Staying social during social isolation - envato.com coupon

The current global health crisis brought on by the coronavirus pandemic is challenging workforces like never before, with an increasing number of organisations moving to a fully flexible working environment. 

For the team here at Envato, flexibility has long been at the heart of our day to day working life, and it’s certainly helped us become a better company for the global creative community.

There are now thousands of articles online with top tips, tricks and inspiration on how to make your time in social isolation work best – we quite liked Urban List’s tips on staying calm and Wired’s extensive gear and gadgets list  – but one important aspect to consider is how do we keep our social connectivity to our friends and peers in our jobs, even as our working lives shift to Slack, Google Hangouts, Zoom meetings and more. Unsurprisingly, happy employees often cite people as the reason they enjoy their job the most!

Changing the channel

Web Infrastructure Architect Andrew Humphrey knows more than most the challenges of connecting with a team, having been based in Bali for more than five years. While he’s a big fan of creating different ‘spaces’ at home for work and rest – “Remember that working from home doesn’t mean working all the time….find a separate space where its easier to switch off” – he also finds that there’s always a Slack channel he can dive into to find a social connection.

“While I’m in a privileged position of being video calls for 3-4 hours a day, where I get a lot of face time with my colleagues, I still jump into (Slack) channels like #random and #dad-jokes to help keep myself sane. I also find #work-from-anywhere a great place to turn to for advice about dealing with some of the frustrations that arise from time to time.  Folks in there likely have faced a challenge I’m dealing with and readily share how they solved it. Then for the purely social catchup, I occasionally join in the virtual coffee catchup that runs out of that channel.”

For Envato’s marketing team, who are more used to regular coffee catchups and walking meetings than solo isolation, the shift to fully remote has brought its own challenges…and opportunities. “We’ve started hosting daily coffee and tea catchups; short video calls where we jump on and hang out while making a brew,” says Marketing Director Adam Noonan, “and we’re doing a number of group activities in our team Slack channel. This week we’re running a quiz to guess what people’s home working spaces look like!”

New problems, new opportunities

It’s these new opportunities for human connection that has Jay Hyett, Senior Delivery Coach, so excited, especially as his role has a strong focus on helping teams across Envato connect and deliver their best work. “We have a great headquarters and office setup, so its a challenge to try and keep that atmosphere alive online. We’re trying a number of different ideas, including virtual water coolers for teams, where people can bring to life that impromptu hangout experience. One of our teams is trialling a Friday night drinks session over Google Hangouts and another is seeing if they can do workouts together!”

“Icebreakers are proving to be another big thing for our teams,” continues Jay, “and something that asks people to lean in and connect a bit more than they probably would day-to-day in the office. So that’s asking people to share photos of life at their house and where they’re working from, or even simply ‘are you wearing tracksuit pants today?’. Another team just did a retro where everyone brought a stuffed animal to keep them company.”

“Yes, it relies on people having a sense of humour, but that’s what makes it human, people connecting and supporting each other at a time when we’re probably having less interaction in our daily lives than ever before.”

Sharing and caring

Senior Developer Mary-Anne Cosgrove helped pioneer Envato’s social catch up program for remote workers and women in engineering. “People like to socialise over food and drink, so I set up the monthly women’s catch-ups at morning tea and lunchtime. The remote workers catch up time was a little trickier because we’re in quite a few different time zones, but we’ve settled on an early afternoon tea time. So the idea is to grab your food and beverage of choice before coming into the hangout. I’ve often asked my team to have a virtual team lunch, and sometimes they’ve even gone out to a cafe or restaurant in Melbourne and taken a laptop so they could include me there. “

“When they’ve done that, it has really helped me feel like a valued member of the team,” continues Mary-Anne. “This social interaction is hugely important, and different people need different levels of it. I’ve seen remote working fail for a person when they didn’t have enough interaction with their team and felt isolated and alone. If a person is hanging out with their team a lot in meetings and on Slack anyway they may not feel the need for virtual coffees or lunches – but the less formal virtual catchups allow us to get to know each other better than meetings where we are mostly discussing work.”

Bringing people together

Office-based events are often a perfect chance to bring people together, so spare a thought for the social committees and event organisers around the world who are scrambling to reschedule or reshape their event calendars. Envato Office Manager Ruth Crespo and Office Coordinator Tamar Collins turned the cancellation of the company’s Harmony Day potluck gathering at the Melbourne HQ into an online-based talent show, not to mention essential recipe resource.

“It’s 100% possible and necessary to find online ways to still celebrate events. Social interaction is so vital for mental health, even if it’s from the screen. It’s better to create something and give people the option to participate and connect online, than to offer nothing.

“It’s fun taking on the challenge of pivoting to cater to the new norm, and I feel lucky to have a component of my role that helps create that culture,” adds Ruth. “We really love our jobs and bringing joy to Envato staff, so it was a bit of a sad realisation when months of planning and preparation for many different events went out the window – but it’s been fun to get together and brainstorm alternatives.”

 

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Understanding Envato’s commitment to diversity and inclusion - envato.com coupon

We are now in our fifth year of reporting on Envato’s approaches to boosting diversity and inclusion across the business – you can catch up on last year’s report here – and in doing so, outline how we rise to the challenge of improving our workplace for everyone, every year. 

While we are pleased with the improvements we made in these past 12 months, much of which can be attributed to the passion, advocacy and commitment of people across the business, we appreciate that delivering better diversity and inclusion outcomes is not a challenge that is ever ‘solved’. Rather, it’s a process we have committed to, knowing that every year we will need to take stock, respond and adjust our plans to ensure we’re delivering positively for all our employees. 

Our Out@Envato committee is an excellent example of demonstrating what a passionate group is capable of achieving in a small amount of time. From changing our gender options in our HR system, to petitioning the annual Great Place to Work Australia study to change their global demographic metrics to be more inclusive, the volunteers at Out did an amazing job to ensure we’re inclusive to non-binary folk. Their energy and momentum have inspired others across the business to see the same advocacy achieved for mental health inclusion, aiming to educate and support Envato folk in mental health-related topics.

Pleasingly, over the last 12 months, we saw further improvements in our gender balance across all position types across the business, while also introducing non-binary reporting metrics for the first time. Along the way we also adjusted our gender pay gap analysis reporting process,  meaning we can now report and act on any misalignments every quarter. And in our commitment to striving for gender equity, we’ve excitedly cheered on our third successfully graduating apprentice developer and have welcomed two more apprentices into the Envato Apprentice Developer Program.

Gender Equity

Headcount

Our gender balance increased 6% on 2018 figures, making it the fourth year in a row we’ve improved on this measure.  In the knowledge that individuals may identify as a gender other than the sex they were assigned at birth, or may not identify as exclusively male or female, we have changed our reporting demographics to man or woman. We’re also reporting on non-binary stats for the first time, with the inclusion of trans/gender diverse demographics. 

Since we started reporting on these figures, our overall split across the company has improved by 37% on 2016 figures.

We’ve improved the equity in our technical roles by more than 100% over the last four years.

Our improvement in non-technical roles continues to be steady, now up 10% in the last four years.

Leadership roles were the only category where we took a slight step back on 2018 figures.

 

Note: for the purposes of our graphs above, the term trans/gender diverse includes those who choose to identify as trans, those with a trans history, and those who identify as gender diverse, bigender, agender, gender fluid, genderqueer, non-binary or other.

Industry Measures

For the fourth year in a row, we submitted Envato to the Australian Workplace Equality Index (AWEI), a non-profit organization who provide a benchmark and survey in relation to inclusion for the LGBTI community. With a revamp of the Out@Envato steering committee and its renewed focus on LGBTI inclusion initiatives, we saw an 8 point increase in our score this year. 

Code Like a Girl Sponsorship

Envato continues to be a Gold Partner for Code Like a Girl. It remains one of our longest-standing business-wide sponsorships and we’re extremely proud to be able to support Code Like a Girl in their efforts to empower more women to embark on a successful coding career. 

International Women’s Day

This year’s IWD theme was all about #balanceforbetter; inspiring action to forge a more gender-balanced world.

Our guest speaker Kerryn Harvey shared her incredible story of courage and resilience after a horrific bike accident resulted in a full arm amputation. Kerryn inspired many of us to focus on what’s important and how to set goals to keep us progressing. 

LBGTI inclusion events

Our Out@Envato team hosted a number of events over the last 12 months, including : 

• International Trans Day of Visibility. An annual international celebration of trans pride and awareness, recognising trans and gender diverse experiences and achievements. 
• Wear it Purple Day:  A national day to raise awareness for LGBTI people – especially young people, across Australia with a simple message: you have the right to be proud of who you are 
• Two Out Tech meetups, which aim to bring together Melbourne tech industry workers who identify as LGBTI or Allies, with more meetups planned over the next year.

Our Out@Envato team also created our new look Envato Pride t-shirts which are now a staple wardrobe piece for many of our team, from Melbourne to Mexico!

Some of the Envato team flying the flag for International Trans Day of Visibility

 

Envato staff rockin’ our new pride tees!

Mental Health Inclusion Events

As part of World Autism Acceptance Month in April, we took part in the “Hoodies Up for Autism” campaign. We asked people to wear their hoodies to work to show a little more understanding of how we can support and embrace people with autism and celebrate the diversity autism brings to our world. Why hoodies?  Some people with autism experience sensory sensitivities and can become overloaded by stimuli in their environment; wearing their hoodie up means they can block out bright lights and busy environments which helps calm them.

The Envato team at our Melbourne HQ donned hoodies for autism awareness.

And in October we celebrated Mental Health Week with a Health and Wellness Expo in our Melbourne HQ, which included a workshop on Mindfulness and Meditation including a practical session using Muse headsets, a mental health panel run by our Mental Health Inclusion group, and a Recognition BBQ acknowledging all the positive work our peers do to make Envato such a great place to work.

Improving our Parental Leave practices

We have been reflecting on how we support employees and managers through times of parental leave, acknowledging it’s an area we can continue to make positive improvements in. In the last 12 months, this has meant tangible changes to leave allowances, while setting clearer expectations internally around how we support individuals and their managers to ensure that everyone who takes parental leave has the best experience possible. As part of this, we are continuing to improve how we provide support, clarity and career development in the lead-up, throughout and after an individual’s parental leave.

Some of the improvements we’ve made so far include:

1. Primary carer leave has increased from 18 weeks to 20 weeks at full pay
2. Partner Leave has increased to 2 to 3 weeks, full pay
3. Formally including adoption and stillbirth leave into our policies 
4. Two professional coaching sessions offered to all those taking primary carer leave.
5. Superannuation will now be paid on the unpaid portion of parental leave for all primary caregivers up to 12 months

Equity and Inclusion Officers

We rolled out our Equity and Inclusion Officer program, providing all Envato employees with a number of trained employees who they can talk to about anything they need support with. This is something we’ve been aiming to achieve for some time now, as it goes a long way to ensuring that Envato can provide a genuinely safe space for people to have difficult conversations. Equity and Inclusion Officers provide this by offering Envato’s staff community another friendly face to talk to when they need support, on top of their Manager, People Partner and our EAP service. 

Indigenous education skills development 

The Envato Foundation continues to support Australia’s young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population through partnerships with organisations that focus on opportunity creation, education and skills development. This year we donated $255,000 to our foundation partners, with the money supporting everything from new books for children in remote communities, education, training and employment programs for school-aged children, as well as fully funded secondary school scholarships. In late 2019 we were excited to announce a new partner, Indigitek, which focuses on increasing the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in tech roles. 

In Mexico, our donation efforts have focused on supporting Cres Estipac, a high school focussed on educating indigenous youth in a way that will assist them to support and transform their communities. Our donations this year helped to expand the girl’s dorm of the school. 

A Look Ahead 

There’s plenty more to be done building on our most recent diversity and inclusion roadmap, from, building out internal resources with a dedicated D&I intranet page to focussing on the initiatives that have been guided by our AWEI and WGEA submissions.

While our focus inside Envato continues to be primarily on gender, LGBTI and mental health, we remain committed to  improving any practices that maintain an inclusive workplace, be it training, reporting or other activities that help to foster an inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive.

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All in the family - envato.com coupon

In the immortal words of Lilo from the Disney classic Lilo & Stitch “Ohana means family. Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten.”

While the original statement was directed at something akin to a genetically engineered koala (thanks Wikipedia), it’s also a phrase that could easily be adopted at Envato, given the number of family members we have working under the one roof at our Melbourne HQ…and no, that’s not including Collis and Cyan Ta’eed! 

Take brothers Vasko and Daniel Jovanoski. The latter was just five months into his role as a Development Team Lead last year when he encouraged his younger brother to apply for a Service Desk Specialist position. Far from having reservations about working so close together, Vasko said it was an easy decision to make. “Daniel told me about the role and the amazing culture and people at Envato, so applying for the role was an easy call to make.”

“There’s been a lot of positives, such as being able to catch up more regularly now and spend more time with him (Daniel), whether it be going for a coffee in the morning or grabbing lunch.”

“Also beating him at table-tennis has been quite enjoyable also! Sorry, Dan… I had to…” concludes Vasko with a laugh.

Despite having a torrid time on the table tennis table with his brother, Dan likewise has been a big fan of sharing his workday with family. “As we don’t live together anymore, it’s been great grabbing a coffee in the morning and catching up. I catch-up with Vasko more now than ever before…and I’ve even received credit for helping cook at the company BBQ when it was actually Vasko who volunteered!”

“There have been zero downsides, it’s been great.”

Likewise, it’s been all positive for the McKenna family. Sam McKenna, her husband Pat and his brother Alex have ensured that Envato has always had a McKenna in the building since 2013. “Pat started it,” says Sam. “He had this amazing opportunity with an awesome team which he’d tell me all about when he got home to find me still in my freelancing-PJs!”

Pat confirms he played a strong role in getting the rest of his family in the door. “I think I may have influenced Alex and Sam by constantly telling them about how nice it is to work at Envato, and that jealousy eventually morphed into job applications”

For Alex, having a familiar face in his brother Pat as he commenced in a new Customer Experience role made the transition to a new place of work so much smoother. “At the beginning of my time at Envato, Pat and I were working in different roles but on the same team. So while learning the ropes he was an amazing resource for learning why things were the way they were and I think it really helped me get up to speed in my job much faster.”

“And now with two other McKennas here there’s always someone to talk to and get a coffee or lunch with.”

However, there are downsides. “We end up talking about work constantly, even when we’re out at parties or family gatherings,” says Pat. “It can alienate everyone else a little bit.” It’s a sentiment Alex agrees with. “It does tend to come up, but we tend to have different opinions on things though so it’s usually quite good to hear their opinions on work topics,” he says. 

“I think we do talk a lot about achievements or frustrations, but I think Alex is really great at leaving work at work” counters Sam.

“Also, my Dad keeps demanding that we get him some Envato merchandise,” jumps in Pat, reflecting further on the challenges they face as a family.

“Sometimes when Pat and Sam are too lazy to come to the office they make me collect their mail and bring it home for them,” muses Alex. 

“Pat and I have been mistaken for brother and sister a couple of times, which is kind of funny but also concerning,” reflects Sam. 

But the very minor frustrations are made up for a whole lot of good experiences. “Ultimately, you’ve always got someone supportive to rant to when you’re having a bad day,” concludes Pat. 

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Measuring Envato’s impact in 2019 - envato.com coupon

What does it mean to balance purpose and profit for business in 2019?

At Envato, we strive to take a long term view of our business and focus on creating value, so while we have a healthy appreciation for the bottom line, we are also invested in building a sustainable business that creates wealth for many, not just for some. 

Ultimately, we want to set Envato up with a purpose that lasts. We see our success in our community’s success, and we want to continue to align our core company values and operations with this purpose. That’s not always easy, and we don’t always get it right, but that’s our north star.

It’s a big part of the reason why we’re proud of the record payouts we’ve delivered to our author community over these past 12 months. And it’s why we’re also equally proud of confirming the Envato Foundation’s fourth charitable partner, Indigitek, with the launch of this year’s Public Impact Statement, available below.

Both were key achievements in a year that saw the company reach a number of milestones, launch new products and still deliver on the high standards we set for ourselves as members of the wider Envato community. I’d encourage everyone to take a few minutes to look through our 2019 Public Impact statement to get a more complete picture of what we’ve done, and where we are heading. 

It was this time last year when we published our inaugural Public Impact Statement to give our community better insight into our ambitions and achievements, and give everyone a chance to share ideas on how we could do better. The response was overwhelming and provided us with plenty of food for thought, inspiration…and, of course, a decent helping of positive reinforcement! 

I hope this second iteration will continue to inspire our community and prompt valuable discussions in equal measure. Thank you all for what you have contributed to Envato this year, and we look forward to what 2020 may bring! 

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Video Marketing Guide: 5 Steps to Success - envato.com coupon

With the prominence of video content on social media platforms and search engines continuing to grow, having a video marketing strategy for your business has never been more important. That’s why we’ve created a free video marketing guide to help you get started on your video journey, or simply have a refresher.

By 2020, video will account for 82% of all internet traffic, according to Cisco. And it’s easy to see why.

The combination of visual and audio content has long been compelling to people, as we saw with the groundbreaking inventions of film and television. Television is still, today, the most effective way to advertise, and certainly one of the most expensive. Online video can be powerful too, but is, like television, pricey when compared to banner ads, and audio ads.

As a medium, it takes more time to produce video than any other kind of online marketing. Therefore, to ensure you get the best value, a video marketing strategy is required.

Today, we’ll look at what you need to know to put a video strategy together. And we’ll provide tips to make it both robust enough and agile enough to use in the short, medium and long-term.

1. Articulate your goals

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Step one is to articulate why you’re attempting to use video marketing as a part of your marketing mix. Setting video goals, objectives, and KPIs is fundamental to creating an efficient video marketing strategy. It will help you justify the resources you need, and allow you to clearly see how well video marketing is contributing to your broader marketing goals.

A recent study from Ascend2 found that businesses commonly use video marketing to:

• Educate customers
• Build brand awareness
• Drive engagement
• Increase leads
• Improve conversion
• Build a community
• Send traffic to their website

These goals may work as nothing more than inspiration for you, or may well be some of the things you want to replicate for your strategy. Whichever way you go, use the SMART technique – making things specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound – to set your goals and KPIs for each of these objectives. Do the best you can to make them both ambitious, yet realistic. But be sure to give yourself the freedom to adjust them as time goes on if they show themselves to no longer be valuable parts of your strategy, or are simply no longer achievable.

2. Be aware of trends, and beware trends

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A lot of video trends are a flash in the pan, but some stick around. So, what should you do?

If you were to go all-in on every video marketing trend, you would be switching up your video stack constantly for little value in return. Trends, by definition, come and go, so include an allowance of time and resources for experimentation so that you can try trends and new ideas for size, and see if they show value before making them a permanent part of your strategy.

Here are some trends that have grown in 2019:

Live streaming
Although Facebook Live was overhyped, live streaming has proven valuable to a lot of brands. The in-the-moment nature of the format captures people’s attention by establishing a sense of urgency. Live video also feels more intimate as it’s typically more off the cuff. Most platforms that offer live streaming will also provide viewers the ability to comment live, and interact with the streamer in a unique way which can increase overall user engagement for your brand.

Longer videos
While users on social media sites like Facebook prefer short videos, YouTube viewers are watching videos that are longer. In fact, it’s something that YouTube’s algorithm is favoring, as it means people are spending longer on the platform, and can therefore be shown more ads.

Captions
For Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, animated captions are a great way to catch the eye of users that are scrolling. As videos on these platforms autoplay on mute, these animations can provide context of what the video is about, and try and hook users in, getting them to activate the sound and watch the whole way through. You can also do this through closed captions, which you can set to be automatically activated on your videos while playing with the sound off. These provide subtitles, and need to be uploaded into each platform with your video content as a .srt file. This is also a good thing to include in all videos across platforms, as it provides a transcript that search engines like Google can crawl, picking up on keywords, and improving the chances that they’ll show up in search results.

Stories
Snapchat’s popularity has fluctuated, and Instagram’s much-hyped IGTV was a bit of a bust, but the “Stories” format continues to go from strength to strength. Viewers usually expect to see this content in and amongst that of their close friends and influencers, so it needs to feel personal and be designed to be watched alone (often with sound off). Stories can be more low-fi than the content you’d expect to see from brands within your Instagram stream, or YouTube and Facebook feeds. If done well, it’s a unique and intimate way to connect with your audience.

3. Which channels to use

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Each of the video channels available can be used to target a slightly different audience, and requires a certain set of formats. Once you’ve figured out the audience that you’re trying to reach, and the style of video you want to create, it’s time to look for the right platform/s to be on.

YouTube
YouTube is one of the best video platforms on the web. It can handle virtually any resolution or format you want to throw at it, including interactive 360 videos, and 4k resolution. It’s the place to upload if you’re happy to have your users be shown ads before or during your content. YouTube videos can be easily embedded on web pages. And, as YouTube is the second largest search engine on the web, succeeding on YouTube can have a big impact on your brand’s SEO.

Facebook
It’s difficult to standout on Facebook at the best of times, and with more video content than ever being uploaded to the social network, decent exposure is getting harder. As a platform it can handle virtually any length of video (under 240 minutes), offers live streaming options, and can support the regular 16:9 video aspect ratio, as well as square or vertical videos. However, it can only handle 1080p or lower resolutions. Facebook videos autoplay in people’s feeds until users activate the sound. The feed is both a blessing and a curse, as it prompts passive discovery of your content, but, being in a feed full of content, rarely results in content longer than a few seconds being watched all the way through.

Instagram
The star of the Instagram right now is its popular Stories format, which was mentioned earlier. The other option is IGTV which, after a rough launch, has broadened the formats of video it accepts (no longer exclusively vertical video). IGTV will accept up to 15 minute long videos when uploading from a mobile device, and 60 minutes when uploading from the web. Videos must be MP4 format. And they’ll now appear as autoplaying videos in people’s feeds when they’re released, and on your Instagram profile, although only the first 30 seconds will play, and then prompt users to watch the rest in the IGTV part of the app.

Twitter
Twitter is similar to Facebook in that it can handle most formats and aspect ratios. However, it will only accept videos up to 30 seconds in length. You can get around this and upload videos up to 10 minutes long if you go through the ad platform (which is free unless you want to promote the video). Twitter videos autoplay, so consider the same kinds of things we’ve mentioned previously to stop scrolling users in their tracks. As a platform, Twitter is all about immediacy, so videos that are relevant to the current conversation will perform the best.

4. Building a video production workflow

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Assuming this is your first time putting together a video marketing strategy, this will be the first time your business will be putting resources into video production, which can involve some serious investment depending on the type of content you’re wanting to create.

An efficient video workflow is important when it comes to defining what you need and estimating how long and how many resources it will take to get things created.

Now that you know your objectives, who you’re trying to reach, and what platforms you need to be on, it’s time to decide what video formats your videos will be in. Will you be creating a series of live streams, with just one person talking to the camera, and interacting with the audience? Is it an explainer video, requiring graphics, and animation? Each video format will require a different level of investment.

This chapter of Envato’s Video Marketing Guide for 2019 breaks down the different tiers of video cost from budget buster to break the bank. See what’s most appropriate for your business.

5. Measure and learn

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Once the planning is done, and your videos have been created and uploaded, it’s time to measure and report on their performance, to conclude how they’re contributing to your strategy.

Here are the main video metrics to keep an eye on:

Watch time
Platforms like Facebook, and YouTube place a lot of value on how long people watch your videos for. Pay attention to the structure of your content, and ensure you’re hooking people in efficiently at the beginning, and maintaining their attention throughout. Consider whether you need to provide them with incentives to keep watching in the future.

View count
It’s the most vain of metrics, but it still counts. The algorithms of these sites pay attention to the amount of views a video has. Optimizing your videos correctly, sharing links to them on social media, in emails, and in newsletters can drive traffic to them, and help build momentum around them early on. The earlier you can give them exposure, the better, as each platform values relevant, and popular content.

Engagement
Comments, likes, and shares indicate how your content has resonated with viewers. Reactions – good or bad – are better than no reactions at all. This doesn’t mean making your content unnecessarily extreme. But it does mean the content needs to be compelling enough to start a conversation around it.

Click-through rate
Since this is video marketing, most of your videos – regardless of where you share them – will be linking, or driving people back to your website, or product page in some way. Measuring the click-through-rate – the amount of times a user has clicked on these links – is therefore an important metric to monitor.

Conversion rate
You’ve measured your click-through-rate, now how many of those clicks converted into a sale. Whether it’s a product, or subscription you’re driving your audience to, using tools like Google Analytics, or Tableau, allows you to see where people have come to your product pages from, and how many of them made a purchase. This metric is key when calculating the direct ROI from your video content.

Formalize and refine

The most important point to make in light of all of these tips is that they make up a framework that can stay the same, or be adjusted at any time. Broadly, defining your objectives, finding your audience, determining your budget, building a process, and measuring and learning are the considerations that guide you creating your strategy. These will not change. But the specifics that come out of these broader requirements can and will. What “works” today in the rapidly changing field of video marketing, may not work tomorrow.

So, be aware of your goals, and be open to changing, and adjusting them when necessary. Don’t be afraid to apply your learnings when supported by data, and leave enough room for experimentation, especially if you’re interested in keeping up with new trends.

A sustainable video marketing strategy

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These 5 steps are a guide to help you realise your business’ video marketing strategy. They should set you up to identify the specifics of it, and the broader goals of it, hopefully leaving you with something robust enough to get the resources you need and see success, and agile enough to take you long into the future. Mixed with your intelligence as a marketing professional, our video marketing guide should put you on the fast track to getting your video operation up and running, and seeing success, quickly.

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Top 10 Email Marketing Templates for MailChimp - envato.com coupon

Your business can only grow if your client base grows. So, how do you successfully engage a loyal, satisfied customers? One of the best ways is with a great email marketing strategy and some solid, engaging content to accompany it. MailChimp is one of the best systems out there when it comes to client email communications, so we’ve put together this list of the 10 best email marketing templates for MailChimp for 2019 to take the hard work out of creating engaging email marketing content for your prospective and existing audience. All items featured today are available with a subscription to Envato Elements.

10. Marquez – Email for Agencies 80+ Sections by ThemeMountain

Starting off our countdown is a versatile theme with 18 pre-built layouts and 80+ sections. Creating unique, immersive emails has never been so easy. Feature your best testimonials, introduce your team, highlight your products and put forward your best call to action to create a beautiful, modern email design using this template. 

9. Trend – Responsive Fashion Email + Online Builder by DynamicXX

Turn your eye for fashion to this sleek template design and bring all your hottest products to the forefront of your emails. A highly interactive design allows you to include information surrounding any item on your product line, with room for individual product details and click throughs directly to your website. It’s a fashionista’s best friend. 

8. Atellar – Responsive Email + StampReady Builder by LEVELII

The number 8 template on our list features a beautiful, modern design that can easily cater to any email marketing needs. This template allows businesses to promote their goods and services to clients in a super stylish way, minus the hassle.

7. Maverick – Responsive Email + StampReady Builder by LEVELII

Template number 7 on our list of Envato Elements top 10 email marketing templates for MailChimp is perfect for the creative mind wanting to showcase their products, brand or portfolio to their client base in an engaging way. Stylish features and room to provide stats and figures make this template stand out in the best possible way.

6. Emailo – Responsive Email and Newsletter Template by CastelLab

Designed specifically with writers in mind, this template features multiple text editing options with room for a portfolio feature and a “meet our team” section. Help your customers understand your business and let them connect with you and your team as you take them on a journey with this marketing email template.

5. Booster – Responsive Creative Business Email by DynamicXX

Our number 5 entry has amazing, easy to use online template builder features. You can instantly edit text, easily undo or redo actions and export your template file to your desktop. It also includes graphs and charts to show off your business’s stats. The best part is, when you send it off to your customers it will look striking and immediately grab their attention.

4. Moka – Responsive Email and Newsletter Template by MaestoMail

Share your business’s best features with this email template by MaestoMail. With varying text and image fields, you can mix words with visuals to show your customers how you can make their lives a little easier with your products and services. The bright colours and bold headings are editable, but the pre-existing options definitely stand out as they are.

3. Shop – Responsive Email + Online Template Builder by CastelLab

This fun and fancy-free template is a breath of fresh air. It screams “young and bold’ and will stand out from the competition. Link to your blog, your shop, your e-brochure or your “contact us” page and highlight the products on your “must sell” list to draw customers in.

2. Blade – Responsive Email + StampReady Builder by LEVELII

Extensive email compatibility and super easy editing features allow any creative, designer or marketing professional to take advantage of this modern, sophisticated template. This design will empower your clients to engage with you and your products. 

1. James – Responsive Email + Online Template Builder by DynamicXX

Number 1 on our list is James by contributor DynamicXX. The hero banner alone packs a punch and draws the eye to whatever it is you need to promote. This template is perfect for photographers to showcase their images, working in harmony with descriptive text and links to websites or galleries.

Did any stand out to you as a template you’d use to increase your client base and communicate with your current customers? If so, make sure you share this list with any friends or colleagues who may benefit from using any of these templates in their marketing efforts. Make sure you don’t miss out on upcoming video content by subscribing to the Envato YouTube channel.

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A textbook example of Australian business - envato.com coupon

It’s not often you can claim to be the literal textbook example of anything. But that all changed for Envato this year, following the publication of one of the key texts that Victorian secondary school students now use in their business management studies. 

If you were to look at the cover Key Concepts in VCE Business Management Units 1&2, you wouldn’t necessarily expect to find Envato inside. However, according to co-author Stephen Chapman, the company was a perfect example for the “Establish a Business” unit.

The Jacaranda VCE texts for business management

“Envato’s experiences reinforce the theoretical concepts discussed in the ‘Legal and Financial Considerations’ chapter. Students are exposed to the ‘real world’ workings of a business in order for them to understand how a business operates in reality.” 

The textbook examines Envato’s humble start in a Sydney-basement and the company’s subsequent journey to becoming one of Australia’s most successful tech startups, with more than $750 million USD paid out to its creative community during this time.

“The discussion as to Envato’s early beginnings and the financial requirements – a starting budget of $90,000 and the use of a credit card – provides a sense of realism,” continued Chapman. “The case study provides students with a clear understanding that there are different methods used to raise finance for the establishment of a business.” 

“I particularly liked how the case study showed the transition to other sources of funding as the business expanded as well as the payment methods for its contributors.”

The Envato example, as found in Key Concepts in VCE Business Management Units 1&2

A recent survey conducted by publisher Jacaranda of teachers who use the textbook in their classes found that many found the case studies to be one of the key reasons the book was such a success in their classrooms. Envato was a good fit for this because, as Chapman pointed out, the company’s success story contains all the ingredients to make it not just relevant, but inspiring too. 

“It’s a contemporary business that students can relate to. It contains a human aspect – Cyan and Collis’ goals and aspirations – that help create an engaging narrative, that’s highlighted by the growth and development of the business over time.”

So next time someone asks you for a textbook example of how to be flexible and responsive when establishing a business, look no further than Envato!

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