Yearly Archives: 2021

Before hiring the right person for the job, you need to decide how you’ll pay them. Two of the most common ways to pay employees is with a salary or an hourly wage.

You’re probably wondering which option is better: the flexibility of an hourly employee or the stability of a salaried one. Of course, the answer is never as straightforward as we’d like.

Let’s compare the pros and cons of hourly vs. salary workers, the different laws for each, and what to look for when determining the right fit for your business.

What is a salaried employee?

A salaried employee earns an annual wage regardless of when they clock in and out. In other words, whether you work 20 hours or 60 hours per week, the number on your paycheck stays the same.

To state the obvious, an employee isn’t paid their entire salary on the first day. Instead, it’s divided by the number of pay periods, often on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis. For example, an employee with a salary of $60,000 a year, paid twice a month, would receive $2,500 per paycheck.

Pros of Salaried Employees

Even if an employee clocks additional hours during the week, they receive the same rate per paycheck. Meaning, you don’t need to compensate employees who go beyond the standard 40-hour workweek.

Another advantage of salaried employees is the predictability of payroll. Every salaried employee signs an employment contract outlining their base salary and frequency of payment. When it comes time for payroll, you know exactly how much to pay since there is no fluctuation from week to week.

Cons of Salaried Employees

Since salaried employees aren’t clocking in and out each day, or filling out a timesheet each week, there’s a possibility they’ll work less than 40 hours during some weeks. That said, most salaried employees are critical players in their organization and strive to meet expectations.

What is an hourly employee?

Hourly employees account for a whopping 55.5% of all wage workers in the U.S.

Here’s how it works – an hourly employee earns a certain rate per hour of work. This rate must match or exceed the minimum wage, which will vary depending on your state. If your state’s minimum wage is different from the federal minimum wage, you’re required to pay the higher of the two.

You can pay hourly employees at the same frequency as salaried employees, but their paychecks will fluctuate to reflect the number of hours they work per week. For example, let’s say you’re an hourly employee working at a rate of $10 per hour. You clock in 40 hours one week, which is $400 worth of work. The following week you only work 20 hours — earning a total of $200.

Pros of Hourly Employees

Unless covered in a contract, hourly employees aren’t guaranteed a certain number of hours each week. This means you have the flexibility to set hours based on demand, securing coverage when you need it.

Also, you have no obligation to make an hourly worker a full-time employee. By hiring an hourly worker, you can offset the benefit costs for full-time employees, like healthcare and paid time off.

Cons of Hourly Employees

Arguably the biggest con of hourly employees can be boiled down to one word — overtime. If an hourly worker surpasses the 40-hour threshold, they are eligible for overtime, which accounts for one and a half times their regular pay. This becomes costly if the nature of the position requires more hours than the standard workweek.

Another con is tracking how many hours your employees work, which takes time and careful review. You can verify the hours with timecards, or invest in a time and attendance system. Either way, expect to spend some time crunching the numbers.

Exempt vs. Non-exempt Employees

Salaried and hourly employees have different laws and regulations, which can guide you to determine the best fit for your business.

Hourly employees have non-exempt status — therefore, if they work more than 40 hours a week, they must be compensated under the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Employers must abide by the law to avoid fines, fees, and even prosecution.

On the flip side, most salaried employees have exempt status. An exempt employee must earn a minimum of $455 per week, or $23,660 per year, in the form of a salary. And, if you haven’t already guessed, exempt employees are exempt from overtime pay.

Let’s consider this example to demonstrate the difference between exempt and non-exempt employees:

Elizabeth, an exempt employee, is working over the weekend to meet a Monday morning deadline. Despite working “off the clock,” she’s not compensated for these hours.

Meanwhile, Lucas, a non-exempt employee, picks up an extra shift at a retail store over the weekend. He could take the weekend off, but he knows he will get compensated for working overtime.

Determining the Right Fit for Your Business

Back to the question on everyone’s mind: is it better to hire hourly or salaried workers? The answer depends on a variety of factors:

1. Relevant federal and state laws.

Familiarize yourself with relevant federal and state laws. Even if employees are exempt on a federal level, state laws may classify them as nonexempt.

2. The nature of the position.

Consider the type of work an employee will be doing. For example, if you anticipate an employee will need to work more than 40 hours per week, it could be more cost-efficient to pay them a salary.

3. Your business and its needs.

Does your business need flexibility or predictability? Do you have the resources to track hourly workers? Do you need to offset the costs of benefits for full-time employees? These questions, among others, can determine whether your workforce should be salaried or hourly.

Final Thoughts

As you prepare to expand your team, it’s important to decide how to pay the new players. While you must abide by federal and state laws, there is still room to weigh your decision based on your business and its needs.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is critical to help your brand reach the first page of search results and ideally climb into the top 5 positions for your primary keyword.

But what happens when you want to expand outside of local markets? With Google now seeing more than 3.5 billion searches per day, there’s a massive opportunity for brands to capture new customers. The caveat is that existing SEO practices may not translate — and in some cases, may actually hurt your brand in other countries.

To avoid this potential pitfall, a robust international SEO strategy is critical. Here’s what you need to know about what it is, how it works, how it’ll benefit you, and what steps you can take to create an effective plan.

Ready? Shkojme! Idemo! Vámonos! Let’s go!

Effective strategies leverage a combination of geographic and language data to develop SEO plans that drive reliable ROI. A strong international SEO strategy will help your company reach new markets and multiply revenue.

What does international SEO do for company websites?

An international SEO strategy for websites focuses on creating content that’s applicable to local markets, as well as developing a website structure that makes it easy for search engines to find and serve the right webpages to the right users at the right time.

Consider a company that sells window shades in the United States and is making a move into Canada. First, you’ll want to ensure Canadian customers are sent to the right pages on your website — pages that contain information about Canadian locations, Canadian shipping times, and fees and costs in CAD.

You’ll need a website structure that includes both U.S. and Canadian pages and leverages enough metadata that search requests from users will direct them to the right page for their current location.

Does my business need an international SEO strategy?

It depends.

If you have no plans to expand beyond local markets — such as your current city or state — international SEO probably isn’t worth the time and resources required. In fact, international SEO can backfire if your business is entirely local. Customers who land on international pages won’t be happy when they discover you serve a very small geographic area.

On the other hand, if you’re looking to expand beyond country borders, it’s worth spending on international SEO. Given the sheer number of companies competing on the global stage and the increased challenge in ranking highly for relevant keywords, a comprehensive strategy is critical.

Still not sure whether you should go for a local SEO strategy or international SEO strategy?

There are four primary differentiators between local SEO and international SEO:

• Cost: Owing to their scale and scope, international SEO efforts come with significant costs.

• Content: To ensure international reach, you’ll need to create significantly more content than you would for a local SEO strategy.

• Capture: International SEO expands the target market you’re trying to capture, which necessitates in-depth research to ensure your brand aligns with customer expectations.
• Competition: Competition for keywords and customers is much greater for international SEO efforts. Instead of simply competing with other businesses in the same local sphere of influence, you could be up against multinational corporations.

Questions to Ask About International SEO

Not sure how to get your international SEO efforts off the ground? Start with these questions.

1. Where are you headed?
2. Should you target language or country?
3. What localization factors matter most?
4. How can you build local links?
5. Does social media matter?
6. Are current keywords good enough?
7. Do you have the right tools and talent?

1. Where are you headed?

Depending on the part of the world you’re targeting, your international SEO approach will change. For example, if you’re headed to China, the most popular search engine is Baidu, while Yandex is the preferred choice in Russia. Each of these engines have their own approach to SEO, meaning it’s worth doing your research to find out what matters most for rankings.

2. Should you target language or country?

This is a common international SEO question: Are you better-served targeting a specific language or a country? The answer depends on your goals. If you’re looking to appeal to a broad audience regardless of where they live, language optimization may be the answer. If you’re looking to grow brand awareness in a specific part of the world, opt for country-based SEO.

3. What localization factors matter most?

Localization is the process of optimizing your website and content to reflect the local language and culture. Two of the most important factors here are accuracy and common use: First, it’s critical to make sure that translations of any keywords or slogans are accurate — direct translations can open your brand and services to misinterpretations, such as the always-classic “Come alive with Pepsi” slogan translated as “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead” in Chinese markets.

Common use is the other concern. The words and phrases used to describe your business and what it does may not be the same in other languages, even if the literal translation of words gives that impression. Find out what words locals use to describe your products and services and use those instead.

4. How can you build local links?

Building local links back to your site also helps with international SEO. Here, it’s a good idea to write articles for local blogs, get a sponsored mention on websites that offer advice or useful information, connect with local social media influencers, and sponsor local events.

5. Does social media matter?

While Google has expressly stated that social media doesn’t factor into international SEO rankings, you can increase brand awareness and local influencer connections with a strong social media presence.

6. Are current keywords good enough?

While your current keywords may help you rank in the top 5 locally, the sheer number of companies competing for these keywords in global markets means you need to take a look at who’s using these keywords, where they rank, and whether other similar keywords might drive better results.

7. Do you have the right tools and talent?

Finally, consider if this is something you can take on yourself or if you’re better off hiring an experienced international SEO company.

Factors That Affect International SEO

Multiple factors affect international SEO, including:

Customer Reviews

Customer reviews on your website or on local review sites can positively or negatively impact your SEO efforts. Better reviews mean better connection with your primary keyword, in turn boosting your visibility.

Mobile Responsiveness

The responsiveness of your website on mobile also matters to overall search rankings. As a result, it’s worth finding a content delivery network (CDN) capable of providing a top-tier website experience no matter where users are in the world.

Google My Business Account

Your Google My Business Account can help boost your SEO efforts — so long as you ensure to update where your company is operating. This acts as a starting point for Google to seek out geographic and language metadata on your site.

Link Building

The more links heading back to your site from international sources, the better. As mentioned above, it’s a good idea to write for local blogs or connect with influencers to point links back to your website.

How to Develop an International SEO Strategy

Ready to develop your international SEO strategy? Start here.

1. Decide where and who you’ll target.

First, pick your target market and target audience. For example, you might decide to target the larger market of Brazil, then hone in on a subset of that market that has the means and motive to buy your product. The more focused your decisions around “where” and “who,” the better your results.

2. Determine whether you’ll hire an international SEO agency.

Do you want to do the heavy lifting of international SEO yourself or outsource this effort? There are advantages to both — you know your brand better than anyone else, but SEO experts are skilled at understanding local customs and preferences and creating a strategy to match.

3. Conduct international keyword research.

Keywords that work for you at home may not work abroad. This may simply be down to keyword volume, or it may be linked to how customers in your target market refer to your business. For example, trial lawyers in the United States are known as barristers in the United Kingdom — if you’re a legal firm looking to expand operations, this is a critical keyword difference.

4. Choose the right international domain structure.

The domain structure of your website makes it easier (or harder) for visitors and search engines to find your content. Different options include:

ccTLD

Country code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) are two-letter domains assigned to specific countries. For example, .us is for the United States, .ca is for Canada, and .uk is for the United Kingdom. To improve international SEO, you may choose to create a unique ccTLD site for each country where your products or services are available.

Example: mybusiness.ca, mybusiness.uk

gTLD

A generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD), meanwhile, refers to domain extensions with three or more characters; these TLDs are maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Common examples include .com, .gov and .org.

Using a gTLD means that search engines won’t restrict results based on region, but it may reduce total traffic since many users prefer sites that include their country code TLD.

Example: mybusiness.com

ccTLD or gTLD with subdomains

You can also choose to create subdomains for your site which combine aspects of both ccTLDs and gTLDs.

Example: ca.mybusiness.com

This offers the benefit of a country code and the advantages of a gTLD.

ccTLD or gTLD with subdirectories

Subdirectories, meanwhile, change the location of the country code:

Example: mybusiness.com/ca/

5. Optimize content for the region and language

Finally, make sure all your content is optimized for both your target region and its local language. This includes double-checking all TLDs, translations, and content assets to ensure they’re aligned with local expectations.

Oh, and don’t forget the hreflang tag. This HTML attribute specifies the geographic area and language of a webpage. It’s used to differentiate similar webpages aimed at different audiences so that search engines don’t count them as duplicate content, and it looks like this:

Tools for International SEO

The right tools can also help you maximize the impact of international SEO by providing actionable data around traffic, click-throughs, and time spent on your site. Some of the most popular tools include:

HubSpot

HubSpot’s SEO software allows you to create an international content strategy, gives you live tips to improve your on-page SEO, and lets you organize your website in a way that’s easy for both search engines and users to understand.

Google Search Console

Google Search Console lets you see what queries are driving traffic to your site, determine your position on Google Search, and analyze global site impressions.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is an all-in-one SEO toolset that lets you optimize your site, analyze your competitors’ rankings, and find the best keywords for your brand.

Moz

Moz offers site audits to determine potential issues, tracks keyword rankings across more than 170 search engines, analyzes backlink profiles to evaluate performance, and offers keyword research tools to find out how you stack up against the competition.

Semrush

Semrush lets you identify high-value local and national keywords, analyze the backlink profile of any domain, and track your site’s SERP positions daily.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is an interconnected suite of tools that helps you analyze the impact of your website content worldwide.

International SEO Best Practices

No matter what approach you take to international SEO — language-focused or country-based, outsourced or in-house — the same best practices apply. Let’s take a look at them below.

1. Answer questions in the region’s native language and in the right context.

If there’s one thing to get right for international SEO, it’s making sure you’re speaking the same language as your customers. This means doing your research to ensure you’re always answering questions in their native language and in the appropriate context.

2. Translate existing content carefully.

While translation tools provide a literal conversion of words and phrases, they’re often not used this way by locals, meaning customers will quickly recognize that something isn’t quite right. Instead of translation, what you’re really looking for is “transcreation” — you want to recreate the same content but using the culture and language of your target market as a guide.

3. Consider the entire user experience in your strategy.

International SEO isn’t just about keywords and content. It’s also about making sure the entire user experience — from filling out forms to viewing prices in local currency or accessing multimedia assets that include native speakers — is seamlessly aligned across your site.

4. Avoid automatically redirecting users based on their IP address.

While it’s critical to serve content that matches local user expectations, don’t make the decision for them. Instead of automatically redirecting where they land based on their IP address, give them the option to choose their preferred region.

SEO: Improving Your International Impact

The right SEO strategy sets your brand apart from the crowd. And while this is important in home markets, it’s even more critical if you decide to go international, because it will ensure your website is optimized to support high-value content and keywords across regions and countries. By considering local customs, language, and context, you can boost consumer engagement, improve search engine results, and maximize your international impact.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in March 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

I’m always inspired by the creativity that goes into YouTube banners, but if you’re anything like me, you’ve probably wondered how you can create one for your own channel. Well, you’re in luck!I’m here to uncover some of the best-kept secrets about YouTube banners.

In this article, you’ll learn what makes the best YouTube banners so eye-catching, and how you can create your own gorgeous channel art. To answer those questions, I’ve included some excellent resources for YouTube banner templates (spoiler alert: they’re free), as well as 10 creative channel banners that inspire us as content creators.

What makes a good YouTube banner?

A good YouTube banner is eye-catching, readable, and conveys the brand of the YouTube channel. The best YouTube banners include the brand’s logo and channel name. Some great YouTube banners include high-quality photos and graphics to create visual interest.

No matter how good your YouTube banner looks, the last thing you want is for yours to look the same as someone else’s. That’s why the guidelines I mentioned for great channel art are pretty simple. You can build the foundation of your design using those best practices, but your unique creativity is what will set your banner apart from the crowd.

To see these tips in action, let’s look at some fun and creative YouTube channel art examples.

YouTube Channel Art Examples

1. Jillian Harris

Simple, chic, and feminine. Jillian Harris’ YouTube channel art conveys exactly what her brand represents. The banner photo keeps things simple and includes only two pieces of information: her name and the date she established her brand. With a banner like this, the typeface stands out and becomes the design.

Simple channel art works if you’ve got a core following already. Jillian is quite popular on other social networks, and she’s currently migrating her audience to YouTube. The majority of people watching her videos are already familiar with who she is and the content she creates. If they’re not, there’s a welcome video right below the banner where she introduces herself to the new crowd.

2. Learn With Shopify

Shopify understands that building an online business isn’t easy. So, the company offers new and experienced entrepreneurs a library of video content to help them scale to the next level. Learn With Shopify’s banner is straightforward and draws attention to the channel’s goal.

You might think that the YouTube banner dimensions don’t provide enough room to create a dynamic design, but Shopify shows some interesting possibilities in its channel art. The name of the channel is prominent so the viewers know they’re in the right place for all things Shopify, and the green gradient gives this banner depth and creates visual interest.

3. HubSpot Marketing

Maybe I’m a little biased, but our YouTube channel has a pretty cool banner! What we haven’t seen in the first two channel art examples are faces. HubSpot’s banner features full-color images of the creators who present the video content on the channel. Our signature brand art (aka the blobs) are thoughtfully placed behind the creators’ photos so they pop on the banner.

Another fun feature of our channel art is the icon on the far right that points to our free digital marketing certification. If your brand offers more types of content, this is a great way to drive traffic to those other marketing offers.

4. Alphonso Dunn

Alphonso Dunn is a talented and well-respected artist who’s authored several art books. He’s transitioned his passion for educating students to the YouTube screen where he teaches aspiring artists how to hone their craft.

His banner includes samples of his art, his name, logo, and latest books with a link to purchase them. The composition of this banner fits everything in without overcrowding the space which allows the viewer to focus on the rest of his home page.

5. Justin Brown-Primal Video

Justin Brown is the creator of Primal Video on YouTube — a channel dedicated to teaching entrepreneurs how to amplify their businesses with video content. If this is your first time seeing Justin Brown’s YouTube home page, you’ll know exactly what to expect from his content after seeing the banner.

What I like most about this channel art is how energetic it feels without looking too busy. There’s dimension built into the image by stacking the blue and black blocks of color, then breaking that up with a color-graded photo in the middle. Font sizing and colorful backgrounds create a cohesive feel while keeping the design clean and organized.

6. Bright Side

Bright Side provides more than 40 million people with the answers to questions that they never asked, but absolutely have to know. Its YouTube channel art is bright, punchy, and bold — a perfect backdrop for inspirational, creative, and wonderful video content.

If you take inspiration from Bright Side’s banner, choose a vibrant color as your background and think carefully about your typeface. Since those two design elements will be the only aspects of your banner, you’ll want to spend time finding the right balance that represents your brand and draws the viewer in.

7. Epicurious

Whether you’re looking for easy-to-follow recipes, food science education, or cooking comparisons, Epicurious is the channel to watch. The spotlight of this brand’s content is always the food, and that goes for its banner, too. The use of a high-resolution, detailed photo of a common food — broccoli — creates a relevant and intriguing background for the brand name.

To incorporate this banner style into your channel art, choose a subject that’s small enough to be recognized close up.

8. TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor is a resource used by millions of travelers to discover and rate lodgings, restaurants, and much more information about endless destinations.

That’s represented in the YouTube banner by portraying what the site is all about — travel. The banner features beautiful photography of different locations which puts the viewer’s focus solely on travel.

This is a great YouTube banner to take inspiration from if you’re just getting started. Simply choose a high-res photo that speaks to your personality and brand, and you’re done.

9. Refinery29

Showcasing the people that make your brand amazing is a great way to form a connection with your viewers. That’s one thing that Refinery29 does well by frequently featuring its writers, editors, and content producers in its videos. As it turns out, they’ve all become quite popular personalities — which is why the brand put them front-and-center in its channel art.

Creating a banner of this nature is two-fold. First, find a way to incorporate your company’s talent into video content in a way that’s engaging and appealing to your target audience. Then, once you’ve produced enough of that media consistently — and if it’s gaining the right kind of attention — you can use those personalities to promote your channels.

10. The Action Lab

Physicists and high school science students alike come to The Action Lab’s YouTube channel for DIY experiments performed by Dr. James J. Orgill. On this channel, you’ll see everyday objects through a new lens thanks to his demonstrations.

The banner for the Action Lab’s YouTube channel is fitting for this type of content. It includes the logo and channel name in the safe zone, along with a photo of Dr. Orgill himself. Similar to HubSpot’s channel art, his photo stands out with a patterned background to really show him in action.

YouTube Banner Size

A YouTube channel banner will take on different dimensions depending on what platform is being used to view it. For example, a banner will have different dimensions when viewed on a TV, desktop, or mobile device.

The YouTube banner dimensions are:

• Recommended “TV”: 2560 x 1440 px
• Minimum for upload: 2048 x 1152 px
• Minimum “Viewable On All Devices”: 1546 x 423 px
• Maximum “Viewable On Desktop”: 2560 x 423 px
• File size: 6MB or smaller

The recommended resolution seems pretty large for a single file, but think about how YouTube banners would appear on a 30″ smart TV or higher. With a growing number of options to view YouTube videos in this way, you’ll want to make sure your channel art is large enough to display with quality on larger screens.

Here’s a helpful visual representation of those dimensions:

Take note of the “Viewable On All Devices” I alluded to in the first section. Your banner is essentially the biggest branding opportunity when people land on your channel. You’ll want to make sure your logo and supporting text is clearly represented in the channel art. That’s why it’s a good idea to place your company name and logo in that center space.

If you’re not sure how to fill the entire frame with visual content, video production company MiniMatters suggests “build[ing] the image from the middle out,” putting the most important assets in the center, and expanding the design from there.

Finally, follow these best practices to create a professional YouTube banner:

• Use a high-resolution image. A pixelated or blurry banner doesn’t exactly signal that there’s a high-quality video to follow.
• Keep your banner on-brand. While your channel art doesn’t have to be a carbon copy of your logo or tagline, it should incorporate visual elements that you want associated with your brand, like certain colors, fonts, or keywords.
• Update your banner regularly. For example, if you run a bakery and you’re gearing up for summer, an eye-catching banner might be a high-res photo of a brightly-colored work surface covered with flour and a rolling pin, along with accompanying text like, “April showers bring May flours,” but remember to update the banner once the season is over so viewers know you’re consistent.

YouTube Banner Template

By now, you might be thinking, “Where the heck am I supposed to get these beautiful design assets?”

Check out these free channel art templates that will speed up your workflow. And they’re completely customizable, so you don’t have to worry about your channel art looking exactly like someone else’s. Download them now and follow the steps below to upload them to your channel.

How To Make a YouTube Banner

Step 1: Log in to your YouTube account and click on your profile photo. Then select Your channel.

Step 2: Click the blue Customize Channel button. A new tab will open and you’ll see a Channel customization screen.

Step 3: Click Branding in the top menu.

Step 4: Under the banner image section, select Upload.

Then, you’ll see the option to upload a file for your YouTube banner photo.

Step 5: Review the image preview to ensure that your banner image is displayed properly.

Step 6: Click Publish and review your YouTube channel’s new banner image.

That’s it! Easy enough right?

Channel Your Creativity

It’s important to note that cool YouTube channel art is just one part of a comprehensive video content strategy. It doesn’t matter how beautiful your banner is if your channel lacks quality video, or hasn’t added anything new in several weeks. So as you create your YouTube banner, go ahead and create two or three more that you can use throughout the year to keep things fresh and interesting.

And remember, you can always come back to these examples and tips for more inspiration.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in November 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

I’ll never forget the first time dining at a restaurant after my pandemic-induced hibernation. Before I could ask for a menu, the waitress nodded towards a piece of paper with a barcode on it. “Open your phone camera and scan it. The menu should pop up.”

QR codes have become a common sight almost overnight — from cereal boxes and billboards to even employee uniforms. With a 94% increase in interactions from 2018 to 2020, there’s no denying QR codes are seeing an epic revival in a new touch-free world.

Let’s explore the origins of the QR code, learn how it works, and discuss ways it can refresh your marketing strategy.

Table of Contents

What is a QR code?

Static vs. Dynamic QR Codes

How do QR codes work?

The Origins of the QR Code [+ Its 2020 Revival]

QR Codes for Marketing

What is a QR code?

Short for quick response, QR codes are scannable barcodes that store data. In the marketing sphere, they’re commonly used to redirect users to landing pages, websites, social media profiles, or store coupons.

For instance, someone can place a QR code on the back of their business card to direct you to their LinkedIn profile. A QR code on a billboard may send you to a landing page.

QR codes vary in design and function, and primarily fall into one of the following categories — static or dynamic.

Static vs. Dynamic QR Codes

A static QR code contains information that cannot be modified once it’s live. This means any typo or misstep will require you to create a brand new one. The good news is that static codes don’t expire — so once the content is set, your work is done.

Static QR codes are ideal for storing fixed or sensitive info — think Wi-Fi passwords, employee ID numbers, or access codes. But they’re not so helpful if you need to update your data regularly.

Dynamic QR codes allow you to change your info as many times as you want. This is because the information isn’t ingrained into the code itself. Instead, it redirects users to a specific URL that can be changed at any time. For example, a restaurant can redirect users to a menu on their website.

A major benefit of dynamic QR codes is the ability to gather scanning metrics. While you can’t access personal information from users, you can see the time, location, and device used for each scan. And as marketers, we know these metrics are crucial to gauging campaign effectiveness.

How do QR codes work?

A QR code works similarly to barcodes at the supermarket. Each QR code consists black squares and dots which represent different pieces of information. When scanned, the unique pattern on the barcode translates into human-readable data. This transaction happens in seconds.

Users must scan the code with a QR reader or scanner, although nowadays most people scan QR codes with smartphones. On the off chance your phone doesn’t have the capability, there are plenty of free apps for QR scanning like NeoReader and QuickMark Barcode Scanner.

The Origins of the QR Code [+ Its 2020 Revival]

Invented in 1994 by Masahiro Hara, chief engineer of Denso Wave, the original purpose of the QR code was to track vehicles and parts moving through the assembly line.

Despite being a mid-90s invention, the QR code didn’t gain any substantial momentum until the era of smartphones. But even then, users had to download a third-party app to scan the codes. A real breakthrough came in 2017 when Apple integrated a QR reader into its phones, and other manufacturers quickly followed suit.

Thanks to accessibility, a new wave of hype followed, then quickly dissipated as marketers’ interest fell to the wayside. That is, until 2020. You can probably guess where I’m going with this.

In the US alone, 11 million households scanned a QR code in 2020 — a significant jump from 9 million in 2018.

With the COVID-19 pandemic in full swing, the QR code gave businesses a new way to communicate with customers in a suddenly touchless society. From hospitality and food to retail and manufacturing, a variety of companies used them for the first time.

And for marketers, QR codes can strategically bridge the gap between offline and online media. They’ve quickly turned into dynamic, two-dimensional call-to-action buttons — operating as vehicles to engage customers, inspire action, drive traffic, and share info without having to invest a lot of money.

So, are QR codes here to stay? Whether or not they’ve earned a permanent spot in a post-pandemic world is still up for debate, but there’s no denying its incredible journey since its debut on the assembly line.

Here are a few ways to use QR codes to refresh your marketing strategies.

QR Codes for Marketing

1. QR codes can help you stand out from the crowd.

Differentiating your business from your competitors is definitely a marketing 101 lesson. If used correctly, QR codes can spike the curiosity of your customers and prospects alike. Use this opportunity to link QR codes to exclusive offers or valuable content to carry that curiosity through to a sale.

For example, check out SparkPlug Coffee who ran a giveaway where users could enter by scanning a QR code.

2. QR codes let you target consumers on the go.

Retailers, don’t you wish there were a way to interact with customers on the go? Integrate QR codes into your store signage and other print advertising. Whether you’re providing coupons for shopping in-store or an easy way to sign up for your newsletter, QR codes make it super easy for customers and prospects to access your information fast on their phones.

REI, an outdoor sports apparel retailer, had this signage on the front door of one of their stores to pique interest about their frequent shopper program. Instead of calling out the program, they focused on the benefit (dividends) and provided a QR code linked to a list of products people could purchase with their dividends.

3. QR codes make real life interactive like the web.

Many businesses are shifting their time and budgets to digital advertising, which is more interactive and easier to track than traditional advertising.

QR codes add an interactive component by turning static content into dynamic call-to-action buttons. From asking customers to leave a Google review to redirecting them to a branded Facebook page, you have many options to engage customers.

Even museums, libraries, and parks are leveraging QR codes to breathe life into displays and park benches. Check out this example from the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City:

4.QR codes are free and easy to set up.

There are multiple resources businesses can access that will allow them to insert a landing page URL and create a QR code that will direct users to that URL with the click of a button.

Sites like QRCode Monkey and Flowcode allow you to set up QR codes in a matter of minutes and provide you with proper image formats to use in your designs.

QR codes are certainly having a moment in the marketing sphere. If you’re thinking about adding them to your strategy, remember that the best practice is to create value. Make sure each code leads to a source of value — such as a coupon or promotion — and requires as few clicks as possible.

Lead nurturing emails allow you to build a relationship with your leads and move them down the sales funnel until they are ready to become a customer. It’s one of the best lead nurturing tactics you can use and an essential part of an email marketing strategy.

Why? Because lead nurturing emails radically increase the chances of your leads making a purchase. You no longer have to hope that they will buy your products. Rather, you’ll slowly warm them up until they make that decision.

In this post, you’ll learn best practices for creating high-performing lead nurturing emails to drive your leads to make a purchase.

How does lead nurturing work?

A potential customer may have several types of interactions with your business. They may add something to their cart, subscribe to a mailing list, take advantage of a promotion, or set up a meeting with one of your salespeople.

Lead nurturing refers to the process of staying in contact with your customer throughout each of these stages. You provide valuable resources, discount codes, or reminders to make a purchase.

Overall, to nurture a lead is to build and maintain a helpful, mutually beneficial relationship with them. The goal is to guide them toward making a purchase.

(Tip: If you’re unfamiliar with lead nurturing, we encourage you to take our free lead nurturing course.)

Are lead nurturing emails effective?

Yes. As social media has grown over time, using lead nurturing emails to market your business can sometimes feel like the less fun or hip option. But, it’s still an effective way to expand your market, convert leads, and connect to your target audience, especially if it’s done correctly. 99% of email users check their inbox on a daily basis, often multiple times a day or first thing in the morning. This makes using email a great tool to nurture a lead toward conversion.

As time passes, the lead may not click on your CTA, interact with your business, or make a purchase. Certain leads with an interest in your business will need ongoing engagement to continue down the sales funnel toward conversion. For that, you’ll need to create a lead nurturing email sequence.

Lead Nurturing Email Sequence

A lead nurturing email sequence is a series of emails that is automatically triggered when the lead takes a certain action. For example, once a customer adds an item to their cart, a lead nurturing email sequence could include a purchase reminder, a limited time offer, or a list of similar products they may like.

These sequences keep the lead engaged until they are ready to go forward with a purchase. See this example of a sequence after a lead has abandoned their cart.

The process of lead nurturing occurs over some time with your continuous effort. Building that relationship needs trust, understanding, and consistency. Using emails to nurture your relationship with potential leads can be highly effective. Follow these best practices to make them work best for you:

1. Provide valuable content with include expert insights.

The first priority is to make sure you have something valuable to teach your leads. Think of your lead nurturing emails as mini blog posts. For example, if you sell data backup software, your first nurturing email might focus on the “top six considerations to make before purchasing data backup software.” Remember, you are an expert within your industry. Continue teaching your leads something new, and they will be more than happy to receive your emails and continue engaging with your business.

2. Focus on one relevant topic per email.

Each nurturing email should be focused around one topic and include a call to action. Put yourself in your lead’s shoes when creating your emails, as they are bombarded by messages all day long. Keep the content of your email tied directly to the topic the lead initially converted on. For example, if your lead downloaded a FAQ white paper on data backup software, they are likely near the top of the funnel, researching a future purchase. Your first email’s topic could be “selling the importance of data backup software to your management team.” Speak directly to the problem your lead is trying to solve.

3. Keep it short.

This is not the time to worry about fonts, or adding images or custom HTML. The lead should be able to glance at your email and know within five seconds the value it provides to them. Information overload happens quickly in an email. Adding secondary calls-to-action or unrelated links will increase your unsubscribe rate and subtract from the effectiveness of your campaign. While data suggests that emails should be between 50 and 125 words, it’s okay to extend your message to fully connect with your leads. But keep it concise whenever possible.

4. Ensure the emails progress naturally.

Carefully planning the flow of your emails will help you create well-rounded campaigns that pull your leads through the sales funnel. The first email after the initial conversion might be educational, while subsequent emails should continue to educate while giving the lead an opportunity to convert a second time. This is a perfect opportunity to promote a free trial or the download of a demo. Work with your sales team to determine what qualifies as a “sales-ready lead” and craft your lead nurturing campaigns accordingly.

5. Test your emails and track key metrics.

Email testing is key to fine-tuning your campaigns. As you test your emails, be sure to track key metrics to measure the success of your efforts. Click-through-rate (the percentage of people who clicked a link in your email) and unsubscribe rate are two of the key metrics to track on a regular basis. A strong campaign will generally have an unsubscribe rate of less than 5%. If your unsubscribe rate climbs above 5%, it’s time to re-evaluate your campaign. Try testing new content or a stronger subject line, or adjusting the timing of your emails.

6. Personalize the emails.

You should be sending different emails to different types of leads and personalizing them to who they are specifically. This not only includes who they are as a consumer, but also what their interactions have been with your business thus far. Did they sign up for updates? Have they gotten an automated welcome email? Did they purchase from you once already? How long has it been since you acquired their email address or last had contact? Those are all things that should influence and change the content of the email.

7. Stay consistent to your brand.

Your business has an image, a voice, and a brand. The emails that you send to leads should continue to represent all of those things about your business. Continuing to establish your brand to a lead helps build a relationship that pushes them toward becoming a customer. The familiarity over time will build valuable trust and brand loyalty.

Before you start writing a lead nurturing email, focus on who your lead is and what your goal is for contacting them. Spamming leads with countless emails is more off-putting than it is nurturing. So, ensure your content is worthwhile for leads to read and for your business to send. Follow these tips to get started:

1. Choose a purpose.

Have a goal in mind for your message, whether it is answering an FAQ, delivering on a promised reward, introducing a new product, offering a discount, or sharing other content to engage the lead.

2. Personalize the greeting and subject line.

An attention-grabbing subject line and a personalized greeting are the initial hooks of a lead nurturing email.

3. Address pain points.

How can this product or service improve this lead’s life if they were a customer? Point out a problem that they have that you can solve.

4. Include testimonials.

Knowing that someone else was pleased with your product or service grows the lead’s trust in your business.

5. Share a knowledge bomb.

Including a striking piece of information or research will give your lead something that they’ll remember later on their path to becoming a customer.

6. Use a CTA.

Encouraging your lead to interact with your business through a call-to-action pushes them toward a conversion.

7. Include an unsubscribe button.

Leads that have no interest in your business, product, or service can’t be nurtured into customers. Allow those to unsubscribe so that you can focus on the good-fit leads.

8. Follow up.

Once the email is sent, track what happens next. Did the lead click on your CTA? Did they continue interacting with your business? Did they do nothing? Use that information to determine the effectiveness of the email and to influence what you send to them next.

Make a Seamless Lead Nurturing Strategy

A potential customer’s first interaction with your business is just the beginning. As they proceed down the sales funnel from lead to repeat customer, you will need to continuously engage them. Lead nurturing emails build trust between leads and your business. The sales funnel you create through nurturing emails should smoothly guide your leads into doing business with you.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in May 2010 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Would it be correct to assume a major part of your marketing strategy today is digital? Probably.

Consumers and businesses alike are almost always online and on the go – and you want to be able to reach them and observe their behavior where they spend their time.

But when you’re growing a business, this ever-changing digital landscape can quickly become an overwhelming one. With a number of other responsibilities and tasks that you need to do, how can you also efficiently create, fine-tune, and maintain an agile digital marketing strategy?

We’ve put together this guide about marketing strategies to help you improve your digital presence and grow better.

If you’re a small business and you’re unsure how to jumpstart your strategy, this digital marketing strategy template will help you get there. It includes actionable tips and templates to set you up for success.

Now back to this — are you confused about the difference between a marketing strategy and marketing tactics? We cover that below.

Marketing or not, there are three parts of any strategy:

1. A diagnosis of your challenge
2. A guiding policy for dealing with the challenge
3. A set of targeted actions that are necessary to accomplish the policy

Depending on the scale of your business, your marketing strategy may include several moving parts, each with different goals. With that said, working on your strategy can become daunting at times.

So, if you’re ever feeling overwhelmed about your marketing strategy, refer to these three steps to keep you focused on achieving your objectives.

To provide a better understanding of what they may entail, check out the following list of basic marketing strategies commonly utilized by teams across a range of industries.

Marketing Basics

• Publish a blog.
• Advertise on specific social media platforms (e.g. Facebook Ads or Instagram Ads).
• Offer free educational resources.
• Search engine optimize your digital content.
• Create a giveaway and/ or contest.
• Test different campaign types to determine what works best for your audience.
• Organize a webinar.
• Produce a podcast.
• Create an email campaign.

Now, let’s look at digital marketing strategy.

Similar to marketing strategies versus marketing tactics, “digital marketing strategy” and “digital marketing campaign” are also often interchanged. So, how do they differ?

We cover that in the following sections.

What is a digital marketing campaign?

Digital marketing campaigns are the building blocks and actions within your digital marketing strategy that move you toward a specific end goal.

For instance, if the overarching goal of your digital marketing strategy is to generate more leads through social media, you might run a digital marketing campaign on Twitter. You may share some of your business’s best-performing gated content on Twitter to generate more leads through the channel.

1. Build your buyer personas.

For any marketing strategy – digital or not – you need to know who you’re marketing to. The best digital marketing strategies are built upon detailed buyer personas, and your first step is to create them.

Organize your audience segments and make your marketing stronger with templates to build your buyer personas.

Buyer personas represent your ideal customer(s) and can be created by researching, surveying, and interviewing your business’s target audience.

It’s important to note that this information should be based upon real data whenever possible, as making assumptions about your audience can cause your marketing strategy to move in the wrong direction.

To get a rounded picture of your persona, your research pool should include a mixture of customers, prospects, and people outside your contacts database who align with your target audience.

But what kind of information should you gather for your own buyer persona(s) to inform your digital marketing strategy?

That depends on your business — it’s likely to vary depending on whether you’re B2B or B2C, or whether you sell a high-cost or low-cost product.

Here are some starting points that you can fine-tune and tailor to your particular business.

Quantitative and Demographic Information

• Location: Use web analytics tools to easily identify what location your website traffic is coming from.
• Age: Depending on your business, this may or may not be relevant information. But if it is, it’s best to gather this data by identifying trends in your existing prospect and contact database.
• Income: It’s best to gather sensitive information like personal income through persona research interviews, as people might be unwilling to share these details via online forms.
• Job Title: This is something you can get a rough idea of from your existing customer base and is most relevant for B2B companies.

Qualitative and Psychographic Information

• Goals: Depending on what challenge your product or service solves, you may already have a good idea of the goals of your buyer persona. Cement your assumptions by speaking to real customers and internal sales and customer service reps.
• Challenges: Speak to customers, sales and customer service reps, and any other customer-facing employees to get an idea of the common challenges your audience members face.
• Hobbies/Interests: Ask customers and those who align with your target audience about their hobbies and interests. If you’re a fashion brand, for example, it’s helpful to know if large segments of your audience are also interested in fitness and well-being to inform future content and partnerships.
• Priorities: Talk to customers and target audience members to find out what’s most important to them in relation to your business. For example, if you’re a B2B software company, knowing your audience values customer support over a competitive price point is very valuable information.

By combining all of these details, you’ll be able to create buyer personas that are accurate and highly valuable for your business.

2. Identify your goals and the digital marketing tools you’ll need.

Your marketing goals should always be tied back to the fundamental goals of your business.

For example, if your business’s goal is to increase online revenue by 20%, your marketing team’s goal might be to generate 50% more leads via the website than the previous year to contribute to that success.

Use a high-level marketing plan template to outline your annual marketing strategy, identify top priorities, and more.

Download the Template

Whatever your overarching digital marketing goal is, you must be able to measure the success of your strategy along the way with the right digital marketing tools.

For instance, the Reporting Dashboard in HubSpot brings all of your marketing and sales data into one place, so you can quickly determine what works and what doesn’t to improve your strategy for the future.

3. Evaluate your existing digital channels and assets.

When reviewing your existing digital marketing channels and assets to determine what to incorporate in your strategy, it’s helpful to first consider the big picture — this will prevent you from feeling overwhelmed or confused.

Gather what you have, and categorize each vehicle or asset in a spreadsheet, so you have a clear picture of your existing owned, earned, and paid media.

Owned, Earned, Paid Media Framework

To do this effectively, use the owned, earned, and paid media framework to categorize the digital “vehicles,” assets, or channels you’re already using and decide what’s a good fit for your strategy.

Owned Media

This refers to the digital assets your brand or company owns — whether that’s your website, social media profiles, blog content, or imagery. Owned channels are what your business has complete control over.

This can also include some off-site content you own that isn’t hosted on your website (e.g. a blog you publish on Medium).

Earned Media

Earned media refers to the exposure you earn through word-of-mouth marketing. Whether that’s content you’ve distributed on other websites (e.g. guest posts), PR work you’ve been doing, or the customer experience you’ve delivered. Earned media is the recognition you receive as a result of these efforts.

You can earn media by getting press mentions and positive reviews as well as by people sharing your content via their networks (e.g. social media channels).

Paid Media

Paid media refers to any vehicle or channel you spend money on to catch the attention of your buyer personas.

This includes things like Google AdWords, paid social media posts, native advertising (e.g. sponsored posts on other websites), or any other medium through which you pay in exchange for increased visibility.

Since you have a better grasp of what this framework entails, let’s look at an example.

Say you have an owned piece of content on a landing page on your website that’s been created to help you generate leads. You know you want to incorporate different parts of the framework rather than just working with owned, earned, or paid media alone.

To amplify the number of leads the content generates, you make an effort to ensure it’s shareable so your audience can distribute it via their social media profiles. In return, this will increase traffic to your landing page. This is the earned media component.

To support your content’s success, you might post about the content on your Facebook page and pay to have it seen by more people in your target audience.

This is how the three parts of the framework are able to work together — although, it’s not necessary for success. For instance, if your owned and earned media are already both successful, you might not need to invest in paid. So, evaluate the best solution to help you meet your goal, and then incorporate the channels that work best for your business into your digital marketing strategy.

Now you know what’s already being used, you can start to think about what to keep and what to cut.

Keep track of your paid media efforts with this free Paid Media Template.

Download the Template

4. Audit and plan your owned media campaigns.

At the heart of digital marketing is owned media — and it almost always comes in the form of content. That’s because nearly every message your brand broadcasts can be classified as content, whether it’s an About Us site page, product descriptions, blog posts, ebooks, infographics, podcasts, or social media posts.

Content helps convert your website visitors into leads and customers while improving your brand’s online presence. And when this content is search engine optimized (SEO), it can boost your search and organic traffic.

Whatever your digital marketing strategy goal is, you’ll want to incorporate owned content. To start, decide what content will help you reach your goals.

If your goal is to generate 50% more leads via the website than last year, your About Us page is most likely not going to be included in your strategy, unless that page has somehow been a lead-generation machine in the past.

Here’s a brief process you can follow to work out what owned content you need to meet your digital marketing strategy goals.

Audit your existing content.

Make a list of your existing owned content, and rank each item according to what has previously performed best in relation to your current goals.

For example, if your goal is lead generation, rank your content according to which pieces generated the most leads over the last year (such as a blog post, ebook, or site page).

The idea here is to figure out what’s currently working, and what’s not so that you can set yourself up for success when planning future content.

Identify gaps in your existing content.

Based on your buyer personas, identify any gaps in the content you have.

For example, if you’re a math tutoring company and know through research that a major challenge for your personas is finding effective ways to study, create some.

By looking at your content audit, you might discover that ebooks hosted on a certain type of landing page convert really well (better than webinars, for example).

In the case of this math tutoring company, you might make the decision to add an ebook about “how to make studying more effective” to your content creation plans.

Create a content creation plan.

Based on your findings and the gaps you’ve identified, make a content creation plan outlining the content that’s necessary to help you hit your goals.

This should include:

• A title
• Format
• A goal
• Promotional channels
• Why you’re creating the content
• The priority level of the content

This can be a simple spreadsheet, and should also include budget information if you’re planning to outsource the content creation, or a time estimate if you’re producing it yourself.

5. Audit and plan your earned media campaigns.

Evaluating your previous earned media against your current goals can help you get an idea of where to focus your time. Look at where your traffic and leads are coming from (if that’s your goal) and rank each earned media source from most effective to least effective.

You can obtain this information using tools like the Sources reports in HubSpot’s Traffic Analytics tool.

You may find a particular article you contributed to the industry press drove a lot of qualified traffic to your website, which boosted conversions. Or, you may discover LinkedIn is where you see most people sharing content, which increases traffic.

The idea is to build a picture of what types of earned media will help you reach your goals (and what won’t) based on historical data. However, if there’s something new you want to experiment with, don’t rule it out just because it’s never been done before.

6. Audit and plan your paid media campaigns.

This process involves much of the same process: You need to evaluate your existing paid media across each platform (e.g. Google AdWords, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) to figure out what’s most likely to help you meet your current goals.

If you’ve spent a lot of money on AdWords and haven’t seen the results you’d hoped for, maybe it’s time to refine your approach, or scrap it altogether and focus on another platform that seems to be yielding better results.

Use this free guide for more on how to leverage AdWords for your digital marketing strategy.

By the end of the process, you should have a clear idea of which paid media platforms you want to continue using, and which (if any) you’d like to remove from your strategy.

7. Bring your digital marketing campaign together.

You’ve done the planning and the research, and you now have a solid vision of the elements that will make up your digital marketing strategy.

To review, here’s what you should have solidified so far:

• Clear profile(s) of your buyer persona(s)
• One or more digital marketing-specific goals
• An inventory of your existing owned, earned, and paid media
• An audit of your existing owned, earned, and paid media
• An owned content creation plan or wish list

Now it’s time to bring all of this together to form a cohesive marketing strategy document. Your strategy document should map out the series of actions you’re going to take to achieve your goals, based on your research up to this point.

Let’s discuss how our digital strategy template can help.

Digital Marketing Strategy Template

While a spreadsheet can be an efficient format for mapping your digital marketing strategy, that approach can quickly become messy and overwhelming.

To plan your strategy for the long-term – typically between six to 12 months out, you need a reliable digital marketing strategy document. But, where to start? With our free digital marketing plan template.

This template will walk you through your business summary and initiatives, help you build your target market and competitor information, and flesh out your marketing strategy — including your budget and specific channels and metrics.

Use this digital strategy template to build out your annual digital marketing strategy and tactics. By planning out these yearly plans, you can overlay when you and your team will be executing each action. For example:

• In January, you’ll start a blog that will be continually updated once a week, for the entire year.
• In March, you’ll launch a new ebook, accompanied by paid promotion.
• In July, you’ll prepare for your biggest business month — what do you hope to have observed at this point that will influence the content you produce to support it?
• In September, you’ll focus on earned media in the form of PR to drive additional traffic during the run-up.

This approach provides a structured timeline for your activity which will help communicate plans among colleagues.

Finally, here are some examples of digital marketing campaigns and their strategies to inspire you.

1. Béis: Paid Ad

Travel accessory brand, Béis, recently launched a social media campaign to announce feature updates to one of its products. And they did it in the best way: by showing instead of telling.

In a 34-second clip, the brand showed how their product performed before and how it performs now following some changes to the material.

This is a fantastic campaign as it not only highlights an improvement on a product but it also shows customers that the brand is constantly iterating and improving. Secondly, they make sure to include captions in the video to ensure that it’s accessible without sound.

2. Omsom: Social Media

Asian food brand Omsom leverages its TikTok profile to share behind-the-scenes content, recipes, and culturally relevant content.

In a recent video, the brand’s co-founder shared how it sources one of its key ingredients and how they chose the more difficult route to preserve the integrity of the food.

@weareomsom

here’s why we choose to make our lives harder as food founders! #business #sourcing

♬ original sound – Omsom

Here’s what Omsom did right: They highlighted their brand’s values while still building excitement around the product.

Sharing behind-the-scenes content is a great way to connect with your audience and share details that will simultaneously highlight your mission and/or values.

3. The General: Paid Advertising

After reports that consumers thought the brand was untrustworthy due to its low-budget ads, The General decided to revamp its entire marketing strategy.

In a commercial featuring basketball superstar, Shaq, the brand addressed the elephant in the room and introduced a new-and-improved look.

In addition, they also emphasize their credibility by mentioning how long they’ve been in business and how many people they’ve helped.

By addressing negative perceptions head-on, brands can not only change how consumers view them but also show that they are in tune with their target audience.

Grow Better With Marketing Strategies That Improve Your Digital Presence

Your strategy document will be very individual to your business, which is why it’s almost impossible for us to create a one-size-fits-all digital marketing strategy template.

Remember, the purpose of your strategy document is to map out the actions you’re going to take to achieve your goal over a period of time — as long as it communicates that, then you’ve nailed the basics of creating a digital strategy.

If you’re eager to build a truly effective strategy to help grow your business, check out our free collection of content marketing templates below.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in October 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Have you ever sat down at your desk first thing in the morning and spent a good 45 minutes browsing social media or getting lost in your inbox because you can’t focus on what you need to do? At the end of the day, you feel as if you’ve wasted 8 hours of your life that you’ll never get back.

On the other hand, have you ever sat down, opened your calendar app or a to-do list, and jumped right into work, knocking out task after task in a matter of minutes? When you shut your computer at the end of the day, you feel accomplished and know that you’ve done everything possible to move towards your professional goals.

What’s the difference between these two scenarios? A plan. Having your day (or week, or project) mapped out with a concrete action plan will help you feel more focused and accomplished in less time. When it comes to marketing, an action plan could mean the difference between a campaign that sizzles and a campaign that fizzles.

Now that you know there’s a way to ensure more days end with the satisfaction of work done well, let’s take a closer look at what these plans actually are and how they can benefit you.

What is an action plan?

An action plan is a proposed strategy for whatever you want to accomplish. It’s a clear, detailed list of all the steps you need to take to reach your goal, along with a proposed timeline of when you’ll complete each step or task.

Perhaps you’ve heard of action plans in the past, but never tried to create one of your own, Or maybe, this is a brand new concept to you and you’re pretty sure you just heard a choir of angels in the background.

What is the purpose of an action plan?

Action plans are designed to help you reach your goals faster. By breaking down projects into smaller steps, you can ensure that you:

• Meet your goal in a timely fashion
• Don’t skip a step
• Communicate effectively with team members
• Set reasonable expectations for what you can accomplish in a specific period of time

While they will vary in complexity, action plans are good for small projects, large projects, projects that you complete on your own, and projects that involve other team members or individuals outside of your organization.

Convinced you need action plans in your life? Good. Let’s take a look at the steps necessary to implement them.

How to Write an Action Plan

Action plans can be as simple or complex as they need to be. However, before you start writing out the steps to reach your goal, you’ll need to identify something very important… your goal, of course!

What is it that you’d like to accomplish? Is there a new campaign you need to prepare before a specific launch date? Maybe you’re teaming up with another business or a nonprofit for cross-promotion. Perhaps you’re looking to increase brand awareness through various channels.

Whatever your goals, get very clear on what it is you want, why it’s important, and when you need it done. You may wish to create a SMART Action Plan by incorporating SMART goals into it. SMART stands for: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. This framework helps you determine if your goals are realistic, identify what actions are needed to reach your goals, and defines what success looks like.

Once you’ve determined what you want to accomplish and when it will need to be done, it’s time to start devising your plan. Follow these easy steps to create your plan of action.

1. Use a template or tool to capture your action plan and share it with anyone who needs to be involved. (You’ll find some options in the next section)
2. Brainstorm. Consider all the steps that need to get done to complete your project. You may find it helpful to start with larger aspects of the project and then break those down into smaller tasks. No task is too small to be listed (let’s be honest, checking things off a to-do list feels amazing).
3. Delegate and assign responsibilities to team members. You don’t have to go it alone! Hopefully, you have a trustworthy team standing by to help complete tasks and inch you closer and closer to the finish line. This also allows you to identify what resources you need to achieve the goal.
4. Schedule due dates. If your project needs to be done by a specific day (which it should or it could stretch on indefinitely), then each task will have its own due date. Keep in mind that some tasks can be worked on at the same time, while others will require that a previous task has been finished before you can start the new one.
5. Set up alerts to keep yourself (and your team) on track. It’s very easy to get caught up in the day-to-day grind and forget about a larger project looming in the distance. Use your scheduled due dates to set up reminders and pencil in time to work on specific tasks.
6. Track your progress and check in with your team. Your action plan may have looked top-notch when you wrote it, but as you work through it, you may discover that things need to change. If you see that you’re falling behind in the tasks, it may be time to re-evaluate and potentially tweak your action plan.
7. Celebrate. Completing a project is often cause for celebration, but don’t forget to review what worked and what didn’t for a smoother project next time.

Leadership action plans will not only help you achieve your goals, but will also help your team be clear on what they need to do, and feel accomplished once they’ve done it. They will also serve to identify any weak links in your organization.

Action plan Formats may differ depending on the needs of our specific project, however, as long as you include the goal, the steps, the people involved, and the due dates, you’ll have a solid plan to work with.

Action Plan Templates

When you’re ready to create an action plan, there’s no need to start from scratch. There are a number of templates and examples available that will provide the framework you need to devise your marketing strategy.

Below, is an action plan example for a 30-60-90 Day onboarding plan. This can always be tweaked to onboard individuals into a marketing position, or to create a marketing plan for your organization.

A marketing action plan may be as simple as this template:

Image Source

You can also use Hubspot’s Marketing Plan Generator to guide you along the way.

No matter how you do it, an action plan may take a little bit of time to create, however, you’ll save time, energy, and resources when you have a clear plan of action for your next project or campaign.

And just like that, another year is (almost) in the books. As marketers begin to map out their 2022 marketing plans, it’s the perfect time to dust off the crystal ball and predict what will shape the industry over the coming year.

There’s certainly a lot to consider — the continuing impact of the global pandemic, the massive shift to digital advertising, and the rise of platforms like TikTok — to name a few. Simply put, what worked for your marketing strategy in the past might not fly in 2022.

Ready to explore the future of marketing? Let’s look at all different types of advertising, and the 6 types brands are investing in this year.

1. Video Advertising

As marketers look for innovative ways to engage audiences, video has become an integral part of the conversation. Video advertising uses videos to promote products and services, educate or entertain consumers, and reach new audiences in an engaging way.

But let’s be honest — video isn’t a new, “up-and-coming” strategy. It’s here, and its impact is already undeniable. And with the popularity of video-related platforms like YouTube and TikTok, it remains a top priority for marketers.

2. Social Media Advertising

It’s hard to imagine any company successfully marketing its offerings today without a social media account. With over 4 billion people on social media, it’s easy to see why companies gravitate to this medium.

Social media advertising serves paid ads to your target audience on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Aside from its reach, it also offers a wealth of opportunities to boost brand awareness, generate and convert leads, and foster customer relationships.

Social media is also great for retargeting, which is the process of targeting audiences who have previously interacted with your website or social media. SharpSpring Ads is one retargeting platform that lets users recapture lost viewers by sending them targeted ads on Facebook, Twitter, and across the web.

3. Mobile Advertising

Digital advertising is all about meeting people where they are, and more often than not, they’re on their phones. In fact, as of July 2021, 56% of all web traffic came from mobile phones. If we jump back to 2011, this number was just over 6%.

Mobile advertising encompasses all forms of advertising on mobile devices — anything from banner ads and popups to SMS text messages. When done correctly, marketers can take their campaigns mobile to reach audiences exactly where they are.

4. Display Advertising

Display advertisements are mostly found along the top or sides of third-party websites. And due to their flashy style and placement, they aren’t exactly subtle. However, display ads can offer impressive reach, and they are easy to create and track in Google AdWords.

During a time where consumers want less intrusive ad experiences, it can be easy to write off display ads. Although it may take some trial-and-error, marketers can create effective displays ads while providing consumers a great experience. Plus, if the ads are enticing enough, they can build brand awareness and capture leads.

5. Print Advertising

When I think of print advertising, I picture the infamous poster of Rosie the Riveter, recruiting women for defense industries in World War II. While the ad industry has evolved since the 40s, print is still an effective and universally-used medium. It’s now migrated to the digital space, encompassing digital magazines, newspapers, and brochures, among others.

Unlike digital ads, print advertising is nearly impossible to track and analyze as accurately. However, many businesses have found innovative ways to incorporate print into digital ad campaigns.

6. Broadcast Advertising

Broadcast advertising uses TV and radio to promote products and services. TV ads, in particular, have a broad reach and can provide a more engaging, multi-sensory experience. But, these ads are expensive and the audience may avoid them (by clicking to another channel).

A cheaper alternative is radio, which plays spoken advertising spots between music and programs. It’s particularly powerful for local and regional advertising. But if you’re looking for national reach, podcast advertising is a similar method.

7. Native Advertising

Have you ever seen an advertisement on Instagram that looks exactly like a normal post from someone you’re following? That’s one example of native advertising.

Native ads often resemble the design, style, position, and functionality of the content around them. They’re undoubtedly harder to spot, but that’s actually a good thing. Because native ads naturally integrate with other content, they’re almost impossible to spot and skip — capturing three times more time and attention than other digital ads.

For example, you may run an ad campaign across TV, print, and social media to promote a new product launch. Regardless of the medium, the singular message is there — we have a new product, and we want you to know about it.

Types of Advertising Campaigns

Here are three main types of advertising campaigns:

1. Promotional Campaigns

Promotional campaigns focus on promoting products or services and building awareness in new markets or locations. In other words, the name of the game is customer acquisition. For example, you may run a Facebook campaign to promote an upcoming business event.

2. Engagement Campaigns

Engagement campaigns have a simple goal: provide enough value that people complete an action (make a purchase, sign up for an e-newsletter, download an eBook, etc.). It’s an excellent way to attract, retain, and, ultimately, convert leads and build brand awareness.

3. Advocacy or Retention Campaigns

We’ve all heard the statistic — it’s cheaper (and arguably easier) to retain customers than to convert new ones. This is why advocacy and retention campaigns are so important. These campaigns keep your business top-of-mind for your existing client white boosting repeat business long-term.

6 Types of Advertising Brands Are Investing In This Year

Ad spending in the US will surpass the $200 billion mark in 2022. Let’s find out where marketers are investing their time and money next year:

1. Short-Form Videos

Short-form videos are everywhere nowadays. In a 2021 HubSpot Blog poll of 1,000+ global marketing professionals, 85% of marketers ranked short-form videos as the most effective type of content in 2021. Additionally, 64% of marketers surveyed plan to invest their ad spend into video in 2022.

The popularity of short-form videos has continued to rise since the introduction of TikTok, and it has no signs of slowing down. Unlike its digital marketing counterparts, short-form video can create immersive experiences for users. They’re more “sticky,” shareable, and, in my opinion, way more addicting than other formats.

A variety of social media platforms have tried to emulate TikTok’s format. This creates a lot of ground for marketers to cover — from Stories on YouTube to Reels on Instagram. For marketers who have the budget for creating, producing, and editing video content — and the creativity to make engaging videos — the iron is hot for the striking.

2. TikTok and YouTube

Since short-form videos are skyrocketing in popularity, it only makes sense that video-sharing platforms are too.

Marketers are certainly setting their sights on YouTube and TikTok next year. In a 2021 HubSpot poll, 44% of marketers plan to leverage YouTube for the first time in 2022. And 61% of marketers plan to increase their investment in TikTok marketing in 2022.

When it comes to video marketing, YouTube has become the go-to destination for marketers. It now has over 1 billion active users, and is the second most popular website behind Google (which owns YouTube). All this to say, your audience is probably on there.

Then there’s TikTok. It’s climbed the ranks over the past few years, becoming the most downloaded app in 2020 and 2021, respectively. Not only is it the app of choice for Gen-Z’ers, but it’s also quickly growing in popularity among Millennials. The app has yet to plateau, so there’s still time to leverage it.

3. Live Video Streaming

Before the COVID pandemic, I’d never heard of Zoom. Now, I use the app a few times per week. Turns out I’m not alone — many marketers did experiments with live video in 2020 and realized its power as a customer acquisition and retention tool.

In terms of expenses, live video is typically more cost-effective than producing and editing an actual business video. Additionally, many social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have live video capabilities, presenting a great opportunity to expand your reach.

We predict live video streaming will become a default for marketers moving forward. Whether that means refining your presentation skill or learning to engage views on stream, marketers will need to keep a pulse on best practices and industry standards in this space.

4. Conversational Marketing

Conversational marketing and chatbots are becoming commonplace online. In 2021, 47% of marketers report using bots for marketing efforts, up from 45% the year before — and this trend isn’t slowing down.

Here’s why we’re hedging our bets on conversational marketing in 2022 — first, chatbots are now much easier to use and add to websites. Second, AI powers many of these tools — which significantly impact (and improve) the way we connect with customers and manage leads.

Marketers should expect to see AI powering a growing number of customer support, ad targeting, campaign management, and automation tools. This leads to our next trend…

5. Marketing Automation

Odds are, you have at least one marketing automation tool in your wheelhouse — and we predict this number will grow in the next year.

76% of companies in 2021 report using automation. Of those that don’t, 26% plan on adopting automation in 2022.

The trend is clear — marketers are turning to automation to make their life easier. For instance, AdStage offers automation for scheduling and tracking digital ads — which frees up valuable time for other tasks.

When nearly 90% of agencies say their marketing automation strategy is successful, it’s clear why it’s here to stay.

6. Hybrid Events

Hybrid events occur both in-person and “virtually” through a streaming platform.

Engagement is what distinguishes a hybrid event from, say, a Ted talk on YouTube. Hybrid events cater to both in-personal and online attendees by using technology to spark participation between them. Virtual attendees can typically still ask questions (if applicable) and engage with presentations with no issues.

A report found that 93% of event professionals plan to invest in virtual events post-pandemic. That’s a staggering number, and we predict it will continue to rise.

Final Thoughts

Marketers are always learning to evolve in a world where consumer preferences are ever-changing. As we inch closer to 2022, it’s important to revisit the past year, pinpoint areas for improvement in your advertising efforts, and leverage emerging trends and shifts.

You’ve heard it a million times, native advertising is one of the most immersive advertising experiences. But what exactly is native advertising, and why is it causing such a stir for brands, agencies, and publishers?

Native ads developed as a concept over 10 years ago and have a unique ability to evolve with media as it changes. They have since overtaken display ads as the most popular form of digital advertising.

Native advertising is a chance to put editorial expertise to work for advertisers and brands. It provides a more trusted and valuable, channel to reach readers as compared to banner or traditional display advertising.

In this article, we’ll cover why they’ve continued to grow in popularity and effectiveness and how you can incorporate them into your marketing strategy next quarter.

A small icon is also an indicator, often a small “s,” that if you click on it will indicate that the content is a paid ad. Google search results often include native ads in the form of listings that appear at the top or in the sidebar. The nature of native advertising is that it doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb as the ad. So, the signs are often more subtle than traditional ads.

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Native Advertising vs. Content Marketing

The purpose of native advertising is to blend in and not disrupt the viewer’s experience with the given content and media. Native ads engage new audiences through a third-party with an established audience. It’s a method for distributing content, rather than the content itself. This might sound similar to content marketing, but the goal differs.

Content marketing is content that lives on your platforms, such as your website or social media pages. The purpose of this content is to build a following, grow a reader base, establish yourself as an industry expert, build trust with your audience, demonstrate credibility, increase engagement, improve sales, or all of the above.

1. Altran Engineering in the Financial Times

This native advertisement combines some of the best elements of digital advertising: video, a human interest story, and classy hi-tech with an Elon Musk connection.

Produced by the Altran engineering company, and published in the Industrial Tech section of the Financial Times, the above video, “Hyperloop: designing the future of transport?” tells the story of a group of students from the Technical University in Valencia, Spain who are competing in the 2018 Hyperloop Pod Competition run by Musk’s SpaceX company.

This native video ad has a palpable human component — the students and the Altran staff who are supporting them in the tough competition. This brings in its futuristic aspect — the best and the brightest working to design the fastest transport pod that will transform the future of transportation. And it’s presented as a news story, not as a promotion or ad for Altran or the SpaceX competition (although it’s actually promoting both).

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This video has a high production value, making it a high-quality native video ad. The compelling narrative it provides also strongly pulls viewers in and gives them a story they want to engage with.

2. Land Rover — A Mini Suspense/Action Movie

Land Rover uses diverse outstanding content marketing campaigns to promote its vehicles. These native content strategies are in full form in Land Rover’s Dragon Challenge video, shown above. It’s eye-catching, slick, and suspenseful. It’s everything a native campaign can and should be.

This nail-biting ad shows the world’s first attempt to scale the stairs leading to the Heaven’s Gate landmark in China — by vehicle. A specially fitted Range Rover SUV successfully drove up the 999 steps to Heaven’s Gate, at a frightening angle of 45 degrees.

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This native campaign perfectly captures the brand essence of Land Rover — daring, excellence, adventure, and ultimately, success. Promoted via social Land Rover’s networks, it’s much more than an ad. It’s a record-breaking event and a story of its own.

3. Eni Energy on CNN

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Here’s an example of graphic, luscious storytelling, ripe with green landscapes, promoted by oil and energy conglomerate Eni. It focuses on the Green River Project in the Niger Delta, an Eni development program for farming and livestock to improve the livelihoods of local communities. The campaign is promoted with native ads on CNN.com, linking back to the Green River Project. It’s a truly impressive example of native content.

The site is designed as a story, divided into three sections: Past, Present, and Future. The content is a mix of just about everything — text, imagery, audio, video, personal stories, animations, and illustrations. The complete look and feel is reflective of an environmental agency, rather than an oil company.

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In this native campaign, Eni succeeds in distancing itself from the criticisms faced by energy conglomerates. They also manage to create a brand image as a 21st-century social and environmental force for good, and a beacon of corporate responsibility.

4. Mercedes in The Washington Post

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This native campaign by Mercedes is an example of smooth, clean content designed to pique interest and engage the user. The campaign is called “The rise of the superhuman,” and it focuses on various technologies that are turning people into “superhumans,” such as robotic exoskeleton suits, virtual reality in medical settings, and the Mercedes Benz E-class series that integrates the new Intelligent Drive system.

The native content above is highly interactive, featuring quiz questions and hot spots the user can click to get more information. But one of the best things about this campaign is how it effortlessly creates a connection between Mercedes and the “superhuman.” It’s reminiscent of one of the oldest native examples, the “Penalty of Leadership” ad by Cadillac, which enhanced the Cadillac image as a prestigious leader. That simple print ad, published in 1915, is credited with reviving the Cadillac brand and boosting flagging sales that plagued the company at the time.

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The major draw of this native ad is the powerful connection it creates between the car and the concept of cutting-edge excellence. It establishes Mercedes as a company that is about more than just crafting cars.

5. Viral Meme on VentureBeat

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Nothing beats a viral meme in terms of sheer stickiness, and it’s a great way to promote brand awareness. Recently, during the famous “Laurel or Yanny?” dispute, we saw VentureBeat take advantage of the meme in native content to promote the upcoming Transform conference on artificial intelligence and analytics. How? By using an artificial intelligence (AI) device to settle the dilemma of Laurel versus Yanny, once and for all.

VentureBeat promoted an article that briefly describes how AI was used to determine whether the stated name was Laurel or Yanny. The native article discusses some of the problems that arose, and how the engineers had to adjust the algorithms to get an accurate result.

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Using a viral meme is a smart move because it capitalizes on a large audience that already exists. It’s attention-grabbing and exposes you to a wider pool of viewers.

6. Allbirds in The New York Times

Special articles in The New York Times focus on creating an experience, not just a story. This is a great opportunity for native advertising to come into play. This paid post, The View From Above: Why Our Future May Depend On the Fate of Birds, was placed online and sponsored by the shoe company Allbirds. This example was placed as an in-feed/in-content ad on the platform’s newsfeed.

The article is about how valuable birds are to our environment and the ways climate change is putting them at risk. Allbirds as a company has a major focus on sustainability, and, obviously, has “birds” in its name. The post’s beautiful animated graphics and soundtrack of bird sounds create an awesome experience for viewers that also promotes the company.

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The format of native advertising is at its best when the media can align with the brand. Allbirds being able to create an experience about sustainability promotes not just their product but also their priorities as a company.

7. Influencer Promotion on BBC.com

BBC Future is one of the BBC’s “storytelling” channels, which connects brands to audiences via sponsored stories. An interesting example is this BBC article, which purports to show the face of the “average American politician.”

In fact, this is achieved by using technology to perform “face averaging,” creating composite images of all American politicians to derive the average face.

This technology can lead to all kinds of research and suppositions about what the average politician represents, including gender, race, republican, and democrat — all hot topics in a highly politicized time period.

The article ends with a call-to-action (CTA) to learn more about face averaging with an online tutorial on OpenCV, an open-source computer vision software. The link leads to a website owned, not by a large corporation or software giant, but by an individual entrepreneur, programmer, and blogger: Satya Mallik.

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In this example, we love how native advertising is accessible to small businesses and influencers, affording powerful promotion opportunities on premium websites like the BBC.

8. Colored Corn on Business Insider

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One of the best native tactics is creating a story. And if the story is visual and colorful, well, that’s a huge help. Take this example of native content promoted on Business Insider.

The example above looks and feels just like a regular Business Insider article. It’s about Glass Gem Corn, a multi-colored corn variety that became a public sensation in 2012. It’s the story of one man and his search for his Native American roots that led him to develop the colored corn. And in true Business Insider fashion, the story of the rainbow corn is retold in amazing, bold, eye-catching visuals.

The article contains links to buy the seeds online from Native/SEARCH, a not-for-profit conservation company that now owns the product. So what’s in effect a product sales page is presented as a remarkable, colorful news story.

What’s most interesting about this article is the disclaimer published by Business Insider: “This article was originally published in 2013 and has been updated because the story is timeless.” It just goes to show: Evergreen content promoted natively can truly be a long-term success story.

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Crafting a story that is fun, interesting, and promotional is a great way to format a native ad. This also has the benefit of being attached to a viral story, making it even more effective.

9. KPMG on Forbes

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Forbes’ BrandVoice is a platform for native advertising and sponsored content. Many brands have their own BrandVoice channels, such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, SAP, Deloitte, and even the government of Japan.

KPMG has taken its native content on Forbes to the next level, with a campaign called “The Great Rewrite.”

Big and bold (just like native advertising should be), The Great Rewrite focuses on different industries and how they are being “rewritten” in a post-innovation age. The campaign look and feel is grand and ultra-modern, yet easy to navigate.

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This native ad connects KPMG with the future of innovation, while continually adding new “chapters” about various sectors. Each chapter is packed with content, including video, featured articles, and content recommendations. This is a great example of a native campaign that, just like its title, is rewriting the rules of native in an ongoing, ever-growing, content-rich user experience.

10. Orbit Gum on CollegeHumor

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Videos make great native ads because the entertainment value makes it easy to blend into traditional media. “Dating Footnotes” presented by Orbit was released ahead of Valentine’s Day on the popular YouTube comedy channel CollegeHumor. It’s short, funny, and capitalized on the holiday of the time.

Orbit has a history of fun, memorable commercials, so a native ad like this fits perfectly into their branding. This native ad also blended well into the humor of the channel where it’s posted and was able to promote Orbit Gum’s products without feeling like a regular commercial.

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Humor and creativity go a long way when it comes to advertising. This, plus the real-world application of a product, like gum on a first date, makes for a memorable and effective native ad.

Native Ads Have Great Potential

These days, many native ads that we see online are truly spectacular. Some are eye-catching, others are original, and yet others offer inspiration for new ways to promote compelling content and capture mindshare.

The nine examples give a taste as to how native advertising is constantly advancing, pushing the boundaries of content and design to create new, unexpected online brand experiences.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in June 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.