Yearly Archives: 2023

Programmatic SEO: Is it one heck of a challenge or something you can master in three hours? Do you need a specific toolkit, or will a basic understanding of Google Sheets suffice? And most importantly, how do you tackle programmatic SEO if you’ve never done it before?

These are all valid questions — and I’m here to walk you through the answers and more. Plus, I’ll even share a step-by-step process of how to begin with programmatic SEO.

(Psst: If you want to learn more about programmatic marketing, check out Programmatic Ads 101: The Plain-English Guide to Programmatic Advertising.)

Table of Contents

• What is programmatic SEO?
• How to Do Programmatic SEO
• Programmatic SEO Examples
• 5 Tips for Building Your SEO Strategy with Programmatic SEO

What is programmatic SEO?

With programmatic SEO (or pSEO), you are making pages that target keywords nearly automatically.

Thanks to programmatic SEO, you can generate hundreds to thousands of landing pages designed to target hundreds to thousands of keywords — but you don’t need to spend time creating those pages manually, which saves a lot of time.

To do this, you’ll fetch data from and use pre-programmed rules. So, where do humans come into the picture? Only to fact-check the data and fill in the databases.

But here’s a caveat.

“Many people confuse product-led SEO with programmatic SEO,” says Kevin Indig, author of Growth Memo. Indig is also a growth advisor and ex-director of SEO at Shopify. He says confusion makes sense. These concepts do overlap.

Indig says product-led SEO involves a company that exposes a part of its inventory to drive organic traffic. A good example is Instacart, which allows Google to index all of its category and product pages.

“Programmatic SEO, on the other hand, is a set of pages created by a company that doesn’t have an exposable inventory,” says Indig.

He points to Workable as an example, which lists job descriptions on its site.

Job descriptions are not part of the company’s product inventory. However, the content fits well with the product, so the team created pages with the same layout and content pattern.

“To do pSEO, identify query patterns related to your product and build pages with the same pattern around them,” Indig says.

How to Do Programmatic SEO

Every pSEO case is somewhat unique regarding a toolkit and approach. To discuss the complete process, I’ll share insights from Juan Bello, founder of PorterMetrics, and Filippo Irdi, a growth marketing manager at Unmuted.

Let’s start with examples of pages you can design with programmatic SEO.

“At PorterMetrics, we started doing programmatic SEO to scale for Product pages and Templates gallery pages,” says Bello.

Tech stack you need to replicate Porter’s process:

• WordPress + Elementor.
• Airtable.
• Google Sheets.
• ChatGPT (through the add-on GPT for Sheets and Slides).
• Whalesync or WPSync.
• Content Management System (CMS) like WordPress or HubSpot CMS.
• Meta description generator by HubSpot (at your discretion).

Now, I’ll take you through 5 essential steps of setting up programmatic SEO.

1. Choose a strategy for your programmatic SEO.

When devising a pSEO strategy, Irdi suggests considering one of the following three or mixing them up together to scale your efforts.

Vertical Approach

A vertical approach focuses on targeting a specific niche.

For instance, if you have a CRM designed for accountants, you can create content that ranks for keywords related to that profession. In this case, you’d be looking for terms that have a similar structure and are possibly used by accountants.

For example, if you search for “Software for accountants” in Ahrefs, this is the first result that comes up:

Here is a very clear pattern.

The two terms, “audit software for chartered accountants” and “accounting software for a chartered accountant,” have decent search volumes and the same structure: {accountant need} + for chartered accountant.

Given the search volumes and the keyword difficulty (KD), it’s worth deepening the research. The search result for “for a chartered accountant” has 273 terms with a similar structure.

You can use programmatic SEO to generate a landing page to target each of these keywords. As you can see, with the vertical approach, you pick a niche and attempt to cover every topic of interest for that specific community.

Pro tip: Don’t overlook keywords with low search volume. These can be hidden gems that provide unique opportunities to target specific niches.

Horizontal Approach

On the other hand, the horizontal approach involves positioning your content to capture traffic from different business types.

For example, if you offer booking software, you can aim to target niches that need your service. In the case of booking tools, you could think of terms structured like “booking tool for + {profession}.”

Following the same method, you’d search on Ahrefs for something along the lines of “booking software for.”

Here, the pattern is even easier to spot. All 499 keywords have the same structure: “booking software” + {business type}.

Pro tip: This is a great strategy if your product is highly adaptable and usable across industries.

ABM Approach

An Account-Based Marketing (ABM) tactic involves creating a list of partners or developing landing pages dedicated to prospective accounts and highlighting the benefits of a potential collaboration.

Let’s say you have a marketplace to connect manufacturers and contractors. You can create landing pages for all your production partners to leverage their reputation and drive traffic to your platform.

Pro tip: Create a comprehensive strategy and break it down into small pieces. Execute one piece at a time; if you get positive signals (such as an increase in organic traffic or pipeline traction), then move on to executing the next one.

2. Create a table (a database) of your content elements to fetch the data.

Next, visualize your potential topic clusters. According to Juan Bello, tables are an excellent way to do so.

“To do programmatic SEO, you should think of your marketing content as a table or spreadsheet, not as pieces of content,” Bello says. He then recommends the following layout:

• Rows with the use cases or topics you’ll cover.
• Columns with the “parameters” or elements of your content (e.g. H1, Title, text, images, etc.).
• A table that covers a specific angle or cluster.

“The use cases or topics are every piece of content you’ll create for a specific angle or category. These topics are determined by your business model,” Bello says.

Example:

Company	Category	Angle	Clusters	Page example
Porter Metrics	Marketing reporting software	Use cases	Report template	Social Media report template PPC report template Agency report template
Porter Metrics	Marketing reporting software	Integrations	Dashboard software	Social media dashboard software PPC dashboard software Agency dashboard software
Booking	Hotels listings	Cities	Best hotels	NY best hotels Boston best hotels Toronto best hotels
Yelp	Restaurants listings	Cities, neighborhoods	Best restaurants	NY best restaurants Boston best restaurants Toronto best hotels
HubSpot	CRM software	Use cases	Software/tool	CRM software Sales software Service software
E-commerce store example	E-commerce	Color	Shoes	White shoes Black shoes Red shoes

3. Use case mapping to outline topic clusters.

To cherry-pick the topics without keyword research but with real interest from your prospective customers, PorterMetrics follows these four steps. Bello provided both the steps and the images of conducting this process.

Use Google Search Console to grab the keywords you’re ranking for. Categorize them or tag them into general topics to build use case maps.

Collect customer questions or topics from your customer service chats, calls, or emails to find the most urgent, common use cases people are trying to solve.

Use ChatGPT to analyze and summarize these conversations.

Scan other competitors’ and other websites’ robots.txt and sitemaps.xml to see how they structure their websites.

In Bello’s example, he learned how ClickUp structured their template pages by use case and then user type, ending up with +5K programmatic pages.

4. Make the most of content filling.

By following Porter’s pSEO example, create your table (or database) on Airtable.

Then, use WP Sync or Whalesync to sync the Airtable data on WordPress. These plugins would let you import this table to WordPress in a single click.

Every row creates a new WordPress page. Elementor lets you add dynamic elements so you can pull your Airtable columns as parameters on the webpage builder.

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Click on the live Airtable template for content filling to replicate the structure.

To fill the table with content, use three methods:

• Create formulas for headings such as “{Integration name} + reporting tool” (e.g. Facebook Ads reporting tool)

• ChatGTP: Create dynamic prompts (e.g., “Create a description for an {integration name} reporting software…”). For this, we used the tools Data Fetcher or GPT for Sheets to connect ChatGPT to Airtable and Google Sheets, respectively.

• Manually: When the copy isn’t standard to use formulas, or ChatGPT couldn’t provide contextual answers, fill pages manually.

• Translation: We used ChatGPT to generate translations of every parameter and text into other languages (Spanish, Portuguese), making it relatively easy to make our content multilingual.

5. Dive into examples and results.

Stick to this tutorial to generate pages similar to Porter’s:

• Connectors pages.
• Looker Studio connector pages.
• Google Sheets connector pages.

They are all nested under the Integrations category. creating

Destinations: [Integration name] for Google Sheets, [Integration name] for Looker Studio, [Integration name] data connector.

Languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese.

Note: If you change the subfolder from /en/ to /es/, you’ll find the equivalent in Spanish. If you change the subfolder to /pt/ and /connectors/ for /conectores/, you’ll see the Portuguese version.

Example

English: https://portermetrics.com/en/connectors/facebook-ads/ (Facebook Ads data connector)

Spanish: https://portermetrics.com/es/connectors/facebook-ads/

Portuguese: https://portermetrics.com/pt/conectores/facebook-ads/

That’s all; you now know the steps necessary to help you generate hundreds of pages.

Programmatic SEO Examples

Now that you know how to do programmatic SEO, I’ll discuss some examples.

1. Userpilot produces tool-by-tool comparison articles for zero and low-search volume keywords.

“We have produced 274 posts in nearly a year using programmatic SEO, which are converting at a 3x higher rate than our regular posts. You can see all the posts produced this way under our Tools category,” says Emilia Korczynska, head of marketing at Userpilot.

Korczynska says that these posts target the bottom of the funnel with keyword combinations like:

• Best {use case} tools/software.

• {Tool1} alternatives and competitors.

• What is…{use case} + Question (e.g., how to {verb} {use case}).

• [N] Best {use case} tactics that actually work.

• Best {use case} services/agencies for your business / {industry}.

• {tool1} vs {tool2} vs {tool3} for {use case}.

“The top benefit is that these posts convert at a much higher rate, and it’s not a traffic play. They drive relatively little traffic (less than 1% of our traffic),” Korczynska says.

Further, programmatic SEO contributed to large savings.

“It costs us so far $97 on average per programmatic post vs $275.09 per “traditional” ones,” continues Korczynska.

Now, you’re curious how it works from the technical side. Korczynska shares her working process. Her team uses post templates (a different template for every keyword pattern) built in Google Sheets, and two databases are also built in Google Sheets.

“The VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP formulas fetch info from the databases for each tool/use case and weave them into the template to produce a blog post. We then upload a CSV file with all the blog posts into our WP,” Korczynska says.

2. ClickUp uses programmatic SEO to publish over 1,000 pages per month.

ClickUp went from 25 pSEO pages and scaled publishing to thousands of pages per month. Here’s how it started and crucial tips for pSEO from Mason Yu, SEO product and AI advisor at ClickUp.

Programmatic SEO can trip up SEO experts for two reasons, Yu says.

“[One,] they cringe at the thought of thousands of duplicate content adding no value to the internet,” Yu says. “They can’t find a keyword pattern that feels worthy of a programmatic campaign.”

According to Yu, programmatic campaigns should take an iterative, agile approach. You don’t have to start with ambitious plans to launch 10,000 pages at once, he says. Instead, validate that there are enough reasons to pursue a programmatic keyword set with maybe 20-30 keywords.

“That will safeguard you from sending a bunch of useless pages into the void and test your programmatic prototype for content-market fit,” Yu shares. “Once you have the foundations in place and users find the content valuable, you can always expand your keyword list.”

Yu’s team at ClickUp followed this approach.

“Each time we expanded our campaigns, our results came very close to our projects because we had enough learnings to get buy-in for further expansion,” Yu says.

3. Tango builds how-to guides with programmatic SEO at scale.

Hal Zeitlin’s B2B marketing agency Candid Leap scales content marketing production for Tango with pSEO. Let’s walk through its workflow.

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The Created with Tango Gallery campaign is in its early days. However, it’s a great example of how a brand can show off its product’s value prop in a unique way when driven by a researched SEO strategy.

Let’s see what visitors can get in this gallery.

• Multiple categories to filter with multi-select (Use Case and Software).

• Tags showing what you have filtered for, with x buttons.

• Call to action inside the content grid.

Zeitlin’s team showcases pieces of content for different filters, making the most of programmatic SEO.

4. Flying Cat published 1,700 integration pages programmatically in 3 months, which led to 45% of all their demo requests.

Usman Akram, head of SEO growth strategy at Flying Cat Marketing, integrates programmatic SEO into clientele’s SEO growth strategies. Together with the team, they achieve astonishing results in terms of conversions and ROI.

Akram describes one client in the hospitality technology sector, which offered a middleware solution that links various tools to facilitate smooth operations. Think of Zapier but specifically for the hospitality sector.

Akram’s team created 1,700 BOFU pages for the company. These pages played a significant role, he says, contributing to around 45% of all their demo requests originating from organic search traffic.

“While our client’s website featured pages for direct integrations, our analysis using Hotjar’s session recordings revealed something intriguing,” he says. “Visitors to these integration pages were keen to understand not just the individual integrations but also how they worked together as a system.”

After some creative thinking, Akram and his team identified three types of scalable content that could be produced for each integration enabled by our client’s product:

• Partner pages. These pages highlighted each direct integration with our client’s product. For example, “Connect [Our Client] with [Partner].”
• Partner integration pages. These pages outlined the benefits of linking two of our client’s partners together.
• How-to pages. For each partner, these pages provided instructions for common use cases, such as “How to Create a House Manual with [Partner].”

“The execution of this Programmatic SEO campaign wasn’t a challenge: we created some template pages with custom variables, created a large database for all variables, and pushed them live using a CSV import plugin in WordPress,” Akram says.

However, Akram notes, ideation and planning were the real challenges.

“We were charting an unconventional path with our research, as there was no existing search volume data for any of the 1,700 pages we aimed to create,” Akram says. “However, with a deep understanding of the customer, we were confident that these content ideas would meet the users’ needs.”

Did Akram’s strategy work? Let’s look at the results.

• These programmatic pages were driving about 45% of all demo requests coming from the organic search.
• Financially, each page comes to around $57, while a normal SEO page would cost >$400 typically.
• In 12 months cumulatively, these pages drove about 86K organic page views with an average session duration of 4 minutes, 50 seconds.

5 Tips for Building Your SEO Strategy with Programmatic SEO

Are you excited to start making use of programmatic SEO best practices?

I thought so. But before you do, I’ll share six tips for building out your SEO strategy by harnessing programmatic SEO.

1. Eliminate low-quality, duplicated content, and isolated pages.

Aleyda Solis, international SEO consultant and founder, Orainti, shares her tips on addressing critical issues of pSEO-generated content.

She started by noting some of the big issues of content automation.

• You could generate low-quality, spammy, or just not well-differentiated content that won‘t fulfill users’ search needs nor consistently rank. Thin or duplicate content cannibalizes each other, which will only hurt a site’s overall quality.
• You could generate the pages in an isolated silo that doesn’t integrate or cross-link well with the rest of your site. This prevents users from continuing their journey.

Solis shared her tips to avoid these issues:

Validate the search demand.

“[Make sure] that there’s enough search volume and potential traffic to be ranked by these pages to compensate for the efforts, and that the query permutations are actually relevant for you to target,” Solis says.

Validate your content supply.

Solis suggests that teams check already ranking pages for the query variations. You can then identify the content type and format needed to rank.

Establish page generation criteria to avoid quality issues.

“Define the rules to generate and index your programmatic pages to ensure content quality and relevance,” Solis says.

For example, generate pages for query permutations with a minimum search volume and index only when they feature a certain minimum number of products, services, or insights. This ensures that you deliver unique value.

Establish page cross-linking criteria to help the search/conversion journey.

“How are these pages going to link to each other and to the other type and level of the site content?” Solis postulates. “How can you configure the necessary navigation elements so they can refer users to the next stage of the funnel?”

2. Automate adding structured data.

Aman Ghataura, founder and head of growth at NUOPTIMA, says, “Create a dynamic system that automatically adds structured data (Schema.org markup) to pages based on their content type.”

To add structured data to your pages programmatically, Ghataura shared the following steps.

1. Identify content types on your site that could benefit from structured data, such as products, articles, or events.
2. For each content type, create a JSON-LD structured data template using Schema.org vocabulary.
3. Modify your content management system (CMS) or server-side code to fill in the template with real-time data from your database. If you have a product page, the template should automatically populate fields such as name, price, description, SKU, and any other relevant attributes.
4. Implement a system that re-generates the structured data whenever the underlying content changes.

Code Example:

Ghataura shared a conceptual example using pseudo-code to illustrate how you might dynamically inject structured data into a product page.

“[Here] , , and other placeholders would be dynamically replaced with actual product data by your server-side code or templating engine.” Ghataura says.

<html>

<head>

<!– other head elements –>

<script type=“application/ld+json”>

{

“@context”: “http://schema.org/”,

“@type”: “Product”,

“name”: “”,

“image”: “”,

“description”: “”,

“sku”: “”,

“offers”: {

“@type”: “Offer”,

“priceCurrency”: “”,

“price”: “”

}

// Additional properties as necessary

}

</script>

</head>

<body>

<!– Product page content –>

</body>

</html>

Here’s how it might look in the code.

3. Use the combinations calculator to estimate the number of pSEO articles.

Before diving deep into programmatic SEO, make sure it’s worth the effort and is cost-effective. If your project needs around 15-30 pages templated pages, pSEO likely isn’t the best option.

To resolve this issue, Emilia Korczynska from Userpilot developed the Combinations calculator.

It shows you the number of pages you can produce from each template based on how many entries you have in each database it uses.

Create a copy to start using it.

4. Use alerting tools for sanity SEO.

According to Tejaswi Suresh, director of SEO at Botpresso, “When you deploy content at scale through programmatic SEO, there will be missed opportunities in terms of critical on-page SEO elements.”

That may include truncated meta descriptions, incorrect schema markup, technical bugs leading to 4XX or 5XX errors, Suresh says.

“Have an alerting system in place that routinely monitors these pages for inconsistencies and immediate alerts to reach the optimal health of the site,” Suresh says.

“Tools like Quickblink, Testomato, and Little Warden help keep your pSEO sites alive and kicking.”

5. Use the right tools to make your pSEO agile.

“I see a lot of marketers use Google Sheets and formal databases for programmatic SEO, I don’t like these,” says Hal Zeitlin from Candid Leap.

“Google Sheets is more like a make it once, upload it, don’t touch it solution. Formal databases are simply not easy for marketers to manage, maintain, and scale.”

Zeitlin team leans heavily on Airtable for programmatic SEO campaigns.

Generate Organic Search Traffic Efficiently with Programmatic SEO

Now that you know how to do programmatic SEO, you can use it to your advantage. Hopefully, these programmatic SEO examples and best practices give you insight into how you can make it work for your brand.

For more than 32 million people, Slack has become the tool they open first thing in the morning to get the workday started. And it’s become the leader of the team collaboration industry, simplifying people’s work and boosting their productivity.

But not everyone is completely elated with Slack. And if you’re concerned by some of the platform’s downsides, like limiting free plans, security concerns, or limited customization options, you have many choices.

I’ve used dozens of messaging tools that offer capabilities similar to Slack and work well for different types of teams. In this roundup, I’ve listed down the 25 best Slack alternatives to make remote collaboration a breeze.

1. Google Chat

• Available on: Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, and web
• Price: Free for Gmail Users. Starting at $7.20 a user per month for Google Workspace.

Google Chat is a Slack alternative built into Gmail, and you can chat with anyone who also has a Gmail account, whether that account is paid or free.

I’ve often used Google Chat to share project updates with clients, and its neat interface has been pretty seamless.

Pro tip: You’ll also be able to use Google Meet with Google Chat to host audio and video calls with your team. Combined with Google’s suite of tools, Google Chat is a feature-packed Slack alternative for Gmail users.

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2. Chanty

• Available on: Mac, Windows, Android, iOS
• Price: Free version. Paid plans start at $3 a user per month

Chanty is a simple team chat tool for small and medium-sized teams.

Like Slack, you can communicate in public and private channels and through one-to-one conversations. I like how Chanty organizes all your files, links, tasks, and conversations into folders in a feature called Teambook.

In general, Chanty’s built-in task manager and intuitive interface make the chat tool a solid Slack alternative for less tech-savvy users.

But that said, if you’re a techie and love setting up automated workflows like I do, you can connect Chanty with many apps through Zapier without too much hassle.

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3. Microsoft Teams

• Available on: iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, and Web
• Price: Free for up to 100 video participants. Paid plans start at $4 a user per month.

Microsoft Teams is primarily targeted towards enterprise companies. It comes along with one of Microsoft Office 365 plans.

However, if you don’t have one of these plans — like me, you can start with the freemium version of the tool.

While trying the free version, I found that it includes all the essential team chat features like instant chats, audio/video calls, and integrations. It also offers integrations across all Office 365 products and more than 250 apps and services.

Pro Tip: Microsoft Teams isn’t the easiest app to deploy, so make sure your team admin is tech-savvy.

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4. ClickUp

• Available on: Android, Computer, iPhone & iPad, and Web
• Price: Free Forever plan. Paid plans start at $7 a member per month

ClickUp is an all-in-one project management tool offering a variety of tools and customization features to help users collaborate and communicate. I’ve often used ClickUp to collaborate with clients and share real-time updates with its Chat view.

I particularly like how users can embed pages and videos, as well as format messages, to include code blocks and bulleted lists for a clear and concise message. ClickUp’s Chat view is super helpful to stay organized and instantly chat with anyone.

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5. Pumble

• Available on: iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux, and Web
• Price: Free with unlimited users. Paid plans start at $2.49 a month.

Pumble is a business communication tool with a diverse set of features such as channels, direct messages, threads, voice and video messages, and 1:1 voice and video meetings.

I also noticed that Pumble has a handy guest access feature that allows teams to include third parties like contractors, vendors, freelancers, and clients in their workspaces.

It offers two additional perks that give it an edge over Slack: each user on the free plan has unlimited access to message history and 10GB of storage per workspace with no time limits.

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6. Rocket.Chat

• Available on: iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux, and Web
• Price: Free up to 1K users. Paid plans start at $7 a user per month

Rocket.Chat is a free, open-source Slack alternative that lets you tailor the look and feel of your team communication setup to your own brand. One of Rocket.Chat’s best features is the ease of migration. All you need to do is export your files from Slack and upload them to Rocket.Chat.

Pro tip: I also found several useful features on this tool, like real-time translation, live chat client, and E2E encryption, making it a Slack alternative that’s definitely worth a look.

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7. Discord

• Available on: iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux, and Web
• Price: Free. Paid plans start at $9.99 per month.

While Discord has conventionally been a go-to app for gamers, it can also help teams collaborate effectively—thanks to its rich functionality and unlimited message history.

When I first started using Discord for work, I figured that you could easily implement the concept of Slack’s private and public channels using channel settings. It’s also the only app in this list that offers push-to-talk features.

Pro tip: Keep in mind that Discord may not have integrations best suited for work. But if you need a free space to communicate via text, voice, or video, Discord could be a good option for you.

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8. Brosix

• Available on: Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, Web
• Price: Free for up to 3 users. Paid plans start at $4 a user per month.

Brosix is a user-friendly messaging platform with a secure private team network, enabling precise user management. I tried a bunch of features in its Instant Messenger, including end-to-end encryption to ensure data security, efficient peer-to-peer (P2P) file transfer capabilities, and secure instant messaging.

What’s more, it offers chat rooms for collaboration, real-time communication, and support for both mobile and web applications.

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9. Mattermost

• Available on: iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux, Web
• Price: Free for up to 10 users. Paid plans start at $10 a user per month.

Mattermost is another popular Slack alternative. This open-source solution is fully customizable to meet your company’s needs. You can also implement Mattermost with private cloud hosting or a self-managed server.

What impressed me the most was how this solution is deployed by major organizations like NASA because of its security features and uptime.

It is purpose-built for technical and operational teams with specific functionality for maximizing efficiency, like identity and access controls, compliance auditing & reporting, and data control.

Pro tip: Mattermost supports more than a dozen languages, making it a great fit for global teams.

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10. Flock

• Available on: iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux, and Web
• Price: Free for up to 20 users. Paid plans start at $4.50 a user per month.

Flock is a workplace chat software that claims to run faster than Slack. Besides all the regular communication features like instant chat, audio, and video calls, I discovered that Flock offers built-in polls, reminders, notes, and to-do snippets.

Flock’s freemium version is limited to 10,000 searchable messages. Paid plans unlock helpful features like screen sharing and unlimited message history. I think its interface is much easier to navigate than Slack’s.

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11. Ryver

• Available on: iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, and Web
• Price: Starting at $69 per month for up to 12 users.

Ryver is a team communication tool known for its built-in task manager that turns messages into tasks, and you can manage them with Kanban boards.

Like Slack, Ryver lets you communicate through open forums, private groups, and direct messages. I also tried its feature to make voice and video calls for up to 5 users per call. And if you have a Zapier account, you can also integrate Ryver into your favorite apps in a snap.

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12. Glip

• Available on: iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, and Web
• Price: Free up to 100 participants, Paid plans starting at $30 a user per month.

Glip is a team collaboration tool developed by RingCentral. While Slack has configurable features, making it a one-size-fits-all team chat app, Glip has built-in features like tasks, calendars, and notes.

You can connect Glip to other apps through Zapier or one of its more than 20 custom integrations.

I was impressed to see how Glip offers a suite of tools for specific use cases, like intelligent phone solutions. You get a business SMS platform and a cloud phone system — perfect for sales teams.

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13. Flowdock

• Available on: iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux, and Web
• Price: Paid plans start at $3 per user per month.

Flowdock is another Slack alternative that organizes conversation by threads.

All threads are color-coded so you can easily navigate between topics and organize your team’s communication. I found their interface to be more cluttered than Slack, but the option to color-code threads is helpful in sorting conversations.

Flowdock also features open, invite-only, and one-to-one chats. This is great for hosting different types of meetings, like daily stand-ups, weekly syncs, or monthly reviews. What’s more, you can connect Flowdock to more than 100 of your favorite apps.

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14. Fleep

• Available On: Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, and iOS
• Price: Free up to 10GB of file storage. Paid plans start at €5 per user per month billed annually.

Fleep is designed around the idea of “conversations” where users can participate in a discussion on a specific topic.

To make these conversations more actionable, Fleep offers a feature called “Task” for assigning and coordinating work. Combine this with the “Pinboard” feature to let users pin essential messages, details, or announcements to the side for easy access.

While 1:1 conversations are unlimited across the board, I experimented with the freemium version. It offers limited storage capacity and can only support three group conversations. For unlimited group conversations, you’ll need to update the Business plan.

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15. Twist

• Available on: MacOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, Web
• Price: Free. Paid plans start at $6 per user per month.

Twist is an ideal communication software for asynchronous teams.

Its model moves away from real-time conversations into “deeper, structured communication” via their “Threads” feature. Instead of a group chat, users must designate a specific ”thread” for conversations related to a topic.

One-on-one and small group chat is also available for conversations that don’t require threads.

After signing up for the freemium version, I found that you get a one-month limit on search history and 5GB maximum file storage — similar to Slack’s free version.

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16. HighSide

• Available On: Windows, MacOS, Ubuntu, iPhone, Android
• Price: Paid plans start at $12 a user per month.

HighSide is a great choice for team communication for organizations with advanced security needs. This tool offers end-to-end encryption, authentication, and secure cloud storage.

Its infrastructure can even help you ensure compliance with HIPAA, GDPR, and more. I also found a Microsoft Teams extension to help in working securely across apps.

Pro tip: Besides securing your communications, this tool offers all essential capabilities to work with your team, like file-sharing, audio + video messaging, data analytics, and compliance regulation.

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17. Troop Messenger

• Available On: Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, iOS
• Price: Paid plans start at $2.5 per user per month.

Another great Slack alternative is Troop Messenger, which has chat, audio and video calling, and screen-sharing capabilities.

But this app takes a lead over Slack with two unique features: audio messaging and remote desktop control, which allows your team to enjoy a wide range of use cases within one solution.

I also found some interesting features in the premium version, like “Burnout.” It allows users to collaborate confidentially for a specified amount of time before the history is removed.

Another one is “Respond Later” to help you prioritize your communication without forgetting anything.

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18. Wire

• Available on: Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, iOS
• Price: Not available.

Wire is a private messaging app with a core focus on security. I found this to be the best Slack alternative if your primary concern is data privacy and secure communications.

This app is based on the world’s first open protocol designed for end-to-end encrypted communication. It also encrypts cross-platform messages across iOS, Mac, Android, and PC.

Pro tip: This is an ideal solution for companies operating in the public sector and enterprises. You’ll have better options to protect all information, not just the confidential bits.

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19. Cisco Webex Teams

• Available on: Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android
• Price: Free. Paid plans start at $7 a license per month.

Webex Teams is an enterprise-focused tool for team collaboration and video conferencing. While Slack is more suited for small-mid-sized teams and startups, Webex caters to the needs of global teams distributed across regions.

This Slack alternative integrates with OneDrive and SharePoint to make file-sharing easier. In fact, you can also get equipment like the Cisco Webex Board to host board meetings and video calls.

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20. Zoho Cliq

• Available on: Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android
• Price: Free. Paid plans starting at $8 for up to 25 users a month.

Zoho Cliq is another one of the many tools by Zoho. This real-time messaging software is a simpler, more integrated alternative to Slack. While its interface is pretty similar to Slack, it leaps ahead in the actual functionality.

The tool integrates well with other Zoho apps — CRM, HRM, financial management, and more. So, you can virtually control your entire business operations from one place.

Pro tip: Cliq’s version 5.0 has enterprise-grade security options with more team collaboration capabilities for video + audio meetings. It also includes AI-powered automation to moderate all channels simultaneously.

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21. Workplace by Meta

• Available on: Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android
• Price: Not available.

A Slack alternative by Meta, the social media giant? I had the same doubts as you when I discovered this tool.

But on giving it a trial run, I realized this is an awesome team collaboration platform with the interface of a social media app — fun.

During my trial, I found that Workplace is packed with features relevant for remote/distributed teams, like a knowledge library, group chats, analytics, and integrations. It also has cool capabilities you won’t find on Slack, like a live video broadcast (not a meeting) to make company announcements.

I also think the News Feed, just like a Facebook or Instagram feed, is perfect for sharing latest updates and wins across the board.

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22. Hive

• Available on: Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android
• Price: Free. Paid plans start at $12 a user per month.

Hive is a project management platform with advanced capabilities for teams to work together. I signed up for this app to see how it fares against Slack and discovered it’s an all-in-one platform for team collaboration.

From time tracking to automated workflows and analytics, Hive offers everything you need to succeed with a large team.

I particularly liked the ability to customize project views and set up automation rules for things to move quickly, even in my absence. Its integrated chat feature is just as good as (if not better than) Slack.

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23. Basecamp

• Available on: Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android
• Price: Paid plans starting at $4.50 a user per month.

Basecamp is another platform I’ve used as a Slack alternative while working with a client. While the tool is purpose-built for project management, it also offers team collaboration capabilities similar to Slack.

Basecamp reduces unnecessary notifications and noise you see on Slack. Instead, it lets you create more focused discussions with Message Boards. You can keep all the conversations and updates about a topic on a single page.

Pro tip: I think this app does a much better job at organizing information about projects than Slack, helping to avoid any knowledge loss or repeated effort.

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24. Connecteam

• Available on: Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android
• Price: Free. Paid plans start at $29 a month for up to 30 users.

Connecteam is a brilliant Slack alternative for non-desk employees. Its intuitive mobile app enables teams to connect with all employees in real time with chat, announcements, surveys, events, and a knowledge base — talk about all-in-one!

I also found Connecteam a more versatile alternative to Slack since it includes three main hubs: Operations, Communications, and HR/L&D. So, teams can flexibly run their entire business from a single app or use it exclusively for team collaboration.

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25. SmartSuite

• Available on: Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android
• Price: Free, Paid plans starting at $10 a user per month.

Like all other tools in this list, I also started a free trial of SmartSuite. This is a versatile solution that combines everything teams need to collaborate effectively — spreadsheets, project dashboards, file sharing, calendars, and more.

Pro tip: What amazed me the most is how SmartSuite isn’t just a team communication and project management tool.

It consolidates real-time data for various functions like marketing, sales, HR, and business operations. You can also set up custom workflows to choose the metrics that matter the most to you and how they should be visualized.

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Take Control Over Your Work with Slack Alternatives

Despite its popularity for team collaboration, Slack has its flaws. It can be expensive for larger teams and not customizable for smaller teams. There’s also a fair bit of a learning curve to adopt its interface and many features fully.

I’ve personally tried and reviewed these tools to make the decision easier for you. If you’re looking for something more seamless, try one of these Slack alternatives that may work for you and your team.

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

91% of people want to see more video marketing efforts from brands — but knowing where to start can be intimidating. We’re sharing 22 video marketing examples and advertisements from the past two years to help inspire you.

Expect impactful stories from real people, quirky TikTok clips, interactive video ads, and more. Go grab some popcorn. You won’t believe a marketing team created some of these.

22 Video Marketing Campaigns You’ll Actually Enjoy Watching

1. Hubspot: That’s a Deep We Don’t Want To Roll In 😅

A whopping 672 million global downloads made TikTok the most downloaded app in 2022. Cut to 2023, and 53% of marketers are increasing their TikTok investments (HubSpot Blog Research).

The great thing about this platform is that users don’t expect perfect video production. So you don’t need an enormous budget to get started. But TikTok users do expect to be entertained.

That’s why we love this quirky HubSpot ad that uses humor to speak directly to its target audience (sales reps). Because if you start a new sales job and they pull up 20 different spreadsheets, it is an Adele-worthy moment.

The Takeaway

Fun, creative, and relatable video marketing efforts generally perform better on TikTok than overproduced or formal videos. In this ad, HubSpot uses entertainment to sell the benefits of its CRM without being too salesy.

2. Heinz: Heinz A.I. Ketchup

AI talk has dominated the marketing space for the last year or so. It turns out artificial intelligence is a hot topic in most spheres. Yep, including the world of condiments — more specifically, Heinz Ketchup.

To create the bold “Heinz A.I. Ketchup” ad, Rethink Canada fed text-to-image program Dall-E 2 the prompt ‘ketchup.’ The result was a near replica of the iconic Heinz Ketchup bottle. That led the creative agency to test other ketchup-themed prompts.

From “ketchup street art” to “ketchup synth-wave,” no matter the prompt variation, each AI-generated rendition resembled Heinz Ketchup. With this stroke of marketing genius, Rethink Canada proved that “even AI knows that ketchup is Heinz.”

The Takeaway

The ad leverages the iconic nature of the Heinz brand while adding a reactive layer in response to AI. Heinz produced one of the best AI-themed video ads of 2022 and one of the best video marketing examples in general.

3. Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams: Build Your Own Ice Cream Sandwich

At least watch from the 20-second mark.

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams is a modest ice cream shop from Columbus, Ohio, and its YouTube channel proves you don’t need studio-level equipment to make lovable videos.

This stylish dessert parlor uses catchy music and “from the ground up” ingredients to feed its customers’ interests before they’ve even had a scoop. Also, there’s something so satisfying about seeing food made in front of you.

The Takeaway

This is terrific small business marketing. When you launch an account on YouTube or another social network, hit the ground running with content that is authentically you.

Come out swinging with a style and tone you want to be known for. Too much content is created every day to wait for your audience to come to you.

4. Reebok: CrateMaster (A Film by Kerby Jean-Raymond)

Reebok has become known for its masterful messaging. Their marketing efforts feel like more than an advertisement — they usually have a powerful message, too. In this vein, “CrateMaster” maintains Reebok’s tried and tested tradition.

The mini-movie tells the story of a “grassroots inner-city basketball and the community of youth who build the game from the ground up.”

From the first frame, writer and director Kerby Jean-Raymond immerses you in the near-nine-minute narrative.

Yes, you heard that right. A near-nine-minute master class of story-driven video marketing that keeps you hooked until the end.

The Takeaway

The short film doesn’t just tell you a story. It puts you right in the picture by using nostalgia, as demonstrated by the following YouTube comment:

“The nostalgia! Man, I remember the energy, the scent, the scars from playing ball on crates.”

Another wonderful touch is how the ad prioritizes narrative over product placement. There’s a clear call to action at the end, but Reebok keeps its product placements subtle throughout.

5. Ceragon: Product Marketing Video campaign by Penguin Strategies

You know the age-old story. You’re just about to tuck into a delicious meal when someone asks you to explain what disaggregated wireless backhaul is.

Luckily for us, when that happened to Penguin Strategies’ client, Ceragon, someone was around to capture the story in action.

The rest of this tongue-in-cheek video involves our would-be burger consumer, using a burger analogy to explain disaggregated wireless backhaul technology.

The Takeaway

The explainer video ad works because it uses something relatable (food) to explain advanced technology. Plus, it does so in a way that’s easy for the target audience to digest (ba-dum-tss).

It also avoids being a generic explainer video by showing the brand’s personality.

6. Coinbase: Less Talk, More Bitcoin.

It cost a mighty $6.5 million to secure a 30-second ad slot for the 2022 Super Bowl. That figure doesn’t account for the massive spending on ad production.

But what if you could unleash a low-key, low-cost Super Bowl ad that piqued people’s interest so much that it crashed your app?

Enter Coinbase’s “Less Talk, More Bitcoin.” This simple (but genius) video ad features a bouncing QR code. The code took curious onlookers to a site that offered them the chance to bag $15 in Bitcoin for signing up on Coinbase.

The Takeaway

In a sea of expensive Super Bowl ads, Coinbase dared to do something different. Its nod to the Bouncing DVD Logo was nostalgic for some and utterly novel to others. Either way, what the 60-second ad lacked in production value, it made up for with intrigue.

7. Asahi: Beyond Expected

Timely marketing can yield incredible results. Be it a reactive campaign like the “Heinz A.I. Ketchup” ad or something you can plan for in advance.

In the case of Japanese beer brand Asahi, their video ad coincided with a seasonal event, “Dry January.”

“Beyond Expected” takes the viewer on a tour of present-day Japan. There’s one thing in common across the high-rise buildings: neon signs and an electric atmosphere.

In every vibrant setting, somebody enjoys a 0.0% Asahi beer and has fun doing it.

The Takeaway

“Beyond Expected” was a timely response to a seasonal event. But it also spoke to a growing and evergreen trend: Gen Z is consuming less alcohol than previous generations.

Asahi’s ad presents alcohol-free beer as a way to be social without feeling pressured to drink alcohol.

8. ALDI: Like Brands Cake

If feuds weren’t entertaining, there’d be no appetite for pro wrestling, boxing, or MMA. As marketers know, rivalries have traveled outside the realm of sports-based entertainment — we can now watch our favorite brands spar.

Perhaps the most infamous brand feud in recent years was Colin vs. Cuthbert. In the red corner, we had M&S’ Colin the Caterpillar cake, and in the blue, Aldi’s Cuthbert.

There’s a lot of water under that bridge, and Aldi’s “Like Brands Cake” ad capitalized on it all with good humor.

The ad shows Cuthbert and his caterpillar friends enjoying the two famous cakes. Everything goes well until Colin crashes the party, and a fight emerges. But the real show stealer is the brilliant copy at the end of the video:

“Aldi. Like M&S. Only cheaper”

*On cakes that look like caterpillars.”

The Takeaway

Humor is a powerful marketing technique and even better when it’s self-deprecating. Aldi’s ad highlights that the brand doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Oh, it also showcases the price difference between the M&S caterpillar cake and Aldi’s cheaper alternative. This mix of humor and self-depreciation created another viral Aldi moment when #Cuthparty amassed 3.3M views on TikTok.

9. FINALLY Agency: INBOUND 2022 Vlog – Day 2 & 3

FINALLY Agency is a growth marketing agency that offers video production. Short story shorter: Successful agencies don’t just talk the talk. They show prospective clients that they also use the services they sell.

That’s why FINALLY Agency’s informal vlog chronicling days two and three of their time at INBOUND 2022 works so well.

It shows the viewer FINALLY’s video production skills and how prospective clients could use video to market their business.

The Takeaway

This video marketing example works on multiple levels.

It shows the agency’s video production prowess rather than telling prospects they can do it.

Then, the video shows their team attending a professional seminar. That highlights their commitment to developing as marketers to serve their clients better.

It also gives prospective clients a glimpse behind the scenes, so they can get to know the people behind the agency.

10. Spinneys Supermarket: The Bread Exam

In Lebanon, by the time breast cancer is diagnosed, it’s often too late to cure. This issue is primarily driven by cultural taboos, making it challenging to discuss intimate body parts.

As a result, people don’t talk about self-checking for breast cancer.

Along with the help of influential Lebanese baker Um Ali, the British Islamic Medical Association and McCann Health sought to change that.

Through the traditional act of baking bread, Um Ali shows us how to make her “healthiest recipe,” reminding us to “bake every month.” Each stage of the recipe mirrors the steps of a monthly breast self-exam.

The meaning behind “The Bread Exam” might be hard to decipher in a vacuum. But when powered by mainstream media (who translated the real message behind the recipe), the meaning traveled to traditional communities. The result?

According to Pollfish data cited in the McCann Paris case study: “86% of Arab women admitted baking will remind them to self-check.”

The Takeaway

“The Bread Exam” used tradition, mainstream media, and modern marketing techniques to spread a life-saving message.

Well done to clients Spinneys Supermarkets and the Lebanese Breast Cancer Foundation for funding this purpose-driven marketing campaign.

11. Burberry: Open Spaces

Burberry’s 2021 ad “Open Spaces” takes a cinematic approach to video marketing. The narrative starts with four Burberry-clad friends parking in the middle of nowhere, ready for an adventure.

Throughout the ad, we see them taking a lucid-dream-like tour, flying over open fields, lakes, clifftops, and the ocean.

The Takeaway

In a year of limited freedom, this two-minute video ad uses open spaces and adventure to remind viewers how freedom feels. And like Reebok’s CrateMaster, it does so without busy product placement detracting from the storytelling.

12. Netflix: Fans Make the Movies

To make their ad “Fans Make the Movies,” Netflix paired up with the Ikorodu Bois from Lagos, Nigeria. With a shoestring budget, the Ikorodu Bois remake blockbuster movies like Army of the Dead, The Old Guard, and Thunderforce.

The ad plays on the childlike joy that comes from doing something for the sheer love of it. It’s a tour de force in boundless imagination and shows you don’t need a big budget to create marketing that resonates.

The Takeaway

By sharing the Ikorodu Bois’ DIY flicks with the world, the ad reconnects movie lovers everywhere with the feeling created by incredible entertainment.

Netflix cleverly decided to center their target audience (movie fans) in their video ad rather than their product.

13. Dove: Cost of Beauty

Dove’s “Cost of Beauty” video ad features real stories and sensitive content about difficult subjects. So, if you’d like to jump to the next entry, we understand entirely.

As challenging as “Cost of Beauty” is to watch, we need open discussions about the ad’s themes. More specifically, social media’s impact on how children and young people view their bodies and appearance.

The story takes us through Mary’s journey from making carefree comedy shows and silly videos as a child. Mary gradually watches more and more social media content by diet-themed influencers.

We then see her harrowing diary entries and, eventually, how she enters a specialist Eating Disorder Unit.

We leave Mary’s story knowing she’s now thankfully in recovery. The “Cost of Beauty” then introduces us to more young people like Mary, who are recovering from eating disorders, depression, and anxiety, among other things.

At the end of the ad, Dove shares a heartbreaking fact:

“Social media is harming the mental health of 3 in 5 kids.”

The Takeaway

Through these real stories, Dove shows us how social media consumption can start as a fun, almost silly activity for children. But if not placed in the appropriate context, it can end in harm.

This is a powerful example of how to create a purpose-driven video marketing campaign through user-generated content.

14. Facebook: More Together – Cricket

As Dove’s “Cost of Beauty” shows us, social media usage can cause harm when left unchecked. Still, social media’s biggest strength lies in its power to connect people.

In the case of “More Together – Cricket,” Facebook shares how its platform connects people across India through cricket.

The video shows people trying out for India’s cricket team and how they share their journey through Facebook posts. We also see how a district selection camp advertises an event through Facebook.

The video closes with the message, “It takes a billion to make an eleven,” followed by a collage of Polaroid-style snaps representing young people’s Facebook posts about their cricket tryouts.

Even though many young people didn’t make the team, they’re proud to contribute to a sport that connects their country.

The Takeaway

“More Together — Cricket” uses the themes of national heritage and culture to show how they create a shared experience. Facebook takes the idea further by highlighting how it provides a space to discuss these cultural experiences.

15. Hotels.com: Silent Piano Ad

 

Many media consumers watch video marketing efforts without sound, especially when viewing content in public.

Without sound, viewers rely on closed captions to understand the content.

Hotels.com uses this to its advantage with a quirky and innovative “Silent Piano” ad. The viewer sees a sumptuous hotel lobby, where an eccentric-looking hotel concierge (or guest?) seemingly plays the piano.

The fun twist is the ad is silent. And given that the piano player admits he can’t play at all, that’s probably best.

The Takeaway

Like a silent movie, the short video uses cinematic filming techniques, over-the-top acting, and a compelling text-driven narrative. The ad keeps viewers intrigued until the end while giving them a clear call to action midway.

The ad is innovative, using how people typically consume video to its advantage. And for the cherry on top, the setting suits the brand perfectly.

16. Magnetic Global: Success Stories

Magnetic Global’s “Success Stories” is another video marketing example showing a creative agency practicing what they preach. And what they preach is growing a brand’s influence through video.

The Takeaway

Magnetic Global weaves in storytelling, inspiring cinematography, behind-the-scenes footage, and real case studies to show you two things:

How video marketing can grow your brand and why they’re the agency you should choose to help you do it.

17. Google Earth: Our Cities Timelapse

Google Earth’s “Our Cities Timelapse” opens with an incredible stat about urban population growth. “In the last 35 years, the urban population has grown by 2.3 billion people,” the ad informs us.

We then get to see a digital reconstruction of this growth in action. From barren deserts to all but deserted river banks, through time-lapse videos spanning 1984 to 2020, we see how cities across the globe have grown.

At the end of the video, Google Earth presents a broader point.

“Cities are responsible for more than 70% of global carbon dioxide emissions.”

The Takeaway

The ad showcases the Google Earth product in action and does so meaningfully. The viewer witnesses a timelapse of human potential. But we’re also shown how our growth can impact the planet.

18. Crumbl Cookies: Sweet Victory Ad

We see more and more consumers (especially young people) head to TikTok to find places and things to eat. “Sweet Victory Ad” by Crumbl Cookies capitalizes on this trend perfectly.

Throughout the 30-second feast for the senses, Crumbl shows us its delicious range of gooey baked goods. And if you’re not already reaching for your phone to make an order, you probably just need an excuse.

So, they present them in the context of unremarkable achievements.

“Your team won the big game. Your team tried to win the big game. You didn’t even know there was a big game,” says the narrator.

We know it, you know it. Every achievement — even the seemingly unremarkable — becomes a celebration when you set your mind to it. And every celebration is a valid reason to treat yourself to some cookies.

The Takeaway

Bright colors, humor, mouth-watering cookies? That’s a recipe for one of the best TikTok ads we’ve seen. Take our money already.

19. HubSpot: Live with Yamini Rangan & Brian Halligan

Insights from subject matter experts have never been more critical to marketing. You only have to look at Google’s 2022 addition to their Search Quality Rater Guidelines. The full framework is now E-E-A-T — the latest E focuses on Experience.

Doing (or citing) subject matter expert interviews is a great way to demonstrate experience within your video marketing content.

We love HubSpot’s “INBOUND 2021 – Live with Yamini Rangan & Brian Halligan” because it shares a discussion between three subject matter experts from the CRM industry.

The Takeaway

In the video, HubSpot co-founder and Executive Chairman, HubSpot CEO, and HubSpot SVP of Business and Corporate Development share their thoughts on the CRM industry.

It’s an informal way for the brand to demonstrate its experience and authority in the industry. All while providing a citable resource for others. And the more people who cite your resource, the greater its potential reach.

20. Gymshark: Celebrity Prank

As we’ve covered, humor has been a trend on TikTok for a while now. But it’s also been a broader trend in the 2023 video marketing landscape.

So what happens when you combine TikTok, 2023, and a brand already known for its funny marketing? You get Gymshark’s “Celebrity Prank.”

To create this video marketing campaign, Gymshark hired fake celebrity look-alikes to appear in their London store. Like the star-struck onlookers, the celebrity doppelgangers enjoyed a casual shopping trip.

Then hilarity ensued.

The general public asked for photos, chased the look-alikes around the store, and seemed to be taken in by the prank.

The Takeaway

In true Gymshark tradition, the fun video ad created quite a stir across social media, amassing nearly 400,000 likes on TikTok alone.

21. Tesco: Voice of the Checkout.

Tesco brings more video marketing fun with a classic TikTok ad campaign. To create “Voice of the Checkout,” Tesco invited people to audition to become the new voice of its self-service machines.

The video ad shows the old self-service checkout voice introducing us to its successor, Izzy. But only after sharing some entertaining audition footage from Izzy and others.

The Takeaway

The advert was funny and interactive, the ideal combination for TikTok marketing. Tesco also used the power of user-generated content to stay true to its down-to-earth brand.

By putting everyday people within the ad, they position themselves as the supermarket choice of everyday people.

22. Honda: The Other Side

Honda’s interactive ad, “The Other Side,” pays homage to the Choose Your Own Adventure game genre. Through Interactive Branching, viewers can have a more personalized video experience where they actively participate in the narrative.

Each video clip offers the viewer a choice, and each option dictates the following sequence of events in the story.

The Takeaway

Instead of passively consuming or skipping the video ad, Honda invites viewers into the plot itself. We’re left pondering, is this the next generation of video ads?

Want more visual content tips? Check out these stunning visual storytelling examples.

Now it’s your turn.

Video can do wonders to increase content engagement and click-through rates. But many marketers get paralyzed by the “no time, too hard” fallacy of creating video content.

But if you think you need fancy camera equipment and editing software to make video work, or that video seems like a luxury you can’t afford … it’s time to take a new approach to your video marketing strategy.

You can create great videos for social media without all those bells and whistles. (Ever heard of Facebook Live? It was made for creating videos using just your smartphone!)

Use these marketing videos as inspiration, and create some cool visual content of your own.

Working from home is a gift, right up until the cat throws up on your computer. And your neighbor, who you can only assume is building a time machine, starts firing up all sorts of power tools. In those moments, remote work life feels more like a punishment than a miracle.

Remote work poses different risks and benefits. Plus, the popularity of this working style has only grown.

In fact, when I began working remotely as a digital nomad in 2017, there was still professional pushback, skepticism, and a general dismissive attitude toward remote work. Since then, I’ve been remotely working abroad, and I’ve even published a book on the topic.

For me and many others, remote work isn’t a trend; this lifestyle is a long-term choice that allows us to get exactly what we want out of our careers. You may need some help greasing the wheels, but I’m determined to help you feel the same from your remote work lifestyle.

Not everyone transitions into remote work smoothly, and that’s okay. Let’s explore the remote work trends, tips, and techniques that can help you get the most out of your remote work.

Table of Contents

• What Remote Work Looks Like Today [Data]
• What is remote work?
• Types Of Remote Work
• How to Work From Home
• 16 Working From Home Tips

What Remote Work Looks Like Today [Data]

Working remotely can take many different forms, but what does it look like for the “normal” remote worker?

From where remote workers work to how they’re getting dressed and how they interact with their team members, let’s see what the statistics say about remote workers today.

1. Of full-time employees surveyed in 2023, 12.7% are 100% remote (WFH Research).
2. Of full-time employees surveyed in 2023, 28% are in a hybrid remote work arrangement (WFH Research).
3. The number of reported days per week that employers allow their employees to work remotely peaked in 2022 and has declined in 2023 (WFH Research).
4. By 2024, the hybrid work model is expected to rise to 81% (AT&T).
5. Of remote workers surveyed, 98% would recommend remote work to others (Buffer).
6. Remote workers love the flexibility more than anything, with 22% of surveyed workers saying the flexibility in how they spend their time being the greatest benefit (Buffer).

And what does the data say about marketers who work remotely? These statistics are from HubSpot’s Marketing Work Culture Survey:

1. Of marketers surveyed, 31% work remotely.
2. Of marketers surveyed, 37% are hybrid employees, sometimes working remotely and sometimes working in the office.
3. Of marketers surveyed, 41% said that their company hosted virtual team-bonding activities in the past year, such as parties, celebrations, or games.
4. When asked about getting dressed for work, 13% of surveyed marketers said they wear an appropriate top for Zoom calls and remain in sweatpants since they’re off-screen in video calls.
5. Since the pandemic, 27% of surveyed marketers said that they feel more overworked, primarily due to heightened work responsibilities.
6. When asked about what led to conditions of overworking, 9% of surveyed marketers said that hybrid or remote work contributed because it made some team tasks more difficult.

Remote working encompasses people who work from home and also digital nomads who work from Airbnbs or hotels around the world.

Some workers choose remote work to help meet their physical needs, mental health needs, or family demands. Other remote workers make this choice to increase freedom and flexibility.

Types of Remote Work

Today, remote workers all over the world will open their laptops in radically different work environments.

Some will do so from a home office, a hotel room, and an airplane 30,000 feet above the middle of nowhere. The remote environment can take almost any form.

When we look closely at the different types of remote work, two primary categories arise: working from home and working from anywhere.

Work From Home

Remote work is most commonly done from home. Remote workers who tune into work from home may do so from their beds, kitchen tables, or tailored home offices. The process can be as minimalistic or customized as you can imagine.

This type of work melds your personal space together with your workspace, making a healthy work-life balance difficult to achieve. Remote workers have to set ground rules to avoid both overworking and underworking.

There are many benefits to working from home, but it also has unique challenges. People who work from home have to remain productive yet still make time for regular breaks and time away from the computer screen.

The average worker invests a lot of time and thought into developing their most productive work zone and refining their work style. We’ll discuss common tips and best practices for working from home in a moment.

Work From Anywhere

Remote workers who work from anywhere have to manage their work-life balance the same as everyone else, but they do so while working from oftentimes exotic locations.

Work from anywhere workers may tune into work from their kitchen table, cafes, coworking spaces, local libraries, or Airbnbs across the world.

Remote workers who combine work with travel are called digital nomads, and they can be found working today all over the world.

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I became a digital nomad in 2017, and at first, I was drawn into the lifestyle for the opportunity to travel.

I’ve had the privilege of traveling to dozens of countries and am currently traveling full-time with my husband, but something bigger than just travel motivates me to maintain a remote work life: the increased freedom in every area of my life.

“The conversation is much richer, much deeper, and more nuanced than just traveling,” said Mitko Karshovski, founder of the remote work newsletter Remote Insider. “Flexibility is the true underlying theme.”

How to Work From Home

1. Talk to your employer.

Interested in working remotely but aren’t there yet? If you like your current job and don’t want to change it, the obvious step is to find a way to pivot the position.

One of the tips for doing this is folding the possibility of going remote into your next promotion cycle. Talk to your boss often about your intention to pivot.

And, if you’re not sure your employer will agree to working completely remotely, talk about the option of working remotely one or two days a week. When you use the work-from-home tips below, and your boss sees how productive you are, they could allow you more days to work from home.

2. Join a remote-friendly company.

If your work can be done remotely, but your current boss or organization doesn’t allow you to work from home, you might need to get a new job.

When looking for a work-from-home job, you can use the same methods you used in finding your regular office job. This includes channels like job sites, local job ads, and social media platforms.

Job sites that list work-from-home ads include:

• Flexjobs
• Telecommute Job List
• FreelanceJobOpening.com
• Weworkremotely

Some remote-friendly firms include:

• HubSpot
• Randstad
• Twilio
• NTT Group
• Aquent

Check out these firms to see whether you meet the requirements to start working remotely for them.

3. Start a career as a freelancer.

If your current job isn’t remote work-friendly, you can go remote by starting your own business as a freelancer or a consultant. Depending on the nature of your current job, you may start your own freelance business while still being employed.

The benefit of starting your freelance business while still employed is that it reduces the financial strain experienced by any new business.

4. Start a home business.

Starting a home business is one way to enjoy remote work.

Unlike other fields, certifications and education are not usually prerequisites. Instead, researching, having a smart business plan, and choosing the right business is more essential to the success of your business.

5. Communicate expectations with anyone who will be home with you.

If you’re already working from home or you manage to get a remote position through one of the ways listed above, you might have “company” at home.

Make sure any roommates, family members, and dogs (well, maybe not dogs) respect your space during work hours.

Just because you’re working from home doesn’t mean you’re home. If you share space with another work-from-home adult, you may have to lay ground rules about meeting times, shared desks and chairs, and quiet times.

Sam Mallikarjunan, CEO of AI company OneScreen, tells how he manages to get work done even when people are around.

“If anyone else is going to be at home when you’re working, they just have to be clear that when you’re in your ‘office’ (in my case, my signal to the family is having headphones on), you’re working — even if it looks like and feels like you’re hanging out at home,” Mallikarjunan says.

He adds, “It’s easy to get distracted by the many things that have to be done around the house during the day.”

If working alongside other family members or housemates can’t be avoided, consider investing in home office equipment like noise-canceling headphones or room dividers to minimize distractions.

A dedicated office space can be pivotal in having fewer distractions.

6. Take clear breaks.

It can be so easy to get lost in your work as a telecommuter that you avoid breaks altogether. Don’t let the guilt of working in the building you sleep in prevent you from taking five minutes to relax.

However, rather than just opening YouTube and watching some comfort clips, use your breaks to get away from your desk.

Go for a walk, enjoy fresh air, or spend time with others who might also be in the house. Take breaks near natural light if at all possible for added mental stimulation.

Take Reforge’s Ginny Mineo’s advice. “Breaks, like making and eating lunch, can recharge you to do better work. Don’t assume you need to be working 100% of the time while you’re home to be more productive.”

7. Interact with other humans.

When you start working from home, you’ll likely miss the casual social interactions with colleagues you’re used to throughout the day.

When working from home, you don’t have the small talk and other activities that make each day at the office unique.

So what can you do? Communicate.

Fight boredom and loneliness by frequent communication with other employees. Reach out to them through video chat via apps like Zoom and Slack, a hosted phone system, or however else your company communicates.

Remember: You’re working from home, not the moon. Interacting with other people during the day is allowed, even if they’re not your colleagues. It’s a good idea to see another face during the day when most of your workday is solitary. So, use your breaks to interact with others.

“Go outside and find a human to interact with — ordering your coffee, running an errand, whatever. It keeps you sane,” says HubSpot’s Corey Wainwright.

8. Prepare meals the night before.

When you’re in your own home, it can be tempting to spend time preparing a nice breakfast and lunch for yourself, chopping and cooking included. Don’t use precious minutes making your food the day of work — cook it the night before.

Preparing food ahead of time ensures you can use your meal times to eat and that you aren’t performing non-work tasks that spend energy better used at your desk.

Digital Marketing Strategist Lindsay Kolowich, adds:

“Cooking at home is time you wouldn’t have spent meal prepping if you’d been in the office that day, and I find the minutes can add up in the end. To mitigate that, I try to cook and prep my meals the night before, just like I would for a day at the office.”

When it comes time to eat, have a genuine away-from-your-laptop lunch break.

9. Pick a definitive finishing time.

You might be under the impression that working from home establishes more work–life balance, but be careful with that assumption.

Working from home can also feel like being at a casino — you can get so caught up in your activity in a relaxing environment, that you lose complete track of time.

“If you work from home full-time (or regularly), it’s really easy to let your work life bleed into your personal life,” says Tyler Littwin, a graphic designer. “Maintaining a boundary is important for both halves of the equation.”

In lieu of coworkers whose packing up and leaving the office reminds you to do the same, set an alarm at the end of the day to indicate your normal workday is coming to an end.

You don’t have to stop at exactly that time, but knowing the work day is technically over can help you start the process of saving your work and calling it quits for the evening.

10. Eat and sleep.

What is the biggest perk to working from home? One of the biggest benefits for some people (me), is complete access to the kitchen.

As soon as I take a break, I automatically drift towards the kitchen for some snacks.

An unhealthy diet can affect productivity and drain energy. When I switched to a healthier diet, it made me function better and get the most from my routine.

So eat well when working from home.

It’s also vital that you keep to a proper sleep schedule. Save binge-watching your favorite shows for the weekend. With the right food to keep energy levels high and sound sleep to refresh your body and mind, you can successfully work from home.

You can find more work-from-home tips in the books listed in this best remote-work books article.

Working From Home Tips

1. Get started early.

When working in an office, your morning commute can help you wake up and feel ready to work by the time you get to your desk. At home, however, the transition from your pillow to your computer can be much more jarring.

Believe it or not, one way to work from home productively is to dive into your to-do list as soon as you wake up.

Simply getting a project started first thing in the morning can be the key to making progress on it gradually throughout the day. Otherwise, you’ll prolong breakfast and let the morning sluggishness wear away your motivation.

Kolowich says, “When I work from home, I wake up, put on a pot of coffee, and start working immediately — much earlier than normal working hours. I only start making breakfast once I’ve hit a wall or need a break. I’m a morning person and find I can get a ton done in the early morning hours, so this works really well for me.”

2. Make after-work plans.

Do you have trouble closing your laptop and moving on to the next part of the day? Make it easy for yourself by making plans immediately after work.

“You can instantly boost your remote work productivity by scheduling something fun or important in the afternoon,” shared remote worker of seven years Mitch Glass, founder of Project Untethered.

“Adding a firm deadline cranks up the pressure and forces you to knock out the most important tasks as fast as possible. If left unchecked, remote work has a way of creeping into the evening hours, so having this hard cutoff point helps protect work-life balance as well,” Glass says.

Image Source

3. Use the Pomodoro technique.

One of the top tips for working remotely is to take breaks, but that poses a challenge for most remote workers. Let the Pomodoro Method make it achievable.

“My top work-from-home tip is to use the Pomodoro Method to stay productive and focused throughout the day,” shared Kat Smith, founder of A Way Abroad. Kat has been a remote worker for six years, having spent four years as a freelancer and two years as a full-time remote employee.

In the traditional Pomodoro Method, you set a 25-minute timer, pick a specific task you can finish in that time, get rid of any distractions, start the clock, and complete your task.

“This creates some urgency, so you don’t let a single task stretch longer than it should. When the timer beeps, take a 5-minute break. You can repeat this throughout the day,” Smith says.

This technique is so popular that you can easily add a Pomodoro Google Chrome Extension to your browser.

4. Pretend like you are going into the office.

The mental association you make between work and an office can make you more productive, and there’s no reason that feeling should be lost when working remotely.

I know that you love working in your sweatpants (I do, too), but the mere act of changing clothes to something more serious will give you a signal to get work done throughout the day.

When you dress up, you give your brain a reason for dressing up, and it can keep you pumped throughout your work hours.

So when working from home, do all the things you’d do to prepare for an office role: Set your alarm, make (or get) coffee, and wear nice clothes.

Internet browsers like Google Chrome even allow you to set up multiple accounts with different toolbars on the top — for example, a toolbar for home and a separate toolbar for work.

Take to heart the words of HubSpot Graphic Designer Anna Faber-Hammond, who says, “Get fully ready for the day and pretend you’re actually going to work. Otherwise, you might find yourself back in bed.”

5. Structure your day like you would in the office.

When working from home, you’re your own personal manager and can choose your working hours.

However, without things like an in-person meeting schedule to break up your day, you can easily lose focus or burn out.

To stay on schedule, segment what you’ll do and when for the day. If you have an online calendar, create personal events and reminders that tell you when to shift gears and start on new tasks. Google Calendar makes this easy.

Structuring your day as you would in the office also saves you from work creep. With this structure in place, working from home will not cause your work to invade your personal life.

“Are mornings for writing while you’re in the office? Use the same remote work schedule at home. This structure will help keep you focused and productive,” says Ginny Mineo.

6. Choose a dedicated workspace.

Just because you’re not working at an office doesn’t mean you can’t, well, have an office.

Rather than cooping yourself up in your room or on the couch in the living room — spaces associated with leisure time — dedicate a specific room or surface in your home to working remotely.

No matter the space or location, have an area of the home to work and stay committed to it throughout the day. And, after choosing your dedicated workspace, make the most of it by making it quiet.

Mallikarjunan says, “Have a place you go specifically to work. It could be a certain table, chair, local coffee shop — some place that’s consistently your ‘workspace.’ It helps you get into the right frame of mind.”

7. Don’t stay at home.

Is your home office just not getting it done for you? Take your work-from-home life a step further and get out of the house.

Coffee shops, libraries, public lounges, coworking spaces, and similar Wi-Fi-enabled spaces can help you simulate the energy of an office so you can stay productive even when you don’t sit in an official workplace.

Content Marketer Corey Wainwright, comments, “I get out of my home to work and go to an establishment with actual tables, chairs, and people. It helps simulate the work environment and removes the distractions I typically have at home, like the urge to finally clean my room, do laundry, or watch TV.”

8. Make it harder to use social media.

Social media is designed to make it easy for us to open and browse quickly. As remote workers, though, this convenience can be detrimental to our remote work productivity.

To counteract your social networks’ ease of use during work hours, remove them from your browser shortcuts and log out of every account on your phone or computer.

You might even consider working primarily in a private (or, if you’re using Chrome, an “Incognito”) browser window.

This ensures you stay signed out of all your accounts, and each web search doesn’t autocomplete the word you’re typing. It’s a guarantee that you won’t be tempted into taking too many social breaks during the day.

Also, many have found it helpful to shut off social media notifications during the hours they work from home.

Alec Biedrzycki, product marketer at AirTable, says, “I remove all social networks from my toolbar bookmarks… you can get sucked in without knowing it, so eliminating the gateway to those networks keeps me on track.”

9. Commit to doing more.

Projects always take longer than you initially think they will. For that reason, you’ll frequently get done less than you set out to do.

So, just as you’re encouraged to overestimate how many work hours you’ll spend doing one thing, you should also overestimate how many things you’ll do during the day.

Even if you come up short of your goal, you’ll still come out of that day with a solid list of tasks filed under ‘complete.’

“On days I’m working from home, I tend to slightly overcommit on what I’ll deliver that day. So even if I get the urge to go do something else, I know I’ve already committed a certain amount of work to my team,” says Corey Wainwright.

10. Work when you’re at your most productive.

Nobody sprints through their work from morning to evening — your motivation will naturally ebb and flow throughout the day.

However, when you’re working from home, it’s all the more important to know when those ebbs and flows will take place and plan your schedule around it.

To capitalize on your most productive periods, save your more challenging tasks for when you know you’ll be in the right headspace for them. Use slower points of the day to knock out the easier logistical tasks on your plate.

Verily Magazine calls these tasks “small acts of success,” and they can help build your momentum for the heavier projects that are waiting for you later on.

Product Designer Brittany Leaning, says about her routine, “For me, the most productive times of the day are usually early in the morning or late at night. I recognize this and try to plan my day accordingly. Also, music that pumps me up doesn’t hurt.”

The responsibility is on you to know when you are most productive and build your work schedule around the periods of maximum productivity.

11. Save calls for the afternoon.

Sometimes, I’m so tired in the morning that I don’t even want to hear my voice — let alone talk to others with it.

You shouldn’t have to give yourself too much time to become productive in the morning, but you can give yourself some extra time before working directly with others.

If you’re struggling to develop a reasonable work schedule for yourself as a telecommuter, start with the solitary tasks in the morning.

Save your phone calls, meetings, Google Hangouts, meetings, video calls, and other collaborative work for when you’ve officially “woken up.”

Senior Marketing Director James Gilbert advises that you “Take advantage of morning hours to crank through meaty projects without distractions, and save any calls or virtual meetings for the afternoon.”

12. Focus on one distraction.

There’s an expression out there that says, “If you want something done, ask a busy person.”

The bizarre but true rule of productivity is that the busier you are, the more you’ll do.

It’s like Newton’s law of inertia: If you’re in motion, you’ll stay in motion. If you’re at rest, you’ll stay at rest. And busy people are in fast enough motion that they have the momentum to complete anything that comes across their desks.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to find things to help you reach that level of busyness when you’re at home — your motivation can just swing so easily. HubSpot’s principal marketing manager, Pam Vaughan, suggests focusing on something that maintains your rhythm (in her case, it’s her daughter).

She says, “When I work from home, my 20-month-old daughter is home with me, too. It seems counterintuitive, but because I have to manage taking care of her and keeping her happy and entertained while still getting my work done, the pressure helps to keep me focused.”

Vaughan says when her daughter napping or entertaining herself, she goes into super-productive work mode.

“The ‘distraction’ of my daughter (I mean that in the most loving way possible) means I can’t possibly succumb to some of the other common distractions of home,” she says.

13. Plan out what you’ll be working on ahead of time.

Spending time figuring out what you’ll do today can take away from actually doing those things. And, you’ll have planned your task list so recently that you can be tempted to change your schedule on the fly.

It’s important to let your agenda change if you need it to, but it’s equally important to commit to a schedule that outlines every assignment before you begin.

Try solidifying your schedule the day before, making it feel more official when you wake up the next day to get started on it.

“Plan out your week in advance to optimize for the environments you’ll be in,” says Niti Shah.

14. Use technology to stay connected.

Working from home might make you feel cut off from the larger operations happening in your company.

Instant messaging and videoconferencing tools like Slack and Zoom can make it easy to check in with other remote employees and remind you how your work contributes to the big picture.

It’s also vital to invest in the right technology. For instance, a slow router can take the steam right off your enthusiasm to work, so it’s better to invest in a high-performance router.

CMO and former HubSpot employee, Meghan Keaney Anderson, remarks:

“At HubSpot, we use Slack to keep conversations going remotely, Trello to keep us organized around priorities, and Google Hangouts plus Webex to make remote meetings more productive. Getting the right stack of support tools to fit your work style makes a big difference.”

15. Match your music to the task at hand.

During the week, music is the soundtrack to your career (cheesy, but admit it, it’s true).

And, at work, the best playlists are diverse playlists — you can listen to music that matches the energy of the project you’re working on to boost your productivity.

Video game soundtracks are excellent at doing this. In the video game, the lyric-free music is designed to help you focus; it only makes sense that it would help you focus on your work.

Want some other genres to spice up your routine and make you feel focused? Take them from Ginny Mineo, a startup marketer, who offers her work music preferences below.

“When I’m powering through my inbox, I need some intense and catchy rap/R&B (like Nicki Minaj or Miley Cyrus) blasting through my headphones, but when I’m writing, Tom Petty is the trick. Finding what music motivates and focuses me for different tasks (and then sticking to those playlists for those tasks) has completely changed my WFH productivity,” Mineo says.

16. Use laundry as a work timer.

You might have heard that listening to just two or three songs in the shower can help you save water.

And it’s true; hearing a few of your favorite songs start and end, one after another, can remind you how long you’ve been in the bathroom and shorten your wash time.

Why bring this up? Because the same general principle can help you stay on task when working from home. But instead of three songs off your music playlist, run your laundry instead.

Doing your laundry is a built-in timer for your home. So, use the time to start and finish something from your to-do list before changing the load.

Committing to one assignment during the wash cycle and another during the dry process can train you to work smarter on tasks that you might technically have all day to tinker with. And when you know there’s a timer, it makes it hard for distractions to derail your work.

People Ops Manager Emma Brudner, notes:

“I also usually do laundry when I work from home, and I set mini-deadlines for myself corresponding to when I have to go downstairs to switch loads. If I’m working on an article, I tell myself I’ll get to a certain point before the wash cycle ends. Then I set another goal for the dryer.”

Staying Productive While Working From Home

While you might miss the office, working full-time from home can be good for you. For one, you don’t have to worry about commuting every day, and you can better care for your loved ones by being around more often.

The work-from-home tips that we’ve shared can help you make the most of your solo routine. Try out a few, and you might find that you’re just as productive working from home as you are in the office.

In this post, we are going to take a look at how B2B marketers can effectively integrate intent data into their martech stack to unlock its full potential. 

By incorporating intent data into key components of your martech stack, you can personalize messaging, improve lead scoring, and deliver targeted content that resonates with your audience. 

 Key components of a martech stack that can effectively leverage intent data

Let’s face it, when it comes to marketing technology, there’s an awful lot out there to choose from.

According to Chiefmartech, which has been keeping track of this phenomenon over the past twelve years, the number of martech solutions has gone from about 150 in 2011 to more than 11,000 in 2023.

Yes, you read that correctly. No wonder it’s easy to get overwhelmed by your choices.

Hopefully, we can make it a little easier for you. We’ve identified four key components of a martech stack that enables marketers to effectively use intent data to its fullest potential.

Image by Iconics Avenue via Pixabay

• CRM and Marketing Automation Platforms: This is the backbone of your martech stack. These systems store and manage your customer and prospect data, as well as handle your marketing campaigns.Integrating intent data into these platforms enables you to personalize your messaging based on the behaviors and interests of your target audience as well as identify the right moments to engage with prospects based on their intent signals. It also helps improve lead scoring, allowing you to identify the most promising prospects.
• Intent Data Provider: Choosing the right intent data provider is crucial for accessing accurate and relevant data. Partnering with a reliable intent data provider ensures access to high-quality data to drive effective marketing strategies.It’s also important that any provider you choose to work with offers first-party buyer-level intent data. First-party intent data is derived directly from your target audience’s interactions with your own digital properties, providing the most accurate and relevant insights.

Importantly, you also want to confirm that the intent data provider you choose can integrate with your other marketing technologies. 

• Data Management Platform: Siloed or inaccurate data can stand in the way of making worthwhile data-based decisions. That’s why having a data management platform (DMP) is a key component of any martech stack. DMPs play a vital role in maintaining data hygiene and consistency across your stack.It also helps organize and centralize your data from various sources—ensuring that it is accurate and up-to-date. CRM platforms, marketing automation tools, and other systems create a unified view of your audience. This enables you to derive more meaningful insights and execute targeted marketing campaigns.
• Content Management System (CMS): A CMS empowers you to create and publish targeted content that aligns with the insights derived from intent data.By integrating intent data into your CMS, you can tailor your content to match the specific interests and needs of your audience. This approach enhances engagement and establishes your brand as a trusted resource in the eyes of your audience.

Integrating intent data into CRM and marketing automation platforms improves personalization and messaging

Image via ChatGPT 4/DALL-E

Now that we’ve given you the short list of essential components you’ll need in your marketing technology stack, let’s take a closer look at how to integrate intent data into your CRM and marketing automation platforms. 

As we briefly touched on, CRM and marketing automation platforms are the technologies that prop up the rest of your martech stack. Having a marketing automation platform, in particular, makes it easier to scale your marketing efforts and is essential when scaling marketing strategies such as pairing intent data with ABM. 

To integrate intent data effectively into your CRM and marketing automation platform, the first step is to work with your intent data provider and CRM/marketing automation platform to set up the data integration process. Because you did your homework ahead of time, you already know that such integration is possible and will result in a seamless flow of intent data into your existing systems.

From there you can utilize intent data to trigger specific actions within your CRM and marketing automation platforms. An example of this would be to set up your systems to send out a personalized email based on specific intent signals. It can also be used to adjust lead scores based on the level of engagement and intent exhibited by prospects. 

By tailoring your marketing efforts based on intent signals and engagement, you’ll have the ability to deliver more relevant and timely messages. Indeed, once intent data is integrated into your CRM and marketing automation platform, you’ll be able to create targeted messaging that resonates with specific audiences. 

Maintaining data hygiene and consistency across your Martech stack

To guarantee accurate insights that lead to effective marketing campaigns, it’s crucial to maintain data hygiene and coherence across your martech stack. Here are some best practices to follow to help clean, accurate, and up-to-date across your stack:

Standardized Naming Conventions: One of the best ways to ensure consistency across your tech stack is to establish standardized naming conventions. Using standardized naming helps to maintain consistency and avoid confusion when working with data across different platforms. It makes it easier to identify and align data elements. 

In creating naming conventions, Forrester advises that you “take into consideration how users will locate content, assets, and programs, how the company needs to report on tactic and program performance, and how it wishes to segment and message to its customer base.”

Define Data Ownership and Management: Do you know who “owns” each type of data within your martech stack? Does marketing have ownership or does IT claim responsibility? It’s important to assign responsibility to individuals or teams to ensure data accuracy, completeness, and timeliness. 

Regular Data Cleaning and Updates: Once you’ve determined who is responsible for the various types of data coming from your martech stack, establish a schedule for regular data cleansing and updates. Implement data hygiene practices to remove duplicate or outdated records and enrich data with additional insights.

Following this practice will assist in assuring that your intent data remains a valuable asset in driving effective strategies. 

Measuring the impact of intent data on martech stack performance

Of course, you can’t just integrate intent data into your martech stack and just assume it will bring you all the insights you need and have a positive effect on your marketing.

As with all things marketing, it’s important to determine the impact that intent data has on the performance of your martech stack and make sure the investment in resources has paid off.

Start by defining the metrics that align with your business goals and objectives. These metrics may include conversion rates, pipeline velocity, revenue generation, or ROI. Select the metrics that provide meaningful insights into the effectiveness of your intent data-driven marketing campaigns. 

Next, use attribution models to accurately measure the impact of intent data on your marketing campaigns. Attribution models help you understand the contribution of different touchpoints and marketing channels make towards conversions and revenue generation. By attributing value to intent data-driven interactions, you can quantify its impact.

Treat your martech stack as an ongoing experiment. Continually test and optimize your strategies, utilizing intent data to enhance performance over time. Conduct A/B tests and analyze data-driven insights to understand what works best for your target audiences.

Iterate and refine your strategies based on the insights you’ve gained. By embracing a data-driven optimization mindset, you can uncover new growth opportunities and maximize the value of intent data.

Conclusion

Integrating intent data into your martech stack is crucial for B2B marketers aiming to drive personalized and targeted marketing efforts.

By leveraging intent data within your CRM and marketing automation platforms, you can enhance your messaging, improve lead scoring, and increase the effectiveness of your campaigns.

Welcome to The Creative, a series that gives content creators actionable advice from professionals in the creator economy. Whether you’re a seasoned creator or just starting out, read The Creative to learn how to grow your platform, improve your content, and stay ahead in the ever-shifting creator landscape. 

As a content creator, I’ve found the most common question other creators in my circle ask is, “How do I collaborate with brands?”

And it makes sense that it’s top of mind for so many creatives since brand deals are among the primary sources of income for podcasters, influencers, YouTubers, streamers, and more.

So, how can a content creator secure a collaboration with a brand? Where do you find these brands? And how do you know you‘re ready? Though I am a creator, I’m more of a hobbyist.

So, I don’t have much personal experience navigating brand deals.

However, I spoke with seasoned creators within HubSpot’s network with experience working with brands. Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about collaborating with brands as a creator, according to the experts.

What is a brand collaboration?

When should you seek brand collaborations?

How to Find Brand Collaborations

 

What is a brand collaboration?

A brand collaboration is a partnership between a brand and a content creator in which both parties work together to create content that promotes the brand to the creator’s followers.

One of the most common types of brand collaborations, for example, is a partnership.

A brand partnership is when a brand works with an influencer or creator on a joint campaign, offering, or other promotional activity.

An example of a brand partnership would be when makeup and beauty influencer Jackie Aina partnered with makeup brand Anastasia Beverly Hills to release a line of eye shadow palettes.

When should you seek brand collaborations?

I used to think I needed a certain number of followers or that I had to have a plethora of content before even considering working with brands.

So, imagine my surprise when my YouTube channel only had about 100 followers, yet I was already getting brands and businesses in my DMs asking if I wanted to promote their products or services.

It turns out it doesn’t necessarily boil down to high follower counts and viral content when determining the right time to work with brands as creators.

“People can monetize and start collaborating with brands as soon as they have an audience that is useful to the brand,” says Scott D. Clary of the podcast Success Story.

However, Scott warns it’s crucial to understand business practices.

“You have to understand that when you start working with brands, you are working with people who are building their own empires and companies, and — if you don’t have a lot of business experience — it can be overwhelming,” he says.

Scott explains, “They’re going to ask a lot of you. They’re going to negotiate contracts, they’re going to try to ‘win’ in that deal, and they’re going to try to get the best possible bang for their buck with that particular creator.”

So, Scott encourages creators seeking brand deals and partnerships to set themselves up for success by understanding the following:

• The value their content brings
• Their own audience and how said audience will respond to the brand that the creator is working with
• What’s normal in a contract, such as deliverables, reporting timeline, and payment periods

“So, immerse yourself in a variety of different YouTube videos, resources, or blogs based on how to negotiate a good deal and how to serve a brand the best,” he says.

He explains, “It’s almost more important to do the research and understand the mechanics of how to sell advertising as a service first before you jump into bed with brands.”

Scott says it‘s possible to go in without prior research and learn as you go, “but it’ll be painful, and you won‘t be getting good deals, or you won’t be getting paid on time.”

How to Find Brand Collaborations

So, you feel ready to seek collaborators — where do you go?

Leanne Elliot of the podcast Truth, Lies, and Workplace Culture suggests in-person events.

“We have gotten the majority of our content partnerships from being at an event, representing the podcast, talking to guests, interviewing people,” she explains. “From there, either members of their team or they themselves would approach us for collaborations.”

Leanne says it’s crucial to target events you know your desired collaborators will attend, and I can attest to this.

A few years ago, I wanted to create a YouTube video for my channel diving into how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the voice acting industry.

I knew I wanted to interview an experienced and professional voice actor for the project, so I made a point of attending a local convention and meeting with voice actors in attendance.

That day, I met actress Anairis Quinones, known for voicing various popular anime characters.

I told her about my channel and that I wanted to learn more about her experience in voice acting during a pandemic. Just one week later, we were recording a video for the channel.

Though it wasn’t a brand collaboration, the same logic still applies.

So, you’re a creator and found a brand you want to work with — how do you pitch yourself to that brand?

“You don’t,” says Al Elliot, co-host of the Truth, Lies, and Workplace Culture podcast. “You don’t pitch yourself; you pitch what you’ll give to the collaborator.”

The podcast discusses different aspects of Workplace Culture, and Al says when he meets potential collaborators, he doesn’t approach the person by going on about the podcast.

“I do the opposite,” He explains. “I go, ‘I notice you have some content about workplace culture, but not loads. I think we can collaborate on something really cool where you can tell me about how you see workplace culture.'”

So let the potential collaborator know you want to provide an opportunity for them to discuss their brand, product, or service — emphasize the value your platform brings.

Brand Collaboration Tools

In-person events are just one of the options for connecting with brands. Scott says multiple tools are available to help creators find brands and companies to collaborate with.

For example, if you’re a creator with a newsletter looking for brand partnerships, Scott has a few platforms in mind.

“For newsletter, you could use Paved, Who Sponsors Stuff, SponsorLeads, or Sponsorgap,” he says. “These are all marketplaces where brands that love sponsoring newsletters are already looking for newsletter sponsorships.”

Scott also suggests subscribing to your favorite newsletters, paying attention to what brands are sponsoring them, and running outreach campaigns to the head of marketing for those companies.

If you host a podcast, there are online marketplaces for you to seek brand partnerships as well.

“There’s AdvertiseCast and Gumball,” Scott says. “Or, it‘s going to your favorite podcast that’s in the same niche as you and see who sponsors their podcast, then running outreach campaigns to the head of marketing for that particular company.”

Red Flags to Look For

While it’s great to seek new opportunities as a creator, it’s essential to be selective about who you choose to work with. One way to ensure you’re dealing with the right brands and companies is to be aware of the following red flags.

Only offering Performance- or Affiliate-Based Payments

One potential red flag (or “gray” flag, as Scott puts it) is if a brand doesn’t seem to appreciate the value a content creator brings to a collaboration or partnership.

“Meaning that if you have a great audience, you know who your audience is, and you know a brand will be successful if they work with you, and they’re only asking for a performance-based or an affiliate-based payment — I feel like that is not an ideal scenario for a lot of great content creators,” Scott says.

Performance-based payment means a brand pays a creator based on the results the content generates, such as the click-through rate or social media engagement.

An affiliate-based payment is when a creator is paid after their content directly results in a consumer buying the advertised product or service.

Scott explains, “It’s how some people get started, but I think you have to know your worth as a creator, and you can’t pay your bills with potential future revenue.”

Instead, a better option would be for creators to have their own rate or negotiate their contracts to guarantee a proper, consistent, and fair income.

Offering to Pay in Free Products or Equity

“That’s even more of a red flag,” Scott says. “When brands say, ‘We’re just going to give you free products, and we expect so many posts.'”

The obvious issue with only getting free products as payment is that these items can’t pay your bills in the long run, no matter how nice they are.

Like, thanks for the free shampoos, but I can’t exactly appease my landlord with these when it’s the first of the month.

According to Scott, equity compensation is another payment method to be wary of.

If you’re unsure what equity compensation is, it’s when a brand offers a creator a payment in the form of things like restricted stock or a performance share.

This form of payment is especially problematic because there‘s a good chance the equity isn’t really worth much and may not result in any cash down the line.

“The equity the brand is giving you could be so diluted, and the valuation of the company so overvalued, that you’re actually probably never going to walk away with any money,” Scott warns.

The Brand is Too Controlling

A brand collaboration is supposed to be exactly that — a collaborative effort, meaning both parties work together for a mutually beneficial outcome.

For that to happen, the brand you choose to work with must respect the integrity of your work and not micromanage your process.

Not only can an overly controlling brand negatively impact your experience, but it can also hurt your content and damage your audience’s trust.

“We see that a lot in terms of YouTubers and influences who have gotten a lot of heat from the press and the YouTube community for promoting products and using scripts,” Leanne explains. “You see the same four or five influencers saying the same things about the same products, and it’s clearly been scripted by that brand.”

She says, “Particularly from a podcast medium, we need to be very protective of our content.”

This is because podcasts are one of the most trusted mediums for information, especially among Gen Z. In fact, 47% of the Gen-Z online population in the U.S. are monthly podcast listeners.

And 64% of Gen-Zers in the UK say podcasts are more trustworthy than other media.

“We need to be extra careful, as podcast creators, to ensure integrity is really high,” Leanne says. “So a red for me would be anybody who wants more control, or more say in my content than I feel comfortable with.”

Green Flags to Look For

You want to work with brands who are transparent and honest about their payment methods and who will enter into a fair and equitable contract with you.

Another good sign a brand is worth working with is that they’ve worked with creators in the past and have a sense of how brand collaboration works.

Finally, you want to work with brands who will respect you as a creator and trust you to bring their vision to life rather than micromanaging your work or having too much input on how you communicate their brand to your audience.

Over the years, I‘ve seen many content creators get excited about the possibility of securing a brand collaboration or partnership.

Still, creators must know what to expect before working with companies; otherwise, there’s a strong possibility they‘ll get stuck with a deal that doesn’t yield a high return on investment.

So, do your research, trust yourself as a creator, and make sure to work with brands who take your work seriously and will compensate you fairly.

What do cross-country road trips, wedding speeches, and social media marketing have in common?Planning. I definitely can’t help you with your road trip or wedding speech (sorry), but I can help you create a social media calendar to organize your next marketing campaign.

As marketers, we recognize that social media is integral to an effective inbound marketing strategy. With so many social networks available to us, staying organized and planning for when and what we share is crucial, which is exactly where a social media calendar enters the picture.

Before we dive into our list of top tools to stay organized, here’s what you need to know about social media calendars and why they’re essential.

• What is a social media calendar?
• How to Create a Social Media Calendar
• Social Media Content Calendar Tools to Plan Your Messaging
• Social Media Templates
• Benefits of Using a Social Media Content Calendar & Content Planner
• Social Media Calendar Examples
• How To Create a Social Media Posting Schedule for Your Business
• How To Create a Content Calendar
• What is the best social media calendar?

What is a social media calendar?

A social media calendar is a rundown of your upcoming posts organized by date and time. A social media calendar can be a spreadsheet, digital calendar, or interactive dashboard.

To get the most value out of your social media calendar, it may include the following:

• The date and time a post will go live
• The social media account or network each post will go live on
• Materials to include, such as copy, hashtags, links, and graphics

 

How to Create a Social Media Calendar

To create an effective social media calendar, you should:

1. Conduct a social media audit.

A social media audit assesses your social media presence, accounts, and engagement. This lets you see what’s working, what’s not, and where to improve.

In my experience, an audit is about more than just analyzing your social media performance. It can help you better understand your target audience’s interests, habits, and expectations and give you crucial clues about how they engage with your content, too.

Auditing your social media channels can also make it easier to see how competitors’ social media presence could affect your performance. It’s a great way to understand what social media trends, tools, and features you should be paying attention to.

As you complete your audit, be sure to:

Review and analyze your current social media content performance.

This includes metrics for:

• Engagement
• Conversion
• Clicks

It’s also important to do some post-level analysis. Take a closer look at your top-performing posts and find out what made them successful. Ask yourself — does your audience love educational content or do they want to be inspired or entertained?

Connect your social content strategy to business goals.

Find the KPIs that are important for your business, then, make sure your social strategy supports those KPIs.

Run a competitive analysis.

Review your competitors’ social media accounts with these competitive analysis templates and check:

• The types of content they’re sharing
• Posting frequency
• Audience engagement

Want more details? Click here to learn how to conduct a social media audit step-by-step.

2. Choose your social media channels and the content you’ll post.

Once you’ve completed your audit, it’s time to use what you learned. Your audit should give you a sense of what you’re doing right, where you should experiment, and which channels are best for your audience.

For example, say that Instagram has historically been your top social media channel for engagement, but you’ve seen a drop in the last six months. Your audit should show you what engagement on IG looks like for your competitors, plus what is and isn’t working for your business now.

Choose your social media channels.

Target audience demographics are need-to-know information for planning your content because you’re much more likely to achieve your marketing goals if you share content you know your audience enjoys.

So, you’ll want to do some market research.This can help you find the most popular social media platforms for your audience too. For example, say my target audience is Gen Z. I’m sharing Instagram Reels and posting on X, but nothing is taking. I know from our Consumer Trends Report (which is market research) that Gen Z’s favorite social media channel is TikTok, so I would be better off pivoting my marketing strategy to that channel to drive results.

As you go through your own research, don’t forget to assess platform features and strengths.

Next, match your top content types and budget with the platform that’s the best fit for your needs.

For example, local coffee shop Café Grumpy focuses its social media presence on a single platform: Instagram. But cosmetics brand Glossier has a powerful social media presence on many platforms, including Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, and LinkedIn.

Health and beauty brand Golde strikes a balance with a presence on multiple platforms. But it focuses on content publishing and engagement with Instagram Reels.

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Keep in mind that with each platform you add, you’re multiplying the number of posts you’ll need to create and manage. This makes a social media calendar even more useful.

Plan what content you want to create for each channel.

Once you’ve chosen your platforms, it’s time to plan your social media content. To begin the planning process, review your team and budget. This will give you a realistic sense of how much high-quality content you can produce.

You can often produce more high-quality content for less money if you create in batches. This makes careful content planning essential.

Then, use your brand guide and social audit analysis to create content that resonates with your audience. Continuing with my example from above, my research shows that Gen Z prefers funny content and relatable content, so I’m more likely to see the results I’m looking for if I focus on that.

Create a smart mix of social content.

It’s best to create a variety of content. Videos are popular, but images, text-based posts, infographics, testimonials, and live streams are potent too. Mix it up to keep your feeds fresh and appealing. It’s also a handy way to stay up on trends that make the most of each platform.

For example, Instagram is ideal for visual storytelling. With that in mind, Café Grumpy’s social posts feature drawings and art from customers, employee stories, and vendor highlights.

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Glossier uses a unique content strategy for each social audience. For example, its YouTube channel features a “Get Ready with Me” playlist of videos of influencers, actresses, and CEOs using its products.

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But over on LinkedIn, Glossier uses its social feed to highlight its take on culture and events. And on Reddit, the content engages the community with prompts for conversation and critique.

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These content creation templates can speed up the process if you create unique content for multiple platforms.

3. Decide what your calendar should include.

Regardless of how you plan your social content (like by season, strategy, campaign, etc.), I recommend deciding what content you want in your calendar for your desired results to keep things organized.

To start, your calendar should include the following:

• The platforms you’re using
• The day and the time your posts will be published
• Links, graphics, videos, and copy

It’s also helpful to have platform image sizes, campaign hashtags, and quick tips on hand as you build out your social media calendar.

Color coding is also great for at-a-glance decision-making each month. This is how we color-coded content in our monthly social content planner:

As you become more adept with your calendar, you may want to expand it to include the following:

• Platform-specific materials include Reels, TikTok LIVE, polls, shoppable posts, etc.
• Geo-targeting
• The associated or vertical campaigns, such as product launches and contests

4. Get feedback.

Once your calendar is complete, share it with your team and stakeholders to get their feedback and make sure it meets everyone’s needs.

Your social media calendar should be an easy-to-understand plan that aligns with your social media strategy. If everything aligns, there shouldn’t be any big surprises or confusion when colleagues review your plan.

The monthly template in our social media calendar is helpful when sharing your plan with stakeholders who want a sense of the big picture but don’t need to get into granular details.

The other sections of this tool are useful for social media managers who are planning, creating, and posting to social media.

As you use the calendar, you may find ways to improve or expand upon it; you’ll need to be open to ongoing feedback.

Social Media Content Calendar Tools to Plan Your Messaging

Before working at HubSpot, I handled social media for a small nonprofit. I built a social media presence from the ground up, which is why planning ahead and creating a calendar for myself (and the nonprofit leaders) was so important. It helped us stay aligned with what I’d post, but, most significantly, it helped me stay on top of when to post.

Truthfully, I was just starting out in social media, so I did a lot of the planning in a Microsoft Word document that would’ve scared any experienced social media manager. Take it from me — using a social media content calendar tool is essential, regardless of your experience level.

There are also various tools to choose from, so understanding what functionality you’re looking for is important. Some are simpler, and you’d use them to plan out your content before posting it yourself.

Others are more advanced automated tools that let you plan your content, schedule it, and it will post the content for you. These tools cost money, so keep your budget in mind if you go this route.

With that in mind, let’s go over some high-quality tools for you to choose from.

Note: I know that some of the screenshots of calendars I’ve included look bleak and plain…yours will undoubtedly look much more full, complete, and useful than mine. I’m just your helpful guinea pig.

1. HubSpot’s Downloadable Template for Excel

Content Calendar

• Price: Free

Download This Template

If I were to guess, you probably already use Excel to create reports and data analysis. This multifaceted tool is also perfect for social media content calendar organization. You can customize Excel according to the priorities and metrics your team is focused on, making it a great option for planning.

The good news? My colleagues have already done the heavy lifting by creating a free, downloadable social media content calendar template using Microsoft Excel. Marketers can easily use this template to plan individual social media posts— monthly or annually — while keeping an eye on more significant picture events, holidays, publications, and partnerships.

Why I like this social media calendar tool:

This intuitive template is great for marketers with small teams and heavy workloads. You can add as many line items of scheduled posts as you like and color code every addition to organize your calendar based on your needs.

You can use the monthly planning calendar tab (pictured above) to get a bird’s-eye view of what’s coming down the pipeline in a given month and easily distinguish between posts by color-coding each platform. Or, you can get more granular with platform-specific calendars. Here’s the one for Facebook:

In the content repository tab, you can add the content you’ll be publishing to keep track of what you’ve already published and recall older content you can re-promote. You can also draft and plan social media posts in the social network update tabs. For more on how to use the templates, check out this in-depth guide from my colleague Basha Coleman, HubSpot Blog Writer and Media Amplification expert.

It’s important to note that this template and its included tabs are for organizational purposes. After you’ve planned out your social media posts, you’ll need to manually upload the content from the posts to a social media publisher. If you’re a HubSpot customer, you can organize your content in the spreadsheet and upload it directly into Social Inbox (check out instructions for this here the template’s cover sheet here).

HubSpot also offers social media software to create a custom publishing schedule to publish directly to LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Your social interactions all link back to the HubSpot CRM for easy-to-measure ROI.

2. Google Drive

Content Calendar and Asset Organization

• Price: Free for personal use. Google Workspace plans for businesses start at $6 per month.

Google Drive has several helpful features that make it easy for social media marketers to build an effective content calendar.

Why I like this social media calendar tool:

If you’re already familiar with Google Drive, I’m a big proponent of using it as your social media calendar tool. There’s no learning curve because you’re already familiar with all the features; you’re just adapting them for different uses.

Here’s a simple example of how I’d use Google Calendar to track my editorial and social media calendars to make sure posts align with new blog content. I can also easily share these calendars to avoid scheduling conflicts and align campaigns.

You can also use Google Sheets to schedule posts on social media, track the status of different pieces of content, and assign tasks to team members without switching platforms.

Google Docs is also great because you can keep comments in one place and collaborate on different projects instead of emailing back and forth or scheduling a meeting. I find this especially useful when editing your social media content, which may need to be drafted and approved quickly.

It’s also convenient because you can use multiple Google products to create quick and seamless workflows. For example, say I’m in charge of scheduling and publishing content, and my coworker is responsible for making creative assets. I can fill out the shared social media calendar with dates, copy, and scheduling status, and my colleague can easily upload the assets they create to Google Drive and add the link to the calendar so I have quick access when it’s time to publish.

A bonus is that HubSpot customers can easily link their Google Drive accounts to the HubSpot portal to upload files from Drive into the HubSpot software.

3. Loomly

Content Planning, Creation, Publishing, and Calendar

• Price: Base plan is $32/mo for two users and 10 accounts when you choose the annual agreement.
• Free Trial: 15-day free trial, no credit card required

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As I mentioned, some social media content calendars are all-in-one tools offering content planning and publishing. Loomly is one of those tools with content creation, management, and scheduling features.

Why I like this social media calendar tool:

I signed up for Loomly’s free trial quickly because I didn’t have to add credit card info, which I know can be a deterrent if you’re just looking to test a tool. It was extremely easy for me to get started, and the step-by-step walkthrough led me through linking my social accounts and drafting my first post.

I really appreciated that I could preview how posts look on each platform as I created them. This makes for easy editing and updates instead of deleting a post to make edits after it’s live.

I scheduled a few test posts in less than five minutes to get a view of the calendar, and it’s a simple, no-frills look. Each post you schedule uses the platform icon so you can easily tell what’s going where. The image below is an example calendar:

And, since it’s an all-in-one tool, linking your accounts means it will also schedule your posts for you.

Overall, Loomly is a high-quality tool for anyone looking to plan their social media content at a fair price point.

4. Later

Social Media Management Platform & Link in Bio Tool

• Price: Starter plan is $25/mo or $16.67 billed yearly
• Free Trial: Basic 14-day free trial, credit card required for feature-rich trial

Later is a user-friendly social media calendar and publishing tool that simplifies the process of scheduling and automating posts across various platforms, including Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.

 

It’s meant for organic social media content, so you’ll need to use a different tool for your paid campaigns.

I tested the tool for free, but the more feature-rich 14-day trial requires a credit card.

Why I like this social media calendar tool:

I’m impressed by Later’s social media calendar. It took me less than two minutes to link my Instagram account to the calendar, and having it linked means I easily scheduled hypothetical posts for publishing on the exact day and time I designated.

It’s also an extremely interactive tool, as you can upload your multimedia assets and drag and drop them onto your calendar, which really makes it feel like you’re “building” a calendar…fun, right?

The post builder includes all of the elements you’d need to include in your post based on the specific platform you’re scheduling for.

Your calendar will undoubtedly look better and fuller than mine, but here’s the monthly calendar view with two sample Instagram posts I created:

You can also view your scheduled posts in list view to get a detailed breakdown of each upcoming week.

What sets Later apart is its specialized visual planning for Instagram. It offers powerful Instagram scheduling features, including the ability to plan and preview your Instagram grid, schedule carousel posts, and even automatically publish Instagram Stories. I find the focus on the unique visual aesthetic requirements that Instagram demands to be a stand-out feature, making it a go-to tool for businesses or creators heavily invested in the platform.

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5. Sprout Social

Social Publishing and Content Calendar

• Price: Standard plan starts at $249/mo for five social profiles, billed annually.
• Free Trial: 30-day free trial, no credit card required

Sprout Social’s social media calendar and publishing tool make it easy for teams or individuals to plan and schedule their social posts. You can schedule content to automatically post to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and more.

Why I like this social media calendar tool:

I tested SproutSocial with its free trial. I found the publishing tool extremely easy to use with little learning curve, making it a great tool if you’re under a time crunch to choose a tool and get started.

I quickly linked my X (formerly Twitter) profile, and creating a post took me about five minutes. I especially liked that there’s a live preview option to view your creations come to life in real time.

When your content is scheduled, you can toggle monthly, weekly, or list view for a deeper look or filter the calendar by platform. Here’s what the monthly calendar view looks like with three scheduled X posts:

A bonus feature worth calling out: Sprout Social’s social listening tool lets you uncover niche conversations your audience is interested in so you can join in on the conversation.

I did find that this tool isn’t ideal if you focus on Instagram and TikTok because posting content requires an extra step. You have to download the Sprout Mobile App and designate a mobile publisher who manually publishes the posts at the right time within the app. The publisher will get notified when it’s time to post, but this can take away from the draw of an automatic schedule-and-go tool.

Sprout Social is also the most expensive tool, making it better for teams or individuals with a larger budget.

6. Hootsuite

Social Publishing and Content Calendar

• Price: Professional plan starts at $99/mo, billed annually
• Free Trial: 30-day free trial, requires credit card

Hootsuite’s social media calendar and planner make it easy to create, schedule, and publish content so you can execute your social media marketing goals.

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Why I like this social media calendar tool:

Hootsuite is a robust and high-powered publishing tool to consider. Its primary features for social publishing are exactly what you look for in a publisher: easy content scheduling in advance to share posts with your networks. It also has rich features for collaboration and post approvals.

To create your calendar, you can drag and drop the content to the exact date and time you want content to go live to ensure everything aligns with your marketing goals. Hootsuite stands out on this list because you can see paid and organic social content calendars side-by-side (other tools only allow for organic content).

Since it’s also a publisher, you can relax after you’ve scheduled your content because it will push it live for you.

You also get access to helpful features like uploading Canva templates for your posts and recommended times to post to get the most engagement.

7. Agorapulse

Social Publishing and Content Calendar

• Price: Free individual account for one user and three social profiles; paid plans start at $49/mo per user, billed annually
• Free Trial: 15-day free trial, no credit card required

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Agorapulse offers social publishing tools and a content calendar to easily manage your social media account queuing, scheduling, and bulk uploading posts (incredibly helpful for teams who use quarterly or monthly content plans).

Why I like this social media calendar tool:

I really like how straightforward Agorapulse’s interface is and how the welcome post immediately got me started with linking my social profiles.

The drag-and-drop builder made it easy for me to add posts to my calendar, and you get a preview of what your posts will look like on each platform with the live editor.

You can view your calendar in list, week, or month view, making it easy to get an overview or go more in-depth. As expected, your complete calendar will look nicer than mine, but here’s a basic one I created:

What makes Agorapulse different is its social inbox, which allows you to manage all the interactions from various platforms in a single place. After all, content isn’t just a one-and-done activity; it’s about building awareness and engagement with your readers.

8. StoryChief

Content Planning and Distribution

• Price: Individual pricing starts at $210, billed quarterly
• Free Trial: 7-day free trial, no credit card required

With StoryChief’s smart calendar, you can better strategize and plan your content strategy across channels. StoryChief is described as a “content distribution platform” that unifies analytics and publishing across multiple channels for a more simplified approach to content creation. Best of all, it syncs with HubSpot and your favorite calendar apps.

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Why I like this social media calendar tool:

After signing up for the free trial, I was immediately brought to an extremely interactive and helpful walkthrough of the basics of the tool.

I felt confident enough after the walkthrough to jump right into the tool, and I easily linked my X account and scheduled a few sample posts with the easy post builder.

I forgot to cancel the posts I scheduled and they were posted to my account so, rest assured, the tool works as advertised and your posts will go live as scheduled. Here’s what the monthly calendar view looks like with my scheduled posts:

You can customize how you see your calendar and filter views by channel, campaign level, or content type.

 

Social Media Templates

HubSpot’s Social Media Calendar Template

If you’re new to setting up social media calendars, HubSpot offers a free, pre-made downloadable template that you can use to schedule out full weeks of posts.

Download Now

HubSpot’s Social Media Content Calendar Template for Startups

This template is very similar to the one I mentioned above, but it includes tabs that work as a repository for content ideas. The template also includes helpful tips for posting on specific social media networks.

If you aiming to get all your ideas down to develop a big-picture plan for your social assets, I recommend starting with this template.

Benefits of Using a Social Media Content Calendar & Content Planner

We’re all busy, and inevitably, tasks can slip through the cracks. Social media content is no exception.

A successful social media strategy requires regular publishing and engaging with followers to see positive results — whether you’re looking for sales, brand recognition, lead generation, or all three.

So, if you’re not already using a social media content planner, here are a few advantages to pique your interest:

Easily pivot when plans change.

With a social media content calendar, you can plan out posts for entire weeks or months in advance. This frees up working hours to strategize for the future.

The best part is that you can always leave space for breaking news or current events in your industry. Otherwise, you’ll spend valuable time searching the internet daily for content to share, a known productivity killer.

Curate content just for your audience.

I recommend that all social media marketers take time to craft custom messages for each network because each audience expects to see something different on each one.

For example, your Instagram followers want to see Reels and Videos, while your Twitter followers like quick sound bites and shareable quotes. Planning this content using a social media content planner will save you time throughout the week. It will also make drafting thoughtful and intentional content for each site easier.

A social media content planner can help you post consistently on each social channel. This consistency creates a routine for your followers and helps you build trust.

Improved collaboration.

A shared calendar can improve collaboration with internal teams and external stakeholders. It gives everyone access to what’s on the calendar and gives you a reason to reconnect.

Skip waiting or sending last-minute emails for links, project status, or partnerships. Your social content planner gives you a simple way to let everyone know what you’ll need well before you need it.

Simplified performance tracking.

Without a calendar, we’re all publishing content into the void, and we cannot track big-picture and past performance.

With a calendar, you can look back and analyze which content performed best to adjust your strategy accordingly. If a particular type of post received significant views, you can recreate it for a different topic and potentially see the same success.

Content planning with a calendar can also help you track impact and ROI for social media efforts.

Reach new audiences.

With the help of a content planner, you can plan for holidays, events, and observance days, such as National Cat Day or Eat More Fruits and Vegetables Day. This makes it easy for you to tailor your content and engage with a broader audience.

Social Media Calendar Examples

1. Jotform Social Media Calendar

Jotform’s social media calendar isn’t just visually appealing and functional. The tabs at the top reveal your social plan for every channel you execute your strategy on, including in-person or virtual events.

If you’re modeling your social calendar after this one, remember to include a tab for content details and who on your team will be responsible for creating the content. You might also have a separate tab for each month to keep things organized.

2. Firefly Marketing Social Media Content Calendar

Going a more traditional route with your social media calendar? Try a Google Sheets template like the one created by Firefly Marketing. Each tab is dedicated to a different month, while the worksheet includes every channel you might need across the top.

The rows are separated by a week, so you can quickly identify the date and time a post is scheduled for publishing. Our favorite part of this template is the pre-populated social media holiday column with fun dates that your audience will love.

How To Create a Social Media Posting Schedule for Your Business

Scheduling your business’s social posts can keep you organized and help you consistently deliver content to your followers without worrying about looming deadlines. Content posting strategies can differ depending on the social media platform, and you should consider not only what you’re posting but also when and how often.

By creating a social posting schedule and adjusting the schedule to fit each platform, you can increase the chances that your posts will reach your audience.

Facebook

Facebook’s Meta Business Suite makes scheduling posts and stories for your business easy.

Scheduling a Facebook Post on Desktop

Step 1: To schedule a post using the Meta Business Suite on your desktop, start by selecting your business’s Facebook Page from the dropdown menu in the top left of your sidebar.

Step 2: Next, click Posts & Stories or Calendar, then click Create Post.

Step 3: Click Facebook News Feed to schedule the post to your news feed.

Step 4: Enter the details of your post, including text, media, and a link or location. If you add a photo to your post, you won’t be able to add a link preview. Click Call to Action or Feeling/Activity to add an optional call to action or feeling/activity to your post. You can’t add both a call to action and a feeling/activity.

Step 5: A preview will appear on the right as you build your post. You can change the preview to see how your post will look on both desktop and mobile by using the dropdown menu at the top of the window.

Step 6: After building your post, click the arrow next to Publish and click Schedule Post. Select the date and time you want your post to be published, and click Schedule to schedule your post.

Scheduling a Facebook Post on Mobile

Step 1: You can also schedule Facebook posts on mobile with the Meta Business Suite mobile app. Start by tapping Post to create a new post.

Step 2: Enter the details of your post, including text, media, links, a background color, and a feeling/activity. Then choose your business’s Facebook page to publish to Facebook.

Step 3: Tap Schedule for later and select the date and time you want your post to be published. Then tap Schedule to schedule your post.

Instagram

Like Facebook, Instagram also uses the Meta Business Suite to schedule posts.

Scheduling an Instagram Post on Desktop

Step 1: To schedule a post to Instagram using the Meta Business Suite on your desktop, start by connecting your Instagram account to the Meta Business Suite.

Step 2: Once your Instagram account is connected, click the dropdown menu in the top left of your sidebar and select your Instagram account.

Step 3: Click Posts & Stories or Calendar, then click Create Post. Click Instagram Feed to schedule the post to your Instagram feed.

Step 4: Enter the details of your post, including text, media, and an optional link or location. If you choose to add a link to your Instagram post, it will not show a photo preview.

Step 5: A preview will appear on the right as you build your post. You can change the preview to see how your post will look on both desktop and mobile by using the dropdown menu at the top of the window.

Step 6: After building your post, click the arrow next to Publish and click Schedule Post. Select the date and time you want your post to be published, and click Schedule to schedule your post.

Scheduling an Instagram Post on Mobile

Step 1: Like Facebook, you can schedule Instagram posts on mobile using the Meta Business Suite mobile app. Start by tapping Post to create a new post.

Step 2: Enter the details of your post, including text, media, and links. Then choose your business’s Instagram page to publish to Instagram.

Step 3: Tap Schedule for later and select the date and time you want your post to be published. Then tap Schedule to schedule your post.

LinkedIn

Only a super or content admin can schedule posts on LinkedIn. Still, by using third-party software such as Hubspot’s social media management tools that are included with HubSpot’s Marketing Hub Professional accounts, you can easily create and schedule LinkedIn posts.

Step 1: To schedule LinkedIn posts using HubSpot’s social media management tools, start by logging into your Marketing Hub Professional account.

Step 2: Next, navigate to Marketing > Social and click Create Social Post.

Step 3: In the right panel, click LinkedIn. Create your post in the text box, including emojis, hashtags, mentions, tags, and a content link. When using HubSpot’s social media management tools, you can only mention or tag LinkedIn company pages, not LinkedIn users.

A post preview will appear if you add a content link to your post. You can add up to four images to your post by clicking the image icon or add a video to your post by clicking the video icon.

Step 4: Click Review, then Preview to see how your post will appear on LinkedIn.

Step 5: Then click Schedule post to schedule or publish your post.

Twitter

Step 1: You can schedule Tweets for your business by logging into your Twitter Ads account and navigating to the Creatives > Tweets tab. To access the Creatives tab in your Twitter Ads account, your account must have a credit card on file.

Step 2: Click on New Tweet in the top right corner and create your Tweet. If you would like your Tweet to only be seen by users you have targeted in a Promoted Ads campaign, click the Promoted Only checkbox. Leave this unchecked if you would like the tweet to be seen organically by your followers.

Step 3: Once you’ve written your tweet, click the down arrow next to Tweet, click Schedule, and select the date and time you would like the tweet to be posted.

Pinterest

Scheduling a Pinterest Post on Desktop

Pinterest allows you to schedule up to 100 Pins. You can schedule one Pin at a time, up to two weeks in advance on desktop.

Step 1: To schedule Pins for your business, log into your Pinterest Business account. Next, click Create at the left corner of your screen, then click Create Pin.

Step 2: Choose an image or video, and add a title, description, and link.

Step 3: Click Publish later and choose the day and time you’d like to publish your Pin.

Step 4: Choose a board from the drop-down menu, or create a new board by clicking Create board.

Step 5: Click Publish.

Scheduling a Pinterest Post on iOS

You can also schedule Pins using the Pinterest app on iOS.

Step 1: To start, log in to your Pinterest Business account.

Step 2: Tap the plus icon, then tap Pin.

Step 3: Take a photo for your Pin, select an image or video from your device, and tap Next.

Step 4: Add a title, description, and the destination website to your Pin.

Step 5: Below Schedule Date, tap the edit icon and select the date and time you would like to publish your Pin.

Step 6: Tap Done.

Step 7: Tap Next.

Step 8: Choose an existing board to save your Pin to or tap Create board to create a new board.

Step 1: Download HubSpot’s content calendar template.

Download Now

Consistently posting content is key to making the most of your business’s social media accounts. HubSpot’s content calendar template makes setting up a monthly posting schedule for your business’s social media accounts easy. The template can be opened in Excel or uploaded to Google Sheets, so you can easily plan content with your team from anywhere.

HubSpot’s content calendar template includes a monthly planning calendar, a content repository, and posting schedules for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest. With HubSpot’s content calendar template, your team can view and manage your business’s social media posting schedules and deadlines at a glance.

Step 2: Choose your content goals.

Americans spend an average of 151 minutes (over two hours) on social media every day, making it a great way to connect with your business’s current and potential customers. It’s not enough to know what you want to post; you must also understand why your business posts content.

Posting content to social media can help your business achieve many goals, including raising brand awareness, driving traffic to your website, introducing new products and services to your customers, and even launching rebranding campaigns, to name a few.

When choosing your business’s content goals, consider what your brand most needs to accomplish. Are you looking to connect with a new demographic and generate leads? Do you want to increase your customers’ engagement with your business? Knowing your content goals can help to confirm that your business’s content reaches the right audience with the right message.

Step 3: Determine what types of content you want to publish.

Once you know your business’s goals, decide what types of content your business will post. Each type of social media content has advantages and disadvantages. For example, blog posts and articles can help your business build credibility, but they can be time-consuming to create.

Meanwhile, X posts can help your business gain consumer insight and hone its brand voice, but the 280 character limit for standard X users (premium subscribers get 25K+ characters) means your business may have to use long threads of multiple posts to get your message across. Carefully choosing the types of content your business will post can help ensure that your content offers value to your audience.

Step 4: Determine what platforms you will post on.

Once you know your business’s content goals and the types of content you will publish, it’s time to choose where your business will post.

Your business’s social media presence should be informed by its content, goals, and target audience demographics. For example, while posting on Instagram may help your business reach a young audience and market goods, the photo and video sharing platform may be a poor choice if you want to increase blog traffic among professionals in your industry. Likewise, a LinkedIn post may help drive traffic to your business’s blog but may not help you drive traffic to your online store.

Considering each social media platform’s strengths and weaknesses can help you accomplish your business’s content goals without wasting time and money marketing to users who outside of your target audience.

Step 5: Determine the most efficient posting schedule for your content.

After deciding on your business’s goals, the types of content you will publish, and where you will post the content, you need to create the posting schedule that your business will use. Each social media platform has peak engagement times — certain days and times of day when users are most likely to view and engage with posts.

So, knowing the best times to post on each social media platform will help you maximize the reach of your business’s posts. For instance, user engagement on Facebook peaks between 6 and 9 PM and 12 – 3 PM on Fridays. Engagement is lowest on Sundays and between 6 and 9 AM each day.

When creating your business’s content calendar, account for the engagement patterns for each of your accounts to demystify the scheduling process, save time, and get your posts in front of your audience when they are most likely to see them.

What is the best social media calendar?

Now that I’ve reviewed a few helpful tools to kick your social media strategy into high gear, it’s time for you to experiment with them. The best social media calendar saves you time, streamlines processes, and helps you work smarter, not harder.

Several of the platforms I’ve suggested are free to use or offer a free trial. Have one person on your team test one out and report their findings. You might find the tool that helps you reach your next social media KPI. Remember, every social media team is different. Combining these tools could help you execute your strategy efficiently to drive ROI.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in 2017 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Experimenting with your lead generation content is crucial to build a strong content strategy. Fresh types of content can expand your reach to attract more — and possibly better — leads.

The best way to shake up your lead generation content strategy is to take a deeper look into the top types of content that will help you collect new leads.

They’re ranked by effectiveness for 2023 based on statistics from our most recent survey of over 1,200 marketing professionals.

Because those statistics point so clearly to the growing shift toward social media marketing, we’ll also share data and tips on leveraging the top four social media channels for lead generation.

Top Lead Generation Content Types

The best lead generation content types can help your business’s reach grow by leaps and bounds. Here are the types of content you should consider using.

Short-Form Videos

Video tops the list in lead-generating effectiveness as overall marketing trends continue to move toward social media platforms.

Short-form videos are soaring in popularity across all social channels, including Facebook Reels, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok.

Short-form video has the highest ROI of any of the marketing trends, and 90% of marketers already using it planned to maintain or increase their investment in 2023.

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In terms of creating video content, it’s up to you to decide whether you want to produce, shoot, and edit the video in-house or hire a professional.

Short-form video taken with a smartphone camera is on-trend, as the content appears personable and easy to connect with. It’s also easier to create content on the go to capture interesting events.

To learn what kind of video content your target audience likes, you’ll need data indicating which social media platform(s) they use most. Use that platform’s best practices and follow reputable guides on video content creation to get started.

Influencer Marketing

Let’s take a moment to talk about social media marketing trends and how Gen Zers and Millennials fit into the picture.

In the last three months, 33% of people within these groups have bought a product due to an influencer’s recommendation.

It’s no wonder that influencer marketing, which is prevalent across social media platforms, has the second highest ROI in terms of lead generation, just after short-form videos.

Influencers are generally considered to be experienced peers who are knowledgeable, trustworthy, and entertaining.

Marketers who can leverage an influencer’s followers with integrity can create compelling — and high-selling — content for a pre-built audience.

Within Instagram, the highest ROI comes through integrated shopping tools such as Instagram Shop where users can make purchases without even leaving the social media app.

What’s more, in the past 3 months, 22% of the Gen Z demographic has skipped websites entirely for customer service, opting to reach out to brands via direct messaging (DMs) on social media. If your brand isn’t already getting social, you’re missing out.

Website/Blog/SEO

Blogging not only drives more traffic to your website but can also become a major source for lead generation down the road.

In 2022, 88% of marketers surveyed said they plan to maintain or increase their investment in blog/SEO the following year. It ranks third in ROI, remaining tried and true.

Blogging is effective, accessible, and for some of us it’s even enjoyable. But how do you convert blog readers into leads?

The most common way to turn blog visitors into dedicated subscribers is by simply asking for their email addresses in order to send them notifications when you post new content. It’s more convenient to have content delivered to your inbox than to have to seek it out.

Create a clear and central call to action inviting readers to subscribe. Add a one-step form to your blog pages, like the American Writers Museum does with its blog:

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Another great option is to incentivize the blog subscription for new subscribers with free offers. That could be anything from a one-time welcome discount, a free gift, access to useful tools for those in your industry, or more content such as gated ebooks.

Blogging for leads is a big topic to explore, but I suggest this targeted how-to guide on converting visitors into subscribers if you’d like to learn more on that specific topic.

Email Marketing

Very much still in the game, lead generation via email marketing ranks 4th in marketer use by a minuscule 1% behind website/blog/SEO.

The hot topic in email marketing for lead generation is using AI and process automation connected to CMS data to make your email blasts personalized. This also saves a lot of time, and personalization improves metrics. Here are 23 personalized email examples I love.

Interestingly, when those surveyed think forward to the possibility of a recession this year, email marketing is one of the top channels that marketers expect to see budget cuts for.

In comparison, Blog/SEO is first in line for keeping its budget in the case of an economic downturn, followed by current marketing darlings podcast, direct mail, and organic social.

Additional Data and Expert Tips

Top Trending Lead Gen Social Media Channels

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It’s clear from the data that marketing will continue to trend toward social media at a faster rate than in previous years.

Below is a current snapshot of the top four trendy social media channels for your lead generation content strategy includes (in order of survey ranking).

Facebook

The platform leads in ROI and was predicted to see the most investment in 2023, as 1 in 4 marketers plan to invest for the first time this year.

Our combined tip for Facebook and Instagram is to explore and leverage the Meta Ads Manager that works across both of these platforms as well as FB Messenger to save time via integration and data sharing.

Instagram

In 2022, 58% of marketers surveyed already leveraged IG, and the platform was expected to see high first-time use in 2023.

YouTube

The 2022 survey revealed that this platform will see the most overall growth in 2023, with 91% of the marketers who already use it planning to maintain or increase their current investment.

29% of marketers who didn’t use it planned to try it for the first time in 2023. There are at least seven places to optimize text for your video, so make a list of long and short-tail keywords related to your content and fold them in everywhere you can.

TikTok

56% of marketers surveyed who already leverage TikTok planned to increase their investment in 2023, 16% plan to invest more this year than they ever have before, and 28% of non-users plan to start.

This represents the highest growth in investment among all social media channels. There are two lead generation forms available through TikTok — one is native to the app, or you can connect your website’s form if it is compatible.

By experimenting with different types of lead generating content, you can observe which ones resonate with your audience and convert the most leads. You can always do more of what works, but never get too comfortable!

Keep Experimenting with Lead Generation Content Strategy

8 in 10 marketers shared that they have seen more change in their industry in the last three years than in the previous 50 combined.

Data-driven marketers who are prepared to pivot and adapt will find the most success with their lead generation content strategies this year and beyond.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in October 2014 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

2023 was the year AI became mainstream. What was once a sci-fi fantasy is now a staple in day-to-day business operations. AI’s in your smartphone, shopping experiences, and maybe even your morning coffee routine.

Mom-and-pop shops, e-commerce stores, tech giants — everyone’s using AI. They’re using it to streamline operations, predict market trends, and create more engaging customer experiences.

This guide will explore 11 examples of real brands using AI in 2023 and beyond.

How Teams Use AI Today

6 Artificial Intelligence Examples

5 Generative AI Examples

Best Practices for Using AI in Everyday Life

The Best of Both Worlds: Merging AI with Human Insight

How Teams Use AI Today

Marketers know the actual value of their work lies in separating high-impact tasks, like creative brainstorming and strategy, from the low-impact, tedious work.

And here’s the kicker: our report on AI Trends for Marketers highlights that 90% of marketers say these tools free them from those mind-numbing tasks.

So, how exactly are teams using AI today? Let’s find out.

Content Creation

Generative AI tools, like Jasper for text generation and Midjourney for image creation, support content creation by producing text, crafting images, and even generating music or code, depending on your input and requirements.

It’s not just hype — 48% of marketers in our survey already use these tools to craft content. AI connects the dots, fills in the blanks, and turns ideas into something tangible.

Suppose you’re working on a campaign. You have the concept but need visuals and catchy copy.

This is where AI steps in. It generates options and tweaks them based on your feedback; voila, you’ve got custom content in a fraction of the time. It’s all about working smarter, not harder.

Data Analysis and Reporting

AI tools automate complex data analysis and transform insights into easy-to-understand reports and compelling visualizations.

Here’s something to think about About 45% of marketers in our survey use generative AI for this exact purpose. But why is this shift so crucial?

Creating quarterly reports previously was a marathon task. Data analysts and marketers sifted through mountains of data from different platforms for a couple of insights.

AI now does the heavy lifting by sifting through data, spotting trends, and bringing it all together in sleek presentations. ChatSpot, for example, integrates with our CRM to generate instant progress reports.

An automated, integrated process saves time and results in smarter, more informed decision-making.

Research and Inspiration

Imagine brainstorming for a new campaign only to hit a roadblock in the ideation process. AI kick-starts your brainstorming process by providing endless inspiration and research possibilities.

Here’s how many marketers in our survey use generative AI for research.

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With access to massive databases of creative content, AI generates ideas based on popular trends, audience preferences, and past successful campaigns. It also supports keyword research, content optimization, and competitor analysis.

And the best part? AI can do this in seconds, giving you more time to focus on bringing those ideas to life.

Of course, take everything with a grain of salt and use your critical thinking skills. AI may be advanced, but there’s always a risk of creating inaccurate or biased content. Use AI to get past your creative block and spark new ideas, not to replace your creativity and expertise.

Customer Behavior Prediction

Using extensive databases, AI identifies patterns in consumer interactions and preferences to predict customer behavior. It combines this data with insights from neuroscience studies for a deeper understanding of how customers think and respond to stimuli.

Why is this important?

It‘s all about getting into your customer’s head. Take Predict AI by Neurons, for example. It’s built on a massive database with eye-tracking data from over 120,000 people and more than 100 billion brain response data points.

What does this mean for you? In seconds, Predict gives you insights into how and why customers respond to your ads and your brand.

Vizit follows a similar tangent. The AI-powered tool gives you data on what images and designs motivate your customers to click the “buy” button.

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This knowledge lets you tailor your products and marketing strategies to align perfectly with your audience’s wants and needs. Instead of just shooting in the dark, you’re making informed decisions.

When you understand your customers better, you create experiences that resonate. This leads to happier customers and a more memorable brand.

6 Artificial Intelligence Examples

Where generative tools are one side of the AI marketing coin, predictive analytics represent the other. Predictive analytics uses AI to classify data and forecast future trends, customer behaviors, and market dynamics.

Predict domain authority.

Domain authority is a search engine ranking score that predicts how likely a website is to rank on search engine result pages. The all-in-one SEO tool, Moz’s Domain Authority (DA) checker, is one of the best (if not the best) tools.

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DA estimates a site’s potential to rank. This way, SEO professionals prioritize their efforts better.

Sites with higher DA are more likely to rank well, giving SEOs an idea of how challenging a field is to rank well in. SEOs, marketers, and PR professionals can also identify valuable link-building opportunities using DA’s link quality assessment.

According to Chima Mmeje, a senior content marketing manager at Moz, DA uses a complex neural network instead of the simpler linear model still used by industry peers. The change enhances the platform’s ability to understand link quality and detect spam.

“While DA doesn‘t forecast rankings directly, it relies on Moz’s proprietary internal metrics, such as link counts, Spam Score, and link distributions, to estimate a page‘s potential to rank well. This upgrade helps users better understand and improve their website’s standing in search results,” says Mmeje.

What we like: Predictive AI processes and analyzes large volumes of complex data far better than traditional methods. Identifying and understanding patterns in search engine behavior, backlink profiles, and other key ranking factors provides deeper insights and more accurate predictions about a site’s potential to rank well.

Implement predictive lead scoring.

How do you identify the most promising leads? That’s where predictive lead scoring comes in.

Predictive lead scoring uses AI to evaluate potential customers based on their likelihood to convert. In our webinar, “10x Your Marketing & Sales Productivity with ChatSpot AI by HubSpot,” RevOps consultancy and HubSpot partner ScaleOps highlighted how they use ChatSpot for precisely this.

They create an ideal customer profile based on past buying behaviors and then pinpoint which prospects fit this profile best.

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But why is this so crucial? Predictive lead scoring takes the guesswork out of the equation.

It uses data, not hunches, to make predictions. This means less human error and biases and more efficient targeting of the right leads.

The result? Your sales team focuses their efforts where they count the most on leads more likely to convert.

What we like: AI removes the reliance on intuition and replaces it with data-driven insights, resulting in greater accuracy and efficiency in lead targeting.

Classify customer support tickets.

Ever wonder how big players like Zapier keep their products top-notch and their customers happy?

Here’s an AI trick from Reid Robinson, Zapier’s Lead Product Manager. He uses Zapier to pull in product support issues and then hands them over to GPT-4 for sorting and analysis.

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Every week, he gets a report highlighting the main issues to tackle. Fixing problems before they blow up polishes Zapier’s products and shows customers it cares about the experience they’re delivering.

What we like: Anything that supports the customer support process and makes it more efficient is a win. A proactive approach to help issues shows dedication and a desire to put customers first.

It reduces the time and effort spent on manual sorting, freeing up valuable resources you can use for other stuff.

Conduct regular data analysis.

Data analysis doesn’t have to be a monthly headache. Reid Robinson at Zapier makes data analysis a breeze with the new Assistants API feature.

“Export data every week, get your ChatGPT Assistant to analyze the data with Code Interpreter, and then output the analysis with a visual chart in Slack,” Robinson says.

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What makes this stand out? It’s the consistency and ease. You’re getting these insightful visual reports without fail every single week. This regularity means no more data backlogs or last-minute rushes.

You’re always up-to-date and making informed decisions based on the latest data.

What we like: Regular AI-assisted data analysis like this streamlines workflows and ensures that your team is always in the loop with the freshest insights. It’s a smart way to stay ahead.

Create a centralized data hub.

ASUS, the multinational computer, phone hardware, and electronics manufacturer, has offices worldwide.

Its business intelligence team oversees global marketing investments and strategy, with each regional branch reporting marketing activities at different times, in various formats, and on diverse platforms.

This lack of standardization created a massive hurdle. To fix this, ASUS uses Improvado, a predictive AI platform, to establish a centralized data hub.

This hub made a unified source for the organization’s diverse data needs, including Management, Data Analytics, Business Intelligence, and Digital Marketing.

The hub connects to Google Data Studio templates, which are automated and centralized, with custom models for filtering data by regions, products, and marketing campaigns.

This centralization improves data availability and facilitates quicker experimentation and deeper insights. ASUS takes a unified approach to handling data to save time and resources — up to 80 to 100 hours per week in IT and 30% annually in marketing.

Conduct deeper SEO research.

Standard SEO research focuses on basic keyword analysis and surface-level content evaluation.

The problem with this approach? It often misses the deeper intricacies of search engine algorithms. It also overlooks the importance of understanding user intent, content context, and the complex relationship between ranking factors.

You create too simplistic strategies not fully aligned with modern search algorithms.

B2B SaaS agency Stratabeat does things differently.

Tom Shapiro, CEO of Stratabeat, highlights how they use marketing tools based on natural language processing models from Google Cloud Platform, IBM Watson, and OpenAI as part of their SEO stack,

He adds: “The platform enables us to conduct deeper SEO research, more thorough Google SERP analysis, and SEO scoring of content.”

The AI-driven approach better explains how search engines rank and perceive content in search results pages (SERPs). It‘s no longer just about keyword density in SEO scoring; it’s about the overall relevance, quality, and context of the content in relation to user queries.

What we like: This method provides insights beyond traditional metrics, leading to better search engine ranking and content optimization.

5 Generative AI Examples

There’s a lot of optimism related to AI. Our latest survey data shows that 68% of marketing leaders at the director level and above believe that fully implementing AI and automation would drive unprecedented business growth.

Here are five ways generative AI is making a huge difference.

Fine-tune content drafts.

If you use AI correctly, it becomes your editing buddy. Think of it as a sophisticated co-pilot that helps refine your content drafts.

AI tools can suggest grammar, style, and tone improvements, ensuring that your message is clear and resonates with your intended audience.

Wordtune is an AI assistant that fixes errors, understands context and meaning, paraphrases text based on writing tones, and generates text based on context.

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Ben Pines, Director of Content at Wordtune, uses the tool to refine his content writing process in three ways:

“The first is to explore and expand on the topic I want to write about,” Pines starts. “Let’s say I want to write about adapting content to various social media mediums, and I want to give an example of a piece of content adapting it to the platforms.”

In this case, Pines says he would use AI to summarize the tone of each platform quickly.

“I could do this myself, but AI saves me a lot of brain power when exploring my ideas,” he says.

Pines says the second use case is to expand on sentences and rephrase content.

“When I write, it’s a very intuitive process involving getting to the flow. I can make leaps from one point to another, and AI does great work mitigating those leaps for my readers,” he explains. “My first draft of a sentence is not always perfect, so I rephrase some of the sentences using AI to make them clearer.”

The third use case Pines discusses is editing. He notes that gaps and mishaps always happen when you write. Going over the content with AI’s extra eye has proven to be very helpful.

“I use these three methods no matter the writing task: email, social media posts, and long-form articles. While the writing process for each piece can be very different, I stick to these three use cases to ensure I keep my content while retaining my style,” Pines says.

At the same time, Ben also focuses on the “assistant” part of using AI, ensuring it supplements his thinking instead of replacing it.

What we like: Ben pointed out how important it is to maintain your style and voice when using AI for writing.

He also highlights the versatility of AI in different types of writing tasks, showing that it can be a helpful tool no matter what kind of content you create. It’s up to you to figure out where these tools fit into your workflow.

Maintain a fresh link-building strategy.

The email finder tool Hunter.io team uses generative AI to keep its link-building strategy fresh and monitor if any links have fallen off.

Why is this important? Any marketer knows that a link-building strategy is essential to improving SEO and driving traffic to your website. They also know that keeping track of all those links can be a massive headache.

Antonio Gabric, Outreach Manager at Hunter, recognizes how short the lifetime of backlinks is.

“We discovered that in less than two years of actively building backlinks, we lost around 9% of all backlinks built,” Gabric says. “Generative AI helped us reclaim over 50 backlinks in less than a month.”

Gabric shared the following steps to help you level up your link-building strategy.

1. Collect all backlinks in a spreadsheet.
2. Build a Google Apps Script with the help of AI that will automatically check if the specific URL still links to our target page.
3. Run the script.
4. Get results in less than a few minutes.

You can ask ChatGPT to help you along this process. After collecting backlinks in a spreadsheet, Gabric asked AI to help him build the Google Apps Script.

You’ll get a code with all the instructions to make it work.

“Usually, the code won’t work from the first try, but you should paste the errors you get in Google Sheets as a prompt, and after a few iterations, you’ll have a working script,” Gabric notes.

Here’s the output:

What we like: Manually checking hundreds of links is time-consuming and tedious. AI allowed Hunter to automate this process and save time. They could then reshift to other marketing tasks.

Connecting AI to a Google Apps script made the process much easier and more efficient.

Automate content summaries

Snorkel.ai is a data-centric AI platform that transforming manual AI development processes into programmatic solutions. Matt Casey, the Data Science Content Lead, has incorporated generative AI into the marketing strategy at Snorkel AI.

“I use a Python pipeline built on OpenAI’s APIs to automate the generation of content summaries and sample tweets for articles on our blog, as well as some early drafts of content,” he says.

Casey says he recently developed a new workflow with OpenAI’s playground.

“We have a conference coming up that includes pre-recorded content, and we want to make a strong promotional push focused on that content in the days after the conference,” he says.

He recalls, “To that end, we wanted to pre-package blog posts around these presentations and do so as quickly as possible.”

So, how does Matt achieve this?

The workflow goes like this.

1. Get an automated presentation transcript (we’re using Descript, but other options exist).

2. Paste that transcript into OpenAI’s playground.

3. Ask GPT-4 to summarize the transcript.

4. Ask GPT-4 to write an outline for a blog post based on that outline.

5. Prompt GPT-4 to write an article that matches that outline using the transcript for reference.

What we like: This is a fantastic solution for businesses that repurpose content. Repurposing pre-recorded content into blog posts can be time-consuming.

This approach ensures you don’t pile up dust on pre-recorded content and can squeeze out more value from the time spent developing it.

Create custom blog images.

Digital marketing agency for SaaS business Singularity Digital creates custom blog headers using Midjourney. Stock images, while convenient, fall flat because they lack originality. Custom blog headers, on the other hand, stand out.

Not only do they align perfectly with the content‘s theme, but they also reflect your brand’s identity.

Here’s how Patrick Herbert, Director at Singularity Digital, uses Midjourney:

1. Go to Midjourney and look through the Explore page using keywords related to your blog, industry, and brand. Find some designs you like and copy the prompt.

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2. Go to the Midjourney discord and paste the prompt in.

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3. Review your results and regenerate if needed. You can experiment with the prompt to get variations on the images.

4. Upscale one of the images you like and save it.

5. Upload that to your Canva design and remove the background with the background removal tool by clicking on the image and then “edit photo” in the top right corner.

6. Play with your design as much or as little as you like, then export it from Canva and upload it to your website.

What we like: Custom images add a lot of personality to your blog posts. You can also repurpose them for social media posts.

Midjourney provides endless options for unique, branded blog headers without breaking the bank or taking up hours of your time.

Improve internal content distribution.

Critical information often gets buried under a pile of emails or lost in a sea of intranet pages in most organizations. Efficient internal content distribution ensures every team member can access necessary information easily.

It also adds fuel to your employee advocacy strategy. When employees know what you’re up to and have content to repost, they actively participate in your brand’s story.

Sprout Social’s research shows that 62% of all employees would post company content to their personal pages if their company wrote it for them.

Providing employees with ready-to-share, engaging content keeps them informed and turns them into powerful brand advocates.

Matt Casey at Snorkel.ai has developed a quick and convenient way to distribute internal content.

“I built an earlier genAI pipeline to expand my internal content distribution capacity. This one — which is a fully automated job — checks the blog for new content every 15 minutes,” he says.

“When it finds new content, it generates a summary and a few sample tweets and sends the entire package to a private channel on Slack,” he says.

He explains, “I then copy that post into our company-wide marketing channel, edit it as needed, and send it out. This has been a huge help in getting the word out about new content across the company.”

Here’s what the Slack update looks like:

What we like: Keeping everyone in the loop is a great way to ensure that employees are well-informed about company updates and initiatives.

Automating the process allows team members to access and share content without wasting time searching for it.

Podcast: 6 AI Growth Hacks Top Marketers Don’t Want You To Know

Click here to listen to the full episode.

Best Practices for Using AI in Everyday Life

AI is never a replacement for your own thinking. Here are three best practices to balance how you use AI:

Learn how to write prompts.

The quality of AI‘s output hinges on the input it receives. This is where prompt engineering comes into play. It’s a skill that involves crafting clear, concise, and powerful prompts to guide AI toward producing the desired results.

Here’s a thread from Justin Fineberg, Co-Founder at Cassidy, a tool that allows you to create customized AI assistants on how to write ChatGPT prompts.

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Fact check the output.

Always cross-reference AI output with reliable sources. This step is especially important when the output involves data, historical facts, or specialized knowledge.

Why? AI is a tool, not an infallible source. It‘s a blend of technology and the data it’s been trained on, which has limitations or biases.

Almost half of marketers in our survey who use generative AI say they’ve received information that they know is incorrect. What’s more concerning? Only 27% are very confident they would know if the information were inaccurate.

A quick way to do this is by heading to Google. Look for reputable sources that corroborate the AI’s output. The fresher the data, the better, as this ensures relevance and accuracy.

Don’t over-rely on AI.

AI’s great, but recognize its limits, too. Not every task is right for an AI tool.

Jobs that demand creativity, originality, personal opinions, or unique perspectives often don’t yield the best results when left to AI.

For instance, tasks involving controversial or political topics could result in biased or oversimplified outcomes if tackled solely by AI.

Instead, strike a balance. Use AI as a tool to augment your skills, not replace them.

Use it for data-driven tasks, routine inquiries, and basic content generation and reserve tasks that require deep human insight, emotional intelligence, and ethical judgment for yourself.

It’s an incredibly powerful tool, but it works best when complemented by human creativity and critical thinking.

Improve your editing skills.

Want to get the best out of AI-generated content? It starts with honing your editing skills.

Think of AI as your initial draft writer. It’ll give you a great starting point, but the real magic happens in the editing phase.

Here are two resources to start with:

• The Cutting Room by Tommy Walker. A YouTube series where industry-leading marketers talk about their content-marketing philosophy, process, and pre-game before they edit an article live.
• How to Edit by Ryan Law. A self-paced video course that teaches you how to self-edit your work.

When you know how to edit, you fine-tune the language, style, and ensure the content aligns with your voice and goals. This is where you add your personal touch, tweak nuances, and make sure everything is just right.

Stay updated with newsletters

AI advancements are as important as the tech itself. New tools, updates, and techniques emerge regularly.

Keep yourself updated with the latest news to ensure you’re making the most of it. Newsletters are a great way to do that. You can keep up with AI news by subscribing to these newsletters:

• AI Breakfast: A comprehensive analysis of the latest AI projects, products, and news every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
• The Rundown: Get an overview of the latest news, tools, and step-by-step tutorials in this daily newsletter.
• AutoGPT: A weekly analysis from experts on the latest AI projects, products, and news.

The Best of Both Worlds: Merging AI with Human Insight

Each of the examples covered in this piece highlights one common theme: the most effective use of AI comes not from relying on it exclusively but from combining its capabilities with human insight and expertise.

AI‘s computational power and human creativity, judgment, and intuition create a powerful dynamic that enhances decision-making, problem-solving, and innovation.

This blend of tech and human touch is the cornerstone of a future where AI doesn’t just automate tasks but also enriches our understanding.

Bad marketing advice can make or break a brand. If marketers sidestep well-meaning but counterproductive suggestions, they’re better positioned to capture consumer interest.

What happens if they take this marketing advice to heart? Spoiler alert: It’s not great.

Here are 11 examples of bad marketing advice in action — and what we can learn from these customer-facing failures.

11 Examples of Marketing Advice Gone Wrong

Read on for our list of 11 bad marketing moments, or use the jump links to find your favorite example.

1. The KFC Calendar Clash
2. The Gap Logo Lesson
3. The Pepsi Protest Problem
4. The Burger King Tweet Trainwreck
5. The Dove Double-Take
6. The Bing Brand Debacle
7. The Huggies Hard Sell
8. The EA Criminal Catastrophe
9. The Kenneth Cole Cairo Crash
10. The Heineken Beer Breakdown
11. The Audi Audacity

1. The KFC Calendar Clash

On November 9th, 2022, KFC sent a mobile notification to its app users that encouraged them to “treat themselves” some great fried chicken and commemorate Kristallnacht.

The problem? This isn’t a fun German holiday — it’s known as the Night of Broken Glass and is associated with a wave of Nazi attacks against Jewish German populations.

Whoops.

For KFC, the problem stemmed from semi-automated content creation. Put simply, a content creation bot saw that Kristallnacht was listed on the German calendar and assumed it was important. It was — just not for the right reasons.

What we can learn:

Here, the bad advice is taking humans out of the loop. A quick look by staff could have prevented this problem, but instead KFC traded speed for sales. Best bet? If someone tells you to cut out the human connection, don’t take it to heart.

2. The Gap Logo Lesson

From 1990 until 2010, the Gap used the same, familiar logo: Its name in white lettering on a blue background. Sure, it wasn’t the most exciting logo but it was simple, easy to recognize, and generally well-liked.

On October 6th, 2010, however, the Gap debuted a new logo: One with their name in a different font, in black, and with a small blue square in the upper-right corner.

Customer backlash was instant and savage. While Gap tried to salvage the situation by treating customer complaints as a crowd-sourcing exercise, the original logo was back by October 12, 2010.

What we can learn:

While there’s nothing wrong with a change, there’s no reason to fix what isn’t broken. If your logo or name or website is performing well, leave it alone — at least until you’ve gotten a solid amount of customer feedback.

3. The Pepsi Protest Problem

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Pepsi has always struggled to match the market reach of its arch-rival Coca-Cola.

While a 2017 commercial featuring Kendall Jenner got the brand some much-needed attention, Pepsi executives would have probably preferred if everyone forgot the ad existed.

Why? Because it featured a smiling Kendall Jenner at an unnamed protest. Jenner makes her way to the front of the protest line, approaches a police officer, and hands him a Pepsi. He takes it, and the crowd cheers.

Put bluntly, it was a terrible look for the brand. With protests on the rise across the United States as social tensions boiled over, the ad seemed glib and dismissive of the reality that often comes with protests.

Martin Luther King’s daughter tweeted about the commercial, making it clear that Pepsi missed the mark.

What we can learn:

While real-life events can be a great catalyst for marketing efforts, brands need to consider if their product makes sense in context.

Are protestors joyfully drinking Pepsi at events? Not likely. Does Pepsi have anything to do with civil unrest? Nope. For brands, it’s often better to stay in their lane than try to shoehorn in social justice.

4. The Burger King Tweet Trainwreck

On International Women’s Day in 2021, Burger King UK sent out this gem of a Tweet:

“Women belong in the kitchen.”

It was immediately followed up by two further Tweets that made it clear the first was a joke and that the company was actually trying to reduce the gender disparity of chefs in the restaurant industry.

Instead, they increased animosity among their customers. Many didn’t bother reading past the first Tweet, and those that did weren’t exactly amazed by BK’s attempt at “humor”.

The result was a bad look for the brand that made them look tone-deaf at best and misogynist at worst.

What we can learn:

This one’s easy: If you’re going to make a joke, make sure it’s funny. If it’s not, at least make sure you’re not punching down. Make fun of your own brand or a company with more clout. Don’t go after women on women’s day.

5. The Dove Double-Take

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Dove meant to highlight diversity with their ad. The concept was simple: Women of different ethnicities used Dove body wash and then removed their shirt. Under each shirt was another shirt, and a woman of a different ethnicity.

The problem? The last transition showed a black woman using Dove, then taking off her brown shirt to reveal a white woman. The implication that by getting “clean” black had turned to white did not sit well with audiences.

What we can learn:

Good intentions don’t always lead to good results. While the black actress in the ad defended the spot, and it’s clear that Dove wasn’t trying to imply that white = clean, the context of the ad made that interpretation entirely possible.

Better to get real-world feedback and find out it’s back to the drawboard than have to spend weeks apologizing for unintended racism.

6. The Bing Brand Debacle

Microsoft’s service has the second-highest market share in search engines. But don’t get too excited — in practice, Bing nabs 3% while Google gets 92.5%.

The numbers make it abundantly clear why Bing wanted to reinvent itself and make a move on Google.

The 2010 plan, however, was flawed from the start — for some reason, Microsoft decided the best approach was to try and make Bing into a verb, like Google.

But here’s the thing: No one is going to say “Just Bing that”, “or I just Bing’d that.” First, it’s already been done by Google, and second, saying Bing out loud just sounds ridiculous. Not surprisingly, the campaign went nowhere.

What we can learn:

If someone advises you to simply copy what another brand is doing, get a second opinion. While many brands have similar marketing strategies, advertising doppelgangers rarely work out well.

7. The Huggies Hard Sell

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Dads are dumb, right? That’s the idea behind a 2012 Huggies commercial, which saw fathers tasked with taking care of the children and even — gasp! — changing their diapers, all without their wives around.

Not surprisingly, the ad went over like a lead balloon. Single parents and same-sex couples both expressed their frustrations, and dads in general felt like it missed the mark.

For most of these men, parenting was an equal-opportunity job, not something they only did when they had no choice.

What we can learn:

Lighthearted commercials are a great way to connect with customers if they avoid stereotypes.

Huggies could have just as easily gone with messaging that showed babies of all shapes and sizes creating large amounts of — waste, shall we say — for their parents to clean up, and how Huggies outperformed the competition.

8. The EA Criminal Catastrophe

Back in 2009, Electronic Arts was getting set to release its Godfather II video game. To help promote the game, they shipped advance copies to media outlets. Nothing strange about that, right?

Sure, except for the fact that EA included an actual set of brass knuckles with every advance copy. Not only is this a terrible idea from a marketing standpoint, it’s also illegal in many states.

The company quickly realized its error and asked for the knuckles back — while the misstep did generate some buzz, the game still ended up as a commercial failure.

What we can learn:

Unexpected marketing tactics can be a great way to capture customer attention, but you’ve got to think them through. If at any point anyone suggests something that might be illegal or even resides in a legal gray area, take a pass.

9. The Kenneth Cole Cairo Clash

Clothing brand Kenneth Cole made the very odd marketing choice to connect political unrest in Cairo with the launch of their new spring collection. Needless to say, it did not go well.

In 2011, the brand Tweeted that millions were in uproar in Cairo, then suggested that the reason was because the brand launched its new spring collection.

Not only does the Tweet make zero sense, but it’s also wildly insensitive considering that more than 800 people were killed during the protests.

What we can learn:

Ads that are timely can have a massive impact — consider the “You can still dunk in the dark ad” run by Oreo when the power went out at Super Bowl XLVII. The difference? The Super Bowl is a sporting event. The Cairo protests were a civil uprising.

10. The Heineken Beer Breakdown

Light beer has gained popularity as counting carbs has become more common. Beer brand Heineken wanted to capitalize on the moment with a simple slogan: “Sometimes Lighter is Better.”

At first glance there’s nothing really wrong here. It’s not a great tagline, but it’s not bad either. The problem? It could be taken as, well, a little bit racist.

Heineklen could have avoided any problems if they’d thought it through, but instead made a commercial where a light beer slides down a bar, passing the hands of dark-skinned patrons before ending up with a white woman.

Tweets from Chance the Rapper called attention to the blunder and Heineken was forced to apologize.

What we can learn:

First, it’s worth investing in a diverse marketing team — you never know what you might miss. Second, don’t rush it. Set marketing ideas aside for a few days or a week and come back with fresh eyes. Better to catch a mistake than have to pull an entire ad campaign.

11. The Audi Audacity

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Audi has earned a solid name for itself in Germany and the U.S. Its efforts to sell used cars in China, however, quickly went off the rails.

The ad took place at a wedding, with the mother of the groom examining the bride like she was a used car — aggressively inspecting each aspect of the woman’s appearance before deciding she’s good enough.

Audi’s tagline, “an important decision must be made carefully” drew parallels between cars and women — parallels that made women seem like property that must be inspected prior to purchase. Not a great look.

What we can learn:

It’s not always easy to tell what’s funny and what isn’t. When in doubt, however, there’s a simple solution: Ask the group you’re targeting. Bring them in, let them see your ad, and ask what they think. If they like it, great. If not, change course.

Learn From These Marketing Failures

Bad ad advice is out there, and chances are you’ve heard all of it at least once.

In some cases, however, bad advice is coming from inside the house — from unconscious bias to “funny” jokes that aren’t so funny on second or third thought, there are plenty of ways for companies to miss the mark.

Best bet? Learn from the failures above.

Opt for inclusive and caring over spiteful or sarcastic. And if something does go wrong, own it. Don’t equivocate about your intentions; instead, offer a sincere apology that recognizes what you’ve done and what you’ll do to make it right.