Yearly Archives: 2023

As a marketer, you might’ve heard coworkers talking around the water cooler about how email marketing is dead. It’s been a common concern for many marketing departments — however, I’m here to tell you about why email marketing is important and walk you through its benefits.

In fact, 40 percent of B2B marketers say email newsletters are most critical to their content marketing success, and 73% of millennials prefer communications from businesses to come via email.

Furthermore, 99% of consumers check their email every day and it is by far the preferred way to receive updates from brands.

As marketers, we can’t ignore these statistics. That’s why it’s important to develop a strong email marketing strategy.

Below, let’s review the top benefits of email marketing, which show why it’s one of the most effective marketing tactics.

1. Creating personalized content.

Create personalized emails with HubSpot’s email marketing tools.

With email marketing, you can customize your campaigns and create targeted content.

Personalization can be as small as including a contact’s name in the email. In fact, emails that include the first name of the recipient in their subject line have a higher clickthrough rate than those that don’t.

On the other hand, you can also create individualized content based on segmenting your audience so you send the right emails to the right customers. For instance, perhaps you want to send an email marketing campaign to returning customers and a different one to one-time customers.

One of the main benefits of email marketing is that your content can be highly personalized to your audience’s needs. Your emails might have variations including different images or subject lines to increase your engagement. You can even create segmented lists based on geography or engagement levels.

To have a successful email marketing strategy, you need to send the right email to the right people at the right time. That’s where segmentation and personalization can help. HubSpot’s email marketing tools can help you create emails automatically tailored to each recipient.

2. Collecting feedback and surveys.

Keeping a pulse on the customer experience is very valuable if you want customers to continue to interact, engage, and purchase from your brand.

Email marketing can help you do this. For instance, you can send customer satisfaction surveys to obtain customer feedback through email campaigns.

In fact, this is one of the best ways to calculate your Net Promoter Score (NPS). This score helps you find out the percentage of customers who are brand ambassadors and the ones who are detractors. With this information, you can come up with strategies to improve your customer experience. 

3. Improving sales.

While email marketing is clearly an excellent marketing tool, it can actually improve your sales as well.

In fact, 59% of marketers say email is their biggest source of ROI and marketers who used segmented campaigns note as much as a 760% increase in revenue.

Email marketing campaigns can feature products or services, encourage customers to purchase after abandoning their cart, or deliver special offers to your customers.

Furthermore, 59% of respondents in this survey say marketing emails influence their purchase decisions.

Your email marketing campaigns can easily incorporate messages to encourage a purchase to an audience that’s more likely to buy from you because they’ve opted-in to your messages and updates.

Additionally, you can use email marketing to automate part of your sales process, which can help increase sales as well.

For instance, with HubSpot’s free email marketing tool, you can automate sales drip campaigns and send automated messages to prospects your salespeople want to follow up with. 

4. Communicating with your audience.

A Talkspace marketing email.

As a marketer, it’s always important to improve communication with your audience. When your audience feels like they can talk to you, they’re more likely to become loyal to your brand.

Just think — people appreciate good emails. Think back to the last time you received a marketing email from a brand you love — was it disruptive or did you enjoy looking at the latest news? If it’s a brand you like, you probably enjoyed the experience and it kept you in touch with one of your favorite brands.

With email marketing, you can reach more of your audience and easily communicate with brand ambassadors. Plus, these emails keep your audience engaged during every time of the year, whether it’s a slow or busy season.

With HubSpot’s Campaign Assistant, you will be able to generate compelling copy for your emails.

5. Generating traffic to your site.

When you produce great content, how do you disseminate it to your audience? Most likely, you send them an email.

With email marketing campaigns, you’ll send traffic to your site and improve your SEO. Plus, you’ll keep your audience engaged with your brand and your site.

For example, many of you might have reached this page from a marketing email from HubSpot. That’s because email is a great way to provide value to our audience, and we do that by sending our content in our emails and generating traffic.

When you’re creating an email that links to your content, keep in mind that each email should contain a call to action (CTA) so readers can click through to your site.

6. Sending timely campaigns.

Subscribe to the HubSpot Marketing News email.

Although traditional marketing campaigns have a time and place, they can take months to plan and organize. Even then, you probably aren’t sure if people are going to see your campaign assets at the right time.

However, with email marketing, you can create an entire campaign on shorter notice because they don’t take as long to plan. Additionally, you can ensure your audience sees the email at the right time.

For example, you can make sure you send content at the right time by segmenting your audience.

7. Increasing leads.

In the same vein as improving sales, you can also increase your leads with email marketing. In fact, with the inbound method, email marketing is used to nurture leads and improve conversions.

For example, let’s say you downloaded a lead magnet from a site. Then, you start receiving drip emails, and in the end, you decide to book a demo and learn more. You just went from an MQL to an SQL, which improves the marketing teams number of qualified leads to the sales team.

Email marketing campaigns can further qualify leads so your sales team isn’t wasting time on bad leads. Plus, if your company does lead scoring you can keep track of whether those leads open your emails or engage by clicking the links in your email.

8. Reaching the right people at the right time.

To have a successful marketing campaign, you have to reach the right customers at the right time. Yes, I’m reiterating this point because it’s that important.

With email marketing, it’s that much easier to reach people because they always check their email. They can check it at any time, on multiple devices, which can improve the success of any marketing campaign.

This means you’re getting in front of your audience on a regular basis, so you’re always top-of-mind.

9. Producing cost-effective campaigns.

While traditional campaigns like direct or print can be costly, email marketing campaigns tend to be more cost-effective.

For example, you won’t have to pay for any photoshoots, location fees, printers, mailing, or placement. All you need is a copywriter and graphic artist (if you aren’t using stock images). This can even be one person on your team.

Additionally, email campaigns don’t take long to produce. If needed, you can produce an email in one day, which is much more cost-effective than the time it takes to produce a direct or print campaign.

Since time and budget constraints always impact marketers, email marketing campaigns can be more efficient, while also generating revenue and leads.

10. Providing more value to your audience.

An email from Vrbo running a contest.

One of the main goals of any business is to provide value for your audience so they keep coming back.

Email marketing is a great place to cultivate loyal customers because you can add value even when customers aren’t making a purchase.

Additionally, since customers or prospects opted-in, you can use email marketing to provide more resources to contacts who are interested in what you have to say.

If you continuously provide value for your audience, more people will pay attention and you’ll produce a higher ROI.

11. Having a forum for self-promotion.

Sometimes it can be awkward to self-promote in places where prospects haven’t necessarily opted-in to receive updates about your business. However, self-promotion is one of the best ways to attain customers. If you can’t promote yourself and sell your company, no one will buy from you.

With email marketing campaigns, you’ll always have an avenue to promote yourself, especially since customers opted-in. You can send emails about new products, features and benefits, or new content. Since customers want to hear from you, this self-promotion isn’t unwanted or disruptive.

12. Owning your media and contact lists.

With platforms like social media, you don’t own your contact list or even the information you post. Typically, the content and your follower list is owned by the social media platform.

Just think — if social media went away tomorrow, how many followers and customers would you lose?

That’s why building an email list is important for marketers. This is a contact list you own and you can interact with them regardless of the email provider. Plus, you’ll also own the content that you produce and send as well.

Email marketing is one of the top ways to reach your audience. Plus, it can also improve sales and leads. Since this is still the place where people want to receive information, let’s just say that email marketing isn’t dead.

13. Increasing brand awareness.

A Dr. Martens marketing email.

Email marketing can be a great way to increase brand awareness because it allows you to regularly communicate with your target audience directly in their inbox. By consistently sending out valuable and relevant content such as promotions, newsletters, and product updates, you can build a relationship with your subscribers and keep your brand top of mind.

You can also include social media links in your emails, which can help your subscribers share your content and expand your brand’s reach. Additionally, email marketing analytics provide valuable insights into how your audience is engaging with your content, allowing you to refine your strategy over time and better maximize your results.

14. Saving time.

You can save time with email automation by creating personalized, automated campaigns that can be scheduled in advance. With email marketing automation, you can set up a workflow that triggers specific messages based on subscriber behavior or segmented lists.

For example, you can set up a welcome series that automatically sends a series of emails to new subscribers over a period of time. You can also send automated abandoned cart emails to remind customers of items they left in their online shopping cart. These automated campaigns can run in the background, allowing you to focus on other areas of your business while your emails work for you. This can save you time and help deliver a consistent, efficient experience for your subscribers and customers.

15. Measuring campaigns’ success.

Running A/B tests for emails can help you identify what resonates best with your audience and optimize your email campaigns for better performance. With HubSpot’s email marketing tools, you can easily set up A/B tests for different elements of your emails, such as subject lines, images, and CTAs. You can choose different variations of these elements, send them out to a percentage of your email list, and then analyze the results to see which variation performs better.

You can then send the winning variation to the remaining email list to maximize engagement and conversions. These A/B tests can help you make data-driven decisions and continually improve the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns.

16. Learning more about your audience.

A HubSpot feedback survey email.

Data is everything. You can track email open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates to identify what types of content and messaging your audience engages with most. Additionally, you can gather data through sign-up forms and social media links in your emails, enabling you to understand your subscribers’ demographics, preferences, and behaviors.

You can then use this information to segment your email list and deliver more personalized and relevant content to your audience. By continually learning about your audience through email marketing, you can improve targeted marketing efforts and drive better results for your business.

 

Videos are integral to any marketing campaign; however, they can be tedious and difficult to create if you aren’t savvy with editing or are short on time.

Fortunately, you can leverage many AI video generators to streamline your video production and create content that engages your audience.

This article will explore 11 different platforms, their features, and how you can best use them in your next video marketing campaign.

Pictory 

Synthesia 

HeyGen

Deepbrain AI

Synthesys 

InVideo

Veed.io

Elai.io

Colossyan 

FlexClip

Wave Video

Best AI Video Generators

Below are some of the best AI video-generating platforms for marketers and creators at all levels.

1. Pictory

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Pictory is an excellent AI video generator for creators and marketers who don’t have experience creating videos. All you have to do is provide a script or article to guide your video content.

For example, you can submit a blog post, and Pictory will create a video based on the post that can be used for social media or your website. Furthermore, you can edit videos in minutes by using text. Pictory also includes a feature that creates shareable video highlight reels that can be used as a trailer or a short-form video for social media such as a Reel.

Even better, Pictory can automatically caption and summarize your videos. Prices for Pictory start at $19 per month.

Best for: Marketers and creators with limited video editing experience who want to convert content like blog posts or webinars into shareable video content.

2. Synthesia

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Synthesia is an AI video creation platform that can generate videos in more than 120 languages, accents, and voice tones. Users can create custom AI avatars to represent their brand in videos or choose from more than 150 diverse stock AI avatars.

Other interesting features include text-to-speech, which allows users to type in their texts to be converted into professional voiceovers. Users can also close their own voice and pair it with their avatar.

Brands like Nikes and Google leverage Synthesia in their videos.

Prices for Synthesia start at $22.50/month.

Best for: Brands looking to create videos that feature a host or stand-in for on-air talent.

3. HeyGen

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HeyGen provides a variety of helpful tools and features for users to generate videos in minutes. Users can choose from 300+ voices available in 40+ languages. They can also create a custom avatar that uses their own voice via uploaded recordings.

Users can also personalize their avatar by using its face swap feature. HeyGen is free to use for 1 minute daily. For longer use, prices start at $48 per month.

What We Like: HeyGen provides easy-to-follow video tutorials to explain its features further and answer common questions.

4. Deepbrain AI

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With Deepbrain AI, users can create videos by uploading their script and using the text-to-speech feature. The platform will then generate a video in five minutes or less. You can manually type in the script or copy and paste it into the platform.

From there, you just need to select the appropriate language and AI model and finish editing. Deepbrain allows users to select a custom-made avatar that suits their brand. Prices for Deepbrain start at $30 per month.

What We Like: The platform’s Intuitive feature is excellent for beginners with limited or no video creation experience.

5. Synthesys

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A popular choice for brands looking to create videos for commercial use, Synthesys is an AI video generator that aims to enhance your content.

The platform uses its Synthesys Text-to-Video technology to turn scripts into engaging media.

With Synthesys, you can create video content without a camera or crew. Just choose an avatar and type in your script in one of 140+ available languages.

From there, the generator will create a high-quality video to be shared across multiple platforms.

Prices for Synthesys start at $35 per month depending on the features you wish to use.

Best for: Explainer videos, eLearning, product descriptions, and social media content.

6. InVideo

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You don’t need a background in video editing or creation to use InVideo. Like many AI video generators on this list, InVideo creates video from input text.

Moreover, the platform has various professionally designed and animated templates users can choose from.

To create your video, input your text, select or customize a template, and download the finished video. From there, you can share it directly to platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

InVideo is free to use and has plans starting at 15 per month if you’re a small business or creator looking to create watermark-free content.

Best for: Quickly creating and sharing social media videos.

7. Veed.io

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With Veed.io, you can use custom text, colors, font, and music to create a unique video for your brand. One of its standout features is Auto Transcribe.

You can upload your video, hit the Auto Transcribe button, and immediately download the script.

Even better, there is no software to download, and the platform is easy for those without video editing experience. Veed.io is free to use for videos under 10 minutes. To access more features, prices start at $18 per month.

Best for: Quickly transcribing videos and creating one-of-a-kind branded content.

8. Elai.io

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Elai is simple and requires no video editing skills. To use Elai, copy and paste a blog post URL or HTML text, choose a template from its library, and let the generator do the rest.

Once the video is complete, review it to make any changes before rendering and downloading it.

Elai has over 60 languages and 25 avatars to choose from. You can use Elai for free with a 1-minute credit. For more features, Elai’s plans start at $23 per month.

Best for: Generating videos at scale and creating training videos and product videos.

9. Colossyan

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Colossyan provides a diverse range of avatars who can recite your script in a variety of accents and languages. You can also customize your avatar’s outfit. Colossyan’s key features are auto translations, subtitles, and the ability to enhance messages via screen recording.

Prices start at $28 per month.

Best for: Creating training videos and explainers for workplace learning.

10. FlexClip

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The AI video generator features hundreds of video templates, AI-generated subtitles, background remover, and a text-to-speech engine. And its intuitive interface makes it simple for creators at any skill level.

Best for: creating videos for internal communication and product promos.

11. Wave Video

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Wave Video is a popular choice among content creators, thanks to its many tools, which include image and video assets, text overlay effects, audio, and captions.

The platform also provides a variety of video formats for Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and website-based applications.

Other key features are:

• Text-to-video AI
• Video hosting
• Voiceovers
• Text-to-speech
• Millions of stock assets

Wave Video is free with monthly plans starting at $16.

Now that you know what AI video generators are available, you’re ready to find the right one to leverage for your next video.

At this point in time, it’s becoming quite obvious that generative AI isn’t going anywhere. In fact, the market’s projected to reach $126.5 billion by 2031, growing by 32% from 2022 to 2023.

If your role involves copy or content marketing, you’ve probably heard of Jasper.ai and ChatGPT, and a few of their alternatives. At a glance, today’s AI content tools might seem pretty similar. But, there are a variety of factors to consider, including the types of content they specialize in, versatility in generating different pieces of content, UX, and price.

In this blog post, we will go over the top 10 AI writers that are comparable to Jasper.ai and ChatGPT, delving into specific features of each.

Jasper.ai Alternatives

HubSpot Content Assistant

Get started with Content Assistant.

HubSpot Content Assistant goes beyond helping you write copy. It can help you generate topic ideas for blogs, create blog outlines, write paragraphs, create professional prospecting and marketing emails, and more, all in one place. 

Integrations with HubSpot’s content marketing tools means you don’t need to move between different platforms for your generative AI content needs

Key features:

• Generate blog titles, headers, meta descriptions, and email subject lines.
• Get tone suggestions.
• Built-in integration with HubSpot’s content marketing tools.

Price: Content Assistant is currently in beta but will be free, with additional features for premium customers, when it’s publicly released. Learn more or sign up for our waitlist here.

GrammarlyGO

You may know Grammarly as a cloud-based typing assistant that reviews spelling and grammar. But it’s since expanded to include GrammarlyGO, an AI writing assistant. 

GrammarlyGO can help you produce topic ideas and outlines. You can also personalize the app to your own voice with options for tone, formality, and professional relevance. 

Key features: 

• Generate topic ideas and outlines.
• Customize voice, tone, and formality options.
• Automate email responses based on context-specific prompts.

Price: Free, Premium, and Business plans are available.

Conversion AI Alternatives

Smart Copy

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Smart Copy, formerly known as Snazzy AI, can create landing pages, Google Ads, taglines, product descriptions, meta descriptions, and more. Some of the standout features of the tool are its 45+ available content templates available, as well as the ability to create a profile for target audiences that copy can be generated for. 

Writers can best use Smart Copy for landing pages and websites, digital ads, emails, e-commerce, and branding.

Key features: 

• 45+ templates.
• Editing features for paid versions.
• Target audience profiles.

Price: Starter for Free and Growth at $49/month.

Copy.ai

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Copy.ai is a writing tool that helps you generate copy for blogs, ads, e-commerce, sales, social media, and websites. You will be able to input your writing project and main points you’d like to cover, and choose a tone that suits your objectives.

Unlike Jasper.ai, Copy.ai doesn’t have word limits. Furthermore, Copy.ai leverages AI to automate workflows like writing personalized cold emails and bulk product descriptions.

If you’re interested in generating search traffic, the software also offers programmatic SEO, where you can submit a keyword and generate an outline based on SEO research.

Key features: 

• No word limits.
• Programmatic SEO: take a keyword and generate an outline based on SEO research.
• A/B testing copy.

Price: Free version, Pro at $36/month, and pricing upon request for Enterprise

Writer

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The name “Writer” might be simple, but the platform is quite versatile. Writer contains features like LLM “clay” which combines writing, business context, your own content, and your company facts. It also fact-checks your content for accuracy and can generate copy that’s consistent with your brand voice.

Writer can be used for a wide range of purposes, including content marketing, product marketing, and demand generation.

Key features: 

• Trained to learn your brand voice for consistent copywriting.
• Custom templates tailored to content requirements like word count. 
• Knowledge graph connects Writer with data sources like company wikis, databases, cloud storage platforms, and chat channels. 

Price: Team at $18 per user/month and custom pricing upon request for Enterprise.

ChatGPT Alternatives

Writesonic

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Writesonic’s AI Writer creates long-form blogs while its Sonic Editor writes sales emails, essays, reports, and ebooks. 

The platform offers editing tools – like Paraphraser, Expander, and Shortener – that help you polish your copy, as well as e-commerce features that generate SEO-optimized titles, product descriptions, and bulleted product feature lists.

Key features: 

• Support for long-form content.
• Content editor.
• E-commerce tools.

Price: Free trial available. Pro at $12.67/month and custom pricing upon request for Enterprise

Text Cortex

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Text Cortex’s AI assistant, called Zeno, generates blog posts and essays based on your inputs. It can also summarize lengthy texts, paraphrase sentences, expand your content by adding additional sentences strategically, and translate in 25+ languages.

Key features: 

• Translate 25+ languages.
• Templates like YouTube description generator.
• Chrome browser extension.

Price: Free with upgrades available.

Conversion AI Alternatives

Anyword

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Like ClosersCopy, Anyword prioritizes copy that drives sales and conversions. With Anyword, you’ll be able to create landing pages, blogs, email subject lines, and more.

The platform can also connect to your website, social, email, and ad channels so you can analyze performance and assess strategies. This data-driven approach can also be seen with Anyword’s feature that generates, scores, and ranks copy variations by predicted performance.

Key features: 

• Define brand voice
• Website, social, email, and ad channel performance analysis
• Generate data-driven copy

Price: Starter at $39/$49 per month, Data-Driven teams at $79/99 per month, and custom pricing for Business.

ClosersCopy

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ClosersCopy aims to help you write marketing copy designed specifically to convert. 

It’s best used for sale pages, ad, and email campaign copy. And, if you need more guidance than usual generative AI tools provide, you’ll also be able to access templates for headlines, CTAs, and more, along with features that can help you gain insights from top ranking web pages

Despite its marketing and sales focus, ClosersCopy aims to differentiate its generated content by drawing from three AI models that zone in on SalesAI, BlogAI, and StoryAI.

Key features:

• “Compete” helps you research top-ranking pages for keywords.
• “Frameworks” add different components like titles, introduction, conclusion, and bullet points.
• “Wizard” stores copy templates for emails, follow ups, FAQs, and product updates.

Price: Power at $49.99/month, Superpower at $79.99/month, and Superpower Squad at $99.99/month

Frase

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What differentiates Frase from many on this list is its focus on SEO. The app aims to help you create content that ranks on Google with its SEO research feature that analyzes search competitors to help you create outlines. 

Frase’s SEO analysis includes data visualizations of SERP metrics like word count, domain rating, and heading count. You’ll also be able to generate full-length content briefs based on that analysis in seconds.

From there, you can produce SEO-optimized copy, from intros to headings to FAQs.

Key features: 

• SEO research analyzing search competitors.
• Generate outline based on SEO analysis.
• Produce SEO-optimized copy.

Price: Solo at $14.99/month, Basic at $44.99/month, and Team at $114.99/month

Leveraging AI Writing Tools

AI writers are not perfect. Even top-of-the-line platforms make mistakes. 

But AI tools can serve as assistants in your content creation process, streamlining research and tasks. There are also tips and tricks you can employ to make your AI writer more effective, like making your instructions crystal clear.

HubSpot’s Content Assistant is a prime example of an AI writer that can be a valuable tool in your marketing and product arsenal. Get started today.

 

Are you struggling to monetize a blog? Don’t fret. Whether running a personal blog or managing the official blog on your company’s website, monetizing your blog is achievable with the right know-how.

There’s no exact formula to start making money, but there are strategies you can start experimenting with to see what works best for your content, your business, and your audience. Below, we’ll dive into some of these ideas and get advice from HubSpot’s own blog leaders.

Don’t have a blog yet? No sweat. HubSpot’s free blog maker can get you started on your content journey with a custom blog in minutes.

Table of Contents

• How do blogs make money?
• How to Monetize a Blog

How do blogs make money?

Before we dive into the monetization strategies, you might wonder, “How will my blog make money?” Your blog can make money in several ways, including lead generation, affiliate marketing, brand partnerships, collaborations, or advertising.

Check out the video below for more blog monetization tips, examples, and a step-by-step guide.

Now that we know a few ways blogs can make money, let’s dive into the top monetization strategies for your blog.

1. Map blog posts to specific conversion points.

You can use your blog to drive leads and conversions as a company.

“Conversion is the foundation of blog monetization,” says AJ Beltis, senior marketing manager of content strategy and media conversion at HubSpot.

Beltis continues, “Whether it’s an e-commerce purchase, a demo request, or a content offer download, it’s imperative to have your blog posts point to an intentional, related next step in the buyer’s journey.”

So, you might be asking yourself, “How can I do that?”

Beltis’ advice is to ask yourself what somebody reading this specific blog post would want or need from your company. Then, you should create the required assets to make that conversion happen through website pages, forms, or content.

After that, you’ll naturally place your calls-to-action to that next step in the blog post so readers are reminded about your recommended next step.

“By placing these CTAs in appropriate blog sections, you’re more likely to capture readers’ attention with high intent. This process puts more readers on the path to becoming paying customers for your business,” Beltis adds.

2. Include information about your product or service in your blog posts — but do so sparingly and thoughtfully.

When you’re writing blog posts, it’s important that each post isn’t just a sales tactic. Your blog posts should provide value to everyone, not just your customers.

However, you should still mention your product or service.

“If you’re writing content about the best tools for X, and your product or service is a good solution to that user’s search query, I’d highly recommend including it in your total roundup of tools to increase exposure and, ideally, drive more leads and customers towards your product,” says Caroline Forsey, principal marketing manager on the blog team. 

“This is one of the most effective ways to monetize your blog for the long-term,” she says, “particularly since that same piece of content might provide your business with leads 3-5 years into the future.”

Again, this doesn’t mean you should always and only promote your product or service.

Forsey adds that you risk damaging your blog’s reputation if you do this too often or outside of the appropriate context.

“Readers don’t want to see a random ‘buy my product!’ CTA in a piece of content irrelevant to your product,” she says, “and, if they feel like your content is actually just a gimmick or hidden advertisement, they’ll distrust your brand as a whole.”

To avoid this, Forsey suggests only mentioning your product or service where it makes sense and in a list of other tools you’d recommend for businesses, so they feel you’re arming them with helpful information so they can make their own decision best suited for their needs.

“Trust me: if readers enjoy reading your content and feel your brand is genuinely helpful, they’ll give your product or service a second look,” she says.

3. Build a lead funnel for your product.

If you work at a B2B company or have a long sales cycle, reading a blog post is usually a customer’s first interaction with their purchase. It’s also the most crucial stage of the inbound funnel.

Attracting your audience’s attention with helpful educational content creates a larger pool of people to convert into leads and close customers. Your blog marks the start of a relationship with your customers.

Lestraundra Alfred, the managing editor of Marketing News, says, “If you’re looking to gain exposure from your blog, your content should help bridge the gap between the problem the reader is trying to solve, and your product, which can serve as a solution.

By creating content your ideal customer is searching for and interested in, you can build a solid community of readers who are a great fit for your product and, when nurtured, can turn into customers for your business.”

Ideally, you’ll want to craft compelling blog content that your audience can discover easily through a Google search or social media.

You can also pay to amplify your distribution on Facebook, which has the best targeting tools out of all the social media sites and is cost-effective, or through paid search, which can thrust you to the top of a high-volume Google SERP, although some keywords are expensive.

After people start reading your blog content more and want to read it consistently, they’ll sign up for your blog’s email subscription. Once strangers to your brand, they’re now regular visitors.

When these visitors read enough blog posts, you can entice them to download conversion offers, as Beltis mentioned. Then, you can then nurture qualified leads with more blog posts and lead generators through email or Facebook ads.

Consistently educating them and helping them solve their problems will build their trust, making it more likely they’ll move to the middle of your funnel when ready.

And once you see them researching your product or service by reading case studies, requesting a demo, or trying to contact sales, you can move them to the bottom of the funnel, where sales will qualify their fit as a customer.

Sales will close some of these leads into customers, and they’ll thank you when they do. Your blog introduced its customers to your brand.

4. Offer sponsored content opportunities to other brands.

Publishers like BuzzFeed and The Dodo produce content that floods social media daily. And they make money by helping other brands do it too.

Brands will collaborate with their video production, social media, and analytics teams to craft posts and videos that follow their formula for virality. Then, publishers distribute this sponsored content to their massive social media and website followings.

This content is similar to the publishers’ native content, so their audience will enjoy reading it, exposing their clients to a huge, engaged, new viewership and boosting their followings and audience engagement.

Suppose your blog generates a significant amount of traffic. In that case, you can leverage your editorial expertise and audience reach to help smaller brands tell captivating stories to a bigger and better viewership.

Doing sponsored content right can pay huge dividends for your brand. It creates another revenue stream, and partnering with other marketing minds can help your team unleash unprecedented creativity.

In fact, T Brand Studio, the New York Times native ad business, crafted paid posts that captured as much engagement as some of nytimes.com’s highest-performing articles.

5. Provide coaching services.

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Your blog posts can serve as a teaser for how much your readers can learn from you about a particular subject matter.

If you write about enhancing specific skills like selling, social savviness, sports, cooking, and music, your blog posts can only teach your readers so much. They need to practice these skills in real life to see substantial improvement.

But if your readers practice these skills independently, they’ll only get so much better. If they want to improve, training with a coach will guide them toward success faster than anything else.

Think about it. What would improve your basketball skills the most? Reading Michael Jordan’s book about shooting and practicing his tips by yourself? Or reading his book and then taking shooting lessons with him?

If you’re running a personal brand, as a coach, your blog is your most important marketing asset. It helps your potential clients improve themselves while giving them a glimpse into what life would be like if they achieved one of their life-long goals.

Your blog inspires readers to strive for their dreams. And when they’re more motivated to reach their potential, they’ll usually want an expert directing them toward greatness, not just themselves.

The above image shows coaching services offered by 1on1mixing, where people can learn to mix and master their songs.

6. Market your freelance writing skills.

If you’re a freelance blogger, you must show potential clients you can write compelling content. To do this, you could attract their attention with your previous work, but you usually don’t have control over those topics. So what if they don’t pique their interest?

The best way to show potential clients you can write compelling content is by engaging them with your content. When you start a blog, you have access to your post’s performance metrics and complete control over the topics you cover.

This allows you to write content you know your target audience will devour, attracting more and more potential clients to your blog.

And once they realize they rely on you for content marketing advice, they’ll know they can trust you to help them improve their content marketing.

For instance, Eddie Shleyner, a freelance copywriter and content marketer, markets his business, called VeryGoodCopy, by writing articles about copywriting, content marketing, and psychology.

His pieces are so engaging and insightful that organizations like The North Face, Geico, and Mercedes Benz hire him to write articles, eBooks, landing pages, website copy, and email campaigns.

7. Participate in affiliate marketing.

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Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to monetize a blog when you don’t sell a product or service. It’s a relatively simple process too.

First, you’ll partner with an e-commerce platform or businesses with affiliate programs and pick relevant products to promote on your blog.

Your partners will then send you custom links to their product pages that can track customers referred by your blog. And if someone clicks on the link and buys the product from one of your posts, you’ll earn a commission.

One of the most popular affiliate marketing programs is Amazon Associates. You can choose from over one million of Amazon’s e-commerce products to advertise on your blog and earn up to 10% commission.

Out of all the ways you can make money blogging, affiliate marketing requires the least time, money, and resources. You don’t have to build, market, or sell a product or service, and inserting affiliate links in your blog posts costs no money.

All you have to do is compel readers to buy something with your content writing skills.

8. Offer online courses.

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Similar to coaching, providing online courses is an excellent way to generate revenue while providing value to your readers. However, maybe you don’t have the bandwidth to provide one-on-one coaching services, or perhaps that’s just not your style.

Instead, channel your time and expertise into creating educational assets like videos and written content based on your blog and expertise.

Then, you can give readers a taste of what your course offers using your free content and entice them to purchase your course to learn more.

Been itching to learn how to grow mushrooms? Check out the online course example above from GroCyle.

9. Host webinars and live events.

Not everyone is ready to commit to a complete online course or coaching session, and that’s okay. However, you can still monetize your blog and provide educational value to your readers by hosting webinars and live events.

Webinars and live events may attract readers interested in your content and want to be involved in a community of like-minded individuals.

Webinars and live events are a great way to foster a sense of community among people in your field, all while keeping the action local to your brand and your assets.

Depending on your niche, consider hosting monthly or quarterly online events and charge admission for people to join in on the fun.

10. Create a membership or subscription program.

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A membership or subscription program is about offering a premium experience to readers of your blog.

A premium membership offering will be custom to your blog’s niche. However, the basic principles remain the same. You offer subscribers exclusive content, resources, and community access for a monthly fee.

You may be familiar with Patreon, where creators and personalities offer a membership experience to fans that gives them access to behind-the-scenes content and exclusive offerings.

You can undoubtedly use Patreon in conjunction with your blog. However, creating an in-house membership program means you don’t have to share the profits with anyone!

11. Sell advertising space.

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We’re partial to Inbound over here at HubSpot. However, selling advertising space is a classic outbound technique that you can use to monetize your blog.

Using tools like Google Adsense or other display network solutions, you can sell space on your website to be automatically populated with ads and get paid based on how often they are viewed/clicked.

If you’ve ever been on a website and saw an advertisement on the sidebar or banner, that’s a display ad. The more monthly website visitors your blog receives, the more money you’ll make with ads.

Of course, you’ll share some of that revenue with the display partner.

12. Start a podcast.

These days, everyone and their mother has a podcast. That’s because it’s easy to get started and simple to monetize.

If you have an existing blog, especially one with a decent amount of traction, you should consider starting a podcast to continue the conversation.

Of course, the viability of your podcast depends on your niche, but you can use your blog as a pipeline to turn readers into listeners.

In terms of monetization, the goal of a podcast is to sell ads. If you can drive a lot of traffic from your blog to your podcast and generate a listening base, advertisers will pay top dollar to have you discuss their products/services on air.

13. Write sponsored reviews or product roundups.

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Another way to monetize your blog is to write sponsored reviews and product roundups. This strategy works well if your niche is lifestyle or hobby-based and readers often research online before purchasing related items.

The example above is a product roundup blog post for the 15 Best Boxing Gloves of 2023, and it’s no mistake which products ended up on the list.

Product manufacturers will pay handsomely to have their offerings included in blog post reviews and product roundups because the extra eyes on their products translate to more sales (and more money in your pocket).

14. Utilize email marketing.

If you have a blog, then you more likely than not have an email list. If not, consider implementing custom sign-up forms on your site to gather that valuable info from your readers.

Email lists are crucial for alerting your readers of updates and new posts, but you can also leverage them for monetization.

For example, you can use your email list to support your affiliate marketing efforts and drive traffic back toward your blog to increase traffic and bolster any of the monetization strategies listed above.

You can use your email list as an advertising arm to promote products and services but remember to provide value to your readers above all else and never make them feel inundated with unhelpful promotional content.

15. Implement a paywall.

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We don’t recommend this strategy for most blogs, but you can monetize by charging people to read your content, period. The New York Times is a perfect example of this, with its classic paywall that pops up when you try to read an article without a membership.

If you expect people to pay up to read your content, they will expect exclusivity, impeccable content, and an exceptional reputation.

Most of the strategies in this article are based on offering free, valuable content to readers and offering monetization opportunities along the way.

However, suppose you have notable influence and prestige within your field. In that case, you may have the chance to charge people to read your posts because they know they can’t get the same quality content anywhere else.

Start Making Money with Your Blog

Choosing your monetization strategy will depend on the type of blog you’re running and the type of product or service you offer.

To up-level your blog, learn how to set yourself up for success and avoid the top blogging mistakes.

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

Determining your audience profile is a critical step in ensuring your campaign is successful.

An audience profile can help you personalize your campaign’s messaging to reach those most likely to convert, and limit the amount of spend you might’ve otherwise wasted on underperforming ads.

Here, we’ll explore the information you need to include in an audience profile, how to write an audience profile, and audience profile examples.

Table of Contents

What is an audience profile?

What information should I include in an audience profile?

How to Write an Audience Profile

Why is audience profiling important?

Audience Profile Examples

Media Audience Profiles

An audience profile is different than a target market, or buyer persona.

A target market includes every single prospective buyer for your product or service. For instance, perhaps you sell software that can be used for different use cases in different industries. In this case, a target market includes the prospects in each industry who could benefit from your product — all with different needs, goals, challenges, and beliefs.

An audience profile, on the other hand, is one fictitious person who you’re targeting with an upcoming campaign.

An audience profile also isn’t a buyer persona. A buyer persona is the final person who will ultimately purchase your product or service, but in many cases, you’ll want to market to anyone who can influence the final buyer.

For instance, your audience profile might be a social media manager, even though the buyer persona is a company’s CMO, since she’ll have final sign-off.

What information should I include in an audience profile?

When creating an audience profile, you’ll need to include the following:

• Demographic information: This includes personal attributes like geography, age, education, occupation, and income.
• Psychographic information: This includes attributes related to personality traits, interests, attitudes or beliefs, and lifestyle.
• Goals, challenges, or pain points: For this section, determine your audience’s goals, challenges, or pain points as it relates to your product or service. How can your product or service meet your audience’s needs? What search queries does your audience use to find your product or service? For instance, if you’re selling an 8-week mindfulness program, then your fictional character likely has a big challenge with focusing and finding time to ground himself in the present moment.
• Values: What does your target audience value? This includes bigger-picture values and motivators, such as “nature”, “socializing”, “a sense of belonging”, or “autonomy at work”.
• Preferred channels: What channel(s) does your audience spend the most time? This could be social channels, such as YouTube or Instagram, or search engines like Google. The preferred channel depends on the type of campaign you’re running. If you’re running a paid advertising campaign, for instance, you’ll want to determine if your audience spends most time on Facebook, Google, or somewhere else.
• Preferred content type(s): Once your audience finds your content, what format would they prefer it in? E-books, blog posts, or case studies? Or podcast? Video? Determining the format will help you best serve your audience.
• Buying behavior: Is your audience impulsive, or do they need weeks — if not months — before making a purchase? Are they open to your product or service anytime during the year, or only during a certain season? If you sell beach chairs, for instance, your target audience is likely relatively impulsive during the summer months, when a beach chair is most necessary.

Next, let’s dive into how you can write an audience profile.

How to Write an Audience Profile

1. Determine the goal(s) of your upcoming campaign.

Before writing your audience profile, you want to know who you’re targeting with your marketing campaign.

For instance, are you creating high-intent advertisements to target buyers with your products or services? Or, alternatively, are you hoping to increase attendees at an upcoming marketing event?

You’ll make a different audience profile depending on your goals. If you’re hoping to increase sales for your product via a social media advertising campaign, then your audience profile will look similar to your buyer persona.

If, instead, you’re hoping to increase views to your YouTube channel, then your audience profile will look like a fictional character based off your YouTube analytics to determine who enjoys watching your content.

2. Dive deep into analytics.

Once you’ve determined your campaign goal, use data and analytics to create a prototype of your persona.

Start with Google Analytics to explore demographic information related to your website visitors. Take note of age, gender, location, and types of device — additionally, figure out from which channels your audience arrives. Is it typically organic search, a social channel, email, or paid advertising?

You can also use CRM data to further explore what customers convert at the highest rate. For instance, you might use your CRM to determine which industries convert the most, or which pages have the highest conversion rate, to refine your audience profile depending on existing customers’ behavior.

Finally, use channel-specific metrics to fill in the missing pieces. If you’re planning on running a Google ads campaign, you might dive into past high-performing ads and who clicked on those ads.

Alternatively, if you’re running a Facebook campaign, you can use Facebook’s lookalike audience feature to reach people who are similar to your best existing customers.

3. Use qualitative metrics to determine your audience’s biggest challenges.

To fill out the challenges/goals/pain points section of your audience profile, it’s a good idea to take a look at customer reviews or focus group intel to determine the biggest challenges your prospects and customers face.

You can also use keyword research to find high-intent keywords related to your products or services, which might help you determine your audience’s biggest challenges, as well.

For instance, let’s say you’re creating a new advertising campaign related to a social media listening and scheduling tool.

You might first leverage Ahrefs or another keyword explorer tool to determine questions people ask related to a given search query. In this example, I searched “social media tools” to find similar questions related to the search keyword:

I also searched “social media tools” on Google and looked at the People Also Ask feature to dive deeper into questions, pain points, and challenges related to social media tools:

Combined with your qualitative, customer-focused research, you’ll be able to uncover the biggest challenges of your audience, and how you should tailor your campaign to target those pain points.  

4. Collect psychographic data using Google Trends or influencers in the industry.

If you work for a B2C company, consider consuming content from top influencers in a given industry to determine psychographic data for your audience profile.

For instance, if you’re selling fitness gear, take a look at the social profiles and blog posts of top fitness influencers. What do they care about? What do they value? What activities do they do in a given day? These characteristics can help you round-out your audience profile.

If you’re working for a B2B company, you might read industry case studies, reports, or join webinars to determine the interests, values, and behaviors of your target persona within a given industry.

An example of this might be reading “2020 Trends in Sales Management” if you’re hoping to target sales managers at your target companies.

Why is audience profiling important?

There’s a big difference between knowing your audience and assuming you know your audience.

When you truly know your audience, you can create effective campaigns that speak to (or solve for) their challenges, goals, and pain points. Audience profiling can help you get there.

Through audience profiling, you can:

• Create more personalized campaigns. It’s no secret that consumers want (and expect) personalized experiences. With audience profiling, you can build personalized campaigns that deliver relevant content, offers, and recommendations to specific customer segments.
• Optimize your strategies. Your marketing strategies should evolve with your customers’ changing needs, preferences, and behaviors. Audience profiling ensures that you’re meeting the right audience at the right time through the right channels.
• Drive more loyalty. By building targeted and relevant campaigns, marketers can create meaningful experiences for their customers. When you do this consistently, your customers will trust that you can meet their expectations, resulting in greater brand loyalty.
• Gain a competitive advantage. By knowing your customers better than your competitors do, you can tailor your products, services, and marketing strategies to meet customer needs and stand out from the crowd.
  

Ready to get started creating your own audience profiles? Let’s take a look at two examples you can use for inspiration before you create your own.

Audience Profile Examples

1. B2B Audience Profile Example: Marketing Maria

2. B2C Audience Profile Example: Athletic Andy

Media Audience Profile

Media planning and buying can’t happen without an audience profile.

For instance, media buying — buying campaign or advertising space on various channels, or sharing targeted campaigns and ads — can’t happen without media planning.

And media planning, at its core, is “determining how, when, where, and why your business shares media content with your audience. The process includes deciding what media will be shared on what channels to boost reach, engagements, conversions, ROI, and more.”

Ultimately, then, both media planning and media buying need pre-defined audiences to be successful. If you haven’t taken the time to create an audience profile before purchasing ad space, you risk wasting money and resources on audiences who ultimately won’t convert anyway.

An audience profile can affect where you place your advertisements. Once you’ve created an audience profile, for instance, you might find your audience persona spends most of her time on LinkedIn. LinkedIn advertising solutions, then, can help you best reach your target audience.

An audience profile also influences the design of your ad. You’ll want to design ad copy around your audience’s interests, pain points, and preferences — something you can only do once you’ve created an audience profile.

For instance, The Economist might’ve created an audience profile and determined their audience likes education and knowledge, but doesn’t like getting bogged down with too much negativity, particularly from news outlets. As a result, a simple tagline, “Brighter days ahead”, helps attract and convert the right audience through their ads.

Ultimately, your audience profile is a vital foundation for ensuring you’re effectively attracting and converting those best-suited for your brand.

However, an audience profile can vary depending on each individual campaign — so feel free to keep this post bookmarked for the next time you need to alter your audience profile for a new advertising or marketing campaign.

Brand colors shape how people perceive your business. Up to 80% of snap judgments about products are solely based on color alone. That’s right, 80%!

Think about McDonald’s for a moment. What pops into your mind? The yellow arches, right? McDonald’s has done a fantastic job of using its colors to establish a memorable brand identity that stays with you long after you’ve finished your burger and fries.

So why settle for a forgettable brand image that blends in with the crowd? Let’s sprinkle some color into our article and discover the powerful connection between colors and branding.

What are brand colors?

Why Brand Colors Matter

The Brand Color Formula

How to Choose Brand Colors

Color Psychology Tips

Brand Color Best Practices

Inspiration From 10 Brands That Get it Right

Why Brand Colors Matter

1. Colors establish brand identity and recognition.

Today’s market is overwhelmed. So, how can you find your top spot there? Using consistent brand colors is a great way to establish brand recognition and identity.

For example, let’s look at Coca-Cola. The company has been using its signature red and white colors since 1886.

Red represents excitement, passion, and energy, while white represents purity and simplicity. These colors have become synonymous with the brand and are instantly recognizable by people worldwide.

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2. Brand colors evoke emotions and associations.

Let’s admit it. We’re all guilty of making purchases based on emotions. And since the colors can evoke certain feelings, this raises the question: “What does this mean for your brand?”

Picking the right color palette can be a game-changer in customers’ attraction, as 34.5% of purchases are driven by color influence.

Different colors evoke different emotions and associations. For example, green can signify growth, health, and nature, while red can symbolize passion, excitement, and urgency.

Facebook uses blue as its primary color in its branding. Blue is often a color of trust, security, and reliability, which aligns with Facebook’s mission to connect people and create a safe online community.

It also calms people, helping users feel more relaxed and comfortable while using the platform.

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“Media giants are sneaky and use colors to create psychological impacts that grab our attention,” says Lindsay Braman, an illustrator, therapist, and visual translator.

Think of the fiery reds in fast-food logos that pump us up or the enigmatic blacks in luxury branding that intrigue us.

She also backs up her claims with an interesting study where college students who received test papers with red numbers performed worse due to its anxiety-inducing effect.

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3. Brand colors increase recall.

Using consistent brand colors can increase brand recall by up to 80%. When customers repeatedly see your brand colors in different contexts, their brains associate those colors with your brand.

So basically, brand recall can make or break your business.

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And let’s not forget about brand equity. The financial value added to your products and services by having a recognized brand. Qualtrics says 59% of consumers prefer to buy from trusted brands.

4. Brand colors create a competitive edge.

Colors are your brand’s signature, your statement to the world. Creating a memorable brand increases your chances of outshining competitors and gaining loyal customers.

Canva’s experts suggest analyzing your competitors’ color choices and then using the following questions to differentiate yourself:

• What brand colors do your competitors use? How do they reflect their brand identities?
• What are the audience perceptions of each competitor’s visual design and branding choices?
• What color palette choices do competitors use with specific content types?
• What makes your brand unique from each competitor?

They also suggest interviewing brand managers for valuable insight into the color-choosing process.

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The Brand Color Formula

A brand color formula is a set of predefined color codes representing a company’s visual identity. It translates into a cohesive look and feel that resonates with their target audience and strengthens brand recognition.

The following formulas outline how to select colors for one, two, three, and four color brands.

One-Color Brand

• Main color: This is the only color used in the brand.

Example: Nike’s brand color is black.

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Two-Color Brand

• Main color: The primary color used in the brand.
• Accent color: The secondary color used to complement the main color.

Example: T-Mobile’s main brand color is magenta and the accent color is white.

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Three-Color Brand

• Main color: The primary color used in the brand.
• Secondary color: The second most important color used in the brand.
• Accent color: The third color used to complement the main and secondary colors.

Example: FedEx’s main brand colors are purple and orange, with white as an accent color.

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Four-Color Brand

• Primary color: The main color used in the brand.
• Secondary color: The second most important color used in the brand.
• Accent color 1: A color used to complement the primary and secondary colors.
• Accent color 2: A second color used to complement the primary and secondary colors.

Example: Microsoft’s brand colors consist of a blue primary color and a green secondary color. Yellow is accent color 1 while red is accent color 2.

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How to Choose Brand Colors

1. Define Your Brand Personality and Values

Before thinking about brand colors, let’s take a step back. First, consider the soul of your brand — its personality and values:

• What’s its purpose and goal?
• What emotions do you want to awaken in your customers?
• Is it bold and daring or gentle and nurturing?
• Is it all about luxury and exclusivity or affordability and accessibility?
• What values do you offer?
• What’s your message?

Once you’ve nailed down your brand’s personality traits, you’ll have a solid foundation for choosing your colors.

2. Research Color Psychology

Color psychology delves into how colors can impact our mood, behavior, and how we perceive everything around us.

Once you’ve cracked the code of color psychology, you’ll have the power to tap into the undeniable influence of hues and make savvy decisions.

Read books and studies on color psychology.

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3. Pick Your Primary Color

Your primary color articulates your brand’s unique personality and values. Choose a hue that genuinely reflects your brand’s vibe and connects with your ideal audience to ensure a perfect match.

With color theory and psychology on your side, you’ll have all the tools to select a primary color and create a lasting impact.

4. Choose Your Secondary Colors

Secondary colors support your brand identity, adding depth and dimension to your overall color scheme. Use them to highlight accents, backgrounds, and typography and create a harmonious color palette that tells your brand’s unique story.

To create a seamless combo, select two to three colors that perfectly harmonize with your primary color.

5. Test Your Colors Across Platforms

Once you’ve selected your brand colors, it’s time to put them to the test and ensure they work properly across all platforms.

Try them on your website, social media channels, business cards, packaging, and other marketing materials to guarantee maximum consistency and visibility.

You can A/B test the buttons’ colors, backdrops, etc., to identify which brings in the most conversions.

Small changes in color and more straightforward communication through images led to a sales boost for Alpro, a Belgium company that markets plant-based milk products.

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Color Psychology Tips

Color Meanings and Associations

Colors have different meanings and associations. Red can signify passion and love. Conversely, it also symbolizes danger and warning.

Warm colors like red, orange, and yellow evoke emotions ranging from warmth to anger, explains Kendra Cherry, a Psychosocial Rehabilitation Specialist and author.

Conversely, cool colors like blue, purple, and green are often associated with calmness but can also evoke sadness or indifference.

Black and grey trigger high-quality and high-technology associations.

Pro tip: Choose your brand and product colors to stimulate a concrete action, feeling, or desire — hunger (= buying food), confidence, inspiration, trust, etc.

Color and Emotions

And did you know that people across 30 countries share similar associations between colors and feelings? A survey of over 4,500 participants from 30 countries found that people easily connect colors and emotions.

What we like: Most colors were linked to positive emotions, while brown, grey, and black were associated with negative emotions.

Fun fact: Participants whose languages and geographical locations were similar had more similar color-emotion associations.

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We also highly recommend you watch the video on color psychology by expert Mike Ploger.

Understanding the emotional connection between colors and individuals is crucial in visual branding. “Your favorite color likely came from positive experiences with that single color when you were growing up,” says Mike Ploger.

This highlights the importance of considering color psychology in brand building.

Gender and Color Preferences

Color preference can also be influenced by gender. Women generally lean towards warmer colors, purple (23%) and blue (35%). Men prefer blue (57%), black (9%), and green (14%).

But wait, there’s more!

Have you ever noticed the ubiquitous association between pink and girls and blue and boys? This gender-color stereotype has been deeply ingrained in Western societies, but what about in Chinese culture?

Researchers from several Chinese universities set out to investigate this phenomenon using a modified Stroop paradigm and event-related potential (ERP) signals.

In the experiment, Chinese college students received occupation words stereotypically associated with masculinity or femininity (displayed in either pink or blue). They were then asked to quickly and accurately classify the gender of the occupation.

The study revealed that pink stimuli associated with masculinity resulted in longer response times. In contrast, blue stimuli linked to masculinity did not cause the same delays in response time.

So what’s the conclusion? Pink is a “gendered” color, but blue is not. What a thought-provoking discovery.

However, color preferences in marketing still have a powerful impact on consumer behavior.

While some may argue that colors are insignificant when it comes to gender, it’s hard to ignore that pinky shades have become synonymous with the feminine market.

And we can see it everywhere, from Barbie’s iconic packaging to clothing brands that cater to women.

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On the other hand, darker shades like black and navy blue have traditionally been a symbol of masculinity and are often the go-to choice for male products.

Just think of the rugged and athletic look synonymous with Jack & Jones’ marketing campaigns.

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Color and Purchasing Decisions

Colors can affect purchasing decisions by evoking emotions and associations.

For example, red is often used in sales promotions because it creates a sense of urgency and can stimulate impulse buying. Sarah Levinger, Consumer Behavior Analyst, confirms that in one of her LinkedIn posts:

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Yellow is often used to grab attention and create a sense of excitement. That makes it a popular color for clearance sales and promotions. Unexpectedly, people associate orange, brown, and yellow with inexpensive products.

Context and Color Impact

The impact of colors depends on the context in which they are used. For example, black can represent elegance and sophistication in fashion but can be perceived as ominous in other contexts.

Also, yellow can signify caution and slowness in transportation. Yellow lights, yellow yield signs, and yellow caution tape indicate slowing down in traffic.

In a different setting, yellow may evoke positive feelings such as cheerfulness and assurance.

The crux lies in the context of its usage.

Furthermore, in finance, green is all about profitability and money.

In the context of food, orange has a connection with freshness and nutrition (reminding us of oranges and carrots). However, in the context of safety, orange is used to signify danger and caution.

According to licensed psychologist Steffanie Stecker, colors can influence our mood, performance, and even how people perceive us. She emphasizes the subjective nature of color perception.

Simply put, what one person perceives as calming may not be the same for another person.

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Brand Color Best Practices

1. Consider Cultural Differences

When choosing brand colors, remember to take into account cultural differences. Some colors can have different meanings and associations in different cultures.

For example, white symbolizes purity and innocence in Western cultures. But on the contrary, it has dark meanings, such as mourning and death in some Asian cultures.

In the 1950s, Pepsi decided to revamp the color in Southeast Asia. They swapped out the old and dull dark blue with a new, trendy, and icy blue shade that they believed would make their vending machines look fresh and inviting.

But nobody bothered to check the cultural significance of the color blue in that part of the world.

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As it turns out, light blue means death and sorrow. So, needless to say, the new color scheme didn’t go down well with the locals. The result? A steep drop in Pepsi’s share price in the region.

Pro tip: When choosing colors for your brand, make sure you’re clued to their cultural connotations.

2. Use Colors to Differentiate Products

If your brand offers different products or services, you can use colors to differentiate them.

Google uses a clever strategy to help users easily differentiate between its products. The tech giant uses a distinct color scheme for each offering.

For instance, Google Drive has a tricolor look, while Google Docs has a fresh blue hue. Google Sheets is green, and Slides has a yellow appearance.

Pro tip: Choose a different color for each product or service to help customers easily identify and remember them.

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3. Use Colors to Reinforce Your Brand’s Personality

Colors can also communicate important messages and enhance brand storytelling. If you carefully select the hues that align with your brand’s values and narrative, you can create a much better brand experience for your customers.

For instance, let’s consider Adidas — what sets it apart from others?

Its bold and dynamic colors reflect the company’s athletic and competitive spirit. The iconic three-stripe logo is often black and white, lending a touch of sophistication and timelessness to the brand’s overall look.

However, Adidas also incorporates vivid and lively colors into its product designs, such as neon yellows and electric blues. That exudes a sense of enthusiasm and excitement.

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4. The Importance of Visual Contrast in Branding

Adding visual contrast to your branding is another key to unlocking the door of perfect design. You don’t have to make it look like a neon sign from Vegas, though.

Pro tip: Use the right color combo to create contrast. You can then emphasize key elements and convey your message more effectively.

No matter the brand, an element of visual contrast is key to every color palette. Having contrast

doesn’t necessarily mean that a brand looks bold or loud. A sense of complementary harmony, be it through hue or value, allows all brand visuals to be clear and legible.

“At Switch, one process we use to ensure that the brand colors we’re planning for a brand have

enough contrast is to desaturate our chosen brand palette. By removing all hues from our colors, we guarantee that the color values are distinct enough and, therefore, work well together.

This is a reverse-engineered process from traditional ‘underpainting’ — where artists would plan their painting in monochrome, only using light and shade to tell the story,” Andrea Meli, Head of Design, Switch

Now, let’s recall the iconic Apple logo with the perfect contrast between black and white. This design showcases how even a simple logo can use visual contrast to make a lasting impression.

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5. Be Open to Change

Finally, don’t hesitate to change your brand colors if they aren’t connecting with your target audience or no longer match your brand’s personality and values. Stay open to making adjustments that can enhance your brand’s appeal.

And don’t consider that a bad thing. In fact, many mega-popular brands have done the same thing.

For instance, in 2014, Airbnb updated its brand colors and font. The company shifted from a blue and white color scheme to a more vibrant and diverse color palette.

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Likewise, Semrush, the leading SEO tool, rebranded in December 2020 to symbolize the creative spark that ignites the marketing engine and the company’s energetic, passionate, and innovative approach to work.

Semrush’s home page back in early 2020.

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Semrush’s home page of 2023.

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Inspiration From 10 Brands That Get It Right

Lastly, check out the list of 10 brands that expertly use colors to create a visually stunning and memorable identity.

• Instagram — Purple, pink, orange, and white
• LinkedIn — Blue and white
• Red Bull — Blue and red
• Spotify — Green and black
• Ferrari — Red and yellow
• Visa — Blue and gold
• Samsung — Blue and white
• Twitter — Blue and white
• Dropbox — Blue and white
• YouTube — Red and white

And if you’re looking for an answer to what are the best brand colors, sorry to burst your bubble, but they don’t exist. The trick is mixing and matching different colors to create a unique visual design that sets your brand apart.

Microsoft Excel’s versatility and sheer number of features make it one of the most complex software programs to master.

While you might want to learn every feature in Excel, you’ll likely need to know just a limited number to get the best from the software. Macros are small and simple programs that can make your work much easier and are favored by expert users.

The good thing is that learning how to enable macros is relatively easy, and in this article, we’ll show you how to enable macros in Excel, since they are disabled by default.

What are macros in Excel?

The Benefits of Using Macros in Excel

The Dangers of Using Macros in Excel

How to Enable Macros in Excel

How to Enable a Single Macro in Excel

How to Enable Macros in a Single Excel File

What are macros in Excel?

An Excel macro is a small program created in Excel that allows you to automate everyday tasks. It’s a precious tool in Excel that lets complicated instructions be carried out with just a command.

Macros are tremendous time-savers — you can create macros that can do almost anything you want in Excel and other Microsoft Office software.

For example, macros can let you insert company letterhead into an existing document in Word or add formatted tables to a spreadsheet in Excel — all with one command.

When you create a macro, you’re recording your mouse clicks and keystrokes. Using this feature, you can run a program to automate repetitive tasks.

The Benefits of Using Macros in Excel

Using macros in Excel offers the following benefits to users.

It saves time and effort.

This is perhaps the most apparent advantage of using macros in Excel. Since you can automate repetitive tasks, you can save time for yourself.

You can then use the extra time on your hands to handle other crucial tasks and responsibilities.

But the automation of macros does more than help you save time — it also helps you handle complex or tedious processes.

For instance, if you have an Excel spreadsheet with data, you can create a macro that searches through all the data, compiles essential information, and sends a copy to an email address.

Or imagine you usually create a monthly report for your accounting manager.

So, instead of spending time and energy plowing through data, formatting customer names, and identifying customers who are defaulting or overpaying, you could create a macro that does everything in a few minutes.

It helps you reduce errors.

Spending long hours manually entering data into a spreadsheet can be exhausting and tedious. Once exhausted and bored, it won’t be long before you start making mistakes.

When you use automated macros, you’d be able to avoid or reduce errors that might come about due to human fatigue.

It’s easy to set up macros in Excel.

You don’t need to be a coding expert before you can use macros in Excel. That way, no matter your profession, you can use macros to a reasonable extent by following the steps we offer in this guide.

The Danger of Using Macros in Excel

Although a default feature of Excel in the past, macros can cause some problems. For example, some people have used this powerful tool to create macro viruses, which can cause harmful results.

Several websites offer free macros that you can download to save time. While appealing, we strongly recommend that you avoid these.

If you’re not a technical user or unsure what a macro will do, you should avoid downloading or verifying its contents.

Because of these dangers, Microsoft disables macros by default. So while you can still use macros, you’ll need to enable them.

With that in mind, let’s now see how you can enable macros in Excel.

How to Enable Macros in Excel

Enabling macros is one of the simpler things to do in Excel. Here’s how to do it.

1. Click on File and then click on Options.
   
2. This takes you to the Excel Options window. On this page, click the Trust Center on the bottom left sidebar. 
   Once you click Trust Center, a new window opens. Click on Trust Center Settings. 
   
3. Within the Trust Center window, click on Macro Settings on the left sidebar.

To enable macros, tick the checkbox next to Enable Excel 4.0 macros.

Then click on OK at the bottom of the page to save your new settings. And with that, you’ve enabled macros in Excel.

Note that following the steps above will ensure all spreadsheets in Excel will run macros. You should only do this if you can deal with the risk of macro viruses.

What if you want to enable just one macro in Excel and not all macros? Then the following section will show you how.

How to Enable a Single Macro in an Excel File

You can easily enable the spreadsheet without going through any hoops if the spreadsheet has a macro.

Here’s how.

1. Open the file that contains the macro.
2. Due to Excel’s settings, macros are automatically disabled. If a spreadsheet with macros is opened, a yellow security warning message bar will appear, telling you that macros have been disabled.
3. To enable macros, you only need to click on Enable Content.

How to Enable Macros in a Single Excel File

Since March 2023, Microsoft has changed the default behavior of Office applications to block macros in files downloaded from the internet. So when users open a file that contains macros, they receive the following message:

However, you can enable macros by changing the properties of the file that contains macros. Just follow these steps:

1. Go to the file location of the Excel file.
2. Right-click and select Properties.
   3. Select the Unblock checkbox at the bottom of the General tab in Properties, then select OK.

Getting Started

You don’t have to be an accountant before you know how to use Excel. The steps we’ve listed above will help beginners learn how to enable macros in Excel.

Whether you want to work faster or improve your productivity, Excel has features like macros to help you.

Many companies have employee referral programs where referring someone who gets hired comes with a reward (typically a cash bonus).

This is the same principle of performance marketing: marketers set a performance goal (like driving conversions) and reward the partners/people who help them get those conversions.

Let’s dive deeper into how performance marketing works, how to create a performance marketing strategy, and the tools you can use to implement one.

Table of Contents

• What is performance marketing?
• How Performance Marketing Works
• How To Create a Performance Marketing Strategy
• How do you measure performance marketing?
• Top Performance Marketing Software
• Top Performance Marketing Verticals

What is performance marketing?

Performance marketing is a digital marketing strategy driven by results, where advertisers (like a brand or business) only pay once a goal is met, which can be anything from making a purchase to filling out a form on a landing page.

With a traditional ad campaign approach, there’s no guarantee you will get a return on your investment, and you can only monitor performance and make adjustments after it launches.

Even seasoned media buyers can have unsuccessful campaigns if there’s a misalignment between the campaign and the target audience.

Since you’ll only pay when your goals are met, you accomplish three things:

• Your campaign is less risky
• There’s a guaranteed return on investment (ROI)
• You have better control over your ad spend

Is affiliate marketing the same as performance marketing?

While somewhat related, affiliate marketing and performance marketing are different.

Affiliate marketing is a subset of performance marketing based on paying a commission after each sale or target goal/conversion.

Performance marketing has grown broader than just affiliate marketing, with the target goal of improving a company’s performance as a whole.

Types of Performance Marketing

There are various performance marketing partners/channels to consider for your campaigns:

• Affiliate marketing: A partner uses an affiliate code or link to promote an advertiser to their audience and is paid by tracking the conversions from their unique link.
• Influencer marketing: Brands work with creators and influencers that promote their offer to their unique audiences to inspire them to take action.

• Paid marketing and advertising: Businesses work with a publisher to display their ad (like on a webpage) and pay the publisher for actions like clicks, purchases after clicking, or the number of impressions from where they feature the ad.
• Search engine marketing (SEM): Advertisers feature advertisements in search results for business-related terms and pay the publisher if their ad is clicked.
• Native advertising: Advertisers create ads that blend in on the channels they’re on, and advertisers pay an affiliate or influencer based on their target conversion.
• Social media marketing: Creators and influencers advertise for partners on different social media channels.

How Performance Marketing Works

Executing a performance marketing strategy relies on three key players:

• The advertiser (like a retailer, merchant, brand, etc., who is looking to improve performance)
• A publisher or an affiliate partner (someone who promotes for an advertiser)
• An affiliate tracking network (a third-party system where advertisers and publishers connect and can track performance and receive payments).

Some advertisers may use an outsourced program management (OPM) firm or agency that takes over running the program.

How To Create a Performance Marketing Strategy

1. Define your goals.

With any digital marketing campaign, establishing your objectives is key.

What do you want to accomplish? It may be general brand awareness, sales for your new product line, more leads, or something else. For example, if your goal is to attract new leads, you might have a performance marketing goal of drawing in 500 new leads.

Once you define your goals, you can select the publisher/partner best suited to help you achieve them.

2. Identify your partners.

Finding the right publisher/partner takes research, but it’s the most important step because it’s how you inspire people to convert.

Today, influencers are some of the most popular partners because of the high level of trust they have with their audience. The influencer could be a YouTuber that adds an affiliate link in a video description or a blogger who adds a backlink to your landing page in their written content.

Once you’ve found your partner or preferred channel, you also outline a payment structure. For example, with SEM, you’d likely design a program where you pay Google for impressions or clicks, and with an influencer, you’d decide how and how much you’d pay them whenever your goal is met.

We’ll talk more about how to measure performance marketing below.

3. Generate and assign IDs.

The next step is to get your unique tracking links/URLs and codes ready.

This is crucial because the only way to attribute an action to your partner/publisher correctly is with a unique code, URL, or UTM parameter.

You may do this manually at first, but many people rely on automated tracking systems to ensure all conversion attributions are correct.

How do you measure performance marketing?

Overall, the metric you use determines what actions trigger a commission payment and the ROI of your efforts. The more actions you drive, the more successful your campaign.

Let’s say I’m an influencer partnered with Brandon Blackwood. I share a 10% discount code “MARTINA10” with my followers to use at checkout when purchasing an item from the brand. Whenever someone used my code to purchase, I would get a percentage of the sale. In this case, the tracked metric is unique sales from my code, which can be paid with a cost-per-acquisition model.

Some standard measurement and pricing structures for performance marketing are:

• Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)/Pay Per Sale – If your goal is to drive sales, you’d measure the success of your campaign by the number of sales and pay your partners every time someone buys a product that is directly traceable to them.
• Cost Per Click (CPC)/Pay Per Click – If your goal is to drive clicks to your page or offers, you’d pay each time your partner drives someone to click (which is why tracking URLs are crucial in distinguishing regular traffic from partner-inspired traffic).
• Cost Per Lead (CPL)/Pay Per Lead – You’d pay each time you get new information on a user (like after they fill out a form) because the partner inspired them to submit their information. You’d then further nurture the lead with the end goal of converting them into a customer.
• Cost Per Impression (CPM) – Also called cost per mille, you’d pay based on the number of impressions you get from an ad that a partner shares or that is displayed somewhere. CPM usually pays out every 1,000 impressions.

Top Performance Marketing Software

There are two main types of performance marketing software: those that focus on connecting advertisers with affiliate partners or publishers and those that monitor performance. Let’s go through some top tools in each category.

Performance Marketing Partnership Tools

1. PartnerStack

Price: Contact for pricing

If you’re a SaaS company looking to develop a robust partner program, consider PartnerStack.

Key Features

• Choose from a network of active partners, or recruit your preferred partners.
• Custom partner portal and automated onboarding to share relevant training resources.
• Campaign tracking to understand performance and initiate payments.

2. Partnerize

Price: Contact for pricing

Partnerize is a simple and easy-to-use dashboard to manage your partners.

Key Features

• Build an invite-only network of partners, or get automated partner recommendations from its partner ecosystem.
• Access to real-time campaign data to view partner performance.
• Custom commission structure for each partner and automate the payment and reward process.

3. Everflow

Price: $750/mo (Core plan), contact for custom pricing

Everflow helps you simplify partnership management to ensure you drive results.

Key Features

• Easy-to-use portal to onboard partners and manage your relationships.
• Track every referral and lead and accurately attribute conversion events to each partner.
• Design a custom payout structure to pay partners when they deliver on your goals.

One of the biggest struggles of working with affiliates is creating and tracking links and codes at scale. Below we’ll go over some helpful tools.

Performance Marketing Tracking Tools

1. LeadDyno

Price: $49/mo Starter), $129/mo (Plus), more advanced pricing for businesses with 15,000+ unique site visitors per month

LeadDyno gives brands tools to grow a successful affiliate program that aligns rewards to your target actions.

Key Features:

• Create links, codes, or assign specific URLs to each partner.
• Unique affiliate dashboard to ensure you attribute conversions correctly.
• Customize a payment structure based on your key metrics and seamlessly send payments.

2. AnyTrack.io

Price: 14-day free trial; $50/mo (Basic), $150/mo (Personal), $300/mo (Advanced)

With AnyTrack, attribution reporting is easier.

Key Features

• Assign a tag to each partner that automatically tracks, attributes, and syncs your conversions.
• Track every single engagement and sale to understand performance.
• Integrate your custom affiliate network.

3. Impact

Price: Contact for pricing

The Impact tool streamlines the partnership process from initial contact to payout.

Key Features

• Universal tracking tag helps you track the traffic your partners drive on all properties across any device.
• Create payment contracts and automatically pay partners when they bring results on your key metrics.
• Find partners that align with your needs or import your existing affiliate network.

Top Performance Marketing Verticals

Wondering which industries use performance marketing the most? According to a 2022 study by the Performance Marketing Association, advertisers in the retail sector spent the most on performance marketing – accounting for 76% of total spending. The financial sector followed with a steep drop to 12%, then the travel industry with 5%.

In terms of revenue, the sector with the highest revenue was retail at 84%, followed by travel at 10%. Industries like automotive, healthcare, and telecoms only accounted for 1% of the total performance marketing revenue.

However, despite having the biggest spending and highest revenue percentages, the retail industry didn’t offer the best ROAS. According to the report, the automotive industry offered the best return at $26, followed by travel at $21 and retail at $12.

Any industry can have success with performance marketing. It’s all about collaborating with the right partners and setting up a robust program to reach your marketing goals.

Since its launch in 2022, OpenAI’s ChatGPT has seen a massive boost in popularity. The conversational AI service amassed 1 million users in just five days, and 53% of marketers report using chatbots like ChatGPT in their role.

However, you’re probably curious to know if there are any ChatGPT alternatives that better suit your needs as a marketer. If so, you’ve come to the right blog. This article will explore different ChatGPT alternatives and their unique features.

Free ChatGPT Alternatives

If you’re looking for an economical alternative to ChatGPT, the following free AI alternatives fit you.

1. Bard

Google’s experimental conversational generative AI chatbot uses NLP and machine learning to respond quickly to various inquiries.

Bard boats a user-friendly interface and multiple handy features, including the ability to edit previous questions and restart conversations at any point.

The chatbot’s other features include the ability to:

• Generate texts,
• Translate languages,
• Answer questions,
• Generate creative content,
• Give thumbs-up or thumbs-down responses

And because Bard is a product of Google, the chatbot also includes Google Assistant and Alexa integration, and it can use Google’s search engine for the most up-to-date information.

Bear in mind, however, that Bard is still in its infancy and is not yet available worldwide. For now, it’s only available to U.S. and UK-based customers.

2. Bing AI

Google isn’t the only search engine dabbling in AI. Bing AI is an AI-powered search engine developed by Microsoft. Bing AI gathers answers from the web to answer users’ inquiries.

Unlike ChatGPT, Bing isn’t solely an AI language model, meaning it has internet access and can browse the web to find documents, videos, and more. Bing AI’s other capabilities include:

• Personalized recommendations
• Conversation style options: balanced, creative, and precise
• Able to be used natively on Apple and Android devices.

Bing AI is most helpful if you use the Microsoft Edge browser and want personalized search results. Furthermore, Bing Ai can be integrated with Microsoft Office and Microsoft Teams, making it an excellent tool for your business.

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3. YouChat

This AI-powered chatbot search engine is featured on You.com and answers queries via messaging. With natural language input, users can conversationally receive answers.

YouChat leverages a combination of language models and algorithms to provide accurate, relevant, and intuitive responses. Moreover, YouChat can provide more personalized results over time by learning from user input.

The AI chatbot is available via various platforms, such as the web and mobile. Furthermore, it can integrate with messenger apps like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.

And if you’re conducting research, YouChat can provide citations for its answers so you can fact-check and verify your findings easily.

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4. Poe by Quora

A unique feature of Poe by Quora is its ability to give users access to multiple chatbots to generate the necessary answers and content. With Poe, users can access ChatGPT, Sage, Claude, GPT-4, and Dragonfly.

Each chatbot has its own perks and strengths, so you can try each to see which works best for you.

According to Quora, Poe is the fastest interface to ChatGPT, and it’s the only consumer product with access to Claude, a state-of-the-art language model.

Poe’s responses also include “Wikipedia-style links,” meaning users can click on phrases to learn more about topics the model mentions.

Another handy feature is Poe’s cross-platform sync which allows the AI to sync your chats in real-time across platforms, so you can start a conversation on a desktop and continue it on iOS.

If you’re looking for an AI writing assistant, you’ll most appreciate Poe’s access to Sage. Sage provides suggestions for improving grammar, syntax, and writing style. It also highlights words and texts for your to expand upon in your writing.

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5. HubSpot’s AI Tools

HubSpot has a few free AI tools available to marketers and business owners. For example, HubSpot’s Campaign Assistant can generate copy for landing pages, emails, and ads.

Just provide Campaign Assistant with key details from your campaign, and the assistant will generate copy for your preferred platform.

If you need help with the content ideation process, you’ll want to check out HubSpot’s content assistant. The tool utilizes OpenAI’s GPT model to help your team quickly ideate, create, and share content. HubSpot’s content assistant can:

• Generate blog ideas, outlines, and paragraphs
• Write prospecting emails
• Create marketing emails

Lastly, ChatSpot is HubSpot’s conversational CRM bot that sales, marketing, and service professionals can connect to HubSpot to boost their productivity.

With chat-based commands, you can use ChatSpot to send follow-up emails, pull reports, create new segments, and more.

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Get started with HubSpot’s AI tools

Best ChatGPT Alternatives

6. ChatSonic

ChatSonic is a chatbot part of WriteSonic’s suite of AI-powered writing tools.

Powered by CPT-4, ChatSonic uses natural language processing and algorithms to understand context and nuances at a higher level than the free version of ChatGPT.

The platform also suggests sentence structure, word choice, and tone to create excellent, well-crafted content. Moreover, ChatSonic can create digital artwork and take voice commands.

Even better, ChatSonic offers a wide array of templates to amplify your writing, and its Content Rephrase tool can recycle your content in a different tone or style, depending on your preference.

ChatSonic’s template library is especially handy for writing social media copy, website copy, and E-commerce content.

Cost: Plans start at $12.67 per month

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7. Megatron-Turing Natural Language Generation

NVIDIA and Microsoft collaborated to create Megatron-Turning Natual Language Generation — one of the largest language models with 530 billion parameters.

According to NVIDIA, this platform “demonstrates unmatched accuracy in a broad set of natural language tasks,” including:

• Completion prediction
• Reading comprehension,
• Commonsense reasoning,
• Natural language inferences,
• Word sense disambiguation

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Price: Megatron’s pricing structure is only accessible by submitting a request to NVIDIA’s Early Access Program.

8. Jasper AI

Jasper AI is a writing software that helps marketers, business owners, and brands write accurate SEO-friendly content quickly. Its feature, Jasper Chat, is especially helpful for those familiar with ChatGPT.

Jasper Chat allows users to generate content using natural dialogue. Jasper AI can generate content for ads, social media, email, blogging, website content, and more.

Additionally, Jaspers has over 50 AI-powered writing templates, supports more than 20 languages, and can generate digital art.

Price: Pricing starts at $49 per month

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9. Perplexity

Another free alternative to ChatGPT, Perplexity offers conversation responses and content generation.

The platform is powered by large models and collects information from places like Wikipedia, LinkedIn, and Amazon. It also cites its sources.

You’ll likely enjoy Perplexity’s simple interface; however, bear in mind that Perplexity is still in its beta phase and will sometimes display the information it finds as is.

If you decide to use Perplexity for research purposes, ideation, or content generation, be sure to do your due diligence to not use any plagiarized work.

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Price: Free while still in beta

10. OpenAI Playground

Though not intended for everyday users, OpenAI Playground functions a lot like ChatGPT and allows users to experiment with various language models.

OpenAi Playground is a great way to experiment with advanced functions found in ChatGPT, and it is known for its accuracy and speed.

Price: As mentioned above, OpenAI Playground is not for everyday users. The platform is free to use initially (if you have an account), but you’ll have to choose a premium subscription if you become a frequent user.

There is a token system for pricing. Click here to learn more.

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There are many ChatGPT alternatives to choose from, all you need to do is assess your needs and find the platform with the tools to help you brainstorm, refine, and generate your content. You know some of your options.

Now you’re ready to start experimenting with AI or leverage it if you’re already familiar.

Every few years there’s a new buzzy fad in the wellness space that fuels industry growth. So far in 2023, Ozempic has taken the crown — and it has the potential to change marketing in the wellness industry.

What is Ozempic and how did it get so popular?

Ozempic, which was introduced in 2018, is a brand of semaglutide medication that was approved by the FDA for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. These injectable drugs promote insulin sensitivity to lower blood sugar levels and suppress appetite.

While it’s intended to help manage diabetes, many people who take it experience weight loss as a side effect. In 2022, the medication exploded in popularity when news of its weight-loss enablement went mainstream.

By August of last year, the FDA declared a shortage of the medication due to a surge in usage for weight loss. With supply unable to meet demand, some diabetes patients who took Ozempic for its intended purpose were unable to access the meds they needed.

Though Ozempic is often used as an umbrella term to describe semaglutide medications, there are other drugs on the market that offer similar effects.

Wegovy is another brand name for semaglutide that is approved specifically for weight loss, offering a higher dosage level than Ozempic. This medication has also experienced shortages due to popularity, causing the drug maker to limit distribution.

Factors that contributed to the drug shortage include:

• Publicized celebrity usage: celebrities such as Elon Musk and Chelsea Handler have admitted to using forms of semaglutide.
• Social media: Ozempic has become a trending topic on TikTok, with the hashtag surpassing 1.1 billion views.
• Telehealth: patients now have easier access to weight loss medication prescriptions without waiting for a doctor’s appointment.

…Speaking of Telehealth

Earlier this year, telehealth startup Ro ran a campaign of over 1,000 ads to promote its Body Program which offers a prescription to Wegovy along with weight loss coaching. The campaign included TV spots, influencer marketing, and signage at New York subway stations.

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Other players in the weight loss industry have also announced plans to add weight loss drug subscriptions to their suite of services.

Weight loss startup Noom recently announced the launch of Noom Med, a telehealth service that will offer prescriptions for drugs like Wegovy. Since its launch in 2016, Noom has predominantly focused on helping users lose weight through behavior changes. The shift to include weight loss drugs feels like a departure from the brand’s initial mission.

Similarly, WW (formerly known as Weight Watchers) acquired a telehealth service called Sequence which also offers prescriptions for popular injectable weight loss drugs. Prior to the acquisition WW was most commonly known for encouraging calorie-conscious diets and exercise to lose weight.

Both Noom and WW appear to be taking strides to remain relevant with a customer base that has expressed interest in prescribed weight loss support. As evidenced by the recent closure of Jenny Craig due to financial issues, weight loss companies that fail to evolve with the rapid pace of the wellness industry can put themselves at risk.

Though all Jenny Craig company stores are now closed, the company’s online operations have been acquired by Eucalyptus, an Australian-based digital health startup that also offers telehealth prescriptions to…you guessed it…injectible weight loss drugs.

How Ozempic’s Popularity Brought Back Marketing “Weight Loss” 

In the 2010s, marketing weight loss had lost its appeal. With movements such as body positivity and health and every size picking up steam, diet programs and products promising weight loss seemed to be on their way out. 

With a growing emphasis on self-care, people seemed to reach a point of dieting fatigue. On social media and beyond, conversations about anti-fat bias became more widespread and openly marketing or even discussing “weight loss” began to feel taboo. This led to a period of decline for companies like WW. During this time period wellness marketing began emphasizing terms like “strong” and “holistic” instead of “weight loss” or “dieting.”

So what changed?

Though conversations about anti-fat bias have been amplified over the past few years, the bias itself is alive and well. For those still interested in losing weight the effectiveness of these new weight loss drugs has been pretty convincing.

Behavioral approaches to weight loss typically result in a reduction of around 5% of an individual’s weight after six months, which is often gained back within two years.

Using injectable weight loss drugs, people lose around 15% of their body weight and can keep it off as long as they continue using medication (preliminary research suggests people tend to gain it back when they discontinue use).

The recent Ozempic craze is in part being fueled by the persuasive nature of diet culture, and weight loss companies that are eager to market these medications in hopes of cashing in after a period of decline.