Categories B2B

AI Marketing Campaigns Only a Bot Could Launch & Which Tools Pitch the Best Ones [Product Test]

If you’re like most marketers, you’ve tried out a generative AI tool. You’ve played around with ChatGPT to generate headlines. Yet, these fragmented use cases don’t capture the full power of deploying AI strategically. In five years, many companies will be creating AI marketing campaigns.

According to McKinsey & Co., 90% of commercial leaders believe their organizations should use generative AI often, yet only 20% do. While individual teams are testing AI in small ways, most teams aren’t comfortable enough with the technology yet to use it for higher thinking or strategy.

Free Report: The State of Artificial Intelligence in 2023

Let’s take a look at how to create an AI marketing campaign: what the possibilities and limitations are, as well as what tools will give you the best results.

Table of Contents

Benefits of Creating an AI Marketing Campaign

First, why would you want to create an AI marketing campaign in the first place? Most of us associate higher-level strategy and thinking as a solely human function, but AI is becoming more competent in this area.

Think about how AI tools are trained: They use machine learning to analyze the top-performing campaigns across email, social media, and search results.

They use big data to find and replicate the top marketing campaigns, borrowing from their format and syntax while giving you an original campaign idea.

While they can’t ever replace human originality, they can help humans do their best work. Here’s why you should give AI marketing campaigns a try.

1. Launch Campaigns Fast

The best marketing campaigns take weeks, if not months, to develop. Or do they?

AI marketing campaigns help teams move from concept to execution in a matter of hours — saving valuable time and making it possible to react quickly to changes in your market.

Today, marketers work on an average of five campaigns at a time. This speed could be a game-changer.

2. Spark Fresh Ideas

AI tools may not give you an ADDY-winning campaign idea the first time or even the fifth time. Together with its prompter (that’s you), it can serve as a creative springboard to move through mediocre ideas to find an epic one.

Marketer Joe Lazer Lazauskas recently wrote about this phenomenon in The Storytelling Edge newsletter.

“Tools like ChatGPT allow us to have brainstorming sessions on-demand. It’s like having a thousand co-workers trapped inside your computer, eagerly waiting to yell ideas at you—except their ideas will probably be better,” Lazauskas writes.

3. Drive Revenue

Research by McKinsey & Co. found that companies who invest in AI are seeing a revenue boost of 3-15% and a sales ROI boost of 10-20%.

Though many factors determine how effective an AI marketing campaign will be, there’s evidence that strategic, consistent deployment can boost the bottom line.

7 Ways to Use Generative AI in Your Marketing Campaigns

Rather than feeding ChatGPT prompts like “Give me 10 headline ideas about…” put on your strategist hat for a minute. What do you need to know to produce a great marketing campaign?

  • Who the audience is
  • What your key messages or differentiators are
  • What you want the audience to do
  • Your tone or writing style

Once you feed this high-level information to the tool, it’s ready to start producing ideas and won’t waste your time on campaign pitches that miss the mark. At this point, you can ask artificial intelligence to brainstorm:

  • AI campaign ideation. Ask AI to pitch an overall concept and hook for your campaign before building out individual content assets
  • AI social media campaigns. Use AI to write a social media marketing campaign for you. In addition to suggesting a post, AI tools can describe an image, targeting parameters, and even a budget for your marketing campaign.
  • AI advertising on Google Search. Envision a Google search campaign by researching keywords and asking AI to pitch you a PPC campaign complete with copy and targeting demographics.
  • AI email campaigns. Build out an email series or email campaign by feeding your AI tool your call-to-action, demographics, and key messages.
  • AI blog campaigns. Attract potential leads and save time with starter blog content for your website.
  • AI commercials and video marketing. While AI video production is still in its early stages, you can absolutely request marketing campaign concepts and video scripts for just about anything.
  • AI landing pages. Finally, make sure your campaign can convert by building out a landing page with messaging that matches your ad content. Keep your concept consistent from end to end to engage readers.

Starting to see the possibilities? Now, let’s get down to looking at the best tools where you can build your AI marketing campaign.

5 AI Tools [Reviewed] To Add To Your Marketers’ Arsenal

The flood of AI tools entering the market is more than a little mind-boggling.

To help you focus your time, I compared several of the top tools in a head-to-head test to see which creates the best marketing campaign. It’s like having your own bevy of ad agencies pitching you campaigns.

Let’s see how each one performed in our fictional campaigns.

Campaign Assistant by HubSpot

One barrier to implementing AI effectively is that the tools are so vast that they can be difficult to understand and use. This campaign assistant by HubSpot is designed exclusively for creating marketing campaigns and is virtually foolproof.

The campaign assistant asks you specific questions about your audience, your messages, your writing style, and your CTA, so you don’t miss anything important.

Tell the campaign assistant which campaign asset you want it to create. Then, you’re ready to go.

To put Campaign Assistant to the test, we fed it a fictional use case for an ecommerce brand that sells sustainable bags and luggage.

AI Email Campaign with Campaign Assistant

First, I selected a marketing email and put in my prompts for the campaign. I described my business and three key messages that I want my audience to know.

Then, I gave a desired action and up to three descriptors to create a writing style. I asked for a witty and confident tone.

Here’s the email that campaign assistant sent back. It shares a catchy subject line and pre-header, three paragraphs that hit my three main points, and an “Order Now” button at the bottom.

The email needs a little tweaking to make the writing tighter and more personalized, but it’s a good start.

AI Google Search Ad Campaign with Campaign Assistant

To continue the test, I asked the campaign assistant to convert this campaign into a Google Search ad campaign. I didn’t have to input the information again — HubSpot’s campaign assistant simply converted it over for me.

The result? Short and sweet Google ad content in preview mode as it would appear on Google. If I want to use it, I can simply copy/paste it over to Google Ads.

AI Social Media Campaign with Campaign Assistant

Finally, I asked the campaign assistant to create a social media campaign for Facebook.

The tool can also create campaigns for LinkedIn and Instagram (launching soon).

The platform suggested three ads with a headline and body copy for me to review and placed them in a preview pane.

While the images are just placeholders, it’s useful to envision how it might look.

Once you have a campaign draft you’re happy with or ready to edit outside the platform, you can copy/paste it in one click or publish it if you’re a HubSpot user.

Honorable mention: Content Assistant by HubSpot

While we always recommend strategy first, there’s also a benefit to ideating in the same space where you produce your content. This helps you see your campaign in layout and tweak the designs in real time.

That’s where HubSpot’s other AI tool can come in handy. Content assistant is generative AI built into HubSpot’s layout and publishing tool.

If you use HubSpot for email marketing or landing page creation, you can strategize, create, and publish all in the same window.

ChatGPT by OpenAI

ChatGPT is likely the most well-known AI tool, with more than 100 million users.

We tested it to see how it handles marketing campaign requests, giving it the same ecommerce campaign prompt.

Since ChatGPT doesn’t have a plug-and-play prompt feature like campaign assistant, I fed it the information in natural language prompts (see the example below). This test used ChatGPT version 3.5. Here’s the marketing campaign it created.

AI Email Campaign with ChatGPT

The first iteration of the email campaign that ChatGPT had some good lines (“Hey there, Eco-Explorer!”) and endearing emojis but was far too long for an ecommerce email. So, I asked ChatGPT to cut the length in half.

The final result was more scannable and still conversational. It even created a discount code for my campaign, EARTH25.

AI Google Search Ad Campaign with ChatGPT

To make my campaign cross-channel, I prompted ChatGPT to repurpose my campaign for Google search.

The tool brainstormed three ad groups for me and three ads within each group. The headlines aren’t bad. The output also includes the main keywords and discounts needed to draw a click.

Beyond the ad copy, ChatGPT can also recommend parameters to make your PPC campaign a success. It recommends ad extensions, a bidding strategy, and best practices.

AI Social Media Campaign with ChatGPT

Finally, I asked ChatGPT to convert this campaign into a companion ad campaign on Facebook.

ChatGPT produced social media copy that was similar to its email campaign draft. However, it also recommended an image, a CTA better suited for Facebook, and four hashtags for my post.

ChatGPT gave me three ad alternatives and some basic campaign details about my audience and campaign objective. It’s somewhat vague, but you could follow up with some additional prompts to get extra targeting recommendations.

LLaMA 2 by Meta

If you haven’t heard of this one, you aren’t alone. Released quietly in mid-2023, LLaMA 2 is Meta’s large language model (LLM), which is free and open to the public.

Unlike ChatGPT or Google Bard, LLaMA 2 is open-source, allowing users to flag and fix potential issues. To chat with LLaMA 2 on a browser, I used Chat Arena.

AI Email Campaign with LLaMA 2

First, I fed LLaMA 2 the exact same prompt as Campaign Assistant and ChatGPT asking for an email campaign. The email could use a shave for length but definitely delivered a witty tone.

The email came complete with emojis and a discount code suggestion but appeared to be missing a call to action — a big oversight in the email marketing realm.

AI Google Search Ad Campaign with LLaMA 2

Next, I served LLaMA 2 the challenge of converting this into a PPC campaign with the simple follow-up prompt, “Can you convert this into a Google Search ad campaign?”

First, LLaMA 2 organized my campaign into three different ad groups based on product type. Each ad within the ad groups focused on a different angle or audience, setting it up well for A/B testing.

Here’s the headline, ad copy, and CTA that LLaMA 2 wrote for the search campaign. While I can’t preview how it would look in campaign assistant, it did save me time by pulling the top keywords I can use for the campaign.

AI Social Media Ad Campaign with LLaMA 2

Finally, I asked LLaMA 2 to create a Facebook Ad campaign for me based on the campaign parameters already entered. Since LLaMA 2 was created by Facebook’s owner Meta, it’s no surprise that the results were very thorough.

LLaMA 2 gave me a target audience with suggested demographics and interests to target. The ad creative included an idea image, headline, text, four hashtags, and a CTA. It also suggests a budget of $1,000 and a 30-day duration.

The model also gave me some tips to increase sales through Facebook ads, such as running retargeting ads and creating a lookalike audience.

Want to learn more? Read the State of AI in Marketing report or visit our resources and best practices for AI marketing campaigns.

Which AI tool pitches the best marketing campaign?

Looking at these AI tools side by side, you can see that each one has its own strengths in marketing campaign creation.

Campaign Assistant by HubSpot is best for ease of use and plug-and-play capabilities that make it easy for marketers. It also gives design previews to help users visualize their campaigns and integration that saves existing HubSpot users time.

ChatGPT is likely the most flexible tool, with natural language processing enabling you to make customization requests to tweak your campaigns. Its emoji-filled copy hits the right notes, and it delivers strategy and campaign advice for paid ads.

With Meta’s influence, LLaMA 2 gives the most detailed strategy recommendations for paid ad campaigns. It also managed to pull off some wordplay that’s impressive for a machine: “Buckle up (or should we say buckle in?)”.

Just remember, AI marketing campaigns are a complement to human creativity. All three of these tools suggested very similar campaigns: images of bags and their wearers with scenic backdrops behind them.

While this is a solid idea, if every company followed it, no one would stand out. Always give the ideas a gut check against what you know about your audience and industry, and edit and tweak AI content to make it brand-perfect.

New Call-to-action

Categories B2B

Making the Most of Electronic Resumes (Pro Tips and Tricks)

I’ve submitted hundreds of electronic resumes throughout my career. These digital job applications hold so much weight in the job search process. It’s always nerve-wracking to make sure I’m doing everything right.

I always ask myself: Does this meet the submission requirements? Did I use the right font? Will my resume surpass the employer’s applicant tracking system (ATS)?

→ Download Now: 12 Resume Templates [Free Download]

If you’ve also wanted to ensure you have the highest chance of standing out and securing an interview, here’s how to make the most of electronic resumes.

Table of Contents

What is an electronic resume?

An electronic resume is any resume that’s submitted online. Employers will request electronic resumes in plain text (ASCII), HTML, or PDF.

This helps applicant tracking systems (ATSs) easily scan and decipher the hundreds of resumes they receive. To meet these standards, electronic resumes are typically created with limited design or formatting.

The Benefits of Electronic Resumes

In my experience, electronic resumes helped me refine my approach to better position myself for a job. I found that I was more likely to land an interview when

I tailored my resume to the job posting, used simple fonts, and included keywords.

Here are a few benefits of using electronic resumes.

You’ll match the ATS.

Only 30% of resumes are accepted by applicant tracking systems (ATS). But when they’re done right, ATS-approved resumes yield successful results.

When I spoke to Rodolphe Dutel, the founder of remote job board Remotive, about his experience with electronic resumes, he shared with me an incredible story.

Early in his career, he was part of a batch of new hires at Google. Dutel later learned that his electronic resume was the sole reason he landed the role.

“It just so happened that I was one of two people that were not peer-recommended,” he recalls, “meaning that my resume actually got picked up by the ATS, and they decided to contact me.”

Dutel went on to work at Buffer, where he helped grow the team from 20 to 80 people as the director of operations before founding Remotive.

If you want to match a company’s ATS and ensure your resume gets scanned, use your electronic resume to make sure you’re presenting the right information for the job.

You can focus on content.

One of the very first resumes I created was, admittedly, over the top.

I used a chunky, bright-colored font for my name, followed by weirdly formatted experience and skills sections separated by vertical and horizontal lines.

I would show you what it looked like, but I’m pretty sure I deleted it out of sheer embarrassment.

I did all of this to hide the fact that I didn’t have much work experience yet.

Looking back, it probably would’ve been better to keep it simple and focus on writing a resume that showcased my strengths. Instead, I tried to hide my lack of experience.

This is where a simple electronic resume would help. When you’re required to submit a plain text, no-frills version of your resume, you’re forced to focus on the actual skills. Write about the results you’ve achieved and can bring to a new role.

Demonstrates your ability to follow instructions.

If a job application asks you to submit a plain text version of your resume, you can guarantee that Microsoft Word Doc resumes will immediately be discarded.

Image Source

Employers look for applicants who can demonstrate their ability to pay attention to details and follow instructions.

Your resume is the first impression you make on an employer. Use your electronic submission to stand out and start your interview process off on a positive note.

How to Make an Electronic Resume

To demonstrate how to make an electronic resume, I’m going to create one for myself for a specific job posting.

Here’s a job listing for a content writer at Orchard that aligns with my skills and experience:

Image Source

Here’s how I would put together my electronic resume if I wanted to apply for this position.

1. Start with your contact information.

Your resume should start with the basics. Include your name, location (you can list this as “remote” if you’re seeking remote-only positions), and your email. You can also include your phone number.

Remember, the key to creating an electronic resume is to limit the formatting and design elements. Here’s how I’d format my contact information on my electronic resume (this isn’t my real contact information, of course):

Sam Lauron

Austin, TX, [email protected], (111) 222-3333

2. Mention your education.

If applicable, mention your education. This section typically includes the name of the school you went to, the type of degree you obtained, and any additional achievements you accomplished while in school.

Here’s how my education section would look for an electronic resume:

B.A. Mass Communication, Public Relations

Texas State University

3. Identify your target keywords.

To catch the attention of the ATS, it’s essential to use keywords that were mentioned in the job posting you’re applying to.

These keywords are what the ATS will scan for, so if your resume doesn’t mention any of the words from the job listing, it will automatically be discarded.

For example, if we take a look at the job listing for the content writer at Orchard, we can see keywords like “real estate,” “SEO best practices,” and “content strategy.”

Image Source

Using that information, these are the keywords I’d target for the specific job posting at Orchard. Aim to incorporate these keywords throughout your resume.

Notice that I capitalized the beginning of each new keyword. This helps the ATS identify them as separate phrases.

Keywords: Content writer, Content strategy, SEO marketing, SEO best practices, Content marketing, Real estate

3. Highlight your skills.

With any resume you put together, it’s important to tailor it to the job you’re applying for. This includes adjusting your skills section to match the job listing if you want to increase your chances of the ATS picking up your resume.

Here’s an overview of what types of skills the role at Orchard is looking for:

Image Source

Similar to the keywords, I can take language from this posting to generate skills I want to highlight.

Keep in mind that bullet points don’t often translate well in plain text. Instead, you can use a dash or asterisk. These are the skills I’d highlight on my electronic resume for this job.

Skills:

– Content writing

– Search engine optimization (SEO)

– Real estate industry knowledge

– Homeownership

– Writing explainer content

– Updating and optimizing content

4. Describe your work experience.

Now, time for the work experience section. You’ll do the same thing for this section as you’ve done for the last few. Use language and keywords from the job posting to describe your own experience.

Here’s the job description for the content writer role at Orchard:

Image Source

Here’s how I would translate my work experience to match the job listing. Like the skills section above, I used dashes instead of bullet points.

Work Experience:

– Write educational explainer content

– Update and optimize older articles to ensure accuracy, and improve quality and overall search rankings

– Conduct research for data-based articles

– Execute SEO best practices

Electronic Resume Tips

Based on my experience of creating an electronic resume, here are some of my tips for making the most of the digital format. I also asked Dutel for his suggested best practices.

Use keywords.

Including keywords that were mentioned in the job posting is essential.

These words and phrases are what the ATS will scan for, so if your resume doesn’t mention any of the words the system is looking for, it will be automatically discarded.

“For instance, if you’re applying to be a business analyst and the job description wants someone who is proficient with data, it is your job to understand that you’re going to have to include keywords such as VBA, Excel, and Gantt chart,” says Dutel.

While incorporating the right words and phrases is important, they have to make sense.

“Remember that an ATS is looking for keywords whereas humans are looking for [experiences] that make sense,” says Dutel.

“If you don’t have the ability to fit in the keywords in your work experience section, you can add a section at the bottom of your electronic resume for other skills and add the keywords that you think are interesting.”

Keep context in mind.

You don’t want to stuff your digital resume with keywords, as this will be obvious and unenjoyable for a recruiter to read.

Instead, your resume should be a balance of careful targeting and original content to appease both the robots and the humans who will be reviewing your resume.

“Your resume should reflect who you are as a professional and individual,” suggests Dutel. “You have to articulate your work accomplishments and your learnings in such a way that’s understandable and friendly to an ATS and understandable and friendly to HR.”

Remove formatting.

In my experience, the simpler the resume, the better.

Some applications require you to paste your resume into the application, and a resume that’s overly designed doesn’t translate the same way when it’s submitted electronically. Unless you save it as a PDF, your format won’t remain intact.

Use simple fonts for your electronic resume. Acceptable fonts to use include Times New Roman, Arial, or any other type of web-safe font. The reason for this is that some fonts are hard to read while others simply don’t transfer if you submit your resume as a Microsoft doc, for instance.

You should also remove vertical lines, bullet points, and bold and italicized fonts as these can all mess up your resume when it’s scanned by the ATS and decrease your chances of getting through to the next stage.

Follow a standard structure.

While you want to include keywords that match the job description, it’s also important to follow a standard structure that will be understood by both ATS and HR.

Dutel recommends following the STAR method to structure your electronic resume. The STAR method is an interview technique that helps you answer a question in four parts. The acronym stands for Situation, Task, Action, and Result.

You can follow the same method when putting together your resume content.

Take a look at the job description and identify the skills you want to incorporate into your resume. Then, list those talking points in a similar way that you’d answer an interview question. Structuring your key points this way makes it easy for both robots and humans to follow along.

Another element of your electronic resume structure that should be standardized is the headings. Use standard headings like “work experience” or “skills” rather than trying to get creative.

The ATS is trained to pick up common phrases, so using less common words like “skillset” or “expertise” can impact whether or not your resume gets noticed.

Use a resume builder.

Staring at a blank page is intimidating. Instead of creating your electronic resume from scratch, use a resume builder or template to get started.

There are plenty of free resume builders available to job seekers. Some offer customizable templates, while others offer expert tips throughout the creation process.

Personally, my experience using HubSpot’s resume templates was seamless and fast. The template I used made it easy to stick to the common structure and acceptable format for electronic resumes while still being able to customize it to match my needs.

There are so many elements of the job searching and interviewing process that require a lot of time and preparation, but your electronic resume doesn’t have to be one of them.

By following these expert best practices, keeping your resume simple, and using professional resume templates, your electronic resume can be created and accepted in no time.

Getting Started

Electronic resumes don’t need to be daunting. This of them as a place where your work and skills can shine. Follow the steps above, and you’ll get noticed by both resume crawlers and humans.

New Call-to-Action

Categories B2B

16 Landing Page Statistics For Businesses in 2023

Are you eager to uncover the latest insights into landing page statistics? Well, you’re in for a treat.

In July 2023, we surveyed 101 seasoned marketing and advertising experts from various corners of the United States to learn more about the latest trends for landing pages.

Landing pages, often hailed as the gateway to online success, play a pivotal role in today‘s digital landscape. They are the crucial bridges that connect potential customers to your brand’s offerings.

A well-crafted landing page can differentiate between a fleeting visitor and a devoted customer.

In this article, we‘ll not only uncover the invaluable insights gleaned from these industry leaders but also highlight the immense value that a strategically optimized landing page can bring to your business. Let’s dive in.

Learn More About HubSpot's Free Landing Page Builder

16 Stats That Make a Case for Landing Pages

1. The average landing page conversion rate across all industries is 5.89%.

10% is the benchmark for a good conversion rate. To hit this mark, you must create landing pages that benefit you and your target audience.

Whether you sell SaaS or clothing, a higher conversion rate from landing pages means a longer list of leads to nurture into paying customers.

2. 43.6% of marketers report generating leads as their goal, while 33.7% say direct customer purchase is their top priority.

If you’re in either category, landing pages can be a valuable element of your marketing strategy. You can use them to generate leads, increase customer acquisition, and get free or paid subscribers.

landing page statistics; chart showing the goal of creating landing pages

3. 33.7% of marketers see higher conversion rates in 2023 than in 2022.

2023 landing page conversion rates vs 2022

Our survey shows landing pages that convey positive emotions can help you get higher conversion rates.

That doesn’t mean you should ditch negative emotions like sadness and anger. When using emotions in marketing, consider your business and the goal of the landing page.

For instance, a donations landing page doesn’t have to convey happiness. It can be between happy and sad, causing the audience to empathize, connect, and give to the cause.

4. Marketers drive traffic to landing pages with multiple tactics.

3% of the marketers we surveyed didn’t have a landing page promotion strategy, but the others do. Here are the tactics they use:

landing page statistics; how brands drive traffic to their landing pages

5. 38.6% of marketers say video is the #1 landing page element that impacts conversion.

If you already use video in your marketing, incorporating it into your landing page strategy can help you increase conversion rates.

In fact, 9 out of 10 people want companies to create more videos in 2023 — making videos an excellent tool for brand awareness and lead generation.

 

.

Landing page elements that impact conversion rates

6. 30.7% of marketers say the ideal number of questions on a landing page form to get the best conversions is four.

There’s no one-size-fits-all for the number of questions to ask on your landing page form.

In a different study of e-commerce brands, Omnisend found that the highest number of converting form fields is 3, with an average conversion rate of 10%.

The most popular combinations use email address and name (7%) and email address and birthdate (5.7%).

While three questions work for some, two could work for you. So, experiment to find what works. At HubSpot, creating multi-page forms is a form optimization strategy that works for us.

 Ideal number of questions on a landing page form

7. 10.9% of marketers report only the name and email are essential for a landing page form.

Other marketers collect information like role, company size, location, years of experience, phone number, company address, contact location, and the company’s industry.

Most essential questions on a landing page form

8. 6.9% of the surveyed marketers use HubSpot to design landing pages.

Marketers use multiple content management systems to design their landing pages. When choosing one, ensure it’s versatile to address your needs.

CMS brands used for landing page design

9. Landing pages are the least popular type of signup form, but they have the highest conversion rate (23%).

Using landing pages to get customer contact information for lead nurturing will likely increase conversions.

10. Businesses using optimization software for their landing pages see an average conversion lift of 30%.

While optimization is always an essential factor for generating traffic, using optimization tools for your landing page strategy is valuable for increasing conversions.

11. Addressing buyer fears on landing pages can increase conversion rates by 80%.

Marcus Sheridan, a keynote speaker at Inbound 2019, shared an experiment he ran about customer fears. He found that addressing fears like email spam or personal data use on his landing pages increased his form conversion rate.

If your landing pages aren’t converting much, consider using Sheridan’s strategy. Be upfront with consumers about what will come from completing forms on your landing pages.

12. Personalized CTAs convert 202% better than default versions.

Consumers prefer personalization because it ensures they aren’t overloaded with irrelevant information that doesn’t interest them. Given this, using personalized and targeted CTAs in your landing pages will likely increase your conversion rates.

13. 55% of top landing page submissions on the HubSpot blog came from ebook offers.

If you have a blog or website that wants to distribute long-form instructional content, offering ebooks on your landing pages can help increase your business conversion rates.

14. Portent says pages that load in one second convert 3x higher than those that load in 5 seconds.

Customers won’t stick around if your landing page takes forever to load. So, ensure you do everything to improve your page speed.

15. The cost of creating one landing page is between $75 to $3000.

What affects your cost of creating a landing page depends on several factors. Are you working with an in-house creator or outsourcing to a freelancer or company? Is the landing page simple or complex? Do you require a landing page design?

16. Landing pages have the best signup rates.

Compared to popups, signup boxes, and wheels of fortune, landing pages have the best signup rates at 23%.

Graph showing landing pages have the best signup rateThe interesting part? Popups make up about 66% of all signup forms. Compare that to landing pages that make up 5.1% of all signup forms, and what you see is an opportunity to create more landing pages and maximize conversions.

Landing Pages are a Valuable Piece of Your Marketing Strategy

Considering the above stats, marketers who create landing pages that build trust with page visitors, provide valuable information, and use different content types see higher conversion rates.

Whether you already use them and aren’t obtaining the results you desire or you’re new to landing pages in general, using them (and following best practices) will likely help you draw in new customers and drive revenue.

optimize landing pages

Categories B2B

Walmart Wins Black Friday Marketing with Mean Girls Campaign

The instrumental to Missy Elliott’s “Pass That Dutch” is blaring through your speakers while Lindsay Lohan is on your screen walking through the halls of North Shore High School. Did you just transport back to the early 2000s?

No, chances are you were just served Walmart’s latest Black Friday ad.

The movie Mean Girls has been a pop culture classic since its release in 2004. Nearly 20 years later, Walmart is capitalizing on the film’s enduring popularity with a Mean Girls-themed Black Friday campaign.

Walmart’s series of ads features five of the film’s original cast members reprising their roles and even includes a cameo from Missy Elliott herself. Instead of the notorious “burn book” featured in the original movie, the Walmart ads are centered around a “deal book” highlighting discounts the retailer is offering this holiday season.

Today we’re breaking down why this campaign is brilliant marketing by Walmart.

Want to sell to millennials? Reference Mean Girls

Mean Girls is a generation-defining film for millennials. This generation was the target demographic for the film when it was initially released, and has since been a mainstay in millennial pop culture.

Since the film is regarded positively by so many members of this generation, it’s the perfect backdrop for nostalgia marketing, which tends to be especially effective for millennials.

Nostalgia marketing leverages familiarity to evoke positive emotions from potential customers. Millennials came of age during a major technological revolution, giving them a unique disposition: an analog childhood and a tech-savvy young adulthood.

This leaves many millennials especially susceptible to nostalgia marketing if it reminds them of “simpler times” before we were all online and Mean Girls debuted during the tail end of that time period.

Selling to millennials is especially important for mega-retailers like Walmart during the holiday season. Millennials are now the largest living group of adults in the U.S. and are expected to be spending more than other generations this holiday season. In other words, if retailers want to bring in holiday sales, they need millennials to buy from them.

Capitalizing on the film’s remake

The campaign adds to the buzzing Mean Girls universe. Walmart’s Black Friday ad dropped one week before the first trailer for the upcoming Mean Girls remake was released, which likely wasn’t a coincidence.

The 2024 film is an on-screen rendition of the Mean Girls musical, and though they aren’t formally connected it’s easy for viewers to associate the Walmart ad with the new film’s promo. In fact, some X users expressed favoritism for the Walmart ads over the trailer for the upcoming film:

While we won’t know the full impact of Walmart’s campaign until Black Friday sales figures start rolling in, so far the campaign has been a well-received conversation starter for the retailer’s customer base.

New call-to-action

Categories B2B

50 Fun Corporate Team-Building Activities & Outing Ideas Everyone Will Enjoy

If you’re noticing some droopy shoulders around the office or in your Zoom meeting, it’s time to plan a team outing. It’s fun and a great way for team members to bond and get to know one another outside of the work desks and joint tasks.

But how do you find ideas for a great team outing? Maybe you start with a Google search for “team outing ideas” and stumble upon an article that suggests “field trips” and “professional development activities.” It sounds like a starting point, but where’s the real excitement?

Download Now: 50+ Remote Team-Building Activities [Free Ebook]

We have something for everyone — from perfect activities for remote teams to large or small in-house groups to events that enhance teamwork and events that all team members can enjoy outdoors.

Table of Contents

Why should you do team-building activities for work?

Team-building activities and games boost morale, break down barriers, and create a supportive and pleasant environment to work in.

As people with different backgrounds, needs, ambitions, and personalities make up teams, their group performance improves, resulting in smoother operations and enhanced business productivity.

Team-building activities also help to break down silos that may be detrimental to business performance.

Furthermore, they foster diversity and inclusion (D&I) by promoting collaboration, mutual understanding, and appreciation of individual differences. Activities create opportunities for employees from diverse backgrounds to work together, reduce biases, and build a more cohesive team.

5 Benefits of Team Building Activities

1. Improved Communication Skills

Engaging in activities encourages employees to open up, leading to an atmosphere of open communication, which improves understanding and collaboration.

2. Enhanced Productivity

Better communication has a domino effect on productivity levels. When your employees work together and communicate, there is less work duplication and less friction between workers.

3. Identification of Strengths and Weaknesses

Managers get to see employees in action. Who performs better under pressure? Who holds everyone together? Who leads the pack? Qualities shine, and new leaders are discovered.

4. Higher Employee Retention

Companies that invest time and money in team-building activities enjoy higher employee satisfaction and team camaraderie, resulting in low turnover rates.

In recent HubSpot research, we discovered that marketing leaders are concerned about quiet quitting and find it unacceptable, even though 57% say it is happening in their organization.

They view it as a sign of poor work ethic, though they also recognize it is their responsibility to prevent and address it by boosting morale, encouraging work-life balance, and supporting workers’ mental health.

5. Enhanced Creativity

Employees get creative. They think outside the box and explore new approaches to problem-solving.

Before planning any team-building activities, it’s important to take specific variables into account for a successful outing.

1. Define your goals.

Determine what you want to achieve during team-building events. Have a clear goal in mind, whether it’s improving communication, fostering collaboration, or enhancing problem-solving skills. Align activities with your desired outcomes.

2. Set a budget.

Set aside a budget and plan activities accordingly. Pick activities that serve the purpose without exceeding financial constraints.

3. Set up a planning and execution team.

Hire professional facilitators who possess the expertise to plan and lead the event effectively. You’ll need moderators who can ensure activities are executed properly and help derive meaningful insights from the experience.

4. Make it inclusive.

Ensure you design inclusive and suitable activities for all employees.

Take into account the cultural backgrounds of diverse employees and the physical restrictions of disabled employees. Select activities and venues accordingly.

For example, choosing a venue that is inaccessible to disabled employees can have a counterproductive effect.

5. Select the right activities.

Consider the interests and preferences of your team members when selecting activities while ensuring they align with your goals. Choose activities that are interactive and build collaboration among employees.

6. Get your timing right.

Pick a time that works for all employees without causing disruptions to business operations. Also, take weather conditions and season into account, especially when planning outdoor activities.

7. Choose a good location.

Select a convenient location and arrange the necessary logistics in advance to ensure a smooth and comfortable experience.

8. Market the event internally.

Marketing the event internally will elevate its significance and help create a memorable experience. Creating and sharing an “Event Day Agenda” that showcases all activities increases anticipation and gets folks excited.

9. Follow up and gather feedback.

Include a follow-up process to evaluate the impact of the activities on team dynamics and productivity. You can then use this feedback to improve future activities.

Featured Resource: Company Culture Code Template

Download HubSpot’s Free Company Culture Code Template to explain and promote your upcoming corporate team-building activities and frequency.

Remote Team Building Activities

1. Virtual Break Room

This is an excellent team-building activity.

Create a virtual break room via Zoom or another platform. Your staff can log in and join over their lunch or during their break time. This allows employees to catch up and get well acquainted, just like in a physical office setting.

Keep water cooler moments alive by encouraging workers to share interesting photos and videos.

2. Virtual Escape Room

Image Source

This activity brings mystery and thrill to your workers wherever they might be.

Depending on the Virtual Escape Room you pick, team members can choose from various activities, such as escape rooms or solving puzzles or murders.

3. Beer Making

In this team-building exercise, team members become brewers for a day right from their homes.

The process does not require any prior knowledge as the Beer Making Experience walks participants through each step of the journey. Kits are also delivered to interested staff.

4. Virtual Scavenger Hunt

You can quickly organize this team-building activity over a Zoom call. Challenge team members to collect different items from around their homes. The first person to show all the required items wins the hunt!

5. Fitness Challenge

Give your team a fitness challenge like “chair squats” or a “plank challenge” with a time limit. Those who finish first win. This activity is not only fun, it also gives your employees a great workout.

6. Icebreaker Quizzes

Image Source

Quizzes are an exciting and safe way to do team-building weekly, especially if there are many new hires on your team.

Choose an online icebreaker quiz, like Quizbreaker, which sends out a new round of quizzes weekly to your team. Remote teams learn more about each other while having fun.

7. Professional Development Workshop

Want to encourage team bonding while providing each team member with an opportunity to learn and further their career?

Offer a shared learning experience either at your office or an online workshop or conference. The activity could be specifically related to your employees’ jobs, or it could be something broader, like a negotiation or leadership skills workshop.

8. Visit Paris Virtually

Image Source

A challenge many HR departments face is onboarding new hires.

Visiting new places virtually with tools like Woyago is a unique and exciting icebreaker. The virtual tour Woyago offers has real-life Parisian guiding participants with several challenges along the way.

Team Building Activities for Larger Groups

9. What’s my name?

Each player is assigned the name of a person — dead or alive — and displays that name on their back, head, or part of their body so that only the other players can read it. Write these names on index cards or Post-it notes.

Once team members have been assigned a name, the players mingle with one another, treating their coworkers the way they‘d treat the person listed on that coworker’s card. They can also ask questions about their own hidden identity until they correctly guess who they are.

10. Cook-Off

Image Source

This culinary team-building activity could end in dessert or disaster.

Divide your team into smaller groups, pick a food category, and challenge each team to whip up something delicious. Anything from ice cream to pizza.

Want to make it interesting? Pick a single ingredient that all teams must use, like maple syrup or Oreos. Or, spark creativity by specifying a unique shape everyone must create.

11. Sneak a Peek

In this game, team members break off into groups of at least four and take turns recreating objects from memory.

Use LEGOs, clay, building blocks, or a similar set of construction items. The leader will craft an object or structure for every group to recreate.

A member from each group then has 10 seconds to “sneak a peek” at the structure (which is hidden), return to their groups, and describe what they saw to the rest of the group so they can try to recreate it.

12. Board Game Tournament

Image Source

Host a team-wide board game tournament by selecting a single game. Enlist one team member to coordinate specific time slots when participants can step away from their desks and enjoy the game.

This way, everyone gets a chance to have some fun and engage in friendly competition within their available free time.

Some great games with reasonable play times include Boggle, Jenga, or games using good ol‘ playing cards. Don’t forget to incentivize.

13. Office Trivia

Image Source

Who says trivia night can only take place at the bar? This activity can easily be arranged at the office for both larger and smaller teams.

You can write your own trivia questions. Trivia questions are generally sorted into categories — four or five trivia questions per category — with optional bonus questions at the end of the game.

Give each question a point value, or assign each team certain points per category they can bet. Each team can then bet as many or as few points as they want per question until they’ve used all their points for that category.

Not prepared to create your own trivia questions? Hire a trivia organization to host a trivia night at your office. Many national trivia companies would be happy to host an event right on-site — The Trivia Factory and the Big Quiz Thing are just a few of them.

14. Question Mingle

This activity has each team member moving around and meeting each person individually. It’s great for back-to-the-office teams or newly formed ones.

Equipped with four thoughtful questions, participants get to know their coworkers on a deeper level, fostering stronger connections and promoting teamwork.

15. Origami Contest

Image Source

Indulge your employees in a friendly and creative paper-folding competition.

Form teams and provide each with a set of designs all participants must complete within the time limit. Give resources and instructions. Every team member must complete each design for the team to proceed to the next round.

Employees will collaborate, help each other, and distribute tasks to complete all the designs efficiently. Completing origami not only brings a sense of accomplishment but also serves as a stress-relieving activity.

16. Talent Show

Unleash your employees’ unique talents and skills on stage with a talent show. They can perform individually or in groups. This encourages employees to step out of their comfort zones and form bonds with coworkers.

From tuneful duets and energetic aerobics to entertaining skits and side-splitting standups, get ready for a memorable showcase of the diverse talents and creativity of your workers.

17. Dance Battle

Clear up the conference room for a dance competition you’ll be talking about for years to come. Decide on a date and divide everyone into teams. Assign each team a dance style they’re comfortable with.

Provide plenty of time to rehearse, allowing teams to regroup online or at each other’s place. It’s an excellent way for employees to bond over laughs and teaching moments. Arrange for snacks and give prizes to the team with the loudest applause.

Small-Group Team Building Events

18. Improv Workshop

Image Source

Comedy and improv events are fun, interactive experiences that’ll have your employees roaring with laughter while teaching useful communication and soft skills like focus and trust.

Depending on your budget, you could do anything from simply playing improv games with your employees to bringing in professionals to run competitive, fast-paced activities.

19. Two Truths and One Lie

This classic house party activity is an excellent ice-breaker.

Start by organizing the entire group into a circle and give each person the floor to introduce themselves. Every team member tells three things about themselves —only two of which are true.

It’s up to the rest of the group to determine which statement is the lie.

20. Karaoke Night

Image Source

Have your employees come out of their shells with some karaoke? You can even have a contest for the best group karaoke performance.

Bonus points if there are feather boas and cowboy hats involved. This activity works best for a more extroverted group, so if your team isn’t comfortable performing on stage, explore other ideas from this list that better align with their preferences.

21. The “Suddenly” Story

If you’ve ever told stories around a campfire, you might have narrated a variation of The “Suddenly” Story. This activity is the choose-your-own-adventure book of team-building.

Gather in a circle. One person offers three opening sentences to a story about anything. At the end, they say “Suddenly …” and pass the story on to the next person.

They have to take the three sentences and build on the story with another three sentences, followed by “Suddenly …” — and so on. Each member adds their own twist to the story, resulting in an amusing compilation.

22. Concentration (Marketing Edition)

This is a modern take on the classic 1960s game show “Concentration.”

Display 30 numbered tiles up on a board, with each tile with an identical counterpart somewhere else on the board. What is the commonality? Matching prizes on the back.

Over time, as contestants open up more tiles, they choose the tiles they believe match and win the corresponding prizes written on the back.

Marketing departments can have a field day, putting logos, slogans, and company names on the back of their own tiles and having players match up every piece of the brand.

You can even put the names of your products, employees, and job titles on the backs of your tiles to see how well your coworkers know the company they work for.

Fun Team Building Activities

23. Jigsaw Puzzle Race

While assembling a jigsaw puzzle alone can be tedious, turning it into a problem-solving activity with your colleagues makes it enjoyable. Divide into teams for a thrilling multi-puzzle race.

Grab several copies of the same puzzle and turn your weekend activity into a contest. Offer prizes just like you would in a game of office trivia.

Be sure each team has the same number of people, and choose puzzles wisely. For example, a 1000-piece puzzle might be a bit time-consuming for a team of just five or six people.

24. Escape Room Games

Image Source

Create lasting, positive memories for your office with activities like Escape the Room, Puzzle Break, AdventureRooms, etc.

Participants are confined to a room for an hour. They must find hidden objects, solve puzzles, and decipher clues to locate the key that unlocks their escape.

Seems easy, right? Did you know only 20% of players actually make it out before the hour is up?

If you’re not sure how to convert your office space into an escape room, hire a service to do it for you.

Companies like Outback Team Building & Training host events that turn your office into a team-building escape challenge. This can invoke some great, positive memories in a space where your team works every day.

25. The Egg Drop Challenge

Chances are, you’ve done this during school or at summer camp. The Egg Drop Challenge is a beloved tradition that challenges teams to create small structures around an uncooked egg to protect it from a high fall.

Provide each group with specific items to build their egg protection, from straws and newspaper to tape and cardboard. For a coworker-friendly version, consider making it less challenging by allowing them to use anything available at the office.

26. Catchphrase

In this classic party game, players from teams engage in rounds of describing words and phrases to their teammates without stating the actual word or phrase.

Phrases can include celebrities, expressions, or simple items around the house.

This game is often played with a basket filled with slips of paper with phrases on them.

27. Game of Possibilities

In this game, team up and distribute random objects to one member of each team. They must physically demonstrate the purpose of the object to their teammates without using any words. Each team has to guess what the object is.

28. Group Yoga Session

Image Source

Organize a group yoga session led by a certified instructor. Partner up and explore yoga poses that require collaboration and trust between team members.

It’s a great way to meditate and do some physical exercise. To add a playful touch, play some yoga games that allow your employees to have fun, relieve stress, and build stronger bonds with each other.

29. Domino Challenge

Who doesn’t love dominos?

Bring in some and have your employees whip up some creative designs and work together to make intricate structures.

This activity provides a fantastic opportunity for teams to collaborate effectively, ensuring all the dominos remain upright.

Each member will be assigned smaller tasks to ensure the effective and timely completion of the entire structure.

This promotes sharing ideas and brings out the collective creativity of your employees. It inspires individuals to help and support each other to complete their structures quickly.

30. D&D Marathon

Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) is an immersive and interactive tabletop role-playing game that encourages employees to work collaboratively to win against other teams. It can be easily arranged within the office or for remote teams.

With each player taking the role of a unique character within the game, participants will face challenges, engage in combat, and solve mysteries together.

This will require teams to strategize and support each other for effectively overcoming obstacles, making it an ideal activity to improve communication and collaboration within the office.

31. Scavenger Hunt

Organize an exciting scavenger hunt around the city on a beautiful day. Break everyone into groups, and let the adventure begin.

You can either design the hunt yourself or consider hiring professional services like The Go Game (with notable clients like Netflix, Facebook, and HBO) or Stray Boots for an unforgettable experience. Don’t forget to take pictures to have a slideshow when everyone regroups at the end.

Alternatively, you might try a “Random Acts of Kindness” hunt. For instance, Outback Team Building & Training offers this team-building activity, which requires teams to split up into groups, download Outback’s app, and complete a series of challenges to benefit strangers in the community.

32. Go-Kart Racing

Image Source

Injecting a touch of healthy competition can bring a group closer together. An adrenaline-pumping activity like kart racing is a great way to get employees to interact with one another.

Make sure everyone pays attention during the safety lecture.

33. Cooking Class

Image Source

In the mood for something a little more culinary? Change up the usual outing to a bar or your local restaurant, and try a cooking class.

Hire a professional chef through Kitchensurfing to cook a fancy meal for you in your home or office kitchen.

Between the multiple courses prepared before your eyes, your team will have plenty of time to strike up a conversation and enjoy the delicious aromas.

34. Sales Exercise

Ideal for your marketing team, this activity is equally enjoyable for all kinds of teams. Each group is given an item, from the mundane to the strange. With five minutes on the clock, each team must devise a creative sales pitch for their item.

The team with the most creative advert wins. Engage other employees as judges and involve them in your activity.

35. Laser Tag

Another great way to get your team to bond is with a good old game of laser tag.

It’s a great opportunity for employees to exercise their strategy and logic skills while working on team building.

36. Volunteer

Giving time to support a good cause isn‘t just good for the soul; it’s also an excellent way for your team members to bond.

Place-based volunteering ideas include volunteering at a local soup kitchen, helping build a Habitat for Humanity house, or delivering gifts to children’s hospitals during the holidays.

Skill-based volunteering is a terrific way to stretch your employees‘ expertise: It’s when your team volunteers their time and uses professional skills to help a nonprofit. It can be anything from marketing to app development.

Try VolunteerMatch.org for either type of volunteering opportunity and Catchafire.org for skill-based volunteering opportunities.

37. Mystery Dinner

Mystery dinners are one of the most beloved traditions here at HubSpot. On a single night, you send a group of folks from different teams within your company to dinner somewhere in your city (or at someone’s house).

The dinner is hosted by one of your company’s leaders and paid for by the company. These dinners allow random groups of people from the same company to spend an evening chock full of good food and conversation together.

What makes them a mystery dinner? The only thing participants should know about the dinner ahead of time is the date and time.

Send each group an email with the name of the restaurant they‘re going to and who they’ll be going with, so they can arrange transportation together.

Optional: Give every dinner host the name of a restaurant or bar to invite everyone to assemble once the dinners are over.

38. Kayaking/Canoeing

Image Source

Nothing says “Let’s work together” quite like trying not to end up in the water. Want to take advantage of the outdoors? Grab a paddle and head down to the closest river for a great spring or summer outing.

Many public rivers and ponds have boat houses where you can rent kayaks and canoes — and you can encourage folks to rent multi-person ones and pair up with people they don’t usually work with.

39. Trampoline Park

Who says trampolines are just for kids? Take your team to a trampoline park for some jumping fun and a chance to work off the day’s stress.

Many cities have local places with trampoline activities. If you’re in the Boston area, check out Skyzone for trampoline dodgeball and basketball games.

40. Something Touristy

Embrace your city! Pick a hot tourist destination and go as a team. You can even do a Segway tour. (Fanny packs: optional.) Turn it into a picnic and enjoy a delightful day of exploration and camaraderie with your colleagues.

41. Painting Class

Image Source

If you’re looking for a slightly more relaxing activity, take a group painting class.

Paint Nite hosts painting classes by local artists at various bars throughout major cities for painting on canvases, wine glasses (like in the picture below), and so on.

It’s a great way to let your team members unwind, catch up over some drinks, and express their creativity.

42. Going to a New Place

Take a refreshing break and go on a picnic or to a new place. Explore nearby parks, scenic spots, or a picturesque beach to enjoy the great outdoors together.

Organize fun games like capture the flag, tug of war, ultimate frisbee, three-legged race, or kickball.

43. Sporting Events

Pick a day with great weather conditions and plan a sporting event for your employees. Book a suitable venue and have all employees participate in friendly matches. Some companies do this regularly.

Get your meeting team to challenge HR to a friendly baseball match, or have your sales team go head-to-head with the accountants in a volleyball match.

44. Camping

There’s nothing more refreshing than getting back in touch with nature. Get away from the hustle and bustle of work and city life at a nearby camping site. Bond over building camps and campfires and go on hikes together.

You’ll begin with strangers, but employees will transform into close, good friends and collaborative partners by the end.

45. Movie Night

Unwind and have some fun with an outdoor movie night featuring a comedy. It’s simple and budget-friendly. Have your employees bond over popcorn and movie trivia during breaks.

It’s a great opportunity for employees to share some laughs and strengthen their relationships outside of work.

46. The Amazing Race

This is an adventure-filled race filled with destination challenges along the way. It takes a bit of extra legwork, but trust me, it’ll all be worth it in the end.

Collaborate with different small businesses like restaurants or bars in your area to create an exciting route for the participants.

Place challenges and roadblocks at each destination, like intricate puzzles, finding hidden objects, decoding cryptic messages, or making Lego structures.

Teams will strategize, communicate effectively, and showcase their problem-solving powers to overcome each challenge. The team to complete all challenges successfully and reach the final destination first wins.

47. Sand Sculpting Competition

Take a beach day and turn it into a team-building exercise by having your employees make creative and intricate sand sculptures.

Divide into groups, provide a time limit, and let the creativity flow. The team with the most innovative sculpture wins the bragging rights.

48. Bowling Extravaganza

Image Source

This lighthearted activity is the perfect escape from the monotonous office routine. It’s an excellent opportunity to see each other outside of work while engaging in some friendly competition.

Form teams and head to the bowling alley for a fun night out with your coworkers. This activity requires minimal planning and is budget-friendly. Make sure to choose a time and place convenient for all employees.

49. Bingo Night (or Day)

Arrange for a casual game of bingo at a nearby cafe or within the office.

Play it in teams, provide each team with bingo cards, and assign one team member as the caller.

The caller’s job is to randomly draw numbers and announce them to teams. To involve everyone, rotate the caller among team members after each round.

Encourage teams to work together to identify numbers and strategize their marking. Discuss possible winning patterns. You could make additional patterns like “four corners” or “full house.” Have prizes and rewards for the winners.

BINGO!

50. Arts and Crafts Class

Arrange for a creative class and bring employees together to participate in a guided artistic workshop.

Have a professional instructor lead the group through various creative projects, such as painting, pottery, jewelry making, or any other craft-based activity.

This provides a safe space for team members to unwind and showcase their creativity. It encourages discussion as people exchange tips and ideas to help one another.

Bring Fun to the Workplace

Now that you have an amazing list of our 50 awesome team-building activities, it’s time to start building a strong company culture that enhances employee retention, fosters fun, and allows everyone to decompress together.

Choose some fun team-building activities that you can use to get the best out of your team and instill a sense of purpose among your employees.

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

New call-to-action

Categories B2B

How to Create an Email Newsletter [+Expert Tips & Checklist]

Creating an email newsletter is one of the most effective ways to provide value to your customers, drive them to buy more products, and encourage them to keep engaging with your brand.

Overall, newsletters are a staple in any high-performing email marketing strategy.

They also have a significant ROI. On average, brands get back $36 for every $1 spent leveraging email marketing.

If you want to ensure you won’t miss any steps when making a newsletter, keep reading. We’ve pulled together a comprehensive checklist for anyone looking to send an email newsletter.

Click here to download our free lookbook that's packed with our favorite email  newsletters.

How to Start an Email Newsletter

When starting an email newsletter, you’re juggling many responsibilities at once.

You have to proofread the copy, create compelling calls-to-action, design the email to work for multiple inboxes and devices, avoid spam triggers, and brainstorm clickable subject lines.

And you have to do all the aforementioned while staying within the confines of email law (yes, there is such a thing).

And if you mess up any part of your email, there’s no undoing it once you send it to your subscribers.

If you’re sending newsletters, bookmark the following steps in your browser or print it out and hang it up next to you. You want to take advantage of these crucial steps.

create a newsletter; graphic showing tips on creating a newsletterReady to get started? Here are the steps to create the best email newsletter for your business or personal goals.

Step 1: Choose an email newsletter tool.

create a newsletter; screenshot of HubSpot's Email Marketing ToolsFirst, choose an email newsletter tool that fits your budget, goals, and technical skills.

HubSpot offers one of the best email marketing tools you can use to send optimized, well-designed newsletters. It’s part of Marketing Hub, marketing automation software for small-to-enterprise businesses.

The email newsletter tool is easy to learn — there’s virtually no learning curve, especially if you have experience using drag-and-drop page editors on a content management system.

Even if you’ve never touched a drag-and-drop editor before, HubSpot’s email marketing tool is intuitive to learn. And you can start for free.

We highly recommend starting to build your newsletter using HubSpot’s free tool, and to illustrate, we’ll include screenshots as we progress from step to step.

HubSpot also contains many integrations and alternative email newsletter design tools like BEE Pro.

Step 2: Figure out your newsletter’s goal.

create a newsletter; screenshot showing different kinds of newslettersLearn the types of newsletters you can send in our free email newsletter guide.

Before you start drafting a single word, ensure you‘re fully aware of the newsletter’s goal and how it fits into your larger content strategy. (Have one in place? Skip to the next section.)

Is your newsletter supposed to drive more traffic to your blog? Help you generate leads? Get more email contacts? Send traffic to your website? Or promote new products and services?

Figure out your goal and let the rest of your decisions flow from it.

You should also note some key performance indicators for each of these goals. Remember that your KPIs should go beyond “how many people opened it.” Instead, it should closely tie to your overall business goals.

Your email‘s open rate can indicate the newsletter’s performance, but it shouldn’t be the only number you care about each month. Here are some email marketing metrics to consider.

Step 3: Choose a template and gather your content.

create a newsletter; screenshots of different newsletter templates

Once you have a goal for your newsletter, it’s time to choose a template and find content for it. I‘d recommend looking into pre-made templates if you’re unfamiliar with designing emails — it can save you a lot of heartache.

If you’re using HubSpot, you can access pre-made templates in the email tool.

Depending on how early you set your newsletter‘s goal and how often you plan on sending this newsletter, you could actively or passively find content in the time between two email sends.

Active means you’re hunting for content that‘ll solve a specific goal. Passive means you’ll randomly stumble on it when browsing for other content but realize it could fit nicely.

When I put together newsletters, I tended to do a lot of active searching, but I could‘ve saved myself a lot of time if I were passive.

Since I knew a newsletter needed to be sent each month, bookmarking links throughout the month would’ve been a great timesaver. Instead, I usually spent several hours clicking the “Back” button on my blog, hunting for content.

How you like to gather content is up to you. Still, great places to look for content are your company’s blog, social media accounts, lead-generation offers, internal newsletters, and training documents.

Featured Resource: Email Newsletter Lookbook

create a newsletter; Photo of our email newsletter lookbookNeed inspiration on what content to include in your newsletter? HubSpot’s Email Newsletter Lookbook highlights some of the best email newsletters across industries to help your email newsletter planning.

Step 4: Personalize your template.

create a newsletter; screenshot of personalized email newsletter

A template is a great starting point, but it’s time to personalize it. Using a template will give you an idea of how your newsletter will look before writing copy.

That way, you’ll know exactly how much space you have to promote a piece of content — there are a few things more frustrating than trying to squeeze copy into too tight a space.

Your template doesn’t have to be flashy or anything. Even newsletters with minimal text and color formatting will look great. The design should make it easy for your recipients to read, scan, and click email elements. 

Pro tip: Use HubSpot’s AI Email Writer to design your newsletters. The tool can generate your copy, and you can then select a template that suits your needs.

This means it should be mobile-friendly, too. According to data from Litmus, 41.6% of people open their email on a mobile device — around 25% higher than email opens on a desktop.

In Marketing Hub, you can adjust your template by clicking on elements and editing the specifications on the left-hand panel. Check out this post for inspiration for a great email newsletter design.

Step 5: Set your email newsletter size.

create a newsletter; screenshot showing person changing font in email newsletter

Unfortunately, email newsletters don’t size themselves when you send them to subscribers.

But because everyone opens their email on their device and email service of choice, how are you supposed to know what size or resolution they should be?

Most providers will default your email newsletter size to 600px wide, with email body padding another 30px wide on all sides. And when this happens, the content inside your newsletter might not survive the adjustment.

Therefore, ensuring your newsletter design fits inside that universal 600px width is essential.

What about height? Ultimately, your email can be as high (or, rather, as long) as you want it to be without the email client distorting its design.

However, people are much less likely to click through to your website if the email goes on forever — and email clients with sensitive spam filters might also take notice.

As a general rule, try not to make your email recipients scroll for more than a second before reaching the end of it.

Step 6: Add in your body content.

create a newsletter; screenshot showing body of email newsletter

Next up: filling in the template with words and pictures. This will be the meat of your email newsletter, so spend time perfecting it.

Most people keep the copy short and sweet to encourage click-throughs, though some notable newsletters take the opposite approach. This post can help you with email newsletter copy if you need it.

Be sure to add in some images if they can help support your copy.

Don‘t forget to edit your email thoroughly — maybe even send it to one of your teammates for a once-over. Remember, once you send the thing, you can’t fix those embarrassing typos like you can with web content.

Ben Berkley, managing editor for The Hustle, says it should be clear to your audience what kind of value to expect from the newsletter but ensure the content isn’t predictable.

“What works about The Hustle is that we’re built around the central expectation that readers will get the most relevant business and tech news in the quickest, most entertaining package —yet every email is packed with surprises and topics you wouldn’t find anywhere else,” he explains. “The format is always fixed, but no two emails feel repetitive editorially.”

Berkley says readers never know what they’ll get, but “they know it’ll be worth their while to read through it.”

Step 7: Add in personalization tokens and intelligent content.

create a newsletter; screenshot showing personalized tokens in email newsletter

The best email newsletters I get feel like they’ve been written personally for me — like a friend took the time to put together a newsletter with things only I would like. I open them, click on them, and share them every time.

If you want your digital newsletters to feel that personal, you should do three things:

  • Segment your emails and choose content that only that group of people will love. Add in personalization tokens. If your marketing software supports personalization, this is a straightforward thing to implement that could significantly affect your conversion rates.

Pro Tip: Only add a few personalization tokens — you don’t want to creep out your email recipients. In Marketing Hub, you can add personalization tokens by clicking “Personalize” in the top navigation bar.

  • Also, add in smart content. This is content that shows one thing to one part of your audience and one thing to another.

Pro Tip: An example would be a smart CTA — your leads would see a CTA for talking to your sales reps, and your customers would see one about getting tickets to a customer-only event.

Neither audience would want to see the other audience’s CTA, so smart content will show only the proper CTA to the right person.

Step 8: Choose your subject line and sender name.

create a newsletter; screenshot showing how to add subject line and sender name

Your audience may like different things, but having a real person‘s sender name increased opens and click-throughs. Try running an A/B test to see if it works for you, too.

Whatever you choose, make sure it’s recognizable so recipients aren‘t confused about why they’re receiving your email.

Subject lines are a little trickier. Many things can help you create a click-worthy subject line, including brevity and an immediately actionable value proposition.

That said, some great marketing emails have been sent with the subject “Not Cool, Guys.” Use the subject line best practices as a jumping-off point, then run your A/B tests to see what your audience loves.

Berkley suggests meeting your audience halfway by giving them some information without withholding it all.

“A subject line that says ‘This unlikely partnership is crazy’ gives too little; a subject line that says ‘Crocs partnered with WHO?!’ gives an idea of what you’re talking about but induces click-through to find out the rest of the story,” he says.

He explains, “Finding balance is critical — nobody likes a movie trailer that gives every plot point away, and nobody likes one that tells you nothing at all about the movie either.”

Step 9: Support your newsletter content with alt text and plain text.

create a newsletter; screenshot showing alt text in email newsletter

At this point, you‘ll have the email ready to go. While going through the steps above, I’m guessing you forgot two crucial things (I know I forget them almost every time I make an email): the alt text and plain text.

Alt text is the text that appears when a picture isn‘t loaded. Since not all email providers load images correctly, you must ensure the alt text is there so your recipients know what they’re looking at.

If you include a CTA that’s an image, your conversion rates will suffer without alt text.

Some email clients also won‘t display HTML correctly, so you need to ensure your emails look great in plain text. Make sure the links are easy to click and that it’s clear what the email is about without the photos.

Step 10: Make sure you’re legally compliant.

create a newsletter; screenshot of newsletter

Before you hit “Send,” be sure that your emails are all good from a legal perspective. What are the two most significant laws you need to worry about? CAN-SPAM and GDPR.

  • CAN-SPAM requires that you have a footer in your email with your address and an easy way to unsubscribe from your emails if they don’t want to receive them anymore.
  • GDPR is a similar but more comprehensive privacy law that requires (among other things) that email marketers only send newsletters to those who have manually opted in to receive them.

In other words, wherever you collect email subscribers on your website, you cannot automatically check the “opt-in” box for them if these recipients live in Europe. They must deliberately check this box themselves.

Step 11: Test different browsers and email providers.

create a newsletter; photo of newsletter on laptop and newsletter on smartphone

Email providers don’t all read email code the same way — what looks fine on Gmail in Chrome might look terrible in Outlook, for example. So, you must test emails in the most popular browsers and email providers.

If you have HubSpot, you can test emails for different providers in the tool. If you don’t, create fake email accounts on various providers’ websites and test everything manually.

Step 12: Send your email.

create a newsletter; screenshot of newsletter about to be sent

The moment of truth! Ensuring all your email recipients have subscribed to receive this email and your email has all the branding and legal compliance it‘s worthy of, it’s time to click send. Then, wait for the data to roll in.

Step 13: Analyze and iterate.

create a newsletter; screenshot of newsletter stats

Fast-forward a few days: The data’s in. How did your newsletter do? What do you do next?

Check how your email newsletter performed on your goals in step one. See which parts of your email got the most clicks and which factors of the newsletter contributed most to your goal.

If you have closed-loop analytics, measuring this all will be easy.

Once you have that data, you have a direction for your email newsletter. Whether your next send is in a day, a week, a month, or a quarter, you’ll have insights to make the following newsletter even better.

Start Creating Your Email Newsletter

Email newsletters are a critical part of any scalable email marketing strategy. With the steps above, you’ll be sure to create a winning email newsletter that will help you convert more leads and grow your business.

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

New Call-to-action

Categories B2B

41 Types of Marketing Your Brand Should Invest In

Like many of the people who currently work in the industry, digital marketing was born in the 1990s. Since then, the industry has evolved at breakneck speed, sprouting many more types of marketing.

From search engine marketing to account-based marketing, every brand can use a combination of these tactics to attract its target audience and increase revenue.

Keep reading to discover the top marketing trends in 2023 and more.

Download Now: Free Marketing Plan Template [Get Your Copy]

Types of Marketing

1. Traditional Marketing

Traditional marketing refers to brand promotion on offline channels before the rise of the internet. Think billboards, flyers, TV ads, and radio spots.

These marketing channels still play an essential role for some brands.

In fact, a global survey of CMOs found that more than 40% of marketing budgets go to offline channels — but today, marketers are increasingly relying on digital alternatives.

2. Digital Marketing

marketing types, digital marketing on HubSpot’s Instagram

Image Source

In contrast to traditional marketing, digital marketing leverages a wide variety of previously unavailable technologies to reach audiences in new ways.

This is the fastest-growing type of marketing, encompassing all marketing efforts that live online.

Businesses investing in digital marketing use numerous digital channels, such as search engines, social media, email, websites, and more, to connect with their current and prospective customers.

3. Outbound Marketing

Outbound marketing refers to unsolicited, outgoing promotions such as cold calling, email blasts to purchased lists, and print ads.

This marketing method is called “outbound” because it involves pushing a message out to consumers to raise awareness of your products or services — regardless of whether consumers have demonstrated interest in them.

In many industries, outbound marketing has grown less effective, as consumers today are inundated with so many marketing interruptions that they often need to pay more attention to these messages.

4. Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing, however, is focused on attracting customers rather than interrupting them.

Inbound leads are both more likely to convert and less expensive to acquire, with one recent report finding that inbound leads cost 67% less than outbound ones do.

While some inbound marketing tactics live offline, the majority fall under the umbrella of digital marketing, as consumers are empowered to do research online to help them progress through their buyer’s journeys.

Inbound is built on three pillars: Attract, engage, and delight. The initial goal is to create valuable content and experiences that resonate with your audience and attract them to your business.

The next step is to engage them through conversational tools like email marketing, chatbots, and, of course, continuously adding real value. Finally, delight them by acting as a long-term, empathetic advisor and expert.

5. Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing, or SEM, includes all strategies to ensure your business is visible on search engine results pages. With SEM, you can get your business to the top spot when a user searches for a particular keyword.

According to HubSpot’s 2023 State of Consumer Trends report, online search is the number one way today’s buyers discover new products — so it’s critical to make sure your business comes up on search platforms like Google or Bing.

marketing types, HubSpot state of consumer trends appears on Google

There are two types of SEM: search engine optimization (SEO) for organic search results and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising for sponsored search engine results.

To get started with SEO, familiarize yourself with search engine ranking factors and common keywords relevant to your industry and products. Then, get proactive about producing content for search engines to index that use these terms.

Conversely, PPC involves bidding on keywords to get your ads placed through platforms like Google Ads. Consider investing in ad management tools that help you create and manage your PPC campaigns.

SEO Starter Pack

6. Content Marketing

As one of the best ways to attract your target audiences, content marketing is a critical component of an effective digital inbound marketing strategy.

That is probably why nearly nine in ten marketing professionals who have already invested in content marketing plan to maintain or increase that investment in 2023.

This form of marketing involves creating, publishing, and distributing content to your target audience through free and gated channels, such as social media platforms, blogs, videos, ebooks, and webinars.

marketing types, HubSpot blog

Image Source

The goal of content marketing is to help your audience along their buyer’s journey while adding value and providing a supportive, delightful experience.

To do so, first, identify common questions and concerns your buyers are likely to have before they are ready to purchase.

Then, create an editorial calendar to track when you will create and share content related to those topics. A content management system (CMS) can also help you stay organized and keep your content and publication schedule on track.

marketing editorial calendar templates

7. Social Media Marketing

With platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter, brands can promote their businesses and engage with their audiences on a more personal basis.

Social media is an increasingly effective strategy to reach buyers of all ages, with 24% of Boomers and 46% of Gen X consumers surveyed in 2023 reporting that they discovered a new product on social media in the past three months.

However, with social media, two factors are crucial to success: relevance and consistency.

First, relevance: No one logs on to social media looking for something to purchase. As such, it’s essential to balance promotion with entertainment.

Compelling images and captions that encourage your audience to like, share, and comment will bring your brand that much closer to gaining a customer.

marketing types, HubSpot on Facebook

Image Source

Now, onto consistency: A consistent posting cadence will keep your followers returning. How can they get invested in your brand if they rarely see it on their timeline?

To make publishing content across platforms accessible, several social media tools automate the process.

social media content calendar

8. Video Marketing

marketing types, HubSpot YouTube channel

Image Source

According to a recent study, 87% of marketers say incorporating video into their marketing strategy has had a positive ROI.

Whether on your website, YouTube channel, email newsletters, and/or social media, video can boost brand awareness, generate conversions, and close deals.

Some video marketing apps even allow you to analyze, nurture, and score leads based on their activity.

Discover videos, templates, tips, and other resources dedicated to helping you  launch an effective video marketing strategy. 

9. Voice Marketing

Voice marketing refers both to optimizing your website for voice search by incorporating the right keywords and to initiatives that leverage smart speakers like Amazon Alexa and Google Home to add value to your audience and answer questions about their topics of interest.

Consider opportunities to get inventive by developing a Google Home action or an Alexa skill. For instance, Uber created an Alexa skill that allowed users to request a ride with a simple voice request.

Similarly, TED developed a feature that allowed Alexa users to search for and play TED talks based on topic, tone, or speaker.

These tools may be relatively new, but they’re increasingly popular among marketers.

HubSpot’s 2023 marketing trends survey found that 40% of marketing leaders who currently leverage some form of voice marketing plan to increase that investment in the next year.

10. Email Marketing

marketing types, email marketing from the met

Email marketing connects brands to leads, prospects, and customers via email. Email campaigns can increase brand awareness, generate traffic to other channels, promote products or services, or nurture leads toward a purchase.

Moreover, one 2022 study found that returns on email marketing could be as high as $36 for every dollar invested.

Email can be a potent tool — but it’s essential to use it responsibly and within legal restrictions. Regulations like the GDPR and the CAN-SPAM Act require brands to comply with responsible commercial email practices, which boil down to three principles:

  • Only email people expecting to hear from you (i.e., people who have opted in).
  • Make it easy for subscribers to opt out.
  • When you make contact, be transparent about who you are and why you’re emailing.

With these guardrails in mind, the first thing you’ll need to do is strategize how to build your email list or the database of contacts to whom you can send emails.

Standard methods include lead capture forms on your website or lead generation partnerships.

Then, you’ll need email marketing software and a CRM to send, track, and monitor the effectiveness of your emails.

To push your email strategy to the next level and maximize productivity, you may also want to look into email automation software that sends emails based on triggering criteria.

To learn more about the ins and outs of email marketing, take the free email marketing course from HubSpot Academy.

New Call-to-action

11. Conversational Marketing

Conversational marketing refers to any form of 1:1 conversation with your audience.

This is arguably one of the most natural ways to connect with customers, and research shows that conversations can be an effective way to remove friction from the buying process.

It’s essential to meet customers how, when, and where they want. As a result, these dialogues can happen across multiple channels.

This is more than just live chat: It extends to phone calls, texts, Facebook Messenger, email, Slack, and many other media.

When you‘re getting started, you’ll first identify the channels on which your audience is most active.

This may sound relatively straightforward, but things can get tricky when managing multiple channels while avoiding slow response times, internal miscommunication, or productivity loss.

That’s why it can be helpful to use conversational marketing tools, such as a unified inbox, to streamline your efforts.

12. Buzz Marketing

Buzz marketing is a viral marketing strategy that leverages refreshingly creative content, interactive events, and community influencers to generate word-of-mouth marketing and anticipation for a product or service a brand is about to launch.

This marketing approach is grounded in research-backed psychological effects such as FOMO (fear of missing out) and the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon (also known as the frequency illusion, where after encountering a new product, consumers start to feel like they’re seeing it everywhere).

Buzz marketing works best when you reach out to influencers early and put a plan in place to generate buzz surrounding your brand.

In addition, to track the effectiveness of your efforts, invest in social listening software that will help you keep a pulse on how your audience responds.

13. Influencer Marketing

marketing types, reebok influencer marketing

Image Source

By partnering with influencers in your space, influencer marketing enables your brand to tap into an existing community of highly engaged social media followers.

Influencers are considered experts in their niches and have built loyalty and trust with an audience you want to reach.

These programs are a substantial part of a modern marketing strategy:

Today, 88% of marketers have a dedicated influencer marketing budget, and one in four social media users report buying a product based on an influencer’s recommendation in 2023.

To get started with influencer marketing, you must first build your influencer marketing strategy and define what type of influencer you‘d like to work with.

Then, you’ll want to create criteria for your influencer to ensure they align with your strategy and budget.

Factors to consider include their niche, the size of their audience, and their current metrics. From there, you can find influencers and reach out to them by:

  • Manually reaching out on social media.
  • Using an influencer marketing platform.
  • Hiring an agency to do the research and outreach for you.

Improve your website with effective technical SEO. Start by conducting this  audit.  

14. Acquisition Marketing

The goal of any marketing strategy is to attract and retain customers—however, different types of marketing focus on other, specific stages of the buyer’s journey.

Acquisition marketing focuses on the “attract” and “convert” phases, in which you’re aiming to turn strangers into sales-qualified leads.

What differentiates acquisition from other marketing types is that it extends beyond the marketing team, often involving collaboration with customer service and success teams.

Why? Because satisfied customers are your biggest promoters.

Acquisition marketing can involve several tactics to create a lead generation engine for your organization.

These tactics can include offering freemium products, launching education hubs, tightening the copywriting on your website, conversion rate optimization, and lead optimization.

It may include a lead optimization and nurturing strategy to facilitate the hand-off between marketing and sales.

15. Contextual Marketing

Contextual marketing refers to efforts that target online users with different ads on websites and social media networks based on their unique online browsing behavior.

More than 40% of respondents in a recent study said that they’re more likely to buy from brands that tailor ads specifically to them, suggesting that this kind of context-specific approach can have a significant impact on your conversion rates.

So, what does it take to put this into practice?

A CRM combined with powerful marketing tools such as intelligent CTAs can make a website seem more like a “choose your own adventure” story, empowering users to find the information they need and take action quickly and effectively.

Of course, contextual marketing takes strategy and careful planning. To start on the right foot, look at HubSpot’s free contextual marketing course.

16. Personalized Marketing

marketing types, personalized marketing

Image Source

Personalized marketing aims to create a customized marketing experience for every user across your brand.

This can be as simple as adding a user’s name in the subject line of an email or sending product recommendations based on past purchases.

For example, software products like Versium Reach make it easy for marketers to target their B2B or B2C customers with robust, personalized audience insights.

To be sure, it’s easy for this kind of marketing to come across as creepy accidentally.

However, studies suggest that consumers are surprisingly comfortable with personalized experiences, mainly when they boost convenience and enable a more enjoyable purchasing journey.

For example, one recent report found that 7 in 10 consumers are okay with personalization as long as marketers only use data that consumers have knowingly and directly shared with them.

17. Brand Marketing

Brand marketing encompasses everything you do to shape your brand’s public perception and forge an emotional connection with your target audience. This includes storytelling, creativity, humor, and inspiration.

The goal is to be thought-provoking and generate productive conversations so your brand is remembered and associated with positive sentiment.

Don’t underestimate the power of a compelling story: Research from Harvard psychologist Jerome Bruner has shown that facts are 22 times more likely to be remembered if shared as part of a story.

To begin brand marketing, you must deeply understand your buyer persona and what resonates with them. You must also consider your position in the market and what differentiates you from your competitors.

This can help shape your values and what you stand for, giving you crucial fodder for your storytelling campaigns.

brand consistency

18. Stealth Marketing

Stealth marketing occurs when brands promote their products or services to consumers who don’t realize they’re being marketed to.

For instance, if you’re watching a television show and a branded product is integrated into the shot, you might have just been on the receiving end of a stealth marketing campaign.

As long as you and any influencers you work with stay within the bounds of any relevant ad disclosure regulations — and avoid unethical or misleading campaigns — stealth marketing can be an effective way to advertise your products.

But for this marketing style to work, brands have to find opportunities that align with their brand identity and values.

19. Guerrilla Marketing

Guerrilla marketing spreads brand awareness by placing bold, clever brand activations in high-traffic physical locations.

Examples of guerilla marketing include altering outdoor urban environments, promoting during a live event (without permission from sponsors or organizers), public stunts, and treasure hunts.

This can be a cost-effective way to garner widespread attention.

However, unconventional guerilla tactics can also backfire if the audience needs to understand them, comes across as insensitive, or is interrupted by weather conditions, law enforcement, or other factors beyond the brand’s control.

If you’re looking for inspiration, look at this list of effective guerilla marketing examples, from Bounty’s human-sized popsicles and coffee cups littering the streets of New York to Deadpool’s Tinder profile.

20. Native Marketing

Native marketing is when brands customize their ads and other content to blend in as seamlessly as possible with the feel, look, and function of the platform on which they’ll be published.

This is important whenever brands collaborate with publishers to create and distribute sponsored content to their audience.

By leveraging their editorial expertise while ensuring that ads are designed not to disrupt the user experience, brands can increase conversion rates and drive brand awareness.

Indeed, native ads are a huge component of many companies’ marketing strategies, with native display ad spending in the U.S. expected to reach nearly $100 billion in 2023.

There are lots of creative ways to approach native marketing. For instance, a recipe blogger could feature a sponsored guest post from a wine collector titled “The Best Wine-Infused Desserts for the Holiday Season.”

This would fit perfectly alongside the blog’s standard recipe posts, serving as a subtle yet effective promotion for the wine brand.

To benefit from native marketing, you must contact media publications or go through a native advertising network that helps find and facilitate ad placement.

21. Affiliate Marketing

marketing types, Affiliate links in a YouTube description

Image Source

When a business rewards another brand — an affiliate or affiliate partner — with a commission for each purchase a customer makes through the affiliate‘s promotion tactics, that’s affiliate marketing.

This approach is trendy among influencers, but it can also be used by brands to promote other companies’ products or services that align with their own. 83% of marketers use some form of affiliate marketing to raise brand recognition.

If you already have marketing assets performing well, such as a website that consistently generates leads or an engaged social media network, affiliate marketing is a great way to leverage those assets further.

Choose a product or brand that closely aligns with what you sell (but does not compete with you) and promote it to your audience.

Affiliate marketing is also a cost-effective way to spread awareness of your brand and an excellent revenue-generating alternative to influencer marketing.

And the best part is, when launching an affiliate program, every business can design its own rules to meet its unique needs.

22. Partner Marketing

Partner marketing, also known as co-marketing, is a marketing collaboration in which two or more brands partner up on a marketing campaign and share the results.

It’s a great lead-generation tool that allows brands to tap into an audience they may still need to reach.

The idea of marketing partnerships has been introduced previously.

Still, this approach has gained popularity recently: In 2022, marketers allocated 40% of their marketing budgets to partnership activities, and 72% planned to increase their partnership investment further.

For partnerships to work, brands must have complementary products or services and similar user personas. Most importantly, they must also align on their shared goals and embrace a mindset of cooperation and teamwork.

New Call-to-Action

23. Product Marketing

Product marketing isn’t just taking product pictures or running launch campaigns. It’s about driving demand for a product and its adoption through consistent positioning, messaging, and market research.

Product marketers sit at the intersection of product, sales, marketing, and customer success teams.

It’s a critical role for any company, which may be why more than one in three marketing leaders surveyed in 2023 plan to increase recruitment efforts for product marketing managers.

These product-focused marketers work with various organizational functions, supporting sales enablement and aligned marketing strategies.

24. Account-Based Marketing

Account-based marketing (ABM) is a hyper-focused marketing strategy where teams treat an individual prospect or customer as their market.

These marketing teams create content, host events, and launch campaigns dedicated to the specific people associated with that single account rather than targeting an entire industry or territory.

This strategy allows brands to design personalized campaigns for their ideal clients and dedicate their time and resources to prospects exhibiting high-intent behaviors.

A recent study found that two in three brands and 70% of marketers leverage ABM in their marketing efforts. Here’s how you can join them:

  1. Start by identifying key accounts.
  2. Next, create messaging based on issues that matter to them most.
  3. Finally, learn how to put that messaging into action with HubSpot’s introductory ABM lesson.

To streamline your efforts, you can also determine whether ABM software might be a good fit for your team.

account plan template

25. Customer Marketing

In contrast to acquisition marketing, where the focus is on acquiring new customers, customer marketing is focused on retaining existing customers.

The goal is to turn your customers into long-term brand advocates by delighting them with your product or service and providing excellent customer service.

The cost of customer acquisition is much higher than the cost to retain or upsell existing customers, so brands stand to gain a lot from investing in this type of marketing.

But to reap these benefits, customer marketing teams must constantly work to improve the customer experience.

That means doing everything you can to ensure your customers are left with a great impression after you’ve provided them with your product or service.

Simple ways to do this include eliminating friction in the customer service process, providing self-service resources like online knowledge bases, and using customer service software to manage and automate interactions.

26. Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Whose opinion do you trust more: Your friend‘s or a brand’s? The answer is obvious.

That’s why word-of-mouth marketing is so powerful. According to a recent Nielsen survey, 92% of consumers put more stock in recommendations from friends and family than in any form of advertising.

Of course, you can’t force it to happen — but you can position your brand in a way that makes it more likely. For example, the following strategies can help make it easy for satisfied customers to spread the word about your brand:

  • Creating shareable, viral-worthy content.
  • Offering referral and loyalty programs.
  • Requesting reviews after providing a product or service.

27. Relationship Marketing

Relationship marketing is a type of customer marketing that focuses on cultivating more profound, more meaningful relationships with customers to foster long-term brand loyalty.

These efforts aren’t focused on short-term wins or sales transactions. Instead, they’re about creating true brand evangelists who promote your brand across their networks.

The key to doing this effectively is to focus on delighting the customers who you know are already satisfied with your brand.

Start using customer feedback software to run a Net Promoter Score (NPS) campaign to help you identify those customers.

Then, develop ways to transform those happy customers into raving fans. From there, you can request that they leave a testimonial, participate in a case study, or help you achieve your goals another way.

28. User-Generated Marketing

marketing types, UGC

Image Source

User-generated marketing is when businesses leverage their audiences to participate in creating marketing materials.

There are many creative ways to encourage users to generate this content. You could run a social media hashtag challenge asking your followers to develop a jingle.

Or invite users to share pictures or videos of themselves using your product and launch a raffle giveaway to incentivize people further to participate.

Why do brands use this approach? More than two in three marketers agree that social contests, campaigns, and other user-generated content boost engagement and conversion rates.

Plus, it’s cost-effective, builds stronger connections with your audience, and increases brand awareness.

29. Campus Marketing

Some brands target college students, and who better to market to them than their peers?

Campus marketing refers to promoting products or services to students on campus, often in collaboration with student brand ambassadors who help bring awareness to the business.

This strategy is particularly effective because U.S. undergrads spend nearly 70% of their waking hours on campus.

As such, it’s not uncommon to find campus marketers promoting products at event booths, hosting their events, or handing out giveaways on the quad.

30. Proximity Marketing

Proximity marketing is a local, highly-targeted marketing strategy that leverages users’ location to show them relevant product or service promotions.

For instance, if you’re walking by an ice cream shop, you may receive a notification informing you of a special discount for a flavor at that shop. There are a few ways marketers can implement proximity marketing campaigns:

  • Bluetooth beacons.
  • Wi-Fi.
  • QR codes.
  • NFC.
  • Geofencing.

As these technologies advance, the proximity marketing industry will grow to nearly $300 billion by 2030.

And it’s more than location-specific notifications: Brands can also use these tools to organize treasure hunts, retarget users who don’t make a purchase, or simply learn more about their users’ behavior.

31. Event Marketing

You‘ve got an event coming up to launch a new product. Now, how do you get your target audience to show up? That’s where event marketing comes into play.

In a survey of more than a thousand global marketing leaders, more than half listed in-person or virtual events as one of the most effective marketing channels.

An event — a workshop, seminar, trade show, conference, or pop-up shop — helps brands connect directly with their target audience and build lasting relationships.

But making the most of these (often expensive) investments requires brands to plan a comprehensive promotion strategy, develop creative assets that drive anticipation, and determine the best channels to spread awareness.

New Call-to-action

32. Experiential Marketing

Experiential marketing goes beyond traditional event marketing to encompass in-person and virtual events, experiences, and interactions that forge lasting emotional connections between a brand and its target audience.

These initiatives take event marketing a step further, with the goal of crafting a truly magical experience for attendees.

Experiential marketing provides participants with something they can take with them after the event is over — other than just information, of course.

Therefore, it’s hardly surprising that 83% of marketers plan to continue or increase their experiential marketing investments.

At HubSpot, we do our best to make our INBOUND conference an immersive experience that extends beyond breakout sessions to include networking opportunities, parties and happy hours, food truck lunches, and other unique events.

Instead of a conference, INBOUND becomes a celebration.

33. Interactive Marketing

Interactive marketing is a trigger-based marketing strategy that creates a dialogue between a brand and its audience.

Based on certain predefined trigger events, the brand automatically adapts its approach, making it possible to respond to users’ behavior in real-time.

For instance, let‘s say you’re searching for a memoir on a bookstore’s website, but you log off without making a purchase. The next time you log on, you may see recommendations for more memoirs from other authors.

This strategy adjusts to meet consumers where they’re at, boosting conversion rates and enabling a superior customer experience.

34. Global Marketing

marketing types, kfc global marketing

Image Source

Global marketing refers to the process of scaling your marketing efforts beyond your home base to appeal to new audiences around the world.

This is no small task: Effective global marketing requires lots of market research to determine where a product or service may best resonate and how best to market it in that region.

Take, for instance, a food company based in Germany.

If the team decides to expand to the United States, it may be necessary to make changes in menu items, packaging, pricing, and advertising that will be a better fit for an American audience.

As the world grows ever more interconnected, many businesses will find themselves facing similar challenges.

In fact, a recent survey found that growing a global audience was one of the top two issues today’s marketing leaders struggle with.

To address this, marketers will need to adopt a global mindset and invest in a comprehensive global marketing strategy.

35. Multicultural Marketing

Of course, geographical expansion isn’t the only time a brand will encounter new audiences.

To target people of different ethnicities and cultures within a brand’s overarching audience, developing and executing a multicultural marketing strategy is a must — and as populations grow more diverse, the need for a multicultural approach will only become more urgent.

This involves in-depth research to understand the needs and values of these diverse communities, as well as careful work to figure out the right messaging to resonate with those groups.

36. Informative Marketing

A lot of marketing tactics focus on emotions, but sometimes, it makes more sense to focus your messaging on facts and figures. This sort of approach is known as informative marketing.

As researchers from Indeed explain: 

“Consumers value informative marketing campaigns that allow them to understand the value of promoted material. Rather than abstract visuals, demonstrating product features can show audiences how a product might be beneficial for them to have.”

That means highlighting the benefits of your product‘s features, how they solve your customers’ problems, and how they compare to those of your competitors.

37. Persuasive Marketing

Unlike informative marketing, persuasive marketing intentionally taps into users’ emotions. These campaigns aim to make their audience feel something, to associate those emotions with a brand, and to trigger desired actions.

There are countless techniques that marketers can use to persuade consumers to purchase a product or service.

For example, the scarcity principle refers to the psychological phenomenon that people are more likely to buy a product if they think it’s unlikely to be available for much longer.

Similarly, studies have shown that prices ending in “.99” are perceived to be significantly lower than those that are just one cent higher, making consumers more likely to buy despite the negligible actual difference in price.

Of course, as with any marketing effort, these strategies only work if you understand your buyer persona and know what will resonate with your target audience.

38. Cause Marketing

With cause marketing, brands tie themselves to social issues while promoting their goods. For instance, a company may advertise that a purchase from their brand will result in a donation to a certain charity.

Cause marketing can also go beyond a single campaign. Some brands’ entire identity aligns with a particular issue. For instance, luxury jewelry brand Civil donates 20% of its profits to underrepresented founders and entrepreneurs.

Whether it’s temporary or long-term, there are three questions you should consider before starting with cause marketing:

  1. What causes does my brand care most about?
  2. How can we leverage our position to support those causes?
  3. How can we tell our prospects and customers about our efforts and encourage them to get involved?

39. Controversial Marketing

Controversial marketing uses shocking, controversial topics to drive attention to a campaign. Importantly, this isn’t about polarizing audiences.

Effective controversial marketing aims to grab people’s attention and spark discussions but doesn’t drive consumers away.

There are pros and cons to this approach. On one hand, controversial stunts have the potential to go viral and generate buzz around your brand.

However, there‘s a risk that you’ll turn off potential customers and negatively impact your brand’s image.

Indeed, there have been many examples of failed controversial marketing plays — from Burger King’s moldy whopper ad to McDonald’s infamous “dead dad” commercial — so be sure to tread carefully when going this route.

40. Field Marketing

Field marketing, also known as field selling, is a form of traditional marketing that involves going out into a community to promote your products or services directly to your target audience.

You can do this by distributing product samples, offering product demos, or leafleting.

Despite the rising popularity of digital marketing strategies, marketing leaders agree that there’s still an important place for these in-person marketing efforts.

More than half of recently surveyed marketers listed physical events and tradeshows, as well as customer communities and groups, among the top most effective marketing channels.

41. Neuromarketing

Neuromarketing leverages neuroscience to gain insight into consumers’ decisions and predict their behaviors.

For example, P&G conducted a study in which researchers used an eye-tracking tool to measure user engagement levels when viewing different kinds of mobile ads.

This empowered its marketing team to identify the messages that were most emotionally resonant with their target audience and optimize their ad campaigns accordingly.

Neuromarketing studies like these can involve tracking eye movements, analyzing brain scans, and measuring various physiological functions in response to marketing stimuli, all of which can be used to inform data-driven marketing decisions.

The Best Type of Marketing

There’s no right or wrong way to do marketing — as long as it connects with your desired audience and provides a return on investment.

Most companies use a combination of the strategies outlined above to generate leads and acquire customers.

Ultimately, you’ll want to choose what makes the most sense for your business based on your unique product, audience, and resources.

New Call-to-action

 

Categories B2B

AI Influencer Marketing: How Artificial Intelligence Could Change Influencer Marketing

When I think of influencers, I think of smiling content creators posting unique, relatable content promoting a service or product and how their work helps humanize brands and tap into audiences.

So, how could artificial intelligence change influencer marketing if the goal is to humanize a brand or organization to boost awareness and profits? It turns out, like all things marketing, AI has the potential to alter influencer marketing significantly.

I spoke to creators Ramon Berrios and Blaine Bolus, who are hosts of the podcast DTC Pod (DTC meaning Direct-to-Consumer) and co-founders of the AI audio conversion tool Castmagic. Through them, we will learn how AI could change influencer marketing and what it can mean for influencers and influencer marketers.

How AI is Changing Influencer Marketing Right Now

I‘m already seeing AI’s impact on the influencer marketing landscape. For example, I was intrigued (and a little weirded out) when Meta introduced new AI chatbot characters based on real-life celebrities and influencers like Paris Hilton, Snoop Dogg, Naomi Osaka, and MrBeast.

One of Meta’s characters introduces herself as Billie, even though she clearly looks and sounds exactly like model and influencer Kendell Jenner.

But celebrities and influencers being immortalized as AI chatbots isn‘t the only impact on influencer marketing we’re seeing, Berrios.

“I think the biggest change I’ve seen is that the creator operation now boils down to one person,” he says. “Previously, a creator would need an agency to be present on multiple channels and handle all operations.”

Ramon explains that AI tools remove obstacles that typically hinder or discourage creators, such as paying to outsource work to a team or managing multiple platforms simultaneously.

Berrios and Bolus understand these struggles first-hand.

“Our podcast, DTC Pod, was born out of us paying an agency $1,000 to do our entire marketing and postproduction,” Berrios recalls. “Now, it’s done by ourselves with our own platform, so I think we’re going to see the operational costs [of being a creator or influencer] go down.”

Bolus shares that sentiment and points to creators like Gary Vaynerchuk, often backed by a team, as an example.

“To pull off his content machine, he has filmers, editors, copywriters, etc.,” Bolus says. “He’s probably spending upwards of half a million to $1 million a year just on producing content.”

Bolus explains that while AI tools may not be able to help influencers and creators deliver content of the same quality as a $1 million production, it can still help creators craft high-quality, multipurpose content on a shoestring budget.

“We’re seeing more of the kind of creator who crafts pillar content and can repurpose it into a podcast or blog and incorporates it into their social strategy,” he said. “And that content lives kind of everywhere.”

How AI Could Change Influencer Marketing in the Future

More Influencers and Lower Costs

Remember what Berrios said about AI removing barriers hindering creators and influencers? By removing those barriers, AI will likely usher in a new wave of content creators who will bring new kinds of projects to the forefront.

“Think about the people making Midjourney content and how that takes a completely different framework of content creation than your typical person who likes to be in front of a camera,” he says. “So, I think it will bring a whole new wave.”

And with more influencers and creators expanding the influencer market, Berrios says costs associated with leveraging influencer marketing could decrease.

“At the end of the day, influencer marketing is a marketplace of demand — the brands and the companies paying for distribution,” Berrios says, “and the supply being the influencers themselves. I think we will see the field level even more, and we might see CPMs and costs go down across the board.

More Options for Upcoming Creators and Influencers

New AI technology and AI-fueled strategies will also lead to more options for upcoming influencers. Again, when we think of influencers, we typically think about a person on camera promoting a brand, product, or service.

Their face and public persona are often crucial to their success and recognition with their audience.

However, what if you want to be an influencer but want your face and identity to remain a mystery, like one of my favorite content creators, Corpse Husband? (Don‘t let the scary name fool you; he’s known to be a sweetheart.)

While content creators who aren‘t focused on influencing can sometimes get away with being faceless, influencers don’t have that same luxury. However, Bolus says AI could change that.

“There are going to be more options … so if you’re the type of influencer who doesn’t want to put your face in front of everything, you can create a faceless YouTube channel and use AI in the background to generate your ideas,” he explains. “At the end of the day, you’re sitting in the creative director’s seat. If you don’t want your face in front of the camera, you can drive your creative influencer lead strategy.”

Globalized Creators and Audiences

Meta recently released an AI model that can understand, translate, and transcribe almost 100 languages. TikTok uses AI-generated captions and translation, and YouTube is testing an AI-powered dub tool to translate videos.

In other words, influencers will be able to create content that can be seen (and understood) worldwide.

“AI is allowing creators to translate their content into other languages and tap into new markets,” Berrios says. “It’s going to be really interesting to see how it plays out in terms of expanding creators’ incomes and earnings potential.”

AI Tools for Influencers

So, I and the co-founders of Castmagic just unloaded a lot of information onto you about the AI-powered future of influencer marketing.

You’re probably wondering what you can do right now to get ahead of the curve and be a part of that future.

Something you should do right now is start testing out different tools and try to integrate them into your workflow. Below are some AI tools influencer marketers should check out.

1. Castmagic

Bolus describes Castmagic as a digital workspace allowing users to repurpose audio or media content and repurpose it into different AI-generated, text-based content assets. We actually used Castmagic to record our interview.

“We’re having a conversation, and if you want to turn that into a different content asset — like a blog post or an article — or be able to extract all that value, traditionally, you have to get a transcript,” he says. “You have to go through the transcript, find the quotes, stitch together context, come up with a thesis for what you’re writing, and draft a whole piece of unique content.”

Bolus says the point of Castmagic is to use AI as a tool to transcribe content and use all of the user’s media sources as context to write and draft whatever type of content assets the user wants.

And I was pretty surprised at how quickly its co-founders were able to send the full audio of our interview, complete with time stamps and captions explaining who was speaking at different times.

2. HubSpot

Okay, I can admit I might be a little biased — but hear me out. HubSpot offers a variety of AI tools that can streamline your work, whether you‘re an influencer or an influencer marketer.

Are you struggling to come up with a caption for your Instagram Reel? Our AI Social Caption Generator can quickly create social media copy to boost your content’s performance.

Need copy for your website or blog? Our AI Content Writer can help you ideate and craft copy that will help boost leads.

Other tools include our AI Email Writer, Meta Description Generator, AI Blog Writer, and more.

3. InVideo

I recently used InVideo when I created a TikTok using solely AI tools. InVideo is a platform that generates videos for various channels, including social media.

The platform contains various tools, such as AI text to video, which I used to convert my script into the TikTok video below:

@social_media_tester

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

♬ original sound – social_media_tester

The platform is excellent if you’re an influencer looking to make short-form video content with or without a host on screen. To learn more about how I used InVideo, click here.

4. ChatGPT

I tried crafting a blog post using ChatGPT. Though it has its challenges, this generative AI tool is definitely helpful for influencers creating social media captions, blog outlines, or emails.

If you‘re unfamiliar with ChatGPT, it’s an AI-powered chatbot that can answer questions and generate written copy. While using the platform, I learned the best way to get the most out of its features is to be as detailed as possible in my queries.

AI isn‘t going anywhere any time soon, and it’s poised to make influencer marketing more accessible and profitable for both brands and creators.

Categories B2B

3 Native Entrepreneurs in Different Sectors

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

It’s no secret that Native entrepreneurs face an uphill battle when starting up their businesses. Indigenous businesses have hurdles at nearly every step of the process, whether it’s a lack of access to credit, trouble getting technical assistance or training, or a cultural barrier between investor expectations and business owner goals.

Yet some business owners persist anyway, climbing over whatever obstacles are ahead to succeed in their respective fields.

Native entrepreneurs have moved into a multitude of industries with profitable, impactful businesses amid surges in federal and tribal support, and Indigenous people are seeing themselves represented in more swathes of the business world. In this post, I’ll introduce you to three native entrepreneurs you need to know about.

Read more Breaking the Blueprint content

Three Native Entrepreneurs in Different Sectors

1. Amber Buker, Totem

Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma tribal member Amber Buker knew she needed a bank specifically focused on Native American needs and experiences when she discovered an “invisible gap” in traditional banking while trying to buy a house.

Buker ran into rejections from major banking institutions, primarily because none of them were aware of, or at least did not implement, the available federal support for Native American home loans. “It was a broken process where I really felt invisible,” she said. “My tribe had a down payment program, but my bank refused to help me use it.”

amber buker

That represented Buker’s wider experience with banks, even as she began working in the industry through a friend’s business. Realities for Native Americans meant that even basic security policies, such as refusing to mail debit cards to PO boxes, inhibited people’s ability to use traditional banks and, by extension, access the wider economy (not everyone on a reservation has a personal mailbox – meaning some Natives wouldn’t be able to get a debit card at all).

Because of that, Native Americans have become per-capita the most unbanked demographic in the United States, Buker said, with 16 percent completely disconnected from the banking system, per a report by Bankrate.com.

However, under Buker’s guidance, financial technology and banking company Totem plans to change that.

By building a bank that understands the lived experiences of Native users, Totem will boost Natives’ engagement with a system that has often failed them. To date, the company has introduced spend accounts that are not only accessible online but also designed to withstand connectivity fluctuations and weak signals, which often pose challenges for rural Native tribal members residing in remote reservation lands.

“We wanted to have a safe, free account that benefits could be deposited into, and we also prioritize features that uphold Native values,” Buker said. “Sending money from Totem account to Totem account is free and instant. For example, there’s a lot of times where auntie needs 20 bucks, so being able to share funds is super important.”

Totem also provides information and resources on what kinds of support exist for Native homebuyers, healthcare users, and even utility assistance – and that’s just the start. For their next step, Totem wants to help tribal governments deliver benefits and payments directly to citizens, foregoing the current intermediaries like paper checks and pre-paid cards. Through Totem, more tribal members will get to keep more of their benefit dollars.

“A prepaid card doesn’t give you regulation protections, or has FDIC insurance, or an easily obtained replacement. All these things are what make banks so valuable in the first place,” Buker said. “We want to tackle the root of the problem, which is access to good, safe banking products.”

2. Justin Quis Quis, Sacred Bev

Justin Quis Quis spent a long time as a member of leadership for the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians near San Bernadino, California. When his time helping to lead his tribe came to a close, he knew he wanted to keep going and push into new frontiers.

In this instance, it was functional beverages – think energy drinks or herbal teas. Quis Quis looked out at an exploding functional beverage market and saw room for a Native presence. He identified where he could leverage Native traditional thinking into a product while calling attention to the fact that Indigenous people were still a part of modern life.

“I‘ve been exposed to Indian Country from coast to coast, so I’ve seen a lot of areas where tribal communities needed a spotlight, and people needed to know not only the struggles but also the successes,” Quis Quis said. “I noticed there wasn’t enough exposure to that.”

Justin Quis Quis

Quis Quis secured some financial investors and partners and started up Sacred Bev, headquartered in San Diego. The company’s first three flavors —Immunity, Wellness, and Tranquility —launched earlier this year and have proven popular, growing from an initial run of 7,200 cans to a second run of 17,200 cans. The drinks sell everywhere, from convenience and grocery stores to tribal casinos, Quis Quis said, and the company doesn’t plan to slow down any time soon.

The positive reception has encouraged Quis Quis to take the next steps towards scaling up, working with a cannery in Los Angeles to begin growing his operation while expanding out with a distributor.

“We’re stoked,” he stated. “We really felt like we had a good thing on our hands, and we’ve gotten some very positive reviews. We‘ve secured 14 individual accounts, some tribal, some off-reservation, and we’ve secured a distributor that’s sent hundreds of cases to mini-marts and grocery stores. We were authenticated through the IAC. The drinks have been very popular.”

The drinks have been popular enough to warrant considering who ends up leading Sacred Bev down the line, and Quis Quis has ideas on that, too. Many of Quis Quis’ partners and investors are other tribes or associates from his time in San Manuel leadership. Moreover, he has begun reaching out to other tribes in hopes of sourcing as many ingredients for the drinks – which utilize natural flavors like prickly pears, blackberries, and pomegranates – from Native sources as possible.

The goal is to make sure Sacred Bev, if acquired, remains under Native leadership, Quis Quis said.

“A big part of our deal is that no matter what happens with this company down the road that we want it to be tribally owned and operated at the end of the day,” he affirmed. “I want to be able to get some of these herbs and others from Native communities for sure. I haven‘t been able to find somebody through my sources, but I’m hoping someone will come to us with a big prickly pear farm or tons of ginger and peppermint. I‘m sure there is, but I haven’t been able to find that. That would be the best for us.”

3. Joe Valandra, Tribal Ready

Rosebud Sioux Tribe member Joe Valandra sees a lot of opportunities in Indian Country amid a historic surge in support for tribal broadband. Through federal opportunities like the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program or the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (both under the National Telecommunications and Information Administration,) tribes have found themselves managing gargantuan new projects with potentially colossal impacts on their communities.

In the wake of those opportunities, consultancies and contractors have sprung up to help send dollars where they need to go. Valandra wants to leverage his history in Indian Country as a contractor, gaming operator, and, well, as a Native American to make sure tribes are getting the best work they can for their money.

To that end, Valandra formed the consultancy Tribal Ready in January 2023. The first six months of the company’s existence have been “a whirlwind,” he shared. Tribal Ready has partnered with technology platform Ready.net to help tribes figure out everything from which kind of networks best suit their needs to negotiating feasibility and environmental impact studies ahead of build-outs.

“Indian Country is still gathering together all of this funding that’s needed to build out tribal networks. We’re helping tribes do feasibility studies or write grants, and then we’re going to help write requests for proposals and make sure deliverables line up with the RFPs we helped write,” Valandra said. “We have kind of an evolving business model. We’re a Native-owned company that’s partnering with tribes, so that we can look out for them.”

Joe Valandra

It’s no surprise Valandra’s services are in demand, given a renewed national interest in tribal connectivity in the wake of COVID-19. Longstanding challenges facing tribal members in rural locations worsened when telehealth, distance learning, and remote work became the norm. The situation garnered an unprecedented amount of support from the federal government – support that now needs to end up in the right hands to make the biggest difference, Valandra said.

Sometimes, that means helping tribes set up a new provider service on their reservation and take that over. Sometimes, it means managing the provider for the tribe in question or buying a nearby provider to expand its existing services into a new area focusing on supporting Native citizens, Valandra said.

However the final arrangements look, tribes should have as much control of their connectivity infrastructure and service as possible, he added.

“Over the last 50 years, the federal government has provided an awful lot of funding to improve rural connectivity, but very little of that was actually seen in Indian Country,” Valandra said. “For tribes to control the infrastructure that supports and delivers broadband service to their members is absolutely vital, without question.”

Click the link to discover more Breaking the Blueprint Content.

Categories B2B

TikTok Leads: Tools and Strategies for Generating Leads on TikTok

As a marketer, I can attest to the importance and power of TikTok. The social media platform has over 1 billion monthly active users and is the most downloaded app globally.

Furthermore, the video-based social app is top-rated among Gen-Z and millennials.

While TikTok’s usage among marketers has increased by 15% YoY, some marketers are still figuring out how to generate leads on the platform.

Fortunately, I have much experience using TikTok as a social media fanatic and marketer. Here’s everything you need to know about lead generation on TikTok. But first — why use TikTok for lead generation at all?

Free Ebook: The Marketer's Guide to TikTok for Business [Download Now]

 

Why use TikTok for lead generation?

There are a few good reasons TikTok can be a great platform to generate new leads:

1. It allows for mobile-first campaigns.

TikTok prioritizes short-form videos, though users can upload and view videos for 10 minutes.

This makes the platform an excellent channel for mobile-first campaigns because short-form videos are expected to represent 80% of all mobile data traffic in North America.

The platform allows users to scroll through videos for hours on end from their phones and subscribe to their favorite TikTok accounts.

Additionally, from an operations standpoint, the mobile format is relevant. You can run a business right from your phone, so investing in a mobile-based application like TikTok can fit right into your mobile-first campaigns.

2. It’s great for brands targeting a younger market.

According to YPulse, over 75% of Gen Zers use TikTok, and nearly two-thirds use it daily. Furthermore, thanks to the app, many Gen Zers are curious about products or make buying decisions.

For instance, a study shows after viewing a Dynamic Showcase Ad on TikTok ( a type of video ad on the platform), 74% of Gen Z weekly TikTok users would seek more information on the advertised product.

Even better, 46% of Gen Z TikTok users have bought a product because they saw it on TikTok in the past year.

This information is essential for business owners trying to reach a younger audience. After all, Gen Z will be the market with the most purchasing power in the future.

According to Bloomberg, the younger generation already has $360 billion in buying power, compared to $143 billion just four years ago.

3. It enables your brand to produce authentic content.

Authenticity matters, especially to Gen Z. In a recent study, 92% of Gen Zers indicated that being authentic and genuine to oneself is extremely or very important.

Keeping things genuine is key to getting buyers to believe your business does more than just get consumers to buy products.

Doing this can be difficult, but focusing on storytelling is a great place to start. Focusing on narrative shows your business goes beyond money and emphasizes the human element of things.

In a nutshell? Authentic brands attract quality leads. And with TikTok paving the way for original brand building — especially with content creators with immense influencing power — this platform is the place to be.

Tools and Resources

Below are some tools and resources available to boost leads via TikTok.

Internal TikTok analytics

TikTok’s built-in analytics tools allow creators and marketers to observe critical metrics such as profile views, likes, comments, unique visitors, engagement, and reach.

I also use it to track video playtime, average watch time, and viewer demographics. Other metrics that can be tracked are:

  • Statistics on your latest live video, viewing ranking, and replays
  • Follower counts, such as total followers, lost followers, and net followers
  • Trending videos of the week

HubSpot’s TikTok Integration

You can now automatically sync the leads you‘ve gained via TikTok with your HubSpot CRM in real time.

Just ensure you have a HubSpot account, at least one instant form on TikTok’s Ad Manager, and admin access to the ad account you will use for the integration.

Follow these steps to get started:

  1. Go to the Tools section in your TikTok Ads Manager account and click Leads in the dropdown menu. Click the Connect CRM button at the top of the page.
  2. Find HubSpot and click Directly Connect.
  3. Select Apply to get permission to manage leads from your TikTok account. From there, click Sign in to HubSpot, connect your HubSpot CRM, then select Next.
  4. Choose the form you want to sync leads from.
  5. Map the fields from your TikTok Instant Form to your HubSpot properties and click Submit.
  6. Click Confirm, and you’re all set!

If you want to ensure your integration is set up properly, select the Send Test Data button.

Next, let’s explore five ways to generate leads on TikTok:

1. Build an eye-catching and trustworthy profile.

Your TikTok profile should prove your brand‘s legitimacy and help you stand out from the sea of accounts. So, use your brand’s unique logo as your TikTok profile photo.

If you don’t have a logo, create one or use a relevant, aesthetically pleasing image or video.

Yes, you can use video as your TikTok’s profile image.

You‘ll also need to create a short and compelling bio that tells viewers what your company is about. When writing my TikTok bios, I think of it as the world’s shortage and punchiest elevator pitch.

Feel free to add a little humor as well. For example, language learning Duolingo’s bio reads:

“Free language education for the world. Just an owl tryna vibe.”

Screenshot of Duolingo TikTok account

The bio captures Duolingo‘s mission and the humorous and playful energy of the account’s videos.

Links are also crucial to your profile because they direct traffic to your website, products, and services. So, be sure to include a relevant link to your bio.

Finally, it helps to be verified on TikTok. A TikTok verification badge confirms that your account is the official account for your brand and not a fan account, scam, or parody.

To learn about the verification process, click here.

2. Create valuable, engaging, and entertaining content that calls for action.

Before creating TikTok videos, think about your organization’s buyer persona. Who is your target audience? What kind of content do they find valuable? How can you showcase value to your target consumers on TikTok?

Let these questions inform your videos‘ tone, style, and content. You must also consider where your audience is in their buyers’ journey.

Are you looking to attract leads who are just learning about your business or leads who are ready to make a purchasing decision?

Furthermore, you should create content that calls for your audience to act, such as:

  • “Read my blog for more information!”
  • “Click the link in our bio for more deals!”
  • “Sign up for our newsletter to learn more.”

TikTok also allows creators to include product links in their videos, so take advantage of that feature to generate leads directly from your videos.

Another element I’ve found helpful is the use of relevant hashtags. TikTok allows users to type in hashtags during uploading and tells you how many views a hashtag has.

When uploading content, look at which relevant tags have the most views and incorporate them into the caption of your video. You should also keep an eye on trending topics and challenges to find ways to incorporate them into your content.

3. Leverage TikTok Ads.

Of course, the most beneficial strategy you could implement is leveraging TikTok Ads — especially TikTok Lead Generation Ads. I mean, it’s in the name.

TikTok Lead Generation Ads is a type of advertising the platform offers specifically to cultivate leads and collect lead information for your website.

These ads come with a CTA button.

Once users click on the button, they can access an instant form that provides more information about your business and provides you with the contact details of said users and their interest in your product or service.

The ads can also redirect users to your website and their information directly.

Lead Generation Ads aren’t the only ad types TikTok offers. The platform has several others marketers can choose from to build leads and recognition. To learn more about these ads type and which are worth investing in, click here.

4. Collaborate with influencers.

Influencers will help your brand connect with your audience in an authentic and relatable way. Even better influencers on the platform have an engagement rate of 15.86%, triple that of the average user.

Connect with influencers whose image and content align with those of your brand.

You can incorporate influencer marketing into your lead generation strategy by having an influencer post content using your product or service and offering a discount code to the creator’s followers.

5. Track your results.

Monitor your videos to see what kind of content gets the most engagement or leads so you can take stock of the most effective methods for your brand.

Investing in TikTok ads also allows you to track your ad’s metrics and performance.

TikTok is more than just an app for funny, short-form videos. If leveraged properly, it can be an excellent platform for lead generation. Just make sure to follow the strategies above to maximize your success. 

 
Blog - Content Mapping Template