Yearly Archives: 2023

LinkedIn is an incredibly powerful platform for growing both recognition and revenue as a B2B business. 

In fact, audiences exposed to brand messages on LinkedIn are 6X more likely to convert, according to data from the social company. 

But without a clear strategy in mind, the task of lead generation on LinkedIn can feel challenging. Which is why I sat down with Jim Habig, VP of Marketing at LinkedIn, to learn some of his key insights, as well as additional tips on how to use LinkedIn for lead generation in 2023 and beyond. 

Skip to: 

• 8 Tips for Generating Leads on LinkedIn in 2023 
• The Most Effective Content for Generating Leads on LinkedIn, According to LinkedIn’s VP of Marketing 
• What Marketers Get Wrong When It Comes to LinkedIn for Lead Gen 

LinkedIn Lead Generation Strategy

As a refresher, lead generation refers to all of the activities and strategies you use to attract potential customers. Generating leads is important because, with nurturing, potential customers can become paying customers that use your products and drive revenue. 

LinkedIn’s typical audience comprises professional decision-makers with purchasing power, helping you speak directly to the potential customers that can become paying customers. Below, we’ll discuss how you can use LinkedIn for lead generation.

1. Make sure your executives have a strong LinkedIn presence.

When you’re first getting started on LinkedIn, it can be tricky to know how to dedicate your initial efforts. Should you create a compelling LinkedIn Page and immediately begin posting content to your business’s feed? Or should you start by posting all your job openings to attract new talent?

Habig agrees that it’s critical to optimize your company Page to make a strong first impression. He encourages marketers to ensure their Page is complete and up-to-date with relevant information like a business description, logo, website URL, and industry.

However, an often overlooked opportunity to generate leads falls on individual employees’ pages. 

As Habig puts it, “You’ll want to encourage your leadership teams and employees to have well-crafted personal profiles with professional headshots, descriptive headlines, and detailed job experiences.

He adds, “A consistent brand presence builds credibility, attracts the right audience and fosters trust among potential leads.”

Consider the leaders at your company and their current LinkedIn presence. Could they contribute more thoughtfully to LinkedIn groups within your industry or post more often to their feeds? More likely than not, your executives could be doing more to grow their LinkedIn following.

For instance, let’s take a look at HubSpot CEO Yamini Rangan’s recent LinkedIn post: 

Rangan uses LinkedIn wisely, leveraging the platform to share helpful, relevant content geared towards business leaders. Rangan uses LinkedIn to build a personal brand and help her followers find valuable content related to business growth. Ideally, your executives should be doing the same.

2. Create a powerful LinkedIn Page for your business.

Once you’ve ensured your own executives have a strong LinkedIn presence, it’s time to cultivate an impressive Page for your business.

You’ll want to ensure your page is active, with thought-provoking content and contributions to conversations already happening on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn Pages is a free product that can help your company build visibility on the platform. It’s also a key Page to house your brand’s thought leadership content, such as videos, commentary from executives, and curated information from other sources. 

Take a look at LinkedIn Company Pages: The Ultimate Guide [+ 12 Best Practices] to learn more. 

3. Post relevant content and engage with your audience. 

To ensure your LinkedIn page and profile are strong, consider posting various content types, including video. Featuring this industry-relevant content can help you position yourself as a knowledgeable source and establish relevance and credibility with potential customers. 

As Habig puts it, “Creating and sharing high-quality content tailored to your target audience’s interests is key to driving engagement and generating leads. Share a mix of content types — like blog posts, infographics, case studies, and videos to keep your audience engaged.”

He continues, “And don’t forget to join the conversation! Proactively respond to comments and answer questions to foster relationships with your audience and showcase your expertise.”

When you’re recognized as an insightful, valuable source, you’ll begin to develop connections with like-minded professionals that fit your ideal customer profile. If you post often, you’ll become a regular on their feed, and familiarity makes it easier to initiate further conversations.

If you assume that the connections you have on LinkedIn are professionals within your industry, they can expose you to new audiences with the content you post. When your connections click ‘Like’ on a post you’ve made, it may show up on the feed of a new lead. This lead will see that your shared connection has liked your post, vouching for your credibility and authority, and possibly prompting them to send a request to connect.

To ensure that you’re creating content that people want to see, follow your page analytics to figure out what resonates with them the most and create accordingly.

4. Join LinkedIn groups your clients and customers are in. 

LinkedIn, at its core, is a social platform like any other. Just as you can on Facebook, users can create groups centered around industry-relevant interests, and you should join these groups and have conversations with other professionals.

You can post content and updates to encourage discussions about relevant topics or simply talk about the services you offer. If you’ve joined groups wisely, your potential customers can see what you say and begin to recognize you as a source of valuable information. 

You can also use groups to learn more about your audience. If members are active, learn from what they say and discover common industry pain points and how leads want these issues addressed. Use this information to your advantage, and create hyper-targeted value propositions when you reach out that speak directly to your customer’s needs. 

5. Use LinkedIn Ads and Sponsored Content to ensure your content reaches your intended audience.

Businesses with small marketing budgets may be wary of putting money behind paid campaigns on LinkedIn. They often ask — We have a small marketing budget, and we want to use it wisely. Where should we spend it? Given that LinkedIn is the top paid and organic channel for B2B businesses, spending your money on the platform would be worth your while. 

Habig suggests, “Consider using LinkedIn’s advertising and sponsored content solutions to reach the right audience based on factors like job title, industry and company size.”

He adds, “You’ll want to utilize sponsored content to promote your top-performing posts or lead generation forms to capture valuable lead information. Try testing various ad formats like sponsored InMail, carousel ads, and lead gen forms to identify which works best for your target audience.”

In particular, Habig believes the LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms is one of the platform’s most powerful offerings for lead generation.

He told me, “LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms streamline lead generation by auto-populating users’ LinkedIn profile information when they click on your ad. This simplifies the process for users, allowing them to submit their information with ease and boosting lead generation efficiency. Furthermore, the collected data can be effortlessly synchronized with your CRM system.”

Additionally, it’s important to note other native content features — such as articles and polls — can help you increase engagement with your audience. 

While LinkedIn has a native ads management service, you can also use HubSpot’s ads management tool to create, organize, and execute advertising campaigns on LinkedIn. You’ll also get access to high-quality reports that explain ad performance, helping you optimize a strategy to meet your customers’ needs. 

6. Ensure you have strong sales and marketing alignment.

You’re likely all too familiar with the recent shift in consumer buying behavior. Nowadays, customers are researching online ahead of time and typically use marketing content to inform their purchasing decisions before even reaching out to a sales rep.

With savvier consumers, it is now critical that marketers meet the needs of consumers who are further along the buyer’s journey and then seamlessly hand them off to sales so sales has the context on which stage of the buyer’s journey the consumer is at. 

Additionally, many salespeople know the target customer better than anyone, so leveraging sales reps’ knowledge when creating marketing materials is vital. 

All of which is to say — it’s critical you align your sales and marketing teams since they play equally valuable parts in finding prospects and closing deals, and they overlap more heavily now than ever before.

To figure out strategies for better aligning your sales and marketing departments, take a look at this Ultimate Guide to Sales and Marketing.

7. Leverage connections with current customers and clients. 

LinkedIn’s main draw is networking, and you should use this feature to your advantage for lead generation. 

Connect with current customers and clients on LinkedIn and learn from who their industry connections are, as they may be relevant to you as well. If you have relationships with existing clients you connect with, ask for referrals, references, or simply learn how to get in contact with a connection they have that matches your customer profile.

As LinkedIn is a professional network, such requests are less pushy, spammy, and salesesque than cold calling someone after finding their number online. Leads can receive your request to connect, browse your profile, and see your shared connection as a guarantee of trust. 

In addition, when you connect with new leads, you’re using warm outreach. This means that you already know a bit about them and can immediately make propositions that relate to their interests, providing value to them off the bat.

8. Maintain a consistent presence on the platform. 

Just like all of your other social media sites, LinkedIn requires consistency. If you post an article once a week and then log out, you’re not establishing yourself as a consistent presence with your connections. You also want to communicate consistently with your leads. Disappearing in the middle of a conversation is not a good look and does the opposite of furthering their interest in doing business with you. 

Additionally, to ensure you’re reaching the right audiences, consider leveraging LinkedIn Matched Audiences to retarget website visitors. 

Habig says, “LinkedIn offers advanced targeting capabilities to help you connect with your ideal audience. With LinkedIn Matched Audiences, you can retarget website visitors, create contact-based audiences using email lists or CRM data, or build account-based audiences by targeting specific companies. This feature enables you to engage people who have already shown interest in your business or are more likely to be interested.”

He adds, “For newcomers to LinkedIn or those seeking guidance on setting up targeting, consider using LinkedIn’s pre-built audience templates. These templates simplify the process and cater to various audiences, such as doctors, recent college graduates, millennials and more.”

As mentioned above, use platform analytics to learn about your audience’s interests, when your posts get the most traction, and create a strategy that will keep you consistently present and visible on LinkedIn. 

The Most Effective Content for Generating Leads on LinkedIn, According to LinkedIn’s VP of Marketing 

When asked which content Habig believes performs best on LinkedIn when it comes to generating leads, Habig told me two major types of content typically win out: educational, and thought leadership. 

As he puts it, “There’s a delicate balance between offering what I’ll call practical content geared towards the practitioners and presenting forward-thinking thought leadership. Both are essential for capturing the attention of your prospects and customers.”

Habig continues, “Providing educational content — such as how-to guides, case studies, whitepapers and e-books — positions your brand as a ‘helpful teammate’ that your audience can rely on for support and expertise.”

On the flip side, you don’t want to ignore the potential power of thought leadership, either. 

Habig says, “It’s crucial to incorporate thought leadership, demonstrating that you’re in tune with the industry’s trajectory. According to recent research conducted in collaboration with Edelman, 50% of C-suite executives say that high quality thought leadership has ,more impact on their purchase decision-making during economic downturns than when times are good.”

Of course, you’ll want to assess your own content analytics to determine what performs best with your own audience. But consider testing these new formats — if you haven’t already — and see how they do. 

What Marketers Get Wrong When It Comes to LinkedIn for Lead Gen 

Finally, I had to ask: What is the biggest mistake marketers make when it comes to LinkedIn lead gen strategies? 

Habig had a straightforward answer: “People underestimate the impact that creativity can have in growing your business and attracting new leads. In a recent report, we found that 69% of people said B2B purchasing is just as emotionally driven as B2C. Creativity is a powerful way for businesses to build their brands, differentiate themselves, and tell compelling stories about the problems they’re solving that will pique the interest of their audience.”

Which is good news for most marketers — who likely got into marketing for the storytelling in the first place. 

 

You’ve likely heard how artificial intelligence can revolutionize the way marketers work. In fact, you may be using AI-powered tools right now.

But if you’re like me, you haven’t “pulled back the curtain” to see how this technology works — until now.

Here, we’ll cover the four main types of artificial intelligence — reaction machines, limited memory, theory of mind, and self awareness — and how each type can power your marketing.

How many types of AI are there?

There are four main types of AI: reactive machines, limited memory, theory-of-mind, and self-aware.

However, since AI can be categorized by function (the types listed above) and capabilities, you add three more to the mix: narrow intelligence (ANI), general intelligence (AGI), and superintelligence (SGI).

Below we’ll explain each type.

4 Types of Artificial Intelligence

Reactive Machines

As the name suggests, reactive machines react and respond to different prompts. It does this without the use of memory or a broader understanding of the context.

For example, this type of AI is commonly used in game design to create opponents. The opponent will respond to your actions, movements, or attacks in real time but is unaware of the game’s overall objective. On top of that, it stores no memories, so it doesn’t learn from past experiences and adjust its gameplay.

Reactive AI powers a lot of marketing tools. A notable example is chatbots. These programs use reactive AI to respond to messages (or inputs) with the right information.

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Chatbots are a popular tool in customer service, but they can also boost the productivity of marketers. For instance, HubSpot’s ChatSpot is a handy AI-powered assistant that can pull reports, create contacts, and send follow-up emails based on certain commands.

Beyond chatbots, reactive AI can analyze customer behavior, campaign performance, and market trends. With these insights, marketers can optimize their campaigns on the fly, improving their effectiveness and ROI.

Limited Memory

Limited memory AI is able to learn from a limited amount of data or feedback. However, it doesn’t “bank” any memories for extended periods of time.

A great example of the ‘limited’ aspect of this AI is ChatGPT. It has a limit of 4000 tokens (forms of text like words) and can’t recall anything from a current conversation after that limit. So, if a conversation is 4097 tokens, ChatGPT responds based on the latest 97 tokens.

This technology can be found in self-driving cars. It can detect lanes and map out the road ahead. It can also adjust the car’s speed and break in real time based on traffic patterns and road conditions.

In marketing, limited memory AI can be used to analyze large amounts of data, helping marketers make smarter decisions about their strategies and tactics. It can also make predictions and recommendations based on this data.

While limited memory algorithms are effective, they aren’t foolproof. They can make mistakes or provide inaccurate predictions, especially when working with outdated data. In other words, the output is only as good as your input. So, it’s important to train these algorithms with accurate, relevant, and up-to-date information.

Reactive machines and limited memory AI are the most common types today. They’re both a form of narrow intelligence (which we’ll discuss further below) because it can’t perform beyond programmed capabilities.

Theory of Mind

Theory of mind exists only as a concept. It represents an advanced class of technology that can understand the mental states of humans.

For instance, if you yell at Google Maps because you missed a turn, it doesn’t get offended or offer emotional support. Instead, it responds by finding another route.

The idea behind theory of mind is to create machines that can interact with humans more effectively because they understand their needs, goals, and motivations. If an AI system can understand the frustrations of a disgruntled customer, for example, it can respond more tactfully.

In the long term, theory of mind AI could have significant implications for marketing. However, it’s still in its early stages, making it difficult to predict when it will become a reality.

Self Aware

Self-aware AI is seen as the next phase in the evolution of theory of mind, where machines are able to understand human emotions and have their own emotions, needs, and beliefs. Currently, this type of AI only exists hypothetically.

M3gan, the robot from the movie of the same name, is an example of self-aware AI. She’s sentient and knows who she is and experiences emotions, and can understand the emotions of those around her. She’s awkward like we’d expect from a robot, but she has social interactions.

The Stages of AI

Artificial intelligence has three stages, largely defined by its ability to replicate human capabilities:

1. Narrow Intelligence (ANI): Narrow AI represents most AI systems that exist today. At this stage, AI is designed to perform a specific task or set of tasks. It doesn’t have the ability to learn or adapt beyond their programming. Examples include chatbots and virtual assistants (like Siri), and recommendation algorithms.
2. General Intelligence (AGI): This is the next evolution of AI. These systems are designed to have human-like intelligence, allowing them to learn and adapt to new situations, think abstractly, reason, and solve problems. At this moment, AGI is still largely theoretical.
3. Superintelligence (ASI): ASI is an advanced form of AI that surpasses human intelligence, enabling it to solve complex problems, create new technology, and make decisions beyond the scope of human understanding. ASI is a hot topic of debate, and its potential benefits and risks are highly speculative.

While these stages are widely accepted, there is ongoing debate about what defines each stage and when we might achieve them — or if we should evolve AI at all.

Top Types of AI in Marketing

As mentioned, reactive and limited memory AI (both are narrow AI) are all that exist today. This means the AI tools marketers use are strictly reactive, or reactive + limited memory.

We surveyed 1350+ marketers in the U.S. to learn more about their use of AI and automation and the tools they use in their roles. Here are some key takeaways.

First, when asked about the generative AI tools used in their marketing roles, most marketers use AI use chatbots (66%).

Chatbots can be both reactive and limited memory AI. For example, a rule-based chatbot following an if/then model and is programmed with canned responses could be called reactive AI because it follows a set structure and can’t deviate from the structure.

Machine learning chatbots, like conversational chatbots, are limited memory AI because they leverage data and past conversations to respond to customers. They become more effective over time, but their memory is limited.

Marketers also said they commonly use visual AI tools (57%) and text generation tools (56%). Regardless of the tool they use, all generative AI is limited memory AI because the tools can create new content based on the data it’s trained on.

All AI/automation users that responded to our survey say that AI and automation tools save an average of 2 hours and 24 minutes per day.

Back to You

From reactive machines to limited memory AI, theory of mind, and self-awareness, each type of AI has its strengths and limitations. Knowing these differences is key to choosing the right tools, leveraging them effectively, and staying ahead of the curve.

Those who know me, know that I have a healthy obsession with travel, and so, I often pour through travel blogs looking for the best way to plan a trip and the best activities to do in a given place. One tool that will always help me find what I need is content aggregation.

Since they’re not solely for travel sites, content aggregator sites can be a useful strategy. Marketers can reach new audiences, and consumers can find relevant resources.

In this post, you’ll learn what content aggregation is and discover high-quality sites.

Table of Contents

• How Content Aggregators Can Help Marketers
• How to Pick the Right Aggregator Service
• Aggregation vs. Creation vs. Curation
• Content Aggregation Tools

Essentially, content aggregator sites collect and repost content so viewers can see articles from various sources all in one place. Usually, these sites are set up to aggregate content through RSS feeds automatically.

So, now that we know more about content aggregation, see how you can get started.

How Content Aggregators can Help Marketers

Content aggregation can help marketers distribute content on multiple platforms, making it easier for people to find you.

The more platforms you’re on, the more exposure you have to a variety of audiences. Given this, content aggregation is a tactic you could include in a brand awareness strategy.

Additionally, using content aggregators to distribute your business content can help you become involved in your community, especially if you encourage interaction. For example, people can leave comments, have discussions, and also have conversations with you.

Before you get started, it’s essential to understand how to pick a content aggregation site.

How to Pick the Right Aggregator Service

When it comes to picking the right aggregator service for your business, the most critical question is the type of content you’re hoping to share on it.

For example, there are specific sites for news stories, others for blogs, and others focused entirely on social media content — you want to pick the one that aligns most with your needs (our list below will help).

In addition, some aggregators cost money. If you have a strict budget, you’ll want to visit the pricing pages of services to see if there are any fees.

However, many services are free of cost and are curated by editors or algorithms, so your choice depends on your business needs.

Aggregation vs. Creation vs. Curation

There are a variety of ways you can provide valuable content to your audience. It’s important to understand which approach (or combination of approaches) best suits your business’ goals and your audience’s interests.

Content creation is the process of developing topic ideas and content for your target audience through written and visual products. This information is made available through blogs, videos, infographics, and other digital formats.

Content curation is a bit closer to content aggregation in that it is not original content. Instead, it is content that is curated and presented to the target audience.

The content is manually collected, organized, and annotated, so it often includes commentary and/or context.

Finally, as previously explained, content aggregation is different from both content creation and curation in that it’s automatic and collects information based on keywords.

The content is gathered from different sources online and put together in one easy-to-find place.

This tool allows your audience to derive a lot of value from your distribution and aggregation with minimal and efficient effort on your end.

Each of these methods can offer a way to expand your marketing strategy and are worth your consideration. However, here we are just focusing on digital content aggregators.

Content Aggregation Tools

Now, let’s go over some different high-quality content aggregation tools that can be valuable to you.

Blog Aggregators

As implied in the name, blog aggregator sites focus on blog websites. They can contain general blog posts or more niche-focused aggregators, such as a travel blog aggregator that’s focused on travel blogging content.

1. Travel Blogger Community

Travel Blogger Community is a content aggregation site that I use when searching for travel blog content. You can request to have your content featured, and it is curated by editors.

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Pro tip: Travel Blogger Community is a great example of a niche site that may also exist within your industry, so be sure to do some research if you’re going to implement a content aggregation strategy.

2. Flipboard

Flipboard is a popular blog aggregator that allows users to create a custom feed based on their interests.

What we like: Personalization allows you to create a profile, submit an RSS feed, and share your content. You can also create a personal storyboard with content related to your business and link to it on your website via social buttons.

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3. The Web List

The Web List is a single-page content aggregator with original content from a variety of sources. It highlights the most popular items of the day at the top, then organizes other articles by source.

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News Aggregators

News aggregator sites compile content from various high-quality news sources. These sites can be for general news, location-specific news, or industry happenings.

4. Google News

Google News displays the top news stories for the day, saving users a trip to their search engine.

You can’t submit your content to the site as it is curated based on search history and location, but if your site gains traction, you increase your chances of being featured.

Best for: Customization. Users can customize their feed by “following” specific topics, sources, or searches.

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5. AllTop

AllTop aggregates content from various topics and sources, such as top news sites and social media forums.

Users can search for topics of interest and get the top stories or just browse through the homepage.

Pro tip: AllTop sometimes accepts site submissions, so be sure to check back periodically if you want to feature your content.

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6. Pocket

Pocket is an aggregation site that features a wide variety of content that users can customize to meet their interests by clicking a “Follow” button. You can also bookmark content to read on the go on your mobile devices — hence Pocket.

Best for: Anyone! There is a wide range of categories from tech through finance to travel.

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7. WP News Desk

WP News Desk is a unique aggregator site that focuses on content related to the WordPress community.

You can’t submit your own content to be featured, but if you run a high-quality WordPress blog that is informative for users, you may find your site featured on the aggregator.

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8. Feedly

Feedly is a content aggregation site that’s focused on helping users create their own feed, so they aren’t overwhelmed with information overload.

Pro tip: The site has both free and paid plans, so users can aggregate content from as many sources as they want and across any niche.

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9. Techmeme

Techeme is a niche news aggregator site that provides readers with the top news stories about technology-related topics, curated by editors.

In addition to the homepage, which features the day’s top stories, you can also choose the River view to see live updates or the Leaderboard view to find articles by topic.

Pro Tip: You can pay to have your content, event, or job listing posted on Techmeme, so if you’re in the tech business, this may be a great resource to tap into.

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Information Aggregator Websites

Information aggregator websites contain exactly that — information. This can include blog posts, news stories, links to social media content, and any information that users can benefit from.

10. Upstract

Upstract is a popular information aggregator. It allows users to choose the platforms they want information from to create a custom feed.

What we like: The crazy variety — it pulls from Reddit, Huffington Post, The Verge, Google News, Wired, and even TikTok, setting them all side-by-side.

While you can’t submit your site to be included in this aggregator, it’s nevertheless a powerful platform to be aware of if you’re going to start using content aggregation.

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11. Panda

Panda offers both a website and Chrome extension specifically curated for developers, designers, or just anyone who identifies as an entrepreneur.

It allows you to stay up to date with industry news from sources such as Hacker News, TechCrunch, and Github.

What we like: It is presented in an easy-to-use and aesthetically pleasing manner, making it the perfect content aggregator for anyone in the industry.

However, keep in mind that Panda doesn’t allow user submissions. Therefore, your feature may just come about if your content rises to the top of any of these notable news sites.

12. Reddit

Reddit is a household name, and if it isn’t in your home, then you must be living under a rock. However, it is also one of the most popular information aggregator sites.

It features trending topics from all different areas of interest while also providing a forum where people can comment and discuss the latest news.

Pro tip: As I’m sure you know, members of the site can submit content such as text posts, images, and links. Therefore, it’s a great tool for marketers to spread their word further.

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Social Media Aggregators

Social media aggregators compile high-quality content from sources such as Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok. Most social media aggregators help markets find user-generated content to share with their audience to build brand trust.

13. TaggBox

TaggBox is a social media aggregator focused on helping marketers develop brand trust and engagement through user-generated content.

You create an account, select the tags that are relevant to your business, and you’re shown posts across different social media platforms that your audience has made about you.

Pro tip: You also have the option to create a social feed of user-generated content to display on your own website, helping site visitors see your content in action and generate trust from other consumers.

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14. Tagembed

Tagembed collects and curates engaging social media content related to your business that you can then display on your website.

What we like: You can generate a social feed from multiple sites and share the custom content within your site for all users to see.

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15. Curator

You can draw posts from the most popular social media sites to create and share your own feed on your business’ website.

You can choose whether the posts automatically appear on your site or whether you manually approve each first. Curator offers free and paid plans.

Best for: Building brand trust by sharing customer posts with prospects and site visitors.

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While it may not make up the core of your marketing plan, content aggregators are a unique and exciting tool for marketers to use to share their content and gain exposure, while simultaneously becoming involved with your community.

These days, businesses across every industry are investing in social media marketing. But no matter how great your social media content is or how many people follow your accounts, you won’t be able to grow your audience, reach, and presence if you don’t understand the data behind it all.

In-depth knowledge about the status and success of your social media marketing will offer actionable insight into things like which strategies should remain in place and what you should change or experiment with in order to grow. Social media analytics tools are able to help you with just that.

In this post, we cover the following:

• What is social media analytics?
• Why use social media analytics?
• How to track social media analytics
• Best social media analytics tools

Social Media Analytics

In this blog post, we’ll review the importance of social media analytics and some great options to help you measure your social media marketing success.

Get certified in social media strategy with this free course.

What is social media analytics?

Social media analytics is the process of gathering, analyzing, and applying data, information, and reports related to the content shared on your social profiles and the social profiles themselves.

Why use social media analytics?

With social media analytics, you can:

• Understand the metrics that matter most to your team and business such as engagement, reposts, shares, clicks, impressions, and sessions.
• Identify effective ways to boost brand awareness and reach.
• Resonate with your audience.
• Boost traffic to your other content and website.
• Increase conversions.
• Improve customer loyalty.

How to Track Social Media Analytics

Here are the steps involved in tracking social media analytics

1. Identify which social media platforms you’ll be measuring impact on (e.g. LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram).
2. Determine which metrics you’re doing to track (e.g. clicks, impressions, likes, shares).
3. Choose a time period to analyze (e.g. last quarter, last month, last week, duration of your campaign).
4. Determine which tools you’ll use to track and measure success (we’ll cover your options in the next section).
5. Review and analyze your data (depending on your tool of choice, there may be internal features to help you understand and analyze your data — such as this one with HubSpot).
6. Apply your findings and conclusions to improve growth in the future.

1. HubSpot Social Media Software

Get started with HubSpot Social Media Analytics 

HubSpot provides a deep look into the way social media impacts your bottom line and gives you the ability to report on social media ROI. View and compare performance across different platforms, campaigns, and publishing times — all from a single tool.

Monitor your brand on social to understand how your target audience perceives your business and content. Additionally, YouTube Reports provide insight into how your audience and buyer personas engage with your videos. Lastly, effectively reach certain audiences by using data and context from the Contacts in your CRM (which this social tool integrates seamlessly with).

Feature highlights: Social campaign publisher, social mentions monitoring, social reports

Get certified in social media strategy with this free course.

2. Sprout Social

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Sprout Social is a social media planning service with expansive analytics and reports that help you understand the performance of all of your social accounts.

Configure and customize reports and metrics to help you scale your business’s presence on social. And if you’re a HubSpot customer, integrate your CRM with Sprout Social to collect and view accurate reports all in one place.

Feature highlights: Competitor comparison tool, integrated publishing and engagement tools, social listening

3. Brandwatch

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Brandwatch is a consumer intelligence tool and social media management solution with analytics capabilities.

Social insights like social listening and competitor benchmarking can inform your content creation. You can gain a better understanding of the audiences engaging with your social content with audience profile cards. View key data in one place with customizable dashboards.

Feature highlights: Audience profile cards, customizable dashboards

4. Mailchimp

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Mailchimp is a full-service marketing platform that offers analytics for social media ads. It’s easy to use for small marketing teams and requires little time to pour over the accompanying analytics.

With Mailchimp, you’ll have an audience dashboard, which is a page dedicated to understanding audience behavior. Additionally, the software offers tools to look into smart targeting and mobile integrations. These tools can diversify a social strategy and deliver higher engagement numbers by helping you create content that specific audiences will respond to.

Feature highlights: Content optimizer with AI-assisted suggestions, content studio for managing digital assets

5. Social Status

Social Status is a dedicated social media analytics tool with robust reporting features. The platform comprehensively covers Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Social Status reports can be completely customized and white-labeled making them perfect for agencies and brands with complex requirements. Reports can be exported to PDF, PowerPoint, and Google Slides. The tool also covers paid and organic performance, competitor benchmarking, and influencer campaign tracking all in one powerful social analytics tool.

Feature highlights: Social media reports across multiple channels, influencer campaign tracking

6. Databox

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Databox is an expansive analytics platform that lets you set and track social media campaign goals. It’s a good choice for businesses that have many contacts, social accounts, campaign goals, and target audiences.

Customize metrics that matter most to your campaign or social channels for your reports. Any integration you have, such as HubSpot, will be visible from your dashboard as well.

Feature highlights: Dashboard designer, custom metric builder

7. Grow

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Grow users gain full visibility into engagement on all of the social accounts. The tool integrates with HubSpot, Salesforce, Google Ads, Facebook, Marketo, and Microsoft Office so you can view all data in one place.

Grow breaks down complex data into graphs and visuals, and your social reports are easily sharable which is helpful if multiple people are working on the same project. Grow’s reports are built with metrics chosen by the user — meaning, you can customize reports in a way that works for your needs.

Feature highlights: Data modeling, dashboards

8. ActiveCampaign

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ActiveCampaign is an email marketing software with social media features including reporting. You can connect Facebook, Twitter, Digg, and other platforms to gather insights related to performance.

Since you’ll have both social media and email metrics in one place, this is a good option for businesses with a heavy email marketing focus. Additionally, ActiveCampaign’s reports track what contacts do after they click through to your site. Further, if you’re a HubSpot customer, the software integrates with your CRM.

Feature highlights: Site tracking, landing pages, reports 

9. CoSchedule

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CoSchedule gathers social network, campaign, and engagement data for your profiles and compiles that real-time data into reports.

On your dashboard, compare multiple campaigns to determine the evolving ecosystem of audiences. You’ll also be able to see the top fans of your social accounts, making it easier to create targeted content for them (and followers like them).

Feature highlights: Content organizer, dashboard

9. Hootsuite

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Hootsuite is a social media calendar and planner with analytics capabilities. In one streamlined place, you can measure and analyze performance across different social media platforms.

Reports inform the best times to post based on when your audience is the most active and identify top-performing posts. Pre-built templates make reports customizable and easy to digest. 

Feature highlights: Customizable report templates, recommended posting times

10. Bazaarvoice

 

 

 

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If you’re a brand, social media is a valuable tool for e-commerce. According to HubSpot’s Social Media Report, 50% of survey respondents said social shopping is very important to their overall social media marketing strategy.

Bazaarvoice helps make your content shoppable with their link in bio solution called Like2Buy. You’ll be able to retarget shoppers who clicked the link by creating lookalike audiences and segmenting social campaigns. Tools like Showroom turns your content into a storefront. Bazaarvoice also helps measure ROI from your social commerce efforts.

Feature highlights: Link in bio solution, pop-up shop

11. Buffer

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Buffer measures and analyzes how your content performs across different social channels. With Buffer, you’ll be able to gain insight into how your organic content compares to boosted posts, measure engagement for individual posts and stories, and figure out your audience demographics.

You can also extract data to help you determine the best time to post and the optimal posting frequency.

Feature highlights: Custom reports, daily updates

12. BuzzSumo

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BuzzSumo helps with social content creation with tools like the Content Analyzer — by using the Content Analyzer, you will be able to figure out what topics receive the greatest engagement, broken down by platform.

BuzzSumo can also analyze the social engagement your content receives. This way, you will be able to see the number of shares from each platform and use these insights to determine which pieces of content to focus on in the future.

Feature highlights: Keyword tool, real-time view of trends, Content Analyzer

Choose a Social Media Analytics Tool

Ultimately, choosing the right social media analytics tools for your business shouldn’t be a stressful process. The tools should align with your business goals and deliver the metrics you need to be successful. So review the options above and choose the right one for your business.

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

 

Whether you’re looking to increase revenue, sign-ups, social shares, or engagement, A/B testing and optimization can help you get there.

But for many marketers out there, the tough part about A/B testing is often finding the right test to drive the biggest impact — especially when you’re just getting started. So, what’s the recipe for high-impact success?

Truthfully, there is no one-size-fits-all recipe. What works for one business won’t work for another — and finding the right metrics and timing to test can be a tough problem to solve. That’s why you need inspiration from A/B testing examples.

In this post, let’s review how a hypothesis will get you started with your testing, and check out excellent examples from real businesses using A/B testing. While the same tests may not get you the same results, they can help you run creative tests of your own.

A/B Testing Hypothesis Examples

A hypothesis can make or break your experiment, especially when it comes to A/B testing. When creating your hypothesis, you want to make sure that it’s:

1. Focused on one specific problem you want to solve or understand
2. Able to be proven or disproven
3. Focused on making an impact (bringing higher conversion rates, lower bounce rate, etc.)

When creating a hypothesis, following the “If, then” structure can be helpful, where if you changed a specific variable, then a particular result would happen.

Here are some examples of what that would look like in an A/B testing hypothesis:

• Shortening contact submission forms to only contain required fields would increase the number of sign-ups.
• Changing the call-to-action text from “Download now” to “Download this free guide” would increase the number of downloads.
• Reducing the frequency of mobile app notifications from five times per day to two times per day will increase mobile app retention rates.
• Using featured images that are more contextually related to our blog posts will contribute to a lower bounce rate.
• Greeting customers by name in emails will increase the total number of clicks.

Let’s go over some real-life examples of A/B testing to prepare you for your own.

A/B Testing Examples

Website A/B Testing Examples

1. HubSpot Academy’s Homepage Hero Image

Most websites have a homepage hero image that inspires users to engage and spend more time on the site. This A/B testing example shows how hero image changes can impact user behavior and conversions.

Problem

Based on previous data, HubSpot Academy found that out of more than 55,000 page views, only .9% of those users were watching the video on the homepage. Of those viewers, almost 50% watched the full video.

Chat transcripts also highlighted the need for clearer messaging for this useful and free resource.

That’s why the HubSpot team decided to test how clear value propositions could improve user engagement and delight.

A/B Test Method

HubSpot used three variants for this test, using HubSpot Academy conversion rate (CVR) as the primary metric. Secondary metrics included CTA clicks and engagement.

Variant A was the control.

For variant B, the team added more vibrant images and colorful text and shapes. It also included an animated “typing” headline.

Variant C also added color and movement, as well as animated images on the right-hand side of the page.

Results

As a result, HubSpot found that variant B outperformed the control by 6%. In contrast, variant C underperformed the control by 1%. From those numbers, HubSpot was able to project that using variant B would lead to about 375 more sign ups each month.

2. FSAstore.com’s Site Navigation

Every marketer will have to focus on conversion at some point. But building a website that converts is tough.

Problem

FSAstore.com is an ecommerce company supplying home goods for Americans with a flexible spending account.

This useful site could help the 35 million+ customers that have an FSA. But the website funnel was overwhelming. It had too many options, especially on category pages. The team felt that customers weren’t making purchases because of that issue.

A/B Test Method

To figure out how to appeal to its customers, this company tested a simplified version of its website. The current site included an information-packed subheader in the site navigation.

To test the hypothesis, this A/B testing example compared the current site to an update without the subheader.

Results

This update showed a clear boost in conversions and FSAstore.com saw a 53.8% increase in revenue per visitor.

3. Expoze’s Web Page Background

The visuals on your web page are important because they help users decide whether they want to spend more time on your site.

In this A/B testing example, Expoze.io decided to test the background on its homepage.

Problem

The website home page was difficult for some users to read because of low contrast. The team also needed to figure out how to improve page navigation while still representing the brand.

A/B Test Method

First, the team did some research and created several different designs. The goals of the redesign were to improve the visuals and increase attention to specific sections of the home page, like the video thumbnail.

They used AI-generated eye tracking as they designed to find the best designs before A/B testing. Then they ran an A/B heatmap test to see whether the new or current design got the most attention from visitors.

Results

The new design showed a big increase in attention, with version B bringing over 40% more attention to the desired sections of the home page.

This design change also brought a 25% increase in CTA clicks. The team believes this is due to the added contrast on the page bringing more attention to the CTA button, which was not changed.

4. Thrive Themes’ Sales Page Optimization

Many landing pages showcase testimonials. That’s valuable content and it can boost conversion.

That’s why Thrive Themes decided to test a new feature on its landing pages — customer testimonials.

Problem

In the control, Thrive Themes had been using a banner that highlighted product features, but not how customers felt about the product.

The team decided to test whether adding testimonials to a sales landing page could improve conversion rates.

A/B Test Method

In this A/B test example, the team ran a 6-week test with the control against an updated landing page with testimonials.

Results

This change netted a 13% increase in sales. The control page had a 2.2% conversion rate, but the new variant showed a 2.75% conversion rate.

Email A/B Testing Examples

5. HubSpot’s Email Subscriber Experience

Getting users to engage with email isn’t an easy task. That’s why HubSpot decided to A/B test how alignment impacts CTA clicks.

Problem

HubSpot decided to change text alignment in the weekly emails for subscribers to improve the user experience. Ideally, this improved experience would result in a higher click rate.

A/B Test Method

For the control, HubSpot sent centered email text to users.

For variant B, HubSpot sent emails with left-justified text.

Results

HubSpot found that emails with left-aligned text got fewer clicks than the control. And of the total left-justified emails sent, less than 25% got more clicks than the control.

6. Neurogan’s Deal Promotion

Making the most of email promotion is important for any company, especially those in competitive industries.

This example uses the power of current customers for increasing email engagement.

Problem

Neurogan wasn’t always offering the right content to its audience and it was having a hard time competing with a flood of other new brands.

A/B Test Method

An email agency audited this brand’s email marketing, then focused efforts on segmentation. This A/B testing example starts with creating product-specific offers. Then, this team used testing to figure out which deals were best for each audience.

Results

These changes brought higher revenue for promotions and higher click rates. It also led to a new workflow with a 37% average open rate and a click rate of 3.85%.

For more on how to run A/B testing for your campaigns, check out this free A/B testing kit.

Social Media A/B Testing Examples

7. Vestiaire’s TikTok Awareness Campaign

A/B testing examples like the one below can help you think creatively about what to test and when. This is extra helpful if your business is working with influencers and doesn’t want to impact their process while working toward business goals.

Problem

Fashion brand Vestaire wanted help growing the brand on TikTok. It was also hoping to increase awareness with Gen Z audiences for its new direct shopping feature.

A/B Test Method

Vestaire’s influencer marketing agency asked eight influencers to create content with specific CTAs to meet the brand’s goals. Each influencer had extensive creative freedom and created a range of different social media posts.

Then, the agency used A/B testing to choose the best-performing content and promoted this content with paid advertising.

Results

This testing example generated over 4,000 installs. It also decreased the cost per install by 50% compared to the brand’s existing presence on Instagram and YouTube.

8. Underoutfit’s Promotion of User-Generated Content on Facebook

Paid advertising is getting more expensive, and clickthrough rates decreased through the end of 2022.

To make the most of social ad spend, marketers are using A/B testing to improve ad performance. This approach helps them test creative content before launching paid ad campaigns, like in the examples below.

Problem

Underoutfit wanted to increase brand awareness on Facebook.

A/B Test Method

To meet this goal, it decided to try adding branded user-generated content. This brand worked with an agency and several creators to create branded content to drive conversion.

Then, Underoutfit ran split testing between product ads and the same ads combined with the new branded content ads. Both groups in the split test contained key marketing messages and clear CTA copy.

The brand and agency also worked with Meta Creative Shop to make sure the videos met best practice standards.

Results

The test showed impressive results for the branded content variant, including a 47% higher clickthrough rate and 28% higher return on ad spend.

9. Databricks’ Ad Performance on LinkedIn

Pivoting to a new strategy quickly can be difficult for organizations. This A/B testing example shows how you can use split testing to figure out the best new approach to a problem.

Problem

Databricks, a cloud software tool, needed to raise awareness for an event that was shifting from in-person to online.

A/B Test Method

To connect with a large group of new people in a personalized way, the team decided to create a LinkedIn Message Ads campaign. To make sure the messages were effective, it used A/B testing to tweak the subject line and message copy.

Results

The third variant of the copy featured a hyperlink in the first sentence of the invitation. Compared to the other two variants, this version got nearly twice as many clicks and conversions.

Mobile A/B Testing Example

7. HubSpot’s Mobile Calls-to-Action

On this blog, you’ll notice anchor text in the introduction, a graphic CTA at the bottom, and a slide-in CTA when you scroll through the post. Once you click on one of these offers, you’ll land on a content offer page.

While many users access these offers from a desktop or laptop computer, many others plan to download these offers to mobile devices.

Problem

But on mobile, users weren’t finding the CTA buttons as quickly as they could on a computer. That’s why HubSpot tested mobile design changes to improve the user experience.

Previous A/B tests revealed that HubSpot’s mobile audience was 27% less likely to click through to download an offer. Also, less than 75% of mobile users were scrolling down far enough to see the CTA button.

A/B Test Method

So, HubSpot decided to test different versions of the offer page CTA, using conversion rate (CVR) as the primary metric. For secondary metrics, the team measured CTA clicks for each CTA, as well as engagement.

HubSpot used four variants for this test.

For variant A, the control, the traditional placement of CTAs remained unchanged.

For variant B, the team redesigned the hero image and added a sticky CTA bar.

For variant C, the redesigned hero was the only change.

For variant D, the team redesigned the hero image and repositioned the slider.

Results

All variants outperformed the control for the primary metric, CVR. Variant C saw a 10% increase, variant B saw a 9% increase, and variant D saw an 8% increase.

From those numbers, HubSpot was able to project that using variant C on mobile would lead to about 1,400 more content leads and almost 5,700 more form submissions each month.

11. Hospitality.net’s Mobile Booking

Businesses need to keep up with quick shifts in mobile devices to create a consistently strong customer experience.

A/B testing examples like the one below can help your business streamline this process.

Problem

Hospitality.net offered both simplified and dynamic mobile booking experiences. The simplified experience showed a limited number of available dates and the design is for smaller screens. The dynamic experience is for the larger mobile device screens. It shows a wider range of dates and prices.

But the brand wasn’t sure which mobile optimization strategy would be better for conversion.

A/B Test Method

This brand believed that customers would prefer the dynamic experience and that it would get more conversions. But it chose to test these ideas with a simple A/B test. Over 34 days, it sent half of the mobile visitors to the simplified mobile experience, and half to the dynamic experience, with over 100,000 visitors total.

Results

This A/B testing example showed a 33% improvement in conversion. It also helped confirm the brand’s educated guesses about mobile booking preferences.

A/B Testing Takeaways for Marketers

A lot of different factors can go into A/B testing, depending on your business needs. But there are a few key things to keep in mind:

• Every A/B test should start with a hypothesis focused on one specific problem that you can test.
• Make sure you’re testing a control variable (your original version) and a treatment variable (a new version that you think will perform better).
• You can test various things, like landing pages, CTAs, emails, or mobile app designs.
• The best way to understand if your results mean something is to figure out the statistical significance of your test.
• There are a variety of goals to focus on for A/B testing (increased site traffic, lower bounce rates, etc.), but you should be able to test, support, prove, and disprove your hypothesis.
• When testing, make sure you’re splitting your sample groups equally and randomly, so your data is viable and not due to chance.
• Take action based on the results you observe.

Start Your Next A/B Test Today

You can see amazing results from the A/B testing examples above. These businesses were able to take action on goals because they started testing. If you want to get great results, you’ve got to get started, too.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in October 2014 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Open source AI platforms are helping humanity move toward a futuristic world faster than most anticipated.

OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google have had an outrageous month in the artificial intelligence (AI) space, and this field keeps accelerating.

What is open source AI?

Defining this term requires understanding a few others.

Open source is a software development term that means any programmer can jump in and work with it, the goal being to develop robust software in a shorter amount of time.

This is a great way to leverage the novel ideas of the best minds to fuel progress in technology. Think of open source as a group project where humanity benefits from A+ work.

Artificial Intelligence is a branch of computer science that develops programs and algorithms (step-by-step processes designed to solve a problem or answer a question) that help make various machines operate in more human-like ways.

There are several subfields of this science, including:

• Natural language processing (NLP), which focuses on developing natural interactions between humans and computers. Specialized software helps machines process human language, create understandable words, and interact with humans through language.
• Machine learning (ML), which prioritizes a machine’s ability to analyze information and use it to make recommendations or decisions based on the data sets it has provided.
• Computer vision, which is all about creating machines that can understand and then interpret visual information.
• Robotics that can physically perform tasks without human micromanagement, including interaction with humans.

Right now, companies verify we are human by having us choose photos from a set with one thing in common, such as cars or volcanoes. And if we were to see a car at the base of an active volcano, we can extrapolate that the car will be damaged. Machines are still developing these abilities.

Open source AI, then, can be defined as software engineers collaborating on various artificial intelligence projects that are open to the public to develop. The goal is to better integrate computing with humanity.

We need one last bonus keyword that helps us tie open source AI to marketing: Industry 4.0.

Industry 4.0 is the idea that advanced computing and AI have unlocked a new era in human productivity.

• The first industrial revolution was about creating machines to do work via steam or water power.
• The second industrial revolution was when we converted machines to electric power and embraced mass production. Products were built by human assembly lines, assisted by electric conveyor belts that brought the work to their hands.
• The third industrial revolution was when we plugged computers into the machinery to boost efficiency and automation. Car factories now have machines programmed to quickly and precisely build cars without human assembly lines.
• And now the fourth industrial revolution — dubbed Industry 4.0 — is about how the industry is changing now that humanity and computing are so closely interconnected. Business doesn’t just happen in boardrooms and on factory floors anymore. We carry it in our pockets.

We can sell and reinvest stocks from our kitchens at the touch of a button. Without touching anything, a voice-activated computer can order groceries, add appointments to our digital calendars, and tell us jokes as we work from home instead of commuting to an office.

It’s this new landscape, this new era in production via interconnected technologies, where open source AI for marketing comes into play.

How can marketers use AI?

AI offers a huge range of functionality to marketers who want to take the plunge, from small assists all the way up to running campaigns for you.

We’ll share some use cases to give you an idea of what’s out there.

Automated Social Posts

One of the smallest ways to leverage smart technology in marketing is to use a program that schedules and posts your pre-loaded social content.

You set the frequency (several times a day to once a month or more) and then load up all of your prepared content. It does the work for you on your own custom schedule.

Content Creation

This is an area where AI is booming. Marketers charged with creating written content have similar struggles across the industry. How do they keep coming up with ideas that will resonate with their audience? How can they produce content in less time to boost conversion?

Companies count on AI content to save the time it takes to create the body of such work, spend less on writers, and call on their experienced wordsmiths to then dial in on quality.

Personalized Emails and Data Capture

Most of us have experienced follow-up emails to the effect of, “Hey, you left an item in your cart!” or, “There’s an item on your wish list that just dropped in price!”

People cannot possibly write these billions of daily emails customized to each consumer’s shopping habits — but AI can.

Algorithms have been devised to pull user data, analyze how each customer interacts with a brand, and create personalized email content. Then, AI schedules and sends that content, all without any human interaction after it’s been set up.

Saying “Send a thank you note to Savannah” initiates an algorithm that pulls Savannah’s email address from your contact list, creates a thank you email, and splices Savannah’s name into it. The program can send it then or read the note to you, allowing you to make changes before sending.

Ad Targeting and Pay-Per-Click Campaigns

If you advertise on Google or Facebook, programs like AdWords give you deep insight and scalpel-minute details to help you gauge how your advertising campaigns are playing out. They also facilitate pay-per-click (PPC) bidding so you can efficiently allocate your ad budget.

AI can analyze who has been engaging with your ads, then redirect ad spend to groups that market research may not have anticipated. You may be delightfully surprised by how many leads you discover or conversions you gain.

Ethical Considerations Before Using Open Source AI

Nothing new comes easy. Even the highest level of technology development has important human elements that must be addressed sooner rather than later.

Biases

People write algorithms and datasets, and people have biases — whether they know the unique lenses through which they see the world or not. Those influences can and do change what a program does, especially if the AI’s output is designed to change based on human behavior in virtual spaces.

These problems become apparent when searching for bias-charged words. You’ll want to build programs that avoid stereotypes and false information.

So how can programming be less biased? This is one of the hottest topics in AI right now, and the solutions (and laws) are still being forged.

Incorrect or Incomplete Information 

Just because it’s on the internet and AI finds it doesn’t mean it’s true. And just because something’s popular doesn’t mean it’s right.

Likewise, just because you have true information doesn’t mean you have the whole picture, no matter how hard you push your search engine to find the truth.

10 Top Open Source AI Platforms and Tools

Now to the main event: We’ve compiled a list of open source AI tools to introduce you to some of the best options as you wade through this topic, decide if micro AI could help boost your ROIs, or if larger open source AI projects are what you need to meet your company’s goals.

1. TensorFlow

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TensorFlow is an entire support structure for programmers who want to help each other create something novel while reaping the benefits of other experts’ existing models.

TensorFlow is one of the most robust AI platforms and offers training videos to help jumpstart your success.

What we like: This platform supports several programming languages, including Swift, Python, and JavaScript — the most common programming language used on Earth.

Price: Free.

2. PyTorch

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PyTorch, like TensorFlow, is a one-stop shop for transforming ideas into functional applications. It’s an entire framework created to support various aspects of open source AI project development, including vast libraries and datasets to pull from.

This platform is easy to use for developers who already code with Python. Its object-oriented approach helps bundle up usable chunks of code that do just one job.

This known and reliable “object” can then be plugged into a more extensive sequence to do a more complicated job, helping programmers help each other.

Pro tip: Programmers fluent in Python flourish here, but it also has a C++ interface for those who don’t code with Python.

Price: Free.

3. Keras

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Billed as being designed for humans, Keras is an application programming interface (API) that allows you to quickly and easily share the front end of your deep learning models.

You can export your models from Keras and run them in browsers, iOS, and Android. Their Python libraries tend to focus on artificial neural networks.

Best for: Programmers who prefer a more streamlined user interface while working with the newest versions of TensorFlow, simplifying interaction with the software as it’s being built.

Price: Free.

4. OpenAI

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OpenAI is all over the news, and for good reason — it’s changing the game of natural language processing (NLP) AI programs. They offer a model called Codex that changes natural language into code in the programming language you specify.

What’s more, like other open source AI projects, you can access their models and customize the code yourself.

OpenAI is mastering what Alexa/Siri does and taking the next step in Industry 4.0. This AI can synthesize its own natural language answers from the information it finds instead of just pointing to a website and reading it. Incredible stuff, and you can work with it!

Price: Free $18 credit to experiment for three months, then prices are token-based and depend on what you use as you go.

5. OpenCV

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OpenCV is well-known for its open source AI platform for computer vision. If TensorFlow has an undergrad degree in general AI, OpenCV holds a master’s in AI vision.

And it works pretty much everywhere because its library was written in C, which it claims can be ported to everything from “PowerPC Macs to robotic dogs.” It includes a new C++ interface, and wrappers have been developed for Java, Python, and other languages to encourage cross-language development.

Best for: Developing AI specifically for computer vision applications.

Price: Free, including for commercial use.

6. H20.ai

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H2O.ai’s AI Cloud Platform copy claims that it is “the fastest, most accurate AI platform on the planet” and appears to be aware of ethical issues in AI.

They strive to democratize AI by making it available to anyone, empowering humanity to use it to impact the world positively.

A solid choice for: Companies that prioritize development speed and also plan to use AI to enhance their offerings, working toward streamlined AI management across the board.

Price: Free to develop open source software and to use their H20 Wave API.

7. Rasa

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Rasa is great for building conversational AI (chatbots) and deploying it via the cloud for free. It’s flexible and touted as “future proof” because it’s been designed so you can plug any NLP or ML model into Rasa to give you increasingly accurate results as technology improves with time.

Best for: Branded conversational AI for enterprises that comes with built-in integrations for social messaging like Slack and Facebook.

Price: Free. There are also paid pro options for enterprises.

8. Amazon Web Services (AWS)

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If you have code to run or want a familiar place to start building, you can do it for free on AWS/ The platform also stores the results/output of your programs.

In addition, AWS offers numerous value-added features for business marketing, such as customizing your code for their content delivery network and managing task coordination for your various cloud applications, all for free.

Best for: If you have a handle on coding but could use some support services adjacent to development — including business features to help you level up toward Industry 4.0.

Price: Costs vary. There are short-term offers, 12 months free, and always free options.

9. GitHub

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Regardless of your chosen platform, the GitHub platform keeps collaborative work orderly.

GitHub is the biggest name in programming cooperation. The platform helps organize projects when many hands touch the same code, keeping track of version histories, notes, and Wikis.

Best for: Individuals or teams that don’t know each other but want to work productively on a project.

Price: Basic $0, Team $44, Enterprise $231.

GitHub AI Projects: Instagram Spam Protection & Fake Product Review Identification

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We’re including these open source AI projects in development on GitHub because so much of marketing involves moderating your social networks once content is live.

These projects allow you to pull pre-existing datasets for training your programming models to do the work more thoroughly — better protecting your brand to keep those leads rolling in.

Pro tip: Google open-sourced their ALBERT model for you to emulate. The program excels at natural language processing and is agile with language-specific issues like interpreting meanings in context.

Price: Free

The Future Unfolding Around Us

Be sure to keep your eye on the developing topic of AI. It’s happening quickly all around us.

It’s sure to be a wild ride! The cutting edge of technology always is, and AI gets sharper, smarter, faster, more enmeshed by the day.

There’s no way around it — every business needs to drive leads to grow. 

However, B2B lead generation is far from a simple task.

You are competing with other businesses, navigating misinformation, and playing trial and error with various tools. Not to mention, you also might be selling a product that’s more expensive or requires a hire subscription fee than many B2C offerings. 

Though a complex task, having the right B2B lead generation tools can simplify and speed up the process of lead generation.

In this post we’ll cover:

• What is B2B lead generation?
• Why you need lead generation tools
• Best B2B lead generation tools

While a B2B lead is made when anyone shares name and contact information that enables you to identify and follow up with them, a quality lead is one that signals their seriousness about product interest by providing other useful information and engaging further with your business. Qualified lead information varies and is harder to get. But, it generally includes name, occupation, and email address.

Ultimately, the goal of B2B lead generation is to create a consistent pipeline of qualified leads who are likely to convert into customers.

Why You Need B2B Lead Generation Tools

Trying to generate B2B leads without tools is like showing up to a sword fight without a sword — you will not be equipped with the tools you need to achieve your goal.

Because it is distinct from B2C lead generation, B2B lead generation requires a different set of strategies. B2B lead generation tools are critical for any business wanting to get high quality leads from the right places. These tools can automate processes which saves time, provide critical data to help you make better decisions, and integrate with other tools like CRMs.

Best B2B Lead Generation Tools

1. HubSpot Marketing Hub

Source: HubSpot

Overview: HubSpot Marketing Hub is a suite of tools that aim to help marketers funnel leads through the attract, engage, and delight stages of the marketing flywheel.

For example, you can use Marketing Hub to create compelling content to attract your target audience, capture leads via site, email, or social media; and nurture tools like automated workflows that can continue to engage contacts via email and other types of messaging. 

Features: HubSpot Marketing Hub has multiple features designed for lead generation, including a lead capture tool. It is also equipped with forms, popup forms, live chat, and chatbot.

What we like: Lead generation tools like an email builder are available for you to use. HubSpot Marketing Hub also integrates with HubSpot CRM.

Pricing: Paid tiers run from $45 to $3,600 per month depending on company size.

2. LeadPages

Source: LeadPages

Overview: LeadPages enables you to create custom landing pages for different, specific audiences. It also integrates with other software, funneling leads into your CRM.

Features: Build websites, landing pages, pop-ups, alert bars, and more.

What we like: You have the ability to choose from hundreds of templates — there is a high level of customization.

Pricing: 14-day free trial, then$27/month for Standard (one website), $59/month for Pro Plan (three websites), and $239/month for Advanced Plan (50 websites)

3. Leadfeeder

Source: Leadfeeder

Overview: Leadfeeder is a sales and marketing tool that identifies website visitors, even if the site visitors don’t fill out a form or contact you. The company boasts a database of static and dynamic IPs. Furthermore, Leadfeeder shows contact information for employees at the company.

Features: Features include automatic lead scoring, instant lead generation with their tracker, personal email alerts, and CRM automation.

What we like: Leadfeeder captures data from website visitors, turning anonymous traffic into potential leads. It also has custom segmentation features to help you identify high quality leads.

Pricing: $139+/month after a 14-day free trial.

4. OptinMonster

Source: OptinMonster

Overview: OptinMonster enables users to build lead forms, with over 100 templates to choose from. There is a segmentation and targeting engine to display the popup.

Features: Build opt-in forms like lightbox popups, fullscreen takeovers, floating bars, and slide-ins.

What we like: There’s a drag-and-drop builder for easy form building.

Pricing: Prices start at $14/month for Basic (one website). $30/month for the Plus Plan (two sites), $47/month for three sites, or $80/month for Plus Plans covering five or more sites.

5. LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Source: LinkedIn

Overview: LinkedIn is known as a platform to connect with B2B audiences. Its Sales Navigator Professional and Team tool can help businesses target specific prospects, track leads, and engage with potential buyers with InMail Messages and TeamLink.

Features: Lead and company search tools, automated lead recommendations, and CRM integration.

What we like: You can build and automate custom lead and account lists.

Pricing: $65+ /month with a one-month free trial and annual commitment. There are two options — Sales Navigator Professional and Sales Navigator Team.

6. Qualaroo

Source: Qualaroo

Overview: Qualaroo is an website polling tool that collects user feedback and leads using the tool.

Features: Qualaroo boasts customizable survey options and advanced targeting features. 

What we like: Surveys are an interesting way to generate leads. Qualaroo makes categorizing leads and sending them to designated funnels based on their answers seamless.

Pricing: Prices start at $80 for the Essential tier. The Enterprise tier is quote-based.

7. Discover.ly

Source: Discover.ly

Overview: Discover.ly is a Google Chrome add-on that allows you to find and score leads from social media.

Features: Discover.ly profile scans recommend and score prospects you’re connected to on social media.

What we like: This convenient Chrome extension that delivers digestible information.

Pricing: Free.

8. LeadQuizzes

Source: LeadQuizzes

Overview: Does a question ever pique your interest? How about a quiz? LeadQuizzes is an online quiz maker that helps businesses capture site leads.

Features: LeadQuizzes boasts features like website embedding, embeddable CTAs, website popups, announcement bars, and ad campaign tools that integrate with Facebook Pixel and Google Ads.

What we like: Quizzes are a unique way to capture your audience’s attention and generate leads. LeadQuizzes simplifies quiz-making and can be integrated into your website.

Pricing: $49+/month after a 14-day free trial.

9. Hello Bar

Source: ConvertFlow

Overview: When you visit a website, you may be greeted by a popup that splashes across the screen. Hello Bar is a widget that enables you to create those popup bars that appear across people’s screens when they visit a website.  

Features: You can choose from a wide variety of popups: bars, modals, alerts, sliders, and full-screen page takeovers.

What we like: Hello Bar is highly customizable; personalize your message, CTA, and position.

Pricing: Freefor up to 5,000 page views per month. Upgrades available include: Growth for $29/month (50,000 monthly page views), Premium for $49/month (up to 150,000 monthly page views), and Elite for $99:month (up to 500,000 monthly page views).

10. Everwebinar

Source: Everwebinar

Overview: Webinars are a good content marketing method for B2B businesses to generate leads. Everwebinar helps you schedule and automate your brand’s webinars.

Features: Everwebinar has features like a room that mimics a live webinar with chat, and boasts high definition quality. It also enables you to tailor your messaging for post-webinar follow ups.

What we like: Everwebinar enables you to run webinars with automation and customizable follow-up pages.

Pricing: $499 annual (billed annually) or $874 biennial (billed every two years).

11. MailChimp

Source: MailChimp

Overview: MailChimp is an email marketing tool that you can integrate with your landing page tools or CRM.

Features: Email automation tools, lead capture forms with exit-intent technology, and shareable newsletter URLs.

What we like: MailChimp has manyemail tools that help you create on-brand emails and track campaign performance.

Pricing: Mailchimp has a free version with a 1,000 send limit. The Essentials version starts at $13 per month, the Standard at $20 per month, then the Premium at $350 per month.

12. HotJar

Source: HotJar

Overview: At its core, HotJar is a customer experience platform that enables you to visualize user behavior with heatmaps and design surveys. 

Features: Heatmaps, surveys, and a dashboard for viewing analytics.

What we like: Heatmaps provide useful intelligence about how users behave on your site. HotJar also enables you to target visitors by URL, device, and user attributes.

Pricing: The Basic tier is free and the Business tier is  $80+/month.

13. Zapier

Source: Zapier

Overview: Zapier is an automation platform that lets you connect over 3,000 apps, so within automated workflows..

Features: Pre-made templates for connecting and automating  tasks, plus countless integrations

What we like: Zapier is compatible with over 3,000 apps, making integrating software and tools easy.

Pricing: Zapier has a free version. The Starter plan is $19.99/month while the Company plan is $599/month.

14. Turnstile by Wistia

Source: Turnstile

Overview: Is it Turnstile the band, or Turnstile the lead generating email capture tool? It’s the latter. Turnstile helps you collect emails from your videos to generate leads. It is compatible across all devices.

Features: You can customize how you want your email collecting form to appear, like on hover. You can also personalize the submit button copy.

What we like: Turnstile’s form is simple, but effective. You can connect Turnstile data to HubSpot, Marketo, and Pardot.

Pricing: T Requires Wistia Plus for $19/month.

15. Datanyze

Source: Datanyze

Overview: Receiving quality data is important for generating quality leads — it also helps you cut down on time spent prospecting. Datanyze collects contact information about technologies used by different companies that could become prospects.

Features: Stores, collects, and exports prospect data from LinkedIn pages and company websites, including email addresses and phone numbers.

What we like: Consolidates and organizes data.

Pricing: 90-day free trial with two paid monthly ($29 or $55 per month) and yearly ($21 or $39 per month) tiers.

16. MobileMonkey

Source: MobileMonkey

Overview: Smartphones are omnipresent. Why not reach customers via text message? MobileMonkey enables you to target leads via mobile devices and messaging.

Features: SMS promotion tools, surveys, and integration options that let you connect to top-of-funnel channels like blogs and social media to the platform.

What we like: MobileMonkey automates the process of engaging and re-engaging contacts and leads.

Pricing: Demo required for pricing information.

17. Hootsuite

Source: Hootsuite

Overview: Hootsuite enables you to monitor social profiles from one place, schedule posts in advance, and analyze social campaigns’ performance.

Features: Post scheduling , advertising tools, messenger integrations, and analytics.

What we like: Hootsuite consolidates social media activity across multiple channels.

Pricing:  Plans start at $49/month for Professional and $129/month for Team with a 30-day free trial

18. SEMrush

Source: SEMrush

Overview: It would be hard to drive qualified site leads with bad SEO. SEMrush is an SEO tool you can leverage to perform website audits and use that information to assess where you can improve in driving search traffic to lead-gen content.

Features: You can run technical SEO audits; track SERP positions; integrate with Google Analytics and other data tools, build,execute, and monitor PPC (pay-per-click) ad campaigns.. SEMrush also offers social media post scheduling for major channels.

What we like: SEMrush integrates with Google Analytics, making insights more powerful. 

Pricing: After a 7-day free trial, plans cost $99 or $199 per month dependent on features and user size.

19. ActiveCampaign

Source: ActiveCampaign

Overview: ActiveCampaign is a CRM that aims to m help users collect and organize leads. 

Features: Pipeline management, follow up and email segmentation.

What we like: You can affordably get a lot out of ActiveCampaign’s features.

Pricing: $15+/month.

20. Jotform

Source: Jotform

Overview: Every B2B website needs some sort of form for collecting data. Jotforms do exactly that  by allowing you to collect data like website visitor emails, payment information, and names.

Features: You can build professional-looking forms that integrate with email marketing services, project management boards, CRMs, cloud storage apps, and more. You can also be paid directly through your form.

What we like: Jotform has over 10,000 templates for you to choose from.

Pricing: There’s a free tier, but paid plans range from $34 to $99 per month.

How to Choose Winning B2B Lead Generation Tools

While the list of lead generation tools feels endless these days, here are a few quick things you want to keep in mind when choosing the right tools: 

• What channels are most effective for your lead generation efforts? – Which channels can be improved?
• What’s your budget for lead generation? 
• What level of ROI do you need? 
• How many users will need to use these tools?

By answering these questions, you can identify the best tools for your exact needs. For more help with lead generation, check out the offer below.

Gaining more followers on Instagram is key to successfully scaling your marketing efforts on the platform. But how do you increase followers on Instagram, especially if you have fewer than a thousand?

It’s no secret that opportunities are continuing to grow on Instagram for Business. Approximately 90% of Instagram’s 1 billion active monthly users follow a business account on the platform, and there are more than 200 million business accounts.

But here’s the deal: Unless you’re famous, it’s really hard to amass a huge following on Instagram without some hard work. It’s especially difficult if you’re a small business using Instagram marketing to gain more clients. How do you even get started?

Luckily, you can do a few things right away to collect at least 1,000 quality followers for your personal or professional Instagram account. It’s all about knowing where to invest your time and effort. In this post, we’ll discuss a few strategies to help you gain those followers, from creating a follow-worthy Instagram profile to using contests and staying true to your brand.

Before you think about optimizing your Instagram profile, it’s essential to gather the tools and resources you need to hit the ground running.

To get more followers on Instagram, you’ll need to post consistently over time while using best practices. If you’re new to Instagram marketing, this can be challenging. For that reason, we’ll first cover some general tools to help you level up, then go into actionable tips once you’ve set up and optimized your account.

Even if you’ve never tried your hand at Instagram marketing, and even if you don’t have a team of content creators, you can grow your Instagram account with the right tools. With that said, let’s jump right in.

1. Use a social media content calendar to plan your Instagram posts ahead of time.

Download a Free Content Calendar to Grow Your Instagram Followers

Most of the work of increasing your Instagram followers happens before you open the app. For one, you must plan to publish new Instagram posts consistently, and even though it’s tempting to post when inspiration strikes, it’s essential to find a rhythm that helps you capitalize on trends. Not to mention it will also help you nurture a community that will expect specific posts from you at a specific time.

Consistently planning, writing, and publishing Instagram posts will require an exceptional level of organization. For that reason, we recommend using a social media content calendar to plan your posting schedule ahead of time.

Here are some resources you can use to jumpstart your Instagram content creation process:

• What to Post on Instagram: Photo & Video Ideas to Spark Inspiration
• Best Instagram Captions: Good, Cool, Funny, & Cute
• How to Plan Your Instagram Posts [+ Free Instagram Planning Templates]

2. Use a social media management tool to schedule your posts in advance.

Get Started with HubSpot’s Social Media Tool

A social media management tool will help you post consistently without the extra work of logging into Instagram each time. If you’re serious about increasing your Instagram following while minimizing work, then you want to schedule your posts using a tool and then let the software do the rest.

Instagram has a wide variety of post types, from the traditional square photos to Stories to the more recent Reels. This wide variety gives us a lot of options for growing our followers, but can be daunting or overwhelming without a tool to help. You can always post manually, but scheduling your posts in advance can help you leverage these content formats more effectively.

Here are more articles to help you choose the right tool and learn how to schedule Instagram posts:

• Best Social Media Management Tools
• Scheduling Instagram Posts: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know
• When Is the Best Time to Post on Instagram?

3. Download an Instagram for Business kit with templates and how-tos.

Download a Free Kit to Help You Grow Your Instagram Profile

A series of templates and how-to guides are an essential addition to your Instagram growth toolbox. HubSpot’s kit will allow you to expedite content creation and stay on top of Instagram’s latest trends, including its recent shift from static photos to short videos.

Having this on hand is helpful especially if you’re new to Instagram content creation, or don’t know how and where to start. At this point, you should also arm yourself with tips and tricks for Instagram. Here are a few articles to help you out:

• Instagram Features, Hacks, & Tips Everyone Should Know About
• Free Instagram Post Templates for Your Brand

4. Make your account into a business profile.

While you could technically grow using just a personal profile, we recommend turning your account into an Instagram business profile, or starting one anew. This will give you access to Instagram Insights, which will allow you to understand how quickly your following is growing and how well your strategy is working.

Even if you only plan to become an independent content creator, you should still consider operating your account as if it were a business.

To switch from a personal to a business account, take the following steps:

• On the Instagram app, go to your profile.
• Tap the Menu hamburger button on the upper right-hand corner.
• Tap Settings on the pop-up.
• Tap Account.
• At the bottom, tap Switch to professional account.

You’ll then have the option to switch entirely to a business account or to stay as a professional account.

5. Customize your Instagram for Business profile.

Next, customize your Instagram profile to make it look good. Tell your potential followers who you are, and give them a reason to follow you.

How? Start by making sure your username is recognizable and easily searchable – like your business name. In the example below, The Journal Shop uses the username @thejournalshop.

If your business name is already taken, try keeping your business name as the first part of your username so that people searching for your business are more likely to come across you. For example, the Australian activewear line Lorna Jane uses the username @lornajaneactive.

Below are more Instagram profile optimization tips.

Step 1. Choose a profile picture that’s on-brand with your other social networks, like your company logo.

Step 2. Fill your bio with delightful, actionable, and information about your brand. Information like this lets people know what you’re about and gives them a reason to follow you. Include who you are and what you do, and be sure to add a hint of personality.

Here are a few examples for inspiration:

• @cheekbonebeauty: “Less waste. Ethical and safe ingredients.”
• @oreo: “Playful moments from your favorite cookie.”
• @mrsbrittanyhennessy: “Helping Influencers go beyond #sponcon and create sustainable businesses.”
• @CalifiaFarms: “Something different, something better. Let us show you what plants can do.”
• @coragedolls: “Elevating, educating, & encouraging girls of color to be unstoppable with dolls that finally look like her.”

Step 3. Add a link tree to your bio to make it easy for people to go straight from Instagram to your other platforms if they want to. The space allotted for URLs is precious real estate. When you receive 10,000 followers, you can add links to your Instagram Stories.

Until then, your bio is the only place within Instagram where you can place clickable links, so use it wisely (ever heard the line “link in bio”?). We recommend using a shortened, customized Bitly link to make it more clickable.

Step 4. Enable notifications so you can see when people share or comment on your photos. This’ll let you engage with them more quickly — just like a lot of companies do on Twitter. To enable notifications, go to “Options” and then “Push Notification Settings.” Select “From Everyone” for every category.

A word to the wise: We don’t recommend you link your Instagram account to Twitter and Facebook (or other social media platforms) for automatic posts. Because every platform caters to a different audience and requires different types of posts.

6. Designate an experienced content creator.

Just like there should be one (maybe two) people managing your other social media accounts, there should only be one or two people managing your Instagram account.

If possible, choose someone with experience on the platform who will “get” it — and be sure they stay updated on all new features Instagram has to offer from Reels to Instagram Shopping.

That said, you can also learn how to become a content creator for Instagram by learning how to become a digital creator, downloading content creation templates, and pursuing an Instagram Marketing certification.

Learn How to Increase Followers with HubSpot’s Free Instagram Marketing Course

Alternatively, you can hire freelance content creators from marketplaces such as:

• Upwork
• Fiverr
• People Per Hour

As to what gets specifically posted: You’ll have a lot of freedom if you’re an entrepreneur or solo professional. If you work for a large organization, you might find that a lot of people want a say in what’s posted. That’s when an organized social media request form or guidelines document comes in handy.

This document should inform people how to request a post on your Instagram account, when to post it, what the value of the post is, and why your company should post it.

7. Follow photography and editing best practices.

On Instagram, post quality matters. A lot. Your Twitter followers might forgive a few bad tweets, but a bad photo on Instagram is a big no-no.

Fortunately, you don’t have to take a photography course to be a good Instagram poster — nor do you have to practice for weeks before you start. But you should get familiar with basic photography tips and photo editing apps.

Photography Best Practices

Since Instagram is a mobile app, chances are, some content you post to Instagram will be taken on your mobile device. That’s expected.

If your budget allows, consider investing in professional photography for your Instagram photos, as that will elevate your profile. Otherwise, a smartphone and a few editing apps will do.

• Focus on one subject at a time.
• Embrace negative space.
• Find interesting perspectives.
• Look for symmetry.
• Capture small details.
• Make your followers laugh.

Edit photos before you post.

Instagram has some basic editing capabilities, but oftentimes, they aren’t adequate to make visuals really great.

Most of your photos should go through at least one or two photo editing apps on your mobile phone before you open them on Instagram. Some options include:

• Canva
• Photoshop Express
• VSCO Cam

Create an Instagram theme.

Additionally, consider creating a cohesive Instagram theme across your feed, so anyone visiting your account for the first time can get a sense of your brand. The below example from the @the.plottery uses similar typography and purple colors all throughout.

8. Adhere to a regular posting schedule.

Once you’ve created and optimized your profile, have someone managing it, and have your creative assets ready, it’s time to start posting. We’ve already shared some resources to get started, but it’s worth going it over again, because posting consistently is what will have the largest impact on your follower count.

It’s a good idea to have a solid number of great posts up — maybe 15 or so — before you start engaging people and working down this list. That way, when people visit your profile, they’ll see a full screen of photos and will know you’ll post great content regularly.

If you haven’t already, download this social media content calendar template and plan out your posts. It’s best to build a backlog of content ready a few days or weeks ahead of the publishing date.

This will ensure you always have content during holidays, vacations, and even creative blocks.

Keep your target persona in mind as you plan out your posting schedule, as that can drastically impact your posting timing and frequency — especially if you’re targeting an audience in a different time zone. (Download this free template for creating buyer personas if you don’t have a few already.)

Optimizing your schedule for your specific audience might take time and experimentation.

Experiment with these times and days to see what works with your audience. You may find that your target users are most active and engaged at different times.

9. Allow outside contributors to curate your content.

Although it’s best to have only one or two people manning your account, one or two people can’t be everywhere at once taking photos. What about that fun sushi night the engineers had last night? Or the event your head of sales spoke at earlier this week?

There’s a whole breadth of content you’ll want to post to Instagram, and more often than not, one person won’t be able to keep track of it all.

One solution? Create a system where you can curate photos and content from members of your team.

There are a few ways to do this. The first option is to create a specific email address for employees to send their photos, short videos, memes, hyper-lapses, and so on.

Encourage people to add a descriptive subject line so you can easily sort through the content they’re sending. While this doesn’t seem like the smoothest way to curate photos, it’s actually the easiest for the people sending you photos — and the easier you can make it for them to send content, the more content you’ll get.

If your team shares a Box or Dropbox account, you could also create a shared folder where people can automatically drop their photos and videos.

10. Use a consistent, platform-specific brand voice.

Photos and videos might be the most important part of your Instagram posts, but captions, comments, and other text should never be an afterthought. If you’re building a brand on Instagram or have more than one Instagram manager, consider developing a consistent voice that humanizes your brand.

This shows potential followers that you are credible and relatable, rather than formal or intimidating.

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by theSkimm (@theskimm)

When developing a voice, you should keep the platform and your audience in mind.

For example, many influencers and prominent accounts on Instagram have a very casual voice and style but remain professional and on-brand. Once you’ve got your voice down, make sure it stays consistent and natural in your captions, comments, messages, and your bio.

11. Write engaging, shareable captions.

Captions are an essential part of your post — the icing on the cake if you will. Consistently great captions can do wonders for humanizing your brand, winning over followers, and making your content more shareable — thereby giving you more exposure.

Here are a few things you might see in a winning Instagram caption:

• Clever or witty comments
• Calls to action
• Relevant emojis
• Hashtags

Clever or Witty Comments

Some brands and influencers have used clever or witty captions, or even audience-appropriate jokes to further humanize themselves on Instagram.

My colleague Kelly Hendrickson, HubSpot’s social media team manager, says that she loves Netflix’s account and sub-accounts, particularly because of the post captions.

“They have such a clear brand voice, and you laugh along with them. They’re in on the joke, just like one of your friends,” she says.

Netflix’s voice is casual, trendy, and humorous while still staying on brand.

In the post above, the caption is funny, authentic, and relatable.

Calls to Action

Another way to increase the shareability of your caption and engage your followers is to ask questions or have some sort of call-to-action in the captions of your photos.

For example, you might write, “Double-tap if you find this funny,” or “share your story in the comments.”

In the example below, we asked followers of the HubSpot Instagram account to drop a tip on measuring social media ROI:

Relevant Emojis

Adding just a few relevant emojis can add even more personality to your posts. It could also make them even more noticeable on an Instagram feed. Many content creators and brands include witty text with relevant emojis to make the post pop. For instance, @ugarteaurelia uses taco emojis to highlight the topic of her post (tacos, of course).

Along with the three items listed above, you’ll also want to include hashtags.

12. Optimize posts with relevant hashtags.

On Instagram, a hashtag ties conversations from different users who wouldn’t already be connected into a single stream. If you use relevant Instagram hashtags, your posts will gain exposure to a wider audience and help you become discoverable to potential customers.

The key to using hashtags effectively is to be selective and use them sparingly. Try to limit the number of hashtags per caption to around three. Similarly, don’t use “like for like” hashtags, like #like4like or #like4likes.

This is a shortcut tactic that’ll only leave you with low-quality followers.

To find the hashtags your audience might be using, do a little research on relevant hashtags in your niche or industry. The easiest way to do this research is in the Instagram app itself, in the Explore tab (i.e., the magnifying glass icon).

When you search for one hashtag, it’ll show you a list of related hashtags at the top of your screen.

For example, when I search for #digitalmarketingstrategy on Instagram, it shows me relevant hashtags like #digitalmarketingexpert, #digitalmarketing, and so on.

To help relate to your followers on a personal level, you might consider hopping on hashtag trends like #tbt (“Throwback Thursday”), #MotivationMonday, #TransformationTuesday, or other trending hashtags.

Once you build up a following, you can try creating your own hashtags — like your company name or a slogan that applies to your content. This is a great way to build up your brand on the platform and build a more cohesive presence.

13. Lean into trending content formats.

With the arrival of TikTok on the social media scene, short-form videos have become one of the most effective content formats on social media.

In fact, according to a HubSpot Blog survey, 85% of marketers who use short-form videos find them to be the most effective content format. And 95% of marketers who leverage short-form videos plan to increase their investment or continue investing the same amount in the following year.

That’s why it’s important to lean into trending content formats. After TikTok, Instagram came out with IG Reels, and this feature is a great way to post funny, relatable content.

When Instagram comes out with new tools, like IG Reels, don’t be afraid to use those features because they can help you gain Instagram followers.

14. Post content your followers want to see.

To gain your first 1,000 followers on Instagram, it’s important to know who your audience is. Once you’ve created your Instagram account, you should take note of which posts perform best.

Is it interactive content, behind-the-scenes stories, funny and relatable posts, or something else? When you have a general idea of what performs best, continue to create that type of content.

Additionally, Instagram has many tools and features you can use: IG Reels, Instagram Stories, Instagram Live, Highlights, etc. Begin by posting several types of content formats and see which one does best. Then, come up with a strategy and master that one tool. Doing so will help you create content your followers want to see and gain new followers.

15. Promote your Instagram.

Like the old adage about a tree falling in a forest, if you start an Instagram account without promoting it, is the account even real yet? Well, yes. But, you’ll have fewer followers.

One of the best ways to gain followers is to promote your Instagram account. Embed posts in your blogs, post on your other social media platforms, and share social links in your email newsletters. A great way to gain followers on one platform is to ask current followers on other platforms if they want to follow you somewhere else as well.

Additionally, to promote your Instagram, it’s important to get started with Instagram promotions and ads. This will help you reach a wider audience. I know it might seem like ads are only effective for selling certain products, but I’ve followed several business accounts because of a sponsored post I saw.

Here are a few articles to get you started:

• A Step-by-Step Guide to Advertising on Instagram
• The Guide to Instagram Ad Costs
• Instagram Ad Specs & Sizes: an Updated Guide
• The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Stories Ads

16. Engage with users through follows, likes, and comments.

Instagram is very much a community, and one great way to get involved in that community is to find people who post pictures that interest you, follow their accounts and interact with their content. It’s the most natural way to draw attention to your own Instagram account.

This accomplishes two things: for one, when they get the notification that you’ve followed them, there’s a good chance they’ll check out your profile. This goes back to the importance of having great content on your account before you start reaching out to others.

Secondly, it means you’ll be seeing their recent posts in your feed, so you can Like and interact with them if you choose to.

As you build a following, celebrate your followers by responding to and pinning their comments, and even reposting their posts for user-generated content.

17. Cross-promote with influencers and brands with similar audiences.

Once you build rapport with the folks behind accounts with similar audiences to your own, consider collaborating with them.

Partnering with Instagram influencers and brands helps with discoverability, reach, and social proof.

For instance, influencer @lavishlyjackie posted a sponsored video with Olive Ateliers. The vintage shopping brand then used the video in their collateral.

With this partnership, both accounts can expand their reach and gain new followers. It’s a win-win. However, be sure to create content that seems natural and makes sense for your brands and collective audience.

18. Run Instagram contests to encourage engagement.

Another great way to expand your reach while increasing engagement with your photos is to run an Instagram contest or giveaway. As part of your contest, you can ask users to follow your account, like, and/or comment on the post to be eligible to win.

I mean, come on. Who doesn’t love winning free stuff?

You can also add a user-generated content (UGC) element to the contest, too, where people post a photo of their own and use a specific hashtag.

19. Explore Instagram Stories’ interactive features.

Instagram has always given brands the platform to share beautiful, curated photos to represent their companies.

However, with the introduction of ephemeral Instagram Stories, brands can also share on-the-fly, behind-the-scenes looks for 24 hours that may not be as polished as a published photo, but give your brand more personality on the platform.

Just look at how Snapchat exploded a few years ago. Once platforms like Instagram and Facebook introduced similar features, it made those apps more valuable and interesting in the eyes of users. Although Snapchat pioneered this feature, Instagram Stories now has over 500 million daily users.

Along with sharing video clips and static images through Instagram Stories, users can also use polls, event reminders, and the “Ask a Question,” tool to gain more engagement and learn more about their audiences.

Once a user is verified or has over 10,000 followers, they can even include a link to a webpage within a story.

How Brands Can Use Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories disappear after 24 hours unless they are marked as a “Story Highlight.”

Highlighted stories will show up at the top of your profile between the photo feed and your bio.

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Here are a few other brands we recommend following to see what they’re sharing:

Dana Shultz (@minimalistbaker) publishes easy vegan and gluten-free recipes on her blog. Her Stories feature neat how-to videos of her making breakfast and testing out new recipes in her kitchen. The behind-the-scenes aspect of her Stories provides a lot of human context for her blog’s brand, and everybody loves a good how-to video.

Casper publishes quirky Instagram content to advertise their mattresses — without overtly doing so. The main theme of their content? Staying in is better than going out (because you can stay in and lay on a comfy Casper mattress, naturally).

They’ve even created a gallery for followers to use as backdrops for their Snapchat and Instagram stories to make it look like they’re out at a party when in reality, they’re laying in bed.

One of their latest Instagram Stories featured someone watching “The Sopranos” in bed, with the caption: “Who needs plans when you have five more seasons?”

This video supports Casper’s campaign to stay in bed with a very real look at what millions of people do when they’re hanging out at home.

Here are our tips for using Instagram Stories for your brand:

• Whether it’s funny, sad, or unique, be authentic. Your photo gallery is where content can be perfect and polished. Instagram Stories are for the raw, unscripted, and unretouched. Use Stories to share the other side of your brand that followers might not be able to see elsewhere. Do you have a dog-friendly office? Is your team trying out the latest challenge? Start filming to showcase the more human side of your brand.
• Go behind the scenes. These are by far our favorite types of content for ephemeral video sharing. Show followers what goes into the planning of an event or the launching of a product, and make it fun. Your followers want to feel included and in the know. You could also use Stories to cultivate a brand loyalty program that only rewards people who check out your content.

20. Use the Instagram Live feature.

Instagram also lets users record and share Live videos, another content format that’s proven to be hugely popular on other social networks. What’s unique about Live videos on Instagram? They disappear when users stop filming.

This authentic, bi-directional experience lets brands share unscripted, raw moments with their audience to incorporate human elements into a social media platform that’s highly edited and polished in its traditional use.

Since the Live feature launched, Instagram has added even more features that may enable further engagement or interactions from viewers, such as:

• Request feature to go live with the live account
• Pinned comment
• Q&A box
• Up to four accounts on Live at a time
• Filters

Live video is a growing trend across a variety of social media platforms, so if something interesting is happening, start rolling. Whether it’s an event, a team birthday party, or behind-the-scenes footage, your devoted followers want to see what you’re up to.

And if you want to make it even more interesting, you could collaborate with an influencer or another brand to host a Live. With people that your audience is interested in, you can promote this Live event, and then host it on your profile.

Promoting this type of event will help you tap into someone else’s audience while interacting and engaging with your followers by answering their questions and talking to them during the Live.

21. Share your profile link on your website and social media channels.

Have a website? Newsletter? YouTube channel? Make sure you include a link to your Instagram on every single platform.

The first place you’ll want to make sure to add an Instagram badge is your website, specifically your footer and “About Us” page.

Here’s what the badge could look like:

If your brand has brick-and-mortar locations, put out a good ol’ print call-to-action letting people know you have an Instagram account and encouraging them to follow you. You can also place them on your business cards. You might even offer a discount code for doing so.

Also, be sure to promote your Instagram account on your other digital platforms. Chances are, the folks who already follow you on Facebook and Twitter will also follow you on Instagram without much prodding.

Let those followers know you’re on Instagram and encourage them to follow you there.

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In this example, wine company The McBride Sisters encouraged their email subscribers to follow them on Instagram with a simple CTA: “Join the community.”

22. Post user-generated content.

Similar to cross-promotion, brands can publish user-generated content to show appreciation for existing customers and generate social proof at the same time.

If I see a regular person endorsing a product on Instagram, I’m more likely to believe they really like the product.

The same is true for most consumers. That’s why sites like Yelp are so popular.

Ultimately, user-generated content can be an excellent strategy when trying to increase brand awareness and trust in your products or services.

For instance, Bevel reposted a video from blogger Rickey Scott using and recommending their products to their 600+ followers.

Posting Scott using Bevel is a smart move.

Firstly, the product is designed with black men in mind. Having Scott, who is part of the brand’s target demographic, recommend the product serves as the social proof the brand wants.

Furthermore, part of Scott’s audience will likely fall within Bevel’s target audience. Simply put, the two brands have similar audiences and brands that align well, which is why it’s a good opportunity for Bevel to promote Scott’s content.

23. Diversify your audience to resonate with different types of users.

As your followers grow, it can be tricky to identify what content types will resonate with them. With this in mind, divide your audience into sub-groups and target your content to various demographics.

For instance, if you have 200K followers, those followers probably come from different regions of the world, have different interests and hobbies, and likely have different careers. Rather than post all-encompassing content that will satisfy all your followers at once, conduct some analytics research to separate them into smaller sub-groups.

Take Starbucks as a good example of this. Starbucks has millions of followers. There’s no way the global coffee brand can post content to satisfy millions of people at once — and it doesn’t try to.

Instead, Starbucks regularly posts more exclusive content geared towards particular groups, such as this post they published showing a typical work day at a Starbucks location:

This post won’t appeal to the majority of Starbucks followers who don’t work from home, but that’s OK.

You don’t always need to post content to please everyone. Instead, demonstrate your company’s ability to connect and engage with sub-groups and post what aligns with your own brand’s values.

Creating a work-friendly atmosphere is something that matters to Starbucks, so by posting about coffee shop work days, they’re doing more to demonstrate their values than they are appealing to everyone. Which is kind of the point, isn’t it?

24. Apply for a verification badge.

When an account on Instagram is verified, it has a blue dot, called a badge, next to the username. When another user comes across this profile or finds the verified username in search, the blue dot confirms to them that the account is the business, individual, or brand that it’s claiming to be. Author @angiethomas has one such badge.

While Instagram has a list of eligibility requirements for the badge, the platform does allow users to apply for one. You can learn more about that process on Instagram’s Help Center.

25. Create your own filters and badges.

When it’s time to promote a new product or feature, creating your own filters, stickers, or badges can help you reach a new audience. You can learn how to create your own filter or sticker to jazz up your Instagram Stories.

The best way to do this is to use these on highly shareable posts that followers will want to add to their own Stories. This way, you’ll reach their audiences and your users will promote your page for you.

26. Tag relevant users.

Another way to gain more followers on Instagram is to tag relevant users in your posts. Your posts will then show up in that person’s tagged posts, and anyone who looks through there will find your page (and hopefully, follow).

However, it’s important that you only tag people who are in the photo, or relevant to the photo. For example, many times, influencers tag the clothing or makeup brands they wore in a photo.

27. Post content that’s meant to be re-shared.

Each post on your Instagram should have a purpose. It could be to generate likes, comments, engagement, shares, etc. However, you can’t expect followers to re-share content just for the heck of it. There needs to be a reason.

Because of this, reverse engineer your Instagram posts. Think, “What type of content would my audience re-share?” Then, create that content. It could be a quote, a meme, an infographic, statistics, etc.

To gain new followers, you should post content that’s meant to be re-shared, so that when others do re-share it on their own Instagram Stories and tag you, their audience will find you and follow you.

28. Get on the Instagram Explore page.

Getting on the Instagram Explore page is easier said than done. We get that. However, creating posts that are aimed at getting on the Explore page means you’ll be creating easily shareable and trendy content.

Think about viral trends and create a video that your audience might engage with. Additionally, use hashtags and tag other users and brands in those posts.

Instagram’s Explore Page algorithm also seems to grab content that has more engagement, especially if said engagement happens in the first few hours of posting. In Instagram’s case, quality is better than quantity, and getting interaction from influential users (i.e. having a higher follower count) is one of the best ways to do it.

29. Share educational content with Instagram carousels.

Similar to creating content that’s meant to be re-shared, you can also create educational content in the form of Instagram carousel posts. Instagram carousels have become a popular way to educate audiences on an idea or topic.

Think about what you can educate your audience on and then create a simple Instagram carousel post with an engaging title that entices users to click on the post.

With this type of content, you can share the post on your Stories, and then hopefully other users will be compelled by the content to share on their Stories as well.

30. Host an Instagram account takeover.

When you’re collaborating with influencers and other brands, think about hosting an Instagram account takeover. You can have an influencer take over your Stories for the day, and promote this on their own Stories.

Then, you’ll get their followers to follow along with the Stories and hopefully follow your account.

Additionally, you can ask an influencer or brand if you can take over their Stories, and interact with their audience as a way to promote your own account.

Quality Over Quantity Still Matters

Ultimately, it’s important to focus less on the number of followers you have, and more on the quality of content you create. Your audience will grow naturally if you put effort and time into creating engaging, informative, or inspirational content without worrying about “quick fixes” for boosts in followers.

You want to play the long game on Instagram, and that starts with focusing on what you can control: the quality of the content you produce, the messages you promote, and the brand you build.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in February 2016 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Calls-to-action (CTAs) are a crucial part of your marketing arsenal. You need effective CTAs to convert website visitors into leads. CTAs prompt your audience to take an action in their lifecycle that actually benefits them — and the growth of your business.

In addition to your CTA’s copy, its design needs to grab people’s attention. That’s why we created 28 free call-to-action (CTA) templates in PowerPoint for you to customize and use. Don’t let the fear of DIY design stop you. The template will teach you how to customize your new CTAs effectively.

This post will give you a sneak peek into a large set of designs available in the template. Download it now and follow along.

Download Now: 28 Free CTA Templates

Best Free Call-to-Action Templates

Struggling to create engaging CTA designs or just looking for some inspiration? Here are some of the best free call-to-action templates that can help you.

1. Basic Calls-to-Action

Sometimes you just need a quick and clean button that helps drive conversions.

Building a landing page that requires a customized submit button? Working on a website page that needs to drive visitors to a coupon? Drafting a blog post that needs a “read more” button after the summary? We’ve got you covered.

Here are some template examples for basic CTAs.

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2. Contextualized Calls-to-Actions

You’ve seen some basic CTA options thus far. The next set of CTA templates call on you to include more context.

Here are two sample designs available in the template.

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These designs are created to further explain the value of taking action. Just be sure to keep the overall layout of the button simple so that users can easily see the action you’re calling on them to take.

3. Photo and Mobile Device Calls-to-Action

Photos can serve as a great asset when creating your call-to-action designs. Not to mention it’s super easy because all you have to do is overlay some text.

Photos make it easy to humanize and customize your messages for your brand and audience.

Here are three sample CTA designs from the bunch.

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Similarly, mobile and desktop devices can help make your action “pop.” Rather than including a screenshot of your product, try putting that screenshot on a kindle to show it in action.

If you have trouble locating copyright-free photos, you can download our free stock photos resource. No attribution is required; just download and use.

4. Qualifying Calls-to-Actions

When you’re trying to nurture a lead further down the funnel, you want to ensure you’re presenting CTAs to qualify them for your sales team.

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For these CTAs, it’s essential that they are welcoming and not pushy. Having a great design can help you naturally move your leads further down your marketing funnel.

Here are two examples from the templates you could customize to help convert a lead to marketing qualified lead.

Crafting Your CTAs

Not sure how to exactly save and use these templates? Don’t worry. Your download of these 28 templates will include step-by-step instructions on how to save and use these templates on your website.

Soon you’ll be grabbing customers’ attention and driving leads.

Welcome to HubSpot Marketing News! Tap in for campaign deep dives, the latest marketing industry news, and tried-and-true insights from HubSpot’s media team.

Coachella didn’t start off as the Met Gala for influencers.

The festival was first held in October 1999 and was intended to be an accessible event for alternative music fans. Held just three months after the infamous Woodstock ‘99, the first Coachella had an audience of just 25,000 people and failed to make a profit, costing organizers nearly $1 million.

After taking a year off, Coachella made its comeback in April 2001. While Coachella began picking up popularity in its first decade, the 2010s ushered in a distinctly new era for the festival and it became a profitable and style-defining event.

So, what changed?

In its first few years, Coachella featured predominantly alternative artists, with headliners like Beck and Rage Against the Machine. By the 2010s, mainstream artists including Jay-Z, Lady Gaga, and Beyonce started drawing bigger crowds.

What started as a single-day event evolved into a six-day festival spanning over consecutive weekends.  By 2016, there were over 99,000 attendees at Coachella each weekend — combined to be nearly 10x the attendance of the first event.

How Influencer Marketing Changed Coachella

The rise of social media also had a major impact on Coachella’s growth. Influencer culture and “festival fashion” became nearly synonymous with the event.

As content creators and celebrities began attending Coachella in droves, what they wore nearly overshadowed what was happening on stage. Brands, particularly brands that relied on influencer marketing, began leveraging Coachella as a pivotal part of their business strategies.

In 2015 and 2016 H&M partnered with Coachella organizers to launch #HMLovesCoachella, a clothing collection that captures the boho aesthetic the festival is known for. H&M also hosted a pop-up shop at the 2016 festival where attendees could purchase the clothes on-site.

Perhaps no company has used Coachella as an influencer marketing tool as heavily as the LA-based clothing company Revolve.

How Revolve Uses Influencer Marketing at Coachella to Drive Revenue

It’s reported that nearly 70% of the company’s sales come from influencers, and experiential marketing with content creators at events like Coachella is a core revenue driver.

Since 2015, Revolve has hosted Revolve Festival, an invite-only party for celebrities and influencers.

Over the years Revolve Festival has made headlines for partnering with celebrity brands like Kendall Jenner’s 818 Tequila and Hailey Bieber’s Rhode Beauty, and for last year’s transportation issues that left influencers comparing the party to 2017’s disastrous Fyre Festival.  

Despite the controversy, Revolve Festival, combined with content distributed by influencers dressed in Revolve’s clothes, has helped the brand generate an astounding five billion social and media impressions.

Between sponsors throwing money at the opportunity to have their brands seen at the event, and influencers turning their experiences into content for their followers, Coachella has gone from a modest music festival to a $1+ billion marketing machine.

Elsewhere in Marketing

The latest marketing news and strategy insights.

Instagram is now letting users put up to five links in their bio.

YouTube is ending its in-video shopping feature.

Twitter gives Twitter Blue subscribers the ability to monetize their popular tweets.

Google is reportedly working on an AI-powered search engine to compete with Bing and OpenAI.

AI in content marketing: the HubSpot blog recently surveyed a group of marketers to learn how they’re using AI in their processes.