Yearly Archives: 2023

As a social media-obsessed content creator, I am familiar with TikTok. I often create TikTok videos to promote my work, express an idea or opinion, or share funny anecdotes.

As much as I enjoy TikTok, creating content consistently for the platform can feel overwhelming.

TikTok suggests posting content at least 1-4 times per day to boost views and followers. When you’re a marketer creating content for several other social media platforms and planning campaigns — posting 1-4 TikToks a day is a huge ask.

So, how can marketers and creators like myself streamline the process and create more videos? One answer is to use AI.

In the past, I’ve interviewed several content creators who say using AI cuts their workload down significantly and completes hours of tasks in just minutes.

With that in mind, I will create a TikTok video using AI and take you along for the journey. Let’s get started.

How I Made a TikTok Using Only AI

Let’s make a short TikTok video about healthy food facts.

It‘s possible to use AI tools such as ChatGPT or HubSpot’s Content Assistant to generate ideas for you, but sometimes inspiration strikes (or I‘m hungry) — so we’ll roll with it and make a TikTok about healthy food facts.

Using AI to Find Keywords

First, I want to know what trending keywords are associated with healthy food facts, so I’ll go to VidIQ and use its AI keyword generator to see what it comes up with.

VidIQ is an AI platform specifically designed to create YouTube videos and scripts.

Still, it has a free AI keyword generator that helps find keywords to optimize your videos and attract viewers regardless if you’re creating videos for YouTube or another platform like TikTok.

I typed “healthy food facts” into VidIQ’s generator and found related keywords such as:

• Nutrition tips
• Superfood benefits
• Facts about organic food

Now I know what keywords to use to optimize my video, so it’s time to write the script.

Using ChatGPT to Generate a Video Script

Let‘s try ChatGPT. After experimenting with it for other content, I’m familiar with the platform, but this is my first time using it to generate a script.

Here‘s the prompt I’m using to create the script using ChatGPT:

Generate a 30-second script for a TikTok video giving fun facts about healthy food. Include keywords “nutrition tips,” “facts about organic food,” and “superfood benefits.”

Here’s what ChatGPT generated:

Host (standing in a vibrant kitchen, holding a bowl of colorful salad): Hey there, TikTok fam! Want some quick nutrition tips, facts about organic food, and superfood benefits? Well, here we go in 3, 2, 1!

[Text on the screen: “🌱 Healthy Food Fun Facts 🌱”]

Host: (Energetic) Nutrition tips are essential! Did you know that a balanced diet can boost your energy levels and improve your mood? Eating healthy is a mood lifter!

[Text on the screen: “Organic Goodness”]

Host: (Excited) Facts about organic food! Organic veggies and fruits contain fewer pesticides and more antioxidants. Better for you and the planet!

[Text on the screen: “Superfood Magic”]

Host: (Enthusiastic) Superfood benefits are fantastic! Foods like kale, berries, and quinoa are packed with vitamins and antioxidants, keeping your body strong and healthy!

[OUTRO]

Host: (Holding the salad bowl high) There you have it, some quick bites of nutrition tips, facts about organic food, and superfood benefits. Share this with your foodie friends, and let’s nourish our bodies together! 🥗🌟

[Upbeat Music Fades Out]

Pro-Tip: ChatGPT doesn‘t always pull the most up-to-date information for its copy, so it’s crucial to double-check its facts and statistics. You don’t want your content to be outdated or spread misinformation.

Fortunately, I researched the information in the script and updated it for accuracy.

The keywords are seamlessly incorporated into the script, and ChatGPT captures the upbeat, casual tone that suits TikTok.

Furthermore, I love how ChatGPT includes suggestions for the text appearing on the screen and specifies how the host should speak.

Generating a TikTok Video Using AI

Finally, it’s time to create the video. After researching different AI video tools, I found InVideo. This platform uses AI to generate videos for other channels, including social media.

Its AI Text to Video feature allows users to input their script and convert it to video in minutes.

The feature also includes a template labeled “Trendy Healthy Food Trends List Slideshow,” which perfectly matches my video‘s topic. So, let’s give it a try.

After choosing the healthy food template, I’m taken to InVideo’s virtual studio. That is not its official name, but that‘s what I’m calling it.

The studio allows AI to craft a script for you, but I already have one, thanks to ChatGPT. So, I’ll just enter the ChatGPT-generated script, remove the notes for the host, and click Create Scenes.

In seconds, InVideo generated a video using the script I entered and the selected template. Various tools are available for me to tweak the video to my liking, including the option to record a voiceover, add a logo, and select music.

I’m not in a quiet enough space to record a voiceover, but I’m curious enough to click on the voiceover option just to see what it entails.

As you can see in the screenshot below, the voiceover tab allows you to add a voice via automated text-to-speech, uploading a file, or recording your voice within the platform.

While I’m not doing a voiceover in this example, I want to adjust the music — so let’s look at our music options. InVideo categorizes its music by moods, such as playful, happy, inspirational, angry, or dark.

I want something upbeat, so I choose the Happy section music.

After adding music and adjusting the script to suit the video’s format better, I exported the video by clicking Download.

Disclaimer: InVideo is not a free service, and you must subscribe to one of its plans to download your content. Fortunately, I was able to use a friend’s subscription.

However, you can use many other AI video creation tools and platforms, and many offer free trials and plans.

With my video downloaded to my laptop, it‘s time to consider a caption and hashtags, so let’s revisit ChatGPT.

I told ChatGPT to generate a fun caption for a TikTok video about healthy food facts, and here’s what it came up with:

“🌱 Spice Up Your Life with Healthy Food Facts! 🥗💪 #FoodieFacts #EatBetterFeelBetter”

The caption is short and to the point. Even better, ChatGPT suggested hashtags with a lot of traction. For example, #EatBetterFeelBetter has more than 12 million views, according to the platform.

Works for me! After copying and pasting the text into the video’s caption, I clicked Upload. Now, you can watch my AI-generated TikTok below.

Not too bad for a robot, right? Obviously, the video is short and has a straightforward premise, but now you know tools are available to help you create TikTok videos in minutes.

Final Thoughts

Altogether, creating that one video took about 10 minutes. It would have taken less time if I had been more familiar with tools like InVideo.

While I don’t see myself using AI for every aspect of the creative process, I would do something like this again if I create short, bite-sized videos such as trivia videos, announcements, or product/service showcases.

It certainly makes creating 1-4 videos a day less daunting and more feasible as a marketer.

Welcome to Breaking the Blueprint — a blog series that dives into the unique business challenges and opportunities of underrepresented business owners and entrepreneurs. Learn how they’ve grown or scaled their businesses, explored entrepreneurial ventures within their companies, or created side hustles, and how their stories can inspire and inform your own success.

A single word can make or break a relationship, especially in its early stages. This includes relationships with sales prospects, clients, and co-workers.

Most of us were raised to think that language and action are two separate things. That words don’t really matter. That an issue involving language is “just semantics.”

 

But in more than two decades of researching how language actually works, I’ve learned that language is social action. In fact, every single thing you say or write can cause a relationship to improve or deteriorate.

By paying attention to our language and making sure we’re using the more inclusive version, we can avoid painful mistakes. Here are three ways you can make sure that your language makes people feel recognized, taken into consideration, and valued.

How To Be Mindful of Language in the Workplace

1. Pay attention to names.

A common type of problematic language is being careless or disrespectful of names. This is especially hard on people with low-frequency names. But with some effort, you can make people with “foreign” or “difficult” names feel respected and welcomed.

• Spell names correctly. Look at email signatures or other official sources and make sure you’ve got someone’s name right. If their name includes an accent, like in Renée, then use that accent.
• Say names correctly. When you meet someone with a low-frequency name, repeat it back to them to check that you’ve got it right. Don’t say something like, “I’m afraid I’m going to butcher this name.” Instead say something like, “Can you help me make sure I’m pronouncing your name right?”
• Create and use forms that accept a range of names. This includes very short family names, like Ng, and very long family names, like Barchas-Lichtenstein. It also includes names with a blank space in them, like Yi Shun. When people can’t register with your website using their name, and when they receive emails from you with their name wrong (like, “Hey, Yi!” instead of “Hey, Yi Shun!”) they will not think well of your company. And they may take to social media to complain about the disrespect.

2. Avoid assumptions about gender identity.

A common mistake that deeply harms relationships is misgendering someone. Here is how to avoid using language that doesn’t match a person’s gender identity or sexual orientation — which may not be obvious from how they look.

• Don’t assume you know someone’s gender. For example, instead of saying something like “a man like you” or “a woman like you,” switch to “a person like you.” Until you know for sure how someone identifies, it is best to keep it neutral.
• Don’t assume you know the gender of someone’s romantic interest. Instead of asking about someone’s boyfriend or wife, wait for them to tell you that person’s gender. Not everyone is straight! And not everyone fits in the gender binary.
• Use the correct pronouns to refer to someone. It can be difficult to get used to saying they or them to refer to a single known person. But with practice, it gets easier and easier. Referring to someone using incorrect pronouns can have powerfully negative effects.
• Use the correct honorifics to address someone. Have a standard way to determine if someone uses Ms., Mrs., Miss, Mr., Mx., Prof., Dr., or some other honorific title before their name. Then, use that honorific with them. Especially when we’re trying to show respect, it’s good to be respectful of the way someone prefers to be addressed.

3. Avoid male-specific and gender-binary language.

For most of us who were raised speaking English, our cultural programming taught us that male words could be used universally, to represent everyone. And that everyone fits in the gender binary. But neither of these things are true!

• Move to gender-neutral language. Male-specific words lead to male-specific models that distort reality and cause us to make faulty judgments. Move from mankind to humankind, from middleman to intermediary, and from manmade to synthetic. Words like these are more inclusive and will be better received by people who aren’t male and dislike being excluded.

• Move beyond the gender binary. Not everyone fits into the gender binary. So instead of Ladies and gentlemen, you can address a group more neutrally, like Esteemed guests. And instead of your husband or wife you can refer to your spouse or partner.

By paying attention to names, using language that doesn’t make assumptions about gender identity, and moving beyond male-specific and gender-binary words, you can improve and enhance your professional relationships.

If you fell off the bandwagon of sticking to your New Year’s Resolution to become a content creator, you’re not too late.

Fall is the best time of year to get started, so I want to walk you through my step-by-step process for planning out the next four months of content. This process is the same one I’ve used to grow my brand, Modern Millie — it’s helped me achieve over 350K subscribers on my YouTube channel, and over 140K followers on Instagram.

Whether you‘re a content creator or enterprise marketer, I have no doubt you’ll find something in this process that will work for you. Let’s jump in.

Why is the fall the best time of year to start creating?

There are two major reasons the fall (primarily September through November) is one of the best times of the year to create content:

1. During the summer, the sun is out longer, people go on vacation, and kids aren’t in school so you’ll often see a dip in engagement on social media since people are outdoors more.
   Going into the fall season, it starts to get darker sooner, people fall back into their routines, and they get back into consuming social media.
2. You’re able to use the holidays to your advantage.

Here’s Stephanie, as an example.

Last year, Stephanie was getting ready to give up on being a content creator, but instead through my coaching, she worked on this four-month content strategy. From September through December, this is what happened:

• She posted 61 Reels (one video every other day)
• 16 of them got over 100,000 views
• 7 of them hit over 1,000,000 views
• Her most watched video received 36,000,000 views and landed her on Good Morning America
• She grew from 8K to 75K followers

Now that you can see the power of increasing your content creation efforts in the fall, let’s jump into my process.

Step One: Pick Your Platform

While the example I used talked about Instagram, this strategy can work for any of the three social platforms: Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.

Pick one to start with at the beginning of your growth journey. This way you can put 100% energy into mastering the platform, as opposed to 33% energy into Instagram, 33% into YouTube, and 33% into TikTok (that would get you slower results).

Step Two: Pick Your Posting Frequency

This is going to be a schedule that you know you can realistically keep up with for the next three to four months. It has to be realistic for you, and something you can adapt into your current lifestyle. These are common frequencies that we see online:

➡️ YouTube: Once a week
➡️ Instagram: 3-5x per week
➡️ TikTok: Daily

Once you know how often you want to post, plug that into a calendar to see how many videos total you will be creating each month (see image for example). This is a number we will come back to in step 4.

Step Three: Get Clear On What Your Content Should Be

If your goal is growth or rapid growth online, it’s important to be intentional with every piece of content you create. Most businesses or creators will skip this step but it’s so critical to get clear on your vision, so that your content can be clear, as well.

To start, answer these three questions:

• What industry are you in?
• What section of that industry are you going to focus on?
• Who do you want to reach/who is your target audience?

Example:

What Industry are you in? Travel
What section of that industry are you going to focus on? San Diego Travel
Who do you want to reach/who is your target audience? San Diego Travel for Tourists

Knowing the answer to these questions will help you with our next step …

Step Four: Content Research

Before you even press record, you’ll want to do some research in your industry to see what people are currently looking for. The places I recommend to my students to do this research are these search engines:

• YouTube
• AnswerThePublic.com
• TikTok

What you’re going to do is type your industry or industry type into the search bar to see what results are suggested below.

Following our example from step three, as you can see in this screenshot from YouTube, people are searching for “San Diego Things To Do”, so I’m going to write that down as a video idea.

Same thing on TikTok. When I type in San Diego, some video ideas I can write down are “San Diego things to do”, “San Diego hidden gems”, and “San Diego food spots”:

You can repeat these steps by typing other words that have to do with your industry. For example, since my goal is to create “San Diego Travel for Tourists‘’ content, maybe I’ll type “tourists” into the search engine to see what’s recommended.

Once you have a list of video ideas, you’re ready for step five.

Step Five: Plug Into Your Calendar and Start Creating

In step two, you calculated how many videos you would need to create in a month.

For our example, it was 14 videos/month.

I like to mix up my content so that there is room for spontaneity.

70% of my videos will be “search-based” video ideas (ie. the list of video ideas we created utilizing search engines).

But for the other 30%, I will leave room to adapt to trends or even make videos just for fun!

So if you post 14 videos/month maybe your breakdown will look like this:

• 10 search-based videos (these are easy to batch film ahead of time so you can plan content in advance).
• Four spontaneous videos (this leaves room for creative freedom and spontaneity).

And that’s all there is to it. Now, it’s time to start your content research and begin your four-month content plan. And remember: You’ll want to iterate as you go. Once you begin identifying which types of content perform well (and which don’t), you’ll get better at choosing the specific topics best-suited for your brand over time. 

In the infinite digital cosmos, there exists a darkness where messages go to be lost forever.

The B2B Black Hole.

Like the very vacuum of space itself, this phenomenon absorbs every misplaced campaign, every forgotten ad, and every jettisoned content piece—threatening to push even the best marketing programs into the engagement-less void. 

What is the B2B Black Hole? 

In the B2B universe, the Black Hole is characterized by two things:

A lack of insight and a lack of action.

Lack of Action

• Like a spaceship without its navigational computer, B2B marketers like to operate on gut feel rather than tangible buyer behaviors and measurable, first-party engagement data. Because of this, they’re flying blind, left to flail around in the dark hoping to luck into success.
  

Lack of Action

• Similar to Apollo 13 losing its thrusters, marketers operating without insight find themselves in liminal space without any ability to propel themselves forward, lacking the insights to truly understand what’s working, what’s not, and how to drive greater results. Therefore, even when they’re doing “stuff”, they’re not actually doing anything

Why Do Marketers End Up in the B2B Black Hole? 

Fear makes us do a lot of things that are contrary to character.  

The actions of B2B professionals across the universe, misguided by fragmented visions, half-truths, and fear, have led them straight into the Black Hole…

But without understanding why you’ve not been heard, marketers remain adrift, trapped in the Black Hole’s gravitational pull. 

Like astronauts untethered from their spacecraft, they float, directionless.

In the B2B space, once you’re in the Black Hole, the silence is deafening.   

Your calls, clicks, and campaigns—they all fade into oblivion.

The Black Hole is one of the most frightening places that each of us has ever encountered. 

With the specter of Halloween upon us, we wanted to explore some of marketing’s darkest fears.

But be warned…they’re quite scary.  

5 of Marketing’s Greatest Fears 

Inside the Black Hole, no one can hear you.

That’s a fear in and of itself.

NetLine’s own research has found that B2B organizations only have transparency into 2% of their buyer’s journey.

This means that 98% of those prospects who would be interested have not seen your content. 

You don’t know who these people are. And they most certainly don’t know you. 

How can you expect to engage your buyers when you don’t even know who your buyers are? 

Let’s further explore this fear and four others. 

Fear #1: I Can’t Engage My Buyers! 

Your buyers are out there…but you can’t see or reach all of them.  

The Proof 

As we shared earlier, 98% of the buyer’s journey happens beyond your own content. This isn’t something you can control, but it certainly is something you can (and should) embrace. 

First-party data is the core of what we use to understand buyer engagements.  

But beyond leveraging first-party data from a platform like NetLine, how can sales and marketing teams action engagement data to create meaningful, personalized experiences for their buyers?

How to Escape

Actions speak louder than ICPs. And while you may have a profile of who your buyers are, being able to engage them is another challenge entirely.  

That’s where intent data comes into play—more specifically, buyer-level intent data.  

While account-level insights can provide some guidance to help your teams build lists and develop campaigns, they fail to get to the heart of what individual buyers within those accounts actually care about. 

Someone from marketing has different priorities than someone from sales, who has different priorities than someone from finance, operations, and so on. 

And so, to truly engage your buyers and make meaningful progress within an account, you also need to have the first-party buyer-level insights to deliver the right content, with the right message, at the right time. 

Fear #2: I Can’t Figure Out the Buyer’s Journey!

The buyer’s journey has become more fragmented and more complex than ever before.

The Proof 

Today’s purchase decisions have at least 6-10 decision-makers involved. 

Before we even get to that point, though, it’s taking between 25-27 touches per contact within an account just to book a meeting.  

It can certainly get to be quite tricky navigating such a complex buying journey, especially when each is unique and requires specific answers to one-of-a-kind questions.

How to Escape 

While there’s no silver bullet to “solve” the buyer’s journey, just like Shaggy and the gang, good things happen when we work together.  

We’re not always going to have the perfect answer, but by aligning sales and marketing through data to select, prioritize, and action, your organization will have a much greater picture of how to navigate the evolving needs of the buyer

Take it from Calen Holbrooks, VP Integrated Marketing, ZoomInfo; she knows a thing or two about getting collaboration across departments. 

“The ghost in your revenue machine? Misalignment between sales and marketing. Siloed teams face multiple problems, like inaccurate lead scoring and missed opportunities on target accounts. Strong intent signals that identify quality targets and generative AI that personalizes outreach will change the way you reach and convert customers.” –Calen Holbrooks

Fear #3: I’m Afraid I Won’t Be There When My Buyers Are Ready!

When your buyers are ready, it’s essential that your organization is there to answer the call. 

The Proof 

Research from McKinsey reveals that the best omnichannel experiences are yielding annual returns of at least 10% annually

Add in the fact that 70% of the buying process is done before your buyer ever engages with sales, you better be darn sure you’re ready whenever your buyers are. 

How to Escape 

While you may not be able to truly be “Everything, Everywhere, All At Once,” embracing an omnichannel approach can at least get you close.

For starters, diversifying your marketing mix to incorporate owned, earned, and paid channels can help ensure you have the right coverage for your marketing efforts. And pairing that with a well-coordinated sales enablement plan can ensure your sales teams are continuing the buyer’s journey vs. forcing your buyers start from level zero each and every time they raise their hand.

Lastly, an account-based approach can help ensure that you’re making the most of your time in front of your buyers. Here’s what Jill Brock, Sr. Director, Revenue Marketing, RollWorks has to say about that

“Marketing and sales alignment is a core tenant of any ABM strategy and is crucial for targeting high-value accounts effectively, maximizing revenue opportunities.  Streamlined operations lead to shorter sales cycles, improved lead quality, and better adaptation to changing trends, all contributing to measurable ROI and business scalability.’ – Jill Brock

Fear #4: We Don’t Know How to Action a Personalized Approach! 

We don’t have the tools/data to know or action a personalized approach. 

The Proof 

Personalization always feels tricky (and icky if it feels creepy).

While we as consumers crave and covet privacy, 71% of buyers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions.

To make it even more interesting, the same study found that 76% of buyers get frustrated when this doesn’t happen.

So… what do users want: Privacy or personalization

The answer is both, of course.

How to Escape 

To create personalized experiences, you must lean on first-party intent and engagement data to truly understand your current customers’ needs. This should also allow you to better anticipate what your buyers are looking for too, giving you the insights to craft more meaningful engagement strategies, compose stronger messaging, and create more relevant content and experiences.  

But while buyer-level intent and engagement data gives teams a valuable glimpse into a buyer’s journey, how you action that data is arguably even more important. Our friend Tessa Barron, ON24’s VP Marketing agrees. 

“The key to actually using engagement data is to have a plan for sales and marketing action and a workflow in place to operationalize that follow-up well before it’s even collected.   

For example, if you set a standard attendee survey question across experiences, for any prospect or customer that answers, it can trigger a sales alert, provide a templatized email to further personalize, and add that contact to a pre-defined marketing nurture segment.  

Essentially, the key to personalizing experiences is to know which actions you want to happen after and work back from there. “- Tessa Barron 

 Fear #5: My Buyers Are Hungry, and I Can’t Keep Up! 

Your buyers are hungrier than ever for quality content. 

In fact, they’re insatiable.

The Proof 

As we highlighted in our 2023 Consumption Report, buyer demand for quality B2B content has increased 18.8% in 2022 and 55% since 2019.

By the end of 2023, we expect total demand to have risen by an additional 14%.

How to Escape 

Content consumption is up, and we expect it to continue to rise in perpetuity. To keep up, your content cannot rely on “Us! Us! Us!”  

Instead, it must add value, offering insights, best practices, and tips to solve the specific challenges of your buyers.  

To do this, it’s essential that you leverage first-party engagement and intent data to truly get to the heart of what your buyers are researching and consuming. This will enable you to better understand the needs of your audiences while also allowing you to scale the impact of your content and your overall marketing effectiveness. 

Escape the Marketing Black Hole 

Just as every space odyssey has its heroes and every cosmic peril its escape routes, our horror tale of the B2B Black Hole is no different. 

In the cinematic drama of marketing, even when ensnared by the Black Hole’s relentless gravity, there’s always a flicker of hope—a wormhole leading out. 

Your voyage through the vast expanse of B2B marketing need not end in darkness.  

With a purposeful plan for collecting, analyzing, actioning, and cycling through your data, you can break free from the gravitational pull of common fears and forge a path lit by stars.

Everyone wants a personalized and custom experience online, so it’s no wonder that social commerce has taken over the online shopping world.

Channels like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and WhatsApp already have thousands of businesses marketing on their platforms, and many have adopted shopping and payment functions that allow people to buy a product or service directly on the platforms.

Whether you’re looking for information to boost your social media shop or shape your online strategy, read on to discover social commerce stats that will help you understand the current market and learn best practices for attracting buyers and growing your business.

Social Commerce Stats for 2023

• General Social Commerce Stats
• Social Commerce Stats by Demographic
• Social Commerce Purchasing Stats
• Social Commerce Stats by Platform
• Social Commerce Stats for Business

General Social Commerce Stats

1. 27% of consumers prefer to discover new products through social media over any other channel. (HubSpot)

2. 41% of consumers have discovered a product on social media in the past three months, up 14% YoY. (HubSpot)
3. 67% of consumers have already bought through social media platforms. (Wunderman Thompson, 2023)
4. 53% of global consumers say they intend to shop more through social platforms in the future. (Wunderman Thompson, 2023)
5. Global sales through social media platforms were estimated at 992 billion U.S. dollars in 2022. (Statista, 2022)
6. Insider Intelligence predicts social commerce will be a $79 billion industry in the US by 2025. (Insider Intelligence, 2022)
7. Chinese consumers spent $352 Billion on all social commerce in 2021. (McKinsey, 2022)
8. Social commerce attracted investment from US companies at the start of the pandemic, in addition to online and mobile commerce. (Statista, 2021)
9. 47% of social media marketers say their brand sells directly within social media apps. (HubSpot, 2023)
10. Trust is a big factor for social shopping among social media users, as 54% are concerned that they companies selling on social media aren’t legitimate. (HubSpot, 2023)
11. Just 41% of social media users feel comfortable making purchases on social media platforms and only 37% trust social media platforms with their card information. (HubSpot)
12. 30% of eCommerce companies are already selling on social media, and 12% plan on selling through social media platforms in 2021. (Statista, 2021)

Social Commerce Stats by Demographic

1. Over 1 in 5 Gen Z, Millennial, and Gen X social media users bought a product directly in a social media app in the past 3 months. (HubSpot, 2023)
2. Consumers ages 18-54 prefer to discover new products on social media. (HubSpot, 2023)

3. TikTok is the most trusted platform for social shopping for Gen Z, but is the least trusted platform overall for all generations. (HubSpot, 2023)

4. eMarketer estimates there will be 107M social buyers in the US by the end of 2023. (Statista, 2023)

5. 85% of men who use Pinterest say that the platform feels personalized to them.(Pinterest, 2022)

6. 80% of men on Pinterest agree that shopping here leads them to something unexpected that surprises and delights them (Pinterest, 2022)

7. Thailand has the highest shares of social commerce buyers worldwide, followed by India and the United Arab Emirates. (Statista, 2022)
8. In the US, nearly 36% of internet users are social buyers, which is approximately 90.2 million people. (Insider Intelligence, 2021)
9. 41% of Gen Z and Millennials make an impulse purchase online every 2-3 weeks. (GWI, 2023)
10. 73% of Boomers responding to a recent survey said they’ve made a purchase on Facebook in the past three months. (HubSpot, 2023)
11. 51% of consumers in the US and UK use YouTube to research or find products to buy. (GWI, 2020)

Social Commerce Purchasing Stats

1. $86.21 was the average value of online orders referred through social media during Q2 of 2022. (Statista, 2021)
2. Nearly 27% of tablet visits to eCommerce websites resulted from social media platform referrals in Q1 of 2023. (Statista, 2023)
3. Annual social spend will increase by $419 per buyer in the US over the next three years. (Insider Intelligence, 2023)
4. People who have already made a social commerce purchase are 2X more likely to buy from a brand they’ve never heard of before than those who haven’t. (Accenture, 2022)
5. Apparel and accessories are the largest categories for social commerce. (Insider Intelligence, 2021)
6. People that use social media to access educational and inspirational content, like livestreams and stories, are eager to buy on social platforms. (GWI, 2020)
7. 13% of social networkers say a “buy” button is one of the top purchase drivers. (GWI, 2020)

Image Source

Social Commerce Stats by Platform

Facebook Social Commerce Stats

1. Facebook is the most trusted social shopping platform overall. (HubSpot, 2023)
2. Consumers say Facebook has the best in-platform shopping experience, and it’s the platform most consumers have used for in-app purchases in the past three months. (HubSpot, 2023)
3. With 63.5 million buyers, Facebook ranks as the top social commerce platform in the US. (Statista, 2022)
4. Facebook and Instagram are most used to learn about, discover, and buy fashion apparel products in the US. Over half of users said the content they see in their feeds results in a purchase. (Retail Dive, 2021)
5. By Q1 of 2021, there were one million active Facebook Shops with over 250 million active participants every month. (AdWeek, 2021)

Instagram Social Commerce Stats

1. Instagram is the third most-trusted social shopping platform, but consumers say ithas the second-best in-app shopping experience. (HubSpot, 2023)
2. One retail brand using Instagram Shopping, Jane, reported 80% of total social sales came from the platform between July 2020 and February 2021. (Instagram, 2021)
3. Instagram has 41M social buyers in the US. (Statista, 2022)
4. Over 36% of B2B decision-makers use Instagram to find out information on new products or services. (Hootsuite, 2020)

YouTube Social Commerce Stats

1. YouTube is the second-most trusted social shopping platform and consumers say it has the third-best in-app shopping experience. (HubSpot, 2023)
2. 31% of survey respondents discovered a new product via YouTube ads in the last three months. (HubSpot, 2023)
3. In Q3 of 2021, YouTube made its ads more shoppable by allowing video action campaigns on connected TVs. (Google, 2021)
4. 51% of consumers in the US and UK use YouTube to research or find products to buy. (GWI, 2020)

TikTok Social Commerce Stats

1. 45% of consumers have made a purchase within the TikTok app in the past three months. (HubSpot, 2023)
2. Overall, TikTok is the least trusted platform for in-app purchases among consumers, but Gen Z actually prefers it. (HubSpot, 2023)

Pinterest Social Commerce Stats

1. 27% of consumers have made a purchase within the pinterest app in the past three months. (HubSpot, 2023)
2. Advertisers using mobile deep links on Pinterest see a 235% lift in conversion rates and 35% lower cost-per-acquisition. (Pinterest, 2023)
3. Pinterest weekly users are willing to pay more—40% more per month in fact, than people on other social platforms. (Pinterest, 2023)

Social Commerce Stats for Business

1. 47% of social media marketers say their brand already sells directly within social media apps. (HubSpot, 2023)
2. 87% of sellers say that social selling has been effective for their business this year, and 56% say they’re making more sales through the channel this year compared to last. (HubSpot, 2023)SOCIAL MEDIA SALES AMOUNT IMAGE
3. Over 36% of B2B decision-makers use Instagram to find out information on new products or services. (Hootsuite, 2020)
4. 93% of US executives said their businesses are moving eCommerce efforts to social media. (Statista, 2021)
5. In a 2021 survey, 86% of marketers and agency professionals in the US reported they were enabling shopping functions in their influencer marketing campaigns. The most common function is linking to the brand’s own website. (Statista, 2021)
6. Advertisers anticipate spending $68 billion to promote their products on social networks in 2023. (Statista, 2023)
7. The top benefits of social selling are precise audience targeting, a frictionless shopping experience, and the ability for brands to build and engage with their community (HubSpot, 2023)
8. Around 80% of social media marketers say consumers will buy products directly within social apps more often than on brands’ websites or third-party websites like Amazon. (HubSpot)
9. Over half of businesses selling on social media have under 100 employees, and about 20% make under $100K in revenue. (HubSpot, 2023)

Negative and positive feedback loops are used to draw attention to significant product or company issues. These types of feedback loops use customer or employee complaints to create long-term product or workplace solutions.

Here, we’ll dive into the definitions of negative and positive feedback loops, explain their benefits for your business, and provide examples and best practices, so you can ensure your company is using constructive customer and employee feedback to cultivate higher customer retention and a happier workplace.

The Definition of a Negative Feedback Loop

A negative feedback loop is a process where a company listens to customers’ complaints or grievances, and then uses that feedback to improve their products or customer service. It’s considered a loop because customers’ feedback (output) is used as constructive input on a redesign of their product, creating a circle.

The negative feedback loop benefits both businesses and customers. Namely, customers feel valued and respected by the business and are more likely to become long-term advocates for the brand, and the business’s design is improved to increase customer satisfaction.

Below, we analyze the three key benefits of a negative feedback mechanism for a business.

Benefits of Negative Feedback Loops

1. Product/Service Improvement

Negative feedback loops are essential for product and service improvement. Companies, especially in the software development niche, often struggle with product roadmaps and prioritizing features. This process can drain a lot of the company’s time and resources.

In these situations, negative feedback loops can act as a shortcut. By directly using customer feedback, brands can quickly identify areas where their products and services underperform and address these issues with their R&D teams.

Continuously improving product features and offerings also helps companies stay up-to-date and competitive. Brands can receive feedback directly using surveys and questionnaires, or indirectly using various methods such as tracking social mentions, which provides insights from public discussions and online conversations about their products or services.

A great example of a brand that uses indirect customer feedback is Slack. Even as the company grew, they prioritized the end-user experience and engaged with customers to understand their needs and preferences. Using a negative feedback loop, the Slack team pays close attention to feedback, even if customers do not explicitly request changes.

This has helped the platform to continue to expand. As Stewart Butterfield, CEO and co-founder of Slack expresses: “So it’s usually not direct … Instead, we look at how people are using it [Slack]. What problems they’re encountering. What they’re asking us about. Often, people, when they have questions, are either asking for clarification for how something works, or they’re asking for something new.

They might not be doing it directly. And so you have to learn how to interpret that. People aren’t necessarily perfect at telling you exactly what they want or what they need. But they are perfect at being satisfied or dissatisfied with something. And if you learn how to interpret and how to listen and how to respond, you can use customer feedback to create a world-leading product.”

2. Customer Retention

Using customer feedback loops is one of the best strategies to retain customers. This proactive approach allows businesses to improve their relationships with customers, fix problems, and turn them into loyal customers over time.

Negative feedback can help businesses identify areas for improvement and take highly targeted actions to solve issues. When a company takes action to address these problems, customers are more likely to be happy and stay loyal.

Negative feedback loops can also help companies identify internal weaknesses and inefficiencies, enabling them to make necessary tweaks to improve customer satisfaction and retention.

The important thing here is persistence. Feedback loops can be slow in nature, but businesses willing to invest time and energy into them will see results. For example, Wajax focused on converting detractors into promoters by understanding customer feedback and their sentiments, achieving a 100% follow-up rate with dissatisfied customers

3. Minimized Negative Word of Mouth

Negative feedback loops serve as a buffer against the spread of negative Word of Mouth. They let companies fix issues quickly and prevent customer trust erosion.

Neglecting upset customers can be costly. In fact, 26% of people won’t do business with a brand if they hear a negative story about it from a friend or family member. Being on the lookout for negative customer experiences to address them quickly can mitigate dissatisfaction before it escalates into a PR crisis. Showing customers that their concerns are taken seriously will make them less likely to complain to potential other customers.

To explore successful negative feedback loops in more depth, let’s take a look at some examples.

Negative Feedback Loop Examples

1. Hubspot

Hubspot teams listen to customer feedback via in-app surveys that measure user satisfaction with our CRM platform and new features.

These surveys include multiple-choice, short questions, and ratings to ensure we collect feedback without inconveniencing customers. That’s how we guarantee our CRM platform is aligned with marketers’ and sales professionals’ needs.

We also run polls on social media (X and LinkedIn) to understand customer intent toward our new products, compared to the competition, like the survey below:

2. Best Buy

Best Buy, the world’s largest consumer electronics retailer, effectively uses a negative feedback loop to improve their customers’ experience.

In 2010, Best Buy created a research tool, called VOCE (Voice of Consumers Through Employees), and used it to collect customer feedback and complaints.

After they collected customer feedback via VOCE, Best Buy took immediate and drastic steps to improve their service model. Among other things, they streamlined their mobile pickup orders, separated the Customer Service and Geek Squad so customers weren’t confused about where to go for which service, and created a “Geek Squad Lounge” so customers could find one-on-one help before leaving the store.

Ultimately, Best Buy saved money and guesswork by listening to their customers and strategically improving areas their customers cared about most. If, instead of a negative feedback loop, Best Buy used market research, they might not have been as effective in targeting aspects of their service most directly impacting their customers.

3. Trader Joe’s

Trader Joe’s, a grocery chain, ranked in second place in 2023 for the grocery store with a popularity score of 63%, ahead of Kroger and 7-Eleven. To maintain that high standard of customer satisfaction, Trader Joe’s doesn’t employ traditional customer service methods, like service reps manning phones.

Instead, Trader Joe’s puts a strong emphasis on in-person interaction between employees and customers. Their retail staff spends most of the day on the floor, interacting with customers and immediately responding to their needs.

Trader Joe’s employees’ attention to human interaction is necessary for impressive customer service. Trader Joe’s often goes above and beyond to respond to any negative feedback. For instance, when Marynne Aaronson requested her favorite soy ice cream cookie in their Reno, Nevada branch, they stocked up on it just for her. In Phoenix, Trader Joe’s opened before nine a.m. so the Phoenix customers could shop earlier when they wanted.

Those one-off experiences aren’t necessarily easily replicable, but they’re hugely influential for creating long-term customers.

The Definition of a Positive Feedback Loop

A positive feedback loop is a process where a company listens to employees’ complaints and suggestions and uses that feedback to improve internal structure and workplace satisfaction. As a result of employee happiness, the company is then able to increase their profits. It’s considered a loop because employees’ feedback (output) is used as input on a restructuring of the work culture, creating a circle.

A positive feedback loop, essentially, focuses on employees’ input to make the workplace better — as opposed to a negative feedback loop, which focuses on customers’ input to make the product better.

A positive feedback loop can be a formal or informal process, in which you collect employee feedback on their overall work satisfaction, and respond to that feedback to make your employees happier.

A positive feedback loop is essential for your business’s long-term success. Having happier employees is valuable, but not just for employee retention — it’s also critical for your company’s financial success. In an excerpt from Noelle C. Nelson’s book, Make More Money by Making Your Employees Happy, she found stock prices for Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” rose an average of 14% per year since 1998 — compared to six percent rise since 1998 for the market in general. Ultimately, happy employees stay longer and do better work.

Now, let’s delve into the three key benefits of a positive feedback mechanism for a business.

Benefits of Positive Feedback Loops

1. Boosted Workplace Morale

Positive feedback loops play an important role in boosting the morale of your employees because people see that their complaints and suggestions are taken seriously by the management.

And that management tries to improve the workplace, be it physically like new equipment or mentally by fostering a new, more empathetic culture among the leadership.

This validation encourages further dedication, so it’s no surprise that today 40% of professionals pick a new job based on the company culture.

2. Reduction in Employee Turnover

Companies that actively seek and incorporate regular feedback from their employees experience 14.9% lower turnover rates compared to ones that do not engage employees in the feedback process.

Positive feedback loops help greatly in reducing employee turnover because when people see that their issues are resolved quickly and the company is always eager to improve things, their dedication and satisfaction increase as well.

3. Enhanced Collaboration Among Teams

In workplaces where achievements are recognized and team members openly share what they’ve learned from challenging situations, it helps create a culture where everyone shares common values and teams work together more effectively.

It’s crucial to take action based on the feedback you receive from your employees, whether they’re expressing challenges in working together or praising their colleagues for excellent performance. Resolving issues and acknowledging hard work can not only improve workplace morale but also strengthen team cohesion and collaboration across teams.

A positive feedback mechanism can work as a control center that helps you monitor your employees’ productivity, engagement, and well-being. Now, let’s dive deeper into examples of companies with the finest positive feedback loops.

Positive Feedback Loop Examples

1. Microsoft

In 2014, Microsoft hired a new CEO, Satya Nadella, to deal with Microsoft’s toxic work culture. The high pressure and intense internal competition at Microsoft had turned employees against each other. The employees no longer felt united.

After Satya Nadella was hired, his first major project was restructuring the company to alleviate the competition between departments. To tackle this, he asked every employee to re-focus on three common goals. He outlined these goals in an email sent to his employees, along with his new mission statement for Microsoft’s culture: “Team, I believe that we can do magical things when we come together with a shared mission, clear strategy, and a culture that brings out the best in us individually and collectively.”

Satya Nadella ended his email to Microsoft employees with this remark: “I believe that culture is not static. It evolves every day based on the behaviors of everyone in the organization.”

Nadella used employee feedback to improve internal structure and unify the company. Now, Microsoft doesn’t operate under divided teams with competing goals. Instead, each product falls under one vision, so employees can happily share responsibilities and work together.

2. Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines, a U.S airline, first started flying in 1971 — at the time, their vision was “to make flying affordable enough that anyone could fly.”

Katie Coldwell, Director of Communications at Southwest Airlines, said, “Once we achieved this mission, it would have been easy to step back and say, ‘Okay, we’ve done it, we’re done.’ But we didn’t. We kept aspiring for something greater.” Now, the Southwest Airlines mission statement is: “to become the world’s most loved, most flown, and most profitable airline.”

While it might’ve been easy to remain loyal to their old mission, Coldwell explained it was important for Southwest to outline a deeper purpose in their mission to inspire employees and make them feel like they were making a difference. This is more important than ever. With the rise of quiet quitting and 6 out of 10 employees feeling psychologically disengaged from work, giving your employees a purpose and the sense that they can contribute to the world is necessary to reverse this effect. To increase a sense of purpose in the workplace, Coldwell encourages companies to ask their employees — “What is the value you bring to the world?”

Southwest Airlines has been listed on Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work for five consecutive years, from 2018 to 2023. Their flexibility and openness to change, despite being an older and well-established business, enables them to grow and continually inspire employees.

3. Adobe

Adobe, the famous designing software company, is among Fortune’s 2023 List of the 100 Best Companies to Work For. The company has been winning its place on that list for two decades now, making Adobe a dream workplace.

But how did they accomplish it? Adobe listens to their employee feedback every day.

In the early ‘10s, the company ditched annual progress reviews and embraced frequent check-in meetings. In these meetings manager and employee can discuss project progress and most importantly exchange feedback, when it’s fresh!

The drawback with annual reviews was that people had to wait until the end of the year to share their feedback on their collaboration with colleagues, highlight their progress, or address red flags.

Adobe took that concern into consideration and came up with the solution of frequent check-in meetings — now held online due to Adobe’s hybrid work model — that will give each employee the chance to communicate their successes and grievances to their manager often and early.

Also, Adobe offers access to real-time feedback with dedicated dashboards, so that employees can give constructive feedback to their colleagues in real time that reinforces their culture of continuous learning and improvement.

How to Gather Your Feedback

If you’re ready to use a negative feedback loop to improve your own product or service, take a look at our Customer Feedback Strategy guide. You might choose a survey, an NPS, or a feature request board to collect valuable information from customers — or, depending on your business’s onboarding process, you could collect product feedback when you speak with customers.

If you’re ready to use a positive feedback loop to improve employee satisfaction, consider some of the steps Microsoft,Southwest Airlines, and Adobe took to make their employees happy. Perhaps, you could try collecting feedback via email or department leaders or adopt anonymous feedback systems like the Employee Net Promoter System (ENPS).

Ultimately, there’s nothing better for your business than happy customers and happy employees, and both of these loops are critical for achieving both.

Feedback Loop Best Practices

Prioritize Clear and Open Communication

8 of 10 American employees say communication at work heavily affects how they feel about their jobs. Open and clear communication stands as the backbone of operational success in business. It eliminates ambiguity, creates trust, and ensures that all employees are aligned with the company’s goal and culture.

Feedback loops are a critical tool for improving performance and productivity in any organization. However, for feedback loops to be effective, they must be based on clear and open communication.

Open communication means that everyone feels comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas, even if they are negative or critical. It also means that everyone is willing to listen to feedback from others, without getting defensive.

A clear communication means that the feedback is

• Specific
• Actionable
• Timely

It should also be delivered in a way that is respectful and constructive.

When clear and open communication is prioritized, feedback loops can be a powerful tool for driving positive change. They can help to identify areas for improvement and build stronger bonds in your company.

Remember, businesses with an established open communication feedback loop can anticipate challenges, have higher productivity rates, facilitate collaboration, and ensure that customers and employees feel valued and heard.

Automating Feedback Processes

Collecting and analyzing feedback can be time-consuming and energy-graining. Automated systems can instantly capture and analyze your customer and employee feedback, ensuring you provide immediate responses.

There are a number of ways to automate feedback processes, including:

• Using survey software to automatically send out surveys and collect responses.
• Using chatbots to collect feedback in real time.
• Integrating feedback data with other systems, such as CRM or analytics platforms, makes it easier to track and analyze feedback.

Using these tools helps you mitigate risks, have quick reflexes, and prevent crises before they escalate.

Choosing the Right Channels

For feedback loops to work effectively, it’s important to choose the right channels. This will vary depending on the specific situation. However, there are a few things to keep in mind when choosing channels:

• The target audience: Who are you trying to reach with your feedback loops? The channels you choose should be accessible and convenient for your target audience.
• The type of feedback: What kind of feedback are you hoping to get? The channels you choose should be appropriate for the type of feedback you are looking for.
• The desired level of detail: How much detail do you need from your feedback? The channels you choose should be able to capture the level of detail you need.
• The cost: How much are you willing to spend on feedback loops? The channels you choose should be affordable for your budget.

Here are some examples of different channels that can be used for feedback loops:

• Surveys
• Interviews
• Focus groups
• Social media
• Customer support

Integrate Feedback into Strategic Planning

Infusing feedback into strategic planning is indispensable for sustainable growth. By actively incorporating customer and employee insights, businesses can craft strategies that are both responsive and forward-thinking.

This alignment ensures that resources are efficiently directed towards areas of genuine need and opportunity.

Categorize Your Feedback

Segment your feedback based on its source, relevance, and impact. Prioritize feedback from loyal customers, high-value clients, or employees with expertise in critical areas. Another way to segment feedback is by the stage of the customer journey or by the department within your organization.

Quantitative vs. Qualitative Feedback

Distinguish between quantitative data (e.g., survey ratings, analytics) and qualitative feedback (e.g., comments, suggestions). Both types offer unique insights. Quantitative data provides statistical trends, while qualitative feedback offers in-depth context and anecdotes. Make sure you keep a balance between these two.

Consistency and Repetition

Pay attention to recurring feedback themes and patterns. Feedback that consistently emerges across different sources or time periods is likely more important and valuable.

Acknowledging and Rewarding Feedback

This shows that the feedback is valued and appreciated, and it encourages your employees and customers to continue giving feedback. There are many ways to acknowledge and reward feedback, such as:

• Thanking the person for their feedback.
• Giving them a specific example of how their feedback was helpful.
• Recognizing their efforts in a public forum.
• Offering them a small reward, such as a gift card or a certificate of appreciation.

How Feedback Loops Can Help Your Team

The bottom line is that a feedback loop, positive or negative, can help your business spot room for improvement and bring a multitude of suggestions and solutions to the table.

Customers and employees need to be heard now more than ever. And your business should be on the lookout for such invaluable feedback that can only make you better.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in [Month Year] and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

In the world of online shopping, businesses are always sniffing out the next big thing. But what happens when you build a company entirely around something people don’t want anyway?

Maybe you sell gym memberships. Perhaps you provide tax services or software to help people manage their money. What happens, then?

The problem isn’t that people don’t want to get fit and keep their finances under control; the problem is that most prefer Ben & Jerry’s and shopping marathons.

So, how can you get around this part of human nature and successfully market your products and services?

Temptation bundling.

What is temptation bundling, you ask? Let’s dive deep into the world of temptation bundling — its essence, how businesses apply it, and the magic it can sprinkle over the ecommerce scene.

Table of Contents

• What is temptation bundling?
• Temptation Bundling: Desire and Action
• Temptation Bundling for Ecommerce Businesses
• Putting Temptation Bundling to Work

Temptation bundling has been making waves lately. It’s like the secret weapon for savvy ecommerce entrepreneurs who get it and know how to weave it into their business fabric.

And let me tell you. It‘s a serious game-changer. It’s all about crafting the right customer incentives, leading to more conversions and happier shoppers.

Temptation Bundling: Desire and Action

So, what happens when you pair a delightful experience with a must-do chore? Well, we suddenly find ourselves more eager to tackle those not-so-fun tasks.

This concept brilliantly taps into our love for instant rewards, nudging us with our inner drive to reach a desired goal. Brilliant, isn’t it?

A study showed that people were willing to pay researchers to take away their e-readers, only to give them back when they use the treadmill or the elliptical machine while working out at the gym.

In other words, they’ll pay extra for what they want if it gets them through the stuff they don’t. The good pairs with the not so good, and consumers will suffer because they want their reward.

People know they need the things they don’t want to buy — those gym memberships, diet supplements, financial assistance, etc.

We know we must help clean up the environment, donate to worthy causes, and about a million other things we put off daily. If your business pays more attention to these things, you can put temptation bundling to work.

Temptation Bundling for Ecommerce Businesses

Incorporating temptation bundling into your ecommerce business can significantly impact consumer behavior and drive sales. Below are some effective strategies to leverage temptation bundling and maximize its benefits.

1. Understand your target audience.

Conduct thorough research to identify your target audience’s preferences, desires, and pain points. This valuable knowledge will help you create bundles that align with their needs and aspirations.

2. Create irresistible bundles.

Craft bundles that combine products or services that complement each other, offering enhanced value and an irresistible proposition.

Consider incorporating desirable elements such as exclusive discounts, limited-time offers, or freebies to amplify the allure.

3. Personalize the bundles.

Tailor temptation bundles to cater to individual customer preferences. Use data-driven insights to understand customer behavior and purchase history, allowing you to curate personalized offers that maximize appeal.

4. Consider your request.

Simplify the purchasing journey for customers by making the bundled products easily accessible and communicating the benefits. A seamless and intuitive shopping experience increases the likelihood of conversion.

5. Encourage feedback and reviews.

Actively seek customer feedback and encourage them to leave reviews for the temptation bundles they have purchased. Positive reviews and testimonials can strengthen the appeal of the bundles and build trust with potential customers.

6. Continuously experiment and optimize.

Take the time to test bundle combinations, pricing strategies, and promotional tactics to identify what resonates most effectively with your target audience.

Then, monitor the performance of your temptation bundles and make data-driven adjustments to optimize their effectiveness.

Remember, implementing temptation bundling in your ecommerce business requires a profound understanding of your customers’ motivations.

You can enhance customer engagement and drive sales by creating attractive bundles, personalizing offers, and optimizing based on feedback.

Putting Temptation Bundling to Work

As the tactic sounds, temptation bundling means you pair the thing buyers try to avoid with something they want. That makes those buyers more likely to leap.

There are many methods, so consider how to perform temptation bundling before you begin your campaign carefully.

While you want to entice your buyers, you don’t want to cancel out the benefits of your products. That means the earlier allusion to Ben & Jerry’s is moot if you’re selling fitness services.

AirPods could be just the right companion for your new gym membership.

Imagine this — you‘re on the treadmill, jogging away, and with your AirPods in, you’ve got your favorite tunes spurring you on. That‘s the kind of enticing deal that’ll have people lining up, wallets ready.

Let’s turn to Equinox in the real world. Buying a gym membership feels difficult for many. Memberships include free access to a personal trainer and unlimited access to classes like barre and pilates.

Even if you hate filling out paperwork, the offer of these free perks may push some buyers over the edge.

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Consider the products or services that pair perfectly with your selling items. You’ll find a match that will help to boost your sales and get your buyers moving down the right road.

Whether you make the pairing permanent or run a special promotion is up to you. You can create beautiful partnerships with other brands and support each other’s endeavors, paving the way for a stronger bond with your customers.

Wrapping Up

Temptation bundling combines fun activities with necessary tasks, motivating people to do them.

In order to implement it successfully, businesses should research their target audience, create appealing bundles, personalize offers, get customer feedback, and experiment.

Strategic alliances and careful pairing can boost sales. Ecommerce success is driven by temptation bundling, which drives customer engagement and conversions.

From restaurant menus to bathroom stall doors, you can find QR codes just about anywhere these days. In fact, they’ve become so ever-present that 45% of shoppers use marketing-related QR codes.

There’s no denying the popularity and convenience of the QR code. But, what exactly is it and how can you create one for your next marketing campaign?

Keep reading to learn the magic behind QR codes and how to create your own.

QR codes typically look like this:

Not every QR code is shaped like a perfect square. Sometimes they have unique patterns, colors, and logos displayed inside. You’ll find them in non-digital spaces like direct mail, signage, billboards, and even TV shows where you can scan the code on the screen using your phone.

Both barcodes and QR codes can be scanned using a laser or a smartphone as long as the tool being used has the correct capabilities of reading vertical and horizontal data. Although most smartphones scan QR codes automatically, many won’t scan barcodes so easily — you’ll need a special app for that.

Does the rise of QR codes mean traditional barcodes are a thing of the past? Of course not. Traditional barcodes are still a common way for businesses to identify consumer packaged goods (CPGs) and manage their product inventory.

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However, there are several differences between barcodes and QR codes — both in their uses and their characteristics. Below are three important differences.

QR Codes Are Shaped Differently

Barcodes are typically rectangular, which requires scanning devices to read the barcode’s data horizontally. QR codes are often square-shaped, displaying their data vertically and horizontally.

QR Codes Hold Different Data

QR codes are often used differently than barcodes. Barcodes hold key product information at the point of sale, such as the price and name of the manufacturer. QR codes offer more passive and intangible information, such as location data and URLs to promotions and product landing pages.

QR Codes Hold More Data

Due to a QR code’s square shape, it can hold much more data compared to a barcode. QR codes can hold hundreds of times more encrypted characters than a barcode can.

We learned a little bit about how barcodes and QR codes differ, but how exactly do QR codes work?

Let’s say a consumer sees a QR code. They can take out their mobile device, download a free QR code scanning app, or simply use their phone’s camera, and scan the QR code to gain more information about what they saw.

If you wanted to create, say, a bus stop advertisement promoting your podcast, you could display a QR code on that printed ad that brings people right to your iTunes page when they scan it with their phones. Pretty simple, right?

The QR code creation process is pretty straightforward, regardless of the device you’re using. Here’s how to get started.

How to Create a QR Code on Any Device

Step 1: Access a QR code generator on any browser.

Using any browser on any operating system, head to a QR code maker. We’ll be using qr-code-generator.com for this tutorial. Keep in mind that you don’t necessarily need to use this tool; you can choose any web-based QR code generator. If you need some ideas, check out our list.

Step 2: Insert your URL into the generator.

For most QR codes, you’ll want to redirect users to a URL. In that case, enter the URL in the tool. You can also choose from other content types, including contact cards, PDFs, and MP3s. At the bottom, you also have the option of creating QR codes for Microsoft Word and PowerPoint files. The exact content options will vary by tool.

After you select the content type, a field or form will appear where you can enter the information that corresponds with your campaign. For instance, if you want your QR code to save contact information, you’ll see a set of fields where you can enter your email address, subject line, and associated message.

Once you enter your URL or upload your file, it will immediately create a QR code that’s ready for download. However, we recommend customizing it to strengthen your brand identity.

Step 3: If applicable, customize your QR code.

The fun part of creating QR codes is customizing the design of the codes to fit your brand. Want your code to contain your logo? Go for it. Want it to reflect your website’s design scheme? No problem.

The front-end generator on qr-code-generator.com offers limited frame, shape, and color options that allow you to customize your QR code. If you want more options, we highly encourage you to sign up on the website and edit your QR code through the tool’s creator portal.

Here’s one example of how you can customize your QR code once you sign up for a QR Code Generator account:

Keep in mind that not every QR code maker offers these design options either before or after signing up. Depending on the QR code you’re looking to generate, you might find some tools limited in their functionality.

Step 4: Download your QR code.

If you’re just trying to quickly create a QR code, don’t worry about signing up. Instead, click the Download button.

Your download will start immediately, but the website will try to trick you into signing up. Ignore this message unless you truly want to sign up. At the top, you’ll see a message that says your QR code is getting created and that you shouldn’t refresh the window. A pop-up download window will come up within 2 minutes.

Step 5: Use your QR code for marketing and promotion.

A QR code won’t be able to do its job unless people see it. So make sure you add the code to any materials that will help you market your business. This could include displaying it in print ads, on clothing, or in physical locations where people can take out their phones to scan it. Scroll down for more tips on properly displaying a QR code.

As for how you’ll add the JPG or vector file to print collateral, you can do so with a variety of tools, including:

• Canva: Canva is an online design tool that lets you import JPG files and add them to your design. It offers flier and brochure templates for easy creation.
• BeFunky: BeFunky is a similar tool to Canva and also allows you to add JPG files to a design. It also offers templates for you to choose from.
• Adobe Illustrator and InDesign: If you’re a more advanced user, you can use a dedicated graphic design tool to add your QR code to pamphlets and brochures. Illustrator is a good fit for one-page designs; InDesign is a better fit for multi-page brochures.

If you’re on a mobile device, good news: You can easily create a QR code that you can share with colleagues and prospects on-the-go. You’ll need the Google Chrome app to do so.

How to Create a QR Code on Android

Creating a QR code on an Android device is simple with the Chrome app. You can only make QR codes for URLs, but this is a handy tool for when you need to quickly share product pages or blog posts with someone.

Here are the steps:

• Download the Google Chrome app from the Google Play Store.
• Navigate to the URL you want to share.
• Click the three vertical dots (⋮) on the top toolbar.

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• On the pop-up, select QR Code.

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• Either click Download at the bottom or hold your phone up for someone to scan the code.

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Note: The interface may look a little different depending on your version of Chrome.

How to Create a QR Code on iOS

Just like in Android, you can easily make QR Codes on any iPhone or iPad. Here’s how:

• Download the Google Chrome app from the App Store. Note: You can’t create QR Codes from the Google search app, only the Chrome app.
• Navigate to the URL you want to share.
• Tap the Share button on the upper right-hand corner.

• Select Create QR Code.

• Either hold it up for someone to scan or tap Share. This option will allow you to print your QR code, save the image to your camera roll, or save it to your files.

How to Create a QR Code for Desktop Using Chrome

Creating a QR code with Chrome on desktop is just as easy as it is on Android and iOS. Here’s how to do it:

• Open Chrome on your desktop.
• Go to the URL you want to share.
• For Linux, Windows, and Mac computer users, navigate to the right-hand side of the address bar, click Share.

• Select Create QR code.
• For Chromebook users, navigate to the address bar and then QR code.
• Either copy the QR link, download the QR code, or scan the QR code with a camera on another device.

Note: If you click Copy, Google Chrome will add it to your clipboard as an image. Pretty handy for quickly pasting the code into a design tool such as Canva or Photoshop.

How to Create a QR Code on Microsoft Edge

Creating a QR code on Microsoft Edge is super straightforward — almost as straightforward as creating one on Chrome. It allows you to quickly share URLs with others and to save the QR code both on your device and on the browser itself.

Follow these steps to create a QR code using Microsoft Edge:

• Open Microsoft Edge on your device.
• Navigate to the URL that you want to share using the QR code.
• Right-click anywhere on the page.
• Select Create QR code for this page from the drop-down menu.

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• All done! A QR code will be displayed on the screen. You can either hold the device up for someone to scan the code or download the QR code to your laptop.

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Bonus: The QR code is now permanently created for that page. If you want to access it in the future, simply click the “QR code” icon on the right-most side of the address bar.

By following these steps, you can easily create a QR code using Microsoft Edge, allowing you to easily share URLs with others or conveniently save the code for future use.

How to Use QR Codes (And How Not to)

Now that you see how simple the QR code creation process can be, let’s talk about some best practices that’ll increase the likelihood that your QR code actually gets used.

Display your QR code where it’s convenient for people to scan.

Put QR codes in places where scanning them is easy and there’s enough time for the consumer to scan the code. While you may often see QR codes on billboards and TV commercials, they’re not exactly the most user-friendly locations. It’s a safety hazard to entice people to pull out their phones while driving to scan a code, and a 30-second commercial might not be enough time for someone to find their phone and scan the TV.

Instead, think of places where consumers have the time and ability to scan the code. Places with a strong Wi-Fi connection will help, too.

Optimize the QR’s destination page for mobile devices.

Mobile-optimize the page to which you’re sending people. Consumers will be using their phones when scanning the QR code, so they should arrive at a page with a positive mobile experience.

Include a CTA that prompts people to scan your QR code.

Offer a call-to-action (CTA) with the code — that is to say, tell people what they’re supposed to do when they see the code, and what they’ll receive if they scan it. Not everyone knows exactly what a QR code is, and those that do won’t be motivated to scan it unless they’re sure there’s something worthwhile on the other side.

Don’t limit your QR code to one mobile scanner.

Don’t require a special QR code scanner. Your QR code should be app-agnostic so anyone can scan your code with any reader. A lower barrier to entry makes success more likely for you and the user.

Use your QR code to make someone’s life easier.

Don’t use a QR code just for the sake of using one. For instance, it’s common for marketers to think, “How can I bridge the offline experience with the online experience? Uhhh … QR code!” That’s not wrong, but it’s not always right, either.

If you have content that makes sense to deliver to a mobile user, and you have an appropriate channel to do it (see use #1 at the beginning of this section), it’s more likely your QR code will drive results.

Earlier, we showed you an example of how to create your own QR code, but you don’t have to create it from scratch. A QR code generator can speed up the process (and take a lot of math out of it, too.)

There are tons of QR code generators out there. The best ones give you many customizable options for using your QR code, and compatibility with just about all mobile QR code reader apps.

Other things to look for when choosing a QR code generator are whether you can track and analyze performance in real-time and design a code that’s unique to your brand.

Below are some of our favorite QR code generators that make custom QR codes quick and easy to create.

1. Kaywa

Kaywa is a simple, no-fuss QR code generator that creates basic codes for coupons, URLs, and contact information. Simply enter your information, choose whether you want a dynamic or static code, and generate it.

Why we like it:

If you’re using your QR code as part of a marketing campaign, you can track analytics through Kaywa when you create an account. That way, you’ll have the latest data on who engaged with your code, where they engaged, and when.

2. GOQR.me

GOQR.me is a simple QR code generator that works best with short URLs, but it can be used to store text, geolocation, and event data. Simply click on the icon that corresponds to your data and fill in the fields.

Why we like it:

You’ll get a live preview of your QR code in real-time which speeds things up if you’re adding finishing touches to your marketing campaign. For an additional fee, you can also have your logo added to your QR code by a GOQR.me-affiliated designer for a custom look.

3. Free QR Code Generator by Shopify

QR codes work best when you have something to offer the people who scan them. And chances are, you’re probably selling to people who buy products online with their phones every day.

Why we like it:

Shopify makes it easy to create a QR code in just one click. The best part is that you don’t have to own a Shopify store to use this free tool.

4. Visualead

Looking for a one-of-a-kind QR code that suits your brand to a “T”? Visualead is the tool we recommend for the job.

Why we like it:

Visual QR codes are popular and can generate more interest in your users than a typical black and white code can. That means you could see more scans and engagement on this type of QR code.

5. The-qrcode-generator.com

The-qrcode-generator.com features a simple UI that lets you create a unique QR code in minutes. Simply add your URL or the information you want to share and your QR code appears instantly.

Why we like it:

If you’re creating several QR codes at once, you might find it worthwhile to download the Google Chrome extension for a faster workflow.

6. QR Stuff

As one of the more robust QR code generators, QR Stuff can create codes for just about any type of data you want to share with the world. YouTube videos, Zoom meeting invitations, and even bitcoin information are supported through this tool.

Why we like it:

In just three steps, you’ll have a free, customizable QR code that will function properly and look great. Plus, there’s no limit to the number of codes you can create.

7. Qr-code-generator.com

We used this QR code generator in our how-to guide above, and for good reason. Qr-code-generator.com is a simple tool that’s user-friendly for even the least tech-savvy of us. Simply drop your link into the box, and let the generator do all the work.

Why we like it:

QR-code-generator.com is intuitive. It’ll automatically detect the type of URL you’ve added and produce a QR code in seconds.

8. QR Code Monkey

If the way your QR code looks is important to you, but you don’t want to pay extra for a custom design, try QR Code Monkey. Once you add your URL, you can change the color, add a logo, and further customize the pixels in your code at no cost.

Why we like it:

With QR Code Monkey, the design possibilities are virtually limitless. All you need to create a branded QR code is a creative eye and a little patience.

9. QR Code Generator Hub

QR Code Generator Hub is a widely used dynamic QR Code platform that offers many free features along with a full suite of tools for all your QR Code marketing needs.

Why we like it:

QR Code Generator Hub is the only dynamic QR Code Generator that is free and unlimited. You can make unlimited QR Codes, with unlimited scans and edits, entirely free. Their advanced paid functionality, including robust tracking and analytics, are also offered at a flat price that does not depend on volume or use.

QR Code Best Practices

1. Sign up for an account on a QR code generator website.

One significant pitfall to making a QR code is that you can’t edit the data it contains once you print it. But by signing up for an account, you can edit this data. This is especially important if you expect to use a lot of QR codes in your marketing strategy.

With a free membership to QR code generators like qr-code-generator.com, you can print a dynamic QR code, scan it, and pull up an editable form where you can modify the data your visitors will receive when they scan the QR code themselves. You can also track performance analytics, which we’ll cover below, and create a new customized version of your code.

2. Customize your QR code.

QR codes can be boring to look at, but not if you customize them as much as possible. If you sign up for an account on a QR code generator website, you can customize your QR code further — adjusting the colors, adding a logo, creating social options, and more.

Keep in mind, however, that some customizations can make it more difficult for QR code scanning apps and smartphone cameras to properly read the code. To cover your bases, it’s a good idea to generate two versions of your QR code — one plain version and another with your preferred design.

Speaking of this…

3. Test the QR code to make sure it scans.

Don’t forget to check to see if the QR code reads correctly, and be sure to try more than one QR code reader. A good place to start is the free tool Google Lens, which takes a picture and then tells you what link or item it “reads to.”

Another great free tool is the app QR Code Reader, which automatically takes you to whatever it “reads.” Most smartphones these days include a built-in QR code reader, so you should test to make sure your code is readable there, as well.

4. Track and analyze performance.

Just like any marketing campaign, you should follow up on any collateral or campaigns using QR codes to see whether they’re actually working. How much traffic comes from each specific code? Are people scanning your code but not redeeming their offer once they get to the landing page? Or are they not even compelled enough to scan your QR code in the first place?

Knowing the answers to these questions will help you troubleshoot and adjust poorly performing QR codes to more closely mirror those that work well.

I recommend you include a UTM tracking code on your URL so you can better measure performance. This is particularly important if you use closed-loop marketing analytics or if you perform more in-depth reporting on your campaigns.

Create Your QR Code Today

Now it’s your turn! You’ve spent enough time scanning QR codes, why not make your own? Follow the steps in this article and use one of the free QR code generators we’ve recommended to put your business, project, or event out there in the real world.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in January 2021 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

When it comes to social justice, what role do brands play?

As conflict around the globe continues, marketers are put in a challenging position when it comes to making brand statements. It’s nearly impossible to make a perfectly neutral statement that will satisfy all points of view, which is what many brands try to do in an effort to avoid alienating potential customers.

Interestingly enough, consumer preferences on how involved brands should be in social justice movements are evolving in real time as world events unfold.

In 2021, 54% of American consumers expressed companies should take a stance on social issues. However, according to research by Gallup and Bentley University, some consumers are walking back that claim.

Per this year’s Business in Society Report, only 41% of Americans now believe brands should take a public stance on social causes. However, it’s important to note that the drop in interest in brand advocacy doesn’t ring true for all demographics. According to the Gallup and Bentley study:

• 53% of buyers between the ages of 18 and 29 believe brands should take a public stance on current issues (compared to 47% of buyers between 30 and 44, and 35% of consumers over 45)
• 44% of women believe brands should advocate for social issues compared to 38% of men
• Consumers who identify as Black or Asian (61% of both populations) want to see brands take a public stance
• 57% of consumers who identify as LGBTQ+ want brands to speak on social issues

This data suggests brand advocacy remains important to younger people and marginalized groups.

When it comes to social justice, what role do brands play?

Though a majority of consumers want to see brands refrain from making direct statements about social issues, companies are still seen as major agents of change.

According to Edelman’s 2023 Trust Barometer Report, global consumers now trust business more than government. Beyond speaking out about social issues, consumers are looking to companies to make tangible changes that would improve the quality of life for employees and surrounding communities through better distribution of wealth and more transparent sustainability practices.

Brands Navigating Pushback

Earlier this year, Bud Light and Target received pushback over their Pride month campaigns and activations, leaving some companies to scale back on Pride-related content. It’s likely that this trend will continue as the U.S. heads into a tense election year in 2024.

While brands making blanket statements and social media about social issues can be seen as performative, how brands should move forward with social and political statements should be done thoughtfully and carefully with the brand’s core values and target audience in mind.

Artificial intelligence is appearing in every industry and every process, whether you’re in manufacturing, marketing, storage, or logistics. There are scores of examples of AI in the real world.

That includes technical use cases, like automation of the human workforce and robotic processes, to basic applications. You’ll see AI in search engines, maps and navigation, text editors, and more.

But have you ever given a thought to how these machines work?

AI systems run on algorithms, but not every AI algorithm is the same. If you understand how AI algorithms work, you can ease your business processes, saving hours of manual work.

This article will discuss the types of AI algorithms, how they work, and how to train AI to get the best results.

What are AI algorithms?

How do AI algorithms work?

Types of AI Algorithms

Tips to Train Your AI

What are AI algorithms?

AI algorithms are instructions that enable machines to analyze data, perform tasks, and make decisions. It’s a subset of machine learning that tells computers to learn and operate independently.

All the tasks that AI performs work on specific algorithms. From when you turn on your system to when you browse the internet, AI algorithms work with other machine learning algorithms to perform and complete each task.

AI and machine learning algorithms enable computers to predict patterns, evaluate trends, calculate accuracy, and optimize processes.

This video explains the workings of AI algorithms and the functions they can perform:

If you want more detail on AI, download this free eBook on Generative AI. You can also discover the distinction between the working of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

How do AI algorithms work?

AI algorithms work this way — they identify the patterns, recognize the behaviors, and empower the machines to make decisions.

Let’s say you tell your voice assistant like Alexa or Google Home to stream your favorite music.

The AI algorithm on which it is based will first recognize and remember your voice, get familiar with your choice of music, and then remember and play your most streamed music just by acknowledging it.

Similarly, AI content editor tools work on algorithms like natural language generation (NLG) and natural language processing (NLP) models that follow certain rules and patterns to achieve desired results.

This isn’t rocket science but a simple formula: “The more you learn, the more you grow.” As you serve the computer systems with rich data, the algorithms use it to gain knowledge and perform tasks more efficiently.

At the most basic level, an AI algorithm collects the data for training and then uses it to modify its knowledge. Next, it uses this knowledge to complete the tasks and improve accuracy.

Pro tip: Check out our new ChatSpot integrated AI tool for HubSpot users. Our latest content assistant uses generative AI to streamline content creation, generation, creativity, data management, SEO tasks, and more.

Types of AI Algorithms

Just as a mathematical calculation has various formulas with the same result, AI algorithms do.

Different business use cases have different algorithms and categories. For example, the algorithm used in various chatbots differs from those used in designing self-driving cars.

There are three major AI algorithm umbrellas under which hundreds of other algorithms fall: supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement learning. The difference is how they are trained and the way they function.

1. Supervised Learning Algorithms

The first most popular form of algorithm is the supervised learning algorithm. It involves training a model on labeled data to make predictions or classify new and unseen data.

The name “supervised” means working under the supervision of training sets. It works simply by using the desired output to cross-validate with the given inputs and train it to learn over time.

This learning algorithm is created under the supervision of a team of dedicated experts and data scientists to test and check for errors.

The developers train the data to achieve peak performance and then choose the model with the highest output.

Supervised learning algorithms most commonly solve classification and regression problems. Examples within this include Neural Networks, Decision Trees, Random Forest linear regression, time-series regression, and logistic regression.

Use cases: Marketers use this AI algorithm to predict sales with time, map customer sentiments, track stock prices, and more. Other use cases of supervised algorithms entail text recognition, object categorization, and spam detection.

What we like: Supervised learning creates and trains the algorithm in a scalable manner. For organizations, it saves the manual work of the employees and creates a personalized experience.

The good part about this algorithm is its simple process that provides high outcomes and draws accurate insights.

2. Unsupervised Learning Algorithms

Unsupervised learning uses unlabeled data to feed and train the algorithms. While supervised learning has predefined classes, the unsupervised ones train and grow by identifying the patterns and forming the clusters within the given data set.

Simply put, supervised learning is done under human supervision, whereas unsupervised learning is not. The unsupervised learning algorithm uses raw data to draw patterns and identify correlations — extracting the most relevant insights.

The most prominent examples of unsupervised learning include dimension reduction and clustering, which aim to create clusters of the defined objects.

Use cases: Clustering and data reduction have broader applications in biology, chemistry, and data mining.

In marketing and business, unsupervised learning is best used for customer segmentation — understanding customer groups and their behavior.

Unsupervised learning finds application in genetics and DNA, anomaly detection, imaging, and feature extraction in medicine.

Even Google uses unsupervised learning to categorize and display personalized news items to readers. First, it collects millions of news items on various topics.

Then, the search engine uses cluster analysis to set parameters and categorize them based on frequency, types, sentences, and word count.

Generative AI draws patterns and structures by using neural network patterns. However, it’s not limited to using only this approach.

It leverages different learning models (viz., unsupervised and semi-supervised learning) to train and convert unstructured data into foundation models.

What we like: Unsupervised learning algorithms discover the hidden patterns and structures within data, facilitating unsupervised feature learning and anomaly detection.

The best part is that it does not need any labeled data — which, in turn, proves to be more cost-friendly.

3. Reinforcement Learning

Reinforcement learning works the same way humans do. The algorithm trains and learns from the environment and receives feedback in the form of rewards or penalties to finally adjust its actions based on the feedback.

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Reinforcement learning is a continuous cycle of feedback and the actions that take place. A digital agent is put in an environment to learn, receiving feedback as a reward or penalty.

Throughout the process, the agent tries to decide and get the desired outcome, which is the basis of feedback. If the feedback is received as a reward, the agent repeats and uses the same tactics in the next cycle, improving its behavior.

Examples of reinforcement learning include Q-learning, Deep Adversarial Networks, Monte-Carlo Tree Search (MCTS), and Asynchronous Actor-Critic Agents (A3C).

Use Cases: Reinforcement learning is a widely used algorithm that finds its applications across marketing, healthcare, gaming systems, traffic control, and image processing.

Even Netflix uses reinforcement learning training to recommend the series to its users and bring personalization. Amazon gains 35% of the consumers’ purchases from the recommendations made by reinforcement learning.

What we like: The principle of reinforcement learning lies in decision-making. Because of the rewards and penalty system, the algorithm makes fewer mistakes in the later stages.

It follows a pattern after that based on the reward or the numerical score it gets.

Tips for Training Your AI

The success of your AI algorithms depends mainly on the training process it undertakes and how often it is trained. There’s a reason why giant tech companies spend millions preparing their AI algorithms.

However, the cost of training AI is substantial. For instance, training a large AI model such as GPT-3 amounted to $4 million, as reported by CNBC.

Even the algorithm that Netflix’s recommendation engine is based on was estimated to cost around $1 million.

After all, it’s the most substantial part of the lifecycle of your AI system. The processes and best practices for training your AI algorithm may vary slightly for different algorithms.

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Here are the best tips to train and implement your AI algorithms.

Determine the use cases.

The basis for creating and training your AI model is the problem you want to solve. Considering the situation, you can seamlessly determine what type of data this AI model needs.

Food giant McDonald’s wanted a solution for creating digital menus with variable pricing in real-time. As the customer places the order, the price of each product will depend on the weather conditions, demand, and distance.

Another use case in which they’ve incorporated using AI is order-based recommendations. Let’s say someone places an order for a salad. The AI model detects and suggests including a healthy drink with the meal.

It’s imperative to see how your peers or competitors have leveraged AI algorithms in problem-solving to get a better understanding of how you can, too.

Collect and prepare your data.

AI systems need data to thrive and grow as much as humans need air.

The prerequisite for AI algorithm training is gathering and preparing your data. By data, we mean the raw data that will be used as a base for training your AI algorithm.

Most organizations adopting AI algorithms rely on this raw data to fuel their digital systems. Companies adopt data collection methods such as web scraping and crowdsourcing, then use APIs to extract and use this data.

But mere data collection isn’t enough. The next crucial step is the data preprocessing and preparation, which involves cleaning and formatting the raw data.

Instagram uses the process of data mining by preprocessing the given data based on the user’s behavior and sending recommendations based on the formatted data.

Select your AI model.

Developers have to choose their model based on the type of data available — the model that can efficiently solve their problems firsthand. According to Oberlo, around 83% of companies emphasize understanding AI algorithms.

The model selection depends on whether you have labeled, unlabeled, or data you can serve to get feedback from the environment.

However, other factors decide the AI model architecture. The choice of AI model also depends on:

• The size and structure of the data.
• Complexity of the available dataset.
• Desired level of accuracy.

Based on these factors and the type of problem to be solved, there are various AI models such as Linear Regression, Decision Trees AI, Naive Bayes, Random Forest, Neural Networks, and more.

So, if the problem is related to solving image processing and object identification, the best AI model choice would be Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs).

Train your AI model.

The basis of your AI algorithm relies on the training, testing, and validation of the dataset. Hence, it is the most crucial step in training your AI algorithm.

The first step is the initial training process. The prepared data is fed into the model to check for abnormalities and detect potential errors.

The predominant error in the AI model is overfitting. This means the error occurs when a particular trained dataset becomes too biased.

One example of overfitting is seen in self-driven cars with a particular dataset. The vehicles perform better in clear weather and roads as they were trained more on that dataset.

Consequently, vehicles fail to perform in extreme weather conditions and crowded places. When fed with a new data set, the AI model will fail to recognize the data set.

The subsequent steps in the training process are validation and testing.

While the validation re-examines and assesses the data before it is pushed to the final stage, the testing stage implements the datasets and their functionalities in real-world applications.

The testing stage is when the training wheels come off, and the model is analyzed on how it performs in the real world using the unstructured data.

If it fails to perform and return the desired results, the AI algorithm is sent back to the training stage, and the process is repeated until it produces satisfactory results.

Measure and track the results.

The final test is the basis of tracking your AI model. AI algorithms are measured using specific metrics to garner the results.

Calculate relevant evaluation metrics, such as accuracy, precision, recall, F1 score, or mean squared error, depending on your problem type.

Set a goal or a threshold value for each metric to determine the results. If the results aren’t satisfactory, iterate and refine your algorithm based on the insights gained from monitoring and analysis.

Always test your algorithm in different environments and train them to perfection.

Getting Started

Artificial intelligence is expected to increase by twentyfold by 2030 — from $100 billion to $2 trillion. Every business, irrespective of its size, needs an AI algorithm to improve its operational efficiency and leverage the benefits of technology.