VA Master Specifications (PG-18-1)
- Design Manuals (PG-18-10)
- Department of Energy
- General Services Administration
- Department of Homeland Security
- Department of State
- Course Catalog
- Workforce Development
- Case Studies
- Codes & Standards
- Industry Organizations
Case Studies
Below you will find case studies that demonstrate the 'whole building' process in facility design, construction and maintenance. Click on any arrow in a column to arrange the list in ascending or descending order.
Many case studies on the WBDG are past winners Beyond Green™ High-Performance Building and Community Awards sponsored by the National Institute of Building Sciences.
WBDG Participating Agencies
National Institute of Building Sciences Innovative Solutions for the Built Environment 1090 Vermont Avenue, NW, Suite 700 | Washington, DC 20005-4950 | (202) 289-7800 © 2024 National Institute of Building Sciences. All rights reserved. Disclaimer
How To Write Trust-Building Case Studies (+ Case Study Templates)
What Is A Case Study?
Step One: Identify Your Topic & Angle
- How much the customer uses your product or service.
- Whether they experienced dramatic positive results.
- If they switched to your product from a competitor.
Step Two: Get Permission To Tell The Story
Create a permission letter.
- Details about which case study format you’re using (video, web page, etc.)
- The exact subject matter of the case study (initial challenges, strategies, and data)
- What they could get out of the case study— including an incentive like a discount, backlinks, or brand exposure to encourage people to participate.
Consider Using A Legal Release Form
Step three: create an introductory questionnaire.
- What problem did you experience before using our product/service?
- Why did you select our product/service instead of a competitor?
- How did our product/service solve a problem you were experiencing?
- What are your goals as a business or organization?
- Are you comfortable sharing data and metrics demonstrating your success?
Step Four: Write Your Interview Questions
Getting To Know Your Client Or Customer
- What industry is your company in?
- How long have you been using our product or service?
- What is your work process like?
- How many members are on your team?
- What goals do you set for your team?
What Problems Were They Experiencing?
- When did your team first realize there was a problem?
- What solutions did you try before you came to us?
- Did your problem happen suddenly, or did it occur over time?
- How did the team decide that you required outside assistance?
- What factors led to the problem developing?
What Helped Them Make Their Decision?
- What materials did you read or watch that influenced your decision?
- What criteria did you have when you were looking for a solution?
- What competitors did you look at (if any)?
- How did you convince your team to make a change?
- What sealed the deal when you chose to work with our organization?
How Does Your Solution Help?
- What [product/service] helped solve your problem?
- What did our product or service replace in your current work process?
- What tasks did our [product/service] simplify for you?
- How much time do you save?
- What tasks did our [product/service] eliminate?
How Did They Implement Your Product?
- How easily did your team adapt our product into their routine?
- How was your onboarding process?
- What process did you use to switch over to using our product?
- What difficulties did you face in the transition process?
- What advice do you have for anyone implementing our product into their work process?
What Results Did They See?
- How much faster are you at completing [task] now that you use our product?
- How did we help you reach your goals?
- Did you see any significant jumps in the data that your team collects?
- How has your productivity changed since implementing our [product/service]?
- What positive results have you seen?
Step Five: Line Up A Time & Conduct Your Interview
- Phone interview. Use a phone call recording app like Rev Call Recorder or Otter.ai . We recommend recording your conversation for accuracy. Ask permission before you start.
- Video call. If you’re using a Mac, Quicktime makes it easy to record video calls on your desktop. Windows users can use Skype. Zoom is good across the board.
- Face-to-face meeting. If your client is local, this may be the easiest option. Chatting face-to-face (especially over coffee) is less intimidating for the person you’re interviewing.
Step Six: Use What You Learn To Write A Compelling Story
Writing an intriguing title.
- State who it's about.
- Explain what was done.
- Communicate a clear result.
- The problem the company faced.
- The type of company involved in the case study.
- How bit.ly tackled the challenge.
Executive Summary
- The company's mission is explained clearly.
- It highlights the problem the company was experiencing.
- The last sentence tells the reader how the company solved that problem.
Who Is The Case Study About?
- Adobe's purpose is clearly established.
- The reader is told exactly how Adobe used a LinkedIn service to solve a problem.
- It illustrates the clear benefits of using LinkedIn's Sponsored Content.
Problems They’ve Faced
- The case study cuts right to the heart of the problem.
- It mentions the specific part of the company that helped Cirque.
- There's no fluff. This copy gets to the point.
How Did You Help?
- It shows people how LinkedIn has access to Callaway’s target demographic.
- The case study also explains how they created an app to help solve Callaway’s problem.
- While data can be challenging to understand, this example clearly explains relevant insights into Callaway’s target audience.
Progress & Results
- The results are one of the most visual aspects of the case study.
- The facts and figures are easy to scan.
- You can quickly tell what type of growth or improvement they experienced.
Step Seven: Design & Develop Your Case Study
Downloadable pdf or whitepaper, website page, how to order your case study.
General Case Study
Marketing case study, sales case study, business case study, 1. coschedule case study sample.
2. Moz Case Study
3. AdRoll Case Study
4. Apple Case Study
5. GitHub Case Study
6. Lokalise Case Study
7. Google Case Study
8. Instagram Case Study
- Uses statistics to compare All My Way's success before and after using Instagram Shop
- Shares persuasive quotes from All My Way's marketers
- Dives deep into All My Way's strategy
- Includes a GIF showcasing one of All My Way's ads
9. Facebook Case Study
- CoSchedule - This 5-Person Marketing Team Managed 12x More Work While Working Remotely
- Ahrefs - How to Get High-Quality Backlinks With the TRUST Formula [Case Study]
- Sony - Leading the Digital Revolution Through Innovation
- Stanford - The Xbox Launch in Korea
- Oracle - With Oracle Cloud, lululemon improves its financial fitness
- Microsoft - Chobani grows a culture of innovation, fast business development by moving to SAP on Azure
- Canonical - Fing Snaps Up 30,000 Customers With a Secure, Future-Proof IoT Device
- Vox - How Vox.com Approaches Publishing on Facebook
- Amazon - AWS Case Study: Suncorp
- Atlassian - Delivering Technology-And Great Pizza-Faster
- TED - Target Case Study
- Apple - Business Success Stories
- Think With Google - KitKat Collaborates With YouTube Creators to Bring Mobile Game Crossy Road to Life
- eMoney - Bell Bank Improves Planning Efficiency With eMoney
- Landor - Reimagining the Car Buying Experience
- New Relic - ZenHub Helps Developers Ship Better Software, Faster with New Relic
- Pro Exhibits - Case Study: Blue Diamond
- Louisiana Economic Development - EA Searches for New Location to Ensure Highest Quality Product
- Prophet - Keurig Green Mountain
- Creative Bloq - Innocent Drinks
- Nike - Nike Sustainability and Labor Practices
- Kleenex - Kleenex Boosts Sales 40% Using Google Flu Data
- Asana - Autodesk’s Customer Events team is 50% more efficient with Asana
- 440 Industries - Target Caste Study: TARGETing The States
- Maybelline - Building Loyalty That's Beyond Skin Deep
- ServiceNow - Sanford Health Creates An Employee Portal With ServiceNow
- Kate Spade - An Economics of Mutuality
- Yeti - The Yeti Cooler Marketing Model
- Samsung Electronics - Widescreen Monitors Help St. Luke's Bring Virtual Care to Idaho
- Walt Disney - Walt Disney Culture Case Study
July 26, 2021
Elise Dopson is a freelance writer for B2B commerce and martech companies. When writing for these companies, everything she writes about is backed by examples, facts, and research. She creates content that actually helps customers. She has been a freelance writer for six years as of 2023. She mainly writes long-form, data-driven content. In addition to creating white papers and blog posts, she specializes in refreshing existing marketing content to improve search rankings. Elise specializes in writing content about B2B sales and marketing. However, she is considered an expert in just about everything. Some frequent topics that she writes about include ecommerce, content management, retail, marketing strategy, project management, Instagram strategy, and much more.
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10 Case Studies on Growing an Email List
by Ryan Nelson | Nov 10, 2017 | Case study | 0 comments
Email marketing is one of the most reliable ways to consistently communicate with your audience.
For many organizations and individuals, email lists are automated, revenue-generating machines . They provide a steady stream of traffic and a regular source of content ideas. Email is a direct outlet to the people you’re trying to reach.
But what if you don’t have a thriving email list yet?
Building an email list takes work. It’s not going to happen instantly. Still there are ways to significantly increase your growth , and sharp organizations use them to reach hundreds, thousands, or hundreds of thousands of people.
There are countless prescriptive blog posts explaining how to poof your way into a massive email list. This post isn’t one of them. We’ve pulled together the Internet’s best examples of organizations that experienced massive growth. Some did it overnight. Some took years. We’re going to look at what they did and how they did it, so you can do the same.
Here are 10 case studies on rapidly growing an email list.
1. Buffer: Doubled monthly signups in one month
Industry: marketing software What they did:
- Increased monthly email signups by 130%.
How they did it:
- Added eight more ways for people to sign up for their list.
Where the study came from: Buffer shared the signup sources they added to grow their email list on their blog in 2014.
For Buffer, the egg came before the chicken. They wrote a lengthy post about ways to grow an email list based on other websites that had large lists, and then they tried those strategies for themselves.
Here’s what their email signups looked like for the two months before they upped their game, and the month they implemented new strategies:
Image source: Buffer
They averaged 2,349 signups in May and June, and then had 5,450 in July.
One of the common themes they saw on sites with big lists was a high number of places for people to sign up. Buffer only had one—so they added eight additional ways for people to sign up for their list.
Not all of these new signup sources got much traction, but take a look at how they each contribute now:
The blue section represents the original signup source (Slideup), which now only accounts for a little over one third of all signups. Of course, some of these new sources siphoned off signups that would’ve otherwise gone to Slideup, but the total signups still increased dramatically.
Buffer explains how they used each individual signup source, but here’s the rough breakdown of how many subscribers each source contributed:
- Slideup: 400+ per month
- HelloBar : 350+ per month
- Twitter lead generation cards: 180+ per month
- Homepage feature box: 150+ per month
- Sidebar: 140+ per month
- SlideShare : 60+ per month
- Postscript: 20-40 per month
- Facebook page email signup: one per month
- QZZR : 345 total
- Other: about 400 per month
Adding more email signup options is all that Buffer claims they changed, and they doubled their monthly signups. Sometimes you have to ask for the signup more than once, and that’s perfectly OK.
It’s worth noting: some email signup sources can be pretty obnoxious for your visitors. While each of these sources are growing Buffer’s list, don’t just start adding signup sources willy-nilly. If a new source isn’t contributing a significant number of signups and it’s taking up prominent real estate on your website, ditch it.
And if your site isn’t already getting significant traffic like Buffer’s, adding signup sources probably won’t move the needle for you.
2. Video Fruit: 0 to 205 email subscribers in 48 hours
Industry: Video editing What they did:
- Gained 205 subscribers in two days on a brand new email list.
- Generated $247 in revenue in two days.
- Leveraged personal relationships.
- Hosted a giveaway.
Where the study came from: Bryan Harris shared how he built an email list from scratch on the Video Fruit blog in 2015.
Bryan Harris of Video Fruit started with a list of family members and friends who he knew would be interested in the topic he was building an email list around—in this case, the great outdoors. He personally asked each of them if they’d join his list, and wound up with 46 list members in 12 hours.
To keep growing the list, Bryan counted on the fact that everybody knows somebody. But before these people would share his new list with their friends and family, they needed some incentive. So he created a giveaway that was relevant to the list: a canoe and two ENO hammocks. (A local sporting goods store sponsored the giveaway in exchange for being featured in the list, even though it was brand new!) In order to enter the giveaway, people had to share a link to the landing page.
Bryan’s model for email growth is pretty simple. It looks like this:
Image source: Video Fruit
The giveaway resulted in an additional 159 subscribers, bringing the list to 205 members in just 24 hours.
Bryan didn’t have a product in mind for this list yet, but he used his early adopters determine what people would pay money for, and then accepted preorders for the yet-to-be-started product.
Bryan’s methods were incredibly informal, but here’s why this case study is valuable to established organizations and startups:
- He had no clients, customers, users, or audience when he started.
- He didn’t even have a product.
- He didn’t spend a dime on a giveaway that was worth $800.
- He used the most active segment of his audience to grow his list and learn what people wanted.
- He didn’t even know what he wanted the list to be about when he started.
If you’re starting from zero, Bryan’s case study provides a helpful model. But probably, you have at least a few advantages over this 48 hour experiment.
Even if you don’t have an email list (or the one you have isn’t doing too hot), your organization probably has existing relationships you can leverage to build an initial list to get started. Or a product you can use in a giveaway to incentivize people to invite their friends. And I bet you already know what you want to email people about.
What I find most interesting about Bryan’s case study is his conversational approach to exploring the list’s potential. He wasn’t afraid to ask people “Hey, if I did this, would you be interested?” before he committed any energy to a task.
It’s nothing flashy, but Bryan’s methods work.
3. AppSumo: 0 to 147K email subscribers in 10 months
Industry: Daily deals roundup What they did:
- Gained 147,973 subscribers in 10 months.
- Gained 528,238 subscribers in four years.
Where the study came from: Noah Kagan (founder of AppSumo) shared how he grew the company’s email list on Andrew Chen’s blog.
AppSumo has been using giveaways for years. Founder Noah Kagan says, “What started out as an experiment for growing our small audience became one of the key marketing activities that helped grow our customer base. . . . The one method I can consistently recommend for people starting their customer base has been giveaways.”
Here’s what their first 10 months of growth through giveaways looked like:
Image source: Andrew Chen
Through experimentation, AppSumo learned what giveaway aficionados know by now: niche giveaways create way better leads than broad giveaways for items everybody wants.
Case in point: AppSumo hosted a MacBook Air giveaway that created over 48,000 new subscribers, but only $11,550.08 in gross profit ($0.24 per new subscriber). Another giveaway offering a one-on-one business getaway with Noah Kagan, however, created just 3,846 new subscribers—but led to $26,572.90 in gross profit ($6.90 per new subscriber).
If you’re trying to build a thriving email list, don’t flood it with a bunch of useless leads. Broad, generic giveaways build broad, generic audiences.
A few other things AppSumo has learned from four years of giveaways:
- Partner with other companies who will promote you and provide giveaway items.
- Buy Facebook ad traffic for the company you’re sponsoring.
- A/B test the messaging on your giveaway.
- Using giveaways to grow your list will increase unsubscribes (some people are just interested in the giveaway—who knew!)
- Giveaways can grow your other audiences as well. Many platforms include options to like or follow your brand for additional entries.
- Frequent giveaways have diminishing returns—do them quarterly at most.
In the four years prior to the case study, AppSumo hosted 25 giveaways and gained 528,238 new subscribers through them.
4. University of Alberta: 500% increase in subscribers
Industry: post-secondary education What they did:
- Grew their list from 421 subscribers to 2,528 in 10 months.
- Added a chat window signup with Qualaroo .
Where the study came from: On the KISSmetrics blog in 2013, Jason Buzzell of UAlberta shared how his school implemented one of KISSmetrics’ email list building strategies on the campus website.
It’s not enough to give people the ability to sign up for your list. They have to be able to see it.
Before University of Alberta implemented Qualaroo, the only way people could sign up for their daily news list was through a sidebar, which led to this hideous page:
Image source: KISSmetrics
That signup page is still pretty bad , but at least for awhile, they provided engaged readers with another option. When someone read the daily news for 10 seconds, they saw a little chat box like this:
“We generally were seeing one or two sign-ups maximum per day before the nudge was set up,” says Jason Buzzell of UAlberta. “Now, we have days where we see as many as 12 to 15 sign-ups.”
And over nine months, 21.5% of the 12,295 responses were “Yes.”
Here’s how adding Qualaroo affected their total subscribers:
Surprisingly, University of Alberta appears to have ditched Qualaroo, but I’d be willing to bet that says more about them than Qualaroo. It looks like they had a pretty manual process of updating their list, and all it takes is one person leaving (like, say, Jason Buzzell , the guy who wrote this case study) for an administration to start killing good ideas.
If you want people to sign up for your email list, make it visible.
5. Backlinko: 785% increase in signup conversions
Industry: SEO What they did:
- Increased email signup conversions from 0.54% to 4.82%.
- Content upgrades.
Where the study came from: Brian Dean published this case study on Backlinko in 2014 (it’s been updated since then).
When Brian Dean first published this case study, the idea of content upgrades was pretty new—which is why he got to coin a term which everyone now links to and talks about. Now, it’s standard practice for anyone who takes their email list seriously.
So what’s a content upgrade? It’s a bonus offer that directly relates to the content it appears in. You provide the additional content—such as an ebook, report, or checklist—and people give you their email address.
Brian first experimented with content upgrades on his post, “ Google’s 200 Ranking Factors: The Complete List .” After reading or skimming his 200 ranking factors, people were offered a checklist with the top 10 ranking factors. It’s obviously super relevant to the audience, and it adds value to the material they just read—it condenses all that information into an actionable tool.
Before he added the content upgrade, this page was converting 0.54% of visitors into subscribers. Now its conversion rate is 4.82%. That’s an improvement of 785%!
Naturally, savvy A/B testers will ask, “Well, OK, but how big was his sample size?” This is Brian Dean, folks. He doesn’t mess around. He arrived at this 4.82% conversion rate after 4,700 visitors and 370 conversions.
And Brian didn’t just spam his readers with links to this content upgrade, either. He added one link at the top of the post and one at the bottom. ( See for yourself .) It doesn’t get in the way of what people actually came to the page for, and it’s related enough that it feels like . . . well, an upgrade.
Brian Dean wasn’t the first to use this technique, but he gave it a name that stuck, and other brands are using it to grow their lists, too.
6. CodeinWP: 450+ new subscribers per month
Industry: WordPress help What they did:
- Doubled the size of their email list in seven months.
- Increased signup conversions on blog posts by 831% or more.
- Adding signup forms.
Where the study came from: CodeinWP shared their email marketing strategy on their blog in 2015.
CodeinWP blends what we’ve learned so far from Buffer and Backlinko, making their email signup more prominent, and their offers more compelling.
They provide a total of seven different signup options, using these tools:
- ManyContacts
- OptinMonster
- Scroll Triggered Box
- Other “standard embed forms”
A first-time visitor can’t come to their site and consume their content without at least encountering one opportunity to sign up. CodeinWP mentions that as we’ve become bombarded with these signup requests, we essentially become “blind” to some of them. We’ve learned to mentally block out anything that looks like a banner ad.
But CodeinWP’s solution isn’t just to inundate readers with even more buttons. They do, but they also borrow from Brian Dean’s playbook, where they’ve experienced similar results.
CodeinWP’s blog posts that don’t offer content upgrades convert new subscribers at rate of 0.39%. With content upgrades, their conversions range from 1.49% to 6.68%. That’s an increase of 831%–1,613%.
It’s kind of a no-brainer. People like free stuff. And when you already know what kind of free stuff they want (like whatever that blog post was about), bada-bing bada-boom, they give you their email.
7. UAV Coach: 73% increase in subscribers in 7 days
Industry: Drone pilot training What they did:
- Gained 3,200 subscribers in seven days (457 subscribers per day).
- Over 900 subscribers from Facebook advertising for $0.32 per subscriber.
- One giveaway.
Where the study came from: Copy Tactics used UAV Coach in an email marketing case study they published on the Copy Tactics blog in 2015.
OK, I promise, this is the last case study about using a giveaway. CopyTactics has a pretty elaborate build up to the big reveal about what their client did, but that’s really about all there is to this one: they did a giveaway, and they did it well.
UAV Coach used KingSumo (hey, it’s Noah Kagan again) to give away a . . . you guessed it, UAV. It just so happened to be one UAV Coach received for free, too. The prize was highly relevant to their audience, and while a drone would usually be one of those broad prizes we’d caution against, this is kind of like if Apple gave away an iPad. It still makes sense for them to do that. The only people interested in learning how to fly drones are people who own or want drones.
But what makes this case study uniquely valuable is that UAV Coach already tried a drone-related giveaway. They initially offered a free ticket to a drone convention in Las Vegas. It didn’t include a hotel room or travel costs—which probably costs more than the ticket itself is worth. The results? They had less new subscribers from the entire giveaway than they had in one day of the drone giveaway. CopyTactics says the poor results could also be because “[people] may not like crowds, which come with Las Vegas’ atmosphere.” But let’s be honest: it’s because they didn’t include a hotel room or travel costs, and flying to a conference is a much bigger commitment than having something show up on your doorstep.
Besides the importance of choosing the right prize, here are a few takeaways from this case study:
- Optimize your site for email signups before launching the giveaway.
- Tell your email list about the giveaway before it’s live to create anticipation.
- Find groups and social media communities that would be interested in your giveaway, and share it with them.
- Link to the giveaway from other pages on your site, and promote the heck out of it.
- Advertise your giveaway.
One of the more impressive stats in this study is UAV Coach’s Facebook advertising results. They kept their target audience small and relevant, and they snagged an extra 931 subscriptions for 32 cents a pop.
8. Vero: 150% subscriber increase in four weeks
Industry: Email service provider What they did:
- Increased blog subscribers by 150% in four weeks.
- Qualaroo surveys.
- Popups for first-time visitors.
Where the study came from: This case study appeared on the Vero blog in 2013.
As an email service provider, you would hope that Vero knows a thing or two about building email lists. With more than 10,000 blog subscribers, it’s safe to say they do.
This case study is several years old, but it’s still a good model of some basic techniques you can use on your blog to increase subscribers. For the most part, Vero’s results come down to two things you’ve heard before:
- Increase the visibility of your signup forms.
- Increase the relevance of signing up for your newsletter.
In the four weeks the case study focuses on, Vero added a few elements to their blog:
- Unique calls to action on every post.
- Header for new visitors, directing them to sign up.
- Sidebar promoting popular posts and their newsletter.
- Qualaroo survey that led to a signup option.
- Dedicated landing page promoting the newsletter.
Together, this led to a 150% increase in subscribers over four weeks, but Vero also breaks down the specific impact of a couple key changes.
Qualaroo alone increased Vero’s blog conversions by 25%. The popup survey asked readers how often they read Vero’s posts, and then prompted people who responded “Once every now and then” to subscribe.
Adding a sidebar accounted for a 30% increase in subscribers. This drove people to the dedicated landing page, where it was easy for people to sign up and understand the benefit of subscribing.
Vero didn’t approach “content upgrades” the same way other organizations on this list have. Instead of creating a new guide, report, or checklist based on the post, they simply reframed the their existing offers with a unique call to action.
Image source: Vero
A lot has changed since 2013. Like many organizations, Vero has abandoned the header signup form. And Qualaroo. And the dedicated landing page. And they’ve even reverted to generic CTAs. You’ll find this at the end of pretty much every post:
But perhaps most importantly, at the time we wrote this case study roundup, Vero’s most recent blog post was from a year ago.
It’s possible that this is another example of the collateral of employee turnover. Jimmy Daly was the head of content marketing at Vero for almost two years, and during that time he got Vero’s website a lot of attention—he got 1,000 email subscribers from a single blog post . But he left in 2016, around the time the blog became inactive.
What I’m trying to say is: do as they say, not as they do.
9. Baked NYC: 68% increase in leads through advertising
Industry: Baked goods What they did:
- 68% increase in leads.
- 30% reduction in cost per lead.
- Facebook advertising.
Where the study came from: Baked NYC was featured by Facebook as an example of how Facebook advertising can help acquire affordable leads .
Baked NYC wanted to broaden their local customer base, grow their email list, and get some preorders for their Thanksgiving pies.
Being in New York City, they obviously have a pretty big advantage over most localized businesses when it comes to the potential audience size. But it’s also hard to stand out. Facebook advertising allowed them to cut through the noise and pay to reach new customers.
Baked NYC produced some surprisingly professional ads with a pretty tight budget. They spent $35 on equipment, then used a phone and some apps to create stop motion videos with animated text.
They used these videos to create “ Facebook lead ads .” The pre-populated forms let people quickly sign up for your email list without leaving their newsfeed.
These ads were highly targeted, isolating Facebook users who lived within a one mile radius of one of Baked NYC’s locations. The campaign resulted in a 68% increase in leads, and those leads cost them 30% less than leads from other sources.
10. Hubble Contacts: 3,000 leads through advertising
Industry: disposable contact lenses What they did:
- Gained 3,000 leads for $2.30 per lead.
- Facebook lead generation ads.
Where the study came from: Hubble Contacts was featured by Facebook as an example of how Facebook advertising can help acquire affordable leads .
Before Hubble Contacts even launched their product, they used Facebook advertising to acquire 3,000 email addresses from people who wanted to hear about it.
This earlier interest in the product played a big role in helping them secure the seed money they needed to ramp up their efforts.
“This initial Facebook lead generation campaign was a big deal for our business,” says Co-CEO Jesse Horwitz. “We hadn’t launched yet, and had already raised a $3.5 million seed. The data from this campaign was key to raising a $3.7 million seed bridge before launch, which gave us the capital to lean heavily into marketing from day one.”
It isn’t clear who Hubble Contacts targeted for these ads, but it looks like it wasn’t isolated to the U.S.
“Our success on Facebook pushed us to think about international expansion far earlier than we would have otherwise,” says Dan Rosen, head of creative at Hubble Contacts. “Facebook is a great platform in that it makes such expansion very easy from a marketing perspective. I would urge companies not to underestimate Facebook’s depth; if you think a little bit harder, you can probably find more efficient spend opportunities on the platform.”
Even without an established product or content, Facebook advertising can help you build an affordable list of the right people.
Honorable mention: Quality Stocks’ one change on one page
Industry: Stock market advice What they did:
- 99% increase in subscriber growth over six months.
- Added a lightbox popover.
Where the study came from: Aweber published this case study on their site.
We’ve seen this several times already, but this is another example of how even small changes to the visibility of your email sign up can lead to big increases in growth.
AWeber says that Quality Stocks made one change on one page : they added a lightbox popover to their about page. And it’s not even pretty:
Image source: AWeber
In an ideal world, you’d have a beautiful, branded website. But in a pinch, something’s better than nothing. (Keep in mind though, popovers on mobile can hurt your SEO rankings, which means less traffic.) If you don’t have some obvious way for people to sign up for your list, you’re letting subscribers slip into the abyss of the Internet where you may never see them again, even if you follow them with retargeted ads .
The best ways to grow your email list
By now you’ve seen a few things come up repeatedly—visibility, relevant CTAs, giveaways, and advertising. If people can’t see your email list, they’re not going to sign up. Plain and simple. The trick is to find the best ways to make your email list visible without being obnoxious.
Make it easy to sign up for your list
It helps to think about what kind of experience you like to have when you visit a website, but don’t let that be your only guide (it’s a wee bit subjective). As you add new ways for people to encounter your list, pay attention to your bounce and exit rates and the time people spend on your pages. Consider running A/B tests to isolate the effects of your changes— then you can make decisions backed by data.
What makes Buffer’s case study so valuable is that they measured the impact of each additional email capture, so you can get an idea of which ones are most worth pursuing.
Give people a good reason to sign up
At Overthink Group, we generally advocate for quality over quantity. Well placed, relevant asks create happier website visitors and more effective email captures. As you saw with Brian Dean’s case study (and the derivative ones), content upgrades give people a really compelling reason to join your list and stay there.
Giveaways can give you a boost—but don’t rely on them
Giveaways take a lot of work to pull off well. AppSumo runs huge giveaways fairly often, but keep in mind: they make a giveaway hosting platform . Of course they love giveaways. And AppSumo’s target audience is basically people who love deals, so there’s that, too.
If you’re going to run a giveaway, make sure the prize is as relevant as possible to the people you want on your list. And as we saw in UAV Coach’s case, choose a prize that doesn’t require people to spend additional money.
Giveaways can be a good way to inject a new group of people into your email list, but keep in mind: they only joined your list for a chance to get something for free. There’s always going to be a spike in unsubscribes when your giveaway ends. Noah Kagan says to focus on the overall growth of your list, but pay attention to the value you’re getting from your list afterwards, too. If all of a sudden nobody’s opening or clicking through your emails, or none of your giveaway subscribers go on to make a purchase or interact with you again, it might be time to look at other ways to get more subscribers.
You can probably find more compelling reasons for someone to join your email list. A giveaway might give you a quick win, but we can help you create a more effective long term growth strategy .
Take advantage of Facebook advertising
Obviously, advertising costs money. But targeted ads let you focus that money on the most relevant audience, so you can acquire qualified leads. Facebook gave some good examples, but you should also check out how we got more than 12,000 quality leads for 24 cents a pop .
Make growth a priority
The bottom line is that if you want to grow your email list, it’s going to take work. At Overthink Group, we work with your team to find the right strategies for your organization. We can even execute on them for you. Either way, we do what’s best for our clients and the people they serve long term—not just the length of a contract. It’s our way of leaving the world better than we found it.
Let’s talk about your email list .
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Link Building Case Study: How I Increased My Search Traffic by 110% in 14 Days
Written by Brian Dean
Here’s the brutal truth about link building :
There are WAY too many people in internet marketing today that think “great content” is enough.
They say, “if I publish great stuff, people will naturally link to me”.
If only it were that easy…
If you’re serious about getting high quality links , you need to be very systematic with how you create and promote your content.
Otherwise, you’re taking the “cooked spaghetti approach” to SEO : throwing a bunch of stuff against a wall and hoping something sticks.
Well, today I’m going to show you a technique that almost guarantees that you get high-quality links from every piece of content that you publish.
Keep reading to learn how…
The Skyscraper Technique: (Content Marketing for Link Builders)
On April 18th 2013, I published Google’s 200 Ranking Factors: The Complete List .
After executing “ The Skyscraper Technique “, the number of backlinks to that page shot up like a rocket:
More importantly, organic search traffic to my entire site – not just that post – doubled in just 14 days:
As a nice bonus, that single post has driven more than 2 milion referral visitors to my site so far.
The best part?
You can do the same thing for your site… even if you don’t have a Fortune 500 marketing budget or connections with influential bloggers.
The 3-Steps to Using “The Skyscraper Technique” To Get Quality Links and Targeted Traffic
There are 3 steps to The Skyscraper Technique.
And I go over all of them in this short-and-sweet video:
Like I mentioned in the video above, here are the 3-steps that make up The Skyscraper Technique:
Step 1: Find link-worthy content
Step 2: Make something even better
Step 3: Reach out to the right people
Here’s why this technique works so well (and what it has to do with a skyscraper):
Have you ever walked by a really tall building and said to yourself:
“Wow, that’s amazing! I wonder how big the 8th tallest building in the world is.”
Of course not.
It’s human nature to be attracted to the best .
And what you’re doing here is finding the tallest “skyscraper” in your space… and slapping 20 stories to the top of it.
All of a sudden YOU have the content that everyone wants to talk about (and link to).
Now : The Skyscraper Technique is just one of many strategies that I use to land first page Google rankings. I reveal the others in my premium business training course, SEO That Works .
Step #1: Find Proven Linkable Assets
A linkable asset is the foundation of any successful link-focused content marketing campaign (including this one).
I’m not sure who coined the phrase “Linkable Asset”, but it’s the perfect description of what you want to create: a high-value page that you can leverage for links over and over again.
Keep in mind that linkable asset is not “12 Things Spider Man Taught Me About Social Media Marketing” link bait nonsense.
It’s content so awesome, so incredible, and so useful that people can’t help but login to their WordPress dashboard and add a link to your site.
But how do you know if your linkable asset is going to be a huge success… or a total flop?
That’s easy: find content that’s already generated a ton of links.
Here’s how:
Now it’s time for step 2…
Step #2: Make Something Even Better
Your next step is to take what’s out there and blow it out of the water .
Here’s how you can take existing content to the next level:
Make It Longer
In some cases, publishing an article that’s simply longer or includes more items will do the trick.
If you find a link magnet with a title like “50 Healthy Snack Ideas”, publish a list of 150 (or even 500).
In my case, I decided to list all 200 ranking factors… or die trying.
The first 50 were a breeze. 50-100 were really hard. 100-150 were really, really hard. And 150-200 were damn near impossible.
It took 10 gallons of coffee and 20 hours of sitting in front of my laptop (don’t worry, I took bathroom breaks)…
…but in the end, I had something that was clearly better than anything else out there.
More Up-To-Date
If you can take an out-of-date piece of content and spruce it up, you’ve got yourself a winner.
For example, most of the other ranking factor lists were sorely outdated and lacked important ranking factors, like social signals:
If you find something with old information, create something that covers many of the same points… but update it with cutting-edge content.
Better Designed
Sometimes, a visually stunning piece of content can generate a lot more links and social shares than something similar on an ugly page.
Just check out Help Scout’s Customer Acquisition Strategies for Entrepreneurs :
This guide is a curated list of links to other internet marketing sites.
And the page has generated a lot of buzz because it’s beautifully designed.
For my guide, I added a nice banner at the top:
More Thorough
Most lists posts are just a bland list of bullet points without any meaty content that people can actually use.
But if you add a bit of depth for each item on your list, you have yourself a list post that’s MUCH more valuable.
In my case, I noticed that the other ranking factor lists lacked references and detail:
So I made sure each and every point on my list had a brief description (with a reference):
Important Note: I recommend that you beat the existing content on every level : length, design, current information etc.
This will make it objectively clear that YOU have the better piece of content.
This is really important when you start getting the word out…
Step #3: Reach Out to The Right People
Email outreach is the linchpin of the Skyscraper Technique.
It’s similar to straight-up link begging, but with a VERY important twist.
Instead of emailing random people, you’re reaching out to site owners that have already linked out to similar content .
When you qualify prospects like this, you know that:
1. They run a site in your niche.
2. They’re interested in your topic.
3. They’ve already linked to an article on that topic.
Now it’s just a matter of giving them a friendly heads up about your clearly superior content.
Here’s how to do it:
1. Export all of the links pointing to your competitor’s content into a spreadsheet.
2. Weed out referring pages that don’t make sense to contact (forums, article directories, etc.). In my case, after cleaning up the list, I had 160 very solid prospects to reach out to.
3. I emailed all 160 of them using this template:
Hey [Name] ,
I was searching for some articles about [Your topic] today and I came across this page: [URL]
I noticed that you linked to one of my favorite articles – [Article title]
Just wanted to give you a heads up that I created a similar article.
It’s like [Name of the article] , but more thorough and up to date:
Might be worth a mention on your page.
Either way, keep up the awesome work!
Cheers, [Your Name]
(I obviously personalized and tweaked this template for everyone I reached out to.)
Even I was shocked at the overwhelmingly positive response:
Out of 160 emails I landed 17 links: an 11% success rate.
Considering that these were cold emails that asked for a link in the first email, an 11% success rate is pretty amazing.
You may be thinking, “17 links, that’s it?”.
But remember it’s about quality , not quantity.
There were a lot of gems in that group of 17 links.
Besides, just look at the meteoric rise in organic traffic that those 17 links got me (in a very short time period, no less).
Obviously, there were a few links to that page that came organically, but some of the best were from The Skyscraper Technique.
Now You Try It
I hope you can see the potential of The Skyscraper Technique for your site and your business.
Yes, it takes hard work to create something great.
But with this strategy you already know ahead of time that your hard work is going to pay off (unlike pumping out reams of content hoping that something goes viral).
This is awesome content mate, thank-you. I love anything case studyish, especially when it’s start to finish and you’ve done a really high quality job. Appreciate the insights.
My pleasure, Glen. 🙂 Let me know how it works for you.
Hey Brian, Great Post, really great strategy… I think Reaching Out to The Right People is the hardest hurdle when promoting your content whether is great or astounding content if no can see or read it, then your kinda at a loose end regarding authority and brand awareness not to mention high quality links.
Glad to hear that you enjoyed the post, Danny. You’re right: finding the right people to contact is really hard. That’s what I like about this strategy: you’re targeting people who are very likely to link to your content (because they’ve already linked to similar stuff in the past). That makes it easy to get the word out…even if you don’t already have a following.
Hey Brian, nicely done and written. I also noticed since I started blogging recently that people rehash old ideas but add nothing. But I had not made the leap that you made, or at least not a leap of THAT size!! Fantastic idea. It is going on my list of things I need to do as a new blogger to try to get at least a trickle of traffic :>
Will start following your blog! cheers ashley
Thanks, Ashley! This is a great way to drive links and traffic to your new blog. Let me know if you have any questions about the process.
Once again, a fabulous post.
Thanks Chetan! I aim to please 🙂
Cool idea. But why do you have “link-building” as a topic for examples? I guess that would make this a link-building article for link-builders about link-building in the niche of link-building from link-building sites who also link to a link-building article, which gets a whole lot of links.
Thanks, Josh. To answer your question: I guess I’m a bit obsessed with the subject. But the technique can be effective in any niche (like guitar lessons) :-).
You’re awesome Brian. I’ll have to try it out.
Let me know how it works for you, Josh!
Hi Brian, You mention using this in a niche but a lot of the details don’t seem to work for niches. For example, you mentioned having 100 linking root domains in OSE’s Top Pages but in a niche they aren’t likely to have that much. My niche is marketing specifically for software companies and while I LOVE this article because it can help me with clients, I’m not seeing how it translates well for niches. Do you have a version for niches? Or, how would you modify to get significant traffic for smaller niches? Thanks, Jason
Jason, that’s true. In the case of smaller niches you’ll need to go a bit lower with some of the numbers. Don’t let the details stop you from trying it out. I’ve seen The Skyscraper Technique work in some WEIRD niches.
Brian, I love this post and i can see lots of scope with this concept that you have shared. I will give it a try. thanks again. Question if you dont mind me asking, do you have space for advert on your sites? also can you share the link to the site you used for example on this post. thanks
Sounds great Carl! Let me know how it works for you. I actually don’t have advertising on the site at the moment. Do you mean the example of the old ranking factors post?
Been away for a while. Glad to see you still publish quality content! Good job!
Glad to have you back, Andrii!
Hey Brian, Thanks for sharing it. I’ll definitely try this link building strategy. You’ve given us proofs and I think it is a truly link magnet for one’s site. Cool!
Glad you liked the post, Venchito. Send me an email if you have any questions.
I like the way you reverse engineer the task of getting links and the skyscraper method looks very sound indeed. I would be interested if you ever turn it into a product or service because even though I love the theory I’m not certain I’m cut out to action it…even though your explanation is thorough. Running my business 12 hours a day 7 days a week leaves little time so outsourcing is critical for me these days. Andrew – Australia
Glad to hear that you like the post. But you’re right: this does take quite a bit of time to implement. It’s possible to outsource each step (finding content that’s already linked to, creating the linkable asset, and email outreach) if you’re busy.
Hi Brian, You’re right it does require time but I did manage to create my content. It’s in the finance field so I hired a technical finance writer after I did the draft to clean it up to meet industry standards and to make it better than my competitors.
However, i do have a question. Do you have to manually get the emails after downloading the links or are they included in the report? I used OSE to download the inbound links and I’m stuck. Was just wondering because i assumed the emails would be included…:)
Ayah, you have to manually find the emails.
Thanks for the information on OSE and the top linking pages technique. Just another way to perform valuable competitor research!
Glad you liked the OSE top pages tip, Liz 🙂
Hey Brian, Well put Man! What other tools you recommed other than topsy? I did some quick search on my niche and didn’t really find any existing quality articles . Link building is a broad niche so what do you suggest for other smaller niches where there is little scope of creating awesome contents? Especially if i am in a niche where I know very little about that niche 🙂
Glad you liked it Anisul. If you can’t find anything in Topsy, you may want to search in Google for keywords in your niche. If that work you may want to broaden your niche a bit. For example, if you were in the carpeting niche you could look for articles in the home improvement, home decor, or DIY organization niches.
You hit the nail right on the head, I don’t have a Fortune 500 marketing budget or connections but I do have time to work on your approach, thanks. Also have been looking over your Google’s 200 Ranking Factors looks good so far, but let me get to work on these links first.
Sounds good, Virgil! Send me an email if you run into any problems.
Hi Brian Dean, ( i am little weak in english language, so please dear with me) you have published a great stuff with case-study.. After ready your post, i feel that you are a perfect person to ask this question.. This question is related to link building method… i am doing seo for web development company and website has more than 2lac backlinks, majority of backlinks come from social bookmarking, article and press release submission.. in this recent penguin 2.0 update, i lost my ranking on majority of keywords.. Could you please tell me what strategy should i implement to recover my keywords?
I’d start a fresh campaign that mixes in a bunch of powerful strategies, like Funnel Links, broken link building, infographics etc.
I was there at QuickSprout and found you to get valuable helps for solving my link building doubts and my goodness that latest case study is solving one of my biggest doubt that why and how people would link to a quality content.
Glad I could help you out, Robin. Contrary to what many SEOs say, people DO link to quality content: you just need to know who to ask and how to ask them.
I really love your approach. I’ll try this method and hopefully I’ll get some high quality links pointing to my blog. Thanks!
Definitely try it out, Sita. It takes work, but the payoff is huge.
@brian, would like to make the list in german as well the infographic for all german speaking seo people. i will refer for your to your site… would that be okey for you?
Sounds good to me, Mike.
Hi Brian, great article. I did something similar some weeks ago, doing a top 25 of most expensive dimain names, as the lists out there were not updated. You gave me the idea to extend it to a top 50 and contact site owners. Thanks for the inspiration, Christopher
Thanks, Christopher! Yup: 50 should do better than 25. In general, the longer the list the more links and shares it gets 🙂
Totally agree, but have you ever thought about a way to automate all those emails?
It takes a lot of time to send out 160+ emails, so I was wondering if you knew of a tool that could do it?
Once again you prove that your blog is one of the top SEO blogs around. Fabulous work Brian!
Thanks for your support (as always), Ed!
Yeah that’s true i’m glued with each and every posts that Brian creates,Keep up the good work.
New to the site, thanks for the article Brian… I need to set my priorities straight! Been doing this for a long time but never once had any form of decent traffic on any of my website.
I love to read case-studies and this was awesome.. Everyone wants free backlinks and too much traffic on their blogs but most of the blogger are missing right approach to get it.
Your study is superb and I am going to work on one infographics to get more out of it. 🙂
You’re right: this is a great technique for link building. I’d love to hear how the strategy works out for you.
This Is What I call “sweet Juice” That is so cool tricks 🙂
Am gonna use this tricks into another level. 👿
Rock on Sagbee!
Damn Brian – I gotta get back to work and stop hanging out here! Like how you branded the technique a lot too. Pure Awesomeness.
You’re always welcome to hang out here, Terry! I really appreciate all of your support from day 1. See you at Traffic Planet!
Hi Brian, 1- I have to disagree with your example about spaghetti, as “marketing” by its nature is the process of trying out things. Some work, some don’t. We learn from our experience and mine what works, weeding out what doesn’t. Marketing is endless, you can always do more.
2 – I’d like to see an example of content marketing/link building that is NOT in the SEO/online marketing niche. Could you provide us with a sample of something from a client of yours in a totally unrelated niche? Take us through each step, document your results (in terms of traffic and links). Share the time it takes you, the challenges you faced. Drop me a line when you do, I’d love to see it. Thanks, Mike
Thanks for sharing your insights, Mike. You’re 100% right: marketing is about experimenting and testing. But I like to experiment within a proven framework. I’m actually working on a case study that outlines The Skyscraper Technique in a non-IM niche. I’ll definitely give you a heads up when it goes live.
Hi Brian, I have been a member of your site/email newsletter for a few weeks now (found you via Neil Patel). I am finding your posts very valuable! And this post in particular has given me a great idea!! Cheers, Josh
Happy to hear that, Josh. The Skyscraper Technique might be my favorite link building strategy of all time because it works so incredibly well. Thanks for reading.
Nice work Brian I will try that Gretings from Denmark
Hi Morten. Sounds good. Let me know how it goes.
Great in-depth study, Brian! Your website has a lot of great tips. I subscribed to your newsletter as well. Thank you.
Glad you liked it, Lisa. And thanks for signing up to the newsletter 🙂
Good stuff Brian. i actually stumbled across your 200 ranking factor post previous to reading this post – awesome stuff! I’m currently trying to adopt the technique for two of our clients, one is in the office refurbishment industry and the other in the hotel linen trade. I’m stuck with the office refurbishment client but have an idea for the hotel linen client: Something along the lines of “How to promote your Hotel, Guesthouse or B&B online”. It will contain lists of sites that feature hotels (i.e. expedia,etc), lists of UK awards for hotels, lists of marketing ideas for small hotels (i.e. local radio, website, local paper, local complimentary businesses, etc) and sites they should get added to so they gain reviews (Trip Advisor, etc). Do you think it’s a good idea Brian? Thanks 🙂
That idea sounds PERFECT, Anthony. In addition to other hotel blogs, you can also reach out to travel sites (where a lot of hoteliers hang out) and get them to link to your new guide.
Great! Thanks for the feedback and the outreach suggestion. It’s time to put the wheels in motion 🙂
Awesome tips here, Brian! I’m going to try your technique this week. Curious, though— how many emails do you send at once? Do you send them BCC, or send each one individually?
Thanks Andrew! Good question: I send them one at a time so that I can personalize each one.
Hi Brian. I created a post called 101+ Sources for Blog Content Ideas on my blog (Small Business Ideas Blog) and used this method and got about the same response rate. Another cool thing I noticed was a good increase in social shares.
My question is how do you evaluate which sites to email? In other words, do you look for a high level of engagement, overall site traffic, etc? Or just email everyone? Definitely a fan of your blog, by the way.
Hey Brian. That’s awesome that you tried it out for yourself and saw real results. For this campaign I emailed people who had already linked to similar content. In your case I’d find popular posts on the topic of finding blog ideas, reverse engineer their links using ahrefs, and then reaching out to them.
Thanks Brian. I actually used Scrapebox instead. What I did was search Google for “blog ideas” and then got the backlinks from the top sites. I have some ideas for future topics that I think will do better. I’ll let you know if I have a good case study for you one day 🙂
Ahh nice. Scrapebox FTW! Thanks again for sharing the success you’ve had with the Skyscraper Technique, Brian.
I wish I could use this methoed,my website in arabic and thier not a great number of peopel who will shair my like … they weill copy my content without refaring to me …. i wish you can talk about better raking for new websites
This can actually be used on a new website as well, Mohammad. Also, I’m sure with the right outreach you can find people who are willing to link to your content without stealing it.
Brian, this is a great a tip and I am sure it works. 11+% conversion rate sounds good enough to me. However it also feels like going into a pricing war where everyone lose in the end. We web marketers now have to give more and more and more for free in order to win. Isn’t there a better way? :/
That’s a fair point, Jerry: the freemium bar is definitely getting higher and higher all the time.
It’s like an arms race right now. Personally, I like it when things get more challenging and resource-intensive: it raises the barrier to entry which leaves more market share for me 🙂
Sweet! article mate i seriously promised myself doing extremely special article
my first article took me 3 days to complete lol but hey it was interesting to write it Hooking up more with you 🙂
Glad to hear the effort was worth it. Now it’s time to tell the world about your article, Bashoo 🙂
Very informative article. I just started my first blog to share my personal experience as an affiliate marketer and need to build my traffic. Even if I’ve been doing online marketing since 2003, my expertise is more with PPC advertising. Therefore, I’m pretty new to blogging and social medias.
What I really enjoyed when reading was the fact you provide precise and detailed information on how to proceed. I will follow your recipe and keep you posted on my results.
Thanks Carl. I also had trouble getting traffic when I first started out with white hat SEO and content marketing. I was a lot different than the black hat SEO stuff I was doing. And I imagine PPC is also really different. As long as you stick to proven content development and promotion strategies like this, you’ll do great.
Definitely keep me posted on how the Skycraper Technique works for your affiliate marketing site.
Hi Brian, Great article. Very concise. I was wondering if you could share on average how long this process might take you start to finish. From the very first step of content prospecting and research to getting the response emails from the site owners? I’m sure this will vary greatly, but wondering how long I should expect to invest time-wise for a campaign similar to the one in this case study. Also, do you tend to create all the resources yourself or hire them out? I’m very interested in how to scale this for client sites…etc.
Thanks again! Mike
Glad you enjoyed it, Mike!
Really good questions.
As you said, it depends on the resources you have on hand, the content you’re producing etc. But if you have a dedicated person on the project, you could get the post conceptualized and written in a few days. And then it’s another 2-3 days of outreach after that.
I tend to outsource the content. I do step #1 myself and then give specific instructions to a freelance writer to actually create the piece. Then I hand step #3 to a VA for the outreach.
That’s a fantastic piece of writing, Brian. Thank you very much. It was really helpful, especially for a newbie like me in Blogosphere. 🙂
Thanks for reading, Awab. This is an awesome way to promote a new blog. Keep me posted on how things go for you 🙂
Thank You Brian I have never get tutorial such like this. I’m going to apply this now.
My pleasure, Keyur. Definitely give it a shot and keep me posted on your progress.
I used topsy like you suggested for the keyword I am looking to rank for. Many of the top 10 links were broken and no longer there. No only can I get the links pointing to them to point to me, but I can also notify them of their broken links on their site, which hopefully will be appreciated by their webmaster, and get me a better conversion rate.
GREAT find. I never thought of using Topsy for broken link building. But it’s another place to find once-popular content, so it makes perfect sense that you’d find some broken links on there. Thanks for sharing that with everyone, Ryan!
This is great stuff, Brian! Really looking forward to giving this technique a shot. It’s easy to overlook, but simply striving to produce the best piece of content possible goes a long way. Looking forward to your newsletters.
Thanks Jordan! Definitely give it a shot. The payoff for providing the #1 piece of content in your industry is immense 🙂
hi brain, i am using onpage optimization perfectly , my site is new , what is the best strategy to get more traffic my website is – link building or social bookmarking ?
Definitely link building. In fact, I’d use the Skyscraper Technique to get your new site on the right track.
Thanks Brian for an awesome post. Your ideas & The Skyscraper technique will help us a lot.
Glad you enjoyed the post, Ravi. Give me a heads up if you ever have any questions about The Skyscraper Technique.
Thanks for sharing brian, i hope it’s working for my site.
My pleasure. Let me know how The Skyscraper Technique works out for you on your site.
I just begin build my site and link building is so important! Thanks for your sharing, a high quality article!
Glad to hear that, June. This will definitely give your new site a huge boost 🙂
Pretty impressive. It may take time but will surely work.
Thanks Amit. You’re right: it’s worth the time and effort 🙂
Put this in to practice today, already see a couple links rolling in 🙂 Thanks Brian!
Nice Christian. Really glad to hear that 😀
Hi Brian, I like your article. This will help me to build quality back-links. The analysis tools are really very helpful.
Thanks Babasaheb! I aim to please.
Really a good post …but is it necessary to have same content and nearby content for backlink
Thanks Vinod.
I personally think that the common mistake we perceive is that great content is enough, Well, in this aspect we have to think outside the box. We have to think of strategies we could apply to meet our goal(s). This case study speaks it all. the result is great, applying the follosing steps will surely make us on top. Like a skyscraper-we have to stand out.
That’s very true. I think it comes from the fact that lots of so-called “SEO experts” say that you can publish great content and be OK. As we’ve both found, there’s a lot more to it than that.
Wow I’ve been reading several articles on your site today and I’m blown away! So much great info and I really appreciate the detailed How To lists. It all seems simpler somehow! I’ve been so disappointed by the response rate of pitching bloggers that I’ve given up. You make the point though again: we need to promote amazing content, otherwise who will want regular content… Can’t wait to create an amazing piece of content and test your strategies. Thanks Brian!
Thanks Laure! That’s true: promoting content is an absolute must…even if it’s amazing.
Fantastic post – really great strategy, thank you for posting it! Just a question: If its not possible to get any quality backlinks or backlinks at all to your skyscraped blog post – is it still an effective strategy? Do I need backlinks to get it successfull? Can the blog itself be effective in the SERPs?
Glad you enjoyed it, Carl. To answer your question: you definitely want to get some backlinks from your post in order for it to rank.
This is a really, really neat stuff. Brian, I just discovered you from your article somewhere about something like 100 tips you learned from working in the industry for 5 years and I must say, you provide very USEFUL content (meaning, I walk away with new tactical, strategies from reading your work). Thank you much for taking the time to write these articles.
Thanks for your kind words, Yisroel. I’m happy to provide useful content that people can use to grow their business 🙂
I am new to seo. Now days just studying some techniques to apply for my blog. I am new in Blogging and I hope so that al of your articles are going to help me. But still confused for so many things. Hopefully Everything goes cleared by reading all of your contents. I want to grow my site visitors. Guide me what I should actually do? focusing on quality stuff first or building links?
Definitely publish quality stuff first, Umer.
Keep on focusing on building quality stuff first. 🙂 Thanks Brian.
That’s a good way to approach SEO, Umer. Without quality stuff, building links is almost impossible.
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5 Net Zero Buildings around the world
The world is at the edge with increasing issues of pollution, health, well-being, global warming, and climate change . Professionals from around the world are becoming conscious of the need for better utilization of both renewable and non-renewable energy resources. The growth of human comfort, requirements, and facilities rather significantly influences the environment, and one of the primary reasons for the depletion of resources is the increased pace of energy consumption by residential and commercial complexes in the past decade. Architects all around the globe consider Net Zero Energy Buildings a reliable and judicial approach to minimize the impact on our surroundings and claim that NZEB carries the tremendous potential to alter the use of both renewable and non-renewable resources.
What is a Net Zero Energy Building you ask? A net-zero energy building is a structure with net-zero energy consumption, i.e., the total amount of energy utilized by the building annually equals the amount of renewable energy produced on-site. The goal of a net-zero energy building is to contribute fewer greenhouse gas emissions into our atmosphere, helping to lessen the impact on our environment . Architecturally, there are several measures to achieve a net-zero energy space, campus, or community. To understand more adequately, here is an example of five buildings characterized as zero-energy buildings around the globe.
1. The Unisphere, Maryland, U.S.A | Net Zero Buildings
Spread across an area of 135,000 square feet, The Unisphere stands in the middle of the city in downtown silver spring as a sterling example of technologies embodied, making it a fully sustainable, net-zero energy construction. Completed in 2018, the clients (United Therapeutics) expected nothing less than the world’s largest office building that works on the concept of zero-energy.
The Unisphere amalgamates automation like Solar Photovoltaic systems, Geothermal wells, high-performance electromagnetic envelope, earth coupled heating-cooling system, a thermal pool, etc., helping the building function with a no carbon footprint. The building sells more power than it buys with the help of 3,000 solar panels that surplus energy from the 1000’s of systems during the day, and sells minimum power back from the grid to the building in the evenings.
To make the design stimulating and start a dialogue about the energy consumption between the employees, the company installed a centrepiece in the central atrium of the headquarters, called the Energy Wheel. The energy wheel uses real-time data to display its energy use, hence explaining how the net-zero emissions work.
Devised as a system feeding into a “nerve centre” that tracks energy use, coordinating heating, cooling, and other operations, the amount of electrical and thermal energy used in the building equals the renewable energy generated on-site, making it a net-zero establishment.
2. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Colorado, U.S.A
With the aim of a clean energy future, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory campus nestles in the foothills of Rocky Mountain, Golden Colorado, U.S.A. The entire campus is a living precedent of sustainability , and the people at NREL are transforming energy through augmentation, research, commercialization, and dissemination of renewable and energy-efficient advancements.
Almost all the buildings of the NREL campus incorporate state-of-the-art energy-efficient facilities, having marked with LEED or net-zero energy buildings stature. The campus includes diverse fields, but we shall discuss the Research Support facility today.
Spread across an area of 362,055 square feet, the research support facility is an award-winning, LEED rated, high-performance, net-zero energy construction on NREL grounds. The energy use of the facility equals 35 kBtu per square foot annually, maintaining 50% better efficiency than current commercial codes across the state.
The building encompasses a combination of arrangements like a rooftop photovoltaic system of 2.5 megawatts, transpired solar collectors, etc., which generate the same amount of energy that the structure devours. At NREL, the designers also use thought-provoking water conservation systems that are simple to maintain and design, such as the dual-flush water closets, low flow toilets, and roof drainage for garden irrigation. Overall, the design measures are not only environment friendly but establish model ways to achieve a net-zero construction.
3. La Jolla Commons, San Diego, California
Considered to be amongst one of the largest net-zero energy buildings in the U.S.- La Jolla Commons is a thirteen-storey office at the university town centre in San Diego envisioned by renowned architect Paul Danna, principal architect of AECOM. Fed by biogas to reduce energy costs, the exterior predominantly consists of a glass curtain with advanced curtain wall material lying in the 415,000 square feet space.
At a cursory glance, one finds other highly-efficient technologies such as:
on-site fuel cells generating more electricity on an annual basis, under-floor air distribution system running at 20̊C, a slab-on-grade foundation, and the use of low emissive coatings that reflect invisible long-wave infrared heat and simultaneously reduce heat-gain loss. The on-site fuel cells used methane for electricity conversion through a non-combustion process. The methane acquired from various carbon-neutral sources such as landfills, wastewater plants, etc., serves as an inspirational solution for the industry to follow.
Both Hines and J.P. Morgan Asset Management exhibited an ambiguous involvement in sustainability and establishing a net-zero built environment to a greater extent.
4. Indira Paryavaran Bhawan, Ministry of Environment and Forest, New Delhi, India
India’s first net-zero building constructed in 2014, Indira Paryawaran Bhavan sets a deep-rooted example for the conventionally designed commercial built forms. The structure design encompasses a unification of active and passive strategies that help reducing energy demands such as—the optimal orientation of the blocks (N-S), more than 50% of the area outside covered with appropriate vegetation, 75% of build floor space uses daylight, simultaneously reducing the need for artificial lighting sources, etc.
Diverse mechanisms (listed below) help devour 70% less energy periodically as compared to any other office/commercial estate.
- stack and cross ventilation techniques
- detailed building envelope and fenestration design which includes the use of UPVC windows, high-efficiency glass, high reflectance terrace tiles for heat ingress, and rock wool insulation
- Use of locally obtainable materials such as AAC blocks with fly-ash, stone and Ferro-cement jaali, local stone flooring, etc.
Indira Paryawaran Bhavan stands with both GRIHA 5 star rating and LEED platinum rating. The building conserves and optimizes the use of water by techniques like recycling wastewater, etc. A geothermal heat exchange system installed with 180 vertical bores to the depth of 80 meters along the building premises combined produce 160TR of heat rejection with the application of a cooling tower. The architecture also consists of a chilled beam system and building integrated photovoltaic system, that help gain its net-zero energy categorization.
5. Avasara Academy, Lavale, Pune, India | Net Zero Buildings
School envelops spaces and activities that help educate, learn, and create experiences that eventually lead to evolution. Various government initiatives and architects in India are proactively leading the country towards a sustainable future. What better way to progress and aware people of net-zero energy than by constructing an academic structure ?
Avasara Academy in Pune , Maharashtra – completed in 2020 and obtained the identification of a net-zero energy structure because of avant-garde design interventions and use of high-efficient technologies that reduce the energy dissipation by 85%. Designed by Case-Design Architects in the rocky agrarian valley of Lavale, the residential school campus consists of six buildings that achieve comfortable interiors with scrupulous consideration to specifics without the application of any mechanical systems.
The campus covers an area of 119996 feet wherein the roofs of the buildings enclose photovoltaic panels that provide electricity for ceiling fans and lighting for classrooms, dormitories, and faculty residences. With the application of earth ducts, structurally integrated vertical cavities, and solar chimneys to induce ventilation in each block, the temperature minimizes from 5-9̊C in the interiors, naturally ventilating the campus.
Using local materials like raw concrete, stone interiors, etc., and passive heating and cooling systems, the cost of the project was reduced to 7% from the initial cost, and the annual energy cost was reduced by 80%. The architects have designed an unusual façade envelope whose patterns depend on the orientation of the block. The bamboo screens and lightly woven blades placed on the overhangs act as the second skin of the structure, an inert thermal mass.
With the above examples, it is evident that with the ever-increasing population and urbanization comes a rampant rise in energy consumption; technological progressions throughout the world are slowly leading towards a future, which is clean, green, and sustainable. Now more than ever, As architects and designers, we must use high-efficiency systems to conserve our natural resources and with them, our environment.
https://qz.com/1771906/the-innovative-design-of-one-of-the-worlds-largest-net-zero-buildings/ , Article about the innovative building design- world’s largest net-zero energy buildings, The Unisphere.
https://www.utunisphere.com/ , Official Online website, The Unisphere.
https://www.nrel.gov/about/sustainable-buildings.html , Official website, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Colorado, U.S.A.
https://www.hines.com/properties/la-jolla-commons-san-diego , Article by Hines for La Jolla Commons, San Diego, California.
https://www.intechopen.com/online-first/net-zero-energy-buildings-principles-and-applications , La Jolla Commons.
https://nzeb.in/case-studies/nzebs-in-india/nzebs-in-india-case-studies-list/ipb-case-study/ , Case Study, Indira Pariywaran Bhawan, New Delhi.
https://nzeb.in/case-studies/nzebs-in-india/nzebs-in-india-case-studies-list/avasara-academy/ , Case Study, Avasara Academy, Pune.
Ansha Kohli is whimsical andenigmatic when it comes to her life. Wanting to pursue a career in architecture journalism after completing her graduation, she is on the road to seek something new and exciting, and subsequently enthusiastic to share as well as understand different philosophies associated with art and architecture.
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The Constructor
3 important cases of building collapse due to poor construction management.
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Construction is perhaps the most critical stage in the life cycle of structures, mainly because of the danger of failure and the high chances of underestimating construction loads.
A report developed by the American Society of Civil Engineers, based on their study of around 600 failed structures, found that around 40% of the structures failed during the construction stage, 36% of the structures failed during the pre-construction stage due to flawed designs, and 24% failed during their operational stage.
The failure of a structure is described as the propagation of local collapse from one segment to another segment, eventually resulting in the failure of an entire building or its lopsided part. It could be a product of natural disasters, for example, seismic tremors, floods, or coincidental acts such as an explosion in the service system or terrorist bombings.
Analyzing the reasons for explicit structural failures and proposing measures to relieve their effects is a successful measure to lessen risks and improve the safety of structures. Therefore, this article discusses the failure of some major structures, their root causes, and the lessons learned.
1. The Skyline Plaza Apartment Building, Virginia, US
The design plan of the Skyline Plaza complex included six office buildings, eight apartment buildings, shops, and one hotel. The project was a $200 million residential-commercial complex and was situated in Fairfax County, Virginia. During the construction of the skyline plaza complex, one of the apartment buildings under construction collapsed. A total of 15 labors were killed, and 40 were injured.
Design drawings of the collapsed building included the construction of 26 stories, a penthouse, and a four-story storm basement for parking. The building design was of a reinforced concrete flat plate with a 200 mm thick concrete slab. The height between each story was 2.7 m.
1.1 Investigation Findings
On 2 nd March 1973, some portion of the apartment building collapsed during construction. The collapse began on the 23 rd floor when the slab of the 24 th floor was being cast. On the 23 rd floor, the slab started showing cracks and the failure of the building occurred vertically along the full height of the building, including the basement levels. Also, the adjacent post-tensioned reinforced concrete car parking structure collapsed.
Specialists concurred that the concrete had not acquired sufficient strength to carry the construction loads applied during the construction process. Investigators confirmed that the original design plan had no deficiencies. The most probable reason for the collapse of the building was the punching shear failure on the 23 rd floor of the building.
After the collapse, a team from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) came to the site and started an investigation. Further, a detailed investigation was conducted by the National Bureau of Standards (NBS).
NBS and OSHA mentioned in their reports that the collapse of the building was directly related to poorly managed construction processes. The court found that the contractor and the site engineer were guilty of negligence as the contractor didn't follow the building code requirement and the site engineer didn't inspect the work properly.
1.2 Lessons Learned
After the collapse of the Skyline Plaza apartment building, a series of changes were made in the building code related to the progressive collapse failure. Special inspection procedures were added in the inspection section of the building codes. Design criteria were also changed for effective planning to reduce the possibility of failure due to progressive collapse. The following points describe the violations of specified construction requirements and standard practices:
- Violation of prerequisites to completely shore the two stories underneath the floor being cast.
- Failure to permit legitimate curing time before removing shoring.
- Failure to conduct curing test on the concrete specimen in the field.
- Use of out-of-plumb shoring.
- Improper inspection during casting and formwork removal to check the strength of concrete.
- Improper installation of the climbing crane.
2. Ronan Point Tower, Canning Town , London
The need to give substitution lodging to homes destroyed in World War-II encouraged European engineers to develop innovative pre-assembled construction strategies. One such plan included the construction of high-rise buildings using pre-stressed concrete components made in factories.
The structural framework included the construction of load-bearing walls and each floor was directly stacked onto the walls. Grouted bearing surfaces were used to construct the joint between the wall and the floor. This process of construction was termed as system building. A skyscraper at Ronan Point, Canning Town, UK, was built using this system building technique.
On 16 th May 1968, a blast occurred due to gas leakage in the kitchen of a house on the 18 th floor. Just after the blast, the kitchen walls collapsed, and in-turn, the walls above the 18 th floor caved in. This impacted the floors beneath and obliterated the entire corner of the structure. A total of 14 people were injured and three were killed.
2.1 Investigation Findings
The investigation team revealed that the building collapsed due to the non-availability of an alternative load path when one portion of the external wall collapsed. After the demolition of the building, it was also revealed that the quality of the grouted bearing surface for the joints between floors and the walls was poor.
Because of the unprecedented collapse, the government examined the safety of other buildings constructed using the same concept as the Ronan Point Tower. Many buildings were demolished well ahead of their life span.
The concept of progressive collapse of structures was not much known to the engineers before the failure of the Ronan Point Tower. In such collapses, a local failure is followed by widespread collapse through a chain reaction. What was irregular on account of the failure of the Ronan Point Tower was that a minor gas blast set off the collapse of a huge portion of a finished structure.
2.2 Lessons Learned
The experience due to the failure of Ronan Point Tower re-emphasized the following points:
- Progressive failure can also occur in fully constructed structures.
- A structure should have redundancies to reduce the possibility of progressive failure.
- Quality control should strictly be followed in the construction processes.
3. 2000 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, US
On 25 th January 1971, a two-third portion of a 16-story residential building known as 2000-Commonwealth Avenue in Boston collapsed during construction, leading to the death of four workers. The building was under construction for more than six years. The collapse of the building generated approximately 8000 tons of debris. Luckily, the failure of the building was gradual, giving the workers some time to escape from the building site.
The building was designed as a reinforced concrete structure and flat slabs were used for the roofing system with an elevator shaft provided in the center. This type of structural design is mainly famous for multi-story construction as it reduces the thickness of the slab and overall height between the floors. The thickness of flat slabs was between 160-190 mm for all the building areas except near the elevator core where it was 230 mm thick. The arrangement of the structural component constituted a height of 2.7 m for all the floors.
The building, situated at 2000 Commonwealth Avenue, was intended to be 16 stories high with a mechanical room of height 1.5 m for the working of the lift at the rooftop. The plan area of the structure was 56 x 21 m 2 . The building additionally had underground parking of two levels. A pool, auxiliary spaces, and one flat were situated on the first floor, and a total of 132 flats were on the second through sixteen floors. At first, these flats were to be leased. However, the proprietors later chose to advertise them as apartment suites.
At the hour of the collapse of the building, construction work was almost completed. The brickwork was finished up to the sixteenth floor, and the structure was generally encased from the second to the fifteenth floor. Heating, plumbing, and ventilation frameworks were introduced all through different floors of the structure. The interior work had also started on the lower floors. A temporary lift was constructed to help in moving equipment to various floors. It was assessed that 100 individuals were working in or around the structure at the hour of the collapse.
The collapse of the building occurred in three stages. These stages were, failure due to punching shear in the rooftop at section E5, the failure of the slab, and in the end, the progressive failure of the structure.
3.1 Investigation Findings
The civic chairman of Boston appointed a commission to inquire about the collapse of the building. The commission discovered the following critical observations:
- There was no signature of an architect or engineer found on a single drawing of the building.
- The design engineer didn't give the computations supporting his structural drawings to the commission. No head or representative of the team of contractors held a building construction license of Boston city.
- Ownership of the venture changed a few times, with changes in planners and architects. This scenario added to the general disarray and contributed to the abnormalities referred above.
- The general contractual worker just had a solitary representative on location. Most subcontracts were given directly by the owner to the subcontractors and bypassed the general contractor. A total of seven subcontractors were involved in the construction.
- The subcontractor, who was assigned to conduct the cold weather protection work on the structural concrete didn't carry out the assigned work. However, the structural engineer had indicated these measures.
- There was no proof of any inspection of the work by a specialist despite the fact that the project particulars needed this.
- The quality of construction material and quality inspections were poor.
- The collapse of the building occurred due to the development of punching shear mechanism around column E5. Punching shear developed the flexural cracks around the roof slab located near the elevator core. Thus, the slab collapsed due to flexural yielding.
- The design manual indicated a 28-day strength of 25 MPa. However, at the failure time, 47 days after casting work, the concrete couldn't seem to attain the necessary 28-day strength.
- The most critical inadequacies were an absence of shoring under the slab at the roof and the quality of the concrete.
3.2 Lessons Learned
The following key factors describe the collapse of the multi-story building situated at 2000 Commonwealth Avenue:
- Authorized design engineers should be chosen for the development of working drawings for construction.
- Engineers and architects should be responsible for all the design-related calculations and their design work must be examined by the experts in that field from a government organization.
- Ownership of a project should not change multiple times to reduce the confusion between the previous engineer and the newly appointed engineer.
- Inspection at the construction site should be conducted regularly by government organizations, especially for cold weather work.
- The quality of concrete work should be monitored throughout the project.
- The construction work should conform to design documents and construction procedures.
The collapse of a building is characterized as the propagation of an initial local collapse from component to component, ultimately resulting in the collapse of a whole structure or a disproportionately large portion of it.
Construction is one of the most critical phases in the life cycle of buildings due to the risk of failure and the possibility of underestimating construction loads.
The structural framework included the construction of load-bearing walls and each floor was directly stacked on the walls. Grouted bearing surfaces were used to construct the joint between the wall and the floor. This process of construction was termed system building.
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Link Building Case Study: How We Built Backlinks With a ‘Stats’ Page (And Ranked #1)
- Linking websites 159
The number of websites linking to this post.
This post's estimated monthly organic search traffic.
It might look like a relatively standard post, but we strategically created it to attract links from an outreach campaign.
And it worked. We sent 515 emails and got 36 backlinks from 32 websites.
The post now ranks #1 for “SEO stats”:
In this guide, you’ll learn:
- Why we chose a statistics page
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- Detailed results from our campaign
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTF6OBwidhc&list=PLvJ_dXFSpd2u_ABxIRO6RVK3ucKyzn96Y
Head over to our list of SEO case studies .
Why did we create a statistics page?
You’ve probably heard of the Skyscraper Technique . It’s a link building tactic where you find a page with lots of links, create something “better,” then pitch your new and improved resource to those linking to the now inferior page.
It can work for any type of content, but we had a theory that it might work particularly well for statistics pages because:
- Statistics pages tend to have a lot of links
- Statistics pages are often outdated
- Statistics are often sloppily updated
Let’s delve a bit deeper into why each of these things matter.
1. Statistics pages tend to have a lot of links
Every ‘skyscraper’ campaign starts with a page or pages that have tons of links. And if you search Google for statistics pages about any popular topic, you’ll almost always see that the top-ranking pages have tons of backlinks.
Just look at the results for “youtube statistics”:
There are multiple pages here with links from thousands of websites.
This usually happens because bloggers and journalists often cite statistics from these pages in their posts.
For example, look at this post from Shopify about starting a YouTube channel for your business:
The writer cites two statistics in the first paragraph and links to his sources, one of which is a curated list of YouTube statistics. It’s highly likely that he came across this post while doing research for his article, found a useful statistic, then cited and linked to the source.
2. Statistics pages are often outdated
Most statistics pages are rarely updated and often feature outdated and inaccurate statistics as a result.
Here’s just one example:
If we look at the source of that statistic, it takes us to YouTube’s Press page . Here, it says there are over two billion monthly YouTube users instead of the cited 1.9 billion.
That’s an issue because it leads bloggers and journalists to cite outdated statistics.
For example, if we check the Backlinks report for this page in Site Explorer , search for “1.9 billion” in the link anchors and surrounding texts, and toggle the “one link per domain” switch, we see 55 websites citing the outdated statistic and linking to the page.
3. Statistics pages are often sloppily updated
Even when people do update their statistics pages, they don’t always do it well. One of the common mistakes they make is removing outdated statistics from the page without replacing them with updated ones.
The problem here is that when statistics get removed, the citations and links remain.
For example, let’s check the Anchors report for the list of YouTube statistics in Site Explorer . Many referring pages cite a statistic about YouTube being the third most visited site on the web. However, if we search the page itself for that statistic, it’s nowhere to be found.
That’s because the author updated the page and removed that statistic.
What we did
You might already have a rough idea where we’re going with this. If that’s not the case, don’t worry. We’re going to go through the entire process below.
Here’s what we did:
- Found a winning topic
- Found link prospects
- Narrowed down the link prospects
- Created the statistics page
- Found contact information and vetted prospects
- Wrote and sent outreach emails
Step 1. Find a winning topic
From the start, we knew we wanted to create a statistics page about SEO or online marketing because that’s what our site is about. However, we didn’t yet have a definitive topic in mind, so we first needed to do some research.
To start, we searched in Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer for keywords related to our business like SEO, search engine optimization, content marketing, etc.
From there, we went to the Phrase match report and used the “Include” filter to find keywords containing words like statistics, stats, facts, and figures.
This gave us a bunch of ideas, but we needed to narrow them down to those with top-ranking pages that had lots of backlinks. For this, we used the Keyword Difficulty filter to exclude all low-difficulty keywords.
If you’re wondering why we used the Keyword Difficulty filter for this, it’s because the metric is based on the average number of referring domains to the current top-ranking pages. If a keyword has a high KD score, it usually means the top-ranking pages have links from many websites.
This narrowed down things quite substantially, but there were a few ideas left, the most relevant of which was “SEO statistics.”
Finally, we checked the SERP overview to ensure that the top-ranking pages were mostly curated statistics pages. It was pretty easy to tell if this was the case from the page titles.
Step 2. Find link prospects
If we were running a “shotgun” campaign here, finding link prospects would be simple. We’d just download the full list of backlinks to each competing statistics page, write any old post, then blast out the same outreach email to everyone.
This would likely say something generic and vague like “Hey, saw you linked to this stats page. Ours is better. Maybe swap out the link?”
This is the typical “Skyscraper” approach, and it’s not something we like. We’ve all been on the end of these types of outreach emails before. They’re spammy, unhelpful, and annoying.
So here’s what we did instead:
First, we went back to the SERP overview for “SEO statistics” and looked for the curated stats page with the most backlinks.
Second, we analyzed this page to see which statistics were responsible for the most backlinks.
To do this, we opened up the Anchors report for the page in Site Explorer and looked for frequently mentioned stats. Right away, we saw a lot of links referencing how 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine.
We recorded this in a spreadsheet and then continued looking through the report until we had a few popular statistics.
Next, we wanted to tick off two checkboxes for each statistic:
- Are there enough people linking because of this statistic?
- Can we justify a good reason for them to link to us instead of, or in addition to the current page?
To do this, we first went to the Backlinks report for the page, toggled the “one link per domain” filter, then searched for each statistic in the link anchors and surrounding texts.
For the “93%” statistic, over 700 websites were linking to the page.
That’s the first box checked.
Next, we needed to see if there was a good reason to contact those people, so we opened up the stats page and went through this process:
For the “93%” statistic, we saw that it wasn’t even mentioned on the page.
For most of our other statistics, they were still on the page, but when we checked their sources, we noticed that many were old and outdated. Wherever this was the case, we scoured the web for an updated statistic.
Everything was then recorded in a spreadsheet to give us something that looked like this:
- Column A: The URL of the statistics page (where we found the statistic).
- Column B: The number of linking referring domains citing the statistic (we also linked this to the filtered report in Site Explorer for easy access).
- Column C: The statistic itself.
- Column D: The original source of the statistic (if we could find it).
- Column E: The age of the statistic.
- Column F: The newer statistic (where applicable).
- Column G: The source of the new statistic.
- Column H: The age of the new statistic.
- Column I: Notes and pitch angle ideas, such as whether the statistic was outdated or missing from the page.
Next, we repeated this entire process for the rest of the top-ranking statistics pages until we had thousands of prospects based on eight statistics.
Finally, we downloaded all of the relevant prospects for each statistic and page from the Backlinks report, then imported them into Google sheets and labeled each URL according to their segment.
In total, we had 1,986 unvetted URLs.
Step 3. Narrowing down link prospects
Despite having a reason to reach out to 1,900+ prospects, we didn’t want to reach out to low-quality websites for obvious reasons. So our next task was to clean up our list of prospects.
The first step was to deduplicate URLs from the same domain since websites could potentially be linking to more than one statistics page. And we didn’t want to reach out to the same site twice.
This was easy enough to do. We just added a column for the referring website and used a tool like this one to extract the root domains in batches. Then we pasted them into our sheet.
We then used the built-in functionality to remove duplicate domains.
The second step was to remove prospects linking to the statistics pages with nofollow, UGC, or sponsored links. To do this, we filtered the “Type” column and removed the rows.
The final step was to exclude websites without a lot of traffic. To do this, we pulled domain-level traffic for all prospects using the Ahrefs API and the script editor in Google Sheets.
If you’re following along and don’t have an API subscription, you can use our Batch Analysis tool instead. Just paste in up to 200 domains at a time and set the target mode to domain with all its subdomain s.
You can then export the file and run a VLOOKUP against the root domains.
By the end of this process, we had 902 prospects remaining in our sheet.
Step 4. Create the statistics page
The reality of statistics pages is that it’s tough to make one that stands out from the crowd. However, we did three main things to make ours the “best” SEO statistics page:
- Included popular statistics from other pages
- Included other interesting statistics
- Grouped statistics by category
Let’s go through why these things are important.
Including popular statistics from other pages
We included each statistic that helped other similar pages earn lots of links in our post. If the statistic was outdated, we found and added a more recent one.
Part of the reason we did this was to tie our page back to our link building campaign. However, we also realized that these were the statistics people found most useful. How do we know? Because they’re the ones that bloggers and journalists frequently cited in their posts.
Including other interesting statistics
The statistics on our page didn’t all tie back to our link building campaign. We made an effort to find and include others that seemed interesting.
However, we didn’t want to include any outdated statistics, so we made an effort to hunt down the original source for each statistic we wanted to include. If we couldn’t find the source or realized that it was outdated, we looked for an updated one.
This might sound like a small thing, but it’s actually a huge issue with most lists of statistics.
For example, the “93%” statistic we found earlier comes from a 2006 report.
Grouped stats by category
People don’t consume lists of statistics like they would a regular blog post. Most are just looking for curated information to add to their posts to support their claims. For that reason, we needed to make our post organized and easy to digest.
To do this, we grouped the statistics into categories and added jump links to the introduction.
We also listed the most cited SEO statistics under the “top SEO statistics” section at the start of the post. This made it easier for people to find the most frequently cited and interesting statistics.
Step 5. Find contact information and vet prospects
Having published our list of SEO statistics (and noindexed the page), we were almost ready to do some outreach and build some links. But first, we needed to find contact information for our prospects.
If you’ve read our guide to link building at scale or watched our video on the same topic, then you’ll know that we’re fans of using APIs and automation for this.
With that in mind, here’s what we did:
- We ran all the URLs through a custom tool to scrape as many author names as possible. It was far from perfect, but we ended up with 741 names nonetheless.
- We took those names and ran them through Hunter’s API to search for an email address. Hunter sent back 452 email addresses. That’s around a 60% hit rate.
- We ran these email addresses through NeverBounce’s API to see which of them were deliverable.
After around 30 minutes of automation, we had 168 valid emails, 92 catchalls that needed some manual intervention, and 178 emails that were not deliverable.
For valid emails, all we had to do was check that the pages were of decent quality. Vlad, one of our team members, handled this process. He spent a few hours each week vetting prospects and finding missing contact information.
Here’s a simplified version of the vetting process he went through:
He then tagged all prospects in the spreadsheet, which left us with 515 sites ready to pitch.
He also made a note of what the linking pages were about.
Step 6. Write and send the outreach emails
Before hitting send, the final step of the process was to write our outreach templates and create personalization fields for each prospect.
Our idea here was to personalize emails based on the statistic referenced by each prospect.
Here’s what we came up with:
Hi [First name] , I saw you mentioned how [Stat] on your page about [Page topic] . [Pitch] We published this and a few other fresh SEO stats here: https://ahrefs.com/blog/57-seo-statistics-for-2020/ Not sure if you’re actively editing posts, but might be worth an update if you are? No pressure 🙂 Cheers, Vlad
The first three personalization fields were simple enough as we already had this information in our spreadsheet.
For the pitch, we wrote eight custom paragraphs based on the mentioned statistics.
Finally, we put everything together in one sheet and imported that into our outreach tool: PitchBox. The result was a simple and personalized email for every prospect.
Here’s an example of the final result:
Hi Josh , I saw you mentioned how 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine on your page about ecommerce SEO . That stat is actually 14 years old. More recent research (2019) suggests that this number has gone down to 68%. I think it’s lower because social and other sources now account for around 1/3 of traffic. We published this and a few other fresh SEO stats here: https://ahrefs.com/blog/57-seo-statistics-for-2020/ . Not sure if you’re actively editing posts, but might be worth an update if you are? No pressure 🙂 Cheers, Vlad
Now all that was left to do was hit send.
Our results
In total, we sent 515 emails. 473 were delivered, and 42 bounced.
Based on deliverable emails, that puts our conversion rate at 5.71%, meaning that 27 of the websites we contacted linked to us.
However, two other cool things happened:
- We got links from five sites that we didn’t contact . This is likely because some people found our post from others that linked to us and from the odd social shares. In total, we had 19 shares on Facebook and two on Twitter.
- Some websites linked more than once. This was from both new and old pages.
If we take those things into account, our campaign brought us a grand total of 36 editorial links from 32 unique websites.
But, of course, quantity is only half the game. What about quality?
Let’s break things down by Domain Rating :
9 of the 32 referring domains had a DR of 70 or greater. 12 had a DR of 40 to 69. And the remaining 11 had DR values of 4 to 39.
If we do the same for estimated organic traffic, here’s what we get:
1 website gets over 1,000,000 monthly search visits. 6 get between 10,000 and 1,000,000. 6 get between 1,000 to 9,999. 16 get between 100 to 999. And 4 get no search traffic.
Judging by conventional SEO metrics, then, most of the links we got were high-quality. Of course, metrics like these aren’t foolproof, but having checked every link we earned by hand, I would echo this conclusion.
Could we improve these results?
Despite having success with this campaign, some might argue that a 5.71% conversion rate is nothing special.
Five years ago, that might have been the case, but outreach is getting harder and more people are asking for money or something else in return.
That said, there are two ways we could almost certainly have increased our conversion rate.
1. Negotiate with prospects
The conversion rate for our campaign was 5.71%, but the reply rate was 17.55%. That means 83 people responded to our email, but only 27 linked to us (plus two people we didn’t reach out to).
While some of these were “thanks, but no thanks” type responses, many were requests for link exchanges and other things.
Here’s a quick breakdown:
- 8 people requested a link exchange;
- 6 people requested something else in return (e.g., free Ahrefs account, to share their content on social media, etc.);
- 3 people asked for money
Buying links is against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines , so it’s not something we would ever do or recommend to others. But even if we exclude those people, there were still 14 people who seemed willing to negotiate. With a bit of back and forth, we likely could have come to a mutually beneficial agreement and convinced these folks to link to us. That would have brought our referring domains count to 41, which is an 8.7% conversion rate.
2. Send follow-ups
According to Authority Hacker’s study of over 600,000 outreach emails, sending three follow-ups at least doubled their results. However, we didn’t send any automated follow-ups because we didn’t want to bother people.
That will sound crazy to most link builders, but we only ran this campaign to test our tactic. Our goal wasn’t to get as many links as humanly possible. That’s why we only followed up with people who said they’d link to us but didn’t do so within two weeks.
If we followed Authority Hacker’s advice and sent three follow-ups, our link acquisition rate would likely have been at least 11.42%.
Final thoughts
Given that we put a lot of effort into this campaign and only came away with backlinks from 32 websites, you might question whether blogger outreach is still worth the effort. Luckily, the answer to this question is simple: of course it is.
Backlinks are still an important ranking signal , and there’s just no other way to build high-quality white-hat links without outreach. Although we executed this campaign over a few weeks, it’s also worth noting that it wasn’t all that complicated to set up. If we were to do it again, assuming that we had someone vetting prospects and finding contact information, we think we could set up the entire campaign in one working day.
Got questions? Ping me on Twitter .
Top 40 Most Popular Case Studies of 2021
Two cases about Hertz claimed top spots in 2021's Top 40 Most Popular Case Studies
Two cases on the uses of debt and equity at Hertz claimed top spots in the CRDT’s (Case Research and Development Team) 2021 top 40 review of cases.
Hertz (A) took the top spot. The case details the financial structure of the rental car company through the end of 2019. Hertz (B), which ranked third in CRDT’s list, describes the company’s struggles during the early part of the COVID pandemic and its eventual need to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The success of the Hertz cases was unprecedented for the top 40 list. Usually, cases take a number of years to gain popularity, but the Hertz cases claimed top spots in their first year of release. Hertz (A) also became the first ‘cooked’ case to top the annual review, as all of the other winners had been web-based ‘raw’ cases.
Besides introducing students to the complicated financing required to maintain an enormous fleet of cars, the Hertz cases also expanded the diversity of case protagonists. Kathyrn Marinello was the CEO of Hertz during this period and the CFO, Jamere Jackson is black.
Sandwiched between the two Hertz cases, Coffee 2016, a perennial best seller, finished second. “Glory, Glory, Man United!” a case about an English football team’s IPO made a surprise move to number four. Cases on search fund boards, the future of malls, Norway’s Sovereign Wealth fund, Prodigy Finance, the Mayo Clinic, and Cadbury rounded out the top ten.
Other year-end data for 2021 showed:
- Online “raw” case usage remained steady as compared to 2020 with over 35K users from 170 countries and all 50 U.S. states interacting with 196 cases.
- Fifty four percent of raw case users came from outside the U.S..
- The Yale School of Management (SOM) case study directory pages received over 160K page views from 177 countries with approximately a third originating in India followed by the U.S. and the Philippines.
- Twenty-six of the cases in the list are raw cases.
- A third of the cases feature a woman protagonist.
- Orders for Yale SOM case studies increased by almost 50% compared to 2020.
- The top 40 cases were supervised by 19 different Yale SOM faculty members, several supervising multiple cases.
CRDT compiled the Top 40 list by combining data from its case store, Google Analytics, and other measures of interest and adoption.
All of this year’s Top 40 cases are available for purchase from the Yale Management Media store .
And the Top 40 cases studies of 2021 are:
1. Hertz Global Holdings (A): Uses of Debt and Equity
2. Coffee 2016
3. Hertz Global Holdings (B): Uses of Debt and Equity 2020
4. Glory, Glory Man United!
5. Search Fund Company Boards: How CEOs Can Build Boards to Help Them Thrive
6. The Future of Malls: Was Decline Inevitable?
7. Strategy for Norway's Pension Fund Global
8. Prodigy Finance
9. Design at Mayo
10. Cadbury
11. City Hospital Emergency Room
13. Volkswagen
14. Marina Bay Sands
15. Shake Shack IPO
16. Mastercard
17. Netflix
18. Ant Financial
19. AXA: Creating the New CR Metrics
20. IBM Corporate Service Corps
21. Business Leadership in South Africa's 1994 Reforms
22. Alternative Meat Industry
23. Children's Premier
24. Khalil Tawil and Umi (A)
25. Palm Oil 2016
26. Teach For All: Designing a Global Network
27. What's Next? Search Fund Entrepreneurs Reflect on Life After Exit
28. Searching for a Search Fund Structure: A Student Takes a Tour of Various Options
30. Project Sammaan
31. Commonfund ESG
32. Polaroid
33. Connecticut Green Bank 2018: After the Raid
34. FieldFresh Foods
35. The Alibaba Group
36. 360 State Street: Real Options
37. Herman Miller
38. AgBiome
39. Nathan Cummings Foundation
40. Toyota 2010
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Case Study Residence / Arkifex Studios
- Curated by Paula Pintos
- Architects: Arkifex Studios
- Area Area of this architecture project Area: 6200 ft²
- Year Completion year of this architecture project Year: 2017
- Photographs Photographs: Aaron Kimberlin
- Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project Manufacturers: Lutron , Miele , AutoCAD , Bulthaup , Dorken Delta , HE Williams , Lumen Pulse , Manko Window Systems , Mitsubishi Electric , Trimble Navigation , Unreal Engine
- Lead Architects: Michael Hampton
- Landscape : Grant Williams
- Design Team: Arkifex Studios
- Clients: Anonymous Architects
- Engineering Mep: Interpres Building Solutions/ Structural: J&M Engineering
- City: Springfield
- Country: United States
- Did you collaborate on this project?
Text description provided by the architects. A case study on Ozark Modernism. The Case Study Residence harkens back to the post-WWII Case Study Houses project sponsored by Arts and Architecture magazine. Just as the original project was experimentation in modern American residential architecture, the Case Study Residence seeks to define and embody “Ozark Modernism” is an example of single-family residential architecture. For the firm, Case Study Residence is an opportunity to test a hypothesis, develop a specific regional vocabulary within our practice, and to reaffirm our mission statement.
Principal features of the project include: • biophilic design • context sensitive design • an underlying geometric formal logic
• Miesian horizontal symmetry • an emphasis on the haptic modality and visceral experience • a simplified and naturalistic materiality
• passive solar considerations to siting • minimal removal of trees on site • Use of reclaimed walnut, sustainably harvested siding, and locally quarried stone • consideration of archaeoastronomy in the design
Project gallery
- Sustainability
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The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design
Case studies, research papers, and topics, electricity: reducing costs.
Electricity costs are rising. Certain Georgia ratepayers will experience multiple increases in 2023 alone.
This page contains up-to-date information that can help organizations lower electricity costs, which are savings that they can reinvest in their core mission.
2023 Dissertation: U. of Missouri - Columbia
In 2023, Aysegul Akturk graduated from her doctorate program by finishing her dissertation study about Living Buildings in which The Kendeda Building was one of her case studies. Congratulations Dr. Akturk!
Materials Selection: Healthy + Low Carbon
Selecting materials free of Red List materials was the toughest aspect of our Living Building Challenge journey. Our experience with The Kendeda Building also taught us that there could be tension between a product that is free of Red List materials and carbon pollution. In other words, the Red List product could be a more carbon polluting option whereas the lesser carbon pollution product may have trace amounts of Red List chemicals.
Image from Dartmouth College.
Salvaged Materials Carbon Analysis (2021)
Incorporation of salvaged materials also reduces carbon pollution. In 2021 we performed an embodied carbon study of The Kendeda Building’s (28) salvaged items that includes the material salvage and tree save programs. Our analysis includes a review of the virgin materials used through the open source EC3 tool. Please download the research document and visit the free/open source EC3 tool https://www.buildingtransparency.org .
Maximizing Condensate Collection (2023)
This paper by Georgia Tech researchers uses The Kendeda Building to demonstrate how a water and energy sustainable building’s heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system may be operated to maximize condensate production while upholding user thermal comfort and energy consumption requirements.
The paper was published in the American Society of Civil Engineers - Journal of Sustainable Water in the Built Environment.
The Kendeda Building's dedicated outdoor air system dehumidifies humid outdoor air that is brought into the building.
Acoustical Design (2022)
The acoustical design for The Kendeda Building included: exterior noise control, mechanical systems noise control, sound isolation, impact isolation, and reverberation control. In addition, we had to adhere to the Living Building Challenge and identify acoustical products that do not contain Red List materials or chemicals (777 in total) that have the greatest impact to human and ecosystem health. We optimized acoustical performance while taking into account occupant health.
We are pleased to report that the users are happy with the acoustical atmosphere in the building. The following narrative outlines some of the specific challenges and acoustical opportunities in the building but are not an exhaustive listing of all aspects of the acoustical consulting on the project. Read the case study to learn more.
Equity Zine (2021)
This Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) undergraduate research team, affiliated with and co-led by Serve-Learn-Sustain (SLS), focuses on advancing social equity and community engagement in The Kendeda Building, the EcoCommons, and beyond. The team also collaborates with the NAACP and The International Living Future Institute to deepen equity as a core component of the sustainable building sector overall. The Equity Zine was published by one of the VIP’s student research groups in 2021.
ILFI (2021)
The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design became a fully-certified Living Building in 2021. The Living Building Challenge is a program of the International Living Future Institute (ILFI). This is the building's official ILFI case study that presents how the building satisfied the rigorous Imperatives of the Living Building Challenge.
Campus Sustainability Hub (2021)
The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) is the leading association for the advancement of sustainability in higher education. This 2021 case study presents Kendeda Building historical information, timelines, and lessons learned.
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10 Notable WELL Certified and Platinum Projects
The WELL Standard is one of the world’s most popular healthy building programs around the world.
Designed to optimize the comfort and safety of building occupants, the WELL Standard is a rigorous certification that pushes for a healthier future. Projects must earn over 80 points to earn the highest rating offered by the WELL Standard: WELL Platinum.
Today, we’d like to discuss ten noteworthy projects that have been certified by WELL at different levels, including seven Platinum-certified buildings. Each project we included on our list has a noteworthy attribute, whether for sheer size or being a WELL “first.” We hope these examples inspire you to launch your own healthy buliding initiative sooner rather than later!
Explore additional WELL resources:
- Cheat sheet: Navigating The WELL Building Standard and Certification
- WELL compared to other building certifications
- Webinar with IWBI on the WELL Performance Rating
- Blog post: Meeting IAQ Requirements for WELL
Three Garden Road, Hong Kong (Platinum Certified)
Three Garden Road, owned by Champion REIT, was the first existing building in Hong Kong to receive a WELL Platinum certification.
Image via championreit.com
Certified in 2020, Three Garden Road is an office complex located in the central business district of Hong Kong, a bustling center of international commerce. Three Garden Road is one of the largest projects certified by WELL, totaling over 1,600,000 ft². The project features many wellness-focused programs, including a fitness center, classical music concerts, healthy dining and snacking options, and a garden.
The Milliken Showroom, San Francisco (Platinum Certified)
Milliken Flooring’s San Francisco was one of the first projects in North America to achieve Platinum certification in WELL v2 . The space, which is used as a living lab and a hub for the local design community, implemented an array of different strategies including natural sunlight, MERV 13 and carbon filters, weekly yoga classes, as well as air quality monitoring from Kaiterra .
Additional details can be found here .
International Towers, Australia (Platinum Certified)
Another sizeable entry on our list, International Towers in the Barangaroo area in Australia were certified Platinum as a WELL v1 Core & Shell project in 2018. Composed of three towers, International Towers stretch the central business district of Sydney down to the waterfront .
Image via internationaltowers.com
International Towers are now known as “Australia’s Most Progressive Workplace,” combining environmental efforts with wellness opportunities. The project took a comprehensive, modern approach to healthy building, implementing key initiatives from each of WELL’s seven categories.
Delos Asia Headquarters, Beijing (Gold Certified)
A few years back, the Delos (China) Headquarters officially obtained a WELL certification at the Gold level, becoming the first project in Beijing to do so.
Delos had implemented Kaiterra’s air quality monitors and was successfully able to meet the rigorous testing and evaluations carried out by the Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI).
Read the full case study to learn how Delos used the Sensedge air quality monitor to improve IAQ and achieve certification.
IWBI NYC Headquarters, USA (Platinum Certified)
Our next entry is an unusual one. After all, it’s not often that the organization is certified by its own standard.
The International WELL Building Institute, the organization behind the WELL Standard, is headquartered in New York, New York. Their global office received a WELL Platinum certification in 2019, after relocating to an aging building along Madison Square Park.
Note: The values displayed don’t reflect true air quality readings in IWBI’s NYC headquarters.
The building, originally built in 1913, had unique challenges for the design team, COOKFOX, to overcome, including noise and thermal comfort issues. By earning WELL Platinum with a vintage retrofit, IWBI proved that the WELL Standard is accessible for everyone.
CBRE Offices, Toronto (Silver Certified)
In an impressive feat, Commercial Real Estate Services ( CBRE ) certified all three of its Toronto offices at the same time - following on the heels of its Vancouver office which was certified in 2017.
CBRE’s offices include many design features focused on employee wellness:
- Natural sunlight is incorporated into the design of the building, and lighting levels are automatically dimmed based on natural light levels
- Sit-stand workstations for all employees
- Acoustic enhancements
- Water filtration
- Encouraging physical activity and foot traffic through the buildings
You can read additional details about CBRE’s WELL-certified offices here .
Phipps Center for Sustainable Landscapes, USA (Platinum Certified)
The Center for Sustainable Landscapes (CSL) is an overachiever in the realm of health and sustainable building. As well as earning the first WELL Pilot Platinum certification in 2014, CSL was the first and only building to receive five of the highest green building certifications. CSL currently holds the following ratings:
- WELL Platinum (Pilot)
- LEED Platinum
- Living Building Challenge (LBC)
- SITES Platinum
- BREEAM Outstanding In-Use
Image via phipps.conservatory.org
CSL was designed to bridge the gap between nature and the built environment, seamlessly blending biophilic elements into its interior and fitting its exterior into the surrounding environment.
Cundall Offices, London
The head offices of Cundall, an engineering company, were the first project in Europe to attain WELL certification. In order to meet 36 of the 102 features in WELL, Cundall paid meticulous attention to details such as lighting and material selection - ensuring that the VOC content of everything used, including paint, is close to zero.
Additional effort was invested in measuring and improving air quality, including through the use of plants to reduce reliance on ventilation; as well as thermal comfort improvements which were estimated to increase productivity significantly. The full case study is well worth a read .
ASID Headquarters, USA (Platinum Certified)
Located in Washington D.C., USA, the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) headquarters office was the first project to be certified Platinum by both LEED and WELL v1 . Demonstrating an exceptional dedication to both the environment and the health and safety of building occupants, ASID balanced energy efficiency and waste reduction with interior environmental conditions and wellness concerns.
Image via asid.org
Maintaining the balance between efficiency and well-being is not easy, and required the out-of-the-box thinking and effort of the design team from Perkins+Will, as well as ASID and their team members. After the project was completed and certified in 2017, research from Cornell University found that overall job satisfaction increased, alongside boosts in satisfaction with the interior environment, perceived organizational productivity, and perceived organizational support.
EDGE Technologies Headquarters, Netherlands (Platinum Certified)
No stranger to the WELL Standard, EDGE Technologies was the first organization to receive a Platinum rating under WELL v2 for their headquarters in Amsterdam.
Image via edge.tech
EDGE Technologies used a combination of healthy working options, including fitness opportunities for employees, low VOC-emitting building materials, and varied meeting places. EDGE Technologies also utilized other approaches, such as the addition of a meditation room and optional bi-weekly massages or naps.
One crucial element of every WELL project is office air quality . Read more below to find out how commercial air quality monitoring can earn you points toward a WELL certification.
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7 email marketing case studies to inspire your success
- Email marketing
- Getresponse University
Email remains the key marketing channel for a reason – it brings business results. With email, you can build a contact lis t with your target audience, learn what they need to know to become successful, and send them relevant information that helps solve their problems and decide whether to buy your products or services.
Also, when you use a professional email marketing platform , you can be sure that your emails reach everyone in your contact list, something social media algorithms cannot do for your marketing.
In this article, I’d like to highlight seven email marketing case studies showing how different business achieve their goals with email marketing:
- Allakando email marketing case study – contact list management: remain personal while interacting with a large audience
- InfoShare Academy email marketing case study – list building: use a lead magnet to attract the target audience
- WOŚP email marketing case study – use online marketing tools to collect information from your audience
- LandCafe.pl email marketing case study – educational email series with a 54% sales rate
- TechSoup Polska email marketing case study – 1200% increase in orders value from email campaigns over a year
- MobileFun email marketing case study – Automation and email marketing campaign A/B testing in ecommerce
- Selsey email marketing case study – 2x more conversions from abandoned cart emails
I hope the case studies inspire you to make the most of this online marketing channel.
If you are about to start with email marketing, here’re a few resources that might help you develop a basic strategy and run your first campaign:
- Email marketing for beginners
- Email marketing best practices
- Email marketing benchmarks
Seven great email marketing case studies
I wanted to emphasize the versatility of email marketing, so I’ve chosen companies operating in different industries, e.g., ecommerce, education, and NGOs, to provide different contexts of use.
1. Allakando email marketing case study – contact list management: remain personal while interacting with a large audience
Allakando is an innovative tutoring company based in Sweden. Its mission is to accelerate people’s growth – both educationally and personally with an innovative blend between traditional home tutoring and cutting-edge education technology.
Challenge: In November 2021, the company was connecting 5 900 passionate tutors with more than 26 000 students. The challenge was to remain personal while interacting with a large audience.
“ GetResponse makes it simple to talk to the right people in the right way at the right time. ” – Erik Schuss, CMO at Allakando.
Solution: The team at Allakando collects data from multiple sources and uses it to segment their contact list. At the time of creating this case study, they created eight segments and assigned ten custom fields to contacts in their email list.
Collecting and using the data allows the team to send relevant emails to teachers, parents, and students.
As Erik Schuss states: “ Over the years, the importance of quality and relevance has increased in all parts of marketing and communication. Especially when communicating with email, broad blasts of messages to large audiences will more likely see you ending up in the junk folder than driving revenue and value. We reached a point where we realized that we needed to really have a tool to manage all of our messaging in a way that ensures that what we send gives a positive experience. “
Key takeaway: Know your audience.
Make sure you understand the needs of people on your contact list: what do they need to know to follow your call to action? Once you’ve mapped it out, group contacts with similar needs together. Such groups are called segments. Send relevant information to segments of your audience makes your email marketing much more effective.
Check out the full case study:
If you’d like to learn more about segmentation, you can see How to Use Email Segmentation .
2. InfoShare Academy email marketing case study – list building: use a lead magnet to attract the target audience
InfoShare Academy offers intensive programming courses for beginners who want to start a career in IT.
Challenge: The key challenge was to attract Facebook users who may want to start a career in IT and invite them to sign up for a dedicated contact list where they’ll be nurtured with email marketing series on how to learn programming.
“We’re one of th e few companies in our niche doing content marketing. We use our newsletter to nurture the leads who consider taking up a programming course, providing valuable information on a regular basis. ” – Jakub Kłos, Digital Marketing Team Leader.
Solution: The team prepared a Facebook lead ads campaign using “The 125 coding terms for beginners” ebook as a lead magnet – a piece of valuable content for the target audience.
“ We wanted to reach people who only just started thinking about learning to code. We wanted to educate them. Our competitive advantage is the quality of our courses, confirmed by our alums. The quality of the content we offer reflects this. ” – Sylwia Tokarska, Digital Marketing Specialist
- 1200 new contacts in one month
- 1.31 PLN acquisition cost per contact
Key takeaway: Create lead magnets to grow your email list.
More on lead magnets: 25 Lead Magnet Examples That Build Your Email List & Convert
More on Facebook Ads: How to Optimize Facebook Lead Ads for Success
3. WOŚP email marketing case study – use online marketing tools to collect information from your audience
The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity (Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy “WOŚP”) – is a philanthropic foundation whose primary goal is providing health care, saving the lives of ill people, especially children, and promoting a healthy lifestyle, and preventive medicine.
The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity’s communication strategy is based on the idea of being closer to people.
Challenge: During The Orchestra at Home (Domowa Orkiestra) live event, the founder, Jurek Owsiak, spontaneously asked people if they would like to take part in Pol’and’Rock Festival and the foundation needed to create a place where people could express their interest, provide them with information, and sign up for updates.
Solution: WOŚP used one of the provided landing page templates, and in just 3 minutes, they created a simple web page where people interested in the festival could join a dedicated contact list.
“ As soon as we established that the Pol’and’Rock Festival is on, we started preparing a landing page. We later sent out an email with a survey. Through the survey, we learned that people want to meet face-to-face. Nobody at that time planned an offline event on this scale. Direct contact with people was crucial for our teams. “
“ In 2021, we decided that the Poland Rock festival would be a ticketed event. Suddenly, we found ourselves in need of custom communication with our audience, sending tickets, instructions, etc. One of the main tools we utilized was GetResponse. ” – Anna Sobieraj, Digital Marketing and Social Media Specialist
- 3 minutes spent on preparing a signup page
- 41.74% signup rate
- 51488 signups
Key takeaway: Use online tools like live webinars, landing pages, and email marketing to stay in touch with your audience.
More on landing pages: 7 Winning Lead Generation Landing Page Examples & Tips
4. LandCafe.pl email marketing case study – educational email series with a 54% sales rate
LandCafe.pl is an online store created out of love for travel and coffee, offering artisanal coffee beans.
Challenge: Quite common in ecommerce: to increase product awareness among the newsletter audience, speed up purchase decisions, and boost sales.
“ Our target audience is people who know the difference between the quality of mass-produced and artisanal coffee. Our customers make conscious choices, which gave us the idea for an educational campaign that could make our subscribers more aware and ready to buy. ” – Łukasz Janik, founder of LandCafe.pl.
Solution: Welcome email series based on the Learn > Like > Trust > Buy principle. The email sequence helps new subscribers better understand the brand and products so they can buy the coffee they like best. It starts with a welcome email explaining the idea behind the brand and inviting people to read more in the blog post. The next few follow-up emails explain the products in detail. The last email in the sequence contains a discount coupon and drives even more online sales.
- 41.30% sales rate during the welcome series
- 13.30% discount coupon email sales rate
- 54% total sales rate
Key takeaway: Find out what your audience needs to know to purchase your product or service and use this knowledge to design a welcome email series. Use marketing automation to put the series together and assign tags to customer behavior.
More on welcome series: 11 Welcome Emails That Set the Standard
5. TechSoup Polska email marketing case study – 1200% increase in orders value from email campaigns over a year
TechSoup Polska Foundation actively supports community and social organizations by facilitating access to new technologies: software, hardware, and various solutions and by showing how to use them.
Challenge: Giving associated organizations access to new technologies, educating them on available tools and technology, and facilitating knowledge exchange between partners and associated organizations.
Solution: A newsletter fulfilling the information needs of the target audience.
“ The main goal of our email marketing comms is to inform organizations about products and support they can get thanks to TechSoup. Our newsletters contain information about new offers, training invitations, and tips that help you select the right tools for remote work. ” – Liza Nema, TechSoup Polska Project Coordinator
- 1200% increase in orders value from a newsletter over a year
- 8666 associated organizations
- 11 emails sent in March and April 2020
- 20 recommended solutions for remote work
- 3 trainings conducted
Key takeaway: Use your newsletter as a revenue channel. If you segment your list properly and send relevant content, the average open rate of your newsletter will be high. A newsletter with the same email structure might help your subscribers navigate through content and result in high click-through rates driving more traffic to your website.
More on newsletters: 21 Company Newsletter Ideas: Examples & How-to Guide
6. MobileFun email marketing case study – Automation and email marketing campaign A/B testing in ecommerce
Mobile Fun is the UK’s leading online mobile accessories retailer — offering the latest mobile phones and exciting accessories. Based in Birmingham, the company operates through offices and dedicated websites worldwide.
Challenge: To segment the contact list, send targeted newsletters, run tests, and automate processes.
Solution:
- Automation: we automated our welcome and engagement program. The simplicity of setting that up and the actual results we get are pleasing to see.
- Segmentation: we can segment our contact list and send targeted newsletters.
- Drag and drop newsletter creator: we can quickly and easily create and tweak our designs for A/B testing.
“ With GetResponse, you can actually check what is driving your KPIs. We’re doing around 20 split tests at the moment. We’re testing how different colors, background images, and CTAs impact sales and revenue. ” – Matt Page, Email Marketing Executive.
With the A/B test creator, you can quickly test which subject line or content resonates most with email subscribers, resulting in higher click rates. This way, you can make data-based decisions on the messaging that drives email engagement and conversion rates.
- 11.69% Variant A test open rate
- 12.37% Variant B test open rate
- 49.17% Winning campaign open rate
Key takeaway: Run A/B tests to check the performance of emails before they get sent to all the recipients.
7. Selsey email marketing case study – 2x more conversions from abandoned cart emails
SELSEY is one of the biggest furniture and home decorations retailers in Poland. The company’s mission is to provide its clients with a comfortable space where they can relax, which is crucial for keeping daily activities efficient, and the mood positive.
Challenge: Encourage users to complete their purchase, maintain relationships with users and increase brand loyalty.
Solution: Abandoned cart automation cycle incentivizing purchases. According to the test, the simple tactic of including social proof in the email doubles conversion rates and turns website visitors into customers. If you add a discount, together with a personal touch from your satisfied customers, you can increase the conversion rate almost three times.
“ Abandoned cart cycle is dedicated to people who take their time when making a purchase. Usually, it does not concern spontaneous shopping. Deciding on purchasing furniture can take up to 6 weeks. Users treat the cart as their wish list, adding various products they liked, not necessarily focusing on buying here and now. ” – Weronika Andrzejewska, Conversion & Inbound Marketing Specialist.
- 202% conversion from an email with reviews of happy customers
- 239% conversion from an email with reviews of happy customers and a discount code
Key takeaway: A/B test incentives to purchase and create an automated abandoned cart series.
More on abandoned carts: 15 Best Abandoned Cart Email Examples and Best Practices
Time to level up your email marketing campaigns
Now you’re familiar with at least seven different scenarios where email marketing proved to be an effective marketing channel. I hope these case studies inspire you to use email in your business and find ways to be closer to your customers. Email might be the perfect channel to build relationships with your target audience – relationships that translate into more email-generated sales and revenue.
Read more from the GetResponse Blog:
1. 30+ best email marketing campaign examples
2. Proven strategies for increasing your email open rates
3. Best email marketing services in 2023
Some virtual care companies putting patient data at risk, new study finds
Canadian researchers have patient privacy concerns as industry grows post-covid.
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This story is part of CBC Health's Second Opinion, a weekly analysis of health and medical science news emailed to subscribers on Saturday mornings. If you haven't subscribed yet, you can do that by clicking here .
If you visit a doctor virtually through a commercial app, the information you submit in the app could be used to promote a particular drug or service, says the leader of a new Canadian study involving industry insiders.
The industry insiders "were concerned that care might not be designed to be the best care for patients, but rather might be designed to increase uptake of the drug or vaccine to meet the pharmaceutical company objectives," said Dr. Sheryl Spithoff, a physician and scientist at Women's College Hospital in Toronto.
Virtual care took off as a convenient way to access health care during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing patients to consult with a doctor by videoconference, phone call or text.
It's estimated that more than one in five adults in Canada — or 6.5 million people — don't have a family physician or nurse practitioner they can see regularly, and virtual care is helping to fill the void.
But the study's researchers and others who work in the medical field have raised concerns that some virtual care companies aren't adequately protecting patients' private health information from being used by drug companies and shared with third parties that want to market products and services.
Spithoff co-authored the study in this week's BMJ Open , based on interviews with 18 individuals employed or affiliated with the Canadian virtual care industry between October 2021 and January 2022. The researchers also analyzed 31 privacy documents from the websites of more than a dozen companies.
The for-profit virtual care industry valued patient data and "appears to view data as a revenue stream," the researchers found.
One employee with a virtual care platform told the researchers that the platform, "at the behest of the pharmaceutical company, would conduct 'A/B testing' by putting out a new version of software to a percentage of patients to see if the new version improved uptake of the drug."
Many virtual care apps pushing products, selling personal data, research finds
Concerns about how data might be shared.
Matthew Herder, director of the Health Law Institute at Dalhousie University in Halifax, said he hopes the study draws the public's attention to what's behind some of these platforms.
"All of this is happening because of a business model that sees value in collecting that data and using it in a variety of ways that have little to do with patient care and more to do in building up the assets of that company," Herder said.
Other industry insiders were concerned about how data, such as browsing information, might be shared with third parties such as Google and Meta, the owner of Facebook, for marketing purposes, Spithoff said.
The study's authors said companies placed data in three categories:
- Registration data, such as name, email address and date of birth.
- User data, such as how, when and where you use the website, on what device and your internet protocol or IP address.
- De-identified personal health information, such as removing the name and date of birth and modifying the postal code.
Some companies considered the first two categories as assets that could be monetized, employees told the researchers.
- Many Canadians welcomed virtual health care. Where does it fit in the system now?
- Virtual urgent care didn't divert Ontario patients from ER visits during pandemic, study suggests
Not all of the companies treated the third category the same way. Some used personal health information only for the primary purpose of a patient's virtual exchange with a physician, while others used it for commercial reasons, sharing analytics or de-identified information with third parties.
The study's authors said while each individual data point may not provide much information, advertisers and data analytic companies amalgamate data from browsing history and social media accounts to provide insights into an individual's mental health status, for example.
One study participant described how a partnership for targeted ads might work: "If an individual is coming through our service looking for mental health resources, how can we lean them into some of our partnerships with corporate counselling services?"
Nurses’ union says virtual care is a move toward privatization of health care
Conflict-of-interest questions.
Lorian Hardcastle, an associate professor of law and medicine at the University of Calgary, studied uptake of virtual care in 2020. She highlighted issues of continuity of care, privacy legislation and consent policies.
Since then, she said, uptake in virtual care accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I think that the commercialization of the health-care system raises concerns around conflicts of interest between what is best for patients on the one hand and then on the other hand, what has the best return for shareholders," said Hardcastle, who was not involved in the BMJ Open study.
Hardcastle said it is helpful to have industry insiders acknowledge problems that health professionals and academics have expressed about commercialization.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, which funded the study, said in an email that privately funded health professionals are generally considered to be conducting commercial activities.
Hospitals, long-term care facilities and home care services that are publicly funded are not considered to be engaged in commercial activities and are covered by provincial privacy legislation, the office said. Health information falls into many categories and may be subject to different privacy laws across various jurisdictions.
Hardcastle also suggested that self-regulatory bodies, such as provincial colleges of physicians and surgeons, may need to revisit policies around relationships between health providers and industry.
Virtual care industry responds
CBC News heard from some Canadian virtual care companies that said they take the privacy of individuals seriously.
"Patient data is only used with patients' explicit consent and only when it's required for health-care interactions between a patient and a doctor," a spokesperson for virtual care platform Maple said. "We do not exploit patient data for marketing or commercial gain."
- Is virtual care a cure for Canada's battered health-care system?
In a statement, Rocket Doctor said it is important to note that the company "does not do any of the things listed by the researchers as common in the telehealth industry."
Telus said that all of the data collected from its virtual care service is treated as personal health information.
"Telus Health doesn't receive any funds from pharmaceutical companies for our virtual care service and we do not sell any patient data collected," said Pamela Snively, the company's chief data and trust officer.
Source of information hard to pin down
Hardcastle said it may be difficult for some people to distinguish between receiving reliable and accurate information from a health-care provider on an app and getting services marketed to them that the health provider may or may not find useful.
"Your family doctor isn't trying to collect superfluous information in order to market services to you," she said.
Some provinces and territories pay for the virtual services. In other cases, patients pay themselves or are covered by employer or private insurance.
- Patients tapping into alternative care options, but N.S. emergency departments still face challenges
Nova Scotia's government, for example, has a contract with Maple to provide residents without a primary care provider with unlimited virtual visits. Those who do have a regular provider can have two visits per year paid for by the province.
Tara Sampalli, senior scientific director at Nova Scotia Health Innovation Hub, said the province's contract with Maple means residents' data can't be used in other ways, such as by third-party providers.
The province doesn't have that level of control over other providers of virtual care, said Sampalli, who holds a PhD in health informatics.
Calls for an opt-out choice
Herder, of Dalhousie University, said users should be able to easily opt out of having their data used for commercial purposes. He also said that if the data doesn't represent the full diversity of Canada, algorithms shaping clinical decision-making could be racially biased.
Spithoff said while patient awareness is important, patients aren't in a position to fix this problem.
- 140,000 Nova Scotians are waiting for a family doctor. Can virtual care help?
"We need better legislation, regulation, and we need better funding for primary care," she said. "Or people can get virtual care integrated into their offline care."
Spithoff and her co-authors said self-regulation by the industry is unlikely to lead to change.
The researchers acknowledged they were limited to publicly available documents and that they did not interview those affiliated with the third-party advertisers.
Canadian Medical Association calls for health-care system overhaul
Corrections.
- An earlier version of this story suggested that all health professionals conduct commercial activities under federal legislation. In fact, some publicly funded health services are not commercial and are covered by various other legislation. Feb 12, 2024 6:11 PM ET
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amina Zafar covers medical sciences and health topics, including infectious diseases, for CBC News. She holds an undergraduate degree in environmental science and a master's in journalism.
With files from CBC's Christine Birak
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Is China’s Economic Dominance at an Inflection Point?
- Allen J. Morrison
- J. Stewart Black
Six reasons why its position at the top may have been short lived.
In 2023 China lost the top spot on the list of countries whose companies populate the Fortune Global 500 list, a position it had held since toppling the USA in 2019. Is this an inflection point or will the US (one core at the top) and China exchange the position as they struggle for global economic domination in the decades ahead? This article presents six reasons for believing that China is unlikely to recover the top spot and suggests ways in which US, European, and Japanese firms can exploit China’s fundamental weaknesses in the years ahead.
In 2019, we predicted that China would likely account for more companies on the Fortune Global 500 list than any other country. That seemed like a bold prediction at the time, given that American firms had held the number one position since the list’s inception in 1995 and the U.S. economy was 50% larger than China’s. But just one year later, in 2020, China did indeed top the list, with its 124 firms edging out the U.S. at 121 (see here for the Fortune Global 500 data).
- AM Allen J. Morrison is a professor of global management at Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management and a coauthor of Competing in and with China: Implications and Strategies for Western Business Executives (Thinkers50). Email: [email protected]
- JB J. Stewart Black is a professor of global leadership and strategy at INSEAD and a coauthor of Competing in and with China: Implications and Strategies for Western Business Executives (Thinkers50). Email: [email protected]
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Women get same exercise benefit as men, with less effort, study finds
"A little bit can go a really long way" for women and exercise, author says.
A new study not only confirms known research that regular physical activity can prolong life and lower a person's risk of dying , it also finds that women experience greater benefits from exercise than men do, at lower amounts of exercise .
Using findings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Health Interview Survey , researchers analyzed data from 412,413 adults from between 1997 to 2017 to understand the degree of overall health benefit derived from physical activity.
Researchers found that men were more likely to engage in physical activity than women. However, women who engaged in regular physical activity had a 24% lower risk of dying from any cause compared to inactive women, while physically active men had a 15% lower risk compared to their inactive counterparts. Researchers further discovered that the most beneficial amount of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity – for example, brisk walking or cycling – was around five hours per week, though there was also benefit shown for women starting at half that weekly amount.
MORE: New study on the impact of exercise on depression
"It turns out women can get a lot more return for even a little bit of investment than they might realize," Dr. Susan Cheng, director of the Institute for Research on Healthy Aging in the Smidt Heart Institute and senior author of the study, told ABC News. "[A] little bit can go a really long way."
"When it comes to looking at the particular amounts, particularly with moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, women could get almost double the return for the same investment compared to male counterparts," Cheng added, calling the news "exciting and positive, especially for the really busy women out there who are juggling a lot of responsibilities both at work and at home."
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Women also saw a more significant reduction in mortality risk after engaging in muscle-strengthening activity, such as weightlifting or core exercises, than men did – 19% compared to 11%, respectively – according to the study.
“This important study emphasizes the power of exercise for women,” Dr. Patricia Best, an interventional cardiologist and member of the Women’s Heart Clinic at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, told ABC News. Taking it one step further, Best notes that following a heart attack, “women have frequently been referred to cardiovascular rehab less than men, and this study helps to give credence to the importance of exercise in women."
Consistent with prior research, both aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities were associated with lower risk of dying from heart-related diseases.
"For exercise, we'd like to encourage our patients and folks in general to be as active as they can, be no matter how busy we all are. In general, we say that anything is better than nothing and more is better than less," Cheng told ABC News.
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COMMENTS
1. Email is more popular than social media. According to a recent study by OptinMonster, "60% of consumers subscribe to a brand's email list to receive promotional messages, compared to 20% of consumers who will follow brands on social media to get deals."
Offering more within the content. An example may be an article that is a top 7 list, but you can receive another 7 just for signing up. Noah found these to show substantial results. Here's Noah's article on Copyblogger. Case study #3: The 30 day list building challenge. A simple list building challenge created by Nathalie Lussier.
A case study is a process of researching into a project and documenting through writings, sketches, diagrams, and photos. To understand the various aspects of designing and constructing a building one must consider learning from other people's mistakes. As Albert Einstein quoted, "Learn from yesterday, live for today, and hope for tomorrow.
It's a list building case study of epic proportions. (And almost anyone can follow the exact same steps I'm about to show you to get more email subscribers.) Let's jump right in! Yours FREE: Download the "Viral Giveaway Master Checklist" and take your next list building campaign viral. The Results
This shows that you don't have to reinvent the wheel to make list building work for you. The classic opt-in form structure of large heading, some text, an image and the opt-in form is very effective at describing an offer and persuading visitors. Laura's case study reinforces the lessons from the previous two cases:
Credit: robbierichards.com. This is the mother lode of list-building strategies. This case study has 6,000 words and teaches the 12 strategies Robbie Richards used to build his list, along with two bonus strategies covering traffic generation and what to do after a person signs up for your list.
A case study (also known as a precedent study) is a means of finding relevant information about a project by examining another project with similar attributes. Case studies use real-world context to analyze, form, support, and convey different ideas and approaches in design.
Case study examples. Case studies are proven marketing strategies in a wide variety of B2B industries. Here are just a few examples of a case study: Amazon Web Services, Inc. provides companies with cloud computing platforms and APIs on a metered, pay-as-you-go basis.
Free Email Marketing: 30 Day List Building Challenge Case Study Last summer I had a crazy idea. I wasn't launching anything, I didn't need to hustle or sell a bunch of stuff… but I wanted to focus on building my email list, and document my results. That's where the idea for the free email marketing training 30 Day List Building Challenge was born.
On-site Water Systems: Financial Case Studies. To explore the return on investment, first cost, and maintenance cost data from a variety of different building types and sizes using on-site water capture, treatment, and reuse systems, see ILFI's On-Site Water Systems Financial Case Studies Report. materials Guidance Declare Product Database
Below you will find case studies that demonstrate the 'whole building' process in facility design, construction and maintenance. Click on any arrow in a column to arrange the list in ascending or descending order.
How To Create A Case Study In 7 Steps Step One: Identify Your Topic & Angle Step Two: Get Permission To Tell The Story Step Three: Create An Introductory Questionnaire Step Four: Write Your Interview Questions Step Five: Line Up A Time & Conduct Your Interview Step Six: Use What You Learn To Write A Compelling Story
1. Buffer: Doubled monthly signups in one month Industry: marketing software What they did: Increased monthly email signups by 130%. How they did it: Added eight more ways for people to sign up for their list. Where the study came from: Buffer shared the signup sources they added to grow their email list on their blog in 2014.
Well-known for its Case Study House program, Arts & Architecture magazine highlighted the development of single-family dwellings during the Post-war period, with specific focus on the work of ...
If you find a link magnet with a title like "50 Healthy Snack Ideas", publish a list of 150 (or even 500). In my case, I decided to list all 200 ranking factors… or die trying. The first 50 were a breeze. 50-100 were really hard. 100-150 were really, really hard. And 150-200 were damn near impossible.
1. The Unisphere, Maryland, U.S.A | Net Zero Buildings Spread across an area of 135,000 square feet, The Unisphere stands in the middle of the city in downtown silver spring as a sterling example of technologies embodied, making it a fully sustainable, net-zero energy construction.
3. 2000 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, US. On 25 th January 1971, a two-third portion of a 16-story residential building known as 2000-Commonwealth Avenue in Boston collapsed during construction, leading to the death of four workers. The building was under construction for more than six years.
It might look like a relatively standard post, but we strategically created it to attract links from an outreach campaign. And it worked. We sent 515 emails and got 36 backlinks from 32 websites. The post now ranks #1 for "SEO stats": Why we chose a statistics page. How we created the page and built links to it. Detailed results from our ...
The case details the financial structure of the rental car company through the end of 2019. Hertz (B), which ranked third in CRDT's list, describes the company's struggles during the early part of the COVID pandemic and its eventual need to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The success of the Hertz cases was unprecedented for the top 40 list.
For the firm, Case Study Residence is an opportunity to test a hypothesis, develop a specific regional vocabulary within our practice, and to reaffirm our mission statement. Principal features of ...
The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design became a fully-certified Living Building in 2021. The Living Building Challenge is a program of the International Living Future Institute (ILFI). This is the building's official ILFI case study that presents how the building satisfied the rigorous Imperatives of the Living Building Challenge.
The WELL Standard is one of the world's most popular healthy building programs around the world.. Designed to optimize the comfort and safety of building occupants, the WELL Standard is a rigorous certification that pushes for a healthier future. Projects must earn over 80 points to earn the highest rating offered by the WELL Standard: WELL Platinum.
1. Allakando email marketing case study - contact list management: remain personal while interacting with a large audience Allakando is an innovative tutoring company based in Sweden.
02. Create a System to Grow Consistently. 03. How to Succeed in an Era of Volatility. Summary. Delivering consistent growth is one of the hardest things a company can do. A brilliant idea or ...
Dr. Sheryl Spithoff, a physician and scientist at Women's College Hospital in Toronto, co-authored a new study that found the for-profit virtual care industry valued patient data and 'appears to ...
2243 REAL ESTATE FINANCE BUILDING FOR YOUR FUTURE A Real Estate Case Study By Assistant Professor Mark Bergman Introduction You hand out coffees to your closest colleagues at the start of the Monday morning meeting. However, you notice that the Partners at the front of the board room are smiling in your direction. A minute later, you are nodding to your coworkers and smiling sheepishly as they ...
That seemed like a bold prediction at the time, given that American firms had held the number one position since the list's inception in 1995 and the U.S. economy was 50% larger than China's ...
A new study finds that women experience greater benefits than men with lower amounts of exercise. ... Judge denies Trump's request to delay enforcement of $355M fraud case penalties. Feb 22, 2:44 PM.